#literally only remembered it was his birthday yesterday but that was still enough time to throw this together in a rush. but

[chidoroki]

October 27th - Happy Birthday Kaji

(with one Kaji from almost every chapter he appears in)

[pomegranateboba]

Hey, Pompom! I know you're not very good with angst, but can I get the ArTw men who were so busy that they forgot MC's birthday? This is more of an angst with a happy ending.

MC was just in their best outfit, waiting for the special surprise from the LI for their birthday. But after waiting for so long and realizing they forgot, MC cried in their bedroom. As they cried, the LI walked in on them crying. And after some apologies and talking, they make up for the missed birthday the next day. That's all, thank you and goodnight! <33

Ohhh shittt that's sad (AND ONE DAY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY TOO) Okay we can do this lmao

When the boys forgot Summoner's birthday

Arcturus

Another banquet was coming up, so he was really busy the whole day

Everyone kept dragging him around to do work, so he didn't even get time to talk to you

You tried to talk to him in those little moments where he wasn't moving around, but he brushed you off and went back to work

He went to go find you when you didn't show up for the banquet that night, and he saw you crying in your room

It suddenly occurred to him what he had forgot, he could have sworn something was bugging him throughout the day

He felt so bad ;(

He immediately ran up to hug you and started apologising profusely

He didn't mean to forget, sorry Summoner :(

You both cuddled for the rest of the night as an apology

He spent the rest of the following day with you, doing whatever you want to compensate for the time you both missed yesterday

He did bring you to the greenhouse to have a small walk, and so that he can show you his plants

Baked a little cake together to share

The 2 of you stayed up again to watch the stars together on the field outside the Neb Aula while Arkcy knitted a little beanie for you

"Happy belated birthday, Summoner. Love you &lt;;3"

Spica

Do I even need to explain, this man is busy 25/8

But today he was particularly busy (isn't he always though?) so he was too caught up in paperwork to talk to you

You did try to text, but he left you on delivered

Well he left everyone on delivered, but it still hurt that he didn't answer you anyways

It was only until he finally picked up his stella tab and checked the messages then he realised

He put down all his work and rushed to the Neb Aula, and to your room, where he found you in tears

Was incredibly guilty for not remembering your birthday

He sat by your side as he apologised, slowly lulling you to sleep, stroking your hair as his gentle voice coaxed you to sleep

He left once you fell asleep, where he rushed back to his office to finish as much work as possible, so that he can have more free time to spend with you tomorrow

Not a single paper was touched the very next day, his beloved Summoner would always come first

He brought you out to a museum, then to do whatever you wanted for the rest of the day

Got you a personalised necklace, and put it on for you

You 2 shared a little cupcake at a cafe

"You never fail to make me happy, Summoner. Happy belated birthday."

Alpheratz

Why would Alpheratz be busy? He literally runs away from responsibility (and Spica)

Unfortunately, this was not one of those days where he would be free enough to lie around

Spica made him compensate for the missed work, so he was too busy to see you

You tried to talk to him, but you couldn't even find him around the school, he was moving around too much

He was on the way to bed when he heard crying from your room

Which was when he realised

He actually felt really bad, had he been neglecting his beloved?

He knocked and went in, apologising and explaining his situation to you

You made him stay and sleep with you, and he willingly did, so you cuddled

He brought you out to shop, letting you get whatever you want

Took you to your favourite restaurant for dinner

He was a little unsure of what to get you, but he got you an oversized sweater from the same shop he buys his own clothes at

"I know this is for you, but I'm really happy too. Happy belated birthday, Summoner."

Pollux

You both normally see each other a lot, since you 2 take pretty much the same classes

But there was a huge project during this period of time for one of your classes, and unfortunately you both weren't partnered

You and your project partner finished up really quickly, but Pollux took a longer time

You tried talking to him, but he always shooed you away, very focused on his own project

His partner gave you an apologetic look, mouthing a 'happy birthday' to you

It was nice that his partner somehow knew and wished you a happy birthday, but the fact that it was them and not Pollux made you sad. Did he forget?

Nearing night, Poll had finally finished up. He immediately ran up to your room, where he found you in tears

His partner had reminded him that it was your birthday, and he felt so bad. How could he had forgotten? He was looking forward to this day as much as, if not more, than you were

He also burst into tears when he saw how sad you were, apologising over and over again for forgetting

Eventually you both (mostly Pollux, he was more sad than you were) calmed down, and you fell asleep in each other's arms

The next day, he brought you out to a fair that was taking place, and you 2 spent the whole day there

He got you a stuffed polar bear that he won from a shooting game, as well as a huge collection of other things you both won from other games, but the polar bear was your favourite

You 2 shared candy from a huge pile that Pollux got from a shop

"Happy belated birthday, Summoner. I promise I won't forget next time!"

Vega

This is where the actual angst begins, the ones above are nothing

Vega would be the last person to ever forget your birthday, there is a 99.9% chance he would remember, because why would he not?

Unfortunately for you both, this was that 0.01%

Vega had came back from a failed mission, which made him extremely salty

He refused to interact with any living being, which included you

You tried talking to him, but he always cut you off, asking you to leave him alone and go away, acting like how you both first met when you first ended up in the boundary

You were extremely hurt by this, you never expected Vega to be so cold to you at this point of time

Eventually you gave up on trying to talk to him, and you went back to your room

In truth, he was extremely bothered by the fact that he had forgotten something, and the failed mission only worsened his mood

He didn't want to look bad in front of you, afraid that you wouldn't like him anymore for messing a mission up, afraid that he was too incompetent to be your protector, to be yours

It was near midnight when he finally remembered what he forgot, and he sprinted to your room, where he found you already asleep, but the tear streaks were evident on your face

Vega's heart clenched at the sight. You had waited for him, even tried to remind him, but all his did was shoo you away

And that night, Vega cried outside your door

How undeserving he was, not to remember the one day that meant so much to you. How could he call himself your best friend, your significant other, if he couldn't even remember something as simple as your birthday?

He went back to his own room, tears streaming down his face. What a terrible person he was, to be so cold to you, even after all you 2 have been through. How could he ever earn your forgiveness for such a horrible act? How could he repent his sins?

The next day, you woke up feeling a little better from yesterday, still sad though, so you went to find Vega

Vega was already awake when you found him waiting at the lobby of the Neb Aula

He brought you to an empty field, where he had prepared a picnic for you (with Arcky's help, he had no idea how to do this on his own)

You both spent the day together at the field, eating the food prepared or simply frolicking around (or you dragging Vega around)

He got you a small music box, its gentle melody had reminded him of your time back in Mid Earthium as kids

"Happy belated birthday Summoner. I love you, and I hope you do too."

Sirius

Sirius is also very unlikely to forget something like this, knowing his personality

But somehow, he did.

He was off doing...actually you didn't know, and neither do I. Whatever shady sorcerers do, I guess

You couldn't find him throughout the day. And he didn't seem to have his stella tab on him, because he wasn't answering your calls. Unless he was ignoring you of course

He hadn't remembered, mostly because he doesn't really celebrate his own birthday

He's been around since Polaris, and after resetting the timelines so many times, altering time so many times, he wasn't even sure how old he was anymore

It was all for you, of course. But he was so focused on his main plan to save you, that he forgot little things here and there. And your birthday was one of those little things

It finally occurred to him what day it was, and he rushed back to Contell immediately, coming into your room through your window, which was conveniently left unlocked for him

It was really late, it wasn't even your birthday day anymore, it was like 2 in the morning of the next day

He found you already asleep, but he could tell you were crying just before this

He sat on an armchair by your bed and as he watched you sleep, Sirius questioned his entire existence

How did he forget that it was your birthday? He should have known, people who aren't sorcerers don't live as long as those chosen by the constellations. Just because he felt that his own birthday wasn't important, doesn't mean that yours wasn't either. In fact, it was all the more even more important

Then he remembered the times you had actually celebrated his birthday with him, as well as other little events he himself didn't even know were things, or simply just hanging around him and going out

No one else he knew did that with him, except Polaris. Which made him love you more. The 2 people whom had cared and loved him so much. He knew he couldn't save Polaris, they had gone too far to be saved. But it wasn't too late for you. And even if he couldn't, the least he could do, is make the time you spent with him the best your ever had

The next day, you found Sirius asleep on the armchair in your room

He took you out (on a date, he doesn't need to shoot you twice.) to a play, one in which he had written the script.

And for the rest of the day, the 2 of you just hung around, and you didn't mind Sirius bringing you around to places you didn't know even existed. But that was what you liked about him, wasn't it?

He brought you back to your room and tucked you in.

He didn't get you anything, claiming that his presence was your present. But you found yourself cuddling a plush of a black dog, with a familiar ribbon tied around its neck when you woke up the next day

The window was left slightly ajar.

"Sweet dreams, Summoner. Happy belated birthday."

Rigel

I'm feeling a little extra today (and I don't want to do linear graphs yet) so here you are @tophatmaker

He is the clan leader of Queen Tet. He swears his own clan is out to drive him insane (they are)

Like Spica, he is consistently busy. And today, Queen Tet was involved in a prank targeted towards Tharaval

He was too busy cleaning up the mess and yelling at his clanmates to remember that it was your birthday

You were shooed away when trying to talk to him

He only realised late at night when he was about to finally go to bed and get some sleep

He went to your room, where he found you sitting on your bed, silent tears streaming down your face

He was very guilty, though you couldn't really read his expression

He made it a point to punish his clan a little harsher for making him forget such an important event (rip Pollux and Sirius)

You couldn't really blame him though, because you knew about the clan-wide prank and understood that Rigel had to clean up his clan's mess

Didn't really make you any less sad that he forgot though

Still, he comforted and explained to you, apologising for forgetting

The next day, he made sure that Queen Tet was running laps around the school under supervision of Spica before bringing you out to walk

He allowed you to go on a shopping spree as an apology, rip his credit card

He took you to a fancy restaurant for dinner, where once again you abused his credit card. He's internally dying, but it's for you, his beloved Summoner. So all is forgiven

Got you a bracelet, one that you had pointed out to him because it had reminded you of him

The 2 of you shared an ice cream sundae together to end the day

"Happy belated birthday, Summoner. I hope you had fun today."

I got carried away for Vega and Sirius, I think there's more angst than happy ending 💀 Ehhhh whatever.

Remember to hydrate yourself and now I have to do linear graphs wish me luck

[iamvegorott]

Let's see if you want. You can write a blurb about some of the gifts Marvin gets at the party!🥳 🎁

Don’t Worry About It

Let’s pretend I wrote this yesterday XD This is a sequel to A Rare Calm Morning;  link

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Don’t Worry About It

Marvin was left to his own devices for the rest of the morning and was only interrupted for refills on his tea and lunch delivery. Eventually, JJ, Henrik, and Robbie returned and Marvin got a show of watching Jackie trying to carry everything in one trip. The weight wasn’t the problem, he just didn’t have enough body to hold it all, but he still tried. JJ hid a few items to make the trip a little easier on Jackie and caught Marvin watching. He smiled and waved before scrambling to stop Jackie from walking into a tree, redirecting him toward the front door. 

After that experience was finished, Marvin returned to his reading and was soon joined by Henrik, the two lounging together and talking about everything and nothing. Marvin would be lying if he said he didn’t like a bit of gossip and it was the same for Henrik. JJ often joined the talks but he was busy with cooking and supervising the way too excited Jackie. 

They knew it was time to head in when Wilford quite literally appeared in front of them and practically dragged Marvin back into the House. 

Looks like the calm was finished for the day

As soon as Marvin was in the building, Robbie and Blank were both in front of him and begging for them to do gifts before dinner. Marvin couldn’t say no to those pleading eyes and agreed, getting an earful of happy shouts from the two before they ran off. 

“Told you they’d get him to do it,” Anti said with a chuckle to Mad. 

“Did you tell them to ask me?” Marvin said.

“Nah. They mentioned it and I told them to ask. The worst thing you’d do is say to wait until after dinner. We’re doing the stuff anyway, the only thing that can change is timing.” Anti shrugged, using his thumbnail to clean out under his other nails on the same hand. 

“Happy birthday, Marvin,” Mad said with a smile. 

“Thank you. Are the others-” Marvin didn’t get to finish as Robbie and Blank returned, grabbed his hands, and tugged him to the living room where the other Egos were waiting. 

“Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!” The young Egos chanted, letting Marvin go and running over to the little pile of presents. 

“I think they’ll explode if we don’t let them share first.” Chase chuckled. “Go on, boys.” 

“Gift!” Robbie and Blank finished their chant with their loudest one and pulled out a thin gift. 

“Here you go!” Blank said as Robbie handed Marvin the gift. 

“Thank you.” Marvin made his way to his spot and sat down. He couldn’t tell what it was by feel so he was careful with unwrapping, remembering when Jackie accidentally ripped their drawing and almost cried with the kids since he felt so bad about it. Marvin had a feeling it was a drawing again since they made those often and was proven right when he finished getting the wrapping paper off and was greeted with a framed drawing of himself surrounded by green lightning bolts. 

“I helped them put it into a frame,” Jackie explained with a weak laugh. 

“It’s very lovely, thank you.” Marvin sat the drawing on the end table beside him and smiled when Blank and Robbie giggled happily and took off to sit with Mare and Chase. 

“The Ipliers all chipped in for this collection.” Wilford scooped up an armful of the boxes and dropped them all on top of Marvin. 

“Thank God none of this is heavy.” Marvin laughed, picking the first gift he could reach and unwrapping it. “Oh! I’ve been needing this flower.” He unwrapped several other gifts and discovered that they all had various flowers and plants that were often difficult for him to collect. 

“Took a while to get that one,” Illinois said with a prideful grin. 

“Thank you all.” Marvin laid the boxes on the ground, already having them somewhat organized for his collection back in his room. 

“Our turn.” Anti bumped Illinois away and Mad handed Marvin a gift. Marvin could tell right away with the feel of it that it was a book. He tried to think of what kind of book Mad and Anti would get for him. It would be easy to guess if it was only one of them but the two of them together was hard to predict.

“Holy shit!” Marvin blurted out when he saw the book. “How the fuck did you two get this?”

“There’s apparently a lot of lore to that book.” Jackie laughed.

“This book has only one copy and is kept within a magically secured location that no one knows where it is aside from the author and the author is dead.” Marvin started flipping through the pages. “There is no way this is real.”

“It is.” Anti grinned.

“What did you two do?” Chase asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mad and Anti said together. 

“That makes all of us worry more.” Dark sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Happy birthday!” Anti laughed as the others tried to figure out what the book was and why Marvin was so excited about it. But the only response they could get at the moment was;

Don’t worry about it.

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@bookwormscififan

[stahl-tier]

My coworkers continue to be the wildest bunch in terms of "origin stories". You'd think it would be absolutely unlikely to meet such a high density of absolute Characters but that's just life at the railway, I guess?

Like at this point I don't even bat an eye anymore when during the obligatory "so what did you do before the railway?" exchange the answer ends up being something along the lines of "oh I dealt hard drugs to everyone in my home village of 700 people until I got into so much trouble I had to leave the state and start a new life", or stuff like "well I'm the heir to my family that makes up half of the population of a village in (country you never heard of) and they sent me to raise funds so we can buy out the other half that belongs to our rival family".

But today I learned a brand new fact about my coworker who used to work as a gravedigger until a couple months ago. As if that wasn't extravagant enough already, he casually mentioned to me today that he is very mentally exhausted from yesterday's family birthday party still, cause he met so many relatives he doesn't even know again. And I replied just as casually, "oh yeah, it's always so awkward when relatives remember me from when I was a kid but I don't even remember them anymore!"

But he goes "nah that's not it, but ever since it turned out a couple months ago that I'm actually one of the last two living descendants of a local royal house, the family gatherings for birthdays and such have become extremely exhausting. I don't even know any of these people and they're kinda snobbish, too."

I had to ask about that more of course... He made a comment the other day when I asked about his last name (to help him access a schedule on the pc) and when he said it I told him "oh, like the town? What a coincidence!" But he said "that's because the town was named after my royal ancestors :)" which I didn't even think about further. I THOUGHT HE WAS JOKING OKAY?

So he tells me that he never knew much about his family. He knew that he was "a bastard" born as the illegitimate second child of his dad, but said dad died long ago and his mom never talked about anything regarding that, and the only grandma (his dad's mom) he knew of he only met a few times when he was still little. He said he thought she just lived in a random small apartment somewhere in a different town. Well, she died a couple months back and apparently put him into her will. So he got a letter from a notary firm that informed him about his inheritance and that letter was where he also learned of his royal descent and that his grandma didn't just live in that apartment, she actually owned the entire building complex, and that the other half of his family that he never met is super wealthy with top careers etc etc.

I was so baffled, I said "jeez, if that happened to me I would think it's spam or some sort of scam." He said that was his first thought too, cause that's just way too crazy, right? But since the letter was from a legit notary, he responded and it was all real.

Literally I always felt like my life was so crazy and all over the place, but compared to the majority of the railboys I work with daily it seems incredibly tame.

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 2: I BATTLE THE CHEERLEADING SQUAD

Just because I'm taking the whole entire month of September and the majority of October off, here's the first chapter in honor of Will's birthday! I do still promise regular updates will resume on Halloween day and then proceed every Monday!

PJOPJOPJO

Alex came in the next day with a bright pink jacket tied around his shoulders in a very classic posh way, wearing a matching polo and green slacks with accompanying colors on his loafers, while sporting rose tinted sunglasses upon his head, at the bottom of the ocean. All of his green hair was swept to one side, and Magnus's heart skipped a beat, his toast falling into his lap jelly first to splat on his pants. Alex would be the most sophisticated guy on the golf course and still somehow make it look like the most useless sport in that getup.

"It's he/ him pronouns," Alex announced as he casually walked to his seat like he was ordering his plate of huevos rancheros for breakfast.

The book had been in the seat beside Magnus, like anybody was insane enough to think of taking that seat from Alex. The plain black somehow accentuated the look when he picked it up. He brushed his hand over the blue four on the spine with hunger to see what was so dark about this one.

"Um, it's my turn to read," Magnus said in a daze, and it was a good thing he'd managed that before Alex looked at him because then he lost the ability to speak. Hopefully it was temporary.

"Well hurry up and eat then," he dropped the book at his feat and dug into his own food, "or I'll happily read twice."

Magnus couldn't figure out why that was a bad thing for a moment, and yet his breakfast vanished faster than Percy's. He pretended the others were laughing at the chapter title and not his idiotic ass as things picked right back up as usual with these strange book descriptions.

Thalia sighed one last time and looked at Jason and the array of books that might contain his past. She really wanted to skip this one, ie delay it permanently by hearing of some of her little brother's times. She was obviously the only one though as everybody turned attention to Magnus for the next part. "I really hope that's not a euphemism for something Percy, or Annabeth's going to be very upset with you," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I'm just hoping this isn't some elaborate pyramid scheme," Jason grinned, "Percy has enough trouble already."

"Boooo!" Percy called at him, even giving a thumbs down. "Man, that was the worst one yet!"

"Deadly pompoms! I knew those things were no good!" Alex nearly lost half his eggs he was laughing so hard.

Will made a deep noise of contentment, almost a purr to be hearing so much laughter first thing in the morning.

The last thing I wanted to do on my summer break was blow up another school.

"And here I thought that was number three on your list, at minimum," Jason snorted.

"Percy, there's not a world record for that, nobody's competing with you for this," Magnus agreed with a chuckle, but it was sort of depressing too. The school system was hard enough without this guy blowing literal budget holes in the teacher's planning.

"It has to happen though, remember?" Percy gave them a very sardonic brow. "If it doesn't happen, the world will end early! I still have another year of life!"

"And it won't be a pretty one," Thalia muttered. The Labyrinth was one of the quests Annabeth talked about least. Whatever had happened this summer, she was almost as ill prepared as Percy.

But there I was Monday morning, the first week of June, sitting in my mom's car in front of Goode High School on East 81st.

Goode was this big brownstone building overlooking the East River. A bunch of BMWs and Lincoln Town Cars were parked out front.

"I still don't speak car," Nico finally spoke up, hesitantly. A part of him still expected everyone to turn and yell at the sight of him.

Percy gave him the strangest, most awkward smile yet, like he had no idea how to even look at him after yesterday.

Then Percy gave himself a sharp mental smack. Nico and his maybe, hopefully not crush that he'd said was gone was ten times less strange to deal with than Alex being...Alex. So he answered almost as casually as ever, "they're 'middle class' cars," he used air quotes and everything. "Not some swanky private school with Maserati's and Porsche's, and not broken windows and running on faith rather than fume cars."

"Ah," Nico nodded his thanks, and sat back in his seat. His arms were crossed low over his stomach, hands in each sleeve like a monk today like he was trying to be as invisible as possible.

But he wasn't hiding behind the couch today to listen in like he'd originally intended. He'd actually spoken at all, which was more than Will had thought he'd do. The only backfiring going on was he'd either missed breakfast or eaten alone, and Will filed that away for when lunch came up.

Thalia and Will exchanged a pitiful look and kind of hoped Percy pulling mad gymnastic abilities or something would kick in soon, for once. Adrenaline distracting Percy from killing them all would be better than this awkward stiltedness.

Staring up at the fancy stone archway, I wondered how long it would take me to get kicked out of this place.

"What's your record?" Magnus asked into the slightly awkward silence that he'd tried to keep reading through.

"Two weeks," Percy sighed. "In my defense, I really thought that teacher's cat was a demon, and the milk didn't hurt it!"

"Well now you get a chance to do one better, be expelled before you even attend," Alex said plenty cheerfully for all of them.

"Just relax." My mom didn't sound relaxed.

"Do as I say, not as I do," Thalia nodded sagely.

"Okay mom," Percy rolled his eyes so hard it looked like it hurt, "thanks I really needed that translation."

"Don't mock your mother Percy, she's a good woman," Jason laughed, but Magnus kept reading before that could escalate, these were not the kind of jokes he'd ever find funny.

"It's only an orientation tour. And remember, dear, this is Paul's school.

"Ah, nepotism used for good, that's a new one," Alex said in surprise.

"It was a public school, it's not like he bribed anyone to let me in," but Percy didn't sound that confident. If a Blowfish library wing popped up, he didn't think he could blame the Mist.

So try not to...you know."

"Destroy it?"

"Yes."

"All relationships go through their own trials," Thalia said with barely suppressed mirth. "This is just a very great, early indicator if Paul's going to last in this family." She knew he did, but that didn't mean she couldn't laugh about it.

"Better than the usual cheating and lying bullshit adults deal with I guess," Percy grudgingly agreed.

Paul Blofis, my mom's boyfriend, was standing out front, greeting future ninth graders as they came up the steps. With his salt-and-pepper hair, denim clothes, and leather jacket, he reminded me of a TV actor, but he was just an English teacher. He'd managed to convince Goode High School to accept me for ninth grade, despite the fact that I'd gotten kicked out of every school I'd ever attended. I'd tried to warn him it wasn't a good idea, but he wouldn't listen.

"Not a great teacher then," Will looked very disappointed. "He should take his students observations into account, especially these budding adults."

"He actually loves to tell this story about his favorite essay that helped one guy into a great college he never would have applied for," Percy defended, and the ready response surprised him. He paused with a smile at all the memories over the winter and summer of how often Paul had been over, how easily his mom continued to laugh, how Paul never talked down to him like a delinquent from day one. "I think he was just trying to show off he could, though it wasn't nearly as impressive than if he'd gotten me a C in class," he finished with a chuckle Chiron still had the guy beat out on one point.

I looked at my mom. "You haven't told him the truth about me, have you?"

"How would that conversation even go?" The bitterness in Alex's voice could be missed by no one, clearly that wasn't a happy story.

"Historically, not well," Percy agreed in a quiet, gentle voice. He knew the others all envied him for his awesome mom, but that had come hand in hand with Gabe through the majority of his life. Gabe might not have known the truth, but he'd been a part of it.

She tapped her fingers nervously on the wheel. She was dressed up for a job interview—her best blue dress and high-heeled shoes.

"For what?" Will asked. The general question still held a hint of intrigue coming from him, the way he always talked to everybody. Like it was a vitally important question he couldn't wait to know the answer of, Nico smiled.

Percy didn't seem to hear that part, he just glanced at Will with his own proud smile and said, "publishing company. She was done with the first draft of her book, but wanted to check out some of the footsteps before she, um, buffered it? Or maybe buffed it? I'll be honest, I'm not sure what she meant," he finished sheepishly, addressing everybody in general.

It didn't seem to bother Will, and Nico marked that for future reference, trying to scratch off a list in his head of defining what he might have a crush on Percy about, and what he just admired about him. In a group, it was probably weird to expect someone's soul attention.

"I thought we should wait," she admitted.

"So we don't scare him away."

"You should definitely build up to something like that," Magnus agreed as if totally off hand. "Try jumping out of the closet at him a few times, maybe a few toned down side quests like trying to get past a murderous dog with a rubber ball, just to see how he takes to it."

"I should start with the one about how Grover got his mango chutney recipe," Percy mock agreed. "Crashing a wedding and piranha sheep are surely the best way to explain, this," he finished with a vague wave around being trapped at the bottom of the ocean.

"I'm sure orientation will be fine, Percy, It's only one morning."

"Great," I mumbled. "I can get expelled before I start the school year."

Alex laughed raucously Percy said the same thing he did, and he grinned along with him and even offered a high five which he happily air slapped.

"Think positive.

"The country ran out of schools and the universe can stop mocking me for this?" Percy sighed.

"There's the bright side," Thalia snorted.

Jason wasn't so convinced that every school would ban him for his record though. He started rubbing thoughtfully at his tattoo, but as always no real memory would connect to that random thought.

Tomorrow you're off to camp! After orientation, you've got your date—"

"It's not a date!" I protested. "It's just Annabeth, Mom. Jeez!"

Percy blushed the color of Rachel's hair, but Magnus readjusted the book to hide his slight hesitation over his continuing wasn't snickers like the others. He, stupidly, wanted to offer, something. Some dumb warning of a 'you better treat her like a lady,' when it was obvious Percy was head over heels in love with her from the beginning.

Uncle Fredrick was obviously kind of useless in that department though, and Chiron seemed the next closest thing and obviously had higher concerns. He just thought his cousin should have some family show support, but then, she probably forgot he'd existed already and this was just as dumb as it could be of him.

"She's coming all the way from camp to meet you."

"It didn't work out with Fredrick again?" The harshness in Magnus's voice was doubled from his own thoughts, and obvious by dropping the familial title.

"She stayed the rest of the school semester with him out there," Percy said cautiously. "She sent me an Iris message every few weeks about the goings on, they were being a lot more understanding when there was a monster attack, and it weirdly didn't happen as much as she thought it would. You know, she just missed Camp and came back earlier, she still called it her home." He finished with a carefree smile.

Will kept the comment to himself she'd showed up at Camp twice. One time had only been through word of mouth, Clarisse had made a passing comment about her being back while getting her ankle wrapped. Judging by her tone, she'd been expecting to find Annabeth in the medical cabin, though Will hadn't seen her. The second he'd only passed her leaving her cabin with a book bag and going up the hill to leave again. Her passing in and out of her home was not exactly his business to share.

Magnus gave a hesitant nod, but Jason wasn't so ready to let it go as he pondered over that. He'd originally balked at the idea of San Francisco being a dangerous place. Nico had said he found another camp in California he hadn't shared with anyone else. The obvious dots being connected only gave him the usual headache, but he still hoped that somehow, someway, he might have made Annabeth's time with her mortal family just the slightest bit easier no matter how foolish it probably was.

"Well, yeah."

"You're going to the movies."

"Yeah."

"Just the two of you."

"Mom!"

She held up her hands in surrender, but I could tell she was trying hard not to smile.

"She must be really nervous about that job interview," Thalia really was trying her hardest not to snicker. "You're lucky she didn't somehow slip into another baby story about you next." She was doing a terrible job by the end.

"Stories you still owe us by the way," Alex only teased, he knew Percy didn't owe them any of this and could leave to read these alone whenever he wanted.

He showed he wasn't going to be doing anything like that when he only groaned loudly and covered his ears to mock ignore them instead until Magnus kept going.

"You'd better get inside, dear. I'll see you tonight."

I was about to get out of the car when I looked over the steps of the school.

Paul Blofis was greeting a girl with frizzy red hair. She wore a maroon Tshirt and ratty jeans decorated with marker drawings. When she turned, I caught a glimpse of her face, and the hairs on my arms stood straight up.

"No," Alex began in awe.

"Way," Magnus barely finished since his mouth was hanging open quite a bit.

"I mean, we knew you'd have to run into her again eventually," Jason agreed. "Nearly killing her on the Hoover Dam couldn't have been the only time," she'd been perfectly comfortable in here beside Percy and still gave him the creeps with the way she'd watched him and pegged him an outsider. "I just expected her to pop up at Camp."

"Yeah, um, small world," Percy agreed with all the blurry confidence he could.

"Percy?" my mom asked. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I stammered.

"Very believable," Alex snorted. "I think you need to start taking some acting lessons from Rachel."

"I'll get right on that when I'm done freaking out about her existing," Percy sighed.

"Does the school have a side entrance?"

"Down the block on the right. Why?"

"I'll see you later."

My mom started to say something, but I got out of the car and ran, hoping the redheaded girl wouldn't see me.

"And yet you're going into the exact same place she is," Jason pointed out in exasperation. "I don't get it, are you avoiding her or trying to get her alone to talk?"

"Avoidance, definitely," Percy was squirming in his seat like a burrito was about to be launched at his head. Annabeth and Grover were the only two who had ever overlapped with his normal life. Rachel just popping up like that set all of his instincts on edge like a monster was going to appear any second...wait. Gods, did he help defend Rachel from the cheerleading squad?! Agh, and there was the headache!

What was she doing here? Not even my luck could be this bad.

"Percy," Will said to him as if in fear he had a concussion for not remembering this. "Your luck is historically the worst."

"Exhibit A," Nico muttered, trapped at the bottom of the ocean with no memory.

Yeah, right. I was about to find out my luck could get a lot worse.

"I swear that should have just been the summary plastered on the back of these books," Percy groaned.

Sneaking into orientation didn't work out too well. Two cheerleaders in purple-and-white uniforms were standing at the side entrance, waiting to ambush freshmen.

"Were they smoking?" Jason asked with weirdly serious concern.

"Didn't smell anything," Percy shrugged. "The blonde one was kind of cute, but way to intense, she had that fake smile that gave me the creeps," Percy shrugged.

Thalia smacked him upside the head, hard, and called him an idiot, while looking at Jason in concern. Beryl had been a chain smoker, but she hoped he wasn't trying to connect plastic girls with the smell of cigarettes in general and he was just being an idiot too.

"Hi!" They smiled, which I figured was the first and last time any cheerleaders would be that friendly to me. One was blond with icy blue eyes.

The other was African American with dark curly hair like Medusa's (and believe me, I know what I'm talking about).

"Hmm, yes I suppose, but does this girl also make a mean burger?" Alex asked.

"And is she going to have a weird obsession with turning you into a statue," Magnus added uneasily. They hadn't gotten any repeat monsters yet aside from the gorgon coming back, so maybe this was how Medusa looked now and found a way to hide her gaze?

Both girls had their names stitched in cursive on their uniforms, but with my dyslexia, the words looked like meaningless spaghetti.

"Welcome to Goode," the blond girl said. "You are so going to love it."

But as she looked me up and down, her expression said something more like, Eww, who is this loser?

The other girl stepped uncomfortably close to me. I studied the stitching on her uniform and made out Kelli. She smelled like roses and something else I recognized from riding lessons at camp—the scent of freshly washed horses. It was a weird smell for a cheerleader. Maybe she owned a horse or something.

"In New York?" Will couldn't imagine the miles of acres from camp and where he'd grown up cramped around all those buildings.

"We have suburbs you know, it's not all Times Square," Percy shrugged.

"Or maybe her dad owns one of those cop horses, or maybe she can turn into a horse," Alex nodded along. "There's really just no guessing here."

Anyway, she stood so close I got the feeling she was going to try to push me down the steps. "What's your name, fish?"

"Fish?"

"That's actually a very fair question with a really interesting answer," Magnus grinned like Percy's was a mistake anyone could make. "Classification of what a fish is is so broad most scientists don't-"

Percy used just a tiny bit of his power, but enough he splashed Magnus in the face with just a few twitches of his finger. "Smart ass," Percy's laugh had them all grinning along.

Magnus brushed his damp hair aside and kept going while Will admired how easily Percy could fit in anywhere he wanted. He was positive Percy's internal thoughts of how he never fit in couldn't be too accurate of his time in mortal schools, he just never wanted to fit in there, considering it was the opposite at camp.

"Freshman."

"Uh, Percy."

The girls exchanged looks.

"Oh, Percy Jackson," the blond one said. "We've been waiting for you."

That sent a major Uh-oh chill down my back. They were blocking the entrance, smiling in a not-very-friendly way. My hand crept instinctively toward my pocket, where I kept my lethal ballpoint pen, Riptide.

"That is one of my favorite sentences," Alex snorted grandly.

"And I use it without mercy!" Percy pulled it out now and waved Riptide around like a writer on a mission.

Then another voice came from inside the building. "Percy?" It was Paul Blofis, somewhere down the hallway. I'd never been so glad to hear his voice.

The cheerleaders backed off.

Nobody had much more than halfhearted confidence these were just regular mean girls slinking off because a teacher was around. Maybe, if it wasn't for that blasted chapter title they could have fooled themselves for a while longer. Now they all just sat there waiting anxiously for Magnus to get to a half-time show that would probably end with confetti and death to a lot of innocent people.

I was so anxious to get past them I accidentally kneed Kelli in the thigh.

Clang.

Her leg made a hollow, metallic sound, like I'd just hit a flagpole.

"First the French guy, now prosthetic leg girl?" Thalia couldn't help but tease, "are you just out here fighting everybody with a disability Percy?"

"I have no problems throwing hands with you," Percy wagged the pen cap dangerously close to her nose.

"Besides, he's never tried to fight Chiron," Will easily slid in to disengage. "I'm just chalking it up to more of his bad luck."

Magnus quickly kept reading before that could escalate anyways.

"Ow," she muttered. "Watch it, fish."

I glanced down, but her leg looked like a regular old leg. I was too freaked out to ask questions. I dashed into the hall, the cheerleaders laughing behind me.

"There you are!" Paul told me. "Welcome to Goode!"

"Hey, Paul—uh, Mr. Blofis." I glanced back, but the weird cheerleaders had disappeared.

"Percy, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"I've done that too, and I'll take Bianca and Nico over those girls," Percy shivered.

"Um, thanks," Nico muttered in surprise, but then Percy winced and groaned, looking around in confusion, and Nico realized Percy wasn't literally talking about the time he'd talked to Bianca's ghost, but was making a morbid joke in general about them being children of Hades. His usual way of laughing off everything that Nico had always equally admired and been so conflicted about, because sometimes it made him come across as an idiot. He didn't know where to place that on his list.

"Yeah, uh—"

Paul clapped me on the back. "Listen, I know you're nervous, but don't worry. We get a lot of kids here with ADHD and dyslexia. The teachers know how to help."

I almost wanted to laugh. If only ADHD and dyslexia were my biggest worries. I mean, I knew Paul was trying to help, but if I told him the truth about me, he'd either think I was crazy or he'd run away screaming. Those cheerleaders, for instance. I had a bad feeling about them...

"Lots of people have bad feelings about cheerleaders," Alex agreed wisely. "Usually because they accuse you of stealing their phone and throw a bucket of piss at you after you got them expelled."

The book fell out of Magnus's hands while everyone felt the awkward silence, but Will got out first, "um, that was a little too specific Alex. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" He asked casually.

There was only a hint of blood lust in there, but just enough Magnus swiftly decided he heard nothing and nobody was going to get the chance to say otherwise.

Then I looked down the hall, and I remembered I had another problem.

The redheaded girl I'd seen on the front steps was just coming in the main entrance.

Don't notice me, I prayed.

She noticed me.

"Rachel is a very observant girl," Thalia rolled her eyes at him. "She'd pick you out if you were in the mascot costume."

Percy believed her, and it still kind of freaked him out. The mascot was a roadrunner too, and he still didn't think he'd escape this.

Her eyes widened.

"Where's the orientation?" I asked Paul.

"The gym. That way. But—"

"Bye."

"Percy?" he called, but I was already running.

"And you're worried Paul's going to run away from you guys," Nico said mildly, just a little more confidant than the first time.

"Wouldn't be fair of me to have him do all the work, here I am putting in effort too," Percy grinned back with an even shorter hesitation than last time.

I thought I'd lost her.

A bunch of kids were heading for the gym, and soon I was just one of three hundred fourteen-year-olds all crammed into the bleachers. A marching band played an out-of-tune fight song that sounded like somebody hitting a bag of cats with a metal baseball bat.

"I seriously worry about the neighborhood you grew up in," Jason said, with no joke.

Percy had no nice response for that. By the time he came downstairs all he usually found was blood.

Older kids, probably student council members, stood up front modeling the Goode school uniform

"Ugh, I'd get expelled just for getting out of wearing a uniform," Alex gagged.

"Rachel didn't make it look to bad," Magnus said to be fair. He'd trade the stupidest bowtie every day just for a chance at something that kind of routine, normal, mundane.

Alex must have heard the wistfulness in his voice, because his voice went just a hint gentler than usual. "Mm, I've seen worse."

and looking all, Hey, we're cool. Teachers milled around, smiling and shaking hands with students. The walls of the gym were plastered with big purple-and-white banners that said WELCOME FUTURE FRESHMEN, GOODE IS GOOD, WE'RE ALL FAMILY, and a bunch of other happy slogans that pretty much made me want to throw up.

"Glad it's not just me," Thalia raised a hand, the other pressed theatrically to her stomach.

None of the other freshmen looked thrilled to be here, either. I mean, coming to orientation in June, when school doesn't even start until September, is not cool. But at Goode, "We prepare to excel early!" At least that's what the brochure said.

"And we always do what the brochure says," Will nodded saintly.

"Gods, please never give Camp a brochure," Percy muttered, he was terrified what Mr. D would put in there.

The marching band stopped playing. A guy in a pinstripe suit came to the microphone and started talking, but the sound echoed around the gym so I had no idea what he was saying. He might've been gargling.

"His warm up I guess," Alex said, "most people just do the classic picturing underwear thing, but I never could figure out why that would make you less nervous. Naked people usually cause more stress."

"I can't even begin to imagine what would make you nervous to begin with," Jason admitted, "let alone what you would do. Probably rip someone's head off."

Alex considered for a moment laughing that off, but then in a rare moment of vulnerability, he glanced at the book, and said honestly, "being trapped."

At least Oceanus wasn't trying to take away his identity, but the mystery of why only his abilities seemed gone while among the Big Three's kids bothered him greatly.

The reality still hit them plenty they were trapped. Even if it wasn't unpleasant, that didn't make it great. They all just made it better for each other with laughter instead.

So Alex finished with a snarky remark true to form, "and look at you all, not a single headless person! Let alone nearly headless!"

Magnus snorted fantastically beside him just like always before he kept reading, so the others just let it pass with a light chuckle too.

Someone grabbed my shoulder, "What are you doing here?"

It was her: my redheaded nightmare.

"How often do you dream of her?" Thalia had tried for sisterly concern, but ended with to much laughter for it to hold.

"Oh gods," Percy buried his face in dread and decided he would have to personally put these books through a shredder and then burn the scraps if he wanted to live when all his memories were back.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," I said.

Her jaw dropped like she couldn't believe I had the nerve to remember her name. "And you're Percy somebody.

"You told her your name was Percy Gotta-go," Jason easily recalled, "I can't believe she'd forget that, it's quite memorable."

"Not everybody always has a toilet on the brain Jason," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't have to if your life wasn't trash Percy," Jason smirked.

"Boys!" Will groaned. Magnus very quickly kept reading, and Thalia sighed in relief. They were all getting a little to comfortable with each other down here.

I didn't get your full name last December when you tried to kill me."

"Look, I wasn't—I didn't—What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I guess. Orientation."

"You live in New York?"

"What, you thought I lived at the Hoover Dam?"

It had never occurred to me. Whenever I thought about her (and I'm not saying I thought about her; she just like crossed my mind from time to time, okay?),

"Yeah, okay Perce," Thalia was obviously about to engrave this passage in stone so that Annabeth and Rachel could laugh at him forever with it and he sighed as he knew there was nothing he could do to stop her.

I always figured she lived in the Hoover Dam area, since that's where I'd met her.

"A reasonable assumption," the eye roll Jason added to that didn't help Percy believe him even before he said, "considering you traveled there from New York!"

"Not everybody travels the country in a week on a magic train provided by a homeless God named Fred," Percy said back in exasperation. "Unless she's some weird, rich version of Annabeth who just sporadically wanted a tour there, it makes sense!"

The others were to busy snickering he'd still managed to bring up Annabeth during this to stop them for a second, but before Jason's chuckle could subside and he did manage Magnus loudly kept going without prompting this time or they'd never finish this one dam chapter.

We'd spent maybe ten minutes together, during which time I'd accidentally swung a sword at her, she'd saved my life, and I'd run away chased by a band of supernatural killing machines. You know, your typical chance meeting.

"That is definitely going to be the next poster for a romcom. Call it Hauling Ass," Alex paused to give a very suggestive look at Percy that made him squirm. "You're a construction worker building the historic monument, she's a southern bell dragged there by her father-"

"Dude!" Percy finally protested. "Write whatever the hell that's manifesting into on your own time! And leave me out of it!"

"I hope this guy's never introduced to fanfiction, his brain would rot," Magnus muttered, making Alex laugh harder than ever, which wasn't very encouraging to Percy. It took every ounce of self control for Alex to suppress the question if Sally ever mentioned that stuff, but when Magnus kept reading, he persevered. He could ask Sally on his own time anyways.

Some guy behind us whispered, "Hey, shut up. The cheerleaders are talking!"

"I bet that guy's one of their girlfriends," Thalia rolled her eyes. "Hope she gives him a thumbs up for sucking up."

"Hi, guys!" a girl bubbled into the microphone. It was the blonde I'd seen at the entrance. "My name is Tammi, and this is like, Kelli." Kelli did a cartwheel.

Will gave a little applause just for the girl/ maybe monster being able to do that, it looked hard when he watched others try.

Next to me, Rachel yelped like someone had stuck her with a pin. A few kids looked over and snickered,

"I swear it's a staple kids will laugh at anything in an auditorium," Nico muttered, the noise always carried and sounded mean no matter who was doing it.

"I don't laugh at everything," Will gave him a very exaggerated pouty frown that Nico fought hard not to grin back at. He lost that battle, and he couldn't say that about many fights.

but Rachel just stared at the cheerleaders in horror. Tammi didn't seem to notice the outburst. She started talking about all the great ways we could get involved during our freshman year.

"All the normal things a half-blood could want," Percy gave a mock yawn to show how much he'd listened to that. "Like volunteer work that looked good on college applications and where the study hall was. I didn't hear anything about where the fire extinguisher was."

"I'm surprised they don't have your name engraved on it just for being there," Thalia agreed.

"You'd have to pull an active miracle to get a college education at your rate," Jason muttered for himself, because he felt bad Percy probably was going to be denied that with his record.

"Run," Rachel told me. "Now."

"Why?"

Rachel didn't explain. She pushed her way to the edge of the bleachers, ignoring the frowning teachers and grumbling kids she was stepping on.

I hesitated.

"Why?"

 Percy winced as all six of them yelped that at once. Jason was already winding up for a rant as he began, "do you have any clue how useful that is? She can see through the Mist which you're repeatedly fooled by-"

"Paul," Percy's answer was sharp enough to stop him cold. He really hadn't gone into this trying to make the guy already disappointed in him and his mother look bad and everything that was about to happen because he couldn't have one normal day!

There was a beat of silence. "Sorry," Jason said.

"Yeah, it's fine," Percy sighed, letting it go as fast as it had happened.

Tammi was explaining how we were about to break into small groups and tour the school. Kelli caught my eye and gave me an amused smile, like she was waiting to see what I'd do. It would look bad if I left right now. Paul Blofis was down there with the rest of the teachers. He'd wonder what was wrong.

Then I thought about Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and the special ability she'd shown last winter at Hoover Dam. She'd been able to see a group of security guards who weren't guards at all, who weren't even human. My heart pounding, I got up and followed her out of the gym.

"I'm getting, follow her to the ends of the earth vibes already," Alex chuckled.

"Stop writing fanfiction about them," Magnus muttered to him, "Annabeth would not approve."

"I bet she'd get a laugh out of it," Alex insisted.

Percy was wincing and muttering uncomfortably though, and since they had no idea how she factored into Percy's life it was probably safer not to push his buttons about what they did get up to until all was said and done.

I found Rachel in the band room. She was hiding behind a bass drum in the percussion section.

"Are these monsters sensitive to noise?" Jason asked eagerly.

"Either that or it's a really good spot to grab lunch," Percy shrugged.

"Or the first place she found, you triangles," Thalia said in exasperation. "She's an untrained mortal!"

"Right," they both agreed sheepishly.

"Get over here!" she said. "Keep your head down!"

I felt pretty silly hiding behind a bunch of bongos, but I crouched down beside her.

"Obviously," Alex rolled his eyes. "Everybody knows you should hide in the brass section, that's why they're the ballsy ones." He concluded with a wink at Thalia, "and I mean that totally gender neutral."

"I'm sure they've never heard that joke before," Jason scoffed.

"Did they follow you?" Rachel asked.

"You mean the cheerleaders?"

She nodded nervously.

"I don't think so," I said. "What are they? What did you see?"

Her green eyes were bright with fear. She had a sprinkle of freckles on her face that reminded me of constellations. Her maroon T-shirt read HARVARD ART DEPT. "You...you wouldn't believe me."

Magnus had seen in person how much that could mess a person up. It still really bothered him he didn't know what to go back and do with this kind of information. Telling the homeless mortals who went on about metal angels they weren't crazy would only put a band aid on the grander problem.

"Oh, yeah, I would," I promised. "I know you can see through the Mist."

"The what?"

"The Mist. It's...well, it's like this veil that hides the way things really are. Some mortals are born with the ability to see through it. Like you."

She studied me carefully. "You did that at Hoover Dam. You called me a mortal. Like you're not."

"So she's always been that perceptive," Jason murmured in appreciation. Her gift truly was special, he wished he could pin down why he felt like he had a name or something attached to this odd power of perception and sight she had.

I felt like punching a bongo. What was I thinking? I could never explain. I shouldn't even try.

"Don't be so down on yourself Percy," Thalia frowned at him in surprise. "You're really not as stupid as we all like to say you are."

"Thanks Thals," Percy rolled his eyes and waved at Magnus.

"Hey," she grabbed his wrist, "I mean it."

He looked at her and saw she really was being serious. "Um, thank you," he was probably blushing just a bit. "I really didn't have a clue what I was doing though."

"Never stopped you from trying to do anything," she released his wrist with an eye roll of her own, resisting the urge to try and smack him in the face with his own hand. No way would she be fast enough to do that in the water.

Percy grinned at her. Coming from anyone else, even Annabeth, he'd have thought they were lying just to make him feel better. Thalia knew exactly how he felt, because she tended to have the same self-doubts.

"Tell me," she begged. "You know what it means. All these horrible things I see?"

"Look, this is going to sound weird. Do you know anything about Greek myths?"

"Like...the Minotaur and the Hydra?"

"Yeah, just try not to say those names when I'm around, okay?"

"And the Furies," she said, warming up. "And the Sirens, and—"

"Okay!" I looked around the band hall, sure that Rachel was going to make a bunch of bloodthirsty nasties pop out of the walls;

"We have yet to see that actually," Alex had the audacity to eye the walls in betrayal. "I'm starting to think Chiron and Grover lied to you about that, it's only ever caused Zeus to make thunder at ominous moments."

"Why push my luck?" Percy asked in exhaustion.

but we were still alone. Down the hallway, I heard a mob of kids coming out of the gymnasium. They were starting the group tours. We didn't have long to talk.

"All those monsters," I said, "all the Greek gods—they're real."

"I knew it!"

I would've been more comfortable if she'd called me a liar, but Rachel looked like I'd just confirmed her worst suspicion.

"First Tyson, now her," Will sounded like he was pretty impressed with Percy's ability to help take first steps into this world. "You're blunt and get to the point, but don't try to scare them, let alone impress them. All you're really missing is the orientation video to explain the rest."

Nico snorted in delight beside him and Will smiled with pleasure.

"Yeah, yeah," Percy was shaking his head in exasperation at all the praise. "Been and done the whole TV show routine, not looking for round two."

"One slow news day and I'll bet that reporter will be back around," Will said confidently, mock framing Percy with his hands. Percy flipped him off and said, "show that on TV!"

Magnus loudly kept reading before they got too sidetracked among the chuckling.

"You don't know how hard it's been," she said. "For years I thought I was going crazy. I couldn't tell anybody. I couldn't—"

Thalia tugged at the links in her bracelet with the same feeling of uselessness Magnus felt. What were they supposed to do, post a billboard with a number to Olympus Hotline?

She imagined for a moment borrowing these books when they were done with them, maybe giving some mortal a sense of salvation if they read it like this was some fairy tell, Sally apparently might be some help with that. A world they could never be a part of, but at least wouldn't think they were crazy for.

She glanced at Percy with guilt though and decided she might have to tweak a few details.

Her eyes narrowed. "Wait. Who are you? I mean really?"

"I'm not a monster."

"Well, I know that. I could see if you were. You look like...you. But you're not human, are you?"

I swallowed. Even though I'd had three years to get used to who I was, I'd never talked about it with a regular mortal before—I mean, except for my mom, but she already knew. I don't know why, but I took the plunge.

"I'm a half-blood," I said. "I'm half human."

"And half what?"

Just then Tammi and Kelli stepped into the band room.

"Half-fish," Alex supplied as if poor Rachel had really been left in the lurch.

"Paul is only his step dad Alex, keep up," Magnus smirked.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

"There you are, Percy Jackson," Tammi said. "It's time for your orientation."

"They're horrible!" Rachel gasped.

"A blonde, a burnet, and a red head walk into a band room-" Alex began.

"If you make one more joke about this I'll put you in the perconcussion section," Percy mispronounced with a hard look at Magnus not to correct him.

"Who says I don't already know how to play the bongos?" He challenged back.

Percy sighed in defeat, he really should have known better by this time.

Tammi and Kelli were still wearing their purple-and-white cheerleader costumes, holding pom-poms from the rally.

"Well those are going to be covered in blood and monster dust here soon," Nico said confidently.

"Don't forget the fire," Will nodded, "he can't leave school without it."

Percy groaned, as much because they were right as his head ached in pain, and because he believed they were right.

"What do they really look like?" I asked, but Rachel seemed too stunned to answer.

"Oh, forget her." Tammi gave me a brilliant smile and started walking toward us. Kelli stayed by the doors, blocking our exit.

They'd trapped us. I knew we'd have to fight our way out, but Tammi's smile was so dazzling it distracted me. Her blue eyes were beautiful, and the way her hair swept over her shoulders...

"Percy," Rachel warned.

I said something really intelligent like, "Uhhh?"

"And we can officially ear mark the moment Percy hit puberty," Jason mock clicked a pen to jot that down.

"When he sees Annabeth again it's officially going to be a, treat," Magnus sighed, gods he did not want to hear his cousin described by a male teenager.

"I can and will make your lives hell without drowning you," Percy pleasantly reminded.

Jason pretended he couldn't hear him and was still scribbling, making sure Percy could hear words like, "needs the talk," and, "date do's and don'ts," so Magnus very loudly kept reading over that before Percy acted on the urge of breaking his fingers like he was obviously considering.

Tammi was getting closer. She held out her pom-poms.

"Percy!" Rachel's voice seemed to be coming from a long way away. "Snap out of it!"

It took all my willpower, but I got my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide grew into a three-foot-long bronze sword, its blade glowing with a faint golden light.

"I hope Rachel didn't have to many nightmares about that," Percy sighed, still fidgeting with the cap uneasily. It took a lot of concentration to constantly remind himself the adrenaline dump was all in his head and there was nothing to kill in here.

Tammi's smile turned to a sneer.

"Oh, come on," she protested. "You don't need that. How about a kiss instead?"

She smelled like roses and clean animal fur—a weird but somehow intoxicating smell.

"Note to self, nobody spray Grover with roses, then he'll be unstoppable," Thalia nodded for herself.

Rachel pinched my arm, hard. "Percy, she wants to bite you! Look at her!"

"Well that would get anyone's attention," Jason rubbed his arm and studied the book in concern.

"Are they vampires?!" Alex's eyes went comically wide. "Are we really about to get vampires up in here?" He looked ready to lunge for Magnus's throat to see for himself.

"Note to self, keep the fangs away from this one," Thalia said in concern.

She's just jealous," Tammi looked back at Kelli. "May I, mistress?"

Kelli was still blocking the door, licking her lips hungrily. "Go ahead, Tammi. You're doing fine."

Tammi took another step forward, but I leveled the tip of my sword at her chest. "Get back."

She snarled. "Freshmen," she said with disgust. "This is our school, halfblood. We feed on whom we choose!"

Then she began to change. The color drained out of her face and arms. Her skin turned as white as chalk, her eyes completely red. Her teeth grew into fangs.

"That is so cool!" Alex really did reach over to steal the book, but Magnus hugged it close and shuffled as far away as he could on his end of the couch. Alex turned pleading eyes to Percy, "did you at least get an autograph?"

"I'll start a book of monsters just for you," Percy said, rather nonplussed at Alex geeking out over something else wanting to kill him. It really was par for the course at this rate.

"A vampire!" I stammered. Then I noticed her legs. Below the cheerleader skirt, her left leg was brown and shaggy with a donkey's hoof. Her right leg was shaped like a human leg, but it was made of bronze.

"And that somehow made them cooler," Magnus agreed with Alex's yelp. "I'll give them this, it's original."

"They don't need compliments Magnus, they need decapitation," Nico reminded in exasperation.

"They can have both," Will said fairly. "I'm sure Kellie and Tammi appreciate compliments once in a while, it must get exhausting with how popular vampires are now adays to hear themselves described wrong."

"I just hope Percy doesn't ask if they sparkle," Thalia sighed.

"Uhh, a vampire with—"

"Don't mention the legs!" Tammi snapped. "It's rude to make fun!"

She advanced on her weird, mismatched legs. She looked totally bizarre, especially with the pom-poms, but I couldn't laugh—not facing those red eyes and sharp fangs.

"Then you need more fun in your life," Alex told him, he was still laughing plenty at this development.

"Cheerleader vampires, I'm surprised that's not a book of its own," Magnus agreed.

"A vampire, you say?" Kelli laughed. "That silly legend was based on us, you fool. We are empousai, servants of Hecate."

"Mmmm." Tammi edged closer to me. "Dark magic formed us from animal, bronze, and ghost! We exist to feed on the blood of young men. Now come, give me that kiss!"

"Maybe they shouldn't lead with the gross details of their existence if they want a smooch," Jason frowned, clearly unimpressed as he flipped his coin around.

"Dating is weirdly hard, kudos for trying their own approach," Percy shrugged, "it just didn't work on me."

"Liar," Thalia waved to the book where he'd yet swung his sword.

"I was caught off guard, not considering it!" He insisted.

"Uhhu, that's exactly what I'm hearing, not that Rachel had to save you," Thalia reminded.

Percy tried to splutter some denial together, but Magnus saved him the effort.

She bared her fangs. I was so paralyzed I couldn't move, but Rachel threw a snare drum at the empousa's head.

"Exhibit A your honor!" Thalia crowed.

"I want this case dismissed! Objection!" That was the only lawyer speak Percy knew though and sat back in his seat with a sigh at the accompanying laughter.

The demon hissed and batted the drum away. It went rolling along the aisles between music stands, its springs rattling against the drumhead.

Rachel threw a xylophone, but the demon just swatted that away, too.

"I would pay all of the money for her to throw a tuba next," Alex said with a disturbing kind of gleam that usually meant he'd be trying this himself eventually.

"You would make a great one man band act," Magnus agreed. Alex would be the only person who could make a guitar riff and then bash a monsters head in and still get a tip.

"I don't usually kill girls," Tammi growled. "But for you, mortal, I'll make an exception. Your eyesight is a little too good!"

She lunged at Rachel.

"No!" I slashed with Riptide. Tammi tried to dodge my blade, but I sliced straight through her cheerleader uniform, and with a horrible wail she exploded into dust all over Rachel.

Rachel coughed. She looked like she'd just had a sack of flour dumped on her head. "Gross!"

"First Annabeth, now her," Jason chuckled. "Does the value of a thank you just not mean anything anymore?"

Thalia stepped on his shoe, and he yelped in pain. She raised a brow at him and asked, "now where's my thank you for shutting you up?"

He tucked his aching toes behind his other heel and decided against answering like the smart kid he was.

"Monsters do that," I said. "Sorry."

"You killed my trainee!" Kelli yelled. "You need a lesson in school spirit, half-blood!"

"Anything but math club, anything but math club," Percy crossed his fingers and leaned forward in his seat.

"Technically attempted murder is not math club, so wish granted," Thalia sighed.

"He could start a junior detectives club, help the local police solve crimes," Will grinned.

"They'd arrest me on sight," Percy reminded with a huff.

Then she too began to change. Her wiry hair turned into flickering flames. Her eyes turned red. She grew fangs. She loped toward us, her brass foot and hoof clopping unevenly on the band-room floor.

"I am senior empousa," she growled. "No hero has bested me in a thousand years."

"Yeah?" I said. "Then you're overdue!"

"As leader of the squad, you'd really hope she'd be more prepared for the time restraints of multiple responsibilities," Alex said in mock disappointment.

"High school life is hard and stressful enough, Percy will help her balance some of it," Magnus reminded, and by that he meant cut her into evenly squared pieces of monster dust.

Kelli was a lot faster than Tammi. She dodged my first strike and rolled into the brass section, knocking over a row of trombones with a mighty crash. Rachel scrambled out of the way. I put myself between her and the empousa.

Will's adams-apple bobbed as he nervously swallowed. There were a few training scenarios where you had to defend someone on the ground pretending to be unconscious while a 'monster' attacked. Percy got in repeated trouble for those from him and Chiron for always taking more hits than he should.

Kelli circled us, her eyes going from me to the sword.

"Such a pretty little blade," she said. "What a shame it stands between us."

Her form shimmered—sometimes a demon, sometimes a pretty cheerleader. I tried to keep my mind focused, but it was really distracting.

"The first monster I've heard that seems to have adapted to your ADHD perk," Magnus said nervously. He wondered if it would work on those who wouldn't be naturally attracted to a pretty girl, or was the scent a universal lull no matter the case?

"Gods, please don't start trying to classify us with ecosystems and Latin names," Percy sighed, "I avoided biology as much as calculus."

"Poor dear." Kelli chuckled. "You don't even know what's happening, do you? Soon, your pretty little camp in flames, your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It would be merciful to end your life now, before you have to see that."

Percy's blood boiled at just the hint of that threat, making the water heat up around them all. Thalia tugging at the collar of her shirt caught his attention fast enough and he took a deep breath to settle himself, but that headache was back in full force. Chiron had warned an attack coming this summer on his camp. Whether Kellie knew something about it or was just taunting him, he needed to find out.

From down the hall, I heard voices. A tour group was approaching. A man was saying something about locker combinations.

The empousa's eyes lit up. "Excellent! We're about to have company!"

"Why is that a good thing?" Nico asked with growing dread. Monsters weren't usually psyched to have a mortal audience.

Percy didn't seem to hear anything at the moment but the words of the book, his attention laser focused and Riptide now fully in hand. They all sat uneasily in place and hoped this fight wrapped up quickly before he lost track of the fact there were no empousa in here to kill.

She picked up a tuba and threw it at me. Rachel and I ducked. The tuba sailed over our heads and crashed through the window.

"You got your tuba Alex," Jason half-heartedly reminded now.

"I wanted Rachel to throw it," he sighed with disappointment. "That's okay, I can imagine it landing on Kellie just fine without the book."

The voices in the hall died down.

"Percy!" Kelli shouted, pretending to be scared, "why did you throw that?"

"Oh shit," Magnus groaned, guessing exactly what she was doing. It really didn't seem fair Percy kept getting blamed when it was the monsters destroying the school and he just happened to be there. And he'd thought little of the justice system before this mess.

I was too surprised to answer. Kelli picked up a music stand and swiped a row of clarinets and flutes. Chairs and musical instruments crashed to the floor.

"Stop it!" I said.

People were tromping down the hall now, coming in our direction.

"Time to greet our visitors!" Kelli bared her fangs and ran for the doors. I charged after her with Riptide. I had to stop her from hurting the mortals.

"Percy, don't!" Rachel shouted. But I hadn't realized what Kelli was up to until it was too late.

Thalia tightly pinched the space between her eyes with defeat. Once again, she couldn't imagine chastising Percy for doing exactly what she would have done. He really would have made a great Hunter.

Percy still didn't seem to hear what the problem was now. He was tapping his feet rapid fire on the ground, tightening and loosening his grip on his sword with his urge not to swing it on anyone in here.

Kelli flung open the doors. Paul Blofis and a bunch of freshmen stepped back in shock. I raised my sword.

At the last second, the empousa turned toward me like a cowering victim.

"Oh no, please!" she cried. I couldn't stop my blade. It was already in motion.

Just before the celestial bronze hit her, Kelli exploded into flames like a Molotov cocktail. Waves of fire splashed over everything. I'd never seen a monster do that before, but I didn't have time to wonder about it. I backed into the band room as the flames engulfed the doorway.

"Paul," Percy muttered in a daze, shaking his head and finally coming back to himself in here with concern. He remembered Paul talking about some kid who accidentally started a trash fire when he'd tried to stub out a cigarette and Paul had gotten him off with a warning. He'd used that story as a way to assure Sally accidents happened and her accident prone son wouldn't be blamed for something like that.

That fire alarm had been really loud going off and still had nothing on the dread filling him at the shock, the horror on Paul's face. He'd almost rather it be Gabe sneering at him and calling him a freak.

"Percy?" Paul Blofis looked completely stunned, staring at me from across the fire. "What have you done?"

Kids screamed and ran down the hall. The fire alarm wailed. Ceiling sprinklers hissed to life.

In the chaos, Rachel tugged on my sleeve. "You have to get out of here!"

She was right. The school was in flames and I'd be held responsible.

Mortals couldn't see through the Mist properly. To them it would look like I'd just attacked a helpless cheerleader in front of a group of witnesses.

There was no way I could explain it. I turned from Paul and sprinted for the broken band room window.

Percy swallowed the bitter smell of smoke, the screaming and his own self-loathing for all the problems he caused. Paul would probably dump his mom after this, another screw up.

I burst out of the alley onto East 81st and ran straight into Annabeth.

"That's almost a step down from her usual grand entrances," Alex noted with mild disappointment. "I half expected her to show up and stab them for flirting with you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, her timing is still amazing," Percy grinned in delight just like he always did when the slightest exchange between them was revitalized in his mind, but there was something off about it than usual. He didn't glow and straighten up in his seat. He was starting to ask himself what the heck had possessed Annabeth to kiss someone so wholly not at her level.

"Hey, you're out early!" she laughed, grabbing my shoulders to keep me from tumbling into the street. "Watch where you're going, Seaweed Brain."

For a split second she was in a good mood and everything was fine. She was wearing jeans and an orange camp T-shirt and her clay bead necklace. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her gray eyes sparkled. She looked like she was ready to catch a movie, have a cool afternoon hanging out together.

Then Rachel Elizabeth Dare, still covered in monster dust, came charging out of the alley, yelling, "Percy, wait up!"

Annabeth's smile melted. She stared at Rachel, then at the school. For the first time, she seemed to notice the black smoke and ringing fire alarms.

The black singes on his shirt and wild look in his eyes probably caught on right about then too, Thalia winced. It was kind of sweet though, that Annabeth always smiled first at the sight of him and then everything else kicked in.

She frowned at me. "What did you do this time? And who is this?"

"Oh, Rachel—Annabeth. Annabeth—Rachel. Um, she's a friend, I guess."

I wasn't sure what else to call Rachel. I mean, I barely knew her, but after being in two life-or-death situations together, I couldn't just call her nobody.

"Why would you call her Annabeth?" Alex asked glibly.

"I have a cyclops who will chase you for a hug and I'm not afraid to use him," Percy answered.

"Hi," Rachel said. Then she turned to me. "You are in so much trouble. And you still owe me an explanation!"

Police sirens wailed on FDR Drive.

"Percy," Annabeth said coldly. "We should go."

"I want to know more about half-bloods," Rachel insisted. "And monsters. And this stuff about the gods." She grabbed my arm, whipped out a permanent marker, and wrote a phone number on my hand. "You're going to call me and explain, okay? You owe me that. Now get going."

"But—"

"I'll make up some story," Rachel said. "I'll tell them it wasn't your fault. Just go!"

She ran back toward the school, leaving Annabeth and me in the street.

Percy remembered her maroon shirt flapping around her and the slight burntness of one strand of red hair like she'd been too close to the fire too. A part of him wanted to go back in there with her. Maybe for once give Rachel and Paul that explanation they both deserved.

Annabeth was already walking off though. He could see her in his mind, her ponytail whacking him as she stalked away like he'd brought one of those empousa out to introduce instead of a mortal girl who had helped him out because he'd ruined her day too by attracting monsters.

He sighed, and knew he'd followed her. He'd follow her anywhere.

"Hey!" I jogged after her. "There were these two empousai," I tried to explain. "They were cheerleaders, see, and they said camp was going to burn, and—"

"You told a mortal girl about half-bloods?"

"She can see through the Mist. She saw the monsters before I did."

"So you told her the truth?"

"She recognized me from Hoover Dam, so—"

"You've met her before?"

"You didn't tell her about that?" Magnus asked in surprise. "No wonder she's so short with you."

"It was the highlight of the last book," Alex agreed in shock.

"Why would I tell Annabeth about nearly dying on a dam, or on a mountain, or in a museum?" Percy asked in exasperation. "There were evil skeletons chasing us across the country, Nico made them vanish!"

"I'm suddenly grateful somebody recorded your thoughts instead of you trying to explain all this," Jason frowned. "You are horrible at telling stories, including the one you just tried to tell Annabeth."

"I didn't ask for any of your opinions on this!" He snapped and slammed back into his seat.

"This chapter's almost done," Magnus promised, "hopefully, we um, get a change of subject."

"Um, last winter. But seriously, I barely know her."

"She's kind of cute."

"I—I never thought about it."

"That was probably the correct response," Alex still gave him a tragic look like he should be wearing a dunce cap. It was sort of funny to Alex, Annabeth was so instantly jealous of the first girl she ever saw Percy around. Weren't the Aphrodite kids at camp all over him? It would be interesting to to see if that was her real problem and it wasn't something else this had just brought up.

Annabeth kept walking toward York Avenue.

"I'll deal with the school," I promised, anxious to change the subject. "Honest, it'll be fine."

Annabeth wouldn't even look at me. "I guess our afternoon is off. We should get you out of here, now that the police will be searching for you."

Percy crossed his arms and glared at the cracks in the floor he'd caused. He felt like a shmuck, now ruining everybody's day around him too. There was no more laughter or jokes to be had because of him too.

"It's alright Percy," Will promised, "you remembering this can't be any more fun than the monster attacks."

"Thanks," Percy muttered, trying to unclench his jaw from how instantly stressed he felt from Annabeth being mad at him.

While Thalia shifted protectively beside him, wishing she could tell Annabeth to take a chill pill. The boy didn't know how to flirt, let alone find anyone other than her attractive.

Behind us, smoke billowed up from Goode High School. In the dark column of ashes, I thought I could almost see a face—a she-demon with red eyes, laughing at me.

Your pretty little camp in flames, Kelli had said. Your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time.

"You're right," I told Annabeth, my heart sinking. "We have to get to Camp Half-Blood. Now."

Magnus handed the book over to Alex with a wince. So much for his concern Annabeth would be the one to need someone in her corner, now he felt like he should be fleeing the scene.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Here at last! Oh the things to look forward to in this book! My personal favorite is the three parter of the Demon Dude Ranch. Let me know what you're looking forward to?

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 25: Returning to Work

I don’t know how much the stay-cation helped and how much was just a sort of stop-gap measure but I am back at work, and it’s been going okay. It just… feels like a lot. Feels like a lot of stimulus all the time. Yesterday was the last food truck day of the semester, and I ate way too much; I always judge that wrong. We had an interview for the library assistant position; the second of two, but I missed the first one because it was on my day off. I feel slightly bad about that, but like… whatever, honestly. If people ignore the out of office information I put on the calendar it’s because my input isn’t important, or not important enough, and there’s really nothing I can do about that. I thought the candidate, who I know a little, was very nice, but I wish I was more impressed with her than I was. I did nothing with my post-work hours, mostly because I was still digesting.

Today has been even more of a lot, to be honest… I’ve been trying hard to finish this project I’m working on with our student worker before she leaves, something I am quite in denial about. There’s still a huge backlog of oral history stuff that I just don’t feel like I can deal with, even though I know I just need to be slow and steady about it. Our dedicated computer is having issues too—even though it’s only a year old, has literally almost nothing on it, and doesn’t store anything, so that doesn’t fill me with confidence.

In the morning, one of the adjuncts I know but have always felt like I have trouble getting along with passed me on his bike and yelled things at me, I guess my name or something to say hello, but I didn’t recognize him and thought he was just yelling, or like he was upset with me for choosing to cross the street when I did, so I didn’t say anything, and then later he sent me an email like ‘guess you were listening to your music really loud and didn’t hear me’ which actually really pissed me off. First earbuds are disgusting and I don’t use them and second and more importantly, listening to music while you walk is dangerous and I’m not fucking stupid. So I like kind of had to respond to that and I hope I didn’t come off as passive aggressive as I felt, but I’ve been obsessing about it and feeling horrible all day. I kind of… feel like I was in the right, though? Like you cannot just yell at someone as she’s trying to cross the street. Just don’t do that.

And then the subject of AI came up in the TS meeting and I kind of decided to go off for literally no reason and then I obsessed about that for a long time, too. Like in a silent, fuming way.

In the afternoon, I did have a much more pleasant and fun conversation, and then after that there was a birthday party, with fancy cake. Really it’s the little things, you know. But unfortunately the director, who I think I can just honestly admit to myself, in the privacy of this public place, I don’t really like, dominated discussion as she always does with things that make me anxious. Later discussion was about Taylor Swift, and like… it’s sort of a part of my personality that I’m Aggressively Neutral about TSwift, which seems like a rare position to take sometimes, and I also like to think I don’t much about her. Discovered I know kind of a lot about her, when you take me out of the internet and put me with real people. That really rocks my self-perception.

After work I went grocery shopping. I can only hope I got what I was supposed to get because I really don’t remember, but it wasn’t too bad, as far as grocery shopping goes. Waiting for the bus, I read some of my old ficlets and I’m not going to lie, they’re quite nice. Quite enjoyable to read. So at least I have that going for me.

[theorist-influencer-untitled]

8.19.23 Saturday

Planning to take the sleepwell but I'm somehow scared coz of the name "sleepwell"... But I think I need to sleep and rest even for our 2 days off... It is just 3mg... I wanted the gummies kind, next time that 1.2mg per gummy...

2:03 am

Taking the sleepwell... I still want to have tomorrow.... Goodnight and Good Morning...

8:57 am

Thank God for today...But we have no onions,garlic, ginger now... I have no extra money for food,not enough fundings... For Neko and Lalah here... Whew!

This Uncle DD is really strange as well coz he didn't give us an extra for food allowance... But he told me that he is still waiting for money bridging from Japan.

This Uncle Jun went out already around 7am going to baranggay forest of Georgia'Z and Betsilog'Z gang ( wearing a plastic coats?). It is weird he went back here then suddenly somehow angry coz he asked me about the password of the laptop that he is using... I told him he was the one using that big laptop most of the time not me... Why is he angry? I told him it is the birthday of Uncle Hideaki and year of his birthday...

I told Uncle Jun to reset that laptop so that we can use it... I wanted to stream again if I have time.

That laptop was left here by my adoptive mother or Aunt Teresa.... About Aunt Teresa? She is still on "silent snapping"... If she is dead people will tell it from there to here... Probably, she is having a major money problem as well... The last time she told me she is really having a hard time making a fundings there...

Me? I wanted to buy a new mobile and get some collagen on my feet and down there... But I have to prioritize things...

I still have left and right creditz and my sciatica/ priformis/ pelvic is still in pain...My S-bones but yesterday I felt it was my sciatica aching... I need to do my massage, I told Mia my left pelvic,thigh down to my left leg is aching...

About coach John,still not trusting him...Yesterday he almost massage and cracked the necks of my wave mates in 468... I don't trust him but I'm professional. Though, he was able to crack nicely the necks of my wave mates still I won't let him crack my neck... He is having a weird character as well...

It is just weird,I just remember from the past days that coach John sharing a story about a mother died ( but I caught him looking at me )...I had have windblow so sometimes, I had have confusion coz it is over-lapping in my head the real world plus my windblow...

I was just listening and ignoring him... Life is precious and only God knows.... Still, I have no guilty emotions angels... I didn't actually harm people intentionally...

10:07 am

I need to do this job and I will feel bad if I can't... I saw old people in Iqor around 55 to 70 they are still working... They can do call center job...

I just need a long while and find myself...

I still feel self-pity... People in Iqor and my wave-mates are just new people to me but of course we all need to be professional and maintain friendship on a professional way...

Like me and Lexa had some argument but it must be at that moment only and after that, it should be over... No more long talks...Coz that is how mature people should act...

I still feel self-pity... Kinda a long travel to go to go up, I really wanna be a product manager and see beyond things,see beyond and touch beyond the floor someday or one day...

It is just that this job, this call center thingy it is really a big challenge for me now... Coz there are old people in Iqor believe or not,they can do the job. I will feel mad on me, I will be mad at myself if I can't make it... Argh! This job! BUT! I have to conquer it... Why they can and why I can't...

1:14 pm

This is the picture yesterday....Our back to school theme but me? I wanna graduate... Will I ever graduate??? ( not literally )Life is puzzle pieces...

Coach John is from De La Salle as well,angels...

With Gio ( his wife is also working in Iqor as one of the team leaders ) and with bro. Rodel...

3:03 pm

I need to rest and will do my laundry later... I need sleeping pills angels... But I want a new day everyday.... Still need to have a self-fulfillment... Still,having self-pity...

My sciatica is aching... My entire left body is in pain,angels...

5:18 pm

Whew! I can't sleep... But I already took the 2 capsule of Sleepwell on 2 different nights...

Time to do my laundry and still thinking of money... I feel self-pity... I need to keep my job...

I still wanna remove my deep smile lines :(

11:46 pm

My sciatica is aching ( done doing my laundry)....I still have windblow trap??? Hey! I'm already in Iqor...

I need money and I need to keep this job... So, many frustrations in life... Hope I have angels to guide me...

I still wanna get a dimple, in the future... I still feel fat,ugly and old... Plus, still wanna see donkey and camel ( to travel in the future)...

But I need to prioritize things now...

[kuroashibish]

Idk what to call this

This is my first time writing so bear with me.

At first Senku wouldn't really mind if you're going around the others and asking them this specific thing that got you curious.

There would be times you would hang out with Gen more and this makes him annoyed and yet at the same time, happy for you that you got yourself a new friend. He know how you struggle with making friends so the least he could do is avoid getting jealous of Gen.

Ah, now he had enough. Ryusui, who's a literal flirt, had been making you laugh like crazy. He had never seen you laugh that way with him nor smile like that with him. It made him feel something on his chest.

He wants to be the only one to do that but he's busy rebuilding the humanity with the help of those people who he gets jealous of. And you understanding it doesn't want to be a hindrance on his way. You know how important it is to him.

That day, he didn't even bothered to spare a glance at you nor spoken a word with you. He was giving you the silent treatment he knows you don't deserve.

He made the work for Ryusui harder more than it already was. Made Gen so busy so he wouldn't have the time to talk to you and did the same to the others.

Nigh time falls soon, the kingdom of science have fallen into their sleep because of how bossy Senku got.

You're with Senku at a tent you built with the help of people from the village.

"Senku?"

"Hmm?" he hummed without looking at you and continued.

"can we cuddle?" you are really vocal about what you want and that's one of the things Senku liked about you.

"Go to sleep I'll be busy"

And with that you sighed and turned your back from him, covering yourself with a blanket.

He heard that disappointed sigh but he couldn't just bring himself to cuddle with you after remembering the way you laughed at Ryusui's jokes or how you smile as you talk about the things you love with Gen.

You missed him, Senku who would always at least try to show that he loves you still in his own ways. But lately he's been busy, like really busy. At the first few weeks of being in the Ishigami Village he would still make time for you and now he always say, "I'm busy, go ask Gen, Ryusui or Chrome about it."

It went on for weeks and now it's your birthday.

Most of the people you're with probably knows it's your birthday today. Gen gave you flowers as a gift for her couldn't really buy you anything from this stone world. While Ryusui just gave you a lot of those 'money'.

Senku of course witnessed when Gen gave you those flowers and got irritated by it.

You didn't want to others to tell Senku that it's your birthday today and told them to just go on with their day.

As the day went on, Senku didn't even greet you a happy birthday. You just convinced yourself that he has a lot of things going on with his mind that time and it isn't a big deal

The next day, Senku heard you conversing with Gen again. Curious, he eavesdropped as he pretend to do the task at hand

"Did Senku gave you anything yesterday?"

He was confused on why Gen asked that. What was yesterday? It's just any normal day, right?

"Oh, yeah he actually gave me a birthday gift last night! It was a really pretty bracelet."

He paused at what he was doing, suddenly remembering why you asked him if he forgot anything last night

"No I didn't, I'm pretty sure I already did all of the things I needed to do."

"I see.. anyways, I'm gonna go to sleep. Good night, Senku"

He looked at where you are, seeing you showing Gen the bracelet he already gave you back when this all happened.

Gen knows that you were lying to him of course. The eyes don't lie and your eyes are filled nothing but sadness.

"It's really pretty, huh? I'm sure it took a lot of time crafting that," he said going along with your acting.

"Yeah, it is. I'm just glad he didn't forgot."

[teeztheflag]

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Mafia!Ateez reaction to their child telling them that a member is flirting with you

trigger warnings ⚠️ mafia themes, flirting, mentions of cheating, possessive behavior, murder, alcohol, sexual harassment (slight)

general taglist: @latte-fairytaekwoon @little-precious-baby @yunhobabygurl @multidreams-and-desires @purplelady85 @smallfrye​

─────────────────────

k i m  h o n g  j o o n g

„Where’s mommy?“ Your little son ran up to Hong Joong to be picked up by the mafia leader.

His eyes wander over the crowd at the garden gathering and when he’s not spotting you he flashes a little smile at his son.

„Mommy is talking to a man.“

Hong Joong nudges the little boy to whereas he points into a direction. Following the path around the house he sees you talking to none other than Kang Yeo Sang. His rival.

When Yeo Sang places his palm on your cheek you take a step back and frown at the boy. Hearing a cough behind you a smile escapes your form. The rival on the other hand rolls with his eyes and lets out a huff.

You’re quick to stand next to your husband and take your son into your arms leaving the two mafia leaders behind.

„You’re getting on my nerves, Kang.“

─────────────────────

p a r k  s e o n g  h w a

„(y/n)...“

You stood stiff in Seong Hwa‘s lavish office. Your gaze trained to the ground and your heart sinking to the bottom when he neared your form. He placed his cold fingers under your chin to raise your head. Locking his eyes with you a sigh escapes him.

„You know you belong to me. Why are you still resisting?“

„I don’t know what you are talking about.“

Seong Hwa engulfs you into his embrace leaning your head on his shoulder.

„Even our princess doesn’t like you betraying me. I will make sure you are not seeing him again.“

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j e o n g  y u n  h o

„And what did he say after that?“

Yun Ho caressed his daughters soft hair while she sat on his lap in their livingroom.

„That he will hurt her. I don’t remember so much... He was really scary daddy!“

With big glossy eyes Yun Ho feels his heart shattering. His daughter being so afraid for his light of the world.

He wouldn’t let Choi San get away with this.

After bringing his angel to bed he visits your shared bedroom to see you being asleep. You’re stirring and he can only guess that your nightmares are back.

With a gun and a sharp knife hidden in his suit he drives fast through the night. His team is already ready to blow up the place.

And with the final hit Yun Ho grabs the ex lover of his wife by his collar.

„I told you to stay away from us. That she is not your business anymore. What were you thinking?“

San struggles in his grip but manages to bring out his probably last words. „Kill me, but, live with the knowledge that she will never love you.“

He dropped to the ground and Yun Ho grasps his shaking hands together rage filling his body.

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k a n g  y e o  s a n g

When your son repeatedly told Yeo Sang that he really liked the guy that was around you since a few weeks he was relieved. It was good Woo Young seemed to do his job right. After the last attack he wanted the both of you safe all the time. That’s why he send one of his best men that he trusted with all of his might.

It was only when he tucked him into bed that he stopped in his tracks being deep in thoughts. He goes downstairs and pours himself a glass of wine. He jolts a little bit when you embrace him from behind and he turns around to eye you with a sharp gaze. Tilting his head you step back and flash him a small smile.

„What’s up?“

„Woo Young‘s taking good care of you, right?“

You frown and immediately know by the tone he uses that something‘s not to his liking, and, Kang Yeo Sang not liking something was bad.

„He is, he is doing a good job. I guess.“

„Hyun Jin likes him, too. But you know what he just told me?“

You absentmindedly reach out to him to probably cool down his anger.

„He told me that uncle Woo Young was really close to you. Close like ‚daddy‘, when I asked him what he meant with that.”

“Yeo Sang, he’s not. He is just friendly. Hugging me as a greeting nothing more.“

„You think our three year old son is lying to me? (y/n), I warn you, I know him. Don’t take his flirting attempts light hearted.“

You nod at him knowing he wouldn’t take any arguing.

„If you can’t stop him I will give him a different job.“ With a last sip he finishes his glass and roughly pulls you into him to place a delicate and territorial kiss on your forehead.

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c h o i  s a n

„Dad, I don’t know how to say this but... I am really worried for your marriage. I mean is everything fine?“

San takes his cup of coffee sitting down on the breakfast table in front of your fourteen year-old daughter. He really needed a moment to register So Ra‘s words.

„What? Of course everything‘s fine! Or what are you even talking about?“

So Ra‘s gaze is trained on the buttered toast in front of her a deep frown taking place on her forehead.

„Yesterday at the gala... and I don’t know if I am mistaking things, but, I feel like she was flirting with this CEO named Song.“

San‘s eyes widened and he quickly takes a another sip from his coffee. „Oh, ehm, believe me your mother has always had her effect on...men.“

„Yeah, but, dad - the guy was literally stripping her naked with his eyes - “

„Choi So Ra! Your words!“ So Ra gestures a sorry with her hands but she didn’t want her mother to be so close to other men. She loved her parents dearly and she wanted to have a marriage like them in the future.

„Really, anyways, don’t worry. Everything‘s perfect. If there’s a problem we would never lie to you, promise!“ He holds his pinky for So Ra and with a relieved sigh she links it like she and her dad always did.

„Good morning!“ You place a kiss on your daughter‘s cheek and send a smirk to San being proud you got the right information last night.

San looks at his two princesses and has to hold back a laugh. If their daughter only knew their jobs things would be more dangerous but in many ways easier, too.

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s o n g  m i n  g i

„What means ‚sexy‘?“

You nearly caugh at your son‘s words quickly drinking something. Min Gi also nearly doubles over laughing while typing away a text for his members for their mission.

„Dong In! I thought we talked about this already.“

Your son was a persistent person eyeing you suspiciously.

Min Gi places his device on the table continuing to eat the soup for their shared dinner. „It means beautiful, but, it’s not a really polite word, Dong In.“

„Ah, so Mr. Kim is not polite to you Mum?“ That indeed catches your husband‘s attention.

„What is he talking about, (y/n)?“ A sly smile leaves him.

You groan out knowing sooner or later your son would’ve told him. „Well, Dong In‘s teacher just seems to need a talk with me about our son occasionally. And today he told me that he thinks I am ‚beautiful‘. Right, Dong In?“ Your son wasn’t paying attention anymore but with a naive sigh he slurped the rest of his soup.

„He said mommy‘s a sexy thing.“

„Dong In!“ Min Gi slowly sits back flexing his arm‘s muscles. He eyes you with a hungry gaze while he nudges Dong In.

„Next time Mr. Kim is telling your mother that she’s beautiful you say that your dad thinks so, too. Alright buddy?“ Min Gi fist bumps with your son.

„Got it!“

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j u n g  w o o  y o u n g

Woo Young wasn’t really a jelous man. He knew his worth and he also tend to be proud of the woman at his sight. Your auro caught the gazes of many men and that only boosted the mafia‘s ego.

When a man was flirting with you it was for you to play by the game. Being raised into the mafia business yourself you knew how to handle those greedy bastards.

Woo Young only smirked in the back of a booth when someone sneaked into the seat next to you at the bar. His men ready at any given chance to beat up the poor soul that tried to take what was Jung‘s.

But - he also loved your sneaky site.

It was only a button that you pushed too far when your daughter went up to his daddy to cry about how you were not giving her enough attention at the big gathering. Like the father himself their princess needed the recognition from her beloved ones.

Woo Young‘s gaze darkened when he saw you being corned by the one and only mafia leader of the west - Choi Jong Ho.

„That b - “

„Daddy! You didn’t want to swear! Mommy told you not to swear!“

„Ahhh, you’re right darling.“ He turned around to give his daughter into Seong Hwa‘s arms - one of his members.

With confident steps he emerges your form at the end of the room where Jong Ho was busy playing with your hair while talking about his latest wins in the business.

„Choi. Would you mind keeping your hands to yourself?“ Woo Young was raging by now. You didn’t stop the rival from touching you and the naive smile you send to your lover only angered him more.

„Let’s ask the lady what she wants.“ Jong Ho wiggles his eyebrows at Woo Young and you mentally facepalmed knowing Mr. Jung would scream bloody murder in a few seconds.

„I am sorry Mr. Choi.“ You gracefully step into Woo Young‘s arms giving him the satisfaction of winning this little debate with his rival. Jong Ho laughs out loud and turns around to leave the two of you.

„If you want attention ask for it. Don’t make me mad, baby.“

You lock eyes with him putting on a pout. „This way it is much more fun!“

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c h o i  j o n g  h o

It was the final day your son got introduced to the mafia world. A big party was held for him after he was prepared for everything over months. It was also his 16th birthday party and you had tears in your eyes knowing he was growing into a man so quickly really assembling his father in many ways.

It has been Park Seong Hwa‘s presence that put you off. He was an acquaintance of your clan for a long time but you didn’t really like the guy. When he approached you after dinner, when you were ushering your son to dance with a girl on the dancefloor, you immediately knew he was going to get on your nerves again.

He made jokes, touched you and clearly invaded your personal space. For the sake of your peaceful agreement you played his game hoping someone would come to help you out of your misery.

„Dad, I will literally kick this guy‘s balls if - “

„I already know about it.“ Jong Ho‘s gaze is fixed on your figure across the room. He turns to his son and tells him to have fun. He would take care of the matter.

Jong Ho soundlessly leans into your side leading Seong Hwa to roll with his eyes. He places a meaningful and strong kiss on your trembling lips catching your weight with his arms to steady you.

Playfully he turns around to the mafia a smile adoring his features. „Mr. Park. I didn’t even see you there!“ You’re quick to leave the duo to get to the toilet knowing by the squeeze Jong Ho just gave you a few seconds ago.

„Still so possessive I see. Let us leave this by complimenting you on your still beautiful wife.“ He let’s out a giggle while eying the crowd.

„Thank you, Seong Hwa. Seems to be running in my family.“

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↺ back to navi

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[floralseokjin]

⤑ made-up love song vi (m).

Your first encounter with Kim Seokjin doesn’t go so well, nor your second, or your third… and maybe that’s because it shouldn’t work on paper. You’re an elementary school teacher, never left the country despite hitting the third decade of your life not so long ago, and you’re unable to remember the last time you dated. He’s the dad of one of your students, nearly a decade older than you and divorced. Oh yes, and just another minor detail – he’s a multimillionaire. 

Your lives are lightyears apart, yet somehow, your paths having now crossed, things just seem to fall into place…

pairing; kim seokjin x reader   au/genre/warnings; strangers to lovers, romance, eventual angst, single dad! seokjin, ceo! seokjin, elementary school teacher! oc, age gap (oc is 30, seokjin is 37), seokjin is a dilf, smut; basically a montage of the sex they’ve been having during the rest of the summer lol, they can’t keep their hands off one another, seokjin’s mouth gets progressively dirtier as time goes on, he also gets strategic with condom storage, smut includes; 69, face riding, condomless sex, creampie, biting, (light) spanking, there’s cute things too, like arin’s birthday party and oc meeting his parents   words; 12,064

↪︎ chapter index

chapters; i • ii • iii • iv • v • vi • vii • viii • ix • x • epilogue (+ drabbles)

You spent the whole of Sunday in bed – which you thought was Seokjin’s plan all along, only finding your way downstairs to eat, and even then he couldn’t keep his hands off you for long enough. (Not that you minded.) He was making the most of it, he told you, before he had to leave you for work. That, and he was waving goodbye to his celibacy the right way… Despite your snort, you understood what he meant. You had fun familiarising yourself with the wonders of sex again… Miraculously blessed with an abundance of energy. Although, when it came to Seokjin, how could you even think about resisting him?! You couldn’t keep your hands to yourself. And neither could he… 

“Mmm. What time is it?” You asked Monday morning, voice heavy with sleep, eyes still closed as you heard Seokjin’s alarm go off. He stirred beside you, sitting up to knock the device off before burrowing back under the covers to wrap his arms around your naked body. 

“Half 6,” he grumbled, mouth pressed against the back of your neck. “I don’t want to work.” With one squeeze to his chest, you felt that very obvious erection of his pressed against your ass. “Can’t I just stay here for the rest of the day? Inside you…”

You giggled, attempting to roll over and face him. A hand cupped your cheek instantly, puffy lips finding yours. Morning Seokjin wasn’t good for your heart. His messy hair flopping over his eyes, pillow marks marring his skin, the slight stubble beginning to grow along his top lip… It was all just so… sexy, and now you were wide awake. Still, some teasing couldn’t be helped. 

“We literally spent yesterday all day in bed…”

“Yes, and it was amazing,” he declared. “I’d do it all again today.” 

You raised an eyebrow, a palm holding him steady at the waist. “All again? You do realise we still have all week to go, right? I wouldn’t want you to fail on me so soon…” 

He huffed out a laugh, fingertips ever so cheekily grazing the underside of your right breast. “You underestimate me…” His voice was still gruff from sleep, it made his words ripple through your body, settling between your legs. “I still have 95% of the condoms to use. So,” he grinned, dipping his head to capture your mouth. “You,” – he rolled you onto your back expertly – “better,” – he kissed your throat – “keep,” – then your cleavage – “ up.” His tongue around your nipple had you gasping out immediately, back arching, wanting more. 

Spreading your legs, he nestled in between them easily, the muscles of his meaty thighs protruding as he kneeled up slightly. You gripped them urgently, needing to anchor yourself somehow, knowing what was about to come. 

His teeth grazed your nipple as he dragged away, lifting his head up to smirk. “What do you say, baby, one for the road?”

Baby. Yesterday he’d become quite partial to that word, learning quite quickly what it did to you, what effect it had on you. (Yes, a curse word – or two, or more – may have slipped out of you yesterday… He’d won, embarrassingly soon.) 

You refrained from rolling your eyes, but still told him to shut up. Two minutes later he was buried inside you making you moan out his name. 

It wasn’t even 7am. 

.

.

When Seokjin finally got off to work (after about a bajillion kisses…), you slipped into the shower, attempting to work it without breaking it. With that successful, you wondered downstairs to make some breakfast. It was strange being inside his house alone. You’d arrived to meet him for lunch early a couple of times, yes, but Misook and Arin had always been there ready to greet you. Today it was just you, playing music as loud as you could just to drown out the deafening silence as pottered about in the kitchen. After eating, you washed the dishes (most leftover from yesterday) in the sink, unsure how to set the dishwasher correctly, and wondered to yourself how Seokjin had managed to cope living here alone before Arin moved in… 

You busied yourself with unpacking your case, not having a chance to do it yesterday – too preoccupied – while watching the clock. You had a lunch date with Soojung at half 11. You’d managed to text her a brief reply yesterday but other than that you’d been AWOL. You knew it must’ve been killing her. By the time you met up at the food court, she was frothing at the mouth, desperate for all the details, which you gave to her in hushed whispers over a shared thin crust margherita. You didn’t divulge all though, just enough to keep her nosey butt satisfied. 

“This is not fair at all,” she whined. “You were getting dilfed the hell down and I was getting farted on by Tae.” 

You laughed, wholly impressed. “You’ve turned it into a verb now? Very creative. I’m so glad to have you as a best friend.” 

Although, she wasn’t so happy to have you as one when you confessed to telling Seokjin about his plethora of nicknames… 

.

.

Seokjin came home a little earlier than you’d expected. After lunch with Soo, you’d popped to the local grocery store, picking up a few things for dinner and then you’d sat in front of the television for the afternoon. It wasn’t the most productive day you’d had by any means, but you felt contented, excited to greet Seokjin after his long day at work. You were in the kitchen, beginning to prepare dinner when you heard his voice. 

“Honey?” Before you had time to reply, he was calling your name, closer down the hallway. “Y/N? Where are you?”

“Kitchen,” you called back. 

You weren’t looking when he entered, back to him, so suddenly you were engulfed in his arms from behind. He held your back to his chest tightly. “Hey,” he murmured, nestling into your neck. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” you said with a smile, holding his hands that were around your stomach. 

He shook his head, pressing his crotch to your ass. “No, I really missed you.” 

“Seokjin,” you hissed in surprise, feeling his erection instantly. You were getting déjà vu. Laughing, you wriggled around, facing him. He already had his tie loosened around his neck, the top two buttons of his shirt free. “Control yourself. You’ve literally just gotten through the door.” 

His facial expression looked immediately agonised. “I can’t. You’ve awakened the beast.” 

“The beast?” You snorted. 

He stared you down. “Yes.” And then he was on you, no time to return his kiss with just as much enthusiasm before he was at your neck, growling playfully. You fell into a fit of giggles, held prisoner by his hands pinned to your hips. “I was – distracted – all – day.” He informed you between tugs of your skin, tongue dutifully swiping where he’d bitten. He repeated. “Couldn’t stop thinking –  about you naked – and moaning my – name – while I ate your–”

“Seokjin!” you roared, heat instantly travelling up your face. You swore his mouth was getting dirtier by the hour. It made sense. He was teasing in nature… you just needed some time to get used to it. You would not let him finish that sentence for fear your legs would collapse beneath you. 

He broke away and leaned back, pupils so dark you could just about make out the brown of his irises. He panted slightly, lips wet. “Do you want to?” 

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Right here?” It didn’t practically look like he was about to sweep you up in his arms and dash you up to the bedroom if the urgent grinding of his crotch was anything to go by…

He grinned wolfishly, tilting his head. “Why not?”

“It’s not very sanitary.” You glanced to your left as you spoke, eyeing up the two bell peppers you’d placed on the counter five minutes before Seokjin and his penis had shown up… 

You watched in pure disbelief as Seokjin eased back and pulled a square foil packet out of his inner breast pocket. “Why? I have protection.” 

“What the hell?” You exclaimed. “Why do you have a condom with you?” He’d gone to work with that in his pocket? Attended meetings? Was he crazy? 

“It’s not what it looks like.” He chuckled, looking momentarily bashful. “I just thought… easy access. We never know when we’ll need one.” 

Folding your arms, you stared at him. Frustratingly you were unable to keep the corners of your lips from quirking up. “We’ll need one at your office?”

He shrugged casually, a smug smirk on his face. “Who knows. I’m a man of very many fantasies…” 

Oh, my god. Unbelievable. But you couldn’t pretend that his words weren’t having an effect on you, nor that the office fantasy didn’t sound hot… You stepped forward, hooking your fingers between his belt and slacks, pulling him forward – which was easy because he was caught off guard. “Enough small talk. Are you going to fuck me in your CEO suit, or what?”

He composed himself expertly, hands reaching for your waist as he leaned in. “First of all, hearing you curse will never not completely obliterate me, and second of all…” He paused to grin, so full of himself it was unbelievable. “You want me to fuck you in my suit?”

“Uh huh.” You nodded, tugging on his tie. 

And fuck you in his suit he did, spread on the counter, your tank top yanked down so he could watch your breasts bounce as he pounded into you…

You spent the Tuesday in his home office, making the most out of idle time to lesson plan for your new class come September. You facetimed Soojung (who tried her best to get you to give her a house tour) and then ended up sunbathing with a book for an hour or so outside. After Seokjin came home he called Arin, asking her what she’d been up to so far and if she was having fun. Despite how much he was enjoying your company you could tell he was missing his daughter, even if he didn’t explicitly tell you with words. You sympathised with him, it must have been weird not having her around. 

Unsure what to do for dinner, Seokjin suggested making a last minute dinner reservation. That sounded fine by you, too lazy to think of preparing something tonight, so off you went upstairs to get ready, but of course, Seokjin found ways of distracting you… (You were thirty minutes late for dinner.) 

The days were passing by quickly, and you could quite honestly say the week with Seokjin was bliss – and not just because of all of the sex. Although, it did play a very big role… It was the little things that meant the most, such as grocery shopping on the Wednesday afternoon. Generously, Seokjin had used two of his vacation days for the end of the week, saving the others he was due in the summer to spend with Arin for her birthday at the end of next month. He’d arrived home early on the Wednesday afternoon, informing you he would be making dinner tonight and as silly as it sounded, walking around the store while Seokjin pushed the cart was one of the sweetest activities you’d shared together. The domesticity of it made your whole day, but the pasta dish he prepared later that night almost ruined it. His seasoning quantities were a little off, shall we say, all those years out of practice, so it turned out he was a danger with those chilli flakes. However, the coughing fit you both had after the first bite made for great entertainment… You didn’t know whether you were crying with laughter or because your throat was on fire… 

The next day, as great as staying in bed and having sex all day sounded, Seokjin wanted to take you out and spend some time together as a couple. You were left to decide what you wanted to do, and of course you chose shopping. A new mall had recently opened up about an hour away and because you were so nervy on highways, you hadn’t had a chance to go yet. Seokjin was more than happy to take you, and kindly enough he did spoil you a bit that day. Usually you wouldn’t allow it (he’d tried it in the past), but there was no harm with once in a blue moon, was there? Besides, he got great use out of a few of the gifts too… One being the black skimpy laced lingerie he’d picked out… (The panties had an open crotch…) That evening you shared a bath and a bottle of champagne before you’d given him a very indulgent fashion show… 

On Friday, you prepared a picnic and went hiking, which left Seokjin with an incredibly (and comically) red nose even though he’d applied sunscreen. You spent the afternoon cuddling in front of the television, making the most out of your last day alone together. Truthfully, you felt a little sad at the prospect of tomorrow. You missed Arin too and couldn’t wait to see her but spending your days so intimately and lovingly with Seokjin had been amazing. You told him just as much gone midnight, wrapped up in his arms and bedsheets, head pressed against his sheened chest as you listened to his heartbeat slowly even out. This week had made you fall for him harder – if possible – and you were sad it was ending, but just so excited this was only the beginning… He kissed you long and hard, agreeing wholeheartedly, words unneeded. 

.

.

Arin was due back early afternoon, so you and Seokjin shared breakfast together before you packed up your things. He clung to you the entire time, sighing every time you folded up an item of clothing and placed it in your case. 

“How will I function without having sex with you every morning?” He bemoaned after one particularly loud unhappy exhale. 

“I’m sure you’ll manage,” you laughed. He was unbelievable. And whiney. But then again, so were you… 

Stood beside your car an hour later, saying your goodbyes, you hugged him tight. “I’m going to miss youuu.” How were you expected to sleep alone tonight?! It wasn’t fair. 

It was now Seokjin’s turn to chuckle at your ridiculousness. “I’m not going anywhere.” He assured, cupping the back of your head as you pulled back to look at him. His expression softened instantly. “But I feel the same.” Kissing your nose, he smiled. “You know that you can spend the night here anytime you want though, right?” 

You held out until Monday. You wanted to give Arin some time alone with Seokjin after her week away, you bet she’d missed her father like crazy, but apparently she’d missed you too… Seokjin called you while he was at work – his second call of the day. (His first had been at six o’clock this morning, waking you up to let you know he (and his dick) missed you.) Arin had asked him to ask you if you wanted to come over tonight for an impromptu movie night. You were touched to say the least. You let Seokjin know you’d  be there 6pm on the dot with snacks at hand. He told you to bring an overnight bag… 

Having sex with Arin under the same roof took some time to get used to. The first time was so hilarious looking back. It was 1am, time was ticking on and Seokjin had to be awake in under six hours, Arin was long asleep – and across the hall! Yet still you were both anxious fools, listening out for the slightest of noises just in case the unthinkable happened. Not that it would have, Seokjin knew Arin was a heavy sleeper so there was little chance of her barging in… but it still didn’t stop him from whispering “What was that?” every five minutes, eyes pulled wide like a deer caught in headlights. 

It definitely got easier though, and soon movie nights became a regular thing as the last weeks of summer rolled by. You had a routine; one movie of Arin’s choice and then it was her bedtime, and then if Seokjin and you felt like it, you’d choose a movie yourselves to watch. Tonight was a Saturday, so after Enchanted had finished and Seokjin put Arin to bed, you decided to watch something too seeing as he didn’t have work the next morning.

Halfway in, however, you were getting distracted… Your hand sneaking inside the blanket you had wrapped around the both of you to run up and down Seokjin’s thigh. This week had been an odd one. Your boyfriend had been super busy with work and you’d missed him – obviously. You’d done well to keep your hands off him for this long, now you were finally caving…

“I guess this movie is boring?” Seokjin whispered into the darkness, face lit up with a blue glow. His eyes sparkled as your gazes met, your palm hovering over his crotch. He lifted his hips a touch, brushing against you. 

“No,” you grinned, leaning in to kiss him. “You’re just more interesting…” 

He chuckled against your lips. “I definitely agree with that.” 

Groaning, you went to lift your hand away but he snatched it back, pressing you into him, encouraging you to rub. With your tongues entwined, you soon felt his erection stirring, cock stiffening under his sweats. 

It was a wonder you both heard the creak of the wooden floorboards in the hallway – but thankfully you did. Movements stilling, you pulled back. Eyes wide in question, you mouthed, “What was that?”

You both listened out for another noise, hearing the tell-tale sound of footsteps walking towards the movie room. “Arin,” Seokjin breathed, and just like that the moment was over. You broke apart, Seokjin rearranging his junk expertly (a round of applause) before he stood up. 

On cue, a tiny voice sounded from behind the door. “Daddy?”

“Arin, sweetie, what is it?” He asked, walking over to pull it open. 

Arin was stood there, looking perfectly wide awake hugging her rabbit plush. “I can’t get to sleep.” 

“And why’s that?” Seokjin asked. 

She ignored him completely, walking into the room. “What are you watching?”

“A grown-ups movie,” he replied, sounding amused. “Come on, let me take you back upstairs. Say goodnight to Y/N again.” 

Arin whined loudly, turning to her dad. “But I can’t sleeeep!” 

“Maybe she can stay up for a little while?” You suggested, looking over at Seokjin before you turned your attention to Arin. “Until you’re tired, hm, Arin?”

Her face lit up immediately. “I think that’s a great idea, Y/N.” 

You laughed and Seokjin wasn’t close behind, bending down to squeeze Arin’s sides, playfully causing her to squeal. “Do you, little miss?” You met Seokjin’s gaze, both of you coming to terms with the fact your moment had been well and truly ruined. It was fine… You had later on tonight… 

“It’s the weekend, she can stay up a little later than normal, no?” You asked with a smile. 

“Fine,” he mock sighed, pretending to only give in right now. 

Arin cheered in victory, rushing over to sit next to you on the sofa, cuddling in immediately. She had gotten what she’d came downstairs for. You wrapped your arm around her shoulders, an action that had become more than normal these past couple of weeks. The more time you spent here, the closer you had become. You were no longer the teacher who had started dating her father. You were now his girlfriend, someone she saw regularly, someone she could laugh and joke around with. Someone she felt comfortable around, and vice versa. You were Y/N. Just as your relationship with Seokjin was growing and developing on the daily, so was your relationship with Arin. And you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Arin looked up at her father and grinned. “Can we watch another Disney movie, Daddy?” 

.

.

As it happened, Arin didn’t last an hour before she was fast asleep between you both, softly snoring, her bunny fallen forgotten to her side. Deciding to head upstairs too, you followed Seokjin as he carried her to her room, stopping by the entrance to watch him lay her down and place a soft kiss to her forehead. You smiled to yourself, warmth flooding your chest at the touching scene in front of you before you both headed off for Seokjin’s room and began getting ready for bed. 

Seokjin was lying on top of the mattress when you exited the bathroom, knowing you’d left your pyjamas in the closet somewhere. Only, the sight of him sprawled out in baggy shorts and a t-shirt, so casually sexy, had you suddenly distracted. In just your underwear, you viewed him from the end of the bedframe. “Where were we earlier?”

He groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. “I don’t know, I think I’m in a Disney Princess coma.” 

Chuckling, you placed a knee on the bed. “You enjoyed yourself really.” Then your hands. Then your other knee. Slowly crawling towards him. “Do you want to enjoy yourself now?”

He immediately sat up, back against the headboard, his eyes falling to your cleavage. He smirked softly. “That sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.” 

Ten minutes later you had him in your mouth, knelt to his side, ass facing him as he rubbed and massaged the flesh to his heart’s content. “You’re so good at this,” he praised, his fingers slipping into the side of your underwear teasingly. You sucked him deeper. “Fuck. So good. Baby, let me make you feel good too.” He removed his fingers and ran them along your ass, stopping at your entrance to rub. You were soaked through, could feel it yourself. He moaned. Either because of your tongue or because of what he felt. Maybe both. “So wet and you’re only sucking my cock.”  

You slid your mouth off of him, running your fist up and down the solid and slippery length instead. He jerked his hips into your touch, chasing the pleasure. “Quit inflating your ego,” you quipped. 

He chuckled, turning to his side as his fingers moved up to the waistband of your underwear. “Mm. Like this?” 

You got the message loud and clear, letting him slide the fabric down your ass before settling down on your side too. You ran your fist over the tip of him as he rid you of your underwear altogether, wrapping his arms around your hips to angle your heat towards his mouth. You wriggled as you felt the first press of his tongue, earning you a quick, playful smack to the ass and after that you let him hold you tight, the tip of his tongue digging between your folds to flick against your clit. 

You leaned forward, wanting to return the favour, and sucked him back into your mouth, the angle now making it easier to slip him deeper. You’d never done something like this together before, which was surprising in itself considering the sheer amount of times you’d been unable to keep your hands off each other these past three weeks. It was so erotic hearing him groan against you as he continued to pleasure you, your own moans vibrating down his cock as you both grew more eager, lost in the feeling. 

He came first. It probably had something to do with the way you massaged his balls, concentrating on sucking the tip of him as his hips grew impatient and he began rocking into you. He moaned your name, mouth faltering, and all he could do was grip your ass tight as he felt his orgasm take over, grunting as you swallowed each drop. 

“I win,” you gleed softly, pulling away from him to kiss down his softening length. 

“Of course you do,” he murmured, sounding fucked out. “Fuck, I needed that.” Rolling onto his back, he ran his hands down your thighs. “Come here, let me kiss you.” 

Moving to straddle him, you leaned in and kissed him hungrily, still very much horny, and tasting yourself on his lips didn’t help matters. His hands cupped your bare ass, spreading it slightly so he could run his fingers along your lips, so wet he was sinking in before he could realise. 

You moaned, rocking into him and he cursed softly, pushing his head back into the pillows. He tugged you forward. “This way,” he got out, panting slightly, out of breath from the way you’d kissed him. You understood from the way he was lifting you up where this was going…

Moving up his body, your thighs were soon either side of his head. He wasted no time in lunging forward, mouth picking up where he left off. You held on to the headboard, careful not to press your entire body weight into him for fear of suffocating him. Not that he would mind, you thought… He was all over you, licking and kissing wherever he could reach, hellbent on tasting every inch of you, humming in enjoyment the entire time as you panted. 

You kept your eyes on him, one of your hands moving to caress his hair, pushing it out of his eyes, his forehead on show as well as those deadly eyebrows of his, currently furrowed in determination. When his dark eyes flickered up to your face, you shuddered, moaning loudly. He loved it. It set him off. 

“I love the way you taste so much,” he praised, pulling back to rub his thumb over your clit. You bucked into him, fluttering when he kissed the spot lovingly. “That right then,” he almost rasped. “It’s been a fantasy of mine for a while.” 

In other circumstances you’d 100% shoot a witty comeback his way, but not now – definitely not now.  Not when he was slipping two fingers inside of you right this instant. You were soon rubbing your hips into his face like a woman possessed, needing to feel his tongue again as you choked out a few extra moans. 

“Honey, that’s it,” he encouraged with a long groan. “Ride me a little. You have no idea how much this turns me on. I could get hard all over again.” 

Moaning, turned on by his words, you listened, relief flooding you when you felt the warmth of his tongue against your clit. You moved like you usually did when he had you spread on your back, grinding against his tongue, only this time you had a lot more control – and he seemed to love it, free hand digging into the side of your ass, the other dragging against your walls, making you tremble. With one hand clutching the headboard, the other in his hair you used the leverage to rock against him, the squelchy wet noises fuelling you further, until you were panting and out of breath, unable to take much more. 

You lifted your hips a little, feeling your legs tremble like jello, and let Seokjin kiss the inside of your thighs, his fingers now shallowly fucking you as you attempted to catch your breath. “I love how wet and warm and soft you are,” he groaned. His lips brushed past your clit, breath fanning over you. “You really have the most amazing pussy.” 

“Seokjinn,” you moaned, unable to stop from jerking against his face again. His mouth would be the death of you. He latched his lips against your clit, sucking the bud gently into his mouth over and over again. You were done for, sighs of pleasure rolling out of you as you stared down at him. 

“Mmm, baby? You gonna cum?” He asked, stroking your walls deeper, pressing and curling as he went. You nodded, incoherent noises all you could manage as your thighs tightened. “All over my face?” He prompted. 

You didn’t need much encouraging. 

It was inevitable the need for condoms would become unnecessary soon enough. Which was a shame really, given Seokjin’s bargain hunting, but it wasn’t long before they became a bind – inconvenient, more so. That, and you wanted nothing more than to feel Seokjin bare inside of you, to be as close as physically possible, and nothing could be as close to feeling him come inside you. It had been a while since you’d been on birth control, years obviously, but highly organised and a bit of a control freak, you’d be damned if you ever forgot to pop that pill every goddam day. 

The first time without a condom had been mind-blowing. You were under the impression sex with Seokjin couldn’t get better than it already was, but you were wrong – very wrong. You were home alone, Arin staying with her mom for the night and you were taking full advantage of the opportunity. Who needed dinner at a time like this? But Seokjin (who had now become reacquainted with his culinary skills) insisted on preparing a candlelit meal. It was almost reminiscent of your first time together entirely, Seokjin keen and eager to pull out all the stops, and you teased him to no end. Was coming inside you for the first time really that big of an occasion? His reply: Yes. Very much so yes. 

Not an hour later, half your plates still full and too excited for no more than ten minutes of foreplay, you were both naked, sweaty and way beyond control. The bedsheets were rumpled, barely hanging onto the bed as you rolled around, the pungent smell of sex in the air, and in hindsight, you should’ve knocked the aircon on… 

Not that you had time to think right now. You’d successfully gotten him onto his back, riding him into submission until all he could do was hold onto your breasts and meet each bounce with a roll of his hips. You clutched him to you, hands over his own as you concentrated on the burning pleasure travelling up your body. It had been a couple of weeks since the last time you’d been able to fuck with such abandon. Arin was obviously home 90% of the time and on the odd occasional Seokjin spent the night at your place, Soojung was there (maybe even Tae too), her bedroom right next to yours. 

Seokjin’s hands soon found their way clamped to your hips, pushing you back a little so he could see himself as he thrust up into you. You cried out, the sound of his skin thudding against yours telling you just how hard and fast he was pounding into you. His eyes were glued to where your bodies met and he could see perfectly just how well you were soaking his dick, just how good you were taking it, stretching over his girth. 

“I’m close,” he panted, hips stuttering. He slowed his pace, but kept the pressure, his cock getting deeper. You held on tightly to his thighs, anchoring yourself, your walls clamping down around him. He groaned, feeling every minute sensation without the latex barrier. “I’m so fucking close. Can’t wait to cum inside you.” 

You moaned in response, holding eye contact with him, your face contorted with pleasure, and that seemed to set him off, your pants and sighs of pleasure happening in unison as he sped up one last time, ready to fill you with his cum. The veins in his neck burst as he grunted and his cock twitched, flesh scorching. He fucked you through each wave of his orgasm, holding you still, your body jerking with the force. In the back of your mind you realised come tomorrow morning you’d be sore as hell, but honestly, who cared? 

Carried away, no longer able to think straight, his cock fell out of you with one awry thrust. He was growing flaccid anyway, sensitive, so it was impossible trying to push back inside of you. Which was sad because you were still a mess, warm with his cum and desperate for more relief. You plopped down on his thighs, your breasts rising up and down with each laboured breath and then Seokjin’s eyes caught something. Something seeping out of your body… 

“Fuck.” He half moaned in amazement. “It’s dripping out.” 

After that you didn’t have a moment to think. You were flat on your back before you could truly process his words, his fingertips circling your swollen entrance, smearing his cum in the process. You pulsed in anticipation, body greedy, and he gave it to you swiftly, plunging two fingers inside you. You moaned on impact, feet planted to the mattress as he started snapping his wrist, pushing his cum back into you. 

“Baby, you drive me crazy.” He husked, sounding positively tormented. “Look so pretty with my cum inside you.” All you could do was moan in reply, walls squeezing around his digits as he coaxed you to orgasm. “I can feel it,” he grunted, pressing his body into yours, his mouth chasing for a kiss. Your tongues meshed together urgently, kiss sloppy, done in haste. 

“Seokjinn…” Your voice was a whine and you clutched at his shoulders, closing your eyes when you felt his lips trail down your chin, moving southward, towards the valley of your breasts. 

He growled as your body jerked, his tongue swirling around one of your hard nipples. “You’ve started something now. I’m gonna have to cum in you every single day.” 

You were on fire. His words affecting you in ways you didn’t think were possible. “Don’t s-stop,” you implored, although if anything, he was snapping his wrist even faster now, fingers curved, hitting right where you needed. You moaned loudly. “You always make me feel so good. Mm. I’m-I’m… Fuck.” 

Grunting, your curse ruining him, he made his way back to your mouth. You held him tightly, back stuck to the bed with sweat. “Cum, baby.” He told you. “Please.” 

That sent you over the edge, waves of pleasure rocking your body and he swallowed each one of your moans greedily, his fingers gradually slowing, easing you through your orgasm until he slid out. He pulled back with a drunken grin. “You’re so sexy.” Then he looked down your naked body, sighing in wonder. “God, you’re amazing.” 

“Quit it!” You exclaimed with a laugh, whacking his shoulder. Still very much out of breath. 

Summer continued to fly by, not long left now until you were back at school. As much as the prospect excited you, you couldn’t help but feel a little dejected. Having so much time off had worked out perfectly for your relationship with Seokjin, because even though he was still very much busy with work, you had all the free time in the world to match his schedule. It made you sad to realise there would be no more lunch dates. No more impromptu midweek movie nights. Actually, thinking about it, staying over during the weekday would probably be pretty impossible too – with all the lessons you’d have to plan and the work you’d need to score. In fact, you were about to be a hell of a lot busier from September onwards. 

Seokjin reassured you as best he could. You’d fall into routine soon enough and things would work out. You could still meet up for lunch – he’d drive over and you’d eat in his car if needed, and you could still spend the night on a weekday. He’d wait patiently while you finished up work, make you dinner and then make sure you were asleep by 10pm. You appreciated the sentiment, he always did know how to cheer you up. Although his “Think of it this way, you left school single and now you’re going back with an incredibly kind and insanely sexy boyfriend. I’d call yourself lucky, if I was you.” wasn’t as treasured… He thought he was funny, but he wasn’t at all…

Still, you had two weeks left to go, there was no point being miserable over the inevitable. You’d had the best summer of your life, you were lucky. (Just not in the way Seokjin had implied…)

.

.

“I can’t wait to take this off you tonight,” Seokjin murmured against your ear as he zipped the back of your dress up, insinuation deep in his tone. 

Turning around to face him, you placed your hands on his shoulders. “We can always skip tonight and go straight to the sex.” 

Laughing heartily, he tapped your ass. “Nice try. There’s nothing to be nervous about, okay?” He ignored your grumbling and stepped away, reaching for his cufflinks on the bedside table. “It’s just a dinner, honey.” 

“With a bunch of the country’s richest people,” you exclaimed, feeling sick all over again. Every few months or so Seokjin had dinner with a few of his colleagues. They brought their partners along, and this time Seokjin was ecstatic you would be joining him. You on the other hand were this close to hyperventilating. 

“That’s a small exaggeration,” Seokjin scoffed, cufflinks now attached as he made his way back to you. He cupped your waist, tilting his head to the side with a smile. “Besides, your boyfriend is included in that bunch. Are you nervous around me to?”

“Shut it,” you muttered, reaching to straighten his bow tie. He looked amazing in his suit tonight, hair parted to the side. Skipping dinner seemed like an excellent idea… But when he leaned in to kiss you sweetly, you knew you couldn’t. Seokjin was looking forward to “showing you off.” (His exact words.) I’m not a trophy, you’d shot back, but of course you knew he hadn’t meant it like that. It was sweet actually. He was proud. And happy. And cute. 

Wrapping your arms around his shoulders, you hugged him close. He nosed your neck, humming happily before nipping a patch of skin with his teeth, growling playfully. “Seriously, I can’t wait to rip this dress off you.” 

You squealed as he began to tickle your sides, trying to push him away. “Stop, you’ll crease it.” 

“It’s fine,” he reassured, easing up to gaze at you. “You’ll still look stunning. Always do.” The black floor-length dress you were in was nothing you were used to, and maybe that’s why your nerves were worse than what they should be but knowing Seokjin liked what he saw helped ease your reservations. How could it not? He always made you feel like a million dollars. 

He was looking forward to tonight, so you should try to as well… You had nothing to worry about. 

.

.

You really didn’t. 

The night was a success. Despite your lives being vastly different, you got along with Seokjin’s colleagues well. They seemed like lovely people, especially the wife of Seokjin’s CFO. She was around your age, a couple of years older maybe, and you bonded over your favourite book series like a pair of nerds. You both left with a recommended reading list saved into your phones, numbers exchanged with plans of encouraging one another to read more. Seokjin was delighted you’d enjoyed yourself so much and you spent the chauffeured car journey to your place talking about the night. 

Although, as soon as you got inside was an entirely different story altogether. It had already been pre-decided that Seokjin would spend the night with you, Misook babysitting Arin at his home, and you soon realised that he had not been messing around when he’d informed you he was going to rip the dress off you. You weren’t even up the stairs before he was attempting to unzip you, bumping his crotch into your ass with every step as he kissed your neck, blowing raspberries as he went. 

“Shhh. Shush,” you giggled, trying your best to whisper successfully. “They may be still awake.” You knew Taehyung was staying over tonight too, he’d been here spread out on the couch before you’d left for Seokjin’s place this afternoon. 

“Better get you to your room quickly then.” He said confidently, pouncing on you at the top step as he wrapped his arms around your middle. 

You bit back a squeal, shoving your foot into his shin. “Seokjin!” 

In the privacy of your bedroom, you shut the door tight, turning back to see your boyfriend already stripping out of his tux jacket. He didn’t have shoes on either and as you looked around for them, spotting nothing, you realised he must have kicked them off back downstairs. When?! He reached for you, running his hands down your curves before they settled on your ass. He looked at you as if he wanted to eat you. Your stomach stirred, only now realising exactly where tonight was heading. He really hadn’t been bluffing… 

“Did I tell you how stunning you looked tonight?” He asked, popping his bowtie off and unbuttoning his shirt halfway. His collarbones sharp enough to cut, the outline of his chest clear enough to make you dribble. 

You chuckled, although you could hear the aroused tremble so obviously. “You may have mentioned it once or twice.” 

He smiled your way, although it was more like a smirk, and stalked towards you. “Turn around.” 

You obeyed in an instant. His fingers reaching for the zip of your dress. It was already halfway down – something you hadn’t realised. (He was obviously somewhat success back in the hallway.) As he revealed the expanse of your back he kissed the nape of your neck, gently pushing the straps over your shoulders to let the fabric slide down. With an expert snap he had your bra loose, removing that too, and it fell to the floor in front of you, hands reaching forward to cup your breasts, fingertips pinching your nipples. You moaned, disappointed when he moved, but then he started mouthing down your spine as he helped the dress along, surprising you when he crouched down, and then inevitably got on his knees, pushing the garment past your hips. He groaned when he saw your thong, lips parting to caress you with his tongue. 

“You have the most perfect ass,” he gruffed against the skin, giving you a squeeze. “Have I ever told you that? Could worship it all night.” 

Please, you wanted to murmur, but you held back, biting down on your lip as you felt him sink his teeth into one of your ass cheeks. What was with him tonight? You could already feel your arousal collecting between the small band of your panties. It wasn’t going to hold for long. 

“Let’s get you out of this dress.” Despite his casual tone, he tugged the garment harshly, causing you to stumble at the sudden movement. 

“Seokjin!” You chided lightly, clutching onto one of his hands now at your hip. “I still have my heels on, could’ve broken my ankle.” 

“I was here to keep you safe,” he assured you with a chuckle, and then as an afterthought, “Maybe you could keep them on while we…” 

You bumped your butt into his face, silently telling him to shut it, and kicked the footwear off, now able to remove your dress easily. Seokjin stood, spinning you to face him, mouth pressing into yours with haste. He kissed you passionately, wrapping his arms around you, holding you to him, your breasts pushed up against his chest. He was still clothed, but you could feel his erection pressing into your stomach. You wanted to touch it, but your hands were too busy caught up in his hair. 

“Bed,” he panted up against your mouth, practically lifting you up to push you down on the mattress. You settled on your elbows, watching him as he tore open the rest of his shirt buttons, throwing the item to the floor, his well-defined torso now on full display. 

He pounced on you, kissing you hungrily once more, so hungrily in fact, you needed to pull away to catch your breath. He moved to your cheek, wet kisses finding their way to your ear. Sensitive, you had to push him away with a hand to the chest. “Sorry, am I being too much?” He murmured, lips sticky. 

You shook your head with a shaky giggle. “I just can’t keep up.” 

“Just lay back and enjoy, baby.” His tone was reassuring, encouraging, and insanely sexy. He lifted your hips, scooting you up the bed to rest your head on the pillows. “Can you do that for me?” 

“Of course.” You watched him raise up on his knees, the clank of his belt making you pulse down below as he undid it. He unzipped his pants but made no effort to take them off, running his palm once along the curve of his length before he crawled over you. He placed a sweet kiss to your mouth, smiling as he pulled away. “Did you notice I didn’t go for dessert tonight?” Puzzled, you stayed silent waiting for him to explain. His smile widened, more of a grin now – a very amused one at that. “I was saving myself for something tastier.” 

You scoffed. He was unbelievable, but it was easy to let him get away with such corny lines. Especially when he had you spread out near naked on your own bed. “Lame!” You exclaimed, immediately clamping your hand across your mouth. You needed to remember to keep quiet, Soojung and Taehyung were asleep next door, but you were feeling uncharacteristically unbothered tonight, too eager and excited.  

He chuckled at your silliness. “Y/N, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard them have sex before. Think of it as payback.” 

His nonchalance was pretty attractive so you let his words ease your mind. Although maybe it had more to do with the way he was trailing kisses down your stomach… He leaned back to spread your legs, already bent at the knee. You were pretty sure your thong was doing nothing to protect your modesty anymore.  

He confirmed your assumption with a sharp intake of breath. “Honey, you’re soaking. I haven’t even done anything yet.” You braced yourself, waiting to feel the brush of his finger, but instead it was the softness of his tongue. He licked a strip up your clothed mound, a noise of delight rumbling from him. You pulsed uncontrollably, eager for more. 

He gave it to you. Lips wrapping around your hidden clit, tongue laving, soaking the delicate material even more. Your legs instantly squeezed around his head, unsure what to do with the sudden influx of pleasure before you moaned, rocking your hips into him gently. 

He eased away slightly, replacing his tongue with his thumb, rubbing skilled circles that caused you to squelch. “Love your pussy so much,” he murmured, going back for more hastily. 

You moaned again at his words, fingers digging into the sheets beneath you, but it wasn’t long before he was kissing back up your stomach, mouth now attaching itself to one your nipples. Your hands flew to the back of his head, looking down at him as he flicked the bud with his tongue, moaning as he did so. It was such an erotic sight you felt speechless, and when his chocolatey brown eyes met yours, pooling with desire, you felt beside yourself. 

“Turn around.” He whispered, roughly. “On your knees for me?” 

You had never listened so fast in all your life, scrabbling on your hands and knees in record time. You waited as patiently as you could, ass in the air, anticipating his next move. You startled when you felt a puff of air against your entrance, the sound of Seokjin’s sticky lips loud in your ears. “You look so good in this thong,” he praised, snapping the thin line of fabric between your ass. 

Pushing into him, you smirked. “I wore it just for you.” 

He hummed – in contemplation almost – before he pulled your panties to the side and dove straight in with his mouth. You yelped, ducking your head at your volume. You’d been expecting him to go straight to the sex, not continue to eat you out. He’d never done it in this position before – it felt amazing. A noise dragged from his throat as he pulled away, fingers dipping under the sides of your panties to drag them over your ass impatiently. As he did so, he bit into your ass, his hands now spreading your thighs, exposing you more so he could bury his face between your legs. 

You held your breath, waiting for him to continue but nothing could prepare you for the pleasure he was about to inflict on you. He flicked his tongue out against your clit, nose and mouth pressed flush against your heat, hands rooted to your ass and you moaned right away, bucking into him instinctively. Unable to hit your clit as well as he usually could he slid his mouth along your slit, tongue beginning to lick at your entrance, sucking your inner lips gently into his mouth as he did so. You were soaking, could feel yourself starting to drip down the inside of your thighs, but Seokjin didn’t seem to have a care in the world, lapping you up as if he was a man dying of thirst, rough moans letting you know just how much he was enjoying himself – enjoying you. 

When you felt his tongue push inside you, you jolted, sensation instantly making your thighs squeeze together. Not that they could with Seokjin hunched between them. He began to experimentally push in and out of you, noticing the way you tensed around him and hearing the way your breathing got shallower. Wordlessly, his hand reached forward, around your thigh to hook between your legs and start rubbing your clit with his fingers. With his other hand he gently (but firmly) pushed down at the small of your back, your ass rising higher, giving him better access to keep fucking you with his tongue. With the added stimulus you could feel yourself breaking, knees trembling, pushed hard against the mattress. He felt so warm, and wet, and just incredible. Your moans got more frequent, heartbeat pounding in your ears. 

“That feels so good.” You managed to choke out, your orgasm so close you could taste it. That’s usually when you gabbled. “Right there. Don’t stop!” He listened, speeding up his movements, the squelch getting louder as he grunted in exertion. He sounded so hot it just turned you on even more, and you lifted your ass higher, pushing into each thrust of his tongue. He rubbed your clit desperately, determined to push you ever the edge. 

You gasped, unsure how else to stay quiet as more words rushed out of you. “Seokjin–! I’m going to– Oh, my god, I’m coming!” Burying your face into the pillows your moans turned muffled as you came, white hot pleasure bursting through your veins. So sated, you couldn’t even find it in you to feel embarrassed with how loud he’d just made you orgasm. 

His finger moved away first, clit pulsing against nothing as he massaged the round of your ass instead, coating you in your own arousal, before his tongue eased off, placing a delicate kiss to your entrance as a goodbye. 

The mattress shifted under his weight as he moved back a couple of inches and you heard him slide his belt out of the trouser loops, the sound flying straight to your core. He stripped behind you quickly, you couldn’t even bring yourself to take a peek, too dazed, yet your imagination worked quite well. Instead, you kept kneeling for him, waiting for his return. 

He wasn’t even a minute. You felt the warmth of his dick press against the small of your back as he made his way closer once again. 

“Are you ready for me?” Despite the deepness of his voice – how obviously he was affected – you could hear the care in his tone as he checked in on you.  

“So ready,” you insisted, jutting into his thighs. 

He chuckled, pushing his dick between your legs now, sliding it across your slit. You were still sensitive, squirming against him, but you were also still so greedy, so you let him do what he wanted, soaking his cock along your wetness unhurriedly. You were so distracted by his movements, the smack he suddenly landed on your ass had you yelping more so from shock than sting. If you weren’t so drunk with pleasure right now you’d chew him out for being so loud. 

“Did that hurt?” He asked curiously, voice dripping danger. You felt your gut squeeze. That was new. He’d slapped your ass before but never with that much intent. The sting melted into your skin as he massaged the spot. “Mm, baby?” He pressed, voice now dripping honey. “Do you like pain?” He spanked you again but this time you were ready, biting down on your lip. “Like it when I’m mean to you?” 

You nodded, some type of agreeing noise leaving your throat which seemed to appease him. He rubbed your ass soothingly, the head of his cock now dragging across your entrance. How he had this much patience was beyond you. You could not relate. 

“Quit teasing.” You whined. Put it in me.” 

“Don’t be a brat, honey.” He chuckled, but he pushed ever so slightly into you. He let out a sharp exhale, starting to fuck you shallowly with the tip, hands at his sides. You squeezed around nothing, flinging your head back frustratingly. “Seokjin!” You wanted him to fuck you. And touch you. 

Chuckling again, throatily, he pushed an inch deeper. He wasn’t even halfway inside of you. “I want to antagonise myself. Shush.” But he gripped your ass, pulling you apart slightly to slowly push inside of you all the way. You both groaned with the drag, taking a breather as you squeezed around him, getting used to the feeling. You always felt so full in this position, trembling around his crazy big dick. 

Soon he began to move, sliding in and out of you with intense concentration. You couldn’t see him but you knew his gaze was welded to where your bodies met, watching himself disappear inside you over and over again. “You’re the tease, Y/N,” he murmured,  picking up the pace. You could hear yourself squelching around his girth. “You drive me fucking crazy.” He felt you pulse and his breath hitched. 

Bunching the meat of your ass in his fists, he pounded into you for a few moments, holding you still, making you take it. You whimpered, trying your best to stay quiet. “Always take my cock so well. Don’t you, baby?” 

“Ye-ess.” Your voice broke, a moan tearing through you as he rammed himself deep inside , stopping dead. “Fuck, Seokjin.” You were burning up. You needed him to move before you sobbed. 

With precision, he started fucking you slowly, bottoming out each time, revelling in your warmth, your wetness. It was so intense your eyes started to water, trying your best to stay as silent as possible but each breath was sounding more and more like a moan. You could hear yourself squelching around him every time he moved. So could he. 

“I love that,” he said, voice tight, as if he was trying his best to keep calm. “I’m gonna cum so deep in you tonight. Fill you up good.” 

You moaned loudly this time. It was always hot to hear your well-spoken boyfriend fall off into the deep end, articulation deteriorating with each thrust. It turned you on like no tomorrow. “Please do,” you urged, walls clamping around him at the very thought. 

He lost it at that, begging with your words and your body, and it wasn’t long before his movements were speeding up, his hips snapping against your ass as he held it tight. “Can you cum again?” He sounded frantic. 

“M-maybe – oh.” You jolted, feeling Seokjin’s fingers at your clit.  

“I really want you to cum again for me.” His fingers became persistent, rubbing circles against your sensitivity. 

Holding your breath, you concentrated. On each thrust, how good his dick was, how the motions on your clit felt. Everything… You willed your second orgasm, feeling it start to be pulled out of you. You started to meet each of his thrusts, skin slapping as your sweaty bodies worked together. “Yes, yes, yes, yes–!” You urged with each thud, so close you were trembling. Your voice broke as the sensation took over, moan turning into a squeak as you tried to shut up. 

This time your orgasm was shorter, but it didn’t make it any less intense. In fact, it immediately exhausted you. “Shit. Fuck.” You mumbled, pretty much collapsing into the bed, Seokjin wedged deep inside you. 

“You feel different.” He groaned. You felt him twitch. “Love that feeling.” Ever so carefully, he drew back, hands gliding along your back. “I’m okay to finish?” 

“Yes,” you nodded, turning to press your cheek to the pillow. You jutted your ass out, feeling him slide back in almost involuntarily, your tightness calling him back. “Be quick though.” You were tired – and sensitive. Still horny though…

He found that amusing, chuckling throatily. “I promise you I will. I’m so fucking close.” He pulled back again, grunting. He was taking his time, easing you into it. “Ngh. I’m almost too big for you now. You’re squeezing so much.” 

You moaned in reply, loving the way he held your hips firm and rolled into you, slowly fucking you into the mattress. 

“Tell me how much you’re loving it,” he pretty much pleaded, ever so slightly speeding up. 

“I love it so much.” You professed. “You have n-no idea.” You jerked forward as he hit deep, crying out. “Seokjinn! Please. Go a little faster.” 

He grunted, sounding smug. “You want my cum.” You moaned in reply. “Say it for me.” He demanded. “Please, baby, say it for me.” 

“I want your cum,” you moaned. 

And that was enough. With a strangled cry he began to snap his hips faster and faster, fucking you hard, chasing his end. It didn’t take long. A minute later he rammed himself deep, stiffening as he came inside you, groan of relief loud as all the tension left his body. “Shit.” He muttered, collapsing on top of you, careful not to press his full body weight into you. 

He held your shoulders, nuzzling into you as he slid to your side. You used what was left of your energy to turn around, letting him smother you with kisses. “That was… I don’t know what came over me.” He exclaimed. 

“It was amazing,” you gushed, running a hand down his sticky chest. You could spot your arousal, now dried to his face, his hairline damp with perspiration. You leaned in for a kiss, pulling back when he began to laugh. You looked at him puzzled. 

“You want my cum,” he gleed.

“Get lost!” You groaned, pushing him away. He rolled onto his back, his chest still rising visibly as he caught his breath. 

“I need the bathroom,” he announced, standing and looking around. “My bag? I thought Misook said she dropped it off for me?” 

Sitting up, you glanced around. “Maybe Soo left it downstairs.” She’d probably thought you’d spot it by the door when you arrived home. You’d been too distracted… “Wear my robe.” You suggested. 

“That?” Seokjin questioned, looking sceptically at the pink fluffy nightgown hooked onto your closet door. 

“Why not? You’ll look cute.” 

“True,” he agreed, turning to reach for it.

“Nice ass.” You had a great view from here. 

“Hey,” he whined, throwing the robe on quickly to hide his modesty. 

“What, you have a really nice ass for a forty year old!” You insisted. 

He clicked his tongue. “Now that’s just rude.” 

You giggled as he left, calling out a not very believable sorry after him. A few minutes later you heard Soojung’s door open, footsteps in the hallway and then, voices. Taehyung and Seokjin’s. They’d bumped into each other. You laughed to yourself, imagining how awkward it must be for them right now. Amazing. Twenty seconds later Seokjin and your fluffy robe were shooting through the door. 

“Oh, my god.” Seokjin grimaced. “That was so awkward. Taehyung wanted the bathroom as I was leaving.” 

“I heard,” you chuckled, amused by your boyfriend’s unnecessary mortification. 

He laid on the bed, groaning. “We had to small talk. He was in his boxers… I think he knew we’d just had sex.” 

“Yeah, he probably heard us too…” 

Seokjin made a noise of discomfort. He wasn’t so sure of himself now, was he? You rolled your eyes and reached for him, gathering the collar of your gown in your hands to kiss him. You grinned. “You look really sexy in my pink fluffy gown.” 

He hummed against your mouth, “I know, right?” He didn’t need persuading when you pulled him over you, untying the middle of the robe before pushing the fluffy garment over his broad shoulders. His dick was soft, but he was eager if the way he kissed you was anything to go by. It made you feel guilty when you inevitably pushed him away, robe victoriously clutched in your arms. 

“Where are you going?” He whined, watching you stand. 

You slipped into the nightgown, smiling cutely. “I need to pee.” 

.

.

When you woke up the next morning there was a text waiting for you from your beloved best friend… 

Soojung (08:12am) Tae just told me he woke up and heard you guys having s e x last night  Then he bumped into Seokjin who was wearing ur robe  I’m glad I’m a heavy sleeper  But he said it sounded like you were having a GREAT time 😏  Dilf got movesss 😳

The embarrassment! 

Today was a very important day, according to one little person. Arin’s seventh birthday. She’d mentioned it almost every single day since August had arrived. Seokjin had worked really hard organising her a garden party, inviting all their family and friends, including a couple of her friends from school. You were a bit nervous about that, knowing you’d be met with a few curious questions but there were more pressing issues at hand... You were about to meet Seokjin’s parents for the first time. (As well as numerous other members of his family, but a girl could only worry about so many things at once.) 

He’d already met your family a couple of weeks previous – joining you for lunch with your mom one afternoon and then accompanying you for dinner at your father’s house a few days later. Seokjin had taken it in his stride, so even if he was a little nervous he never once showed it. He was good at that, you admired him for that. You on the other hand were this close to breaking out into a nervous sweat. 

You were thankful Arin had you preoccupied all morning, insisting on helping Misook and you put up the decorations for her own birthday party. Helpful as always, although be it a little buzzed. Scrap that, a lot buzzed. She was still on a high from celebrating her birthday with her mom for a couple of days. She’s only gotten back yesterday afternoon, and that’s when Seokjin had surprised her with two pet rabbits – one snowy white, the other midnight black. Her excitement levels were through the roof today. Seokjin had called you this morning informing you he’d been woken up at 5am and he needed your assistance ASAP because he couldn’t handle a hyperactive birthday girl all on his own the entirety of the morning… 

By 1pm some of the guest had already started arriving; Seokjin’s brother and his wife, along with their two twin boys who were a couple of years younger than Arin. Aunts and uncles, and a few cousins, Seokjin’s friend Namjoon, who had two children; a 9 year-old daughter and a four year-old son, and then a few of Arin’s friends, some from various clubs she attended and two you recognised from school. They recognised you too of course, and you overheard Arin adorably telling them that you were her “daddy’s girlfriend.” No matter how much time past, and no matter how natural this all felt now, you were still so happy that Arin was on board with all this. It was the best feeling. 

Seokjin’s parents were the last to show up seeing as they lived quite far away, and you waited nervously to meet them as your boyfriend took their luggage upstairs to one of the guest rooms. Meeting his brother and his friend and the rest of his family hadn’t been bad at all, so you were feeling very optimistic by now. Still, you could hear your heart beating frantically when you saw Seokjin leading them into the kitchen where you were blowing some last minute balloons. 

“You must be Y/N,” his mom greeted with a smile, arms wide as she walked towards. With a quick embrace she kissed you on the cheek. Seokjin had warned you about that. 

“Hi, it’s really nice to meet you,” you smiled back, relaxing slightly down to her warm attitude. (It also helped Seokjin had taken place by your side, arm brushing against yours.) You glanced towards his father, greeting him with the same smile and he gave you a nod, a friendly “Likewise,” leaving his lips. Seokjin had also let you know that his father was the silent, polite type. Seokjin was similar. They even looked quite alike. His mom was slim and elegant, and incredibly beautiful. 

“You’re even prettier than your pictures,” she informed you, taking your hands in hers. 

“Pictures?” You chuckled nervously, glancing up at Seokjin. 

He groaned quietly. “I may have sent her a couple of us together. My mom’s very nosey. Dad not so much.” 

“Oh,” you blurted, hearing his father laugh. You smiled coyly back at Mrs. Kim. “Thank you.” 

“Nonsense. I’m not nosey,” she insisted, raising an eyebrow at her son. “Curious, I’d call it.” 

Seokjin chuckled. “Of course, mom – Oh!” Something caught his attention out of the window and he rushed off, opening the sliding glass door to stick his head out. “Arin, your grandparents have arrived. Come say hi.” 

Mrs. Kim let go of your hands as Arin came dashing in like a hyper puppy. “Grandma! Grandpa!” She squealed, throwing herself into her grandfather’s arms. “It’s my birthday!” 

“Is it?” He asked, playing clueless, but he couldn’t keep it up for long. “Of course it is!” He kissed her cheek. “Happy birthday, pumpkin.” 

“Happy birthday, Arin. Are you having fun so far?” Her grandma asked, fluffing her hair. Arin went to hug her next. “What gifts did you get? We have yours in the car, but you have to wait until later, okay?” 

Arin nodded, before proceeding to talk all about her day. She didn’t come up for air, which was highly amusing for all four of you. However, inevitably, she got bored, her hand slipping into yours, tugging it gently for your attention. “Y/N, can we go and see if the buffet is ready now?”

“Of course we can.” You glanced at your watch, then up at Seokjin who was doing the same. It was half past two, you’d agreed to start eating at 3pm. Arin’s senses were perfect. 

“No sneaking anything off the table, young lady.” Seokjin told her. “Especially not cake. You won’t have to wait long.”

Arin couldn’t help but giggle at that, already beginning to drag you off. 

.

.

You were on your way back from the lower floor bathroom when you bumped into Seokjin’s mother again. She was stood by the dining room entrance, rooting around in her purse, pulling out her cell phone. “Oh, Y/N, dear, I was just getting my phone so I could take a few pictures of Arin. I need to show them to my mother. She’s a bit too old to make the journey down here.” 

“Awh, that’s a shame,” you replied, coming to a halt politely. 

With a nod, she changed the subject. “I’m so glad the weather is hot for her birthday.”

“I know. She’s been so excited, hasn’t been able to stop talking about it for the past month,” you laughed. The party had been a success, the food and games going down a treat. It had been a long time since you’d attended a child’s birthday party – your siblings were long past that age, and you’d forgotten how fun they could be, even if you were much older now.

Being surrounded by Seokjin’s family wasn’t as nerve-wracking as you’d initially thought. They were all so lovely – not that you didn’t expect anything less, of course, you were just thankful you could hold a natural conversation with his mom. 

“She really likes you. I can tell.” Mrs. Kim said out of the blue, surprising you, but you tried to hide it well.

Smiling softly, you replied, “I’m fond of her too.” 

“I heard you were her teacher?”

“For a short while.” You nodded. “That’s how Seokjin and I met.” But you guessed she already knew that, you know, mother’s curiosity and all. 

Her mouth quirked up and then she snorted. “My son definitely knows how to make an impression. I heard he hit your car?”

Laughing, you’d been correct. He had told her how you’d met. “Yeah, but I try not to tease him too much about that anymore.” 

“It sounds like fate, no?” She smiled, before shaking her head and raising a hand. “Sorry, I’m a hopeless romantic at heart. The first time my husband and I set eyes on one another it was love at first… You probably don’t want to hear about that,” she chuckled. You opened your mouth, ready to disagree, but she spoke again. “I just… I haven’t seen Seokjin this happy in a very long time. Not since Arin was born.” 

Speechless, you tried to think of something to say. Just what? “Oh, I –”

“What are you two conspiring about in here?” 

You heard Seokjin’s voice from behind you and turned to see him walking towards you both with a grin on his face. When he reached you he cupped your waist, kissing you on the cheek. His mom watched on fondly. 

“Nothing… much,” she replied, a teasing lilt to her voice. It caught his attention. “I was just telling Y/N that I haven’t see you this happy in years.” 

“Mo-mm,” he whined, immediately growing red. 

“What? I’m just speaking the truth, Seokjin,” she laughed and looked in your direction. “He gets embarrassed so easily. Have you noticed?” 

“I have,” you laughed along. 

Smiling tenderly at him, she stepped forward and touched his arm. “I’ve loved hearing my son laugh all afternoon.” Seokjin dropped his head, even more embarrassed now. He was cute. “Okay.” She clapped her hands, taking pity on him. “That’s enough from me. I’ll leave. Your father’s probably on his third slice of cake by now…” Kissing Seokjin’s cheek softly, she began to walk off. “You love me really.” 

“Of course,” Seokjin called, turning to you once she’d left, heading back in the direction of the garden. “Sorry about that.” 

You chuckled. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. We were just talking.” You wrapped your arms around his waist, hugging him. “You’re cute.” 

“You’re never too old to be embarrassed by your mom,” he muttered, kissing the top of your head. Snorting, you leaned back, but he held you tight, gazing into your eyes. “You look really pretty today.” 

“You say that every day.” 

“Because it’s true.” He kissed your lips, stopping any clever remark you may have had dead. 

Instead, as he pulled away, you brought your hands up to his chest, straightening the collar of his shirt. “Let’s get back outside. I’m enjoying myself.” 

“I’m glad.” Seokjin beamed, eyes twinkling. 

At that moment, it hit you how happy he looked… You’d not really noticed it prior, but now his mom had pointed it out it was so obvious. 

You hoped he could tell just how happy you were too… It was all down to him, after all.  

Written 2020 - 2021. Please refrain from posting my work elsewhere. No translations allowed. © floralseokjin 2021

[shotorozu]

TITLE : hospital stay

PAIRING : bakugou katsuki x reader

SYNOPSIS : you’re in the hospital on your boyfriend’s birthday, and bakugou seems to have no issue with spending it in there.

WARNING(S) : MHA MANGA SPOILERS ‼️ (recent arc)

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns used, a quirk similar to the avatar but that’s about it.

note(s) : so, it’s bakugou’s birthday. and i had this idea since march 20 😦 so i’ve been waiting for his birthday to come for literally a month but i didn’t want to post this way too early. alsooo i don’t know if this arc happened near spring but lets pretend it did for the sake of the story

When you woke up, the fluorescent lights were the first to hit your face

Following by the incoming beeping of a monitor, and the sudden throbbing of your head, the dryness of your throat evident.

Blinking slowly (or trying to, your other eye being a bit delayed.) you try recalling what just happened. You’re in a hospital, that’s one thing you know, but the specifics are still unknown to you.

Right. You remember now, you were fighting along side your classmates, and you managed to get blasted away when you thought that shielding Bakugou Katsuki would work. Yeah, you were sure that you were going to get an earful from him, if he—

You jolt when you notice said blond standing right next to your bed, vermillion eyes staring deep into your own, and somewhat— you could feel the weight and intensity in the stare

“S-since when did you get here?” You’re startled, and your voice is hoarse. Bakugou doesn’t formulate a response, and chooses to avoid the question as a whole.

“Finally you’re up.” He rolls his eyes. He looks much better than you remembered, despite having a few bandages on his forehead— he looked well. “It’s been 5 fucking days.”

“Five days?” You question out loud, your sense of time all disorganized. You clench your hand, just to see if your quirk was still working. Seeing air, fire, water, and just.. something, would relieve your worries— but a look from the blond shot you down quickly. You decided that it was wise if you didn’t try.

The blond seems to be done with the conversation, since he immediately walks out of the room. Actually, why was he here? You’d expect him to be laying down in bed, but despite being hit with that beam, he was walking around like everything was fine.

He comes back with a few other nurses, and they’re relieved to see that you’re awake— and even though they’ve bombarded you with questions with how you felt, you couldn’t brush off the feeling of a pair of ruby eyes on you.

Just, glaring. It’s nothing abnormal.

When the nurses finally leave you alone, giving you details of a few injuries— like your injured— well, burned eyelid that honestly stung (it came from the fire aspect of your quirk) you would’ve expected to be alone in your hospital room for the rest of your time there but Bakugou stayed.

“You’re going to tell me why you jumped in front of me?”

You were expecting to be questioned by him, after all— what you did didn’t exactly shield him, since he was also pierced. You didn’t expect the interrogation to be happening this soon

“Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t want to fucking know.” And he suddenly changes his mind, just like that.

You would’ve said impulse as an answer, but you doubt that he would’ve taken that seriously. And besides, you were kind of glad he changed midway that he didn’t want your answer. Your voice feels parched, despite chugging down a glass of water earlier.

“Did you check up on Deku?” You cringe when you hear cracks in your voice, and the dryness is unbearable to your throat, but he nods. “Idiot’s knocked out cold.”

He doesn’t mention the fact that you were one of the last few people that were still rendered unconscious.

“Your throat sounds like the sahara desert. Do me a favor and drink up.”

You blink owlishly at the glass of water that was set on the mini table, and when you drink up— it actually does something to relieve (temporarily) the dryness.

It was a consequence of your quirk after all, using your quirk too much would cause your body to feel sore, and everywhere to feel dry, and he knew that.

Bakugou was acting uncharacteristically, and you just don’t know why. Maybe it’s not so uncharacteristic of him, since he’s been less of an asshole as of recently, but you know that he would probably deviate from the question if you asked, so the both of you sat in silence.

—

It’s the next day, the same as yesterday— except it looked like dawn when you woke up. Bakugou also appeared at the side of your bed once again, almost as if he was there for quite some time.

“Nice to see you too,” You think to yourself, and you’re glad you didn’t actually say that out loud. You try to stand up straight, but Bakugou’s quick to push your back against the pillows.

“Don’t sit up, that’s idiotic.”

“Right, sorry. How did you get here? Isn’t it too early?” The parched throat came back. Though the ‘magical’ baku-water helped, it’s effects were only temporarily, sadly.

“You call 7am early?” Right, because for him— 7am isn’t that early, you even remember seeing him up at 6 sometimes.

“Actually, wait.” You blink, trying to recall what day it was, and what month it was. You recalled it being spring but.. was it March? or was it April already?

“What.. day is it today?”

It was almost like he was hesitant to say, “..April 20.”

“What the— April 20?” You’re appalled, because the last time you remembered, it wasn’t anywhere near April 20, but maybe it’s your 5 day unconsciousness to be blamed. “Isn’t it your birthday?”

“Shut up,” He mumbles, and he shifts around the room in search of something, but it’s too dim to be able to tell.

“Medicine. The nurses said you should take it now.”

You don’t reply.

“It’s for your Sahara desert throat. The other things are for your fucked up eye and injuries.”

That seems to be enough to convince you to take the medicine, and despite wanting to run away screaming from the bitterness, you take the medicine— not wanting to be met with any consequences

“Why are you spending your birthday here?”

“Do idiots like you ask that many questions?” He shoots back, and you’re unfazed by the fact that he just called you an idiot. You wouldn’t blame him.

“No but.. you seem fine.”

“A few days ago I was not, but now I am because I took medicine.” He walks over to untwist a few medicine caps, it appears to be for your eye.

“So, Does my eye look fine?” You bat your eyelashes just to mess with him, and he flicks your forehead with an ointment cap “No.”

“Sorry, sorry,” You laugh, choosing to completely ignore the sudden sharp pain when you laugh.

He bends down to reach eyelevel, “Can you see?”

“Sorta.” Your eye has this thin blur filter to it, that can’t be good— can it? Going blind in one eye, and having to wear an eye patch.

It was almost on cue, because Bakugou says “You’ll be rocking the pirate look if you don’t take your medicine,” Instead of handing the medicine for you to apply, he quickly applies a decent amount around your eyes— not giving you a warning whatsoever.

You wince slightly, but you’re glad it’s over. But why is he playing nurse with you? And why was he brushing off the fact that it’s literally his birthday.

—

Through out the entire day, Bakugou continued to act as if he had some responsibility over you. From helping you put on your medicine, to just monitoring you with eyes of a hawk. The fact that he chose to ignore all your protests was just a part of him.

His behavior was also very.. interesting. It would swing from being his usual self, to being this eerily quiet and calm Bakugou. You would’ve guessed that you were having a fever dream, if it weren’t for the fact that he wore his usual scowl on his face.

What remained consistent, despite it all— was that he stayed. He ate lunch in your room. He only left when the doctors and nurses asked him too, but that was only temporary. He stayed with you the entire day, even when the clock stroke 5pm.

But it’s quite literally his birthday? Why would he spend it in a hospital room with some extra? Or idiot? Let alone, why would he take care of said idiot/extra on his birthday? You don’t know because he refuses to tell you on why he spent it here.

“Did you at least get some cake or something?” You ask for the umpteenth time, Bakugou’s paced back and forth for some medicine bottles and bottles of water, and you could tell that he was scowling, despite the fact that he was facing the other direction, “Why the hell would I want cake? You’ve been asking weird shit all day.”

“Because it’s your birthday? Seriously— have you been brainwashed into thinking that it’s not your birthday?”

“What— fuck no. I haven’t been brainwashed.” He turns over to you, “I know today is my birthday.”

“Okay, so you know. Why aren’t you celebrating then? Did people forget? Or am I finally going insane?”

Bakugou chooses to stay silent. He stands up, and walks over to you— everytime he moves closer, you could feel your heart pound, luckily not at a dangerous rate.

“Birthday, birthday, birthday” He grumbles, quiet, but loud enough for you to hear. “That’s all you’ve been talking about. As if like you weren’t the one in the hospital bed as we speak.”

“Okay, is it wrong to remember your birthday?”

“Shut up, I didn’t say that.” He gets closer once again, almost to the point that your faces weren’t that far away.

“You’ve just been so concerned about my damn birthday, that you haven’t even taken a good look at yourself,” He gestures at you, by looking you up and down

You finally take observation of all of the gauzes, the IV tubes, and bandages, his words forcing you to look at what was reality.

“I don’t know why you did what you did, jumping in front of me like some kind of heroic bastard, it’s dumb. For all I know, I should be screaming at you, and wishing you the worst for that.” He clenches his fist when he recalls, the scene replaying in his head

“But what I am saying is that, you can give me a gift if you’re so fucking concerned about my birthday. It’s the least you can do.” His statement is solid enough for you to take him seriously. You wouldn’t have if he was scowling, but it’s quite.. different. An expression you’ve seen all day, but seeing it up close is a different story.

“And that would be..?” You gulp, anticipation bubbles

And just like that, he presses his lips against yours, the warmth of his lips sending shocks of warmth all around your body— the impact was abrupt, but the kiss as a whole was surprisingly gentle

Yet, it was also similar to his quirk, it sparked up spurs of need and sent goosebumps all over your body.

You place a hand on his shoulder, the tubes around your arms making it too difficult to wrap your arms around him as you deepened the kiss, Bakugou’s touch is cautious when he lays his hand on a spot that was the least affected, aware of your injuries. Pushing the small of your back with his hand quite gently, he kisses you like it’ll be the very last— even though you both know it won’t be.

When you both pull back, you’re taken aback— unable to think of coherent words, and a proper response.

But this damn bastard, he smirks at you knowing that he just sent shocks and explosions of intense feelings all around your body, your lips still tingling from the kiss.

“Wait, that’s unfair!”

“What?”

“I had no idea you even liked me!”

“For the fucking longest time I did, why the hell would I even be in some extras room, if I didn’t care about them?!” He tries not to yell too loudly but, the tone of his voice gets raised

You blink, “And you preferred playing nurse with your crush this entire time, instead of spending it properly like well.. everyone else?”

“Who the hell said— Fucking hell, do I have to kiss you again for you to understand?”

“Enlighten me,” Your mouth quirks up into a smile, which ultimately causes his cheeks to be set ablaze.

“Playing fucking nurse with you isn’t horrible. It’s one way to spend my birthday, even when you give me shit about it” His brows press together, trying to drown out his flustered expressions with a scowl, “There’ll be more birthdays to come, so why would I be ‘wasting’ it here? There, that’s it. You happy now?”

Silence.

“..More than happy. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your thing for playing nur—”

“Don’t you fucking finish that thought,” He says stern. “I’m going to get the nurses to check on you, and then— I’ll go home and come back again, tomorrow.”

He storms off, and when the blond is sure that he’s not in your line of vision anymore— he slumps against the wall

“Fucking hell, they’re driving me crazy.” He mumbles, recalling what he had pulled off earlier.

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[x-chubby-reader]

Hey, how about hcs Ushijima,Terushima, Bokuto and Kuroo getting jealous when their chubby s/o being hitting on right before their eyes 🥴 what would they do? Might as well do nsfw a lil' bit? 🥺

Thank you! I love your works ❤🥰

 Jealous Haikyuu Boys + !NSFW!

Ushijima, Terushima, Bokuto, and Kurro x Plus size reader

A/N - Hope I brought this to justice. I loved this idea a lot but I think they might have made them a little toxic- Also sorry for this being very overdue with writing, but as most of you know my motivation for lots of thing is shit. Also Thanks to @livieeee for basically helping to edit and give ideas for this. I also may add to the other characters NSFW as I accidentally gave Bokuto the most detailed part

Lowercase intended

Not proof read

NSFW included

Cursing

The Characters are all aged up for this Headcannon

Ushijima

we are all very aware about how blunt he is with things

not one to bottle things up

if he doesn't like something, he will voice his opinion

ushijimas blunt ass will sat whatever he wants if he deems that its true

doesn't everyone want to know the truth about things?

he also isn’t one to be easily jealous over things too

his confident ass knows that he’s got you in the long run anyways 

he has complete trust in you, your his rock

ushi knows that you wouldn’t go off to flirt with some douche just for the fun of it

the first time that he had ever found himself jealous was when you had dragged him out to your friends birthday party in college

he wouldn’t of even gone if you hadn't forced him out to be social and to make some friends with people his own age and should get out of the house for something other than practicing with the volleyball team he was on

since the party had been for your friend finally becoming of legal drinking age, of course there had been alcohol

oh i wonder how this liquid luck could get you into a predicament?

you had needed to go to the bathroom, so you gave your boyfriend a little wave before leaving

it should of only taken you about five minutes, and ushi knew that

so when you took over twenty he decided to go looking for you

while he was searching for your thicker frame, you had been quite preocupied with something else

there was this guy, completely drunk off of his ass, who wouldn’t leave you along

“are you lightning? because your my mc-queen”

 just really icky and shitty pick up lines

homeboy was so touchy too omfg like back up ass hat

you hadn't even noticed the amount of time that had passed until you felt a strong hand on your shoulder

boy did that make you jump

and he looked pissed

~Nsfw~

homeboy really said posessive~

ushi literally ripped you away into the bathroom as you had been stuck in the hallways for god knows how long

for once his touch wasn’t gentle with you, it was more rough and less caring

he’s so rough with you right now oml

to make the story short, you won’t be walking easily later

he wants to make you yell out, to show everyone in the premis know that you are his

“how about you let everyone know who you belong to, sweetheart~”

his buff ass literally is holding you up, just fucking railing into you

only stops when he deems that you are done

he even apologizes if he hurt you too badly

cleans the both of you up with one of the guest towels hanging, before walking you ever so gently out to grab a cab and make your way home

Terushima

while the two of you had been out shopping for god know what, you happened to spot an old friend

he was ole of those guy friends that were overly touchy, but you never had really minded it since he was just being nice

your friend had been very high energy and affectionate, but they always meant well

so your boyfriend, terushima, had just smacked a smile on his face and acted as friendly as could be

But he was jealous of all the attention you were giving him

hey you couldn’t help it, you haven’t seen the guy in years

hello? teru is your boyfriend, not this guy!

the look on his face when you exchanged numbers to meet up later

you would of thought that you had just shot his puppy dear lord

he was so god damn sad

“he’s totally trying to get into your pants y/n!”

“no he isn’t teru, he’s just being nice”

“y/n, no-”

your so oblivious to it 

terushima has two levels jealously

he goes from pout-y little kid to complete asshole in a matter of seconds

homeboy is black and white with his personality, there is no gray area with him

even though he isn’t one to keep quiet about something he doesn't like, he did it anyways for your sake

though he glared holes into him

eventually when he had left ho boy did terushima give you an earful

you heard even more when he found about how you made plans with before mentioned friend to have dinner

it was just so the two of you could catch up after the many years that you haddn’t seen each other

“its just dinner”

“y/n its like he’s trying to date you

“can you chill out?”

“no! what? are you dating him now???”

okay he can be a little high strung sometimes, but its something you can tolerate

~NSFW~

remember how you had given him your phone number?

yeah, that may be important

while you had been getting ready for your little ‘dinner date’ with your friend, teru had still been glaring at the back of your head

you could see his annoyed look from the mirror, but you payed him no mind

hey, he would get over it sooner or later

your phone decides to start ringing, and its the guy

teru looks at it, then at you, then back at the phone

he hits answer before handing the phone to you

you decide to start talking, everything is in a friendly tone

and then he decides to play around a bit

a little nip here and there, nothing more nothing less

just to see what his little doll face can handle

then soon he escalates it more and more

soon lurking hands become groping and nips became hickeys

though you had to pretend that everything was hunky dory on your side of the phone

homeboy on the other line didn’t even think anything of it

“hey are you okay?” he had asked once when you particularly couldn’t handle his stimulation

“y-yeah i’m great right now...”

his hand would slip and dip into places that you had forgotten about until now

just the smooth and slick friction would bring heat to your face, though 

that’s when teru had taken the phone back

“screw off your asshat, never call her again!”

and he never did, even if you say him in public, he would walk the other direction 

Bokuto 

the two of you had just been out window shopping and peaking into stores on a saturday

when a store employee had started talking about a popular television show that had aired yesterday, you hadn't thought anything of it

in your mind it would of been rude to ignore them completely,

what if they were just having a bad day and you little small talk and brightened it just a little?

you didn’t want to have something like that on your consensus 

bo had been standing beside you the entire time, and you hadn’t even noticed the way he had stiffened and almost seemed to puff up, like an owl

there had been one person who did notice bokuto’s uneasiness

baby boy had thought that the two of you had been flirting when he walked by

omg he looked so sad

he went from being all perky and happy to looking like a deflated balloon

it was pretty pathetic

sooner or later the worker had felt so awkaward that he left, that’s when you had noticed his discomfort

he had waved if off until the two of you had gotten home, then you finally cornered him and asked

“whats wrong?”

he just rolled his eyes to himself, “you should know!”

yeah just the buffering circle above your head for that one

you really had no idea

“i seriously don’t bo...” 

“yes you do, in the store that worker was totally flirting with you!” he had finally spoke out

oh...

that had made sense you guessed

even though you had apologized to him, he had still been down, even needy

~NSFW~

bo had just been clinging on you for the past hour

if your standing, he’s right behind you, just looming

he became a shadow or a lost puppy, following you everywhere

his arms always found their way to your generous waist, holding onto you as if you would be blown away if a gust of wind decided to make its way though your home

as you had tried to walk down the short hallway that connected your bedroom to the living room, bokuto had stopped the both of you

he looked down to you before grabbing your wrist

bokuto half dragged and half lead you to the shared room you both shared since you moved in together

he had pushed you, not carefully may I add, onto the futon bed

koutarou soon climbed on top of your plush frame, his face lightly dusted in a red hue 

one of his hands wandered down towards the plush button that resided between your thick thighs

the other had cradled the back of your head, pulling you back lightly so he could have more access to your neck and collarbones

bokuto lightly kissed your skin, it didn’t matter if imperfections or not

now this would have been more of a sweet moment if you hadn’t noticed the almost mocking circles you felt at your core

“am i good enough for you now baby owl?”

you would of answered him if you were able to form words, but the amount of stimulation that he was able to give you simply from the tips of his fingers was astonishing

damn boy he got magic hands

you had opened your mouth but no words came out

that had made the two toned haired boy let out a laugh

the only thing that you thought to do was to wrap your arms around his broad back

“speechless, huh” he had taunted you, a smirk on his face

he just kept up his happy little circles, the stimulation bringing a warm, almost butterfly like feeling to your abdomen

 it was if he filled an empty part of you, and you needed him to survive

the tightness in your core had started to bubble, feeling as if you were going to top off the edge and boil over

your former speachless self was soon a babbling mess, telling bo how much you did need him

and even after you had reached and passed your high, he hadn't stopped, he loved the way your words flowed from your mouth in light, breathless pleas

oh he wasn’t even done

play nice you two

Kuroo

out of the two of you, kuroo had always been the more jealous one

baby boy is passive aggressive about it too

he doesn't do the keeping it to himself kind of bullshit

just completely straight to the point

he dosent often become jealous either

kuroo trusts that you wont get flirty or ‘advance’ on anyone else, because you have him for that

why would you need anyone else when he’s right there?

he has the confidence that all of us are jealous of

you and i know that this boy gives little insults to almost everyone

just in a joking and playful way, because that’s just how he communicates to people

but if someone decides to push it

ho boy

mr. rooster man slowly gets more and more passive aggressive

literally they turn into thinly veiled threats

you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears

so imagine his reaction when the waiter at a restaurant had decided to get a little too cozy with interacting with you

kuroo had been sitting right across from you, a pissed off look slapped over his face

who was this asshole and why the fuck was he going after his little kitten?

he had kept his mouth shut but raised an eyebrow at your plush form

it was as if he was asking if you were going to let this guy keep his shitty advances up

you just thought he was being friendly, but according to kuroo he wasn’t

when he had figured that you weren't going to stop him, he spoke up

“lay off dickwad” his voice had been laced with the utmost hate, you had never heard him ever use that tone before

with that, he had grabbed you by the arm before leaving, not paying for the two glasses

~NSFW~

the two of you had gone home in his car

no words had been exchanged between kuroo or you

“you were so into that, weren't you y/n” the bed-head boy had muttered to you, almost in a mocking way

you couldn’t think of a reason on why he was acting like that, so you had just kept your mouth shut until he would drop you off at your apartment

his hand that usually resided on your plush thigh while he was driving was currently white knuckled on the the steering wheel

even though he was looking at the road, he looked completely pissed

no plea for him to talk to you would make him speak up, it was as if he was stuck in thought

even when he had dropped you off at your flat, he seemed to still loom over you

when you took out your keys, he took them from your hand and opened the door himself as if you were suddenly incompetent of doing anything for yourself

“need someone to do everything for you huh? just too dumb in the brain to do anything...” kuroo had sneered to himself

“okay what the fuck is your problem you asshole?” you had finally spoken up, really what was this jerks deal with you?

homeboy had glared at you before pinning you against the wall in your own home as if he owned the place, “oh so now you talk, you were so fine with that guy in the restaurant huh? completely preoccupied with him to forget that i was there...”

suddenly everything is making sense right now, the puzzel pieces are fitting together

homeboy was jealous and you had no idea, you just though he was being pissy for no reason

he just sighed, putting his head in the crook of your neck, “idiot...”

kuroo had finally turned his head to look up to you, a slightly sad look on his face

oh you felt like complete shit, homeboy looked so down that your heart hurt

you leaned your head slightly down so you could give the top of his head a lil kiss kiss

homeboy almost seemed to purr from the affection

he slung his arms over your shoulders, it was as if he was leading you into the minimal living room that you had

the two of somehow ended up on the crappy couch you had, him on top humming happily down below at you

sandwiched happily together

“i’m still disappointed in you...” he muttered, looking down at you

“oh bite me” though you paused before thinking, “how about i make it up to you?”

kuroo had smirked, “and how are you going to do that?” he questioned you

it was as if you had suddenly forgotten how to speak, a burning heat spreading from your cheeps to the bridge of your nose

lets just say that you did not expect that answer from him in the slightest-

his slender hand ran up the side of your torso, as if he was memoriizing the peaks and valleys of your figure

“i’m the only one who can make you feel like this,” kuroo had muttered cockily, staring into your eyes

he had no shame making comments like these, why should he?

his fingers snuck under the elastic material of the underthings you had currently been wearing, teasingly testing the waters and rubbing fether-like circles over your sensitive bits that were located on your chest

“are you ready?”

[maddiwrites]

Let Me Go

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: This was requested! Y/N still lives with the Cameron’s following the death of her brother, but she’s being held there against her will. After many failed escape attempts, Y/N finally gets out of Figure Eight, but she’s far from safe. (The request was long so I’m going to link it here so you can see the full summary of what anon wanted!)

Note: I’m sorry this took so long to get out!!! I literally had half of it written and then it all deleted and I’m so upset because my first attempt at writing it was better but oh well. I hope you like it. Again, sorry for the long wait!

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: MENTIONS OF DRUG ABUSE, CHILD NEGLECT, GUN VIOLENCE, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF ANY OF THESE TOPICS TRIGGER YOU. PLEASE. SUICIDE HOTLINE: 800-273-8255

Masterlist

You weren’t always like this - sitting up in your unmade bed, staring at the blank wall in front of you like you could see through it, unshowered, trembling from your shoulders down to your toes, feeling empty from the inside out. 

You forget what it’s like to be free. Following the death of your brother, you’ve been trapped like a rat in a cage. Figure Eight is no longer the luxurious part of the island to you. It’s filled with lies, manipulation, secrets, murder. 

You’re still living at the Cameron’s. No, not living. Surviving. Ward refused to give his guardianship of you up. Some people wondered why - why would Ward want to live with the sister of a murderer? Yeah, that’s what they thought - that your brother killed Sheriff Peterkin and tried to kill Ward too. But you knew why.

Ward no longer treats you like a member of his family. He has you locked in your designated room on the third floor that’s basically only used as an attic and storage area. Your own personal prison. Because you know what he did - not only to your brother and his daughter but to your dad. 

You felt like you were losing grasps of reality. You only knew fall was approaching because you could hear Wheezy talking about it to Rose outside your door. You guess the time of day by the sunlight through your window and the meals brought to your room. 

Of course there have been times you tried to escape. You managed to run away a few times. The first time, you went straight to the police station and tried telling them that Ward was keeping you trapped in his home. Of course they didn’t believe you. Instead, they called Ward to come pick you up. He told the police that you’ve been experiencing delusions since the death of your brother. Without a second thought, they believed him and ignored your cries for help completely. The second time, you tried going to Kie’s, but the police found you first and brought you back to Ward’s now that they think you’re going through some kind of mental breakdown. 

By now, you’re exhausted. You’re tired of fighting and arguing and screaming. You feel empty inside, craving some sort of release or embrace of comfort. You haven’t seen your Pogues in weeks, maybe months. You wonder if they still think about you. Do they blame you for leaving John B to go off by himself with Sarah? Do they hate you?

Not only is living inside an enclosed box hard enough, but dealing with the loss of your brother, friend, and father, is killing you inside. You can’t help but feel guilty that you weren’t with them. You and your brother were supposed to be partners in crime and you totally let him go off on his own. You feel like you abandoned him and that keeps you up at night. 

Since your ways of coping are limited, you’re not proud to say you found an unhealthy way of relieving your pain. 

When you were first locked up, you would scream and kick the door that hid you from the rest of the world, begging for anyone in the house to let you go. Never did it work, but one time Rafe got extremely fed up and raced upstairs to make you shut up. You didn’t know it, but Rafe was on the verge of a breakdown himself. His dad complete shut him out as he tried to fix the damage he caused. He assumed Sarah was dead. And Barry basically owned him, making him do all his dirty work. Maybe he deserved it, but he didn’t live a luxurious life either despite living in Figure Eight.

You took a couple steps back when you heard heavy footsteps approaching your door. Rafe quickly undid the locks and barged in so fast that he almost knocked you down. 

“Oh my god. Do you ever shut the fuck up?” Rafe was breathing hard and quickly getting red in the face. You stumbled backwards, suddenly afraid of being alone with him. 

You sniffled. “I need to get out of here.”

“You’re not leaving.”

“Please, Rafe. You got to get me out of here. Please!” You never thought you’d be here, begging Rafe of all people for help. Yet here you were. With no other choices left.

Rafe paced the room and raked his fingers through his hair. “You do realize you're not the only one going through something, right?”

You swallowed back your tears and scoffed at the Kook in front of you. “Seriously? Your family is keeping me locked in here like some kind of zoo animal! My brother is dead -”

“Sarah is too!”

“But that’s not my fault!” You screamed. You pointed an accusatory finger in his direction. “That’s yours!” Rafe froze and turned to look at you. You didn’t know where you grew the balls to keep going but you did. “I know what you did. I know what your dad is trying to cover up. And he’s using my brother to do it.” You saw Rafe’s adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed. “Why do you think your dad is keeping me locked in here?”

“Shit,” Rafe cursed. Now he knew why his dad gave him strict instructions to never come up to your room. He started shaking his his head and shaking in his skin. “I didn’t mean to - I - I - it happened so fast.”

You could go on and on about how Rafe would never be able to dig himself out of this hole. How he will never be able to convince you that he wasn’t guilty. But you didn’t. Because he’s the only one who could help you.

“Rafe, please,” You begged. “I won’t say anything. I just need to get out of here.”

Rafe sniffled back his own tears and fears and looked out the one window that looked out into the backyard of his home. He couldn’t let you go. He knew it was selfish, but he had to save himself. 

“I can’t,” Rafe said.

A new wave of tears hit you and you felt defeated. You fell back on your bed and cried into your hands, hunched over above your knees. 

“I’m sorry,” Rafe said, but his apology was as empty as you feel. 

“Just go,” You rubbed your eyes hard enough to see stars. 

You hear something light hit the bed next to you. “I know it’s not much. But this helps me get through all this messed up shit.”

When you didn’t look at him or whatever he gave you, he took that as a hint to leave and quietly left the room. You listened to each lock being fastened again, each one leaving a crack in your heart. 

Rafe offered you something you should have never taken. A small baggie filled with fine white powder. You should have never even considered it. Drugs were never your thing. You wouldn’t even smoke with JJ when he offered a hit of whatever he was smoking. But the idea of anything taking your pain away enticed you.

And that’s how you ended up here. Broken, alone, and craving something only Rafe could supply you with. Literally. He came around every so often, sliding a small baggie under the door for you. It was the closest thing you and Rafe had to a friendship. 

Today was particularly a bad day. It was dark and rainy outside and you remembered John B’s birthday should be quickly approaching. You missed him. God, did you miss him. You would do anything to hear his voice again or steal his clothes or go surfing in the ocean with him. 

You trudged out of bed towards your dresser that held a faint line of coke left over from yesterday. With a one dollar bill, you sniffed the rest of it up your nose and blinked back the sting of tears that pricked your eyes after you did it. A rush of energy sparked up your body, through your toes and up to your head. You immediately felt lighter and that the world was spinning a little faster. But with that rush came a surge of emotions. You went from being sad to being angry real fast. 

You hated Ward. You hated Shoupe. You hated this house.  You hated Kooks. You hated yourself. You hated everything about the Outer banks. You just wanted to leave. 

You find the closest thing to you, a small makeup mirror, and smash it against one of the locks on the door. You’ve done this hundreds of times and by now the door was scratched and bruised from your abuse, but you didn’t care. You didn’t feel the glass of the mirror slice into your skin as you continued to bang it on the metal lock. You didn’t care if Ward and the others heard you throwing another temper tantrum. You just wanted out.

When you felt the lock stumble to the side of the door, you froze in your place. You stared at the broken lock, wondering if this was all a dream or a hallucination from your high. “No fucking way,” You mumbled. You looked down at the door knob and repeated the same movements until the handle completely fell off and clattered to the floor. 

You dropped the mirror and stuck two fingers through the hole in the door where the door knob use to be. While holding your breath, you slowly pulled the door open and couldn’t believe when it moved without any hiccup. 

You never thought that you would get this far, and now that you were here, you didn’t know what to do. You felt scared. Cautiously, you stuck your head out to make sure no one was in the hallway. When the coast was clear, you tip toed throughout the house, listening to the eery silence that filled it. No one was home. 

When you passed Rafe’s room, you stopped. You were out of supply and you needed more. Rafe owed you anyway, you told yourself. So you ransacked his room. Found about four more small baggies and stuffed them in your pocket before leaving.

As you walk through the halls, you pass Ward’s office and paused. It was open and unlocked. Even before all this shit happened, you never remember it being this way. You didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was the adrenaline from another escape attempt or maybe it was the cocaine, but you walked yourself into that office and looked around. 

You cursed at all the accomplishments hanging on his wall, the trophies, and expensive relics of random shit. His desk was neat and orderly despite the major crime he was trying to cover up. You sat yourself in his chair, trying to imagine what it felt like to be him. Motherfucker probably felt like a king. 

You went through his drawers, thumbing through random files you had no business looking through - most of it work related stuff and banking information. You tucked that one in your pocket for later. 

Then you hear something thump against the drawer when you pull it out. A revolver. Small and silver. Cold against your fingertips. You breath hitched as you brought it up to your face. It felt like you were holding a bomb. An object that could change your life forever. Another fresh set of tears threatened to roll down your face but you shook them away. No. No more being sad. 

You shut the drawer hard and walked out with a couple new items in your possession.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The Pogues were spending another dreary day at The Wreck. The September sun might be out, but their spirits were down. Two of their best friends are dead and the other is trapped with two murderers. They were scared for you and have tried everything to get you back. They tried talking to the cops, they tried breaking her out. But each times the cops got in the way. They were running out of hope. At this point, they didn’t even know if they would ever see you again. They just hoped you were okay. They knew you tried escaping a few times and prayed that you would eventually get yourself out of there soon.

“JJ, you gotta eat,” Kie sighed as she watched JJ play with the fries in front of him. If anyone was handing it the worst, it was JJ. Both John B and Y/N were his best friends first. Hell, he was in love with Y/N. Had been since the sixth grade. One of his biggest regrets is that he never told you. Now he didn’t know if he ever would. 

“’M not hungry,” JJ mumbled. 

The door above the restaurant entrance rang as a couple of police officers walked in for their lunch break. The group of three glared at them as they walked in with their cocky stride and their hand resting on their tasers and guns as if everyone should be scared of them. 

“Fucking cops can’t do their goddamn job,” JJ sat back in his seat and flicked one of his fries down on the table. He hated them. More than he ever had. He couldn’t believe these people took an oath to protect this county. Fucking cowards, all of them. 

“Fucking assholes,” Kie said and watched her father approach them with a friendly smile. 

Pope snapped up when an idea popped into his head. “Sarah’s sister.”

“What?” Kie’s brows furrowed. 

“School starts next week,” Pope explained. “She’s starting high school, right? What if you tried talking to her? Maybe you can -”

Pope paused when he heard the sound of the police radios echoing off the walls from their belts. 

“Code10-92. Runaway teen last reported on Baker’s Street. Proceed with caution. Last seen wearing black sports shorts and a white tank. Suspect may be armed and dangerous.”

JJ’s head snapped back to his friends with his brows pinched together. Could this be you? Could you have made it out again? But what did armed and dangerous mean? That didn’t sound like you.

Shoupe radioed back to the station. “On our way.”

The officers dropped ten dollars in the tip jar before charging out the door to go to their vehicles. 

“We gotta go,” JJ stood up first and stuffed his phone and keys into his pocket. The other two nod and follow him out the door. If that call was about you, they wanted to find you before the cops did. “Okay. Kie, go home. She tried going to your house last time. Maybe she’ll try that again. Pope, go to Heyward’s. She trusts your dad. She might try to find him for help.”

“Where are you going to go?” Pope asked. 

“Everywhere else.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

You trudged through your old home with heavy feet. Nothing in there felt familiar to you - like it belonged to you in another life time. You first went to your room and stared at the girl in the mirror. You didn’t recognize her. Bones sticking out of your skin, dark bags under the eyes, and cracked lips and dry skin. 

Without thinking, you took the gun that’s still in your hand and smashed it against the glass, shattering it all around you. 

Ignoring the stinging in your hands from the shallow cuts on your skin, you moved on to the next room. Your brother’s room. It looked like a tornado made its way through here. Everything was tossed and turned from the police and FBI ransacking it during their search for John B. Nothing felt like it was John B’s anymore. Nothing felt private. And that pissed you off. 

Next you went to your dad’s office, somewhere you haven’t been since you found the compass. Even now, it felt like you weren’t supposed to be in here. If you believed in an afterlife, you would think your dad would be shaking his head at you. 

The office looked like John B’s room did. Whatever belonged to your dad now belonged to the state. The only things left were random files and belongings the police didn’t find of importance. But they were important to you. 

The first thing you found was a picture in a cracked frame of you, your dad, and your brother from when you were ten. Your dad was holding both of you as you blew out the candles on a birthday cake. Looking at the picture, you felt your heart being shredded apart. The picture only brought back pain and grief. You wanted that happiness back that ten year old you portrayed in that picture. But you can’t have it. Ever again.

A cry ripped through your throat as you chucked the picture across the room. From there, you went on a rampage, throwing and kicking anything that was in your way. You took one of the baggies out of your pocket and dumped it on the desk in front of you. Without any precision, you fixed the lines up with your finger and took a long whiff. You gripped the roots of your hair and tugged as you sobbed loudly and felt one of the biggest headaches explode in your brain. 

You paced back and forth in the office with the gun held in your shaky hands. You were mumbling to yourself about your options and how horrible of a sister and daughter you were for leaving your family behind. You wanted to see them. You wanted to be with them and prove to them you never meant to abandon them. 

You didn’t hear the door to the Chateau open or the sound of footsteps following your cries. It wasn’t until you heard his soft, delicate voice that you turned around and stared at your best friend with wide eyes and a startled expression. 

“Y/N...” JJ breathed out. He didn’t see the gun yet. He just saw you, crying and broken and not looking like the girl he knew only a few months ago. 

“What are you doing here?” He didn’t recognize your voice either. Hoarsed and scared. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

“The cops are looking for you! Okay? We need to get you out of here!”

“I’m not leaving!”

“What?” JJ looked at you like you grew two heads. “What are you talking about. We -”

“No! I said I’m not leaving! Agh!” Your hands flew up to your pulsating head and gripped at your hair again. The pounding in your head was excruciating and wouldn’t go away. Between the cocaine, your cries, and the exhaustion, you didn’t think it would ever go away. 

That’s when JJ saw the gun and took a shocking step back. His hands immediately flew up in surrender and he gulped down his nerves. Now he knew why the cops had called you armed and dangerous. Probably because Ward reported a stolen gun. JJ never knew you to be a violent person. It wasn’t in you. You couldn’t even hurt a fly. Which meant you didn’t steal this gun to hurt someone else. But probably...

Then his eyes flickered to the desk where he saw the reside of white powder next to an empty baggie. Now he was petrified because he didn’t know how to get through to you - if he even could get through to you.

“Y/N, baby. Put the gun down.”

“No,” You shook you head. “No, no, no. I need to see them. I need to see my dad and John B!”

“Y/n...”

“I should’ve gone with them. I should’ve - I - I didn’t mean to leave. I’m so-sorry, John B. I’m so sorry.” You were a mess. Tears and snot and running all over your red and puffy face. 

JJ kept looking between you and the gun. His only comfort was that he knew you didn’t know how to use it. You wouldn’t even touch the one he stole from Scooter Grubs. But that didn’t mean accidents couldn’t happen.

“I can’t do it anymore,” You continued. “I can’t go back there. I won’t. I won’t. I just want to see my dad.”

JJ took a hesitant step closer to you and nodded his head, keeping his hands up. “Okay. Okay. What if I helped you see your dad?”

“H-How?” You hiccuped. JJ didn’t know where he was going with this. He just knew he had to get that gun out of your hand. He took another step closer to you, but this one made you jump back. “No! No! Stay away!”

“Okay, okay!” JJ yelled back at you. “Hey. I’m here to help you, okay? Whatever you want to do.”

“I want to see them. I want to say sorry. I - I’m so sorry.”

“Y/N, they’re not mad at you-”

“I’m sorry, daddy, I -”

With you distracted, JJ took the opportunity to run at you and tackle you to the ground. He ignored the pang in his heart when he heard you cry harder, wondering if he hurt you, but he cared more about keeping you alive. He wrestled the gun out of your hands and quickly emptied the cartridge. He chucked the multiple pieces across the room and wrapped himself around your crumpled body.

“No! No!” You shrieked in JJ’s shoulder and gripped onto his shirt for dear life. “Please! Let me go!” 

JJ held on to your crumbling body as you wracked with sobs. Exhaustion quickly took over you as the adrenaline slowly vanished out of your system. Your throat was on fire from all the crying and the screaming. Your chest felt empty and your lungs heavy. All you wanted was to close your eyes and never open them again.

JJ couldn’t hold back his own silent tears as they ran down his cheeks. He hated seeing you like this. And he hated even more that he didn’t know how to help you.

“It’s going to be okay,” He said as he brushed the hair out of your face. He kissed the top of your head with his soft lips and kept mumbling into your head. “You’re going to be okay. I’m never leaving your side again. It’s going to be okay.”

He didn’t know if he was trying to convince you or himself. He jus knew he had to make you believe it.

About ten minutes later, he felt your body relax against his. When he found you fast asleep, he pulled out his phone and texted Kie to pick the two of you up. 

Until Kie got there, he stared at the delicate skin on your face with such admiration. Rage bubbled through this veins as the ideas of what you possibly went through in the that hell hole in Figure Eight. 

He knew it was going to be a long road to recovery. He knew there was a lot of fixing that needed to be done. But he made a promise that he will never let you out of his sights again. Because today was a close call. And he never wanted you to be that close to death ever again.

[lorirwritesfanfic]

Personal Favourite - Part 1: Kiss It Better

Author's note: I got this ask from @missameliep​​ over six months ago, but an idea only came to me yesterday. Is it a coincidence since today is her birthday? Who knows... Happy birthday, my dearest! I hope you're having the best time today and I wish you a lifetime of joy, great gifts and wonderful stories to tell 🥳🎂❤ [Original characters are creations of this author. The others are owned by Pixelberry Studios]

Book: Desire & Decorum (modern day AU) Pairing: Prince Hamid x MC (Daphne) Rating: T Word count: 1141 Reading time: ~4 min Summary: The everyday routine might cause small disagreements. But even then Hamid knows why he always eager to come back home. Based on the prompt: OTP ask meme #6: What is their favourite feature of their partner’s?

Hamid placed his toothbrush into the holder and reached for the lip balm he was slowly getting attached to. At first, he often forgot to wear it and only had it on his lips if his partner applied it for him. But after that tiny product helped kept his lips hydrated during the driest season in Morocco, the balm became part of his everyday routine.

As he glanced in the mirror, he idly searched for the tiny cream jar only to be intercepted by Maya, who lightly bit one of his fingers.

"Kızım¹? Are you here because you want me to leave the water running or did you miss me?”

He smiled at the cat, who purred once he scratched under her chin.

“I know I haven't given you enough attention since I came back, prensesim². I promise we'll go for a walk and play tomorrow, okay?"

After a few more scratches, he put Maya on the floor and looked back at the counter.

"Now, where is it?"

He inspected the messy bathroom counter and shook his head. He wasn't the most organized person, but sharing a bathroom with Daphne could be a challenge sometimes. Whenever they went out, her process of getting ready included leaving a complete mess on the counter in a way it reminded him of the spare room they turned into a studio for her. For someone so worried about tidying up their home, chaos seemed to follow her once in a while.

Yet, he didn’t have the heart to argue about it. They hadn't been together for almost three weeks and because of jetlag, he barely remembered if they kissed since he spent most of the time sleeping after he arrived. It'd be a shame to deprive himself any longer of the lips he crossed oceans so many times to kiss again.

Trying to focus on his search, Hamid looked for the balm once again until he accidentally knocked down a few misplaced objects that unfortunately landed on one of his toes.

"Ow! Dalyarak!" He yelled and crouched down to check on his toe. Apparently, her spray pomade found the perfect angle to hit a toenail, which began to throb in pain.

Still not a reason to argue. But maybe kindly remind her of reorganizing the counter? Hm... She always gets annoyed with her own mess and rearranges everything anyway...

"Hamidciğim?" Daphne called from the bedroom.

"Yes?"

"Is everything alright in there?"

"It's fine!"

"Then who were you calling a dick swinger?"

He shook his head, but couldn't suppress a chuckle. It was hard to be mad when he could almost see her cheeky smile whenever she used the literal translation of such an offensive word. Either way, this wasn't a talk he wanted to have through the wall. So he ignored the chaos and returned to the bedroom.

As he approached her, he stopped in his tracks. Sitting by the vanity dresser,  Daphne wore nothing but one of her sheer nightgowns. The ones she saved for whenever her plans for the night didn't include sleeping.

His eyes began to follow Daphne's ring finger brushing on her lips whilst she applied a balm. Over the years, Hamid often found himself ogling at her lips. But there was something about how they grew a bit fuller when she massaged them with her fingertips to moisturize them. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. It was just a balm after all. Yet, he knew it had more to do with the effect those luscious peach-coloured lips had on him.

"Bir tanem?"

"Huh?"

"What happened in the bathroom?"

"Nothing... I knocked over some cosmetics and a hair spray fell on my foot."

“Which foot?”

“The left one.”

"Hm… That explains why Maya ran out of there as if she witnessed a paranormal activity. How is your foot?"

"It hurts, but I'll survive."

"Let me see it."

"Aşkım, you don’t have to—"

"Sit down and let me see it." She pointed to the bed imperatively.

His eyebrows went up in surprise. Judging by the tone in her voice, it was better to simply do as he was told. He then sat down and placed his foot on her lap.

In silence, Daphne looked down at his foot. Her fingers lingered over the small scar on his left ankle after the accident at the beginning of their relationship. Then she inspected his injured toenail.

“Your toe is getting swollen, but since you had no trouble walking, it probably isn’t broken.”

“I told you everything is fine.”

"I still had to see it for myself.” She answered with a shrug. “Anyway, I think a cold compress and a kiss will be enough, but I can see if we still have a pain relieving cream."

"I beg your pardon?"

“You know… Those creams people apply to avoid bruises.”

“I was talking about the kiss part.”

"Oh, that…” She looked at his foot again, avoiding his gaze. “My mum always told me it works. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try."

“It certainly won’t.”

Daphne gazed back at him and they shared knowing looks and smiles.

"Very well. I'll take the kiss now."

“Okay.” With that, Daphne placed a kiss on his reddened toe. “There. Better?”

"You cannot be serious..."

"But that's how it works."

"No, it isn't!"

"Yes, it is!"

"It didn't work for me." He folded his arms, feigning annoyance.

"Alright, I'll get the ice pack then."

As she stood up, he held her back by the waist and pulled her into his lap.

"Will you stop with this nonsense and give me a real kiss?"

Her hand moved towards the nape of his neck their lips touched at last. Wasting no time, she parted her lips to deepen the kiss, guiding his tongue into their very own slow dance.

Once they pulled away just enough to catch their breath, he chuckled softly.

"What?"

"Are you wearing the lip balm you gave me?"

"Um…No?"

As he stared at her deadpan, she smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry… I don't know where I left mine."

"It's probably in the middle of the mess you left on the counter."

"Yeah..." She bit down her lip and looked away. "Sorry about your toe. And the mess. I’ll put everything back in the morning.”

“It’s okay, my dove,” he answered, lifting her hand to his lips.

“Should I get the ice pack?"

"Not now. You still have to make up for what you did."

"Are you sure? I thought you'd still be a little jetlagged."

"Which means you'll have to work a little harder this time, aşkım," he whispered.

Though she tried to look innocent, the lust in her eyes told him a different tale. "As you wish, my love."

Hamid then closed his eyes and revelled in the feeling of her lips and hands roaming down his body.

---------

¹ kızım: my girl/ my daughter

² prensesim: my princess

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

Momma is a badass?

Fandom: DC Pairing: Bruce Wayne x Batmom!reader (in the background) Word count: 1.4k Summary: Your Children don’t know about a big part of your past, but when the situation calls for it, they find out, one way or anotherm Requested by a hydrated Anon: since the request are kinda open. Can i request something where batmom was a former suicide squad member, now dating batman and the batkids dont know? Maybe they are in a dangerous fight against someone and the suicide squad helps them? only if this is okay for you. No pressure or something. Stay hydrated love

Your children knew that you were a great fighter, one that could hold herself against Bruce easily, and they knew that you had been a vigilante long before you had met their father and fallen into the more domestic role of a part-time event-organizer and a full-time momma at day and a crime fighter at night. Sometimes they had tried to ask you and Bruce about what you had done for the most of your early adulthood, but they never found out anything about what happened between your 18th and 25th birthday. A few of them - mostly Tim, Steph and Damian - had thought about finding out the old-fashioned way, but everytime they seriously considered it they remembered that not once since you had taken them in as your children have you breached their privacy without a very, very good reason. So they quickly started to forget about it again and face their own problems. What none of your children had expected was that that blank on your resume was going to be filled on what was supposed to be an easy mission in Gotham’s Docks. You and Bruce were the ones who went, Tim on the Comms, only to find that three of the most dangerous and violent - but in themselves alone relatively small - crime families had “bonded” together to defeat the one thing that kept them from ‘rising to their true size’: Your family. The two of you were good, years of beating and defeating big baddies have shown so much, but not even the two of you were good enough to defeat the small army that was attacking you now. Under the hail of bullets that were raining down on you, a few of them hitting your body armour, but luckily not you, you barely managed to dive for cover behind a metal pillar. Looking over you were relieved to find Bruce behind cover too, seemingly not hurt. He nodded at you, most likely having the same thoughts about you, before talking to you and Tim over the Comms. “Red, we need everyone here asap, this is at least a code blue situation.” “Code blue? I thought this was just a quick in-and-out,” Tim asked surprised. “Just do it, no time to explain,” Bruce grunted as he threw a Batarang at a particularly bold individual that tried to break his cover, disarming him quickly and knocking him unconscious. “I contacted everyone, Nightwing and Red Hood are on their way, ETA is at least ten minute. Robin is preparing and will be there in five. Oracle is going to take over the Comms as soon as she’s online from her homebase and then I’ll hurry over with Black Bat. The others will try to come, but are indispensable at the moment,” Tim informed you and you could hear the almost inhumane quick tapping of his keyboard in the background. Before you had the chance to answer you noticed the small circular object rolling towards you and just almost managed to kick it away and shield yourself with your cape. “We don’t have enough time to wait for all of them!” you shouted over the sound of another explosion and when you looked over at Bruce you almost saw the internal conversation, “They’re on a mission not far from here, they could be here in five minutes.” “Who are you talking about?” Tim asked, but you and your husband just ignored him. “Do it!” Bruce said after he had to dive for a new cover when the pillar he was standing behind got damaged by another granate. Not waiting another second you pulled out a small button that was protected by a glass hood. You clicked the glass hood off and pushed the button, a little relief flooding you when you saw the blinking light below it implicate that the signal was received. Now you just had to survive long enough for your help to arrive. Tim and Cassandra, closely followed by Damian, arrived shortly after, but even with the five of you, you weren’t remotely able to do more than hold yourself against the seemingly never ending attack that got worse with every minute. When you heard the flapping of a chopper somewhere above you, you could have wept with joy, but soon got pulled back into reality when a bigger explosion rang through your ears and debris from the newly bombed open roof missed you by literal inches. After making sure neither your husband, not your children were hurt badly, you looked up to find that the chopper was not the one you had hoped for when you were looking directly into the barrel of a bomb launcher. The thought of retreating filled your mind, but before you could suggest, you saw the opposing chopper blow up in a haze of fire before a very familiar crazy laugh filled your ears - even if it was still half a mile or so away. More explosions rang through the enemy lines and the shift in power was immediately feelable. You had just won the upper hand. Five ropes were lowered around you and soon after you found yourself surrounded by your former team - or rather one version of it, the suicide squad never really being one to keep stagnate. “Did ‘ya miss us sugar?” Harley crackled as she fell around your neck, hugging you with one arm while the other was occupied with shooting an enemy that had been charging at the six of you. “You wouldn’t believe how much,” you smiled and - after quickly greeting the rest of the team - got back to fighting. Dick and Jason joined the fight shortly before the end - before your win - and were surprised by the people who were fighting in such a harmony with their mother that it looked like they had been fighting with you for years, but with the fight still going on they had little time to care about it too much. The twelve of you together had an easy time fighting against the gangs and it only took a few minutes more before you left unconscious, dead (the suicide squad had no no-killing rule after all) and tied up gang members for the police to lock up. The squad's chopper had been severely damaged during the fight so the five went with you to a second-emergency base on the outskirts of Gotham to wait for Waller to send them a pick-up, leaving you with a bit of time to catch up with your old mates. While you were laughing and talking to Harley, Rick, Floyd, Digger and Tatsu like you were old friends who haven’t seen each other in a while, Bruce standing a few feet behind you - keeping up his grim persona, but not stopping you from interacting with the (mostly) villains - your children were at the other side of the room completely dumbfounded at the way their mother was acting.

“Remember that time Waller almost blew up your head because you thought it was a good idea to play pranks in the base?” you asked laughing, the others joining you. “Yeah, well, how was I supposed to know she’d react to a bit of water like that,” Dagger shrugged, but smiled at the memory. “Can’t believe it’s been so long already since I left, it feels like yesterday I almost cut your eyes out,” you smiled - you much like Katana not having been there as a criminal, but rather as a guard yourself. “Hey, if you want back, we’d gladly take you in, I still think Waller considered planting a bomb in your head just so that you would come back and bring some order back,” Rick shrugged, but you just shook your head. “Thank you, but no thank you, I have a life here now. Also I don’t think Hubby would like that too much,” you giggled a little and blew a kiss at Bruce, who responded only with a stern nod in an interaction that your children would have usually found hilarious if they weren’t so occupied with staring. “Ya’know sugah, Ah love attention, Ah really do, but even Ah get uncomfortable if dah little batlings keep on starin’ like tha’,” Harley nudged your shoulder and nodded into the direction of your children. “Oh, don’t mind my little ones, they just didn’t know about my time at the suicide squad,” you shrugged, well aware that you were going to have a lot to explain later on.

[marvels-writings]

World Turned Upside Down

Prequel: Used To

Sequel: My Forever

Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) Masterlist

Yelena Belova Masterlist

Requested by @stephanieromanoff and (Kind of) @venablemayfairgoode: Hi!! I absolutely LOVED ‘Used To’, and I definitely felt the reader’s pain. Could you write a part 2? Like, maybe while going away from everything, reader finds Yelena and they start a relationship?

Word Count: 7.4k (long but a masterpiece of angst and fluff)

A/N: Two whole weeks of effort, literally, so worth it. I hope you feel the same after reading it. 

Edit: The post seems to have deleted itself so I’m reposting it

Golden light filtered through the windows, illuminating the quiet of your apartment; the light fell on your eyes. You opened them slowly and looked around the room. The windows showed the rest of the world slowly waking up, the cars whirring by as other people's lives took their normal turn.

Breathing in slowly, you turned around slowly. The sheets shuffled underneath you, tangling your legs further into them. Turning to face the blonde in front of you, a small smile graced your lips. Fingertips grazed over her cheek as you moved the hair away from her face.

Shuffling closer to your sleeping girlfriend, your smile broadened as you noticed she was still sleeping. It wasn’t frequent that you woke up before Yelena, but you loved every second of it. Your fingers ran across her relaxed features before settling around her cheek.

Your fingertips trailed down her cheekbone onto her shoulder, till your hand was ghosting across her chest. Her heartbeat sounded just underneath your fingers, bringing a sense of comfort to you. Toying with a strand of hair on her neck, her eyes began to flutter open slowly.

Taking in a breath, her eyes opened to see you watching her. Your eyes held open affection, a gaze she found herself seeking comfort in. Hazel eyes scanned your features, she shifted to see you better. Legs tangled with yours over the sheets, the touch bringing you back to her.

“Morning,” Yelena whispered, her voice raspy from waking up. You hummed in response, fingers gently toying with her hair as a comfortable silence blanketed it you.

Soft breaths resounding in your ears as thoughts continued to run through your mind. Thoughts of a certain redhead. She had called you, more than once, more than you had expected. Even after five years, you found it hard not to pick up.

The voicemails remained on your phone. Her voice asking you to come back, telling you that it had been long enough. You could barely stop thinking about it.

Yelena saw that something was bothering you, but she never asked. She knew you would tell her once you thought it over. Her trust made you comfortable enough to think about going back. But the thought of seeing her again made you stop.

“Breakfast?” Yelena asked, a small smile as your fingertips ran across her skin. Taking your fingers away from her hair, you gave her a small nod. Mirroring her smile, you moved to get off the bed.

Untangling your legs from the sheets, you smoothened out your clothes. Though, it hardly made a difference. The clothes were all Yelena’s, not that she minded. Everything she wore was yours, even the oversized sweatpants.

Moving your hair away from your face, you followed the blonde into the kitchen. You knew she didn’t eat much for breakfast, but she insisted on trying to make you something anyway. Taking a seat on the kitchen island, you fidgeted with your hands as your girlfriend started on breakfast.

Bread in the toaster, two cups of coffee brewing, eggs cooking on the stove. Yelena put the eggs on a plate and sighed as she turned around. You were still staring at your hands, refusing to disturb the silence surrounding both of you.

“Something on your mind?” Yelena asked softly, setting your plate in front of you along with your coffee.

You didn’t seem to hear her, snapping out of your daze as you looked up to face her. A smile formed on your face before you noticed she had asked you something.

“Sorry?” You asked, tilting your head to the side.

Yelena chuckled, picking up her toast and setting it down next to her coffee. Taking a seat in front of you, she set one hand down in the middle of the table. Her foot bumped yours gently as she sat down.

“I asked what was going on in this beautiful head of yours.” She asked, her hand gesturing to your head.

You smiled at the compliment, the expression disappearing as you looked down at your food. Your fork prodded the eggs, playing with them. Another silence settled around the room as she waited for you to speak. You set down your fork and let out a sigh, gaining the courage to finally tell her.

“She called me.” You stated, your voice strained and tight as the words left your lips.

The blonde frowned for a moment until she understood who you were referring to. To you, her name would never be mentioned, when you talked about it, it was always ‘she’ and ‘her’. Her hand gently came onto yours, thumb running across your knuckles to show she was listening.

“She wants me to come back,” You continued, breath shaky as you spoke. “she says it’s been long enough.”

Yelena nodded at your words, letting them sink in. A squeeze to your hand brought your eyes up to hers. You looked uncertain of what you wanted to do next. The blonde tilted her head to the side as she resumed running her thumb over the skin of your hand.

“Do you want to go back?” She asked gently.

Her question was what you’d been asking yourself since the first time she called you. Were you ready to see her again? Should you let your absence remain for longer? A part of you wanted to go back to where you used to call home. 

But this was home, this huge apartment you’d bought with Yelena.

“I’m not sure,” You admitted, sighing. “do you want to go there?”

The blonde considered it, licking her lips slowly. She seemed to weigh her words carefully, to tell you what she wanted, and if she wanted to see her sister again.

“I would like to see Natalia again,” Yelena confessed, watching your expression falter. “, but only if you’re okay with it.”

“You know I won’t keep you from your family.” You found yourself answering before you could process her words.

Natalia, you’d never called her by her true name, scared it was too close to her. it was the first time you’d heard her name in years. The last time being when you told Yelena about what happened between her and you.

“Then why should she keep you from yours?” Yelena asked, breaking you out of your thoughts.

You nodded, considering her words. A light chuckle left you as you recalled the last words you’d said to her. 

‘If the entire world turns upside down’. It was so distant now, the realization, the arguing, the day you left.

“I did tell her I’d come back if the world turned upside down.” You recalled, nostalgia in your words as you turned to look out the window. Breathing in slowly, you took a moment to analyze how different your life was now.

It’s been almost four years you’ve been together, each day you spent with her you seemed to forget your life without her. Funny, it was a coincidence she showed up in your life just a month after you left Natasha. Going on a trip around Europe was an impulse decision, one of your best ones at that. 

It was what you’d wanted to do with Natasha, but you ended up by yourself. Until you met Yelena at a bar. The memories of how you began seemed to fade the longer you were with her. But everything in between felt like yesterday.

Yelena had been the one to take things slow. It matched you better than you had expected. It was perfect. You needed to take things slow after everything that happened. The blonde didn’t want to rush into anything.

 Sometimes, you thought maybe you were with Yelena only because she reminded you of someone you used to love. It was hardly that, being with Natasha had been something you wanted to do. With Yelena, you were surprised your life hadn’t been this way all along. 

A smile crossed your face as you remembered starting to trust her. It was slow, just starting with trusting her with your nightmares, even your fears if you were sure about it. She never pushed you, never held back a secret if she thought you’d want to know.

“In a way, it did.” You commented, making your decision to return.

Yelena watched you turn back to face her, your eyes meeting hers with certainty. Your decision was made, she could change it if she wanted to. But this could be good for you, maybe it would benefit both of you. After all, there were plans you had that needed a family watching you.

“You’re sure about going back?” She asked, just to make sure. You nodded your head, palm turning upwards to take her hand into yours. Skin brushed together as your fingers ran over her skin.

“Maybe not permanently,” You gave a half shrug. “but they are my family.”

Yelena smiled at you, her other hand slowly coming up to cup yours. Her fingers toyed with yours, letting the rings on your fingers clink together softly. Wedding bands had not come in their place, not yet anyway.

“So are you.” You smiled, lacing your fingers with hers. Her smile broadened at your words, eyes glancing down to where her ring met yours. She promised you forever when you weren’t sure you could find one.

————

Your phone buzzed lightly in your hand on the drive to the compound. After messaging the rest of the team about your surprise arrival, they hadn’t stopped messaging you. The first year was the only year they tried to keep in contact with you before giving up on you.

Wanda was the only one who never gave up on it. Every holiday, every birthday, she’d send you a text and try to call you. There were never any voicemails, but the texts were there, year after year. She didn’t know if you’d read them or not but still kept sending them.

Now, there were more messages than you could count.

The only ones you paid attention to were the ones from Tony. He told you that he could get you your room back. The one you had before you moved in with a certain redhead. No one had touched it.

Scrolling through the notifications, you noticed one text from Natasha thanking you. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Stark can give me my old room back,” You said, tucking your phone in your back pocket and turning towards Yelena. She nodded, looking outside the window as the compound started to come into view.

“The one I had before moving in with her.” You continued, to try to occupy the silence in the car. The taxi driver didn’t seem to care much about who he was driving or where. Though, you supposed he expected a large tip since you mentioned Tony Stark.

“Though I don’t know how long we’ll be staying.” You continued, licking your lips dryly. Your fingers reached to fidget with your engagement ring. Twisting the ring around your finger, you clenched your jaw and turned to look out the window.

The sound of the radio the only sound filling the taxi for a few moments. Fingers laced through yours, squeezing to bring your attention to her. Turning to face her, you gave her a half-hearted smile. Yelena gave you a reassuring grin before squeezing your fingers again.

“We’ll stay as long as you want.” She whispered, bringing your hand up to meet it to her lips softly. You smiled at the comforting feeling.

Chuckling, you remembered how Yelena hadn’t been one to show affection at the starting of your relationship. You had always been one to initiate any sort of physical contact. It was only after she told you how she wanted to make sure you were comfortable did it become commonplace.

“I love you.” You whispered, a smile turning up the corners of your lips. The blonde mirrored your smile as she turned around to face you. Hazel eyes radiated warmth as she squeezed your hand again.

“I love you too,” Yelena said.

With her, it didn’t feel like you were living a lie. You didn’t have to ask her if she meant it. To her, telling you that she loved you was a promise on its own.

Smiling to yourself as she squeezed your fingers the same way as you walked towards the entrance of the compound. You were about an hour earlier than you had promised to arrive. Hardly anyone was at the front.

You began to walk inside, taking in the sight of the compound. The smell of coffee wafted through the air, music probably picked by Stark created the atmosphere as you walked inside. It was like you’d never left.

Wanda sat on the couches, talking to Clint. A fond smile twisted the corners of your lips as you made eye contact with the witch. Her eyes seemed to widen almost three times their size as she caught sight of you. Jumping out of her seat, a large grin crossed her face.

“Y/N!” Wanda exclaimed, running forwards to you.

You stumbled backward with the force of her hug, hand slipping from Yelena’s. Laughing, you hugged her back tightly. Her hands pulled you closer to her, scared you might leave if she let go of you. You smiled as her grip tightened, burrowing your face into her neck.

Her hair still smelt of the almond oil she used, along with the coconut shampoo you’d suggested to her many years ago. Some things never really change.

Clint shouted that you’d returned. You paid little to no heed to his screaming, until you heard rapid footsteps approaching you. Wanda didn’t seem to want to let go of you, despite the rest of your family coming to crowd around her.

Tapping her back lightly, she let you slip from her hold. Turning to face the team, your face grew into a huge grin. Bucky stood in the back, giving you a curt nod before moving to sit on one of the couches. Hugging the rest of the team, tears began to form in your eyes. It had been too long you were away from them.

Five years just felt like a number when you said it. But the weight of it settled on your shoulders as you talked to your family. Five was just a number, it truly had been too long.

Jokes and teasing circled in the room, Steve patted you on the shoulder with a light threat never to do this again. A part of you assumed he was joking, but he seemed too serious for you to laugh it off easily. They dragged you over to the couches.

The grin on your face grew as the compliments flew through the room. The way you looked now was far too different from when you left for them not to notice. You’d left looking as a corpse of who they used to know. Now, you were glowing with laughter and jokes as you talked with them.

Moments you knew you’d treasure flew by until they noticed Yelena standing to the side. She tried not to look awkward, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets as she watched you. You reached out a hand for her. She took it and sat down next to you, squeezing herself between you and Tony.

“Who is she?” Wanda asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. Her arm hooked around yours protectively, she rested her head on your shoulder.

“Yelena?” A voice sounded behind you before you could answer.

The voice was familiar, almost too familiar. Turning around your eyes caught onto the reason you’d been avoiding your family. She wasn’t the same person you’d remembered. Her hair was blonde, she still walked with confidence, but that stride broke once she saw you.

Your jaw clenched subtly, you turned back around to Wanda who looked at you in concern. Giving her a tight nod, you glanced towards Yelena. She looked from you towards her sister, uncertain if she should greet her.

Giving her a nod and a small smile, you squeezed her hand to let her know you’d be alright. Without any words exchanged, she went up to greet her.

“Natalia,” Yelena spoke, a smile slowly growing on her face at the sight of her sister. Both of them grinned at each other before hugging tightly.

Yelena was a bit stiff as she hugged her, Natasha’s unspoken mistake still loomed in the air. She hugged her tightly before letting her go. She talked to her in Russian for a bit, you couldn’t understand any of the words.

The rest of the team stared at them curiously, wondering who she was. It wasn’t until they rejoined you on the couches was it they asked. Yelena returned to your side, her hand sliding into yours by habit.

“Who is she?” Steve asked you, a frown ghosting his face. You could only assume he wanted to be protective of you again. Bucky sat at his side quietly, scared of ruining anything again.

“I’m Yelena Belova,” Yelena answered for herself, winking at you when you glanced towards her.

Another smile twisted the corner of your lips at the gesture as you looked around the rest of the team. Natasha’s features flickered for a moment, into hurt, maybe even fear. You couldn’t tell, she put up her mask again.

“How do you know y/n?” Tony asked, leaning forwards and letting his elbows rest on his knees. He looked at her as if he was judging her. You chuckled and patted Yelena’s thigh comfortingly before speaking.

“Guys stop interrogating her.” You chided, watching Tony chuckle before leaning back into the couch.

You weren’t sure why you were protective of Yelena. They were your family. After all, you doubted they were going to chase her away. Even if they could, you weren’t sure they would want to.

Starting a conversation with them, you joked around for a bit before roping Yelena into the conversation. It flowed easily; she added to the stories you told and the comments you made. The stories you told weaved together flawlessly.

Natasha wasn’t paying any attention to the story, her eyes staring at the engagement ring on your finger. Yelena’s hand was intertwined with yours, denying her view to see the ring she was sure was there. She wanted to say something, maybe congratulate you, lie that she was happy for you.

The words were already dry in her mouth as she stared. She was the first to notice the engagement, but the last to comment on it.

“Y/n/n you’re engaged?!” Wanda exclaimed, noticing the ring when you made a gesture with your left hand.

She took your hand in hers, jaw almost dropping over the size of the ring. Gorgeous was hardly the word to describe it. It was a rose gold solitaire adorned with diamonds on the band. The diamonds looked like they were woven into the band itself.

A grin plastered itself onto your face as the rest of the team started to fawn over your ring. Before any of them could ask who you were engaged to, Yelena put her hand next to yours. A ring was placed on her finger as well.

“We are,” Yelena stated, her grin matching yours as you turned to face her.

Neither of you seemed to notice Natasha sitting frozen on the couches. The ring on Yelena’s finger wasn’t just any ring. It was your mother's ring, the one you’d talked about proposing with. The same ring you swore would bring luck to any wedding.

The ring she had been so sure she would wear someday.

“When?” Natasha croaked, clearing her throat after she spoke. The attention turned to her, the team glaring at her. It was as if her speaking could somehow take you away again. Maybe it could if she wasn’t careful.

“Nat,” Wanda whispered angrily, a red wisp forming on Natasha’s elbow. Natasha winced, glaring at the witch before turning back to face you. The question hung in the air for a few seconds, but you didn’t fill the silence.

“A few months ago,” Yelena answered for you. You gave her a grateful smile before turning towards the rest of the team.

Nervousness showed in your eyes as you glanced around the room. Your fiance squeezed your thigh gently, helping build up your courage for the request she knew you wanted to say. Biting your lip tightly, you took in a breath.

“We um,” You glanced at Yelena who gave you a soft smile you sought comfort in. “we wanted you to come to our wedding.”

A moment of quiet passed over your words before happiness and laughter quickly filled the room. The rings continued to be fawned over as new wedding plans were made. Your wedding plans, even your savings for them hardly seemed to matter as Tony announced he would be paying for it. You knew you couldn’t talk him out of it, despite how you might try to.

The team talked about the kind of wedding you should have, a spring wedding, a grand ball, anything. Plans and ideas flew around the room, the only person never offering any being Natasha. She sat silently on the couch, staring at the ground.

Your eyes glanced towards her before flitting back to Yelena, smiling brightly at your fiance. The same smile you used to wear around her, the one she thought she could never get enough of. The same lovesick grin the rest of the team made fun of you for. It was for someone who wasn’t her.

Natasha got up quietly, offering Yelena a tight smile of congratulations before padding out of the room. Her footsteps hardly made any sound as she made the effort to leave your life the way it is.

The conversation flowed on behind her, your laughter floating through the room. The wedding date wasn’t fixed yet, you weren’t sure when you should have it. Better sooner than later, you never knew how long something might last.

This, your family, you hoped this would last forever.

————

The TV played on in the background as you talked to Wanda about wedding plans. She had long since agreed to become your maid of honor. The witch was adamant about making this wedding perfect, you smiled as you talked to her about the flowers for the wedding.

Yelena was still unsure about who should be her best man/woman. Natasha was her first choice for it, but she wasn’t sure if you were comfortable with it. You’d told her you’d be alright with it, still, she waited in case.

The popcorn seemed to be taking a little longer than it should have. You’d offered to help her with it, but the blonde declined your offer, adamant she could do it on her own. You continued talking to Wanda about your wedding plans, unsure what kind of flowers you should have.

Wanda began saying that roses were a better idea, you weren’t paying much attention as you saw Natasha enter the room. Your eyes flitted over to her, your expression faltering for an instant. Bringing your mask back up, you nodded to Wanda to show you were listening. She didn’t buy it, glancing behind her. Noticing Natasha, she turned back to you, continuing her conversation.

“Hey, y/n…” Natasha trailed off, fidgeting with her fingers as she stood behind the couch. You turned to face her, giving her a tight nod. Wanda stopped talking, turning around to face the assassin.

“Hello.” You greeted, turning back to the movie. Even you weren’t willing to pretend everything was okay with her. The witch glanced between both of you before locking her gaze onto Natasha.

“Can I talk to you?” She asked, her weight shuffling on her feet. She glanced from you to Wanda, the witch glared at her angrily. Ignoring her gaze, she turned back to face you. You weren’t looking at her, your eyes looking at Yelena.

Your fiance gave you a supportive nod, the popcorn still in her hands. The look of concern on her face told you she would be here for you if things went south. You nodded at her, smiling gratefully then turning towards Natasha. 

Your smile dissipated the instant you looked at her, your eyes which were full of adoration only moments ago were empty, too empty.

“Alright.” You nodded.

Natasha smiled at you, hoping you would return it. Your face remained blank, prompting her to lead you to somewhere more private. The assassin sighed softly, hoping you wouldn’t hear her disappointment but wanting you to.

She walked towards her room, the same room you called home before leaving. Looking inside, you saw that not much had changed. It seemed all too familiar. Everything from the decorations, to the way the bed was made, even some of the pictures were your own.

Bile rose to your throat when you looked at a picture of the two of you on your anniversary. A glass of champagne was in your hand, your lips on her cheek, the corner of your mouth quirked into a grin. A grin plastered on Natasha’s face, her arm wrapped around your waist.

You picked up the frame from her bedside, aware of Natasha’s eyes watching your movements. A sigh left your lips as you looked at it.

The moment frozen in time. You let yourself fall back into time, experiencing that night over again. How ecstatic you were about spending 3 years with Natasha, three whole years. The nervousness about the party. The emotions were still frozen in the picture, you wished you could rid yourself of them.

“What do you need to talk about?” You croaked, swallowing as you set down the picture frame. Standing awkwardly on the edge of the bed, you fidgeted with your fingers as Natasha took a seat on the bed.

“Why did you come back?” She asked, her voice betraying no emotion. You swallowed, eyes flitting towards the ground instead.

“You and I both know it’s not just because I asked you to.” She continued, eyes watching you carefully. You sighed and looked up at her, shuffling back slightly. Natasha patted the spot on the bed for you to sit, you stepped forwards, then stopped.

It was the same bed she had broken you in. The same bed you’d sworn to be by each other’s side forever. The broken promises still lingered in the air like smoke. Breathing it in, you clenched your jaw tightly. Shaking your head, you shuffled backward and leaned against the wall.

Why did you come back? 

It wasn’t because she asked you to. You weren’t sure it was because you wanted your family at your wedding. maybe it was to see her again, to prove how much better you were without her.

To show her what she lost.

“Remember what I told you then?” You asked, tilting your head to the side as you looked up at her. The words were a bit hazy in your mind, somewhat like a nightmare you had a long time ago.

“Will I, will I ever see you again?” Natasha asked timidly, hope underlining her tone. She couldn’t stop you from leaving her with her mistakes. All she could do was hope for your return. Upon seeing your expression, that seemed unlikely.

“If the entire world turns upside down, you might.” You said a halfhearted joke as you turned towards the door.

Leaving your things behind, leaving your entire family behind. There wasn’t anything here for you anymore. 

“I don’t think I can forget,” Natasha murmured, the words as clear as day in her mind. The day you’d left, she couldn’t forget it. Your broken smile when walked out of her life haunted her, despite the pictures of your happiness she surrounded herself with.

“I told you that you might see me again if the world turns upside down.” You repeated, voice shaking. You cleared your throat, chuckling lightly as you leaned back against the wall. Your eyes roamed the room, taking in every detail before meeting Natasha’s eyes.

“It kind of did, didn’t it?” You chuckled, tilting your head.

Your life didn’t take the turn you’d expected. The plan was to marry Natasha, hopefully, grow old with her. Maybe get a house by the beach and have twins. That was what the plan had always been. It was still there, the house by the beach, the playground for your kids.

Natasha was the only change.

“I found everything I wanted in someone you consider your family.” You continued, hands moving to rest behind your back.

A smile crossed your face as you thought of Yelena. The way her lips quirked up into a smile, even at your bad jokes, the comfort of how her skin felt against yours, the sound of her voice when she’d just woken up. 

She was all yours, you had the pride of calling her your fiance.

“You found something in someone I considered my brother.” You muttered, your thoughts turning towards Bucky.

Hurt flashed across your features before you masked it quickly, turning to look up at her. The blonde fidgeted at your words, nibbling her lip and looking away from you.

“Bucky and I,” Natasha began, licking her lips. “we aren’t, we aren’t together.”

Your eyebrows raised, you’d thought Bucky was who she’d be running to for comfort after you. It had only made sense that she should leave you for another relationship. But just for sex, that was lower than even you thought she could stoop.

“That’s a surprise.” You mused, turning to look away from her and the bed.

An uncomfortable silence shrouded the room, suffocating you. You didn’t know how to break it. Small talk was the last thing on your mind. Thinking you should leave, you shifted your weight and put one foot forwards before the blonde spoke.

“I’m surprised if you remember my name,” Natasha whispered, almost too quiet for you to hear. A frown etched into her face as tears began to line her eyes.

“What?” You asked, hoping you heard her wrong. Her voice was rarely quiet, only taking a lower stance when she was scared. It hurt a little she was scared, or even upset because of you.

“The way you look at me,” She continued, knowing you heard her. “it’s like you don’t even remember me.”

You hesitated, letting her words take their place. Your mask dropped, eyes looking down at the ground as a sad smile twisted your lips. Of course, she would bring this up, you had never looked at her this way like she never meant anything to you. 

“I used to look at you like you were my world.” You muttered, shaking your head lightly. You wished you were lying. You wished you hadn’t made her your world just to let her take it away from you.

“It’s almost ironic you took it away from me.” You whispered, looking up to face her. The mask you made just for her began to shatter. A tear slipped down your face, sliding across your face until it dropped onto the floor.

“I never meant to,” Natasha whispered, voice shaking as she saw you cry because of her, again. Her hand reached out towards your face, stopping she realized it wasn’t her place. Her words made you snap, your head whipping up to face her.

“It doesn’t matter what you meant to do Na-” You stopped yourself before you could say her name.

You didn’t know why you couldn’t say her name. You’d called her everything from Tasha to Nattie, you didn’t know why it was so hard for you. It was hardly a surprise when you couldn’t even think of her without hurting.

“Say it,” Natasha demanded, head snapping up to yours. Tears grew in her waterline, her voice breaking as she moved forwards. You swallowed thickly, pushing yourself further into the wall.

“Say my name, please.” She begged, looking up at you pleadingly. A tear slipped out of her eye, she retreated as her hands moved to wipe it away hastily.

You took in a shaky breath, wanting nothing more than to leave things the way they were. Closure was a gift you never got. The wounds were still torn open no matter how much you tried to stitch them shut. Saying her name would tear you apart, all over again.

“Does it still hurt you to think about me?” Natasha asked when you stayed silent. Her eyes looked at you imploringly, almost begging you for an answer.

How could it not hurt?

Thinking about her always brought back memories, always the good memories. The best of what you were, never the worst. The memories showed you everything you were, how she brought out the best part of you.

It also showed you what she took away.

“Yes.” You answered, just when Natasha was beginning to think you might stay silent.

Natasha flinched back as if you’d physically hurt her. Her mask was in pieces, she didn’t care about the emotions she was showing. Every attempt she made to try to calm herself, to stop feeling, it never worked.

“Do you have any idea what you did to me?” You asked, incredulous she had even asked you if it still hurt. The blonde didn’t respond, staying silent in fear she might hurt you more.

“You took away everything I gave you, and then more.” You said, breath leaving you in harsh pants. your hand ran through your hair as you began pacing in the room. Natasha’s eyes never left you, even as her vision grew blurry with tears.

“The peace I felt around you, the home you’d made for me,” You shouted, tears slipping down your face. “all of it.”

You wiped your face hastily with your hands, watching them come away wet with tears and mascara. All your pain was out in the open for her to see. The pain was caused by her mistakes. You cowered into yourself, leaning back against the closet.

Trying desperately to slow your breathing, you rested your head on the door. Staring up at the ceiling, you let the lights blind you for a treasured few seconds. Blinking rapidly, you looked back at Natasha. She watched you with emerald eyes you’d let yourself get lost in too many times.

“It still hurts when I think of you.” You whispered, looking her in the eyes.

Natasha’s jaw clenched, blinking to try to stop her tears. She turned around to look at the rest of the room. The pictures of you still decorated the walls the way they used to when you were still here. The decorations you’d bought for the room, even some of your clothes were in her closet.

Never could she let you go.

“I never stopped thinking of you.” She admitted, turning slowly to look back at you. It was still somewhat like a dream, to have you here with her. A dream she was too scared to wake up from to let you go.

“You should.” You said, sighing after. You backed up slightly, wiping away the remaining tears on your face. 

Mascara stained your hands and your sleeves. You didn’t know what Natasha wanted from you, you could only assume she wanted you back in her life, even after you’d been adamant about keeping away.

“I’m not giving you my heart again,” You stated, glancing away from her. “it doesn’t matter what you promise me.”

Some truth remained in your words. Even if she promised you the world, or for her to be better, you wouldn’t give up your world for her again. Your heart was once something you gave away carelessly to her. You didn’t want to repeat your mistake.

“I don’t want that from you,” Natasha said, catching your attention. Your gaze flitted back to her as a confused frown ghosted your features. The frown etched itself onto your face as she let the silence slowly drag on.

“What do you want from me?” You asked, watching her wince back slightly. She straightened her stance as if she was preparing herself for something. Silence dragged on as she prepared herself for pain before finally speaking.

“I want you to forgive me.”

Your mouth opened to yell at her, to scream that what she did was near unforgivable. For her to even think that you could forgive her after everything. You’d told her what she had taken away from you, and she still thought she could be forgiven.

“I’m sorry, y/n,” Natasha stated before you could speak. Her hand lifted in a plead for you to hear her out. 

Your mouth closed but opened again as you considered keeping your silence. The blonde didn’t care for your silence, wanting you to hear the apology she had ran over thousands of times in her head.

“Please, I never meant to hurt you.” She repeated, knowing it wasn’t the apology you wanted to hear.

She swore she could not have prepared more for this moment. For having you in front of her so she could apologize to you. Even practicing in the mirror, over and over again didn’t help her. Seeing you in front of her, breaking all over again because she couldn’t be who you wanted her to.

It wasn’t something she had prepared for.

“Maybe it was unfair for me to fall in love with you in the first place when I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep you. I’m sorry.” She apologized, guiltily shifting her feet under her. Her legs dangled over the edge of the bed, she looked at them thoughtfully.

It wasn’t fair for her to try to be in a relationship when she couldn’t keep one. Maybe with you, she thought it would be different. But even you couldn’t change the mistakes she would make. Even at the start of your relationship, she knew she would hurt you somehow. You assured her that she couldn’t.

In the end, her mistakes would always come to haunt her.

“Falling in love wasn’t your mistake,” You spoke, bringing her attention up to you. “it was unfair of you to try to treasure something you knew you couldn’t keep.”

It was unfair of her, so unfair to lead you on for years, give you everything you knew you wanted. To make plans for the future, you could see yourself spending the rest of your life with her, so clearly. Then to take it all away again, just because she knew she couldn’t keep you.

“I’m sorry,” Natasha repeated, trying to make you stay. You could see her hand reach out for you before stopping herself.

A sigh left your lips as you moved down to kneel in front of her. Your fingertips hovered over hers before moving away. You whispered to try to get her attention, it didn’t work. Your hands slid into hers, squeezing gently.

She opened her eyes in surprise, looking at your hands in hers, the engagement ring adorning your finger. Her hands gripped yours tightly as if you were a lifeline.

Tears began to fall on your hands. You wanted to try to comfort her more, but this was all you could do. It was almost as if you were leaving her all over again, promising to say out of her life.

“Natasha,” You whispered, smiling when she looked up at you. Her eyes were so soft, so vulnerable in this moment.

Your thumbs slid over the skin of her hand, you looked at her carefully. She was still the woman you’d fallen head over heels for. But Natasha couldn’t be the person you spent the rest of your life with.

“Our time is over.” You said softly, wincing when she turned away from you. More tears dropped onto your palms. Her hands held onto yours tightly, you slipped one out of her grip to turn her face towards yours.

“We had our time together,” You continued, smiling at the fond memories of her. “and yeah it was beautiful.”

This is what you’d been missing all of these years.

Letting go.

It wasn’t as easy as moving to the other side of the world. It was looking her in the eye and saying that your time was over. It was letting both of you heal from the mistakes.

“I just wish we could have lasted longer,” Natasha whispered, clinging onto your hands tightly. She’d told you before that you were the best thing that ever happened to her. You were, it was foolish of her to cut your time so short.

“Maybe, but we weren’t beautiful because we lasted.” You said, tugging her attention back up to you.

 A light frown ghosted her face at your words. Your eyes gazed over her features, committing them to memory. The emerald eyes, soft cheekbones, the features you had grown to love.

“It was beautiful because it happened.” You whispered, your thumb tracing over her cheekbone gently.

A smile graced your lips, a tear falling from your eye onto your hands. A sigh left your lips as you moved up, leaning down you closed your eyes. Your lips met her forehead gently, her hands tugged you closer. You smiled, as she let go of you, letting you pull away.

A knock sounded on the door, you turned to face it, knowing it was Yelena.

“Come in.” You said, slowly wiping the tears away from your eyes. Yelena stepped into the room, taking in the scene in front of her. She glanced towards her sister wiping her face on her sleeves, giving her a sympathetic smile before turning towards you.

“Hey,” Yelena greeted, moving to slide her hand into yours. You smiled as her shoulder bumped against yours. “everything alright?”

“Yeah just,” You glanced towards Natasha. The blonde looked up at the two of you, no longer looking hurt. Instead, she looked at you with a gentle smile, finding herself finally letting go of you.

“Just catching up.” You answered, smiling up at Yelena.

She looked from you to Natasha, nodding at her sister. She would want to talk to her later, you were sure of it, but now wasn’t the time. Nodding towards the door, silently asking if you wanted to leave. You nodded letting her walk you out.

“wait.” You said, stopping in your tracks. A confused look showed on her face as your hand slipped out of hers, heading back to Natasha. Your fiance followed you back, leaning against the doorframe.

“I, I want you to come to our wedding.” You stuttered, shifting your weight. Wringing your hands together, you looked to face her. She looked unsure, her eyes glancing from your ring to her sister.

“Are you sure you want me there?” She asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. You nodded, looking back at Yelena. The blonde smiled at you, knowing it was hard for you to do this. You sought comfort in her smile, nodding again at Natasha.

“Lena considers you as her family,” You said, shrugging easily. “it’s only fair.”

Lena, the nickname was so familiar coming from you. Natasha raised an eyebrow, seeing as you didn’t answer her question. You chuckled softly at the action. She could always tell you had a different answer than what you said.

“I want you there,” You stated, watching her features light up into a smile. She nodded, looking from you to your fiance. Yelena looked certain she wanted Natasha to be there. She smiled and nodded.

“I’ll be there,” Natasha said.

You smiled in relief, waving at her as you walked out of the room. Yelena’s arm slid around your waist, her fingers reaching towards the ring you wore. Her fingers twisted them around your finger thoughtfully.

She didn’t know what you’d talked about with Natasha. But you were in a lighter mood, easily walking around the compound, telling more stories. You were more at ease, the closure bringing you in a different state of mind.

Years ago, you wouldn’t have even considered coming back here. The memories near painful for you. Now, the memories seemed like a story you told a long time ago. You thought the story had ended when you left.

But now, you’d finally let go.

In a way, it was a good thing the world turned upside down.

A/N: Please for the sake of my sanity reblog and comment and tell me what you think!!

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