#military husband

[sweetcarrotsandroses97]

Paradise (what about us?) | JJK | SNIPPET

Pairing: military! husband! Jungkook x engineer! wife! Reader

A/N: Welcome, darlings, to my April's GOLDEN fic! This was inspired by "Paradise (what about us?)" by Within Temptation as well as the video game "Fallout 4" so you can thank my dad he played it while I watched :D I'll be publishing snippets here and there as well as progress on the story. I really hope you will like it and remember you can get access to exclusive fics with my Golden Membership I'll link below! ALSO, the poll I said I'd publish have been postponed because uni has been kicking my ass. That's why I'll be writing this story I'm currently inspired to write. Additional content will be published on Ko-fi

Warnings: apocalypse! AU, war! AU, dystopian! AU, violence, blood, gore, use of weapons, angst, some fluff here and there, survival! AU, married! AU, ft. OT7, futuristic! AU, sci-fi, military! Jungkook (I'm in love), oc is described to be shorter than Koo, more warnings will be added on the fic,

~SNIPPET

The world ended 150 years ago. 

And now, what was left to do was to survive in this new cursed paradise. 

“Have you ever wondered what it was like to live before hell fell upon us?”

“Have you ever wished you had died in the war?”

“Have you ever wanted to live so much like now?”

Those questions were commonly asked. Cruel questions. Questions you didn’t know the answer to. Questions that made you think in a world where you could only act. Where impulses won over reasoning. Where life was considered both as a curse and a blessing and sometimes, neither you nor your husband Jungkook knew if it was worth fighting for a fallen world or to join the dead, for in death there’s peace you’ll never find in this dark paradise. 

Get my GOLDEN Membership for exclusive fics, additional side-content and special snippets. As well as insights of my writing process! Don´t miss out on this opportunity of becoming GOLDEN!

April/16/2024

[monstax--bebe]

[tai-vision]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MILITARY HUSBAND!! 🐻🎀❤️🧁🕯️🎂

[foreverfearlessred]

saw Logan Sargeant in a race suit and race helmet climbing into a race car again and somehow now everything feels right in the world

[hoshizoralone]

Just saw your Halo fanart (they are adorable as hell btw) and honestly I’m curious to see how you would draw Arby from Halo 2. Again, you do some cute ass hell artwork.

thank you so glad you like ! i have not drawn the arbiter too much/only in scribbles:

(and someone on twitter asked about arbiter in the xbox outfit so)

[domwitch]

I really wish role reversal was a bigger thing I don't want to be the only one writing a story about men being the property of their wives 😭😭😭

[b-skvll]

I just want to wear his dog tag

[dangermousie]

A danmei lover's biased and incomplete het web novel rec list

@mercipourleslivres thanks for inspiring me!

When it comes to Chinese web novels, I mainly read danmei. I tend not to care too much for OP heroine with a hero who dotes on her for no reason as she fights with 14 year olds narratives, nor inner courtyard fights. BUT!!! There are some het web novels I like and so here is my biased and incomplete rec list. Most of these don't have OP heroines, and very little to none courtyard fights.

Before I start, my favorite het web novel authors are: Gong Xinwen, Mo Shu Bai, Peng Lai Ke, and Jiu Lu Fei Xiang. I have yet to read anything bad by them.

Anyway, rec list:

1000 Miles of Bright Moonlight - one of my ultimate favorites, this would make such an epic drama! A smart as hell heroine, a hero who is a monk and a warrior (but also terminally?) ill and such a vivid world and amazing secondary characters (heroine’s brother is possibly my favorite supporting character of all time) and so much angst and happy ending. This has an amazing romance but it’s not romance-centric if it makes sense - ML doesn’t appear for a while. But once he does, it’s worth it!

Accompanying the Phoenix - the one that just got adapted into The Legend of Shen Li, this is high adventure and cottage core and funny and tragic and powerful ML being putty in the hands of capable FL and just EVERYTHING.

Apocalypse Arrival - Gong Xinwen’s novels are made just for me. Her heroines are always powerful as fuck and rescue abused MLs. In this novel, our heroine who lives in the post-apocalyptic world, wakes up right before that apocalypse happens. She forms a survival crew and also rescues ML who has miraculous blood and has been drained of it and is now hunted after the rescue for it. SO GOOD!!!

Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script - so fucked up, so good, with monster hero who learns to love and be human and heroine who learns to love and be human (but from the other side, her tower of perfection.) Much better than the drama which I did enjoy.

The Blue Whisper - the drama was so-so, but the novel is a bona fide angst masterpiece, which really delves into what it feels like to be imprisoned or to love.

Counterattack of the Cannon Fodder Chambermaid - I remember starting this and loving the realistic feel and the heroine and wanting to stab the hero and @mercipourleslivres telling me to be patient. She was right, by the end I was on board with both the hero (who was abused and is rather autistic-coded) and the OTP. Anyway, heroine is a servant who was a concubine in the last life and got killed as part of a rich family’s harem intrigues. In this life, she just wants to keep her head down but her life gets derailed anyway. She gets sold away and eventually made a servant in the household of an exiled prince who takes a fancy to her and she endures it because what choice does she have? All she wanted was to serve out her term and become a small time merchant. This is quite realistic about lack of options for women, especially lower class women or upper class male attitudes (ML is never vicious or mean to FL but it does not initially occur to him to wonder if she fancies him or enjoys being his concubine or w/e.) It is a DELIGHTFUL slow burn tho as they grow to love each other and grow together and become one of the most wholesome cnovel couples out there.

Dandere General and His Lord - hi there, Gong Xinwen! God, I love this one. Heroine transmigrates from modern world into a brutal slave-holding world at war (think something like Warring States era.) Our heroine transmigrates into the body of a noblewoman who just hung herself. When she comes to, she discovers that woman’s twin brother was the ruler of a city poisoned by a rival claimant and the besieging army of said claimant is about to take the city and original occupant of the body and the rest of the family chose suicide as a way to avoid dishonor. Our heroine refuses, schemes with advisors to pass as the brother and rally the troops. Once the invaders are defeated, she keeps on the masquerade and rides off to one of the never-ending wars “she” is summoned to. Our hero couldn’t be farther from this. A slave and a son of a slave, he’s escaped a horrific, starving childhood during which he narrowly avoided being murdered or raped, and ended up in the army. When the story opens, he distinguished himself in battle and as a reward, he and a few of his fellow slave warriors are invited to a banquet, where they are given some alcohol and to be playthings of any nobles who want them. One of them does not survive this but ML is lucky - heroine feels terrible and so “claims” him for herself. Instead she just tends to his wounds and sends him back. She does not fancy him or anything, she is just a human being with a conscience. And the story goes from there.

Demon King's Repayment - another delicious Gong Xinwen tale with a powerful ML dedicated to capable FL. This one is a great fantasy plot (I keep imagining it as an animated series) and a sprawling cast of amazing secondaries (and secondary OTPs - there is, I swear, an OTP that is Dong Hua x Feng Jiu done thru GXW lens) to boot.

Doomed to Be Cannon Fodder - I hesitated to put this one on the list because by the end I was not keen on how misogynistic novel got to original female lead but it was one of my earliest novels and I loved it for 90% and it’s fucking hilarious at times. Heroine transmigrates as bit villainess into a novel, all she wants is not to die, but her new attitude of “pls stay away” catches the attention of her terrifying general husband. Honestly, imo still worth it.

Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir - my n1 novel on this list, smart and fierce and don’t really read this for romance because it does not start until really late, but ice cold heroine x ice cold hero both of equal brains and ruthlessness is everything. I went from loathing the ML to finding him fascinating to adoring him (and yet he softened around the edges only for FL, he never became “nice”) and loved FL throughout; secondaries are epic. If you read only one non-danmei web novel, make it this one.

The Emperor’s Beloved Ugly Girl - my n2 novel on this list. Our heroine is the unlucky laundry maid A’Chou. She is a di daughter of an upperclass family but her family got destroyed in one of the political upheavals of the time and A’Chou, only a small child at the time, was the only survivor and was made an enslaved laundry maid. Due to various events, at the start of the novel she is a laundry maid in a minister’s household and the minister’s beloved daughter is having a fit because she’s supposed to marry the former Crown Prince which may have been great a few years back but Crown Prince had since been deposed, tortured, imprisoned and now is living in the middle of nowhere under conditions that are too meager to be called house arrest. And he’s seriously crippled too. Understandably, the young lady doesn’t want to marry him! She’d rather kill herself and so she does. And so, a desperate plan is hatched - why don’t we pretend the laundry maid is the di daughter of the minister’s household and send her off? And so A’Chu is sent as the bride. She arrives to discover a broke, seriously injured man on the verge of death…and we go from there. This is so gorgeous and tender and slow in just the right way and like AAAAAA! Secondary OTPs (one of which is MM) are also epic.

Futu Tower - the drama (Unchained Love) was a mess but the novel is such a lovely, dark exploration of coming back to life, for the ML from his dark revenge-strewn path and for heroine from not being allowed wishes of her own. She is a tribute bride, he’s a (fake) eunuch, they are both servants who use themselves to achieve goals and find peace and happiness together.

The Grand Princess - a tale where both members of the OTP reincarnate as their younger selves after killing each other in their 50s, and get a new start, this is smart and slow and so good in portraying old souls in young bodies. Their rediscovery of not just each other but themselves and their passion for living is just AAAAAA!

Heroine Saves Gentleman - Gong Xinwen novel so we have a tough martial artist lady saving a very upper class scholar and it goes from there. If elegant gorgeous ML being saved and protected (and lovingly dommed) by awesome FL is your bag, pls come right in.

Husband Be a Gentleman - schemer meet schemer. He’s an idle prince she’s perfect daughter, in reality both are wolves out for blood. Mmmm. Very OTP gets together early and is us against the world.

I’ll Be the Male Lead’s Sister in Law - one of my all time favorite novels. Heroine is made to marry a disabled nephew of the emperor. He used to be a victorious god of war but went mad and now is basically locked away and kept as a beast. GOD I LOVE THIS NOVEL SO MUCHHHHH! So much hurt/comfort and awesome OTP and after he eventually recovers, all he wants to do is to fight and murder things and dote on wifey. MMM. He’s honestly one of my fave MLs.

I Married a Disabled Tyrant After Transmigrating - if you have a Florence Nightingale complex, this is for you. Heroine wakes up as tribute bride to an almost dead dragon lord and slowly nurses him back to life as his rivals try to murder him. They are both utter adorable babies!

Let the Villain Go - another Gong Xinwen novel, this and Apocalypse Arrivals are AUs of each other. Heroine is surviving in the apocalypse, ML is the “bugbear” of the world but in reality just reacting to all abuse and torture and after she accidentally saves him, devotes himself. Fun fun fun!

Long Wind Crossing - Amazing ML and FL who grow together, clever plot, arranged marriage to love etc etc. Oh, and one point he feeds her his blood to keep her alive, what’s not to love? (Adapted into Chang Feng Du/Destined)

Lost You Forever - this is a short but delicately wistful tale of trauma and loss and love, wrapped in a high fantasy setting but so relatable despite it.

Love In Another Life: My Gentle Tyrant - so so fucked up in the best way! ML cannot live with OR without heroine. It opens on them banging in jail night before her execution (ordered by him) with corpses of men he killed for trying to defile her cooling nearby. If you want healthy relationships with respectful boundaries, gentle and considerate male leads who are modern men in period clothes, OP heroines who have everyone help them and are OP to the max, fluff and wholesomeness, that is about the worst book for you.If you want complexity, dysfunction, darkness, pain and an absolutely lyrical even if fucked up story, come right IN!!!!I am so fucking in love with the melancholy heroine, with ruthless psycho hero and the endless regret and devotion and paaaaain!

The Marquis Is Innocent - our heroine is a beautiful woman married to a warlord who hates her family. (Yes, this was gonna be The Prisoner of Beauty until SZE tax scandal.) Except she's a transmigrator from the future who knows how it ended last time around and has no interest to end up this tragically. This is in my top 5 - FL is smart but believably so (and doesn't have super battle powers) and ML is a believable period warlord. The way their relationship develops so gradually and the way his character changes so gradually as well (and the way they slowly fall in love, her slower than him) is just amazing. It is such a smart, nuanced, gorgeous slow burn. With some gonzo sex scenes :P

Mulberry Song - you like tragic endings? Come right IN! This is short and heartbreaking and wistful and very what-if.

Nightfall (Ever Night) - so long but also so smart and unusual and bloody and tho it’s not primarily a romance, you will never see another ML who loves his FL as much as Ning Que does his Sang Sang. 

Offering Salted Fish to Master - in some ways, this novel is a mess, but I am recommending it because this is a rare example of "nope he's 100% a villain and murderdude and odd, but he does love the heroine" that the author commits to.

Pihanjin - yet another awesome PLK novel, this is once again, like with Marquis, a ruthless man and a beautiful woman getting a second chance on a second go-around. FL is a lot more wounded this time around though. If you LOVE watching ML grovel and slowly, gradually win FL over, this one is for you.

Princess Agents - a dark tale with an incredibly competent and militarily powerful/ruthless heroine and two terrifying men who love her (but neither is as terrifying as she is.) There is an OTP switch halfway through that shockingly makes sense and it's just SO SO GOOOOOOOD

Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage - this is probably the one “typical” novel on this list, heroine is reborn as her youngest self and gets revenge on those who wronged her last time around. It is really really well-written and heroine is competent, hero is doting and powerful etc. It’s not a trope I tend to love but I do when it’s done THIS well.

Rebirth of the Tyrant’s Pet: Regent Prince is Too Fierce: Borgias cnovel style! Our heroine was empress in last life and put her husband on the throne tho he did not love her. However, he had her executed and had his half-brother carry out the orders and heroine died horrifically. She opens her eyes and she’s a little girl again. The OTP this time around is heroine and half-brother executioner. Why do I love it? Heroine is smart and tough but also this is a rare rebirth novel where heroine does NOT decide to seek revenge for past life wrongs because they haven’t happened yet! In fact, she sees ML abused and stands up for him because he’s a kid and no kid should be mistreated and this go around he hasn’t done anything wrong. She also gets and likes her former life husband. Anyway, this is fakecest galore because she’s supposed to be their half-sister and while she knows (from past life) she is not, they do not and fall for her anyway. ML is especially gonzo, at one point carving chunks of his flesh to save her. He’s feral and unhinged and she’s the one person he worships because she protected him and like - it’s all awesome. (I love secondary ML too.)

Reborn to Love Lord Qiansui - yes, this is a eunuch novel! If you like gender tropes reversals, this one is for you. Heroine is a tough martial artist, hero is a smart as hell and powerful eunuch. A real eunuch. Heroine finds out she owes him her life and decides to protect him. This is a total delight and an awesome love story between two really scarred people. And yes, there is sex - heroine literally reads manuals on pegging :P

Return of the Swallow - so freaking long! But really good. Heroine is neither transmigrator nor reincarnator, just a smart period woman. She is a lost family daughter taken back in. Her father is a minister in a dying empire (father-daughter relationship is one of the best things in this novel), her OTP is enemy general, and the smartness and the awesomeness of this all knows no bounds.

Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes - probably the wackiest JLFX novel I read, this is quite different from Love You Seven Times drama that was adapted from it. Our deity protagonists go through a bunch of lives figuring out they fancy each other. It's light like a souffle but just as delicious.

To Be a Virtuous Wife - some people prefer 8 treasures trousseau but I never warmed up to that one. This one is so good, with smart people (who actually enjoy sex, a ratity) and a perfect mix of plot and romance.

Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator - my very first web novel. A lot lighter than a lot of the ones on this list but a total delight. Heroine transmigrates into a novel as the heroine; she has no interest in drama or chasing true love, she just wants to live a nice life with her nice husband. Too bad for her, her husband has reincarnated into his younger self and remembers how she betrayed him, so is not interested. This one is funny and light and romance doesn’t start till late on but a total delight!

Wishing You Eternal Happiness - this is tied with Dreamer as my favorite het web novel ever though it couldn’t be more different from Dreamer, with its hard-edged and hard-souled protagonists ruthlessly cleaving their way to the world and, eventually, each other, its smart cynical air. Except in one thing - the world of Wishing is just as bloody and dark. Its two protagonists are gentle, deeply wounded souls who may find salvation in each other but even something as basic as safety almost seems out of reach.

Jliafu, our heroine, is neither a modern-day transmigrator, nor some exotic princess or demoness. She is very much a period woman of her time, from a weathy merchant clan, whose beauty is her curse. You can tell the novel’s tone from that utterly bleak opening chapter where she, a favorite concubine of a capricious dying emperor, is ordered to be buried alive with him and is not even given the “grace” of white silk but slowly suffocates in the coffin, scrabbling at the lid. There is no grand threats of vengeance on her part, not dramatic opera events. Just despair and death. The whole introductory chapter is haunted by emotional ghosts - the empress’ unrequited love for the monster on the imperial bed (turning into desire for Jiafu’s suffering after he dies), the emperor slowly dying in his prime after waging too many wars, and his fear of being haunted by Pei Youan, a brilliant if sickly minister who died of illness long ago on one of imperial campaigns. There is no triumph for anyone, only loss.

When she wakes up as still a young woman, all she wants is to escape the same fate. There are no plans for power or revenge, only a desire for survival. And so she latches on asking for help from Pei Youan, the only man in her past go-around who showed any consideration and desire and ability to protect her, though he barely knew her. Pei Youan is probably my favorite het web novel ML. Despite his brains and ability, he drifts through life. In modern terms, he clearly has depression. One of the biggest, best joys of the novel is watching these two very good, very quiet, very wounded people discover happiness and love with each other. I sort of want to cry just thinking about it, tbh.

The Yandere Came During the Night - a bit of fluff that’s oddly delightful. Heroine is reborn as a (fake) sister of ML, she hurts her legs saving him and the “siblings” form a bond that ends up in fakecest delight. They are both smart and efficient and he becomes a sexy marquis etc.

[robiinurheart33]

The devil works hard but soap fans work harder

[gideonnavsenormousbiceps]

Been rereading sunshine court and I want to know what the fuck is going on with Jeremy and his family. how did he destroy the family. What does "end the way you started" mean. Why does he argue with his older brother and what the actual fuck is up between him and the stepfather and him and the step grandfather. WHAT HAPPENED AT THAT FALL BANQUET. also was there a fifth knox sibling that died somehow? really hoping we learn more about Jeremy's family and his whole thing in the second book because I'm dying to know. I'm very intrigued. Given how much he seems to hate his stepfather and his stepgrandfather I think maybe the fall banquet has something to do with either the end of his parent's marriage or maybe it's something specifically that Jeremy did? With how his sister said "end the same way you began" it seems like she means his freshman year banquet, and I wonder what could've happened with him just starting out at USC unless it had something to do with his family? Idk but I also suspect that his family (maybe just certain family members) has an issue with Jeremy being gay mostly based on a whisper of subtext and lots of conjecture. anyways lots to think about until tsc2 and boy will I be thinking about it

[catox240]

pretty cod men,, ✨

cred: i edit these in pinterest’s collage! you can find me with the username 240

[ambivartence]

he's pookie ur honor

[aintgonnatellyouwhy]

Xu Kai (許凱)

[shhroomer]

You guys ever read the most beautiful, jaw dropping, feet kicking, leaves you with a feeling of yearning fic that it possesses you? yea that was me anyways here’s vampire Kyle and his annoying assigned bodyguard who’s also a witch

(ALSO IF YOU WANT TO READ SAID FANFIC ITS A KYLE X READER FIC CALLED ITS FALLING FOR THE IDEA BY FEDOSAURUSREX ON AO3 THAT INSPIRED ME TO WHIP THIS WHOLE AU UP)

[rodolfoparras]

Thinking about having the most mundane conversations with Price while being in rather compromising positions with him | 18+, MINORS DNI

Being captain meant having little to no free time for yourself and that was a sacrifice Price was willing to make since it didn’t affect anyone other than him.

Most of his time was spent in the gym, out on the field or locked away in his office dealing with the pile of paperwork that never seemed to stop growing. Free time for him was a rare thing and when he did have some time for himself he was always prepared that it would be cut short by someone or something.

As mentioned before it was a sacrifice he was willing to make but it all changed when you came into the picture. His constant absence had now started to affect someone else.

And you knew it was eating him alive, could see it in his eyes as you jokingly told him how cold his side of the bed was.

You’d see him nervously chewing his lips when he heard you say “long time no see” after he’d gotten back from yet another long mission that had kept you away from him.

You had countless conversations about it, argued even, well it was mostly Price arguing with himself about how you deserved someone else, someone who’d always be there, not the ghastly presence that was the captain himself.

You reassured him every time of course, told him you knew who he was, what the relationship would be like, knew what you were getting yourself into when you’d ask him out. You were in the military yourself and were no fool to what was bound to come out of this relationship. Besides he made it all worth your while when you actually got to see the man.

Especially in moments like these when he’s seated between your legs using either his hands or mouth to make you cum while he’s asking about your day.

Albeit seen as something mundane, he treasured the fact that he could ask about your day since he rarely got to spend his days with you.

So when he’d get the chance, usually early in the morning or late at night, he’d ask you about it; what you will do, what you have done or how it’s been. Tell him everything, he wants to know all about it.

“How was your day angel? ” he’d ask while kissing along the expanse of your thighs “tell me about it yeah?”

Will deliberately ask questions that will keep you talking long enough while his mouth is occupied. Despite not being able to talk much he’ll still hum and nod when you talk, will pull away from the spot between your legs to ask follow up questions or even make comments about what you had said.

If he’s just using his hands it’ll feel a lot more intimate of course since he’s much more present in the conversation, lots of eye contact, gentle smiles, calm and mellow voice as he asks his questions while his hands do all the work.

It makes an interesting sight really. You’re either pinned down to the bed or propped against a wall panting and body shaking while Price is between your legs, hair trapped between your merciless fingers, cheeks flushed but voice ever so composed as he asks about your day.

If you were to just go by his voice you'd never guess what he was doing.

But you can’t deny the fact that there’s something so exciting about having him ask about your day at work while putting his very own hand to work or having him ask about some movie or book you read before he buries his head between your legs, or hearing the word “close?” as he allows you to rant about whatever’s been on your mind lately.

And if you happen to answer a beat too late- too busy getting lost in whatever he’s doing with his mouth and hands, he’ll remind you to keep talking again.

One-two -three taps on your thigh in warning, before he’s pulling away from the spot between your legs with a stern look on his face.

“When I ask something, I expect a response”

You’d just furiously nod at that, biting down on your lip and hips bucking up at him, just wanting for him to get back to it.

“Good good” he’d say with a gentle smile on his face, no trace of that sharpness from earlier “ now how was..“ is what he says before he goes back to spot between your legs.

Even once you’ve reached your peak, and he’s holding you close as you’re coming down from it, his eyes will widen in realization as he says “wait you never finished telling me about..”

You’d just sigh and roll your eyes at the man you love so much.

It’s different - non traditional in every sense but it’s something you truly cherish in your relationship.

He’d even mention some of these things you talked about while in public, which would have you blushing while he’d play all innocent about it.

“What? I was just asking about..”

[Bonus: does not let anyone impose on these moments. Early mornings and late nights are reserved for you and you only, to hell with anyone who disagrees with it.]

[secriden]

so. lets talk about an unhappily married rich tai tai!tongrak and bodyguard!mahasamut au

Note: tai tai (太太) is slang for a trophy wife of a rich man who doesn't work and lives a life of luxury. (think Desperate Housewives types)

(inspired by this inexplicably TVB drama-esque fortpeat photoshoot and a feverish exchange yesterday with @williamrikers):

tongrak winds up being arranged marriage off as a child to the son of another rich family (something like lian/kuea in cutie pie, but minus any actual feelings/history). tongrak's family is new money rich and not as established but his husband-to-be is from one of those old money practically royalty families and MUCH wealthier. tongrak decides to uphold the agreement once he's of age cuz it'll help his family establish their business too and and he doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life anyway. so he gets married right out of university to his fiance who is. fine. you know, fairly handsome and decent in bed and stuff. tongrak can't complain.

so things are just normal and honestly kind of boring and tongrak spends most of his days shopping or hanging out with connor and vie when they're not busy or writing for fun. he likes writing a lot, and his husband allows him to indulge in his hobby although he's told in no uncertain terms that he can never try to get published because that wouldn't be a 'good look' for the company.

but over the years his husband grows increasingly controlling, needing to know where tongrak is at all times, limiting his time with his friends (especially connor), and growing more and more jumpy and paranoid as if he thinks someone is after him.

things come to a head one day when their house is broken into. the invaders use tongrak to threaten his husband (he gets a smacked around a bit) and this is how tongrak finds about the secret safe, and the shady business partners, and the fact that their entire fortune is now tied up in some very risky business ventures with loose ties to the mafia. (like they're still rich af but if things go wrong the whole company could crumble like a house of cards)

tongrak is furious. husband tells him he'll handle things, orders him to be silent. threatens to go after his sister and mother if tongrak goes to the authorities. so tongrak has no choice but to keep quiet, but he demands that he gets to find a personal bodyguard and insists that he gets to choose him personally.

enter: mahasamut. tongrak finds out about him through connor, and mahasamut agrees to move from the island to Bangkok to bodyguard for a truly insane amount of money because why not? (connor doesn't tell tongrak that mahasamut had refused the job until he'd sent him tongrak's picture) ((for the purposes of this story, mahasamut's has a vague military background))

at first, tongrak and mahasamut don't exactly get along because mahasamut is cocky and sarcastic and rude and pushes all of tongrak's buttons. (he's also so fucking sexy and tongrak finds himself waking up to wet sheets for the first time since his literal teenage years. he starts something with his husband but although they both come tongrak still feels like something was missing).

the 2nd time their home is invaded, the husband isn't around and mahasamut manages to fight off the 3 men sent to their home who were suppose to beat tongrak up as a warning to his husband. who is evidently Not Handling It.

in the aftermath, tongrak is very shaken and at one point had gotten cut because one of the thugs had shattered a glass cabinet which triggered a flashback of his memories of his abusive father. mahasamut winds up talking him down from his panic attack (although the invaders manage to escape while mahasamut's attentions are on tongrak), and holding tongrak until he stops shaking.

things thaw considerably between them. mahasamut is so incredibly gentle with tongrak over the next few days and keeps trying to cheer him up/distract him from his worries cuz he gets super jumpy. they go on cute grocery shopping dates outings so mahasamut can cook for him. tongrak also delights in watching mahasamut try all the fancy fusion food you can only find in Bangkok. he tells mahasamut about his writing and mahasamut asks to read some of his work and tells him what he likes about his stories and tongrak's never felt so seen in his life.

husband comes home from his business trip and tongrak and he have a huge yelling match where husband dismisses tongrak's fear because "nothing really happened to you, you're fine" and keeps insisting he just "needs more time to sort things out" and "stop being such a drama queen about this".

(mahasamut stands outside the room, fists clenched, feet rooted in place. he knows he can't do anything but the way tongrak's voice breaks with his tears nearly makes him reach for the door.)

husband goes on another business trip and tongrak says fuck it. he doesn't feel safe in his home, so he asks mahasamut if they can go visit his island. husband is displeased but can't really find a good reason to say no to the request, so tongrak books the flights and the private yacht and mashsamut watches in fond amusement as tongrak packs his bag with completely unpractical cothes - all silk and velvet tops and leather and corduroy pants with silver buckles.

(mahasamut secretly packs a much more practical set of clothes in his own bag for tongrak: shorts and light cotton shirts and hey if he adds a few of the semi-translucent shirts he loves on tongrak that's his business.)

the island is truly paradise, and tongrak is able to forget the whole mess of the situation with the business and his husband. mahasamut takes him out to sea, teaches him how to free dive and shows him all the secret places only the locals know. talks about how much he loves the island and its people and how greedy corporations are starting to slowly choke the life out if the land. opens up about his father and how he's learned to be strong because he never had anyone to rely on. how he's learned to embrace violence so he'd have the power to choose gentleness.

when tongrak leans forward and kisses him, it feels inevitable. it feels like fate.

[explicit stuff under the cut]

what are we doing? tongrak thinks, even as he goes pliant under mahasamut's hands, licks his fingertips, before sucking them into his mouth.

where is this going? mahasamut wonders, as he watches tongrak sink down on his cock, pretty pretty lips caught between teeth as they both gasp for air.

i'm going to keep you. tongrak vows, as he presses his fingers against the red marks littered across his collarbones and lets himself fall back into masasamut's endlessly warm embrace.

(they don't talk about it, even though they probably should. but tongrak doesn't know what he can promise, and mahasamut is too afraid to reach for too much only to watch tongrak slip entirely from his fingers.)

they fuck like animals for the week they spend on the island, learning each other's bodies inside and out. tongrak has a series of discoveries about himself and his body that has him questioning how he could have lived in his passionless marriage for the past 10 years.

the days leading up to their return to Bangkok are hard. tongrak hates watching the marks mahasamut left on his skin slowly fade again. mahasamut starts marking him with his come instead - on his chest, his lips, his cock, his hole; rubbed into his skin like an invisible promise. it's not enough, but it helps; settles tongrak inside his skin just a little bit so that he can bear going home.

returning home isn't easy, and once-familiar spaces feel like strangers; tongrak cannot recognise himself anymore in the rich tapestries and ostentatious furniture. he feels hallowed out, like mahasamut dug into his core and then put him back together wholly differently.

he hates that he has to be careful now. he can't touch mahasamut, can't allow his eyes to linger too long for fear that his husband's servants will report to their master that tongrak's been unfaithful. he knows, now, that his husband can be cruel, that he has ties to people who can make mahasamut disappear and suddenly tongrak's gained a slew of new nightmares overnight.

his husband's hands feel like brands on his skin. he can't refuse, because he has no reason to; tongrak's never refused sex before, so it would be too obvious if he suddenly starts now. but its torture and tongrak hates the splintered look of pain in mahasamut's eyes the morning after his husband returns home.

the night after his husband leaves again, tongrak lays awake until 3 in the morning, waiting for the house to fall completely silent around him. he sneaks his way to mahasamut's room, crawls into his bed, lets mahasamut kiss away his silent tears and quiet his frantic apologies; lets mahasamut make love to him until dawn begins to break. when mahsamut comes inside him, something fundamental slots back into place.

it's mahasamut that breaks the silence. eyes wide, shoulders hunched - its the smallest tongrak has ever seen mahasamut and it pulls something sharp inside his ribs.

i think i'm in love with you, mahasamut tells him, and tongrak has to stifle his sobs in his fist.

(the servants are waking up soon, he has to go, but this matters. this matters.)

i love you too, he whispers back and the way the first rays of the sun break on the smile on mahasamut's lips makes tongrak's breath catch inside his chest.

when tongrak sneaks back into his room, barely settling under the covers before one of the maids knocks on his door to 'wake' him up he feels settled in his skin in a way he never has before. he doesn't have an answer yet, but he will.

something has to give, and for the warmth of mahasamut's arms and the desperation in his kisses, tongrak will find a way.