#like. we know it's just a big game of play pretend. none of these men are even real pals let's not get our days ruined over them

[chussyracing]

You should see what #his fans say about pr! something about fans connecting more with Max because he's more and I kid you not "real" and Charles fans being more superficial because he's obviously only a pr robot that doesn't have personality unlike their favorite driver 😭 who is except from pr obviously. We all see his true personality, shown by the non calculated team RBR, that just lets him "be himself". When I read things like that I have to just laugh and scroll

so true, you can allow yourself a quick pause for laughing but then it's back to scrolling for the next shitpost 🙃

[streetkid-named-desire]

Changes i want to see in the fandom and modding community in 2025

Or, "jesus christ there goes rat being an obnoxious loud mouthed broad again"

- more people rejecting mod exclusivity: posting their mods anywhere and everywhere and opening permissions to do whatever you want and just asking credit if you upload it. Because honestly what's up with the thought crimes nonsense of "ask permission before editing for personal use!!!!" You have no way of actually enforcing that. And furthermore none of us actually own any of the mods we make per CDPR's EULA so there is zero point except theater. None of you would survive the actual hacking/computer culture that the cyberpunk genre is meant to convey and/or satirize. We would not have Cyberpunk 2077 if it wasn't for open source, if it wasn't for budding game designers and developers to pick apart other games and play with making their own. Everything is a derivative of something. We should not be trying to perpetuate legal copyright frameworks when talking about intellectual property.

- more people purposefully and openly rejecting/oppressing/making fun of the absurd hypersexual bodies like the angel body: mostly because the desperation of men that use those bodies begging for refits is funny but also because we have got to stop normalizing this bullshit. Cis men are only one half of the population. We don't have to cater to them! Just stop it! You know it doesn't look good. I know it doesn't look good. Let's stop pretending that the men making these bodies are doing it because it's what people actually want to see. It's not. It's because people want jerk off material in their video games. It's why so many people are now making tiny Asian women OCs using that atrocious "Asian character creator". Because they're sex perverts. And that's not my ragging on being a sex pervert because I'm a sex pervert for my own OCs. But there comes a time where you have to step back and go "hey, this isn't what real women look like. Why am I trying to make my OC look like a blow up doll or a lolicon hentai character."

- big name fans are not above reproach, criticism, and boycotting: if you've followed me since at least like idk March or April you know exactly what I'm talking about. The only way to change the culture of the fandom is to have a zero tolerance policy for bullying and sycophants. Be the change you want to believe!

- End Discord Exclusives: similar to the first point but I also mean hoarding knowledge. Post it in a word doc and link it somewhere, add it to the wiki, just share knowledge somewhere easily accessible by anyone that doesn't have to make a new social account just to find it. And don't say you're only reachable on Discord. People shouldn't have to make a Discord account just to mod a video game. Find a better way you can provide support in a standardized and efficient way that isn't chatrooms. Use a ticketing system! Email! Forums! Q&As!

And once again, to reiterate, the biggest change I want to see?

big name fans are not above reproach, criticism, and boycotting

Speak out against them, there are more of us than there are of them. Don't tolerate their bullshit. Refuse to work with them. Do it publicly. If people close to them won't tell them "hey this is kind of fucked up" then they're never gonna fuckin' learn and change! They likely won't anyway let's be honest. But you don't have to tolerate that shit simply because they make mods you like or you wanna orbit in their circle.

It's a video game. It's not that serious. Your relationships with your friends are serious.

[davekat-sucks]

I've been like a huge scooby doo fan since i was like kid (yea no duh who else is it for?) I watched every show and movie, owned the wii games, would go out of my to play flash games of it, owned a plug and play, scooby doo themed birthday cake ,had a scooby plush, ya know huge scooby doo fag. Anyway there's been a weird fixation of focusing on only Velma and Daphne in recent years, like people are trying to have waifu wars over them. Like guys this is a group of dorky teens who catch guys wearing costumes with a talking dog, like none of their personalities are deep it's a collection of goofy character archetypes. Now of course they don't actually care about the characters themselves and would just rather project onto them and pretend Velma is super busty and also is a baddie girl boss lesbian which is fine but i know these people don't actually care about the series or the characters they just see an easy target to project their ideals on. The shipping is odd, i mean yea scooby doo has had romantic plots before and none of them were taken seriously, Velma has been stated as liking girls before and it was shown recently but there were plenty of other times she showed interest in men (like Johnny Bravo to name one). I don't think this series is fitting at all for romance and it shows, it's mostly played off as a joke but whatever. I just hope people think the wii games are awesome.

Yeah, the romance has never been the center stage during the mysteries. Even when there's hints of jealousy (like Daphne getting jealous when Fred had an interest in one of the Hex Girls or the girl from the Zombie Island movie), it's not played as a big deal or get in the way of the plot. One time it kind of was is in Alien Invasion, but that's because it would show the true aliens were not the big bad as the gang had assumed. Another reason I can see why people fixated romance is because of someone like Shaggy, who is shown to have a girlfriend in Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf. It was the only one time we know someone was in a relationship. Of course, Shaggy there is still seen to be interested in snacks over his girl and is mostly played for laughs. Doesn't help that the times that the gang had split that aren't movie centric was during the Scrappy-Doo era, where they started phasing the other cast sans Shaggy and Scooby to show off Scrappy. They would bring Daphne back, but reasons why wasn't Fred or Velma included makes people question. There probably was a reason within Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo shows, but they are either forgotten for things like not wanting to mention Scrappy and it's been a long time since anyone who watches it via Cartoon Network or Boomerang.

[thewornoutandtired]

Why My Boys Like Me

None of the other adults get it. Why do the kids always want to be around me? After all, Uncle Tyler is always mean to them, calls them names, makes fun of them, and tortures them for laughs. Yet the kids follow me around like lost puppies, doing whatever I say in whatever ridiculous game I decide we're playing this time.

It's especially bad with my boys. The three oldest, closer in age to me than their mothers are. They've always been my subjects, and dealt with some of the worst punishments I could dole out. From wrestling with the big strong uncle to beatings with foam swords, I've always been an awful bully to them.

At least, that's what everyone else thinks. They've never understood how it really is, far removed from their inner child as they are.

Once they're old enough to join the club of "Uncle Tyler's Room," they learn the rules quick. Those kids are all treated as equals. From the 20-year-old to the 6-year-old, to even me, nobody's exempt from the rules of the game. Play as a team, don't bad mouth people, share the controllers or the weapons, play fair, and plenty of other rules that children grasp immediately but adults have trouble with. We all play together, and if anyone acts out, everyone has to get out. They police themselves that way.

I also talk to them like humans. The other adults treat them like children, which they are, but to others that means treating them soft. What the adults view as being mean, is just talking to them like I'd talk to anyone else. Snide comments, jokes they're the butt of, and honest criticism when they deserve it. The kids eat it up, for better or worse, and they seem to honestly appreciate it.

For the boys, my boys, it's a bit more complicated. I grew up only a few years before them, and they watched me turn from a vicious, vindictive asshole, into somebody who wields their iron fist with a gentler hand. In turn, I got to watch them grow from kids who needed correcting every five minutes into young men who can play for hours even among the younger ones without losing their cools.

The boys understood while I always made them play as a team. I played the games all the time, so they had to use teamwork to kill me. I also stacked the odds against me, doing everything I could to make it possible for them, while also not holding back or letting them win. It's a weird sense of fairness, and even now we still play them.

Even when we were wrestling or fighting with swords, there was a weird sense of respect. They could hit me with whatever, and I'd do my best not to hurt them in return. I never lied about taking a hit, taught them a bit about what kind of hits a human body could take, and showed them some proper techniques on how to do fight.

As they got older, they learned that I was on their side first. Not their mothers', not my mother's, theirs. If something was going on, I was their first call, and I got there as soon as I could. Whether it was calming down their mothers, mediating a conversation, or picking them up from school.

They also learned that they could talk to me without me judging them. We talked about their struggles, their interests, hell even their sexuality. Sometimes they just wanted to know my experiences or opinions on something. Sometimes they just wanted to hear about the things I can't talk about in front of their mothers. More than once they'd gotten into a sticky spot and needed advice or help. I still told them how stupid they or their choices were, but I helped anyway.

My boys also learned how fiercely protective of them I could boy. From beating the shit out of three high-school punks who thought they could jump a middle-schooler, to getting into a shouting match with a Karen who couldn't handle an honest mistake from a teenager, to taking in a boy who's own mother had just kicked him out.

The boys have all called me "dad" at one point or another, and we just pretend I didn't hear it. They don't really have fathers themselves, but maybe having an Uncle Tyler is almost as good.

[talaok]

Stressed

Pairing: Jamie Campbell bower x Joseph Quinn x Fem!Reader

Summary: You, Jamie, and Joseph are on the press tour in Brazil, and when they realize you're feeling stressed, they offer to help.

Warnings: unprotected sex, oral sex(men and female receiving)

A/n: This is the dirtiest thing I've ever written and I'm profoundly ashamed of it. (Also How the fuck didn't I think of it before!?)Jsyk the alternative title was gonna be Paris

(pt.2)

"So, this is an interesting group they decided to send here, huh?" the interviewer asked, his Brazilian accent coming through strong. You all looked at each other and laughed "I know right?" you chuckled as Jamie and Joe calmed themself down "When they first told me I was like" you acted confused "Really?" you snorted "That's the team you chose?". It was objectively a weird one, I mean, None of you had had scenes with each other. You were in the Cali storyline, Joe in the Hawkins one, and Jamie, obviously, in the lab one. Sure, you had met at the table read and would see each other on set at times, but you just were not the group anyone would have expected. "Oh thanks Y/N" Joe looked at you, pretending to be offended "Yeah, really nice of you" Jamie followed his lead. "Oh please boys, you know what I meant" you rolled your eyes, still smiling. "Oh yeah, don't worry. We do" Joseph continued. You looked at him and couldn't help but burst out laughing as you took in the sassy expression he was making. You hid your face in your hands and heard both joe and James snort, clearly amused by your inability to stay serious. "I'm sorry" you breathed " I'm sorry, please begin with the questions" you told the interviewer that had been looking at you confusedly the whole time, clearly not getting half the things you had just said. "ok" he smiled awkwardly"So, first of all, I have to ask, how are you liking brazil?" "I just got here yesterday night, so I actually have only seen the inside of this hotel thus far" Jamie answered first "Y/N and I went to Domo last night, and it was absolutely amazing" Joseph said, mimicking his mind blowing "Oh yeah!" you exclaimed "it was one of the best meals I've ever had" "Just the two of you, was it like a date?" the interviewer asked, not missing an opportunity to gossip. You bit down a smile. "Well, yes, just us, but it wasn't a date" Joe clarified "It wasn't?" you feigned shok Joe shook his head as he grinned "It wasn't. but if you're interested in one, you know I'm always available for you, sweetheart" he smirked. "oh wow!" the interviewer exclaimed as all the three of you laughed. You were used to it by now, Joe would always flirt with you and you would always flirt with him, it was kind of a game you played, it didn't actually mean anything. "he's kidding, don't mind him" you calmed the interviewer down, making all the excitement on his face disappear, as he realized he hadn't gotten a big scoop as he had believed for a moment. "Well if he's kidding then I volunteer as a replacement" Jamie grinned, making you raise your hands to the sky in exasperation. God, this poor journalist. "Who says I was kidding?"Joe raised his eyebrow. "Guys!" you looked at them frantically "Do I need to remind you that we're supposed to do an interview?" you pointed at the men in front of you. "Yeah, sorry. Please continue" Jamie chuckled "Yeah, we'll talk later" Joe said as he gave his cast mate a pretend dirty look.

"That was fun" Joseph said, as he took a drag from his cigarette. "It was" Jamie agreed as he exhaled the smoke from his mouth. You had a 15 minutes break from interviews and since both of them smoked, you had gone outside with them, not wanting to be left alone in there. "Yeah, I'm sure it was for YOU" you scolded them Both Jamie and Joe chuckled "Oh come on, you started it" Joe accused you You made a shocked face, "Me?!" you pointed at yourself. "yes, you" he grinned, gesturing towards you with the hand in which he had the cigarette. "And when would I have started it? tell me" you put your hands on your waist. They looked at each other and snorted at your pose. "Well," Jamie tilted his head" he's actually right darling" "You too?" you asked stunned. They both laughed softly again. "Will you two stop laughing at me?" you threw your hands to your sides. Jamie bit down a smile as he turned towards you "I'm sorry, You just look so cute when you're stressed" Joe nodded in agreement, as he took another drag of his cigarette. You huffed and rolled your eyes. "I'm not stressed" you said, trying to sound calm. They smiled again, and you shot them a dirty look. "Here" Joseph said, handing you his cigarette "It helps me calm down". You looked down at it and then up to him again, biting your lip as you considered whether or not to take it. "Ok" you almost whispered, as you raised your shoulders and took the cigarette from his fingers. You brought it up to your mouth and inhaled as you noticed both of them staring at you. "what?" you asked confused, exhaling the smoke. they looked at each with an understanding look, as if they had been thinking the same thing. Jamie wet his lips while joe bit down a smirk. Jamie opened his mouth to say something just as the event organizer appeared beside you "You have to get in, the next interview is about to start"

You were absolutely exhausted. As much as doing interviews all day sounded fun, it was actually extremely draining. You had just now finished doing press for today and you, Joe, and Jamie had decided to go to the hotel's bar to drink something. "You know, you were right this morning" you said as you sat down on one of the stools in front of the counter. "I'm sure I was, but about what exactly?" Jamie smiled. "me being stressed" you explained. "I don't know." you bit your lower lip "it's just that all of those people constantly asking me the same questions over and over again and having to smile and be polite all the time and having to wake up at 5 after having gone to bed at 2" you caught your breath "It's just a lot, y'know?" The two of them looked at each other and then at you, there was something in their eyes you couldn't decipher, but they looked like they were talking without actually emitting any sounds. The silence was killing you. "I'm sorry" you smiled to relieve the tension "That was" you cleared your throat "that was a lot to take in, I'm sorry." "Oh no. It's totally fine. I'm sorry you feel that way Y/N" Joseph immediately intervened. "yeah darling, that must be awful" Jamie said sweetly. "let me buy you a drink" Joe offered "Oh thanks" you smiled up at him, as he reciprocated. As the barman put on the counter each of your drinks you immediately picked up yours and took a big sip. God, you needed that. just as you did the two men beside you looked at each other again, the same look in their eyes, the same understanding passing between them. "You know, as much as alcohol helps relieve stress, there's one method that's unmatched" Jamie said, as he picked up his glass, his eyes never leaving you. "oh, god if you're suggesting we do drugs I'm gonna respectfully decline. every time I smoked pot in high school I started believing that my friends were plotting my murder" you spat out, making them chuckle. "No, No, sweetheart. That's not what Jamie meant." Joe looked at you with a knowing smirk. You looked at them confusedly as they smiled at each other for a brief second before focusing back on you. Joe placed a hand on your thigh as he leaned into your ear "They say orgasm is the best remedy" A shiver made its way through your whole body. You swallowed thickly as he leaned away, his hand not leaving your body. "I-I-" you blushed "I-I-don't understand" you mumbled, making both of them grin. "Well" Jamie placed his hand on your other thigh, and you swore you could feel your heart pounding in your throat "we don't want you to be stressed" he said with a low voice. "We really don't" Joe stoked your thigh with his thumb "And we'd like to help" he bit his lip. "What kinds of friends would we be if we didn't offer to?" Jamie asked. You felt hot. like really hot. like you needed to take a cold shower and then sleep in an igloo naked hot. You were pretty sure your whole face was red by now and that you had stopped breathing approximately a minute ago. Were they being serious? Was this some kind of twisted joke? It was all so confusing. "I-I don't know" you stuttered shyly. Jamie wet his lips "We're gonna treat you well Y/N" "really well sweetheart, you don't have to worry" Joe whispered. Why was this turning you on so much? "I-but-" you muttered as you looked at their hands on your legs. "Darling " Jamie toom your chin with his fingers, making you look up at him."It's just a way to relieve some stress" he said softly. "It's gonna be fun sweetheart, I promise" Joe whispered to your ear, as another shiver went down your spine. "O-Ok" you whispered They looked at you, you didn't know if it was surprise or satisfaction you could see on their faces. "Ok" you said, more surely this time as you nodded at them. "Good girl"

  You were trying really hard not to make your hand shake as you opened your room's door. Was this really happening? You opened the door and got in, followed by both of them. You walked up to the middle of the room and stopped as you turned around. The sound of your own breathing was the only noise you could hear. "So" you swallowed nervously "H-how does this work?" you asked. You really had no idea. They both glanced at each other before turning to you. "Is this the first time you've done it this way?" Joe asked You nodded shyly as he bit his lip, contemplating what to do. "It's like you would normally do" Jamie explained "We can start by just kissing" Joe said with a nice voice, like he was doing anything to make you at ease. "You'd like that?" You nodded as you bit your lip. "Good" Joe said, as he stepped in front of you." very good" he whispered as he leaned into you and stopped a second to glance at your eyes before gently placing his lips on yours. you felt bubbles jump and burst into your stomach as you stood on your tiptoes, trying to get a better angle. He tugged you closer as his hands found your waist and his tongue made its way into your mouth, twisting together with yours. You whimpered softly as you felt Jamie's hands land on your back while he placed his mouth on your neck, starting a slow trail of kisses. Jamie's hands slid lower until he found your ass and he started caressing it as Joe's hands came up to cup your face, deepening the kiss. Your fingers found the back of his neck, sliding into his hair as you moaned softly at the feeling of both of their mouths on you. Joseph grinned into the kiss before leaning away. You frowned confused "It's his turn" he whispered against your mouth, as you felt Jamie's hands come up to your waist and turn you around swiftly. You squeaked surprised and weren't even given the time to fully stabilize before he pressed his lips onto yours. This kiss was diffrent,harser...hungrier. His hands made their way to your back as he pulled you closer. You felt Joe's fingers trail down your whole body as he admired you. His fingers found the hem of your skirt as his mouth sucked on a spot on your neck, causing goosebumps to erupt everywhere on your body. his fingers made their way under your skirt and he started slowly caressing his way from your ass to your core, feeling the wet spot on your panties. He hissed just as he did "She's already wet" he groaned. Jamie took your bottom lip between his teeth and looked at you maliciously before giving your lips another quick peck and leaning away. your legs were already feeling like jelly. "get on the bed" Jamie commended, and you looked at him briefly before obeying. You sat on the bed and they darted at each other, the same mute communication traveling between them. You swallowed nervously as they walked toward you. Without saying anything, Joe got to his knees between your legs and looked up at you, while Jamie sat behind you on the bed. "I'm gonna take this off" Joe breathed out, as his hands found the waistband of your skirt. "And I'm gonna take this off" Jamie whispered to your ear, as his fingers started unbuttoning your blouse. Your breathing got faster and faster as you found yourself more and more naked, more...vulnerable. The desire in your belly was increasingly growing. "You need to get on all fours sweetheart" Joe said coyly, and you obeyed, having gotten more eager. in front of you now was Jamie, looking at you with his penetrating blue eyes. You felt Joe's hands find your panties as he pulled them downs agonizingly slowly, making you whimper. "Oh,Y/N" he whispered as he passed two of his fingers between your folds, collecting your juices and making you moan faintly. You were so turned on, every touch was heightened and felt like ice on your boiling skin. You pushed your waist back, desperately trying to lean into his face. "Oh baby" he murmured amused before he licked a stripe of your pussy, and groaned with delight "You taste so good" he licked you again "She really does" he told Jamie before gripping your waist and starting to suck on your clit. "Oh fuck Joe!" you screamed Jamie chuckled " as much as I enjoy those sounds, I think there's a better use to that mouth right now," he said, gripping your chin, forcing you to look up at him. He quickly undid his zipper as you kept moaning from the pleasure. Jamie's cock sprang from his boxers and you froze for a second. Oh god, that was big. You gulped and looked up at him with concern "Don't worry darling. I'll be gentle" he reassured you as he placed his tip on the entrance of your already slightly open mouth. You wet your lips and inhaled before taking him in. He groaned loudly at the feeling, and you started bobbing your head up and down, hollowing your cheeks to please him even more. You felt Joe's fingers enter you and you moaned onto Jamie's cock as you continued moving your head. His hands came up to your head and he gathered your hair up away from your face in a fist, using it to guide your movements. You felt tears stream down your face as he pushed himself into your mouth and blocked your head down on his cock for a few moments, making you gag. You caught your breath as he let you go, but had to quickly hold it again as he choked you on his cock once more, this time for longer. "Oh fuck" he muttered, before letting you go. You could feel your orgasm building up from Joe's tongue movements, and you moaned loudly as you bobbed your head on Jamie's cock. "Oh no Y/N" Jamie said, his breathing ragged "You can't come yet" he smirked," We have just gotten started darling" he smirked, before pulling his cock out of your mouth as Joe stopped his movements. You whined as your pussy clenched around nothing, being denied its release. Joseph chuckled as Jamie wiped some tears off your face, got up from the bed, and walked beside him. "You missed out" Jamie said, almost out of breath. "I'm sure there'll be another time" joe answered "You ready darling?" Jamie asked, stoking your ass. "Yes please yes" you begged "now that's what I like to hear" he mumbled as he positioned himself between you and pushed into you harshly. "Oh fuck!" you cried out, as he bottomed out completely and his balls hit your ass. "God, you're so fucking tight Y/N" he groaned as he started moving in and out of you fast. "OH MY GOD JAM-" you shouted as he kept his pace, making you bounce with each thrust. You heard Joseph unzip his pants as you felt your orgasm already building up inside your belly. You turned to your right and saw Joe stroking himself while looking at you, more specifically darting between your tits bouncing beneath you, your pussy getting stretched out and your face making desperate faces. "I-I " you breathed out "I-I'm close" you stuttered, looking at Joe who was now looking directly at you, his hand not stopping. "Oh no baby" he spoke "You gotta wait" he said coyly, bending down to be at your level. "You can't come until I say so" he whispered against your mouth before kissing you quickly. You arched your back as Jamie continued pounding into you relentlessly. The pressure in your lower belly constantly growing. "p-please" you cried out "Please I'm almost there" you pleaded. "no sweetheart" he stroked your cheek and leaned into your ear "I wanna feel that pussy come around my cock" he said, getting up again. "Oh f-fuck" you moaned, as Jamie put a hand on your back to have more leverage. "God you feel amazing Y/N" he growled as his thrusts became more sloppy. "So fucking tight darling" he continued, as you bit your lip, desperately concentrating on not coming. "God" he hissed "My fucking go-" he groaned loudly as he came, pulling out of you a moment before and shooting his cold cum all over your back. You tried to catch your breath when you felt Joseph's cock pushing into you, making you gasp loudly. "Oh, Shit" you cried out. The feeling was different, his cock felt thicker than Jamie's and it was stretching you out in a completely different manner. he groaned as he felt your tight pussy clench around him. "you were right" he told Jamie before he started moving in and out of you "she's fucking tight" he hissed. "Joseph- fuck" you moaned "take it all sweetheart" he cooed you "take it baby" he said as he thrusted hard into you. "F-Fuck" you stuttered. you were a mess. Your hair was in your face, your knees hurt, your face was all sweaty and all you were able to do was produce meaningless moans. But you didn't care. You needed to come. the room filled with your moans, Joe's grunts, and the sound of the bed creaking underneath you as he kept pounding into you. "I'm close" you exhaled "please" you begged as a tear streamed down your face "please" you whispered faintly as the orgasm in your belly formed itself again. You doubted this time you could have held it, even if you would have wanted. "please what sweetheart?" Joe grunted You moaned, as his fingers found your clit and started circling it fast. You moaned loudly "What are you begging for Y/N?" he gripped your ass, pushing into you even harder "use your words" "I-" you tried "I- want to come, Joseph, please please please, let me come" you pleaded. He groaned "you're so fucking hot when you beg" "come sweetheart" he hissed, not stopping "Come all over my cock Y/N". Those words were enough to send you over the edge as you came immediately, screaming and moaning his name incoherently. Your pussy clenched tightly around him and he couldn't help but come at the feeling, pumping into you all of his cum while grunting your name. "Fuck" he said out of breath as he pulled out. You fell onto the bed and turned yourself around, just to see both of them staring smugly at you. You smiled blissfully at them, through half-lidded eyes. "I'm not feeling stressed anymore"

[mammonsbby]

bubbles

A/N: What happens when he walks in on you in the shower. (Also, let's say the the HOL's shower has a glass door.) Warnings: Mildly Suggestive Characters: Brothers/Sides x GN!MC Words: 1046

✨My Masterlist✨

You had to admit that there were perks to living in the House of Lamentation. For instance, getting to watch movies in Mammon’s room on his big screen. And being allowed to pilfer through Satan’s hoard of books and play Levi’s games.

The only drawback— well, besides being almost killed on the regular— was sharing a bathroom with SEVEN men. (Okay, technically six, since Asmo has his own personal bathroom, but still!)

Anyway, the bathroom is free! You’ve finally got a chance to go take a shower. And you’re going to take it! You march to the bathroom with your towel and change of clothes, but no sooner than you step into the shower, the bathroom door opens…

Lucifer:

The eldest averts his eyes almost immediately, but he definitely saw something. He gives a quick apology and exits quickly.

Later, he scolds you for forgetting to lock the door.

“Honestly, did you not think to turn the lock? Are there no locks in the Human Realm?” (He has the slightest tinge of pink on his cheeks.)

Mammon:

Mammon isn’t the greatest at concealing his emotions around you. He sputters and tries to act nonchalant, like he saw absolutely nothing, but it’s clear (from his face, which is glowing red) that he did.

When he sees you later, he denies that he saw you.

“You? In the bathroom? This mornin’? I didn’t see anything. I didn’t even see you! Were- were ya invisible or something?” (He knows you know he’s lying, but he’s embarrassed, okay?!)

Leviathan:

You honestly would never have known Levi saw you at all if… If it weren’t for the passed out otaku on the bathroom floor. Yeah, you have to step around this goofy snake boy and go find one of his brothers to come get him.

He’s… super mega embarrassed! That was a critical hit. He literally almost died.

“MC, I’m really sorry that I… saw.” (Awkward as hell, true Levi style.)

Satan:

When Satan enters the bathroom, he’s sort of shocked. He kind of stands there, not realizing he’s staring until you turn around and see him. Then it registers that MC IS NAKED.

He gapes then waves (?) and sprints out of the room. He kicks himself for being speechless. There are so many words and he could think of none.

“MC. I would… like to apologize for my actions. There seemed to be a disconnect in my brain. Could we pretend it didn’t happen?”

Asmodeus:

You might be wondering what exactly this man was doing in the shared bathroom, when he had a perfect paradise of a bathroom connected to his room. Well, he was looking for a box of bath bombs which had gone missing. Needless to say, he found something he wasn’t looking for. But he wasn’t upset about it.

He, of course, clears his throat, startling you. And when you ask what he’s doing, he laughs.

“Why, darling, if you wanted me to join you, you could’ve asked. You didn’t have to leave the door unlocked. What if one of my brothers had come in? Get out? Wait just a minute, have you seen my bath bombs?”

Beelzebub:

Beel knew you were going to take a shower, you’d told him so. But he had to ask you something. So… he came in, not expecting you to already be in the shower.

“MC, do you know where I left those coupons for Hell's Kitchen?”

You answer that you don’t. And he leaves, without fucking realizing! (Poor baby was too focused on his food.) But when he gets back to his and Belphie’s room, he’s like ‘wait a second…’

Blush city.

Belphegor:

You barely have time to register that he’s in the room before he’s laughing. You turn, in shock, and he stops laughing… for the most part.

“I can’t believe you’re too stupid to lock the door when you’re going to shower. Pfffft, humans are dumb.”

Later on, you expect an apology, but instead he simply says “Did you know you have a weird butt?”

Royals

Hmm, so… showering at the Demon Lord’s castle was weird. Everything is far too ornate and fancy-looking and you feel like you’re going to somehow break the shower! You finally manage to get it working, but as soon as you step in…

Diavolo:

The poor prince had realized that the fixtures might be confusing and was coming to show you how to use the shower, but instead he gets an eyeful of MC.

He’s incredibly embarrassed. You heard the door open and by the time you turn around, he’s exited the room. He’s exiting the building!

“MC, I sincerely apologize. For both thinking you couldn’t figure out a shower. And for… seeing you, like that.”

Barbatos:

Being the ever-diligent butler that he is, Barb was on his way to ask whether you wanted tea when you were through. He didn’t realize how quick you were.

Now, he’s been around for a long time and he’d thought he’d seen it all. WELL, HE CERTAINLY HAS NOW!!

“Forgive me, I didn’t… think. Could you use a towel?”

Purgatory Hall

While cooking with Solomon was always a biohazard, you never expected the ‘food’ to actually blow up! But it did. And it got all over the place, including you. A shower was needed immediately. What if this melts your skin off?!

However, you barely have time to get undressed before…

Solomon:

This poor, stupid wizard. He had come to retrieve your clothes, so he could clean them. And walked in precisely when you were stepping into the shower. He’d assumed you were already safely behind the curtain, but he was wrong.

Uh, grandpa has a heart attack. :( Oh no, how sad.

Just kidding, but it did startle the both of you. After you gasp and pull the shower curtain around you, he grabs your clothes and books it!

“I… should’ve knocked. I’m very sorry.”

Simeon:

The angel didn’t even realize you were over. He’d been totally engrossed in a new chapter of TSL and when he walks in, he yelps and covers his eyes with his hands.

“MC! I. I am so sorry. I didn’t know you were- Oh. Solomon’s… Yes. I understand.” Sigh. “I’m sorry.”

—

Thank you for reading! Please reblog!

If you enjoyed these hcs, please consider buying me a coffee! (It’s linked in my cardd, in my bio.)

<3 Aerie

[wincore]

romeo roulette | jung yoonoh

pairing: jaehyun x fem!reader

summary: if finding your soulmate is the same as a damn game of russian roulette, you are determined to not pull the trigger at all. except, you know who your soulmate is and he doesn’t—and given a choice to pretend, you find that jaehyun is the lesser of the two burdens to bear.

genre: soulmate au, office au, fake dating, fluff (a lot), angst (a little), romcom, magical realism (??)

words: 21.2k

warnings: language

song recs: playlist here !

a/n: behold ! a kdrama compressed in a fic ! ok i was lying there was more than a little angst but all in good fun <3 i have never experienced working in an office (thanks to the panny) but i tried making it as accurate as i could !! hope you have fun with this <3

It’s not that you’ve never been looked at with a lover’s gaze, it’s just that whatever look Jaehyun has been giving you is mildly uncomfortable. It’s not supposed to be that way. Hell, even his hand clasping yours are a little too clammy for your liking.

Jung Yoonoh. Get your act together.

You wish he were a better actor than this. For someone used to eyes on him in each and every room he’s in, he’s not very good at making eye contact. You’ll be saving this performance. Not to stroke your own ego but at least you know how to behave under strong gazes.

There are three people staring at the two of you and your fingers intertwined, scrutinizing your postures and the expressions on your faces. Maybe Jaehyun should face them instead of glancing at you wordlessly. He’s a terrible liar for someone who acts so smooth. 

You look up with a short smile. The aforementioned three are your coworkers—former class rep at uni and your current boss Doyoung, your friend Soojin and Jaehyun’s friend Sicheng from IT. None of them look happy—like it concerns them. If there was a competition for nosy coworkers, this entire group would be winning awards left and right (and that’s including you). 

They’re going to find out, an annoying voice giggles inside the quiet corner of your brain. Like hell, they will. You didn’t take up acting lessons in college for nothing. You just need to focus on the details.

This whole charade dates its beginning to a week ago. 

If someone were to tell you Jung Yoonoh from marketing is your soulmate, you would most certainly either laugh or take it as a genuine insult. Hence, you were glad when you found that he isn’t. 

It was an accident. You had glimpsed at his soulmark, right below his collarbone, at a particularly wild office afterparty—and somehow, you thought it was fitting that his tattoo was a little red heart. For someone born on Valentine’s day (which you know from a night out with coworkers, not because you’re remotely interested), if his soulmark was not something as disgusting as a heart, it would be the textbook definition of irony. But then again, fate is a funny thing. Your soulmark is a heart roughly the same size, with a little more intricacy in the form of a piercing arrow.

Despite all, however, if someone were to ask you if Jung Yoonoh is the worst person to be your soulmate, the answer is no. You can name at least five coworkers off the top of your head that you’d choose him over. You would choose him over Doyoung (and especially his nagging), you would choose him over Taeyong because he’s too hot and you also don’t like men in a higher position than you are, you would choose him over Jungwoo because you suspect he’s secretly a furry. Jaehyun is certainly better than your deskmate Dongmin who, despite an angelic smile, is: a) too distant to make actual conversation with, and b) in a relationship despite being your soulmate. Sweet-tempered Dongmin doesn’t even know it’s you. You’d love to be the bearer of bad news but this one—you’re not exactly ready for it yourself.

So that’s the explanation for why you hunted down Jaehyun and in a desperate attempt to not seem pathetic, coerced him into a role that has carefully picked benefits for either of you. You just have to bite the bullet sometimes.

“And I get what out of this?”

“Me? Temporarily, that is.”

Jaehyun laughs in amusement and you drop your smile, almost offended. If you were a gift, you’d certainly be an attractive, spicy, hot one—he doesn’t have to look at you so incredulously. In a neat business suit, Jaehyun is as kempt as ever though his tie could do with some more work.  As an HR assistant, his appearance pleases you. However as a person, the perfection annoys the hell out of you. He could show himself to be more human. It would make your job (both the actual and the metaphorical) easier.

“I’m leaving,” he announces with a nonchalant exhale. “You keep messing around during work hours like this and people are going to think you’re jobless.”

“Wait!” 

You jog up to him and block his path, crossing your arms as you huff at his indignance. 

“I said no,” he repeats, and when he tries to evade you, you push him back with your palm flat against his chest. Jaehyun doesn’t show any more discomfort than usual, biting the inside of his cheek.

“You haven’t found your soulmate, right?” you say, taking a deep breath. If you have to resort to psychological warfare, so be it.

His smile wavers and he straightens, no longer leaning against the printer desk. “No. How does that matter?”

“It matters because you’re going to be my pretend-soulmate. Now, don’t be a pussy.”

He opens his mouth and closes it, furrowing his eyebrows. “You can’t always trick me into doing what you want.”

“I’ll ask Doyoung if you say no.”

“See—enough with the tricks, they don’t work anymore. I’ve known you for two years.”

“I really will ask him.”

“Not convincing enough. You don’t even talk to Doyoung outside work.”

You groan into your hand, taking a few moments to come up with another plan. How is your obvious charisma not enough? You certainly can’t tell him how rejected you feel with the whole Dongmin situation even if his rejection hasn’t officially come yet. It’s too embarrassing for a grown adult to go through. You don’t mind being lonely for the rest of your life if you’re successful. There’s a price tag on each decision you make anyway.

“I’ll treat you to lunch every day. I’ll pay.”

You cross your arms, tapping your foot in anticipation. They say the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach. Besides, Jaehyun hates spending his lunch money on himself. This ought to do something.

Jaehyun places his hand in front of his mouth in mock surprise. “Oh no, out of your beloved paycheck? That’s kind of scary, honestly.”

“Jaehyun. Stop messing around. I’m being serious.”

He purses his lips, hesitation across his face. You don’t like the way he thinks, with quiet, lost eyes and no clear giveaways on his lips.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

You smile in relief though you try somewhat to not let it show on your face. 

“On one condition.”

Your eyes dart across his face, nothing that tells what he might suggest next. You hate when you don’t get to decide on things.

“You have to come visit my family next month and pose as my soulmate—”

“No way.”

“—and when this whole game you’re playing is over, you’re going to say I rejected you.”

You stare at him, weighing the odds. 

“Fine,” you say finally, voice pitched in slight annoyance.

Jaehyun shrugs.

“But I tell my parents that I rejected you. Or they’ll come after you with a task force or something.”

You mutter the last part.

He grimaces, holding his breath for a good few seconds and then letting it go.

“Alright. It’s not like mine and your parents know each other—or will ever meet.”

“Fine then,” you say. “We have an agreement.”

“We have an agreement,” he repeats.

Now, back to more pressing matters. The people in front of you aren’t a stupid lot—even if you've seen Doyoung spend $500 on plush toys, seen Sicheng absentmindedly walk into a desk and pretend to not be in pain for the next five minutes and Soojin somehow convinced a senior to get her coffee because she thought he was an intern (in her defence, it worked). 

The only way is to act through. You clear your throat.

"We… we discovered it last week. Our signs match."

Technically, you drew an arrow with a permanent marker over Jaehyun's tattoo in an attempt to resemble yours. It's not awful, but perhaps not perfect. 

“Discovered? Like just happened to find out?” Doyoung asks.

“Isn’t Jaehyun’s on…” Soojin leans in to whisper hurriedly in your ear. “On his butt? Did you guys sleep together?”

You contort your face in disgust. “The what? What? Who told you that? And no.”

Soojin makes an ‘ah’ sound and leans back. “I should stop listening to office rumours then.”

"You should." You glare at her.

Sicheng is the only one without questions at the tip of his tongue but the look on his face worries you most. 

“I’ve never seen your tattoo, now that I think about it,” he muses, turning to Jaehyun. “Although we’re roommates.”

Jaehyun clears his throat, looking around with shifty eyes. "Why is… why is everyone looking so suspicious?"

"It's just… so sudden," Soojin says, looking around at the others.

"Yeah," Sicheng mutters.

"Soulmate fraud is a big deal too, you know that right?" Doyoung informs. "You could get put in jail."

You throw up your hands in exasperation. "Why would we pretend? We don't have any reason to. And, uh, you're sure about the jail thing?"

You look at Doyoung, hoping your question didn’t come off too squeaky. 

"You’re right,” he says, sighing. “It’s so unlikely for soulmates to work in the same company, let alone the same building.”

“Oh, yes, I’m so lucky,” you mutter under your breath.

Doyoung sighs. "Look, we're happy for you. It's just that… it's a little sudden."

"Literally what I just said," Soojin says.

"Literally what she just said," Doyoung agrees quickly, not wanting to pick a fight. Sometimes you wonder who the real boss is.

"Look, just because we don't even acknowledge each other or find each other remotely attractive or wouldn't even be each other's office Christmas card candidate—"

Jaehyun nudges your side with his elbow and gives you a look that seems a lot like "You're making it worse".

You clear your throat. "That's what happens to most soulmates! You think you're going to land the perfect one and boom. You get a chump from marketing."

Jaehyun makes a sound of protest. "I didn't want a snob from HR either."

The two of you glare at each other, and you find that clenching his jaw makes Jaehyun slightly (around 0.05%) more attractive, or at the very least more bearable to look at.

Doyoung gasps. "Okay, I get it. You're having adjustment issues. I know a guy for that. He's helped every newly found soulmate couple adjust with each other."

"We don't need that," you interrupt, offering your fakest smile.

"You do," Doyoung responds, his smile equally fake. "I'll drive you this weekend if you're free. He’ll give you one free session. No more, because we all know how capitalism works."

People have got to stop copying your fake smile. You wish you could have it copyrighted because after all, it’s the same smile that tricks interviewees into thinking they got the job. It’s not evil if you say it isn’t. You open your mouth, look at Jaehyun doing the same and when you can't come up with an excuse, give up and nod. 

"Don't look so resentful," Doyoung says, tone slightly complaining. "I'm not doing this as your boss. We were friends in college and I'm just doing you a favour. A friendly favour."

Soojin hums in deep thought. "I feel like this is some sort of nepotism."

"I feel like you should open a dictionary once in a while," Doyoung mutters, only to get a vaguely threatening look from Soojin.

"Anyway," Sicheng diverts, eyes curious when he turns to Doyoung. "Why did you call us here?"

"Ah." Doyoung's eyes widen. "I heard promotion rumours."

Sicheng lets out a loud huff of annoyance. "You summoned us here for company gossip?"

Doyoung crosses his arms. “So, you’re not interested?”

“Who said that?” Sicheng responds quickly, leaning in.

The five of you huddle closer in a circle, looking as conspicuous as a cult. 

“You guys know that Jinyoung’s leaving, right?” Doyoung starts.

Soojin gasps audibly only to get a smack on the arm from Doyoung. “Why’s he leaving? He's like employee of the month every month. ”

A few chuckles pass through the group at her discontentment from months of losing out on the title.

“I heard he found his soulmate. Lucky ass gets tax benefits too now,” Sicheng complains. “Why is he leaving?”

“Oh, look who’s interested in gossip now,” Soojin coos.

Sichengs turns red in the face and looks away, clearing his throat. “You’re gonna answer my question, Doyoung?”

“Oh! Right.” Doyoung looks up from a text. “He got rejected by his soulmate.”

Soojin covers her mouth this time when she gasps and you can’t say your jaw doesn’t drop as well. 

“Rejected? Like our picture-perfect Jinyoung got rejected?” you repeat, trying to process the information. “Please don’t tell me he decided to be an idiot and sign a mutual rejection.”

“No, he didn’t lose his senses,” Doyoung responds with a duh undertone. “He’s getting the compensation money.”

You sigh. “Man, I feel bad for him.”

Jaehyun hums in agreement. There’s a hush over the group and you feel fear rise in your chest. You don’t want to be rejected. You’ve seen how happy Dongmin looks with his girlfriend—he’d reject you in a heartbeat. Of course, you could just receive the compensation money from the one-sided rejection and get it over with but you refuse to. It hurts to not be wanted. It hurts to not be wanted by someone who’s supposed to want you. To be specific, it hurts your pride. Every time you see the damn arrowed heart on Dongmin’s wrist, which he tries so hard to cover with his watch, you feel like throwing up. You’re glad yours isn’t as easy to spot—resting right above your hip bone.

“Anyway, someone’s getting promoted to that HR specialist position.”

You gasp. “Is it me? It’s me, right?”

Jaehyun rolls his eyes and you elbow him. “What’s with you?”

“Don’t get too excited,” he says, shrugging. “Isn’t it stupid to get your hopes up over a rumour?”

Doyoung breathes out. “Wow, (name) really sucked the life out of you, Jaehyun.”

You glare at him when Soojin breaks into a fit of laughter. “You- you know what that- you know what that sounds like, right?”

Your face contorts into disgust and you shake your head. “Let’s be more professional, alright, Soojin?”

She clears her throat and straightens her clothes, like a teenager being reprimanded. “I’m your senior. It’s embarrassing when you say that to me.”

Jaehyun speaks up and turns to you. “I think lunch break is almost over.”

You raise an eyebrow. “So?”

“You’re forgetting something.” He smiles, dimples showing, but his eyes come off menacing.

“Fuck,” you mutter under your breath. You forgot about that stupid lunch promise. 

“Hey. Professional,” Soojin warns.

You groan and link your arm through Jaehyun’s, making him bite back a smile. What is it with men and getting weirdly happy about lunch?

“We’re gonna go get lunch,” you announce.

“Ooh, (name)’s ditching quality time with coworkers for dates now,” Soojin coos.

You roll your eyes and exit the office, stopping to wait in front of the elevator.

“I think that went well,” Jaehyun says, shrugging lightly.

“Shh. What if they hear us?”

“Do you think they’re X-men? We’re a long corridor and closed doors away.”

You huff, crossing your arms. “Still…”

Jaehyun’s smug smile makes you want to smack it right off and this isn’t the first time you’ve felt this way with him. You swear he’s not as bad as some of the guys you’ve met but Jaehyun is simply annoying. An A grade nuisance. You can trust him though. If Soojin says he’s a reliable guy, you’ll believe her—she doesn’t bluff when it comes to seeing right through men, though she does have a tendency to believe stupid rumours.

“Your acting was shit though,” you snipe.

Jaehyun lets out a low sardonic laugh. “At least I was subtle when I was messing up.”

You cross your arms and huff. “You know what? You can take the next elevator ride.”

“Huh?”

You step into the elevator just as the doors open and quickly jam your finger to the close doors button. The look of betrayal on Jaehyun’s face is subtle but it’s enough to satisfy you. As the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens—it’s very applicable to elevators. He can take the other one.

However, almost immediately after, the elevator doors open and you groan, opening your mouth to send a sarcastic congratulations to Jaehyun for pressing the button on time.

Your words hitch on your tongue. Dongmin greets the two of you with a smile, standing beside Jaehyun, who has his eyes averted from you.

“Hey,” Dongmin greets. “Congratulations. I heard the news.”

“Thanks,” you croak, clearing your throat with a bit of heat on your cheeks. Jaehyun looks like he might burst into a fit of laughter any moment and you shoot him a subtle glare.

“Where are you headed to?” You ask.

“Oh, I’m going to grab a sandwich from the cafeteria.”

“We’re also headed to the cafeteria,” Jaehyun declares, with a smile that’s almost devilish.

“No, we’re not,” you say quickly, making Dongmin raise an eyebrow. You hold back a groan. If only Dongmin weren’t raised to be the politest man you know and a little bit more of an asshole. 

You hum and turn to Jaehyun. “I told you about that new cafe. Remember, honey?”

Dongmin makes an ‘o’ with his mouth. “Nicknames, already? Ah, I’m so jealous. It must be great to get along with your soulmate.”

Oh, the sweet summer child that Dongmin is.

Jaehyun furrows his eyebrows. “Oh, won’t it take too long, darling? We have—”

He makes a show of checking his Rolex, a gift he received from his superior that he spares no chance to flex.

“—Around ten minutes left.”

You hold back a groan and plaster on your smile. “Come on. Now is the best time.”

“That sounds like a load of—”

You elbow Jaehyun hard in the gut and a restrained sound dies in his throat, eyes widening in the sweet look of discomfort taking over his features. You smile triumphantly and turn to Dongmin with an immediate change of expression.

“I’ll see you in office later,” you say, bowing slightly.

Dongmin nods and gets off on the fifth floor. You watch in quiet relief as the elevator door closes and turn to your dear companion, irked.

“Did you have to do that?” Jaehyun asks, voice raspy with pain.

“You deserved it. Don’t you dare make this a bigger mess than it already is.”

“You came up with it.” Jaehyun straightens, finally. Apart from the few loose strands of his neatly parted hair, he doesn’t seem all that disgruntled.

“And we’re going to set some ground rules,” you declare, closing your arms.

Jaehyun straightens to his full height, the space between the two of you diminishing. 

"Okay," he agrees. "Then we both get a say in it. It's a contract, after all."

"Fine. First rule, no being weird around Dongmin."

Jaehyun chuckles. "I think you need to be more careful about that than I do."

You pat his cheek. "Focus. Just don't- don't be around him for too long."

Jaehyun purses his lips. "Why are you so uncomfortable around him? I thought you were doing this because you didn't want to reject him."

You glance away, feeling uncomfortable. "It doesn't matter. I just don't want him to know."

Jaehyun hums. "Fine. My turn. No calling me a chump."

Your cheeks puff up as you try to contain your laughter. "It bothered you that much, huh?"

Jaehyun furrows his brows. "No one's ever called me that before. It's always 'oh my god, he's so handsome, who is he?' or 'ooh, I might faint from how hot he is'."

You giggle. "Alright, handsome."

Jaehyun exhales, his puffed cheeks making him look like a resentful five year old instead of a grown man with a professional job. You pause before you get back on track.

“No nicknames,” you blurt. “It’s weird when you call me something endearing. And your flirting feels kind of threatening.”

“What do you mean, baby?”

“See! You’re doing it again.” You cross your arms at the look on his face; anything close to victorious over Jaehyun’s features is unbearable to you.

He raises his arms in exasperation. “How are we supposed to make this work if we act like we don’t care about each other. Guess why Doyoung’s taking us to couple therapy?”

You huff, slightly pissed off. “You’re saying it was my fault?”

“I’m saying we could have avoided that with better acting.”

“You think you’re so—”

The elevator door opens with a ding on the first floor and you turn to find a bunch of interns back from their lunch break. It would be much less of an awkward affair if you and Jaehyun weren’t well into each other’s personal spaces, noses almost touching and with a mutual glare which could be easily mistaken for a look of something more sensual. You jump away from Jaehyun and leave the elevator as fast as you can, feeling far too conscious of yourself. With long strides, you exit the corporate airs of the building to a sunny, fairly populous sidewalk. 

Jaehyun catches up to you, bending and trying to catch a glimpse of your face with an incredulous smile over his.

“Don’t say a word, Yoonoh.”

“Ooh, you’re saying my name now.”

“This isn’t funny!”

“I find it plenty funny.”

“That’s because of your trash sense of humour.”

“Mhm.”

“Don’t look so smug.”

Mondays are the days that make you want to scream in agony, not Thursdays—though they are pretty high up on the worst days of the week list. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe pretending to be in love with someone you simply cannot be in love with is an awful idea. 

Soulmates don’t need to be in love with each other, you think to yourself. There’s plenty of soulmates who are just in it for the financial benefits; you can just pretend to be one of them. This dilemma is starting to fray your nerves and Jung Yoonoh, with his lax disposition and dimpled cheeks, is making it worse. And to top it off, you now have to take him to your favourite (kind of secret) cafe in the name of the lies that slipped your tongue. It was supposed to be a quiet comfort spot for you.

You blow a puff of air out and dismiss the thought. Comfort spots aren’t real anyway when you’re all grown. There’s bound to be a breach. 

However, you will not let the (lacking) romance department of your life get sorted out by someone who doesn’t even know you. Lady luck would be an acquaintance to you at most. If fate is a game of chance after all, you might as well be the one spinning the roulette. You look at Jaehyun, piecing together the perfect plan for this seemingly frivolous play-pretend. The game is in your hands now. 

You blink at the figure of Jung Yoonoh under February sunlight on a modestly busy sidewalk. It’s not something to be surprised at—however, the stark contrast in attire makes you stare longer than you intend to. Wearing a black graphic hoodie and pair of worn out jeans, Jaehyun looks about as casual as you can bear. It’s always weird to see coworkers out of formal clothing.

“Are you just going to stare at me till Doyoung comes and picks us up?” he asks. 

You roll your eyes. 

“You look nice,” he says, and you glance down at your outfit with a flush of heat over your cheeks. It’s just a short A-line skirt, stockings and a sweatshirt. This is as basic as you get. What’s worse is that his comment didn’t sound sarcastic.

“You- You look nice too. I guess.” Once in a while, you will say something extremely stupid and pretend it never happened. The frequency increases around Jaehyun for some damn reason.

“You guess? I’m pretty sure I look more than nice.”

“And how long did you look at yourself in the mirror and practise catchphrases this time?”

Jaehyun’s ears turn the shade of cherries and you press down your smile. You knew that time you caught him talking to himself in front of a car window would play to your advantage. 

“What’s that you’re holding?” you ask, eyeing the plastic bag he’s holding.

“Ginseng,” he answers, staring blankly at the cars passing by. “I heard the couples therapist is in his sixties so he might find it useful.”

“Oh, old people stuff,” you muse quietly. “That’s quite thoughtful of you.”

You should’ve brought something, you think for a moment before realizing that couples probably don’t give separate gifts. 

“Thanks,” you mutter.

He raises an eyebrow. “For what?”

You shake your head. “Anyway, we might as well kill some time. Twenty questions. Let’s go.”

He laughs. “What are we, in college?”

You wrinkle your nose. “Don’t make us sound like we’re thirty. I bet you’re the kind of guy who has his retirement plan figured out.”

“Wrong,” he emphasizes, face leaning closer. 

“Fine. I’ll start the questions, you unsalted block of butter. How many relationships have you been in?”

Jaehyun opens his mouth and closes it, ears turning red. “That’s your first question?”

You roll your eyes. “Okay. I’m guessing it’s single digit and on the lower side.”

He rolls his eyes. “How many relationships have you been in?”

You shut your mouth. There’s a moment of silence, a breeze passing you by, carrying winter away in its arms to make room for spring. 

“Never found a relationship worth it,” you mutter, glancing away. 

Jaehyun hesitates before opening his mouth. “Me neither.”

“Good thing for us, eh? Love makes people crazy.”

Jaehyun faces you with a clipped smile. Never did you think Jaehyun from marketing would be relating to you on a personal matter.

“Oh, but I’ve had enough hookups and I can bet you’re mediocre at best in bed.” 

Jaehyun glares at you. “I am not and I can prove it to you.”

“Is that an invitation into your bed? No, thanks.”

He opens his mouth to retort but is interrupted by the Hyundai Grandeur pulling up to the sidewalk and rolling down the driver window to reveal Doyoung. He looks as overworked as usual, but his eyes are more tired, a bit of makeup covering the dark circles. You’ve heard his soulmate is a makeup artist for an idol group and wonder how they even came to be. Does fate throw darts randomly and pick its choice?

“Get in. Quick,” Doyoung instructs. “I have to drop you off and head home. My family is visiting. I didn’t even get a warning and they think I’m in a gay relationship with Taeyong because we still have our friendship rings from college.”

You want to laugh and agree but Doyoung looks rather pissed off so you hold it in. The two of you do as told, getting in the backseat and shutting the doors in sync. The car smells rather leafy mingling with the scent of fresh clothes and you eye the jar dangling from the rear-view mirror. You open your mouth to ask what scent that is when Doyoung’s voice rings out.

“What’s that?” Doyoung signals to the bag with Jaehyun.

Jaehyun looks down. “Ginseng extract.”

“Oh, the gift pack?” Doyoung asks. 

Jaehyun nods and Doyoung chuckles, shaking his head. “If that’s for Mr. Lee, forget it. He hates gifts. Something about inward appreciation and shit.”

Jaehyun groans, massaging his forehead. “What do I do with this then? Is this guy a priest?”

“Give it to Doyoung,” you suggest. “His family’s visiting.”

You hear an audible hum of approval from the driver seat and turn to Jaehyun making a face of reluctance. Maybe he isn’t so magnanimous after all, you think smiling.

“You’re both quite tame today,” Doyoung remarks, just when the silence is starting to swallow the inside of the car. “Makes me wonder if you need Mr. Lee after all.”

“We actually don’t…” You shake your head. “We’re here and it’s free so why not?”

Jaehyun shoots you a questioning look. It’s not like you can cancel when you’re in Doyoung’s car and already on the way. You’ve known your boss long enough to know the wrong answer to his questions. You look outside at Seoul streets and sigh. 

Jaehyun looks at you, your focus elsewhere and wishes this would end already. He has no idea what overcame him to accept your ridiculous offer but he must be just as ridiculous. At the very least, he finds you quite lovely to look at—not that he’d ever admit it to you. The foundation to this weird bickering friendship (if he can call it that) would be ruined by that. His ego, however, has been boosted up a few notches from the fact that you called him for help. He looks outside the window, holding back a smile. It’s a sunny day.

The therapist, Mr. Lee’s office building is a fancy one with an even fancier lobby. Baby pink leather couches cushion your bum nicely as you wait for your appointment. The architecture is that of a corporate firm and you feel quite at home with the large glass walls by the revolving door. This therapist guy must be rich as hell. The receptionist wears a formal uniform; her blouse is light pink with a grey pencil skirt and you like the look of it. You wonder if asking her where she bought it is time-appropriate. More couples sit around you and you, unfortunately, have to scoot closer to Jaehyun as a result. You do not want to catch that disease they all have. Why are they even here for therapy if they’re smiling at each other in that sickly enamored way? 

Now that you’re here, you’re starting to feel that this arrangement was ill-decisive. You should’ve done a better job of acting. You wonder if you can get a refund for that college course on acting, pouting as the ticking wall clock gets on your nerves. Even the marble floors are pink; the walls are mahogany red and there’s a heart-shaped wall clock, and should you glance around more, you’re going to nauseate yourself. This guy certainly takes his job seriously—or just really likes pink-red themes.

A woman in her early thirties exits the elevator and announces your names, and you click your tongue at the fact that she used Jung for your surname. It sounds distasteful. 

You follow her, starting to get nervous. You really hope this Mr. Lee isn’t as good as Doyoung says he is. Your fraud falling apart within three days is too embarrassing a defeat, not to mention bordering on illegal if found out. What the fuck does the government care about broken hearts and beneficial relationships? It’s so nosy. You understand the financial situation in case of happily bonded soulmates but apart from that, there really shouldn’t be this much discrepancy in the name of love.

Love drives people crazy. You’d rather not lose your good sense in the name of something so inane. After all, money makes the world go around, not love. 

Restricting a gag at the deep red heart on the door, you push them open with Jaehyun to find an old man sitting on a similar baby pink couch as in the lobby. He gets up to greet the two of you, the wrinkles on his face deepening when he smiles. Despite everything, he has a sort of grace to him, the one that comes with growing old elegantly. An upbeat song plays on a record player attached to the wall, although at a very low volume, and the tune reminds you of Animal Crossing. 

“Doyoung told me about the two of you,” Mr. Lee says, gesturing at the two of you to sit down. “How long has it been since you found out?”

“Six days,” you answer at the same time Jaehyun answers, “Four days”.

The two of you look at each other.

“Four-Six days. We didn’t keep track.”

“Ah,” Mr. Lee says. “How do you propose to celebrate your anniversary?”

You hesitate opening your mouth and declaring that you don’t really need to do that crap. Mr. Lee notices your expression and breaks into gentle laughter. 

“I’m kidding. Anniversary dates don’t matter,” he laughs. “It’s okay to celebrate your 100-day on the wrong day. Don’t worry.”

You purse your lips. To your dismay, Jaehyun isn’t as bothered by the sickly pink environment and Mr. Lee’s relaxed demeanour.

“I have a hundred percent success rate,” Mr. Lee assures the two of you, looking directly at you.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” you mutter under your breath and get a nudge from Jaehyun, who has his politest smile on.

You can’t believe Jaehyun has a better customer service mode than you do. If you didn’t know him, you’d be fooled into thinking he’s the nice guy character every office has. Unfortunately, that one goes to Dongmin. You hate getting stuck with nice guys (unless they offer financial stability).

“I think Doyoung might have been exaggerating,” Jaehyun explains calmly. “Whatever he told you.”

“He told me the two of you have a bickering problem. And staring at each other when the other isn’t looking.”

You cough. “That is not true. The staring part.”

Jaehyun narrows his eyes at you. “I knew you were checking me out,” he mutters.

You roll your eyes. “Keep dreaming, Jaehyun.”

Mr. Lee laughs. “Your bickering seems to be quite affectionate. I don’t know what that boy was worried about.”

You press your lips together into a thin smile, annoyed that anyone would ever describe your interaction with a man as affectionate. It makes you feel like an idiot. You were always better off alone—the universe was wrong to assign Dongmin to you. Maybe you needed to see the apparent love of your life clearly in love with someone else to snap you to reality.

“However, what is a playful lover’s fight in the beginning can turn into real fights.”

“Right,” you mutter. “It’s all fun and games in the beginning.”

“The two of you have almost no animosity—you’ve known each other before you discovered the soulmark, right?”

The two of you nod, having already reconciled yourselves to this session. It’s a one-time thing, you tell yourself. It will be over soon.

“The soulmate information shouldn’t influence the relationship you already had. If anything, it should be drawing you closer. First time awkwardness is common.”

He’s starting to sound a lot like your high school sex ed teacher. You get the idea to pretend to be sick and get out of this early.

“Company policy too,” Jaehyun mutters. “Unofficial company policy makes office romance out to be some sort of sacrilege.”

“You know, I was the CEO of your company so I do know the policies,” Mr. Lee says, smiling in the confident, reserved way senior citizens offering wisdom do. 

You choke on the water you were taking a sip of, a coughing fit overcoming you and Jaehyun hesitates before awkwardly patting your back.

“Huh? CEO? I’m sorry?” you manage. 

Mr. Lee lets out a loud, hearty laugh. “I stepped down two years ago.”

“That’s when I joined,” you and Jaehyun say at the same time.

Mr. Lee smiles at the two of you wordlessly. “I have an idea for the two of you. Why don’t you try turning your ‘I’s into ‘we’s? Do some activities together and when you talk about it, you’ll find yourself much closer.”

You narrow your eyes. “You know, Mr. Lee, I’m a little curious about your relation with the company—”

“My recommendations won’t help you get promotions faster.”

“Dammit.”

Jaehyun chuckles beside you but a glare from you turns it into a suppressed smile. The one thing that wouldn’t be a waste of time opened its door and closed it right back. 

“But you know how promotions work,” you press, leaning forward.

An alarm rings, so pleasant in tone that you know it’s a Samsung. Unfortunately, it’s the ugly flip model and you question Mr. Lee’s taste (and wealth).

“Oh, look, time’s up,” Mr. Lee announces, and you think you catch a hint of nervousness in his voice. 

Jaehyun springs up before his ears turn red, embarrassed by the gusto with which he himself got up and looks at you expectantly. You get up, sighing.

“Next time, Mr. Lee,” you warn. “I will get those details.”

“I charge by the hour.” He smiles.

“Stop threatening the therapist,” Jaehyun mutters to you, taking your arm and turning to leave.

“Oh, and,” Mr. Lee calls. “It’s always better to be honest than to pretend.”

You blink in surprise when Jaehyun tugs at your arm, bowing in thanks and leaving the room with you.

“Was it just me or did he see through us?” you whisper to Jaehyun.

He shakes his head, whispering back, “There’s no way he could tell. He’s probably referring to something else.”

“Like what?”

Jaehyun doesn’t answer.

“Tell me, are you always so domineering towards strangers even?” he asks. “I just thought you liked to press my buttons because I’m easygoing.”

You scoff. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not as cool as you think you are, especially since you get so hot and bothered by me.”

“It’s just you,” he whispers earnestly and your pulse rises. “No one else.”

You cough to kill the awkward silence and walk faster to the elevator. Jaehyun follows at a leisurely pace and it’s never occurred to you before but the sound of someone’s footsteps can also be annoying, proof currently standing beside you.

The elevator doors open, and much to your appallment, a young couple happens to be full blown making out inside the elevator, hands where there certainly shouldn’t be in broad daylight. Jaehyun whips his face away, clearing his throat loud enough for the couple to detach themselves from each other and hurriedly exit, fixing their clothes on the way.

“So he wasn’t lying about the success rate,” Jaehyun states quietly, a look of resigned horror on his face.

You can’t even respond for a few moments, following him into the elevator and shaking your head to get rid of the thought that inevitably jams itself inside your head. It might have a point, however.

"Maybe we should kiss too," you think out loud.

Jaehyun stiffens, looking at you with wide, fearful eyes. "No."

"We have to kiss, we're dating!" You exclaim, hands on your hips.

"We're not actually—ah, whatever. It’s not worth bickering with you."

"Why? Afraid you'll fall in love with me?”

Jaehyun shakes his head, and you’re suddenly aware that your bickering keeps drawing you closer to each other, your faces nearer than you’d realized.

"If anything," he starts with a confident smile. "You better not fall in love with me."

"Oh, please. You're taking this way too seriously."

"You're the one that wants to kiss me."

Your cheeks heat up. "You're- I- That's not—argh, fuck you."

Jaehyun looks smug, and you have the unstoppable urge to punch it off his face. You take a deep breath. Violence is not the way, (name).

“If we were a few years younger, you’d be begging for mercy under me,” you seethe.

Jaehyun’s eyes shift over your face in confusion, ears burning bright red with each passing second. Before he can open his mouth, you let out a short yell.

“Not like that, you pervert,” you say, leaning away from him. 

“I didn’t even say anything. On an unrelated note, were you a delinquent in school?”

You roll your eyes. “Kind of. I had a temper and a sharp tongue.”

“And now you’re a people pleaser. That’s quite the development.”

You smack his shoulder. “You’re getting on my nerves, punk.”

He makes an ‘oh’ with his mouth before smiling. “You totally did the delinquent accent.”

“I’m guessing you were the shy, little boy who flushed red at conversations about kissing.”

Jaehyun clears his throat in annoyance. “I was not. I was quite popular in high school and college, you know?”

“Yeah,” you mutter. “It’s that face of yours.”

“Sorry, what? I didn’t catch that.”

“Oh, look, we’re on the first floor.” You exit the elevator, leaving a puzzled Jaehyun to follow in stumbling steps.

“I don’t think Doyoung’s picking us up,” you state. “You take the bus? Or do you have a car to flex? I don’t ride in anything below a Tesla, unless it’s Doyoung because he’s technically my boss.”

“You’ll have to do with good old rented Hyundais,” he answers.

You exhale. Maybe he’s getting used to you. The bus stop is opposite the building, the structure squeaky clean and a bunch of people waiting on the seats. It’s a busy place and you wonder if the scammy-therapist-slash-your-former-ceo’s business has anything to do with that. You sit the first chance you get, shoulders pressed against Jaehyun’s for the lack of space and admiring the passing traffic. Seoul really just depends on the lenses you see through. Work days make the screen tinted grey and blue and you hate them often but some days, it’s good to experience those. Weekends are brighter, sunny and usually not with Jaehyun but he doesn’t really put a damper on them either.

You scan his side profile, a little envious when you realize that his confidence isn’t misplaced. You might have trained yourself to be more of a pleaser over the years but he’s the sort of person people come to like naturally. Moreover, his skin is perfect and his hair is always looking styled even in a mess. Fate and Life are partners in crime when it comes to being unfair.

Jaehyun turns to look at you and you snap your head to your lap, turning on your phone and staring at the homescreen for a good few seconds.

“Twenty questions,” Jaehyun announces. “Let’s play again. I’ll go first. Do you check me out when I walk away?”

“What is this, playing my own cards against me?” You scoff. “You’re so full of yourself.”

“So, yes or no?”

“Sometimes,” you mutter. “But it’s not the good kind of checking out. I’m checking out how terrible you look with your mess of a tie.”

Jaehyun laughs, the sound a hearty rumbling sort and you can’t help but smile back at that. It’s kind of cute when he laughs—the sound of it and the way his cheeks are dusted pink.

“My turn,” you say with a cheeky smile as you lean in to whisper. “Have you ever had a wet dream about me?”

Jaehyun chokes on air, coughing out the surprise as he stares at you dumfound. You stick the tip of your tongue out and throw him a wink, thoroughly enjoying this victory against him. It feels great to fluster someone like Jaehyun.

“No,” he says with clear emphasis. 

“Even the night you said I was so unbearably hot very loudly to Sicheng?”

Jaehyun leans back sighing, covering his face with his hand. “I was tipsy. And it was my first night out with coworkers. Give me a break.”

You giggle. “Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were worse incidents that night. An intern threw up on Doyoung’s shoes—I can’t even imagine the horror the poor girl experienced.”

Jaehyun shakes his head, smiling through his hand. 

“Have you ever sent nudes?” you ask, wiggling your eyebrows.

He sighs. “Maybe. Have you?”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?”

He curls his lips. The answer seems to be no but you’re at least seventy percent sure he would be attracted to you in a world where your personality traits weren’t being nosy and annoying.

“Do you think you’re a good kisser?” Jaehyun asks, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“Definitely.”

He scoffs, a smile tugging at his lips.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You cross your arms.

He shrugs, leaning in slightly as though flirting (if he had the audacity). “We could test that.”

You feel your cheeks heat up. “What happened to no kissing in the contract?”

“It’s not officially there.”

You roll your eyes, glancing away. “You know, I’m starting to believe you were some sort of desperate fuckboy in college.”

“I- I was the hottest dude on campus and if we went to the same college, you would be pining after me. I literally had the Campus Prince title and girls would follow me to see me in class.”

He crosses his arms, a frown tugging down his lips.

“Ooh, Jung Yoonoh’s getting fired up,” you say in a monotonous voice. “Wonder how many girls you pulled with your chewed up fuckboy dialogue.”

Jaehyun scoffs but he clearly finds your accusations amusing, as hinted by his unbothered smile. He asks a question again.

“What’s more important to you—truth or happiness?” 

The question catches you off-guard. Jaehyun’s eyes are delicately curious, nothing too strong and even so, you find yourself holding your breath under his gaze.

“Huh?”

“Twenty questions. We were playing?” Jaehyun raises an eyebrow.

“Right.” You clear your throat, rubbing the back of your hand. “I… I’d choose happiness, I think. I’m… I’m not sure.”

“Really?” He doesn’t look too hellbent on taking apart your answer so you breathe out. He’s starting to pry into you finally. “I think the truth will make you happier.”

“That’s not- that’s not always true.” You look away, hoping the quietness of your voice ends the conversation there. You don’t know how to talk about it—you never really have. You’ve ugly cried over the lack of your love life to a stranger after five shots of whiskey but you don’t think you can talk about things like this sober. You don’t even know why you answered. Jaehyun makes you feel oddly comfortable.

Jaehyun shrugs, getting up when the next bus halts in front. 

“What did you major in?” you ask, following him.

“Business,” he answers before thinking. “Kind of hated it. But I started out with IT and that was somehow worse.”

You gasp, taking a seat beside him on the bus. “I started with IT too! It was a nightmare. You took that Database Management course?”

Jaehyun smiles. “It was like the course equivalent of reading the back of a Wi-Fi Router.”

You laugh. Maybe he isn’t so different after all. 

“You know, you do look like a business major,” you hum, furrowing your brows as you pretend to scrutinise him.

“So, you’re indirectly saying I either look like a rich kid or a jackass.” Jaehyun raises an eyebrow.

“They’re both the same thing.”

The laughter from the two of you makes an old woman behind you grunt in displeasure and the two of you apologize. It’s nice to talk like college kids again. The Seoul sunlight shines on Jaehyun’s face and you bite back a smile when his dimples appear. They aren’t all that bad. If you get along like this, there’s no reason to worry about fate and the universe and other superfluous things offered to you on a boring old ceramic plate. It’s a smooth ride.

Your eyes drift to Dongmin’s workspace instinctively and you shake your head. This is exactly why you were avoiding him and even started the entire fake relationship with Jaehyun. You’d choose fake dating a (good-looking) chump from management over embarrassment and possible heartbreak any day.

You groan internally before glancing again and find the desk empty. Surprised, you blink and turn only to scream at Dongmin’s figure behind you.

“Shh!” he says urgently. “Don’t move. And don’t panic when I say this but there’s a bug on your shoulder.”

“What the fuck? Get it off, please,” you say, voice choking up.

Dongmin rolls up a stack of papers and you let out a low screech. “Don’t kill it on my shoulder!”

“Sorry,” he says and your eyes soften as he gently pushes the paper against your shoulder and takes it away. You breathe a sigh of relief and he signs you a thumbs up as he wiggles the paper in the air outside the window. 

“You saved me,” you say, smiling.

He returns it, his most beloved eye smile making you wonder if you made the right choice. Wouldn’t it be fun to just crash everything and watch it burn? You know you want to. Benevolence and grace were never your style. However, it’s his smile again that stops you. Maybe you don’t really want to be the bad guy after all. You’re sparing him from confusion and dread.

You’re sparing yourself from rejection and inevitable loneliness (yay).

It’s been a week, discussing details with Jaehyun before the both of you collectively decided to just wing it and hope you’re not caught. After all, there’s no real way to prove you’re not soulmates if you’re careful enough (the same way you can’t prove someone’s cheating if they’re careful enough but that’s quite a depressing analogy). Perhaps if you renounce the soulmate benefits (and Dongmin didn’t smile as often at you), it would be less morally taxing. You, however, are greedy. When you want something, you’ll do anything to get it.

You stare at the computer screen and sigh, cross checking the employee records for incorrect data and your eyelids start to droop. Of all the days, you just had to be assigned the most boring task on a Friday. You also should’ve gotten sleep instead of getting mad at Jaehyun’s dry responses to your plan of action. It was perfectly viable; unnecessary, but perfect nonetheless.

Soojin rolls her chair backwards into yours. “We’re going drinking tonight. Wanna come? You can bring your boy-toy too.”

You roll your eyes. “As much as I’d love to call him that, he’s still the chump from marketing for me.”

“Or,” Soojin emphasizes. “Your actual soulmate. How lucky is it that you work in the same building, in the same company?”

“I’m not sure if you’re being ironic.” You scroll through the database with trained eyes.

“I’m not. A lot of soulmates don’t even get to see each other because of their line of work. It’s so tragic.”

You’d be glad if you didn’t get to see Dongmin ever too. But you’ll keep that to yourself. You hum in response and hear a sigh from behind you.

“Let’s have fun,” she whines. “Is Jaehyun that much of a downer? He’s one of the hottest dudes in the building. I thought you’d be cheery.”

You pause and think to yourself. She does have a point. You’re definitely supposed to look happier. Your soulmate has the looks of a model and fifteen year old you would fawn over him no doubt.

“It’s the work,” you answer. “I’m working overtime to compensate for my rent.”

You work overtime anyway because you hate heading home to an empty apartment. 

“Ah, you signed a new lease, right? Near Songpa?” Soojin looks at you with pity and pats your shoulder. “You know what? I’ll treat you to drinks tonight. You deserve a day off, missy.”

You smile. “Thanks, Soojin.”

“And,” she adds in a singsong voice. “The love of your life is here.”

You furrow your eyebrows before tilting your head and almost sighing in exasperation at the figure of Jung Yoonoh outside the glass door. He may not show it, but you know distress when you see it. You’ve seen enough squirming undergraduates at company interviews. 

You quickly get up from your seat, praying that he didn’t mess something up. However, you find it cute when he looks like this, the urge to fluster him even more presenting itself to be rather tempting.

“I think you have a sick obsession with me, Jaehyun.” You cross your arms after closing the door behind you.

He exhales, closing his eyes for a moment before taking your arm and pulling you away from the door. 

“Woah, this isn’t high school. You can’t just pull me into a corner to make out.”

Jaehyun’s ears flare hot red and he clears his throat. “You’re in high spirits today.”

You weren’t, actually. Somehow, teasing Jaehyun gives you the same rush as caffeine. You just love when the nonchalance on his face turns into discomposure.

“I came to give Doyoung these files. Or you, since you’re practically his assistant.”

You ignore his comment. “There’s clearly something else.”

“The team sports event is coming up,” Jaehyun starts, hesitating. “I’m not managing it this year. I have to participate.”

“So?”

“So Dongmin has a higher chance of finding us out. What if he sees my mark in the changing room and it all goes to shit?”

“Great! He’ll think you’re his soulmate and I’ll be spared from this nonsense.”

“I’m being serious. It’s already difficult living with Sicheng and having to change with my doors locked. It’s kind of suspicious.”

“Do you guys sleep naked with each other or what?”

“No, but I do sleep with my shirt off.”

“Ugh. Why would you give me that image?” you complain. The image isn’t bad per se but it’s not what you need right now.

“You clearly liked it,” he mutters. 

You furrow your eyebrows. “You’re not doing this just to give me a load of unnecessary anxiety, are you? Do you know how swamped with work I am?”

“No, of course not,” he answers, no indication of which question he answered. “Also, is there a reason Soojin’s glaring at me?”

You wave your hand in dismissal. “It’s just the haven’t-warmed-up-to-coworker’s-new-boyfriend glare. Don’t worry about it.”

He doesn’t seem too relieved but you have more anxious thoughts invading the privacy of your Friday evening. You have to keep up your composure. It could happen one way or another, perhaps in a situation better than a team sports activity, but you have to figure it out. You reject your soulmate anyway—the same way he would.

Glaring at Jaehyun one last time, you get back to your desk. Jaehyun looks at your receding figure and finds himself checking you out, the largest blow he’s taken to his dignity. He shakes his head, breathing in and out. This is so not like him. He’s supposed to be the suave, handsome guy who people can’t seem to get to and yet—yet, you do it so easily. It’s unfair. He swallows his heart and tells himself he’s too old to feel this way. He’ll just drown himself in work and pretend love is a commodity like everyone else with a corporate job is supposed to. 

“You know,” Soojin starts when you get back. “Jaehyun kind of looks high if you look at him long enough. Weed is illegal though but who knows? Maybe he’s a bad boy deep down after all.”

“Which rumour have you been paying attention to now?” You sigh deeply.

Soojin laughs. “It’s funny to hear everyone’s opinions. Even if most of them turn into scandalous tall tales.”

“Anyway,” she continues. “I’m clocking out. I’ll get Jaehyun to take you to the sake bar.”

You look at her, puzzled.

“You’re a matching set now,” she follows up and you groan.

“Don’t give me that cr—”

“Toodle-oo! Let’s have some fun before we’re grey and old, eh?”

You sigh and nod. Maybe you should look into a caffeine fix, even if it costs you a mental power outage at the end of the rush. It’s not like you to be so down on a Friday but alas, Fate is as miserable a woman as you are. The sake bar is starting to sound good.

Or, you could always watch a few ASMR cooking videos instead of staring blankly at the employee records. Either way, this Friday better improve by tonight.

“This is going great,” Soojin says, louder than she probably intended after her fourth shot.

“Of course it is,” you mutter. 

You haven’t yet had a chance to drink more because of two reasons: one) Soojin is hogging the alcohol and two) it would be embarrassing to get drunk in front of Jaehyun. Adding to your misery, Soojin has been gushing over her soulmate and the way she always makes breakfast for Soojin, listing off every single recipe she’s made. You would love to listen but you’re a tiny bit past your limit.

“Wooh, Jaehyun, you look hot,” Soojin whistles, in more of an older sister manner. “I can almost see your tattoo. Why don’t the two of you show us at the same time and we can take a commemorative picture?”

You cough loudly. “Mine’s on my waist, Soojin. I’m not ready to expose skin.”

“Right. Sorry.” She turns back at lightning speed to bother Dongmin with her stories, who smiles at her politely. It seems so genuine that you’re slightly enamored with it for a moment. There’s Jungwoo from marketing beside him, some more HR employees and thankfully, no interns. Doyoung is the only one partly miserable in the lot, talking into the phone for half an hour now. 

“Shit.” Jaehyun nudges you and whispers, “I forgot about the tattoo. This T-shirt makes it very visible.”

You look at him, alarmed. You fix his jacket, startling him, and pull the zipper all the way to his neck, making sure to backhand him on the chin.

“There.”

“It’s hot in here.”

“What do you want me to do about it? God, you’re like a child.”

“I’m like a—okay. Just cover my tattoo with foundation or something.”

“You think I carry around a whole bottle of foundation?”

Jaehyun blinks, deeming it safer to keep his mouth shut. 

“Okay. Fine. I have an idea. Come to the washroom with me.”

“Oh my, this isn’t your making out in the corner type of thing, right?”

You glare at him and he shuts up, following you quietly to the surprisingly clean restroom. The fact that it isn’t gendered makes you very glad. You make Jaehyun sit on the low enough basin counter and push your knee against it to balance yourself as you take out a permanent marker from your bag.

“I hope Doyoung doesn’t fire me for sneaking away,” you mutter angrily. “He didn’t even make me receive his calls all day.”

Jaehyun scoffs lightly. “Please, Doyoung adores you and your work ethic. He talks about it more than what I need to overhear. That and Taeyong’s detailed aquarium maintenance rules.”

“He does?”

Jaehyun clears his throat and you hold back bombing him with more questions till you’re done with painting an arrow into his tattoo.

“Isn’t it weird?” He looks at you with round, curious eyes. “Yours is a heart. Mine’s a pierced heart.”

“Hm. Funny coincidence.”

“Do you have to sit on my lap for this?”

“I’m not sitting on your lap,” you hiss. You are kind of close. You train your eyes on his collarbone as you pull his neckline down. 

It would be so embarrassing to be caught like this. You’d rather be caught making out with someone in the broom closet. You hold back a pained sigh. Jaehyun has some nerve speaking to you when you’re already annoyed with him. Couldn’t he just have worn his business attire? Why does he get to go home early? Taeyong is far too lenient a boss. You start swearing internally, getting nervous when you think about the consequences of your actions.

“Has anyone ever filed a complaint against you?” Jaehyun asks, and you nudge his chin upwards to draw the line on his tattoo.

“For what? Being perfect and successful?”

“For that attitude. The ‘take what I want’ attitude.”

You roll your eyes. “No. You’re saying it like I’m awful to the core for trying to take what I want. I haven’t got such a bad soul, you know, as souls go. You wouldn't write articles about how good a soul it is but… it’s well enough.”

Jaehyun raises an eyebrow and you avert your gaze from his eyes. This sort of proximity shouldn’t be bothering you, you shouldn’t be rambling.

The door opens right then and in a fit of panic, you do the unthinkable. You press your lips to Jaehyun’s and pray that whoever walked in has no idea who you are and more importantly, can’t see the permanent marker in your hand. 

“I’m so sorry!”

You know that voice. You half regret it when you hear it. Dongmin exits the bathroom as quickly as he entered and you pull away to look at the empty space. Beside you, Jaehyun stays so still that you forget he’s there for a moment. You breathe out in relief though part of you still feels a heavy ounce of regret.

You turn back to Jaehyun and find his doe eyes soft and lost in thought.

“I get it now,” Jaehyun whispers. “It must hurt. That he doesn’t care about the system.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That he’s so reckless about discarding you.”

You separate yourself from him further, standing up and brushing your clothes. “You’re overstepping.”

“Sorry,” he responds quietly. 

There’s a pause.

“Did you just kiss me right now?”

“Shut up. I didn’t want him to see us and especially this.” You wave the marker in front of his face.

“You just kissed me in a fit of panic. That’s the first time I’ve seen someone respond to panic this way.” Jaehyun looks a little too smug.

“What are you implying?” 

“You wanted to kiss me.”

You scoff. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.” 

You want to knock the smile right off his face but you stick to flicking his forehead, his yell of surprise satisfying. This Friday night was supposed to get better. In fact, you are going to make it better if life won’t. The soju won’t drink itself and you deem that Soojin has had enough. 

Ignoring Dongmin’s confused look, you order far too many soju shots to be considered healthy. As you promised yourself, you are going to make this Friday better.

//

You just had to go and get drunk. Jaehyun stares at you, blinking slowly and wondering just how much you can embarrass yourself before it becomes a burden for him. He has to get you home; you’re practically a matching set now. But are the halves of a pair supposed to take care of the other when they get drunk?

“You know what, guys?” You announce, standing up abruptly and immediately getting pulled back to your seat by Jaehyun. It doesn’t stop your mouth however.

“I hate the stupid system,” you continue. “To tell the truth—”

He smacks his hand over your mouth. Jaehyun has had enough of the silent mini heart attacks you give him. The rest look at him with puzzled looks and he can’t even bring himself to give them a polite smile before dragging you out of the bar. The night breeze is cold enough—maybe it’ll sober you up.

"You're so annoying, Jaehyun," you mutter, massaging your forehead. "Did you know that?"

Or maybe it won’t.

"Never heard that before."

"How do you always keep to yourself and still be the center of attention?" You cling to his arm for balance. 

"Have you considered that maybe a polite man isn't as scheming as you think he is?"

You curl your lips. "Stop using big sentences. I hate that I barely know you, and I know everyone."

Jaehyun purses his lips. "You just enjoy the power that comes with figuring people out. Don't you?"

"Whatever you say. I want life to be a nice and smooth ride but then again, I can't even face my soulmate." You let out an airy laugh. "I didn't really need one though."

Jaehyun laughs in disbelief. "You look like you're dying of loneliness."

"Ooh, that's a big claim, Yoonoh."

"You say I keep to myself but what about you? You like hiding, don't you?"

You laugh. "Is this the part where I say we're nothing alike?"

He purses his lips, shaking his head in dismissal. He's just tired of chit-chat with someone who smells like she robbed a liquor store in Itaewon.

“You must think I’m some sort of selfish, vapid, work-obsessed overachiever,” you continue, tilting your head with a blank look in your eyes.

“Well, not exac—”

“But guess what? Your opinions are invalid, Jung Yoonoh. You’re just some chump from marketing. A very good-looking chump but still.”

Jaehyun swears under his breath as you fling your arms open in the same manner a speech-giving patriot fighting for freedom would. Unfortunately, the freedom struggle is private in this day and age, and you just smacked him in the nose instead.

You sigh deeply and he looks at you again, warily now as he holds his nose.

“You’re not exactly wrong either. I’m so empty. Like a bottle of soju with no soju. Could you bring me some?”

Jaehyun massages his temples and solidifies his resolve. He’s had enough stares from people on the sidewalk. With delicate concern, he holds you up with one arm around your waist, balancing your weight evenly so you can stand. Promptly, you bury your face into his neck and an embarrassing, high-pitched squeak evades the filter of his mouth. You’re just so adept at making his days (and nights) worse.

Jaehyun tries his best to carry you to the parking lot without any signs of struggle but good lord, are you uncooperative. Once he’s down lugging you to the passenger seat, he breathes out in relief at long last and makes sure you don’t fold in over yourself dozing off the seat. Getting you to sit up, he finds himself smiling the slightest bit at your smudged lipstick. Even like this, you’re quite pretty. 

Realizing what thought came over him, he shakes his head vigorously as if he’s committing a horrible crime. He just has to get you home—Soojin had texted him the address prior to the outing just in case—and then he can go back to pretending whatever he even is supposed to.

The sports event is really just HR and Management trying to one-up the other in a more quantitative way. You’re not really fond of the sweat and heavy breathing that comes with physical exertion if it’s for the sake of competition. Competition is such a childish, masculine way of handling things, especially emotions.

HR is leading in wins, however and that means you have something to rub in Jaehyun’s face. You hate participating but you’re not allowed to opt out without a medical certificate. At least one competition, and you had to choose the three-legged race. All these potential partners, and Dongmin had to choose you.

“I’ll win,” you tell Jaehyun, stopping by him once you exit the changing room. The indoor stadium is usually a recreational facility for senior employees but on sports day, it’s closer to a gladiator arena. The seats are green and occupied by grinning employees, most of them glad for a day off but also upset they don’t get to attend their personal affairs in it.

Jaehyun stops himself from rolling his eyes. “Shouldn’t it be a ‘we’? You need a partner. Oh, are you sad you can’t pick me?”

“Not at all.” You cross your arms, annoyed at his mock pity. 

Right then, Dongmin jogs up to you in a blue tracksuit. His hair sticks to his forehead because unlike you, he takes sports very seriously. Jaehyun, on the other hand, just seems to enjoy the competition. As a guilty pleasure, you’d like to see the two of them compete one day. That would be a competition worth betting on.

“I’ll have to borrow your soulmate.” Dongmin laughs. “The race is starting.”

Life strikes again with its poorly timed irony.

“Don’t mind me,” Jaehyun says politely.

The race is easier than you thought it would be considering most of the other employees struggle with teamwork. You’re the HR team for a reason. But then again, you feel a certain hollowness pervade you while you’re pressed to Dongmin’s side. Wouldn’t it be nice?

All you can think is that Dongmin and you are perfectly in sync. The realization comes off as sad despite your victory and the wide grins on both of your faces. 

Jaehyun purses his lips and gives the two of you a nonchalant look. He’s avoided getting caught in the changing room quite well. For some reason, he’s glad that you’re winning but also dissatisfied about it. He would certainly feel different if he were participating in that race, wouldn’t he? He would win. Losing a competition is a huge blow to his ego. Lately, he seems to be losing a lot of races. The two of you have been growing closer and he doesn’t mind late night discussions about flawed systems and childhood memories; but the fact that you’re growing on him is something for him to be on edge about. He’s never felt so close to someone, and still so far.

“Oh, they have good chemistry, don’t they?” Doyoung comments beside Jaehyun, before taking a sip from his bottle.

“What chemistry?” Jaehyun snaps and Doyoung almost chokes on the water.

“Chill out, man.” Doyoung eyes Jaehyun’s figure in concern. “She’s like officially yours.”

Jaehyun refuses in a series of sputtering responses. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not jealous. I’m not that kind of man.”

“I didn’t paint you as that kind of man either,” Doyoung mutters before speaking up. “But love, Jaehyun. Love’s a weird thing.”

Jaehyunn ignores his comment and walks down to the grounds, jogging up to you. He immediately forgets to say anything at all. Smooth move, Yoonoh.

You just stick out your tongue at him subtly.

“I told you we’d win,” you say.

Jaehyun crosses his arms. “Congratulations. I thought you, quote, hate this stupid competition for dunces.”

You clear your throat and Dongmin laughs beside you. Before he can offer his bottle, Jaehyun offers his own in a rush. You raise an eyebrow but don’t question it.

“You guys really are a perfect pair.” Dongmin laughs. “Sometimes I wish Mijoo was my soulmate.”

You give him a pitiful smile. There go your happy feelings of victory.

“But I’m happy this way.” Dongmin nudges your shoulder with his. “Don’t give me that look.”

That is not the look he thinks you were giving. You smile. 

“What about this? We can go on a double date! Those are fun, right?” Dongmin muses, crossing his arms.

“No,” you and Jaehyun refuse in a panic, and Dongmin blinks in confusion at the overwhelming response.

“I'm more of a homebody,” you explain.

“Yeah, me too,” Jaehyun agrees.

It makes Dongmin laugh aloud. “Oh, fate didn’t go wrong with the two of you.”

Your smile wavers. Did it go so wrong with you and Dongmin? Jaehyun’s hand brushes yours and you look at him. A perfect side profile and flushed hot cheeks with dimples to die for. You wouldn’t mind being in love with him. You don’t mind love much at all. 

Shaking off the thought, you watch as Dongmin leaves the two of you to run to the changing rooms. Eyeing Jaehyun’s red team sweatshirt with “Management” in big typography over the chest, you look back up to his face. 

“Why did you jog over here so desperately?” You wiggle your eyebrows. “Jealous?”

“Yes. I am irreparably in love with you.”

He leans in quickly and you flinch, making his dimples show up.

“Asshole,” you curse. “I’ll file you for harassment. Don’t do that again.”

“Isn’t it harassment when you feel me up while you draw—” Jaehyun leans in to whisper. “—the soulmark?” 

“I would never have my hands near your greasy existence if I could,” you huff, scandalized. 

But the thing is, Jaehyun is getting better at this game of flustering each other and you don’t like it one bit.

“Hey, you know Dongmin’s girlfriend?” he asks suddenly. 

You nod. “Kind of. I’ve seen her pictures on Instagram.”

Jaehyun pauses before humming in realization.

You cough. “Not that I was stalking them or something. Obviously.”

Jaehyun gives you a knowing smile but doesn’t question anything, much to your aggravation. It would’ve been better if you had a chance to prove you weren’t stalking them but then again, that is exactly what you were doing.

“Well, we went to the same college. Same major too.”

“Are you serious? Wait, how do you know? Does this mean you stalked their Instagram too?”

“Too?”

“Shut up.”

There’s a beat of silence. 

“She’s not exactly the evil homewrecker type,” he says.

“I know that,” you snap. If anything, you feel like the evil homewrecker even if Dongmin’s supposed to be your soulmate.

They’re so reckless. Jaehyun was right—you do blame them in a way. They don’t care who they trample under their nauseating parade of romance. But then again, that parade is better than a personal rejection.

“I’m just saying… don't hold it against them.”

“I don’t remember asking for advice, Jung Yoonoh.”

Jaehyun shrugs, dropping the issue. The preparations for the next race is starting and it has something to do with passing balls from basket to basket—you get bored already when you see Doyoung stretch before shaking hands with Taeyong.

“Wanna get ice-cream? We funded the food truck this year.” Jaehyun looks expectantly at you.

“Sure.” 

You contemplate holding his hand for a moment but let that thought bury itself. You don’t have to pretend right now. 

Much to your despair (or delight) however, Jaehyun takes your hand absentmindedly as he walks towards the exit. It’s not that you’ve never held hands before, it’s just that Jaehyun’s skin is soft against yours.

“I can’t believe you and Mijoo were in the same course.”

It seems she’s ahead of you in every direction you look to tread on. Of course, you will not be telling Jaehyun that. You don’t exactly feel jealousy—can’t feel jealousy when your life is perfect as it is. And for Jaehyun? You hate to admit it but you’d trade places with Mijoo any day.

“Well, she didn’t really like socializing back then so I didn’t know we were in the same program either.”

You chuckle, glancing down at your intertwined fingers despite your best efforts. It feels nice like this. It feels nice to be wanted by someone—even if it’s a lie.

“Do you think- Do you think they’re brave?” You ask. “They didn’t even hesitate to disregard the system.”

“I think people in love are always brave.”

You hum, looking down at your feet. All the more reason the system fucked up. You were never even supposed to be partnered up. You’re not brave—the face you put on is. The idea of love seems to get further and further away from you.

Just then, Jaehyun tugs at your hand, walking slightly faster and making you complain as you jog to catch up with his long strides. The food truck is fairly large, on the street outside to the stadium entrance. February is catching up with its heat and you curse at global warming for this hot winter day.

“You can take up to five scoops of different flavours,” he informs you, grinning sheepishly. “I guess the cups aren’t large enough for beyond that.”

“I didn’t know you were this passionate about ice-cream,” you say.

“Sicheng rubbed off on me.”

You laugh. IT must have given Sicheng enough stress to develop a sweet tooth. You love the HR Department when you look at the others in your company.

Jaehyun has a nice smile. You don’t know why you think that but you do and now you can’t focus on anything apart from the pink dust sprinkled over his cheeks and the handsome dimples that accompany. You don’t want to stare but clearly, Jaehyun must have been blessed by some divide being if not for fate. Maybe he’s a mess up like you. As far as you know, his soulmate doesn’t exist. That little red heart is so simple that none of the soulmate designs match it.

A rather repulsing part of you is happy about it. You like the feel of Jaehyun’s hands. You like the way he looks at you. You wouldn’t mind it if he were yours.  

Jaehyun’s house is as cosy as his mother makes you feel. It’s been a while since you’ve been home and if you were perhaps less emotionally constipated, you would have tears welling up in your eyes. There’s quite a few relatives too but then again, every Asian family jumps at the chance to celebrate something as mediocre as engagements and marriage and soulmate findings. Apparently, hormones are perfectly fine to them once you’re not teenagers anymore.

This isn’t so bad. What was so scary about meeting parents again? Jaehyun’s dad did challenge you with a questionnaire but lucky for you, you know exactly how interviews work. You’ve got enough information on Jaehyun from the man himself for this visit. The briefing he gave you was boring though; you already know what you need to know about Jaehyun.

You sit at the table, while most of the other guests work in the kitchen. Jaehyun’s mother asks you questions about your life, friendly and welcoming in every way possible. Mothers are truly god-sent. You wonder how she produced someone as far from divine as Jaehyun. (Except in looks, perhaps.)

You say that out loud and get a sharp quip from Jaehyun, his mother’s eyes lighting up at your childish interaction.

“Oh my, fate is never wrong!” She remarks with a wide smile. “I’ve never seen Jaehyun open up so much with anyone before. He was such a shy boy in school, you know? All the girls would send letters and confessions and he would just turn red in the face.”

“Mom.” He smiles all too sweet at her but you can see the panic in his eyes.

She rolls her eyes before turning to you. “Darling, you have no idea how proud I feel to see him this at ease. I was honestly getting tired of all the ‘your son is so polite and well-mannered’ comments. Some bickering ought to do him good.”

“Mom,” he repeats, straightening. “I think auntie needs some help setting up the table.”

“Don’t shoo me away yet. I have to tell (name) about the time you were elected class representative in middle school. And all those sports and acting awards.”

“You don’t have to advertise me, Mom,” he says, dropping his face into his hands to rub at his eyes, already growing tired. “I’m already- I’m already hers.”

His mother coos and apart from the expected deep red flush on Jaehyun’s skin, you find yourself feeling hot in the face too. Jaehyun’s aunt calls for his mother right then and you watch as she makes her way to the kitchen entrance, the two women glancing at you and giggling to each other over some shared words.

Jaehyun takes the opportunity to grab your hand and walk away to a more obscure part of the house upstairs. With significantly less relatives, it should be a good hiding spot unless discovered by his giggling cousins that he refuses to introduce you to. 

“Aw, what a shy baby,” you coo, smiling at the thought of a younger, easily-flustered Jaehyun.

His ears are bright red and you think that he’s still easily flustered. He just doesn’t show it much anymore—there’s only one dead giveaway.

“Forget everything my mom said,” he instructs. “It’s not important information.”

“Oh, no, darling. Your mother is a gold mine of vital information. You know what? I’m going to go chat her up right now. I’m sure you were quite the teenage dream I should know about.”

Jaehyun grips your wrist before you can escape, pulling your closer.

“Don’t.”

You don’t know if it’s the proximity or the fact that there are most definitely a few family members that could walk in right now—but you find yourself embarrassed as you look at his face. It’s very pleasant, handsome even, and the strands of his hair look irresistibly soft from this distance. You reach your hand out and brush the hair out of his eyes, almost instinctively. 

“You have nice eyes, Jaehyun,” you say out loud, not sure why. He doesn’t fluster this time but it makes you all the more aware of your nearness.

Your eyes glance at the bottom of the staircase to see a little girl, around nine, hiding from behind the wall that separates the dining room and the kitchen. You return your gaze to Jaehyun with a smirk.

"We should kiss right now. Your little cousin's watching."

Jaehyun looks mildly disgusted. "Why would I want to kiss you in front of my cousin?"

You roll your eyes. “You don't get it, do you? The fastest way to convince a family is through rumours.”

Jaehyun raises an eyebrow. "So?"

"Oh my god, you're an idiot. Nosy cousins are the most effective way to spread rumours."

"Ah." Jaehyun looks enlightened enough for you to continue.

"Okay, but first you need to have these mints." You take out the emergency mints from your purse.

"What? I don't need mints. I have nice smelling breath.”

"Everyone needs mints, Jaehyun. Especially men."

Jaehyun sighs heavily. You take the opportunity to grab his wrist and pull him into a corner. 

"Have this mint or else."

You hold his face between your thumb and forefingers, cheeks squishing under the pressure as you force a mint in. He lets you do it for some reason, looking lost as he gazes at you. 

You raise an eyebrow. "Oh my, you're enjoying this. Pervert."

"Wha—what? You have to stop thinking you're hot shit, oh my god. I just got distracted for a bit."

"By me, right?"

"No! I just zoned ou—you're enjoying this."

You bite down your smile but a giggle escapes you anyway. Jaehyun rolls his eyes though he smiles, looking far too close to irresistible when his dimples show.

"You can't keep teasing me," he says, voice low.

"I've been doing it for two years. I'm pretty sure I can do it for at least two more."

Jaehyun scoffs, laughing at your statement. "You know what? I'm going to get back at you from now on. I've been so lenient."

You snort before pressing the back of your fingers to your nose. "You? You're going to get back at me? You’re good at lip service, Jaehyun."

“Huh. You might be right about that.”

There's a beat of silence and you look at him expectantly. In the next beat of your heart (or lack thereof), he cups your cheeks and presses his lips to yours, surprising the life out of you as your back hits the wall. It's not just a touch either, his mouth moves over yours and when your knees feel weak, you reluctantly admit that the rumour about Jung Yoonoh being a good kisser is true. Maybe his body count isn't a lower-end single digit after all.

He pulls apart with a short smile tugging at his lips. "Satisfied?"

You sputter out a response before clearing your throat. “I- I don’t think anyone really saw us in this corner.”

Jaehyun makes a low humming sound. “Or you could just say you want me to kiss you again? I know I’m a good kisser.”

“Fuck off.” You punch his chest, eliciting a quiet grunt from him.

You move away from him, peeking from behind the wall. Oh, she saw it alright. The giggling gives it away and the fact that a few more younger cousins have gathered. This is ridiculous. The fact that you wouldn’t mind more is even worse.

You turn back to Jaehyun with steel-set eyes. “No more kissing. Ever. Never again. Kissing is officially banned.”

Jaehyun looks perplexed. “I thought that was a good kiss. Did you not enjoy it? What do you mean no kissing?”

“And I take it back.” The heat on your face is still burning steadily. 

“Oh, I see. You liked it so much that you’re embarrassed.”

“You’re such a pain in the ass.”

“So I’m right?”

You roll your eyes and quickly walk down the stairs, a few words of complaint left hanging in the air as Jaehyun follows behind, stumbling over the steps.

Jaehyun likes how comfortable this is. He doesn’t mind glaring daggers at each other but this is fun too. It’s like he doesn’t have to be careful about the lines he might be crossing—there aren’t any damn lines at all. He can’t call it love, at least not by definition, but something is there. Something that is solid enough and heavy enough. Something he would be ready to hold on to.

You laugh at a joke Jaehyun’s dad makes. A family is the only place to feel at home. It might not be yours but maybe at the end of the night, you can convince them to disown Jaehyun and adopt you as their child instead. His cousins seem to be interested in the same things you were as a high schooler and it surprised you. Your job lets you advise the older cousins in a fairly friendly fashion. The little ones seem to like your dress and you find them far too adorable with their pink cheeks and dimples, much like Jaehyun’s. Speaking of which, he definitely got them from his dad. You look around and wonder how Jaehyun has so many female cousins and not an inkling about how women work. 

It doesn’t hurt anymore that Dongmin discarded you so recklessly.

He’s wrong. Jaehyun’s wrong. It doesn’t hurt—didn’t hurt right now at the very least. When Jaehyun kissed you, you didn’t think of Dongmin or his girlfriend or anyone else. You thought that Jaehyun’s skin is somehow always the right temperature. 

You shake your head. Jaehyun drives your getaway car and you shouldn’t get too comfortable in its worn-out leather seats. This shouldn’t be any different to you; you aren’t supposed to find love in every corner. This was all a survival instinct. 

The more stories Jaehyun’s mother shares with you over dinner, the more you find it comfortable to be here. You don’t feel this welcome in your own apartment (although, there isn’t exactly anyone else living there but you and the goddamn pigeon that wakes you up at six in the morning). The more the night progresses, the more you want to believe in this lie. Jaehyun glances at you from time to time, his gaze neither uncomfortable nor harsh and you smile at him when he does. Right now, there is no loneliness and the air is warm and smells of freshly cooked food; the way familial love works is such a mystery. You feel content.

“Why are we doing this again?” you lean in and ask Jaehyun, eyes focused on the TV as he tries to fix it.

“Because I need to get out of work, and fulfilled soulmates get a day off on Valentine’s day.”

You nod. “Your apartment kind of stinks. I feel sorry for Sicheng.”

“This is clean,” he defends, pointing at the lack of any visible mess in his room. His work table, however, has too many items scattered over it to be called neat. There’s a fairly large TV attached to the wall and you’re a little jealous about it. You only ever watch shows on your (quite beloved albeit small) laptop. The blinds aren’t fully closed, the evening city lights trying their best to pry their pervasive fingers in and add something more to the peach hue of Jaehyun’s room.

The doorbell rings just in estimated time for food delivery, a sigh leaving your mouth along with a ‘finally’. His place is strangely comfortable and much less of the war zone that you expected. There’s no reason to feel awkward, really, or even the bubbling in your stomach. You’re not seventeen, in your crush’s house. Jaehyun isn’t even someone you like that way.

It’s just two friends hanging out and watching a movie and doing other friendly activities. Two friends hanging out on Valentine's day. Two friends who have kissed more than once.

What do lovers do anyway?

This thing with Jaehyun has turned into clandestine smiles at the office building, subtle texts of ‘did you eat?’ and ‘good morning, idiot’, racing hearts at brushing hands on the occasional off-work hangouts (you refuse to call them “dates”) and overall, a lot more pink hearts floating over his head when you see him. It’s positively appalling. 

You don’t mind it one bit.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” The delivery man wishes as he leaves and you feel a sudden rage bubble up in you. 

“Ah, does he think every couple celebrates Valentine’s day? And just because we’re in the same apartment means we’re a couple? Wow.” You cross your arms, scoffing. “Who’s he to wish me?”

“Why… Why are you getting mad?” Jaehyun asks quietly, slightly confused.

You glare at him, your anger not quite dissipated and walk back into his room, placing the box of confectionaries on the bedside table with a loud thud. Jaehyun follows, placing the drinks rather clumsily beside it. He gives you one last look of concern before settling down on his bed.

You let out another huff of complaint.

"Does everything have to be heart-shaped?"

You stare at the nauseating display of baked goods delivered in a pretty heart-shaped box. The brownie is in a clear plastic box that has a tiny bouquet of hearts atop it, the coffee cups have heart stickers around the rim, and the pastry itself is heart-shaped or rather, two halves of a heart. One of them is strawberry pink and the other chocolate brown.

“You seem… suddenly fired up,” Jaehyun comments quietly.

You don’t really care if you look crazy to him right now; he’s already seen the worse parts of you. You’re just so annoyed at all this red and pink that was delivered. Aren’t cafes supposed to stick with that beige-cream palette? 

While you contemplate, Jaehyun tears the little sugar packet and attempts to open the lid of the cup at the same time, your blood pressure rising at the sight because you were half sure he’d spill the drink. After much difficulty, he shakes the packet trying to get just enough sugar but of course, like the clumsy oaf he is, he misses almost entirely, spilling sugar over his coffee table. It’s oddly endearing but that’s a thought you’ll keep to yourself.

He turns to you with a sheepish grin and you give him a look of distaste.

“You are a sorry excuse of a person, Jaehyun.”

“Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t mess this up.”

You turn to look him in the eyes, the honey shade alluring under warm apartment lights. They really are pretty. 

“I, and every other sane human being, would not mess up adding sugar to a cup of coffee.”

“You faltered for a moment there.”

That was not the reason you faltered. You roll your eyes and look away, taking a sip of your drink and sighing at the taste.

“How do you even like Americanos? Don’t you like a bit of cream and sweetness?”

 “I don’t really care for bitterness,” he answers.

“Wow, you must be a masochist.”

“And it’s quite obvious you’re a sadist.”

You snicker. “That makes us quite the pair.”

“I would like that sentence in a non-BDSM context, thank you.”

Jaehyun turns on the TV and the Netflix logo animation pops up. You raise an eyebrow at his ‘Continue Watching’ list, eyeing Bridegerton and Sweet Home, and wondering if he could be any more of an enigma. You can’t possibly figure him out at this point. You groan when he picks a title.

“Ugh. Do we have to watch a romantic comedy?”

“What? They’re funny. And I thought you liked those 2000’s movies.”

You believed in unicorns and sock goblins and love back then too. These days, you hate to see other people in love, especially when it’s fake. The movies you loved are now the movies you hate. The couples you eyed with delight at parks and cafes are now the bane of your existence. In fact, you’d go as far as to say that you enjoy the digital fireworks from a couple having a massive online breakup. Things falling apart are entertaining when it’s not happening to you.

You purse your lips. Can't you see other people happy without wanting to tear it down for yourself?

“Fine. But I’ll pick the 2000’s romcom.”

Jaehyun shrugs and hands over the remote. You see Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds on the poster and click on it immediately. The Proposal has a good enough comedy to romance ratio, in your opinion.

“I’m kind of surprised you came,” he says quietly.

“Why?” You raise an eyebrow. “Is it because of the suggestive nature of visiting someone’s apartment on Valentine’s day? Did you think we’d be doing something… more fun?”

You lean in and bat your eyelashes suggestively, although you’re clearly joking.

“I think you should know better than to get mouthy with me,” he answers as he leans in further, making your heartbeat hike at the proximity. Maybe he’s figured you out. Wouldn’t it be so nice to figure each other out at the same time—like puzzle pieces fitting together?

You move away from him. “Well, it’s not like I can go anywhere else. And I didn’t want to stay in my own apartment.”

“Maybe you enjoy my company?”

“Look, I would be sipping my coffee at a perfectly aesthetic cafe if it weren’t Valentine’s day.”

He raises an eyebrow at your nonsensical declaration and you sigh, trying to explain yourself.

“Cafes just terrorize the single folk on Valentine’s day. You should always go with Netflix,” you say.

“And chill?”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“As I’ve told you so many times, I am not stupid.”

You inhale, an idea presenting itself.  

“Hey, since we’re technically a couple, shouldn’t you be sharing your Netflix password with me?” you ask, pressing your lips into your cutest smile.

“No.”

“You’re so stingy,” you mutter. It was worth a shot.

Jaehyun laughs, your hand reaching out to poke his dimples but you stop yourself. You weren’t supposed to get this comfortable. This wasn’t your place to be. Lost in thought, the moving screen leaves you unfazed and you can’t look at him anymore. However, Jaehyun reaches out right then and wipes at the space beside your lips, your focus lifting from the beginning scenes of The Proposal and latching onto Jaehyun’s lips.

There’s a pause, your head clearing itself of thoughts when you make eye contact with him. Soft hair, doe eyes, full lips and dimples—he’s so damn attractive, it hurts your existence. Does he have to be this close to you? You have mixed feelings about that look in his eyes.

“Can I kiss you?” he whispers suddenly.

“Yes,” you answer.

If you look from a rational point of view, you should not have said that. You should have said anything but that. But you don’t want to think right now. Jaehyun’s touch is warm over your skin as his hand rests under your jaw and the other on your waist.

You should not have said that. But you feel loved.

Somewhere along, you find yourself parting only to kiss again, the feeling of skin so delightful in a way you’ve never experienced. Your shirt hikes up and you see Jaehyun eye the little heart with the arrow—the sign you so despised with a gentle smile.

“It’s pretty,” he whispers.

It’s pretty but it isn’t his. He doesn’t have to look at you like that—he’s come a long way from nervous glances and now he’s the one making you nervous. Just say it isn’t love and it will be alright.

You part, sobering up for a moment and you disentangle your limbs to sit at the side of his bed.

“What’s- What’s wrong?” Jaehyun whispers.

You exhale.

“All my life, I wait and when it comes, it’s all wrong,” you say, staring at your lap. Self-pity is the most disgusting kind of pity to feel. You’re past crying at things like this. You’re past crying for an ounce of romance, every time you listen to a love song on the radio or look at an Instagram post of a couple or pass by lovers on the sidewalk content with each other. You don’t even have cats to return home to. Modern loneliness is wearing you down but you can’t believe in fairytales anymore.

He scoffs, smiling bitterly. “I don’t even know if this is worth losing my dignity over.”

“Jaehyun—”

“We can’t pretend anymore—I can’t pretend anymore,” Jaehyun exhales. “I want you enough to forget the system. Give me an answer. Please.”

You don’t mind forgetting the system right now. Jaehyun’s lips are always the right temperature; the warmth of his body seeps through his shirt as you press yourself to him in a hug. He’s perfect and right now, you want to believe he’s perfect for you—even if he isn’t, you want to believe it into existence.

You cup Jaehyun’s cheeks, unsaid emotion in his doe eyes, and kiss him. This time, you mean it with every ounce of your being. There’s no more flustering each other, just the hot flush of intimacy when you feel skin that doesn’t burn you. It’s just the right feeling. There’s no way this can be wrong. 

Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? You wish the voice would pipe down. It’s a coward, fearing fate just as everyone else does. But you are better than that, and this feeling is too enjoyable to let go. You don’t want this to fade.

Just then, Dongmin’s face comes to mind and you think that maybe if you kiss someone else with all you have, you don’t have to think of your shortcomings ever again.

Jaehyun pulls apart and you miss the warmth.

“You’re not… You’re not thinking of me, are you?” he asks. 

You don’t answer, even if the silence is overwhelming.

“I’d rather not have you close your eyes and think of someone else when I’m in front of you.”

“I’m sorry” is all you can say.

“You can at least pretend to love me.” His voice is a hoarse whisper. “Could. It’s not like this was ever supposed to work out.”

You gulp, looking away. “Jaehyun, come on. That’s not like you. We were- we were just… having fun.”

He takes a deep breath. “It hurts to not be wanted by someone you want. You know that. So why are you doing this to me?”

Because misery likes company.

“I’m sorry.”

It seems the phrase you barely uttered when you were younger is tumbling out of your lips in a mixture of grief and pity. Perhaps it’s karma. Perhaps it’s fate. Perhaps it’s just the consequences of your mistakes.

Jaehyun parts his lips, a sigh departing. He leans in again, pushing away all of his thoughts. A little more hurt won't kill him tonight. How and when did you bring him down to his knees?

However, he's stopped by your hands against his shoulders, his lips hovering over yours.

"Let's stop," you say. "You're right."

"Isn't this what you wanted?"

“I don’t- I don’t know. I don’t know anymore.”

You wish you could be brave enough to burn the instruction pamphlet from destiny. But right now, you need to get away from Jaehyun, away from any more misery business.

“I’ll get going,” you say, gathering your stuff. 

Jaehyun hesitates but doesn’t stop you. He would never stop you, can’t stop so how could he even dream of stopping fate? This can never work out. It felt right in the moment but you don’t know anything more than that. You can’t close your eyes and pray everything disappears. No one else will solve your problems for you, you know that.

It’s time you start fixing the mess you made. You leave with a polite goodbye and hear a loud sigh behind you once the door is closed. Blinking away the urge to walk back in, you take long and quick strides to the elevator. You’re going to fix this.

Maybe if Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ wasn’t blasting at full volume at this stupid office party, you could be thinking a little straighter.

He was right. You can’t pretend anymore. There were thousands of ways this could have gone better. You didn’t have to pretend to be soulmates when you’re not. You could’ve discarded your belief in the whole system like Dongmin and Mijoo and dated someone out of spite. You didn’t have to drag Jaehyun into your sorry mess. You need to take out the nail you hammered into your own foot.

It’s the first time you’ve visited the rooftop restaurant from the company’s subsidiary chain of high-end restaurants but you imagined it would be bigger. It’s the news’ fault for making this place seem like a football field. However, you might be feeling that way because the distance between you and Jaehyun is suffocatingly small as is the distance with Dongmin. You don’t need to see Jaehyun tonight.

You don’t intend to make your confession a public affair and you certainly don’t believe in tack things like atonement. However, improvement begins with a step in the right direction. Maybe you’ll be a better person after this. Maybe you’ll still be as annoying and pushy as ever. You need to get it off your chest so you can proceed with the already tedious journey that comes with a soulmate rejection. You wonder why there’s so many man-made laws about soulmates when fate has made it complicated enough as it is. Love is the same as legalese when it comes to this system.

You flit about the crowds, smiling and greeting people and swerving away from Jaehyun every time he tries to approach you. You’re trying to make a good decision for once. He better not intrude. You’re wearing pink too, for the first time in a while: a satin shirt, pants and blazer set in dull pink.

“Dongmin,” you say, pulling him by the sleeve of his blue tux, and away from the rest of the HR team. “I have to show you something.”

“Hm? Show me?” He blinks at you. 

You get him to follow you to the inside the premises, stopping when you’re far into a 

“Uh?” Dongmin looks around before leaning in to whisper. “You’re not plotting to murder me, are you?”

You blink, and he laughs at you incredulously. “Why are you so serious?”

“I was lying,” you rush. “With Jaehyun. He’s not my soulmate. You are.”

Dongmin blinks in confusion. “Are… you joking? That was a weird joke but it could pass as funny—”

“Dongmin.”

You pull out your shirt from your pants, exposing the tattoo on your hip. It’s the little arrowed heart that has been plaguing you for years but now when you look at it, you feel no animosity. After all, it’s been through the same things you have. 

Dongmin’s face falls into stunned silence, eyes fixated on your waist.

“That’s- That’s my—what is this?”

Russian roulette is certainly not the same without a gun.

“I lied, Dongmin,” you answer, fixing your shirt back in. “I was so afraid of your rejection that I made an even larger fool of myself.”

His initial shock seems to have partly subsided.

“You… Why didn’t you tell me?” He looks momentarily hurt.

“You have Mijoo, Dongmin. I can’t ruin something like that.”

A love that doesn’t need fate to fix it.

Dongmin glances away in guilt and sighs, though the sound is croaky. This must be more than what he can take.

“I’m sorry,” he says, haltingly. “I hurt you, didn’t I? When I thought I was being brave, I hurt you instead.”

You smile bitterly. “We all hurt someone, Dongmin. I still have to fix that one for myself.”

He scans your face, lips trembling slightly as unspoken words die on them.

“We’ll tend to the legal stuff later, hm? No compensation. We can file a mutual rejection.”

“But—”

“Shh. I’m happy enough as coworkers and I get paid more than enough for this job. Might get a promotion soon too.”

You wink at him with an added finger gun, trying to play it cool. Despite everything, a weight feels lifted from your shoulders. Now that you are truly alone, you might as well embrace this growing loneliness crawling under your skin. Discomfort could be something you can get used to. 

When you get back to the warmly lit rooftop, the HR team looks at you curiously. You have the most self-destructive thought you’ve had in a while and tell yourself, you might as well if you've come this far. This is it. This is your social death. Honesty is the best policy, unfortunately.

“Dongmin and I have the same soulmate mark,” you announce. “We’re soulmates but we’ll sign a mutual rejection.”

Doyoung looks almost like he’ll faint and Soojin’s mouth is so wide open, you could practice throwing some mini basketballs in. This is your team—almost a second family, and it’s time you stop trying to hide yourself or disguise your feelings as something they’re not. They’ll get over it, as will you.

“J-Jaehyun?” Soojin looks to your side and you turn to find Jaehyun frowning.

“You could’ve discussed this with me,” he says, an odd sound of relief in his laugh. 

It hurts to look at him but you muster up your strength.

“I’m sorry,” you say, facing him. “I didn’t want to drag you into this hell with me.”

Into this loveless hell made for you.

“(name).”

It’s so painfully quiet in this corner; there are so many eyes on you and only the hurt taking shape in Jaehyun’s eyes knock some sense into you. 

“I’ll leave first,” you say, bowing as you take your leave.

You brisk up your pace and exit the venue as quickly as you can and into the building corridor.

Unfortunately for you, you recognize the pair of footsteps that follow you—both of them having their timings wrong. Boys don’t chase after the girl when she’s walking away. Boys should leave a girl alone when she feels like she’s about to cry.

You turn to face two men and groan internally. This is the worst possible situation—you’d rather crawl into a hole than look at either of them. The corporate light shines harshly on either of their faces but the look on them is so earnest, you want to close your eyes and scream. You don’t mind being alone. You were overstepping when you wished you weren’t.

“(name),” Dongmin starts. “I’m sorry it turned out this way. If you’d told me, we could have talked this out.”

A light scoff leaves Jaehyun and Dongmin purses his lips. It’s kind of funny watching both of their tall frames in hesitant postures and you cross your arms. You’re going to deal with this quickly like you always should have. If you’re dealing with fate, you need to have a clear head—and fortune doesn’t favour fools. Being with Jaehyun was nice but he is not yours. Dongmin may have been assigned to you but you’d rather not ruin someone’s relationship.

“What would we have talked about?” you ask. “Compensation charges? Apologies?”

You see a hint of positivity on Jaehyun’s face and turn to face him, frowning.

“And you. Don’t look so smug. You’re the reason I realized this crap. It hurts. Like hell.”

He opens his mouth but no words come when he’s far too taken aback. He can’t offer consolation now, not after everything. You knew this would happen. You would undoubtedly end up wishing you didn’t fall in love with him on the day you leave.

“(name). Listen to me,” Dongmin calls again, voice gentle.

Jaehyun sighs. “We’re both fucking this up, dude.”

Dongmin takes a sharp breath.

“You know, soulmates can be platonic,” he reasons, looking only at you. “People are made for each other differently and maybe you and I—”

“You’re just making her feel worse,” Jaehyun cuts him off.

“How do you know that?” Dongmin asks, finally turning to him. “Because you’ve spent a month or two with her? I’m her soulmate.”

“I think a month or two is much better than a stranger with the same damn birthmark.”

“Oh come on,” Dongmin scoffs. “The system exists for a reason.”

“I don’t give a shit about the system. The same as your girlfriend—oh, sorry, did you forget about her already?”

“It’s not like that.” Dongmin quietens. “We’ll figure something out.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose. They’re worse than you are—honestly, you don’t know what you expected from the timid emotional maturity of men. Both of their polite facades have melted and you’re starting to miss their sweet-tempered work demeanour.

“Come with me,” Dongmin tells you.

He wraps his hand around your wrist and tugs, Jaehyun visibly tensing up at the gesture. He presses his tongue against his cheek in annoyance but refrains from doing anything rash. You feel sorry when you look at him.

“Dongmin,” you whisper. “Can we- can we have a moment?”

Dongmin nods in understanding and exits the hallway to cool off with a few splashes of water in the washroom.

“Would you go with him?” Jaehyun asks, jaw clenched. “An acquaintance as most? Are you willing to run into the arms of fate that you hated so much?”

He looks bitter and you can’t think of a sugar-coated response. You’ll just have to tell him how you feel.

“I need to sort things out, Jaehyun. This—”

You point from him to yourself.

“Couldn’t work out thanks to fate. Dongmin and I will never work out because he’s braver than I am. You know he’s doing all of that just so I don’t get hurt, right? He’s not suddenly in love with me.”

Jaehyun purses his lips, looking down to his feet. Is it so bad that he let jealousy get the best of his mouth? Envy isn’t so awful. He looks from your eyes to lips and wishes he were young enough to believe in fairytales.

“You don’t have to be brave,” he whispers. “You don’t have to be so brave to fall in love. You don’t have to be brave to stay with me.”

“We tried, Jaehyun. And we can’t cheat fate. That, at the very least, requires bravery.” 

You press your lips into a thin line. It hurts. It hurts so bad to look at him and face the consequences of this flawed design. It’s unfair. It’s unfair that you have to follow the rules even after trying your best to break them. 

“You wish you never met me, don’t you?” you whisper. “I made a mess.”

Before he responds, you bow in a short goodbye and walk towards the elevator. There’s no footsteps behind you, no Prince Charming. It’s just you and your high heels clacking against the cold marble as you head back to an empty home. You always thought freedom would feel different, that distance would give you perspective. It just feels awful when no one is around you at all. When you have no one to pick up morning calls from, receive texts from asking if you ate, spend time in peace without uttering a single word—are you free or are you lonely?

The rules state that the two of you are different. It is true. You are as different as love in real life and love in the movies; and neither of them have happy endings now.

You wish you drank some more last night if you were going to embarrass yourself like that. Thankfully, it’s the weekend and you have two more days to figure out how to face your coworkers. You frown when you think of Jaehyun. Were you wrong to tell him that you simply couldn’t choose him? What if fate is right and it falls apart? You stir your morning coffee, the will to drink it fading slowly. It’s already fallen apart—and it wasn’t fate who did that, it was you. Should you have taken his stupidly warm hands and asked him to follow you? You don’t understand how it works at all.

Centuries of questioning what love is, poking and prodding at it like a lab sample, and there’s still no perfect answer. Love is blind. Love is cruel. Love is a fever. Love is temporary insanity. Love is acceptance. Love will set you free. There’s just too many variations. You can never tell if fate is meant to make it easier or worse. 

No one questions you at the office and you're not sure if you’re glad or aggravated. Only Doyoung shoots you a pitiful look which you brush off and immediately get into work. Embarrassment is only real if you acknowledge it. However, every time Dongmin tries to talk to you, you ask for space and even alone in your thoughts, you don’t get it. They just have to drift to Jaehyun.

You wonder if what he said was true, that he wanted you enough to forget the system. It’s clearly ruined now. The spiral of thinking has you zoning out during work more often than not and even Doyoung ends up reprimanding you for your lack of focus. Sometimes you want to snap but other times, you’re just hopelessly reciting the events over and over in your head. This was supposed to happen, wasn’t it? You don’t even have the strength left in you to blame it all on Jaehyun.

You pace in the corridors after work, contemplating popping by the Marketing Department. What could go wrong? Sure, it was a little dramatic of you to leave like that but everything can be fixed, right? You groan. What you were supposed to be fixing, you made worse. Are your hands cursed or something? You shake your head, returning to your desk to gather your belongings and head home.

Unfortunately, the sight of Doyoung sitting in your chair alarms you and you stop a foot away. 

“If you’re going to reprimand me for watching cat videos instead of checking the employee records, I can assure you my efficiency is still top-notch.” 

“You’re—what? Never mind.” Doyoung shakes his head. “Can you give this ginseng pack to Jaehyun? I owe him.” 

Oh no. You know where this is going.

“You know I’m going to keep that for myself, right?” You make a face. “I’d rather die than face Jaehyun right now.”

Doyoung shrugs. “Who knows? Maybe he’ll be the one running to you. This is in case of an emergency.”

You give him a fake smile and Doyoung shakes his head. “Good to see you’re still great at pretending to be fine.”

You sigh. “Thanks for looking out for me, bossman.”

Doyoung blinks, hand covering his mouth when an audible gasp leaves him. “Woah. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you thank me. But don’t call me bossman ever again.”

“Noted,” you say, taking your bag and leaving with a short goodbye. You’re lucky he lets you off work early, even if you never took it. Employees usually can’t leave until their superiors does and if you were a senior employee, you’d be giving your juniors quite the hell.

You seem to be good at concocting hellscapes. Perhaps, you should look for job openings in the underworld. One last thought of Jaehyun exits your head and you take the bus home, admiring the city you live in and the warmth of people and their relationships. You don’t feel jealous; you just bask in them for the time—be it a mother and her son or two bickering sisters or a lovely old couple. That’s how it’s meant to be, then. That’s how love works.

Jaehyun smacks his head against the sofa armrest for the fifteenth time in a row.

“Dude. You’re going to permanently ruin the fabric.” Sicheng says, eyes trained on his laptop screen.

“I should’ve said something more.” Jaehyun’s voice is so zombie-like, he thinks he should cast himself in the Train to Busan sequel as an extra.

“I’m glad I’m not you,” Sicheng mutters.

“Can you give me some sort of consolation, at least?”

“That’s not what I’m your friend for.”

Jaehyun sighs and resumes smacking the back of his head against the armrest. He really needs to figure this out. After all, he can’t really Google the solution to this.

“One thing doesn’t make sense,” Sicheng says, finally looking up from his screen. “Why do you have the same mark as (name)’s if you’re not soulmates?”

“You’re so incredibly—but adorably—stupid, Sicheng. She drew it in with a permanent marker. She kissed me too! It was sudden and weird but I didn’t mind it.

“Yikes.” Sicheng makes a face. “So… you didn’t take a shower for how long now?”

Jaehyun furrows his eyebrows. “What?”

“The ink hasn’t washed off. I heard you singing in the shower yesterday, how could you not have washed that off? Ugh. Don’t tell me you miss her.”

Jaehyun’s eyes widen as he jumps up and rushes to the washroom. Looking into the mirror, the tattoo poking out from his T-shirt resembles yours a lot more than his. The arrow is still drawn in. Jaehyun’s shoulder slumps. He doesn’t know what he was expecting. Turning the tap and letting the water flow, he wets his hand and rubs at his collarbone to remove the arrow.

Except it doesn’t budge. His skin turns painfully red from the rubbing but the ink, which usually washes off in less than five minutes has no intention of leaving. Did you use a different brand of marker the last time? When was it anyway? 

Jaehyun breathes out, firming his resolve. He needs to be with you.

Sicheng blinks in surprise as Jaehyun grabs his car keys, not even bothering to change from an all-black getup of a T-shirt and jeans like some emo teenager, and shuts the front door behind him. Not even a ‘goodbye, I’m leaving!’

Sicheng sighs. Love makes people crazy. He’s not falling into that trap when his soulmate literally doesn’t exist, the same as his soulmark. It seems the contestants in this game are full of exceptions.

You hit your head against your pillow. To visit Jaehyun or not to. You haven’t left your bed since you woke up around seven in the morning, and now it’s ten. Your bedsheets are a mess because you’ve rolled around too much on them (in despair, not with someone unfortunately).

You need the quiet sometimes to let your mind rest, to let your heart rest. You needed time. But maybe it’s been long enough and now you’re just searching for excuses to hold on to your last shred of dignity.

You lift your head up and glare at the box of ginseng on your table. Should you? You reluctantly get up, feeling a sting of pain in your back for lying in that awkward position for so long. Right when you’ve put on your slippers, the doorbell rings and you groan. How did the package you stress-ordered last night arrive so early? These deliveries are getting faster and faster.

You walk to the front door and open it thoughtlessly, freezing up at the sight. Your first reaction is to cover yourself. You’re not exactly your best-looking version at the moment. Jaehyun’s dark circles almost match yours but he’s better dressed than you are—in a black T-shirt and jeans while you’re wearing a Gudetama pajama set.

“We’re not just friends,” he blurts. “We’re not soulmates but we’re not just friends.”

“Huh? Oh my god, this is the most embarrassing I’ve looked.”

Jaehyun furrows his eyebrows in a question look. 

“That’s not important! Look—”

He pushes you inside, closing the door behind him. His hair is so disheveled and messy, he barely even looks like the same well-maintained marketing employee you know. 

Jaehyun tugs at his T-shirt, pulling down to reveal his tattoo—albeit with your marker-drawn arrow through it. He does have a pretty well-built chest, you note before chiding yourself for getting distracted.

You raise an eyebrow. “Do you, uh, need help scrubbing it off or something?”

“No.” Jaehyun lets out a huff of exasperation. “It won’t wash off. If it’s what I think it is—”

“Miracles don’t happen to people like us, Jaehyun,” you say quietly.

He gulps. “I don’t know about miracles but… I just needed an excuse to see you, I guess.”

You look up, a rose blush over Jaehyun’s bare face, and run your finger over the tattoo, sighing at the warmth of his skin. Your hand travels up to his cheek, resting atop it while you muster enough courage to look Jaehyun in his chocolate brown eyes.

You pull away. This isn’t the time. You still have an internal crisis to sort out. Are you even deserving of love? It makes much more sense if the answer is no. 

However, Jaehyun pulls you in by the waist, his right palm warm against your cheek.

“I don’t care what anyone says.” He runs his thumb over your cheek in a painfully fond manner. “You’re worth more than the price I pay for this.”

He leans in and presses his lips to yours swiftly, your head clearing of thoughts almost immediately. It feels so right, you can feel the spark, the red thread around your skin, hear the bells. This kiss was far more perfect than it was supposed to be.

You part, gasping. Jaehyun blinks at you, breathing heavily.

“Kiss me again.”

Jaehyun does as told and you might just believe in miracles this way. With his hand around your waist and in your hair, his lips over yours and the low rumbling laughter that parts the two of you—you might just believe in miracles. You might just believe that love isn't something you deserve by earning.

“I like this,” Jaehyun comments. “I like the way this is.”

You press your finger to his lips. “I think you should shut up and kiss me some more.”

Jaehyun rolls his eyes. “I know you’re sexually repressed as of now, but that’s no reason to take advantage of me.”

You scowl, punching him on the shoulder and moving away from him.

“Come back,” he complains in a quiet voice.

“I am not going to do that.” You cross your arms.

“Come on,” he mutters, inching closer as you inch away, till your back hits the couch and you tumble backwards onto it, your legs on the headrest. Jaehyun laughs at your position, leaning in to keep his hands on either side of you, a doting look over him.

“Hey, did you know if I kicked my leg up, it would hit you in the balls?”

“Please don’t do that.”

You giggle, Jaehyun’s nose rubbing against yours in a bunny kiss. 

“Is your place usually this much of a mess?” Jaehyun raises an eyebrow. 

You sigh heavily. “I was having a bad day, okay? Or… a bad weekend.”

“Do you even have food?”

You look away, crossing your arms. Jaehyun sighs and shakes his head.

“We should go grocery shopping. How do you live like this?”

You scoff. “Oh, spare me the lecture. I’ve heard enough horror stories about your room from Sicheng. You can’t hide from me by sweeping your clothes and belongings into his room.”

“Snitch,” he mutters under his breath.

You can’t help the giggle that erupts from your mouth and you immediately cover it. Jaehyun smiles at you fondly and you look away, unable to bear that gaze of his.

“It really won’t wash off, by the way,” Jaehyun states, scratching at his collarbone.

You narrow your eyes, smacking his arms away to roll off the couch. Taking his wrist, you walk into your bathroom and turn the tap on. Something’s strange. But also strangely right.

“Look, I already tried—ow! Don’t rub that hard!”

You blink in confusion, trying again despite Jaehyun looking like his soul already left him. It doesn’t work. Your marker isn’t even that permanent. At least his regenerating skin cells should get rid of that arrow. Unless the ink was deep enough to pierce all the layers, as in a soulmark.

You gasp.

“You were right!”

“I told you s—”

"That's the point, isn't it?" you say, realization dawning as your eyes widen. "To see if people will question the system at all."

Jaehyun shrugs. “Maybe.”

"Oh, all those unhappy marriages that could have been saved," you say as you exhale. 

Jaehyun chuckles lightly. "I think that the point was, people can be happy without their soulmates. It's whoever you make one out of. Or I Googled too many articles on anti-soulmate propaganda."

You smile, leaning in to press a kiss against his cheek. Watching his ears turn bright red is the cherry on top.

“Okay, fake-boyfriend-turned-real-soulmate.” You give him a cheeky smile. “Did you rethink your decision about sharing that Netflix password with me? I get the girlfriend free pass, right? Right?”

“I didn’t even share it with my mother.”

You whack his arm, him possibly used to it by now, judging from his lack of response. 

“Idiot.” You cross your arms. “We can Netflix… and chill then. God, I can’t believe I said that.”

Jaehyun breaks into a chuckle. “You’re so pushy.”

 “And you like being pushed around, nerd.”

“Who said that?”

Jaehyun wraps his arms around you, spinning you so that your back hits the door. He leans in to kiss you again and you smack your palm over his pouted lips. You laugh at his face, his eyes brimming with confusion.

“You’re in my apartment. I make the rules here. Think twice before you start a game with me, Mister.”

His shoulders droop. “Fine. Can you at least let me kiss you four times a day?”

“Five times, if you ask.”

He laughs before leaning in again. “Can I kiss you now?”

“Wasn’t it obvious?”

“You are one hell of a woman. Emphasis on hell.”

You laugh and grab his collar, pulling him in for the kiss that seals this deal.

You realize a few things in the moment: a) You don’t have to play roulette to find love, b) You don’t have to pick your poison to find love, and most importantly c) Love is right where you make something of it. Fate is still not in your good books but if it bends to you this way, you don’t mind at all. If Jaehyun kisses you like this every day, you don’t mind one bit. 

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

Make A Scene

AMHL – Masterlist

Dick immediately noticed when Y/N started getting quieter and quieter as they got closer and closer to the venue.

Bruce had hired a driver to pick them up from their apartment in Gotham. And the car had gone quiet now. 

Dick reached over to gently hold her hand.

“Nervous?” He asked.

Y/N shrugged, not really seeing the point in trying to lie to her boyfriend.

“This isn’t your first rodeo, ya know.”

She gave him a look. “You know that wasn’t the same.” Her eyes flickered to the driver. “I wasn’t exactly…myself. And I wasn’t your girlfriend.”

Also, tonight they didn’t have the security and comfort of being at Wayne Manor.

No, instead this particular event was being held at the ballroom of Gotham’s most extravagant five-star hotel. It was a party for Wayne Enterprises, not a personal charity or party of the Wayne family.

Bruce had kindly asked Dick and Y/N to attend when board members and business partners started asking if the whole family would be attending. Jason hadn’t answered anyone’s calls or texts about it. None of them expected him to show up. Tim had to attend since he worked for Wayne Enterprises. And Damian…Well, Damian was his father’s son and not yet an adult. He basically had to do whatever Bruce asked of him while he lived under his roof.

“I’m not gonna leave your side,” Dick promised.

He squeezed her hand to further emphasize it.

Their car pulled up to the carpet at the bottom of the stairs.

There had to be a hundred journalists and photographers, along with random civilians who had nothing better to do than to see Gotham’s elite get out of cars and walk into a hotel.

Dick took in a deep breath.

Thankfully the car’s windows were tinted and protected them from any onlookers.

“Ready?” He asked her.

She nodded.

Dick opened the door and ignored the screams and flashes as he carefully helped Y/N out of the car with his offered hand. He also shielded her from the photographers to give her a moment to get out and adjust herself before they could capture any photos of her.

“Mr. Grayson! Mr. Grayson! Who is your mystery girlfriend?” Someone yelled.

Sometimes Y/N forgot that Dick was somewhat of a celebrity in Gotham City through association.

It wasn’t like people were asking for selfies everywhere he went. Or that the paparazzi were following his every move.

But in Gotham, people took note of where Dick Grayson went and who he was with.

And everyone noticed he’d had the same woman on his arm for quite some time now.

Even though Y/N and Dick had been dating for over a year, the media still couldn’t figure out Y/N’s identity. 

What they didn’t realize was that she controlled every single piece of information about herself that lived on the internet.

They didn’t stand a chance. 

Dick smiled and waved at people who called his name. But his hand other hand never left Y/N’s as he helped her up the stairs.

“Who are you wearing?” A female journalist yelled at Y/N.

She ignored them and focused on getting up the stairs without tripping and face planting. Not that Dick would ever let that happen.

However, she knew her outfit was going to draw gazes.

Y/N had made a promise to herself that if she was going to be forced to attend events like this with Dick, then she was going make a statement. People were already going to be staring at her, so she figured she might as well give them something good to stare at.

Instead of wearing a typical cocktail and formal dress, Y/N wore a full men’s suit that was tailored to perfection, but with the bowtie undone. It was what the fashion magazines would describe as “androgynous” in the press tomorrow morning.

Y/N wanted to control her own narrative. And she’d rather be judged for her bold decisions than just her trying to blend in.

Bruce insisted on paying for all the boys’ date’s dresses – in this case, suit – if they happened to bring one. He always thought it was more of an incentive for them to attend these terrible events if he encouraged them to bring significant others. And the press always had a field day with it, which only helped throw people of their trail when it came to their secret lives as vigilantes.

Everyone kept screaming Dick’s name as they walked in, and Y/N wondered how he got so good at smiling through the chaos and ignoring them.

Once they were inside, Dick felt the tension leave Y/N’s body a bit.

“Alcohol?” He offered with a smirk.

“Yes, please.”

He nodded, knowing it was exactly what she needed.

Quickly, he grabbed two champagne flutes off a passing waiter.

They clinked glasses.

Then he leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Thank you for being my date.”

Y/N smiled at his sincerity.

Dick sighed before he threw back the champagne, “The quicker we find Bruce and prove we were here, the sooner we can leave.”

“Try not to sound so excited,” she laughed darkly.

Suddenly felt a small human wrap around her thighs.

Y/N gasped in excitement, “Dami!”

Dick smiled as he looked down at his 10-year-old brother hugging his girlfriend.

“Dick gave me the drawing you made for us. It’s so beautiful. I’m trying to find the perfect frame for it,” she told the boy.

Damian beamed with pride at that.

Suddenly the boy started asking a million questions about Stoker, one of his kittens that he’d given to them to take care of when Bruce gave a limit to how many cats Damian was allowed to have in the manor.

Then, to Dick’s shock, he saw Jason slowly walk over to them with his hands in his pant pockets.

He was not at all dressed nice enough for the event. No suit jacket. No tie. His white button-up shirt wrinkled, messily tucked into his pants, and with two many buttons undone. The sloppiness of it all clearly wasn’t an issue with the women, seeing as all of them were ogling Jason.

“Todd,” Damian greeted coldly, pausing his conversation with Y/N, who whipped around at the name.

“Hey, you,” Y/N smiled as she went to greet him.

Jason gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek and a quick hug.

“I really didn’t think you were coming,” Dick told his brother.

“Well, I wasn’t. But I got a business engagement.”

Y/N and Dick shared a confused look.

“What do you mean?” Dick asked.

“I found my neighbor crying on her fire escape a few nights ago. Apparently… one of the finance bros of Wayne fucking Enterprises was everything but a gentleman to her.”

Y/N’s eyes widened in realization. “J, I already took care of that.”

“I know,” Jason nodded as his eyes scanned the room. He was clearly on a personal mission tonight. “You deleted the evidence. I am teaching him a lesson.”

Dick slowly put together what they were implying.

“Oh, please don’t make a scene, Jason.” Dick begged him.

Because he knew Bruce wouldn’t be dealing with the aftermath; it would be him.

“Don’t worry!” Jason laughed. "I’m gonna take him outside before I beat the shit out of him. No one here will even notice. It’ll be fine,” Jason assured him as he gave Dick a far too heavy slap on the back.

“Just tell Bruce and he’ll get him fired,” Dick tried to convince him to take the less violent route.

“Oh, we already did,” Y/N muttered.

Dick’s gaze shot to his girlfriend.

“He’s getting fired on Monday,” she clarified sheepishly.

“Since when do the two of you work together behind my back?” Dick accused them.

But he wasn’t actually mad about anything – maybe just a little bit bitter.

Jason opened his mouth.

“I swear to God, Jason, if you say ‘club business,’ I will lose it…” Dick warned.

Y/N tried to hide her smile.

“Got him,” Jason growled as he glared at someone on the other side of the room.

As soon as he left them, Dick gave Y/N his full attention.

“Seriously?” He accused.

“I’m sorry! He asked me for a favor and I was happy to do it once I realized what it was,” Y/N defended.

Dick pouted a little. Mostly because he hated being left out.

“Don’t worry, ya big baby. I’m still your ‘guy in the chair’ and no one else’s,” she teased before giving him a kiss, immediately wiping the lipstick off his lips.

“How come Jason gets to beat up people at events like this, but I’m expected to behave like a well-trained dog?” Damian mumbled.

Dick sighed and shook his head.

“Jason likes to think he’s a lone wolf who doesn’t have to play by the rules,” Y/N tried to comfort the boy.

To distract Damian from getting further into how unfair it was, Y/N asked him to show her more of his drawings.

This seemed to please Damian and he pulled his phone out, flipping through photos and showing Y/N his recent sketches.

With Y/N being entertained by his youngest brother, Dick decided to go to the bar and get the two of them a stronger drink and maybe get a kiddie cocktail for Damian. He’d pretend to be patronized and annoyed by it, but Dick knew better.

He patiently waited for the bartender’s attention. 

“So Gotham’s Golden Boy really has returned…” a husky voice uttered beside him at the bar.

Dick glanced over to see a beautiful woman close to his age eyeing him.

It was clear what she wanted. Dick used tactics like this on countless missions.

“So I have,” he answered.

He was polite, but distant.

Women hitting on him at events like this was nothing new. To Gotham, Dick Grayson was a Bruce Wayne 2.0 – younger, just as charming and handsome as his mentor and stand-in father figure. 

Dick knew how to play the game. But he never had any interest in casual relationships like Bruce did.

“Back for good?” The woman persisted.

“My girlfriend and I are just in town for a few weeks,” he answered before ordering his drinks with the bartender finally.

“Oh, brought up the girlfriend rather quickly,” she laughed.

Dick quirked an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”

“No, it’s just…my friends and I had a bet going.”

Then she pointed to a group of three young women, who were giggling and smiling, not even trying to pretend like they weren’t watching them closely.

“Oh, yeah?” Dick asked, already tired of this conversation.

--

Jason had already rejoined Y/N and Damian.

Y/N looked down to see his knuckles red with irritation and bruised.

“Please tell me there’s not a corpse in the alley behind this hotel now…” Y/N sighed.

“No,” Jason answered coldly. “Though there fucking should be.”

“What did he do?” Damian asked curiously, clearly he hadn’t been listening to their earlier conversation that closely.

Y/N shifted her weight in discomfort, not sure how to handle the subject with the boy. Yes, Damian was far more mature than many grown men, but he was still just a kid. There were some things Y/N felt like they should at least try to protect him from still. 

“He got my neighbor too drunk to consent, filmed them having sex without her knowing it, and then showed it to a bunch of people at their work,” Jason answered bluntly.

Damian’s brow furrowed, clearly thinking long and hard about what his brother just told him.

After a moment, the boy perked up, “I know where we could hide the body so even father won’t find out.”

“Damian!” Y/N scolded.

But Jason was beaming.

Y/N looked around for Dick, hoping to find another sane person to stop the two boys from actually murdering anyone tonight.

But when she finally spotted him, she saw a woman standing far too close to Dick and pointing to a group of girls who flirtatiously waved and winked at both of them.

“Real cute,” Y/N muttered to herself.

“Vultures,” Damian growled as he followed her gaze.

“Jason, if I leave you alone with Damian, are you going to kill someone?” She asked without taking her eyes off her boyfriend.

“I don’t need to be watched,” Damian groaned.

“No, I need you to watch Jason to make sure he doesn’t change his mind about keeping that asshole alive.”

“Fine,” Damian whined.

Without any further confirmation, Y/N left them. 

She walked across the party on a mission, never taking her stare off of her boyfriend.

Dick did a double take when he noticed her heading towards him.

“Hey,” he greeted innocently.

Because he was innocent. All he’d done was be polite to a bunch of women who were after him for his name…and maybe his good looks.

“I was wondering where my drink was,” Y/N said with a surprising calmness and smile.

Then she turned to the woman. 

“Hi, I’m Y/N. You must be a friend of Dick’s.” 

She held her hand out.

No cattiness. No rudeness.

Y/N said it with the same kindness that drunk women having with other drunk women in bar bathrooms.

“Oh…I’m Irina,” the woman stuttered as she took Y/N’s offered hand, clearly confused by Y/N’s niceness.

Dick held out her drink.

Y/N took it, quickly clinked her glass with both Dick and Irina.

“Cheers,” she sang before tossing it back and chugging the drink that was meant to be slowly sipped.

Dick didn’t know what game his girlfriend was playing, but he was intrigued.

Once Y/N lightly placed her empty glass back on the bar, she turned to Dick and tilted her head to the side. “Could you show me to the bathrooms? I have no idea where they are.”

“Of course,” Dick answered without knowing where this was going.

“It was nice meeting you, Irina,” Y/N told the woman as she linked her fingers with Dick’s and guided him away.

—

Meanwhile, Jason watched the interaction as if he were watching an award-winning movie. Him and Damian were way too far to hear, but everyone in the bat family could read lips more than fluently.

Then Jason smirked as he watched Y/N drag Dick away.

“Boys,” Bruce greeted as he snuck up on the two of them. “What are we staring at?”

“Oh, you know,” Jason hummed with hilarity, “just watching Y/N assert her dominance.”

“Good for her,” Bruce grinned as he realized what was happening.

He moved his attention to his youngest boy. “Alfred is waiting outside with the car. You’re officially released from your duties.”

“Finally,” Damian groaned.

“Don’t you wanna say bye to Y/N?” Jason asked.

“They’re coming to the manor tomorrow afternoon,” Bruce answered for his son. Then he raised a brow at Jason. “You’re welcome to join us.”

Jason’s only response was a shrug.

Bruce tried to hide his disappointment and nodded before he guided Damian away and walked him outside, where Alfred was waiting.

10 minutes later, Jason saw Dick trailing behind Y/N as she walked back to the main area of the event.

Jason burst out laughing at the spectacle. 

Dick’s hair was an absolute mess. Half of his shirt was untucked. His jacket was draped over his forearm. His lips were swollen and pink. Y/N had left lipstick all over his neck and even a bit on the collar of his shirt.

Yet somehow not a single hair was out of place on Y/N and her makeup was still immaculate. Her outfit was just as sleek and clean as when she’d arrived. The only thing different was the proud smirk on her lips.

Clearly Y/N had just had her way with Dick.

But she wanted to make sure the whole party knew about it.

—

Y/N hadn’t said a word to Dick since she dragged him from that woman.

Her body did all the talking.

One second they were at the bathroom doors, the next Y/N had thrown him against the tiled wall after locking the bathroom door.

She gave no verbal explanation, just started kissing him and undoing his pants.

“Not that I’m complaining. Like, at all,” Dick laughed as they rejoined the party. “But wanna to tell me what that was all about?”

Y/N finally stopped walking and turned to face him with narrowed eyes. “I think you know, Richard.”

Y/N only ever used his full first name to provoke and tease him. And he hated that it worked every single time.

Dick glanced around to see that everyone in their vicinity was eyeing them. Well, they were mostly eyeing him and how it was clear he’d just been fucked in the bathroom.

He stepped close to her and lowered his voice, “Ohhh, I see how it is.” His eyes flickered down to her lips for a split second. “If a guy does that, he’s jealous and possessive. But if a woman does it, it’s sexy…”

Y/N proudly smiled like the cheshire cat. “Exactly.”

Something over his shoulder caught her attention. “Oh, I see Tim. I’m going to go say hi.”

Without hesitation, she brushed past him.

Dick let his head fall, put his hands on his hips, and laughed.

He’d pay her back later tonight. And by ‘pay her back,’ he would just tell her how incredibly hot her behavior had been and basically invite her to do it whenever she damn well pleased.

Dick felt a presence beside him, and he didn’t have to raise his head to know it was Bruce.

“Hey,” Dick greeted him nonchalantly.

“You have lipstick all over your neck,” Bruce told him as he took a sip of his drink and looked around the party. “And your zippers down.”

“Sure is,” Dick sighed.

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

OK. This was way too fun to write. 

Let me know what you think!!!

ALL BONUS CONTENT CAN BE FOUND: HERE

[stephspurs]

A Family Affair | Euro 2020 Football Fanfiction

Hi besties!! here is the long awaited part 9!! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did whilst writing it!! a big thank you goes to @emwritesfootball for proofing this part & making sure its up to scratch for all of you lovely readers! Let me know what you think babes hehehe!! Love Always, Steph xx

Part 9. | nona parte

word count; 2006. writing tools; third person until dashed line, first person thereafter. next update; Friday 13/08 5pm AEST. Updates are three times/week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday)! tags (as requested by users); @footballffbarbiex @obsesseds-world @abysshaven link to fic masterlist here

The season kicked off in the middle of August and Amelia had been more than prepared for her first match in the premier league. She spent day after day analysing the players in the first team, introducing them to the magical world of rehearsed tactics. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the brilliant girl; she had to learn how to implement the plays coupled with the speed of the game. But so far, so good. Chelsea have been winning and her plays have been working, the boys were getting the hang of it - no matter how apprehensive they were at the start.

Jorgi played a big part in demonstrating the success of the play, performing best in his midfield role to guide the game and direct the change in play to his teammates. By the time they had played a few fixtures, they had really gotten the hang of her approach to set pieces and began to put their trust in the young girl. They were starting to see results and wanted to keep the winning streak going while they could. The fourth fixture in the new season was one that Amelia was looking forward to, personally: Chelsea v Aston Villa, Stamford Bridge, 3pm kick off.

Jack and Amelia had grown closer and closer, FaceTime‘dates’ as Jack would call them, a weekly occurrence. She had spoken to him just as much as she had spoken to Jorgi - and they were still carpooling to and from Cobham together. Her friendship with Jack was full of easy conversation and flirtatious banter, teetering over the line of friendship but being that they were kept physically apart, the friendship line remained largely intact. One person that had drifted even further away from her, despite her believing that it couldn't be possible, was Ben Chilwell.

Every time she walked into a room that he was in, if he didn't have to be there he would immediately leave. Amelia didn’t understand what the problem was. Yeah sure, they were flirty together in Mykonos but they never crossed a line together, no matter how many times the wine went straight to their heads. If anything, she should be the one running away from him. She was the one who sent him a couple of messages here and there that he just opened. She spoke to Mason, Jorgi, Billy Gilmour - who was another one of the boys she had developed a strong friendship with - and all of them insisted they didn’t understand their friend's strange behaviour.

On the evening before the Villa match, Amelia was laying on the couch in her townhouse binge watching yet another docu-series on Netflix when her doorbell rang. This was strange, most people that came past the house these days had their own set of keys (her parents, her brother, Jorgi) or they texted to let her know they were outside. Her townhouse was three stories high, so if she was upstairs on the top level vacuuming the chances of her hearing the door were slim to none. Either way, she got up off of her loveseat  and walked to the front door, peeking through the peephole - she lived in London, alone, she wasn’t opening that door until she knew exactly who was on the other side.

______________________________________________________________

“To what do I owe this visit, Benjamin?”

“Hi, Mils.”

“Wow, nickname basis already - I thought only friends called each other by their nicknames.”

“Did you think we weren’t friends?”

“Well, friends don’t treat friends the way you’ve treated me since the evening I left Mykonos.”

With a sigh, Ben looked down at his feet. I did feel a small bit of guilt for that one, but he deserved it. Continuing to find the cracks in the marble step of my door’s threshold more interesting than facing my expression, I took a step back and forced Ben to look up at me.

“Well, are you going to come inside? I’ve got the kettle on and a really good series going that I would like to get back to.”

With a charming smile, Ben took a step forward, took the door handle out of my hand and shut it behind him. Slipping out of his shoes, he followed me down the short hallway to my kitchen and pulled a seat out at the island bench.

“So, really now - why are you here? Nervous about tomorrow?” I questioned as I took two cups out of the cupboard and brewed one tea for him, one coffee for me. 3 years in Italy and coffee in the evening became the norm for me. It was my comfort drink.

“I’m here to apologise for the way I've been acting towards you for the past six weeks. I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I’ve been like this”

“Cut the crap Ben, you know exactly why you’ve been doing it. Now tell me the truth or, as far as I'm concerned, you never came here tonight and tomorrow we will be back to how we were yesterday - you running away from me and me pretending that it doesn't bother me. Even though all it does is bother me.” Not expecting that outburst to come out of me, and to be fair neither did I, Ben looked me in the eye and stayed silent, choosing his next words carefully.

“The first time I saw you, the night you told your brother off in the rec room at St. George’s Park, I thought you were the most determined woman I had ever seen in my life. Not scared of the 30 grown men who were very obviously all on the same side, literally. Then the next time I saw you, after the final match, how you comforted your brother when you were at the highest of highs and he was lower than low, I thought you had more compassion than every person in that stadium put together.”

“When you came to SGP again the next day and delivered the tactical analysis of the game you won, I thought ‘wow she is so intellectually brilliant’. And then when you turned up in Mykonos, all sunkissed and relaxed, sitting next to me and involving me in conversation with my pals but making me feel like you wanted my contribution...I remember it like it was yesterday. Amelia, you smiled at me and my heart did a somersault in my chest.”

“You shut me down outside the club that evening, and when we came back inside I caught the end of your conversation with Jorgi about Fede. Putting two and two together, I understood all that I needed to. The few days after that we carried on like normal. Then, you left and I didn't know if I would ever see you again to be fair. When you messaged me, I got too nervous to reply because I didn't know how to just be your friend. And then when I thought I had finally gotten through a day without thinking about my friend's little sister, you showed up at Cobham as my tactical analyst. I didn’t know what to do Mils, I don't know how to be just your friend when I've had nothing but unfriendly thoughts about you since the first time I saw you command that room of men you had never met in your life.”

The whistle of the kettle ringing out behind me is the only noise filling the kitchen. I’m staring at Ben; he’s staring back at me with nothing but truth behind his eyes and his heart on his sleeve.

“Benj, what you were feeling, what you are feeling is totally valid and I never want you to feel like you can’t share those feelings with me. You’re right, Mykonos changed things for me. What you were feeling was reciprocated, but Ben, I was going back to Italy. At that exact moment, I had no idea I would end up here. I thought I was enjoying a break before another high-intensity season in Italy. I wanted to kiss you so badly at the club that night, but I knew it would only hurt you. I’m used to being hurt, it's a feeling I've grown to expect. But you, you’re too pure to experience the kind of hurt that comes along with knowing you’re making a bad decision, but doing it anyway, because I wanted to be selfish with your heart.”

“Amelia, can I ask you something?” I nodded, holding my breath as I braced myself for the question poised behind his eyes. “If you were in the mood to be selfish, what would have come from that evening?”

“I can probably show you better than I can tell you,”

Walking around the island bench, I pulled the back of Ben’s chair slightly so he pivoted towards me. Standing in between his tracksuit-covered legs, I ran both hands up his arms until I got to his neck and finally beside his face. Threading my fingers through his hair, I pulled his face towards mine and our lips met. It was as soft as a butterfly kiss but as powerful as anything I had ever felt before. His hands wound around my waist and settled themselves on the small of my back before travelling down and giving my backside a gentle caress, forcing a laugh out of my lips and straight into his mouth. Pulling away slightly, so we both had a bit of breathing space to sort out our lightheadedness, Ben spoke his next words very softly.

“I need you to promise me something, Amelia.You need to promise me that you will stop thinking about my heart before your own. I am old enough to make my own decisions, and the decision to ignore you for these past few weeks has been one of the worst ones I've made in a really long time. But I did make it, and it was because I got scared, and I hurt you, and I am so sorry. The decision to come here tonight however, I feel like it more than makes up for that one very very stupid one”

“You’re such a smooth talker, Benj.”

“Say my name again, Mils, you don’t know what it does to me.”

“Down boy, your tea is going cold and I need to find out who killed Sophie in West Cork.Meet me in the lounge.”

A few hours had passed and it was nearing 10pm, well past Amelia’s bed time, but Ben was still sitting on her couch, feet on the table (despite her telling him to remove them) and arm around the back of her shoulders.

“Chilly, I don’t want you to think I'm not interested in you because I so am, I just don’t want to rush into anything. What I left behind in Italy was complicated and heavy; I'm still trying to learn how to exist without him if I'm honest. I want you to just give me the space I need to grow into my own here in the city, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it's okay, Mils. From what Jorgi has told me about Fede, I can understand why you want to take it slow now. But please, don’t call me Chilly. My friends call me Chilly, and Mills. I thought I made it clear before that I don’t want to be your friend.”

“To me, you’re Benj. Thank you. Wait - what do you mean what Jorgi has told you about Fede?”

“I may have asked a couple times about you, and for the record, he is team Bamelia.”

“Bamelia? That is the ugliest word I have ever heard. Never use it again.”

“How can it be ugly? It's mostly your name, and nothing associated with you could ever be considered anything less than beautiful.”

“Stop being so smooth Benj, you’re going to make me blush in a minute.”

“Good, can’t wait to see how you could possibly look even cuter than you do right now.”

“That’s enough Benjamin.”

“Okay I’m done now.”

Part 10. | parte dieci

[forever-rogue]

Hey☺️ I was wondering if you could do 14 & 90 from prompt list 1, for reader x Javier. I think it would be cute if they were on about to head home or something and reader convinces Javi to go to the carnival. They play the carnival games that are almost always rigged (maybe I just sucked at them lol) and reader gets competitive over it. It’s a very fluffy request but it would be so cute to see javis playful side come out a bit🥺 thank you so much and I love your writing❤️❤️🥺

14. “But the carnival is right down the street! Can we please, please go!?” 

90. “I didn’t know you were so competitive.” 

I think Javier deserves some softness, don’t you?

Also not necessary, but I picture this being Javi and his Dulzura from AGM 🥺

Javier Peña x Fem!Reader ; warnings: language 

Javier Masterlist

»»————-　♡　————-««

It was a warm evening in Laredo, and the sun was starting to go down, casting the sky into brilliant hues of purples and pinks. It was warm still, the end of summer was slowly turning into fall, but warm enough where you could get away with wearing short sleeves and summer dresses. On this particular day, you were strolling hand in hand with Javier, taking your time as you walked home from dinner and back to Chucho’s house.

You’d come down to spend some time with Javier’s family, staying in town for a while for a wedding, and finally getting to relax and unwind for a while. You’d both been incredibly busy and it seemed like you hadn’t had more than a few minutes of alone time together. That’s why neither of you minded taking some extra time off and just being together. 

On this particular evening, Javier had taken you to one of his favorite places for dinner; it was nothing fancy or extravagant, but it had been his go to spot since he was young. You’d worn one of your - and Javier’s - favorite sundresses, not minding in the slightest as he eyed you up. Despite having been together for a few years now, you appreciated the attention. He always made you feel like you were the most beautiful thing in the world, like you were the one that personally hung all the stars in the night sky that he loved to watch so much. 

You couldn’t help but grin when you felt his thumb gently brush over the engagement ring that you now sported - soon enough it would be joined by a wedding band. He never thought he’d admit that he was exciting to get married, especially after his first engagement had ended in disaster, but fuck. He was excited to marry you - so excited to call you his wife. And you were just as excited to call him your husband. Javier was a good man - the best man - and to even think about spending the rest of your life with him was enough to set your soul on fire.

You grinned as you swung your hands back and forth, a little pep in your step as you noticed a commotion up ahead. Poking your head around, you tried to figure out what it was, but the laughter, music, and noise quickly provided an answer for you. Javier looked over at you, watched as your eyes widened in excitement, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth.

“Javi,” you tugged on his hand lightly, “the carnival is right down the street! Can we please, please go?”

“Hmm,” he pretended to muse softly as he quirked a brow at you. Your mouth formed a small o as you quickly realized he had known that it was here, “what a complete surprise...I had no clue. Definitely didn’t plan on walking this particular way at all, or anything…”

“You planned this,” you looked at him with soft eyes, watching as his own crinkled in the corners as he nodded with a smile, his dimple making its appearance. Before you could stop yourself, you leaned over and quickly kissed him, letting your lips linger against his own, “look at you, always managed to surprise me. How very romantic of you, Javier Peña.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it that,” he shrugged lightly, relishing in your praise as a tinge of pink, similar to the color of shirt he was wearing, crept into his cheeks. Reaching over, you ran a hand through his dark locks, sighing contentedly as he keened into your touch, “but I thought you might like the idea.”

“I love it,” you agreed, giving him a quick kiss,  “I love you. Now - come on! We have to go; I want to go on the ferris wheel and those silly little games, oh! Cotton candy! No, no, no, funnel cake!”

“Don’t worry, Dulzura, it’s not going anywhere, we have plenty of time,” he insisted softly as you pulled him along with an excited bounce in your step. He couldn’t help but laugh as he followed after you. It was times like this, watching you get so excited and happy, that made him realize just how wonderful the little things were. Maybe it was just because he was so in love with you, maybe it was because he had softened with time - whatever the reason, he didn’t mind. He was happy; truly, truly happy.

»»————-　♡　————-««

You couldn’t help but giggle as Javier grabbed the bright blue cotton candy out of your hand. His fingers wrapped around your wrist as he brought your hand to his lips and licked your fingers clean of any of the sticky sweet residue. Your face flushed at the naughty little gesture, especially as he shot you a cheeky little wink.

“Behave Javier,” you warned, playfully slapping his cheek as you watched all the people around you. You’d been walking around, taking in all the sights and sounds as you watched the various people. Naturally, you’d already dragged him to the ferris wheel first, wanting to watch the remainder of the sunset from the top. You’d caught part of it, but the rest was cut off by Javier gently grabbing your face and kissing you until you were both breathless and grinning at each like lovestruck teenagers.

“What was that for?” you asked as you thoroughly lost the battle to keep the smile off of your face.

“No reason,” he promised, “I just really love you is all.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Javier gently interrupted your thoughts as you pulled you back into reality. You hadn’t realized that you’d zoned out and were staring at a small family that was nearby. It was a couple, flanked by their small daughters, both of which sported dark curls and soft dark eyes. You couldn’t help but think about yourself and Javi; perhaps one day that would be you as well. 

“Nothing,” you shied away from his question as you finished off the beer you were sharing while he polished off the sugary treat, “it’s silly.”

Almost as if he was able to read your mind, he turned to look at the happy little family as they started to walk away. You gave him a sheepish smile as he reached over and grabbed your hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, “hopefully they’ll take after you.”

“Nope,” you grinned at him, “I hope they take after you, Javier Peña! Especially with those curls and those soft eyes, and that smile. Whatever way - they’d be lucky to have you as a father.”

“Nah,” he shook his head, “they’ll be lucky to have a mother like you.”

“One day,” you said softly as he nodded in agreement, “one day.”

“Yes,” he promised, his heart already fluttered at the idea of your future children. He’d never given much thought to children, not before you anyway, but now? Now it was something he wanted just as much as he wanted to marry you. Who would have thought? Then again, he’d never expected you to make an appearance or just an impact on his life either. But here you were…”come on, let’s go play some games. I saw you eyeing that little hedgehog earlier!”

»»————-　♡　————-««

"All I have to do is throw the silly little ball into one of those big cups?" you asked, looking between Javier and the game attendant, as both men nodded. You took the bucket of balls that Javier had purchased, sure this would be an easy win. Plucking out the first one, you spied the lucky cup as you got lined up your shot.

"Don't get too confident," Javier smirked at you as he leaned against the counter. You scoffed lightly before dramatically pulling your arm back and making a show of shooting your first shot. It had to go in, there was no chance that it wouldn't and yet...nope..it bounced off the rim of the cup and landed in the space next to it.

"No way!" you groaned in disbelief as Javier tried not to laugh too loudly, his shoulders shaking with effort, "that totally should have gone in!"

"Try again, Dulzura," he insisted softly as you huffed lightly, "I'm sure you'll get it."

"Duh," you insisted with a smirk as you took another shot. This one, just like the last, hit the rim of the cup and then fell away from it, "umm...this is rigged! It has to be!"

"You've got plenty more tries," the attendant nodded towards your bucket, "surely one of them has to go in."

"It can and it will," you huffed as you tossed another ball, this one missing even worse than the last. Biting your lip, you held back a groan as Javier watching in amusement, "fuck!"

"Baby, there's children around," he almost doubled over in laughter at your reaction but you quickly flipped him the bird as you went back to your little game, "I didn't know you were so competitive!"

"Always," you insisted, "I always get what I want - I got you after all didn't I?"

"Yeah," he agreed with a goofy little grin, "you did. Go on and win big."

Even with his best wishes, you couldn't seem to get it right. It was another 17 tries and none of them got close. It seemed like it kept getting worse and worse with each successive throw. 

Once the balls were all used up, you groaned heavily, as the attendant took the empty bucket back. 

"Fancy another round?" he asked as you pouted at Javier. He shook his head as he came over and put his arm around your shoulder.

"We're good," Javier kissed the side of your head as he led you away and you sighed lightly, "its alright, Dulzura. Those games are set up for you to lose."

"I know," you looked around at some of the other games, a smile working its way back on your features as you watched all the kids laughing and screaming. Your eyes quickly found another game that intrigued you - this one where you had to aim water from a blaster at a small target in order to fill up the meter first. You weren't about to say anything, deciding it wasn't worth the time, and were ready to move on.

"Do you want to play?" Javi nudged his head in the direction of the game as you slowly nodded, "I saw that look in your eyes."

"I wasn't going to ask!" you laughed as he took your hand and led you over. 

"Because you know I'll kick your ass," he insisted as plopping down on one of the worn stools before beckoning for you to do the same. You quickly obliged as he paid, taking a hold of the mounted water pistol and aiming and trying to line it up with the target, "ready? Whoever fills the meter with water first wins."

"You're going down," you stuck your tongue out at him as the attendant unlocked the pistols and water began shooting out.

Quickly enough the two of you were laughing and giggling like maniacs as you both tried to win, playfully cursing each offer. It was hard not to get lost in Javi's laugh and excitement; it was also nice to see him so carefree and unfiltered.

"You're losing baby," he teased as you pulled yourself out of your head and adjusted your aim. His meter was almost at the top as yours was filled a measly halfway. You should have known better than to challenge a man with copious shooting experience. 

"You're a cheater," you insisted when he won a few seconds later, looking over at you with a victorious smirk, "this was a set up!"

"Nope," he insisted as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to your lips, "you got distracted."

"Ugh," you teased as he helped you off the stool and the game attendant told him to pick out a prize. Javier feigned great interest as he walked around the whole booth, looking thoughtfully before calling the woman over. He whispered something in her ear before she nodded and he dashed off. You watched him in confusion, but stood there and waited.

It wasn't long before you heard footsteps behind you and he whispered, "close your eyes."

You obliged, making a show of holding your hands to your eyes as he shuffled around, "Javier…"

"Fine! Open," you slowly opened your eyes back up and when you did, all you saw that stuffed little hedgehog that you had spotted earlier in his hands. You looked between the plush and him as he slowly nodded and you grabbed it, holding it tightly to your chest, "I can play nice."

"Javi," you whispered softly, "you're too much. Thank you...I-I love you. So much."

"I know," he put his arm around your shoulder and you wrapped yours around his waist, "I love you too. But right now you're just saying that because of the hedgehog."

"I love you before then," you laughed, "and long after! Now, there's one more thing I want to do."

"Oh?"

"The tunnel of love!" you insisted with a wicked grin, "and excuse to sit in the dark on a dinky boat and make out like horny teenagers."

"Perfect," he agreed as he threw his head back with laughter, "fuck - I love you, baby."

"I love you, Javier Peña," you promised as you grabbed his hand and practically ran towards the line, "now come on!"

»»————-　♡　————-««

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[godheadjones]

riverdale infodump pls? 👉👈

okay. this is gonna be wild knife

we start off with the murder of jason blossom. whodunit? no one knows. jughead, our narrator, writes from his booth in the only diner in town, pops. shit happens. veronica comes to town and hits on archie a few time before they move from closest fucking to being in a relationship. archie struggles with his feels for betty and they immediately disappear as soon as veronica closest fucks him. this is one episode. more shit happens this season, like the revelation of the blossom/cooper family incest, cheryl calling archies dad a dilf as a not-yet-lesbian, betty and jughead start dating, jughead hates his birthday, sticky maples and clifford blossom hangs himself just after his daughter tries to kill herself. cliffored is revealed as being the killer cause jason said "no! im not taking over your maple syrup buisness which is actually a cover for heroin business" blah blah. shit happens in this town then archies dad gets shot in pops and even more shit happens. archie, without his drivers license but with an undiagnosed hero complex rushes his father to the hospital. everyone comes and is worried and theirs heart to heart and cheryl burns down her house. why not. new killer: the black hood. and he wants to purge riverdale of sinners. now theres a new drug dealer, the sugarman, who sells jingle jangle to the kids of southside high, where jughead attends school now with his foster family. another big bad rolls into town and his name is hiram lodge. hiram is hiram forever, we chant as veronica kisses his cheek in the dark. more shit happens, then, they think they finally caught the black hood! its a random janitor! haha, the students think, we can return with our life. nope. the janitor really was just a random janitor. at their musical production of carrie, played by cheryl, whos finally realized she gay and is dating southside serpent toni topaz. midge turns up dead in their show and the town is haunted. they hold each other, fuck each other, and interrogate half brother imposters whove come to town. jughead is caught up in drama with southside serpent member penny peabody. he cut off her tatoo cause he joined a gang, hes badass, he has to prove this blah. penny takes over another gang, the ghoulies, and jughead approaches them and is like "just kill me" so they do. or so they think? jugheads alive! jughead besting death 1/? gifset when? anyway hes alive. then betty catches the black hood and its none other than her father! hal how could you. he says bettys speeech at the 75 years jubilee (in season one) inspired him to go shoot shoot shoot. mystery solved! yippee! assembly time then uh oh. hiram lodge has nailed archie for the murder of some guy while archie was at a fuck cabin with bughead (betty and jughead) and veronica. hes going to jail. archies 3 friends try to save him along with his mother, who is a lawyer. good for her! they spend all summer trying to save archie from prison but its all for nought cause archie confesses under threat from hiram. farewell archie andrews. new school year but its weird since archie isnt there. hes teaching other prisoners about the epic highs and lows of high school football. as he does this, the school gets addicted to g&g, which is just d&d on jingle jangle. its all part of a larger scheme of the farm, a secret cult harvesting organs for a dying girl pretending she’s in high school. meanwhile with archie, hes in a wrestling ring for the prison and hes very good at it. he espaces with the help of monica posh, undercover vee lodge. when he does he runs away to hide from hiram with jughead because they are gay. not really both are in straight relationships. archie has kissed men tho. hes on thin ice. hes in canada has some trippin visions of killing himself and its all fun and games until he comes back. turns out the gargoyle king, the second g in g&g is penelope blossom, cheryls homophobic mother along with the help of fake jason blossom (imposter half brother) and the black hood!! gasp!

I can’t believe I’m even saying this. part two will be out soon

[kiribaku-queen]

Let’s gooo! How about Oikawa x reader, but it’s a secret relationship (married) because she’s a trainer alongside Iwa, but she starts getting shipped with Iwa and pictures of them hugging show up... Basically Oikawa isn’t stupid, he KNOWS they aren’t doing anything behind his back but he does get jealous. So roll around to the Olympics and Iwa and reader are being asked about their relationship and bam Oikawas had enough so he comes over, kisses her and is like this is MY wife so fuck off and stop shipping her with my BESTFRIEND HAHAH

She’s Mine

Pairing: Oikawa x reader

Fluff

Word count: 2.6K

A/N: Thank you for being the first requester ever! I hope this is to your liking. I was actually worried that it wouldn’t be long enough but it actually turned out longer than I was expecting! I tried to make it funny and add Oikawa’s personality to give it that flavour. I’d love to know what you think about it anon! Thank you for your support! <3

“One touch!”

“Chance ball!”

“Get it over!”

The gym was loud with calls from their teammates, every player wanting to play their best even if it was just a practice game. You watched from the bleaches, eyes shining with admiration when you watch a certain brown haired boy spike, earning his team a point.

“Yes!” he cheered for himself and then turned to face you. “(y/n) did you see that?! That was for you baby!” he shouted, making the rest of his teammates laugh and you all red and embarrassed. You just signaled a thumbs up and let them continue with their practice game. You didn’t want to interfere, no matter how much your husband was already interfering.

“Oi, Oikawa! Focus on the game, not your wife! You can do that after!” Iwaizumi scolded him. Oikawa waved him off, his attention back on the game.

“This guy…” Iwa said under his breath. You giggled to yourself and looked at the clipboard in front of you. You were still learning how to effectively position people so that they can play their best against their opponent. And Iwa was there to help you. You guess who could say you were his assistant coach. But it was hard trying to stay professional while your husband is on the team you are coaching.

It was no surprise to the team that you guys were married. Your wedding pictures with them in the background drunk was proof enough. But you had to keep your marriage secret from the rest of the world. And this was purely based on your decision. Oikawa has always been popular, ever since high school. When he became pro, he gained even more followers. You saw it first hand. Some fans could be really obsessive and scary. Though, you knew that most fans would be supportive of you two, but you really didn’t want to risk it. You weren’t scared that they were going to come after you. Actually, you have been preparing for it ever since you got together in case you got exposed early on in your relationship. You didn’t want his fans to freak out and then he would lose his popularity over it. You were so scared that it would permanently damage his career. So you both kept it a secret. For now, at least.

“Good work today!” Iwa shouted. The boys immediately fell to the floor, exhausted. But your hubby didn’t do that. Instead, he ran up to you as soon as he finished practice to embrace you in the tightest hug.

“Babe!” you laughed and tried pushing him away. You pushing away only made him hug you tighter. And since you were trying to run away from him, he added in a few smooches just for fun.

“Okay, okay,” Iwa tugged on Oikawa’s collar to pull him away from you. “You can hug your wife later. Go clean up.” He ordered. With a pout, he left but never failed to look back at you and give you kissy faces. You were also cleaning up, putting the volleyballs away and packing up your things in your duffle bag.

“(y/n),” Iwa called to you and to ran up to him immediately. “What do you think about this line up for the game this weekend?” he asked you. You got close to look at the plan he laid out. As you and Iwa were discussing, a photographer snuck into the private gym and hid in the stands.

“Shit, looks like practice is over,” he cursed to himself. How was he going to get a good scoop now? He looked around the gym. None of the players were around. Just the coaches and maybe a few other irrelevant people. He wanted an exclusive showing how practice was going for the big team, but now he never going to get a good picture in if no one was here. The photographer was about to leave, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw you standing next to the team’s coach. You were wearing the team’s colors and outfit. So you had to be a coach if you were standing close to coach Iwaizumi. You were standing a little too close. And you two were laughing. And play fighting? And flirting? The photographer smirked.

“Now this could be a story,” he said as he snapped a few shots of you and Iwa together. Then he made his way out of the gym, looking at the freshly took pictures for his story.

“Honey!” Oikawa came running with his bag hanging loosely over his shoulder. You ran towards him, meeting halfway and you jumped into his arms. “Ready to go home?”

“Mhm!” you hummed, placing a kiss on his lips. He kissed with equal force, if not harder, and gently set you back down on the ground.

“Still up for lunch tomorrow?” Oikawa turned to his best friend.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll meet you guys there,” he said. Oikawa then wrapped his arm around your waist and held you close.

“Let’s go,” he told you. You looked back at Iwa as you left the gym.

“See you later, Iwa-chan!” you waved at him.

“Mhm, good work today!” he yelled back. He wouldn’t have to yell if Oikawa hadn’t kept you from continuously walking away, further and further from him. But Oikawa was always one to be touchy and protective so it was nothing new. And he was trying to be as lovey-dovey as he could because once they were out in public, absolutely no touching.

The next day, lunch rolls around and Iwaizumi is already waiting for you two at the restaurant you picked out.

“You’re late,” Iwa stated. You sat down, apologizing profusely while your husband just laughs it off.

“Sorry! Someone was in the bathroom too long,” you glared at the man beside you. He scoffed and pointed an accusing finger at you.

“I was ready before you! I was waiting so long, by the time you got out of the bathroom, I had to take a shit,” Oikawa explained himself.

“Well you should have just held it in!”

“I can’t hold my shits in!”

“Well I can!”

“That is so unhealthy,” Iwa chimed in, shaking his head in disappointment. “Why are we even having this conversation?”

“She started it,” Oikawa breathed but oh, you could hear it. And you were about to retort back if it wasn’t for Iwa to stop another oncoming argument.

“Okay, okay. Let’s just order. I’m starving,” Iwa stated, looking over the menu. It took the guys a few minutes to figure out what they wanted but you were stuck on two options. Glancing around the room, you saw another table that had the same order you wanted and boy did it look delicious. The only problem? The portion was gigantic. There was no way you were going to finish all that. So you did what any girlfriend would do.

“Babe, can you share with me?” you asked Oikawa, giving him a pouty face.

“Mm, but I’ll still be hungry later,” he said, giving you an apologetic look.

“But it’s too much food!” you stated, trying to reason with him. If they had a half portion, you would definitely take that. But unfortunately, there was no such thing.

“I’ll eat your leftovers, how about that?” he compromised, making you equally as happy.

“Tank you,” you said in the cutest baby voice that you know he loves. He gushes at how cute you are.

“Anything for you, my love,” he says back in an equally cute tone and touched noses with you. Iwaizumi is just watching this all unfold in front of him. And to think they were just arguing a second ago. He pretends to have a disgusted look on his face but on the inside, he’s happy that you two found each other. Of course, he’s never going to admit that and never will he ever mention it…. EVER.

Time flies when you’re with your two best friends. You guys could talk about everything and anything, arguing back and forth, making fun of each other, having deep talks, you do it all. Sometimes its hard to believe that you guys work together and it makes you cringe how professional you have to be with each other because you’re not used to it at all. You’re already finished with your food because you couldn’t even stomach all that. Now, you were just waiting on the boys to finish up. Especially, Oikawa since he also had to each your leftovers.

“I’ll be back. I’m gonna wash my hands real quick,” Oikawa announces and heads for the men’s room. You and Iwa were left at the table together. You lean your elbows on the table and rest your chin in your hands.

“You think we’re gonna win tomorrow?” you asked Iwa. He’s much more knowledgeable that you were after all.

“Even if we don’t, it’s no big deal. But I want you to take charge tomorrow so you can get the feel and practice,” he explained. You internally, and maybe externally, groaned. You didn’t feel like you were ready and now all the pressure was going to get to your head. “So if we lose tomorrow, it’s all your fault.”

“Iwa!” you smacked his hand across the table. He kept poking fun and laughing at you, loving the reactions you were giving him. If no one knew you guys, they’d think you were dating. And that’s exactly what Mr. Photographer was thinking.

He had just arrived at the restaurant you guys were eating at, watching from behind a few trees with a big camera in hand. You were laughing at something Iwaizumi had said, earning him a few, nice shots. The photographer made sure to get the food presented on the table, as well as a few cute snaps of you two play fighting, laughing and smiling with each other. He was going to wait around longer, in case you two kissed, but he was too eager to write this new news story that he left when he got enough pictures of you two. When the photographer left, Oikawa came back to pay the check and you were on your way out.

 It’s the morning of the game and you were fixing up some coffee while Oikawa sat at the dining table, eating the breakfast that you prepared for him. Both of you were minding your own business; you jamming out and singing to your music and your husband reading the news on his phone. Everything was in the ordinary until Oikawa spotted an article that made him do a double take.

[BREAKING] Coach Iwaizumi and Assistant (y/n) Dating!!!

“Honey?” he calls out for you in a questioning tone, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing you. You go over to him, coffee in hand and hug him from behind with your chin resting on his shoulder.

“What is it, love?” you ask and take a sip of your coffee.

“Look at this,” he says and brings his phone up so you can see it as clear as day. “You and Iwa? Dating?! And look at these pictures. What are these?!” You take a closer look and its definitely you and Iwaizumi. But the first picture was from the other day when you were going over positioning. And then the other picture was from yesterday at lunch. Out of context, you guys did look close and lovey-dovey… but it was all false. The more Oikawa looked at these pictures, the more irritated and jealous he got. For heavens sake, he was there both times! And that dumb paparazzi couldn’t see that you and him were together?

“Babe, looks like I’m dating your best friend now,” you laugh but Oikawa didn’t find it funny. He had a big, old pout sitting on his lips and seeing that? You knew it was going to be drama, drama, drama all day.

“Baby, don’t pout. It’s all just rumors. I love you and only you,” you try to cheer him up by giving him as many cheek kisses as you could. Your husband loved that but it didn’t make him feel any better. He should be the one in that article title not Iwa-chan.  “It is kind of funny though, I’ll have to let Iwa know later.” You laugh it off and go back to the kitchen. Oikawa laughs too but it was fake and forceful. The moment you went back to the kitchen, his smile drops and a frown is immediately replaced.

It was right before the game and the boys were warming up on the court. The whole ride there, Oikawa was silent. He was acting like a child but you were used to it already that you paid him no mind. You knew he was just going to let it all out during the game. You were standing next to Iwaizumi, watching them practice their spikes. But let’s be honest, you were looking at your dashing husband the whole time. When you got to the venue, you immediately told Iwa the news but he wasn’t surprised because he had already seen it. You both had a good laugh over it and dismissed it. Because what was there to discuss? The whole news was just ridiculous with no proof as backup.

“(y/n),” Iwa came up to you with a clipboard in hand. “Did you-” but before he could finish that sentence, you were both rudely interrupted by a lady shoving a microphone and camera in your face.

“Iwaizumi, (y/n), do you have time for a quick interview?” she asks you. You look up at Iwa because you weren’t used to the sudden aggression. He felt how awkward you were and was the one to speak for the both of you.

“What is it about?”

“You guys look really good together. Is it true that you are both dating?” she asks and shoves the big microphone right in your face.

“No,” Iwa butts in, giving the interviewer and the camera an unamused face.

While Oikawa was focusing on his spikes, he panned over to you just so he could see you. But what he was left a bad taste in his mouth. Interviewers were all in your face. You had a painstakingly uncomfortable expression on your face and he was so tempted to just storm over there and take you away. But professionalism. Remember that. He’s trying so hard to focus back on the warmups but his ears are listening in on your interview.

His ears perk up when he hears that you and his best friend look good together. He looks back in your direction and you were being peer pressured into telling the truth and just being bombarded with unnecessary questions. That’s it. He’s had it. You were his and no one else’s.

“Come on, (y/n). Give us a statement,” the interviewer was coming into you.

“Uhm,” you felt yourself literally backing up. The answer was said to them multiple times but they kept pushing and pushing. It started to get suffocating. And no matter how many times Iwa tried to calm down the situation, it felt like it was just getting worse. All that seemed to disappear when a hand grabs your waist from behind, spins you around and a pair of lips gently cover yours. Your eyes widen in surprise as you see Oikawa passionately kissing you. In public. And on the big screen. A wave of gasps spread throughout the venue and even the interviewer was in shock. When he lets go, you are just all around flustered and Iwa is standing on the side rolling his eyes.

“Please stop pressuring MY WIFE. And please stop shipping her with my dear friend because she’s mine,” Oikawa said to the lady and straight at the camera with a polite smile but threatening eyes.

“And you!” Oikawa dramatically points at his friend and sticks up both middle fingers. “She’s mine so you can fuck off!”

“I don’t even want her, dumbass,” Iwa informs him of the obvious. Oikawa walks off with your hand in his, proud to finally let the world know that you were his and his alone.

[headinthestaticsky]

The Dusk Calls for me: Jasper Hale x Fleur Swan, Chapter 12

AUTHORS NOTES: None of the characters in Twilight belong to me. All rights go to Stephanie Meyer.

We’re heading into the Finale of book 1 folks... I have so many ideas for book 2... it’s going to be great. Hopefully!

“You get ready, you get all dressed up

To go nowhere in particular Back to work or the coffee shop Doesn't matter 'cause it's enough To be young and in love.”

Love by, Lana Del Rey

Bella was finally going to meet the Cullens officially. All day before I had left to go down there she paced, looking like she was going to be sick. All of the Cullens were cooking Italian for Bella. The only person who I was worried about was Rosalie. She was furious at Edward for even dating her, and when he went public with her... it set her over the edge. Emmett was chopping up lettuce and other vegetables for her while Rosalie begrudgingly held a bowl for him to put it in. I was sitting in the living room with Jasper, he was concentrated on reading some books. It was always entertaining to watch vampires read so quickly.

“Is she even Italian?” Rosalie asked.

“Her name is Bella, Rose... she has to be.” Emmett replied.

“Emmett... you thought I was french just because my name is Fleur. That food was really good though... not like I am complaining. I said.

“Okay I admit I messed up there but, I have to be right about this one.”

“Whatever you say Em.”

“Shut it short-stack.”

“At least I don’t hit my head through small doorways.”

He glared at me jokingly and then rolled his eyes.

“Rose, tell her to stop bullying me.”

“I’m sorry I can’t do that... it’s too funny to listen to.” Rosalie said.

“Ugh, I feel betrayed.” Emmett said, his hands going toward his un-beating heart.”

Rosalie smiled, it was soon dropped though. She must’ve kept thinking about Bella.

“She better eat this.”

“Don’t want to sound gluttonous here but... I was totally eat if she doesn’t.... it’s her lose.”

“Stop trying to make me laugh.”

“I will never stop my attempts to make you laugh.”

“Woo, get a whiff of that, here comes the human!” Rosalie said in a sing-songy voice.

Esme smiled widely, she quickly wiped her hands before making her way over to Bella.

“Bella, we’re making Italiano for you.”

“Bella, this is my Esme my mother for all intents and purposes.”

Emmett raised his hand and waved at Bella with a knife in it. Bella and Esme exchanged a bit of Italian.

“Hello again Bella, hope you’re well.” Jasper said.

“Hey, Jasper... hope you’re well too.”

“You’ve given us an excuse to use the kitchen again. We usual make meals for your sister when she stays over.” Carlisle said.

“I hope you’re hungry.” Esme added.

I could see a nervous look on Bella’s face, I probably should’ve told her they would cook for her. 

“Y-yeah absolutely.”

“She already ate.” Edward said, a tinge of attitude in his voice.

Rosalie stood there, anger was all of her face. She smashed the bowl she was holding in her hand.

“Pull back Edward, you’re throwing her to the wolves!” I thought.

“Damn Rose... remind me not to piss you off again.” I said.

She had to bite down a smile.

“Perfect...” She said.

“It’s just because... I know you guys don’t eat. I didn’t want to put you into any trouble.”

“Of course, that is very considerate of you.” Esme comforted.

“Just ignore Rosalie, I do.” Edward said.

“Yeah, let’s just keep pretending that this isn’t dangerous for all of us.”

“Look, I would never tell anybody about you guys... Besides, Fleur knows and you trust her.”

“It’s because I pick up a good energy from her... I know I can trust her with anything I tell her. She’s not a backstabber, she’s told me some of the stuff you’ve done. I’m sorry but, it made me sick the way you use to treat her. I hated seeing how upset she got telling the things you and your mother said to her”

My eyes widened before looking down at my legs... maybe me being here just reminded them of some of the things I told them. I wasn’t being much help to Bella right now. Jasper sensing my nerves rising, calmed them down. My uncomfortable mood slowly simmering down.

“Rosalie, stop... don’t worry Bella, she knows you wouldn’t say anything about us to anyone.” Carlisle said.

“Well, the problem not is, you two have gone public now so...”

“Emmett.” Esme interrupted.” 

“No, she should know. The entire family could get implicated if this ends badly.”

“Badly, as in... I would become the meal.”

All of the Cullens in the house except for Rosalie and Esme started to laugh. I heard a few thumps before I saw Alice and Dean enter the room.

“Hi, Bella... I’m Alice.” Alice jogged toward Bella, giving her a hug.

“Hi.”

“Gosh, you do smell good.”

“Alice what’re you.”

“Don’t worry... Bella and I are going to be great friends.”

Dean looked like he was struggling to say something. I could tell he was uncomfortable to be around Bella right now.

“It-it’s a p-pleasure to meet you.” He said.

“Don’t mind Dean, he and Jasper are our newest vegetarians.” 

“It’s okay Dean, you won’t hurt her.”

The expression on Edward’s face made me want to laugh.

“Okay well, I’m going to show her around the house.”

“Okay.” Bella mumbled.

“I’ll see you soon.” Alice said.

“Okay.” Bella said again.

“So cute!” Esme gushed.

“I know!” Alice said in agreement.

“I think that went well.” Carlisle added.

“Rose, clean this up... now.” Esme said.

I leaned back into the couch, sinking into it. Jasper put his arm around my shoulder. “What an interesting visit.” I thought to myself.

Another day came and went by, Bella and I were on our way to the diner. It had been so long since I had been down there. I was in the passengers seat of her truck. I thought since we were going to the same place, we should probably drive in the same vehicle... During out drive she started talking about how Edward had been watching her sleep for months.

“Are you serious Bella? That’s kinda creepy.”

“I’m sure you have Jasper in your room with you at night.”

“Yeah but, he always asks me before he goes in there. We plan stuff like that out... He should be coming later tonight actually.”

“Okay... you have a point there.”

When we arrived at the diner and got out of the truck Mike approached us...

“Hey, you and Cullen huh? I don’t like it... I mean he looked at you like you’re something to eat.”

Bella and I looked at each other and smirked... he had no idea how correct he was in that statement. We walked past him and entered the dinner, dad was already waiting for us.

“Hey I hope you two don’t mind I ordered food for you guys already. I got you Bells a Spinach Salad and I got you a burger Fleur.”

“Yeah that sounds good.” I said.

“Good picks dad. Even though, you should get a salad like me next time... cut back the steak.” Bella said.

“Hey, I’m as healthy as a horse.”

"Hey , Chief, the boys want to know... did you find anything by Queets river today?"  The waitress asked.

"Yeah, we found a bare human footprint... but it looks like whoever it is is headed east... the Kisap County Sheriff is gonna take over from here."

 "Okay, I hope whoever it is... they get them fast." The waitress then walked away, a group of men started talking within there group.

I turned around hearing something outside, Mike was doing something to a poor bush outside. I nudged Bella, trying to get her attention.

“Hey, someone’s flagging you outside.”

“It seems that Newton boys got a big smile for you.” Dad added.

Bella looked, and then turned back around, her face looked horrified.

“You can join them if you want.” I said smirking.

“Shut up you jerk... Mike is a good buddy though.” She said back.

Dad face flushed slightly... as if what he was going to say next was embarrassing.

“W-what about any other of the yahoo’s in town?”

“Dad... we aren’t going to talk about boys are we?” Bella said, her face starting to turn red too.”

“I guess not... with you at least.... How is everything going with you and Jasper, Fleur?”

I looked up confused, how did conversation about Bella’s relationships get turn into one about mine.

“It’s going well.”

“Good, I noticed you’ve been spending a lot more time with him lately. That car ride you took was a long one.”

“Oh yeah we drove out for a while... we looked at the stars... it was really nice. He told me I seemed stress and just decided to take me somewhere.” I said, I looked down at my hands while smiling.

Dad seeing this smiled too.

“I always liked that boy, you got yourself I good one.”

“I know I do.” I said finally looking up at him.

“I was only bringing up boys with you Bella because... I feel like I leave you alone too much.”

“I don’t mind being alone dad, I’m like you in that way.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Timeskip: Later that night.

I was in my room, thinking about what dad had said earlier... He found a bare human footprint in the woods. Could it of been the same footprint of the woman who’s body I seemed to be suck in during my dreams? Or could it of been someone else entirely? The wind from my open window got harsher for a second, I then heard a familiar soft thud on my floor. I turned my head, locking my eyes with his.

“What’s going on in that head of yours love?” Jasper asked

“Just thinking of something my dad said earlier...”

“What is it?”

“My dad said he found a bare human footprint down at Queets river today... He said it was heading east. Have you guys found anything yet?”

“No, we haven’t found anything, it’s starting to get frustrating. Have you had anymore dreams about those vampires?” 

“Nope... if it is them though, I have a feeling that print was just a trap to throw them off course.”

“I do too... hey, my family and I plan on playing baseball tomorrow, since Edward is inviting Bella... I thought you could come too.”

“Yes, I would love too, watching Emmett climb and crash into things is my favorite part of the game. That and all those tricks you do with the bat.”

“It’s a plan then, I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.” I pecked his lips before getting comfortable in my bed, I was still a human... I needed some sleep. I laid there, Jasper behind me holding close.

“Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.” I thought to myself, before drifting off to sleep.

[gladerwolfstarkimagines]

Not just a soft princess  - Azula x female reader imagine: Part Four

You are torn between your growing feelings for Azula and the fact you can’t forget all the harm she’s done in the past but if one place can help you think it’s the Ember Islands.

Part one here

Part two here

Part three here

Part five here

Part six here

Your POV

You arrived on the island early in the morning after travelling all night and you mind has been occupied by Azula the whole way. You’d liked a handful of girls before but none of them ever made you feel as excited and happy as Azula and that kiss....but you also couldn’t stop that surging guilt that followed every fond thought of Azula you had. She was the reason you were here and not in your city. You’d heard your people were fine but you couldn’t be sure. For all you knew Azula had laid waste to your city and spared the dai li and you just because you appealed to her. You didn’t believe that at all but every time she looked at you the thought flickered into the back of your mind and you were struggling to see anything else.

To make matters worse Azula was evidently still experiencing the bliss you had yesterday and was being coy and attentive to you. As the island came into view she appeared at your elbow smiling “it has only just occurred to me that all your clothes we brought are useless, here you cannot wear green as we are supposed to blend in”. “Ow...what will we do?”. Azula shrugged “I’ve sent a messenger hawk back to the palace asking them to send some clothes and I sent one ahead asking for some to be purchased for you until they arrive. All red of course” Azula smiled and looked at you waiting for a reaction. You knew she expected some playful banter like before but you just weren’t feeling it today. “Thanks” you nodded and you saw Azula hesitate, her smile fell away and you felt the familiar conflict rise. “I mean it, thank you” you smiled squeezing her hand before stepping away to go sit next to Ty lee. You saw the confused and almost hurt look on Azula’s face and had to look away...of all the times to be sent on a holiday together why did it have to be now?

As the day went on your resolve to stay away from Azula slipped further and further away. On the beach you watched amused as Azula complained about everything and noticed how adorable she looked when angry. Ty lee and Mai had abandoned the two of you so you were alone together and it was hard not to become swept up in your feelings. A guy had offered to help you lay out your towel and when you dismissed him abruptly Azula’s lazy smile made you feel weak. So you were already slipping and then Azula decided to show off her athletic side. You’d never played volleyball before so Azula said you could just watch. So you did just that and found yourself enjoying the show nicely. Azula was obliterating the competition and your jaw actually hung open as she kicked the ball so hard it caught fire before ripping through the net and sending the other team flying. You watched her, the net around her still smouldering and had to look away, you could’ve sworn she was doing it on purpose. You smiled admiring how happy she looked before that thought flickered in your mind again and you looked down with a heavy sigh.

Azula’s POV

Azula felt the thrill of her victory as she glowered over the other team informing them of their shame in case they didn’t already know. She was feeling good and confident. Something had been off with you all day but she’s noticed you watching her in the game so she knew your attraction to her was still there. However when she glanced back at you after the game was over she saw you weren’t even watching. You were tracing the sand a large worried frown on your face. Azula’s smile fell away as she watched you. What was upsetting you? Had her father done something? Zuko? You glanced up and as soon as you met Azula’s eye you looked away. So it was her Azula realised. She was the reason you were upset. Azula had no idea what she’d done and suddenly felt a surge of anger. How dare you be mad at her! After all she’d done to save your life, what could you possibly have against her? But as Azula’s heart continued to hammer she realised she wasn’t angry, not really, she was upset. She felt worried you didn’t like her anymore, embarrassed at the idea that like everyone else you’d realised she wasn’t good enough but overshadowing all of that was just a sinking sad feeling. She’d been ecstatic when you made the first move and actually went out of your way to show her you liked her. She’d felt excited and just joyously happy and then...then it all went away and Azula couldn’t figure out why. She didn’t know how she’d messed this up too but she knew it was her fault. It always was. 

Your POV

After the show on the beach you got invited to a party. You didn’t want to go but Ty lee insisted you had to and so you obediently agreed. You and Azula had by chance got stuck sharing a room and the tension in the air as you got ready was painful. Azula had evidently caught onto your caution and she had been off with you and everyone ever since. You hated thinking about how just a few hours ago she’d been blissfully happy and now she just looked blank. Her face was a mask and you couldn’t tell if she was holding back anger or sadness. Either one was bad but you hoped it was anger, the thought you’d made her sad...that hurt. 

You and Azula finished getting ready first and if sharing a room in tense silence wasn’t bad enough she caught you waiting by the door to leave. Azula came around the corner and you jumped as she spotted you. It would’ve been awkward for Azula to retreat and so instead she leant against the wall but kept her distance from you. “I guess we’re the first ones ready” you commented and Azula nodded “looks like it”. She tried to act unbothered and cold but you could tell it was an act, the fact she seemed unable to look you in the eye proved that. Unable to keep this up any longer you sighed “Azula I need to talk to you”. Azula immediately straightened and looked around to make sure nobody was around “no not here”. “But it’s important!” you tried but she shook her head “no y/n!”. You sighed and went to argue when the others appeared. “There you two are! You both said you didn’t want to go and you’re the first one’s ready! I bet you’re secretly excited aren’t you?” Ty lee asked and Azula rolled her eyes “I can assure you I am not” and she stormed past you out the front door. 

As soon as you got to the party Azula headed as far away from you as she could and you watched her with a sad look. “Has something happen with you two?” Mai asked and you quickly shook away your expression and smiled “no of course not, Ty lee want to get a drink with me?”. “Okay!” Ty lee agreed and you rushed off with her hoping the peppy acrobat would take your mind off Azula. 

Your plan failed. Ty lee was soon side-tracked by a swarm of men and you struggled not to show your contempt for them. They gradually worked you out from your spot next to Ty lee and you just accepted it, watching the party alone or more accurately watching Azula. The party wasn’t so big she could totally avoid you and so you’d gotten glimpses of her all night. Watching Azula pretend to be a normal teenager was oddly endearing. You watched her glare at anyone who passed her while also staring longingly at the happy teenagers. Her posture and expression got worse as time went on and you worked out she was having just as bad a time as you. You were contemplating going over to her when a man knocked into her. Azula had him twisted painfully against the wall, arm behind him in a tight lock, seconds later “you made me spill my drink you clumsy oaf!” she yelled. “Sorry” the boy babbled and she rolled her eyes in disgust before letting him go. The boy rushed away and Azula sighed “idiot”. Azula saw you smiling and her own eyes softened too. You thought she was going to smile too but she just ripped her eyes away from you and walked away. 

She went to the drinks to grab some napkins to clean the mess that boy had made. You saw her sigh as only one napkin was left and she angrily attempted to use the single one to mop herself up. You saw some on a nearby table and grabbed them going over. “Here” you offered. Azula glanced at them before looking away “i’m fine”. You sighed “Azula just take them...”. “I said i’m fine” Azula snapped and you ran a hand through your hair. “I know you’re angry at me but please can we just talk? Can you give my 5 minutes to just explain?”. “Fine” Azula said suddenly making you jump “but not here” and she took off for the front door rapidly. You rushed after her and followed her as she made her way outside. She found a place far enough away from the house and then spun on you “talk”.  Her tone was sharp and her body language intimidating but you weren’t scared or worried, just sad. "So you’ve probably noticed I’ve been off since we got here”. “That’s an understatement” Azula snapped “you practically flinch whenever i’m near you, you smile at me one moment and then can’t bare to even meet my eye the next” Azula spat “yes you’ve been off”. You sighed “I know I’ve been cold and I’m sorry I didn’t mean to....let me just start from the beginning”. 

"So after i kissed you, i was ecstatic because i really like you" you started and Azula looked away her cheeks slightly pink "but then i started thinking...what my nation would think. Was I betraying them by liking you? You’re kind and nice to me but are you like that to everyone else? I started worrying I didn’t really know you and that I was being naive...I mean you took over my country and i was running around the palace with you" you sighed "and i know you only did that for your father but does that make it better?". Azula paused "well it was a war y/n casualties are a given". "Yes but we never started or engaged in the war, our crime was existing". "You don’t think Long Feng knew?” Azula asked. "He knew but he didn’t do anything to provoke an attack! All we did was take in refugees, we got attacked for no other reason, i’m technically your prisoner and i’m here admiring how you play volleyball" you sighed "it’s just a lot to process and so that’s why I’ve been so distant, I’m just trying to work out what I should be feeling and what I owe my people". Azula was quiet for some time before speaking "i don’t regret any of the thing i’ve done, to your home or you, i would do them again and i think if you were in my shoes you would too but i do regret that they hurt you” Azula said carefully "i’d hoped to have minimised that for you but i see i haven’t...I am sorry for that and that you’re upset. I like you too and even though i just said all that about what i’ve done to your home i do wish i didn’t have to do it...that it didn’t have to happen like that but the fact is it did happen. I don’t know what this means or where it leaves us but that’s my honest opinion". You looked at Azula unsure what to say. She was trying but was it enough when by her own admission she’d do it again? You sighed "i think i just need some space i like you but i’m not sure i should, so i need to think about that". Azula didn’t react she just nodded her head and left. Her reaction was a lot better than what you’d expected so why did you feel so guilty? You thought after you’d explained yourself to her you’d feel better but if anything it just made you feel more miserable.

You didn’t see Azula the rest of the party and figured she was avoiding you. When Mai grabbed you and told you see wanted to leave you were only too happy to oblige, but Ty lee suggested you go down to the beach and so you ended up doing that instead. When you spotted Azula and Zuko there both you and Mai tensed but you still walked to the campfire seeing no way to avoid this without being obvious. Maybe it wouldn’t be so awkward?

Of course it was. 

The atmosphere was already tense due to Zuko and Mai’s break up and you and Azula just added to that. Mai and Zuko were glaring at each other while you and Azula stared anywhere but at each other. The atmosphere was so tense you weren’t surprised arguments soon broke out. Ty lee had been chattering awkwardly and Zuko got annoyed and snapped her. You listened to what he was saying to her and eventually your anger peaked. “Circus freak” Zuko spat at her and you glared. “Don’t call her that” you said annoyed. Ty lee looked so hurt by his words it made you furious “don’t lash out at her just because you’re feeling trapped”. “Trapped” Zuko asked “that’s rich coming from you...prisoner” Zuko glared and you raised your eyebrows surprised. You went to argue back when someone else intervened. “Don’t talk to her that way” Azula said suddenly and Zuko looked at her out of the corner of his eyes “why? because she’s your special play thing?”. “Because she’s a princess and deserves respect”. “Like you’ve ever shown anyone respect, you’re just saying that because you have a thing for her, don’t you?”. “Zuko...” Mai tried to warn him but Zuko shook his head “no we’ve all seen how she looks at y/n, for her to try and pretend she’s being nice to her for any other reason is ridiculous. Like Azula is anything but selfish and cruel! Why do you think our own mother feared you?”. “I don’t care about what your mother thought of me so that is irrelevant but so what if i like y/n?” Azula asked standing up and Zuko paused “what?”. “You said I have a thing for y/n and you’re right. I like y/n, i give her special treatment because she’s important to me so yes i’m selfish but can you say you don’t do the same? You put mom on a pedestal when she wasn’t a good mother, you strop behind father’s back but would never dare say anything to his face and you mope around Mai like a child with his favourite toy nobody else can touch, you’re not so noble big brother so I suggest you stop acting like it”. Azula and Zuko glowered at one another inches away from each other and you exchanged a look with Mai and Ty lee. “Zuko” Mai said and you stood up too “Azula...”. Zuko looked at Mai but Azula didn’t stop glaring at Zuko until Mai had pulled him out of her sight. Mai led Zuko away from the campfire but Azula didn’t move, she just stood there glaring at the ocean.  You and Ty lee looked at one another and you could tell Ty lee was wondering what you wanted her to do. You nodded for her to follow Zuko and Mai and she did leaving you all alone. 

Apart from Azula.

You turned back to her and watched as she stared out at the sea, almost refusing to turn back around. You knew she was aware you were there but still she stared off at the horizon clearly just ignoring your presence. You waited a while to see if she’d speak first or tell you to go away but when she didn’t you sighed and started to speak. “Azula I...” you started but she cut you off. "What do you want y/n?” she asked and you could hear the tired tone of her voice, the mask she’d been wearing all day was breaking. “I just wanted to thank you for what you said to Zuko...”. “I didn’t say all that to make you change your mind". "I know" you said "but still you stood up for me when you didn’t have to...thank you". Azula shrugged "he shouldn’t talk to you that way ever...nobody should". Azula turned around but she still wouldn’t look at you, she crossed her arms tightly and stared at the ground. "Azula i...i should've said something when he said those things to you, i should’ve stood up for you". Azula shrugged "i’m good at defending myself". "I know but you shouldn’t always have to!". Hearing what her relationship with her mother was like made you realise just how self reliant Azula was, her mother feared her and her father used her, did either of them just care or love her? Had anyone ever just cared for her? Azula glanced at you and she winced when she saw your expression "don’t look at me like that". "Like what?". "Like you feel bad for me just because of what Zuko said! I am fine y/n, i’ve always been fine don’t you dare pity me". "I don’t pity you". "Yes you do i can see it in your eyes". "I don’t" you said loudly "i just care about you a lot". "Yeah but you hate me more I got all that from your speech back at the party". "I don’t hate you i’m not sure i ever could" you said softly "I do hate and fear the fire nation and worry about my place there and my country and my citizens...but none of that overshadows how much i like you Azula" you stepped closer. "I like you a lot" you said simply and Azula rolled her eyes "we already did all of this you like me but you have your duty blah blah". "Forget all that" you said sharply and Azula looked at you "what?". "I’m sick of prioritising what other people think...putting what they’d expect of me before what I want! Can't i just be selfish? Can’t i have what i want?".  Azula paused "and what you want is me?". You nodded your head "yes fire nation and all". You weren’t sure what it was that made you come to this realisation but as you said it, it felt right. “I know the situation i’m in...some people might think it’s weird or that it’s wrong of me to like you but I don’t care” you shrugged “you’re the only person in this whole nation who I smile when I see, who helped protect me and makes me happy, who I get excited just thinking about” you smiled “so i’d like to carry on what we started if you would?”. You stared at Azula and time seemed to endlessly drone on as you waited for her to do or say anything but after an eternity she smiled. “You should know i don’t give out many second chances" Azula smirked taking your hand. “Really? Well I guess i’m pretty lucky then”. Azula nodded her head “you definitely are but not just for me forgiving you”. “Why then?” you asked and Azula smiled “this” and crashed her lips against yours.  

***

You laid in the sand staring up at the sky as the waves leapt at your feet. It was cold but Azula gave off heat so you were comfortable. Azula was laying against your chest and you held her gently. Neither of you had left this exact spot despite the time that had passed and you couldn’t imagine disentangling yourselves for anything. Everything about this was just perfect. Azula evidently thought so too. "When we go back to the fire nation we’ll find the time for more occasions like this" Azula told you. You looked down at her "we will?". "Of course" Azula replied looking up at you "i’ll just tell them it is extra sparring lessons...it won’t be far from the truth". You smiled "that’s true" and Azula grinned before glancing at your lips again. She leant in and you prepared yourself for how amazing it would feel when cold water splashed over you. You and Azula both jumped up in shock as a wave washed over you. "The damn tides!" Azula cried and you laughed "come on let’s go!". You took Azula’s hand and rushed for the path leading to the house. You both ran up to the house freezing cold and as soon as you were inside rushed to the fire. Azula fuelled it more and you both crouched before it laughing. Azula stopped laughing and just sat back and admired you. You blushed when you realised what she was doing and stood up "shall we go to our room?". Azula nodded taking your hand "i thought you’d never ask".

----

[skullchicken]

Blackout - Part 6

Info I Part 1 I Part 2 I Part 3 I Part 4 I Part 5

And then she sent him a text-message the very next day. And then she convinced him to play this stupid game. And then she showed up at work and stole his master key!

"Hanne." Mr. Sulzbach loudly snapped his fingers around his face. Leaning over his solid wood desk, the human man just barely reached his chin. “Still asleep?” No, but he sure felt a bit woozy. "Partied too hard yesterday?”

Ah, that's why he was here. The boss didn't like that he bailed.

“Wasn't a busy night, yesterday. And the shorty had to get home somehow."

“Aw, Hanne. Don't stress yourself out, I'm happy for you”, he grinned, surprisingly. Or maybe not. The boss liked to pretend he was 'one of the guys'. Liked to buy them drinks. Crack jokes. Pound shoulders and puff sides. That only ever lasted until someone rubbed him the wrong way. But if it made the boss sleep better at night, Hanne was fine playing along. Even if his smooth, studio-tanned mug yanked his chain.

.

To make matters worse, he was now reaching under the desk where he had a minibar, refrigerator and glass cabinet. Because to top it off, the boss also saw himself as a cocktail artist. The menu in the club was composed by the man himself – the club's “unique selling point”. And every two weeks or so he took out his creativity on some poor twerp.

"We gotta toast to that – I'm sure it's been a while, hasn't it?”

That was none of his goddamn business. But he shrugged awkwardly. And wondered if he could somehow wind himself out of this.

"I gotta work later.”

"Oh, woo – you can put that away, a big guy like you," he laughed, opening a vodka bottle with his tattooed arms. He didn't even ask him what he liked to drink. "Do tell – are you popular with the ladies?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so." Tomato juice puffed up like a small cloud inside the glass. Hanne kept a real close eye on it.

"How about men?"

"Neither."

And now he was taking spices out of the drawer. That was homing in on a Bloody Mary. Weirdly enough he had to think that salty GHB wouldn't taste out of place in a spicy cocktail.

"There's no soy in there, is there?"

"That's tomato juice."

"Yeah, but they use it to extend sometimes.”

"It's tomato juice – you know, now that I think about it, I've never seen you hanging out with other trolls."

Hanne shrugged in response.

"Isn't it strange that you don't live with your kind – that's how you people usually do it, right?" That was one way of describing a ghetto. He stabbed a stick of celery into the soup and pushed the glass towards him. "Aren't you lonely?"

.

What a question. He'd spent decades putting on as many layers of 'fuck off' as his body could take. He had specialized in not needing anyone, not messing with anyone, and only keeping himself and his houseplant alive.

Of course he was lonely.

Through the hole that the question had just poked into his heart, a shred of truth escaped.

.

"The shorty... I think when she's sober she won't like me anymore."

"Dunno about that, there's a fetish for everything."

Of course. What did he expect?

"But who wants to be a fetish?"

“When you look the way you do, that's a question you don't ask." He looked meaningfully at the cocktail and nodded with encouragement. Reluctantly but obediently, Hanne took the drink and emptied it in one gulp. It was a small glass, but he couldn't completely cheat the liquid past his tongue. He made a face. Was he imagining things – or wasn't it too salty?

"Did you mix in something extra?"

"That wouldn't knock you out anyway," chortled the boss and put on a face mask. Why did he put on a mask? "- but they will for sure."

Then the door crashed open and masked men with clubs poured into the office. He could only look from the gang back to his boss. And laugh.

"You can't be serious..."

.

Three strikes hit him before he could even get out of the chair. Each time they bit through his jacket into flesh – stun shocks. The first one tickled. The second stabbed. The third hit his neck and his consciousness like a truck. The body was a prison. Mages could leave it temporarily. Matrix-addicts thought they could. But everyone who wasn't dead had to return to it sooner or later. Had to live with the pain. With the constraints. With the scars. Masks, it rang in the back of his head like an alarm bell, they all wore masks – and surely not without reason. He had to get out of here, and fast. He pushed his body mass past the three men who were trying to stop him with their small frames. But he was a glacier. He blocked an uprising club with one hand and grabbed into the yakuza's face with the other. Traumatic brain injury. Probably two weeks of headache, nausea, perhaps even a vegetative state, speech disorder, paralysis. The man stumbled over backwards. Hanne reached over to the door. As his fingers closed around the handle, the world slumped from under him, the edges of reality soft like warm butter. Oh no – the gas took effect. Was it too late? Probably. Still, he threw the door open.

Amanda stood there, eyes as round as pool balls.

She had found him.

.

What were you supposed to say in a situation like this, being pursued by Yakuza, blood on your hand, blisters on your face? 'Usually I'm not like that?' – lies. As if this wasn't an embarrassingly on-the-nose-caricature of his life. 'Help me?' – how? No. No-one would help him, no-one could help him. They were many, he was alone and the darkness was already tearing at the edges of his field of vision.

"Out," he finally barked.

The last thing he saw was her wafting head of hair.

.

Amanda

"Out," coughed Bob before he collapsed in front of her eyes. Behind him, through the crack in the door and into the office, she could already see the thugs get back on their feet. She took her heels and ran, slipped back through the door through which she had entered the corridor. The hall with the first dance floor was empty, but only briefly.

As soon as she took up position against at the wall next to the door, it flipped open and four gasping men stumbled in. Amanda used the opportunity to pluck a hair from her head at speed. She still did not have a plan yet – but everything depended on her staying undetected. With a full hand she pulled a strand of magic. The drain boiled her guts. She suppressed a wheeze. If her hands were still visible, she would have seen the blood pool under her fingernails. But no, she remained, suffering silently pressed against the wall, completely invisible, while Arne Sulzbach heaved himself onto a stool at the counter. He didn't look so good either: His eyes were glassy and the sweat pearled on his forehead.

.

And so all four of them took a breather.

"I thought he'd never keel over.”

"Don't worry, I put another load in him on the way out," the yakuza with blond, short hair announced, his thumb pointed at the door.

"If they cut the bonus because of you, you'll pay me the difference." The third member of the group had long, black hair in a high pony-tail.

"Omae – with trolls you make sure."

“Does he have a lung filter?” The question was directed at Arne. He just shrugged, staring off into space. “If not, it doesn't matter how broad he is. That stuff will knock out vampires if necessary. Are we not doing well, Mr. Sulzbach?”, he asked, amused.

He wiped his forehead with his leather-brown hand. Whatever “that stuff” was, apparently it was no joke, even with a face mask.

"I'm okay. But... can the three of us even get the guy into the van?"

The two men laughed. The blonde one pulled a flat box from the inside pocket of his jacket. The patches peeking out of the packaging reminded Amanda of folded pads. He patted Mr. Sulzbach's shoulder.

"We're gonna take a 10-minute break until the gas has fizzled out and then there’s gonna be a round of stim patches for everyone. Kappa will whine like a stung pig when he comes to, but he'll be as good as new."

"Temporarily," added the black-haired man.

"Temporarily," smirked the blonde.

Amanda smiled, too.

.

The blonde had clamped the torn package under his arm. So with pointy fingers it was easy enough to steal a patch. The actual problem was rather how she would slip through the door unnoticed. At least two of them always looked in its direction. She could either wait for an opening or she would have to be real fucking fast. Right now she still had time to decide – but the minutes crawled by on the clock like hours. And so she bode her time, tense enough that she could have jumped out of her skin.

.

"Is he even worth the trouble?"

The two yakuza exchanged looks. One shrugged as if he didn't care.

"I guess so, otherwise we wouldn't be here."

"It definitely is. I took a look at the template. You wouldn’t have to do a lot of operating to match. Sanding down bones costs next to nothing. Artificial muscles are way more expensive. And Aidan Byrnes is rising like crazy right now. The guy has mega-action Tridstar quality if he manages to break through. But even if he doesn't, the bunraku would make their money back in no time, his fans are already really hardcore, so – what?” The other Yakuza shot him a weird look. “I do research for my jobs. Why don’t you?”

"'Research', alright,” the long-haired man ribbed. "500 gigabytes of trog porn on your commlink. For research."

The blonde looked at him reproachfully.

"Hey, that's no way to talk about your mother.”

Him and Mister Sulzbach roared with laughter while the other pretended to strike a blow. Amanda seized the moment, held her breath, and pushed through the cracked door.

.

She ran past Bob's smoldering body, into the office, towards the third yakuza and his stun baton. She flinched when she saw his head. The eyes were open, the chin resting on his chest, the side of the head blood red. After a quick shudder she helped herself to the baton, checked the on / off button briefly, made it zap.

Alright – time for round two.

[jodfics]

Two Men and a Baby

Something silly.

Sam blew a sigh out from his mouth and looked at the man sat opposite him, "This is a mess, you know that, right?" Then, not waiting for a reply, he leaned over the small car seat they had strapped to the side of the carrier plane and frowned when the baby's eyes locked onto his. "Why you gotta look into my soul like that - check out Bucky, girls love ken dolls."

"How am I a ken doll?" Bucky's eyebrows furrowed even further, but he reached out to check the straps over the baby's chest for the nth time in the half an hour they'd been in the air. "If it's because of my arm - it's vibranium, not plastic."

"It's vibranium, blah blah'" Sam mimicked him childishly and sat on the left side of the car seat, "I can't believe this, man. I sent you in to disarm the bad guys, and you come out with a baby!"

Bucky scoffed and shook his head, "C'mon!" He nodded toward the baby, "You sayin' I shoulda left her there? All alone?"

"No, I am not saying that! I am saying, though, that you shouldn't have told the powers that be that we were gonna look after her for the next few days until they can find her parents - there's literally a service for that shit, Buck!"

The baby let out a whine at the same time Bucky sent a glare Sam's way, "Don't swear in fronta the baby... and don't call me 'Buck'. Stop being an asshole - you have nephews. A baby is a piece a cake."

Sam pressed his fingers to his temples and rubbed, Bucky was a constant headache at the best of times, but today he wanted to 'Sparta kick' him off the plane. "I'm not an ass, and for your information - ass is a bad word, don't swear in front of the baby." He waited for an argument, and when none came, Sam continued, "I didn't raise the boys, Sarah did all that, I just got to hold them and hand them back when they got damp. We should have agreed to take the baby to child services, and they would have found her parents - you," he pointed at the other, "You had to mouth off and tell them that we were taking her until further notice."

A squeal came from the tiny human and the start of what was likely going to be wailing; Bucky wasted no time in unstrapping her and holding her to him. She was around six months old with curly hair and a polka-dot dress - small enough to be utterly helpless but big enough that Bucky wasn't too worried about feeding her. Sam watched his 'not' co-worker make a fuss of her, asking her what was wrong in a quiet murmur and feigning shock when she squealed in reply. "Really? Oh, Doll, you are having a bad day, huh?"

"I didn't know you had a babysitting module installed - is that included in the Winter Soldier brainwashing, or is it an add on?" He couldn't help but find the interaction kind of sweet. Same knew how good Bucky was with kids, whether it was his nephews or the neighbour's kids or the kids back in Wakanda; Bucky was a soft touch when it came to them. "Why were you so adamant we take her?"

Bucky's nose scrunched a little when the baby reached out and pat his cheek before going for his nose; he was grateful she was more interested in him than crying. "I don't want her getting lost in child services, they're stretched thin since all the missing parents, and kids suddenly showed up after five years and the guys we saved her from obviously planned to ransom her or worse. So her parents will look for her, and when they do, we can hand her back nice and easy, no lost babies or weird foster parents."

"Dude... you're calling the pot black."

"I'm not a weird foster parent." His tone was even, and Sam blinked at how oblivious the other was. "Here, take her a second." Bucky handed her over, and Sam settled her on his lap whilst he watched him head toward his mission bag. "You got any food in your bag?"

"Not unless babies drink protein shakes," Sam looked down at her and made a curious expression, "Do you want muscles on your muscles? Yeah? You do...? Damn, you're gonna show Bucky up with your miniguns - pow, pow!" He shook her little arms gently and pretended to feel for biceps, "Oh, I think I found a muscle!" She giggled at Sam as he proceeded to poke and tickle her in search of a sixpack; out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bucky glared and snorted, "Uh oh, I think the bionic moron is jealous!"

"No, I'm not!" Came a reply too quick; even Bucky winced at it and cleared his throat to appear calmer, "Put her back in the car seat before you drop her."

"Ooooh, he's so jealous!" Sam pointed at the other, and her eyes followed his direction, but she was too young to understand that Bucky was pouting at them. "Give him the soul stare, Sweetie, see if you can beat him at his own game."

--

Bucky had moved to Delacroix a few weeks after taking out the flag smashers, and to his surprise, Sam had offered to let him move into a little place he had been checking out. It was a nice place with plenty of space for them to train or have the kids run around in - Sam liked that it had a good road into town and his sister's place. Bucky liked the trees that provided them cover and the view of the dock at sunset. There had been negotiations about the living spaces for both of them. Mostly it boiled down to Sam keeping his baseball trophies and wings out of the shared living area and Bucky agreeing not to turn it into a vintage bar or hide knives in all the crevices he could find.

Sam stood at the kitchen counter, baby on his hip, and checked how his homemade applesauce was doing. It had been his turn to check on her when she cried in the night and to take the 'morning shift' - not that he minded as he rocked her slightly and sang for her. He called for the volume to go up and brought the wooden spoon to his mouth like a microphone, "You ready, Sweetie? Nah, you're not ready for this - here we go! Yeah..." The man nodded his head and joined in on the following line of the song, "'And baby, I can't hold it much longer - It's getting stronger and stronger! When I get that feeling, I want -"

"I want an age-appropriate song!" Bucky interrupted and turned the station over.

"Oh no." Sam pointed the spoon at him, his brown eyes wide in outrage, "You did not just turn off Marvin Gaye." The baby pat his chin, and Sam smiled down at her softly to show he wasn't mad at her, "Don't you worry, I'm gonna wait for your naptime before I kick Uncle Bucky into next, next century." He looked back at the brunette who was slumped at the kitchen table and barely awake, "Why do you hate Marvin so much? Hmm? What did he do to you?"

Bucky sat up and tipped his head back to roll his eyes at the ceiling fan, "I don't -" he looked at Sam, "I don't hate Marvin Gaye. I just don't think that song is appropriate for a little girl, ya know?"

"Mm-hmm... But giving her a little whisky is alright?"

"It wasn't even a thimble full! My Pa used to sneak me more than that to help me sleep when I was a baby."

Sam turned off the cooker and put the pan aside to cool, "I'm pretty sure cocaine and cigarettes were on prescription back then. Besides, she's not yours for another couple of hours."

"I'm not gonna give her cocaine, Sam!" Bucky snapped, and then he lowered his tone, "Gotta start her on the small stuff and work up to cocaine."

"I am applying for full custody, Buck! You can pay child support all you want, but I'm not giving you visitation rights!"

"What," A woman's voice cut in, "Did I just step into."

"Sarah, hi!" The brunette's previous grumpy face brightened in a smile as he gave Sam's Sister a wave and ignored the other man glaring at him. He made to stand up, to be polite, but Sarah motioned for him to stay where he was - her smile matching Bucky's.

Sam adjusted the baby on his hip, "As much as I loathe watching you two make eyes at each other... Bucky, don't you have something else to stare at?"

"I got the best view right here - how's your morning, Sarah."

Watching his sister grin like an idiot and knowing her cheeks were red hot, Sam cleared his throat loudly, "You're setting a bad example for the baby. So what do we owe the pleasure, Sarah?" The girl in his arms made grabby hand at the woman, and Sam passed her over.

"Hey, Honey, are your Dads fighting again?" She was ignored in favour of her necklace, and after making sure it wasn't going to hurt the Baby, Sarah let her play. "The engine in the pickup is playing up, I need to head into town, but I don't trust the darn thing not to break down on me."

Before Bucky could even stand up to offer, Sam rushed in with, "I'll take you. I'm not leaving you two together without a chaperone."

"I can take a look at the engine later for you?" He may have been beaten to offering a lift, but Bucky knew more than one way to impress a woman. "Besides..." his blue eyes landed on the baby as she babbled and played with the necklace, "I need something to do after we drop her off with her parents later."

"Did they pass all your security checks?" Sarah asked, only half-serious as she had made fun of them the day before for insisting the people claiming to be the baby's parents were checked by every security firm they could name. "That's a shame... a baby really suits you, Bucky."

He parted his lips to reply, his ears turning a little red as he tried not to blush; whatever he was going to say was prevented by Sam nearly choking on air and sputtering that they had to go, "There's no such thing as on time, Sarah! Bucky, don't give the baby anything illegal!" He took the baby from his sister and deposited her in Bucky's lap before ushering the woman through the door.

"Bye, Sarah."

"Bye, Bucky~."