#literally sent @changes an ask about this earlier today it's a stretch but i wonder if that's what did it lol

[jessaerys]

HOLY SHIT I CAN FINALLY MOVE MY BLOGS AROUND LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERSE DOT1 DOT2 DOT3 AND DOT4

[achubbydumpling]

Modern Bucky is fat and Steve’s sugar baby. Steve likes to spoil him. :3

eyy only took me a month and a half to answer 😂😂 I'm sorry, nonnie, but I'm highjacking your idea and using it for today's chubtober prompt :D

(I ended up having a lot more ideas for this than I could actually finish writing in time, so this ends pretty abruptly as soon as Steve and Bucky actually meet)

[unfinished] Oct 3: Masks and Malfunctions

Rating: Mature Words: 1911 Relationship: James “Bucky” Barnes/Steve Rogers Additional Tags: Sugar Daddy AU, Daddy Kink, Belly Kink, Weight Gain, Verbal Humiliation, Stuffing, Corsets, Age Gap

Bucky’s phone chimed and he didn’t even have to look at the screen to know that “Steve” just sent him more than enough money for the costume Bucky wanted. He didn’t actually know if that was the guy’s real name, but he’d been funding Bucky’s lifestyle since the beginning of college and Bucky wasn’t about to fuck that up by questioning the guy’s identity.

If this were a normal Halloween party Bucky would have just bought a random costume at Spirit Halloween, but his kinda boyfriend Jonas (it’s complicated) had invited him as a plus one to an actual masquerade ball. Bucky didn’t even know those kinds of things existed outside of fantasy novels, but right now he was at a high-end clothing store getting an “appropriate” costume.

[Bucky] Thank you, Daddy❤

Bucky texted Steve and then went back to trying on another dress shirt. This one had a looser cut that reminded him of something the male love interest in a period drama would wear or a pirate.

“Wonderful choice,” the store clerk told Bucky when he stepped back from the mirror. Bucky would probably never get used to having someone help him pick out clothes, but the higher-end stores Bucky had been to all offered this type of assistance.

“It drapes very well,” the clerk said with a sneer on his face. Bucky turned back to the mirror. Yes, he had to admit he’d fallen victim to the freshman 15. A small belly was rounding out even against the loose fabric of the shirt, but he didn’t actually feel self-conscious.

Steve had complimented him on every single one of those pounds. Bucky probably wouldn’t even have noticed all the changes to his body if Steve hadn’t been constantly talking about them. Bucky had never put much effort into maintaining his physique, but being hyped up by Steve over the smallest changes of his body made him feel desired and his heart fluttered every time his sugar daddy complimented his thicker thighs and soft belly.

“Any other suggestions?” Bucky asked and the clerk scoffed.

“A corset,” he muttered under his breath, but Bucky’s ears pricked up at the suggestion. His first instinct was to text Steve. Bucky didn’t know why it was important for him to know Steve’s opinion when Bucky was going to the party as someone else’s plus one, but excitement stirred in Bucky’s stomach at what Steve might say.

“Sure, get the corset.” Bucky sent the clerk on their way and then sat down to text Steve. He could feel his belly straining against the shirt buttons now that he was sitting down and he snapped a picture of the way the buttons on the otherwise loose shirt were straining over the thickest part of his belly.

[Bucky] Daddy~ they’re telling me I’m fat

[Bucky] they said I need a corset

[Steve] You will look incredible either way.

Annoyance prickled at the back of Bucky’s neck from the generic compliment.

[Bucky] that’s not what I asked

[Steve] You didn’t ask anything.

Bucky rolled his eyes at how literal Steve could sometimes be, but Bucky also didn’t know how to ask for what he really wanted to hear.

Some of his classmates had teased him for his weight gain and instead of making Bucky feel insecure, the hot shame had shot straight to his dick and he’d had to excuse himself to deal with the problem. Since then Bucky couldn’t stop thinking about Steve telling him those things.

Bucky didn’t even know what the guy looked like, but he’d quickly developed a crush just from texting him. It was actually fun to talk. Bucky couldn’t understand how the guy was single when he seemed like this perfect, interesting and kind guy—and rich on top of all that.

There has to be something wrong with him, but so far Bucky hadn’t been able to figure it out. Not for the first time Bucky wondered who Steve actually was, but his thoughts were interrupted when the clerk came back with three different corsets.

All the same material and color, just different cuts. Bucky’s eyes were immediately drawn to the tiny waist cincher—just tall enough to cover the widest part of his belly. Despite his grumblings the clerk helped Bucky lace up the corset and when he looked in the mirror he couldn’t believe it was him looking back.

His entire body shape seemed different. From the billowing sleeves of the shirt emphasizing his wide shoulders to the waist cincher doing an excellent job of making it look like he still had a waist instead of the soft belly that was hidden underneath. The simple black slacks he was wearing completed his outfit. Simple colors, just black and white.

The mask he had chosen matched as well. A deep midnight black that contrasted with his piercing blue eyes and gold detailing that caught the light when Bucky turned his head. He snapped another picture for Steve, but didn’t wait for his response. Bucky could still hardly believe that a single outfit could be this expensive, but Steve of course had transferred enough money to pay for it. On his way home Bucky finally checked his phone.

[Steve] What did I tell you? Incredible.

[Bucky] better than without the corset?

[Steve] This feels like a set-up.

Bucky groaned at Steve’s response. Of course, Bucky would luck out and get the sugar daddy that won’t humiliate him for gaining fifteen pounds before the semester was even over and wasn’t that a personal revelation. Bucky had never thought of himself as someone who could want something like this, but since gaining weight he had become more aware of his body—and how others perceived it.

[Bucky] it is

He quickly pocketed his phone after sending that text. Bucky immediately regretted it. He’d had a good thing going with Steve. Why risk fucking that up? His phone vibrated multiple times, but Bucky was too worried to check his messages until he got home. As soon as he’d closed the apartment door behind him he fished his phone out of his pocket.

[Steve] What does that mean?

[Steve] If you don’t want to continue this arrangement, you can just tell me.

[Steve] Bucky.

[Steve] Answer me.

[Steve] What do you want me to say? That you’re a spoiled pig? That you’ve gotten fat on your Daddy’s money and need a corset to look good for your little boytoy?

Bucky’s throat went dry as he read Steve’s message. The wave of lust that crashed through him, threw him off balance and he sat down heavily on the bench in the entry way of his apartment. He read the message again. And again. His dick gave an interested twitch. It was embarrassing how much he reacted to Steve’s words.

[Steve] Is that what you want?

[Steve] Don’t leave me on read.

Bucky didn’t know what to say. He typed and retyped the same message again until another one from Steve popped up.

[Steve] ‘Yes’ or ‘no’? It can’t be this hard to type one fucking word.

Bucky couldn’t breathe. Steve had always been kind and considerate, it made Bucky’s heart race to see this side of him.

[Bucky] Yes.

[Steve] Thank you, but we will talk more about this tomorrow.

Bucky’s phone chimed to tell him, he should be on his way now if he wanted to get to the party on time. His mind was still caught up in foggy arousal, his cock tenting his slacks. It’s too much, he wasn’t thinking straight and Steve wasn’t even here—wasn’t even touching him. Just a text and Bucky was a mess.

At least the walk to the subway station helped to clear Bucky’s head and chase away some of the immediate, burning need that had been burning in his guts just a few minutes earlier. It left him frustrated, but slightly more level-headed and in a more appropriate mood to be out in public.

When Bucky met up with Jonas outside the high-rise office building the guy was already wasted. He was surrounded by his office buddies and Bucky was honestly about to turn on his heel and go back home when Jonas called out to him. With all his mates there Jonas treated Bucky like another one of them and Bucky was already over the metaphorical dick-measuring contest that was happening whenever one of these guys opened their mouth.

Once they got inside Bucky split off from the group, Jonas didn’t even seem to notice. So, he explored the venue. The party stretched across multiple floors. The bottom floor was full of rich and wanna-be rich people schmoozing and socializing, barely anyone of them had stuck to the masquerade theme and Bucky kept debating whether he should take off his own mask.

He was much more comfortable on the upper floor. There were less people here and most of them kept to themselves. He felt less out of place when he noticed that most of the people here stuck to the masquerade theme, there were only a few people who’s face wasn’t at least partially hidden behind a mask.

Jonas didn’t even shoot him a quick text to ask where he had disappeared to, so Bucky was more than ready to just find whatever food this place offered, eat for free tonight and make the best of the situation. He didn’t know what he’d expected dating someone his age, but Bucky was done settling for anything and he made a resolution to break up whatever was going on between him and Jonas.

When Bucky finally found the buffet that was standard for these types of events, he couldn’t stop himself from loading up two plates and searching for a quiet, secluded place to eat. At this point it had become a reflex to send Steve a text whenever he sat down to stuff himself.

[Bucky] found the food

He sent a picture with his hand next to the plates to give Steve a sense of how big they were. Some guy’s phone went off as soon as Bucky hit send two tables over and for a moment Bucky wondered if that’s Steve.

He had a commanding presence even sitting down. Bucky could tell he’s a gym buff from his ridiculous shape. His shoulders looked almost double the size of his waist. As well as the large plate of food in front of him. This man needed to fuel his body with all those calories, but Bucky was eating more than him and only planning on getting fatter. Bucky dug in.

His little costume went from fitting perfectly fine to too tight within half a plate of food. The corset was throwing a wrench into Bucky’s plan of stuffing himself. He already felt full before he had even really gotten started. The blond guy from two tables over caught Bucky’s eye again. He was frowning at his phone and looking back up at Bucky.

[Steve] What are you doing here?

[Bucky] what do you mean?

Another phone chime from two tables down. Bucky re-read the text two times before he looked back at the blond guy. No way that’s Steve. That would be too much of a coincidence, right? Bucky sent another message and the guy’s phone went off again. For a moment Bucky contemplates just getting up and walking away, but then Steve was already out of his chair and walking up to Bucky’s table.

[stormjay0]

Xisuma and Xelqua

I was thinking about how Grian used to be an admin (Wynncraft) and we’ve ended up here so... ficlet time!

As nights went on Hermitcraft, this was one of the quieter ones. Many of the hermits had gone to bed (Bdubs having been asleep for hours), with only a few still awake tinkering at some redstone project or growing vines for a build. The lights in the shopping district had gone dark, one by one, as shops closed up for the night amidst the smell of newly laid grass. The diamonds hanging from the trees caught the light of a star here and there, but most of the movement in the cowmercial district had long since died down.

A flickering window blinked in the distance. Any passerby who found it worth taking another look would see that the flicker came from a cozy flame dancing in the glass confines of a lantern, resting on a desk. The window in question was a small opening looking out into the thick jungle, just large enough for someone to rest on the sill and watch the parrots. It was also over 100 blocks off the ground.

The flame began to die out, flickering slowly and sadly downwards, only to spring up again as if given a shot of espresso. Or a shot of coal, in this case, because the admin who refueled it wouldn’t be caught dead with coffee. A strong black tea was another thing altogether.

Xisuma sighed and leaned back in his chair. Rubbing his eyes, he checked the time for the first time in a few hours. One in the morning wasn’t bad, he reasoned, and turned back to his work. Earlier today, he had relocated some administrative panels to this room in his jungle base, the least concrete-y of them. He silently thanked his past self; working on admin duties was at least 50% less fun on the concrete floor. His helmet lay switched off on the cozier, carpeted floor of the preferred room. 

The panels themselves were resting between a desk and the wall behind it, propped up by their sturdy bedrock stands. Xisuma didn’t often think about that rare material that his panels were made of; many high-level admins required hardware (literally hard-ware) of that caliber, and though bedrock was almost impossible to obtain, it was well worth it for the administrative abilities of the panels.

Tonight was not a night for appreciating the panels, however; in fact, X was beginning to question if his work tonight was worth it in the first place. He was trying a particularly frustrating string of commands, as he was only halfway sure of how to accomplish the work he was trying to do. 

Xisuma briefly stretched his neck and back, cracked his knuckles, and tried another combination. The usual [ERROR: Action not recognized] message appeared in urgent red over his screens, and he let out a short breath and considered hitting the panels in a last-ditch effort.

He didn’t have the chance to hit the panels, though, because another object hit a different panel very nearby- a Grian-shaped figure slammed into the window beside him at top speed.

X, not even surprised, slid open the glass and looked down. There was a thin ledge about five blocks below, and as Xisuma had expected, a heap of elytra wings and red sweater was sprawled atop it. He chuckled, shaking his head incredulously, and grabbed a water bucket so Grian could swim up the stream.

“Do I even want to ask what you’re doing up?”

Xisuma passed Grian a cup of chamomile tea, which the red-sweatered man immediately dumped 6 sugar packets into, cancelling out the calming chamomile effect. 

“Well, you see, I was simply minding my own business over at Grumbot when I saw a light on over here- knew it was you immediately, definitely didn’t think there was a giant firefly hiding in the jungle.” Grian took a gulp of his tea. “Anyways, you’re up, and I’m up, so I may as well talk to you, Eck-sai-zooma.”

X rolled his eyes playfully at the mispronunciation. “Alright, but why were you at the Grumbot? That thing’s broken, ain’t it?”

“He was lonely!” Grian protested. “I wanted to visit my robot son.”

Xisuma raised an eyebrow.

“Aaaand I might’ve left a shulker box full of wool there.” Grian shrugged. “But it was a whole box!” 

He looked around the room that he had crash-landed into and noticed the administrative panels. “You’re not working, are you, X? At this hour?” 

Xisuma turned to look at the panels, still glowing red with error text. He sighed, and moved to switch them off. “I was working on a personal project, but you’re here, and I really need to take a break anyway.” 

His finger was on the off switch when Grian spoke up. “Hey, I know how to fix this. It’s a perception chain, right? You just gotta-” He typed in a string of commands deftly with his head tilted sideways. “There! Got it!” 

Xisuma stared at the message that had just popped up on the screen, glowing green. [Action approved. Enter commands to continue chain.] He turned back to look at Grian, who was now trying to hang his elytra upside-down from the ceiling. 

“How’d you do that?”

Without turning around, Grian replied, “Oh, it was pretty easy! Just entered some combos that you hadn’t tried. The keywords on these change wayyy too often.”

Xisuma stared at Grian, looked back at the panels, and looked back at Grian. After a moment, he collected his thoughts enough to ask again.

“No, how did you know what to do? I’ve been an admin for years and even I couldn’t figure it out.” X was surprised that his question came out so calmly, when his brain was currently a mess of ‘HOW DID HE DO THAT’ and ‘WHAT THE HECK’. 

“Oh!” Grian turned around, smiling sheepishly. “I don’t think I ever told you- I’m sure it was on my list, right after fixing that chest monster- I used to be an admin!”

He dropped to the floor, legs crossed, and took another swig of tea. “I used to moderate a server called Wynncraft. We had all kinds of people, but not like Hermitcraft- they came and went, played and left. Some came back, some didn’t, but everyone had a great time!” 

He wrinkled his nose. “Or, they better have at least, I spent a long time on those maps.”

“Anyways, we had a ton of quests, and loot, and all that stuff! It was a pretty cool place. You learn a lot about being an admin when you have to mod ghosts.” Grian grinned. “Hah! Those were pretty terrifying.” 

Xisuma was even more dumbstruck, but didn’t show it. Ghosts? No wonder Grian had known how to fix his problem- he was somehow experienced in some of the most complicated areas of administrating?

Grian leaned over to look at a different panel as Xisuma’s mouth moved silently, trying to think of something to say. The smaller man lightly tapped a thread of commands and looked up at X. 

“What’re you trying to do with these? This looks like a ban bypass. Did you accidentally ban someone?” His eyes grew wide. “If you did we need to fix it right now! Which hermit was it?”

Xisuma collected himself and sat down by Grian. “No, it’s- it wasn’t unintentional.” He stared at the wall. “I banned him on purpose.”

Grian was halfway to asking X who it was when he saw the look on his face. Xisuma looked stoic and almost sad, gazing off into the distance. Grian turned back to the panels, and read the commands on them thoroughly. The former admin recognized most of the threads, but some of them, covered in error messages, weren’t commands he knew that worked. After a minute, he realized what Xisuma was trying to do. The actions entered seemed to be working towards an uncoded goal- the objective being to see someone in another dimension. Specifically, the void under the end islands. X wanted to see someone who had been banned and sent into the void.

Grian may not have known why, but he did know how to help. He began typing in another string of commands, the sound of which brought X back to reality. He leaned over Grian’s shoulder as Grian continued to type, talking as he went. 

“The problem you had needed a bit of a workaround. I think the issue was in the way you went about it. See, to see the person, you can’t just open a window into where they are, you need to bring them here. Or at least a part of them, or- here, I’ll just show you.” He stopped typing and turned to Xisuma as the screen flashed the message [Enter administrative ID to give permissions.] “You’ve gotta enter me into your system so it lets me do this. Username should be Xelqua.” 

X, distracted, looked at Grian after a minute. “Xelqua?”

“Old username. It’s what they called me when I got my administrative license.” 

“Ah.” X reached for the panels. /permit user [Xelqua] }access_all

Grian finished up the last of the commands and held his finger over the enter key. “Ready to see whoever this is?”

Xisuma took a deep breath and didn’t respond. 

Grian took that as a yes, and clicked the final button, looking anticipatorily at the spot where he had entered the coordinates for arrival. 

Nothing happened for a moment. Then, the lantern dimmed of its own accord, and a fuzzy shape that looked a lot like Xisuma began to materialise in the center of the room. As the image became clearer, the person it showed did so too. Their face was just as shocked as Grian’s. 

Xisuma’s face, however, was misty. He looked quietly at the projection now standing in his base.

“Hi, Ex.” 

[nose-bandaid]

a hug per dollar

hello! it's me, the platonic anon from before... may i request a non-romantic, changgu & gender-neutral reader, coffee/study date? and maybe you could work in a reassuring hug 🥺 thank you so much 💛

Yeo One (Changgu) x (gender neutral) Reader | Platonic fluff + comfort?! | 1.8k words

synopsis: overworking can sometimes be an easy, but terrible habit to fall into, but luckily, changgu is there to drag you out when you do.

a/n: lol i think i projected this to have 1.2k but it ended up with 1.8 but i am not complaining !!!! to my dear platonic anon, sorry this took so long ksdhfkdsj i hope you enjoy it !! i may or may not have done an uno reverse on stud.hui.o fanatic because now it is the reader who's overworking BAM 💛

=====

"Don't you think we've been here for long enough?"

Your hand stopped writing the flurry of notes and you looked at your friend, who peered back at you over his laptop. "Changgu, it's literally only been..."

You flipped your phone over to look at the time on its display and faltered when you realized just how late into the day it was. "I guess we have been here for a while."

"Which is exactly why I think we should—"

"But I'm not ready to leave yet!" You snapped back, immediately backing off when you realized how harsh your voice was.

"You didn't get much sleep last night, did you?" He pressed on and you buried your face back into the piles of work laid in front of you.

"We don't talk about that either."

He let you be and the two of you went back to working in silence for the next while until Changgu eventually got up from his seat. Your eyes followed him as he stretched and let out a sigh. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

"Okay." You replied, and returned to your work.

=====

Not long after, a juice box slid into your view and you looked up at Changgu who returned after his bathroom break that took much longer than a usual bathroom break would've taken. You quirked an eyebrow in his direction.

"You got juice from the bathroom?"

He laughed and you took note of the other juice box in his hand — the exact same flavour as yours. "Of course I did. They added vending machines in the bathroom recently, didn't you know that?"

You decided to play along. "Is that so? No, I didn't know that. But do enlighten me as to why you would ever trust a vending machine located in the bathroom."

He laughed at your small jest. "Nah, I just went on an adventure to grab us some fuel." He dropped back into his seat and let out a relieved hum as he stared at his laptop. "After finishing that stupid essay I think I deserved the treat."

"You know, if you're done working you can always head back first. I'm fine on my own."

He shook his head adamantly at your offer. "This is our study session, you know? It's a we thing," he emphasized that with a point to the table. "So I'm not leaving until you're also done."

You sent him a small smile in appreciation and returned to your textbook, taking a small sip from the juice box as you did. It was refreshing and in the back of your mind, you wondered how he knew this was your favourite flavour. You didn't recall ever telling him.

"Though I think you've done more than enough work for today."

You didn't miss the next thing he muttered quietly.

"Look, Changgu, I'll just finish this chapter and we can call it today, okay?" You desperately held up a finger to assist in your pleading.

"One chapter and one chapter only." He reluctantly gave in, deciding to get a head start on another assignment in the meanwhile. Once again, you settled back into a comfortable silence, listening to the distant voices of others in the library.

You ended up finishing that chapter quicker than you initially thought you would and it flared up a new flame of determination within you. You could cram in a few more chapters then, right? You'll get them done in no time, especially with the flow you had now.

Agreeing with yourself, you got started right away.

You're pretty sure Changgu noticed when you flipped the page again.

And again.

And again.

Surely he's noticed the way you're slouched over a bit more now, the way your eyes were drooping and your gaze became unfocused. The way you've hardly touched the bag of snacks since he opened it. But you kept on going. Your determination knew no limits and you kept on going despite all the rational part of you that screamed at you to stop.

...Now, where did you leave off before you started daydreaming?

Right, at the end of this paragraph. You returned to staring at the mundane words in the textbook. You swore you were almost finished with this page but you also told yourself that what felt like hours ago. No matter how many times you read the same sentence over and over again, the words never seemed to stick in your mind. Your hand couldn't figure out what to write and what to leave out. All of it seemed important and you cursed the way your next exam weighed so much and yet gave you such vague preparation instructions. If only you had started studying earlier... but wasn't one week enough? Maybe you just weren't fit for this? Probably, because —

Changgu placed his hand onto yours. He gently pulled the pen out of your grasp and gestured for you to look at him.

"Let's take a break, you have no say in it. Seeing you like this makes me exhausted, I can't take this anymore."

No matter how many times you've drilled into your mind that it was absolutely not okay to take a break, the moment you heard the words from someone else, your composure crumbled.

You let out a deep sigh and let your weight rest on the table. "Yeah let's."

Changgu helped you pack your work away after cleaning up his own and waited until you were fully ready. When you slid the chair back to its former home, he held out a hand for you to take and you happily took a place by his side.

"Are you going to take me on another adventure?" You playfully asked, already feeling a little better now that your work was tucked away.

He shrugged. "Honestly, I had no clue where I was going to take you 'cause I didn't think you'd actually stop studying. But sure! Let's make this an adventure."

Stepping outside, you realized how much nicer it was to have a change of scenery. It was already late afternoon, the sun shining brightly above, engulfing you in a pleasant kind of warmth.

You sighed inwardly, this would've been more relaxing if your mind would just stop drifting back to all the work you still to be done. Hadn't you done enough? You worked so hard for the past who-knows-how-many-hours and yet it only left you unsatisfied and even more stressed.

Maybe it just wasn't enough.

A gentle bop on your head brought you out of your thoughts and you stared at Changgu, his hand still raised from bonking your bad thoughts away.

"Stop thinking so much." He crossed his arms and looked at you pointedly.

"Huh?"

Squinting his eyes, his face leaned into yours, getting closer and closer, and you found yourself edging away from the intrusion. Just as quickly as it started, he suddenly disappeared, straightening his back again and letting out a huff.

"Just as I thought."

"What?" You asked again, still lost.

"You're thinking bad things about yourself again! Stop that."

"How did you know?"

He playfully punched your shoulder at that. "I'm your best friend, you think I wouldn't notice these things? You always have this expression on your face when you're beating yourself up. Looks kinda stupid."

Your mouth gaped at his remark. "Hey!'

"I'm kidding, you never look stupid," he smiled and continued. "But what is stupid is you thinking that you're not good enough because you can't keep up with everything that's going on. Can you really blame yourself if some uncontrollable force decided to dump an unreasonable amount of work on you all at once? You're doing your best, which is one, really paying off because I swear you've covered like a billion chapters today. And two, is extremely cool — I heard the group studying behind us gush about how hard you were working and guess what?"

"...What?" You asked hesitantly, still trying to recover from your friend's spiel.

Changgu grabbed your shoulders to keep your attention. "I also think you're really really cool!!" He announced loudly, capturing the attention of a mother and her daughter nearby. They walked away after the initial surprise.

Your lip trembled, not even having it within you to be embarrassed by his public confession. Instead, you were overwhelmed by his kindness. "Changgu..."

He pulled you into a hug and you basked in his presence. The faint smell of fresh laundry lingered on his hoodie and you melted into his comfort. "You're doing great, and you'd be doing even better if you let yourself breathe for a moment. As overwhelming as it may feel, the only thing that's going to bring you down is yourself if you keep on going at this rate — not your work." He gently scolded before he pulled away and cupped your face, eyes boring into yours.

"Got that?"

You nodded hesitantly. "Yes."

"I don't know... that wasn't really convincing..."

You laughed lightly and pushed his hands away from you. "I got it, I got it, Changu. Thank you so much." You found yourself much more relaxed after your talk. "From studying with me to buying me snacks and comforting me... aargh, I appreciate it."

Changgu simply gave you a bright smile. "Anything for you."

That was all he said, but those 3 words were enough to express just how much you meant to each other.

"Besides, I don't think of it as a chore, any time spent with you is great."

You pouted. "You're too good for me, seriously. How can I make it up to you?"

In all honesty, you expected him to dismiss the question, but instead, Changgu's eyes wandered off as he placed a finger on his chin. "Well, I did notice that my favourite drink is on sale when I passed by that cafe on the way here..."

You sent him an amused look. "The juice wasn't enough?"

"Are you telling me to pass on a sale that takes a whole dollar off?"

Once again, you found yourself playing along with his act and your eyes widened. "Oh geez, you're right, we can't miss out on that." Pushing Changgu from behind, you ushered him forward. "Let's get moving! We spent so much time in the library the shop's going to close by the time we get there."

Changgu chuckled as you caught up and fell into step with his movements. "I'm glad to see that you're back to normal."

"And I'm glad we get to save a buck on overpriced drinks. Thanks for everything, Changgu." You swiftly replied and he sent a smile your way.

"Anytime."

[amostimprobabledream]

And He Walks With Flames (Dabi x Reader) - Part One

They say humans, in a strange, ironic twist of fate, owe their magic to demons. A thousand years ago, they walked the earth, wreaking destruction and chaos wherever they tread. Humans were no more than meat for the slaughter, or glorified playthings for their amusement. The first generation of humans to fight back against their monstrous oppressors did so by a peculiar, ancient magic. A power that could repel demons and bring hope to all humanity. A terrible war raged for the fate of the world and the humans managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The demons were banished to their land of origin, sealed away in defeat. But seals don't last forever. While historians argue on how literal these legends may be, there is no denying that ancient creature have begun to stir, appearing in our world again with growing frequency. And soon there might- The last paragraph was torn away. "Oh, for god's sake," you tsk. Sunlight pours through the large, high window of your lecture room, dust motes dancing in the golden rays. Though you were engrossed in your book, once you look up, the spell is broken, and the clear sky outside once again has your eyes wandering to it. It seems that you are not the only one getting distracted, either - even the professor keeps tapering off at the promise of an afternoon outside in the gorgeous spring weather. "Well," the professor says, shuffling the papers in front of her. "That's all for today. Please revise over the material and we'll discuss it in further detail next time. You are all free to go." You're only too happy to comply, putting your things away and scrambling to your feet. Everyone else is hurrying to get outside, pouring down the stairs to the doors, chattering to one another as they go. Normally you love going to lectures, but it's just too nice outside to be cooped up indoors. You push open the doors and step outside, a muted sigh of pleasure leaving your mouth. Your university, the Royal Academy of Magic, has the reputation for being tough, but so far, you've been enjoying the work. Learning about the different faces of magic, its uses, and the history of it, it's all so very fascinating to you. You've been able to use magic since you were young, but it's studying it here that will really help you unlock your true potential, and hopefully give you a concrete idea of what to aim for with your career. So far there are so many options a magic-user might do that it's been a little overwhelming trying to decide. As you cross the lawns, grass crunching beneath your feet, you decide to swing by your dorm first to drop off your books - they may contain a lot of knowledge, but damn if they're not heavy - your mother pointed out that you've developed something of a slouch since you started studying here. "I'm back!" you call as you push open the door of your dormitory. "Huh?" Kendou looks up from her bed, where she has a couple of books sprawled out next to her head, notes scribbled in the margins of her notebook as she looks over her textbook. Her red hair spills down her shoulder, coming loose from its signature ponytail. "You're back early!" "Yeah, they let us out sooner than I expected," you reply with a shrug and a small laugh, dropping your bag on your own bed and stretching, wincing as a kink in your shoulder pops. "Oh, well, that's good timing, someone came by earlier with a message for you," Kendou says, pushing herself up into a sitting position, apparently deciding your arrival is a good a reason as any to take a break from studying. "Your mother wants you to go down to the Imperial Research Centre to get your father." "Did she come by here?" you ask in surprise. Normally your mother arranges to meet you after lectures or seminars if she wants to see you during the week, and she's a rather busy woman besides. "No, she left a message at the front desk and someone passed it along," Kendou shrugs. "But she also said you guys are doing something tonight, right?" "Oh, yes, I'd forgotten all about that!" you say, feeling silly that it could

possibly have slipped your mind - you love it when you get to go out for a meal with your parents and often it means one of them has some exciting news to share. "Thanks, Kendou, I'll head over there now." She grins and gives a little wave. “No problem!” You suppose it's fortunate that the Imperial Research Centre is only a short walk from the campus and that you're very familiar with the place, since your father's been working there for so long. Anyway, it's a pleasant walk, the way there is lined with rows of trees that are only a week or two away from growing from dark to light pink and shedding their blossoms. When the street is in full bloom, it's like there's been a wedding. You even find yourself humming as you walk, breathing in the subtle smell of flowers on the breeze, wondering to yourself if the blossom trees were planted before or after the buildings were founded, but either way, whoever was responsible for them made a good call. The Imperial Research Centre is a peculiar building, made of blue stone and with a roof that boasts four conical points, one in each corner, making it resemble a castle from bygone days just plopped in the middle of the city. There's an aura of mystery to it, too, hinting at the all-important, life-changing work that’s always going on inside. If ever cutting-edge technology is released to the public, odds were that the Centre had a hand in making it. The building is cooler on the inside than it is outdoors, powered by a system designed to spread cool or warm air throughout the entire building, depending on the system. You approach the front desk, wishing that you'd thought to bring a jacket, because it’s always cold in here during the warm seasons, and the receptionist glances up on you with a slightly dismissive expression on her face. It's probably because she thinks you're an overeager student or some hapless intern, it's very rare a researcher your age would be able to work here. "May I help you?" the receptionist asks in a cool, professional tone. "Yes, I'm here to see my father," you reply. "He's one of the vice executives here." You give his surname, and the woman pauses. Is that a trace of nervousness you can see? "He's downstairs in Containment Room 1A," she says, checking a sheet of paper on the desk, which is littered with various papers, random pieces of stationary and one of those magitech intercom systems that they use. They have something similar at the Academy too, though of course, the Centre get the most high-tech version of everything. "All right, thanks," you say, turning to head for the elevator. "Wait!" the woman cries out and you glance back, confused. "I'm sorry, but you can't just walk through here, especially to the lower levels! You don't have the clearance and it can be dangerous." You scoff in disbelief. You have visited your father here before, many times, and this has never been a problem for you before. You always just tell them who you are and then get a visitor's pass. You even know some of the codes to the doors, thanks to waiting around for your father to finish work so often. "Well, please can you have someone go fetch him for me?" you ask, going to reluctantly perching on one of the chairs in the waiting area. "Can't it wait?" the receptionist asks impatiently, and maybe it can, but her attitude is starting to piss you off, so you shoot her a frosty smile you've perfected after watching your mother pull a similar face at people who don't meet her standards. "No, it can't." The woman sighs but she dutifully presses a button on the intercom system and speaks quietly into it for a moment or two, while you idly pick at a loose thread on the chair you're sitting on. She then glances back at you, eyebrows raised. "A messenger has been sent down to speak to him. Hopefully he should be upstairs shortly." "Thank you so much." you reply sweetly, the last words with heavy emphasis. After that, the two of you sit in a mutually frosty silence, with the woman sorting through paperwork on her desk and occasionally

directing people who approach her desk to the correct floor (which seems redundant to you - why can't people just read the clearly printed sign on the wall next to her desk ?), while you flick through some glossy magazines without actually taking in a single word. But you're not leaving until you've spoken to your father. Minutes tick by and you start drumming your heel lightly on the floor, leg jiggling with impatience. You wonder if the woman just lied about sending a messenger down to the Containment Room in an effort to pacify you, in the hopes you'll just get bored and leave. You grit your jaw at the thought, ignoring how cold you're getting, sitting here doing nothing. After maybe ten minutes, a man in a lab coat approaches the front desk, leaning over to speak to the woman. "Kino, could you come with me a moment? Hannah can start her shift." "Oh, I'll be right there!" Kino says, flustered, getting out from behind the desk and following the man as he walks briskly down the corridor, without a backwards glance at you. No doubt her replacement will be along any moment - perhaps she's running late? But you don't plan on sticking around. As soon as the receptionist rounds the corner, out of sight, you spring up and walk briskly across the room to the elevators, stabbing the button and stepping through the doors. You don't bother to fight the smile that spreads across your face as the doors slide shut. ~ "Father?" There's always something slightly creepy about the lower floors. The orbs lining the walls that are designed to keep the machinery running in case of a power shortage cast an eerie glow in the corridors, washing everything with a pale blue light that makes it seem far colder than it actually is. It reminds you a bit of walking through a tunnel of ice. Your boots click on the stone floor as you follow the lights to Containment Room A1. Finally, you reach the double doors leading inside, flanked by two windows each side. You can see your father inside, his back to you, so you rap on the windows. Nothing. You try again with more force, hurting your knuckles, but he still doesn't turn around. Perhaps it's soundproofed, so whatever's out here can't disturb whatever's going on in there? You glance at the keypad next to the doors, but you've never been to this particular room before so the code for the doors on the upper level is unlikely to be the same one for down here. Then you see movement, shadows beneath the crack between door and floor, and the doors slide open with a mechanical swish and two scientists in lab coats come out, comparing notes and murmuring together excitedly. You slip inside before they can slam shut again, unwilling to stand outside in the chilly corridor for any longer than necessary. "Father!" you call out as you enter. But then you stop dead in your tracks. Ahead of you, trapped behind some kind of containment field...is a monster. "What-?!" you hear your father say in surprise at his daughter suddenly marching through the doors. "What are you doing in here?!" But you don't answer. You can't look away from what's in front of you, even if you wanted to. You know without being told that this is a demon, but it's certainly not what they looked like in any of your history books. A tall, humanoid being that is undoubtedly male and you can tell from where you’re standing that he’s tall. The demon's huge, black wings arch out from behind him, reminding you of a bat. Two horns jut out from a crown of spiky black hair, but aside from that, you're surprised by how… human he looks. Your cheeks warm up as you notice he is shirtless, peculiar burn marks covering over half of his body and seemingly crudely stitched together like a patchwork doll. Despite that, he's impressively sculpted, sinewy muscles on full display and you know that demons were said to be uncommonly strong. Your eyes drift further down, and you spot a whiplike tail wrapped around one leg, topped with a pointed barb at the end, like a club in a game of cards. His arms are in restraints and so are his

ankles, yet he doesn't seem stressed in any way, leaning against the back wall of his holding cell as though he's waiting for something. "What...is this?" you breathe out, finally turning to your father. "This is our latest research subject," your father replies beside you, also staring at the demon, though his expression is surprisingly somber, considering just how amazing it is that they have been able to capture and contain a demon. You've never seen a live demon before, and something tells you that the one before you certainly isn't any garden variety one. "Director Fuji is very excited about this. It's not every day you see a demon this high ranking." Slowly, the demon stirs, raising his head a little. You're perfectly safe outside the containment field, as well was the multiple other safety measures both inside the cell and out of it, yet the sensation of being watched makes your flesh break out in goosebumps. From beneath spiky fronds of hair, the demon's eyes - so blue they almost don't look real - stare right at you, his gaze alone rooting you to the spot, laying all your defenses bare and leaving you feeling bizarrely naked before that look. Watching you without once blinking or breaking his gaze, his lips part in a sneer to reveal two rows of teeth, the fangs sharp and white as an icicle. You find yourself holding your breath as your father speaks again. "Sweetheart, meet Dabi."

[likelightningafterthethunder]

Like Lightning After the Thunder: Chapter Two: Reprieve

Fic Summary:

His breath wavered as he stared into Katsuki’s eyes. He knew he could get out if he tried. He could knock Katsuki out, hope that no one else would find them, and run back into the shadows where he belonged. Katsuki may have had him pinned down but he was in Denki’s range now and it would take little effort to send a charge through Katsuki to paralyze him temporarily.

It would take barely any additional effort to kill Katsuki.

As the sparks began to charge, lighting up the air around him, Katsuki refused to back down.

–

Katsuki always knew he was destined for great things.

He didn’t think he’d have to turn his back on all he’s ever known to get there.

Rating: T

Warnings: Eventual major character death, implied/referenced child abuse, psychological trauma

Other Tags: Bakugou Katsuki/Kaminari Denki, slow burn, alternate universe - canon divergence

Read on Ao3 (links to corresponding chapter) or read below

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Fic navigation to read the fic on tumblr

–

Katsuki wasn’t surprised to see one of his former classmates’ face on the news report with the tagline “found dead after hero-villain fight.” 

The reporter gave a rundown of the fight that had happened a few days earlier on the other side of the city, between a small gang of villains and Ochako. The villains themselves weren’t very high ranking― potential to be B-rank if they were more organized as a group, but C-rank individually― but they had managed to cause a decent amount of damage before Ochako had arrived on the scene. The news replayed the footage taken live from the battle, showing Ochako using her quirk on larger pieces of rumble to assist the lower ranked heroes in the area with evacuation as she charged forward towards the villain group herself. 

The footage wasn’t ideal. It was grainy from trying to capture the scene just outside of the limits of its scope and if it weren’t for the pink of Ochako’s hero costume, Katsuki was certain the camera person would not have been able to keep the camera centered on her. The footage continued until Ochako grabbed one of the villains, freezing seconds after the villain began to float. A red circle appeared around the villain’s face along with a mugshot before cutting back to the reporter.

In the aftermath of the fight, that one villain was never found. 

Ochako had been frantic when they had met up after, her gaze thousands of miles in the distance every time Katsuki looked. She denied anything being on her mind despite it being so blatantly obvious that something was, but Katsuki chose not to question it. After all, if she had wanted to talk about it, she wouldn’t have asked to meet him.

The report continued to explain the search procedures that had taken place over the past few days before describing a call on the tip hotline that ultimately resulted in the discovery of the villain’s body. While they didn’t show a photo of the body, Katsuki couldn’t help but wonder just how bad it was for the report to completely skip over the cause of death.

In the end, Katsuki supposed it didn’t matter what caused the villain’s death. Ochako was certain to end up finding a way to blame herself, for not paying better attention during the fight, for not trying hard enough to find the villain after, for being the last person who saw the villain alive. 

Even if she didn’t, there were parts of society that would make sure she would never forget.

Cheeky: can you meet up with me today?

Katsuki: Takeshi’s?

Cheeky: yeah

Cheeky: drinks/dinner on me after if you want

Katsuki: I’ll be there at five. Don’t be late.

Cheeky: got it!

Cheeky: hey wait why are YOU telling ME not to be late when I’M the one who asked YOU to meet me

Katsuki: You know why.

Cheeky: it was ONE TIME KATSUKI ONE TIME

Katsuki was at Takeshi’s gym a quarter before five, reserving their usual space and changing into workout attire before sending Ochako a text to let her know he was already inside. He started his stretches, looking up only when he saw a pair of pink sneakers approach the ring.

“You’re late,” Katsuki said, continuing his stretches. 

“By five minutes!” Ochako dumped her water and towel on the bench next to Katsuki’s, quickly joining him in the stretches. “I was outside before five, waiting for you!”

“I sent you a text saying I was inside.”

“Yeah, like two minutes before five!” She huffed. “I was totally on time.”

“Whatever. Hurry the fuck up.”

They continued preparing in silence, speaking again only to confirm that the other was ready to start. This time, only a couple of the guests flinched when Katsuki charged forward at Ochako yelling out “die!”

After the fifth time a hit landed that Ochako would have normally been able to block with ease, Katsuki stood down. Her form had been lacking for the better part of the past hour, and there were a few times that her blows hadn’t hit with the full force Katsuki was familiar with. She didn’t even react to Katsuki’s change in form until Katsuki had walked over to the bench for his water.

“Wh― hey! What gives?” She frowned but joined him for a water break when he didn’t return to the ring right away.

“Don’t insult me,” Katsuki rolled his eyes at the shock on her face, “You’re distracted. What kind of fucking spar is worth the time when your opponent isn’t giving their all?”

“I’m focused on the spar! I’m totally and completely here! I wasn’t insulting you but I am now, you’re just saying that because of your enormous ego,” 

Katsuki paused, looking at her directly in her eyes. She didn’t flinch.

But the longer he held his gaze, the more Katsuki could tell that she was holding back.

“First,” He began, “Don’t be cheeky with me―”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t be so cheeky with you if you didn’t call me cheeky all the time!”

Katsuki held back an amused smile.

“Second,” He continued, “I hit you five different times in ways that you should have been able to block with your eyes closed.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment, because what I’m hearing is that you think I could fight you with my eyes closed.”

“Insult. You didn’t fucking block the hits, dumbass.”

Ochako huffed, crossing her arms. “Whatever. I’m going to focus on the compliment part of it.”

“Third, you didn’t even notice I walked away until after I reached the bench.”

“I― I was expecting you to come back! That it was some sort of trick to get me to lower my guard or something!”

“And fourth, you speak faster when you lie.” He let Ochako stammer for a while in response, continuing when her shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh. “You sure this is the break you need? I don’t mind wiping the fucking floor with you if that’s what you want but you better respect my time back and fucking fight me with your all,” He shifted his weight a bit before adding hesitantly, “I can try to listen if you want to talk instead but that’s not really my thing,”

Ochako didn’t answer immediately, instead taking a drink of her water. Katsuki waited as patiently as he could, although he did offer her a glare to try to speed up her thought process. 

She put her water back down and hit her knuckles together, briefly reminding Katsuki of Eijirou. “Okay! One more round. I need to redeem myself before we leave for drinks,”

Katsuki grinned, shoving her lightly with his shoulder as he walked back towards the ring. “Whatever you say, Cheeky. You’re still going to fucking lose.”

“I’ll make you eat your words, Katsuki!”

She did not, but not for lack of trying. Ochako actually paid full attention to the spar after the interruption and while Katsuki still had the upper hand on brute strength, she was nimbler and lighter on her feet. Katsuki was fairly certain that had the shift manager not interrupted to tell them that their time was up that Ochako was only a handful of moves away from finding some “barely legal in a spar between friends but completely legal in a rules free battle against a villain” opening and winning the round. While technically neither of them had won, he did agree—after some teasing and pestering— to counting it as her point in their ongoing scoreboard, adding, “But if you want me to count it as eating my words, you’ll have to fucking try again.”

Ochako seemed to be in a brighter mood when they met up again post-changing in front of Takeshi’s. She bumped shoulders with Katsuki as he approached and began chattering about work and her day as they made their way over to the restaurant they usually ate at after sparring sessions. He didn’t offer much other than the occasional “yeah” and swear when her story necessitated it, but she didn’t seem to mind. She spared him from talking until after they were already seated and ordered their food and drinks. 

“Oh yeah! I heard from Tenya that you finally sent in your response to the reunion! Do you know when you’re heading down to Musutafu yet? We should get on the same train so that the ride isn’t as boring— well, kinda, since you’ll probably not be talking,”

“Shut the fuck up, I can talk when I want to,” Katsuki scowled, rolling his eyes when all it resulted in was a laugh from Ochako. “I haven’t looked at the train schedule yet. The Shitty Four Eyes approved for both the 28th and 29th off though.”

“Nice! Well, when you figure out when you want to head down, let me know and I’ll be your Anti-Explosion Time buddy for the ride down,” 

“Oh fuck off.”

Ochako laughed again. Katsuki hoped this would be the extent of the reunion talk but she continued, “It’ll be great to see the entire class again, don’t you think?”

“You make it sound like we never fucking see anyone. I literally saw you a few fucking days ago and you spend half your weekends with Frog Face or Four Eyes or the fucking Nerd or whoever the fuck,” Katsuki pointed out. “We see basically everyone at the Billboards too,”

“Don’t be such a bore, Katsuki. Reunions are different from the Billboards. We don’t have to deal with those ‘damn extras’ at the reunion,” She put on her best Katsuki impression at “damn extras,” extending her palms outwards and adding a playful “Boom! Pow!” 

“I don’t fucking sound like that.”

“Yes you do. I’m the great Katsuki Bakugou! Die you fucking piece of shit! Boom! Bam! You fucking extra! Bow before the king! Boomboom!”

Katsuki let the faintest hint of a smile slip. “I have never said ‘bow before the king,’”

“Oh come on Katsuki, you tried to name yourself King Explosion Murder, don’t deny it. Even if you’ve never said it, you’ve definitely thought about it.”

He scowled, muttering a “fuck off”, refusing to acknowledge that yes, yes he had thought about saying it once or twice.

“So you admit that I’m right!”

“Fuck off, I said no such fucking thing.”

“You didn’t say ‘no’ either though.”

“I’m demoting you to a fucking extra, you shitty fucking extra.”

Katsuki was given a brief break from any potential cheeky response from Ochako when the server stepped in with their drinks. They raised their glasses, a silent toast to making it another day alive, to making it as far as they had come, to their friendship.

To the silent understanding that there were some struggles that were best left unshared.

He didn’t press further about whatever it was that was stressing her out, even if he had a strong feeling about what caused it. She didn’t comment on the circles under his eyes or how his mind seemed to wander after she brought up certain high school memories. They talked, ignoring their stressors, and for a while, they could pretend everything was fine.

[fierysafrina]

Chapter 5.5.Catching up with you

Masterlist | Chapter 5 | x | Chapter 6

When a text message sent to the wrong number leads to many different things and it makes your world come crashing down once again.

Genre: Slice of Life | Hurt/Comfort | slight Angst Word count: 1.600 Note: Yes there are also going to be written parts. And for that scene with the toy in the reader’s hear is actually what really happened to me in kindergarten lmao a boy really did that to me and I almost forgot it until I reread this chapter just now and I’m not sure what the teacher did, but it was a really shitty move

You still weren't sure how exactly you agreed to go on a drink with Nash. Perhaps it was because of Alice's words, or perhaps there was a part of you that wanted to see how much he had changed. But that couldn't be, because you knew Nash from before. He was a tease, a trickster that always got on your nerves, always teasing you to no end.

Standing in front of a café, you were waiting. You checked the time for the tenth time and realised it only passed five minutes. Letting out a sigh, you rubbed your forehead and sighed.

"What's with the sigh?" A male voice spoke and your head snapped up.

Well knowing eyes stared at you, the corners of the man's lips turned upwards in a smirk.

“Nash…” You greeted quietly.

It didn’t seem to faze him as his smirk turned into a smile instead. “I hope you didn’t wait too long.”

“No,” you shook your head. Who were you to tell him you arrived half an hour earlier because you were nervous to meet him again. You definitely won’t tell him, already seeing his grin across his lips that would obviously tell you; “I knew you couldn’t do without me.”

Just that smile alone you wanted to smack off his face.

“Well, should we go?” he stepped aside.

You blinked before you nodded. “This café or somewhere else?” you asked and tilted head to the side, a form of gesturing towards the café you stood in front.

“Here’s fine.” He answered. “There’s not much of a crowd unlike other places.”

“Right…” you murmured. “You’re quite famous now.” You averted your gaze and Nash chuckled.

It took your breath away because it’s been so long since you last heard it and it was completely different. There was no sign of a boy neither in his appearance, less alone his voice. Only now, as you walked inside the café did it dawn you that you weren’t the only one that has changed. Nash has as well. And that was painfully obvious.

Sitting across each other, your arms were crossed across your chest, silence stretching between. Neither of you said a word as you waited for your drinks to come. Your gaze was focused mostly on the street outside, observing people while you felt eyes on you. And indeed; every time you glanced at Nash, he was looking at you. Constantly. Not once had he looked away, not even when the drinks arrived.

“You’ve changed.”

The words he spoke startled you.

You turned your head, eyes wide as you stared at him. “What?” you murmured more to yourself, but still loud enough for him to hear.

“Well, you used to be more … expressive or how should I say.”

“Yeah, because you got gum in my hair.”

“That was twenty years ago.”

“Baby, I can’t remember what I ate yesterday for lunch, so it’s a lot if I remember what you did to me twenty years ago.” you argued back with a huff.

How could you tell Alice and Shuzo you had a crush on him? He was everything you avoided.

He snorted and you glared at him. Covering his mouth with his hand, he looked down at his cup of black coffee, making you reach for your drink instead. There was silence, but this time it wasn’t awkward like it was before. It felt rather nice, pleasant if you could say so. You could spot a small smile growing behind his hand and you didn’t have it in yourself to call him out on it.

“You had a game today, didn’t you?”

Nash’s eyes widened, but he nodded. “Against Heat.”

You hummed, a small smile across your lips. “How was it?”

“As usual,” he shrugged. “We won easily.”

At that you scoffed. “Of course you did. You always win, don’t you?”

“Not always.” He murmured to himself that you barely caught it. Before you could ask what he meant, he asked; “So what are you up to these days?”

“Job market,” you shrugged with a sigh. “Searching for a job. I won’t ask what about you, cause I’m literally seeing you on every sports channel and everywhere in LA.” At that you both laughed.

“It’s been a while.” You said out of nowhere.

Nash stared at you like he was trying to read you, but quickly gave up on it. He took another sip of his coffee only to grimace at the bitterness because in the next moment he took sugar from the table and poured it in. You couldn’t help but laugh, making him look at you in confusion.

“I never thought I’d see you drink coffee one day.” You covered your mouth behind a hand, a teasing smile on your lips. “I imagined you’d be more of an alcohol type.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint you, princess.” He grumbled under his breath and you laughed once again. “I can’t exactly drink alcohol before the game, can I?”

“Well, I heard of some players that did and still do.”

“Well I’m not one of them.” He snapped rather harshly, his glare intensifying.

You raised your hands in defense, a teasing smile on your lips. “Well, you certainly have changed in some regards.” you mumbled, but Nash heard you loud and clearly.

“I can always go back if you want me to.”

“Well, don’t let me be the reason for you to get suspended or have bad luck.” You shook your head. “I don’t want your fans on my back either. I already had to deal with that in school all those years back.”

“Not that you were against having my attention aimed at you.”

At those words you felt your cheeks heat up, the tips of your ears along, and you blabbered incoherent words. “W-why did you a-ask me out today o-of all days?” you stuttered.

“Can’t I?” was his simple reason that made you scowl. “I told you; I wanted to catch up with you.”

“That’s bullshit and we both know it.”

“Not really,” he shook his head. He stared directly into your eyes and you couldn’t help feeling embarrassed, because he was looking at you so sincerely that all those rumours you heard made you wonder if he truly was capable of things he did.

But then you remembered Sarah and Nash in a classroom long after classes were done. How you couldn’t believe what you were seeing, because you didn’t want to believe it. How your chest felt tight and even had trouble breathing. All because you didn’t want to believe those rumours you heard. Because when Nash was with you, he was anything but arrogant. Sure he teased you and pulled on your hair, but that was all there was. He didn’t call you names, pet names or did anything too mean.

So many times you heard that he liked you, especially from your parents and relatives. But if he liked you, why was he hurting you?

“What are you thinking?” His voice brought you back from your thoughts.

You forced a smile; “Nothing.” Taking your drink, you took another sip before you focused back on the street outside. “You know what,” you spoke after a moment and faced him. “Why did you do that? Why were you pulling on my hair and put the gum in my hair? Or that time when you drove a damn toy truck into my hair so the teacher had to cut it.”

Nash’s cheeks turned into a bright shade of red and he coughed, avoiding your gaze. It seemed like he was embarrassed that you brought that out, but you wanted to know why he did that. All this time you thought he hated you, but when he was nice to you, it also confused you. You didn’t know how to feel about him, so your feelings for him changed constantly.

“I-I don’t know …” he stuttered out an answer. You raised an eyebrow at that, hardly believing it. “I-I just did what I thought was okay to do.”

“Yeah, well, it certainly wasn’t okay.” You crossed your arms, going on defense in a second. “I had no idea if I did something wrong to you or what. One moment you teased me constantly and then you acted all nice. What even was that?”

“I did that to everyone.”

Something about the way he said it, you didn’t like. His words sent sadness through you and your breath hitched. Your eyes grew teary, but you controlled your emotions before he could see your demeanour change. You didn’t want to give him any reason to pick on or tease you again. You didn’t need more misfortune in your life like you did all those years back.

“Of course you did.” Your voice turned just a bit colder than usually.

Nash looked at you, his eyes just a bit wider, but instead of saying anything about it, he blurted out; “Wanna go out with me tonight?”

"You know what? Yeah." You said and it took you a moment to realise what you just said. You both stared at each other like you both grew another head before you burst into laughter. Nash followed quickly after, a rather comfortable silence stretching between the two of you.

You glanced outside and saw the sky slowly turning darker and for some odd reason you didn't mind Nash's presence.

“Where do you wanna go?” he asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

You shrugged. “Surprise me.”

Nash mirrored it and he stood up, you along. He paid for the drinks before you left, both completely unaware of curious gazes that followed you at the distance.

[cindersandroses]

Digital Get Down, Chapter 5

AUTHORS: cindersandroses ( losille2000 and cinderella1181)

CHAPTERS: 5/?

PAIRING: Actor!Henry Cavill/ Plus-Size OFC

GENRE: Romance/Fluff/HUMOR

FIC SUMMARY: When SuperHank met OrcPrincessPeach on the World of Warcraft message boards, it was love at first raid. Now, almost a year later, they’re ready to take the next step and meet in person. Half a world away from each other, both decide to meet in Atlanta for DragonCon, since she was already going to be there for her work as a game designer at Blizzard… never mind that she is a devout nerd. They both have to face the fact that reality is very different from a digital world.

RATING: Mature

WARNING: Mentions of assault.

AUTHORS NOTES: Love you all!

Also on AO3!

Chapter 5

Opal turned to the side as she looked at herself in the full length mirror on the back of the closet door. She smoothed the front of her dress over her rounded belly and picked at the slight ruching that was meant to help hide her imperfections along with the black color of the dress, but it did neither. There’d be no hiding anything. This was about as bodycon as one could get, and indeed she bought it a long time ago because she thought she looked hot in the form fitting silk. As soon as she got it home, though, and really looked at herself wearing it in the harsh light of day, she put it away, in the back of her closet with the other beautiful clothes she’d bought but never found the courage to wear.  

That was changing. Now. Today. Okay, not today. But as soon as she walked back into her house. She planned to go straight to her closet and pull them all out and wear each of them as soon as she had the right opportunity or occasion. Considering that most of them were on the fancier side of things, meant for dates, she figured she’d have more chances to wear them now, anyway.

Even though she and Henry would literally be halfway across the globe from each other after this weekend. She couldn’t dwell on that fact, though. If she did, then the sadness set in. She refused to let that particular emotion claw its way back. They’d make it work if it was going to work. It wasn’t like she couldn’t just take her computer places and work there.

If she could convince her boss to allow frequent trips.

And it wasn’t like he didn’t also spend part of his time in Los Angeles. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Henry walked by behind her, drawing her attention away from those troubling thoughts. He fumbled with the cufflink on his left shirt cuff. She was going to make a quip about it, but the words died on her lips when she noticed he looked at her like a fat kid looked at cake. He licked his lips, smiled, and walked into the bathroom.

She couldn’t help but blush. She never would’ve believed he was truly stealing glances at her, but that notion had been squashed earlier at the spa. In fact, now she was hyper aware of his long, molten stares. 

And it was all because of the wonderful esthetician who completed her facial after their massage. What had started out as a traumatic experience ended up making her feel the most confident she’d ever felt in her own skin, thanks in part to Jessa the esthetician’s enlightening conversation. 

“He’s looking at you like you are the purest water and he’s just had some hot sauce.” 

Opal giggled, and blushed, looking at the woman.  “I just keep thinking he’s going to be like, ‘Ugh, not my type’ and leave, Jessa.” 

“Girl, please. You got one of those peach bottoms that men love to get a handful of. You already got him eating out of your hand, he’s not stopped glancing over here this whole time,” Jessa said, putting her hand on her hip. “And if he does do that, I got a handful of fine brothers who would eat that peach bottom up. So you just let Jessa know and I’ll hook you up.”

The comment made Opal laugh loudly, disturbing the serenity of the spa and resulted in a few perturbed glares from other clients. Henry had glanced up, one eyebrow raised in interest. She smiled at him sweetly and he went back to his shave. Opal smiled. “Thank you, Jessa. I’ll keep you updated.”  

Opal had made sure to slip Jessa an extra tip, even though she was sure Henry had tipped everyone well. Stingy wasn’t really a word she would use to describe this man, not materially or emotionally. 

Or physically.

Definitely not physically. He liked touching. Being affectionate.

She did not; or, more aptly, she was not used to it in the romantic sense. But she wasn’t even that affectionate with her family. There were a few hugs here and there as a child, but they weren’t overly huggy. And then there was the other thing he didn’t know about, because she never talked about it, that prevented her from initially enjoying his touches.

It was getting easier, though, the more he touched her. She found, with some relief, that she actually quite liked being close to him in that way. Perhaps there was hope for her, after all.

Opal moved away from the mirror and followed his trail to the bathroom. She rested a hip on the door jamb and watched him finish his grooming. He saw her in the mirror and smiled. 

“Like what you see?” he asked, that insidious brow raised.

“Nah,” she said with a grin. “I was just thinking about how you use twice the product I do.”

Henry rubbed his hands on a hand towel to remove the remnants of whatever moisturizer he’d used on his freshly shaved jaw. “That’s because it takes a lot to make me look this good. You’re already bloody gorgeous, so you don’t need it.”

Her cheeks heated and she shifted her weight awkwardly on her bare feet. Why were compliments so difficult to take? 

“And as an answer to your question, I do like what I see,” she replied. “I appreciate your efforts. But I also love getting to just observe each other. That’s what we were missing over the last year.”

Henry stopped and smiled at her. “I watched you getting ready, and that’s why I’m so behind. I couldn’t stop watching you. You are enchanting,” he whispered. 

The air caught in her lungs upon hearing the deep gravelliness of his sentiment. He closed the distance between them. The hunger, the lust, the pain, the joy, the need, all passed across his face. He leaned down and brushed his lips across her temple.  “We’re going to make a hell of a couple tonight, Princess.”

“Yes, we are,” she replied breathlessly. 

“Let me finish getting ready. You are distracting.” 

Opal giggled. “Pot, kettle.” 

She moved away from the door and went back to the bed to struggle into the sky high heels she had thought would be great to wear, but now she regretted the decision to pack them. Her feet were going to ache by the end of the night. But--the minx inside her reminded--that could possibly lead to another massage. This time, just with Henry. 

As she finished up the last buckle on the strappy things and stretched her legs out to check how they looked, she noticed Henry watching from across the room with a glazed look in his eyes. She laughed at him, because it was the exact same look she’d had as he secured the waistcoat around his trim torso.  “This… me putting on shoes shut you down?”

Henry reanimated with a shrug. “I have a thing for really high strappy, almost slutty, heels. Nothing like…” He stopped and blushed slightly. “Uh, never mind.”

Opal stood up and went over to him, just barely shorter than him now, and grinned. “I will have to remember that for later,” she replied. 

“Oh, god, please do. Bonus points for silk stockings and the whole belt contraption,” he murmured.

She giggled. “You know, men and women are so different. You want the littlest piece of clothing on me, but I’d rather see you in a three piece suit.”

“I can fuck in a three piece suit just as well as I can without,” he teased.

His comment, and the harsh word, caught her off guard. Taking the opportunity, he went over to grab his cell phone. He beckoned her with a crooked finger. “Come here.” 

She didn’t ask for clarification or even think about it; her feet in their dangerous footwear moved of their volition. When she reached him, he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head, all while snapping a quick picture. He looked at it, smiled, and turned it around for her to view.

Her cheeks were high with color. Her skin glowed; her eyes sparkled. Her smile showed almost every one of her teeth. Everything about it made her seem so vital, so alive, so… beautiful. She had never seen herself so happy. Simply being near him made her want to beam from ear to ear. 

He smiled softly. “Now you see what I see when I look at you.”

“I don’t always look like this,” she protested.

“You do,” he replied. “Let me send this to you so you can send it to Amber.”

Opal shifted uncomfortably. She’d completely forgotten about sending Amber a picture. What kind of friend was she, anyway? 

“We can’t bring our phones tonight,” he explained. “Something about making sure nothing unflattering gets out.” 

Opal looked up at him and nodded. “Okay. Let me just send Amber a text telling her I’m going out for the night.” 

She saved the picture to her phone and opened up the text stream with her friend. She took the picture, sent it, and wrote, “I don’t think I ever expected my Hank to be this real. Going out for the night. Talk to you in the morning.”

She plugged her phone in, stood up, and took Henry’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go.” 

 ~~~

Opal stood in the atrium of the Georgia Aquarium and sighed. She was enchanted. She’d been here a ton of times before at previous cons, but never on a night specifically designed to be an intimate cocktail party with all of the con’s celebrity guests.  

What actually was her life right now? 

Henry talked to Dany and Dwayne, and she couldn’t get over the fact that she was standing next to The Rock. How many times had she sat next to her brothers while they watched this giant man wrestle? If someone had told her this was going to be her life when she left Los Angeles the night before, she’d have told them they were lying. It was all a little surreal.

Dany smiled at her, obviously picking up on the fact that she had zoned out and had literal stars in her eyes.  “So, Opal, what do you do?” 

Opal hummed and blinked at her. “Yeah, sorry. I’m a designer and programmer for Blizzard. I have been there, oh gosh, almost ten years now. Best job I have ever had.”

“And you live with?” Dany inquired. 

Opal understood Dany’s reticence to accept her into the group. Dany didn’t want anything to harm the business, and even though she seemed tough, she clearly cared deeply for both men as friends. Still, though, Opal didn’t think she gave off a crazy fan vibe.

“My best friend, from like middle school,” Opal said, moving to stand closer to Dany. She leaned in to speak quietly.  “I know you’re worried about me using him, I get that, trust me. If I was in your position I would, too. But honestly, Dany, I didn’t even know he was him… until this morning when I arrived. I just thought he was a dorky British guy named Hank. That was it. In the months leading up to this I just got to know his heart and who he is, not Henry Cavill, God’s gift to women. I knew SuperHank, the cleric who runs around healing people, because he is that guy. I got to know the Hank who was shy and loved to cook and gets excited about Warhammer and new fantasy novels. Who tells me constantly that I am worthy and beautiful.” 

Dany beamed at her. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.” 

“And frankly, you scare me a little bit, so I won’t do anything untoward,” Opal said.

Dany laughed and flexed a bicep. “Don’t you forget it.”

“I won’t.”

“But seriously, Opal,” she said and grabbed Opal’s hand. “He needs someone he can love with his whole being, and I’ve never seen him happier than when he has spoken to me about you.” She squeezed her hand. “It’s not going to be easy, but I promise to make sure you’re okay and safe, and that you can be with him.”

Opal grinned. “He is pretty special.” She looked beside her, expecting to find him there.  “And... gone, apparently.”

Lauren smiled at her.  “He and Dwayne went to get some drinks.” 

Opal felt her stomach clench. She tried to smile, but before she could muster one, Henry was back by her side. He handed her a flute of champagne. “Here, Princess.” 

Opal took the glass from him and didn’t say a word. Her jaw clenched and it took everything in her to stop her hand from shaking. 

Henry frowned. “Is that okay? Do you want something else?”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s fine,” she replied and tried to smile again. Even though she couldn’t see it, she knew it came off as more of a grimace because of the expression Henry returned. He knew something was wrong, but the words to explain it to him failed to form on her tongue.

Not that she really had the chance to say anything, anyway. A loud, booming voice rang out across the atrium, “LITTLE BRUDDA!!!”

Opal spun around and watched in abject horror as two grown men raced towards each other and chest bumped each other like drunken frat boys.

Dwayne shook his head.  “Seriously, you two? We’re in public.” 

Henry came back and smiled.  “Jason, my man, this… is Opal.” 

Jason looked at her, his eyebrow raised.  “Well, hello there, beautiful. I’m Jason…” He took her free hand and kissed the back of it. “If he gives you any trouble, let me know.”

Opal blushed. “Thank you. I will.”

Dazzled once more by the Man Also Known As Khal Drogo, Henry startled her with a hand on the small of her back. She looked up at him, still holding the flute from which she had not yet had a drop of champagne.

Henry leaned down into her ear. “Do you want me to get something else for you?”

She shook her head.  “No, I just, uh… I’m going to get my own drink.” 

She excused herself and headed over to the bar, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t running away from him and running away from the conversation she should have already had with him, even before they both decided to meet here in Atlanta. 

She wasn’t in line long when she felt his presence behind her. 

“Are you okay?” he asked again, concern written all over his face.

“I am, honestly. I just… well… it’s stupid. I don’t drink anything that I don’t see poured myself, and I very rarely drink alcohol in public. I should have told you. It’s just my hang up and, gah... I’m sorry I freaked out a little bit.”

Henry’s eyebrows knit together. He nodded, but he clearly wanted more. 

“Let me get my drink and we’ll take a walk and talk, okay?” she asked, hoping to smooth things over.

He nodded and stood quietly with her. Even though he was clearly confused and maybe a little angry, his presence was still one that calmed her and she found herself resting against his sturdy bulk as they waited. Opal ordered her cranberry juice in a martini glass. To anyone other than herself and Henry, it looked like a Cosmo. It was her fallback when she wanted to hang out with the cool kids but didn’t want to do what the cool kids were doing. Because that one time she did what the cool kids were doing? She lived to regret it.

She took his hand and started to walk through the first exhibit. Opal paused at a tube enclosure in the middle of the room full of jellies. A black light shone down into the water, illuminating the sea creatures as they performed a graceful, haunting dance around their tank. She stood quietly, Henry standing next to her, silent, thinking. 

Finally, she cleared her throat from the heavy emotion making it difficult to breathe. “I was drugged.”

Henry’s fingers curled into her back. Though he tried to mask the sharp intake of air, his gasp was still audible. “Opal, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because,” she said, just barely above a whisper. “It wasn’t just that. Amber and I were freshmen in college and I wanted to fit in. We went to a frat party. A guy we had art history with invited us.”

His anger was palpable; it wasn’t anger directed at her, though. Somehow, she knew that, as she stared at the gelatinous orbs bobbing through the water. She took a sip of the cranberry juice before moving on.

“I woke up the next morning, head fuzzy, in a room I had never seen before, and my panties around my ankles.” She braved a look up at Henry, to gauge his reaction. The sharp line of his jaw was set, his rage evident.

For some reason, it was cathartic to share this secret with another human. Amber knew, of course. Amber had nursed her back from the brink after they got home from the hospital.

“It’s the reason I pull away sometimes when you touch me, and the reason I am so unsure of myself. I’m sorry I never told you before, but you have a right to know.”

Henry didn’t speak; he looked at a point beyond her, staring in stony silence for the longest time. He finally tore his focus away from that point and gazed down at her. His face spoke volumes, even before his words did. He rested his chin on her head and wrapped her in his arms. “You know I would never, ever do that.”

“Oh, no, I do! I just… I want so badly for you to touch me, to be yours, I just need… time,” she said. “I don’t even know if I’m actually a virgin or not. I don’t know what they did to me. The next morning, Amber took me to the ER and a rape kit was done, but it was inconclusive. I’m sorry if this changes the way you feel about being with me.”

Henry pulled away from her and put his drink on the floor. He took her face gently in his hands. “I never, ever would feel any different about you. I just… I understand now.” He kissed her forehead, but didn’t move his lips from the spot they’d touched. His next words were muffled, but the meaning behind them was everything. “My promise to you is that I will not hurt you, and it’s all going to be at your pace.”

She smiled and pushed his hands away from her face. With her free hand, she reached up and let her hand rest on the nape of his neck. “Well, then, we can do this, cause I’m very ready for it.” 

With little strength, she pulled him down to her and kissed him. It wasn’t passionate or chaste; it was somewhere in the middle. A reassurance. A promise. Her promise to be as open with him as possible. His cue that she was okay with him pushing her boundaries. And she loved him for it.

[sleepypanda27]

Addicted To You

Bucky Barnes x reader

Request: I adore your writing💕 Could you possibly write a fluffy Bucky x reader where (Y/N) a new addition to the avengers is usually happiest amongst the members. It’s addictive and Bucky appreciates it *wink**wink*. Everyone has bad days though and it’s very clear (Y/N)s going through one. Bucky immediately takes notice and is simply there for her throughout the day doing what he can to help.

Warnings: Grumpy Bucky, so much fluff

Words: 2,196

The first time you met Bucky you wandered around Avengers tower searching for Steve's office. You couldn't remember where exactly it was, and there was no one around who you could ask. Rounding the corner, you accidentally run into Bucky, knocking the coffee cup he was carrying over his shirt.

“Ah-what the-!?” He yelped in surprise, jumping back.

“Oh my god, I'm so sorry.” You apologized, seeing the mess you had accidentally made. The sleeves of his burgundy henley were rolled up to his elbows. When you noticed his shiny metal arm, you instantly recognized him.

“Good thing it wasn't hot.” He pulled the wet part of the shirt away from his chest. You looked so guilty and sorry that he couldn't blame you. “It's my fault I didn't look where I was going.”

“I'm really sorry, it's my first day here, and I got lost and...” you started rambling, your eyes were glued to the dark wet spot on his shirt that clung to his muscular chest. “I'll pay you back?” You offered with a smile.

“Don’t worry about it, who are you looking for?” He smiled friendly. “Maybe I can help.”

“Steve Rogers.”

“Follow me.”

“Hey punk,” he opened the door to Steve's office peeking inside to make sure he was there and then opened doors wider. “I found this Doll wandering around the halls spilling coffee on people.” He teased, earning a disappointed look from you that he absolutely loved finding it funny.

“Y/n, there you are, I was waiting for you.” Steve glanced at Bucky's wet shirt. “What happened to you?”

“Her.” He pointed at you. “Do you even listen to what I'm saying?” Bucky shook his head and left you two alone to go change his ruined henley. Later he returned. Leaning against the wall by the doors, he patiently waited while you and Steve finished the conversation.

“So that's that. I'll find someone to show you around.” Steve said with a smile.

“I can do that.” Bucky volunteered.

“You?” Steve asked skeptically.

“Yeah, me. Is that so hard to believe?” He rolled his eyes.

“You usually do everything that’s in your power to avoid doing something like that, so yeah.” Steve chuckled, leaning back into his chair. “I would say it's hard to believe.”

“Dude, don't say that in front of her, you are making me look bad,” Bucky whispered, intensely staring at his friend who only laughed.

“I'll pretend I didn't hear that.” You chuckled, standing up from a chair.

“Let's go doll, I'll show you everything. You can call me Bucky I will be your tour guide for today. You can ask me anything you want.”

“I’m getting a tour by Bucky Barnes himself,” You smiled, holding onto his arm. “I feel special.”

“You know who I am, huh?” He blushed and almost melted into a puddle from seeing your beautiful smile that was directed towards him. “So about that coffee, you mentioned earlier.”

***

It’s the end of a successful mission in the middle of nowhere. There's only trees and fields as far as the eye can see. A couple of old buildings scattered here and there on a brink of collapsing, and then there’s the one that was in a good condition before you accidentally blew it up.

Bucky managed to lose his boot after the explosion wave sent him flying in the nearby bushes. One of his feet stuck in between the branches where he couldn’t get it out, so he sacrificed his boot for his freedom.

He’s in a bad mood - grumbling, groaning and cursing under his breath. For others, he would look scary and threatening, but you only saw a giant puppy who needed a big hug.

Small drops of water fell on his nose, making him look up at the dark clouds that formed in the sky above. Like one of those summer rains that comes out of nowhere surprising you unprepared, It started raining, drenching him instantly.

You can see he’s about to lose his temper. Closing his eyes he takes a deep, deep breath holds it in for few seconds and lets it out. “Great, just great. Can this day become any worse?” Heavy raindrops hit his face, and you hear a low rumbling sound. For a second, you thought the sound came from Bucky but turned out it was thunder rumbling in the distance.

You chuckled at the scene, pulling off your boots.

“What’s so funny?” He looked at you, brows furrowed, a deep line between them.

“It’s just rain, Buck.” You spin in circles stretching out your arms as far as you can, tilting back your head, letting the warm raindrops hit your face. “Who knows what will happen with us in this crazy world, enjoy the little things.”

Bucky stares at you, his features becoming softer. You are drenched through the bone, clothes clinging to your body, hair dripping with water. And you don't even care about that, quite the opposite you are having the time of your life. It doesn't matter how long he knows you, he still gets surprised by all the small things that make you smile with excitement, like rain or seeing a puppy on the street happily wiggling its tail.

You're always so happy and full of life. He doesn’t know what it is about you that’s so attractive to him. He can't describe it. It’s not one thing, it’s every little detail about you. It's the feeling he has when he's with you, it's addicting like a drug he can’t get enough of. With every passing day, he falls in love with you a little bit more. 

Something tugs at his heart, and he feels warmth spread through his chest, his anger disappearing. He takes off his one lonely boot and throws it on the ground, forgetting about it. Not like he would need it anyway.

“Come on Buck, smile a little.” You come closer to him, taking his hand. The smile on your face is contagious, he couldn’t stop the growing smile on his face, even if he tried. He twirls you, bringing you close to his chest. There is literally a building burning behind you, how can this feel romantic? He wonders. But in some odd way, it does.

The smile on your face and the happy glimmer dancing in your eyes it’s his home. No matter rain, snow or storm, you are his little ray of sunshine, in the otherwise dark world. Sometimes he just wants to tuck you in his pocket and carry you around with him everywhere he goes.

“Are you going to kiss me or what?” You place one of your hands on his chest, and with other you brush back wet locks from his forehead, leaving your hand on the back of his neck. And he does, he kisses you like his life depends on it, moving his hand to the small of your back he pulls you even closer, leaving no space in between you. The rain ceased as the clouds drifted away. It was gone almost as fast as it started.

“Did you two turned into hippies or something?” Sam teased, seeing your bare feet when he arrived to pick you up.

“Shut up, we need towels.” Bucky rolled his eyes.

***

“Doll, what’s wrong?” Bucky asked when you walked into the common room. You hadn’t even uttered a single word, but he knew instantly something was wrong. You didn't look any different in your appearance, but he sensed it. It was as if a dark cloud was formed around you instead of the usual sunshine.

“Nothing.” It was one of those days where everything just seems so depressing that you can’t do anything about it no matter how hard you try. The only thing you can do about it is to live through it.

He didn’t believe you, not even for a second. He pulled you into his lap. You looked down in your lap, away from his eyes.

“Solneshko, (sun)” he curled his finger under your chin, gently tilting it up so you would meet his worried eyes. “please talk to me, what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing Buck.” You tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“It doesn’t look fine to me.” He didn’t let go searching your eyes for something, for some kind of clue.

“Just a bad mood ’s all.” You peck his forehead and stand up to go to the kitchen to gather some snacks. Bucky looks after you wishing that he would know how to cheer you up.

All-day he helped you with little things, like brought you snacks and gave you random hugs and small kisses throughout the day and even made dinner. He gave you his hoodie in hopes that in some magical way, it would improve your mood.

When the night came around, everyone gathered in the common room to watch a movie. Your head was laying in Bucky’s lap while he gently brushed your hair with his fingers.

Not once did he pressured you in talking, he knew you would tell him when you would be ready. Meanwhile, he did what was in his power to help you feel better, even if it was only some small thing. He was simply there for you as you were always there for him when he had his bad days.

There was a soft knock on your door. You grumpily slid out of the bed to open it. In front of you stood Bucky with a sheepish smile on his face, his hair tied up in half bun and wearing light blue plaid pajama pants and a black hoodie. In his hands, he held a tub of your favorite ice cream with two spoons.

“Where did you get this?” You moved away from the entrance so he could come inside.

“I have my sources.” He closed the door behind himself.

“It’s Sam’s, isn’t it?”

“It’s possible.”

“You are going to get in big trouble.” You crawled back into the bed.

“Pfff, I can deal with him.” He placed the ice cream tub on the bedside table and joined you in bed. “I’ll pay him back later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, besides, you need it more right now.” He placed his hand on your knee. “I don’t know what’s happening with you today, but know that I am here for you no matter what.” He reassuringly squeezed your knee.

“I know, Buck, I know.” You wrapped your hands around him, hugging him, burying your face in the crook of his neck. “I love you.” You murmured.

“I love you more.” He squeezed you tightly in his bear hug producing a small squeak from you. When you pulled back, he scattered thousand little kisses all over your face kissing away your sadness and making you laugh. It’s the first time today that he sees your genuine smile that he adores so much. His heart swelled with happiness.

When the ice cream was eaten, you felt cold. Bucky pulled off his hoodie, his shirt riding up, revealing his torso and disheveling his hair. He propped up a pillow against the headboard, resting his back against it.

“Come here.” He stretched out his legs in front of him. You obeyed sitting between his legs resting your back against his chest. “Give me your arms.”

“Why?” You asked but stretched out your arms anyway.

“I wanna try something.” He turned your arms around and tenderly, barely touching your skin, traced up and down the back of your forearms with his fingernails.

“Mmm.” You hummed at the sensation melting into him. “Feels so good.”

Bucky smiled, trailing his fingertips down your arms so gentle and loving. Playing with your fingers, he intertwined his fingers with yours bringing your hand up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the back of your hand, and then to your temple.

You didn’t notice how fast the time flew by, somehow it was almost morning. You hadn’t moved from your positions Bucky’s arms around you and his chin on top of your head while you sat between his legs, back against his chest, cradling his forearms. You watch as the darkness outside the window turned lighter by the minutes.

You yawned your eyelids feeling heavy. Turning around, you winded arms around his shoulders. “Thanks for staying with me, Bucky.” You placed your head on his shoulder, nuzzling into his shirt, bunching up the soft material between your fingers.

“I’m gonna always be here for you, Y/n.” He whispered, brushing back the hair from your face and slid down to laying position. “Do you need a pillow?”

“You’re a good pillow.” You brought your leg over his thigh for comfort.

Bucky chuckled, pulling the blanket higher up over both of your bodies. He pushed his hand underneath your shirt, softly scratching your back until you fell asleep and then a little bit more because he loved to hear those little purring sounds you made.

There’s no warmth in this cold world without you, that’s why he would do anything that’s in his power to make you happy.

[oceanera12]

Gotham Knights: Story

“In breaking news, we’ve received reports of an explosion somewhere north of the city.” “We’re still waiting for the police to confirm if there are any victims.” “This story is evolving rapidly, please bear with us.” “We hear this really loud, ‘boom’... there was smoke everywhere.” “Emergency services have confirmed that they have discovered a body buried in the wreckage. We’re still waiting for further details.” “Many emergency vehicles are on sight!” “It appears that a large portion of the building has actually collapsed!” “In International news, an explosion rocked Gotham City earlier today.” “We’re now able to confirm that billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne is--”

This game is kicking it off with a “BANG” worthy of the Joker’s attention. Bruce flipping “Batman” Wayne is allegedly killed in some kind of explosion and it’s up to our rag tag team of “Gotham Knights” to keep Gotham safe.

Yes, I said “allegedly”. This may be jumping the gun a little and nothing in the trailer hints at it, but I do believe that Batman is still alive. I think he thought he was going to die, but ended up getting kidnapped by the Court for some kind of plan-- but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Breaking it Down

Here’s what we know about the story so far from the trailer and game play demo:

Bruce is “dead” (Nothing short of a body, tested and proved to not be a clone, duplicate, or just a decoy will convince me otherwise), as the result of some kind of explosion that literally rocked the city.

He’s left Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Robin the Belfry as a place of operations

He has also asked them to protect Gotham for him

For some reason, Bruce was alone when he died. It is unclear if he was in his “Batman” get up at the time of his death, or if he was “Brucie”.

Jim Gordon is dead and has been for some time. The result of his death is the GCPD doesn’t trust the Bats anymore.

Alfred is alive (Thank Gotham for that) and helping the Batfam

Mr. Freeze is involved in the game as a villain, most likely not the main villain but part of the main campaign. His plan involves freezing Gotham for reasons unknown.

The Court of Owls is the main bads of the game and may or may not have killed/kidnapped Bruce.

A few random minor points (with pictures!): 

Jason has most likely been killed by the Joker and brought back with the Lazarus pit (as seen from the white in his hair and where that scar on his face most likely came from). 

Barbara has most likely been shot and paralyzed by the Joker, but has since recovered as seen by the wheelchair in the foreground of the Clock Tower. 

“Robin” is most likely Timothy Drake due to the science stuff surrounding him in his hideout/Titan room(?), the fact that he HACKED THE WATCHTOWER, and the cup of coffee on his desk (Honestly, the last point is the one that backs this claim up the most).

Story may or may not play out differently depending on which Batfamily member you are playing as (Robin is not seen in any of the cut scenes with Batgirl during the game demo. This could be something they are adding in/was not ready for the demo, but I highly doubt it)

Speculations/Spit-balling Some Stuff

Bruce may have blown up the cave with him in it based on his comment about “this message was sent out when I destroyed the cave and it’s contents”. This is unclear as we do not know what blew up only knowing it was north of the city. Why he would do such a thing is beyond me, but these are the people who did Arkham Knight so who knows.

This may be some kind of “Found Family” story with the four batkids coming together with Alfred to bring justice for their Batdad. If so, I am all for it and am crossing all my fingers and toes.

I am severely concerned that the Court of Owls not only “killed” Bruce but is also responsible for Jim Gordon’s death. And for good reason because HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THE FLIPPING OWL ON JIM’S BADGE? NO? JUST ME? OKAY! (I’ll build on this in a separate post)

Other villains who may show up/I hope show up include but are not limited too: Deathstroke, a very SHORT cameo of sort from the Joker (hopefully in a flashback that helps build a character. eg. Jason or Barbra), Penguin, Ras Al Gaul (mostly because I want confirmation for a Damian Wayne DLC-- I want to see all my Bat Boys, dang it), Catwoman (as some kind of mentor character for one of the batkids, maybe?), Blockbuster, Black Mask, Dick’s evil Talon Grandfather, random members of the Court, you get the idea. Give us some of the more obscure villains mixed in with a FEW popular ones if you have too.

Calling it: Freeze’s plan is either based on a hopeful attempt to save with wife (the Court has that creepy reanimation of the Talons so maybe there’s some kind of cure he can make out of it???), or they are going to completely forget about his wife and just make him the villain for the sake of it. Please be the first thing.

At some point in the game there shall be a moment where Jason is question/confronted/kicks himself out because of the whole “gun” thing. Heck, it may start that way with Jason having to prove to his siblings that he can be trusted.

I’m hoping each character gets their own separate development/different story line and that we actually get them going through the separate stages of grief. Heck, each kid could be stuck on a specific stage (Tim on denial, Jason on anger, Dick on grief, Barbra on acceptance because she’s gone through this before very recently) Give us emotional batfamily, you cowards.

Building on that, I am hoping for separate campaigns/story lines for specific characters, which can serve as side missions or go to the main story, depending on the mission. (eg. Dick vs Blockbuster could be an optional side mission. Dick vs evil Talon grandfather would be essential to the main story)

Part of me wants Barbra and Dick to be “dating” or have had a past relationship. The other part of me just wants them to be friends/siblings so we’ll just have to see how the characters interact.

Give me an Alfred who kicks butt with his shotgun when the Talon’s invade the Belfry (“when”, NOT “if”)

If the Talon’s have Bruce, then I want an evil Batman vs the Batkids. And I don’t mean for one fight, I want him showing up half-way through the game and the kids have to fight to get him back. Give me a brainwashed Bruce that’s only snapped out of it because of his kids!

I want to see Tim transition from Robin to Red Robin or “Drake” if you have too.

A fight for the cowl between the kids before someone (most likely Alfred) steps in and tells them to be themselves, it’s what Bruce would have wanted.

Timothy Drake vs Ras Al Gaul

Jason Todd vs Black Mask

Barbra Gordon vs whoever killed Jim Gordon/is responsible for his death

Dick Grayson vs Deathstroke

Justice League references (mention Superman, Wonder Woman, the Green Lanterns, etc)

Please make this story stretch over MULTIPLE NIGHTS. Preferably longer than one month but I’ll take a week-- heck, I’ll take three days if you can’t make it longer. Change up the character for ever “night”, change the mission types (stealth, fight, info gathering, etc), do SOMETHING.

If DLC is a thing, I want to see Bruce Wayne “Batman” , Damian Wayne “Robin”, Duke Thomas “The Signal”, and either Stephanie Drake “Spoiler” or Cassandra Cain as “Black Bat” or “Orphan”. And add some story for all of them, pretty please?

Also: THEY CHANGED THE COURT NURSERY RHYME AND I HATE IT.

[mirdance]

No Matter How You Look at it, My Loving Girlfriend is a Cat Now!

Working with Gam has been such an honor! Her art is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm so glad she enjoyed my whimsical cat idea enough to draw it. Working with her MC, Cho, was a lovely experience, and I hope Cho forgives me for turning her into a cat. <3Thank you to @mysme-rbb for providing this opportunity! Link to Gam's art Instagram: gammam0n Read the story on A03 Summary: Saeran and Cho have been living together for a couple weeks in their new apartment. Co-habitation has had its up and downs, but Saeran thinks he has started to get the hang of everything. He’s even able to cook her favorite breakfast and separate the laundry. Things are looking swell. That is, until his girlfriend turns into a cat.

Saeran’s life really was something out of a fairy tale, if you gathered all the Brothers Grimm tales and mashed them into one horrifying short story with a Snow White happy ending. He thought he had his shit together by this point; who wouldn’t after helping run a cult and years of therapy? You kinda learn something about life in all that mess. But the love of his life, his one and only, Cho, turning into a cat, was something life nor therapy taught him how to deal with. While cute for fiction, the actuality of seeing her curled on the bed, white fluffy tail around her body, sent his eyes twitching.

Earlier, he’d been making them omelettes. She was always waking up early to cook them breakfast, so he’d wanted to do something for her for a change. They’d been living together in their new apartment for just a short while, but she seemed much more put together and relaxed in the fresh environment. He admired her strength, even if he was a tad jealous of her ability to adapt. She was independent, something he could never be, no matter how much he strove. Even with his progress, he still found himself leaning on her too much. Hell, when they’d first met, he’d been running around in the rain for so long, trying to figure out the bus schedule, when she’d stopped to help. She never asked for help, though.

He flopped his finished creation on a plate. Ray nudged the forefront of his mind. Saeran sighed as he prepared a glass of orange juice. All things considered; he was doing so much better than he could have ever imagined. Waking up to cook, laundry, working, they were hard, but he’d endured more and could get through this. He made his way down their tiny hallway with a skip in his step. Just thinking about how it was theirs, and how he was no longer alone. Sure, he had his family and his friends, but having Cho to hold him on those rough nights was simply different. A different kind of home.

He pushed open the bedroom door with his hip. “Time to wake,” he whispered with a grin. “I’ve made you—”

The plate fell to the floor with a clatter. Eggs flew across the floor and landed near the foot of the bed. Saeran coughed. His throat began to itch, and he pulled on his collar. “I…I’m sorry,” he reached down and began cleaning up the mess. “I thought…thought. We were going to pick out one of the kittens from the shelter next week? Because they’re overrun and all…”

Sleeping on the bed was a fluffy, white, cat. It resembled Elizabeth the 3rd in some ways, but its fur was not nearly as long, and its eyes glowed amber in the sunrise of the window. It stretched and yawned before jumping off the bed and eating the eggs off the floor.

Saeran bapped it away. “I don’t know if you can eat everything in this…”

Much to his dismay, the cat did not listen and only ate faster. What was this, a dog in a cats body? He lifted the cat as he stood and stepped over the egg mess. “Cho? Did my brother put you up to this?” He glanced around the corners of the room to find the hidden camera. There was nothing in the bed or closet. His heartbeat throbbed throughout his skull.

“Cho?”

He called her name several more times. She’d just been right here, sleeping under the covers. He hadn’t heard her move from the room. The window was intact. This had to be some joke his brother put her up to. Instinctively, he kissed the top of the cat’s head, and it rubbed its chin along his jawline. He couldn’t help but smile even through his disappointment.

“We said we’d pick one out together. I know, it’s probably dumb of me, but I’m kind of let down. It’s nothing against you, I promise.” He sat the cat on the bed and scratched behind its ear. “Please stay here while I clean this mess. I need to find Cho and see what’s going on.”

As Saeran bent to place the omelette back onto the plate, the cat jumped down once again and dove into the food. He lifted the plate into the air. “You must be hungry. I think we have some wet food.” He grimaced and checked around the floor once more. Cho hadn’t even set up a litter box. Hopefully, it hadn’t peed anywhere.

“I’ll be back.”

He’d said that, but the cat followed him to the kitchen, anyway. Were cats always so friendly? Well, in his experience, some were, but only after lots of food and getting to know one another. Maybe there was a reason Cho picked this one out? He didn’t want to assume anything bad. She was probably on her way to get emergency supplies or something. He discarded the eggs. The cat pawed at the trash can.

“I’m getting you food, hold on.”

He rummaged through the cabinets as the cat circled between his legs. They kept wet food for the stray cats that ran around and were hoping to prepare for a kitten of their own. “I hope you like chicken flavor,” he murmured as he popped open the lid. He dumped the food on a saucer before setting it on the ground.

“There you go. Doesn’t that look yummy?” The cat turned its nose up, and Saeran swore it shook its head. It turned its back to him and sat on the ground. Saeran cleared his throat. “Well, I guess it might be a bit hard to eat.” He grabbed a fork from the cabinet and began cutting the wet food into bite sized pieces. “I guess it does kinda stink, huh?”

The cat squeaked somewhat but did not meow. It jumped onto the counter and stared down at him.

“Oh, do you want to eat it up there?” He sat the plate before the cat.

The cat knocked it to the floor.

Thankfully, it was a plastic plate.

Saeran took a deep breath before anyone impatient could co-front. Maybe Ray would be better at dealing with this. “Okay, chicken is out of the question. Unfortunately, that’s all we have at the moment. The big stray Bo outside loves beef flavor and ate it all up. I think…we have turkey? For sandwiches. Hold on.”

It was a good thing he was off work today. How could Cho leave a cat behind with nothing to eat? He was still expecting his brother to pop out of a corner, but the apartment was eerily silent. Cho had never been so unprepared. He quickly grabbed his cell phone from the top of the fridge (Why was it on top of the fridge? Who left it there? Somehow, he remembered it being up there, so one of his brain mates was probably laughing their ass off.) He dialed Cho.

And it rang.

And rang

And rang

Saeran stared at his phone for far too long until he realized her phone was ringing in the bedroom. He darted for the room, only to find the phone buzzing on top of the dresser, still charging from the night before.

“Cho, this isn’t funny anymore.”

Saeran lunged for the phone and tried to type in the password. Wasn’t it her birthday? Not that they went through each other’s phones all the time, but occasionally they played games together and traded. The phone vibrated in defiance. He didn’t want to lock himself out. He logged into messenger on his own phone, but no one was awake. Not even Jumin Han or Jaehee.

Clattering noises echoed from the kitchen. Crap. He jogged back to the cat to find it…on the table, turkey on bread. A literal sandwich laid before a cat with the cat nibbling the edges. He laughed. Had he made this cat a sandwich and forgot? No, he simply thought about feeding it turkey. Maybe Ray had? No, Ray didn’t show up as far as Saeran could remember. Wait, were cats supposed to have bread?

He set the phones on the table and slid the turkey from the bread slices. “Not for kitties,” he mumbled. “I don’t know how you made yourself a sandwich, but you’re one smart animal.”

A low growl rumbled from the cat’s throat as it sat on its haunches, but otherwise it seemed at peace. Its ears were perked normally, and its tail rested softly at its side. At least it hadn’t mauled him. Maybe Cho had noticed how picky it was and ran out to get groceries. Maybe she’d forgotten her phone? He couldn’t see it, but it was possible.

“Hm, I wonder if you’re a boy or a girl?” He was tired of calling it ‘it’. It didn’t have a collar. “Excuse me,” he went behind the cat and lifted its leg. Both Cho and Saeran had learned to tell the differences between sexes while volunteering for Yoosung’s vet office, so this was nothing but procedure at this point. Its ears laid flat against its head. Saeran apologized once again before putting the cat’s leg down and allowing it freedom. “Well, it’s a girl,” he said, smiling and scratching behind her ear. “I wonder when your mom will be back. Should I got out and look for her? I’m super worried.”

She ignored him, walking past him and to the phones that lie on the table. Her tiny paws tapped the screen of Cho’s phone before it lit to life. Saeran sat down at one of the chairs and blocked the corners of the table with his hands. “Please don’t start knocking over more stuff,” he begged.

His phone began ringing. He quickly picked it up, only to find Cho’s profile across the screen. His eyes darted from Cho’s phone to his. This cat…had called him. Wait, this cat had unlocked the phone!

“I guess you got lucky,” Saeran said, hanging up both phones. He began looking through Cho’s. Everything was normal, her schedule, the menus. He sighed and sat the phone back down. “I guess I’m going to have to go out and find her myself. She’s probably just at the corner store looking for…”

Once again, the cat called him. He jerked the phone out of the cat’s paws and hung everything up. He wasn’t one to believe in the supernatural, but hell if this wasn’t weird. Against his better judgement, he locked Cho’s phone and set it back down. There, cat. See if you can unlock it again.

The cat seamlessly tapped its little paws on the screen, unlocking the phone with what seemed to be Cho’s birthday. Saeran wanted to smack his head on the table. “You can’t be serious. I swear to god if my brother is in here, he will not live to see tomorrow.”

The cat used its nose to click around, smudging the screen in the process. Sarean wiped it with his sleeve. “You’re going to ruin the screen.”

The cat, resigned to its fate of only using its paws, eventually opened up notes and tapped at the keyboard. Saeran--still not believing that the cat knew what it was doing because how could it—chuckled and pet its flank.

Hhji itds mje cvho I lolve u

Saeran slid the phone over to himself and read the garbled message. What…no. Ha. Hahahhahahahhaa. No. That looked an awful too much like Hi it’s me, Cho, I love you but typed with fat cat toes.

Everything was too much of a match for Saeran to doubt. Even the cat’s eyes were the same color. “Cho…is that really you?”

The cat placed a paw on his hand and nodded…cats didn’t nod. Well, unless they were in some cartoon, which Saeran was very much beginning to feel like the protagonist of. Did someone sneak elixir in his juice? Had he taken too much medication?

He gulped. “If…if you’re really Cho, spin around two times.” He wanted to laugh more, but part of him was deathly afraid of his own mental state. The other part of him was afraid for hers.

Saeran almost reached out to stop her as the cat spun around twice. She sat and seemed to glower at him, as if daring him to ask for more party tricks. Saeran lifted his hands in the air in defeat. “Okay, okay, Miss Cho. I believe you. I’m either high as a kite or you’ve somehow turned yourself into a cat, but either way, I trust you.”

Cho nudged his arm with the side of her cheek. God, it was so cute. He couldn’t think like that, though. He had to gather his thoughts. How could they turn her back? Whether he was off his rocker or not, it was important to settle the matter. Cho was a cat for a reason, and even though it was super cute, it was probably not the most comfortable. After all, how could she go to the bathroom? Would he need to get a litter box? Or maybe keeping the lid up on toilet was enough. Could she eat human food, or would that hurt her stomach? While they get to the bottom of this, maybe it would be best to try and get her to eat cat food. Should he take her to the vet?

“Merow.” Cho rolled onto her back, and Saeran’s heart thumped against his ribcage.

“Ha…you’re so cute. I know cats down like belly rubs but…” He reached out tentatively and gently ran his fingers across her belly fur. So…soft. She put her paws around his hand and nibbled his knuckles. “Is that too much?” He tried to pull his hand back, but she bit down harder. “Hey, that’s not fair. Stop that.”

Cho licked his hand apologetically with her sandpaper tongue and let go. Saeran would have to remember not to give too many belly rubs. Hopefully, she would poof back into a human any time, but it would be good to take mental notes of her likes and dislikes. It sort of reminded him of the fairy tales his brother used to tell to put him to sleep.

“Oh, maybe the princess needs a kiss from the prince?” He rested his head on the table and pushed his nose against her wet nose. But how was he to kiss a cat? He pecked her nose and mouth area, but nothing happened. “Well, it was worth a try.”

Cho licked him on the mouth; her sandpaper tongue felt pretty gross, but he tried not to grimace. He thanked her for the kiss and sighed. Maybe whatever was wrong with her would eventually wear off? He’d need to make a list of quality-of-life necessities and see if she agreed with them. In addition to food and toiletries, she probably needed toys. Maybe Jumin could recommend some cat trees.

Jesus Christ, he was beginning to sound like the man himself.

“I’m going to take care of you, Cho. Even if we can’t figure out how to change you back, I’ll love you. Just the way you are.”

Cho stretched into a stand and rammed her head against his several times. He couldn’t help but laugh as fur danced around his nostrils. They’d need several lint rollers, too. Would she want to go out on walks? He couldn’t keep her cooped up in the house, no matter how much he wanted to protect her. It would be fun if she could speak to other cats.

“By the way,” he whispered as he ran his fingers along her back. “I didn’t get to mention it the other day before I left for work. But thank you. You’ve worked really hard to help me despite my struggles. I know it’s not easy living with me. I can be an airhead sometimes, and I shouldn’t have put your shirt in the wash like you said. I just wanted to get it clean because it’s your favorite. Now it’s ruined. Gah, I don’t know anything about this stuff.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and Cho placed a paw on his cheek. He smiled shakily into her paw and pecked it.

Her paw grew warm until it was almost scalding. Before Saeran could freak out, cat paws turned to fingers. Her nose turned human, and the rest of her body followed, save for the cat ears on top of her head. Saeran’s face tingled, and he quickly looked away from her naked form.

“Omelette is ready,” she said. It almost sounded like a morphed meow, but he could tell it was her voice.

Saeran cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“Merowwake up.”

The top of his head began tingling and sent a cool sensation down his neck; he went to scratch his head, but his hands were fuzzy. As he stared at them, they grew into paws. He sneezed as fur tickled his nose. Wait, no. He didn’t want to be a cat, either! How could he learn to cook with his girlfriend? Pick out the kitten together?

As he cried out, only meows echoed against his skull. The kitchen stretched into ginormous walls as he shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. He reached his little paws as far as he could to grab hold of Cho, but he fell off the chair.

Before he hit the ground, his surroundings changed. Bedsheets stuck to his back, and his fingers gripped the comforter. Fingers. Good. He stretched them out in front of his face to make sure he hadn’t grown paws. There were no ears on the top of his head, either.

“You’re acting lively,” Cho said. She set a glass of orange juice on the nightstand. “I hope that means your fever is down.”

Saeran rolled his head over on the pillow. Cho held a plate of omelettes and sat next to him. The bed creaked as she crossed her legs and stabbed the food with a spoon. She wasn’t a cat. He wasn’t a cat. And in the end, he hadn’t even woken up to make her breakfast.

“I’m sorry I’m so useless,” he mumbled. “I meant to wake up and make you something since you’re always doing it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You went to bed with a fever, don’t even start. And I enjoy doing these things. It gives me a sense of freedom.”

She pushed the spoon towards Saeran, and he took the food without complaint. He’d stayed up all night over the toilet; no wonder his dreams were whack. He debated on telling her, but the thought embarrassed him. He didn’t want to seem as cat obsessed as Jumin. Saeran couldn’t lie, though. He was a bit nervous about taking care of something totally reliant upon him, but Cho said they were ready.

After his meal, Cho gave him cold medicine and ran her fingers through his hair. “I know you’re stressed about postponing with the shelter,” she said, gathering the dishes. “But it’s no big deal. Just get some rest.��� She leaned down and kissed his nose.

He closed his eyes and touched where she had kissed, making sure to imprint it into his memory. “I’m sorry about your shirt,” he mumbled.

She sighed and pushed a strand of hair behind his ear. “Don’t worry about it. Make it up to me by feeling better soon, okay?”

He nodded as she left the room with dishes in tow. His eyes were heavy even though he had just slept. Part of him wanted to jump up and offer to do the dishes. Offer to make her food. Offer something, anything. Yet his body fought against his mind. There was no energy left in his limbs. He’d make it up to her eventually. He’d promised her that he’d take better care of himself. Thus, he allowed the voices to quiet down in his mind and sleep peacefully.

[let-it-raines]

For catch me if you can, I'd really love to see something about them having a second kid since I know you mentioned it before. Maybe something about how Emma's pregnancy is different now that Killian's retired! Thank you for all of your wonderful words!!!!!!

I am forever and always amazed by the love and support that the Catch Me If You Can universe receives, and I love that you guys let me get these words out of my head and onto the page...or the screen. 

So here’s just a day in the life for these two that definitely alludes to some things that happen in their future!

on ao3 | here | if that’s more your jam. 

-/-

July 2025

Killian doesn’t know what to do with himself.

He’s cleaned the house. Every damn floor. That includes dusting the shutters and scrubbing the baseboards and running the vacuum twice before cleaning all of the hardwood and tile.

All of the beds are made, which is not an easy feat for how many pillows Emma likes to put on their bed, and all of Jace’s toys are in their containers. Killian knows that they’ll all be dumped out later, probably as soon as Jace wakes up from his nap, but it’s nice for once to not be worried about stepping on something and for his living room to not be a disaster.

Jace is one of the best things to ever happen to him, but Killian is still not used to how everything is beyond messy all of the time.

But not now.

Though, if it was still messy, at least he’d have something to do.

He’s cleaned the house, worked out, paid bills, set out chicken to defrost for dinner, and now, all he has to do is watch the game.

That’s not necessarily what he wants to be doing right now.

Not when he’s not the one on the mound or in the dugout and not when he still recognizes over half the faces in Yankees uniforms.

He could still be playing. He could. His arm hasn’t hurt in awhile, but that’s because he hasn’t been pitching several days a week and doing training and playing games. He has given his body the rest it needs, but damn if he doesn’t still ache.

It was his decision. He wanted it. It’s for the best.

Watching this season, though, not having any kind of regular job or connection or part of the team, is fucking weird.

But he watches because he loves the game and loves Will and Eric and Robin and all of the other guys on the team.

He watches because he likes to listen to his wife kick ass as a commentator.

She does every single time. Sighing, Killian puts the vacuum on its dock in the closet and then walks over into the living room, plopping down on the couch and turning the volume up. They’re in the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees are winning, and he hears Emma telling some story about Will that he knows is one of the age-old tales that publicists feed commentators so they have something to say to fill dead air-time.

Emma hates having to use those, but she tries not to let too much of her own personal connection with the players in.

That doesn’t really work when fifty percent of what she’s asked about has to do with him. She says it doesn’t bother her, that she’s proud to be his wife and to get to tell stories of all of her seasons with him, but there’s this small part of him that will always hate whenever anyone makes her career about him. They’re intertwined, yes, but Emma has always stood out.

His phone rings in his lap, and Killian slides his finger across the screen.

“Hey, A.”

“Hey,” Ariel says, “did you get any of my emails today?”

“I haven’t checked. Why? What’s up?”

“I sent you some stuff about interviews. Fallon and Meyers both want you on. GMA and Kelly and Ryan want you and Emma on.”

“For what? We’re not promoting anything, and you know we’re keeping Emma away from as many cameras as possible.”

“She’s literally on TV right now.”

“You know they only shoot from the shoulders up most of the time, unless it’s a rain delay or something.”

“They can do that on these shows.”

“With all of the crew that’s on those sets?” Killian clicks his tongue and stretches his arms above his head. “I don’t know. I have to talk to Emma. Why do they want us on, again?”

“It seems the two of you have become very popular on the internet because of a Buzzfeed article.”

“What the hell?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s weird, but it’s one of those where they talk about reasons to watch sports, and then they list a bunch of attractive athletes. You’re on the list, and the author attached a link or whatever to some article about you, Emma, and Jace. It’s kind of blown up into its own thing. How have you not seen it?”

“Woah, woah, woah, do these people not realize I’m retired? They can’t watch me play unless they want to watch old games.”

“You’re literally missing the entire point.”

“No, I got it, A.”

“So will you do the shows?”

“Eh,” he groans, running his hand through his hair, “that sounds a little too gimmicky to me, especially the morning show ones, and I told you I have to run it by Emma before I let you run with it.”

“Look, I get it,” Ariel sighs, and he has a feeling she’s about to do some of her famous convincing. “You’re a manager’s dream, Killian Jones, but you’re also my worst nightmare. I know you don’t like actually saying it, even though you just did, but you’re retired now. You’re going to have money coming in forever no matter what, but it wouldn’t help to grease the wheels a little bit, keep your star power alive while you stay under the radar figuring out the next big thing for you. I’m just saying that this could be good for the both of you. I’ll even make it so that the questions can’t be too invasive.”

“How are they not going to be invasive? They’re literally asking about my personal life. That’s why they want me on the shows.”

“I have my magic ways.”

Killian groans and leans back on the couch, running his hands through his hair and pinching his nose. “We’re keeping this pregnancy quiet as long as possibly can. The only way either of us would possibly agree to it is careful camera angles and no mention of the pregnancy.”

“How would they mention the pregnancy if they don’t know about it?”

“Well, someone could see. Look, I don’t know. I’ll run it by Emma tonight, okay?”

Ariel’s sigh is deep on the other end of the phone, and he knows that she gets it, even if she’s exasperated with him. It’s been happening a lot more lately with her trying to learn to manage him when he’s not always in the clubhouse or on the plane, and the adjustment period is still new.

All of this is.

“She’s going to say no.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know the two of you, I do. Is there any way I could convince you to do it, just you?”

Killian chuckles and rolls his eyes. He wouldn’t be opposed to going on a few late night shows. Those were always a good time. He’s just not going to have his life be put on a public platter without talking to his wife first. “Bye, A. Go bother your husband.”

“He’s kind of in the middle of a game right now in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I’m sure you can still find a way to bother him.”

She scoffs. “I will hear from you by the morning, you asshole. Goodbye.”

And then the line goes dead.

Bloody frustrating woman.

Emma’s voice echoes from the television, and Killian turns his attention back to the game. From all accounts, this seems like any other run of the mill game where everything has been average. It’s not a blow out, there aren’t any spectacular plays, and it’d be a good game to put on for a nap.

Maybe that’s what he should be doing with his free time.

He should have done that earlier, though, because he knows that Jace will be up soon.

“My husband won three World Series in what a lot of people consider a very short career for a pitcher. I don’t think you can say that’s normal. There’s only a handful of men born in the last few decades that can say that, actually.”

“Of course,” Isaac adds, “but with the way you say it, you act as if he won all of those on his own.”

Oh fucking hell. Isaac and James need to go to another team or another network. Killian’s never listened to them much since he used to watch games on mute, but damn, it’s like they don’t know how to talk positively about anyone. Is that what viewers want?

“I have never once said that,” Emma corrects, tense. “It’s always been a team effort. The starting pitcher doesn’t even play the entire game, but you implied that my husband was a mediocre player when he was anything but. Of course, he had help. Will Scarlet, for instance, helped Killian in every game. These teams are like puzzles, and you have to have all of the pieces to get the end goal. But, I mean, damn, can we go one game without you interrogating me on Killian’s stats? He was a damn good player, and nothing is going to change that.”

“You don’t have to get so emotional about it. I’m simply doing my job.”

Fuck you, Isaac.

“Alright,” Emma sighs, the camera now showing them in the booth. She’s smiling, and to the rest of the world, she looks like she always does, but there’s a tightness in the tug of her lips that he doesn’t like. “Let’s look at a play of the game presented by Chase.”

And then the screen cuts to a double play from earlier, and Killian mutes the television and stands up. What just happened isn’t going to go over well with the network, and he already knows Emma isn’t going to be home late.

Killian sighs and walks upstairs until he gets to Jace’s room. Jace is standing up in his crib trying to climb over it, and when he looks up and sees Killian, he plops back down and pretends that he wasn’t just trying to do some kind of Mission Impossible escape. They’ve got to think about moving the kid to a bed soon. All of the books say he needs to be a little older, but Killian thinks Jace might be ready.

He and Emma likely are not.

“What are you doing there, lad?” Killian laughs, leaning against the doorframe.

“Sleeping.”

“With your eyes open?”

Jace giggles and closes his eyes, cheesing like he does every time Emma tries to get him to pose for a picture. The blue of his eyes disappears into thin lines. “We play ball?”

“How are you going to play ball with your eyes closed?”

One eye slowly opens before the other joins in. “I play baseball.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Killian sighs, walking into the room and reaching into the crib to grab Jace, kissing his cheek before brushing his curls off his forehead. “We will go and play baseball, and then we’re going to cook some dinner for Mommy. Does that sound good? Dinner?”

“Pizza?”

“No, lad, not pizza. We can have some chicken though.”

Jace pouts.

“Yeah, I know. Pizza is better than chicken, but it’s all about balance, my boy.”

Killian and Jace go through their post naptime routine before Killian grabs the soft baseball they use with him and they walk out to their back patio. They have a little bit of green space back here, would have more if Killian would take the time to landscape and reorganize their furniture, and the thought has him making a mental checklist of that being his project for tomorrow.

Scratch that. Today is the end of the series, and Emma will be home for the next few days without having to go into the office or into the stadium. They could do it together, but he told her they’d have a day where they do absolutely nothing.

He intends to stick to that promise even if it’s nearly impossible for him to sit still.

He plays catch with Jace, which mostly consists of Jace tossing the ball up at such an angle that it immediately hits the ground and then drops dead. It’s that over and over again, but this tires the kid out and is something he genuinely enjoys. Killian will do absolutely anything in the world to make his son smile, and if that means chasing after a ball for an hour, he’ll do it.

That also means that when Jace gets exhausted while Killian is cooking dinner that he’ll deal with the meltdown and try to calmly explain to a toddler that it’s okay that the blue marker isn’t anywhere to be found because he can color with all of the others.

That doesn’t really fly when all he wants is a blue marker.

Obviously, he’s really knocking this whole dad thing out of the park.

The alert on Killian’s phone goes off, and he pulls up the camera to see Emma pulling into the garage. He opens his mouth, about to tell Jace that Emma’s home, but he decides to let it be a surprise. Maybe that way the kid will get out of his funk for a moment and be happier.

Or he’ll have a meltdown in front of Emma.

At this point it’s really a guessing game.

In a few minutes, Killian hears the sound of her footsteps on the stairs, and then she’s rounding the corner and moving into the kitchen. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, loose pieces around the front framing her face, and she’s not wearing any shoes. When she left the house today she was in heels and her hair was cascading down her back in waves, and if he couldn’t see the bags under her eyes and see the tightness in her smile, he’d know she was tired from her change in attire.

“Mommy,” Jace squeals when he looks up and sees her. Killian steps away from the salad he’s fixing and helps Jace down, and then he’s running toward Emma and waiting for her to pick him up. “Hi.”

“Hi, baby,” she sighs, kissing his cheek and brushing his curls back. “I missed you. Did you and Daddy have a good day?”

He eagerly nods his head, and Killian lets out a little sigh of relief. Maybe he’s not fucking this whole parenting thing up as much as he constantly thinks he is.

He’s not Brennan. He’s never going to be Brennan. But damn if he doesn’t still think he’s going to find other ways to screw his kids up.

Killian goes back to cutting up strawberries and Emma and Jace talk, and before he knows it, she’s walking over to him. He twists his head in anticipation, and Emma brushes her lips over the corner of his mouth before managing to plant a firmer kiss.

“Hi.”

“Hi. How was your day?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’ll tell you about it later. What are we having for dinner?”

“The Italian chicken and some salad. I can pop some bread in the oven if you want me to.”

“I really need the carbs.”

“Then bread it is.”

“Thank you,” she sighs before adjusting Jace on her hip and then setting him back down on the barstool. “Look at this beautiful drawing. You know, I found a blue marker in my purse today. I think it might belong to you.”

Emma Jones, always saving the day.

They eat dinner, exchanging their normal small pleasantries, talking about their days without really talking about them. It’s not unusual for Emma to still take awhile to figure out how she wants to phrase things and open up about them, but it’s been awhile since it’s been like this, especially because he knows she didn’t have a good day.

Maybe she doesn’t want them to have to talk in front of Jace.

So they don’t.

They eat and do the dishes and then settle down in front of the television. Jace will only watch the Trolls movie at the moment. It doesn’t matter what iteration, as long as it’s got brightly colored singing creatures in it, and Killian tries to pay attention. He really does. But he’s distracted by a group text with the team as they discuss dinner plans for tomorrow on their day off. He’s still included in the group, even when most of it doesn’t pertain to him anymore, and he gets caught up trying to convince them to all go for pizza since Jace mentioned it earlier and it sounds damn good. He doesn’t need to be eating that, but for all that he still works out, he might deserve it.

Emma will definitely want it.

Or maybe not. He’s not sure when food is going to repulse her or not.

“Hey, sweetheart, do you – ”

Killian looks up from his phone, and he sees that Emma’s slumped down into the couch cushions, her chest rising and falling, and she and Jace are asleep.

She’s going to kill her neck if she falls asleep like that.

“Love,” he whispers, nudging her until her eyes blink open. “Hey, let me have Jace, and I’ll put him to bed. You can go upstairs, yeah?”

She nods and helps get Jace off of her until he’s in Killian’s arms and Emma is sleepily walking upstairs. He follows, turning for Jace’s room while Emma heads to theirs, and even though it only takes him five minutes to get Jace down, Emma is already in bed when he makes it to their bedroom.

Silently, he crawls onto the mattress, raising the comforter and settling underneath it as he inches closer to Emma until her back is pressed into his chest and her feet are tucked between his calves. She’s got socks on, thankfully, so it’s not like there’s ice against is skin for once. Emma sighs back into him, reaching back and grabbing his arm to wrap it around the slight roundness of her stomach. It’s a feeling he’s not quite used to yet, but it’s something he’s searched for since the moment Emma’s test came back positive.

This time he feels much more prepared, like he knows far more than any book or class can teach him, but it doesn’t stop the ache in the pit of his stomach the contradicts the warmness of his heart.

Killian sighs and presses his lips to the side of Emma’s neck while his fingers trace against her stomach, his hand moving until he can maneuver himself under her shirt and feel the heat of her skin.

Emma places her hand over his, squeezing, and for awhile, he waits for her to speak, for her to set the pace and unfurl what’s on her mind.

As her breathing evens, he’s not sure that time will ever come.

“I am so tired,” she finally whispers. “I am tired down to my bones and keep waiting for that fucking second trimester energy to start, but it hasn’t. So I’m tired but I get up anyway because I have things to do here and a job, which I swear is sucking my soul out of me.”

“What happened, love?”

“Did you watch the game?”

“Bits and pieces, but I heard enough.”

She scoots back, more firmly pressing herself into him, and her hair tickles his nose, the scent of her shampoo surrounding him.

“Was I wrong to want to do this? Should I have stayed where I was? I had so much more control there. Yeah, I was basically just the pretty face they used for men to stare at, but I had a say in what I said and who I worked with. When people hated me, I didn’t have to hear about it because I wasn’t sitting in the booth next to them. How long am I just going to be the woman who doesn’t belong? The woman who is only there because of who her husband is? And I just know it’s going to go over fantastic when I finally tell everyone I’m pregnant. I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to hide it from anyone but Jace soon.”

Killian swallows and strokes her stomach as he kisses her neck again. He doesn’t know how to make this better. He never has.

“You got that job without me. You know that, right? You already had your foot in the door.”

“Killian, I know, but no one has ever seen me that way. I might as well be a star on the Real Housewives of New York.”

“That would technically be me in this situation.”

Emma laughs, and God, that’s a good sound to hear. “Ah, yes, I hear quite a lot about you being the one who is at home with our kid. It’s almost like you’re a dad.”

“Shocker, isn’t it? A dad spending time with his kid? Raising him? Being there?”

“It’s revolutionary,” she chuckles, turning and twisting around until she’s facing him and her nose is brushing against his. “I know I got the job on my own. I know I’m smart and capable and a damn badass, even if saying that makes me a little less of one. But sometimes I just wish that things were a little easier, that I worked with people I liked again. Babe, I think I would do horrible things to have you in that booth with me.”

“Hmm?”

“I mean, would it be so crazy?” She runs her hands up his side until she’s caressing one side of his face, nails curling back into his hair. “We’ve talked about it before. You expressed interest in it. And come on, I know you love staying home with Jace, but you can’t tell me you’re not itching to be doing something else.”

“Well, Ariel did call and ask if we’d go on several talk shows today.”

Her brows pinch together. “Why?”

“Apparently there was some list about attractive baseball players – ”

“Did that stroke your ego?”

“Eh, maybe a little,” he teases, kissing her nose. “But it’s something about the two of us now being in the spotlight again and a few people had reached out to her. I said I’d ask you, but I figured the answer would be no. Then today happened, and I knew it would.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing anything extra. You can go if you want.”

“I might like it, depending on what they ask and who the other guests are. Maybe I can go on one of the shows and see if they’re doing a cooking segment that day.”

“Oh, can you bring me back food?”

“Yeah, Swan, I can.” Her eyes flutter closed and Killian leans back a bit. “I will think about it, okay?”

“About what?”

“Seeing if the network would have any interest in me working with you. Not this year, I think. I want to be home with Jace and whoever this new little one is as much as I can. And Ariel has me doing events and still working with charities, and most weeks, I’m busy enough. I mean, today I was bored out of my mind, but I think working with you would be bloody wonderful. That way we’d be on a similar schedule and still have time for our family. And I guess it could keep me connected to the game, since I still haven’t quite figured out how I wanted to do that.”

“Whatever makes you happy,” Emma promises opening her eyes. “Don’t do it for me, yeah?”

“Emma – ”

“No, I’m serious, don’t do it for me. I only want it to be something you want. Killian, if you want to spend the rest of your life knitting with a group of old women, you can do that. Your career has allowed us that, but if you want to stay in this world of baseball, we can find a way for that.”

Killian blinks, swallowing the lump in his throat as his hand brushes over Emma’s hip, holding her close to him. “Are you happy, sweetheart?”

“Yeah,” she whispers, “I am. I’m also still exhausted. I think I’ll have to conquer sexism in sports tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow is your day off.”

“Then the next day then.” She pats his cheek and dips her head down to lightly brush her mouth of his, a feeling as familiar as anything else in the world. “I love you, Jones. Thank you.”

“What for?”

“For being there for me, no matter what. I have a lot of people who are like that for me now, but I haven’t always. I mean, you know. You get it.”

“Aye, I do.” Killian hugs her closer and feels her stomach press against his. It won’t be so small soon and so much will change, but for right here and right now, that’s a worry for another day. “Thank you for being that person for me, Emma. Are you ready to go to sleep? Or would you be up for some brownies I made earlier?”

“I would be up for you bringing me some brownies in bed.”

“You’re going to get crumbs on the sheets.”

“It’ll be worth it.” She kisses him again, this time slower, softer. “I’ll do the laundry.”

Killian lets out a low whistle. “You really know how to convince a man.”

-/-

-/-

@mrtinski @bluewildcatfanatic @killianswannn @sherifemma @onepunintendid @authorarsinoe @stunningswan @eala-captian @galaxyzxstark @galadriel26 @xellewoods @mariakov81 @ultraluckycatnd @royalswan @shey-starsfury @superchocovian @sals86 @iam2307 @karenfrommisthaven @scientificapricot @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @notoriouscs @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @qualitycoffeethings @carpedzem @tornadoamy @captainkillianswanjones

[tirednotflirting]

i am missing you more than i should (guess i'm not out of the woods)

i attempted to post this to ao3 and then the page crashed so tumblr gets some rights today i guess.

this is another addition to the maisie thing i’m working on. title and inspo from look at me now by maisie peters 

read here on ao3 if you wanna

(it’s kinda emo i apologize)

It’s a cold November night when Luke sees Calum again.

Despite the outdoor temperature being displayed on his phone screen, Luke is warm from the alcohol in his belly and the bodies milling around the bar. He’s ordered a drink to feel natural in his current setting but it’s just soda and lime. He’s stepped into this place to wait for Ashton to come pick him up. He had read one top many horror stories about ride share apps and young drunken people and now always gripes at Luke for not calling him for a pick up on a night out. So after watching all of his friends (though that’s kind of a stretch for the people he frequents clubs with) head off into the night, Luke wandered to the place he currently sits at, feeling drawn to the little dive bar he hasn’t been to in ages and sent Ashton his location.

It’s while he’s waiting for his drink that he remembers why he was drawn to this bar. This is Calum’s place. Luke can’t even think up how many pairs of hands he would need to count the number of times they had stumbled into this place, laughing with their arms around each other while tripping their way up to the bar. It’s close to the complex Calum had been living in while they were still in school. Seeing him here now at the other end of the bar, the glitter in his eyes shining even though they’re not taking a single glance in his direction, makes Luke wonder if Calum’s stuck around this area of town.

Because of course Luke wouldn’t know. Luke hasn’t said a single word to the man in ages, hasn’t seen him in probably a year and a half at this point. (He’s tempted to pull out his dying phone to find the last text messages they exchanged to track the time but he knows Ashton probably deleted their messages during one of the many times he ended up on the other man’s couch with tears raining down his cheeks.) 

We want different things. That’s what Calum had told him. Luke wanted to see the world. They were about to graduate, he wanted to see everything and he wanted to see it all with Calum. The idea of settling any part of his still mess of a young life scared the hell out of him. Luke wanted to run but he wanted to do it with Calum’s hand holding his own. Calum was so practical, his mind somehow years ahead of Luke’s. They were graduating, it was time to slow down, he was always trying to explain to the boy he’d laughed with and loved for the last four years. The speeds they were trying to live their lives at during those last few months pretty much started pulling them in opposite directions, Luke supposes. Though that didn’t change how much it hurt the day he returned to his apartment to find a box of his clothes and belongings sitting in front of the door with a little note tucked into the side.

Luke had stuck to his plan. It was only in the last couple of months that he’d returned to the city and found a job more permanent, reconnected with Ashton who had stuck it out in the area for law school. He had seen so many places, so many people, so many pairs of brown eyes that had him nearly chasing after strangers on the other side of the world. He hadn’t dared to try to love someone else but eventually his brain stopped trying to play tricks on him to make him see what he had lost because he couldn’t just slow down. Eventually he didn’t wake every morning expecting to see someone curled up beneath the sheets beside him or to walk into the kitchen to find the ever studious business major drinking from the blue mug with the chip in the handle as he checked the news on his phone

Though from what he could see down the bar, Calum hadn’t been on his own since Luke saw him last. Or at least he wasn’t right now. 

Luke watches a laugh escape Calum’s lips while he reaches for his glass on the bartop (always a whiskey man, Luke was never not teasing him for his old man drink preferences). He takes a sip and then raises his brows, his lips moving to ask a question Luke can still hear rolling off his tongue if he thinks back hard enough. He watches the glass get passed along to the blonde sitting in front of him and facing away from Luke. The glittering in Calum’s eye changes some as his bottom lip gets pulled between his teeth while a smirk forms on one side of his face. Luke can see the other man’s shoulders rise slightly in response to taking the sip and he wonders if the scrunched up face he used to pull when sipping Calum’s liquor is anything like this new man’s. He figures it must be as Calum’s face softens in a still vaguely familiar way and Luke watches him lean forward to press a kiss to the blonde’s cheek while a hand lifts to cover the other. 

Luke squeezes his eyes shut and forces his face away from the couple. He takes a sip of his soda before shrugging his denim jacket from his arms, the bar suddenly feeling far too warm. He’s reaching for his phone in the pocket of his jacket, ready to send Ashton an SOS to get him to hurry along, when a soft voice behind him nearly throws him to the opposite side of the bar. “Luke?”

He jumps as he spins in the stool he’s seating in, Luke’s eyes suddenly meeting the ones he’s been searching for in every corner of the world. He used to spend hours lying awake thinking about this exact moment, about what it would be like to speak again for the first time with his lost great love. (If Ashton were able to hear him thinking that he would scold Luke for being so dramatic. You’re literally 24. Calm down, Luke.) “Hi, Calum,” he returns, praying his voice isn’t as shaky as it feels. The name feels foreign on his tongue and he can’t tell if he’s thankful for that or not.

“How’re you doing, man?” Calum asks, a small smile playing at his lips. “It’s wild to see you in here, not gonna lie. Thought you were still off somewhere with your wanderlust.”

Luke tries to be as subtle as he can as he reaches for his wrist to pinch himself since he’s not entirely sure he believes this moment to be real. He coughs and shakes himself out of his daze. He’s got to be an adult about all of this, he’s a grown up now. “Yeah, I moved back a couple months ago. Was starting to really stress out Mom with the whole travel thing. I’ve moved in with Ashton, if you remember him? He helped me get this admin job at the law firm he’s interning at.”

“Of course I remember Ash!” Calum beams. Luke wonders if he’s also playing at being cool but then he remembers that Calum actually had the guts to walk over to him so maybe this is just a part of being settled down. “Happy for you, Luke. Sounds like a good set up.”

Luke ignores the nostalgia threatening to cloud up his mind at the sound of his name falling from Calum’s lips a second time. “You still working for Donny then?”

“I am! He gave me like, a month after grad to chill before I got back to my old desk with a stack two feet high of files,” Calum laughs and Luke finds himself doing the same. Calum’s internship boss had always been fond of them together. Donny had once helped Luke get flowers delivered for their third anniversary. He was a good guy. “Actually, just got promoted to Managing Financial Advisor earlier this week. Was here, uh, celebrating tonight wit-”

“Hey Cal, thought I lost you there.”

The blonde Luke had only seen the back of before steps into view, his hand dropping to Calum’s back. He’s just barely shorter than Calum, though that’s likely due to the boots the latter is wearing. His eyes are wide and a pale green, like leaves in early spring. Luke wants to hate him but he can’t. This guy looks pretty nice, unfortunately. 

“Sorry, love,” Calum replies softly, his hand lifting subconsciously to push hair from the other man’s eyes. It’s an action Luke remembers fondly (and somewhat painfully, if he’s being honest with himself). “Found a familiar face. Michael, this is Luke. Luke, this is Michael.”

Michael’s eyes widen just the slightest bit. Luke isn’t surprised. He can basically guarantee that he’s sitting right at the top of Calum’s ex-boyfriends to discuss list. They spent nearly all of undergrad together. If Michael’s been around for even a little bit it makes sense that he’s heard about Luke. “Nice to meet you, mate.” 

“Yeah, you too.” Luke accepts the hand being offered to shake. The whole situation feels way too formal but also dazed. Though Luke is still drunk and there’s way too many memories dancing through his mind of nights out with Calum and nights in with Calum and Calum Calum Calum. 

“Well,” Calum starts, his hand moving to rest lower against Michael’s back. “Our Uber is here but I’m glad I saw you Luke. Take care of yourself.”

Luke nods and wishes them both the same in a small voice while they wander away from him. He can’t hear it but based on the worried look he can see on Michael’s face as they head for the door and the way he wraps his arm more firmly around Calum’s waist, Luke knows he wasn’t the only one faking a brave face. 

(He allows himself a moment to give into memory then as he thinks back on one of the last times he was headed out of this bar with Calum. It was early February, just a week and change past Calum’s birthday. The air is cold enough to see their breaths as they giggle and bumble about their new courses. Calum keeps lifting Luke’s hands between his own to blow warm air onto them to keep them warm as they head in the direction of his apartment. 

When they finally make it up to the third floor and through Calum’s door, they both kick off their boots. Luke’s gone for his easier to remove ones so he has a moment to lean against the door while laughing as Calum pulls at the laces of his Docs. Once removed, Calum steps over to Luke, his arms looping around his waist while Luke’s drop to hang over his shoulders. Their laughter dies out as they sway back and forth slightly in the entryway. 

“God, I love you,” Luke sighs as he drops his forehead to Calum’s. “Never want to stop loving you.”

“Please don’t.” Calum laughs gently before turning his head so their lips press together. 

Whether it's seconds or hours that they stand there kissing while holding each other in the dull entryway light, Luke doesn’t know. He doesn’t care. All that matters is that Calum never lets go.)

Luke’s phone buzzes on the bartop, a text from Ashton appearing to alert him that he’s waiting in the lot out front. Luke tips back the last of his soda and shouts a thank you to the bartender. He pulls on his jacket and heads in the direction of the door.

He turns for a moment before reaching to push through back out into the cold. He glances around the open room, quick moments of memories playing out in front of him from the years before. He sighs and pulls himself out of it again. 

Maybe it’s time to find a new spot to land.

*

[bigfrozenfan]

Frozen III plot / fanfic - part 5

The Secret of the Northuldra

The previous four parts you can find here: part one, part two, additional thoughts, part three, part four.

Rated T (or better M?) because of a little intimate Elsamaren moment and for violent thoughts and actions of a new antagonist :-)

I hope you like this next part of my fanfic. Enjoy.

If you want to be informed when i post the next part of my fanfic i can mention you in the post. Just let me know in the comments.

Joná headed to his little boat and pondered what had just occurred. He just wanted to help and hoped that Yelana would do something or at least know anything about what he had seen during his venture on the dark sea. Instead, she instructed him to keep everything secret. He shrugged his shoulders and bent over the edge of the boat to get his catch out. Still thinking she already knew what to do, he turned with his full basket and froze. Behind him some men from the village had gathered and looked at him piercingly.

“Um… why are you standing there staring at me like that? Is something unusual?” he asked and put the basket down.

“We were just about to ask you that,” said the one who was in the front and who had obviously led the men here. “We noticed everything earlier and wondered if you would tell us what you had so urgently to tell Yelana.” He crossed his arms and looked at Joná waiting.

Joná swallowed. He remembered what she had told him and didn’t know how to begin. “Um…well…I was just so excited because…because the fish I had on the line today are so big. One of them almost pulled me over the edge of the boat.”

The man in front of him cast a telling glance at his basket and then looked at him again with raised eyebrows. “Oh, yeah?”

“Not these one, no. But the one fish I wanted to pull into the boat was it,” said Joná, who noticed this look. “Really, I did. They were just too heavy for me and were tearing the string.”

A few moments passed, and the man finally nodded, “Well, we know your fish stories good enough. But don’t you think you might have exaggerated it a little today?”

Joná sighed and let his shoulders sink. “Yes, maybe you are right. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to scare anyone.”

“Let’s go, men.” They all turned around and walked slowly back to camp, some of them looking disappointed. But the leader of the group said quietly, “There’s something he’s not telling us. I don’t buy that story. Not that I ever did, but…”

“Did you notice his nervous look and how insecure he was this time?” one of the men asked quietly and looked at him from the side.

He nodded, “Indeed.”

***

Elsa had been lying quietly on her bed for a long time, listening to the noises coming in from outside. It sounded very busy and once she heard a loud shouting and a name. Yelana. She didn’t know this person, but she seemed to hold an important position. After that it was quiet again and she only heard a few birds chirping. A ray of sunlight came in from above and blinded her. She turned her head to the side and her eyes fell on the bundle of clothes next to her. Somehow she had had enough of just lying around here idly. She wanted to get out and look around.

Elsa bent her knees to see how far she was able to stand up. It still hurt a little, but it worked surprisingly well. She pushed the fur to the side and did stretching exercises with her legs, slowly and alternately. After some time she carefully sat up and bent over to massage her thighs and calves. A long blonde strand of hair fell into her face. “Oh…,” she said in surprise and reached behind her head to pull more of her hair forward. She felt and looked at it. “I’d love to know what I look like,” she murmured and then continued to put her plan into action.

Finally she turned and let her legs dangle over the edge of the bed. She stood up, or at least tried to, because her strength was not enough and she sank back onto the bed. But Elsa didn’t want to give up so quickly and pulled the wooden stool in front of her to support herself. After two attempts, she finally stood there a little shaky and made a satisfied sound. Then she picked up her clothes and slipped the leather tunic over her head. She touched the material. It was a bit rough, but very soft and felt a bit cool on her skin. She looked at the pants and sat down again to slip them over her legs, slowly stood up again and pulled them up. Everything fit her perfectly. Finally she put on the belt and slipped into the boots. Now she was ready for her first excursion and started to move slowly.

***

Honeymaren now had no more duties to do and therefore wandered around the camp a bit bored and lost in thought with her head lowered. Unconsciously she took the way towards Elsa’s Kota. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed how the flap of one of the Kotas was pressed open. She looked over and couldn’t believe her eyes. Elsa stepped straight out and kept herself wobbly on her feet. She looked around curiously and their eyes met. Elsa smiled at her and took a hesitant step forward, but almost fell over and held on to the edge of the entrance just in time. Honeymaren did not hesitate for a second and rushed to help.

“Careful, you’re still too weak and you might hurt yourself in the fall. Let me help you.” She took Elsa’s hand and put one arm around her shoulder to support her.

“Thank you. I just couldn’t stand it in there anymore and i had to try to get out and take some fresh air.”

“I can understand that. I guess that’s what I’d do. Although… nothing like that has ever happened to me, so I don’t know what…” She bit her lip.

Elsa looked at her and said, “All right, it hasn’t happened to me either… I think.” She put on a crooked smile.

Honeymaren nodded, looked down at her and then smiled and said, “The Northuldra attire look pretty good on you.”

“Thanks. It feels very comfortable too. What’s your name anyway?”

“I’m Honeymaren.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. “We know each other, right? I’m sorry, I can’t remember anything about it.”

Honeymaren felt her heartbeat accelerate. Before all this happened to her, Elsa had always been so distant, almost unapproachable, and with her task as Fifth Spirit, she had rarely been seen in camp lately. Now after her incident, would be the perfect opportunity to change their relationship. But was she allowed to do that? It would amount to a lie. She hesitated.

“Yes, we know each other… quite well.”

Elsa briefly squeezed Honeymaren’s hand and sighed, “I hope I’ll be able to remember this soon. Will you help me to look around a bit and explore everything? I am very curious.”

“I’d love to… I even know the first place we could go.”

They walked with slow steps and she helped Elsa to keep her balance. She had never been so close to Elsa before; Honeymaren thought to herself. It was kind of exciting. Before Elsa promised to free the Northuldra from the impenetrable mist wall on that memorable evening, Honeymaren didn’t know very much, trapped in this small world. She was born into this world as one of the few children and there were only a few in her age with whom she could do something. The few of them were playful boys who were either too simple-minded or interested in other things. So she grew up, mostly alone with herself and her thoughts, only with her somewhat jumpy brother Ryder, to whom the reindeer meant more than anything else. Otherwise, it was her leader Yelana who had been her life anchor and she learned a lot from her, especially about the past of her tribe and its values.

At some point they finally reached the edge of the forest and stepped out onto a narrow strip of sand beach bathed in sunlight.

“This is one of the few beautiful places here by the sea, the rest is quite jagged and mostly full of big black pebbles,” Honeymaren said, and led Elsa to a smooth, almost white-washed piece of an old tree trunk that lay half buried in the sand. They sat down on it and Elsa looked out into the distance. The sun sparkled on the softly rippling waves, which the gentle wind washed up and carried a salty scent. She took a deep breath, laid her head relaxed in the neck and closed her eyes. Honeymaren, on the other hand, did not care about the sea, because she had a completely different view in front of her eyes. She sat so close to Elsa that she could literally feel her and the temptation was great to gently stroke her long light hair. She felt the heat rising inside her, but she was not allowed to rush into anything and instead was content to admire Elsa’s features, her light soft skin and the fine hairs on her gently curving neck. She sucked up every little detail and felt lost in time.

And so she didn’t even realise how Elsa finally opened her eyes again and noticed Honeymaren’s behaviour out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and looked directly at her. “What are you doing?”

Honeymaren took a frightened breath and stammered, “I…nothing, I…I was just looking at your long hair. Sorry, Elsa, I… didn’t mean to…” Her cheeks turned red and her eyes were wide open.

Elsa raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Tell me, Honeymaren, how well did we actually know each other?”

***

Yelana sat on the furs on the floor of her hut and thought for some time. A Northuldra woman came by at one time and wanted to know something, but Yelana had sent her away again on the grounds that she didn’t have time right now and would visit her later. She now needed the rest to think about everything. She saw Elsa lying on the beach in front of her eyes, shortly before all the spirits had disappeared and now this narrative, told by this very fisherman, who was known for his weird stories. But what he told was simply too extraordinary this time, and it all matched the latest events. However, Ahtohallan would never do such a thing, what could be the reason for that.

Except…Yelana took a long scarf from one of her leather bags and put one end of it over her knee. Lost in thought, she stroked over the five symbols woven into it and stayed on the one in the middle. She had received this scarf from her mother when she was a child and has taken it out every time she has thought and searched for answers ever since. Maybe she hoped for some comfort and strength after her parents had died long ago. It was not unlike the shawl Queen Anna was carrying at the time, but it had a different colour and, of course, a different pattern on the edge that stood for the family that woven it for their descendants.

The fifth Spirit before Elsa died during the events that ultimately trapped the forest for so long. She knew that for sure. But then who was it who had the powers of Ahtohallan and was responsible for all these recent events? There was no other fifth spirit before Elsa, that much was certain. Could it be that … no, that was impossible. Or could it? Could he have had a child? Then who was his mother? Someone in her tribe?

Slowly a certainty was forming in Yelana, one that she did not like at all.

***

He sat on the large rocky plateau near the river, far away from any Northuldra settlement. Nobody dared to come here, because the earth giants slept here and they did not like to be woken up. The place was perfectly chosen for his secret whereabouts.

He wore a dusky, almost black fur coat, next to him were reindeer antlers, worked into a large leather hood. His eyes were closed, he breathed deeply and calmly in and out, and let his senses wander into the forest. He felt and he saw.

He had the ability to read mans mind, at least most of them. It was different from the Spirits, where he never felt this limitation, but some people were strong-willed and it was as if he had to fight his way through a thick layer of snow. With very few of them he could only feel their emotions, nothing more, like with this woman from the house of that damned king, who was responsible for his father’s death. He saw in his mind again this terrible picture of his father after the fight was over, peppered with half a dozen crossbow arrows. At least this king was also dragged to his death by someone from his tribe. But there were many of them, too many and he hated them all.

He let his senses wander again and concentrated. Then he found a young Northuldra who had quite confusing feelings…for a woman. He drew the corner of his mouth in disgust, but penetrated deeper into her and finally he saw through her eyes, saw what she looked at…a beach and that other woman. She was also wearing Northuldra clothes, but something was strange. Her hair, it was long and…

He opened his eyes in horror. That couldn’t be. He had killed that half blood, or at least he thought that she was doomed to drown in the dark sea and never appear again. How had she achieved that? He was furious and he cursed. It had not been easy to make sure she would ever use her magic again. To let Nokk dissolve under her was a piece of cake. It was all so well planned. But lately the Spirits didn’t obey him anymore and he assumed that it was related to the fact that he had outsmarted and enclosed Ahtohallan. But not without first seizing some of the secrets of Ahtohallan’s power. On the other hand, he could be glad that the Spirits had no path to follow without guidance, otherwise he would quickly be on their menu. He would have to try again. This time she would not get away from him again. Too bad his father couldn’t teach him to change his shape. He was too young for that then.

It was time to forge a new plan. One that was really deadproof this time.

***

Remark: As it looks like my fanfic is getting a little bigger than I once thought. At least the first five parts I count to an own chapter of “The Secret of the Northuldra”. The second chapter will have a new title, after the first bigger turn in the story. After that it will have to show. The whole thing has also become a little adventure for me and I am curious where it will lead me. Somehow it has developed its own dynamic *grin*

[thong-in-the-twist]

Coming after courting

//Gong Yoo x you ❤️ 

Word count: 4,400

Hi, guys! So many of you loved (and enjoyed) my Courting - and I finally came through and I am coming to you with my humble offering. It’s a sequel, which is basically there so I can relieve my horniness. Also I am indulging my kink, so yeah.

Warnings: size kink, cock ring, body worship(?)

***

It’s not like you didn’t realize it. Of course you did. One would have been really blind not to see the striking difference in sizes. Jicheol is big. You are not. He is big in every aspect you can think of. He is tall, his shoulders are broad, his thighs are muscled, his fingers are long, his girth is substantial.

You are nowhere near his measurements. And it’s not a problem, you’ve never seen it as such. Of course, kissing him can be a challenge whether you are wearing heels or not. In heels you can easily yank him down with a hand on his nape and it’s sort of comfortable for both of you. If he keeps his massive hands on your jaw and holds your face up, cradling your head – you are good. You don’t even have to use much of your strength, he is cushioning any strain you might feel. Without heels, now that’s a real challenge. It usually involves some kind of acrobatics either from you or from Jicheol. But most often from you. Jicheol goes as far as bend slightly to you – but he is easily annoyed. Then he picks you up, slams you against a wall or puts you on higher flat surface. Your ass has already came in contact with every flat surface in your flat and his condo, nothing in his office was spared either. You also learned to climb on things to be able to kiss him. Standing on stack of books that don’t fit onto your bookcase, jumping onto stack of wastepaper ready to be recycled, climbing on the shoe rack in your hallway, rocking on the sofa, balancing on the open drawer you were using to get to your favorite mug (after that one incident he bought you a step stool designed for children as a joke – you told him to shove it because you are too dignified for it and ended up using it anyway because everything in his condo is way too high).

The thing is you are not that small. You believe to be a normal size, but next to this giant – you feel way smaller than you are.

And the thing is you like it very much.

It didn’t come to you easily. It was a slow but very informing process. You might have missed signs in the beginning, but as of right now, you are sure – you like it very much. You like it when you are working and you are tapping away on your laptop, maybe with earphones in, and you suddenly see a shadow on your keyboard and heavy presence behind you. You love it when he comes closer, so your desk is in his shadow and you turn around to face him and he is standing so close that you have to bare your neck to be able to look at his face.

You like it when you are walking down the empty corridor but you can hear office being alive, coffee machine working in the kitchen, people talking, photocopier printing, and suddenly he is there with you, and he pushes you against the wall and although you can hear it, you can’t see anything except Jicheol, his body covering yours completely. You like it when he steers you out of danger when you walk together outside, his big hand splaying on your side, middle finger nearly reaching your navel while his thumb barely misses your spine.

His sheer size is what keeps you on your toes, literally and not.

You stretch, your vertebras snapping back in place and you risk a glance behind you. You are subtle, you know you are, but Jicheol’s assistant is as good as they come, immediately sensing your eyes on her and she looks up – just as you casually slide your eyes on the cubicles closer to you. At this point you are sure she knows. She is that good. But you are not official by any means and you suspect she doesn’t think highly of you, probably believing that you are sleeping with her boss for profit.

And, well. Sleeping with him is a profit in its own right.

You hoped you’d be able to sneak into his office, but you know better not to try when she is guarding the doors. You hope that one day you’ll be able to best her in her own game, but it’s definitely not today.

So you turn back to your computer, feeling how her eyes are burning a hole in the back of your head.

You manage to keep it up for another 40 minutes before you try to look around again – and yes, nothing changed. Assistant’s head snaps right when you glance at her. She must have some kind of third eye that is always open and always looking at you.

Another half an hour or so, and you really can’t stand how slow this day is going. It Wednesday, still too many days till weekend, and still too much time before your day ends and you wish for a quick break. You stop working for a second, wondering if you should try looking back once more, when you see, out of the corner of your eye, the assistant walking down the aisle. You have no doubt that she is eyeing you warningly, but your adrenaline levels are spiking.

And here you were believing that she doesn’t pee at all.

Sure enough, she disappears in the toilet, and you are out of your seat is seconds. You walk to Jicheol’s office as if you had business in going to him, and while it’s true, the nature of this business is not something you’d like to share with your overseeing manager.

Feeling like a kid stealing freshly baked cookies, you knock on the doors and go in: only to find out that the office is empty. As it should be, Jicheol was supposed to be out of office today. Which you totally forgot about.

Your mood is killed, but you did come with a purpose, so you walk over to his chair, sit down in it, pose just like you wanted to do in front of him, snap a picture and you are out of his office before his assistant comes back.

You send the photo only when you sit back down at your desk.

*

Jicheol seems frustrated and amused as he holds his phone in front of your face. You are not entirely sure what seems to be a problem as you stare at the photo you’ve sent him.

“Care to explain this?”, he asks as if you owed him an explanation. Which is odd, because the picture itself should be self explanatory. It’s not like it’s a nude or anything like that. It’s you, sitting in his chair, no biggie. He must have seen your lack of understanding on your face because he follows: “I got it while I was discussing a new deal with AS Group.”

Well, that certainly clarifies the problem.

“I mean, it’s me? In your chair?”, you say, doing your best to keep your face straight.

“Well, yeah, but what are you doing?”, he is not going to let it go. You can see that and you wouldn’t want it any other way. He goes as far as pointing at the offending part of the picture.

“Oh! You mean the part where I am biting the cock ring you so nicely presented me with?”, you still keep up the pretense of not really realizing what the problem is. “And why were you checking your phone while discussing a new deal with AS Group? You should know better than to do that.”

That gives him a pause and he brings his phone back, looking at the picture. You smile as you watch his eyes darken a little. He clears his throat and puts his phone down, just when your food arrives.

“You know what? You are right, actually,” he says, looking at his plate and grabbing fork and knife, voice perfectly conversational. “It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have checked the phone during the meeting.”

“Good boy,” the praise makes him snap his eyes back at you. It takes a few heartbeats before he laughs, loud and free. His left eye closes a millisecond earlier than the other one and as always it puts you at ease. It’s just so familiar. There is a slight disbelief in his features, the air of incredulity about him when he shakes his head but when he focuses back on you? The warmth and the love you see in his eyes match your own feelings. He slides his hand across the table, resting it on your own. You look down, seeing how it completely covers your smaller hand, how his long fingers reach below your wrist and there is a prickling sensation at the back of your head.

You love him this big.

*

You look at him when he drives you home. It’s Wednesday night, a school night, so to speak, you have to wake up early tomorrow and go to work, and so does Jicheol. There is something lazy about the way he drives. He looks relaxed, with one hand on the wheel and the other on the gearshift. The silence that took over the car is comfortable and you are using all your senses to feast on him.

His shoulders are broad. Half of it is just bone structure but the rounded shape of his muscles that curve smoothly into the biceps – that’s what gets to you. The veins near his wrists that get your attention when he changes gears are also something to enjoy. You feel no shame in appreciating his chest moving with every breath, his legs shifting when he presses pedals.

There is no shame in appreciating what’s basically yours.

And there is definitely no shame in getting turned on by this.

Somewhere along the way Jicheol turns his head to you. He never has any qualms about you ogling him so intensively. He usually notices you staring and smiles. It’s a small, secretive smile, one that shows you that he knows how much you love his body and that he has nothing against it – because he knows you love the rest of him as well.

Because you do.

Nearly as much as you love his massive hands.

But this time, when he lazily turns his head to you, there is something he sees in your face that stops him. That makes it harder for him to focus back on the road. You can see how his fingers clench on the wheel, how he shifts and how he clears his throat.

You don’t have to look at his lap to know what is happening. You instantly get hot as if he turned off air conditioning. He didn’t but it still seems like all the oxygen has disappeared from the car. You uncross your legs, feeling how damp the fabrics of your jeans is. You say nothing not to distract Jicheol, trying and failing to breathe evenly.

Above the slowly raising volume of thumping blood in your ears you can hear how Jicheol starts tapping his fingers on the wheel. Where the fuck is your building?

A quiet thank god when you finally see it that falls from Jicheol’s mouth makes you laugh. It’s a wild laugh, a laugh of a person that’s losing it. Especially when the gods are not helping you in your quest and Jicheol needs to drive around to find an empty spot to park.

“You really need to get yourself a place with assigned parking,” he says in even voice. That’s what gives him away – his even, controlled voice appears only when he is about to lose control.

You hum agreeably through a lump in your throat. It’s hard to keep your calm and your leg is shaking impatiently. When you see another car leaving, freeing a space for you to take, you nearly yell to get Jicheol’s attention. He swerves into it, little care for safety and you don’t even wait for him to straighten the wheels. You are out of the car as soon as he is in the parking spot.

He follows you, leaving his perfectionist nature impulse to straighten the wheels for another time. It’s not the place nor time to focus on such small things, when there are bigger matters at hand.

You are already halfway to your building when he catches up with you. You know that if he wanted he could have done it earlier but he was probably ogling your ass. Not that you mind.

He grabs your hand, your fingers entwining, his fingertips reaching your wrist. Again. It sends another hot wave through your body and you pick up your pace, dragging him behind you. You don’t check but you are fairly sure he is smiling.

Elevator ride is mercifully short albeit quite stinky. It’s an enclosed space and had it be a different building you would have already jumped Jicheol. But it’s not, and you are not touching him here – where there is a possibility that in the spur of a moment he will push you against one of those disgusting walls. No matter how much you want to go down on him, you are definitely not down for that.

You ready your keys and slip an essential into your back pocket before you get out of the elevator and you cross the last stretch of your race to your apartment. Jicheol is right behind you, breathing down your neck when you unlock the doors. The heat radiating from his body only distracts you, your palms immediately getting sweaty.

Finally you stumble in, toeing your shoes off in the process. Even Jicheol pays no mind to his own shoes as he kicks them off. And then he spins you around and kisses you before you can get your bearings.

And then you don’t even try.

He sighs. You both have been waiting and wanting to do that for so long (most of the day) and it can be felt. You can feel it in your gut, you can feel it in your suddenly relaxing muscles. You can feel it in his hands holding your face up, in his thumb caressing your throat, in his tongue just filthy in your mouth. He can’t be comfortable. He must be bending low to reach your mouth and you surge up onto your toes, your teeth clashing in the process. But neither of you minds.

You pull his collar shirt out of his pants and push your hands under, you feel his skin under your fingers as you slide them onto his back. Skin on skin contact is intoxicating and so is the realization how hard is waist is. It’s narrower than the rest of his body – but compared to yours? Not as much anymore.

You want to be pressed into the mattress with that body. You want to be covered completely with air pushed out of your lungs by his sheer weight. You want it holding you down, you want to be unable to see ceiling above his shoulder, you want all your world to be comprised to his body on top of you, his hand on your side leaving massive bruise on your skin. You want it all.

Now.

And it must be a shared sentiment because he walks you back into your living room. He tries to say something, head moving back but as soon as you sense his escape, you grab him oh-so-desperately. You arms surge up, grabbing his neck and yanking him back down. This time it’s your turn to get filthy, not enough mind left to be teasing. You are the one exploring, you are the one controlling, you are the one not letting the kiss end.

Jicheol groans – it’s a somewhat pained sound. As if he couldn’t believe how aroused you are or as if he just couldn’t help himself.

The back of your legs hits your sofa and you immediately tumble down. He falls down with you, barely controlling his fall and it kicks all of your air out of your lungs. Yes!

He pushes himself between your legs and you just let them fall open. He rolls his hips down, his belt pushing into your stomach, pushing you even deeper into your sofa. Yeah!

The next time, your hips go up to meet his and it makes you groan. You let your legs fall open as wide as they go – one squished against the backrest. The slight pain of your tendons pulling is nothing to the amazing feeling of his hardening erection rubbing just down the middle seam of your jeans. The sofa is not big enough to hold you both comfortably and Jicheol crawls up, his elbows above your shoulders his thigh pushing your free leg even higher. He crowds you against cushions your body covered by his. You exhale through your nostrils, but when you try to roll your hips with what little leverage you can muster – he drops down, his hips pushing yours into the sofa. YAS!

He is dry humping you into the cushions and you love every second, every electrifying push against your crotch, every drag of your clothes against your skin, now that they are getting damper with every second. And kissing? Kissing is a great counterpoint – so languid and filthy. You give as good as you get, biting back every time you feel teeth on your lip. You chase his tongue into his mouth whenever he backs out. You breaths are turning heavier, you can feel his exhale on your cheek, you can feel your mixed saliva on your chin.

He is the one to break the kiss and you are nearly offended. Especially when he sits up, one hand idly resting on your calf hanging on the couch. Fingers try to sink into it, but denim is not forgiving. You are heaving, looking up at this Greek god above you. Your legs are spread as far as they go, inviting him, even when you are still clothed, and the way your hips gyrate tell a clear story. His hand slides up onto your thigh – the warmth you feel through the denim on the inside of your thigh makes you whimper.

Jicheol smiles and the hand is gone – just so he can take off his shirt. Which is great because you decide to lose yours at the same moment. Your bra follows and they all land on the floor, unaccounted for. The moment you see skin you sit up and you both collide because Jicheol decided to go down. It’s prefect when he pushes you back into the sofa, naked skin on naked skin. The kiss is no longer languid and your hands are not longer idle. You are reacquainting yourself with his back and torso, while his own measure your dimensions. Five fingers from your waist to the side of your breasts, length of his middle finger from the side of your breast to your nipple, his mouth maps out the diameter of it, tongue measuring protruding height.  You keep his head close not letting him stop his inspection.

“Ass, ass!” you exhale sounding quite wanton, even to your own ears. You push your hips into his amazing stomach to accentuate what you mean – because you realize he might not understand.

But he does, ever so surely sliding his hand down your arched spine, squeezing your ass. Great.

Jicheol groans around your other nipple teeth setting dangerously over it, he must have felt the hardness of the secret your pocket held. And he knew exactly what that was, even before he pulled it out. Warm metal lands on your stomach. Jicheol’s hand covers it and he uses the ring to mark your body with it. Sliding it up your ribcage, measuring against your breast, rolling up the neck. Your tongue darts out to taste the metal, his reaction is immediate: coming up to kiss you, ring hanging off his fingers as he brushes your hair off your face.

The process of pulling off pants is elaborate and weird but you find yourself back in the starting position and now his hand curling around your thigh, ring once more rolling a path down your skin. You laugh breathily when you realize where is it going. Smooth metal barely rolls down your clitoris and you are whining, offended with the teasing touch. Jicheol mimics your breathy laugh, which dies suddenly when he takes himself into his hand. You support yourself on your elbows to see him fit the ring around his cock and balls.

Have you ever mentioned how much you love his cock?

It’s big, hard and you have no qualms with admitting that. It’s also red and wet from precome and marked with veins. It’s also now adorned with silver band around the base and you can believe how long you waited for this to happen. The need to know what exactly will happen is intoxicating. You won’t wait anymore and you unceremoniously push your hand between your spread legs, thumb roughly circling around your clitoris.

Yes, you can masturbate with Jicheol between your legs. And that’s because it’s naked Jicheol between your legs, your dirty dream, your biggest sin, your most revered fantasy. Your hips rose off the bed chasing your own hand and the way Jicheol’s eyes narrowed on your hand makes you moan. Possessive hand lands on your waist, fingers nearly brushing your spine as he pushes you down and fucks into you with a quick forceful thrust.

“Yes!” you unabashedly moan, free hand reaching Jicheol. He grabbed your hand, kissing your fingers as he leisurely started to move inside you.

Hot wave spreads through your body. It’s highly erotic, something that still catches you off guard. Every time you expect Jicheol to be nearly animalistic, dangerous in bed. With body like that you expect him to threaten you but he only ever makes you feel safe. He shows his vulnerable side, he shows his soft side.

You watch him hypnotized. Jicheol kisses every knuckle, your palm, your wrist, all while rolling his hips into you. Those are not deep-reaching strokes. They are short, rolling, more teasing than not. It’s the thumb on your clitoris that makes you hot.

He suddenly drops down, pushing your wrist into the cushion above your head and you know you wouldn’t be able to fight it – you don’t have enough strength to fight him nor you want to. His head fits between your neck and shoulder and he kisses your jugular.

“Don’t rush it, babe, we are in for a long run,” he whispers huskily, delivering first real thrust of the night. You throw your head back, because yes, yes, yes that’s what you wanted. His breath is fanning your skin when he does it again, his knees slipping on the bed, body falling on top of yours, effectively trapping your hand between your bodies.

That’s a cage you always dream of.

The only lacking thing, however sweet it may be, is him kissing your neck – you want him above you, chasing his own pleasure, fucking you like he needs it.

“Only when I’m done with you,” he states and you don’t want it to be an empty threat. Teeth scrape your pulse point and you push your hips up, your hand putting pressure on his abdomen – you are still teasing your clitoris as much as you can.

One more snap of his hips, nice, one more, like that, pause so he can adjust his knees, one thigh pushing your leg that’s hanging off the sofa just a little bit higher. He bears down on it, moving off center and then he thrusts. He starts fucking you. But, really fucking you. Your hand in his grasp clenches on his fingers as you instinctively try to move up, away from brain numbing pleasure.

He is moving above you, but close enough for you to feel his warmth, experience his sheer size, enjoy the way his chest brushes against yours. You arch to get your pinched nipples any stimulation you can get.

That’s exactly what you’ve been yearning for. Jicheol labored breath in your ear, obscene sounds filling the room, your body sweaty and squirming with his body on top of you, balls deep in you.

And soon thoughts like that leave you – there is only heat, arousal and flashes of pleasure building up into an surely oncoming orgasm.

He brings you to it, fingers leaving imprints on different parts of your body, teeth sinking into skin, tongue lapping at the dented skin. He brings you to it, body sputtering filthy when he doesn’t have enough breath to talk anymore.

He fucks you through it, holding you down, drinking your moans straight from your lips.

And he keeps fucking you though it with a growl deep in his chest. And he keeps fucking you after the sound disperses in the air. He keeps fucking you long after you expect him to end, he keeps fucking you after already dried tears start falling down again. You are coming apart, too hazed with your oversensitivity, spasming on the bed, your pelvic floor muscles cramping periodically, still greedily sucking him inside, your body still trying to get away from the excessive force of his thrusts.

And he is still going hard and strong.

Later you will remember. Later, after all is done, and you can start to breathe more freely, when you can move to the bed on your shaky legs, your labias and your vagina still pulsing, clitoris swollen and body covered in red marks, you will realize that his prowess was enhanced by the stupid ring he gave you. Later, after all is done, and you can bask in the glory of this phenomenal intercourse, wrapped in his muscular arms, you will realize that it was indeed a present to you.

But for now, he was still fucking you, face contorted with overwhelming pleasure. His hips were faltering ever so often, sloppy kisses eating up your pained approval. Your legs cramped as your toes curled and your back arched, your fingers on your neck. He was on top of you, and through glazed eyes you saw neck, clavicle, chest – no sign of the ceiling.

As he kept fucking you.

[sweetingly]

A Blessing

A Billy Hargrove Imagine

———

Y/N’s POV:

My eyes flutter open, the sunlight partially blinding my eye sight within seconds. Letting a yawn escape from my mouth I stretch my arms out, completely forgetting about the body next to me. Seeing as my hand literally slapped their face, my boyfriend groaning in annoyance.

“Oops sorry, bubs.” I apologize,“You should probably go ahead and get up- it’s,” I glance at the clock. “Eleven-thirty. Meaning, you have an hour until your shift starts.”

Billy groans again when I mention work, his arm wrapping around my body tugging me closer.

“My eyes are still closed.” He finally speaks, his voice husky from just waking up. “Meaning, I don’t want to go to work.”

I let out a tired laugh, “Well you’re talking, so you’re not asleep if that’s what you’re getting at. Come on, wake up!” I try getting out of his grip, but he holds me a tighter not enough to squeeze me to death though.

Managing to get out of his grip, I slide away from him to see his eyes were actually open. He then lies his head on my bare chest, making me shake my head at his stubbornness.

“You are so stubborn when it comes to waking up.” I tease, running a rand through his curls.

“No,” He positions himself to face me by propping up on one of his arms. “I’m only stubborn when I have to leave you.”

I blush at his statement, a grin appearing on my face. “You’re sweet and cheesy at the same time, but I appearciate it still.”

“I know.” He replies with a smile too, leaning down to place a kiss on my lips.

The supposedly quick peck soon turns into a something more in a instant. Considering the fact that his arms placed themselves on both sides of me and his body was hovering over mine, careful enough not squish me.

“Bubs-“

“Shh.” Billy cuts me off before placing his lips back on to mine.

I didn’t want him to be late for work, but at the same time I didn’t want this to end. The kiss became heated quicker than I insisted and he couldn’t possibly leave me all hot and bothered. His lips then move to my neck as he leaves butterfly kisses, sucking on the certain spot that he knew was my biggest weakness. However, just as I were about to let a moan escape- things ended as soon as I heard a loud scream at my bedroom door.

We break apart, Billy falling on top to cover my naked body even though we had the sheets on. We then make eye contact with my brother Dustin, who looked traumatized by what was in front of him.

“What the fuck! Dustin, we’ve talked about knocking- get out!” I yell, Billy placing his head in the crook of my neck.

“Y/N, you said you’d be ready by now!” He shouts through the door once he slams it shout. “We’re all waiting in the family room.”

Billy looks up at me, a laugh falling from him when he sees how embarrassed I looked.

I run my hands over my face in annoyance, “I’m sorry. I swear my mom never taught him how to knock and he’s in middle school.”

“Don’t worry about it, baby girl.” He says rolling over to get off me.

“I know, but I still feel bad. I’m taking him and the gang to the pool for a couple hours then dropping them off at the mall. Once you get off though, you can come over so I can make it to you?” I suggest, my fingers rubbing on his chest and creating invisible patterns.

“How about I take you out for a change, then we can come back here?” He asks.

I grin, “I like the sound of that.” I lean down to kiss him real quick, but once I pull away I notice that his expression faltered. “Everything okay?”

“Y/N, I don’t know how to say this, but I lov-“

“Assface, come on and stop making babies in there!” Dustin’s voice sounds from outside my room and I groan since he interrupted once again.

“I’d be careful because I’m you’re ride for the day, dumb ass!” I threaten and I hear him run back to the living room. “My apologies, what were you gonna say?” I focus my attention back in Billy.

He sends me a soft smile, “Nothing important, we should probably go ahead and get dressed. Can’t have Dustin breaking down the door with the gang.”

We let out laughs, getting up from my bed. I let Billy go into my bathroom first since he was already late for his shift. As I sat on my bed, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was going to say earlier. Even though he said it wasn’t important, I felt that it somewhat was, especially with the expression he sent me afterwards.

———

The sun beams down on the pool as myself and other families relax there, most of the kids or teens in the water. I lie comfortably on one of the beach chairs in the corner next to a group of middle schoolers. My sunglasses covering my eyes to keep the sun from giving me a headache.

Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas, Eleven, and Max all were in the water creating some type of game between one another. I didn’t mind coming along with them on their hangouts, but for today I just wanted to be alone and relax.

“Excuse me ma’am, but I’m gonna have to ask you to put on some clothes. My boss complained saying it’s a little inappropriate for the children’s eyes.” A person says, blocking the sunlight from me.

“Well you can tell your boss to fuck off.” I simply say, when I recognize the voice after a couple seconds. “Shouldn’t you be saving people’s lives Billy?” My shades are still on with my eyes closed.

I hear him fake gasp, “How on earth did you know it was me?”

“Mmm I’m pretty sure I can recognize your voice, especially if we’ve been dating for awhile.” I playfully sass, lifting my glasses to look at him. “You on break right now?”

“Yes, only for ten minutes this time though,” He says, sitting down in the empty space I made for him. “I meant what I said earlier by the way.”

My eyebrows furrow, “Is it really inappropriate for these children or are you just telling me that because you can’t control your hormones?” His eyes widen when I mention the last part, knowing I had caught him. “That’s what I thought, bubs.”

“Hey, you can’t point all the fingers at me.” He states, and I send him a puzzled look. “I could feel you staring at me every five minutes.” I can only see part of his eyes since his sunglasses were on the bridge of his nose as winked at me.

“Fine, I guess we were both caught.” I roll my eyes behind my glasses, sitting up up all the way. “I’m not the only one though, I saw Mrs. Wheeler and her ladies staring too.”

Billy chuckles, his tongue swiping across his bottom lip. “I know, I chose to ignore them though because I’m dating either of them.”

My cheeks turn a bright red, “You know what I appreciate about you?”

“What?” Billy asks,

“The fact that you get attention from all these girls or even older women, but you don’t give them satisfactory of giving it back.“ I explain and he smiles.

“Yeah because I know you would leave my ass within seconds if I were to do that and I can’t risk losing you.” He admits and my stomach immediately fills with butterflies.

Instead of responding, I press my lips to his. The kiss didn’t involve tongue or anything, but I made sure to make it linger for at least a few seconds.

“I could say same for you,” I tell him, our lips ghosting over each other’s.

Billy places his hand on my thigh, pulling back from my face some. “I’ve really been meaning to tell you something for the past few weeks now.” He says, his tone becoming serious and I nod for him to continue. “Y/N Y\LN, I lov-“

“Y/N! We’re going to get changed then we’ll be ready.” Max shouts from the pool.

I sigh as we were interrupted for the fiftieth time today. “Alright, I’ll be ready once you guys are done.” I turn to Billy, sending him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, bubs. I need to go get changed too, my mom wanted me to stay at the mall with them.”

He nods understanding, “Okay, I’ll pick you up at eight, yeah?”

“Yes, sounds perfect.” I give him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you at eight,”

“See you at eight, baby girl.”

———

I tuck in the front half of my shirt into a pair of my mom jeans that I currently wore, along with a pair of slip on vans. Billy would be picking me up any minute and I wanted to make sure everything about me was perfect. Not that he cared because he always called me beautiful even if I’m dressed in a oversized shirt with knee high socks and my hair all over the place.

Walking over to my bed I grab my lanyard that held my money and whatever else I needed. I then turn off my lamp and head out my room to go into the living room until Billy arrived.

“Y/N, look pretty.” Eleven says once I appear in the room where her and the others were watching movies. Her face holding no emotion, but I knew she meant it. “Yeah, I agree!” Max jumps in with a smile.

“Well thank you, girlies.” I grin, grabbing my house key and putting it into my lanyard.

“Mom said you guys better not do the shimmy-sham!” Dustin shouts, Lucas and them laughing but a few “ew’s” could be heard.

I playfully roll my eyes at my brother’s childish behavior. “Dustin shut up.”

As soon as I say that the doorbells rings, and I race over to the door before anyone could get it.

Swinging it open I find Billy who was dresses nicely, his curls falling perfectly at his shoulders. He smiles as he steps inside, wrapping me into his arms for a hug.

My arms snake around his neck and I give him a peck on the cheek, “You look handsome, as always.”

“And you look beautiful, as always.” He repeats and I can’t help, but blush as usual.

I hear someone make a gagging sound behind me, which I know it came from one of the boys. “I’ll be back in a little while guys, don’t stay up too late.” I tell them before we leave the house.

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask as he opens the door for me to his Camaro. “I’m not telling you, just sit tight until then.” He says, and I make a whining noise causing him to laugh.

After we get buckled in he pulls out of the driveway and began driving down the rode. The radio played music on low volume, the song Jessie’s Girl could be heard. My eyes watch outside of the window as we sped past trees and building, soon the area became just a wooded area.

About ten minutes later, Billy parks the car and turns it off, unbuckling his selt belt. Getting out the car along with him I notice we’re in a area I’ve never been too.

“Let me lead the way,” He takes my hand, guiding me through some trees. We walk hand in hand, him helping over few logs so I wouldn’t trip and possibly break a bone. After five minutes of walking we finally stopped in a empty grassy area and in the middle was a picnic table with a basket on top.

My eyes become watery and Billy lightly chuckles when sees my expression. “Oh baby girl don’t cry,” He gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.

“I’m sorry, it’s just it reminds me of our first date. I can’t believe you did this.” I say as I give him a warming hug.

“Anything for you, of course.” He winks. “Lets eat, shall we?” And I happily nod, the both of us walking to the table and getting situated across from one another.

We begin eating, talking, and teasing each other on stupid random things, time passing with an ease. Without even realizing it we had most likely been out there for possibly more than an hour, but we didn’t mind- we were trying our best to enjoy each other presence.

“Hey Y/N,” Billy reaches across the table to grab my hands, his thumbs gently rubbing over my knuckles. “I’ve been trying to say this all day and I feel like now is the perfect time- with no interruptions.” He says, the both of us laugh thinking about the events from earlier today. “Anyway, we’ve been dating for more than six months and I can’t help, but think about how they have been the best damn months of my life. When I first moved here I wanted to get the first ticket back to California because I despised this place a lot. That was until you walked up to me on my first day at Hawkins High and introduced yourself. I knew right then and there that I had to make you mine. However, I’m just gonna get to the point now...I love you Y/N Y/LN, and I want you to know that I’m gonna promise to love you forever no matter what the future has planned for us.”

By now, I had tears streaming down my face and sniffles were falling from me. Billy lets go of my hands, rushing over to my side and grabbing ahold of my hands again.

“I also want you to have this,” He said, pulling out a black box and opening it reveal a shiny silver ring. “I’m not proposing, but like I said, I do promise to love you forever no mattter what.” I watch as he slides the piece of jewelry onto my finger and without letting him speak anymore, I kiss him.

“I love you too, Billy Hargrove.” I whisper when we pull apart, his hands whipping the tears on cheeks. When the words leave my mouth, a tears happens to slide down his left cheek as he let out a breathy laugh.

“I’m so glad to finally get that off my chest and I’m also glad you feel the same way. I was afraid you wouldn’t.” He sniffs, and I wipe his tears away too.

My heart falters at his last statement, and I fix my position on the bench in order to hug him. Billy was never the best with showing his emotions and that was only because of how shitty his life had been.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t fell the same too if I said it first, if I must admit.” I tell him.

He looks at me, still sniffing a little. “Who would’ve thought someone like you would ever fall in love with a douchebag like me?”

“Everyone around us thinks it’s crazy, but for me- for us, it’s a blessing if I’m honest.” I say, causing him to show his pearly whites. “And you’re not a douchebag.” I add.

“It is indeed.” He agrees, his hands sliding down to my hips. “Especially for me, you’re the highlight of my days.

I giggle at his cheesiness, my fingers playing the hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re a badass, but you’re super nerdy when it comes to pickup lines.”

“Oh you love it, just like you love me.” He teases as he begins to pepper sweet kisses on my neck. “How about we take this back to the car?” He seductively whispers as soon as a moan escaped from me.

“I like the sound of that...” I mutter and pull away to stand up, our hands grasping onto each other’s as we begin to walk away. “Oh wait the basket!” I stop our tracks, pointing at the woven object on the table.

Billy’s eyebrows furrow as he held onto my hand still, “We’re about to go make love in the my car and you’re worried about a basket?” He teases.

“You’ve got a point- I’ll race ya!” I shout and let go of his hand before I rushed off into the same direction we came from earlier.

My legs didn’t get my very far, especially since Billy ran up behind me and picked me up bridal style. We break into fits of laughter as he continues to carry me through the wooden area.

“God I love you so much,” I say when our laughter dies down.

“I love you so much too,” He replies. “Just wait until we get to the car, then I’m really gonna show how much I love you.”

A smirk appears on my face, “Well you better hurry before I change my mind.” Once that was said he began to pick up his speed, and it also in that moment where I realized I wouldn’t trade having him as my boyfriend for the world.

———

Sorry for the cheesy ending but next imagine will be on my other baby boy Steve Harrington!! <3