#man i'm so curious about who the FUCK left us that note....

[hairmetal666]

Steve has this bar he loves in Chicago. It's a little bit dive-y, a little bit dirty, but it's quiet. A good place for when he needs to clear his head.

Only, tonight, the place is packed. Music pounding from the jukebox, no space at the bar, patrons at the dartboard and pool table. In three years he's never seen it like this.

He has a second to wonder what's going on before he sees exactly who is going on, and for him to catch Steve looking.

"Stevie!" Eddie Munson cries. He leaps from the bar top, the people below scrambling away from the stomp of his big black boots.

He hasn't seen Eddie in years. Can't actually remember the last time. Max and Lucas's wedding? Robin and Nancy's baby shower?

Steve considers booking it out of there, escaping in the crush of the crowd. By the time he has the thought, though, Eddie's already pulling him into a hug.

He's excited to see his friend. He is! Really. He loves Eddie. But that's kind of the problem.

Steve fell in love and Eddie left town.

Well, maybe it wasn't so dramatic as all that. It wasn't until six months after they packed the last box in the back of Eddie's van that Steve could name his feelings for what they were. And by then, Corroded Coffin were building buzz and Eddie had a huge whole life outside of the people he saved the world with.

Over the years, as Eddie's fame grew, he came around less and now they hardly see each other. They still talk from time to time, Steve still buys all the band's records, and Eddie's still close with all the kids, Nancy and Robin too.

Eddie releases him, those big eyes bright, a pure and genuine smile stretching his face. Steve's stomach twists, heart skipping a beat.

"Gotta be honest with you, man. Never expected to see Steve Harrington in a place like this."

Steve snorts. "There's lots of place I go you wouldn't expect."

Eddie's smile wobbles, Steve thinks. It's gone in a blink, though, and Eddie laughs. "I'm sure you do, sweetheart. Have time for a drink with me?"

Eddie navigates to the bar, returns with two beers in hand. He presses his palm to the small of Steve's back, directing him to the single empty table in the corner as far from the jukebox as possible.

"How's life treating you, Stevie?" Eddie asks after a sip. "Nance told me the store is doing really well."

"It's good, yeah. Finally turning a profit. Wasn't sure about Dustin having us add a game section, but he was right. It's really taken off."

"Oh, he told me," Eddie smirks.

Steve rolls his eyes. "I'm sure that he did. He hasn't let me hear the end of it."

"That tone," Eddie says, voice soft.

"What brings you to Chicago?" He asks to hide the way all the fucking love he feels for this man is bleeding out of him.

"Not really supposed to be," he laughs. "Flight got diverted to O'Hare, can't get another one until tomorrow. Have to make it to LA in time to play a show."

They both know Eddie loves it; the rush, the adrenaline, that comes with performing, to making it to shows at the very last minute. It's how they got here in the first place.

"Working on new music?"

Eddie leans back, dimples popping with the pleased lift of his lips. "Oh, Harrington, you don't even know what we have in store." He leans over the table and launches into tales of rehearsals and writing. Steve drinks his beer and can't take his eyes off his friend, Eddie the sun Steve orbits around, helpless to his gravitational pull.

"So, Stevie," Eddie says, once there's no more to tell about music. "You seeing anyone?"

Steve hides his cringe with a chuckle. Picks up his beer to buy time and finds it empty. "Not anyone of note."

"C'mon, how is that possible? You're easily the hottest guy in this place."

He grimaces. "That's a low bar."

"Oooh, still bitchy after all these years." Eddie snickers, takes a swig from his bottle.

"Shut-up."

"Seems like it's been a while since you dated."

"You interrogating my love life now, Munson?"

"No, not at all. Just curious."

"Okay, who are you dating? Still that guy from People?"

"Gossip," Eddie frowns.

"Anyone else you got your eye on?"

"No one new," Eddie says. He stares at Steve hard for a second, like he wants to dig into his brain, like it holds the answer to all life's question.

"There is someone, then." Steve tries to ignore the jealousy licking down his spine. Eddie isn't his and never will be.

Eddie picks at the label on his now empty beer. "Not--not really." He licks his lips, leaning over the table again. "Is there a reason you don't seem to date anymore, man? It's just--you wouldn't hurt for options, right?"

Steve freezes, trying to figure out a way to answer that won't end up breaking his own heart. "Ah, it's--you know, things got busy with opening the store and everything. Stopped being a priority."

"Are you lonely?"

"Are you?" He snaps before he can stop himself. "Sorry, I'm--sorry."

"Yeah, man. I'm lonely as hell." Eddie answers as though Steve didn't give him an out.

"I--you ever have someone where the timing is always wrong?"

"Think it's a hazard of my profession. Who's yours?"

"What?" Steve clunks his bottle too hard against the table.

"The one that got away?"

"It's--it--I--it doesn't matter."

Eddie's smile is all jagged edges. "Nancy?"

"God, no. Nance and I are good with being friends. No lingering feelings there. Who's yours?"

"Ahh," Eddie sits back a little, eyes glittering with an emotion Steve can't place. "The best boy I ever met. Can't get over him, can't forget him. I think they guys are going to start banning my 'pathetic gay yearning songs'. Gareth's words."

Something in Steve's chest crumbles to dust. There's someone. Has always been someone. Of course. Eddie is beautiful and hot and charismatic and fucking famous. And Steve is--just a guy who runs a struggling bookstore with a couple of his best friends.

"That's--I'm sorry it didn't work out." He's trying to stop his voice from breaking, from giving Eddie any hint of what he's feeling, just knows he has to get out. "Listen, man, thanks for the beer. Great to catch up. You should hit up Robin and Nancy the next time you're in town. I gotta get going."

"Wait, Steve--"

"See you around."

He doesn't wait. He pushes through the people, and races out the door, into the crisp Chicago fall air. He squeezes his eyes closed, practices his breathing exercises, tries to relax the clench of his teeth, ease the screaming in his lungs.

Three steps away from the building is as far as he gets before he hears, "Steve, please wait." A hand catches his hip, holding him in place.

"Eddie, I don't--"

"It's you," Eddie says. His face is pale, stricken. "You're the one who got away, Steve."

"What?"

"I've never been able to work up the nerve to confess. I've been trying for years, but. Too afraid of losing you to tell the truth."

"Years?" Steve's brain is trying to wrap around what's happening. That Eddie has feelings for him? That he's the source of the pathetic gay yearning?

"God, since 1986, at least."

Steve doesn't know what to say; what to do. He's been waiting for this moment so long, and his brain goes on pause.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same," Eddie rambles. "Hell, I'd be surprised if you did, but--"

"You're mine too," the words tumble out.

"What?"

"You're the one who got away. For me. You're mine."

"Steve," Eddie breathes. "Is this--are you serious?"

"Pathetic gay yearning and all."

Eddie's laugh is a bright spot in the darkness, relief and happiness mixed with the hope of what's next.

Steve can't help but giggle. "We're so dumb," he says.

Eddie looks at him with a raised eyebrow before bursting into giggles of his own. "So dumb, Steve, oh my god."

"It's been a decade!"

"Fuck," Eddie cackles.

They collapse against each other, chests heaving with their mirth. As they catch their breath, Steve nuzzles against Eddie's neck, relishing the closeness. It's easy for him to change the angle so their lips meet in a kiss frantic with ten years of longing.

"Your place or mine?" Eddie asks once they part.

Steve laughs. "You think I'm that easy, Munson?"

"Oh, Steve," Eddie smirks. "I know it."

"Asshole." Steve presses a kiss to his jaw. "How many songs did you write about me?"

Eddie smiles so hard his dimples pop. "All of them, baby. Every single one."

Steve rests their foreheads together, body fizzing like freshly uncorked champagne, "Take me home, Ed."

[planetnini]

LOVE TO KEEP ME WARM !

࿔･ﾟ*࿐ for the first time ever satoru is left puzzled just by a simple question from tsumiki, but he knows just how to prove his love for you + gn!reader. fluff with some angst— use of nicknames (baby, sweetheart), found family trope <3, girl dad satoru agenda, he is a bit insecure but it gets resolved, cutest fucking declaration of love ever, surprises! snow shenanigans, mistletoe kiss, satoru is the best boyfie ever i love him (5.8k words)

notes. this is a gift!!!! so it will cater to the interests and personality of my person but everything else is very vague :) merry new years secret santa thing @scarameows-world !!!! very late by the time this gets published but whtever.. i'm the reindeer that's been up in your inbox <3 we had alot of good talks and i hope we can stay in touch after this :") now here's a cute little fic i made for you about the one and only gojo satoru. title is inspired by this song

gojo satoru is a man whose proficiency knows no bounds. he is a force to be reckoned with ushering a new era of powerful sorcerers and curses due to his possession of both the six eyes and limitless technique. he could do almost anything as one might expect and everything came naturally to him. he never had any doubts about himself, but then came along you. 

satoru was a natural when it came to flirting, but he was not accustomed to the rejection he faced in his early days when you would ‘let him down easy’– it was nothing short of disastrous, always ending in banter between you two. yet somehow you had your wicked ways of making him chase even though all you two did was flirt. after several attempts to woo you and you finally stepping up, one thing led to another now here you were, co-parenting two kids with the man you once swore you’d never be with. satoru was 100% sure that he would be yours for infinity, but it wavered on this particular day. 

satoru was on a little errand run with tsumiki whom he had entrusted with pushing the trolley around as he scanned the list you had made for tonight’s dinner and activity. she was a young and incredibly happy girl who was much friendlier than her brother, megumi. when satoru adopted the two, tsumiki had taken a liking to him immediately whilst megumi took a liking towards you so he had taken her on the trip. it had been going well, with them doing the final grocery run after spending what felt like hours picking out the perfect wreath for the front door, however tsumiki’s question stopped him right in his tracks.

“do you love y/n?” she asked, a little curious look decorating her features.

“that’s a silly question. of course i do!” he uttered, scanning the wreaths with his eyes picking out the perfect one because quite frankly, he didn’t know how to react. 

people naturally assume that growing up from a family who viewed him as an ornament and coddled him that he would be a closed book or lacking in social skills but his first few years at jujutsu tech proved everyone wrong: he was not just a pretty face who could get away with just that. in the end, his love for others was his weakness and tsumiki had brought up something that satoru had failed to anticipate. what did she see that satoru couldn’t and was that even possible?

she took the wreath from his hands and put it into the trolley bringing him back to the present, “how do you know you love y/n?” she paused, and tsumiki must be sadistic for making him suffer like this, “what does it feel like?” she asked, looking up at him.

satoru looked down at the child, surprised by her questions. he paused for a moment, considering how to articulate such an answer to a complex question. was it that hard to believe that gojo satoru was capable of loving someone?

while satoru would never admit it at the start, he needed megumi and tsumiki more than they needed him. after suguru’s defect, they especially reminded him that sometimes blood wasn’t all that important when it came to the people you loved. he loved them but in a completely different way than he loved you. a love so unequivocal that it was impossible for people not to know how truly and deeply in love satoru was with you, so he wasn’t sure where he went wrong but perhaps it wasn’t enough.

“well,” he began a thoughtful look on his face, “loving someone is different to everyone. i guess i can’t really explain it other than a warm, fuzzy feeling inside and it makes you feel like everything is right…” he replied, her eyes lighting up with understanding, “you care for their happiness the most, that you’d even share your favourite candy.” he chuckled with a playful glint in his eyes, trying not to sound too sentimental.

“so you feel warm and fuzzy when you see y/n?” she looked up curiously at satoru.

he chuckled, ruffling the child's hair, "yeah, exactly. now come on, let’s finish this quickly so we can go home. get something for yourself and your brother.” he winked to which tsumiki nodded eagerly, seemingly satisfied with his answer as she rushed down the aisle finding something to bring home.

the atmosphere between satoru and the girl was no longer tense but satoru’s mind was swirling. he was reflecting on the innocence of the question as he took control of the trolley now, finished with his chores for the day. he even went as far as buying you something too but tsumiki had inadvertently planted a seed of doubt in his mind and now satoru was spiralling. did he love you enough? was his warm and fuzzy feelings strong and genuine, or was it something he convinced himself of after everything that went down? the simplicity of her question left satoru questioning himself and for the first time in forever, he is unsure of his relationship with you.

“i thought i told you that they can’t stay up late.” you spoke while washing the dishes. satoru could only lightly chuckle as he rinsed the plate, putting it on the drying rack. he knew you only meant well but he enjoyed seeing you like this more than he had expected: seeing you so worried and being such a caring person towards them. it was not like he had forced you to take care of them, it was through your own volition that you practically raised them.

“come on…” he drawled a little pout on his lips, “they said they didn’t want to decorate the tree without you tomorrow.” he reasoned, knowing that the two children in the living room were your true weakness and that just as much as you do for them, they’d do for you too. the way a simple sentence morphed your furrowed brows into a look of gratitude proved his point.

“do they actually want to decorate the tree with me or is it only because you bought them sweets today?” you accused.

“they’re much older now,” he reassured with a tone you doubt has any good intentions, “besides, i think it’s fair if we stop their ban on sweets, don’t you?” he asked with a simple hip nudge and you roll your eyes at the gesture.

he was happy with this, with how things were going in your life right now, in fact he couldn’t get enough of it. his request was simple, but you wasted no time immediately retaliating, “you just want to freely eat your sweets and use them as an excuse.” 

“what little faith you have in me!” he gasped and you have to stifle a laugh, “plus, they’re kinda scary when they don't get their way.” he joked, leaning back on the counter with his arms crossed to get a better view of you who had just finished washing and drying your hands after dinner. 

“how the higher-ups trust someone like you on those missions, i have no idea. i wonder how they would react if they found out you can’t handle two children.” you said, flashing him a smile. mentioning the higher-ups in the conversation made satoru’s blood boil but it had been tamed when he caught that little shake of your head combined with your smile. he had been contemplating the nature and depth of his feelings for you but tonight had proved that it was all a fluke– just seeing you was enough to remind him that nothing about loving you could ever be doubted, because loving you was as natural as breathing.

satoru leaned down to meet your eyes as you turned to face him, “sweetheart, if you want me home instead of on missions, you could just say so.” he smirked– a signature gojo satoru look that you couldn’t tell if you loved or hated.

you narrowed your eyes at him, “i hope you get put on more missions.” 

“you wound me.” he grunted, a hand over his heart feigning hurt but you knew that he was joking.

“you can take it.” you hummed, eyebrows scrunching as he stared down at you lovingly with a smile etched across his face.

there have been so many moments between you, satoru and the kids that blossomed with joy– something that felt lost in a world rife of evil– but you forget that you’re both still fairly young, thwarted into roles of guardians. you loved satoru since you were teens and seeing that this was your first relationship ever, it is only normal to feel insecure, and normal that you have doubts that satoru could ever truly love you.

while staring at satoru your mind can’t help but swirl with thoughts and he catches on immediately, perceptive as ever due to his six eyes and well, being gojo satoru. he sees it in your contemplative sighs that he had been hearing throughout the week, in your crafted smile, the way your shoulders are tensed and your jaw clenched: he knows you’re feeling some way right now because even your eyes don’t have their usual spark. your name rolls off his tongue so naturally, as if he was born to say it, as he reaches up to brush his hand across your cheek.

“what’s on your mind?” he questioned with a tilt of his head, thumb caressing your cheek. to him, the signs are as clear as day that you were troubled with thoughts of something and he wouldn’t rest until he found out what was going on in that beautiful mind of yours.

that warm fuzzy feeling intensified, secret moments between the two of you that the young girl was unaware of. it’s times like this you’re grateful that satoru is so in touch with how you felt most times and you can’t help the relief that settles in your heart when you realise you were so lucky to have him in your life, “it’s nothing,” you shook your head with a smile plastered on your face, “just… thank you for everything you did the other day,” you said, genuinely appreciative of his contribution to megumi’s birthday dinner, “i know you don’t think that he likes you but he really does look up to you.” you admitted.

“my charms aren’t all that bad.” he hummed, a proud nod as you snorted at his holier-than-thou tone.

your eyes closed at the soft contact of his lips on the crown of your head, warmth spreading all throughout your body during the cold winter month. you crave him and his touch, and you’re lucky that he hasn’t been put on any missions, specifically requested (he threatened the higher-ups knowing his status) to stay home with you and the others for just a couple of weeks. a small sigh left his lips as he started moving his hands away from your face up over his blindfold, the loss of contact made you pout slightly. your hand came over his, stopping him with a simple action, “are you sure you want them off?” you whispered, your voice dripping with concern.

“i want to see you.” he said, without an ounce of hesitation in his response. 

“i don’t like the migraines it gives you when you have them off.” you retaliated as you shook your head resolutely. he wants to listen to you, seeing how much you cared for him and laid your heart out for him. the love you had for him was overflowing and he did not know how he got so lucky.

“i can take it,” he insisted, voice a mix of both amusement and affection, “besides, i’ll endure any and all amounts of pain just for you.”

“after that declaration, i better not hear a complaint out of you.” you said, smiling up at him as you begin to unwrap the blindfold yourself. your delicate fingers moved the bandages around his head, undoing the white bandages. the gesture made satoru relax in your touch as you pulled them away from his face. being able to let his guard down after suguru had been difficult but you were a rare (and lucky) case.

once the bandages are undone, you can see that he’s wincing and squinting, probably due to the oversensitivity. adjusting to his surroundings, you brush his cheek with your thumb and his eyes flutter open to have a look at you, “hi beautiful.” he breathes out, utterly captivated by you.

you mirrored his look, squinting as you leaned forward with a smile wanting nothing more than to kiss him until– 

“what’s taking so long?” tsumiki yelled, surprising you and making the two of you jump from your spot. if satoru was masking his pain before, he wasn’t doing so now as he screwed his eyes shut and you feel extra protective of satoru now that his blindfold was off. he was extra sensitive to loud surroundings so when she came in shouting the two of you with his guard fully down, you knew satoru probably was still adjusting to having his blindfold off with the kids.

“did your brother put you up to this?” you asked.

“we were just wondering where you two were.” she replied bashfully.

“i told you they were kissing.” megumi groaned from behind her and if you weren’t embarrassed before, you wanted to dig your grave now that he had said it out loud.

“actually, we were rudely interrupted.” satoru complained, narrowing his eyes at megumi. living with them, you know how much megumi truly looked up to satoru but moments like this question why they were always at each other’s neck

megumi rolled his eyes, “have some manners you two,” you ordered, making tsumiki chuckle a bit, “i’m sorry for making you guys wait so long.” you apologised and you see megumi nod slightly at you.

“are you two in cahoots?” satoru whispered in your ear but you pushed him away jokingly. megumi was first to leave the room and tsumiki followed suit, but before satoru joined the two, you reached out grabbing his hand, “i know you said no presents this year, but-” you said, handing him a wrapped rectangular box.

“you said no presents for christmas.” he blurted out, confusion taking over his features.

“well, i sometimes doubt if you ever listen to me,” you looked up at him and you would be right because satoru had bought and wrapped your gift already, “just think of it as a very belated birthday present then.” you smiled at him, anticipating his reaction to your gift.

he opened the box carefully and he could see an engraving on a case, and his heart sunk. he knew he was in love with you, but was it possible to love you even more than he already had? he picked up the case and took out the special glasses he wore when he went out instead of the usual blindfold.

“i remember you said you needed new ones after they broke.”

“correction, when megumi broke my other ones.” he corrected. you rolled your eyes at him, and give him a light peck on the cheek, “thank you.” he spoke before you could make your way to help the children. 

“don’t break them again, i’m not made of money satoru.” you warned and situated yourself on the floor, sitting cross legged as you peered over at what the two had been up to when you and satoru were in the kitchen. tsumiki was unboxing some tinsel and megumi was taking care of the ornaments. to be honest, you weren’t sure when you became one of those families who went full out for christmas. the only things you ever really did was presents or stockings and having dinner together. you were overlooking the process, not really helping, or rather not knowing how to as you had never really had a tree let alone decorate one. 

“you’re not going to help?” tsumiki questioned, with a tilt of her head as she began to decorate the tree.

all the attention is turned to you now as you shake your head untangling some of the lights for the tree, “i mean, i’ve never really celebrated christmas with a tree and it’s for you guys right?”

“that’s sick and twisted!” satoru gasped, slumping down right next to you with his new sunglasses, “so you mean you’ve never had a christmas tree?” he exclaimed, and quite frankly you don’t really see the big deal.

“i wasn’t blessed with being born into a family like yours.” you teased and he took serious offence to that, not because he was offended by your comment but more so your nonchalance. 

“well, anything you want to do for christmas?” megumi asked, putting some of the ornaments on the tree. he always had an artistic perspective and you were glad he was putting so much thought into where each one went.

“i’m not going to be home until late at night, but i guess i’ve always wanted it to snow big enough that i could build a snowman.” you shrugged, looking at the kids.

“that’s impossible.” megumi groaned.

“how are we going to get it to snow?” she exclaimed.

“exactly. it’s alright,” you reassured as you stood up from your spot, “as long as i’ve got you guys, that’s all i could ask for.” you winked at them as you helped them get to the higher spots of the tree. satoru sits there watching as you now start to help the two decorate the tree and decide to help out. you are too distracted to see that his mind is swirling with ideas– he is determined to make your christmas a little more special and he has some ideas up his sleeve that he can’t wait to use.

you feel the exhaustion of staying up late last night settle deep into your bones when you’re on your way home from the mission. it wasn’t like you didn’t get enough sleep, you got just the perfect amount but not being home today to celebrate with the kids and satoru kind of made your heart sink. it had always been the four of you the entire day and sometimes occasionally with the others but being away from home, away from them had taken a big toll on your heart.

you wiped at your eyes with a yawn as you began making your way down the path to your house. the cool winter night was in full swing, trees moving slightly in the small rush of wind that passed by along with the small sprinkles of snow.  you took a deep breath and rubbed over your arms as you looked up at the sky. you weren’t lying when you said you wanted snow, it had always been a dream of yours to see falling snow, and enough that it might be enough to build a snowman, it was just something that hadn’t happened in a long time. 

you reached the house but the eerily quietness and lack of light concerned you, were they watching a movie or something or did they go out and not tell you beforehand? you brushed off your worries, unlocking the door walking into an empty house. the whole room was dark, nothing could be heard and your heart was stuck in your chest, stopping at just the mere thought of not being completely alone right now. 

you could hear some whispers and instinctively your hand went up, charging up your cursed technique as you hear some shuffling until an array of fairy lights went off above you, decorated meticulously going up the stairs and some nice garlands all around, warm lighting and while you’re staring at the lights, you don’t notice the three standing right in front of you.

“welcome home.” they shouted, and you swear you had felt that much relief in your entire life.

“i could’ve hurt you guys!” you exclaimed, a hand over your heart. the soft vinyl record you distinctly remember shoko gifting you after seeing you eye it last christmas playing from the living room, and you couldn’t help but smile.

“well that defeats the whole point of a surprise if i told you, right guys?” he said, and it is only now you realise that he has a santa hat on with the other two in ugly sweaters. you know megumi would be less than happy to be dressed in this right now but you assume he did so for you and couldn’t help the way the corner of your lips curved up at the sight. this… this is what you loved about your little family, and you knew it was wrong to call it a family– the two kids aren’t yours, and you’re not married to satoru but this moment, combined with the cute late night you shared with them just the night prior confirmed that you were all closer than that and how much they loved you.

“you did not need to do this for me,” you sighed, a little overwhelmed by how well decorated everything was. you hadn’t even noticed the holly, the bells, candles, and a bunch of other festive decorations– they really went all out. you wonder just how they pulled it all together but then you remembered that satoru would stop at nothing when it came to his gestures, “and you definitely did not need to drag them into this.” you added, kneeling down in front of them so that you could hug tsumiki and as you stood up you looked at megumi and ruffled his hair despite how much you know he hated when satoru did it, when you did it, you weren’t met with the same grumpy huff.

satoru gasped, “hey, these two were asking if you’d like them and i pointed them in one direction okay?” he defended but as you looked down at the two they were shaking their heads as if to refute his words, “don’t listen to them. they did it because they love you just as much as i do.”

respectfully, you hated satoru but not in a way that was malicious but for always making you feel like the luckiest person on earth. for being friends with you back then when it seemed like the world wasn’t on your side, for allowing you to stay in his life after losing his friend, for letting you take care of two of the most beautiful children ever. he was one of the sweetest people you ever knew and you doubt any gift or gesture would be enough to make up for the man that he is. without realising you had tears stream down your face, and you bring your hand up over your face to cover it. you weren’t usually the type to cry over something so trivial but here you were.

“i can’t believe you made y/n cry on christmas.” megumi complained, trying to lighten the mood as tsumiki’s mouth dropped.

"y/n's fine!" satoru reassured and you can’t help but laugh as you wiped away some of the tears. before you could speak satoru went over to you, engulfing you in a hug, “you better not apologise for crying. there’s nothing you need to be sorry for.” he reassured, rubbing circles on your back. you nod profusely, trying to keep yourself calm in front of the others (not that they’d never seen you cry before) before pulling away from the hug. you stared into his cerulean eyes, out and free from their usual blindfold or glasses, “it’s nice to see you my love.” he whispered, meant only for your ears. 

you chuckled, pressing your lips into his cheek before turning around, “how about we open some gifts? how does that sound?” you smiled and their eyes lit up, brighter than the lights all inside the house and they scattered off like little mice to the living room where the tree was, with quite a few presents under the tree (courtesy of satoru’s money but joint in terms of thinking of what to get them) and you followed behind. satoru threw his arm over your shoulder as you took a seat on the couch as they got ready to unwrap their gifts.

“are you hungry?” he asked softly as they started unwrapping their gifts, the one in the penguin wrapping paper which satoru had wrapped up himself.

“i had something to eat on the way back.” you reassured and he nodded.

the two had spent quite a while opening satoru’s gifts. you noticed that the presents were some things the two children had mentioned once a very long time ago and were quite surprised that satoru had hand picked these gifts himself without asking you for help. you knew that he noticed every little detail about the people in his life but it made you wonder if he got you a gift after you said not to. you wouldn’t be mad if he didn’t get you one and vice versa.

“i got you that one.” you spoke, trying to contain your excitement as megumi picked up your gift, wrapped in some candy cane paper. you watched as he unwrapped it, revealing a digital camera and you hear tsumiki exclaim, excited for her gift now.

“a camera?”

you sat up, moving away from satoru as you leaned forward, “i know there aren’t that many pictures of you guys around the house so i got you that so we could start printing some out and putting them up.” 

megumi couldn’t hold in his gratitude any longer bringing you in for a hug, “thank you y/n.” he said, and you hugged him back, kissing him on the cheek. satoru was going to make a comment about how he also wanted a hug after all the gifts he gave but it was a special moment shared between the two of you and he was not going to ruin the moment.

as megumi was setting up his camera with satoru’s help, you turned to tsumiki and watched as she unwrapped her own gift, she looked up from the box to you with shock all over her face, “y/n…” she whispered, voice cracking, “i can’t take this.” she said, handing you back the box.

“hey.. it's okay,” you reassured, lightly pushing the box back in her direction, “it’s a gift tsumiki.” 

you watched her pull out the necklace, the stunning small heart shaped engraved with her initial on it but that wasn’t all you got her. after observing the necklace and helping her put it on, she opened a box that contained a letter, telling her of how much you adored her with special keepsakes from some memories you shared throughout the year. you have never seen her so happy and when she hugged you, you catch the stare that satoru is giving you– absolutely entranced by how much you loved them. a simple flash takes you off guard as megumi takes his first picture on the camera.

“how about you guys get your coats, i have something to give y/n.” satoru stated and they ran off with excitement in their bones at his plan. he had filled them in but they weren't convinced he could pull it off.

“talk about a successful night.” you chuckled, picking up the wrapping paper and throwing it in the bag that satoru was holding. 

“get changed.” he spoke, taking the bag from you and now it’s your turn to be surprised again.

“what? where are we going?”

after getting changed, suspicion arising from his sudden ask of getting changed. you walk out of your room seeing everyone in their coats, scarves, and you watch as the children begin to walk out first leaving the two of you alone. 

“what are you up to satoru?” you questioned, furrowing your brows. 

“since you thought you could cheat your way around buying me a gift,” he replied honestly, which took you off guard, “i thought it was only fair if i got you some things as well.” there was a small box in his hand, and you took it from his hand. you held your breath as you unwrapped the paper to see a box tied with a ribbon. you opened the box, revealing nothing but a sheet of paper.

you definitely weren’t the ungrateful type but you were expecting something else like maybe a ring, a necklace or something else but as you examined the paper you looked up at him with your mouth wide open. it was a receipt of something you had been eyeing for a couple months but nothing you could excuse spending money on. you had been an avid lover since you were young and it was always your dream to have one of these.

“satoru.” you said, honestly starstruck at his gift.

“you have been eyeing that for so long,” he reasoned with a simple nudge of the shoulder, "merry christmas."

“i can’t accept this.” you shook your head, giving it back to him but you know it is relentless to deny his gifts especially after you pulled your little secret gift on him the other day.

satoru gave you a stare and pursed his lip, “you are keeping it. end of discussion.” he smiled as he started to wrap a scarf around you. satoru had always looked good in winter clothing, a scarf tucked around his neck and due to his infinity, he was never cold but still dressed to the occasion with his designer brands. he was so handsome…

“and since you’re not saying anything i'm assuming you don't like it?” he taunted. you told your brain to make a coherent sentence or at least move so you don’t make a fool of yourself just looking at the gift. you stared up at him, you used your free hand to push the scarf down from the bottom half of your face, "you know i thought you weren't going to get me anything?"

satoru had never stopped at any words faster than he had those, "what?" he answered with a shaky voice.

you scoffed holding his hand in yours, looking anywhere but into his eyes, "i thought you might do a whole 'i'm your gift' thing," you admitted, a little ashamed you had such little faith in him, "i guess you do love me."

"y/n..." he uttered, "if i have ever made you doubt i love you then i have failed as your boyfriend," he spoke and you could feel your whole body warm at his words. "you are everything to me even if you and megumi are in cahoots and pray on my downfall." he said and you shoved him. he winced lightly at the push and smiled as he pulled you close to him once more, eyes moving down to your lips then back up to your eyes.

“that was really sweet of you.” you uttered, looking up at him.

“sweet enough for a kiss?”

“unless you make it snow, i’m not kissing you.” 

“i think i deserve just one…” he teased as he leaned closer to you.

a hand suddenly grabbed yours, tsumiki's gloved one, and once again stealing that moment between you and satoru, "y/n! didn't you hear me?" she gasped as you saw the wet snow on her coat go from crystal into a wet drop.

"what happened? is megumi okay? are you okay?" you asked, hand brushing over her face as if to check for any injuries.

"it's snowing!" she exclaimed as she made her way back out.

you looked over at satoru baffled but you could just see him smile at you mischievously and you run out and to your surprise, the snow is pouring down from the sky and you now know that your christmas wish has been satisfied. looking up at the sky, you put your hand out as the snow falls into your hand and you chuckle even though you are freezing your ass off.

the children began throwing snowballs at each other and one hits you at the back of the head and you turn to see all three of them standing there staring at you. they all point at gojo before you decide to pick up some snow for yourself throwing it at him back, thankful his infinity was still down.

you truly appreciate satoru doing his best to make you happy because it was all you ever wanted. he got a snowball in the face before falling down on the floor, and all of you chuckled at him landing on his back as he began to sit up, snow covering his whole back side and all in his hair.

you knelt in the snow and began to make the snowman you've always wanted to during christmas with the help of the two and when you're done you notice him standing at the front porch just staring as tsumiki started doing snow angels and megumi's two wolf shikigami joining him in the snow. you don't know when he let them out but you just smiled as you approached satoru, "what are you doing here?"

"just admiring you," he complimented and you shake your head, "did i do okay?"

you stare at him in bewilderment before moving to press a kiss to his cheek, "you did well satoru. more than that if possible."

he smiled cheekily and you move your hand to drag him back into the snow, "come on..." you hummed as you tried to pull him away from the front porch but he refused to move and you stare at him with a tilt of the head, "what's wrong?"

"you said you would kiss me if i made it snow.” he recalled, hand on his chin as he tried to refresh your memory.

“how the hell did you manage to make it snow?” you snickered but he didn’t look like he was joking. you don’t know how he managed, he would never say but you shook your head, “sorry babe, i don’t think you can control the weather… it is quite unpredictable.” you shrugged, giving him a fake guilty look.

“it’s a christmas miracle!” he yelped with his smile that you know and have grown to adore so much and you follow his gaze to the mistletoe above your head, "you know the rules." he seethed trying to seem nonchalant.

"you're an idiot," you laughed before holding his face in your hands, tiptoeing a bit before pressing your lips to his. you pulled away and brushed his lips with your thumb a little, "i love you satoru, always."

he could only pull you back in for another kiss, smiling as he did so as the kids exclaimed in disgust and horror at the sight. "i love you y/n. here's to many more years with you." he whispered when he pulled away. it was a christmas you will never forget and one that tsumiki and megumi will also never forget, dramatically reminding you that they were traumatised from your little kiss.

tags! @stsgluver @sukxma (thank you for hosting the event)

i hope you love this lynne, i apologise it's not my best work and i'm sorry it took so long. i love you, i hope you're doing well

[peacefxlmyko]

Does your Mother know?

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell x fem!Reader

Summary: Somebody catches Maverick's eye at the bar. There's just a slight problem.

Tags: Fluff, AGE GAP!! but everybody involved is an adult, inspired by the ABBA song, sexy old man Mav

Notes: This is something old I once wrote about Slash but just changed it to Mav cause. Babygirl who's actually a wrinkly old man. Is obviously inspired by the ABBA song and I also used one of the lyrics lines. ALSO this is my first ever TGM imagine on here and I'm lowkey nervous so, please be nice. Also sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes!!!

Story after cut ✂️

Mav never thought he would end up in a situation like this. After the most recent Mission he just wanted to chill at The Hard Deck and let off some steam. The whole Dagger Squad had been tough on him.

But there he saw her. She was beautiful, but most importantly young. Probably in her late-twenties. He couldn't help but watch her throughout the night as she was hanging out with her friends. 

He was taking a sip from his glass when he suddenly felt eyes on him. He looked around and noticed that it was one of her friends. She was whispering to her while looking over at him. 

Out of nowhere, she suddenly stood up from the table and started walking towards him. She was wearing a gorgeous outfit and it took him all of his strength to not stare. This is inappropriate, Pete. You're old enough to be her dad, stop staring at her like that. He thought. 

"Hey" She smiled softly. "Can I sit with you?" 

He chuckled a little and shrugged, a bit caught off guard. “Suit yourself.” Her voice was even prettier than he thought.

"So.. what's a girl like you doing talking to an old man like me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, he was seriously surprised. 

"I noticed you looking at me and so I got curious" She grinned in response. Maverick chuckled, a bit embarrassed he was caught staring. "Sorry, you just.. caught my attention" He mumbled under his breath. 

"So, what's your name?" He asked curiously. "It's Y/N. And they call you…?" 

"Maverick." He smiled. 

Y/N. That name kept echoing in his head for a moment. 

They just looked at each other for a moment, unsure what to say next. She suddenly pulled out a piece of paper from her leather jacket, scribbling something on it. She put the little piece of paper right into Mav's hand and his heart skipped a beat at the contact. What the fuck was happening?

"Give me a call" She winked at him and was just about to get up until he stopped her. "Wait- Are you serious?" He asked. 

"You do know I'm old enough to be your dad, right?" He chuckled. "You seem pretty young to be searching for that kind of fun"

"I know, but you don't seem like the other older men staring at me. You're not as creepy as them" She replied teasingly. Soon she left again to sit down at the table with her friends.  

Maverick just slightly shook his head with a smile before taking a sip from his drink, still caught off guard by the whole situation that just went down. He looked down at the note in his hand before putting it into his jacket, just to keep it safe for later.

[princessmaybank]

Truth or Dare

Pairings: BestFriend!JJ x BestFriend!Fem!Reader

Warnings: Jealous JJ, stripping, fingering, squirting, etc.

Summary: They play t or d.

Authors Note: I didn't mean to post this so soon, but since it's out already I hope you like it, I'm just stopping it here, if you like it let me know if you want a part 2 :(.

"Truth or Dare?" John B asks darting his eyes to Cleo. "Oh come on man! You should already know the answer!" He smirked and nodded. You were at the chateau in the hot tub that JJ so graciously purchased for you all a few months back. Everyone was slugging down beers and having a big night of fun.

"I dare you to read the last text message you sent out loud." JB said shrugging, showing us that's all he has prepared. "oh man, too easy!" Cleo flung her arms upwards then reached for her phone. After she got to her messages she cleared her throat. " 'What we gonna do tonight?' I sent that to Sarah man." John B rolled his eyes in defeat, secretly hoping she had sent a naughty message to Pope or something.

"Okay Y/N, truth or dare?" She moved on quickly. "Dare of course." You responded, causing JJ to look at you with a slight smile. You and JJ are best friends, and always have been. Of course everyone in that hot tub was your best friend, but JJ was different, you could talk about literally anything for hours on end. He's always been there for you.

"I dare you to prank call Rafe Cameron. Pretend to want him and need him." Cleo ended with a smirk pointing to your phone. You didn't mind the dare but a certain blonde about a foot behind you definitely cared. He wasn't good at hiding his emotions, everything he wanted to say was already written on his face. "I don't think that's a good idea Y/N." You hear JJ say with a stern voice from behind you. "Oh calm your tits Jayj, what's the worst that could happen? I get a boyfriend?" You responded making all the girls giggle.

"It's ringing!" Kiara said out loud so everyone knew what was going on. Kiara was very close to the phone with you but it was pressed against your ear. "Hey Rafe!" You said a little too enthusiastic for JJ's liking. "Hey, Y/N. What do I owe this pleasant surprise?" He asked, gratefully. "Well I really wanted to tell you that I think of you a lot Rafe. It's getting to be too much now. I can't shake the feeling of needing to be with you." Everyone was giggling at that moment, other than one person, I'm sure you could guess who. Your eyes caught JJ's as he rolled them and crossed his arms. You could see how this was affecting him, so why not play some more. "Wow, I've been wai-" You cut Rafe's sentence short. "Rafe, mmmmm I need you so bad right now. Ohhhh." You pretend to moan into the phone. "Oh baby, are you touching yourself to me?" He asked clearly turned on. Kiara gagged and walked a few feet away. "Oh yes I am, but I wish it was you..." You paused for dramatic effect.

"Daddy." You smirked holding back a giggle, hearing Rafe groan into the phone. Next thing you know JJ is standing in front of you hanging up the call, fuming. He was legitimately tomato red. Everyone watched, curious about what he was going to do.

He grabbed your waist pulling you as close as he could while looking into your eyes. "Don't you ever pull that shit again." His eyes never left yours. You wanted to stand up for yourself but the only thing that left your mouth was "o-okay." He leaned down to whisper in your ear. "Good girl." There was that feeling of butterflies in your stomach. JJ never made you feel this way. What was happening? "When this little party is over you're coming to my room, we have things to talk about." He whispered again.

Everyone sat back down choosing to ignore how JJ nearly killed/fucked you right then and there. You chose to ignore it as well even though the tingling between your legs is making it difficult.

Instead of you asking the next question Pope cut the tension and began after Sarah. "Truth or dare?" He asked. Sarah obviously chose the safe route at this moment. "Is it true that even though you and JB are married, you'll still have a huge wedding and legally do it?" Pope asked. Awe of course he would, it's Pope. Sarah nodded "Of course I still want my dream wedding! Don't be silly Pope." She giggled.

"Okay J- Kiara, yeah Kiara. Truth or dare?" No one could look at JJ right now how would they be able to play this game right now?

"I'll say, truth." She smiled lightly. "Ok here's a little would you rather. Would you rather, fuck Topper or Kelce?" Kiara gasped. "Ew, can I kill myself instead?" She gagged. Everyone laughed and accepted that as her answer.

Eventually someone asked JJ the question and he ended up chugging some beer upside down. You still couldn't get those low-flying butterflies to go away. The thought of JJ taking you right there was fogging your brain.

After about an hour longer everyone was headed home or to bed. Pope and Cleo went back to the Heywards and Kiara went back to her house. Sarah decided to stay at the chateau with John B, then of course JJ asked you to go to his room and talk with him.

You sat on JJ's bed after getting your shower, you waited for him to finish up in the shower. JJ left some of his clothes on his bed for you to change into.

Next thing you knew, you were under JJ, making out with him on his bed. You had no idea how you got here but you weren't going to complain.

JJ pulled you onto his lap, never disconnecting your lips from each other. He held onto your hips and pressed down as he grinded up. You moved your hips at a faster pace needing the friction. He tore his lips from yours taking a breath before speaking. "Truth or dare?" He asked as you rolled your eyes. JJ gave you a look that said 'just answer it'. So you did. "Dare." You said with confidence streaming through your veins. JJ rubbed your hips, slowly reaching for your butt to squeeze.

"Strip for me baby." He said as he squeezed. You blushed not knowing how to react. "Come on baby, let me see that gorgeous body you've got hiding under my baggy clothes." When JJ said that, you began to melt. You decided to just take your shirt off while on his lap. You weren't wearing a bra so he got quite the show very quickly. You got off of him as he pushed himself to sit on the edge of his bed. The idea to strip tease JJ came to your mind so that's exactly what you did.

At some point when you were completely naked, you wanted to tease him so you sat on his lap and pulled one of his hands forward to your aching hole. You teased yourself with his fingers, secretly wanting him to continue what you had started. Which he had no problem with doing. He pushed two fingers inside of you causing a gasp and moan mix, to fall from your lips.

JJ's hand raced to cover your mouth. "Shhhh you have to be quiet, baby, or we'll get caught." He whispered in your ear. You nodded and bit your lip as JJ moved his fingers back and forth in your tight hole. JJ was making you so wet, your pussy was so loud that you might just get caught by being fingered. "Tell your pussy to be quiet." He giggled in your ear. "Tell your fingers to stop making me feel so good then." You moaned leaning your head back onto his shoulder.

JJ smirked to himself, knowing he was doing a good job. He sped up trying to make you cum but you suddenly felt embarrassed. "JJ- this f-eels so g-good..but I think I have to go..to the bathroom-" That was music to JJ's ears. His movements only got faster, he moved your hand to your clit so you could help by rubbing yourself.

"JJ- I-I" A loud squeal started erupting from your mouth. JJ slapped his hand across your mouth. One more swift push into your pussy and he pulled out, a gush of fluid came rushing out. You kept moaning into his hand. He continued playing with your cunt until you were done squirting.

"Something tells me you've never done that before baby."

[sangoqueenkoko]

ALHAITHAM

“i just asked (Y/N) out…”

Fluff

DENDRO MASTERLIST | DRABBLE MASTERLIST

.

Valentine’s Day prompt: “i just asked (Y/N) out…”

Warnings? Two bad words (bastard and fuck)

Contains Cyno, Kaveh, Tighnari and Alhaitham of course!

Note: i genuinely didn’t expect Alhaitham to win, but i like how he matches the prompt! and i used Uno online for this. please let me. it's for a VOD reference.

and happy belated birthday to the man himself! rerun when?

1.2k words.

It's February time once again, so you know what that means. Valentine's Day! And that also means that every other shop and stall in Sumeru city would have a hint of pink within their products, aka, Valentine's gifts.

That includes Lambad's tavern, and they have a new Valentine's menu.

One of these menus was placed on every table throughout the tavern. And they would be picked up or looked at regardless.

And one of them was being cleared for a... card game. TCG to be more specific.

A blonde guy picked up a menu, looking at one side before turning it over to look at the other side, he looked rather young. As he did his two other friends who were setting up the game. One with black hair and one ash-white.

He sighed, "another year, another instance of seeing others around you happy with another.”

"You say this just about every year, Kaveh" the ash-white-haired one, also known as Cyno, said as he shuffled the deck of cards before dividing them into four smaller decks. One for each quarter of the table. "It never changes."

"Something should change soon" the black-haired person, Tighnari said, as he bought some drinks to start off the game. He set them down on the table just as the fourth friend came in and joined them.

"Well look who finally decided to show up!" Kaveh said with his hands on his hips, shaking his head with a sigh. The grey-haired feeble scholar walked over, sitting down at one of the chairs and immediately crossed his arms. He only hummed in response.

The day contained many games of TCG and many drinks, and no one managed to get drunk, surprisingly. They even tried a new card game.

Uno.

It took some time to get used to the game and its rules but it did lead to some laughable moments.

"Kaveh, I'm really curious," Cyno said as he looked over his deck with a smirk before placing down a blue seven, "let me see your hand."

This meant they had to swap decks. And Kaveh wasn't happy.

"NOOOO" he shrieked, garnering some confused looks from the tavern's other patrons. This made Alhaitham let out a laugh.

"You bastard!" Kaveh cursed.

As well as...

"Fuck 'em up, Nari" Cyno quipped.

"Uh.. okay..." Tighnari had two cards left, and Kaveh had one, which was a wild card. But Tighnari put down a +1, which made Kaveh...

"OOUUUAAAGH!" Again. Garnering the confused and slightly concerned look of other patrons.

"Nice, nice" Cyno complimented, "well done."

"Damn, that was a shriek," Alhaitham said with a slight wince as he sat beside an annoyed Kaveh.

Later that evening, not long before the tavern would be closing, they finished their current game and packed it all away.

Tighnari stood to the side looking around absentmindedly while the others waited for Cyno to organise his cards and put them away when he thought of something.

He has Cyno as a makeshift Valentine's, they do it as a friendship type of thing. Kaveh isn't bothered with the occasion this year as he's working on a big project and won't have the time for it. And that left a question for Alhaitham.

"Hey Alhaitham?" he spoke, the seemingly stone-faced man looked towards him in response, "When are you going to get a partner? I am sure with your charms you'll be able to win them over."

That made all three of the other men's attention focus on him, Cyno seemed to have frozen regarding the question and Kaveh seemed surprised. The only one that didn't seem to have a visible reaction was the man himself - Alhaitham. Of course.

"Who's to say I don't?" he said rhetorically, "you don't know that. I don't need to tell you all about my dating life."

"Wai-wai-wait" Cyno said, holding the card deck in its box in one of his hands, "just give it to us straight. Are you dating someone or not? Just say yes or no."

And he replied with a simple, "no."

It is true. He wasn't dating anyone. But it isn't a lie when he wishes that he was. He has seen someone around the city on some occasions. He has met with them a couple of times too. And they have hung out with him and the others too.

That being you.

Yes, you.

He wishes he could get to know you on a more personal level, but he wasn't quite sure how to approach you. Yes, he has the 'charms,' but sometimes they wouldn't always work surprisingly enough. Nor had he had the time to actually use them, he was at the Akadamiya all day and got home late sometimes, the only person he saw the most out of work was Kaveh, even that was debatable sometimes.

"Why don't you, you know, get out there and get to know some people," Cyno said, "touch some grass."

Kaveh and Tighnari sighed at his ‘joke.’

"Whatever" Alhaitham hummed before he mumbled, "I already have an.. interest in someone." He thought no one would hear. But a part of his soul left his body when Kaveh reacted.

"WHAT?!" Kaveh exclaimed. At this point, they were in the area in front of the tavern, overlooking the small port of Sumeru city. People's attention was brought to him again.

"Would you keep your voice down??" Alhaitham hissed. He was tired of this conversation already so he does what he's done multiple times.

He just walks away, back home. Without saying anything.

Kaveh would follow later after saying his goodbyes to Cyno and Tighnari.

A few days later, Alhaitham was around in the city for a walk when he ran into you, doing your own errands, and he was taken aback for some reason. Despite you hanging around with the four of them from time to time. The five of you were good friends.

"Oh, hey Alhaitham" you smiled kindly with a polite wave, you noticed that the tips of his ears were going red quickly, yet you never mentioned it.

"Oh, hey (Y/N)" Alhaitham said with his constant straight expression, trying to not give away his blushing emotions. But he didn't know that he was technically failing. "May I ask what you're doing today?"

Surprised by the sudden question, you replied back with delight, "oh, I am just doing some errands. Want to join me?"

"I don't see why not."

The next time Alhaitham, Cyno, Kaveh and Tighnari met up again for TCG was a little while later as it was best for each other's schedules, and, surprise surprise, Alhaitham was the last one to arrive.

Some time into the day, between games, they would have a chat. And the current topic of discussion was how each other's 'Valentine's' went. And it was good. Good.

Tighnari and Cyno hung out together as friends.

And Kaveh finally got some well-deserved rest.

But when they asked how Alhaithams went, they were quite surprised, to say the least at the answer. Even Kaveh, who lives with him, had no idea about this until now.

"i just asked (Y/N) out..."

[jeonqkooks]

isn't it romantic? | myg (01)

ENTRY ONE: Me Before You

⟶ SERIES MASTERPOST

Many things in life have a polar opposite: left and right, night and day, yin and yang, you and Min Yoongi... Hopeless romantic meets gloomy cynic. The only thing you seem to share is a magazine column but even then, you still can’t seem to understand how Yoongi can be called ‘The Love Doctor’ when he is the antithesis of everything love represents.

pairing: yoongi x f!reader; side/past taehyung x f!reader

rating: 18+ (minors dni)

genre/warnings: coworkers to lovers, magazine writers au, fluff, angst, eventual smut; central themes of cheating (not between yoongi and oc), swearing (a staple in this household 😗), one bit is a lilllll suggestive?, mentions of drinking, i think that's it hmmm, barely edited bc u know how we do

word count: 5.1k

note: this is the yoongi brainrot speaking !!! the banner for this entry is one of my all time favorite pics of him and i will find a way to use it in everything !!! but erhm yeah iir is officially starting and i'm very curious to see what y'all think about it 😗 please like it haha jk no i'm serious please like it it's my baby

— as always, i’d appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have, and please drop a like and/or reblog if you enjoy reading ♡

I waste my breath on a prayer, you don't care, I was never a part of your plan, You can't make a God of somebody, Who's not even half of a half-decent man.

I Burned LA Down - Noah Cyrus

Half your life, you hated blue.

You often associated it with so many bad things - loss, betrayal, loneliness. The great big storm. The end of life.

Most of the pigtails-wearing girls in your class disliked it because it was often a boy’s color. You hated it because of a stranger on a beach.

Then you discovered Blue Side (as ironic as the name was), the magazine that everybody and their mother was reading. There was this column - the Love Maze (as corny as it sounded) - that had your 15-year-old self hooked from the first article you read, “Flirty Pickup Lines to Text Your Crush”. It gave you a nice little distraction from the reality of your fucked up family.

You’d get home from school and dive right into it. You could count on the maze for a new article every day, covering all kinds of things - cute little quizzes, daily love horoscopes, relationship tidbits…

You started reading it religiously because it was stupid, and fun, but it was more than that too. They covered real-life stories of actual people, which you’d never really thought about. For the most part, it was tedious. Rekindling with an old flame whilst grocery shopping, accidentally spilling coffee on a stranger who then asked you out on the spot, etc. Things like that. You found them so… unremarkable. 

But then it went beyond that, when they told their stories looking back on years and years after that first happenstance. How there was love in the mundane. How there was love every single day, even on the bad ones. How there was a spark that two people cared for and nurtured into a warm fire that never burnt out.

How there was love.

How there was always love.

To you, that was magical. It was something you’d only ever heard about in fairytales when you were a kid.

You still remember the exact moment when it all changed for you.

You met Kim Taehyung during your third week at Blue Side, where you were a wide-eyed assistant editor who somehow wiggled her way into a position there, and he was an effortlessly charming graphic designer.

Admittedly, the first time that you two had ever talked, wasn’t under ideal circumstances. You were tucked away behind the office building, nails digging into your palms at 3PM on a sunny but freezing afternoon, willing your tears to stay where they belonged. You’d felt severely underqualified, like you were only flailing about, trying to keep your head above water but something kept pulling at your feet, not stopping until you were at the very bottom. People always talked about how your early 20s were the most beautiful and freeing years, when you could truly live and feel your youth blossom all around you. But that just wasn’t true. Those were the loneliest years of your life.

Taehyung had found you then, while he was out for a quick smoke break. He could’ve made a lame excuse and left, or simply pretended to not notice you were even there, but he stayed. He approached you and asked what was wrong. He offered you words of reassurance and encouragement even though you were nothing but a stranger to him.

You were touched by his simple act of kindness and his endearing smile. Maybe it’s because you’d never been offered much kindness throughout your life that his small gesture seemed like everything. In a way, it was everything. He looked like the kind of fairytale love that you’d only seen in movies, only read about in Love Maze. To this day, a part of you still thinks that you fell in love with him the very second he asked, “Are you okay?”

The timing felt right.

Taehyung felt right.

He, too, was like the sun in the middle of a cold and isolating winter.

You remember the color of his sweater, and it was then that you realized blue didn’t have to be so bad after all.

[15:39] You: what r u doing tonight?

[15:45] Tae ♡: probably just head home after the gym. play a couple matches with Jungkook. hope i don’t die boiling water for ramen and hit the hay early

[15:46] Tae ♡: miss you :(

[15:49] You: thanks

[15:52] Tae ♡: mean

[15:53] You: lol 😇

[15:54] You: i miss you too <3

[15:56] Tae ♡: can’t you come back earlier?

[15:58] You: there’s only a week left. you’re a big boy, u can handle it :)

That was a lie. You were already on the train when you sent him that text, bouncing your leg all the way back to the city at the mere thought of surprising him with your early return. You’d taken a leave from work to visit your family, spent some time somewhere quieter, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

You watch as the scenery passes by, fast-paced like you’re in a montage. The rest of forever is right around the corner. You wish you could skip to your happily ever after and not have to rewind the tape ever again.

When the diamond on your ring finger catches the sunlight coming from outside the window, you allow yourself a blissful sigh as you gaze at the jewelry adorning your hand. But if you’re being honest, it doesn’t fit anymore, at least that’s what you’ve noticed over the past month. It’s a little loose now, not quite noticeable but you can still make out the slight difference if you concentrate hard enough. You should get it resized soon, maybe later this week now that your schedule has cleared up earlier than expected.

Three weeks is a lot of time to spend around only your family, you realize. You thought you could do it - seeing that you hadn’t been back in a while - but the second you stepped foot into your childhood home, you remembered what a dysfunctional household you had.

It was nice while it lasted, which wasn’t very long. You did all you could, bit your tongue and tried to suppress that unresolved anger until it eventually became too much to handle. Your mom has always been a complainer. Nobody likes talking about it, but she’d bring up the same old shit almost every day even though you all know what happened. Your dad would just sit there and listen as she berates him in front of you and your sister, and you suppose he keeps quiet because there’s really nothing to be said in his defense. It was his crime, and this is his punishment.

Sometimes, you wonder why dad still stays. Sometimes, you wonder why mom still lets him.

You just wanted to go, even though this was supposed to be home. You want to leave every time you visit, and it’s a haunting feeling that keeps following you around your whole life. Why is home always a place you want to leave?

When you arrived back in the city, the first place you went to was Taehyung’s apartment. You lounged about, enjoying the much needed silence after two whole weeks with your family, killing time as you waited for your fiance to return from work.

You thought about you and Taehyung, and how your wedding was only months away but this was still his place. You wondered why you hadn’t moved in yet, though it wasn’t for a lack of trying on his part. Even though you spent most days of the week at Taehyung’s, you still had your own place.

Twenty minutes before he was usually supposed to come home, you ordered from his favorite restaurant, so he would have a proper meal once he was back, instead of half-assing his dinner with flavorless ramen like he’d planned. 

But Taehyung didn’t come back, and the food has been cold for hours now.

You glance at your phone again.

11:02 PM.

No new notifications.

The last message you sent him was around 8:30 - just a simple Whatcha doing? - but he hasn’t replied. 

There’s a small part of you that goes into a dark place, and you physically have to shake off the thoughts. Taehyung has never given you a reason not to trust him, but still, the wandering thoughts can’t help themselves. Is it insecurity, or paranoia? Or have you been programmed to be skeptical after everything that’s happened?

Maybe he’s just caught up with work. Maybe the guys at the office had last minute plans. Maybe Jungkook showed up unannounced and dragged Taehyung into one of his shenanigans again. There’s a lot of reasons to explain why he isn’t home when he said he would be.

You wait for him. Sometimes, waiting is all you can do.

You don’t get any indication of life until some time after midnight, when the door opens and you hear him stumble into the hallway. The first thing that escapes you is a sigh of relief - relieved that he’s home, safe and sound, and not out there somewhere doing things you would really not even let yourself imagine. You sit there on the couch, shrouded by darkness, now even more committed to making him squeal out of his skin after (unintentionally) making you wait for hours like that.

You carefully listen to the sounds coming from down the hall, trying to time when you’ll jump up and shock him.

There’s his shoes dropping to the floor carelessly. There’s some shuffling as he moves about, navigating his way through the dark. There’s a light thud, the sound of something hitting the wall softly.

A sharp intake of breath. His familiar groan, muffled. A whimper, feminine.

Your mind instantly blanks, and that nervous breath from before has suddenly found its way back into your lungs, growing in size until you stand up and say, “Tae?”

Somebody shrieks, and it’s neither you nor Taehyung.

When he switches on the lights, you don’t know what to focus on first - your fiance with his shirt unbuttoned, red lipstick smudged around the corners of his mouth; or the woman next to him with her back against the wall, hair disheveled, one strap of her pretty blue dress pulled down.

Huh.

If this was what you wanted, then you suppose you succeeded.

Taehyung stares at you, eyes blown wide, mouth opening and closing dumbly as he searches for words. “Y/N, I-” he stutters, “w-what are you doing here?”

You’ve seen this exact moment in movies, read it in books and online posts on the Blue Side forum from people seeking advice. You witnessed your own mother go through it when you had just learned how to read. 

Your nails dig into the palm of your hands as you steady yourself. You’re not sure what your face is showing, if it’s even showing anything at all. You’re being pulled apart in every direction. Things that you felt as a child are things you never wanted to feel as an adult. It’s not until now that you finally understand why mom hasn’t gotten over it, even though it’s been decades. This is the kind of hurt that chases you wherever you go, never relenting until it makes sure it has a home deep within your bones.

You inhale a shaky breath, and take a step back when Taehyung starts approaching you. “Y/N, I’m so sorry,” he says, his voice cracking on the apology. 

You don’t want to hear any of it. You don’t want to be here anymore. For the second time today, you’re leaving home. For the second time in your life, home is being taken away again.

Somewhere in the back of your head, a tiny voice echoes, There it is.

You run out of there, feeling like the ceiling is going to collapse on you. You hear him call out your name, but his voice drifts further and further away as you move. Taehyung isn’t even following you. The faint scent of whiskey on his breath follows you out, but not him.

You keep moving until you’re out on the street, until you can’t even see the building anymore. You shiver from the chilly air, and the influx of emotions that threatens to make you burst. Lightning cuts across the night sky, flashing bright for a split second before everything dulls into darkness again. The forecast said it was going to rain tonight, you recall. Your phone in your bag vibrates the whole time, but still, no one follows you.

Your feet slow to a halt when the first drop of rain hits the ground. You’re not even sure how long you were walking, but now that you’ve stopped, you notice the shiver is gone. You’re standing completely still, and that those seismic waves in the center of your chest from earlier are nowhere to be found.

Oh. You’re doing it again.

Heavier drops start to dampen the earth.

You don’t know where else to go.

Not your own apartment. Not now. No, it’s too empty there.

Maybe it’s a sign from the universe, that you’re just undeserving of a place to belong.

You open your phone to find his name on your screen, next to the words (7) missed calls. You ring up the only person you can, and when she finally picks up, you say, “Can I come over?”

Even when your voice cracks, you don’t cry. The earthquake never comes.

Sohee takes you in like the good friend she is. You’re grateful that she was someone you could count on to always have your back at work, who then turned into one of your best friends outside of the office too.

She gives you some clothes to change into, and doesn’t question anything when you ask if you could spend the night. Though, you have a feeling that she knows who this is about. She leaves you alone to get some rest, but it’s probably because she has work in the morning too, and it was already 1:30AM when you interrupted her peace and quiet with the call.

You don’t sleep a wink that night.

Instead, you think about your mom, and how she must have felt when she found out about your dad’s infidelity, time and time again. It’s true what they say, children really don’t know a lot about their parents. 

How did she feel when she first found out? You can’t imagine what it must have been like, going through all of that while having two kids to think about too.

You feel bad that just yesterday, you’d been so annoyed with her that you cut your trip short.

Outside Sohee’s windows, the sky cries, like it’s grieving in place of you, its tears drowning the earth in waves of sorrow. For a moment, you consider stepping out there, to feel the rain on your face and in your hair. But in the end, you stay inside, where you’re sheltered and dry.

You don’t realize that the sun has risen until Sohee knocks on your - well, her - door. 

She cracks it open gently. “Babe?” she asks, tentative like you’re a cornered animal, ready to bolt at any given moment. “Are you up?”

You lie in her bed, feeling so foreign in your own skin. You reckon your eyes must be bloodshot from the lack of sleep. You haven’t even cried once.

“I’m alive,” you tell her, as you stare up at the ceiling. There are no stars here, just plain cream-colored paint.

“Okay,” you hear her say, then she pauses for a moment, clearly not knowing how to proceed. 

Sohee approaches you, sits on the bed, and gives you a smile. She pats your hair, and it reminds you of your sister. “You wanna tell me what’s wrong? I have some time before I meet Namjoon for breakfast.”

You sit up, reaching for your phone on the bedside table. It’s been switched off since you got here, and when you turn it back on, a flurry of texts light up the device until the screen lags. Messages from Taehyung, asking where you were, begging you to tell him if you were safe.

You open the texts to show him that you’ve read them. That should be enough of an answer.

You test the words in your mouth for a moment. “Taehyung cheated on me,” you say, thinking that if you verbalize it, it would be real and you would finally feel bad. That it was just a delayed reaction, that you were just too in shock to process anything. You want to feel bad, but it doesn’t work.

Sohee’s eyes widen almost comically. “Are you fucking serious?” she asks in disbelief, half because of the nature of the news itself, and half because of how calm you are.

“He cheated on me,” you repeat and still, nothing surfaces. If anything, it backfires. You can physically feel yourself doing it again - shutting down. “I caught him last night.”

You’re not sure what’s wrong with you. This isn’t a normal person’s reaction after they found out their fiance was cheating on them.

But.

It is a you reaction. 

You keep doing this, even when you don’t mean to. You ran away last night, and you’re running away now. Your body shuts out every negative emotion until you feel nothing at all. It’s stupid that you do this, and it’s stupid that you don’t know how to stop doing it.

Fight or flight, and you choose flight every time. Every single fucking time.

You wish you could give Sohee something, anything would do. Scream, cry, go back to your apartment to set fire to all of Taehyung’s belongings. Anything would be better than this complete lack of emotions you’re showing. 

You watch her face as it happens, things that you should be feeling but aren’t. She’s mostly shocked, angry, but not hurt. How could she? She wasn’t the one being played for a fool. You wish you could ask her to give you some of that anger, even if it’s only a fraction.

You don’t see Taehyung again until two days later, when he shows up at your door. Even when he’s standing in front of you, words spilling from his lips like prayers instead of apologies, you just feel… empty.

You let him inside, and the second that the door closes behind him, you fill up with unease. All your walls are up again, your system on high alert. Everything in your body is telling you that there’s an intruder in your space. Your feet are ready to bolt, just itching to get out of there Go, your head says, you’re not safe here.

Taehyung approaches you, tries to hold your hand, but you just shrug him off. The man in front of you visibly deflates, and despite the way his face falls, you don’t soften. 

The first thing he asks you is, “Why didn’t you cry?”

“What?”

“You don’t look like you’ve been crying,” he points out. “Did you cry?”

Reluctantly, you admit, “No.”

Then he just stares at you. When his judgmental gaze holds yours, you feel guilty. Guilty that you’re not mourning the death of this relationship. Guilty that you’re just letting it go, but the truth is you don’t have any fight in you. You don’t see the point in trying to salvage what’s no longer alive.

“Do you even love me?” His voice is hard when he asks this, like he’s trying to keep his anger at bay.

“Of course I love you,” you say, but it lacks conviction. You both know it. The words sound so flaccid coming out of your mouth.

But you love him.

You do.

Did?

“Then why didn’t you cry?”

How do you tell him that you can’t? That you don’t know how?

How do you tell him that if you could, you would reach inside and claw out your feelings like digging for water in a desert. 

What the hell is wrong with you? This isn’t a high school crush, or a casual summer fling.

You two were supposed to get married, for fuck’s sake. You were supposed to spend the rest of your life with him. If there’s anything that could make you break through those godforsaken defense mechanisms to let the hurt in, it should be this.

“Did you kiss someone else just to see if I would cry?” you ask. Your voice is even, and you can see that it makes Taehyung more frustrated than he already is.

He grits his teeth, exhaling. You notice his blue sweater, and you stop him before he can say anything else. Obviously, it looks a lot more worn than it did back then, but over the years you’ve always found it endearing. It’s the first memory that you have of him. It was always something you could cherish.

Now, you can’t even bear to look at it.

It’s then that you realize it doesn’t matter what answer he gives you. Yes? No? It genuinely doesn’t matter. There is nothing that can make you see him the same way ever again.

You run your thumb over the ring on your finger, twisting it for a moment to memorize the feel of it. It’s the last thing that ties you to him. “You can have this back,” you say, handing the piece of jewelry back to him.

When a relationship ends, especially for a reason like this, people tend to think it’ll go down in a kdrama-esque fashion - crying, slapping, throwing water in the other person’s face. But that’s not what this is. It’s not cathartic; sometimes the end of a relationship is just a fizzle, doesn’t even make it to a fullburn. It might be unsatisfying, but it happens every day. It’s not always a pivotal point; sometimes it’s just a point.

Taehyung stares at the object in his palm. “That’s it?” he asks in disbelief. “We’re breaking up?”

“What else is there to do?”

“You’re not even gonna ask me anything? Who she was, how it started, how long it’s been going on?”

The other morning, Sohee had asked you to elaborate after you told her what happened, but there was just not that much to tell. You were there. He brought someone else home. End of story.

It was enough for Sohee to call him every name in the book and curse his entire bloodline though.

You suppose that’s a reasonable reaction. Taehyung cheated. You never thought he was a person capable of doing that. Three years of your life, down the drain. There’s nothing left to save.

“Okay,” you shrug tiredly, like you’re just having a casual and dull conversation about the weather. “Who was she? How did it start? How long has it been going on?”

Your name comes out of his mouth, sounding like a scoff. “Ask it like you mean it.”

“But I don’t mean it,” you say. “What difference does it make? Knowing doesn’t change the fact that you still cheated on me. You know what I’ve been through and you still fucked it up. You did the worst thing you could ever do to me.”

“Fuck, I know that!” he groans, throwing his hands up. “I messed up badly, and I’m sorry. Y/N, I’m so fucking sorry. I will never deny that what I did wasn’t wrong. But have you ever stopped to think that maybe you’re to blame for this too? You never want to admit that it could be your fault too.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You tell me. I keep having to put up with your baggage.” Then he shuts right up, barely even makes it through the last syllable before he’s squeezing his eyes shut for a second, clearly realizing that out of all the things he could’ve said, that was grossly out of line. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean th-”

And now you’re getting angry for the wrong reasons.

“You cheated but somehow it’s my fault, right?” you snap. “Boohoo. Sorry that you’ve had to put up with me all these years. I’m such a burden, right? Fuck you, Taehyung.”

“Y/N, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“I think you should leave.”

You think it’s the steel in your voice as you say this that makes him stop arguing. 

He holds your gaze for a moment longer. You’re someone who tears up when you see stray dogs, who cries alongside the fictional characters in your favorite show. And yet, as you watch your own fiance leave…

The door clicks shut as he exits your life, but everything he said stays behind, clings to your walls and festers like mold.

The second you step onto the floor, everyone grows quiet. Lively chatter turns into hushed whispers. People go back to making their morning coffee, side-eyeing each other in a way that’s not meant to be very subtle.

You quietly make your way to your desk, all the while feeling the nosy pairs of eyes on you as you walk. You don’t know how word got out, but you were sure that everyone would know eventually. You just didn’t expect it’d be this soon. Sohee would never do that to you, and you highly doubt that Taehyung would go around broadcasting his infidelity. 

As you set your stuff down, you make eye contact with the new intern who sits a few spots away from you. You haven’t had the chance to talk to her much, but she’s a nice girl. She gives you a small smile in greeting, and even though you know she doesn’t mean to pity you, you can still see it in her eyes.

A minute later, Sohee comes up to you. “Hey, babe,” she says, leaning on your desk with two plastic cups in her hands. One iced latte and one mango smoothie. She puts the yellow-colored beverage down and nudges it toward you, a little lackluster and unlike her usual playful self.

“Thanks,” you say, taking the smoothie with a smile, commenting, “Interesting morning so far. Never thought I’d ever be the subject of office gossip.”

“Yeah, about that. Do you know who was Taehyung’s… uhm… y’know?”

It’s okay. She can say it. You can handle it.

You already feel nothing, and there’s nothing you can even do to rectify it. Might as well lean into it, right?

Or maybe you should just go to therapy.

“No,” you tell her. “I didn’t want to know.”

“Well, uhm, now that the whole office knows, I think you should hear this from me first…” Sohee bites her bottom lip as she gauges your reaction. When you only sigh and give her the go-ahead, she continues, “It was Yura from Marketing.”

“What?”

“Yura from Marketing. You know the one. Brought muffins for the whole office on her first day? A little too bubbly for my taste. But yeah, she was at work the other day and suddenly burst into tears at, like, 10AM, and that’s how everybody found out.”

Of course. Even though people here are surrounded by celebrity gossip on the daily, nothing beats the good old-fashioned office affair. Why bother with celebrity gossip when you have front row seats to live drama unfolding ten feet away?

You take a sip of your smoothie, swallowing down the inkling of irritation that tickles the back of your throat. “Well,” you say, “I’m glad the downfall of my relationship is like a circus animal for them to gawk at. Can’t wait until they move onto the next big thing.”

“Honestly, it might blow over sooner than you think. The Love Doctor is back today.”

“What?” Your ears perk up at the mention of his name, glancing up at her in surprise as you put your drink down. “Doesn’t he work at the Paris office?”

“He used to work here. We joined around the same time. Then he transferred to Paris a few years ago. Nobody even knows why. One day he just upped and left.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he’d be here? I didn’t have time t-”

“Calm down, sweetcheeks, I only just found out,” Sohee chuckles, holding a finger against your mouth to shush you. “We all know you used to have a major lady boner for him.”

“I do not.” You don’t even know what he looks like, just his name when it appears in the byline of an article. “I admire him.”

Which is true, you do admire him. He’s your own version of a freaking rockstar. Though, you have to admit that Love Doctor is a huge cliche of a nickname, and significantly reduces the scope of his brilliance. The way that man writes makes it seem like he’s experienced lifetimes and is now here to pass on his wisdom. 

He doesn’t feel like a mere magazine writer like yourself. There’s something in his words that turns you inside out, makes you experience things that you’ve never even gone through. He flows like poetry, and leaves you stunned every time.

Okay, maybe you do have a lady boner, but for his brain.

Which… is probably something you should never say out loud.

Someone walks in then, a man you’ve never seen before. He looks around your age, if not a couple of years older. He bypasses all of the other desks without saying anything, not a single Hi or Good morning. He doesn’t look like the type to speak if not spoken to.

Then he walks over to where you and Sohee sit, and sets his bag on the empty desk next to yours.

You look at Sohee, and she just shrugs.

It can’t be him. Surely, it’s not…?

“Min Yoongi,” she says in greeting.

Oh, it is.

He spares her a nod before he looks away again. “Sohee.”

Is that the Parisian way? Is that how people normally greet someone they haven’t seen in years? Sohee and him were only colleagues, but still, the least you could do is pretend.

You’re not one to judge a book by its cover, but c’mon, seriously? Were you wrong for expecting the person who writes about love in its most raw and beautiful form to look… not like Grumpy Cat personified? It makes you even more fucking intimidated. And he’s going to be sitting next to you? The fuck?

As he sits down, you blink, still a bit dazed, not sure how to process this. Sohee gently pushes you forward, which makes you nearly stumble right into him. You turn to her with a glare, but she just motions to him, mouthing ‘Go on.’

You clear your throat, wiping your hand on your pants before you hold it out. “Hi, I’m Y/N. It’s so nice to finally meet you,” you say, trying to sound as professional as you can. “I’m really looking forward to working with you.”

He glances at you, and reaches out to meet your outstretched hand in a barely-there handshake. “Yoongi.”

— all rights reserved © jeonqkooks. reposting, translating and/or modifying is not permitted by any means. [posted 07.05.2023]

[denzelhart]

His delighted star (1)

Summary: You get sent on a mission, it ends successfully but the place where the mission took place is too far away from base. While staying on the helicopter, waiting to land. You start thinking about your relationship between you and your Lieutenant, Ghost.

Warning: Swearing, slow burn (maybe?) deny feelings, a little fluff, you have a friend name Tobas, reader has no pronouns.

- C/n: Code name

Wordcount: 1.1k

Note: This is a male reader fic but can be read as gender neutral! There maybe some error grammar because this is my first time writing this, hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Male!reader

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

Many hours had passed since you and your team got onto the helicopter, you weren't aware of the time or when you'll land. But you know it won't be soon, especially when the place where the mission's located is very far from base. It's a pain in the ass.

The mission was simple, there weren't many enemies left out there due to C/n's teammate taking good care of them, Ghost. Well, the name "teammate" doesn't suit what's going on between the two people, when your relationship is far more complicated than you think.

Neither of you two was a person who likes physical contact, especially Ghost. You don't know anything about that man which got you curious about him, only hearing about some rumors from other people wasn't enough, when you 'accidentally' look at his files and get scolded later from captain Price. Yet with all the information you think you have about the man with a skull face? Still nothing. Ghost was a mysterious man and he sometimes scared you. That's what you thought when you first saw him.

The day you save him from an enemy, he starts to acknowledge you as an 'acquaintance' or 'companion' after a few months, which makes you two hang out more often. It wouldn't be rare seeing you together. Practicing gunshot? Right next to him, making some coffee? You always make an extra cup for him,.. Everything was great and even Price was happy to see Ghost had a companion aside from Soap. Until it didn't go well, as a person like Ghost who doesn't into much affection or physical contact. At first it only starts with the shoulders touching, thighs, sometimes hands. You thought it was only coincident, Oh boy it didn't just stay as 'coincident' which to the point Soap starts to get suspicious between the two of you. Like, who doesn't get curious about you and him? The two of you always hang out with each other and sometimes get a 'little' touchy. On the other hand you don't feel anything about those touches right? It's just a feeling, it'll go away someday. Oh you were wrong, not only did it not go away but it grew even more.

You weren't into physical contact due to your past trauma caused by your 'beloved' father, which led to you startle whenever Ghost touched you or even praised you. Make things more complicated. But from time to time you get used to it and eventually you start to like it and the things that happen between C/n and Ghost. You like it so much, it begins to consider your relationship.

"Fucking hell, there's nothing happening between me and him." You argued with your friend, Tobas. "That's some bullshit, C/n. You do know that right?" Yes, you do know about it and you do know it's bullshit but you're still denying it. All you do is give him the silent treatment.

"Cut the bullshit C/n, do you have feelings for him, mate?" he looks over to his friend, watching C/n busy as you are cleaning up your knife but deep down inside you know you have tried to avoid that question from Tobas. "I don't know! I'm not supposed to have feelings for my Lieutenant, mate." You denied looking over to Tobas, you knew you were right at this point. You shouldn't have feelings for anyone, you're afraid of opening up for a new relationship knowing it will end like your last one, you're afraid that war will take someone you loved away from you, afraid it'll take him away, Ghost.

It's hit you, you do have feelings for your Lieutenant but all you do is keep denying it because you know well how it ends. Pushing it down is the best option you can do. "Damn, you're right." You mumbled. "What was that?" Just when C/n about to say something but was interrupted by a voice, you know damn well who the voice is.

"You two cut it out, I'm not going to deal with you too again." Oh it's Ghost, the man you just talked about a few minutes ago now is standing right in front of you. Glanced at you and your friend like a predator. "Sorry, sir." Both of you said. “Now get up, there’s a mission we need to deal with right now.” He scolds, as you and Tobas quickly get up so you can get ready for the mission, walk away from the place you just sat down. But you didn't catch the way Ghost's eyes watching over you walking away.

That's the last conversation you have before going on the mission.

Now you’re on the helicopter, not knowing when it will land. Your back is going to kill you one day for sitting too long until someone slightly nudged your arm, it was Tobas. “Oi mate, he’s been staring at you for like an hour” he whispered, you didn't say anything. You move your gaze a bit to make sure Tobas didn't make things up, only to find Ghost's eyes already glance at you. His gaze is still like the first time you have met but it's more soft than before and more.. lonely.

"I know, quit staring at him or he'll be in your sleep." you chuckled a bit, looking away from Ghost's gaze while Tobas nudged you again. Another silent in the helicopter, not knowing what to say or to do because the team was already tired. Just when you're ready to close your eyes, another nudges your arm again to get your attention. "Hey C/n, look outside." Tobas laughs a bit at your confused face. Again, you look outside the window wondering the hell Tobas is talking about and there it is. Star in the night sky.

You liked watching stars when you were little, always watching it from afar but the more you grew the less time watching it. Now you gotta see it again, gazing at stars outside the window. Wondering when was the last time you have watched them.

Ghost has watched you since the team finished the mission, now his gaze has softened when looking at a happy C/n. He has seen your happy face with the team before but not this one, it's different. It's more precious. Knowing how the war has done to you or the trauma you have been through. Your smile still looks delighted to him.

"Get ready, we're landing."

That's what Ghost heard before got a pat on the shoulders by Soap. "Y'all like C/n? Just curious of how you look at C/n." Ghost stares at Soap for while. "No"

Ghost knows damn well that's a lie.

To be continued..?

[toomanybandstocare]

{Sweet Whiskey}

Program: There are some people who come into our lives who are meant to be there through the worst and best of times. Their hearts are entwined with one another and beat in rhythm like it's the only why they know how to exist. A connection that makes so completely sense that it causes us to doubt ourselves and our partner.

Pairing: Commander Wolffe x Bartender, GN! Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Length: 4015w

Warnings: Alcohol + bar setting, swearing, heartbreak, drinking when emotionally / mentally unwell, miscommunication kind of? they let their insecurities/fear get the best of them more like it ... I think that's it? Let me know if I missed anything (minus the usual, not edited / work shopped as much as I had hoped)

Camp Resolute Masterlist

Song Request: "You're too sweet for me" {Too Sweet // Hozier}

Counselor Note: For the amazing @starboytech! This is a part of the @cloneficgiftexchange hosted by Ghost - thank you so much for hosting as always. Daisy, I hope you enjoy! I'm sorry it's on the later end of the day. I've been in an absolute rut with all my creative hobbies, so I'm afraid it's not that good. I hope you're doing well, and I was so excited you were my partner for this exchange. I miss our chats and being a part of this community. <3

Post Script: As usual, as much as it terrifies me to write Wolffe - I'm always curious about exploring his character and how to express a vulnerable side to him since he's always conveyed as confident and domineering. I don't know if I achieved well, so may be possibly out of character. And honestly, I'm okay with that. I think for the past year I've been so nervous to write again because I saw and experience first hand how people reacted when their favorite character isn't portrayed how they wanted, and I let that add onto my writer's block. So fuck it - writing is learning how to hone your craft and style. Not everything you or I write will be a masterpiece, and not everyone will enjoy. We're write because we have an itch to communicate what it means to be human through our perspective and how others may view the same experience in a completely different lense.

Shifting your weight on the cool durasteel stool, you take a swift sip of whiskey from the chilled glass in front of you. It kisses your lips with a bittersweet sting, and you let the amber liquid overcome you with little struggle. As you swallow the drink, your gaze sweeps the noticeably larger crowd that surges through the club tonight in a melancholic haze. Your throat constricts in combination of the whiskey’s burn that flares through your system and the all faces who bare too much of a resemblance to the man who left you sitting at this very bar with a broken heart a year ago. Yet after all this time, a pang punches your chest through the walls you’ve built without fail when your mind drifts back to the memories of him.

Everyone, nat-born or clone trooper alike, carry a refreshed air of hopefulness that feeds the electric energy coursing through the club. It weighs down on your weary muscles and sticks to your skin as the air thickens with every new patron who enters 79s. You sink further into the impassive, catatonic stupor you’ve become all too familiar with and avoid anyone’s eye. Fear churns your stomach as you recalculate the odds of anyone recognizing you and the inevitability shoots an arrow of panic through you. Unable to hide from the live reports and battle coverage, the Republic’s latest victory has been impossible to ignore alongside the footage of Commander Wolffe and the 104th battalion who lead the charge. Cries of excitement and cheers ripple through the crowd as club-goers are quick to find their partners for the evening while you cozy up with a bleeding heart from the glimpses of gray armor plates that catch your attention on the opposite side of the bar. The back of your neck stings in an increasing flare of unease. In a bout of potentially misplaced confidence, you swallow the lump of anxiety crawling across your tongue with another sip of whiskey and refuse to cut your evening short. The odds of the battalion choosing 79s as their destination for their night out on the town was unavoidable, but you liked your odds of Wolffe opting out of their celebrations like he used to do a hell of a lot better. A bitter, melancholic laugh wisps past your lips, and you shake your head with another indulgence of the amber liquor. The echo of his words rage and crash against your skull slicing a fresh cut across your heart that catches the alcohol in its wound. Its sting spreads across your chest and makes it difficult to breathe as that night overcomes you.

“This isn’t working”. A low rasp breaks through the uncharacteristically quiet music playing at 79s.

“What? Did they switch whiskey suppliers without consulting you first?” you nervously chuckle. You fiddle with the straw to your fruity cocktail and peer up at Wolffe from across the glass’ edge. The pin pricks that have been present all evening now sting your skin in a sudden alarm. You’ve been clutching onto your rose colored glasses as all the signs seem to have begun to show up over the past few weeks. Insecurity tangles with the adoration you hold for Wolffe as you stand by the commander’s side on nights out when you notice all the glances and giggles sent his way. Out of anyone in the galaxy, he’s chosen to be with you yet you struggle to find your place in his world. Never uttering the fear to Wolffe knowing there are so many more concerns than the irrational thoughts that bite at the back of your mind. “ Maybe they have your beer on rotation. Kiva -” 

“Us, cy’are” Wolffe swiftly interrupts you before you can call the attention of your friend on bartending duty tonight. “We… aren’t working,” he quietly clarifies yet he leaves little room for argument with the stoney expression he struggles to maintain. Wolffe’s gaze scans your face for any reaction in a last act of desperation, and his heart squeezes with the slow realization slipping over your radiant smile. The crease between his brow deepens when your expression stills with a detached vacancy. Stuck looking up at him with eyes - those fucking eyes he searches without fail for in every crowd - void of emotion. Wolffe’s heart thunders against his chest and begs him not to go through with this irrational decision.

Everything around you goes still. The neon lights cut through the tension in the air in a slow haze as other patrons beam and laugh all around you. Nothing goes through your mind as the warning sting ignites into an all consuming inferno of betrayal. Its flames burn through your veins as your breath comes out short and forced. "Why?" you quietly push further.

 Wolffe's expression pinches for a moment. Your determined gaze cuts through him, and Wolffe has to fight the urge to not shudder. For all the hardship and tragedy he's faced, Wolffe has never felt a bone chilling dread like he does standing before you. “We're too different, cy’are” he clips back. The words come out tight as they roll off his tongue with difficulty. Wolffe clutches his glass as your gaze narrows, and he raises the amber drink to take a slow sip. His usually cool bravado cracks under the tension, and he tries to wear a similar mask to avoid revealing the fears that gnaw at the back of his mind. Wolffe bites down the all too familiar wince that accompanies his vice. Not even the sting of whiskey can warm him.

“That's what works best with us. We compliment each other,” you bite back. Your knuckles bleach as you tightly grasp your cocktail glass. “From the minute we’ve met, we’ve always gravitated to each other to the point where everyone asks where the other is if we’re not together. Don’t you dare try to push me away when it’s obvious to ourselves and everyone around us that we’re meant to share our lives together. I know there’s something else going on, so you don’t you fucking bullshit me. I want to be with you, Wolffe, and I know what I’ve signed up for. Nightmares, phantom pains, long distance with no promise of the next time we’ll see each other - I have no reservations about navigating this with you. When everything feels like it’s crumbling underneath you, you without fail come to me to remind yourself that there is some hope left for the galaxy. That there are people who want to see you and your brothers return home. So don’t you dare say we’re too different when all I want is to stand by your side and love you”.

Wolffe lets out an airy chuckle, “You're too sweet for me”. With a control that he no longer believes he possesses, Wolffe places his glass on top of the bar and out of the corner of his eyes he catches how your body stills at his words. Your sudden passion to fight back wavers, and Wolffe lunges at the opportunity with a difficulty he forces down. “You know what you’ve signed up for?” he slowly repeats. “I don’t think you really do, because you’re not the one facing clankers and cannons every day fighting to survive. I spend every single fucking moment of my existence watching my brothers die by my side and sometimes even taking their last breath in my arms,” Wolffe spits out. It takes everything in him to swallow the waver in his voice and allow the pent-up devastation of war to consume him - to weaponize himself against the one person who loves him unconditionally. “While I live in the uncertainty of the next time I'll be planetside, you spend your days disconnected from the sacrifices so many have made to keep the system safe. To keep you safe. I wanted to break things off kindly, but clearly you're so delusional that you can't tell when someone's grown tired of your fantasy. I’m sick and done spending my limited days of freedom playing house to entertain you. I need you to come back from the clouds right fucking now and listen closely. You're, too, sweet, for, me,” Wolffe all but growls. His hand screams in agony as he clutches the empty glass with white knuckles. There's a morbid humor that the crystal-like glass stands strong against his chokehold as his heart shatters in time the tears that softly trail down your face. His chest burns with regret that singes through him as he carves this moment in his memory. Without daring to meet your eyes, Wolffe turns his back on you.

Your glassy gaze stings as you recount that devastating night. You shake your head abruptly while rapidly blinking back the new onslaught of tears and try to collect your shaky breaths. You hastily bring the whiskey glass to your lips and take a sharp gulp. Bitterness blooms over your tongue and overpowers the burning desire for the amber liquor that you normally find solace with. With an elbow on the bar to lean your head on the empty glass, you raise your other hand to pinch the bridge of your nose and squeeze your eyes shut. Melancholy and drunken fatigue sit heavy on your shoulders as you fall into the ritual like haze. It's not a storm of emotions that overcomes you. No, that's stopped at the one month mark. In the months after that, your heart began to slow into a dull rhythm that drew out all of life’s vibrancy. Self destruction swiftly wrapped its claws around you and beckoned you into this dark, unfamiliar place. By the six month mark, you stopped struggling against its ghostly touch and sought its company in it rather than your friends'. Not a single one of them could break through to pull you out of this fog as you slipped further and further from them. The silent agreement came into contract after the eighth month when they realized there was very little they could do that would actually help you rather than break you anymore. You would only indulge in your weekly ritual during Kiva’s shift at 79s. Speeder card was left at home as you rode in with him to work, and he would  bring you back to your apartment at the end of the night. A fresh sheet of sheets would always be made up for him, so he could spend the night in your guest room to ensure you were safe.  Should anything alarm him during the night, Kiva would immediately send a message to the group chat and your ritual would come to an early end with a severe reality check.

A dull clunk vaguely registers in the distance as you take a slow breath. “Normally, I'd be in a rush to close out and get us to home,” Kiva murmurs from across the bartop, “but I can wait this one out. Just try to enjoy the company of a person for a change”.

Your eyes flash open, and Kiva's back has already turned away from you before you can even open your mouth to call him back. Cool condensation causes goosebumps to rise over your skin when your hand bumps into a freshly made cocktail, and your attention snaps to the bar top. Your posture stiffens at the sight of what was once your favorite sweet beverage for nights out. Nausea rocks through you as you set your empty whiskey glass next to it with a shaky hand.

“C’yare,” he quietly calls out.

You take a sharp breath. Nearly a year to the date since the last time you heard his voice, and Wolffe still manages to make your skin flush from the pet name alone. But the warmth of past memories and alcohol can’t defend itself from the sudden chill that overcomes your body. An uncomfortable understanding overwhelms you, and his voice rings alarms in your mind once more in a mournful sense of deja vu. 

“Wolffe,” you force yourself to acknowledge.

Dread floods Wolffe, and the skin at the back of his neck stings. He takes a cautious step closer to you - sweeping his gaze over your stiff posture. The sharp glint that catches him from the coroner of your eye reminds him of a wild animal assessing a threat. Wolffe's heart rate spikes, shooting blood to the surface of his skin and burns. Everything is wrong. This is wrong. This is not you. This is not the same sweet love who he adores even with all the guilt and anger he holds for himself from the last time he saw you. “What's happened?" he cautiously asks. Though he already knows the answer, Wolffe holds on to the waning hope that he's wrong. For once in his life - Wolffe desperately wishes for his instincts to mislead him in this moment. 

It could be the remnants of your tipsy haze. It could be the disbelief that punches you to your core. It is most certainly a fucking combination of the two at the very least. Every muscle in your body tenses - ready to pounce. “Excuse you?” you quietly hiss. You narrow your eyes as anger flares through your chest. “What, happened?” you punctuate the words of his question and turn your body to face him dead on. You let your other arm drop to the bartop, avoiding the drink glasses and dig your nails into the cool durasteel. “Did you really care so little for me that you couldn't possibly fathom that your actions have consequences even off the battlefield?” A sickening sense of pride twists inside you at the sight of Wolffe unable to hold back a slight flinch. 

Bile builds at the base of his tongue, and Wolffe carefully slides on to the stool next to yours. Resting an elbow on the bar top, he leans his head on one hand while the other twitches on his thigh. Your stormy gaze holds Wolffe in a suffocating swell. Gliding his tongue across the back of his teeth, he takes a calculated pause before admitting: “I care for you so deeply that I would rather you hate me for the rest of our lives than hurt you. So seeing my cy’are before me as this new person - someone who I can barely piece together just how I was able to recognize - all because of the decision I made in hopes of keeping you safe but actually broke you? I would willingly volunteer for the next no-return assignment, because I cannot live in a galaxy where my sweet love is so bitter - by my marred hand no less”. Wolffe’s chest heaves as his heart crashes against its cage. His skin feels hot from the searing rush of blood cutting him from the inside, and he squeezes his fist on top of his thigh to stop himself from pulling on the collar of his blacks. He doesn't remember when he started to lean closer to you, but as his gaze flickers across your face, Wolffe swallows the lump at the back of his throat. Unease crawls over the stony façade of his usual confidence as the seconds slip by in deafening silence under the pulsing lights. 

A new wave of tears sting at your lash line, but you don't hide them. A part of your past self screams for you to listen and to believe in Wolffe’s words. “Liar,” you hiss. Hope cracks through your hard demeanor, and you desperately want him to prove you wrong.Your former self sobs, and it breaks past your snarl. “Why come back then?” you push further with a watery waver to your voice. “Just to revel in the consequences of your actions? To punish yourself for letting fear break your code of conduct that you so proudly follow on and off the battlefield?”

Wolf bows his head while flexing his hand across the scratched armor. Why is he doing this? Why did he run away from you in the first place? He can't remember a moment in his life where he was so overcome by a flood of emotions like that evening where he couldn't think rationally. Seeing you across the bar tonight as a shell of the person he loves, it felt as if his entire world had been blown to pieces. With a slow exhaled breath, Wolffe dares to look up at you. His stomach knots when he's met with the trails of tears that dance across the plains of your face. The wind is knocked out of his lungs in a sucker-punch when he pulls his gaze to look you in the eye and is met with a glimmer of his cy’are pulling through the broken mask. 

“Because I had hoped I would find you again”, he explains with a steady calmness despite the dizzying rush overcoming him. “For the past year, I laid awake in the dead of night wondering if I had done the right thing. It didn't matter what was happening around me - if I was in my cabin suffocated by silence or surrounded by the onslaught of blaster guns and bombs - I just needed to know that you would be safe and taken care of in a way that I couldn't promise you”. Wolffe pauses for a moment before cautiously reaching out to cup your jaw with his hand. A laugh of disbelief slips past his lips from how even through the thick, ballistic material of his glove he can still feel how soft your skin is beneath his touch. “The next time I saw you, I had hoped you would be tucked under the arm of some nat-born who’d be there for you each day and be able to come home to you every night without worry. In all the scenarios I came up with and constantly replayed in my mind, I never imagined we'd meet again here or like this. But that’s just who we are it seems”. Wolffe pauses to take you in with uncertainty in his eyes and tries to etch every detail of your face into his memory in case this is truly the last time he sees you. “Two very different people who are terrified of losing each other to the point where they push it out of mind until it rears its ugly head and makes us believe the irrational thoughts. So I’m telling you now - pushing you away that night is what keeps me up at night with guilt, and I promise to keep you safe, even from my own fear of losing you, if you’ll let me”.

Tears freely streamed down your cheeks and everything feels too much. Your skin prickles across the entirety of your body all except where Wolffe so carefully cups your jaw. As much as you want to shove him away and to scream at him and to leave him sitting here humiliated like he did with you one year ago - you can't. For the first time in such a long time, you feel things past the passize haze. “All I wanted to do is stand by your side and show you what it feels to experience a gentle love. Even when I was afraid that I wasn’t enough for you, I wanted to push that to the side to focus all my care and attention on us. Those insecurities felt so small in the grand scheme what you had to, and still have to, carry the burden of that I didn’t want to confide in you for the very reasons you used against me. I despise you for what you did to me”, you sob as you let yourself fall into his chest. The moment his arms catch you and envelops you with his body entirely, you let the mask fall completely. One hand clutches your hip and pulls you into Wolffe’s chest and the other rests on your shoulder as he supports you. Your head spins, and for as much as you should try to speak up and continue voicing how you'll need time to heal - you let yourself sink into the near forgotten feeling of comfort. The rods of tension that had cemented into your bones snap, and you press your face into Wolf's neck while wrapping your arms around him. His usual cologne still grounds you while shooting a dizzying sense of happiness through you. “I don't want to keep feeling like this, Wolffe. But I also don't want to let you back in if you're going to just shut me out. I can't do this again - I barely made it through this year. I can't survive another heartbreak so soul shattering. Especially from the same person who's now promised to keep me safe twice now”, you sob. 

Wolffe brings his hand up from your hip to rest at the nape of your neck. He gently sweeps his thumb back and forth as you try to reign in your uneven breathing. A dull throb hammers against your skull and grows at a rapid pace when a fresh wave of troopers cheer nearby and break through your private conversation. You wince, and Wolf glides both of his hands carefully to cover your ears. He moves one hand slightly to lean in close to your ear.

“There are not enough ways for me to express how sorry I am for not making the space for you in our relationship to feel like you could talk to me when you needed me, but I will show you in every possible way because an apology could never give you the justice you deserve for betraying you like that”, he quietly murmurs, “Let me walk you home as the first. I'll write my comlink connection for you, and when you're ready, you can give me a call to continue this conversation. Only if you want to speak to me again - we’ll do this on your terms. Just let me have the privilege to know you got home safely one last time”. 

Your fingertips press harder into his chest plate and trail down to where his blacks peek out between his body and leg armor - yearning to find contact with the man you adore and not the war that’s stolen everything from him. “I still have your com-connect”, you sheepishly admit. “I wasn't ready to say goodbye to you, either in the sense I would call you in a rage demanding … exactly this … or in hopes you would call saying it was a mistake … like this”. You feel the rumble of Wolffe’s chuckle where your chests press close together as the warm fan of breath that tickles the skin just underneath your ear. “I just want to go home, but I don't want to let you go though”. 

Wolf doesn't bother to stop the smile curling at the corner of his lips. He carefully leans into your embrace, and for once he's grateful for the armor separating the two of you as he’s sure that you would have been able to feel his heart crashing against his ribs to try and find its way back to yours. “You're still at the same complex, right?” he asks quietly. Barely catching your hum, Wolffe slowly nods and suggests: “If it's okay with you - and I mean that, only if it’s absolutely okay with you - I could stay in the guest room or on the couch. If it would help you rest easy knowing that I'm not going anywhere. And we can get breakfast to talk through things in the morning, because there's nothing that could keep me from you if you allow me the chance to prove myself to you”. 

You take a sharp inhale and pull yourself away only slightly to meet Wolffe’s soft yet determined gaze.”Promise?” you ask breathlessly.

 “I will live the rest of my life picking up the pieces of you that I broke, and I will stand by you as you learn to be yourself again. I promise, my sweet love, I'm not going anywhere without you”.

[dumbdollii]

SOON AS I GET HOME

pairing ! ━━ plug!dabi todoroki  x  sneaky!link! black!reader

cw ! ━━ minors do not interact. reader is black and thick coded, getting high w/ dabi, high!dabi slutting you out on the couch, pet names, mentions of nudity, dabi taking pics of u slumped out :((, breeding, sharing smoke by kissing with plug!dabi, fingering with his dick still inside, teasing.

note ! ━━ axe had me snickering Abt this au n now I'ma write abt it bc God knows how much she loves her lil burnt man.

"dabi, I'ma need to get put on with sum'. Its rough out here and you're my only hope." You said over the phone, heavy silence filled the phone, dabi laughing quietly. "You really are somethin', princess. 'ight, I'll give you somethin' good. Just wait outside your door, I'ma be out there in a lil while." He scoffed out, hanging up the phone as soon as you were gonna respond to him. 11:25 PM, that was the time you left the house and waited outside with nothing but some shorts, a sleeve shirt, and your bonnet. As the cold, silky wind hit your legs, look who dropped in, Dabi. He drove up to your block, already smoking a blunt with the shiny, tinted windows down.

"finally! Your ass took too fucking long..I'm freezing out here." Your tone sounded annoyed, considering dabi had you stand outside for a whole hard minute. "Relax princess, be happy I came just in time to see your pretty ass," He said as he parked the car and came out. Givin' your ass a slight slap, you jumped up a bit in pain and slapped his hand. "Harsh, but ight'." "nigga please don't start, what's harsh is that hairline of yours." You said as you laughed out loudly, he wasn't having it and scoffed. "Yea, right."

You walked to the front door and opened it, swiftly moving your body to the couch. With you bein' all bothered you started sighing and held your hand out, looking up at him with curious eyes. "Oh. My apologies. here you go, doll." "Thank you, roki." He throws you the bag, opening it and rolling up a blunt. His eyes widened at The nickname, surprised you'd even use his last name as a silly nickname for him. A few moments passed and you were already all up on Dabi, laying on his big, muscular frame.

Both of you were both heavily high and everything was like euphoria all over again. "I wanna try something new, roki." You whined in his ear. "Oh yea? Like what, rubbing your pussy all over me or what." "No, what? I-" he stopped you from speaking. "Actually, don't even tell me. I wanna try somethin' new with you," While he still was smoking the fuck out the blunt he had in his hand he kept the smoke in, kissing you in the process and letting it out into your mouth. Your body stiffened and the strong smoke rested in your mouth, kiss after kiss it was sloppy. The smoke came out through your nose with a stern huff. "fu..roki...~" You said, moaning out to him. "Damn princess, your moans are just as cute in real life then on the phone." And that's when he pulled away. Your body was so blissed out from the kiss, feeling a wet pool in your panties.

you really were never fond of dabi todoroki. He was always teasing you as a kid, and to see how much he changed, how much he longed to want you ; really did shock you back into reality. "Was that even...did you just put that in my- oh my god." He laughed in response. "What? Too shocked about what the hell I did to you? Don't worry, I know you wanted it Y/n. Let me slut that pretty pussy out, promise I'll make it your while, doll."

"you? Make my while? How bold of you Dabi Todoroki. I wouldn't hear your brother sayin' this shit at all. I'm surprised twice didn't come pop a damn cap in ya' ass." You said with annoyance. "Ohh, you wanna be funny, huh? Yea. I'ma make you moan then you gon' stop laughing." Obviously you didn't take that seriously, but knowing him it would be impossible to turn down an offer like this. "Soon as I get home you gon' miss my dick thrusting into you." You gulped. "Uhuh...yea."

Not even a moment after that happened you wouldn't expect yourself to be underneath him, being so submissive for him and moaning. Your tits bouncing back and forth while he slut you out on the same very couch you guys sat on. His fingers were still inside you from fingering you a while ago, thrusting harder into your tight cunt. "Goddamn, this pussy all mine, got that? All fucking mine. Sooner or later you'll learn to take my size every time I come to visit." Groans and huffs were heard from dabi, his body was shaking slightly while he fucked into you. He grabbed you thighs, throwing them over his shoulder and kissed your inner thighs with ease as you squirmed and huffed.

"Pl-please..ah!..I fucking h..hate you..~" "Hate me? Nah baby, you fuckin' love me. Don't be so stubborn when you're the one clamping around my dick like a bitch outta heat." His tone darkened. Nothing made him more horny then to see your pretty body on his, oh how he longed to touch you. You were just so...beautiful, how could he not resist making you have sex with him just this once? "Heh..~ look at you, drooling all over yourself and cryin' like a baby. Want me to take my fingers out, my lil' baby? Don't wanna squirt all over me?" Humiliation. The way he made you feel embarrassed only turned you on in the slightest second.

he pulled his phone out, knowing you were about to reach your climax soon. "Augh~! Shit...! Can-t, 'm gonna cum!". He felt your pussy flutter around his dick. Letting out a stern moan with it, he also felt himself coming to a halt. "Fuck..Y/n..shi...c'mon! cum on this dick, tryna feel your pussy all on me." You whimpered in response, now you know not to bet this nigga on anything.

You finally came, and so did he, but inside you. While trying to focus on your breathing he took his fingers out, and took his dick out too. Cum seeped through your needy hole, and that's when he took a picture of it. Taking videos and pictures of him teasing your pussy while you were blissed out, rubbing your clit while recording just to see his cum flow out. "Shit, honestly you did good. 'hope you alright though. Maybe this should be a daily thing." You finally had the strength to get up and dabi was already getting ready to clean you up. "Daily thing? Whew boy..you got something coming if u think this is gonna be something daily. I'ma miss you coming over though." You said as a stifled laugh left your throat and he rolled his eyes, ignoring you. "Yea, I'ma miss you too, princess.

all works ©NEKOWEB. Do not Plagiarize , redistribute , or post my work as your own, that will get an instant block.

[thebrookesnook]

Okay I know it's been a while since I've last talked about MILAOWM, bUT HOLY SHIT THE CHAPTER 113 AND 114 IS FUCKING WILD.

Heavy spoilers below and ranting on the recent chapters (mostly chapter 114 with key information from chapters 110-113).

LET'S ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM:

This girl is fucking insane. Literally. Previously when we were given glimpses to the cult-like meeting she was holding in Chapter 74, I had originally thought "Oh this is definitely gonna be relevant later on". WELP, here's the relevancy: turns out Dodolea has more knowledge on the Blood Curse of the Lapileons and SHE was the reason for the Regression of the Victims of the Blood Curse! She has been using human sacrifice from her cult following to, in words of her followers and herself "speak to the gods" (whatever the fuck that means), for powers & spells in order to get what she wanted from the start: Therdeo.

She's so gone off the deep end that the mother of the next in-line sacrifice orchestrated a bombing of a (relatively) small gathering just to kidnap Pereshati for Dodolea. Heavens, the way she freely admitted to her crimes to a bruised up Pereshati, especially the SA of Therdeo that night, without care and STOLE Pereshati's ring (that was given to her by Therdeo a few chapters ago) just to put it on her finger was horrifying and maddening.

Those weren't even the end of it either. Dodolea decided that kidnapping her, telling her she raped her husband, stealing her ring, and being the cause of her (and others') regression wasn't enough humiliation for Pereshati. No no, she decided that she'll humiliate Pereshati even more by drugging one of the nobles the cult kidnapped into raping the MC just to show Therdeo and everyone, in Dodolea's words, "how fickle she is".

...

Dodolea Cantor when I catch you, istg when I catch you-

The fact she's doing all this for her twisted obsession with Therdeo makes me sick. But I'm also curious to know how and when this obsession started, how long has she known about the Blood Curse and why Therdeo?

Considering that all we know of her from the original timeline (pre-Pereshati's regression) was from her limited knowledge that Dodelia had died from unknown causes. So did they perhaps meet beforehand? If so, what happened? Does this have anything to do with the mysterious first wife of Therdeo who divorced him after a few months and left? So many questions Seungu!!! 😭

ANOTHER BIG QUESTION:

Who is Adeus Potson?

I was kind of in-between when his character showed up for the first time. I noticed many of the readers immediately drew up fences thinking he was the second love interest, but so far he hasn't made any advances towards Pereshati. If anything, she doesn't particularly like the guy after she learns about his opinions on Therdeo (we love a partner who sticks up for the SO!!), even so she still gave him medcine and balms to heal his wounds (like my girl Pereshati is too kind). He definitely has an antagonistic relationship with Therdeo but I get the sense it was because his opinion was formed by little to go off of but public opinion OR there was a backstory about these two.

But other than his dynamic with our Pereshati, Therdeo & Rebecca, there's not much left to go off other than it was established he was a journalist, other nobles seem to hate him (Chapter 112) due to his connections (?) and he has a soft spot for common folk (likely one himself previously mayhaps?).

At the end of Chapter 114, he had somehow gotten free from bindings and without hesitation killed the men holding them captive and prevented Pereshati from her fate. I'm taking note of how unbothered he was after killing multiple people with ease. In fact, there was barely any struggle at all. Quite different from our first meeting with him.

Who is this man and what is his relevance to our main characters? How does he fit into the grand scheme of things? What exactly is his relationship with Therdeo?

Last thing I want to touch upon is Celphi's biological mother, Harari Aakman. I'm still undecided what to feel about her yet, so I'll hold my tongue about her until new information is revealed. What I will say about her is that she was going to visit Pereshati in that party which means she was at least considering on talking to her!! Which unfortunately was the same time the bombing happened skksks 😭😭. What luck you Lapileons have I swear.

[crashdevlin]

Losses and Gains 5- Messages

Author’s Note: This is the fifth chapter of Losses and Gains, the second part of To Have it All. This is Something More...from Jensen's side!

Summary: Songs can convey messages...and sometimes they convey the exact one Jensen wants conveyed.

Pairing:  Jensen x Reader, background Reader x Tom Hiddleston

Word count: 3191

Story Warnings: open marriage, mentions of depression and heartbreak, bad things, alcohol as a crutch, anger, fighting, mentions of divorce

~~~

Drunk on set is not a good look for anybody, but sobbing on set isn't a good look either, and I knew I had to numb the pain in my heart to get through a workday. Having seen Y/n with Tom on the Late Show and in several red carpet interviews where he didn't let his hand stray from her lower back, it proved that Y/n and Tom were going to last. They were stuck on each other, and I lost her.

I got bitter with Danneel again pretty quickly. As soon as she mentioned my drinking, I stopped holding it back.

"So, what, you're gonna take away my liquor like you took away Y/n? I'm not allowed to have anything I want?"

Dee scoffed loudly. "I didn't take Y/n away from you! She chose to leave you to find happ-"

"She left because you were a bitch, and you made her feel cheap and used when I made her feel appreciated and loved, and now she's with a guy that holds her hand and touches her possessively on red carpets, and you drove her there because you got jealous of her when it wasn't-"

"You fell in love, and she was ruining everything! I was within my rights to put her in her place and-"

"I never should have let you meet! You ruined everything. I ruined everything. She did nothing, but you ran her off, and that's not okay!"

"No, she was a complete angel who did nothing but steal you from your wife."

"She didn't steal me! You gave me away! You encouraged me to be with-"

"I gave you what you wanted! And, ya know what, I'll give you what you want now, too," she said before hanging up on me. I was too hammered to be worried about what that might mean.

Gino messaged me a couple of days later. What did you do? Why is D talking to a lawyer?

Shit.

There was no positive thinking my way out of this. Danneel was going to divorce me. Y/n was happy with Tom. I had fucked myself out of everything good in my life. So I doubled down on my drinking.

Jared must've gotten worried when I stopped answering the phone. I mean, it died, I didn't charge it, so there was no way to answer his calls or texts. I was busy with my scotch anyway. He came by the condo, used the spare key I gave him before Y/n even moved in, and picked me up off the floor in my bathroom. How I ended up there is a mystery for Glenlivet and me.

"Jesus, Ackles. What have you done to yourself?"

"Doesn'even madder, man. Nuffin madders."

Jared sighed, a sad understanding in his eyes as he set me on the edge of the tub and kneeled in front of me. "What happened?"

"Danneel’s done. Y/n's done. I'm done. Nothin' madders."

"What, the show doesn't matter? The fans don’t matter? I don't matter?"

"I didn't say-" I started to argue as his phone beeped with a message. He grabbed me a glass of water and handed it to me.

"You've fucked everything up, but that doesn't mean you get to fuck my stuff up. You're gonna sober the hell up and get dressed, and we're gonna go to work, Jensen, because when you're down this low, you have to find something to fight for. It's not Dee or Y/n, so let it be me. Let it be your kids. Let it be your goddamn dog if you need. But you're gonna find something…" His words trailed off as he pulled out his phone. "...to fight for. Gimme a second. Drink that," he said, pointing at the water as he dialed a number and walked a few feet away.

I strained to hear him, curious about what could steal his attention from me at that moment. "You okay?” he asked quietly. “What’s wrong? What’s the problem?”

“Whossat?” I asked, cringing a bit at how slurred the words were.

“Doesn’t matter, dude. Drink your water.” Jared snapped, looking over his shoulder at me as I tried to stand. He turned his attention back to the phone, and his tone softened a little. “You better not hang up on me. I have time and energy enough for both of you. Tell me what’s wrong.”

He doesn't talk to a lot of people like that. Firm, supportive, brotherly. I knew it was her. I needed another drink, and water wasn't going to do the trick. “Okay. I understand that. Where are you right now?” he asked. I imagined she responded that she was in London or somewhere far away with Tom. Far away from me, from Jared, from anyone...and she seemed to be having trouble too. But not me-trouble...her-trouble, brain-trouble. I used to be the one who'd help her.

“Did you talk to him?” Jared asked as I picked up the bottle from where it rolled under the sink. He pulled the phone away from his ear when he noticed me. “Damn it, Jensen, put down the scotch.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Padalecki. I’m fine.” It was a lie, but who cares?

“We have to be on set in three hours, and you need to sober the fuck up.” That was the truth, though. Unfortunately. Jared turned his attention back to her, and I set the bottle on the bathroom vanity. “Sorry about that. Have you talked to him?” He nodded as I ran warm water and splashed my face. “Okay. How have you been sleeping?”

He listened to her answer, nodding. “You're not drinking, are you?” Jared cleared his throat, seeming purposely to avoid looking at me. “Not anything? When’s the last time you hit the gym? You know that can help a lot.”

He nodded as I took a drink of my water. I contemplated a sandwich or a bagel as he adjusted the phone. "Look, I know that hotel has an on-site gym. Get some sweats on and go jump on an elliptical.”

By the way he smiled, I knew that she’d agreed. He was good at making people take care of themselves. I looked down at the water in my hand and took a drink.

“You know that you can call me anytime you need me.” She said something that made him look over at me. “Yeah. Hey, are you going to be making it to Toronto?”

I scoffed and stood. “She’s not gonna be there when we’re there, Padalecki. You’re not gonna get to see her. Nobody gets time with her except Loki.”

Jared gave me a look between tired and sad and kept looking at me as I leaned against the sink and took another drink of water. “Is there any possibility that I can convince you to stick around and have lunch with me on Sunday?” I was eager to know what she’d say, so I leaned a bit toward him. I couldn’t hear the words, but I knew she responded that she’d have to ask Tom. “Well, come on…he doesn’t own you, Y/n. If you want to see me on a Sunday, you should be able just to do that.” Jared sounded just as irritated with that answer as I was. He sighed and adjusted his beanie. “Okay. Feel better. Text me when you know if you can make it to lunch. Bye.”

I cleared my throat and left the bathroom, heading for the kitchen to get myself something to soak up the whiskey. “Trouble in paradise?” I asked, pulling open the fridge as Jared followed me.

“It’s none of your business. You need to focus on your own trouble.”

“Right. Which trouble is that gonna be?” I grabbed a takeout container from the diner I ordered from three days before and tossed it in the microwave without looking at the food. “The fact that Danneel is gonna divorce me? The fact that I can’t go a day without crying lately? The fact that I’m ruining your life too, just by being attached to you? Which trouble should I focus on?”

“Danneel is gonna divorce you because you couldn’t get your head out of your ass.”

I shrugged. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter.”

His eyebrows went up. “It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter that your wife is going to divorce you?”

I shook my head. “Nah. I’m too tired for this shit.”

“You’re too tired? To fight for your marriage?”

“I’m too tired to fight for any-fucking-thing.” The microwave beeped as it reached 0, and I pulled out the pancake breakfast. “I’m just physically and emotionally exhausted, Jared.”

He scoffed and scratched his eyebrow. “This is the stupidest shit you’ve ever said, man. You need to fix this.”

I nodded and flipped open the takeout container. “Yeah. Would’ve been easier before all this shit.”

“Yeah, probably, but you gotta think of your kids and your future. Y/n isn’t part of that anymore. Dee…well, she might not be either, but you gotta make things easier. Do me a favor, Ackles…if you have to drink, do it on the off days…and less hard liquor. You might be Dean Winchester, but you don’t have his plot armor liver, right?”

I scoffed and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Beer, it is.”

“Thank you,” he said, and then he hugged me. Jared’s got magic hugs…and I almost felt better for a few minutes.

Just for a few.

~~~

<<Are you singing for Toronto?

I stared down at my phone for a while. It was a perfectly normal question that Steve Norton asked before every convention. Am I singing for the Saturday Night Special? Used to fill me with apprehension, then with giddiness, now though…sadness. I used to get up and listen to Y/n. I used to sing with her. We used to have the time of our lives backstage and then head to my damn hotel to make love. What was I supposed to do?

But Y/n was going to be there. She always was. She loves singing…and I could at least listen to her and get lost in some memories of the better times…and maybe I could get a message across in the meantime. Maybe I could use Saturday Night Special to get her to understand how much pain I was really feeling…in a gentle way. In a way that wouldn’t hurt her. In a way that said I was hurting, but I was gonna be okay. Maybe.

>>Yeah. I’ll sing one.

I kept tabs on her through Twitter and stuff for Friday. She seemed good. She seemed happy. She always seemed happy. I had to wonder how much of that was bullshit, though, because she had just been on the phone to Jared less than two weeks ago. She was just having troubles bad enough to call on the moose. But she did the karaoke, and she took pictures in the green room, and she smiled and laughed with the fans at her panel. She seemed put together.

I wasn’t even close, but I put some concealer on under my eyes and gel in my hair. I put on a leather jacket, and I went to SNS. I made a point to stay by the door so I could see her when she arrived, but Jason pulled me away to talk about something completely insignificant that completely distracted me, and I barely noticed when she walked in. Rob walked up to confirm what I was singing, and I acted like I had hardly thought about it.

“I dunno. I’m not really feelin’ upbeat music. Want somethin’ powerful, painful. So, no ‘Whipping Post’ or anything Eagles or whatnot. I’m thinking…Johnny Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’.”

Rob nodded. “Sure. We can pull the acoustic out. I think that’ll sound awesome. You, uh, you doin’ okay, though?”

I smiled as bright as I could. “I’m great, Rob. It’s gonna be an amazing show.”

Rob smiled back and turned to look at Y/n, and I couldn’t ignore her anymore. She was standing just ten feet away, and she had to have been listening to us. “Y/n, are you gonna do ‘Gunpowder and Lead’?” he asked.

“No. I-I told Stephen a week ago that I was doing ‘Dead Flowers,” she squeaked. She was stumbling over her words and singing a depressing song. She was all out of sorts. For some reason, seeing it up close made me feel a bit better. She wasn’t happy…and that meant I didn’t have to work to maintain her happiness. I didn’t have to let her be happy with Tom because she wasn’t fucking happy.

I looked away, angry with myself for even thinking that shit. It’d be petty to rub it in her face. It’d be shitty.

“Oh, yeah! Sorry. I forgot. It’s on the setlist and everything. Shit.”

“It’s cool. There’s a reason there’s a setlist,” Y/n said with an awkward smile. Rob just nodded and walked away, leaving Y/n and me just standing there. “Well, this is gonna be a depressing set. Swain should cover it with ‘Mama’s Jam’ or something.” Her trying to break the tension made me wanna have a big ol’ glass of Jack, so I walked away toward the plastic folding table they set up a makeshift wet bar on. I had just gotten there and was about to pick up a Solo cup when I heard, “Don’t drink.” I could almost feel her forcing herself to say the words; the way she spoke was so apprehensive and sad. I set my hands flat on the table, forcing myself to stay turned in the opposite direction, facing away from her where I couldn’t see her face, and she couldn’t see mine. “It’s not helping you.”

“That’s not any of your fucking business now, is it?” I spat out in a kneejerk reaction. But it gave me a chance to remember that I’d told Jared I would lay off the whiskey. I grabbed a beer from the cooler next to the table and walked away to let the others distract me.

The night went by pretty easily, but then Y/n got up on stage. ‘Dead Flowers’. “I feel like the flowers in this vase…They’re sittin’ in a vase, but now they’re dead. Dead flowers.” Shit. I felt that in my soul. The worst part was that I could tell that she felt it in her soul, too. She wasn’t happy. She missed me. She felt like dead flowers, so why wasn’t she coming back?!

Was it too complicated now? Was she still scared that Dee was leaving because fuck, that was already pretty much a done deal? Was she afraid of the backlash if she left him? Was he just…better even if he made her sad?

Her voice started wavering in the second verse, but that’s when the band came in hard, so they covered her for the audience…but not for me. Not for Kim or Bri. Everyone could tell that she had wrapped herself up in her emotions, and it was hitting her. As soon as she got down from the stage, Kim and Briana ran over to be with her. They took no time holding her and whispering to her. It made things a little better for me because I couldn’t comfort her, not that I was in a comforting mindset in the first place, but they could. She still had other members of the Family that would lift her, even when Jared wasn’t around. That was good…and it meant that there would be support for her when I got up there and sent my message.

Looking out at the audience as Rob grabbed his acoustic and stepped to the side, I saw a sea of people who just adored everything about me. Of course, none of them knew the mess I was underneath the mask, under the smile and the makeup and the leather jacket. Fuck, some of them would have adored me more if they knew I was falling apart. They would have loved the emotional honesty of the thing…and maybe that’s why so many of them went star-eyed when I started in on those painful lyrics. “I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.”

I put every ounce of my emotion into those words. Every drop of misery and heartache into “And you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down. I will make you hurt.” because I wanted her to feel it. I wanted her to know. I wasn’t drinking to put some guilt trip on her. I wasn’t drinking to help me. I was drinking because I had to…because it was the only way.

I waved at the fans, gave a slight bow to them to show my thanks, and then I slowly descended the stage area. Y/n was frantically wiping at her eyes. Her cheeks were wet, and she had obviously been bawling by the puffiness and redness in the whites of her eyes. She got the message. She felt it. Good.

~~~

“So, you got the chance to see her tonight, right?” Jared barely greeted me on the phone call before he jumped into the hard stuff. “Are you okay?”

“She’s not okay. Jared, she’s not happy.”

I could hear him sigh. “She said she’s-”

“She’s lying!” I insisted.

“How do you know?”

“Because I know her!” I rubbed my eye and licked my lips, feeling guilty about snapping at him. “I know her, and she isn’t okay. She’s singing about dead flowers and crying…and she called you a few days ago so I know you know she’s not-”

“She was having a bad day. She’s allowed.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, she wasn’t having a bad day. She’s having a bad life, but she knows she made her choice. She’s not happy. She’s not-”

“What do you expect to do about it? Like you said, she made her choice. Did she give any indication that she regretted making that choice?”

I shook my head and sat on the edge of my hotel bed. “No. But…come on, Jared. You know this doesn’t sit right. You know she’s not happy.”

“I know that she’s had a few low moments, but that doesn’t mean she’s not happy. I have low moments, too.”

“It’s not the same.”

“How exactly is it different?”

“I…I don’t know, but it’s different. This isn’t…Jared, just…when you see her tomorrow, fix it. Make her tell you what’s actually wrong.”

“I’m not going to make her do anything. But I’ll figure out if she’s okay and do what I can to help her. That’s the best I can promise.”

“Guess that’ll have to do.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Right.” I hung up and flopped backward on the bed. I stared at the ceiling for a few moments before I let my eyes close.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

prince's gambit highlights & annotations

chapter 11

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

A prudent ruler would want a seasoned diplomat overseeing this fraught standoff, not Laurent, who had arrived like a wasp at an outdoor feast, annoying everybody.

‘Your Highness. We were expecting you two weeks ago. But we were glad to hear that you enjoyed the inns of Nesson,’ said Lord Touars. ‘Perhaps we can find you something equally entertaining to do here.’

you cannot out-bitch laurent of vere. but good luck trying

The golden prince was at his best when viewed from sixty paces, out of spitting range of his nature.

‘Is my slave making you nervous?’ said Laurent. ‘I can understand that. It takes a man to handle him.’

this is a minor political ploy on laurent’s part—he’s not necessarily defending damen out of the good of his heart. he’s trying to take these people out of their comfort zone, within their own stronghold. also, lmao

‘Councillor Guion,’ said Laurent.

BOOOOOOO TOMATO TOMATO

Laurent had said to him calmly, ‘You knew my uncle wanted to provoke conflict at the border. How else did you think he was going to do it?’ At the end of those exchanges, there had been nothing left to do but get on his horse and ride to Ravenel, spending the ride with his gaze fixed on the back of a yellow head that was infuriatingly not to blame for these attacks, no matter how much he wanted to think so.

damen is gradually easing out of his whole “everything that goes wrong is laurent’s fault” spiral. and he’s not happy about it

‘I don’t blame insects for buzzing when someone kicks their hive over,’ said Laurent. ‘I find myself curious about who it is that wants to see me stung.’

He tried not to think that the future of his country now came down to Laurent, talking.

Damen had been receiving grins and slaps on the back all day. Laurent was the recipient meanwhile of newly appreciative looks. Laurent had risen yet another notch in the esteem of the men, now that they understood that whatever they had previously assumed of his habits in bed, the Prince clearly galloped his barbarian slave under a tight rein. Damen ignored it. It was not the time for trivial matters.

‘Jord sent you?’ said Paschal. ‘He has a sense of irony.’

context: damen, the akielion, has been sent to help victims of the akielion attack

‘The raids are constant. And it was only six years ago that Akielons drove these men out of their homes, out of their fields. They have seen friends, family killed, children taken as slaves.’

HUH??? that doesn’t sound like a fucking pact to me!!

Damen looked at Laurent, and tried to imagine facing him over battle lines. He had been caught up in the energy of—creating something. Laurent’s determination, the ability he had to beat odds had infected him. But this wasn’t a chase through a town, or a game of cards. This was Vere’s most powerful lords unfurling their banners for war.

a kingdom or this? (this. choose this. and then you can have both. but you have to choose this first)

‘Tell him—his coward’s attack on Akielos killed less than we did.’ Proudly. Anger was not useful. It came over him in a wave, and so for a long time he didn’t speak, just stared at the dying man, flatly.

damen’s internal sense of right and wrong making him doubt his own nation…

‘Kastor,’ said Naos, ‘the false king. Damianos—should have been our leader. He was the prince-killer. He understood what Veretians are. Liars. Deceivers. He would never have—climbed into their—beds as Kastor has done.’

just wait until chapter 19

[fuckmeyer]

random! but I absolutely love your interpretation of Bella and Edward and was wondering what you think Bella would gift Edward for his birthday — i know she gifts him her visions as a vampire and compiles them in a lil montage, but I'm more interested in what you think she'd opt for left to her mere human talents

aw, thank you, anon! glad you like my interpretation of Bella & Edward. love your question. tricky! what do you get the rich century-old vampire for a celebration he typically ignores? the perfect gift requires a fundamental understanding of who this man is, what he wants, & what he needs.

i think (& believe this applies to canon too)...

Edward has a contradiction within him that leads to his suffering. he reads others' minds; no one can do the same, yet he hears everyone's judgments about him. most are projections, but what they all instinctively know is also what he fears: he's a monster. this skews his perception of himself because it "confirms" what he "knows." being a monster makes him inherently bad. selfish. cruel. violent. unworthy. soulless. his opinion isn't all negative: he knows he's curious, intelligent, musical, etc., but these traits all stem from or are influenced by his vampirism...meaning all his positive traits are shadowed by his "evilness"

by virtue of trying to be a better person, some part of him knows this is not who he truly is. deep down, he wants to be seen— the parts of him he's forgotten, denied, or ignored but exist nonetheless. he wants to be seen as good. worthy. deserving. human. lovable. soulful. he wants someone to see the suffering, the contradiction. he wants someone to see he's lonely. that his needs aren't met. that he's misunderstood.

part of why he's drawn to Bella is her "goodness" &, more importantly, her silent mind. not only does she draw the best out of him, but he can't see the worst of himself through her eyes. as annoying as he says it is, being blocked from her mind is a relief.

which leads us to another thing Edward wants: Edward wants to see Bella's mind. canon Bella kinda understands this by the end with the lil vampire montage, but as a human, she lacks self confidence & self awareness to understand Edward truly is interested in knowing her.

ok, so say she has more self-confidence & enough self-awareness & knows Edward well enough to understand what he wants and needs... here's how the birthday goes:

she would take him someplace where he can't hear anyone's thoughts (e.g. the meadow, but tbh it'd be fun if she took him someplace he's never been. he can enjoy the surprise & mystery.)

she would plan activities he's typically excluded from. e.g., a game of chess/cards, maybe a picnic (even if he can't eat, he can enjoy a human experience)

she would wear an outfit he loves on her (NO green sweater. sorry folks)

she might make a mixtape of songs she loved as a child & details the memories behind them, OR a mixtape of songs from their relationship showcasing her favorite memories together. i.e., giving him a peek into her mind through something they have in common

fucking CUTE ASS HOMEMADE CARD drawn/painted by her. if she was brave, all her mushy feelings she would never say out loud would go into this (or in an accompanying letter). i could also see her making a collage: she would cut out quotes about love from his favorite books, put in some pressed flowers he's given her, maybe mementos from their time together (ticket stubs, fave lyrics, scraps from their Bio homework with their flirty notes written in the margins, photos, etc). if she journals, maybe she cuts out some sections where she's writing about him. something that shows him that, just as he's grateful for every second of their time together, she values that time just as much

straight up she might ask him if there's anything he wants to do with her. if he wants to take her to a bookstore or record store & drop a cool thousand on her, she will grin & bear it. if he wants to slowdance with her for hours, great. if he wants her to go to Mike Newton's & kick him in the balls...well, maybe they can compromise & egg his house or sth

ok this idea won't leave my brain so here ya go: taking a favorite date of theirs but making it totally solo. thinking particularly of going to the drive-in theater. except instead of going to the drive-in, she would roll that Chevy out to the woods, there's a projector & screen all set up, the truckbed is filled with blankets & pillows & snacks, & they watch his favorite movie together

she would touch him. not sexually because that would put him on edge. but she would play with his hair & rub his back & touch his skin & cuddle & hold his hand etc., because LORD KNOWS this man is touch-starved after decades of being alone & this lack of contact has contributed to his low self esteem

ultimately, she would give him what he wants (her) while showing him that she understands what he needs (to be seen). THAT, to me, would be the ultimate gift for the man who seemingly has everything.

[tobiasdrake]

Looks like we have a case to solve. And maybe Yakou's coming with us? And we'll finally get to see him on a for-realsies crime scene?

Oh my god, I think he is! I think he's going to be joining us on this one! That's not unprecedented; He did pitch in and help with Desuhiko's plan too. He might only be Ultimate Naysayer where Yuma's involved.

Which. Like. Yuma's an inexperienced rookie who keeps directly provoking Peacekeeper retaliation. Yuma has never once successfully solved a case despite the intense heat he's brought down on the agency, and also people keep inexplicably dying around him. So. Fair.

Between Yuma's IOU debt and Fubuki's bluff-calling freebie, have they even made a tangible cent since they came to this city?

They left the coin they were using to fuck up cops on Yakou's desk out of respect during the ending. If that was the only financial transaction Halara's successfully completed since coming to Kanai Ward then they left with a negative net income.

And yet they keep saying this. Look at how happy they are to say it, too. Look at that huge fuck-off smile in the profile pic. They're having fun trying to turn a profit here. Making their sales pitch is their favorite activity, after long-distance cat-admiring.

Oh shit.

DID YUMA FUCKING TELL HIM ABOUT THAT!? Where. Where did he get this information!?

Either way, that was a masterstroke. Yakou's greatest skill is billed as negotiation but we rarely get to see it in action. The last time it was prominent was way back when he talked Yuma out of an arrest at the Amaterasu Express station, at the start of the game.

I'm... having issues with this setup. The more I think about it, the more confused I get for why this is working. Like, the surface-level "LOL Halara likes cats" gag is obvious but.

Like. Okay. First, as noted, how does Yakou know about this? This is Halara's most tightly-kept secret. They seemed to suggest that only Yuma knows about this.

But also, Halara can't have a cat. Yuma and Halara talked about this. Halara has to love cats from a distance because they're extremely allergic. Their skin gets super itchy any time they touch one. Yuma specifically asked Halara if they have a cat, and Halara fired back with, "Nope, cruel twist of fate gave me allergies instead."

So. What changed? Are the allergies not a problem now?

Whatever the case, they are chomping at the bit to crack this thing. I think Yakou has officially come closer to the spirit of Halara's mercenary dealings than anyone yet.

That's a singular dog. I'm sure that will be important. Unless the dog is Yakou. I suppose it could be Yakou. It's ironic that Halara is unmistakably one of the cats here and yet Yakou is the one with over 9 lives.

I'm not quite as hyped for Chapter Halara as I was for Chapter Fubuki. Fubuki was peak excitement. But with both Halara and Vivia to look forward to, there's still a lot to enjoy here. And I admit, I'm curious as to what Chapter Yakou will have in store.

Halara seemed to have a lot of respect for Yakou. So much so that they were still desperately doing chest compressions for him, several minutes after his body went cold. Vivia also had a strong admiration for the man, so it's clear there were sides to him that we simply didn't get to see from Yuma's perspective.

It will be interesting to see him through Halara's eyes.

And also, in general, to spend time with Halara. They're a great character in general.

[grayintogreen]

WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello. Chapter 39 is coming along nicely. I'm about 13k into what's estimated to be probably a max 19k chapter (three scenes left to write), so it'll be a little bit shorter than average for this arc, but I'm trying to streamline some stuff since the last two chapters involve a lot of fight scenes and conflict and there's just no time for a lot of downtime, etc.

As such, here's two small scenes for a preview!

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Mighty Nein Battle Tactic, code name Inclement Weather:

Primarily an ambush tactic for melee fighters, using the Ring of Obscuring or Marine Layer (or both for a thicker fog), the party hides within and signals their location with individual bird calls whenever someone gets within five feet of them. If the person close by doesn’t respond, then they are an enemy and dealt with accordingly.

Fjord never considered the psychological ramifications of trapping people in fog and startling them with bird calls until now, but maybe it was the just the audience. A bunch of kids with swords and a little bit of magic and something to prove rush into something like this, and suddenly they realize they’re in over their head and get scared. You would think this would inspire pity and you’d be right if they were not scared kids with swords and a little bit of magic. He was getting back exactly what he gave whenever someone wandered close to his section of the fog simply because his opponent was being too reckless.

They were children, but they were dangerous, and as much as it hurt him to fight lethally, he couldn’t see well enough to hold back even if his targets weren’t being completely erratic. Pragmatism won out, as it always did, and he took solace in the fact that he couldn’t see the bodies he was stepping over.

Someone came up on his left and he whistled his call and got back Beau’s as a response. He relaxed a bit.

“Inclement Weather, nice,” she said, casually- a bit too casually.

“What happened in there?” He shot back.

“I dunno, man. Why didn’t you catch the runner?”

Fair. He swallowed his pride and didn’t argue with her. He could hear Cree and Caduceus doing their calls from farther back and they both answered, their responses punctuated by the wet sound of a glaive being driven into someone’s intestines and twisting them like so much fucking pasta. Cree also wasn’t in the vicinity of fucking around with these people.

“Where’s Lucien?” Beau hissed, noting the absence of his call.

“Must still be fighting the arsehole who was watching us.”

“Must be a tough opponent if he’s still fighting.”

“Must be.”

☽

The blade in Eadwulf’s hands hummed like an Elven lullaby as he shook off Lucien’s blood curse. For fuck’s sake, he had hoped to have a few more rounds of it. Scowling, Lucien spun and danced and tried to land a hit, but now his opponent was playing for keeps and he wouldn’t allow a single thrust to land, leaving him constantly on the defensive, parrying the much larger blade to keep it from finding purchase.

Worthy opponent, his tail. It was only fun when he was winning.

“You’re slowing down,” Eadwulf grinned, managing to make even cheek look stoic. Was that disappointment in his eyes? Oh fuck that.

Vigor renewed, Lucien lunged like a demon in a furious dervish of spinning blades. Eadwulf’s defenses couldn’t hold against that kind of savagery. He faltered under the weight and dropped to one knee and Lucien, seeing that moment of vulnerability, trapped his neck between the two adamantine scimitars, panting and ready to take it as a prize.

His opponent looked at him with resignation, tinged with a sense of deep personal victory that this was how it would end, even if it wasn’t necessarily how he intended the fight to go. “I see why Bren is in love with you.”

Lucien startled. Bren… Bren… Who the fuck was Bren? Caleb?

A sense of abject fury rose so fast that the Beast was curious and supplied its own echo to the way he growled out, ”This whole time… You thought you were fighting Mollymauk?!”

[girlbossblackbeard]

Okay the brain rot worms are already hard at work painstakingly breaking down every single letter and piece of punctuation in this synopsis and here is the word vomit we've got so far:

-"Stede reunites with his crew" which we mostly already knew BUT this means there doesn't appear to be any time jump between last season and this season. We're diving right back in where we left off.

-"and go searching for Blackbeard and the Revenge" so they somehow acquire a ship (I'm assuming) in the very first ep?? And set out to find Blackbeard. We don't know what headspace Stede is in when they embark on this mission, whether it's about finding a lost love or saving Frenchie, Jim, and Lucius, or maybe (and most likely) both! I'm guessing Stede will be in a "I can fix him" sort of mode bc he doesn't know the extent of Ed's regression. I'm also envisioning maybe a scene at Jackie's tavern in order to get a ship?? Where are they gonna get this fucking ship??????? Or maybe they're just collecting intel from other pirates in this ep??????? EDIT: ALSO the separation of going searching for "Blackbeard AND the Revenge" makes me think it's definitely the "both" option I proposed earlier. I think Stede and the crew have their own missions/motivations for tracking Ed and Co. down, Stede wanting to get back to Ed and the crew wanting to get back to their family/home and also beat some serious ass for the marooning, which I'm very curious to see if that has any impact on tension/intra-crew fighting!

-"Jim does their best to escape their kidnappers" okay 1) I cannot fucking WAIT to see Jim kick some serious Izzy and/or Ed ass if that's in the cards for us, but maybe it's more of a sneak away situation? Also note the lack of a Frenchie mention, my guess is he's too scared to try to escape and/or maybe they discover Lucius in the first ep and Frenchie agrees to stay behind to help feed him? Why isn't Frenchie mentioned in this part at all????? Also "does their BEST to escape" really does make me think there's some kinda duel, this wasn't just a plan thwarted before it could begin, it sounds like Jim put their blood, sweat, and tears into getting off that ship, but-

-"but the Revenge is in for a surprise" soooo my first thought was "surprise, it's Lucius who isn't dead!" but then I realized I don't think his presence would put a stop to Jim's plan. I'm guessing the Revenge gets ambushed by another ship, either a pirate/privateer or the navy for essentially draft-dodging, and that forces Jim to stay behind and help fight for the Revenge. Hell, maybe it's even Hornigold who's come to try to take in Blackbeard since he actually did turn privateer in real life, but part of me thinks that's more of a s3 plot than s2. It could be that Stede and the crew manage to catch up with them already, but I really think they're gonna keep Ed and Stede separated for at LEAST 2 eps before we get a reunion simply because that's one of the basic tenets of storytelling in film, for the most part. Gotta milk that heartache for all it's worth so the payoff is even sweeter when it comes.

Idk man!!!!! This show makes my brain turn into chef boyardee beefaroni!!!!! Share all your thoughts on this post below please!!!!!