#like the missing sticker is now stuck to my computer

[ssspringroll]

Omg guys my official Waay'los merch just arrived!!!

[marwhoa]

request: Hi, hi! May I request a Rise Leo one-shot? In some battle with a random villain, his long-time friend and crush falls under a mystic love spell that makes her act like she's head over heels for him for a month, and when it's over she doesn't remember any of it? She likes him too but never said anything bc she didn't think he'd like her back. I hope this isn't *too* detailed! Thank you so much for reading this. And pls take your time, I hope you're having a great day!💕

🝮 “ sorry i took so long ”

rise!leo x female!potioned!reader

author’s note: woo, I accidentally may have dragged this out super far…. erm…. i hope You like it,,, 🥺

word count: 6.3k

“ Tell me again why I’m here, Leo!! “

Narrowly dodging the gunk that came your way, dissolving the wall behind you, a shrieking inquiry was tossed at your friend-in-blue as you were both currently running for your lives through the weaving streets of the Hidden City.

“ No one else was available! ”

“ Ugh! ”

You ducked down with a shriek, dodging a mystic spell that popped into glitters and streaks like a firework as it hit the wall instead. Ignoring that, you trailed after a much-too-fast Leo, quickly growing winded, while thinking about this whole mess your best friend, Leo, roped you into.

—-

A sing-songy voice calls out your name. You were in your bathroom, tending to your hair when a special someone called for you. “ one second! “ you called, sitting things down on the counter, smoothing out your shorts, and then peeking out the room to see none other than mister Blue himself jogging in.

“ Y/N! Great, you’re ready, c’mon! ”

His hand has already found yours, lacing fondly and tugging you along to some yet-to-be-disclosed. If it weren’t for previously identical disasters starting just like this, you would have melted into the touch and been all-too delighted at holding this eccentric pal’s hand.

Alas! Thou art no fool, so you resist his pull, leaning backwards and digging your heels into the carpet of your room.

“ Hold on, partner! Remember what I said last time? ”

Narrowing your eyes at him, Leo stops dragging you and drops his shoulders with a sigh.

“ How did it go again, right, quote ‘Per Clause “Stop Getting Y/N in Messed-Up Situations”, Leonardo Hamato is required to debrief Y/N L/N on the shenanigans she is being dragged into’, end quote. ”

“ Exactly, now what is it this time? ”

Rubbing your hands, you shifted your weight and rested a hand on your hip, scrutinizing the turtle with your gaze. He seemed a bit nervous for a second but quickly recovered.

“ I was going to tell you on the way there, but since you’re Miss Impatient—“

Cue your dramatic gasp—

“—I SUPPOSE I can just tell you now. Mikey is doing a special dinner for Pops’ birthday, and I’m on delivery duty to retrieve some mystic ingredient his dish can’t live without. ”

“ Aww, how sweet, okay I’m in. ”

You turned your back to him, retrieving a backpack and filling it with some items. In the meantime, Leo plopped onto your bed with a playful huff, looking around the room he had seen far too many times.

“ See, now was that so hard? ”

Leo hummed curiously.

“ Telling me what we’re doing instead of letting me find out the hard way! “

Unhooking a light jacket from it’s hanger, you pulled it on, arm through arm, and tugged it for good measure. Leo hopped to his feet and came over to you, picking off something stuck to your shoulder. It was a sticker, probably off your computer or notebook. He rolled it between his fingers contemplatively, topping it all off with a dramatic “ hmmmmm ”. You held your breath at the distance, swearing you could smell him… Wait hold on, was that cologne? How the hell—

“ More fun my way. ”

He grinned, grabbing your hand again and yanking you through a portal as you flailed and stuttered out a series of questions, grunts, and groans.

—-

Turns out Mikey left out one important fun-fact, and that was his special ingredient was not only located in a certain witch’s garden ((a community one, but more so a “ local community! ” and not a “ topsider coming down here to take it ” one)), but also that there were crude signs posted up banning a certain brother who may or may not have resembled Leo.

So that’s what landed you two here, in this chase through the underground yokai territory, dodging angry spells and booking it down unfamiliar paths.

“ No one else was available! ”

Leo responded, turning his head to look back at you as you groaned out in annoyance. It wasn’t a shock that you were slower than him, but the distance increasing between you both was alarming enough for him to pivot on his foot and turn. His hand shot out to you, intending to grab yours and just haul you away, but instead your connected hand was yanked. He threw you behind him, shouting “ watch out! “ as he slashed a glass that a pursuing witch had thrown.

The witch—wizard?— glared at you both. He was the last of many to keep up the chase, others having been lost to obstacles, quick-second traps, or who just gave up.

Then his eyes fell upon you, on the ground behind the oh-so-heroic blue, and immediately a slick grin appeared on his face. While still yelling obscenities, the witch cackled while rushing off in the opposite direction.

Confused, Leo turned around to look at you and realize the slashed glass’ contents splatted onto you. Chills shot down his spine as he dropped down into a squat, careful not to touch the substance as it was… seeping into your skin?!

“ Oh, oh man—oh, oh, are you okay? Y/N? Does it hurt?! ”

Frantically, he pat himself down for a rag of sorts to try and wipe the liquid away and prevent anymore from being absorbed into your skin.

Nothing.

He looked back at you with widened eyes, only to find you gazing back at him. You didn’t seem… in pain? You weren’t even yelling at him for throwing you down like that. Were you okay? What was that potion anyways? Did it have no effect on you?

“ Y/N, hey, come on, “

Leo pleaded, reaching a hand out for your forehead. Warm, really warm, he frowned. His arm slacked, returning to his side as he internally pleaded for you to say anything.

After an uncomfortable thickened grew between you both, you finally moved. Leo was both relieved and started, as you began leaning close to him with glossy doe eyes.

“ Ah—haha, hey, Y/N? “

Nervously he stammered, not daring to move an inch. Was there something wrong? Something on his face??

Well, now there was. A kiss, placed softly upon his cheek, followed by arms enveloping him lovingly. Your hand rested on the back of his head, pressing his face into your shoulder as you hugged him.

“ That was a close one… Thank god you’re okay, Leo! ”

Deer in the headlights. Leo was speechless, for once, stiff in your embrace.

“ You scared that witch off, my strong handsome boy. “

Wait, what was that last bit?

Quickly his hands met your shoulders, pulling you off him as he put a gap between the two of y’all. He was searching your eyes for explanation, hands holding your shoulders firmly. There was a deep green hue flushing his cheeks and snout, peeking from up under his mask.

“ What? ”

—-

“ DONNIE! ”

CLASH.

CLANK.

and other sounds of things breaking and rolling.

And then the annoyed growl of a peeved brother.

“ Oh sweet brother of mine, you had better hope your reason for this mess is enough to protect you from my wrath. “

Grumbled the genius brother as he turned from the clutter, seeing Leonardo with a frantic expression—a fresh change of pace to that cocky grin of his—and you, latched to his arm lovingly.

“ Oh, great, you barged in here just to inform me you’re together. Shocker, allow me to show my surprise. “

Silence followed as the two brothers stared at each other. A metaphorical tumbleweed may have strolled on by, who’s to say. Donnie’s face had no change, and Leo’s only seemed to scrunch up more and more with each passing second.

“ …? “

He gestured his hands as if to say “ go on????? ”

“ Oh. That was it, that was my surprised face. “

“ Ha, ha, Don, no! That’s not it! Remember that Hidden City mission I was supposed to do? “

“ Ah, yes, the mission Mikey asked you specifically to carry out. Now let me guess, you’re here because you begged Y/N to go with you, and when you both got there, they insultingly mistook you for your more handsome brother, so you both had to escape, and amidst the chase, she ended up getting doused with some witch’s brew? ”

“ N—Wait, yes, how did you do tha? That’s creepily accurate… ”

Donnie simply reached a hand out, tilting a monitor to show a display that looked to be an angle from a Hidden City surveillance camera.

“ You saw it all from start to finish and didn’t help me?! Wait, then you saw—”

“ Her kiss you? As did every officer in the hidden city—not like they care. Now, if you’re here to ask for my help in this predicament, I am happy to say no. ”

“ What? Why! You’re my brother, what happened to treating your family with kindness? ”

Irked, the purple-banded turtle gestured to his lab.

“ Exhibit A, family kindness was not shown in refraining from bothering me. Exhibit B, last week you opted for eating the last slice of pizza when Mikey told you to come tell me food was here. Exhibit C, yo—“

“ Okay, okay, fine, I get it. My own flesh and blood would rather Y/N suffers than help her. ”

Donned with her best puppy eyes, Leo affectionately—and dramatically—nuzzles you. It seems you hadn’t read your script, as you were simply placing yet another public kiss upon his cheek, pouting at his brother.

“ Come on Donnie, don’t be so mean to him. Look how cute he is, there’s no way you can be mean to this face~! “

Delighted, your hands were rubbing his cheeks, mushing and melding the flesh as he watched you with big eyes. Had the circumstances been different, he may have been perfectly content and okay with this.

“ First, gross, second, wow that potion obviously broke her eyes too, third, ‘Nardo, this is mystic business. I can run some diagnostics, but I am a scientist, not a wizard. “

Running a hand through nonexistent hair, Donnie came over and tapped you, gesturing to follow him. You gave Leo a worried look, but when he smiled and gave you thumbs up, you were all the more willing to let him go and follow Donnie wherever.

Internally though, you couldn’t fight the oddest idea that something wasn’t right, but your head would say, “ oh, stop worrying, you’ll make leo worry, too! “ and you wouldn’t want that, would you? To worry your sweet knight? Of course, you also couldn’t exactly remember when he changed from “ secret crush ” to “ sweet knight ”, but maybe you’re just really distracted right now!

Ah… Well, that isn’t a believable excuse, but it’s all your foggy brain could come to.

“ Yowch—Donnie! ”

You glared at him, flinching from no warning as he pricked your skin and took a blood sample.

“ It will take a bit for the results of this to come in, so I suggest you send her home in the meantime. It doesn’t seem life threatening yet. “

Donnie paused for a second, then turned to look at Leo.

“ Emphasis on yet, perhaps keeping an eye on her would be best. ”

And then his back was turned to you as he began loading up some machine with the sample. You sighed, going back to Leo’s side while rubbing your arm. What was all this even for, you wondered. It was odd that your memories before getting in here were foggy, but surely whatever happened didn’t warrant this much weirdness?

Well, at least now you can have time with Leo—just the two of you!

“ Thank you, Dontron, you’re the best brother. ”

“ Yeah, okay, don’t let ‘Angelo hear that. ”

Leo turned, shivering as your delicate hands laced around his arm. It was distracting enough that the portal he made turned out wibbly-wobbly, dropping you both off at the complex across from yours. The giggle you made was all the more distracting on top of everything. Leaning your head onto his shoulder, a smile graced your features.

“ Wow, Leo, are you stalling going home to spend more time with me? “

For the second time today, the talkative Leo was rendered speechless. Another portal was made, and the two of you were stumbling into your living room—possibly knocking over some things on the way in, too, but you didn’t care. You were going to give another teasing quip, but as you turned to deliver it, the room was empty, ‘cept for you, obviously. He had managed to leave just as quickly as you had both arrived…

A pout tugged on your lips as your hand rubbed your other arm awkwardly.

What was that all about….?

—-

In the coming days, your lovey-dovey expressions towards Leo didn’t seem to have a stop in sight. If anything, they skyrocketed. Dangerously so.

Donnie’s results were in within a day, indicating what he said was an equation of, “ C8H11NO2, C10H12N2O, and C43H66N12O12S2 ” being amped up, produced in a highly active process whenever a certain somebody was nearby.

In other words—or rather, dumber terms, as Leo requested—you were simply under the effects of some mystic magic that would increase Dopamine, Serotonin, and Oxytocin levels in his company.

That wasn’t simple enough, as Leo dragged on for an even simpler explanation. Exasperated, Donnie groaned that basically you’re under the effects of a love-inducing spell.

Cogs clicked into place for Leo, and his first thought was, surprisingly, to avoid you. If this was you under an intoxication of sorts, then of course he couldn’t take advantage of that. The best option would be avoidance, to save you embarrassment of coming to terms with your behavior afterwards! A foolproof plan, right? Makes sense? Total sense!

Of course, this was an ideal situation, not what happened in reality. Reality piece number 1 would kick in two days after the potion incident.

There Leo was, doing his usual boasting act as he and his brothers did their weekly encounter with Hypno and Warren. He found himself as the target of one of Hypno’s rings boomeranging in his direction. Braced and ready to parry it with his ōdachi, his focus shattered when a desperate “ leo! “ startled him. Instantly, he was dodging the hippo’s weapon by slamming into the ground from a strong force tackling him down.

He recovered quickly, especially after the teasing “ ooooooh~! “ from the nosy villains he was actively sparring with, and met with your worried eyes.

Damn it.

“ Leo, are you okay? I was worried when you didn’t come b— “

Cue a quick hand clamping upon your mouth. Nope, nope, not exposing that to his brothers. They didn’t have to know how often he would visit you behind their backs. And you didn’t need to deal with their prying just from a slip-of-the-tongue.

One portal later and he was plopping you down on the couch in your room, pleading with you to stay and that he’d be back later (a lie).

Again, you were left sitting alone, confused as to why he was acting like this. Aren’t you both head over heels for each other? Is it just you? Your foot kicked the ground a bit as you leaned into the couch’s arm. Ah, wait, when you saw him and ran to him, you kind of… put something down..

“ I left my bag.. ”

Throwing up your arms and sliding into a laying-down position, you stared up at the ceiling and sniffled.

—-

“ Leo. “

“ I know, I know! I can’t keep avoiding her. ”

“ What? ”

Mikey quirked an eyebrow, swatting his brother’s hand away.

“ No, stop eating my ingredients. What’re you talking about, Y/N? You’re avoiding her? ”

Choose your words carefully, Leo, don’t want to accidentally bring out Dr. Feelings.

“ She’s under some potion effects, so I’m keeping a distance for her sake. ”

Mikey nodded, stirring the bowl he was holding. Occasionally he would reach over for herbs or so, sprinkling them into the mix.

“ Riiiiight, and you think that a potion that makes her like you more is the perfect situation to avoid her in? ”

“ You get it, yeah! ”

“ Mhmm, and what if you avoiding her makes it worse? ”

…

Crickets could have used this room as a perfect place for practice with how pin-droppingly quiet it was.

“ Right.. I should go see her, shouldn’t I.. ”

Leo traced circles in the residual flour on the table as his brother hummed in agreement. Reality puzzle piece number 2 was trickling down into its rightful place, a couple of days after he had last dropped you off at home.

Not to say that he went to see you after this, though. He sat up, stole a carrot sadly, ignored his brother’s “ hey! “ and slunk off to his room to sulk.

—-

In your apartment, you sprawled on the couch and rubbed your swollen nose with a tissue before crumpling it and throwing it into a nearby trash can.

One more look, you thought. Maybe I didn’t hear the notification, you reasoned, lifting your phone and clicking it on to read the all-too-cruel No New Notifications practically jeering at you.

Recognizing your face, your phone unlocked instantly, illuminating your face to the uncharacteristic message after message sent to the beloved ghosting you now.

NOTIFICATION

You have no new messages.

——————————————————

← Leonardo Hamato 💕 ☎︎

—————————————————— ︎O you 1 wk ago

Hey! Haha, you left so quick,

what’s up?

︎O you. 1 wk ago

Too good for goodbyes, huh?

lol

︎O you 1 wk ago

Good night, sleep well and

sweet dreams!

︎O you 1 wk ago

Sleep snug and warm!!

︎O you 5 days ago

Hey, you haven’t been coming

over as much!

︎O you 5 days ago

Maybe we could stay up and

watch a movie? Like usual?

︎O you 5 days ago

We could make dinner together

too! That’s always fun!

︎O you 5 days ago.

Or not

︎O you 5 days ago.

good night…

︎O you 4 days ago.

Good morning!!

︎O you 4 days ago.

Good night!!

︎O you 3 days ago.

Good morning

︎O you 1 day ago.

good night

︎O you 2 hrs ago.

I miss you..

——————————————————

One heavy sigh later and you were finished scrolling, getting up off the couch and into the kitchen for something to eat.

Hopefully there will be a ding..

—-

By the time the middle of the second week rolled around, Leo couldn’t handle going that long without shooting you a message or two—a quick, “ hey, how’s it going “ or a “ hey, check out this video, it reminded me of you “. Considering how much he popped in at your place, there was never any need for texting, just an occasional “ bored, can i pop in? “ or a “ don’t wanna do this homework, wanna drop by? “.

Seeing more messages from you, outside of their ordinary nature, was enough to make him feel even more horrible.

His feelings for you had always been a tad bit all over the place, but ever since that kiss, all your compliments, and those big eyes, there was no one in the world who wouldn’t have began their rapid descent into loving you.

From that moment, there was pretty much never a second spent without you on his mind, running circles and flushing his cheeks all over again. He spent more time in his room this time, not daring to give his brothers the chance to poke fun.

You were under a spell that made you love him. He couldn’t bring himself to take any kind of advantage of a situation like this. After all, he can easily make you fall for him, but it wouldn’t be rewarding if the competition was rigged. And this spell, how long would it last? Were you aware of it? Would you remember it all in the end? What would he do if you’re like this forever?

Before he put his phone down, he watched the three little dots appear in y’all’s messages and couldn’t help the heaviness in his chest, as he dropped the phone into the desk at his bedside.

Reality puzzle piece 4 fell into place as Leo laid in bed, eyes fixated on the ceiling. They followed the lines, the cracks and wear n’tear. Reflecting over the nights, days, the weeks, and even conversations, there was one line from his brother that echoed in his head.

“ … a potion that makes her like you more … “

There was a second of silence.

Then another.

And another, perhaps even a little water droplet falling could be heard.

Then followed the sound of frantic scrambling.

Sheets thumping upon the ground.

And lastly a dramatic gasp.

“ Makes her like me more?! Then—“

His hands meet his cheeks, slapping them cleanly to try and knock some sense into himself.

“—that means she liked me already?! ”

Ding ding, dearest Blue.

—-

Reality piece number 5th slammed into place as a “ patrolling ” Leo “ accidentally ” ended up at the balcony to your house, caught halfway through your window as you came from your room in sleepwear.

“ Leo? “

“ I can explain. ”

He responded immediately, punctuating the sentence with a harsh toppling in through your window. Against the floor, his body thumped unceremoniously in a mess of limbs and ligaments. This stirred a few breathy giggles from your sweet lips, followed by you dropping right by his side to help him up.

“ Leo! Are you okay? “

You wore a worried smile, delicate hands cupping his, stroking with a kindness you held only for him—matter of fact, it wasn’t even a new or foreign form of kindness. Had you always treated him this way? Was this potion really just… increasing what was already there?

“ Yeah.. ”

He had no reason to be here—not even an explanation for how he ended up in this side of town. You didn’t exactly live right above the lair, so your place wasn’t an easy “ right across the street “ venture.

And, your place was also usually…

Much neater—much cleaner—than it is now…

There were tissues balled up on the table beside your couch and dirty dishes in the sink. The counter had the remnants of a Maruchan ramen cup, topped with a fork upside down. Sheets were laid on the couch, right where he had last dropped you off at.

Suddenly, he remembered Mikey’s conversation and felt all the more guilty.

That bad feeling coiled its grip all around him, tightening as he finally gazed into your eyes, catching the puffiness.

“ Y/N…. I… I’m sorry. ”

His hand held yours, the one you helped him up with, and gently tugged you closer to him. The other hand reached up, cupping your cheek with a warmth you had been longing for all these weeks. You leaned into the hand with shaky lips, mentally repeating, “ i missed this “. Though, there was another thought gnawing at you—missed this? Why couldn’t you remember this happening? It was almost as though you were under some kind of…

But never mind that, the 5 piece reality puzzle was completed and fully illuminated for the Leo who was finally seeing the effect his impromptu plan was having. He couldn’t even deny the fact that it might have never even been a plan, he might have just been…

Afraid.

But the way you’re looking at him now, and how much he feels “ at home ” in a sense, well..

It was enough for him to change up his behavior. He didn’t know how much longer you would be like this—or if the effects had already gone away (though, the sweetness in your gaze assured him otherwise)—regardless of all that mess, he was going to be what you (and he) needed most right now.

“ Can I take you up on that movie n’dinner offer? Or, should we team up on this mess? ”

With a playful tone, he held both your hands in both of his, with his thumbs running along the tops of your hands lightly.

—-

“ Hey Leo… ”

It was the third week. The past few days had returned to a “ normal ”, with Leo starting to do his usual visits more often. The two of you had decided today would be for an impromptu sweets-making day and we’re currently laying on the floor while the stove heated up.

“ Yeah? ”

Leo turned his head, looking at you. Your hands fidgeted, and your eyes tried to find patterns in the popcorn ceiling.

There were holes in your memory, as if your mind was putting together a story—a lie— like a child put on trial by their parents. You turned to meet his gaze, resting your hand against your sternum.

“ This isn’t real, is it? ”

“ Excuse me? ”

Leo sat up, or more appropriately sprung up. He searched your expression for any kind of “ gotcha! “ or “ hah, made ya look! “ but found nothing but sincerity swirling in your eyes.

“ What, uh, what do you mean by that? ”

Nervously, he swapped his focus to the stove, standing up to put the ingredients into the pot. Today’s menu was homemade chocolates, and no, neither of y’all went to the store for it. This was happening with everything out of your pantry and the random stash of chocolate bars on top of the fridge.

On the floor you laid, glancing to his leg standing near your head. Your hand touched his ankle, tickling for a second as he made a strange noise and jerked his foot back, “ ah, hey! stop that—“

“ The way you’re acting, the way I’m acting—our texts, my memories.. Something happened in the witch’s town, didn’t it? Something I don’t remember? “

Now it was Leo’s turn to be confused. He looks down at you after stirring the pot a bit, settling down the spoon to let the heat take its course.

“ Y/N, you don’t remember what happened?”

He leans against the counter, one hand resting against the edge while the other holds his chin inquisitively. How should he respond to this? “ oh, yeah, you were hit with a love potion and i got scared because i love you and so i avoided you! “

Vetoed.

“ No, I just remember you, like… You tried to protect me from something, and then it got hazy. ”

He weighed his options, weighed how to respond, and eventually settled on an idea. Leo squats down beside you, reaching a hand to caress your cheek. The gesture is accepted as you nuzzled to the warmth, seeking the security his hold gave.

“ Y/N, I… I’m not sure what it was. ”

“ Donnie tested me, didn’t he? Days—no, weeks ago, when it happened? Didn’t he find anything? ”

eyuiii—- hoo boy, Leo….

“ No, the tests.. It’s mystic mojo, not Donnie’s vibes. You know that. ”

The way you squinted suspiciously at him almost made him break under the pressure. Luckily the pot was bubbling over and he needed to tend to that quickly!

“ Ah, hang on! ”

The conversation was dropped from there.

Neither of you picked it back up.

—-

While communication may have not been the strong suit, everything else was. To make up for secrets he was hiding, questions he was leaving unanswered, and tension being stirred, Leo had gone out of his way to impress and delight you. If you were to be stuck in this state forever, he was going to ensure that the you now was treated just as he would have treated the you before.

And that he did. You both got up to your usual shenanigans: pranks ending with one of the brothers shouting you or Leo’s name, sneaking into villain territories that may have been above a human’s pay grade, late-night lunar antics where no one would really mind it, but many might question it happening so late (such as playing games in courts past midnight or 3 AM park strolls).

But, you also ended up on some… out of the ordinary outings.

Dates, in other words.

There had been a few times where Leo portaled into your living room, letting himself into every room until he found you, only to discover you in a fancy or well-thought out outfit that he said couldn’t go to waste.

In just this third week, you had managed to acquire ice skating by experience as your beloved snuck you both right on into a closed rink (and sabotaged the cameras, of course!), to —embarrass— to have fun!

You had shaky legs in the skates,like that of a newborn deer, but nothing could beat the skipping of your heart each time Leo caught you in his arms as you went down, saying a slow, “ whoa there, don’t go falling for me yet… “ with a smile that had done you in way before his warning.

By the end of it, you had fallen right into his embrace. Hands on his chest, eyes locked in intense contact. A gravity pulled you both in, lips just barely touching—you were so sure you could feel his breath rolling across your skin.

But, leave it to someone’s phone blaring with a warning, a “ Donnie Alert '' cautioning Leo that someone was coming into the building. Just how much time did you both spend in that rink together?

The week had also brought you the full cliché experience of a movie date. Well, maybe not too cliché. Not sure how common it is to go to the theatres in full costume, but there were plenty of odd looks as you both strolled in dressed like “ aliens ” (Leo got compliments for his totally realistic looking green body paint. You wondered how he was able to answer “ what brand did you use? ” questions.)

But, aside from that, it was a date straight out of a movie. Best seats in the house, shared popcorn, bashful shoulder touches, and the classic accidental hand touch as you both reached for the salty snack. This night had been punctuated with yet another almost-kiss, but this time it was you who interrupted it.

Home, at your balcony, Leo cupped your cheek and leans in slowly for a kiss. The look in his eyes, the way the streetlights illuminated his skin—how supple his lips looked…

It overwhelmed you. Your heart raced, as though it would simply pop in your chest, and you turned your head to the side and covered your lips with your hand.

“ I—I’m not ready.. For some reason.. ”

It was as though someone, someone who was also you, was screaming “ stop, no! “ in the back of your head. A silence plateaued between you both, broken by Leo’s light chuckle.

“ No worries, ”

His hand cups your cheek, stroking with his thumb.

“ I’d wait a lifetime for you. ”

You smiled as he left, sighing like a maiden in love. Like? No, no, you are a maiden in love.

And the rest of the week’s dates, into the fourth week, only made it so much worse.

Only now, there was another voice in your head growing louder and louder. It was you, but also not you? She was guiding you, stopping you, begging and pleading, and sometimes even giving pointers—it was a weird experience. Were you just unlocking a new level of consciousness?

—-

The fourth week, the last week of the potions effects. The end of the month. There had been an imaginary clock looking over you the whole time, ticking down to a limit.

Unbeknownst to you two lovebirds.

Leo was in too deep by now. He was in love—more than he ever imagined to be—and he loved you deeply. As did you. The embraces you would both share each time he came by was undeniable to anyone, including yourselves.

In fact, he had even slept over once. The night before today.

The most important day, a special date.

Last night had been a stay-in night, garnished with a dinner-making montage involving kitchen room dancing, pasta and sauce making, and plenty of giggles. With dinner done, you both settled in your room with a movie showing on TV from your media provider. It was some horror movie that turned out horrible—quality, scared, all of it. Only a fifth of the way in, and already you had both devolved into a classic “ Cinema Sins “ episode.

The night dragged on til Leo gave a sigh, saying he should head back. He was stopped by your delicate grip, holding his hand as if presenting a choice rather than a demand. You asked if he really had to go, and he answered you with silence. Gently, you tugged his arm as if to request he return to the bed, and he obliged.

There was an awkward space between you both, closed only by your hands finding each other and resting against the pillow. You both slept facing each other, but you woke up hugging each other, as though your bodies resented the distance and craved connection.

Today was an important day because it was a date planned without you—Leo insisted it be a secret, and you were instructed to wear your nicest outfit and meet him in your apartment’s garden at 8 PM sharp.

In the garden was an opening, centered and circular. He figured no one would mind it being temporarily occupied by a table and two chairs, as well as a contained candle lit. The flowers around him framed the scene, lining the walkway.

And here he waited for your arrival, prepared to finally say the words he had yet to let you hear all this time.

“ Y/N, ”

He practiced to your favorite flowers, held in an equally as pretty vase,

“ I love you. I’m sorry it took me so long, but god, ”

His hand strokes a petal, noting it’s texture in a fleeting thought,

“ I regret taking so long. I love you, honestly and genuinely. Through and through. ”

He shook his head, muttering “ that’s not good enough. “ and continued waiting for you.

He gazed at his watch, feeling a drop in his chest at the time. It was three minutes past the designated time. No worries, Leo, she’s just running late, he reassured himself, and looked expectantly at the doors. Any second now you would be strolling in.

It was strange, though. You were usually very punctual.

The imaginary clock had struck its mark, having no heart to wait long enough for the two lovers. At its silent chime, the spell diminished, taking with it a month’s worth of memories. You were left standing still in your living room, looking around in confusion. What were you doing again? You looked at your dress, your shoes, and then jogged into the bathroom, looking in the mirror. Were you going somewhere? Why?

Why were you dressed up so nicely, you wondered? More importantly, when did you get home? All you could recall was Leo pulling you, the pain of hitting the ground, and then looking up to see something splashing down on you…

There was one person you could get answers from, and so you went scrambling for your phone. An electric shock coursed its way through your body as a date was illuminated big on the Home Screen. No, no, this couldn’t be right—something was wrong. It couldn’t possibly be a month later?

Just what was going on, you thought, as you plopped onto your bed and undid your hair. Unlocking your phone, you scrolled the contact, “ Leonardo Hamato 💕 “, and clicked the text box to shoot off a message. Wait, pause? There were several messages sent within the last two weeks. That’s… Weird—you don’t send this many messages, not to Leo…

….?

Who sent these messages?

A ding came in. You held your breath.

NOTIFICATION

You have one new message.

——————————————————

← Leonardo Hamato 💕 ☎︎

—————————————————— ︎O Leonardo Hamato now

When I said dress up, I didn’t think you would do a full makeover!

︎O Leonardo Hamato now

Don’t stand me up for a pretty brush, I’m much more handsome

︎O Leonardo Hamato now

I’m in the garden, remember?

——————————————————

It was more messages than you guys usually sent each other… But, the garden? Why would he be there? Not a second more was wasted before you were zipping down your building’s stairwell as though you were Cinderella descending the palace steps.

Through the doors, across the too-small-to-count park, and against the decorative doors of the complex’s most prized staple—the centerpiece that garnered them so much popularity as a beautiful apartment property.

Time slowed down as you stepped in. Like a dream, petals twirled hand n’hand gracefully with the breeze that slipped past the open doors, and your gaze soon met the relieved smile of the beautiful blue that you had long since fallen in love with. He moved over towards you, taking your hand before you could even say anything, and guided you to the candlelit table. The cloth was simple, a light blue with repeating patterns of different berries, with a white lace lining the edges. Your favorite flowers gave a little spin in their vase, and a small candle fire danced as though it were happy to see you.

But never could it be happier than Leo, who held your hands with a fondness you couldn’t help but melt into. What was going on? What happened in the month-long lapse of your memory?

“ Y/N! I was a bit worried, you know? ”

He leaned in, pressing his forehead against yours. Your eyes widened, and you held your breath, not daring to speak. If this was a dream, then god was it a cruel one.

Leo’s hand cups your cheek as he leans away, stroking it lovingly with his thumb. It felt as though you had felt this before despite having no recollection of so. Still, you leaned into the touch and looked into his lulled, lovesick eyes with your own, pooling with love straight from your heart. Was he… Did he? Did he love you, how you love him?

“ When you didn’t show up at the time I told you, I will admit that I got nervous.. But seeing you now, I just.. ”

He sighed happily, cupping both your cheeks with his hands and leaning in closer.

“ I love you so much. From the bottom of my heart, for so long. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this. ”

Leaning in, he closed the gap as you whispered his name. Your lips were locked in a sweet kiss.

Whatever happened this month, it was probably the best thing to ever happen to you. Though, you would definitely be getting answers from him later.

But right now, you are going to savor this moment.

[chamomileteainabuttercup]

Off @everyonehatestherisotto 's tags on my 80s skincare/haircare post:

#anyway op i need you to do one on how video stores work too#because i only have VERY small town in the 90s experiences#but i'm still bothered by the fic i read#where eddie had a movie for eight days#like it was library book#and the late fees he'd have been charged?!?!#FOR A NEW RELEASE?!?!!?#eight days#god my wallet

yeah, my experience was in New Zealand so I don't know if things may have worked very differently in the US, but a new release was something you rented for one night and returned in the morning, and it cost quite a bit more than a movie that had been out for some time. (The corollary to that was that the video store would have multiple copies of a new release to meet demand but typically only one of an older title so if someone else had it out you just had to wait.) My sister and I were sometimes allowed to choose a cartoon for the weekend (our favourites were always Ewoks and Jem and the Holograms, a show which has never received the appreciation, nay, adulation it deserves), but still only for the weekend because renting a tape for several days could get pretty extravagant.

You'd go into the store, browse the shelves where the clamshell video boxes were with the colourful covers, but actually they were empty, pick out the one you wanted and take it to the counter where you would get the actual VHS tape in a plain box with the store's sticker on it, or sometimes a black and white photocopy of the real cover stuck on, pay for your chosen rental time and take that home. As a kid I was always a little disappointed that we didn't get the colourful box.

You generally returned your tape by sticking it through a slot in the door the next morning, but if you were late (the cut-off time for returns would be posted on the door, and if you dropped your tape in after that time it counted as overdue even if it was the same day because the staff needed time to process those returns, check them back in on the computer and get the corresponding boxes back on the shelves, including checking the tapes had been rewound and doing it if you hadn't) you had to go in and pay at the counter or they would ask you to the next time you tried to rent something.

For an in-demand new release there was often a rule that they would only rent it to you for one night, regardless of your willingness to pay for longer, in fairness to everyone else who wanted to see it.

What else can I think of? I remember that it took considerably longer than it does now for movies to get a home video release after they finished their run in theatres, but that could also be a side effect of living in New Zealand. If you missed it when it was on at the flicks or you really liked it and wanted to see it again, you were in for a long wait.

Particularly in the earlier days when VCR players were a pretty expensive item, stores rented them out as well as the tapes to play on them, so again, that might be a weekend treat, but by the mid-80s prices had come down enough for many families to own one (we saw the Byerses had one in season 2 and they weren't well-off, although given Joyce was dating a total sweetheart who worked at Radio Shack maybe that was a gift from him?), so Eddie probably wouldn't need to do that.

In summary, Eddie keeping a new release movie for eight days overdue would rack up such high late fees that it sounds like the set-up for an "I can't afford to pay but maybe we could... come to some arrangement?" smut fic.

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

love letter, m | jjk

pairing(s): jungkook x reader

summary: Jeon Jungkook gets love letters shoved in his mailbox and under his apartment door all the damn time. You, too, get love letters shoved in your mailbox and under your door. All the time. It could be a sweet gesture, but this is the twenty-first century. Love letters aren't all they're cracked up to be. 

warnings: rated M (18+) for language; short graphic descriptions of sex acts; smut (fem reader, a very intense make-out session including some wild tongue and too much saliva, nipple play, a bit of m-receiving oral, cowgirl, handjob); non-idol!BTS – technically university, blond, softsub!Jungkook x working, softdom!reader; slightly desperate and needy JK

yes, yes, it’s MTV Unplugged ‘Telepathy’JK

--

"I'm so tired of people thinking they have a chance with me."

Was the exasperated declaration as you backed up into your apartment, only to turn around and witness Jeon Jungkook dumping a waterfall of colorful envelopes from his giant black backpack onto your hardwood floor. 

"At least remove your shoes before you start flaunting how hot you are," you replied dryly.

Jungkook rolled his eyes as he kicked off his large white sneakers. "Look at this shit! It's relentless! It's annoying! I just want to live my life!"

You vaguely recalled Jungkook being excited about his first love letter upon reaching university, and then the second, the third... and now you were staring at pile number five hundred on your doormat. "I don't know, put a sign on your door? 'Please stop, the answer is no?'"

Jungkook winced. "I can't do that. How many hearts am I going to break?"

"Uh, I dunno, you already broke half the campus by existing in general."

He bonked you on the head lightly with his denim jacket sleeve. "I have not. I've only slept with a couple people and that was supposed to be no strings attached."

You shrugged. "People can't understand that. Especially women."

He puffed his cheeks and stepped over the pile. You noticed the small stickers and nice handwriting on the colorful pastel paper. You almost felt bad, seeing all the effort put into them.

"At least they're cute. I only get torn notebook pages with scribbles."

"Stop lying. You get girls' letters too," Jungkook grumbled. "Can I borrow your computer? One of my professors assigned an online quiz and the internet at my place is down, again."

"You gotta move," you commented, kneeling down to collect the mess Jungkook made. You noticed Jungkook flit his eyes about before throwing up his hands and bending down to help you. 

"I'm trying to get out of the lease, but I have a couple more months left," he complained childishly.

"What about your other friends? Can't you go bother them?"

Jungkook frowned, sticking out his lower lip. The tiny mole underneath winked at you. "You hate me now or something?"

You laughed, standing up with a stacked pile of confessions to Jeon Jungkook. "No, I'm just curious as to why you always come here."

He shoved the rest in your arms, his pile slightly messier than yours. "You live the closest and you're usually home. Plus, you have two computers."

"A laptop and a desktop," you corrected. "Don't you have a laptop?"

"It's easier to borrow yours."

"Lazy."

Jungkook ignored your remark and ticked his silvery-blond head further into the apartment. "Can I borrow it or not?"

You laughed. "Of course. Laptop's on the bed."

He turned and followed the hallway to your bedroom. "Same password?" he yelled, not looking back.

"Obviously."

"Why is it my birth date?" he shouted.

"Because, one, no one will guess it, and, two, you're a dumbass and always forget it."

"I do not!"

"How many times did you ask when the password was Klingon?"

"I don't know your nerdy shit!"

"Do your fucking assignment," you belted down the hall. 

Jungkook stuck his head out of your bedroom door and scrunched his nose to make a hideous face at you, holding your gunmetal-colored laptop. You rolled your eyes as he disappeared again. This crackhead. You let out a sigh, walking past the acrylic painting of a blue sky with pink-purple clouds hanging in your living room, flicking through at all the letters addressed to Jungkook.

Surprisingly, you knew what he felt like. With you, it started with inviting one guy over to your place, sucking his dick, and then suddenly a letter appeared. Well, letter was putting it nicely. Dirty napkin with words scrawled with smeared ballpoint pen shoved under your door, explicitly asking for more. Then another, wanting it. Then another, begging for it. You ignored them. At some point, you invited a girl over, ate her out, and then the colorful envelopes started appearing, with cute stickers and neat handwriting.

Mmmhmm.

Why did Jungkook bring them here anyway? To brag? For you to peruse? You spread them out them on your coffee table and tore one open. Read it. Simple confession of love, no name. You were kind of jealous. Jungkook always got nicer ones than you did. Something about being a sexually uninhibited woman seemed to translate to others that you were down to fuck anyone, anytime, anything. You tossed the letter aside, ripped open a folded card closed with lilac tape. Another, 'I love you, please go out with me', no name. Toss. And you opened another one, reading out loud. 

"I want to cram all one hundred and seventy-nine centimeters of you into me?”

Uh.

Huh.

Still no name.

Cute peach stationery though. 

Was it a euphemism? Symbolic? Thinly veiled code? Hm. In any case, this was more along the lines of shamelessness you encountered yourself. 

By all conventions, Jeon Jungkook was attractive as fuck. Pretty pink lips, big brown eyes, manly sharp jawline. He kept his hair on the longer side, around ear length, now silvery-blond compared to the usual black. You heard he dyed it a couple times, but now it had since faded to the original blond.

Oh, yeah, also he had nice hands and a body to die for. 

You could see why Jungkook got all these love letters. You? Well, similar reasons, except less muscles. Also, yours weren't really love letters. More like vulgar remarks on the backs of grubby receipts. 

Probably just as heartfelt.

The only reason you knew of Jungkook was because you were friends with one of his close friends. Alright, maybe you sucked his friend's dick. More than once. But anyway, not the point. The point was that the topic of love letters came up one night when everyone was hanging out and you voiced your predicament. It was the summer before Jungkook entered university. He had burst out laughing, thinking it was a hilarious situation.

"Haha, that would never happen to me!"

Jokes on you, Jungkook, karma's a bitch. 

You thought about moving, but the location was close to your work and the internet service was great here. At least you always recycled the paper. What were you supposed to do? Keep an album of Starbucks napkins of people asking if your tongue was good or not?

You opened another envelope addressed to 'sweet, adorable Jungkookie'.

Their words, not yours. 

"Shove your dick down my throat and make me gag? Smiley face?"

Well, that's a contrast. 

Jungkook didn't start contacting you on his own until the letters started coming and then they didn’t stop coming, flooding his mailbox and underneath his door, overwhelming and confusing him. He didn't think he would get much attention, although perhaps it might be your fault, since you seemed to have set the precedence for this type of thing at this particular university. There was at least one person in every year that got this treatment, and it all started with one dirty napkin with smeared ink. Rumor caught on and then bam! It became a thing. 

So, yeah. 

Maybe kind of your fault.

You shouldn't have told so many people about that napkin. 

You fished out a pizza receipt from the pile, inspecting it. You couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Then you noticed it had Jungkook's phone number and an order of three pizzas. Not a confession, just trash from Jungkook's backpack. Did he really eat three pizzas? Hopefully not by himself and in one sitting. You noticed the timestamp. Mmm, three in the morning. Okay. Maybe he did eat three pizzas by himself in one sitting. 

You filed through the rest, removing trash from the recyclable paper. Paused when you found a scrap of paper that said, "Put your dick in my ass." You recognized this curvy, narrow handwriting, slightly heavy-handed. Same person wrote you the same note this week. 

This was why you didn't take the messages too seriously.

You saw a particularly thick purple envelope and picked it up, tearing it open. It was several pages, with tiny, crammed handwriting on paper with cute bunnies on it. Several pages detailing straight up porn with Jungkook as the leading role. 

You almost burst out laughing. 

Who the fuck would write this?

And send it to him?

Not you, that's for fucking sure. 

Still, it wasn't the worst thing you've ever read. Had some spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Instant turn-off. Needed a good proofread. You settled onto your brown leather couch, highly entertained as you read it. Then you actually burst out laughing, because said person wanted Jungkook to lift them and fuck them at the same time and that kinda shit just wasn't possible. You would know, because you’ve tried. It sounded good, but in practice, the dick ended up falling out pretty quickly if the pussy was any sort of wet.

If you weren’t wet, then, eh, not sure why you're fucking. 

"What is so fucking funny?" Jungkook grumbled, poking his head around the corner, still holding your laptop. 

You held up the sheets of bunny-printed paper, still laughing. "Someone sent you their written erotica and you're the star!"

Jungkook grimaced. "Oh yeah, that person. They write something new every week. It's weird." He frowned. "I try to take it out so you don't have to read that shit. I must have missed it."

"It's hilarious," you chuckled. "You should publish them into a book."

"You know I can't do that," Jungkook sighed, putting your laptop on the coffee table and snatching the pages from you. "I throw them away like everything else."

"Did you finish your assignment?" you chortled, leaning over to look at the laptop screen. Submission successful. "80%?! When you could easily cheat?"

"I read a question wrong," Jungkook whined, balling up the paper and throwing it down. "Ack."

You looked up at him and he was looking upset at the pile on the table. 

"What's wrong?"

"What if one of them is real?" 

"Huh?"

"I mean... I just throw them away now. But what if one of them is real?" Jungkook wondered out loud. 

You shrugged. "Does it matter? They'll tell you in person if it's that important."

Jungkook tilted his head at you doubtfully. "Will they?"

You sat back into your couch, with your legs wide open. You were wearing sleek black leggings and a cropped pink sweatshirt. Not the most ladylike pose, but you didn't really care. You gestured to the stack of letters on your wooden coffee table. 

"They should. If they actually like you and it's not a joke, then they should tell you in person and accept that they might be rejected."

Jungkook frowned and slumped down next to you. His light-wash denim jacket made a loud floof as his ass hit the brown leather cushions. The wash of his jeans matched his jacket. He wore a white graphic t-shirt under. It looked vintage, but it probably wasn’t. 

"What if they're nervous?" he questioned, twisting his pink lips around.

"So what? Everyone's nervous. We all live in a perpetual state of terror."

Jungkook rolled his eyes. 

You leaned forward and plucked a sky-blue memo note from the table, reading it out loud. "I love you. Marry me." You held it out to him. "See? You get nice ones. I get, ‘choke me like you hate me’ and 'shove your tongue into my asshole, please'. Rarely do I get is that please at the end," you finished with a dry laugh. You looked up to see Jungkook staring back at you. Your laugh died a little seeing his serious expression. 

"Yes."

You blinked at him. "What?"

Jungkook ticked his chin to the note, then shifted his eyes to you.

You pointed to the memo sheet and raised an eyebrow. "I didn't write this."

"I did."

He was so serious that you couldn't laugh. You just blinked at him rapidly and turned your head to look at the sky-blue memo sheet, finally recognizing the clean, block-like handwriting and spotting the bottom right corner. English letters. A J and a K fused together, the way Jungkook usually signed his paintings.

You dropped the note like it was on fire.

Jerked your head up, not to him, but to the painting across from you in the living room, the one with the blue sky and pink-purple clouds, with a tiny JK signature in black at the bottom right corner. The painting you asked Jungkook to make you a while back. 

"You paint, right? I want something calm for my living room. I bought a canvas, so about this size. It's that cool?"

Jungkook had squinted his eyes, nodding. "Yeah, I could draw a pretty big dick on it."

"This is for my living room, dumbass. And I said I wanted something calm."

"A flaccid dick then."

You turned your head back to Jungkook of now, who was wringing his hands on his thighs, wiping off his palms. He noticed you watching him and puffed one cheek before letting out a big sigh. 

"I was... gonna leave it on your laptop," Jungkook mumbled, flapping a hand to the sky-blue note. "But I couldn't find it in my backpack, and then I realized one of the pockets was open, the one where I keep receipts... anyway I had put the note there, so I came out to see if it was in the pile... yup, there it is."

He sucked in his cheek and fell back against the leather sofa.

"Was a joke."

Jungkook's voice sounded hollow. Empty. 

"... Ah." You tucked the tip of your tongue in your cheek.

"Not the greatest joke," he added flatly.

“No, it’s not,” you agreed. "Jokes that are insincere are bad jokes."

The black words glared back up at you, contrasting the pale azure paper. You picked up the memo sheet again. Turned to face him, holding it up next to Jungkook's head of silvery-blond hair. He pursed his lips and looked away from you, jaw clenched in nervousness. 

"Just say it."

He puffed one cheek again. "It was a joke."

"Then why are you saying it in past tense?"

His brown orbs shifted from side to side before Jungkook tried to bolt out of his seat, only for you to slam a hand down on his shoulder and throw a leg over him, straddling his lap before pinning the note to his chest. He yelped sharply and looked up at you with huge, shaking irises. 

In all your time knowing him, you never tried to sleep with Jungkook.

Never. 

You jabbed the note into his white shirt and he gave you a terrified squeak in response. 

You scrutinized his face, jaw slack, eyes wide, blond curls framing his chiseled cheekbones. One of your eyebrows raised, your voice calm and unfazed.

"Say it."

"You say it," Jungkook finally shot back, furrowing his brows, biting on his lip and mustering up the most indignant look he could produce at this very second. You didn’t react. He seemed to have forgotten you did, in fact, say it, although perhaps that wasn’t exactly what he meant.

You never tried to fuck Jungkook because he didn’t treat you as anything more than his primary source of internet when his own was down. Ah, and also his outlet for complaining about his love letter problem. And then there was that other little wrinkle, the unwritten societal rule one of sucking a guy's dick you're still friends with - don't suck his friends' dicks. Surefire way to fuck up a friendship, especially if the dude’s ego was fragile.

Jungkook’s friend was dating someone else now though. His ego couldn’t be that fragile.

You leaned forward and Jungkook's annoyed gaze faltered. He gulped and tried to shrink into your brown leather couch, as if he could somehow disappear under you.

"I love you," you stated clearly and firmly. You glanced at the slightly crumpled piece of blue paper before your eyes flickered back to his face. "Marry me."

Hah, the thing about rules with you was...

Fuck 'em.

Not actually. 

Eh, not the point.

"Really?" Jungkook squeaked, voice cracking slightly.

Ah, right, the other reason you never tried to sex up Jungkook because he was a little bit of an idiot around you. But maybe this sky-blue note detailed the reason for it. 

"Say it," you repeated crossly, poking him in the pecs. "Stop avoiding it."

You observed Jungkook swallow hard again, Adam’s apple bobbing. You furrowed your brows, tipping your head down so that your forehead was hovering over his, eyebrow cocked, gazing into trembling brown orbs. Why was he taking so long? He wrote the damn words. Were they really just a joke? Hmph, why were you even trying then?

That’s how everyone was.

Not putting any stock or thought into their fucking words.

You lifted your finger but Jungkook’s right hand, the one with tiny tattoos, suddenly darted in your view, grabbing your hand back and jamming your finger onto his chest again. His heartbeat raced under your fingertip, thud-thud-thud, rapid bass accenting the moment. Electrifying it.

“Don’t.”

Whisper so faint you frowned and closed even more distance between you two, picking up the scent of vanilla fabric softener and lush cotton. A little different than you, who used a blackberry and spiced vanilla perfume.

“I like this,” Jungkook breathed under you, chewing his lip anxiously. You could feel his warm breath tickling your lips and chin with how close you were. You could count his individual eyebrow hairs, even though the eyebrow product he used.

“I… really like this.”

He let go of your hand.

Now you raised both eyebrows.

You slowly uncurled your middle finger, landing it on his chest next to the index. You felt him shiver a little, lips parting. Straightened your ring finger, planting it down. His lashes lowered a little, brown orbs on your face, watching your reaction to him. You could count the moles on his face. The one on his nose. The one on his cheek. The one under his lower lip. The one on his neck. Your pinky slid onto his chest. A wispy moan left his lips, eyelids fluttering, blond strands floating around his head with the little rise and fall of his heavy, tense exhale.

Why is it your birth date?

Take a wild guess, dumbass.

Your fingers abruptly dug into his white t-shirt, crumpling the note and scrunching the graphic up in your fist. He inhaled sharply, head tipping back and lips nearing yours, a whine escaping his throat. You quirked an eyebrow, drawing back slightly, taking in the rich depth of his tan skin, the sensual line of his neck, up to his angular chin and his dangling silver earrings. All of it. His hands immediately came up to grab your wrist and forearm, ensuring you and himself that you wouldn’t let go, the tendons in your flexed wrist right against his large palm.

“Say it, Jungkook,” you demanded. “Say those words with your pretty pink tongue hanging out your mouth for me.”

You watched him obey immediately, tongue sliding out and touching his lower lip, brown eyes framed by his long lashes and hazy with lust.

“I love you,” Jungkook breathed, a little gargled with his tongue out. “Fucking marry me, please.”

Ah, you couldn't help it. 

You smirked.

"What about all your admirers?" you murmured, twisting your fingers in his shirt, digging your nails into his chest. "You'll break all those poor hearts you’re worried about."

Those dark brown eyes told you they didn't give a single fuck. 

"What about you?" he countered, closing his mouth a little to speak more clearly.

"Me?"

The definition of trouble?

Well, if you looked that up in a dictionary, there would definitely be a picture of you. 

Jungkook’s lips parted once more, keen to submit to your wickedness, pink tongue slipping out again, shiny and glistening with saliva. Breathing shallowly, rubbing your wrist with his thumb, encouraging you to keep going. 

Your lips curved into a treacherous smile.

"I'll break all the hearts to get to yours, Jungkook."

And then you licked his tongue. 

A low moan bubbled from Jungkook's chest, his eyes rolling back and his hips bucking up, desperate for friction as the tip of your wet muscle glided over his warm softness, your spit dripping down his throat, listening to his moans turn into messy garbles of your name, begging you, pleading you, more, more, kiss me, please, and you hooked your tongue around his, gently nudging his jaw with your other hand. Knuckle to chin, tilting your head as your lips closed onto Jungkook's. 

It was not a neat kiss.

There was spit running down his chin, dripping onto his neck and your skin, your lips roughly working his, tongues intertwined and making even more of a mess, you sucking forcefully to earn pained, delicious whines. Jungkook was far too turned on to attempt to glamorize it, cries a jumbled mess under your greedy mouth, but none of that mattered. The moment was sensual and dark, bodies speaking to each other through dopamine and adrenaline. Your hand released his shirt, breaking his grip, switching to burrowing your fingers into his soft blond hair and running your nails over his scalp, leaving lines of prickling pain to enhance your kiss. 

"F-Fuck, oh fuck, yes..."

Your teeth caught his tongue, pulling back and forcing his head to follow. Jungkook made a pained noise, trapped in your embrace, whining as you took him to the brink. You released him swiftly and he snapped backward, blinking hard, trying to reorient himself, but it was impossible, your lips crashing down again, thrusting your tongue into his mouth aggressively, one eye open to witness his fucked-out state, pupils unfocused, long lashes quivering, moaning into your mouth and you inhaling it all, literally taking his breath away. 

It started out with a kiss. 

How did it end up like this?

It was only a kiss. 

It was only a kiss. 

You dropped your lower half onto his crotch and Jungkook gasped, breaking the kiss, strings of spit breaking between you two. You smirked wickedly as you felt his hardness trying to escape its clothing jail, his large hands already on your thighs and hips, sinking his fingers into the soft fabric of your leggings, rocking you into him, desperately trying to get some stimulation.

"Please," he croaked, panting for breath, pulling himself up to sitting position, so easy and smooth, fuck, so sexy, and now Jungkook was in your face, pleas on the tip of his tongue pouring out, tempting you, wanting it. 

"Please, wanna be yours so fucking bad, seeing all those fucking letters and notes you get, and it pisses me off, it's me, I want it to be me, I want to be yours and I'm telling you to your face." 

Whisper achingly hot, deep voice soaked with longing, staring into your eyes with those shaking brown orbs, spinning with emotion like an unstable top, barely enough torque holding it in place and all it took was another spin to encourage it or a gust of rejection to topple it over. 

"And you don't even care about mine, you think they're fucking funny, fuck, I can't stand it, let it be me, please..."

His hands running up your sides, grazing against your breasts, and now his hands were in your hair and yours were in his, bringing your face close, the crumpled sky-blue note right between your joined crotches, forgotten, witnessing the agonizing lust wound tightly in this embrace. 

"Let it be me," Jungkook begged.

You licked your lips slowly, scarcely swiping against his. He shuddered, leaning into it, taking whatever crumbs you gave. His long fingers tensed in your hair, yours buried in the dark roots of his. 

"You'll have to skip the marriage bit for now," you teased lightly. "I don't think my parents will appreciate you slapping down papers before you finish school."

Jungkook snickered, tucking his tongue in his cheek roguishly. "Can't they understand I have to snatch this ass as soon as possible to make people back off?"

Your hands slipped down to his jaw, fitting it in your palms, his silvery-blond stands wrapped around your fingertips. "They'll back off my door once they hear you screaming my name." 

You leaned in, but Jungkook stopped you, brown orbs glittering with mischief to get in one more quip. 

"I doubt it," he purred. 

Yeah. 

Jungkook was right. 

Ah, well. 

You seized his face and kissed him again, fuck, such malleable lips just pleading to be bitten by you, gazing up his nose and to his beautiful eyes, his soft skin in your hands, clenching his jaw under your power, letting you have it, letting you control it and him. You felt him scramble and throw his denim jacket off, dumping it onto your couch to cup your cheeks with his hands, sighing in satisfaction as you inhaled him. Your tongue lazily traced the outskirts of his lips, hearing the rattle of his beaded bracelets by your ears, amused, knowing they were his good luck charms. 

"They bring good luck," he had answered when you saw them for the first time.

You remembered tilting your head at the wooden beads on his slim wrists. "You trying to get your dick sucked or something?"

He had broken out in a loud guffaw. Nudged you with his elbow, cheeky smile on his lips. 

"Never gonna say no to getting my dick sucked."

"Mhm, cool, where's my painting of the flaccid dick?"

From then on, you noticed he wore the same wooden, beaded bracelets every time he came to your apartment.

Hmm. 

Now, your hands falling from his face, yanking his shirt from his pants, annoyed it was getting caught, and then Jungkook fitted his hands around your ass and lifted you easily, breaking the kiss, a moment for you to bear witness to his arms flexing – holy fuck, that’s sexy – right one covered in tattoos. Images and script, with one catching your eye, a string of words running up the inside of his upper arm. One you recognized because you had those words written on your bedroom wall, on a canvas hanging above your bed. A canvas you made, background a chaotic mess of varying dark red brushstrokes, the black script in the center, written by your hand. 

The exact black script with your flourishes and ticks, now tattooed on the inside of his right arm. 

Your eyes drifted to Jungkook's face and his naughty smirk, pleased to be found out. Your lips formed the sentence slowly, in awe of his audacity.

"The devil knows my name."

the devil knows my name. 

Hung above your bed, where all manner of marvelous sinful acts were performed. 

Jungkook grinned deviously. "I saw it. I wanted it on me."

Wanted it on him. 

Oh, fuck. 

Did he know? Could he guess?

"Who's the devil?" you whispered, smile widening, matching his. 

Jungkook reached down, yanking his t-shirt out of his jeans and pulling it up and over his head, revealing the body he sculpted himself, tan skin taut over hard muscle, toned and...

"You're the devil, of course," he snickered. 

Yours. 

"Ding dong daeng," you sing-songed.

How many people have been on your bed, head pulled back by your hand, blinking hard, trying to read the words on your wall through waves of forced ecstasy? Gasping them out, ending with a question, inquiring for an answer.

The devil knows my name?

And you, leaning forward, haunting whisper in their ears, yes, she does, before pushing their face down into the sheets.

"All those love letters not good enough for you, Jungkook?" you breathed, running your hands over his bare chest, spreading your fingers, letting your exhale out through your teeth. His eyes on you, torso trembling, hairs raising, feeling your nails dance up, up, raking over his collarbones and neck, leaving little pink lines of intensity.

"They're not you," he whispered. His hands brushing over yours, outlining your fingers, eyes darkening as you pushed him back into your sofa, lowering your head. "You, the one they talk about..." Your lips on his hot skin, kissing softly, tongue so slight that it made him whimper. "You, the one they look for..." His voice, deep and rumbling, vibrating your lips, pitching as you bit and sucked, leaving small hickeys. "You, the one whose bed I sit on, wondering who else has been there, wondering why it's not me, when I make myself available to you, so easy to prey on, but you let me be..." Your lips closing around his dark brown nipple, scraping your teeth against it, making him squirm and look down at you, you and your self-satisfied, ravenous smirk. 

"I let you read them," Jungkook whimpered, blond strands curled around his cheeks, chest shuddering at your nail flicking his other nipple while your mouth worked the other. "Let you see everything they want to do to me and you still didn't know."

You chuckled darkly. "What's there to know?" you mused, sticking your tongue out and pressing it against the now hard pink-tinged nub, receiving small whines of pleasure as your reward. "It's obvious what you wanted. I was right in front of you. All you had to do was say something."

Jungkook frowned as you sat up, tongue in cheek, half-grinning.

"Look at you."

You crossed your arms and pulled your pink cropped sweatshirt up and over your head, dropping it to the floor. Casually running a hand through the top of your hair to pull it away from your face, gazing down at shirtless Jungkook covered in your red bites, cocking your head with a smirk. He raised an eyebrow, eyes roaming over your figure and the curve of your breasts molded to smooth black satin. 

"You look like you eat hearts for breakfast," he murmured, admiration in his tone.

The side of your lips quirked further upwards.

"And yet you wanna love me."

Jungkook grinned. "I don't want to. I already do."

And then he was the one to pull you to him, kissing you hungrily, you immediately turning it into your favor, your pace, his tongue commanded by yours as he unhooked your bra, moaning into your mouth, rubbing your exposed nipples with his palms, unable to do much as you pushed him into the couch again, guiding his tongue down with your teeth and running the tip of yours over his wet muscle once more, trickling saliva into his throat and onto his chin and neck, messy and lewd. 

"The devil knows your name," you sighed into his mouth, feeling him knead your breasts, thumbs brushing over your hard nipples, tendrils of pleasure making your skin tingle. "And now the devil takes what she wants."

You saw the sides of his lips curve upwards as you backed up to strip the rest of your clothes, amused at Jungkook eagerly following suit and unbuttoning his jeans.

"Can't wait to flaunt how hot you are?" you laughed, reaching down to the shelf under the side table where a ceramic R2-D2 cookie jar sat.

"Do you think I'm hot?" Jungkook haughtily accused before gawking at your waist to ass ratio, his hands slowing, pants stopped to his knees in his distraction.

You gently took off the head of R2-D2 and plucked a condom from it. Some guy told you once that you couldn't like Star Trek and Star Wars at the same time and you told him to shut the fuck up as you slapped his nuts. He begged you to do it again. You fondly patted R2-D2's head after you fitted it back.

You straightened to see Jungkook on your couch with his hard dick on display.

You looked him dead in the eye. "You think I'd let you borrow my laptop if I thought you were ugly?"

Jungkook broke out of his trance and shrugged, finally yanking his calves – holy shit, his calves and thighs were muscular as fuck – out of his jeans, underwear and socks gone with them.

"Maybe you pitied my grades."

"I'd just pay for you to go to the library and fuck off, dumbass," you muttered, pushing his hands aside and ripping the condom open, drinking in the delicious sight of his throbbing red cock dripping pre-cum, his balls just waiting for – fuck it, you got down on your knees and wrapped your tongue around his length, Jungkook sputtering and gasping at your suddenness. Fuck, he smelled and tasted fucking good, clean and velvety to your lips enclosing around the head and sliding down, using one hand to scoop up his balls. Made eye contact with him again.

Jungkook breathed your name hesitantly.

Your tongue slid out of your lips and you jammed his cock all the way down your throat, slathering his balls wetly with your whisking tongue, circling around one and then the other, long expansive strokes that went past the girth of his cock, your pink tongue visible to him. Jungkook's pupils blew wide with shock, moans catching in his throat, whole body shivering, trying desperately not to look away even through you could tell he wanted to throw himself into your sofa and fucking lose it.

"Oooooooh, fuck, that's amazing.... Holy shit, your tongue is everything...."

You chuckled and pulled your head back, satisfied with his reaction. He seemed slightly disappointed until you rolled down the condom, cracking your neck.

"I think I've given enough." You stood up, getting back on top of him and his glorious thighs. "Time for you to be taken."

Jungkook smirked.

You smirked wider and more wickedly.

The sky-blue memo was crumpled into a ball, fallen to your hardwood floor.

Held him with two fingers, ugh, the weight of his cock, fuck yes, and those beautiful dark chocolate eyes, Jungkook, you dumbass, cursing that he didn't tell you sooner so that you could watch him groan and throw his head back like he was right now, gasping at your tightness, your name torn from his throat as you took in every centimeter of him, every pulsing vein and contour of his wonderful cock, stupid Jungkook and his attractive self not using his damn words so you could ride him like you were right now, setting up a fast, bruising pace. Your fingers dug into the back of the couch as you bucked your hips into his violently, keeping yourself tight because you were so fucking wet, fuck, so wet for Jeon Jungkook and his idiotic self, asking for internet to do his school assignments and not asking for his dick to be used as your fucking joystick. 

Dumbass.

"Oh fuck," Jungkook gasped. "Oh, fuck, you're so wet and tight, shit, shit, shit..."

"Tell me something I haven't heard before," you chuckled, only half-meaning it, waving your entire body to deliver a particularly hard smack to his crotch, Jungkook whimpering under you, his hands flying to your upper arms and clutching them, trying to hold on to your wildness.

"Holy fuck, you have some hard biceps," he blurted out, startled at the prominent muscle.

Well, you haven't heard that one before.

"Guess that's what happens when you jack off a lot of dick," you mused nonchalantly.

You ticked your head to Jungkook's arms – delicious – and he frowned at you, opening his mouth to protest and you cut him off by shoving two fingers into his lips, pressing them down into the wet warmth, grinning maniacally as you watched him struggle with your fingers rubbing his tongue and his cock getting assaulted by you aggressively slamming your hips down and clamping around his stiffness, tighter, faster, whines of your name in his throat, head falling back onto the couch with a flump. You were careful not to push your fingers too far. 

Getting vomited on wasn't really on your sexual activities bingo card.

Jungkook was, however, drooling down his chin and neck, and you pulled back to grab his shoulder with your wet hand – oh, fuck, his shoulder, what a lovely shape – and Jungkook wheezed for breath, you ignoring it as you focused all your energy on fucking the life out of him, dirty squelches and smacks of hips on hips, staring down at his abs and v-line, all his hard work at the gym on display, his hands still on your upper arms as he raised his hips to meet yours, needily moaning for you to destroy him with your pace.

Damn, maybe you would have sent him a love letter if you had seen him naked at least once.

"A-Ask me to cum for you," Jungkook finally got out, voice hoarse from breathing so hard for so long.

"You're going to anyway," you taunted.

"Want you to ask," he whined, almost pouting. "Tell me to do it."

You gazed into his eyes, into those brown irises overtaken by black pupils, him a top spinning by your hand, your plaything commanded by your body, pussy clenching around his twitching cock, spurred on from his pleading tone, giving him a devious and wicked grin, speaking to his swollen lips, the devil knows your name, Jungkook, and him moaning back, fuck yes she does, so close, so fucking close, unashamedly barreling towards your release, power in your veins and under you, his muscles rippling as he fucked you back, amplifying every thrust.

"Jungkook."

"Y-Yes?"

"Say it."

Brown eyes locked with yours.

"I love you. Marry me."

You smirked.

"Cum for me."

A half-second and then you let go, letting the feeling rush in and envelop you, the moment held back to torture him, and now you felt it all, already at the tipping point, strained moan as your orgasm crashed into you, shudders all over and falling, sitting all the way down in his lap to experience the throbbing ache of your core giving out and spilling onto his cock and balls in rapid bursts, viscous and sweet. The scent of sex mixing with blackberry and spiced vanilla, his length jerking inside you, and only then did you hear Jungkook crying out your name over and over, the roar in your ears fading out to his shivering moans, hands sliding up and down your arms, eyes closing and lost in the pleasure of your pussy squeezing out his cum. His touch travelling down to your waist, pulling you to him.

Messy, soft kisses, your name and curses mixed together.

"It's me, right?"

You smiled into his mouth that was still asking questions.

"Please let it be me. You'll let me love you for real, right?"

Pushing your hair back, his sweaty blond locks sticking to your face.

"Because I already do, can't stop, won't stop–"

"Yeah, Jungkook, funnily enough I figured that from the first kiss already," you chuckled, running your fingers through his ash blond hair and pulling his head back lightly, seeing him pout, the mole underneath his lower lip peeking out.

"But..."

"Hm?"

His voice suddenly small, vulnerable, his semi-hard dick still inside you.

"Do you love me?"

You lifted a brow. "What kind of dumbass question is that?" You grabbed his arm and pressed your nail into his tattoo of your words, drawing a pink scratch under them, making him gasp. "How can I not love you? Fuck, that's the sexiest thing I've ever seen, my handwriting tattooed onto you. Yes, I love you, Jungkook."

Jungkook's jaw dropped.

This fool is still shocked after all this?

You reached down and held the condom down as you lifted yourself off, yanking him to his feet, pushing Jungkook to your coffee table, right in front of the pile of letters with his name all over them. You picked up your laptop and pushed it onto his chest, forcing him to hold it, him still confused, mildly stunned, not knowing what the fuck was happening.

Then you made him half-straddle your coffee table and yanked off the condom.

"Um–"

Grabbed his cock and started furiously jacking him off.

"Oh, f-fuck!"'

And then he realized what you were doing, the sheer wrongness of it, getting harder and harder with every second, throbbing in your hand.

"You're just like them," you chuckled through exerted breath.

Faster, rougher, tighter, Jungkook clutching your laptop, his larger frame leaning against yours, head thrown back so far that his blond hair was brushing your shoulder, moaning lustfully as he thrusted his hips into your grip. White pooled onto the purple-red tip of his abused cock, far too sensitive to be jacked off this hard right after orgasm, but Jungkook begged you not to stop, streams of residual cum running down your slicked fingers.

"Always looking for your fix from the addiction that's me," you whispered into his ear, laced with an authoritative growl. 

You saw Jungkook's head lower out of your periphery, eyes opening, staring at the colorful envelopes with his name printed on them, the cute stickers and neat handwriting, panting your name, tendons and veins standing out on his neck, sweat beading on his tan skin. 

A low, dangerous chuckle rising in his throat. 

"There's a difference between them and me."

You felt his cock twitch in your hand, ridiculously hard at what you two were about to do. 

"They're not going to get their fix."

Jungkook shuddered against you, jerking his hips forward, thick white strings splattering all over the pastel paper as you watched, fascinated, the scent of his cum saturating the air and the envelopes, drops soaking and smearing the carefully written ink, time wasted and defiled. 

"I am," he moaned, twisting his body on your arms, leaning down to kiss you hungrily as you squeezed his cock, draining it all out, all over your coffee table and coating your hand, stained with Jeon Jungkook's love letter to you. 

--

masterpost

[rookflower]

ok, so. i drew every warrior cat! here's a long rambling sentimental reflective-type post on the blog i guess.

I started this blog when I was 15, in 2018. I was bored at a summer job, scribbled Onestar on the back of a sticker sheet, and thought "huh, there sure is a lot of Warrior Cats characters! I've seen some design blogs around, I think there's a "draw 100 cats challenge" people do, wouldn't it be fun if I gave that a try?" I had nothing going on art-wise at the moment, I was losing steam on my Pokemon webcomic and had given up askblogs a while ago, so I quickly fell into it.

Starting out was weird- I'd only read up to about Power of Three at the time, and hadn't read TPB or TNP in quite a while. I vivdly remember someone sending me a request to draw Tawnypelt about 20 cats in or so, and I genuinely couldn't remember who she even was. I think I got a request to draw Jagged Peak before I even knew DOTC existed? I wasn't working off of a specific list, and would miss certain cats out entirely due to forgetting them which frustrated me. Drawing cats was fun, and once I got to 100 eventually I found myself going "well, now what? I haven't even drawn Sorreltail, Nightstar, Appledusk, Spiderleg..." so, i kept going!

Then 2020 rolled around and lockdown hit, and I was suddenly stuck in my house with no plans, seemingly unlimited time, and a desperate need for some kind of outlet that offered escapism from the world.

Drawing Warrior Cats was something mundane and rhythmic but creative and enjoyable, and I found the aspect of looking at it as a challenge alluring, the same way I had when the goal was "100 random warrior cats". How far could I get before having to stop? I couldn't do over 1000 cats, right?

uh.

I could!

sunk cost fallacy or whatever, I guess?

Lot has changed in my life over the course of this. I started the challenge just after leaving high school, and now I'm headed into my third year of uni. Some family's moved around, we have a cat now, I started playing video games again, my bedroom's been revamped, I met some internet friends IRL for the first time, I'm more or less publicly out as gay, all different kinds of stuff. It's fucking wild to consider that one of the biggest constants in my life these past few years has been drawing goddamn warrior cats. I've had the Warriors wiki list of characters open on my computer basically forever, and finally closing it feels like a goodbye.

So what's happening with this blog? Well, I'm not upkeeping a daily queue anymore, that's for sure. There are some cats here I KNOW I'm going to want to go back and redesign at some point though, so this isn't over! Even if I'm less active here, for now, I'm not going anywhere. I'll probably also use this for any general warriors art/posts I want to make, as well as those "send me asks" request meme thingies. those are fun.

I'm hoping to be maybe more active on my youtube now, as well as just generally experimenting with my art more. One of the biggest downsides of spending 3 years drawing fullbody flatcolours of warrior cats and not that much else is that my improvement on every ground except cat anatomy and character design has become pretty fuckin stagnant lmao. I need to make art with backgrounds and shading and non-cat characters again or i think ill explode. time to get out of this comfort zone!!

speaking of, very lucky this thing ended right at the start of Artfight. I'm @/RioBlitzle there and I try to revenge back attacks! Will probably put my energy into that for a wee while.

@daily-mario-characters might come back,, eventually but I'm not promising anything, and if I haven't learned anything from running this blog you might see me on a "drawing every pokemon" streak in a few months. it is how it is.

Anyways, thank you all so much for your support. Massive shoutout to everyone who's ever left nice comments in the tags of my posts, I don't really have a way to respond but I read every one of those and please know that they absolutely make my day.

Thanks for sticking through this challenge with me!

[fairyoftbz]

lavande | l. hyunjae

🥡 pairing: crush!hyunjae x fem!reader 🥡 wc: 3.2k 🥡 genre: fluff, university au, slice of life 🥡 tw: none? i think? 🥡 synopsis: as you are talking to Chanhee, your crush appears in the lecture room, leaving you with a hammering heart. 🥡 a/n: it's already Monday again, so posting time!! i wrote this because i kinda miss uni without covid, I had such a good time back in 2019 😩 feedback is always appreciated!! <33 🥡 requested: yes, thank you! i hope it's good enough!!

╰☆☆☆☆╮

“Have you done the readings we were supposed to?” Chanhee whispered in your ear as you turned on your computer, the screen remaining black made you frown as you quickly glanced at your friend, hand deep in your backpack to find your charger.

“Wait, let me guess. With the abandoned puppy eyes you're giving me, you want me to summarise what this was about, am I right?"

“Please Y/N, I didn't have time this week, it has been so hectic! I promise I'll buy you a coffee," you waved your hand in front of your face to let him know that he didn't need to, and you leaned your arm under the table to look for a plug while summarising what you had understood to your friend.

He listened intently until his eyes looked over your head, a smirk forming on his mouth. You frowned for a split second but continued your explanation, noticing that the smile didn't want to leave Chanhee's face. You deeply sighed, trying to make your friend pay attention, but it was to no avail. He was busy looking at something else.

“Are you listening to me, or am I talking to my computer?” you asked, and your friend returned your attention to you, his puppy look made you shake your head and roll your eyes. He looked behind you one last time, and you turned around in frustration, your breath getting stuck in your throat as you discovered what was amusing Chanhee so much.

You did a double-take when you noticed the man standing at the entrance, your pulse quickening as your hands became sweaty and hot. Every student around you, including Chanhee holding your arm to hear the rest of your explanation, disappeared from your field of view. You only had eyes for the one who stole your heart without realising it.

Hyunjae pushed the lecture door open and held it out for the group following him, politely nodding at the blushing girl that thanked him. He pursed his lips and scanned the auditorium, trying to find a familiar face to sit next to. The air was stuffy and odorous, the young man cursing the caretakers for not ventilate it more often as he was almost sweating because of his outfit. His white turtleneck and pants, as well as the lavender sweater, were thick enough for him to be warm to walk from his apartment since it was still quite chilly in the morning, but he felt like he was wearing winter clothes in the middle of a heatwave when he entered this room.

“Wow,” you murmured under your breath and looked down on your phone, trying to hide your attraction for him from your friends around you, your right hand holding your head up, hiding your eyes at the same time. You heard Chanhee mockingly exhale through his nose as he noticed you munching on your bottom lip, a habit of yours he had caught a glimpse of you doing when you were stressed or embarrassed. In this current case, you were both.

Tugging on the collar of his white turtleneck, Hyunjae sighed in annoyance as he walked down the first few steps. Cursing himself for arriving so late, he sighed as the only remaining seats were in the first few rows, where he had almost 99% of the chance of getting chosen by the professor to answer a question. He dropped his bag from his shoulder onto the table as he looked at the rows again, his eyes immediately discerning the funny stickers at the back of your computer.

“It won’t hurt anyone if I just check where he is,” you thought, but it was probably the worst idea you’ve ever had because your eyes met his dark, chocolate ones, his eyebrows lifting in relief when he recognised other familiar faces in your row.

“Y/N, you’re drooling, be careful,” your friend Chanhee whispered in your ear, teasing as you looked away from Hyunjae and wiped your mouth as quickly as possible, warmth flooding your veins as you keep your finger pressed on the power button of your computer. Your best friend laughed at your antics, but you turned a blind eye to him and mentally cursed yourself for not being as wary as you thought you were.

“Idiot, how could you be discreet if you made direct eye contact with him?” You shook your head at this thought and took a deep breath, inwardly praying that he would sit far from you as you mindlessly scrolled down through your notes.

“Hyunjae, over here!” Sunwoo stood up and raised his deep voice over all the hubbub of the auditorium, pointing at the empty spot between you and Chanhee. It was reserved for Eric who was running late, but you noticed the vacant seat next to Sunwoo and whined. You swore that the rest of the row was packed when you arrived, but it looked like a spot magically freed itself when Hyunjae appeared. It was as if your friends had planned this behind your back.

“Can I sit here?” A gentle, deep voice said, and you looked up. Much to your dismay, it was Hyunjae. “Uh, s-sure,” you stumbled on your sentence as if it were your first time speaking, closing your eyes and inner face palmed yourself at the mess you had just become in a matter of seconds.

You gathered your belongings and held them against your chest as you stood up and sat next to Chanhee, giving your crush your now empty spot. Placing your bag on the floor, you turned your head to the right and stared at your friends, only to find them laughing and bickering together. Changmin was imitating your bashful answer, and Sunwoo’s smug grin painted on his face as he cheekily winked at you, everything confirming your doubts that this situation was one of their playful plans. You sighed in exasperation and typed the title of your notes on a new document as if the entire situation weren’t bothering you.

“Thanks,” Hyunjae said as he sat down, and your heart skipped a beat when you heard his gorgeous voice that caused the hairs on your arms to stand up. His smile made him ten times more attractive, and your heart seemed to struggle to cope with his beauty.

You tried your best to ignore your crush’s presence on your left as you typed down your notes at high speed, but it was harder than you thought. He was close, too close for you to function properly and pay attention to the lecture, his presence and cologne distracting you. There were times where you could feel his gaze on you when you were typing or taking a sip of water, your hands immediately tensing and jolting under the pressure of his aura.

As the lecture finally finished, you quickly packed up your stuff and zipped your backpack before putting it on your shoulders. You didn’t even bother saying goodbye to your friends as you stood in your seat and jumped on the table of the higher row behind you to escape your group. Kevin tried to hail you by calling your name, but you were quick to pace towards the exit and vanish into the mass of the crowd.

You almost reached the library, your safe area where you always sought comfort and peace when a hand gently caught your wrist, your eyes immediately drawn to the familiar lavender knitted sleeve. You breathed heavily at the warmth of the slender hand, and you turned around to face none other than your crush.

“Gosh, you were walking so fast,” he chuckled as he finally got you, his hold still wrapped around your wrist blasting electricity through your veins. The contact felt pleasant, yet it felt so wrong to be this close to him. “I wanted to ask you something before the lecture ended, but you disappeared,” Hyunjae smiled as his cheeks became the prettiest shade of pink you had ever seen. You shyly smiled, muttering a soft apology, and you frowned, not letting him time to say another word.

He opened his mouth to say something when you drew him behind one of the colossal pillars holding up the second floor as you saw Chanhee’s bleached hair peeking out from an opened auditorium door, spying on you two. Hyunjae looked confused but let you drag him anyway.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” You tried to look unbothered, but your fidgeting hands betrayed you, making your crush smile. “Hum yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me today?” he asked, looking straight into your eyes, a big, bashful smile decorating his face. "I know a good café not too far from college, so I was wondering if-” “S-sure, why not?” you blurted out, and you heard muffled laughs coming from behind Hyunjae.

You both peeked out and noticed your friends piled up on top of each other, trying to listen to the conversation you were having with your crush. You sighed and shook your head in annoyance, tired of the lack of privacy your love life was experiencing every day because of them, Eric laughing even louder for getting caught eavesdropping like that.

A hand landed on your shoulder, and you felt a breath near your ear, making your heart skip a few beats in a row.

“Let’s go before they follow us, okay?” you glanced at Hyunjae, and he looked at you with something in his eyes that made your chest tighten, making the process of breathing troublesome. He grinned at your state and innocently grabbed your clammy hand as you two sped off towards the exit and ran past your friends into the mob.

As you slowed down in the streets, trying to look as civil as possible, you readjusted your backpack strap and caught your breath while laughing, Hyunjae smiling as brightly as you did. He found your laugh so pretty and light-hearted, he felt internally lucky to be part of the reason for it. You went down to the end of the street, still walking close to him, and he paused in front of a takeaway place. Holding the door for you, you shyly thanked him and entered the restaurant, the smell of Chinese food making your stomach grumble in hunger.

“Choose whatever you want, it’s on me,” you turned around and immediately backed up a bit, startled by the proximity of you two. Hyunjae only smiled, and you turned your attention back to the food. “Really?” you asked, and he snickered at your shocked state, nodding with a soft smile on his face. "Gosh, I am so hungry,” you muttered under your breath as your eyes roamed on the menu above your heads, heavily breathing as you were still trying to catch your breath back from the sprint you had just run to escape from your foolish friends.

Relief rushed through your veins when he took the reins and ordered for the two of you, your mouth uttering thank-yous like a mantra, only to have your crush waving it off.

“Y/N, it’s okay, don’t worry about it!” he said, and you stopped to look at him, Hyunjae beaming at you while grabbing the paper bag with your steamy food at the bottom. You quickly seized some napkins and disposable utensils and walked back to Hyunjae, who was already outside, waiting for you. “So, where are we going now?” he said, and you shrugged, looking around you, not knowing anything only outside from the library. “I know a good place, it’s not far from here,” you vaguely pointed to your right, and Hyunjae immediately started walking. “Let’s go before the food gets cold!” he exclaimed and let you take the lead.

It was a small park hidden a few streets away from your university, meeting other students since there was another park inside the campus. Bowing down to pat the grass a few meters away from the artificial pond, you sat down as it was dry, but Hyunjae handed you the food and took out his folded waterproof jacket from his bag. Placing it on the ground, he gestured you to come and sit with him.

“Here, come sit with me, you’ll be more comfortable,” he said, and you obeyed, your knees touching as you set the paper bag down next to you and handed him his food and drink. Your proximity didn’t leave you indifferent, but you tried your best to hide it as much as possible.

Hyunjae noticed your little change of behaviour and found you adorable when you looked away at each of his compliments. Your arms were now touching since his jacket underneath you wasn’t a picnic tablecloth, and you were slowly getting used to his body warmth surrounding you.

As the lunch break went by, you talked about your respective majors, and you joked about the shared lecture of this morning, getting closer and closer to each other. He was kind-hearted and became more comfortable when you were alone, gently nudging you in the elbow when you were about to lift your chopsticks to your mouth, the noodles falling back into your bowl. Wiping your mouth with a napkin, you were quick to nudge him back and laugh, still careful not to stain any of his clothes.

“You… look really nice today. I like those colours on you,” you complimented him, and he smiled at your hesitant voice, taking a sip of soda before answering. “Thank you Y/N, I appreciate it,” you nodded and started chewing on your bottom lip, eyes divagating towards the pond surrounded by plants and flowers. “You look really pretty as well,” he whispered in your ear, and you froze at his words, your heart skipping a beat as he had seized the opportunity of you letting your guard down as you were paying attention to the pond. You offered him a soft smile and took a sip of your drink as well to try and calm your racing heart.

He kept playing with it since he was having fun by making you embarrassed and shy with his compliments and proximity. Hyunjae knew that it was working despite your never-ending tries of hiding it, and he felt proud to have this effect on you. Although it was hard for him to see you chew on your lip like that, he had to force himself not to cup your face and tell you to stop, because he was really tempted to do so. However, when you started scratching your lip with your fingers, that’s when he grabbed your pitiless hand and held it in his.

“Hey, don’t do that,” he said and grabbed a napkin to dab the blood coming out of the little cuts on your bottom lip you had caused out of nervosity.

You guiltily avoided his eyes and searched for your lip balm in your bag before quickly applying some. The temptation of starting again was real when your hand was still cradled in his, your crush not giving a single sign of him being ready to let go of it. Alternatively, he rubbed his thumb over your knuckles as you both observed the pond and the people chilling around you.

Much to your dismay, your little romantic moment was interrupted by the church clock striking thirteen times, announcing 1 PM. You both didn’t pay attention at first, but it was when you couldn’t see a single student around you that you realised something.

“Oh god, Statistics! We have statistics in less than fifteen minutes,” you hurriedly said as you jumped on your feet, placing all your trash in the paper bag. “Oh shit!” Hyunjae imitated you and grabbed the bag from you, jogging to the trash can on the other side of the pond while you grabbed your belongings and quickly folded his jacket. He thanked you, and you left in a rush, under the confused eyes of your neighbours.

Even if it wasn’t too far from your college, you still jumped in the bus that was about to drive off from the stop right outside the park, the doors closing right behind Hyunjae. You sighed in relief as you both made it, and you tightly grabbed the metallic bar as the bus sped uphill.

“I’m glad this bus was here, I don’t think I could’ve walked back up there after our lunch,” you smiled at his words, his hand holding the bar above your heads, his lavender sweater going high enough for you to see his black Gucci belt keeping his turtleneck tucked in his pants. “I don’t know who had this marvellous idea of building the university on top of a hill,” you sarcastically mumbled and pressed the button next to your head as the screen announced the stop.

Hyunjae was the first to jump off the vehicle, grabbing your hand as you were quick to imitate him, the mass of students behind you forcing you out. Your crush followed you like a lost puppy through the different staircases and corridors, your great sense of orientation leading you quickly to the auditorium you were almost late to. You were out of breath when you finally arrived there, right before the clock struck 1:15 PM.

Surprisingly, the rows were practically empty, but you instantly spotted your friends in the middle, some of them still eating while the others were laughing or reading together. Hyunjae grabbed your hand for the nth time today, slowly getting used to this new feeling, and you dragged him towards them, but he resisted.

You looked at him, his eyes scanned the auditorium just like he did this morning and looked back at you with a smile before gesturing over a good spot, a bit higher and further away from your friends. Changmin, with his eagle eye, was quick to notice Hyunjae's lavender sweater and warned your friends, all turning around to observe you and your crush sitting together. Chanhee gasped as he quickly saw you holding hands, gossiping about it to his hyungs. Juyeon just shrugged, unbothered by the situation as he cracked his fingers and neck, getting ready to type.

You noticed your friends smirking at you and hid your head behind your computer screen, Eric leaning back in the vacant seats just enough for him to appear in the corner of your eye, his mouth transforming into a pout to mimic a kiss. You rolled your eyes and groaned, offering him a disapproving look, your antics sending him in a fit of giggles.

Hyunjae smiled at you before looking at your friends, who cooed and loudly gagged when he grabbed your hand and lifted it for them to see. You didn’t know what to do with yourself, embarrassment taking over your body as your friends cheered, drawing attention towards you and your crush, the latter replacing your linked hands on his lap, under the table.

“Why would you do that?” you dared to ask, and you shouldn’t have, your voice breaking mid-sentence made your crush giggle. “Let them be, they’re just happy that their best friend is getting out of their comfort zone. Plus, you look cute when you are flustered,” he said, and the professor started talking, preventing you from answering him.

He just sat there with a satisfied smile on your face, while you were trying not to pass out here and there with your heart beating this fast.

[slafkovskys]

the way you do / t. emberson

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

my masterlist!

title from fireproof by one direction

warning(s): swear words, mentions of a concussion, jealousy, accusations of cheating, also written in a no covid world :)

word count: 5.8k

-

you cheer along with only a portion of the crowd as the goal horn sounds, signaling what you knew was the first and last point of the night for wisconsin. while david gets to work on updating the instagram account from his spot beside you, your fingers rapidly type out a tweet to send out that would update the people who were following along there.

badgers are on the board thanks to tyler inamoto! the score is 3-1 arizona state with 0:10 left in the third period

“what are you doing after this?” david asks, looking back out onto the ice while you start a new tweet, just in case something were to happen in the next ten seconds. “i’m sure we can find some bar to sneak into. are you up for it?”

“i don’t know,” you sigh, focusing on the opposing team’s player as he takes the puck and shoots down the ice, attempting to beat the buzzer. you frown when the horn sounds, signaling the end of the game and a win for arizona, which you quickly update on. “it’s my turn to do the interviews and i don’t know how long that’s gonna take. i always have to chase someone down and i also said that i would help cole with his biology, but i think that’s going to be a plane ride home priority.”

“well, at least they’re all going to be in the same place for at least the next twelve hours or so. it shouldn’t be that hard to find who you want,” david stands up and you follow suit, making sure that you have your phone in your back pocket before following him towards the locker room. “besides, they like you more than they like me. you’ve got that midwestern charm and i’ve got an annoying southern accent.”

“your accent is not annoying. tell me who told you that it was and i will gladly humble them,” you look at the younger boy who smiles.

it was no secret that the boys were more acquainted with you rather than david as you had two years on him. while you were a senior, david was only a sophomore starting out with the team. this was your third year with them and you had taken him under your wing because he was going to be taking over for you next year when you were gone.

you make your way through the arena, taking a route that was closed off to the general public to make it back to the locker room to catch the boys before they got caught up in granato’s post-game speech.

“who am i talking to tonight?” you mumble to yourself as you tug at your bottom lip. you look up at david who was leaning against the wall across from you, “do you remember who i talked to last week? don’t look at me like that. so much has happened between now and then…”

“trouble in paradise?” he’s quick to joke, but the look that you send him causes the smile to drop from his face. his eyes widen, “please tell me-”

“we haven’t broken up, if that’s what you were going to say,” you look back down at your computer screen and shrug, “it’s just- he’s been acting weird since we landed. he’s so touchy and, yeah, we’ve had our moments. hell, we were long distance for two years, but this is- it’s just weird.”

“i mean, i’ve never been in a serious relationship, but you definitely need to talk to him. you’ve been together too long to let it fizzle out. you’re the only couple that i can tolerate,” he rolls his eyes and you send him a grin. “it’s true. you and ty are, like, royalty at wisconsin. i’m pretty sure that you’re the couple that has been together the longest.”

“maybe second longest. i met a girl last year who had been with her boyfriend for six years and we’ve only been together for five, so they have us beat,” you leave out the fact that both of them graduated last summer.

the boys trickle back quietly. you give them a moment to get settled before taking a deep breath and walking towards the entrance. you peek your head in and granato spots you immediately, waving you inside. “you’ve been spared for two minutes, boys. listen to the lady and don’t give her a hard time.”

you send him a nod in thanks before looking out over the room. you had all of their attention except for one and it was the person who you cared the most for. you send a soft smile as your eyes scan the room, “i don’t love any of you any less. you played a great game boys and you’re going to kill it tomorrow.”

“did you get any more stickers?” owen asks and you turn to look at him.

“i did, actually, but you can blame your captain for stealing them all before i could distribute them,” you look back at ty who looks at you with a cold look. you swallow the lump in your throat and quickly look towards the other ty who speaks up.

“do you think you could find those dinosaur ones again? those were badass.”

“i still have mine on my water bottle!”

“i missed the dinosaur pack.”

“that’s why you have to score, mike.”

yes, you were aware of how childish the stickers were. you used them as an incentive so that when they came to talk to you, they got to pick a sticker. the boys enjoyed them and even stuck them on their equipment sometimes when they could get away with it.  

“okay, back on track,” you look down at your computer. you tap your nails on the keypad before clicking your tongue, “i need to see tyler, roman, and brock’s brother-”

“hey!” cole shouts from beside you while your joke provokes some of the boys to laugh.

“just keeping you humble, caufield,” you wink and he rolls his eyes, sinking back into his stall. you shake your head, “i’m not going to make you talk to me tonight because honestly, i’m drained and i know all of you are too. but please do come find me during breakfast tomorrow because i do have deadlines that i have to meet and that’s stretching it far enough. if you decide that you want to be mean and not come, i will be even meaner and snitch and you can find yourself being worked overtime in practice. are we clear, gentlemen?”

“yes ma’am!”

“thank you and good night,” you wave your hand around as you exit the room, shaking your head at the claps that followed you out. you and david gather your things and head toward the bus, knowing very well that it would be a while before the boys would begin to file out. you flop down in your seat and sigh, “one down, one to go.”

even though it wasn’t often, you loved when you got the opportunity to go on road trips. you usually got to go on the ones that were just bus trips, but it was a rare occasion when you got to go on trips that had to be made by plane. once or twice during the season, however, you got to pick a trip that you wanted to come on and this year you had picked arizona. before ty had gotten drafted, you had never been nor had you ever really wanted to go to the state. after coming to see ty during his first development camp, you had pretty much fallen in love with it and had taken every opportunity to come and visit since.

“your future home,” david chuckles and you roll your eyes. “what? do you know something that i don’t?”

“there’s a lot of things that i can’t talk about, david and those that pertain to my boyfriend’s future career are ones that are at the top of the list. you aren’t getting any insider news from me, buddy,” you point an accusatory finger and he holds his hands up in surrender.  

“you could be my anonymous source?” he suggests, smirking when you flip him off.

it’s relatively quiet for the next half hour until the doors of the bus open and the boys start stumbling on. you close your laptop and leave it on the empty seat that ty usually occupied and stand up, pushing your way to the front. brock pats your head as he passes and you shove an elbow into his side, “dick.”

“he’s in a mood, princess. tread lightly.”

his warning makes you raise an eyebrow. you don’t have time to ask what he meant before ty rounds the corner. shay moves to the side to let you step off of the bus and you send him a grin. you meet ty in the middle, wrapping your arms around his neck, “i‘m proud of you.”

“are you?” he spits. his hands stay glued to his sides and you pull away, dropping your own. “cole’s on his way. wouldn’t you rather see him instead?”

“what are you talking about?”

“you seem to be real fucking close these days. you’re with him more than you’re with me, so is it wrong for me to just assume that you’re fucking him too?” your mouth gapes at his words.

“are you accusing me of cheating on you?” you lower your voice, very aware of his teammates that could definitely hear your conversation. he shrugs his shoulders, crossing his arms over his chest. “i know how you get after losses, but for you to go as far as to accuse me of cheating on you with a member of your team-”

“it’s fucking obvious, y/n. you’re so flirty with each other, sitting next to each other on the plane, and that shit in the locker room. i’m not oblivious.”

“fuck you, dude. i have given up so much for you and the fact that you can stand there and accuse me of doing that to you after everything that we’ve been through over the last five years, makes me wonder if it was even worth it.” you turn on your heel and march towards the bus, leaving him standing there looking shocked. you make your way up the stairs and the bus goes quiet as they stare at you, obviously having heard what happened outside. you swallow, “i’m sorry about that.”

you make your way back to your seat and grab your computer, propping your feet on the empty seat and shrinking against the window. the tears threaten to spill out from your eyes, but you don’t let them. once everyone is accounted for, the bus pulls away from the arena and heads for the hotel.

you run your fingers against your temples, trying to soothe the headache that had developed in the last five minutes. you could feel eyes on you and you look up to find jack sitting in the row of seats beside you. he opens his mouth to speak, but you shake your head, “please don’t.”

you grab your phone and quickly go to your messages, finding david’s contact and shooting your fingers across the screen quickly:

do you still feel like going out??

we have curfew

and after what just happened it doesn’t seem like a good idea

curfew is midnight and it’s not even ten yet. we’ll have a couple hours and after what just happened, going out seems like a great idea

are you in or not? because i’m going even if i have to go alone

let me go to my room first and i’ll meet you in the lobby

-

when you woke up the next morning, you were still tired. you had barely slept and the last thing you remembered before you were able to slip into unconsciousness was the sun slowly starting to peek through the window of your hotel room.

it took a few seconds for it to register that someone was pounding on your door. with a grunt, you throw the sheets away from your body and stumble towards the door. you look out of the peephole and your stomach sinks at who is standing on the other side. you undo the deadbolt and pull it open, “you should not be here.”

“don’t worry, he’s the one who sent me here. he also sent this and,” he pulls out a bouquet from behind his back, “these.”

“that’s not going to make me forgive him,” you shake your head and accept the flowers and the coffee cup from cole anyway, gesturing for him to come inside.

“believe me, we all told him that,” cole takes a seat on the spare bed and you look at him with a confused gaze. he raises an eyebrow, “y/n, you have the entire hockey team behind you. we’ve been giving him hell all night. dom even bunked with brock and jack in protest. also, i’m pretty sure that coach found out and brought him back down to earth, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

“did he-” you can’t even say it.

“no, he didn’t lose the c, but coach was very adamant that what happened was not captain behavior and that he’s on very thin ice,” he pauses for a minute and then grins, “ha, thin ice.”

you shake your head and lean against the desk in the corner of the room, “that’s good then.”

“he accused you of cheating on him and you’re worried about his letter status?”

“you don’t understand, cole,” he looks at you in a way that says ‘well, help me understand.’ you sigh, “we’ve been together since we were sixteen and seventeen years old. we’ve known each other even longer. i’ve watched him work his ass off and sacrifice so much to get where he is. the thought of him losing that over him saying some dumbass thing because he was pissed off breaks my heart in more ways than one. do i think that he’s an absolute asshole right now? absolutely. do i want to look at him? not really. but i still love him, cole. and i always will.”

he looks at you for a second before he pretends to wipe a tear from his eye, “really tugged on the heartstrings there, y/n. love is a crazy thing.”

“indeed it is. now get out of my room. i need to get ready for the day and i’m slightly hungover and hotel breakfast food sounds amazing right now,” you follow him towards the door.

“oh and just so we’re clear,” he shoves his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he faces you, “i made it very clear that you are way too old for me.”

you shove his shoulder, “considering that he’s the only exception for dating someone younger than me, you are way too young for me, cole caufield.”

“glad that we have an understanding,” he holds up his hand and you smack yours against it. with a grin, he makes his way towards the elevator and you close the door behind him.

you take your time getting ready, trying to hide the fact that you were recovering from a little too much alcohol you had practically inhaled at some bar downtown the night before that you couldn’t even remember the name of. you make sure all of your things are gathered and together because you knew that you wouldn’t want to do it when you returned.

you grab the things that you would need for the game and head downstairs. you walk into the conference room that had been set aside for the team and immediately head to grab your food. once your plate was piled high, you turn to find an empty and immediately your eyes lock with his. just by looking at him, you can tell that he hadn’t slept and even if he did, it wasn’t much.

your attention is pulled away from him by a shout of your name. owen is waving you over and shay is pointing at an empty seat, “we called dibs on you this morning.”

“too soon, lindy,” robbie shakes his head as you take the seat between owen and dylan. he looks at you concerned, “you good?”

“don’t worry about me boys. you have a game to win today and that’s what you should be focused on,” you try and distract them but none of them are buying what you’re trying to sell. you twist the cap off your water and take a sip before grabbing your fork, “seriously boys, i appreciate your concern, but i’m okay. i promise.”

“if you want us to beat him up for you, just say the word,” dylan offers and the table agrees. you raise an eyebrow, “we discussed it last night and we also have first dibs on defending your honor if you asked us to.”

“his roommates are next in line,” ryder points his fork at you and you smile.

“i’m glad to know that you would beat up your captain for me, boys.”

“he may be captain, but no one disrespects our y/n and gets away with it. who would give us stickers then?”

“we can’t have anything because of you, shay. she’s more than just the damn stickers.”

three o’clock comes quick and before you know it, you’re making your way down the tunnel to cheer for them as they come out, just as you always did. you clap as they line up in front of you. you avoid looking at him until you feel a tap on your ankle. you look down just in time to see a hockey stick being pulled away. you look up to find its owner staring right back at you, apologetically.

he nods his head, “i love you.”

“i love you too, twenty-one. don’t do anything stupid,” you cross your arms over your chest and give him your best ‘i’m not joking look.’ it was part of the routine that you two had developed over the last couple of years, and even though there was still some obvious tension between the two of you that had yet to be resolved, he hadn’t missed his chance to continue it.

he chuckles right as the announcer booms to the crowd to welcome them to the ice, “no promises.”

you watch as they file out, the cheers for them were not as loud as they were when you were on home ice, but you made sure to scream as loud as always. you and david make quick work of getting to your seats and he wasted no time in sending you a look, “are you-”

“we haven’t talked yet, no. we probably won’t even have time until we’re back home, but just because he’s being an asshole doesn’t mean i love him any less,” you defend yourself and he hums, looking out onto the ice.

when they get in position for puck drop, an uneasy feeling develops in your stomach. you try not to think about it as the puck hits the ice and the game begins, but unfortunately, it didn’t last long.

it was some freshman lineman known for being a menace. he’d been practically on top of ty every time that he got on the ice, shoving him when he didn’t have the puck, almost tripping him once, and of course, the refs were in their own little worlds and hadn’t called a penalty for anything.

eight minutes into the game was when it happened and when it happened, it happened quickly. you barely had time to blink before their gloves were off and their hands were tangled in each other’s jerseys. you stand up, watching as your boyfriend loses the upper hand quickly. in a matter of seconds, his helmet is somehow knocked off and he’s hitting the ice and-

he’s not moving.

“get the fuck up ty,” your hand covers your mouth as the trainers rush out onto the ice after they pull the guy off of him. you can see on the screen that he’s smirking as he’s led off the ice and down their tunnel. david grabs onto your arm as you stumble, “please get up baby.”

“y/n,” he says, but you don’t respond.

you let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding when ty moves, taking a minute before he gets up with a lot of help from the trainers. you watch as he’s led off the ice and you swallow at the blood on his jersey. you turn towards david, “i have to-”

“go, babe. i can cover this. go check on him,” that was all that you needed before you scoot out of your row and quickly make your way down the stairs.

you wind up outside the locker room where you're stopped by a security guard. you hold up your badge that showed that you had permission to be there, but he gave you a disapproving look as he shakes his head. you pull out your phone, but anna walks out just in time, “anna!”

“i was just coming to get you,” she sighs, glaring at the security guard as he finally lets you pass. she wraps a hand around your arm as she leads you back to the room, “we’re pretty sure he has a minor concussion at least. paul’s giving him a check-up now and he’s going to decide what to do from there.”

“has he said anything?” you ask, mind running wild as it thinks of the worst.

“the only thing he asked for, even when he came to, was he wanted to see his wife. i told him that you weren’t married, but he wouldn’t hear it. it was just ‘my wife, my wife, my wife’ and that’s why i was coming to get you. he said if he has to go to the hospital or anything, he’s not going if you’re not there with him,” she says and you take a deep breath. she squeezes your arm as you stop outside of the closed door, “just don’t be too loud. he’s very sensitive to light and noise right now.”

“of course,” you nod and she opens the door. the lights were dimmed just a little, but you still easily spot him in the middle of the bed. paul stands beside him, checking on him while he sits up. he pulls away from paul’s hands and moves to get up, but you quickly get to his side, placing your hand on his shoulder and grabbing his hand, “don’t move, ty. let him do what he needs to do.”

“baby,” he whimpers and you squeeze his hand, pulling it up to your mouth and pressing a kiss to the skin. throughout the entire process, he doesn’t let go. he answers what he’s asked and when paul moves away, he pulls you close, “baby.”

“i know. i’m sorry,” you wrap your arm around his neck and press a soft kiss to the side of his head when he tucks his face into your neck.

“the good news is that i don’t think that you need to go to the emergency room,” paul announces, leaning against a table backed against the wall. he looks at the two of you, “but i don’t feel comfortable sending you back out there. you’ve got a minor concussion and if they aren’t treated right, they can go bad quick.”

“i know,” he says, squeezing your hip.

“so, what do we need to do?” you ask.

“i’m gonna see if i can get the bus to drop you guys back off at the hotel. he needs rest right now and it’ll be hard to get that in this environment,” he shakes his head, “who are you rooming with, ty?”

he winces at the sound of a muffled goal horn and you answer for him, “mersch.”

“if i give you a list of what to do, do you think that you can watch over him?”

“of course,” you nod and ty shifts.

“great. i know that he’s not supposed to be in your room after certain hours, but i think that coach will agree with me that in these circumstances, it’s necessary,” he says and you hum.

after he tells you the basics and makes sure that you have his phone number if you need something, you pull away from ty, “i’m gonna go and grab you some clothes, okay? i know you don’t want to be in that on the bus.”

“please don’t go,” he pleads, holding onto your hand as you go to step away. “you’re gonna leave me because of what i said.”

you look at paul briefly who looks concerned. at least there was someone who was out of the loop.

you shake your head and rub at his cheek, “no, baby. i’m coming back i promise. i’m just gonna go get your clothes from the locker room that’s right across the hall.”

“i’ll come with you,” he insists, moving to stand up.

both you and paul are quick to push him back down as gently as possible. paul pats his chest, “you can stay here with me big guy. i still have a couple of questions for you.”

hesitantly, he lets your hand go as you promise him once more that you were coming back. you make your way across the hall and find his stall, digging through his things to find some clothes for him that were not his suit.

once you find some sweats and a hoodie, you turn on your heel just as the boys start to file in. jack is the first to speak up, “is he okay?”

“minor concussion and as of right now, he doesn’t need to go to the emergency room, but paul’s pulling him for the game. i think we’re getting sent to the hotel where he’s going to be on mandatory rest until he gets checked on again before we leave tomorrow. so, please, i love you all so much and he does too, but just let him sleep. we don’t want this to turn into something major,” you give them all pleading eyes and they all nod.

you walk back across the hall to find coach talking with paul and ty laying back on the bed. instantly, he reaches out for you. granato looks at you, “you’re going to make sure he’s okay?”

“i’m going to try my best,” you assure him and he nods.

“i trust you a hell of a lot more than i trust mersch when it comes to these types of things,” he looks over to ty and pats his leg, “the bus is taking you two back to the hotel where you’re going to rest, got it?”

“yes sir,” he mumbles, eyes closed.

granato and paul leave the room as ty gets dressed. he does need some assistance and when he’s finally out of his gear, he sighs, “i never realized how extensive all of that was.”

“tell me about it,” you mumble. you look at him, “are you ready? do you think that you can get to the bus?”

“if you’ll go slow. you always walk so fast,” he complains and you grin. he throws an arm over your shoulder and you wrap an arm around his waist. you walk out of the door and he pauses, looking into the locker room, “can i-”

“you’ve probably got a minute or two before they have to go back,” you say and he nods. with help from you, he limps over to the doorway and the room goes quiet.

“boys,” he says, standing in front of you, but reaching out behind him for your hand. you take it and squeeze, “what’s the score?”

“we’re leading with one,” the other ty says and he nods. “you good, cap?”

“minor concussion, nothing i can’t handle. plus, i’ve got a good babysitter for tonight,” he turns to look at you with a grin and you send a small smile back. “win it, boys. don’t worry about me, just win.”

“tough speech, eh?” dom calls and some of the boys chuckle.

“did you miss the part about the concussion?” ty asks and dom rolls his eyes. “love you boys.”

there’s an echo of his admission before you finally began the trek to the bus. you take up a row in the middle, ty taking the seat by the window and resting his head on your shoulder. you trace the veins on his hand as the bus takes you back to the hotel, the entire trip spent in silence.

once you get him inside your hotel room, he wastes no time crawling into bed. he looks at you hopefully, “will you lay with me?”

“let me get out of these jeans,” you find a pair of shorts and a too-big t-shirt that belonged to him at some point before you slip in beside him.

he presses himself to your chest and you card your fingers through his hair, “i’m sorry about what i said, y/n.”

“not now, ty. you need to rest.”

he sighs, but he doesn’t argue. it wasn’t long before his breathing evens out and he goes limp against you, leaving you to your thoughts.

-

“rise and shine,” you mumble, poking at his cheek. he groans, curling his fingers in the fabric of your t-shirt as he shakes his head. “baby, you have to get up every few hours. aren’t you hungry?”

“do you have food?” he asks, not opening his eyes.

“i can order some, but you have to tell me what you want. i can’t read your mind,” he rolls over then, stretching his arms out over his head. “how do you feel?”

“my head hurts and my body’s sore,” he says. “i didn’t break anything, did i?”

“do you think that you did?” you raise your eyebrows, ready to reach for your phone to call paul.

“no, no, i just- i remember hitting the ice and not much else after. i remember when i came to that anna was standing over me and i wanted you, but you weren’t there. i was looking for you in the stands, but i couldn’t find you. i- i thought that you were gone.”

“i was there ty. they just moved our seats tonight because someone had those already. i’m not leaving, i would never leave,” you assure him, running your hand along his cheek. “we don’t need to talk about this right now. you need to eat and rest-”

“i want to talk about it though. it’s been eating me up inside ever since i said it,” he looks at you pleadingly and you sigh. “i was an ass.”

“you were,” you agree and he chuckles. “the thing is, it’s not even really so much that you think that i would do that to you. yes, it obviously hurt, but it’s more so the fact that you would do it in public. the entire team heard you.”

“i know and believe me, i’ve already had my ass chewed out about it by everyone in that locker room, and i mean everyone. you have an entire hockey team behind your back on this one.”

“they told me. they’re also forming a line to beat you up if i needed them to which is nice,” you smile. it’s quiet for a moment before you speak again, “why did you do it? that’s what i want to know.”

“because i was angry. i was angry about the game last night and i saw you and cole. i know you’re just friends and that you’ve been helping him with his school stuff or whatever, but when you were on the plane, you were just so giggly or whatever. than that in the locker room-”

“we were just playing around, ty. he’s literally like my little brother.”

“and i know that. he made it very clear last night that you are too old for him.”

“we have an understanding,” ty presses his lips to your shoulder and you swallow. “i’m still mad at you. i forgive you, but i’m still mad.”

“you have every right to be. what i said was out of line and uncalled for, i’m surprised that you’re talking to me right now,” he chuckles, wincing as he presses his fingers to the side of his head. “oh yeah, that’s why.”

“i can’t give you anything for another couple of hours. ‘m sorry, love,” you push his hair away from his face.

“can i ask you something?” he asks and you hum. “last night, you said that you’ve given up so much to be with me and i don’t doubt that you have, i know that you have, but is there something that you’re not telling me.”

“it’s not important,” you shake your head.

he sits up then, staring down at you, “what is it, y/n?”

“do you- um, do you remember when i applied for that internship for digital marketing the summer after you graduated? after my freshman year?” you ask, pushing yourself up and scooting back against the headboard.

“yeah, you didn’t get it,” he looks at you confused. you look down at your hands and he takes a deep breath, “y/n, you didn’t-”

“they wanted me to fly to new york on draft weekend and i explained that i couldn’t then, but i could on monday. i wasn’t going to miss hearing your name being called or watching you put on that jersey, ty. they told me if i couldn’t be there on that saturday to just not bother,” you explain, “and instead of getting on a plane to new york, i got on one for dallas with you.”

“that would’ve given you so many opportunities, y/n. why would you do that?”

“because i love you and we’d been talking about it for years, you getting drafted. there was no way in hell i was going to miss it,” you shrug. “it’s fine though. i got the hockey gig and now we spend an almost unhealthy amount of time together so-”

“but that would’ve been so much better for you. you could’ve gone anywhere with that. europe, australia, anywhere. working for a college hockey team won’t look as good on job applications as that internship would have.”

“it’s in the past now. don’t worry about it. i’m happy where i am,” he reaches out for your hand and you curl your fingers around his. “wherever you are, that’s where i’m happy. fuck new york, europe, australia, or wherever. wisconsin is good for me right now. me and you, that’s all that matters.”

“it’s me and you, baby,” he mumbles and you smile, “me and you against the world, just like we’ve always said.”

[soundofseventeen]

4PM, Don’t Be Late (Kwon Soonyoung)

lol I think this is funny 💛

Requested by @justanotherkpopfan17​

54 -  “If you don’t hug me right now, I might fall apart.”

63 - “You could have warned me!”

Soonyoung sat you down at the kitchen table, a smile stuck on his face. 

“Why can’t we sit on the couch, again?” You asked, mildly amused by his behavior today. He had been acting so odd all day, more than usual. He was very adamant that you were home today by 4 pm. He even left a sticky note on your fridge this morning saying ‘VERY IMPORTANT MEETING: 4PM’. And texted you throughout the day to remind you that you needed to be home by 4 pm. 

“Because this is a professional meeting, you can’t have those on the couch.” Soonyoung said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the entire world. You shook your head, leaning on the table. 

“And, why are we having a professional meeting? We’re dating, not a company.” You smiled at him, just now noticing the giant white screen in front of your wall and the projector and computer on your table. “Wait, we’re actually having a meeting?” 

“Of course, you don’t think I would do this for no reason, would I?” He grinned, clearing his throat. 

“...About what?” You asked, starting to get slightly concerned. 

“That will be revealed to you once the meeting begins which is in…” He pulled up his sleeve, causing you to now notice he was in business attire. He was serious about this. “...6 minutes.” 

“We seriously have to wait until 4 pm?” 

“Of course, it’s unprofessional to begin before the designated time. Someone could be late then and miss important information.” He then clapped his hands together, smiling at you.

“...But it’s just the two of us? ...Right?” You said, wondering if someone else was supposed to show up. But Soonyoung just nodded his head, leaving you confused but still humored. 

“So, would you like refreshments?” 

“Soon… Our kitchen is right there.” You pointed to the side, eyes going to your kitchen about 8 feet away from you. 

“Then I will be able to get your refreshments in record time, wouldn’t you say?” 

“Okay, what’s going on-” You started, Soonyoung holding up a hand. 

“It’s good, I promise.” He said, walking to your kitchen. “I think.” He winked, you watching as he grabbed a water bottle from your counter, placing it in front of you. 

“Ahem, is everyone present for today’s meeting?” Soonyoung asked, looking around the room. “Good, you are all very punctual. Gold star.” You laughed as he walked over and placed a little gold star sticker in front of you. What was this boy doing?

You watched as he turned on the computer, the loading screen showing up on the white screen. 

“Technology, it’s great when it works.” He looked back at the screen. Both of you sat in silence as it continued to load. After a few minutes he pulled out his phone. 

“Hey… Yeah, it’s not working.” He said, sounding a little anxious now. “I just tried to start it, okay? Wonwoo, time is running, Y/N is here, how do I fix it? It just says loading. Yes I waited for it to load! It hasn’t changed. Yes, I checked that…” His eyes landed next to the computer, your eyes following. You let out a laugh as he plugged in a cord, seeing his face turn red. “Oh look at that it’s working now okay bye Wonwoo talk to you later.” He said, immediately hanging up the phone. 

“Okay, take two.” He grinned, you sighing a bit. You were still nervous, until you saw the first slide of a powerpoint appear on the screen. 

Now, it was your turn to feel your face heat up. 

“Thank you for coming to our meeting today, we have a very important topic to discuss.” He pointed to the screen. “So, let’s get started. Today’s meeting is about why Kwon Soonyoung, aka your amazing boyfriend and the coolest person you will ever meet, would make an even more amazing husband. You have a paper copy in front of you, but please follow along with the presentation, questions must be held until the end.” He said, clicking the next slide as you covered your mouth. 

Your boyfriend was an idiot. 

“Okay, so to begin. First off, we already live together.” He clicked the slideshow, showing a picture of the two of you from the day you moved in together. “Therefore, no surprises there. We already know we can live together functionally and still manage to get along with each other, even after spending almost all of our time together. Example: That one winter there was that blizzard and we couldn’t get out of here? I really thought we would hate each other after that but hey, it worked out.” 

“Next,” He clicked the computer, the screen changing to a picture of you two at one of the practice rooms. “Obviously, at a wedding there is a lot of dancing. As your future husband, you would be guaranteed to have the best dancer in the room as your partner, therefore removing any chance at an awkward first dance, or dances further. Bonus, future weddings you will always have the best dance partner in the room.” You leaned back, mildly humored at his point. 

“But won’t Hao be at the wedding?” 

“Thank you for saying that.” Soonyoung grinned, clicking the computer again. You laughed at a picture of you making a weird face while Soonyoung deadpanned the camera. “My next point, I can handle your sarcasm. Which is another wonderful way that the two of us get along so nicely. Not to mention…” He clicked the computer, showing a picture of Soonyoung in a weird pose while you just sat on the side with your head in your hands. “You put up with my shit. Perfect together.” 

“Another point, I know how to make your favorite foods.” He clicked to the next slide, showing a picture of you on a dinner date holding up a plate of food. “Or at least I know where to find it, so if you have a bad day or just really are craving peach candies, I can find them quickly and make your day better.” You watched as he pulled a bag of peach gummies out of his pocket, again placing them in front of you. 

“Soon…” You looked at him, shaking your head. He just held up a finger, shaking his head. 

“Excuse me, all questions but be held until the end.” 

“But-”

“Until the end.” He pointed at you. You leaned on the table again, letting out a sigh. “Thank you. It’s almost done, I promise.” He smiled, you blinking at him. 

“Moving on, my next point. We manage to take care of each other pretty well.” He moved to the next slide, again making you laugh. It was a picture of you both when you got sick a year ago, Mingyu had come over to take care of you but ended up taking a million blackmail photos. “I mean, sometimes it goes south but hey, we try. That’s what counts.” 

“Lastly.” He clicked to the next slide, showing a picture of you and him laughing while trying to be professional. You again let out a laugh, remembering how pissed Minghao was with you two that day. You kept ruining the pictures. “As your husband, I swear I will work my hardest to make sure that for the rest of your life, that smile and that laugh stay with you.” 

“Now, to conclude our meeting, we will move onto the question portion.” He clicked the slide again, this time the screen just showing a question mark. “But before we move onto your questions, I have one important question that needs to be asked first.” He clapped his hands together, walking around the table to your side. 

“Soon.” You said as he knelt down, pulling the box out of his jacket pocket. 

“So? What do you say?” He asked, looking up at you. “Can I be your husband?” You looked from him to the ring, having to look away. Soonyoung suddenly started to panic when you did that, looking at you concerned when you looked back at him with tears in your eyes. 

“Kwon Soonyoung, if you don’t hug me right now, I might fall apart.” You said, Soonyoung immediately standing up to hug you. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked, you shaking your head. 

“Nothing! Nothing is wrong. I just… You could have warned me!” Soonyoung let out a laugh, pulling back enough to wipe your tears. 

“Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise you goof.” He laughed, you chuckling along with him. “So is that a yes?” 

“Well who could say no after that proposal?” You laughed, gesturing to the table. “Yes, yes and yes.” You said, Soonyoung giving you a quick kiss before taking the ring out of its box and placing it on your finger. He was about to kiss you again but his phone rang, causing him to let out a sigh. 

“Hello?” He said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I asked. You can find out what they said tomorrow, good night.” He said, hanging up the phone. “Dino says hi.” 

“You could have told him!” You laughed, Soonyoung shaking his head. 

“No, not yet. I think I should keep you to myself tonight, don’t you agree?” He grinned, you shaking your head. 

“Fine. They can find out tomorrow.” You said, giving him a quick kiss. “You made a very compelling argument, mister.” 

“I knew it would work. Wonwoo said it was dumb. Who’s the dummy now. Not this guy. This guy has a fiance.” 

“Okay dummy fiance.” You said, pulling him to the kitchen. “Time to make dinner.” Soonyoung immediately followed, giggling as he back hugged you. 

“Yes dear.”

this gif really doesn’t go with this story but its my favorite so

[flourgirl]

Waiting On The Warmth

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: You accidentally catch a glimpse of Peter’s spider-bite induced abs and it brings up feelings you didn’t know you had.

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: Just some super fluffy pining from two dorks in love. Also, some swear words.

A/N: I churned this out this morning during my very last architecture lecture of the semester! Hope you guys like it <3

“I watched you get undressed I must have turned bright red 'Cause I couldn't stand to face you 'Cause I liked what I saw And maybe we should just be friends” -Like or Like Like, Miniature Tigers

“It’s so cold,” you whined, rubbing your arms in an attempt to keep warm. You had only been in New York for five months and your body still hadn’t adjusted to the low temperatures. “Is nobody else cold? Is this just how you guys live?”

Midtown was too cheap to turn up the heat in the winter, meaning the school was only as warm as the concrete walls could make it. Even your chunky turtleneck wasn’t enough to suffice and your winter coat was just too bulky to be wearing around.

“Y/N, it really isn’t that cold. It’s only, like, 40 degrees. Plus, it’s October. The worst is yet to come,” Ned reminded you, your classmates filing into the auditorium to watch Principal Morita’s annual drug safety presentation.

You continued in agony, your teeth starting to chatter. Sure, it wasn’t even freezing temps, but where you came from, winter just meant that you had to throw on a hoodie before you left the house.

The crowd of students jostled you around, and you huddled close to Peter, who had quickly become your best friend. You didn’t know what you’d do if the two of you hadn’t been paired up in chemistry class. Probably sulk around and not talk to anybody.

“Are you actually that cold?” Peter asked, smiling down as you held onto his arm to keep from getting separated from the group. You nodded, your brows furrowed from watching kids pass by wearing nothing but t-shirts. 

“Here, come on.” He pulled you aside as Ned, MJ, and Betty saved your seats. You watched gratefully as Peter proceeded to peel off his sweatshirt and hand it to you. The only thing was, his shirt was stuck to the inside of it, exposing the lower part of his torso for a split second.

Peter Parker had abs. Like a whole six pack. Is that really what had been hiding under his oversized sweaters and flannel button downs? Was he some kind of undercover student athlete?

You snapped yourself out of your daze, blinking back at Peter as he held out his sweatshirt for you to take, hoping that he couldn’t see how much you were blushing. Sure, he had always been cute to you, but this was different. Did you really think your Lego-building lab partner was hot?

“Thanks,” you said, sheepishly accepting his offer and slipping into the warm fleece material. Even though Peter wasn’t super big, it still hung off you like a dress, making you feel like you looked like a toddler. Nevertheless, you reveled in how much better you felt now that you weren’t absolutely freezing.

“You look good. Come on, let’s sit down before we get yelled at.” When he grabbed your hand to pull you to where the rest of your friends were sitting, as the two of you often did, your heartbeat suddenly got faster.

The two of you slumped into your auditorium chairs, and you were now hyper aware of how close you and Peter always sat. Your arm was against his, and you could tell that even in just his short sleeved shirt, he was still really warm. 

You had never noticed it whenever the two of you hugged, but his sweatshirt smelled really good. A light, clean smell that made you wonder if May had some fancy brand of laundry detergent that you needed to ask her about.

It seemed like hours before the overdramatic safety ad was over and the drama club had performed their cheesy skit on drunk driving. 

Peter leaned close to you, whispering in your ear, “Did you know Flash volunteers for this thing every year? He thinks it’ll get Sally Avril to notice him, but it never does.” 

“Uh, yeah, he’s such an idiot,” you laughed awkwardly. His face had been so close to yours. Normally, you wouldn’t even notice, but that all changed when you found out about Peter’s secret six-pack.

You shifted in your seat, trying to scoot away from him so you could brush these dumb feelings aside and not ruin your friendship. Last time you checked, MJ had told you that he had a crush on Liz Allan. Little did you know, Peter’s spidey-senses could tell something was off.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking at you, making you notice how pretty his eyes were. Stop it, you begged yourself, you’re just friends. Good friends. Friends that cuddle during movie nights and wipe crumbs off each other’s faces and… shit.

You liked Peter. “Uh, yeah. I’m just super bored, you know?” you tried to assure him, wondering when this stupid thing would end so you could head off to the computer lab. 

You needed to focus on your programming assignment and not how cute Peter’s hair looked when it was messy. It was honestly way too much for you to handle at this point. 

Your leg bounced up and down, desperate for Principal Morita to wrap up his final warnings to the students. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before it was over and you were scrambling out of the auditorium away from Peter, hoping your silly little crush would go away by the time school ended.

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

Peter had no idea what was going on with you, but you were acting really weird. It had been bothering him ever since this morning when you practically ran away from him without a word. Did his sweatshirt smell really bad and you were just leaving to take it off in private to not hurt his feelings? He couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Usually, he’d wait by your locker at the end of the day so the two of you could walk home together, but maybe you needed some space. Except he remembered the two of you had to watch Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for homework and somehow analyze the experimental process of inventing Wayne Szalinki’s wacky ray gun.

“Hey,” he greeted you, watching as you shoved your notebooks in your backpack without even looking at him. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s just head to your place and get this stupid movie over with,” you sighed. Peter was shocked. He thought you were excited to have an excuse for a movie night during the school week. You were still wearing his sweatshirt, though, so at least he knew that he didn’t stink.

You walked about two feet further from him than you usually did, and he thought about if someone saw you two on the street, they’d think you were strangers. He closed the distance between the two of you, preventing you from wandering any further unless you wanted to run into a parking meter.

Even if you were mad at him for some reason,  the awkward silence let Peter appreciate just how cute you looked in his sweatshirt. He wondered if he should just give it to you, since it looked way better on you than it ever had on him.

She looks pretty in red, he thought, which surprised even him. He watched as you trudged down the sidewalk, your shiny hair bouncing in the cold air. Did you always look this good?

Peter usually spent most of his lunch period daydreaming about Liz that he had never even thought of you in a romantic way. But seeing you all bundled up in his clothes had given him all these mixed up feelings that he couldn’t shake.

When the two of you got to his apartment, Peter’s head had already been flooded with thoughts about what it would mean if he did have a crush on you. It would ruin the friendship for sure. 

There was no way that you were interested in him like that. Is that what was going on? Was him giving you his sweatshirt too romantic that it made you this awkward around him?

“Hello, earth to Peter,” May said, waving her hand in front of his face to get him out of his head. “I asked what you wanted for dinner? Y/N said she’s cool with anything, so it’s just up to you and me. I was thinking we could try out that new Greek restaurant down the street. What do you think?”

“No!” Peter blurted out, surprising both you and May. “Uh, I mean, I don’t know if I’ll like eating there, you know? I think we should stick to something safe. Something that we know. How about Chinese?” He wasn’t just talking about food, but he hoped that neither of you could tell.

“Uh, okay. Whatever you say, squirt,” May sighed, giving Peter a pat on the shoulder before going to ruffle through the drawer of take out menus. “You guys want the usual? Pot stickers, lo mein, and sesame chicken, right?”

“Yeah, that works!” you called out from the sofa. Peter was relieved to see that you were returning to your usual perkiness as he sat down next to you, making sure to leave a good couple of inches between the two of you.

In just twenty minutes, things were starting to feel normal again. You were chowing down on your favorite foods and discussing the plausibility of shrinking objects. After about an hour, you were snuggled up to him laughing as the son get carried away by a bee. 

Slowly, your eyes fluttered shut and you leaned your head onto Peter’s shoulder, and he decided that you looked too peaceful while sleeping for him to do anything about it. You smelled like vanilla and cinnamon, and he thought about how he could get used to having you by his side like this.

You woke up to the loud soundtrack of tubas and stringed instruments to see the credits playing. You sat up, smoothing down your hair and adjusting the many layers that you had snuggled into. 

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Peter whispered, laughing a little bit as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes.

“What did I miss?” you yawned, lifting your arms in the air to stretch them. 

“Nothing much. The son gets the girl and they eat a really big turkey at Thanksgiving.”

“Okay, cool,” you said, slumping back down into the soft cushions of the couch. “Glad you were here to watch it with me.” 

You felt a lot better than this morning. Even if your feelings hadn’t disappeared, you had come to terms with the fact that you had a crush on your best friend, even if you were never going to tell him about it.

“May went out on a date,” Peter told you, trying not to think about how much he liked having you so close to him. “She said she wouldn’t be back until later.”

The two of you sat in silence, something that almost never happened with how much you both tended to ramble. You didn’t want to go home just yet, but you certainly couldn’t stay with Peter looking at you like that. Is that really how he always looked at you? With sparkling eyes and the sweetest smile you had ever seen?

“I, um, I should really go now. I’ll text you my answers to the homework, okay?” you stammered, throwing the blanket off of you and hurrying to pull his sweatshirt off so you could return it. But of course, you managed to somehow get yourself tangled inside of it. “Fuck! Hang on, just give me a second, I got this.” You didn’t.

“Y/N, calm down. Come on, let me help you,” Peter offered, easily lifting the sweatshirt off your head, only to be met with your pouty expression. His face was so close to yours, and you felt like you were about to faint.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, worry written all over his face. “I know you said you were bored this morning, and I’m sure you’re just tired and ready to go home, but did I do something to upset you? You’ve been acting, well… strange.”

You looked down at your socks, which had little dogs printed on them, unable to look Peter in the eyes. His soft brown eyes that you could just stare at for hours. 

“No, um, nothing’s wrong, Peter,” you lied.

“Then why won’t you look at me? Please, Y/N, if something’s been bothering you, I need to know.” You peered up to look at him, his brows furrowed and his stare intense. You just needed to come out and say it. He’s your best friend. Nothing has to change.

“Have you been working out?” you asked. It was all you could muster at this point.

“Uh, what?” Peter replied, surprised that that’s what you had been thinking about this entire time. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, um, I saw your abs this morning, and I figured maybe you’ve been working out to impress Liz or something, and so I just wanted to know, you know, if that’s what was going on.”

He paused for a moment, and you could tell he was thinking really hard about what to say next.

“Y/N. I need to tell you something.” Oh god, here it comes. He knows. He knows you like him and he’s about to shut you down before your crush gets even more out of hand than it already is.

“I’m Spider-Man. That’s, uh, that’s where my abs came from.” What the fuck? Your eyes widened in shock as you tried to register what he had just said.

“Wait, what? How? When? Where?” You couldn’t believe it. Your dorky friend from Queens was New York City’s friendly neighborhood superhero?

“It’s a lot to explain,” he sighed, plopping down on the couch and motioning for you to do the same. You reluctantly sat down next to him. “You have to promise me that you won’t tell anybody.”

“Of course not, Peter,” you assured him, holding out your pinky to let him know that you were serious. He locked his pinky with yours and smiled, a wave of relief washing over him now that he didn’t have to keep secrets from you. Well, at least not the secret of his crime fighting alter-ego. 

“Now, come on, Y/N. Tell me what’s the matter. I know you haven’t been upset all day over the fact that I have abs, right?”

You shook your head, feeling a blush spread across your cheeks. Did he have super senses that could tell how nervous you were? Your throat was suddenly dry at the thought, but you knew that it was now or never.

“I like you! Like, in a more than friends way. I never realized it until this morning, but I really like your hair and the way you smell and I know this is all silly because you like Liz and not me, and that this is probably going to ruin our friendship and—”

Before you could start crying any harder, Peter cut off your rambling with a kiss. You pulled away, wiping away your tears to see the smile you knew and loved on your best friend’s face.

“I like you too. In, uh, a more than friends way,” Peter admitted, tucking a stray piece of your hair back into place. His hand lingered a couple seconds longer against your cheek than necessary.

“Wait, really? You’re not just saying that because you feel bad for me right now, right?” You could feel the butterflies fluttering around inside you like crazy, hopeful at the fact that maybe things weren’t going to be as bad as you had thought.

“Nope, I promise,” he said, holding out his pinky to mimic your actions just a few minutes ago. You brought your hand up to take it, grinning as you felt your heart rise from the pit of your stomach. “I like you a lot. You can keep the sweatshirt, by the way. It suits you.”

You wrapped your arms around him, hugging him tightly before pulling back to rest your forehead against his, grinning ear to ear. “So, uh, what now?”

“Well,” Peter started, “How about a date? We could go to that Italian restaurant you like so much, or maybe go ice skating at the hockey rink.”

“No ice skating,” you replied. “You know I’m hopeless on skates, and I’ll probably complain about how cold it is. But I think I could fit a dinner date in between washing my hair and re-watching New Girl. I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule.”

“Shut up, dummy,” Peter laughed, playfully flicking you on the forehead. 

“Ouch,” you whined. “Fine, Friday. 7 o’ clock. Russo’s. Be there or be square.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he agreed, gently kissing the little red mark he had just made, before bringing his lips closer to yours.

But before he could kiss you again, May was walking through the front door.  “Alright, kiddos. I’ve got leftovers! Loaded mashed potatoes and raspberry cheesecake and oh! Am I interrupting something? Is this finally a thing?” 

She waved her hand at the two of you, Peter’s face dangerously close to a girl that he had spent months telling May was “just a friend.” The two of you stared awkwardly, both flushed and flustered. 

“Aunt May,” Peter groaned, shooting her an annoyed look.

“Oh, okay. Message received. I’ll be going to my room now. Have fun,” she chimed, shutting her bedroom door behind her, before eventually cracking it open ever so slightly. “But not too much fun!”

You giggled, pulling Peter into another kiss before he could keep on moping over how mortified he was. Maybe your friendship with him really was never going to be the same, but as long as you got to keep kissing his stupidly adorable face and stealing his silly sweatshirts with science puns on them, you didn’t mind at all.

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

Taglist: @hommyy-tommy @itsgonnabeohtay @alltimekyn @allycat449-blog @greatpizzascissorstaco @dummiesshort @parkerpeterparker2004 @letssee2468 @parkerlovebot @alytavzla @yourbiggestspiderfan @silentium-tais-toi @jailcalledlife @orangesodafoam

P.S.: Please shoot me an ask or a reply if you’d like to be added to (or removed from) the taglist!

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

five phones on the table

DCU, Titans Rating: Gen 1,077 words AO3 A look at the fab five by looking at their phones. Sometimes you want to try something weird with your writing style so you get an idea and call it a character study. This is what comes of that.

The long table with its numerous chairs was, by proximity to the kitchen, a dining table but due to the nature of the building it occupied doubled as a meeting and strategy table. The small net, paddles, and light plastic balls stored in an innocuous box in the kitchen meant it tripled as a ping pong table.

Currently, its occupants were not any number of the young heroes who were welcome in the halls. No one sat eating breakfast, though a ring of coffee and stray bit of egg would need to be cleaned off, or tinkering with anything from weaponry or gadgets to video game controllers or motorcycle parts. No drops of blood from emergency triage covered the top or powdery strings from aerosol cans thanks to prank wars.

Instead, five cell phones lay abandoned in the otherwise empty rooms. As useful as they can be, even just to stave off boredom on a stakeout, their owners weren’t in the habit of grabbing them when danger called and they rushed to face it. While their owners had grown in time with the rapid developments of cellular phones — and regularly used and fought the cutting edge of technology — these were not like the phones they started off with. They were much more fragile. Their first cell phones had survived punches, drops, outer space, and arguably a bullet from Deathstroke the Terminator. Even the ones built by WayneTech now had a tendency to shatter when slipping off the kitchen counter. 

The first of the phones was indeed a WayneTech phone, one that technically speaking was still in the design phases of development and wouldn’t even have a prototype for another two years. Yet, on the table it sat in a sturdy black case that was nicked and worn. A once bright red and blue S in a shield sticker was on the back, though it had faded and begun to fray with age. The screen flickered to life every few seconds with a notification coming in. The small rectangles showed only the app the messages came from and the name of the sender, nothing more. Small bat: Little Bro. Small bat: Little Bro. Yellow ghost: Babs. Green speech bubble: Amy. Green speech bubble: Alfred. Small bat: Boss Man. The picture that was barely visible through the notifications was of an elephant dressed in finery, a big top circus tent blurry in the background.

The next phone was older and more beat up than the first. It was made by a company that used a fruit for its name and image. The owner had been given it and it had been gotten for free, part of a family cellular plan years ago. The red case it called home was just as worn as the phone itself with its cracked screen. Though it was slim and light with a chipped yellow lightning bolt painted on the back. The spiderwebbing lightning bolt in the glass showed a young woman’s sly grin as she stared down the camera with her arms crossed. “Linda Calling” framed her. When no one answered, the image changed to a picture of three people with their arms loose on each other’s shoulders. A man with bright, tangled red hair and sparks of freckles, the same dark haired young woman with almost perfect teeth, and another man with long, pale orange hair and a wry, almost annoyed expression. Their faces were covered quickly by the “Missed Call: Linda” notification.

The third was newer than the last and though made by the same manufacturer as the first it was older than that one. In a hopeful optimism of its owner, there was no case. Which was odd as the camera was one of the best found in a mobile phone and many with the same model took great pains to protect it. Which isn’t to say that the owner wasn’t careful and didn’t go through great pains to care for it. The layers of metallic colored stars that stuck to the back helped to prove this as one fell into wear, another bright shine took its place. The photo on the screen of the other side had been taken using that excellent camera by the owner. A large group of people, all carefully posed yet laughing and antsy at the experience, at a picnic or a party. The people all called this building home and the people who moved through it family. A single text message came through from a “Diana” that began with “Dear Sister,” and then was cut off.

The fourth phone was bulkier, chunkier, than the others. It was carefully custom made to withstand the pressure and depths of the deepest seas. One of just a few in the world. It lived in an airtight waterproof case and was kept charged due to what some could only describe as magic. Despite the practicality of the case, it still managed to impart some individuality. A deep, almost royal blue, it was covered in a swirling pattern that some might think of as waves, and others flowers. Its screen stayed dark, though there was a message from much earlier. A small note of encouragement from a “Dolphin” overlaid on a serene image of crystal blue water shining in a lake surrounded by verdant trees.

The fifth and final phone was in as bad of shape as the second. An almost out of date model by Queen Industries, a company that no longer existed or at least not in that capacity. Though the owner would regularly take the small device apart, tinkering and updating the small wires and computer chips within. A thick, almost violently pink case had taken the actual brunt of the wear. Most of the back was covered by a sticker that was the image of a tweet with the immortal phrase “Help me obi Juan whoever the fuck you are.... You're my only ho.” The image on the screen was a young girl in a princess dress and a yellow Robin Hood hat grinning and waving at the camera. It was easy to assume her name was Lian as the text from an “Oliver” could be read saying “Daddy it’s Lian. Love you. Stay safe.”

It might be a few hours and a few battery percentages later, but eventually the owners would come and collect them. Would respond to the notifications. Maybe clean up the bit of egg and the coffee ring on the table.

[wellimaginethat]

Bruises: Chapter Three

SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 5 FINALE OF CHICAGO MED!!!

Pairing: Crockett Marcel x (female) Reader

Word Count: 2131

Author’s Note: SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 5 FINALE!!! Look at me actually getting this posted when I said I would, I think I’ll give myself a gold star sticker!

Trigger Warning(s): MENTION OF CHILD’S DEATH (Dr. Marcel’s daughter, Harper), ABANDONMENT, divorce, CAR ACCIDENT, MENTION OF BLOOD, slight injury, hospital stay, bad medical knowledge because I’m not a doctor (yet, maybe someday, lol), Dr. Manning is being nosy, DEPRESSION (in later chapters), mention of alcohol abuse

Disclaimer: I don’t owe nor am I affiliated with any of the Chicago shows, I just like to play with the characters

Summary: This is probably, kinda, sorta AU because I’ve missed some of Chicago Med (the others too due to work) so I’m just going based off what I know and research (which has come up that we don’t know much about Marcel’s past, other than this shocking new tidbit). Also, the name is from the song Bruises by Lewis Capaldi, which is the song I was listening to while writing this

Y/N = Your Name

Y/EC = Your Eye Color

Tag list: @bethii1​ (If anyone else wants to be tagged in further parts of this story, comment on this post or private message me, or if you want to be tagged in any of my One Chicago stories)

Other chapters in this series: Prelude |  Chapter One | Chapter Two

~ There must be something in the water 'cause everyday it's getting colder; And if only I could hold ya, you'd keep my head from going under ~

It didn’t take him long to decide on what he was going to do and soon enough he was in his car, driving to the Dayside Hotel. When he got there, he walked up to the front desk to find out what room you were in.

“I’m looking for a guest that’s staying here.” He told the young man behind the desk.

The man, who couldn’t have been much older than 25 looked at him. “Name?”

“Y/N Y/LN.” He gave them your maiden name since he was sure you weren’t still going by Y/N Marcel since you seemed hellbent on leaving him.

The young man looked at the computer and shook his head. “There’s no one checked in with that name.”

Panic flooded him, worried that you’d already checked out and left. “Can you check Y/N Marcel?”

The young man nodded and looked at the computer before nodding again. “I’ll have to call her room before I tell you what room she’s in. Hotel policy.” Crockett nodded, understanding why that was the policy. “Tell her that her husband is here.” He felt a sense of hope overcome him after finding out that you were still going by your married name.

The young man nodded slowly this time before picking up the phone and ringing your room.

You had just changed into sweats and a tank top - planning on going to sleep, hoping it would help your throbbing head - when the phone rang. You frowned, not expecting anyone to be calling the room number, but answered it. “Hello?” You dragged out slowly.

“Hello Ms. Marcel, I’m sorry for the disturbance but this is Ben from the front desk, a man is here claiming to be your husband and wanting to know your room number. Should I tell him or call the cops?”

You froze for a moment. Crockett was here? Why? Didn’t you say everything that needed to be said at the cafe?

“Ms. Marcel?”

You cleared your throat. “It’s fine, Ben, you can tell him the room number.” Your throat was tight as you spoke and your voice was quiet.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” Ben’s answer came from the other end.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Thank you.” You said before hanging up the phone and forcing yourself to take a deep breath.

Within two minutes there was a knock on the door. You pulled yourself to your feet and walked over, what you were feeling was weird, like you were in a dense fog and confused by your surroundings. When you got to the door, you pulled it open swiftly and saw Crockett standing there. “Hi.” You said in a confused but friendly tone.

“Hi.” He breathed out.

You raised a brow as you looked at him. “What’re you doing here, Crockett?” You asked, still watching him, you weren’t upset that he was here but you were completely confused.

He was quiet for a moment as he stared at you, then he sighed and looked down at his hands. “I want you back. I want us to stay married and work this out.” He looked up at you again. “I want you to stay.”

Your chest tightened and your breath got stuck in your lungs as you stared at him. Was this really happening? Was he for real? You finally forced yourself to breath as you locked eyes with him. “Crockett…” You practically whispered, unsure of what to stay.

Next thing you know he’s kissing you, gentle and slow, but still somehow full of passion. You were the one to pull back, and upon seeing the hurt in his eyes you touched his cheek. “I missed you.” You whispered, tears springing to your eyes. “I don’t want us to get a divorce either, but I don’t see how we can fix this.”

He took a deep breath. “We can.” He whispered back to you, his lips still dangerously close to yours.

You put a hand on his chest to stop him from leaning any closer. “How can you be so sure?”

He didn’t answer you, just looked at you with a seriousness in his deep brown eyes. “Do you still love me?”

“Of course I do, I never stopped.” You whispered, looking up at him.

“And I never stopped loving you, that’s how I know we’ll work this out.” He told you softly, taking the hand you had on his chest into his hand and placing a kiss to the palm. “It’s at least worth the try.”

You didn’t say anything for a moment, just continued to stare at him for a moment. You were starting to feel even dizzier than you were earlier, causing you to reach out and hold onto him to steady yourself.

“Y/N?” His voice was full of concern now and he was frowning, but he seemed miles away as your head started pounding more and more and the world went foggy. He was quick to pick you up and take you to the bed so you could sit down, him kneeling in front of you to check you out.

“I’m fine.” You waved him off but it was a weak attempt.

“You don’t seem fine, love.” Was his response as he looked at you, you were going pale and your eyes weren’t focused.

You forced a smile and waved your hand again. “You worry too much.” You said quietly. “It’s just a headache.”

“This doesn’t seem like just a headache.” He told you, pulling out his phone.

“What’re you doing?” You asked, frowning now.

“Calling for an ambulance.” He answered you, standing up as he put the phone to his ear.

“That’s not needed.” You stood up way too quickly, causing the world to spin and you to tumble towards the ground. You were thankful that he caught you before you hit the ground.

“It is needed.” He helped you sit back down.

You nodded weakly as you laid down on the bed, thinking it might be best if you did go back to the hospital and get checked, no matter how much you hated hospitals.

Next thing you knew, the world went dark.

It all happened so fast, the paramedics came in and loaded you onto the stretcher and took you to the hospital. Crockett followed behind in his car, worried sick about you.

When you were taken in you were examined right away and it was deemed that you suffered a concussion from the accident and that this was just an after effect of it, nothing to be too worried about but they wanted you to stay in the hospital overnight just in case.

This didn’t ease Crockett’s worries though, because you had fully passed out and still hadn’t woken up. Then again, that could be due to the fact that they had given you some pain medication to help ease the throbbing pain in your head.

He took a seat at your bedside and stayed there until your eyes started to open and you groaned, at which point he stood up and smiled down at you.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” He said softly, his hand finding yours, squeezing it gently. “You’re okay, but they’re going to keep you overnight just as a precaution.”

“I honestly don’t think I need to stay, I’m already feeling better.” You said as you tried to sit up.

Crockett shook his head. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” He said as he gently pushed you back to a lying position.

You groaned and laid back, usually you wouldn’t give up this easily, but you were too exhausted to argue and told yourself that you’d stay the night and then leave in the morning. “Fine, whatever.” You grumbled as you let your eyes fall shut for a moment.

“Be honest, how are you feeling?” He asked gently as he took your hand in his again.

You shrugged slightly, opening your Y/EC eyes to look up at him. “Better than I was.”

“Good.” He said softly, releasing your hand before he sat back down. The room fell silent, and you could tell what he was thinking about, but you knew he wouldn’t bring it up with you in a hospital bed so it was up to you.

“There’s a condition.” You spoke up after a moment, thinking through everything and weighing your words.

He looked at you with a confused expression. “A condition?”

“To me staying.” You added softly, looking at him. “If you want me to stay, I’ll stay and we can try to work this out, but there’s one condition.”

His eyes lit up as he watched you. “I’m listening?”

“Marriage counseling.” You tell him. “If we’re going to make this work, we have to work through our issues and I think it would be easier to do that if we had help from a professional.”

He hesitated before nodding. “If that’s what it takes, then I’m all for it.” He said softly.

You smiled and reached out to him, wanting his hand in yours again.

He took your hand and smiled softly at you and for a moment everything was calm and felt right.

Then it dawned on you, it was already late afternoon when you got back to the hotel from coffee, what time was it now? You looked at him and it was obvious that he knew something was wrong.

“What is it?” He asked, the smile fading and being replaced by a look of concern.

“What time is it?” You asked, your question leaving him looking confused. “You said you have to be here early tomorrow, you need to go home and get some rest.”

He shook his head, a small chuckle escaping his lips. “I’m not leaving you.”

“You have to.” You insisted softly. “You need to get some rest otherwise you’ll be tired tomorrow.”

He looked at you for a moment before shaking his head.

“Damn it, Crockett, go home and get some sleep.” You huffed out at him. “I’ll be fine here.”

He shook his head to you again.

You glared at him for a moment. “Crockett Marcel you need to sleep. You told me earlier that you have to be here early tomorrow and it was already pretty late when we got coffee, I can only imagine what time it is now. It’s probably ten or eleven by now, so go.”

“It’s only a little after nine.” He told you after your little rant.

“That makes no difference.” You inform him stubbornly. “Go home and get some sleep, I’ll be fine. Please, for me?” Your voice softened as you added the last part and you looked at him with puppy eyes.

He looked at you for a long moment sighing and shaking his head. “You’re not going to win this time.”

You huffed and paused, then smiled. “Fine, then come here.” You said as you started tugging on his hand gently.

He stood up and stepped up to the bedside, raising a brow.

You scooted over and released his hand from yours to pat the empty spot next to you. “Since it seems that we can’t agree, this is a compromise.”

He carefully sat next to you, but was reluctant to lay down next to you, so you huffed and carefully pulled him down so that he was laying next to you. Instinctively, his arm went around your shoulders, pulling you to his side gently.

You smiled softly as you snuggled into him, laying your head on his chest. Maybe it was cliche, but being wrapped up in his arms with your head on his chest made you feel like you were home. You felt warm and happy and safe, so you let your eyes slip shut.

He placed a kiss to the top of your head, still holding you close to him.

“As nice as this is, I still think you should go home and get some real rest.” You whispered, looking up at him now.

He looked at you for a moment before a smirk formed on his face. “This is the first night I’ve had my wife in my arms in over seven years, there’s no way in hell I’m leaving, darling.”

You couldn’t help the smile and blush that found its way to your face, and you lost all will to argue with him anymore after hearing him say that. So you huffed a bit, trying to act upset even though you weren’t in the slightest, and laid your head back down on his chest. “Fine.”

He could tell you weren’t really upset, which just made the smirk grow as he laid back some.

[sailor-freak]

HELP

Ahh okay, I should have thoughts, but... I’M TOO BUSY PROCESSING THE MASTERPIECE THAT WAS I think I need to watch it again hang on (Handong...) 😂.

Okay... I think I can say words 😂. THAT SONG THOUGH it definitely stuck to the typical Dreamcatcher title track structure in terms of the music, there was the first verse with the regular music, the chorus hits with the guitars, then an emptier trap section for rap (can Dami not rap to anything else? Just those are always my least favourite parts of their songs 😂), the back into regular then guitars 😂. This was a very low earthy sounding song, especially in the chorus, ironic since it was very electronic and had a lot of computerised sounds 😂. But that pre-chorus omG it was just such a fast build up it was so intense, and then that chorus HITS with the guitars, I also love the “ooo” bit they sing (couldn’t write it better lol 😂), since their vocals in the chorus blend with the earthy intensity having a higher, airier note which still keeps the vibe works SO well 😍. Also the bridge the BRIDGE DAMI HUN WHERE’D YOU GET VOCALS LIKE THAT may we all applause for Dami’s vocals getting the RE👏COG👏NI👏TION 👏 IT 👏 DE👏SERVES👏. I think that’s it 😂.

I’ve not even started on the video yet 😂. I feel like this is already very long so I’ll try and be quick 😂. Obviously it was very cyber technology inspired, from the teasers that was obvious 😂. But what was the red shit Yoohyeon was drinking? It had to have meant something BUT WHAT 😂. Anyway I like that they went straight for the online hate/cyber bullying motif with the MV, with Scream and BOCA if you didn’t know the lyrics you could have missed it but GAHYEON HAD EMOJI STICKERS ON HER FACE AND SHE GOT ATTACKED BY A COMPUTER THE METAPHOR IS OBVIOUS AND I’M HERE FOR IT 😂. The ending was so sad tho 😭. “In the end, the Dreamcatchers couldn’t find the Utopia what they dreamed of” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭. Yes that was 7 crying emojis for the 7 Dreamcatchers who couldn’t find their Utopia 😭. I mean, as an ending it WORKS, because there is no end to online hate, it would be a sucky end if it went “lol they found Utopia everything was fine” because that’s not true so why would they try and hide the fact online hate will never stop 😂. Also the choreo, ooooooo... at the end when JiU sings “no more Utopia” THEY DO THE SCREAM OPENING POSE like they’d gone full circle and nothing had been changed from when they started MY HEEEEAAAART 😭. I said this was gonna be brief yet HERE I AM RAMBLING I really need to go listen to the album I’m sorry I’ll go do that now 😂.

[lynneshobbydomain]

Vengeance Chapter 12

((Thank you all so much for the likes and the reblogs and the support. Thank you to @sinfulwonders who works tirelessly with me to beta this. I also wanted to apologize for not updating. As, you all know I was busy with shipweek but I also had a family matter that was very crucial. I am grateful that you all cherish this story as I do. Without further ado, let me continue))

Rating: M

Summary: 

Previous                         Next

You can read below the cut or at my AO3

It was the first time Shuichi entered Aki's room since her disappearance, and there was still a heart-sinking feeling that stuck with him as he looked at the place. The faint scent of blackberry and vanilla hung in the air, and the smallest little knick-knacks hadn't been moved or fixed. Her desk was still the organized mess that it was, a planner even folded to the week that she went missing. The planner had different colored inks scrawled across the page, each color symbolizing priorities, and reminders written in quick shorthand. Her curtains draped closed, as they were when she wasn't in the room. There was a corkboard hung on the wall with pictures thumbtacked into its surface. Many of them were of D.I.C.E, of family photos, and some of just him and his cousin. There was only one picture on there of just her back to the camera, and her profile hidden with a wide brim hat. She was walking down the beach with her hands clasped behind her back. The wind must've been blowing since her hair was all over the place. It was a stylistic photo, and the only one he knew of that could wield a camera like that was Ovetere. Which meant this must've been a spontaneous trip that some of the D.I.C.E members took, or they had met up somehow and just decided to mess around with the camera.

His attention left the board to the laptop that was sitting idly on the desk. He knew that this day would come sooner or later. Digging up secrets, he couldn't think of any that Aki would keep, but Takahashi told him one already. She wanted to travel around and keep a distance between her and the Saihara name. Shuichi couldn't fault her for it. He sat down at the desk and turned on the laptop, noting with amusement that the surface covered with different kinds of stickers. Her collection was endless, and it was everywhere. On the consoles of her video games, on the corkboard, on the laptop. He knew if he dug around her bookshelf, he could find her albums of stickers. He waited for the computer to load as he looked around her room again. His furniture matched the dark aesthetic of trying to keep his place as cold and minimalist as possible. Her furnishings were light wood and reflected the light from the overhead fan and the sunlight when she opened the curtains. 

He could almost hear the soft twang of her guitar playing, and he could just visualize her sitting on her bed with her guitar on her lap, curling around it as she focused on practicing a chord or a song. It was a typical scene—a standard memory. Even before Kokichi showed up in their lives, him reading in her room while she practiced was commonplace. It was hard to believe that during fits of insomnia, he wouldn't hear her play anytime soon—no random knocking on doors to check in on each other and trek up to the vending machine. 

Shuichi saw that her laptop was password-protected, but he didn't need to be a hacker to know what it was. He typed it in out of memory and stared at the desktop picture. It was last year's New Year shrine visit. Their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders -Shuichi had to bend down to compromise the height difference-, and they were grinning at the camera. Shuichi's smile is a little more timid and shy, and her bright and beaming. She wore a yukata even though it was freezing and that she should've worn a jacket, and Shuichi bundled up in a scarf and earmuffs. They had taken the picture away from the crowd, but close enough that it could still be seen a little in the background, showcasing the line and the people who were trying to get a wish. 

It startled him to see that this was the picture on her laptop. He didn't think that anyone kept the photo besides Keiko or Koji. He didn't remember Aki requesting the picture, but maybe he hadn't paid attention when he got dragged into the embrace. He felt his eyes burn and a lump form in the back of his throat as he tried to swallow past all of it. He needed to stay focused. Right now, traversing memories wasn't going to solve this case.

Just like that, however, his mind decided to be helpful and remind him that Takahashi said that she was planning to leave the Saihara household. Bracing himself to find nothing but apartment searches and universities for music, he got himself back upright and went onto her internet. 

If anyone wanted to know anyone, whatever they searched on their history told a fair amount of their story. Composing contests, youtube channels dedicated to guitarists and musicians, discussion forums on music...a twitter. Shuichi didn't doubt that Aki networked, trying to see who would bite if she was actively trying to leave, but...there was not a thing that she recently posted on her account that said anything about wanting that. The youtube videos she watched were of people that she admired and actively supported. There was nothing to indicate that she wanted to leave. 

If she was bait, chances were, Danganronpa didn't have a clue until they started researching a little more heavily into her about who she was or didn't have a clue at all since Aki was firmly silent about her name. If it wasn't bait...then, Danganronpa really went out of their way to try to find her. Shuichi just couldn’t imagine his aunt making such a massive wave with a case that it would result in something dramatic as a kidnapping. At the same time, considering that it was nothing more than a snuff game, and everyone was a contestant....he couldn't put it past them. Everything was a possibility right now, and until he heard more from his uncle or his aunt about the Jabberwock Case, nothing was set in stone. 

It didn't fit with Danganronpa's MO. They went after local celebrities, and they stuck with local newspapers. Unless...Shuichi cupped his hand over his mouth as he tried to put himself into Danganronpa's shoes. If they were so slighted about the case that his aunt took, that they were willing to go out of their way to remind the police and law force what kind of power they would be granted...then it wouldn't bother them to research Aki. Take her hobby, and her talent...and taunt her with it as they did with the rest of the contestants. Only instead of being accomplished, they were belittling the fact that she wasn't, and that pissed Shuichi off. 

He confirmed once again that there had indeed been a "reason" for the kidnapping. Shuichi felt confident that Danganronpa just didn't randomly take her from the street. Now to confirm the other piece of the puzzle. He opened her Discord as well as he decided to scroll as much through her history as he possibly could, she seemed to have kept it clear and clean most of the time. Getting on to her Discord, he noticed that she was only a part of two servers, D.I.C.E, and the Musician Symphony.  

The Musician Symphony wasn't an active group, but he could see that there were people that occasionally touched base. Going through the backlogs, Shuichi noticed that Aki tended to lurk more than participate in this server. He roamed through the channels before figuring out that the entire reason why she was there was to see what other people were doing and supporting them. He saw some of the tweets people were posting onto the channel. Some had been re-tweeted by her as a boost. She went through the youtube videos and commented on them, but she'd never discussed how she came across them. 

There was a notification on a familiar icon. Shuichi clicked on it, already having an idea of what he was about to walk into. 

[ Shuffle: Shuichi-chan-san's telling me that you're missing. You're not missing, right? You're home, or you're late or something… ]

[ Shuffle: Aki...please just go home? Please? If you guys had a fight or something, I know Saihara-chan-san will be willing to hear you out...or Ouma-sama-san! ]

Those were all...on the day Aki was reported missing. Shuichi closed his eyes and let out a soft breath. 

A couple of days later, Shuffle tried again to reach out.

[ Shuffle: I know that this isn't going to reach you, we don't know where you are, but I feel like I have to say something anyway. ]

[ Shuffle: I'm really, really scared Aki. ]

[ Shuffle: I'm scared we're going to find you dead. I'm afraid that we're going to find you traumatized. I'm worried that you're...not going to be the Aki that we all know and love. ]

[ Shuffle: I feel so dumb. ]

[ Shuffle: I should've done something. ]

[ Shuffle: Called you, met you closer than the intersection. ]

[ Shuffle: I'm such a terrible friend. Asuka says that I'm not. Tohru says I'm not. Everyone's saying to me that I'm not. ]

[ Shuffle: But I can't even help our leader like you can, Aki. I don't think Saihara-chan-san can help either. ]

[ Shuffle: he just sits at his laptop, all scared. ]

[ Shuffle: Maybe I should just ask for a pancake night. ]

[ Shuffle: There's no point in talking to a ghost that's not gonna reply. ]

Discord didn't shed any new light. Not that Shuichi was expecting it. He clicked off the website and rubbed his eyes, trying to think. Danganronpa knew that something was up. They knew that they were being investigated or that someone was poking around. Getting called up by Jabberwock over the technology only made them paranoid. It was the only theory that Shuichi had that didn't feel like he was stretching to reach a conclusion. 

Maybe they thought someone was getting suspicious over the newspaper clippings and decided to target using other methods? If that was the case, then who got close enough to make Dangnaronpa sweat? Shuichi curled a finger against his chin. He doubted his uncle was the one that pressed them against the wall. At the same time, the theory that Ando had about Aki being bait was...still useful even if Shuichi hesitated to believe it. 

Just what was happening on Jabberwock? What was the technology that was apparently stolen or lost? Why would Danganronpa admit to having it? Why would they even use their name? 

What was their cover story? Shuichi sat straighter. A gut feeling stirred into his stomach, and he decided to just see if he was right. Instead of going into her history tab, which he knew would have nothing, he scrolled through her bookmarks. They were neatly categorized and organized from music to school work, and the abundance of files told him enough that everything had a place. There was one folder that was hidden in the music section; however, that caught his attention.

Travel Plans

Clicking on it, Shuichi saw a list of hotels and maps that were in her bookmarks. They were hot spots in each prefecture. Touristy areas as well as places that were off the beaten path. Shuichi picked one from the list, and saw that there was a museum that was dedicated to the Tragedy. It had been one of the several areas that had been annihilated. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume that Aki was looking at history. Her interests were vast: psychology, history...the Tragedy was just both lined into one common event. There was a stigma that surrounded people who studied it and there was shame around those who talked about it. There was an underlying fear that it could happen again, or would happen again. No one wanted to teach the subject besides a quick overview, just in case.

It was probably the same shame that kept Jabberwock Island from being talked about too. Shuichi pursed his lips together as he decided to click on Jabberwock Island’s website. 

The screen turned black, and for one horrifying moment, he thought he was going to see the emblem of Danganronpa spin around in a loading mode. Instead, what appeared to him looked to be like a flower with five sharp petals that were in a circle. As the page loaded, a flower petal colored itself a bright magenta. The page finally came into view, and Shuichi could not believe what he was seeing.

Welcome to Jabberwock Island.

The header had a large white font, and the picture was of the island's map of six islands. The tiny main island that was in the middle of it, and the five larger sections that made up the home. It was an island that was a few months away on a ship, and a decent six-hour flight from Japan.

He quickly found the "history" tab, and he stared in surprise as he read the blurb.

"An island that once used to be an amusement park was abandoned during the Tragedy in 20xx. The Future Foundation had renovated the amusement park into a military base in 20XX and had used it to help rehabilitate the Despair 15, otherwise known as the Remnants of Despair. The Despair 15 have decided to stay on Jabberwock Island after the Tradgey's conclusion in 20xx and self-exiled themselves from Japan. What used to have a horrible history is now flourishing with tourism and immigration.

Hinata Hajime is the island's current Leader alongside Nevermind Sonia, who has strong political ties to the Novoselic Kingdom in Europe."

Shuichi doubted that a website mostly created to try to get traffic into their island would talk about the technology that they once housed or the people that were on the island. The Tragedy. Despair 15. 

Despair 15….

Did...Danganronpa has some sort of history with the Tragedy or with the Remnants of Despair? Shuichi never heard of someone mentioning the Despair 15 before, or of them being called the Remnants of Despair. Shuichi leaned back against the chair, the gears in his mind whirling. Remnants of Despair and Danganronpa. The missing technology. Something prodded in Shuichi’s mind to dig deeper at this. 

First thing first: there was one person that he could talk to during the game that would probably offer him some insight about the event. Maybe there was something that was glossed over in class that would bring all of this together. 

The second thing that he had to worry about was that Aki was going around to explore where the Tragedy hit the hardest.  Her knowledge that she knew about the Island and in turn knew where the Remnants of Despair were located. Not only that, but it was odd to Shuichi that Dangaronpa and Jabberwock had a connection involving the Kamukura technology.

It pained Shuichi to think about it. How much didn't he see because he thought everything was okay? He thought about her statement in the first episode or two. When she proclaimed that she felt lighter. I keep thinking about the cars. I keep seeing them. He didn’t ask where, did he? His stomach turned iced and he felt the world darken at the corners of his eyes. He assumed she was talking about the school, and Aki, who probably didn’t want him to worry any more than he already was, went with it.

He clicked out Aki's computer and shut it down. He went back to his room and booted up his own computer. The darkness of his room helped with the small headache that was starting to pound behind his left eye. He hated stress headaches, and he didn't want to get off track to get medicine when he was so close to the finish line. At least, a finish line of one mystery.

Usually, the episode started at the dining hall when everyone was gathered, but to Shuichi's surprise, the episode started in a room that gave off an unsettling vibe. There was a large monitor that hung from the dorm's ceiling with prominent speakers, which amplified the volume. There weren't any windows in the dorm, and even if there were, the windows would be slated and bolted down so that there was no thought, no hope for escape. The bed was pushed up against the wall. There was also a desk that had a fair amount of papers on it. It's a dorm room, it was neat, and Rantaro was sitting on the edge, running his hand through his hair deep in contemplation.

There was a soft ring of a doorbell, and Rantaro picked his head up. There were superficial circles under his eyes that spoke of a hard night's rest, and he looked disgruntled. He rubbed his eyes and stood up, walking over to the door and opening it. "Kokai-kun?"

"Sorry, da bodder, you." The Ultimate Falconer gave a smile, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. He, too, looked as tired as Rantaro looked. "I jus' wanna check in on you."

"I think there's a lot of other people that you should be worried about, I'm fine," Rantaro assured gently. "How are they?"

"Dunno. Came da loo' a' you." Kokai gestured, "You are na fine, an' dat's o' ay." His drawl was a little worse than Shuichi remembered. He wondered if it was from the exhaustion, or if Kokai wasn't trying too hard to speak correctly. He still didn't know where to place that accent...if that even was one. "I was gonna fin' Mayumi-chan an' Shirogane-san."

"Shirogane-san is probably heartbroken," Rantaro murmured. "...Why don't we go looking for them together? How about we start with Shirogane since she's the one that was probably hurt the most? Maybe we can work our way around the school as well."

"Dat' sounds good." Kokai nodded firmly and stepped out so that Rantaro could leave the room. "Where da begin?" He frowned. "I' dough of maybe her lab, bu' I'm na sure where id is."

"It should be in our monopads." Rantaro took the said monopad out and started tapping on the screen.

"I ha' nology," Kokai grumbled. "Pre' y sure id ha'es me do." 

Rantaro blinked, and he looked at Kokai curiously. "You... don't look at the monopads?"

"I can' ge' id da work!" Koka gave his monopad to Rantaro. He merely flicked the screen, and it turned on. The look of incredulity was astonishing, and Shuichi couldn't help but laugh, just as Rantaro chuckled. "I have done dat a dousands dimes! How?!"

"Maybe it's because I'm nice to it?" Rantaro offered as he handed it back to the flabbergasted student. "If you talk to it nicely and you touch it kindly rather than poking and prodding at it, it may be nice to you, and you can actually see where everyone is."

"Id shows you where people are?" Kokai blinked.

Rantaro quickly went through his and proceeded to show him a map. Shuichi frowned deeply, cupping his hand around his mouth. It was a little...eerie that students could keep track of each other. A good thing for a victim to have an understanding and a warning ahead of time. He had to doubt if anyone would use the monopads like that. Maybe some did. 

While they were busy talking about the monopads, Shuichi turned his attention to the chat room and decided to see if Shinigami was on. 

[ Seeker: Everyone's so quiet today. ]

[ Shinigami: Good evening, Seeker-san. It has been quiet. I have not seen Loki-kun around, which is to my pleasure. How are you? ]

[ Seeker: Struggling with History homework. ] It was probably a good thing that Kokichi wasn't in that chat room. Shuichi knew that was a terrible lie, but he hoped that it was hard to tell through the internet. 

[ Shinigami: Perhaps I can be of assistance? I am a scholar of sorts for cultural history. I may not be able to tell you a whole lot of whatever you are trying to accomplish, but I may be able to clarify a few facts. ]

[ Seeker: We’re learning a bit about the Tragedy. I don't really know what to look for online. Any advice? ] Shuichi had to cringe at how bad that lie sounded. He wasn’t getting any better at this.

[ Shinigami: The Tragedy is a complex subject, but...let me see if I can't put it into more... more detailed terms. No one is certain of how the Tragedy began. Some say it started with Hope’s Peak Academy, and the unethical human experimentation that they were doing. Some say that there was a group that made something called Despair Disease and decided to spread it around. My belief, as well as other scholars, is the fact that it was a combination of all these things at once. There were experiments done, just not by the Academy. The Despair Sisters had a hand in it as well.]

[ Shinigami: Allow me to further the conversation about the disease. It would twist the personality into something that was the opposite of them or enhance a part of the depending, and they would act on it. Some were liars, some would follow orders to the death, and some were….some were actively trying to become the same as the Remnants of Despair. Unfortunately for them, the longest they could survive the fever and the dehydration, along with the hallucination, was about three days. ]

[ Shinigami: It was rumored to have happened anyway. Some survivors claim that they saw the disease with their own eyes. ]

[ Shinigami: You have to understand the Remnants of Despair and the people that befell the chaos were….people that would actively torture and kill victims. Torture that included but certainly did not stop at unethical practices of doctoring and experimentation. ]

[ Shinigami: The Tragedy came to a conclusion after the Despair Sisters met their demise during the Hope's Peak revival. ]

[ Shinigami: It took five years after that to rebuild, and another ten to fully recover. ]

[ Seeker: I see. Why is it hard for people to study the event without being cast in a terrible light? ]

[ Shinigami: Humans are afraid of things that they can’t control or predict. The Tragedy was one such instance and there’s a fear that someone will think it’d be a good idea to bring it back. Scholars like myself are even warned to tread carefully around the Tragedy, as there was once a superstition that even mentioning it, let alone studying it, would cause the Despair Disease to flare up again. Ludicrous yes, but...people want to pretend that it’s not as scary as it is. ]

Shuichi let out a long breath as he let the information sink into his mind. 

[ Seeker: Does Danganronpa have anything to do with the Tragedy? ]

[ Shinigami: No. But they were inspired by an aspect of it. ]

Shuichi thought for a moment that Shinigami would go off again and give him the information, but for some reason, that wasn't happening. Shuichi had a feeling that even if he pressed, Shinigami wouldn't say. It must be something to do with his contract about watching the killing games and writing that paper of his. 

There was something about those games then that they were mimicking or were trying to do. Despair 15...

Would it really be off of the mark to think that Danganronpa was attempting to see if falling into despair would be as easy as the Tragedy made it appear? Would it really be off of the mark to think that someone thought that the Remnants of Despair weren't all on Jabberwock Island?

Hope's Peak Academy...Shuichi grabbed his notebook and quietly wrote down the name. He was going to have to do more digging. Here he had hoped that the mystery would be done and over with, but Danganronpa was good at keeping the questions coming. 

They were good at keeping an audience captivated at the screen.

It appeared that Shirogane was indeed in her lab, the boys took a daring look at each other, probably preparing themselves for hysteria, or tears, or other things. Shuichi wondered if he was going to cringe at how they would try to comfort her or be moved that they actually attempted. Rantaro was the one that decided to be brave and knock on the door.

It took a few tries, but Shirogane appeared, looking distraught and heartbroken as Rantaro predicted. Her cheeks were covered in tear stains, her nose was running and red. Her eyes are blotchy and swollen. She did her best to look presentable, but even the Ultimate Cosplayer couldn't hide her misery. "I'm sorry you have to see me like this. I know I'm being so boring right now and-"

"Enough of that." Rantaro frowned as both of the boys moved to be in her lab. The area reminded Shuichi of the backstage or a green room of a show. She had racks of different types of costumes, some of which the backlog chat were animatedly discussing who their favorite anime characters were, and whether or not she'd reference them later in the long run. "Hey...can I hug you, Shirogane-san?"

"I'm all crying and snotty!" Shirogane cried out, her cheeks stained red. "You couldn't-"

"I offered." Rantaro gently coaxed, "Come here." Shirogane didn't seem to be able to hold her ground as she walked towards him as though hypnotized. Kokai watched from the sidelines as they hugged, and Shirogane sniffed. "It's okay," Rantaro whispered, gently stroking her hair. "It's okay. I'm so sorry, Shirogane-san. Yesterday was horrible. For all of us."

"I just wish Chatani-senpai said something." Shirogane whimpered. "I could've done something. I could've told her not to do it. I could've told her to wait. I could've…"

"Done nading." Kokai gently broke the conversation. "She made ‘er choice an' she knew dat id hur' people. Chatani-san an' Yadori-san did deir bes'. Dey wan'ed da escape. Id was a price dey paid."

Rantaro gave him a sharp glare, gripping a little tighter around Shirogane's shoulders and quickly shook his head, as though to warn him about going further.

"No, I know." Shirogane gently pulled away from Rantaro, wiping her eyes and trying to gather herself. "It's just like Death Note when L died, you know? You had all of this hope that they'd wind up friends only for it to be backstabbed and proven wrong." Rantaro and Kokai gave her blank looks, and she giggled nervously. "I'm sorry I don't know how to put it any other way. I'll be okay now. Just gotta keep my chin up. Like Naruto. Believe it!"

"I mean...if that's what makes you feel better." Rantaro rubbed the back of his neck. "It's okay to feel sad though Shirogane-san. We're here to support you no matter what."

"Thank you. You two are excellent friends to me. I'm so happy that a boring and dull girl like me has someone like you two." Shirogane beamed brightly.

"I'm surprised that Mayumi-chan hasn't come by to see you." Rantaro frowned deeply. "I wonder if she's okay."

Tsumugi waved it off. "I told her to go away." She looked down at the ground, distraught and upset. "I said some things...I was really, really angry. I'm a lot calmer now than I had been. I'm sure she's upset with me."

"I dob dat," Kokai assured softly, "Songbird isn' da type da hold a grudge. She understands. Promise."

Shuichi wanted to nod empathetically. While she could be found curled up against someone's door if they were having a hard time, she knew when she wasn't wanted and did leave people alone. Sometimes she knew when someone was just saying it, just to say it rather than mean it. He could remember the times she sat next to him, arms draped around his shoulder as he went through an anxiety attack, trying to shield him. Trying to comfort him. She never wasted her words, she was more than happy to stay silent and just be there. 

Tsumugi nodded as well, seemingly getting a hold of herself. "I'll have to make it up to her. Oh, ask her what kind of cosplay she'd do." She looked at the boys. "Please?"

"Sure." Kokai agreed, and Rantaro also nodded his agreement. "Bu' are ya goin' da be okay?"

"I'll be fine...I just...need today is all…" Tsumugi looked at the ground for a moment. "Have you checked in on Yuya-san?"

"No." Rantaro folded his arms. "You think she might need someone to talk to?"

"She loved Yadori-san, so I imagine she'd be just as heartsick as I am over Chatani-chan." Tsumugi shrugged helplessly. "I don't know if anyone's willing to reach out to her since she's a little out there."

[ Loki: Awwww, is this going to be another boring episode? So lame!!!!! ]

[ Shinigami: Ah, that's right, you missed the brutal execution and murder episode, didn't you? ]

[ Loki: Oh no, I saw that with my boyfriend <3. We were ecstatic that the two more boring ones died first. Looks like it wasn't the chemist, after all, Shiny! ]

[ Shinigami: Much to my displeasure, but I still hold the belief firm that she'll be a culprit sooner or later. ]

[ Loki: Are you still thinking that the cosplay chick and guacamole are going to be the survivors? ]

[ Shinigami: You know, my bet on Shirogane-san is wavering just slightly as Mayumi-san has proven herself to be survivor material. At the same time, I have a different theory about her. ]

[ Loki: Are you going to tell? ]

[ Loki: Hey! ]

[ Loki: Hey! ]

[ Loki: Hey! ]

 [ Shinigami: it really is a shame that we're merely separated by a screen. I would love to tear your vocal cords out. That being said, yes. I do have a theory. Yes, I will share it. My first theory is that Mayumi-chan is a Mastermind. ]

Aki? A Mastermind? That was too far off the grid. What good was a mastermind that couldn't remember that they were a mastermind? That just...does not make any amount of sense. It would be a cheap shot as well to try to get her murdered. 

[ Seeker: I highly doubt that. ]

[ Shinigami: Granted, that does seem a bit off. My other theory is that she is going to be playing this season's Traitor. ]

Shuichi wondered how much of this was a hidden message, and how much of this was Danganronpa's actual plan. He was going to have to get his uncle to ask about those case files sooner rather than later. He was going to have to see for himself just what kind of an impact this case had made, and why they'd get so angry only to find Aki.

It made him worried about why they didn't bother to go after him…

Unless…

If that was indeed the case, then this was beyond fucked up. Shuichi decided to stomp that theory down until he had more concrete evidence to say that was the case. For now, he needed to focus on what he actually had and what he even knew. 

"Danks. Can dat ding find her?" Kokai asked as both of the boys decided to exit the room. "Yuya-chan may na wanna 'alk da us."

"No, but we should try and let her know that she and Shirogane are in the same boat so that they have a support system." Rantaro frowned. "Then we can see how everyone else is doing. We may come across Mayumi-chan that way too."

"...Why do ya care?" Kokai frowned suddenly. 

Rantaro froze, and for a moment, Shuichi thought he wasn't going to try to reply. "Do you have any siblings, Kokai-kun?"

"Yes." Kokai nodded. "I have a sis." 

"Older or younger?"

"Does id madder?" Kokai frowned a little but thought for a moment. "I'm de old one." 

"So maybe you'll get it kind of," Rantaro muttered softly to himself. "Let's just say... I'm an older brother too."

"....Wow." Kokai paused. "You're a bedder, big bro 'han me."

"Why do you say that?"

"If dat was my sis cryin' in dere." He gestured towards the lab behind him. "I'd dell ‘er da suck id up loser."

Shuichi covered his face with his hands and groaned loudly. Rantaro let out a startled laugh, as though he hadn't been expecting that.

[ Loki: Wooow. That's cruel. Then again, I'd do the same thing easy peasy. ]

Instead of bantering, Shinigami went oddly silent. Shuichi wondered if this was an intricate subject for the person on the other end of the computer. Not everyone had a good or decent relationship with their sibling.

Shuichi thought back at his relationship with his cousin. He couldn't keep track of how often his cousin went after him and made sure that he was okay. How often she talked him down from an anxiety attack after an anxiety attack, how often she saw him cry. He couldn't remember the last time he saw Aki burst into tears. They fought...but Shuichi couldn't even call those fights. Everyone around them, Kokichi included, tended to say that they acted as though they were on a debate team. 

Shuichi remembered when Aki made him cry. He couldn't remember the fight, but he remembered her words: at least my parents didn't abandon me like a puppy at someone's front door. Shuichi held a grudge against her for a while for it; he wondered if he got her back. She always seemed to have such a firm grip on herself...it made Shuichi worry. He couldn't remember the last time he saw her cry.

He turned his attention back to the episode. Rantaro and Kokai were at a tiny little shack that was pretty far away from any of the school buildings. The shack looked as though it were about to crumble. It was barely being held up by anything but nails and some wires. Gonoji was standing on a ladder outside. His pliers were in his hands, and Yuya was standing outside, hands on her hips as she watched.

"What are you two doing?" Rantaro asked.

"Oh, hey, guys! What's crackalackin?!" Yuya grinned, turning to face them. She looked as though she just had gotten a little fried from something. Her clothes were smoking slightly as well as the ends of her hair. "I was trying to fix up my lab, but the wires were all messed up, so I asked Gonoji-kun if he could take a gander at it! Voila!"

"Da need help?" Kokai called up.

"No man, I got it." Gonoji grinned as he jumped down from his position on the ladder and looked at Yuya. "I think we might want to ask Monokuma to give you a better lab. This isn't exactly safe."

"But, it's gonna burn down anyway." Yuya pouted. "What good is a good building if I can't burn it down? The outdoors is my lab anyway, not that tiny little thing."

"Okay, okay!" He laughed, holding his hands out. "I get it. Well, I'll get out of your hair then. You got company, and I don't want to be in the way."

"Actually, I was going to come to find you anyway," Rantaro gave them both a kind smile. "I was just...seeing how you two were doing. Since...yesterday."

"I'm a firm believer that when things go bad, they go bad," Gonoji said simply. "Work keeps the demons away. I'm grateful that I was able to provide it too. I may just be in my lab trying to do something or another." He looked at Yuya. "Unless you think that Shimhara might want me to make the lights brighter on his stage or something."

"God, I don't know with that dick." Yuya frowned. "You can try, but he might just tell you off for thinking that his place is less than perfect."

"Or call ya da help." Kokai's shoulders slumped slightly.

"Now, now, it was a bad day." Rantaro gently chided. "Let's give him a chance to redeem himself."

"Oh, there's no redeeming people like him, Ran-Ran, but you sure as hell can try." Yuya scoffed. "Good luck, Gogai-kun I don't want to be you."

Gonoji laughed but walked off without another word. Rantaro and Kokai watched him leave before turning back to the arsonist, who was looking at her shack with a big smile plastered on her face. Yuya looked exactly like Kokichi would when a big idea hit, and decided to cause problems on purpose. Shuichi wouldn't doubt that her knowledge of fire and explosives would also go into firecrackers and gunpowder. 

"You sure you're okay? Shirogane-san…"

"Yadori-san lied to me." Yuya broke Rantaro off. "I know you mean well, but... I'm not really grieving here; I'm fucking furious. I'm gonna lit a bitch and watch it burn. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do that, which gets the message across. You dig me?"

"You're scary." Kokai let out a short breath. "I dun wanna be on your bad side."

"Aw. You're lovely, Kokai-kun." Yuya beamed, "I don't want to be on yours either. So let's make a promise to not make promises, yeah? They're just gonna get broken in the end. If you excuse me, lads, I have a date with a fire extinguisher. Later, crocodiles." 

".... That's not exactly how that phrase goes." Rantaro watched her slam the door of the little shack, and it rattled violently enough that it threatened to fall. 

"'Elling her dat will be a mis'ake." Kokai winced, sweating beading down the side of his face. Shuichi didn't doubt that at all. Yuya was stubborn for the sake of it. Talking to her when she was angry wasn't going to get anywhere. She might want to speak when she calmed down some, but...Shuichi couldn't blame her if she decided to hold a grudge. He didn't like people lying either. Kokichi was terrible at it, he drove Shuichi up the wall, but there were differences in the lies that he told and the ones that Yadori had said. 

There was a difference in someone murdering to protect someone, and killing because they thought it was the right thing to do. Shuichi tugged on his hat, despite that there was no way they would be able to see him.

The episode ended without any mention of the flashback light, but Shuichi didn't doubt that was going to be the next thing to be touched upon in the next few episodes. That is if no one decided to go after each other without needing much more than a reason. It was disturbing how easy it had been for the first murder to take place. Just a seed of doubt and that was that it took for two people to wind up dead.

That flashback light may not have to even try hard at all to get the rest of the group paranoid enough to kill each other. Shuichi quietly logged off of Danganronpa, his mind whirling over the information that he had received, and the knowledge that he was slowly obtaining. 

It wasn't going to be a comfortable night tonight. 

                                                         X

[ Stolen Heart: I don't think Aki-chan would be a traitor, do you? ]

Shuichi glanced at the corner of his phone to see that it was nearing three in the morning. Currently, he was trying to figure out a way to sleep, but his mind kept mulling over the information that he had gathered from the game and from Aki's laptop. He couldn't help but feel the same disconnect that most families felt when they were confronted with evidence that the person that they loved wasn't who they thought. 

At the same time, Shuichi didn't really ask her about any of it. If he had...would he still be surprised? Maybe. He doubted Jabberwock would've come up in conversation. Regardless, he decided to respond to Kokichi despite how late it was at night. He needed the distraction, and perhaps so did his lover. 

[ Me: It's more of a possibility than a mastermind. ]

Shuichi closed his eyes as he rested the phone against his chest, feeling the exhaustion creep upon him. Just how badly did Keiko fuck Danganronpa over?

That night he had the weirdest dream of a train going by, Aki was dangerously close to the edge of the stop. Her hair violently whipping across the wind. He remembered reaching out. He didn't remember the conversation, but he remembered her turning her head towards him, and a simple sentence crashed him awake.

Don't you choke now.

[purplesurveys]

924

Do you have a taste in your mouth right now? What of? Just the faint taste of coffee since I have a cup at the moment but haven’t drunk from it in the last few minutes. Which is your least favourite day of the week? I’ve lost the concept of the days of the week for a few months now, man. Back when we used to do things, though, I hated Sundays as I felt loneliest on that day. It was always an automatic thing too so I had little control over it. If told to clean the house, would you be more inclined to clean one room really well or clean all of the rooms with hardly any effort? Clean all rooms with maximum effort. I’d be really bugged if I didn’t strive to be perfect with the whole place lol. Do you put glue on the object you're sticking down or on the paper? Object, so that the amount of glue I’m putting would be accurate. What was your last dream about? I don’t remember the details anymore but at the very least, I know it was very vivid since I remembered it throughout the morning. I’ve been having very detailed dreams lately – it’s the depression for sure. 

What is your favourite part of the last movie you watched? Haven’t seen a movie in a while but the last thing I watched in full was The Crown; Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret really shone through in the last episode I saw. Have you stuck any stickers to the computer you're using? I put all my stickers onto my laptop case but not the laptop itself. I haven’t had the case on for a while now though, since I’m always just at home now. Do you ever write or talk to yourself in your head when you're bored? Yes or when I’m feeling upset, as long as I’m alone. I’ve found that talking to myself is a healthy way to address and deal with my emotions. What interests you the most about other people? What I find interesting always varies. I have friends who I find interesting for their music tastes; some others for their knowledge of random trivia; some for their jobs, etc. It’s always different. Do you ever take random pictures out of boredom? What of? Not really. If I take photos it’s because I want to remember a moment or because I find something cute or funny. Basically anything that elicits a strong emotion out of me, I’m bound to take a picture of. Do you prefer listening to things through headphones or speakers? Headphones. How many siblings do you have? Do you get on with them? I have two siblings. I only get along with my sister; I have not talked to my brother since last year and have no desire to again. Would you rather live in a log cabin or a brick house? Mmm I’d take the brick house. Log cabin would be nice for a quick getaway, but I wouldn’t want it to be my permanent home. There’s a psychological factor in there and I just think that staying in a log cabin would make me feel suffocated eventually, haha. Do you have a calendar up for this year? I have a ‘Job Applications’ calendar that I’m currently monitoring, and it tracks the applications I’ve sent out to different companies and how long I’ve been waiting for a response from each of them. Really needing some positive vibes and energy since I actually just got my first rejection notice today. Other than that this year has been pretty fucking boring and there’s been little need to keep an active calendar. What was the very first CD you bought? The first CD I remember asking my parents to buy for me was like the High School Musical official soundtrack. I was big on Disney as a kid and wasn’t a big fan of any solo acts or bands up until I was around 10. Do you keep things like old train tickets, etc? Yessssssss. Do you like your smile? Why (not)? I like it; I find my smile friendly and warm. I just hate smiling with my teeth at the present since one of my front teeth protrudes. Can’t wait to get braces again. Would you rather be able to sing or dance? Why? Dance. Dancers are super hot, lmao. What was your favourite colour when you were a kid? Do you still like it? It was purple/violet and it was mostly influenced by my great-grandma who lovedddd the color and had it everywhere in her home. When she passed away, my love for the color slowly faded away and I don’t think too much of it now. Have you ever said 'lol' in real life? Haha yeah sometimes. I pronounce it as ‘lohl’ and never ‘el oh el’ though. Do you like your friend's parents? I like most of their parents, though I’m aware that some have abusive tendencies. Most of the parents are super nice, though. JM’s mom cooked a big lunch for us once and his dad buys like four party-sized boxes of pizza every time we come over, Angela’s parents treat me like their own kid, Gab’s mom constantly tells me she loves me...it’s in the little things. How many times have you moved? I can remember just the two times, but I know that we moved several times more when I was an infant. Have you ever refused to try a certain food? Which? Most stuff with fruits, hah. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, like when a sushi roll has mango or if I’m having banoffee pie, but I almost always refuse a meal with some kind of fruit in it. What's your favourite type of soup? Not really big on soup. I just like miso. Very occasionally I’ll have mushroom soup too. What is your favourite candle scent? I don’t buy candles nor do I know people who regularly get them, so I’m not very familiar with the different scents. Does the sight of blood make you feel ill? In real life, it would. I always have to look away whenever Gabie gets a nosebleed ha. But I have no problem watching bloody wrestling matches and I actually enjoy the bloodier ones. Super weird quirk of mine. What do you call it when you're sick anyways? (Sick, ill, not well, etc) If I’m referring to a fever I call it sick/ill/not feeling well. If I feel like throwing up I say I’m getting dizzy/need to vomit. I’ve never referred to puking as ‘getting sick,’ and it took me a very long time to realize that it was a common American saying, haha. Did you ever really believe in the tooth fairy? I did, and I felt super betrayed when I put my tooth under my pillow only to see it again the next morning. If you had to appear in a movie, which genre would you choose? Coming of age. What do you do with unwanted gifts? I keep them, since I still appreciate the effort of the gift-giver. Are there any clothes you haven't worn in ages, that you've suddenly started wearing again? HAHA yes. There will be rare instances where I get to go out and I always take the time to look stylish as all fuck, even though I’m only running an errand and wearing flashier pieces would be so unnecessary. I just miss dressing up and looking cute, man. Do any keys on your keyboard stick? Like, if they’re sticky? No. Would you rather own a laptop or a computer? Laptop. Love it when things are portable. Do you think you'll look at old photos of yourself and be embarrassed? My teenage years are definitely bad especially with regard to my fashion choices lol, but so are everyone else’s so I’m not super embarrassed. I cringe at the photos but I wouldn’t mind if my friends poked fun at them because chances are I’d join in too. What was the worst hairstyle you ever had? I always hated it whenever my mom took me to the salon to have my hair rebonded. That kind of look has never worked with my face shape and so I usually did everything for my hair to start curling up quicker and go back to its original form. Do you like t-shirts with sayings on them? Why (not)? Not really. It’s just not a personal preference. I like plain or slightly printed pieces. Do you click on the adverts at the side of the screen? No. Have you ever coughed and sneezed at the same time? I’m sure it’s happened before. Are you embarrassed to show people your ID photo? Nah. Whatever dude. Have / would you ever become a cheerleader? I haven’t, but I would have loved to. We don’t have a cheerleading club or varsity in my old school though so I was never able to hone my skills, if ever. What's the longest you've gone without eating? Maybe a little more than 24 hours. What is one of your biggest irrational fears? Commercials airing at night. I find jingles and graphic effects unsettling by a certain hour lol. What comes up when you press Ctrl + V? “I reeeeally miss seeing you and your purple things and seeing you give glares to people who deserve it. what a lodi <333” omg aw. It’s Jane’s birthday today and I copied that bit of my greeting to move it to another paragraph so that my message would flow better. Out of the bands you listen to, were most of them around before or after you were born? After. When did you last jump out of fright? I don’t remember. Are you currently waiting on something? What? For a company to take me in. Does time pass slowly or quickly when you're on the internet? Usually it’s quickly, but now that I feel more and more useless around the house, time’s been more slow and for the first time the distractions of the internet haven’t been working. What about when you're at school / work? Depended on the amount of stuff I had to do and whether I’m enthusiastic about them or not. Does the thought of being pregnant gross you out? The thought of giving birth does, but not pregnancy. What was the last thing you made with your hands? I mean I made myself a cup of coffee tonight, but the coffee mix itself was already pre-packaged. I just mixed it with hot water. Are you good at making shadow puppets? I’d say no. Are you more hungry or thirsty right now? Neither. I’ve been so anxious and depressed these days I’m actually skipping every single meal except dinner, and even then I eat very little. I don’t even do it on purpose; my anxiety has simply stopped me from feeling hungry. No idea what the weighing scale’s gonna tell me the next time I check, sigh. Someone hire me plz. God it really sucks being a fresh grad in this current state of the world. Are you prone to headaches? No. They only come out during hectic schedules and stressful weeks. Do you forget things easily? The little and everyday things, like forgetting my school ID at home or where I placed my keys. But I don’t forget things that are more bigger-picture, like birthdays or faces or memories. Do you enjoy going out to dinner? I enjoy it and I terribly miss being able to do it. Would you ever go on a cruise ship holiday? I would and I have. Lots of fun. Would do again and again. What's your favourite sea animal? Dolphins and whales. Do you get coughs or colds more? Coughs.

[rayroute-clear-saeran-text-sound]

The Making of Ecstasy (Saeran x Reader)

Not sure if this is a little long for tumblr, as I’m not used to writing on this platform! Will this get slept on? probably. This is based off of Casual and Deep stories’ prologue bad end, apologies if it’s ooc. Of course my first piece on here had to be Saeran, who else would it be?

You were the only one in the intelligence room at the moment, and although it was dark, it was nice and peaceful. The usual furious clicking of keys was absent, instead replaced by the dull hum of computers and the light scratching sound of your pen against paper. Luckily, the dark circles under your eyes were hidden in the shadows of the room. The only light available to you was the minute amount cast from the several monitors you were staring at. Not that it mattered, what you were doing had no importance considering the logs existed permanently within files Unknown had stored. In other words, if your work was illegible, it wasn't the end of the world. Unknown would only punish you for it if he was in a bad mood or if he had a killer headache. You were tasked with making hard copies of every single chatlog from the RFA chatroom, a job given to you with no other purpose than keeping you busy, tired, and irritated. 

"MC is so gullible..." You murmured to no one but yourself. Unknown had originally tried to get you to play the role of party coordinator for the RFA, but you weren't having it. You did show up to the apartment, but you had ignored everything he told you and wouldn't step inside. Unknown somehow decided that you would make a good assistant, and you only agreed because he had you at gunpoint at the time. Now you were living at Mint Eye with Unknown, so numb with tiredness that you stopped caring if you lived or died. You weren't considered a believer yet, as you hadn't taken any elixir. You saw how it made Unknown feel, and you wanted no part of it. Sure, you may not have the freedom to roam around Magenta, but at least you had your sanity. If you wanted to go somewhere, you had to have the permission of the savior and be accompanied by Unknown. It wasn't as if you had grown to like Mint Eye and Magenta, it was more that you had gotten used to it, which meant you had become comfortable with it on some level. Your eyelids began to flutter shut as you closed the last chatlog, job done until another one opened at one point or another. Just as your head began to drift slowly into a light cat nap, you felt fingers dig into your shoulders tightly and suddenly, causing you to jolt up and scatter your papers everywhere. You whipped around to come face to face with a pair of mint green eyes that held mischief.

"Did you miss me, princess?" You huffed as you bent down to pick up the papers on the ground, holding back the urge to strangle him in order to make that laughter stop right in his throat. 

"These papers all are out of order now, I hope you're happy, Unknown." He shrugged, obsidian eye tattoo catching your attention as always. 

"I don't care." He took the stack of logs from your hands and threw them haphazardly into the filing cabinet that he put all of your work in. In actuality, there was nothing really of value, just a lot of Zen bragging about how handsome he is. You had grown to hate the RFA as well, probably because of how much time you had spent around Unknown. Naturally, he had rubbed off on you. He was the only one you were allowed to see after all. Your eyes analyzed his face cautiously, as there was a vague, worrying excitement in his features that you had yet to place.

"What's up? Are we going somewhere again...?" You couldn't help but become equally hopeful at the prospect, you didn't get to leave Magenta very often.

"No. Savior gave me a special assignment, and I need your help." You raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Her special assignments usually meant cleansings, and you hated those. You mainly helped to restrain the unlucky souls who were the subject of the ceremony, and whenever Unknown was the one doing the cleansing, it was a bloodbath. Everyone at Mint Eye knew him to be ruthless, and you supposed it worked to keep everyone in line. It still didn't change how scarring they were to be a part of, and how much they scared you. You found yourself wondering if he would ever do those things to you, but you figured not. The most he had ever done to you since becoming his assistant was yell at you or smack you, and usually not very hard. That was all when you first started, and since you had been with him for a while, he had become softer with you. Unknown smirked at you, sending a slight shiver up your spine. You didn’t get much time to wonder how how he always had that effect on you. "Relax, it's not a cleansing. We're making a batch of elixir." You asked yourself why he needed your help, as he was perfectly capable of completing the task himself; he did it all the time. You thought it was a bit suspicious, but figured that he was asking for your company in the most indirect way possible.

“Fine. I’m your assistant, I have no choice in the matter, right, Saeran?” His eyebrows quirked up at the use of his real name, bringing you to cast your eyes towards the floor. “I mean, Unknown.” He shrugged, black jacket slipping farther down his shoulder while he cracked a grin.

“Whatever. Let’s just go get this done.” He seemed rather upbeat, which was odd to you. “You know the drill.” You nodded curtly as he placed his hands over your eyes, his gentleness surprising you. The not knowing aspect of everything killed you every time you walked out of the intelligence room, but you had grown used to the disorienting feeling of the unknown. You used to take short and nervous steps whenever you couldn’t see, but now you would take long and sure strides, knowing full well that anyone would move out of your way and that Unknown wouldn’t let you get in harm’s way; you were his assistant after all, so if you got hurt, it should be on his own accord. That was his fallacy anyway. As far as you knew, Magenta was big, but it seemed to take ages to get to the lab. “Stop.” Unknown’s voice was strong and commanding, and you of course listened without question. He finally uncovered your eyes, and you had to blink several times in order for your eyes to adjust to the harsh contrast in lighting. He was digging out his ID that doubled as a key card for the more secure and private rooms of the Mint Eye while you were still stuck on why he wanted you there.

“Unknown, are you sure I can be here?” The large and bland metal door made you nervous, and you had no idea what was behind it. You knew deep down that the savior had no idea you were attending the crucial task, and you were vaguely able to grasp that Unknown didn’t want her to know. 

“Tch. Of course.” His eyes screwed shut as he faced away from you, turning his attention on the door. “And don’t call me that!” Your eyes narrowed in question, as you were absolutely sure you had called him Unknown. “Call me Saeran...at least for the day.” 

“Um...okay.” Another red flag went up immediately within your brain. He was contradicting himself, something that had you wondering if you should run back and get his medication. When he began to heavily oppose himself it usually meant he was going to have an...episode. In actuality, you weren’t sure how to describe them. It was almost as if his persona was splitting apart. That, or he would have one hell of a headache. He swiped his card and the light on the handle blinked green three times, granting the two of you access. He swung the door open, holding it open for you with a smug grin.

“After you, princess.” You entered wordlessly, concern for him still in the back of your mind. You never liked seeing him in immense pain. You weren’t stupid, you could tell when someone was innocently being exploited. Not only did you want to get yourself out of Mint Eye, you wanted to get Saeran out as well. But, that was an issue to solve another day...perhaps in another life. Your breath caught in your throat at the sight of everything. You had made plenty of cult jokes during your time at Mint Eye, but somehow the image of a large, witch-like cauldron was no longer funny now that it was presenting itself right in front of you. There were countless cabinets, the contents a mystery. Saeran closed the door behind him, leaving you alone with him in a room that smelled intensely of hallucinogens. In college, you had tried them once and vowed never again. However, you were more than familiar with them because of your roommate. “You’re going to want to grab the jars with the blue and green stickers, and the bottle with the pink sticker.”

“Yeah, sure.” Saeran dragged a large bowl out from somewhere, along with tools to blend and mix. It seemed the two of you were only making a small batch, which brought you circling back to the subject of why he needed your help. You hopped up onto the counter to grab the required items, and by seeing them through the jars, you could identify them well. “You use peyote and mushrooms in this?” You felt your stomach sickeningly sink, and were definitely glad you had refused any elixir given to you. 

“Huh? I guess.” His reply seemed to give off the impression that he had no clue about any of the ingredients in the elixir, he only knew how to make it. 

“Do you...know what those are?” You asked tentatively as he continued to prepare your work station. He shrugged. You took a sniff of the bottle, and the pungent alcohol smell made the liquid in question easily identifiable. “ And methanol?!” It was not at all surprising that he was always wrecked after taking the stuff. It was a wonder how he wasn’t dead from how much he was taking on a regular basis. “Saeran…” 

“It’s fine! It’s the elixir of salvation, it’s necessary...”

“Salvation isn’t supposed to be pain, Saeran.” If he heard you, he was ignoring you. You wanted no part in the actual making of the elixir, you only watched as he skillfully mixed the drugs and chemicals together with other hazardous ingredients until it came out as a toxic chemical punch with an unnaturally vibrant blue hue. Once he was done, he turned to you with a teasing glint in his mint green eyes. “Uh oh...” You murmured to yourself, despite feeling your lips curve into a slight smile.

“Why don’t you be the taste tester?” He held one of the bottles that he had funneled the batch of elixir into out to you. It did look a bit mesmerizing, the way the light reflected off of the heart shaped glass, the liquid inside looking as if someone had bottled neon signage.

“No.” You shook your head, pushing his arm away.

“Oh come on, I need to know if it’s good!” You knew he was joking by the way his words were broke by giggles. You were glad that he felt comfortable enough alone with you to relax a bit and let loose without being violent. 

“No, and that’s final!” Your own giggles tumbled out past your lips.

“Okay, fine. It’s probably for the better. Once you have the elixir, you can roam wherever, and then you won’t be mine anymore.” Your eyebrows furrowed in both concern and confusion, as he had immediately snapped back into a deadly seriousness. He stayed as silent as a grave as his eyes raked over your frame, finding they’re purchase on your face. A bad feeling began to settle in the pit of your stomach. You knew he had been acting strange, and at first he seemed to settle, but now there was an unsure look in his eyes that didn’t necessarily scare you, but it did worry you a bit. 

“Are you...” You trailed off as Saeran took a step toward you. You responded by stepping back, but for every movement back, he advanced forward. You weren’t afraid that he would hurt you, not at that moment. However, it didn’t stop you from being intimidated. Your breath caught in your throat when you felt your back bump into a counter, and at that moment you were trapped between Saeran and the counter. There seemed to be a storm brewing in his eyes, and you had a feeling the downpour was about to begin. “Saeran, what are you doing?” Such a simple question seemed to be a tablespoon of baking soda added to the vinegar that was Saeran’s emotional well, as he exploded. 

“You...you won’t leave me, right?!” Despite being taken aback by his sudden prompt, you were going to respond. However, he didn’t allow you the chance. “You can’t!” His voice cracked as tears pricked his eyes. “You and my savior, you’re the only ones I trust.” He dipped his head, bleached locks falling into his eyes while he put all his weight on his palms, which rested on the counter on either side of you. He began to throw himself into a dizzying spiral of repeated doubts, begging you not to leave him. You were caught like a deer in the headlights, heart hurting from hearing his broken words. Even though you wanted to leave the Mint Eye desperately, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t. Not without him. He’s told you all of his stories of betrayal, and you wouldn’t do that to him too. Even though you would both annoy each other, you cared about him and his well being when it really came down to it. 

Is he having an episode...? You thought to yourself as he continued his breakdown, his body shaking. You would always fetch his meds without question whenever he had a headache, usually before he ever snapped at you that his head was pounding and that he needed them. You felt so close to him, because you honestly were, you had been close to him after becoming his assistant, you were by his side at almost all times. So naturally, you would just know something was happening before it blew up into a huge problem. What you just couldn’t grasp was why he was so suddenly begging for you not to leave him. 

“You can’t leave me, okay?!” He was all but sobbing, wiping the tears that were threatening to spill with his shoulder. 

“What? Saeran, if you need your meds, I can run and get them if it’s your head that’s the problem-”

“Agh, no! You’re the problem!” He snapped at you, cutting you off. Admittedly, you felt a little hurt by his words, which was the first time since becoming his assistant that his sharp tongue had truly stung you. He saw your expression shift, and you thought you saw a flash of panic in his eyes. “It’s-” He huffed, shutting his eyes tightly and then looking at you once more. “You make me feel so damn complicated!” You bit your lip as the counter continued to dig harshly into your back. You could feel Saeran’s body pressed flush up against your own, as well as a fierce heat that rose to your face. 

“Saeran, I...” In truth, you weren’t sure how to respond. He made you feel equally as complicated. Did you love him? You thought so. Deep down, behind all of the trauma, you knew there was a good person. You wanted to confidently tell him that it would be okay, that everything he was feeling was natural, and that he deserved all of it. Hell, even spill your own feelings. However, all that managed to slip past your lips were incomprehensible and incomplete stutters. You didn’t have to stumble over your words for long, though. Saeran roughly slammed his lips onto yours, in an attempt to get across all that he didn’t know how to say. You were thankful, as your words were failing you as well. You moved your lips in time with his, hoping he would get the message. He seemed to regain his confidence as you two parted.

“You’re mine, and only mine.” He growled huskily in your ear. You knew that getting him out and away from Mint Eye would be a challenge, but you hoped that maybe this would be a step in the right direction. 

“Yes.” You spoke that single hushed word, and that was all Saeran needed. He pressed his lips against yours once more, with as much unbridled energy as before. He smirked against your lips, slipping his hands underneath your shirt, running his hands up your sides. You shivered as his fingers danced along your skin, still continuing to kiss him back. Just as he swiped his tongue gingerly against your bottom lip, the door to the lab was opened and the sound of someone awkwardly clearing their throat bounced off the floors. Saeran immediately distanced himself from you, face flushed as red as his tank top. You cast your gaze to the floor, unwilling to look at the believer who had interrupted the rather intimate moment.

“Unknown, the savior is looking for you.” The believer’s eyes darted around the room, never once catching Saeran’s. The believer was equally embarrassed of the scene he had just walked in on, judging by his blush that rivaled Saeran’s.

“Yeah, sure. If you tell anyone about this, I’ll make sure I’m the one doing your next cleansing.” The believer nodded quickly and briskly left the room, leaving you two alone once more. The mood had been killed, but it was probably for the best. It sounded as if he was needed elsewhere, anyways. “C’mon, let’s go. I’ll walk you to the intelligence room.” He once again placed his hands over your eyes when you were out in the hallway, leaning in close to your ear. “We’ll pick up where we left off later.~” He chuckled lowly, continuing to guide you through the many corridors of Magenta.

[badtusk]

Quick cover for my alternate universe Pokemon fanfic 

Riley doesn’t remember the “good old days,” not many kids her age do. Pokémon battles have been phased out, the Indigo League disbanded and the Elite Four remembered only fondly by those old enough to say they might have battled them. It’s not so bad, it’s hard to miss something you never had, but that never stopped anyone from dreaming - and Riley has big dreams. Chasing the whispers of a rumored underground Pokémon league, she hopes to challenge the new Elite Four and become a Pokémon master.

I usually don’t share my writing on here, but you can find the first installment under the cut here too c: 

"Are you sure you want to do this, Riley? I mean, there are easier ways to get a Pokémon than breaking into the Old Lab. Besides, there's no way they have any old pokéballs left in there, they probably got rid of them all when they turned the place into a museum. I'm sure The Pika Cabin has some great Pokémon you can adopt."

"Liv, the Pika Cabin only ever has Rattata and Pidgey. Maybe a Snubbull. You look me in the eye and tell me Rattata is a great Pokémon," said Riley.

"They're cute," it was a very poor lie. Liv never liked rodents, not since her brother's Pikachu made a nest out of her favorite boots. The thing had given her a good shock when she stuck her foot in without looking. She cried.

Her brother still brings it up every family gathering.

"I don't really care if they're cute," said Riley, "if I'm going to compete in the Cinder Circuit, I want something that's going to win. Every new challenger is going in with Rattata because that's ALL anyone has. I want something different."

"Cinder Circuit?" Liv asked with a here-we-go-again air. "Come on, Riley. PLU shut down Pokémon battling years ago. There's no super secret underground league."

"That's the point of a super secret underground league," Riley said, "it's super secret."

"Where'd you even hear about it, huh? And don't say Bruce."

"He said he got his Pokémon from the Old Lab, from some guy named Big Hoss," said Riley, "Apparently this guy runs the entire League with his own Elite Four."

"Oh come on, Riley, you know he's just messing with you. And even if he's not," said Liv, "what're the odds this Big Hoss guy isn't some kind of sketched out dealer or something? You're going to go in there and get yourself killed, or worse."

"Look, if you don't want to go in, you can stay out here and be lookout," Riley said.

Liv jammed her fists into her coat pockets, "Fine."

"Text me if you see anything," Riley checked her Pokégear for good measure, noting her 45% battery life. More than enough for a "Rangers are coming" text.

She tucked it away and exhaled a calming breath, looking out at the fence that kept them out. She pulled the mane of pink curls out of her face and fixed them into a springy ponytail. Stray wisps framed a soft tawny face, her eyes magnified by gold circle rimmed glasses matched to a jeweled ring pierced through her septum.

Her mother hadn't approved of the piercing three years ago when she came back from Goldenrod with it fresh in her nose. She didn't much mind it now, bargaining that it was better than stealing or doing drugs.

Riley would be sure not to tell her about tonight.

"Be careful," Liv said.

Riley pushed her way through a hole in the fence and made her way towards the Old Lab.

Professor Oak's lab lay a ruin of memory, strangled by overgrown vines and dark shadows. Their fingers digging deep into the old bricks, spreading like an infection until the whole building was locked behind an iron gate posted with ugly signs marked :DANGER: and :DO NOT ENTER:. Bold letters, bold paint, hidden beneath a layer of dust and dirt, warnings that seemed just as apathetic as the Rangers that patrolled the grounds, punctuated with an indifferent shrug.

They had tried once to restore the old building, stripping away the rot and root and every broken brick in between. They'd dressed it up nice and plastered posters within her walls to hide the holes they couldn't fix. Old news, championships long passed and won; They figured history might thrive here, a nostalgic memory to the "good old days" when people and Pokémon battled to become "Elite." Because this is where it all began. But even that wasn't enough to save the old lab or the new museum it had become. Old display cases collected in their filth, glass like winter's frost, muculent like soap, but far less as clean or pleasant. The curios of the bygone sat beneath a layer of dust so thick they looked more like crude sculptures, ready to fall apart at the softest sigh. Monitors hung as empty black picture frames, silent in their omnipresence, cameras too still bowed over corners, soft fuzz prickling the glass that bulbed their eyes.

For so long it sat here, among all its dust and all the creeping woods, fading into the static of a familiar background where it became its own ghost. Remembered fondly by teenagers all for the wrong reasons, graffitied into the walls and littered upon the floors.

Riley clicked on her flashlight. The beam of light cut through the choking dark, filaments of dust drifting through its stream. She swept its light from one end of the hall to the other, murky glass casting back glares in what little clarity they had left.

She couldn't remember what this place looked like when there wasn't a gate and all those signs. Not many people could though. It's life as a museum was short lived, shut down when the Pokémon Liberation Union came to rise saying that it promoted "old and dangerous practices."

The laws came with great backlash and still did, not many people were happy about it or the dissolution of the Indigo League. But time passed, as it's known to do, and soon those people were old and the new generation couldn't remember a time where Pokémon battles were the norm.

But - there were whispers, quiet whispers, ones you had to strain to hear and question even when you thought you did. They called it the Cinder Circuit, the last burning coal beneath the ashes of a bygone era, an underground league that ran all throughout Kanto.

Riley had heard of it from a friend, Bruce, who swore to its existence on the grave of his mother. Which always made Riley laugh, seeing as Bruce had two dads.

She was skeptical, most people would be, that was fair to say, but being the daughter of a Joy, the idea of an underground league was more than exciting. And it all started here.

She crept down the hallway, keeping her light low and away from the windows looking out. Empty nips littered the corners of the hall with crumpled candy wrappers and cigarette butts that reminded Riley she wasn't the only one who had been here, or, was here. But listening close she could only make out the sounds of the wind and the Rattata in the walls.

Her footsteps never echoed, quiet in the pillow of dust and debris as she made her way about the Old Lab, peeking in every door, hoping to find something more than the vast nothing of a worthless museum's worth of crappy curios.

Pi! The text notification made her jump, panic already setting in as Riley feared the worst. She fumbled to pull her Pokégear from her pocket, sticking her light beneath her arm as she did so.

It was Liv, "Did you get in?"

"Shit, Liv," she breathed, "scared the hell out of me." She texted back: "Yes."

Pi! "Find anything?"

"Nothing yet. Any Rangers?"

Pi! "Nope, you're still in the clear. What's it like in there?"

"Like your grandma's house."

Pi! "Lol"

There was an emoji that followed after the "lol," but Riley didn't have it installed. She didn't bother to ask what the white box with the X through it was. It wouldn't change the message.

She tucked her Pokégear away and flipped the flashlight back into her hand, fighting back the shadows that threatened to swallow the halls and great empty rooms of the Old Lab.

She swore she saw one move.

And chose to ignore it. That was much easier than admitting it had moved.

She made her way down into a great open room, introduced by a 63 point font, bold letter Impact sign that read "Professor Oak's Lab." Outdated computers lined the walls, blank monitors reflecting back Riley's own complexion there in the dark. Old machines no one knew how to use were still plugged into wall sockets that didn't work, strange contraptions all tubes and screens, buttons and widgets, valves and half cranks. Riley fantasized their purpose, but didn't quite have the mechanical imagination for it.

She inspected each, leaning in close and bathing them in the light of her flashlight. She ran her thumb over their serial plates, reading the numbers as if they'd allude to whatever it was that they were.

Behind her, another shadow moved.

Or maybe it was the same shadow.

She listed across the room, coming about to the circular, flat top pedestal settled directly at its center. A glass display case enclosed its top where three pokéballs nestled neatly within, a faded stickers on the glass read "Bulbasaur," "Charmander," and "Squirtle." Distracted, interested, either way and all around unknowing, failed to see the shifting about her as the black of shadows melded with the floor, shrinking away from the walls and leaving them bare, as if nothing more a dusty drape left to hide the Old Lab from the New World, now there in a puddle all it's own just behind her heels where red eyes peered up from its void. Glowing. Ominous and dreadful.

Riley tilted her light to the case and could see the device that would project the Pokémon's data on the glass were electricity still working in the Old Lab. "Just a display," she told herself "there's no way they're real. No way they'd just leave some Pokémon sitting out like this." And stepped backwards, directly into that puddle of shadow where her foot sunk half an inch.

Startled, she pointed her light to the ground and couldn't help the yelp of fear that bubbled in her throat as her eyes met those glowing red slits of playful hate.

She pulled her foot up and pressed her back against the pedestal as the shadow pulled up from the floor, two spiked ears first, glowing eyes next and a wide toothy grin.

"Oh shit...a Gengar..." Riley exhaled her nerves in some big attempt to look calm in front of the wild Gengar, but her voice betrayed her when it broke between her words "H-hey there buddy, this your place? Pretty cool." She gave the Pokémon a thumbs up as she slyly made her way about the pedestal, unsure of what her next move was going to be.

The Gengar watched her with that unflinching smile, the glow of its eyes casting new shadows across the Lab, all seeming to smile just as big as it.

It wasn't stupid, she could see it in his eyes, the same type of look any manager might give in hearing whatever lame cover up you had to being late that wasn't simply just "I slept in." It knew. And she wasn't ignorant to that fact. She had to be quick, but most of all - she had to be lucky.

Riley's gaze flicked down to the encased pokéballs, then back to the Gengar as the rather ill advised plan began to knit itself to fruition.

The latch that affirmed the glass case over the pedestal was old and worn, rusty about the edges and one good wrench away from breaking. Riley didn't know the first thing about breaking locks, but she'd broken plenty other things without meaning to, so she assumed it wouldn't be that hard. Or hoped so at the very least.

'Screw it,' she thought, 'I'm going to catch it.'