#my GOD a year later these two go from names and vague 'ok they were in specula imperatoris'

[clockwork-sparrow]

Specula Imperatoris

A tower comes falling down. Parts: [1] 2 3

1 - Smoke Break

Set during events of Stormblood - CW: Strong language, war, loss

The cloudless skies stretch on, near-infinite over Gyr Abania’s natural splendor. Specula Imperatoris mars it.

The monstrous watchtower spindles over the skyline and casts a constant shadow over the land, as black as the metal it’s made out of, and today, a pair of slackers goof off at its peak. Only specially authorized employees are allowed to be up this high, but Oliver Jen Luti has his ways. With the outside breeze blowing strongly against their cheeks, he and his guest enjoy the view while idiotically trying to get a cigarette to catch in the wind.

Flick. “Fuck.” Flick. “Fuck.” Flick. “Fuck! Ollieee, it keeps getting blown out!” His visitor wails. It also doesn’t help that the wind keeps tossing her ginger hair into her face, blinding her for seconds at a time between attempts.

“Here. Let me just --” Oliver first tries to guard the lighter’s flickering flame against the wind. Another powerful gust tosses her hair right into the fire, so he decides to grab onto her ponytail instead. “Try now, Gloria!”

“Oww, you’re hurting me. My head isn’t a turnip, you dumbass!” She whines loudly.

“Yeah, cause you’re not a turnip, you’re a goddamn carrot. Now stop complaining and get on with it!” Oliver claps back with a laugh.

Gloria mumbles swears under her breath as she gets her cigarette to light. Then, the two of them stare vaguely over the landscape, gazes eventually drawn towards Baelsar’s Wall in the east. Oliver breaks the silence.

“The Alliance broke through. So...this place is next,” he says. Somehow, the exhaustion in his voice prevails over fear, and Gloria squints in irritation.

“What? Noo,” Gloria replies. She’s heard differently (assuaging nothings from management), but Ollie tends to have his ear closer to the ground. She takes half a second to reconsider. “...Oh shit. You think we should run?”

“And desert the XIIth?” Oliver says, glancing at Gloria. She grimaces as he continues. “Look, we’re noncombatants, so other people get to fight. And even if we do lose this skirmish, I think we’ll be fine. You ever heard of the Ironworks?”

“Shut it, Ollie! We’re not supposed to talk about them!” Gloria hisses. She bumps her shoulder against his and he laughs with his cigarette still balanced between his lips.

“Yeah, I know.” He taps ash into the drop below, smiling. “I know.”

The conversation dies down again, although the silence is comfortable and meandering in the way it tends to be between old friends. Gloria leans her head against Oliver’s arm and decides to look in the other direction instead, and the sight of Castrum Abania comes as a much needed comfort.

“Why don’t you switch departments and come work with me and Florus? There’s endless shit to do when it comes to the cannon,” she suggests. The idea of any of these strongholds falling is difficult to believe for Gloria, but then again, Baelsar’s Wall apparently fell. Better to play it safe.

“Are internal transfers still happening? I thought there was a freeze.” Oliver blows out smoke and gives Castrum Abania a considering stare. That’s where Gloria and Florus were stationed and, if Florus’s stories were to be believed, management made working there a living hell. Still, some distance between him and danger would probably be wise.

“Oh fuck, yeah. I’m not sure...But I can ask when I go back. Put in good word. You know, all that jazz,” Gloria promises with a smirk. 

Even in wartime, the technology department had its benefits. That’s why she’s visiting Oliver during her downtime and why she’s sheltered from the reality of how bad things are. Anything to keep calm and carry on, so what’s a little more censorship on a population that’s already bombarded with propaganda? Oliver finishes his cigarette and crumbles it into his pocket with a sigh.

“Yeah, thanks. Let me know,” he mutters. 

Gloria pouts and tugs down on his jacket.

“Hey, meathead! I’m going out on a limb here, and the least you could do is not look so down!” Gloria exclaims. Oliver sends her a pained look, then glances away, pissing her off even more. She tugs harder. “Out with it, Ollie. OUT. What’s bothering you?”

He fixes his hat and lets out another sigh, but Gloria doesn’t take the hint. She tends not to. 

“...I don’t know. I guess I’m tired,” Oliver eventually says. These aren’t the right words for the mess that’s spiraling around in his head, but still, he has to try. Otherwise Gloria’s going to be on his ass 24/7. “It’s just...enough is enough. Something has to change. I don’t know what, but just. Something.”

Gloria frowns, expecting another drawn out rant about the wonderful Populares and the terrible injustices within Garlemald, but for once he doesn’t deliver. Instead of filling the air with hot takes and salty calls for action, Oliver is silent. He’s squinting at something beneath them with a puzzled expression on his face.

“Hey, are people rioting?”

[ejzah]

A/N: And today we have another round of Rosa’s parents are too good-looking for their own good. Loosely based on a friend’s story.

***

The Hot Professor

“No, I think you should be good with those three references. Of course, feel free to add more if you want to or if it supports your argument,” Rosa’s intro to law professor, Anne Werther, explained. She glanced over Rosa’s sources and outline one more time, then handed them back, and Rosa tucked them into a folder marked with the class name. “Did you have any other questions?”

“I don’t think so, but can I have a copy of the handout from last week?” Rosa said.

“Of course! I meant to give you that in class today, but of course I forgot.” Tapping her forehead, Anne pulled a face. “Sticky notes only help if you actually read them.”

Rosa smiled, easily forgiving her. “It’s ok.”

“What do you have after this?” Anne asked. “If you’re not busy, I can grab that handout for you now.”

“My next class is at two, so I thought I’d go to the union for lunch. I have plenty of time.”

“Perfect! Just let me get my bag, and we can go.” Gathering up an array of papers and other materials, Anne hastily stuffed them into her shoulder bag, and placed it on her shoulder, wincing when a few of her black curls got caught under the strap.

“Ok, I’m ready. This will also give me the perfect excuse to check in on the cute new teacher,” Anne told Rosa, leaning towards her conspiratorially as they walked into the hallway.

“Oh, is he in the law department?” Rosa asked. Maybe she shouldn’t be so curious, but she found Anne endlessly fascinating. Not in the least because she didn’t mind sharing more personal details most of the faculty kept to themselves.

Rosa mentally ran through the other law professors she’d met, wondering if any of them matched the vague description Anne had given.

“Yes. He just started this year and let me tell you, this man is fine. And so intelligent it’s not even fair. I’ve been trying to come up with a reason to ask him for coffee.”

“You could just ask him.”

At Rosa’s suggestion, Anne shook her head, curls bouncing around her shoulders. “We’ve only talked a couple of times and it’s mainly been in the faculty lounge or in passing. I don’t want to put myself out there if he’s just friendly.”

“If he’s as nice as you say, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind getting coffee,” Rosa said.

“You’re probably—oh, there he is! Ok, just act normal.”

Rosa chuckled, eagerly following Anne’s gaze down the hall to catch a glimpse of the mystery man.

Instead, she saw a familiar figure dressed in jeans and a dress shirt, briefcase in one hand. Rosa pressed her lips together as Deeks stopped in front of them.

“Morning, Professor Werther, Rosa,” he greeted them.

“Oh, I think you can call me Anne at this point,” Anne responded, her voice pitched lower than usual. It took all of Rosa’s effort not to stare at her. “By the way, I caught your lecture on criminal law last week. It was fascinating.”

“Ah, thanks,” Deeks said, ruffling his hair at the compliment. Anne practically swooned, and Rosa decided they needed to move on before this went any further.

“Professor Deeks, we need to stop at Anne’s office,” Rosa said firmly. Deeks frowned slightly, but didn’t question her use of an honorific.

“Then we’ll be heading for the union if you have any free time,” Anne added hopefully.

“I need to make a couple of calls, but I might join you after that,” Deeks told her. “Have a good lunch, ladies.”

“See you later.” Rosa smiled tightly, caught between amusement and disbelief.

As he walked away, Anne pressed a hand to her chest. “Oh my god, isn’t he gorgeous?” she asked in a whisper way too loud for Rosa’s comfort.

“Objectively, he’s attractive,” Rosa allowed, feeling weird even saying it.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew him?” Anne continued. “I thought he mostly taught higher classes.”

“Well, I didn’t know you were talking about Deeks.” Pausing, Rosa inhaled deeply. “And, he’s also my dad.”

Anne froze beside Rosa, her eyes widening to an almost comical size. “Rosa, that’s not funny.”

“Oh, I deeply agree.”

“You’re not joking?”

“I’m afraid not. If it’s any consolation, you wouldn’t be the first to express interest,” Rosa told her.

With a groan, Anne looked back longingly the way Deeks had gone. “And there’s no chance he’s single.”

“Extremely happily married,” Rosa confirmed.

“I have the worst luck,” Anne sighed. “This is going to make things very awkward.”

“For a little bit.” Rosa sighed grimly. “Fortunately, I’m very used to this by now.”

[quaranmine]

Your word-of-god on my theory is driving me UP THE WALL!

Ok, so let me make a timeline here, let me know if I'm wrong at any point.

He leaves his campsite on the 12th for a day hike, taking minimal supplies with him. He gets hopelessly lost and takes temporary shelter under some low-hanging tree limbs for the night.

He finds the mountainside where he fell early on the 13th and, with a pair of binoculars, can see the creek in the distance. Let's say the rangers and medical examiner were correct, and he was heading to the creek because, at this point, he's probably in the early stages of dehydration (his presumed cause of death)

He tries to climb down safely, and we all know how that went. He makes it as far as he can on a broken leg and possibly numerous superficial injuries that wouldn't have been evident a year later for obvious reasons. He takes shelter under the overhang and... never leaves.

Grian reports Mumbo missing on the 16th when he misses checking in.

Grian leaves Colorado and subsequently arrives in Cody, WY to join the search on the 17th and is immediately forcibly subjected to a nap.

At this point, Mumbo has been under that overhang for the better part of five days. If he was already dehydrated, even mildly, before he even fell, and especially if he lost a medically significant amount of blood from any abrasions or lacerations suffered during the fall...

There is a significant probability that Mumbo was already dead by the time Grian joined the search.

Grian never had a chance of finding him alive, did he?

Damn...

OOOO

Okay so your timeline is a bit different than mine. But I'd like to note—my idea of what happened to Mumbo in general is actually pretty vague. It was one of those things where it didn't actually matter much to the plot since it would never fully be known. Also it made me sad to think about LMAO (imagine that.) Actually though? I had a draft of chapter 11 where when Grian was unknowingly retracing Mumbo's steps, it would be intercut with italics/otherwise clearly formatted Mumbo moments. So that you could see both of their stories converge. I scrapped it because I disliked the ~3 paragraphs I'd written for Mumbo and never came back to it.

So, the dates for this can be whatever you want (12th or 13th) since the specifics don't matter much. I think the main difference is that I didn't have Mumbo getting lost as the first step, I had it as the second. This means that I had Mumbo leaving the trail intentionally to get water, and getting lost on the way. In my scenario yes, the rangers were right about him heading to the creek.

I mainly had this idea because of my experiences with backpacking in Big Bend. Namely, it's just....very, very, very hard to bring enough water on a trip like that. So people bring water filters. When hiking the South Rim in Big Bend, you can refill your bottles at Boot Spring (though you shouldn't rely on it having water since it's the desert.) I have done this before. (Pictured: my dad lol)

I figured that Mumbo probably needed to refill his water (Grian stated he left no bottles at camp, not just that they were empty, so he would've brought comparatively a lot for a day hike. So maybe he planned on refilling them later in the day.) I figured that maybe he just....didn't want to completely overshoot his camp to go back to the creek he crossed a day or two before. Maybe he thought his off-trail route was shorter. Maybe he was confident he could find the trail again. It doesn't matter, all that matters is it brought him to the place where he fell. Or maybe, related to what you said—maybe he made this somewhat silly decision because he was already dehydrated.

From that point on, I think the rest of your timeline matches with mine. You are right that they wouldn't be able to tell any other superficial injuries a year later. Actually, I've got no idea if they would be able to tell it was dehyrdation that did it after that long. That's MY idea of what happened. But probably it would have been more accurate for the rangers to file it under a general blanket of exposure/infection from injuries/dehydration.

I can't say if Mumbo was dead or not by the time Grian joined the search. You're 100% correct that it's very possible. The only reason I don't confirm is that I don't know the timeline myself, nor does the timeline really matter that much, since even if he was alive when the search started, it would've only taken a day or two more before he wasn't. And since he wasn't in the search radius....You are right that Grian never had a chance.

But I think it's less sad that way, honestly. Devastating still of course. I just think it's worse to linger for weeks when nobody is looking in the right place.

[happytroopers]

Sick days // Hunter x reader

My google history search after this: what do they call toilets in Star Wars? Star Wars rabies?

Summary: I would do anything for Hunter, even take care of him when he has food poisoning. I saw a sick day prompt list and didn't end up using anything but it inspired this cluster fuck

TW: throwing up, alcohol mention but no use, bad writing I just love him ok

"Hey, have you seen Hunter? I need him to sign off on some damage reports." You announced as you entered the cockpit of the ship as it barreled through hyperspace, throwing a pointed look at Wrecker who was the main reason for most of aforementioned damage reports.The other members of Clone Force 99 made some sort of acknowledgment of your existence. Wrecker grinned obliviously at you as continued doing bicep curls with a GONK droid while Tech made brief eye contact with you before going back to some sort of machinery he’d dissected. Crosshair was the only one to actually somewhat answer your question, giving you a sassily quirked eyebrow and motioning down with his toothpick. "I’m assuming that super vague motion would mean he’s in the cargo hold?" You pressed but you had already turned around to go find the sergeant. "Should we tell ‘er?" You heard Wrecker ask but when no one answered him, you assumed things would be fine. Besides after almost a year with the Bad Batch, you’d walked in on them in all sorts of compromising moments. Nothing would surprise you anymore.

After popping down the ladder into the cargo bay, you did a cursory sweep. Crosshairs rifle was disassembled on a crate for cleaning, more of Tech’s mechanical experiments in a heap by the bay doors, your own trunk of belonging… but no sign of Hunter. "Hunter? Are you down here?" You poked a little further into the sleeping quarters, like any room that housed four soldiers who didn’t know how to mop, the smell chased you right back out. Shaking your head you thought to yourself, That should be considered a hazard zone. You paused by the fresher to listen for water running but heard nothing, which officially meant Hunter hadn’t been anywhere you checked, Hell, did he jump out of an airlock? Just as you were about to give up, you heard an awful noise come from the fresher. Like a bantha dying in a fire. Did some animal stow away? Absentmindedly you considered getting Wrecker to handle it- the last thing you needed was contracting some planet-specific strain of rabies. But then you considered that in the process, Wrecker would probably destroy the entire bathroom. And then everyone would be without a bathroom for the next two days… and that could get ugly. Then the noise came again, bringing you out of your mental debate. With a heavy sigh, you decided you’d have to check it out yourself. So, after pulling a random tool off your belt, you let the door slide open. To your surprise, Hunter was the first thing you saw, bent at the waist over the vac tube, bracing himself with one shaking arm against the durasteel wall. His helmet was discarded carelessly two feet closer to the entrance, and the enhanced trooper was heaving breaths, looking rather haggard. Almost stupidly the first thing that came out of your mouth was, "Oh my God, did the animal do this to you?" Hunter actually startled, which had never happened before. He was impossible to sneak up on, it was his whole thing. When he did look up at you, he looked confused, among other things. His skin pallor was four shades lighter than it was supposed to be, slightly greenish gray, and dew dropped with sweat. "Animal? What animal?" "The animal that made that-" You cut yourself off suddenly feeling dumb, now lamely dropping your defense tool. Then the disbelief, "Oh my- that noise was you?" He didn’t get the chance to answer again, instead turning his head back towards the vac tube to wretch again. Now with that information, the haggard appearance made more sense. "Hunter… you look like shit." You scolded, hesitantly moving closer, “Like, legitimately corpse like.” The sergeant coughed a bit before throwing you glare, “Thank you, (Y/L/N), that’s very helpful. Did you need something?” Damage reports long forgotten, you ignored the question instead more concerned with the trooper in front of you, “Why the hell are you standing like that? What’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”

Hunter was confused with this sudden line of questioning, turning his head to gag a little bit but this time he kept it under control to answer you, “Clones don’t get sick.”

“So this is normal for you?” You snarked right back, “Here, try kneeling, it won’t take as much of a toll on your body like that.”

At first he didn’t listen to you, just when the ship hit a patch of turbulence it triggered another wave which forced him to a knee. Then it hit you, clones don’t get sick, they’re engineered with near perfect immune systems.

“You’ve never been sick before have you?” You whispered sympathetically, he legitimately didn’t know how to handle being sick. Frowning, worried welled up in your stomach. It was almost painful to watch the man be so sick, after all how many times had he saved you or helped you out of a tight spot, so you looked away until he quieted again. This time he took a minute to catch his breath so you took some liberties.

“First, let’s get your hair off your neck and face. You’ll feel less gross.” You promised, going behind him to gently scrape his long hair into a makeshift bun and tie it off with a spare hair tie.

“What are you doing?”  He croaked, but didn’t pull away from your hands.

“Taking care of you, now shut up and let me.” While your voice was still kind, you were just stern enough not to argue with you, “Now, lean up.”

You didn’t wait for him to follow the orders, instead you started unfastening pieces of armor on his arms before moving on to the chest and torso pieces. Moments later he was able to move a little freer and his armor from the waist up was neatly stacked to you right.

“There, that should help with the overheating.” You announced, not mentioned how he couldn’t bend over properly with a piece of plastoid against his abdomen. You gave him another once over, he was taking deep breaths with his eyes closed, little baby hairs already escaping your rather pitiful man bun situation. You’d never seen him so vulnerable.

“So clones don’t get sick, why are you throwing up like my roommate after her twenty first birthday?” You asked quietly, gently moving the stray bits of his forehead.

“Would you believe that I ate an expired meal ration?” He asked with enough doubt in your voice that you immediately shook your head.

“You’re not that stupid Hunter.”

“I lost a bet with Crosshair and had to eat part of the Yalbec stinger. Tech did say it was a delicacy on some planets.” He sighed, dry heaving again.

“I also remember him saying it was mildly poisonous to humans.” You reminded him, going past him to the shelves that held shower things. Reaching into your own caddy, you produced a rag before wetting it in the sink.

“Yeah, I lost the bet before he enlightened us.” Hunter admitted, visibly relaxing when you put the cold rag on his neck before sliding into a sitting position next to him, “How do you know all this stuff?”

“Well, us normies get sick a lot.” You teased, laughing when you caught the disgusted look on his face, “But, I learned most of this stuff taking care of my hungover friends.”

“Oh, just your friends?” It was Hunter’s turn to sass you, but you just rolled your eyes. The two of you fell into a halfway comfortable silence, so you took your data pad to do a little research on Yalbec poisoning.

“You don’t have to stay for this?” Hunter reminded you, using the back of his hand to wipe sweat off his forehead. When you looked back over to him, he was staring at you. Even when puking, his eyes could stare straight through you. Hurriedly, you dropped your gaze back to your data pad.

“Well, you spend all your time taking care of them,” you motioned up towards the cockpit, “And me. So someone has to look out for you when you need it, you don’t have to suffer alone.”

His eyes softened as he relaxed slightly, you were glad to see his coloring was already getting better. But after a few moments, even the softness of his stare brought a flush to your cheeks so you just cleared your throat, “Well, the good news is that the holonet says someone of your size and weight will be fine. Symptoms should pass within twelve hours at the most, and it’s already been five.”

“Thank you, (Y/N).”

Your head snapped back up, he rarely ever called you by your first name. Somehow it almost felt intimate.

“Of course, Hunter.”

You scooted a little closer so that your knees would touch. Closer than you had ever been to him, but he didn’t scoot away. You smiled at the small contact, shaking your head.

“Can I impart on you a bit of civilian wisdom?” You asked teasingly, not even waiting him to nod. You took the rag off his neck and used it to dab sweat off his forehead, “Don’t eat random things on a dare, especially things you cut off foreign animals.”

“You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?”

“Not a chance.”

[dirtyoatmeall]

Bokuto’s Cool Sister (Tsukishima Kei x Reader)

A/N: Here is an actual fic! I have a list of shit to write I’m slowly working through, next will either be more head canons or a one shot. I’m re-watching AOT rn to get caught up with the new season so sorry about being absent! Luv u guys a lot

Pairing: Tsukishima x Bokuto sibling reader (No pronouns or gendered language used toward reader, not referred to as sister just used for title purposes), Bokuto x Akaashi, Kenma x Kuroo

Word Count: 2k! (longest ever!)

Warnings: Mentions of underage drinking (everyone at least 20), mentions of secs

~~~

You groaned as you neared the door to your apartment, seeing that the door was not cracked open a little for you to nudge open like you had asked your brother to do as you pulled into the complex. You remember him vaguely mentioning friends coming over, and you can hear music faintly coming from the apartment, but he always checks his phone, especially when you're coming from the store. 

You try to balance the milk on your knee to open the door, and just as you think you have it, the door doesn’t budge. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. Your brother never locks the doors, why would he now? His car is in the parking lot and you can hear noise inside, so he’s home. Instead of putting groceries on the ground and fishing your keys out of your purse like a normal person, you make the decision to kick the door, not very hard, but hard enough to be heard in the apartment. 

“Kou! Why is the door locked? Will you come open it for me, I have groceries!” You can hear your brother tumbling towards the door, apologies flying out of his mouth a mile a minute. The door swings open, revealing your brother, grimace on his face. “Sorry! I totally forgot you were at the store, I think ‘Kaashi might’ve locked it.” You sighed, not being able to stay mad at your brother’s friend. 

You walk in, jerking your head in the general direction of the parking lot, “I have some more in my car, can you go grab it?” He nods, grabbing his key ring and jogging out. Both of you had the spare key to each other’s cars, which turned out to be more convenient then you originally thought. 

You move toward the kitchen, yelling out a greeting to your brother’s boyfriend. “Akaashi! Next time you come over to fuck my brother let me know before so I can have my keys out, or just leave the door unlocked and go in his room!” You had a joking, yet scolding tone of voice, imagining his flustered state at your words. What you did not expect, was a hyena-like laugh to come from the direction of the living room. You were almost positive your brother said Akaashi was here. 

You place the groceries on the counter and make your way to the living room, freezing in the doorway. Akaashi was there, but so were 3 other people. Akaashi was red, shaking his head that was resting in his palms. There was someone playing on a gaming console on the couch who had their legs thrown over the lap of the laughing one, and one on the other couch, tall and blonde, who looked weirdly familiar, who had a faint smirk on their face. You grimace, you didn’t realize your brother had actual friends over, he usually just meant Akaashi or the occasionally Hinata. “Oops sorry ‘Kaashi, didn't know Kou was having other people over.”

He lifted his head, face still slightly flushed and smiled. “It’s fine (Y/N)-san, do you need help with the groceries?” You shook your head, pointing behind you in the direction of the kitchen, where you could hear your brother rummaging around. “Nah, I made Koutaro get the rest. If you guys are staying for dinner let me know and I’ll make something instead of making him go to the food truck for me. By the way, who are the rest of you? I literally thought Kou was lying about having friends.” 

The blonde one snorted, you narrowed your eyes slightly, he looked so familiar, you just couldn’t quite place it. The one playing the console seemed familiar too, you think you might’ve seen him on Twitter. The only one you didn’t recognize was the first to speak. “I’m Kuroo Tetsuro, we all played volleyball together in high school, I’m surprised he hasn’t talked about us before.” 

You nod in understanding, “Oh so that’s where. I’m sure he has, I just probably wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying. I mean you guys seem kinda familiar, more the other two than you, were you like benched a lot?” The quiet one next to him looks up to see his reaction and snorts at the disbelief on Kuroo’s face. “Yeah, Kuro wasn’t very good.” The half blonde says, giggling softly as Kuroo gasps and yells at him. “Kenma!” He turns to you, “I was the captain and a very good player actually.” You laugh as Kenma behind him makes a face that says ‘That’s what you think.’ Before Kuroo could whine some more, Akaashi speaks.

“Kenma-san is a YouTuber, which is probably where you’ve seen him. He and Kuroo-san played for Nekoma, I’m surprised you didn’t remember them from that, you remembered Lev-san.” Kenma actually laughs at that, and Kuroo is pouting as Akaashi continues, a cheeky smile on his face that told you he purposefully sprinkled that last little tidbit in. 

“Tsukishima-san, aren’t you a museum-studies major?” The blonde on the loveseat across from the other three nods, and you snap your fingers, finally realizing where you know him from. “Oh, that makes sense! I think we’ve had a class or two together. I’m an archaeology major.” Tsukishima’s eyebrows raise in surprise, but before he could speak, your brother finally comes in from the kitchen.

“(Y/NNNNN), I put everything away, we were going to go to Onigiri Miya tonight, wanna come?” You nod and swat at his had when he ruffles your hair before plopping down to his boyfriend. You go to leave your brother and his friends, taking one last glance at Tsukishima, who seemed to have the same idea, he averted his eyes the moment yours met, and you smirked to yourself on the way to the kitchen to re-put away the groceries. You loved your brother, but he definitely did not know where to put things, your thought validified as you pull the eggs from the pantry, switching it with the instant ramen packets in the fridge. Good thing he was a great volleyball player. ` Later that night, you join the boys for dinner at Onigiri Miya. You take two separate cars, you driving your brother and Akaashi and Kuroo driving Kenma and Tsukishima. Kuroo made a joke about racing there, which you took as a personal challenge, much to the dismay of Akaashi. You would’ve won too, but you had to pull over to kick Koutaro in the backseat for playing Nickelback. He buys your food as an apology, and Kuroo’s food because he won (you venomed him later for your share of food, which he promptly venomed back to you with angry faces in the description.). The 6 of you sat in a corner booth, you were sandwiched between Akaashi and Tsukkishima with Kuroo between your brother and Kenma on the other side.

The table was loud with jokes, laughing, and yelling as everyone ate their meals. You snuck drinks of ‘Akaashi’s’ margarita when the waitress wasn’t looking (You were 20 and Akaashi submits to peer pressure from you easily). “(Y/N), are you not 21 yet?” Kuroo asked as he watched you nudge the drink toward Akaashi as the waitress talked to the other table. You turned to Kuroo, cheeks just barely flushed. “Hm? Oh no I’m not, I’m two years younger than you guys, I turn 21 in a few months.” 

Kuroo hummed in understanding and got a suspiciously mischievous look on his face. “Oh, you’re the same age as Tsukkishima, and you guys have similar majors, how interesting” Your eyebrows furrow and you snort. “So do over a thousand other people Kuroo, its not a super niche subject.” You turn to Tsukkishima and continue, “Hm I didn’t realize we were in the same year, I thought you were older, must be your grumpy grandpa like disposition.” Akaashi explained what disposition meant to your brother and Kuroo snickered before he was shut down by Kenma, who has been doing an excellent job of roasting Kuroo at every chance he gets. “You laugh like everyone doesn’t call you old man behind your back.” 

You laughed for the umpth time that night, Tsukishima watching you, he could really see the sibling resemblance when you laughed. You throw your head back and laugh loudly, from your gut much like your brother. Tsukishima looks away from you, catching Kuroos eye in the process, the blonde rolls his eyes at the smirk on Kuroos face. Out of the 5 of them, he was the only one not in a relationship and Kuroo has been trying to set him up since Bokuto and Akaashi finally got together at Akaashi’s graduation. 

Tsukishima looks at you again, watching you take a sip of the margarita, and subsequently watches it almost come out of your nose as you laugh at something Akaashi said to Bokuto, clutching the former's shoulder, hand over your nose. There was no doubt that you were pretty, and you did have similar interests. His thoughts were interrupted by you turning to him, knee-knocking against his thigh. “Have you taken Anth 267?” He nods “I took it last quarter.” He replies and watches you sigh in relief. “Oh thank god, I’m having trouble meeting her insane essay expectations. I usually have ‘Kaashi read through mine but would it be ok if I sent them to you? Or at least bounced topics off you?” When he agrees you smile, unlocking your phone and sliding it towards him, a new contact open. “Oh great, here, why don’t you put your number in?” As he fills it out, his eyes involuntarily flit to the text message appearing at the top of your screen. From: That Sunny Bitch

Ew you think Tsukki’s hot? He’s a good volleyball player but he was a meanie in high school 😝

He held back the urge to smirk. That must be Hinata based on the name. He quickly finished the contact and gave your phone back before giving his to you, and you quickly typed in your contact info, as well as snapping a quick contact photo. It was super close to your face with your tongue out, a good tell of your personality. You give his phone back and the two of you talk more about school and classes before everyone gets ready to leave. 

Your brother stands up first, and you take advantage of his large frame and chug the rest of the margarita down, smiling big at Akaashi who chastises you about drinking it so fast. You all wave to Osamu as you leave, and before Tsukishima can get to Kuroo’s car, he turns to the group, smirking. “I've got to run Kenma by our apartment to grab his charger, we’ll meet you guys.” You nod, handing your keys to Akaashi and turn to Tsukishima. “You can sit in the back with me Tsukishima!” Though you might be promoted to passenger if Bokuto makes bad music choices again.” You glare at your brother as you finish the sentence, and he whines about how his taste ‘isn’t that bad!’ 

The car ride back to your apartment is short, and you spend it chatting with Tsukki, as you’re now allowed to call him, and you spend the rest of the night with the boys, playing games and watching movies until early morning. Kuroo and Kenma leave first, and Kenma made your night when he looked you in the eye and said goodbye. Tsukki left about an hour later, his roommate picked him up. Akaashi ended up staying over, and you were glad your bedroom was on the other side of the apartment from your brother’s. You fell into bed content with the day, happy you were able to meet your brother’s friends.

You awoke mid-day, and you browsed your notifications before dropping your phone on your bed when you read one text message, heat spreading over your cheeks. You definitely do not remember changing his contact name.

From: Hot classmate Tsukki

Hey, how about we go over your essay over some coffee tonight?

[fraks]

LEVERAGE REDEMPTION 1x15 THE MUDDY WATERS JOB

- i can't believe this is the first part of the finale already. @cminerva and i have been speculating about the finale since the episode titles + descriptions were released. well, since before that, really, but the titles and descriptions gave us so much fodder, oh god. my prediction was that they'd do another first/second david job that would wreck us completely. so. you know.

- i watched all eight eps in a row, the night they were released, but @cminerva only got to watch the first two, so i had be very vague and spoiler-free in the texts i sent her when all i wanted to do was YELL, but once i got to the finale, i couldn't possibly be vague anymore, so i stated typing up my reactions in a notes file. that's gonna be super useful for this post now.

- ok let's do this! harry's daughter sneaking out, interesting start. harry's ex is beautiful. but jesus she REALLY traded down.

- harry delivering their mail. :') and eliot fixing the place up. EVERYONE IS SO AT HOME AT THE BASE. 😍 omg sophie's wearing a shirt that could definitely belong to harry.

- uhhhh wasn't tom baker nate's alias? side-eyeing the writers tbh. miss river song—hardison c'mon. LMAO TEDDY BEAR. harry and soph are so delighted, i love it. fjsjfhskdjfjjdjdjd "MISS SOPHIE DEVEREAUX, FROM ALL THE WAY FROM ACROSS THE POND!" harry your accent is ATROCIOUS. but THEY'RE FLIRTING!!! "stop it!" fjakfbskfjksfj HELP ME I AM DYING HERE. (now we've had him saying her name while she's actually in the room, but in a horrible accent, so like. all i want is one soft "sophie" right to her face. bonus points if they're naked.)

- "i need to give you some dialect lessons." - "i'll take 'em." i'm sure you will, harry. 😏 the only time i was ever this eager to learn things from someone was when i was head over heels in love with them, so. just saying.

- nooooooooo. sophie can't leave. SHE CANNOT. ugh parker's reaction is everything. she loves sophie so much and has been fighting to keep her with them since 1x01. and i don't think sophie has realised how much it really means to parker to have her there.

- i also live for harry's reaction. he's so crushed because he thought they had something. not the something he wants, but a friendship, at least. and she just talks so casually about leaving them all behind it crushes him. you can actually SEE his heart breaking.

- and then later he sends parker off with eliot and specifically assigns sophie and himself to a task, TOGETHER. i'm guessing he either hopes he can change her mind or, failing that, he wants to spend what little time they have with her before she goes.

- but first, harry's daughter shows up. lmao because she used the tracking app harry tried to sneak onto her phone to track HIM. :') i like breanna's nerd girlfriend, but if they'd made becky a few years older, breanna would currently be falling all over herself trying to impress HER instead. (yes, this was originally on my wishlist for s2. also yes, i am okay with not getting it.)

- "he never did business with really bad people like—" - "...like i did?" CALLED IT. @cminerva and i figured the strain in their relationship would have been harry's work, and not just the many hours of it, but more that he defended so many evil people. "i get it." oh maaaan it KILLS him to know his daughter thinks so badly of him. because he IS a good man, at his core.

- "what, was the monopoly man busy?" gjajfjskfjekd PARKER!!!

- lmao harry defends ethan so eagerly, sophie's little smirk makes me think SHE thinks harry and ethan might have been an item. before he drops the bombshell of ethan being married to harry's ex, that is.

- breanna going on strike is... idk, i'm torn. it's obviously mostly played for laughs, giving harry and sophie the task of hacking (😂), but also, the last time they weren't sure what to do, they voted, and the majority won. there was never any talk of strikes? it feels kind of weird and ooc to me that breanna just says no and basically abandons them, especially after harry's asked for help. and her attitude about the whole thing... not helping.

- but lmao harry planning to learn hacking from the binders. what a NERD. a clueless, naïve nerd, but a nerd nonetheless.

- "how hard can it be, hacking?" oh sophie, sweetie.

- lmfao "stupid little lawyer man." - "breanna!" - "i did something wrong..." you think, harry? 😂

- omg when eliot and parker come back to the base and ask what happened, sophie says "we (!) tried our hand at hacking", but harry points to himself while she says it. this is one of the many, many reasons why i love this character: he's so absolutely willing to own up to his mistakes—not just the big, obvious ones they're all trying to redeem him from, but just the small ones, too, and i think that's mostly noah's acting choices, i doubt any of that is scripted. it's making me very emotional because it's obvious noah loves this character, too. and the WAY he takes the blame for the things he did wrong just reinforces my headcanon of anxiety disorder harry who has had therapy.

- you REALLY left harry for this dude, grace? really? i mean i know looks don't mean anything in the long run, but jeeeeesus. this dude doesn't even come across as a good guy.

- lmfao parker carding harry i cannot. "oh look, he's human." i love her.

- that red top on sophie looks amazing. my wishlist for s2 had her in another red dress, but i'll take this, too. red on sophie is just... [chef's kiss]

- OUCH. that ethan guy is a piece of work. "i believe in being civil." okay two things. a) i like that harry doesn't, idk, hate his ex and that he didn't make it hard for her to leave and find someone else, someone even he considered "better", cause even back then, he KNEW what he was doing was wrong. b) but also, this "being civil" thing i think might just have been another symptom of his attitude of "never picking a side". it's a really easy way to make sure nothing ever touches you, that no one can ever blame you. if he HAD fought for his ex and made it hard for her to leave him, she could have thrown that back in his face. by staying "neutral" (or as he calls it "civil", cause lbr, there is no true "neutral" in a breakup like that), he made sure none of the immediate blame could fall on him. SHE left him. SHE asked for a divorce. stuff like that. but he knows now that it was precisely that, his INaction, that put the final nail in the coffin of his marriage. which ties in very nicely with what he says to sophie in that one scene in jackal job.

- "probably doesn't hurt that because of me, you don't have to pay alimony or child support." YOU LITTLE TWAT. harry has made a LOT of mistakes in his life, but i don't believe for a second that he would've minded paying alimony, let alone child support. i mean, he's a lawyer, for god's sake. if he'd wanted a pre-nup that would've kept him from paying alimony, he probably could've had one. and we KNOW he's loaded. and especially now, he no longer cares about the money. i mean, he's been living in a room in a slightly run-down old theatre with four housemates, basically, instead of staying at his presumably huge and fancy own apartment or house.

- another "sophie". i want harry to say her name all the time thanks. 😭

- EVERYONE EATING TOGETHER AGAIN! lol i can no longer watch these guys (or any other fictional characters) eat chinese food without thinking about the audio commentary for the original show. 😍

- oooh good plan, parker. you go to the platform and take eliot and breanna with you. it'll give harry and sophie some time alone. 😏

- "the security of my family" u g h harry listen. your daughter is your family, OBVIOUSLY. but your ex is not. if anything, this TEAM is your family now. this is what @cminerva i were afraid of, that by making harry's ex's husband a bad guy / mark, the writers would open the door for harry to go back to his ex. and i'm 100% against that, and not only because i ship h/s. that's not even my main reason, actually, though i will admit it plays a big role. no, the main reason is that harry is a different person now. and going back to his ex would throw him back into a life that he once had but left, even just by NOT acting when she left him. and if he's back in that situation again, well. it's very easy to fall back into old patterns once you're back in a familiar environment, isn't it? i'm not saying his ex would drive him to doing bad things, or that she did that when he first went crooked. no, that was HIS choice. but thanks to harry and now ethan, she's always had a certain standard of living that she no doubt wants to keep, and harry would fall over backwards trying to make that happen, and lbr, these guys don't exactly make money from conning bad guys. as far as we know, the original team still lives off their one big score from nigerian job, personally. hardison probably makes sure leverage international has some income for bases and clothes and props and whatnot, but personally, i doubt these guys would take so much as a penny from a mark if that penny could instead go towards helping people. so harry has not had any official income since the beginning of the season. he probably has assets that generate income for him, but the money he got from being a lawyer was probably his main source. and he'd want to make his ex happy, so he'd probably slip back into doing bad things, and i DO NOT WANT THAT FOR HIM. my little baby thief who's been working so, so hard on his redemption.

- SOPHIE WITH A PONYTAIL. i was so looking forward to this and it's just as hot as i expected. what is even hotter than i expected is that PINSTRIPE VEST SHE'S WEARING.

- "why would you be covered in oil?" ghskfhsifhkehfkejf 😂 it only just occurred to me that these bits are 4th wall breaks, in a way. i just hadn't realised because they're DONE SO WELL. (i ususally hate 4th wall breaks.)

- "oil happens." gjskfbksfnksbfjefbjdnfjeke I CANNOT.

- lol i have absolutely no notes about this upcoming h/s scene from the first time i watched the ep, so i'm guessing i was too overwhelmed.

- "i thought i might find you here." SHE LOOKS SO GOOD. and she knows where his ex lives, which i assume is where they used to live together.

- "when i lost grace, i reconciled myself to the fact that i lost her to a better man. a decent man. maybe i didn't deserve her." OUCH. and exactly what i suspected. there's no way that this wonderful, wonderful man doesn't have anxiety over all the bad things he's done.

- "is that it? have you been seeking redemption for grace and becky?" GOT IT IN ONE, SOPH.

- "if you can't use the law as a guideline to show you what's morally right and wrong, then what do you have?" a) leverage asking the TOUGHEST questions since 2008. b) he's not wrong. c) i don't think i can imagine HOW hard it must be for him, this whole redemption process. i mean, he knows he did the wrong things. but how does he know that? because it FELT wrong. and because he saw other people's pain. and then because the crew has been telling him. but the law, the thing he's spent his entire life on, tells him the exact opposite. so all this time, all these months now that he's been with the leverage team, there has always been a part of him that has told him what he's doing NOW is wrong. because it's against the law. and i think a part of him is always going to be struggling with that if he stays with the team.

- "mr. wilson, i think you need to recalibrate your entire thinking about morality. life isn't always as clear-cut as we'd like. life's complicated." THIS IS IT. THIS IS THE DEFINING QUOTE. OF THIS ENTIRE SHOW.

- "how did you recalibrate your thinking about morality?" - "well. there is honour amongst thieves. i started there." i am SOBBING. i know this episode and this entire season really is about harry, but my GOD. sophie has grown SO much, since nigerian job obviously but also since the end of leverage 1.0 and even since the beginning of 2.0—so, so much. talking about harry and his arc comes to me fairly easily, but talking about sophie is just. hard. she means so much to me. i might come back to this in another post. i do want to talk more about her arc in this entire season.

- on a more shallow note, JEEEEESUS gina is gorgeous. and idk if that was a coincidence or ~filming magic, but it's overcast in this scene EXCEPT for the moment when sophie says "there's honour amongst thieves". it's not a lot, but you can tell that the sun comes peeking out for that one second and hits her face and she just GLOWS. JFC.

- also i know it probably doesn't mean anything, but when sophie leaves, the way harry turns and looks back at what i assume is his old house (i.e. his ex and his old life), then turns back to sophie and looks at her and then walks after her DOES THINGS TO ME. it could be such a beautiful metaphor for the way he's being torn in half.

- awwwwman, the kids talking about sophie leaving. "she's gotta find out who she is." !!!!!! I JUST!!!!! i think i've got something about this in my "yell at @cminerva" notes for the next ep, so i'll just. stop for now. but i have all the feelings anyone has ever had about this.

- nooooo i think harry just got all dressed up to meet his ex. GDI WRITERS WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

- yeaaaah they've just tanked the ot3. i am UPSET. "i've always admired you and hardison's relationship." AS IF YOU'RE NOT PART OF THAT RELATIONSHIP YOU DUMMY.

- "i think the reason hardison and i work so well is because he's the first person who saw me. i mean, he really knew me." is such a sweet thing to say, parker.

- awwww but. that was an eliot+parker scene that would be SUPER cute family vibes if it weren't for that bitter anti-ot3 aftertaste...

- LMFAO SOPHIE IS HAVING ELIOT'S BABY 😂 i know at least one (1) person who will appreciate this tidbit. i love how sophie just like, goes with the "sweetheart". you can almost SEE her thought process. "ah, eliot's not alone. guess i'm having his baby!" and lmfao breanna "baby?" dhakhfksbdjejd

- harry doing actual lawyering in court? HOT AF. i don't have a secret thing for lawyers or the law, but watching someone—anyone—be super competent is always crazy attractive. (yes, this show makes me sweat a lot.)

- lmfao "how did you meet the missus? was it romantic?" what this episode DESPERATELY needs here is a flashback to the first time eliot saw sophie, playing lady macbeth in chicago back in nigerian job, and a shot of his horrified face.

- ugh harry don't run after grace. if this were any other show, or fanfic, grace would now ask harry about that gorgeous woman in the red dress. "oh grow up, harry. what did you think was going to happen? i was going to leave him and come running back to you?" wow maybe it was harry who deserved better all along. yes, it was naïve and frankly wrong of him to assume or even hope for this. but it was a GENUINE hope, a genuine wish, and i can't blame him for that. if he really HAS been trying to find redemption so his ex would come back to him (which i don't think he has—maybe that was part of it for him, but he's been wanting to be better for himself, too, and above all, for his daughter), it's going to be even harder going forward, knowing that outcome he hoped for isn't going to happen.

- "where's harry? all his stuff is gone, he cleaned out his room." oh shit they're doing it THEY'RE REALLY GOING THERE THIS IS FIRST DAVID ALL OVER AGAIN, ONLY IN REVERSE. oh jesus christ i did not expect this.

- PARKER+SOPHIE CUDDLE I CAN'T. 😭 I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH. "you always knew that this was gonna be my last tour. i'm just not the same person i used to be. i need to go and figure out who the person is that i'm going to be." I AM A WRECK THANKS.

- and so is eliot ugh. these people threw him a baby shower like, YESTERDAY. leverage redemption really not pulling ANY punches, are they?

- oh fuck. OH FUCK. "well, let's just say that i've decided to recalibrate my entire way of thinking about morality." OH FUUUCK.

[wisherbysharlight]

Adrenaline Rush of Admitting a Crush

Word Count: 1622 Ships:Prinxiety, mentioned Pintroverts AO3: here Thanks to @vintagesquid for the beta! Description:  Spoilers for FWSA!  Virgil can’t wait. He just can’t. He needs to do this now, but there are limits to even the adrenaline high of bravery...

Roman is right there. And he’s smiling, and dancing around the room, and squealing in a way he hadn’t in months, if not a year, and Virgil has to say something.

“Do you need to pee?”

He can’t stop shaking his hands, bouncing in place. He’s hearing Roman spouting off ideas left and right, sees his delighted expression, and,

“Are you sure you don’t need to pee?”

Virgil can’t wait. He just can’t. He needs to do this now, but there are limits to even the adrenaline high of bravery. As impatient as he is, he has to wait for Thomas to not be paying attention to them.

All this energy, all these emotions, all this bravery, he has to do it now, before he loses the adrenaline high, but of course Thomas still needs them. He still needs to run back through the entire scenario at least five times, to check and double check and triple check that it actually happened. Virgil can’t fault him for that, hell, he wants it all too.

But Roman.

Roman is right there. And he’s smiling, and dancing around the room, and squealing in a way he hadn’t in months, if not a year, and Virgil has to say something.

Finally, finally, Thomas goes upstairs to change, claiming to try to use some of his nervous energy for a run. They won’t be summoned again for a bit, most likely, and they’re safe to sink out into the mindspace’s version of the living room. No one else is around, and this is it, this is his moment, he can do this, he squares his shoulders and he looks at Roman and he opens his mouth and-

“You don’t have to say it Virgil,” Roman says before the sound can leave Virgil’s mouth, “I know. I won’t tell the others about,” he waves his hand vaguely at Virgil’s eyes, “sparkle city, or whatever, until you’re ready. I know you, worry. Heh. About the whole ‘emo nightmare’ reputation.”

Virgil’s shaking his head furiously before Roman can even get his whole sentence out, the shadows under his eyes darkening in concern, “No, Roman, they- if they don’t know already I don’t care if they do now. I’m excited, it happens, no use trying to hide it.”

Roman looks concerned at the change, taking a hesitant step towards him without seeming to think too much about it before stopping himself, “Then - then what’s up, Legion of Gloom?” “I wanted to talk to you. About today. And. And tell you that I- shit, I am terrible at this. How did Thomas do it?” Virgil grumbles, feeling his face flame up and sparing a thought to be grateful for his foundation. He has to break eye contact because looking straight at Roman is not helping, “Ok listen. I wasn’t going to say anything. I really wasn’t. But Roman, today. You said - you said a couple things that … that set off alarm bells for me, and I just - I feel like I need to tell you this so just let me get it all out before you say anything.”

Roman nods mutely, but his hands are still restless, still moving and grabbing onto each other then onto his sash then to his belt loops.

“Ok. Ok so, I’ve noticed. Recently. That you have been a little. Ugh, shit, what’s the word. I should’ve practiced this better. I’ve noticed you’ve been a little, uh, insecure? And I just wanted,  no. No I needed you to know that I see everything you do and how hard you’ve been trying. How much you want to be right. I’ve been there, Princey, and it’s not a fun place to be. But Roman. Just. Know I see you, and that ... that you can trust me to be honest with you. About my feelings. Because god knows I don’t talk about them often. And Ro? I really, honestly, care about you. Seeing you happy today? Knowing that I, me, I myself was able to do that for you? Well. It forced me to acknowledge something I’d been trying very hard to ignore.”

Roman looks absolutely shell-shocked, eyes wide as saucers, mouth hanging open a bit, hands now twisting his sash between them, face flushed almost as red as his emblem. He drops the sash when Virgil stops talking, gesturing wildly at him, voice clearly on the verge of breaking, “What is it? Don’t leave a man in suspense, Virgil, a story like that cannot be left unfinished.” Virgil huffs out a laugh, fidgeting with the zipper on his sleeve, “You would be focused on the story, dramatic ass.” He huffs again, then stares up at the ceiling, “Roman, I- If I could make you smile like that. You- God you’re just so good Roman, and for a long time I think I was denying ... that I could ever be enough. But if I could do that, today, for you, for Thomas. Well. I think I can try. To be enough. And to let myself want to be-”

Virgil’s voice dies in his throat as Roman’s thumb gently presses on his chin, tilting his head down - when had he even moved that close - and oh. He’s smiling, that brilliant smile that Virgil was worried was reserved just for Nico - “Virgil. I was also concerned. About being. Enough. For you.”

“Well that’s stupid,” Virgil bursts out, then feels his face flame up and theres no way his foundation is enough to cover that. “Because. Because.”

“Because we’re both a bit stupid?” Roman grins, and his thumb moves slightly from where it’s still on his chin, the rest of his hand cupping his cheek, and that feels really nice. Maybe Virgil leans into it a bit, feels that light tingle under his eyes that means his shadow is shifting and fights the urge to sink out and hide it, “And maybe we are both enough? Or rather, that we balance each other quite nicely?” Virgil nods, and idly wonders when he became the mute one in this conversation, and where all this suaveness had been when they were trying to woo Nico, but those thoughts fly out the window when Roman’s thumb brushes feather-light over his bottom lip, “And maybe? We could try to explore how well we work together? As a team, and as more?”

Virgil knows he’s gone full-lavender at this point as he nods, careful not to dislodge Roman’s thumb. He leans in, feeling even braver than when he had shoved Thomas earlier, bolstered even more by the urge to assuage the doubt still hiding in Roman’s eyes, but still slow in case he’s wrong (oh god, what if he’s wrong), but Roman surges forward, capturing his lips and holding onto his face with both hands. Virgil even doesn’t know what to do with his own hands, he’s so happy he can’t possibly keep them still, so he just holds onto Roman’s shoulders, then his arms, then his hair (oh soft hair that’s a good place to stay), and lets Roman take the lead. 

Virgil notices a moment later that Roman’s humming, and it doesn’t feel intentional, which makes him grin into the kiss and causes Roman to start laughing, and then they’re both off. They’re leaning into each other still, but Virgil’s hands are flapping on either side of Roman and Roman’s bouncing on the balls of his feet and neither of them can stop giggling long enough to even say anything. They just exist in each others’ spaces, giggling just like before, only this time Virgil can smell the mint from Roman’s breath, can see the sparkle in his eye, and it makes him feel like he can take on the world. 

Eventually, Roman quiets enough to speak, though he’s still grinning like a loon, “So, I guess I have to start thinking of fun pet names instead of just plain nicknames, huh Hot Topic?” “I knew you thought I was hot,” Virgil croons back without missing a beat, feeling less off kilter with his trademark smirk, though he knows his shadow still betrays the levity in his entire being.

Roman leans in to kiss him again, and their laughter returns when Virgil is caught off guard enough by Roman nipping at his lip that he stumbles. ‘You’re supposed to be alert, Virgil. Get back on your game.’ the nasty voice that sounds a lot like his own from the past hisses in his ear, but is drowned out quickly when Roman swoons dramatically and coos, “Oh Virgil I knew you’d fall for me eventually.”

“I’ll show you falling,” Virgil growls playfully, pushes Roman to the couch and straddles him, getting his hands back in that soft hair and pulling him up for another kiss, then another, and another, each only to be interrupted when one of them gets so overwhelmed they squirm, or squeak, or hum, or flap, and they dissolve into laughter again, like they have all the time in the world.

At some point, they’ll have to debrief the other sides on the particulars of what went down at the mall food court today. They’ll discuss Janus being overworked and exhausted and in everyone else’s business, and address Patton’s suspicious absence in a matter of the heart, and assist Logan with his inevitable sulking about yet another emotional connection to maintain, and deal with Remus’ certainly ever-growing list of new material featuring that new connection. 

Eventually, they, Roman and Virgil, would have to address their insecurities in a less indirect manner, and actually talk through them to make sure neither one was rushing in blind. It all needed to happen, but later. For now, with just the two of them here on the couch, Virgil couldn’t bring himself to fear any of it, even though it was all residing in the back of his mind. 

Bravery. Huh. He could get used to that.

[jiminrings]

lover

pairing: jungkook x y/n

glimpse: jungkook has a crush and LOTS of vacant space on his ears upon seeing piercing artist!y/n, jin is TERRIFIED of needles and just needs to hold someone’s hand, jimin is a chatty receptionist that gets on jungkook’s nerves a whole ton, and tHen some smut :D 

wordcount: 22k

notes: dedicated to jungkook n his pretty earrings because i would totally go through his hoops like what vitaly did in madagascar 3 :D // gif isn’t mine!!

(*´꒳`*)

jungkook is a flexible man

both literally and figuratively

he knows how to adjust bUT he also knows what he wants

there’s a handful of things he gets picky about

body wash, face wash, shampoo, perfume n aLL THAT GOOD HYGIENE STUFF

he’s not jared, 19

he ISN’T a chad that just picks out deodorant with the most aggressive names they could ever find the quickest in a shelf

when jungkook gets shoes (and sometimes splurges on them) he makes sure to get the new stock and atleast a half-inch allowance

because shoes shrink and get worn-in overtime and the condition that you wore them in first, wON’T remain the same

hard drives are touchy issues too

jungkook needs to be able to save and export his works without the processes of it crashing every thirty seconds thank u very much

if ur buying a hard drive that has less than a 1 TB storage, then wHY even get a hard drive dummy

he can make dollar-store paint work, trust him

but god crusty-ass brushes (whether they’re expensive or not) would be the absolute BANE of his existence

on-hand activities were given less frequently in uni because majority of them were done digitally but he would never forget that time

that time when he cracked at the project on the night that it was given and he decided to sleep fORGETTING to wash his brushes and by the time he woke up, they were are all crusty and stiff

he almost cried

okay so after all

maybe jungkook might be picky

hE CAN’T HELP IT

but this time he felt more reasonable in being picky because this is his roommate that we’re talking about!!!

r o o m m a t e

for possibly the whole three and a half years that he has left before he graduates and he just wants his to be a good one :((

honestly can you blame him

jungkook just has two requirements in his head

pLEASE he doesn’t want a roomie that has quick hands and is a kleptomaniac and would steal the wallet he always just has laying around

he wants to be able to leave his things in the most random places at PEACE

and second, he wants someone that’s atleast tolerable

he’s aware that not every pair of roommates mesh well together 10/10 times but the least he could hope for is that there’s somehow mutual agreement

which is why jungkook’s nervous because oh god what if he’s stuck with a klepto that’s gonna steal his laptop and he isn’t even dONE doing his assignment?????

graphic design and fashion design are in the same building and that just means he has a 50% chance of being paired with someone that knows what he’s doing and knows when to back off

... which is cool, maybe???

but tHen there’s also a 50% chance that he’s gonna be roomies with a fashion student and he’s not gonna lie because that sounds sO cool!!!!!

legitimately cool

he knows nothing about sewing clothes??? or like designing them in more than just a graphic designer-type of approach????

that would be so nice

what if his roomie (he’s about 98% sure) has a sewing machine and some embroidery thread and things and stuff????

what if his roomie suddenly thought that ��oh my gOD jungkook since you’re my roommate and ur so cool and u have such nice body proportions,, lemme make u some clothes!!” ???

what then

what tHEN

and he’s the type to impress and even though that makes him look like an utter fool, jungkook really did wake up at TWO in the morning to get started for meeting his roomie by ten in the morning

just eight hours,,, cool,,, that’s cool

who wouldn’t like chocolate truffles right???

vERY EASY

melt some chocolate!! add some butter!! some cream!! a tiny pinch of salt because the recipe said so!! aND THEN YOU’RE DONE

no not really

he didn’t take into account that chill was a very vague term and so jungkook kept opening the fridge every ten minutes and the chocolate truffle blob hasn’t cHILLED!!!

that kinda sent him into panic because how is he supposed to sleep now

he got a large bowl he never really used and lmao this is like the first time he’s washing it

HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT HE HAD THIS BOWL UNTIL NOW

placed that smaller bowl inside of the bowl

and tHEN filled the remaining spaces with ice cubes and tHEN put it into the freezer

not his smartest decision ever because uh there’s some raw chicken and beef in that same freezer but that’s cool it’s cool

roomie wouldn’t even know the difference :D

what you know wouldn’t hurt you, right???

well not until the chocolate gets contaminated with the raw meat somehow wOOF ://

jungkook went to take a one hour nap and he’s decided to just check on the truffle blob when he’s woken up!!!

uHhhh

aha that turned into a fOUR-hour nap :))))

he’s kinda panicking because oh god he could’ve made so much more in that time period

the truffle blob dID chill but it’s kinda frozen now and that makes it a little less easy to try and scoop up and shape and put cocoa powder on it

no worries!! he has a spoon and insane strength!!!

jungkook bent the spoon with how hard he’s going at it bUT that’s okay!!! there are more spoons!!! it’s not the end of the world

he’s done with the chocolate truffles and all that’s left is to let them chill in the fridge and he could just pop them out anytime

it’s 6... and all he has done are chocolate truffles....

aha wild idea but wHAT IF HIS NEW ROOMIE DOESN’T LIKE CHOCOLATE

...

....

it’s 10:13 and yeah sure this roomie of his is a little bit late but jungkook doesn’t mind at all because that meant more time for him to prepare

aside from the chocolate truffles, he’s successfuly bought/made/modified:

ice cream sandwiches in every flavor he could find because what if they don’t like chocolate?? or wait what if vanilla’s too plain for them?? ok wHAT IF THEY LIKE STRAWBERRY??? is that matcha-

cup noodles,,, in beef, seafood, and spicy variations

gummy bears!!! half are just the original ones and the oTHER half is what he soaked in vodka because uHhH what if the roomie likes alcohol as much as he does??? or maybe they just like citric acid in bear form or mAYBE even both???

dalgona because what if they aren’t an iced tea person,,, or an orange juice person,,,,, jungkook totally understands!!! the entirety of his right arm may be significantly more ripped by the end of this

mozzarella sticks that he buys in bulk whenever he goes to the grocery and that jungkook popped into the oven hurriedly because wAIT WAIT what if they’re lactose intolerant,,,,

cereals,,, he has some cereals,,,, maybe they haven’T had breakfast yet and they wanna have cereal??? he has some milk too!!!

some ice cubes leftover if u wanna pop them into the cereal if they’re feeling a lil spicy

god jungkook just wants to be liked sO BAD and he’s such a people-pleaser that it’s exhausting :(((

this better work or else he will literally combust and eat boozy gummy bears until he’s silly drunk :(((

but tHEN the front door opened and uh jungkook remembers locking it always but

oh

oH

that’s his roommate!!!! holding a duplicate key already!!!!! with bags on tow aND WOW!!!!!!

this guy MUST be a fashion student

jungkook didn’t wear an apron and he honestly salutes anyone who does which is why there may be some bits of cocoa powder on his chest that he’s wiping off quickly

“hEY man!! i’m jungkook!! jeon jungkook!! come in, come iN!!! was the traffic bad or-...”

wait

hold on just a second

how sure is jungkook that this guy with a really handsome face and wide-ass shoulders that’s like the same size of the doorway, is hIS roommate???

bruh

what if this was just a random-ass dude that happened to have a duplicate key aND HE’S HERE TO ROB HIM OR SOMETHING

“woah hEY i’m jin!! kim seokjin!! lmao yeah i live two floors down aND then i have all these bags and i just wanted to take one trip in the elevator but then in the same time i cAN’T and-“

oh

oH jin definitely just said too much words huh

right off the bat jin is rEALLY setting an impression huh

he got a good look at jungkook and he could tell that he looks younger than him

or maybe that’s just kook’s bambi eyes assessing jin that’s standing parallel to him right now

or maybe it’s some of the cocoa powder on his gray shirt and jin might assume that he’s a baby because he’s spilled some

“oh yEAH YEAH i prepared uh like a housewaeming thing for you!! well i mean this isn’t a house and it’s not your house bUT it isn’t mine either but in a tECHNICAL sense it’s — yEAH do u want chocolate truffles or something.....”

“oh jungkook you shouldn’t have!!! if it’s worth anything, i made this beret for my roommate and well it’s yOu right??? and i kinda sewed my initials at the back to commemorate like a friendship??? or something???? i don’t know man it sounds sO lame and-...”

bro

brO

jin’s eating literally everything that jungkook’s prepared and he heard the mention of the alcoholic gummy bears and his eyes almost pOP out of their sockets

for a moment, kook was kinda terrified because oh god are you cAMPUS POLICE????

turns out that jin loves alcohol AND gummy bears and he’s never tried that combination before

it’s like they’ve been friends for their whole entire life and conversation was just so easy to slip into

“how did you kNOW i eat this exact brand of mozzarella sticks??? they’re so good and you could even buy them in this hUge-ass box!!”

“how did you know that this beret would fit my hEAD?? i literally thought my head was too big for berets and this is like thE perfect size!!”

jin casually asks what they should eat for dinner later that night and jungkook dOESN’T skip a beat saying what he wants and jin dOESN’T hesitate either in agreeing

lmao jungkook started calling jin hyung not even 48 hours upon meeting him

“jungkoOooOoK :D so as you know, i’m gonna have a makeshift booth for my project, right? and like since your my very nice and kind and handsome and tALENTED best friend :D i was wondering if you could make the brand design for me? the logo? the layout of what i’m gonna put? this and that? say yes please pls :D”

...

....

“you cook all the meals for a week.”

“i already-...”

“obviously you’re gonna take all the credit bUT somewhere in your booth, there’s gonna be a piece there that’s inspired by mE.”

“okay fine what-...”

“if you get the highest mark and you bETTER, you need to check out my cart because-“

“oKAY DEAL!!”

it’s a two-way street okay

that just goes to say how far the both of them are bonding

in technical terms, their courses are kinda similar

and it’s just fun too because jungkook gets along with jin and the other way around!!

“jin-hyung i need a fRESH new background for this layout do you have any silk fabric??”

“do you want it sleek or do you want it crumpled?”

“can i try both??”

“yeah lmao i don’t see why not :D”

jin’s a nice roommate and an even better friend and hyung to jungkook and he can’t be thankful enough

it’s his personal goal in life to be the reason for jin’s first strand of grey hair and every morning jungkook cHECKS

sometimes he won’t be discreet at all

like he’d tug at jin’s hair and it’s freshly dyed and jin’s mighty sensitive because oh god what if it was freshly bleached??? tHEN WHAT

or maybe he’d toss a froot loop to his hair and he’d go :D hyungie lemme get that for you :D

“jin can u pls make me a bomber jacket :((“

“are you gonna pay me??? no??? well then NO”

“how about a bandana can you make me one can you make me one pLEASE”

“every piece of fabric could be literally a bandana if u think about it kook”

“how about a shirt that says ‘dad’ in the front but at the back it’s appa from avatar embroidered at the back lmao”

“why would you oH OMG I SEE WHAT U DID THERE :)))))) ok that sounds cool i’m proud i’m actually gonna do that :))) wait let me make one for me too :))))”

it’s a support system

even until him and jin graduated, they are sTILL roomies because that means not only do you pay half of the rent, you’re also not alone!!!

jin’s older and he may not voice this enough bUT he relies alot on jungkook as much as jungkook relies on him

jungkook’s the bug killer

he’s in charge of killing everything that’s crawling and slimey and has atleast made jin shudder once

he even has designated slippers for swatting spiders!!!! he’s used things from cereal boxes to his mousepad just going hard at these insects that bother jin

jungkook also has a higher pain tolerance

and he has this experience with these kind of things

and jin’s just scared shitless bUT

“please kook i nEED you to come with me to get my ears pierced :(((“

“but you already have your ears pierced.”

and that’s true

but it was just a standard piercing in the lobe that even babies have

“no i’m talking about a hELIX piercing!!!”

“oh you aRE???”

jungkook’s attention is fully caught now and he’s stopped working on the commission he’s handling as of the moment and right into jin who’s looking panicked

“i thought you said that you didn’t want it because it would hurt?”

he’s a bit frazzled because he remembers jin swearing that he’d go to his grave earlier rather than get his hard cartilage pierced

“well i changed my mind and i think it’s gonna look good on me :)))”

that bit’s actually true because jin didn’t order like five clip-on earrings after much thinking that he did LOVE how it looked on him

he contemplated for a moment that what if he just wears these clip-ons for the rest of his life y’know

but clip-ons hurt more than actual piercing like he sWEARS the blood flow to his ear stopped because the clasp was too tight and to loosen it means to lose it forever

and besides that, he’s LITERALLY allergic to fAKE things like these

huh guess he has actual taste with or without the allergic reaction to fake metal

of cOurse he’s gonna go to jungkook for moral support because the younger one has more piercings than him

jungkook has four piercings in total!! those two standard lobe piercings that even babies have, a second lobe piercing on his left ear, and his newest one!! — a mid-helix piercing on his right!!

he’s very-well aware that jin needs moral support and he’s a really sTURDY rock for his hyung that is more on the easy to get spooked side

and as much as this fuels his ego, he’s really hesitant to come with him because he’s jUst busy y’know??? and his latest commission is for this big online brand and he’s known to deliver right on time

he’s halfway through but the second half is really just as crucial as the first half because uHhhh jungkook’s dedicated and he’s getting paid and this is one of his jobs and this sustains his living

“i don’t know hyung.,.,.. when do you want to get it done?”

“well i was hoping nOW :D”

it’s 8 in the morning

eIGHT in the morning and jin could immediately see the bafflement in jungkook’s face so he quickly explains why because he just wants this so bad

“wait wait it’s because so i don’t chicken out!! it’s like nOW OR NEVER!! and the more time i spend thinking about it, then the mORE time i spend thinking about it. but i really dO wanna get this piercing and i just-...”

“i haven’t even had breakfast yet :((((“

oh

right jungkook’s coming with jin alright

it’s the line he pulls off when he’s convinced and of COURSE it’s hinting at jin to buy him breakfast to make his time worthwhile

jungkook’s a friend but he’s also an entrepeneur hA :D

besides him freelancing and picking up projects that require his skills of graphic design and making layouts,,,

he also has a lil online shop!!! he puts his works on bags and sticker and stuff and he is aLWAYS up for commission no matter how ridiculous it is

one day it could be someone asking him to draw them sketch-style with hearts around their head

or the other day it could be making a batch of twenty stickers and a print in a canvas bag, and very specifically, did it require to say

he’s being dead serious

really

lmao jungkook can’t stop laughing while he was designing this

HI MY NAME IS YOONGI AND I HAVE A BASKETBALL GAME TOMORROWWW

now at first he really didn’t knOW if the person that sent this commission was being serious because uH are you sure???

but then they sent in 50% of the fee and jungkook was immediately oh okay yea dude i’ll do this for you lol

he’s highly sure that this yoongi guy isn’t the one who commissioned him because wHY would you clown yourself like that??

that one’s for the books surely

now jungkook doesn’t know if seokjin always gets his way (spoiler alert: he does) but within an hour, he’s all clean and changed into new clothes and he’s nOW standing with jin right in front of this shop

this uh really nice-looking tattoo and piercing place that looks great from the outside and he has to hand that one over

“...,.,.. so have you ever been here before??”

......

“....,.,.. well nO actually but i read that it has gREAT reviews and the staff is also cool and the interior’s pleasing too so yEAH yeah let’s get it!!”

wait it does look pleasing

it’s not the most spacious shop in the world but the floor plan makes the shop look bigger than it actually is!!! and the granite tiles by the front look cLASSY too!!!!

kook lets his eyes wander to where the granite tiles stop and meet the wooden flooring and he just can’t help thinking in his degree y’know

graphic design just rates to sO many things in real life and he did not spend four years to try and maximize his knowledge in it as much as he could

oh they aLSO have a front desk??? that’s-

“hi welcome to hope ink sLASH vante studios!! walk-in, appointment, or are you just here to see me?”

what

the

fuck

is that a greeting

wAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE A GREETING

jungkook’s trailing behind jin and he kinda scoffs at this dude in the front desk because what even

is that a part of the script

ok maybe jungkook just woke up in the wrong side of bed today bLAME HIM

jin, on the other hand, snorts at the greeting right away and it turns into a giggle and it pleasantly makes this receptionist do the same

the receptionist is this rEALLY fit guy with pink hair dressed in a white button-up and he looks pERKY AND CHATTY

a-and jungkook already hates him and he doesn’t know why bUT maybe it’s just because he isn’t amused whatsoever and he jus wants to come home immediately

oh right he even has that commission left to do and suddenly he’s feeling the time pressure

can they jUST speed this up

he’s here for moral support not for a chat with this pink-haired guy that doesn’t have a name tag and hOW can jungkook hate a guy that he doesn’t even know the name to ://

“walk-in?? no problem. you have six more people queued in front of you but not one of them has arrived sO yeah come with me!! what’s your name?? seokjin? jin??? okay come with me man!! lmao ur ᵍʳᵘᵐᵖʸ friend could come with too”

“i hEARD that.,..,”

“.,.,.. i know.”

jimin also finds jungkook irritating because he’s just being chirpy and this guy meets him for like two seconds and he’s already being a downer on his mood

he doesn’t even know his name!!!

although this jin guy is cool because obviously they r VIBING so hard

jimin’s leading the two of them to wherever jin’s gonna get his ear pierced and jungkook lags around behind to observe

this is a cool place!!!

to his left there’s a literal empty space with a rectangular podium in the middle of the area and it looks wEIRD ok

maybe a stall’s supposed to be there???

lol or maybe the tattoo artists do their tattoos there as if it’s a stage?????? oh god jungkook’s too fatigued for this he rEALLY needs to get glasses and get his eight hours in

to his right there’s some glass partitions with reclining chairs on them!!

and there’s some closed rooms to what jungkook can make out and he guesses that those are reserved for tattoos, maybe???

anyways he’s reading too much into this

he’s only moral support for a customer aND he’s not even gonna get anything done!!!

“you could just sit on this chair right here....,. lol and uh what’s his name.,.,. jungkook?? hmmm i’ll bring out a stool for you i guess...,.”

there are PLENTY of empty reclining chairs here why can’t jungkook just sit there????

jimin’s just being playful getting on jungkook’s nerves because he hasn’t been able to do that in a while with customers,,, because obviously they’re customers,,, and he doesn’t wanna jeopardize the shop rIGHT

“wait here, jin. we have two piercing artists in and i’m just gonna call them and y’know what you could just pICK who you want or like just pick the one who gets to your first!!”

okay

jimin’s a receptionist and he is fAIRLY new to this job but not to the other people working here

the usual script was to be formal and lead them to the artist or to the waiting area and formal just sounded SO boring

blame him for not being an uptight senior citizen

“one customer for an ear piercing!!! :D”

jimin’s head pops into hobi’s room where practically all of you are gathered when there’s no customers because the airconditioning is just sPLENDID

taehyung’s on his switch while he’s laid on your lap and you’re just on your phone from having scrolled in the same feed for like five times

“which one?”

you and tae ask at the same time and that’s when jimin kinda giggles and scratches at his nape as he stands around sheepishly

aha :D

“that’s the thing though i jUST told him to pick which one gets to do his piercing or... whatever....”

taehyung groans at that because oh god it was hobi who hired jimin and he’s told him off to nOt do that for a couple of times and here he is giggling like this isn’t the 35th time he’s put you and taehyung in this position and making the customer pick

“i’ll do it lmao don’t worry tae :))”

about time you do some actual work anyway

it’s not even lunchtime but you do wanna feel as if you’re productive because watching taehyung play animal crossing fRUSTRATES YOU

he whines a thank you because even though that meant more time for him to play, that also meant you deserting him and just have his head hit the cushions instead of your thighs :((

jimin’s walking with you as he leads you back to jin and there’s aLways a skip to his step and that is ur goal

ur goal is to be as happy as jimin in life because look at him!!!!

pink hair and cozy snug sweaters and dangling earrings and it doesn’t take much for him to laugh!!! what a trooper

the bell chimes and that’s his cue to jog over back to his spot and he just waves you over to go along like you cOULD walk over there by yourself

no problem!!! :D

uh-oh

it’s a problem

it’s really a problem

it’s a problem when the customer sat on the chair is so hot and cute and charming and hANDSOME

if angels do exist tHEN GOD HE MUST BE ONE

he looks so !!!!

WOW

he is actually so breathtaking are you sURE HE’S ACTUALLY REAL????

he has this long-ish hair that reminds you of taehyung’s but the only difference was that tae has a perm aND THIS GUY DOESN’T

and he has this cUTE nose that you wanna boop so bad and u saw him at the exact time that he was cheesing and he has this mole under his lip!!!!

ALSO

THE WAY HE’S SAT ON THE CHAIR

his arms are holding him up and he’s relaxed and oMG LOOK HIS EARRINGS ARE SO CUTE

they look heavy n they’re very flashy silver but oh god he could really really pull them off

you want those earrings aND YOU WANT THIS GUY

that’s cool y/n just breathe :D keep your cool :D you’re jUST gonna be stabbing his ears with some needles that’s all :D

“hi!! i’m y/n, your piercing artist for today!! what’s your name?”

jungkook’s beyond amused at jin who’s sitting on the chair at the other stall because lol he is so scared that he looks on the verge of crying

bUT he does feel sorry because no jin!!! the pain is just vERY quick and you’ll be done in no time!!

he wants to go to where jin’s at and actually sit on the stool that jimin provided for him but lmao no maybe later

he’s using it as a foot rest because he is really comfortable in this position and he’d rather not move until someone calls him out or something :))

or maybe when jin needs a hand to hold but like the piercing artist isn’t here yet so he has some time to lounge around hehe

“hyungie!!”

jungkook tries calling out just to take jin’s attention away from hyping himself about the pAIN he thinks he’s gonna be in

“what what?? whAt????”

“want me to deck the one who’s gonna be piercing you?? :D”

yAYYYYY jungkook’s got him to laugh!!

i mean he’s not actually gonna deck the piercing artist because uh that’s a lawsuit and second what the fUCk for

but it’s just this humor that jin thoroughly enjoys, especially now when he looks so near to tears

he gets teased anyway for looking out for jin even though he’s the younger of the friendship duo so why not joke about owning up to it??

“yA i’m serious!! i took up boxing for awhile and excuse you — my dad made me take up taekwondo when i was a kid!!”

“what are you gonna do? put the artist in a headlock??”

“...,.,. jin that’s mma,,..,.”

“lol you’re probably gonna be charged for traveling before you could land that kick”

“.,..,., jin that’s basketball and-..,..”

“maybe you could score a goal or something but jungkook that’s gonna be sO rare for you”

“.,.,. jin are you-...”

oh

OH

jungkook has probably never seen anyone so angelic he’s mid-laugh in and he sees you walking towards him and gOD ARE YOU REAL

maybe this isn’t a simulation you’re just that Perfect with the capital P :(((

“hi!! i’m y/n, your piercing artist for today!! what’s your name?”

oh god okay so this is where it goes down

“h-hi i’m jungkook!! i’m uH the friend of the one you’re gonna pierce today!!”

oh

you just wanna p-word right now

p for perish

you can nOT be embarrassed more

aha you’re just gonna detach from this situation as fast as possible because oh god you really looked like a FOOL in front of this really handsome guy :((

“hI i’m y/n and i assume you’re the one who’s gonna get pierced??”

if this guy isn’t it (and hE MUST be) then that means you’ve officially embarrassed yourself twice to tWO handsome men

the third time for yourself, the fourth for jimin who could be seeing this now, the fifth for maybe this random good ghost taehyung swears lingers by here, the sixth for-

“yEAH I’M JIN!!!! that’s me uh i’m sorry for jungkook,, jimin told him to sit by the stool and he didn’t wANt to and now we know wHY he should be sitting on the stool instead :D”

cue jungkook whose head is hung low while he’s sitting on the stool near you because god he also made a clown out of himself

it’s cool cool cool cool cool

“what piercing are you gonna get today? :))”

“mid-helix thank u vERY much :))”

jin’s pointing at his right ear and holding up his finger and that’s not exactly the mid-helix is but it’s ok ur gonna correct him later

he looks very nervous

you could literally see his fingers trembling and you just feel so sorry for him

jungkook can see that VERY clearly and so he’s just patting jin’s knee and you glance at him briefly and he’s looking RIGHT at you ahem

you hand jin a mirror and he yelps a bit when you lift your hand but you were jUST gonna wear gloves

kook doesn’t wanna laugh but in the same time he wants to laugh

“bro calm down y/n’s just putting on gloves!!!”

AND EVEN HIS VOICE SOUNDS GOOD :(((

you can’t shake off how how good your name rolled off from jungkook’s tongue and if ur being honest u feel kinda jittery

aha that’s my name :D omg what’s ur last name jungkook??? what a coincidence that’s gonna be mY last name too :D

chile

u nEED to calm down because otherwise you’d be as nervous as jin right now and you’re the one who’s gonna pierce him

lmao and you also met jungkook for the first time today so that’s a factor too you guess

“i’m just gonna be marking, okay?? does that look good to you?”

he calms down at that and takes a good look in the mirror and oOh that does look good!!!!

jin literally looks like he’s gonna faint

:O

“okay i only bust this out for a few customers,.,. and since you’re special and you deserve it and you look like you need it.,..”

that’s true tho

you have jin and jungkook’s attention fully and they’re peering at whatever you’re doing

you have this special box here in your cart and you’re hoping that you still have one of em aND

slime

it’s slime

bRAND-NEW SLIME

it’s the smooth matte type of slime and there’s a packet of like styrofoam beads you could mix into it!!!

technically this isn’t part of the payment but it’s ok yOU BOUGHT THIS YOURSELF!!!!!

specifically for the customers that you get that are terrified of needles or they’re so nervous and they don’t have anyone accompanying them

:O

jin’s very much speechless

:D

he takes the lil tub from you very excitedly and you’re just about to get the wipe and-

“here jungkook, you look like you wanted it too :))”

jungkook’s doe eyes grow mUCH bigger as you plop one on his lap and thank god because he would’ve wrestled with jin to have it

yo if he gets to marry you then he has to squeeze in you giving him slime at the first meeting into his vows somehow :’’’)

“y’know, i started working here about half a year ago!! i’m friends with the owners,” okay this bit is another one of your calming tricks

you’re pretending to get some stuff fixed and some things gathered but in reality,,, it takes about like ten seconds max to gather what you actually need

jin looks like he’s in the road to calming down anyways

“bUT i got my piercing license, i wanna say, a year and a half ago?? lmao funny story but i took training and certification out of a dARE and i took it with my uhhh friend :))”

wait what now

jin kinda looks concerned but in the same time he doesn’t because he’s in Zen mode rn

although you assure him that you DO take this very seriously and you’re fully certified and you passed through all the stages you needed to go through

“idk what jimin told you but i’m pretty sure he said something long huh”

“he said sLASH out loud.,.,”

“okay sO hobi, is the one who owns this shop!! it’s originally hope ink but tHEN taehyung owns another shop called vante studios and then rent’s expensive, right?”

“TOTALLY”

“I KNOW RIGHT????”

jin and jungkook can fully agree

jin’s been wanting to open a shop for sO long and jungkook’s been wanting to open a physical store for all his crafts but rent and decent space!!!! they r bitches

“they just decided to merge like two years ago!!! and it was for the better too!!! taehyung was my friend ever since uni and tHEN my course was graphic design-“

jungkook’s heart just flatlined jin was about to interject that oH kook here is also but nO JUNGKOOK BEATS HIM TO THAT

he squirms in his seat and even raises up his hand very eagerly and you look kinda alarmed

“me too me too!!!! i also studied graphic design!!!!”

“that’s sO COOL!!”

jin is enjoying this very much right now

if the two of you get married then he’s gotta have to add the they were vibing in the first meeting part to his best man speech

if he isn’t the best man then WHY is jungkook gonna get married in the first place :///

“i used to work at this company and boy was i overworked!! like i have so many things piled up but i just also don’t wanna half-ass the projects just to get through them quickly-“

“eXACTLY-“

“and so i quit :D”

that is quite the climax to your building story

that was very abrupt and frankly jin can’t get enough

which is perfect!!

because as he’s frustratedly asking you more questions while his hands blindly knead the slime and at one point he even stops, you’re already prepping up what you need

jungkook was also in the verge of frustration because you can’t just end it there :((

but then in his peripheral vision he could see what you were getting and it was a really good thing you already asked jin about his preferences and your professional opinion about this piercing

(if you were to ask him that now instead of earlier, it would be BACK to square one and you’d have to fish for another story in your head)

oh wow ur really good at this huh

kook has nothing but admiration and mad respect for you :3

he does his part on chatting up jin more and you internally praise him for that because look at that!!!! he knows what you’re doing!!!

you gesture for him to hold jin’s hands because you wouldn’t want to be distracted or have this hurt more than it should

piercings should be done in a quick and precise manner with no room for error on the artist’s end

and as for the customer, they literally need to stay still because hypertrophic scarring is a thing and you don’t want them to have that

jin’s story high is about to end because oH you’re standing near to him as he’s sat down and he’s starting to shut up because oh god oh god don’t look at the needle don’t look at the tHAT’S A BIG NEEDLE

“deep breath in for me, alright?”

you may have broken him and you haven’t even started yet

“jin? hmm? y’here with me?”

you found that saying your customer’s name helps to ease them and bring them down a bit and it works just as well with him

“do it with me and jungkook, okay?”

kook’s alert at that and you don’t even have to nudge him to do this with you

he even does it exaggeratedly to try and ease jin in the slightest and he even has him going along with him

ᵗʰʷᵒᵒᵖ

“jIN YOU DID SUCH A GOOD JOB!!! :D”

:O

omg jin can’t believe it either

“iT’S OVER??”

well not technically yet because you have to put the earring in but the worst part was already over!!

you had to still jin for a second because he kept laughing and therefore he’s trembling just a tiny bit so you have to grip on his shoulders-

oh they’re wide wide

maybe if you hold them for a little longer you could envision how wide the doorframe is to the

“aHEM ʲᶦⁿ⁻ʰʸᵘⁿᵍ’ˢ ᵉᵃʳʳᶦⁿᵍ ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ”

lol jungkook really isn’t as sly as he think he is you finally put the earring in and hand jin his mirror back and he’s gushing

from how pretty it is

sure his ear is red as fUck but even if it’s not fading out yet, it still looks so cute and he feels no ounce of regret whatsoever

he did a helix piercing it’s ok he’s SURE he could tackle on the world rn you’re just cleaning up the tiny bit of blood and jin doesn’t even notice

“if that’s all, i need to talk to you about aftercare!! okay so-“

no no no

wAIT jungkook forgot that piercing sessions lasted this quick he can’t have that

he’s only been with you for like tEN minutes maximum and no no he’s not taking that this is TOO quick

“NO UH ACTUALLY I-“

jin’s taken aback because why are u being so loud for

jimin’s ears even perk up at that and if he’s being honest, he even jumped up a little because wHY is jungkook like that

you’re alarmed too because uH wait did you do something wrong??? oh god is it-

“i also want a piercing...”

ok listen you were actually expecting to do more piercings on jin because normally people don’t come here for a single one bUT jin just wanted one

and well jungkook’s cute and kinda and nice and you feel so weird having only met him for like ten minutes and u hate how good and quick you are at your job :(((

because that means less time to interact with jungkook

“... done by you.”

you’re pretty sure you could ascend to heaven right here right now

:D

“okay yEAH no problem!!! i’ll uh,, i’ll just get set up and i could talk to the both of you about aftercare after i pierce your ears aha :D”

you toss the gloves quickly to the bin

you’re making sure to wash your hands eXTRA clean and extra slow so you could be thorough :)))

jungkook practically pushed jin out of the chair with your back turned to them because Y/N SAID IT’S MY TURN :P

now he knows he said that he only came here for moral support but maybe getting a few more piercings done by someone he may already have a crush on after two seconds, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, right??

he always wanted more piercings anyway

he didn’t think for it to have them now but he kNOWS he definitely wants them now

“what’re you thinking about??”

wait no he didn’t prepare for this gOD are you seeing right through him

and the fact that he has a pathetic lil crush on you

“well aCTUALLY that’s aha quite a hard question to ask because uhm yOU SEE-“

that’s IT jungkook is now the fool and he should be-

“the piercings that you’re gonna get, koo.”

not only do you look calm and collected

but you also called him KOO and jungkook now wants to change his name in his birth certificate because fUCK jungkook whoever that bitch is

hIS NAME IS KOO NOW!!!!

“y-yeah that’s what i’m trying to get at!!” he’s scratching the back of his head and tries to suppress the sheepish smile that’s just widening as the time ticks by

“dealer’s choice :))”

“d-dealer’s choice???”

this is not the first time that a customer gave you the reins to do what you please because they trust you enough to do so

but jungkook giving you that decision with no hesitation at all and he’s all giddy sitting on his chair staring right back at you.,...,

whoosh

speechless luv speechless

jin is too because he’s partly listening and partly taking pictures of his ear and his side profile so he’s just mumbling off to the side smh now these two are gonna play poker now??

“i uh personally think that both your sides are good sides and it’s true sO i was thinking of a second lobe and third lobe on your right ear!!”

oh no not you confessing that he looks immaculate on the first meeting :((

yIKES jungkook’s just blushing profusely as he nods along with his lips pursed because if they aren’t then he will sqUEAL

“because it’s gonna fit you just nicely and you already have this mid-helix on your right!! and by the looks of it, it’s jUST freshly-healed and i don’t wanna hurt you or anything with another cartilage instantly and !!!! is that okay with you?”

he is okay

definitely MORE than okay

somewhere along the lines when you were disinfecting his ear, taehyung’s strolling out because what’s taking you so long??

jimin only said that it was just for one customer and like a single helix piercing and that doesn’t take long at all

he wants someone to watch him play animal crossing because who eLSE is gonna get frustrated with him (and therefore motivate him to do better) playing it besides you

“there you are!! wHAT’S — oHhh do you need me to take over for you?”

tae cares for you very much

sometimes a little too much

but all in good reason!!!!

the moment you offered him a sip of your iced coffee you bought from the convenience store, he automatically knew that he wanted to protect you from the wORLD

if only you didn’t look at each other as really really close friends, 10/10 the two of you would probably be a couple now lmao

he always asks this question in that tone that sounds intimidating because

if his voice is deep he makes it even deeper bc that would scare off some people

some people being the occasional group of frat guys that come 

here to get pierced and they’re all lining up for YOU and not for taehyung

they r small-minded

not to mention creeps

and they’re trying to smooth-talk their way to you and you aren’t having it

and sO IS TAEHYUNG

and jimin

and hobi

and even the stray cat jimin lets in the shop from time to time because lil chimmy looks like he’s gonna claw this dude’s nose right OUT

(( this is why jimin’s scolded for giving the customer the choice when the scenario’s unnecessary))

lol taehyung took over for you and he stared down all these frat guys and got them done quickly and u know what he may or may not made it hurt aNYWAYS

jungkook isn’t that type though

you tHINK

you’d hate for him to receive taehyung’s sternness and so you’re quick to wave off tae with a smile

kook is kinda scared because uhhhh is this your boyfriend and uhhhh do you know how to patch me up because he looks like he’s about to wHOOP my ass :((

“no need, tae!!” his stance relaxes at that but he’s still wary, a knowing smile on your lips as you face jungkook who’s shying away from taehyung’s stare

“jungkook, this is taehyung — the one i was talking to you about!! my friend aND one of the two owners of this shop :D”

“heymannicetomeetyouimjungkook”

atleast tae shakes his hand back so that’s good in hindsight

he isn’t nervous about the piercing but he IS nervous with how jimin and taehyung are eyeing him because he’s deduced that they’re your friends and they think somEthing must be going on

pls he’s only met you now :((

but he wishes he’s met you sooner

you’re marking down on his ear and he catches a whiff of your perfume and it’s safe to say that he may be wHIPPED already

although tae caught him doing that and now jungkook’s just pretending to sniffle from a cold

even goes the extra mile to tell jin outloud that they should get vicks candies after this

he is not slick at A L L oh my god he does not have any game whatsoever and it makes taehyung laugh to himself for a moment because oh god

he’s seen frat boys get their rip-off calvin klein knickers in a twist but he hasn’t seen a customer like jungkook that has a cRUSH on you point-blank

oh ok :)))

jungkook sees a mischievous smile on taehyung’s face that’s directed for him and he does not like it at all

“something tells me that i don’t need to distract you with a chat like i did with your friend, hm?”

he hears you mumble under your breath when you lean in and he stifles a giggle at that because n-o he isn’t a scaredy cat like jin is

however

for this occasion he wishes that he has a weak heart because there’s absolutely NOTHING he wouldn’t give just to have that Jin Treatment

jungkook eagerly nods his head when you ask him if you’re ready and taehyung nearly doubles over in laughter because he didn’t know that this guy was tHIS desperate ok

ᵗʰʷᵒᵒᵖ

“good job kook!!!! :D”

hehehe

he’s been told that atleast a hundred times before but coming from you??

he could ascend to heaven because it just makes him blush so mUCH and every miniscule thing u do or say to him?? enough for him to set himself on fire

that’s right :D i did a good job :D say that again pls :D

there’s just one more piercing left to do and he barely flinches

merely blinks and before he knows it,,,,

he’s done

like actually done this time

:((

taehyung pats him on the back because he’s there to brief him and jin with the aftercare

why can’t yOu do it????

oh that’s right jimin YELLED for you all across the shop so he could beckon you over to the front desk

jungkook’s pouting the whole time

ok yes i’ll disinfect this twice a day :((

ok yes sir i will go here if i feel like there’s something wrong with my piercing or if it’s showing any signs of allergies or infection

wait did u say i could go here..,.,,.

anyways he’s very gutted to know that he has to leave because he did come here in the first place to support jin

and here he is with two fresh piercings and blushing cheeks,,

just plain-out wondering when he could see you again

or probably the 70% chance that he’ll never do

he’s just standing behind you as you converse with jimin and while jin’s by the counter to pay for himself and jungkook (which then turned out that taehyung gave him a 50% discount overall because it’s like yO man i appreciate you and u feel like my hyung thank you) and he must look like an utter fool

jungkook has never been this nervous before

he’s been told that he visually looks intimidating as fUck but it all breaks when he smiles or giggles and basically stops scowling

jin teases him every single time whenever he wears these big romper stompers as he calls them and he has to say every time that nO he is not an e-boy :(((

he’s tucking his hands in his pockets because oh god oh god jimin’s giving him a look and then that prompts you to look at what he’s looking and he’s not prepared yet oKAY

he has no lines and no direction and-

“y/NNNNN aha!!”

lol he’s cute

it seems like your nervous jitters were passed to him because you very quickly got over them by distracting yourself

you know mAYBE you just find jungkook attractive and you don’t have a crush on him

that thing exists

he’s saying your name like it’s the eighth wonder of the world and honestly he feels like it is

“can i have the number?”

he asks upright and fuck that sounded so straightforward and too quick because if it wasn’t stressed enough, he just met you today!! t o d a y he doesn’t know at all that his voice sounded much like a squeal

or the fact that jin’s practically gAWKING at what jungkook just did but at the same time he looks like he’s a proud dad!!

or that jimin’s just snickering at the back and shaking his head at jungkook while clicking his tongue because lmao he knEw that this guy had a thing for you

he just didn’t know that he’d advance to you this painfully and awkwardly

jimin’s had a lot of awkward interactions with customers but nOT to this point that he looks like he’s gonna pass out

taehyung’s cupping his hand over his mouth because oof that wasn’t as smooth and jungkook thinks it is

it’s like waterslides but there’s not enough water in it so for the first half it’s all smooth but then at the second half it’s just dried out

and your back’s just skidding and hurting and you have to manually push yourself down the slide and now EVERYONE in the pool’s now looking at you awkwardly and then u decided that you want to sink into a blackhole

aha tae wonders who got that experience :D certainly not him :D

“o-oh the number for the shop i mean!!! piercings and stuff like that!!! a cALLING CARD IS WHAT I MEANT”

okay now jungkook reeled too far in

jin’s massaging his temples because the second-hand embarrassment is too much and he wants to make it clear that he is not affiliated with jeon jungkook OR whatever his name is

it’s like casting your fishing line to the water and you just feel this slight bite (but it’s probably just your wrist snapping) and all of a sudden you feel like it’s the biggest catch eVER in history

you’re wondering on the down-low of uhhhhhh lol why is it so light and it’s like i kNOW i’m powerful but why is it too easy for me

then turns out that it’s just a random piece of seaweed

lol definitely NOT jin :D of course not :D

you’re a bit bummed because honestly you really thought that jungkook would ask for your number

although you could just give it to him but you’re not tHAT daring on the first meeting

“calling card yeah sure :)))”

you outstretch your hand because the stack of calling cards are literally just on jimin’s desk and jungkook also failed to account for that

you hand it to him and jungkook’s just blinking rapidly because oH,,,, landline,,,, o-oh you really did just give him what he ASKED for

here’s the catch

jungkook’s a big dummy

HE MISSES YOU OKAY

it’s been a solid week ever since he and jin got piercings done

jin’s beyond happy with his piercing and he looks at himself in every reflective surface every single time because he’s just in LOVE with the new addition

he’s already dreaming of his next one and what earring he’d put in once this one’s all healed

doesn’t help that jin keeps mentioning you every single time either

or the fact that he is stiLL playing with the slime you’ve given him and kook’s conflicted whether he wants to steal it or throw it out of the window his piercings are all good :( he can peacefully sleep on his side now :(

normally that would be a good thing but now jungkook’s wondering if it’s wrong to hope that atleast there may be sOMETHING WRONG with it :(((

just so he could drop by the shop

speaking of the shop

he found the instagram account :D

not necessarily found because well the handle was in the calling card

ANYWAY

there’s a big following for it!!

he assumes that these tattoos are done by the hope guy and they look pretty awesome

there’s the piercings too!!!

that’s jin’s ear!! tHAT’S JUNGKOOK’S EAR!! :D

why is he so happy

he has no idea on which one of you runs this account and he’s a lil shit.,... that’s why he won’t slide into the shOp’s dms in hopes that you’re the one running it

what if he sends a cute message of “hey i miss u” and it turns out that it’s jIMIN who’s in charge of the acc

that’s a big L for kook

if jimin were to picture that situation, he would block and clown jungkook for life

he’s scrolled far enough to see a picture that isn’t of ink and reddened ears

it’s a picture of the staff!!!

you’re standing brightly in the middle with your arms around taehyung and *grunt* jimin while you’re the embodiment of :D

and jungkook’s smiling to himself in the dark because uh it might be late in the morning when he’s doing this

now there’s TWO other guys and he knows that one of them mUst be hoseok but he’s not exactly sure which one of these dudes because he doesn’t know what hobi looks like

he’s now on a roll because the other handles are tagged :D and well :D

jungkook isn’t a creepy guy ok

he’s just genuinely curious about you and he misses yOU who he’s only met for like less than an hour who was really gentle with him even if u poked a needle to his ear otherwise

now you’re not really thAt uptight with your feed because in your humble opinion

ahem

pictures with the same aggressively saturated/unsaturated filters going on and on are kinda very annoying for you because now every picture looks like the other and what’s the pOINT

there’s multiple pictures of the guys there!!!

taehyung looking sophisticated and intimidating and sOft at the same time that jungkook feels smol

ok ok maybe he should level his wardrobe game up a little bit

jimin looking very smiley and poised and kook huffs because he’s not the oNLY one who could pull off a cardigan smh ://

that’s IT he’s going to jin the first thing in the (normal waking hours of) morning and requesting (kINDA DEMANDING) that jin makes him a cardigan please

oh so that’s hoseok

he looks intimidating-ish and in the pictures he looks stOic but there is this one picture tho that he’s smiling and that makes jungkook smile too finally there’s you!!!

most pictures of you are taken either by a really nice camera OR a grainy film camera one

taehyung takes your pictures with his expensive-ass dslr aND his film cam and there’s just something about it that mwah 𝒸𝒽𝑒𝒻’𝓈 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈

you don’t look ugly in them and u don’t hate the way you look in them and it’s just!!! wow!!! taehyung baby please develop these right nOW

jungkook’s sighed wistfully atleast twenty times now

damn he just wants to see you again is that tOO much to ask for he doesn’t know what time at all he goes to sleep but he knows for sure that he’s awake now

like awake AWAKE normally, jin just lets jungkook laze around and sleep away because he

too can attest to the fact that the both of them need sleep so much he only wakes him up when jungkook tells him the night before to wake him up at this certain time at aLL costs

..,... oh you mean *all* costs .,..,.

so far jin really enjoys all the things he’s came up with

he’s tried spraying jungkook with the same bottle that he uses for the plants repetitively until he wakes up

oooooh he’s also tried piling on froot loops on jungkook’s nose (his record’s twelve!!!) until the smell made jungkook sniff and thEn sneeze

you know that scene in how i met your mother when robin was drunk asleep then a baby wakes hEr up by crying then she just wakes up,,, dazed n confused,,, and goes to comforting the baby and turns out that it’s a sTRANGER’S baby??? yeah that one

jin made this alpaca plushie and it looks like him with the gentle smile and he named it RJ because what a cutie :((( you shall now be named RJ

and sO what he did was play a random crying baby loop on his phone and bURST into jungkook’s room

“jungkook the baby the baby’s cRYING”

and jungkook’s all groggy but then he yawns and stands up

“aisH ‘mkay heYYY bud calm down, hmm?? i’m-“

wait hOLD UP

jin still has that video on his phone to this day,, of jungkook cradling and even patting the back of a plushie with the hush noises,,,, until he eventually realizes that he is not the father

and most certainly that this is nOT a baby

but the thing is

jungkook didn’t ask jin to wake him up

his projects this week have all been completed last night

what is perhaps something so important this morning that jin is literally sHAKING him awake to the point that jungkook’s ducking underneath his hands because he thought it was an earthquake????

“you know? you know how we talk about us collaborating aLL the time?? the endless opportunities???? how you knOw i’ve been literally figuring this out in the majority of my spare time and-...”

jin’s talking so fast and that wakes up jungkook because whew slow down he is at the capacity of turbo the garden snail pre-nitrous oxide

“yeah sure online shops are cool!! we bOTH have our own!!! we work two jobs!! but we both know that we like it better oUR way right???”

no printer just fax

maybe it’s the stubbornness in jungkook but he just doesn’t like it when someone’s breathing down on his neck and making demands profusely even if that is what a job entails lol

jungkook’s just nodding because he feels that whatever jin has to say is important with how quick he’s talking and how big his eyes are

“what if i told you — jungkook are you rEADY to hear this-“

“yeah yeah whAt is it??”

“i mean it are you pREPARED to hear-“

“what wHAT??? now you’re just making me antsy!!”

jin’s trying to calm himself by pursing his lips and even his finger that’s raised is trembling

“what if i told you that i earned us an excellent aND affordable spot at a famous shop,,, the perfect placement and i know the owners and we could go there, right now, to finish settling and start setting?”

...

....

.....

“jin are you fucking sHITTING ME???”

oh my god

jungkook’s springing out of bed and is just jumping up and down with jin out of sheer joy because oMG

they’ve both wanted this for so long and kook feels like he is actually about to cry

“you wanna know something???”

“of cOURSE i wanna know something!!”

“hope ink?? vante studios?? remember when we got our ears pierced by y/n?? do you remember that platform thingy???”

yes yes i remember get to ur point jin

“i was so curious with it that i texted taehyung at 11 in the evening last night and i didn’t kNOW that he would reply,,, turns out that it was a space for rent and obviously i was like wHAT DID YOU JUST SAY???”

oh my god oh my god is this what jungkook thinks it is

“and then this morning, he gave me hoseok’s number and he said that we could head to the shop and discuss terms!!! he sounded sO excited too!!”

wait

does this mean

does this mean that he gets to see you again???

:O

“you’re telling me that i get to see y/N??”

you don’t know what the commotion is about

you’re a lil bit disoriented coming into the shop because you and jimin

went out for shots the night prior

you regret challenging him to a dare

now said jimin is here surprisingly early,, absolutely hammered because oh god he regrets taking you up for your dare

he thinks he’s being sly with his sunglasses on but he is positively wrong <3

you had to do a double-take because this was just weird

the shop should be open by now but the sign says that it’s closed

and something in the air feels weird and somehow..,. baby powder fresh??

hobi and tae are sitting on the waiting area discussing some things and they keep giggling every few seconds

“jimin what’s going on??”

you’re nudging him to move from his seat but he refused to yield so now ½ of your buttcheeks is sitting on his chair

“bro i don’t know aNYTHING”

thing is, yOU’RE the one who takes care of him when he’s drunk and forces him to drink water so he wouldn’t be as wrecked the next day

“shouldn’t receptionists know the gossip??”

“shouldn’t yOU be talking a little quieter??”

lol ok go off mr. jimin the receptionist

he’s already apologized for his quips and you know by now that whenever he’s grumpy and this rekt, he’s a bit more catty and has sensitive ears so now the two of you are just talking in whispers and jimin has his head rested on your shoulder :((

“i think someone’s finally renting the stage”

“really??”

you and jimin just call it “the stage” because the platform at the shop just looks so ominous and empty,, even if jimin doodles something on a sticky note and puts it at the center of the stage

hobi was the one who wanted it to be there!!!

right when he and tae decided to merge, he wanted a bigger space to accommodate this stage for future tenants

it’s a good business opportunity and easily profitable!!!

although no one’s rented it

maybe now’s the time!!!

jimin loves making assumptions lmao

his mind,,,, wow jimin’s mind just perplexes you

“i think it would be a waffle stand!!”

“jimin… why would someone put in a waffle stall… in a tattoo shop..,.,.”

“honestly why nOt?? some clients get tattooed for what, like five hours?? let’s say they’re hungry. do you tHink they’d bring a lunchbox with them??”

“you’re right.,..,. you’re absolutely right.”

before you and jimin could condense the options furthermore though, tae and hobi are already walking towards the two of you that are still whispering

they’re gonna announce something!!!!

tae’s trying to keep it together as hobi’s trailing it out with his speech and he’s taking tOO long

“someone’s gonna be renting out the stage!!!!”

he basically squeals and you and jimin nod to each other aha

he was aiming for perhaps a bIGGER reaction

“oh lmao we already guessed it ten minutes ago”

“but do you knOw what’s gonna be there??”

jimin immediately raises his hand begging for hobi to call him on to answer as he’s violently flailing around

“you know??? what is it then???”

“waffle stand :D”

the outright cackle hobi lets out is enough to send you meanwhile jimin’s pouting,, still confused before you urge him to take a seat

the two of them won’t tell you at all and then agreed to just keep it as a surprise until the tenants come

jimin’s literally at the edge of his seat as he lets you take ¾ of the chair because nOw he’s excited

the door chimes and you stand up at lightning pace that you forget jimin’s sTILL sitting there lmao

well he’s sitting.,.. just on the floor

you’re hurrying to pick him up and the moment you drag him up with you, you feel like yOU’RE the one who’s gonna fall sheesh

your knees are bUckling

“jungkook!!!!!”

jungkook’s happily waving at you and he forgets that the two of you aren’t close because he’s about to make his way to hug you

it looks like you’re the only who’s in shock

it’s starting to sink on why jungkook and jin are here and you immediately freak the moment it clicks in your head

“oh my god did something happen with your piercings?? let me-“

you’re in panic mode and you’re walking so fast towards jin and kook stops you before your heart could even explode

“no nO!! don’t worry!! didn’t they tell you?”

“tell me what??”

taehyung and hobi are grinning so hard and it’s only a matter of seconds before tae has his arm around your shoulder as he gestures to them

“they’re the tenants!!”

oh

OH

DOES THIS MEAN-

:O

“hihi nice to see you again, y/n!! look at my piercing it’s healing sO quickly!!”

jin is the first to put you in an embrace and you squeal when he does because omg he is a furnace

you’re pointing at his ear excitedly and he even babbles on how he wants more now and you instantly add on to that conversation

jungkook’s a bit uHhh because he wanted to greet and hug you fIRST!! 

although he does get his turn because jin turns his attention to hobi who he’s excited to meet

jungkook can’t help but to hug you a little bit tighter and mayhaps even sniff the scent of your perfume again !!!! omg he missed you so much everything’s going great

jin plus jungkook and taehyung plus hobi were able to agree on a deal within the day!! it was so easy and both parties are such delights

they’d get a partition done in the meantime so while you all get to work, jin and kook could have things done with it being a surprise factor for the patrons!!!!

their ideas already sound so good

you learned that jin studied fashion design and jungkook with the graphic design and how you’d even hear stories from them on how they saved each other’s asses so many times

their layout for their stall??? immaculate

jungkook’s fingers are itching to layout the floor plans and all these graphics because fuck he is ecstatic and he cAN’T hide it

you find his smile to be absolutely aDORABLE

that smile with his nose scrunched up and he looks like a bunny and how he laughs loudly and it’s actually contagious

you finally got to exchange numbers :D

kook was the one who texted first and it was out of the blue because he’s wasted all this time just thinkinG on how he’d approach you first

then he was designing prints to go on to the stall until his body dropped and with the energy he had left he went :]

what do you think :) about :) my designs :)

and then you REPLIED and he didn’t think that far ahead

you commended him for it and you realize that your way of designing is different from his but in the same time somehow alike???? yes synergy

“what more do you have left to do?? lol u should really go to sleep koo :D”

“just some more cards i guess?? like the ones with the ~opening sale!!!~ and things like that”

inch resting

you may be so whipped for jungkook that you may or may not have did those layouts yourself

hehe

:D

kook comes to the shop early on the morning so they could be hands-on with the set-up all that but he instantly gets energized the moment you come near him

he should’ve fixed himself up a little bit longer

it’s all clear that he looks fATIGUED and jimin keeps teasing him that he looks like triangle gimbap :(( and he wasn’t annoyed then but he is nOW because oh u might think of him like that too

you put a whole-ass hard drive on his palm and you could’ve just gave him a flAshdrive or sent him the files like a normal person would but he’s special ok

and the gears in his head are turning because oh my god what is iN this wHY are you giving me this and-

“opening sale,,, discounts,,,,, layouts you had left.,….,. y’know :))”

brO

bRO

jungkook’s so happy and he’s still in disbelief because you did that?? you really did THAT for him and you haven’t known him for like a week but you still did it??

this is such a big deal and he doesn’t know how he could express that he’s thankful for what you did besides

ᵐᵐᵖʰ

hugging you :((

oh god you’re really falling for jungkook qUICK

you don’t wanna say that you’re the type to get attached quickly but you aRE the type to get attached quickly :((

although you’ve only been in one (1) relationship before and it went for pretty long but you won’t get into that lol

taehyung knows this so well and mAYBE that he knows that for a brief time when you first met him, you did have a tiny crush on him but that dispersed quickly

it’s just this feeling in you that jumps up every now and then

that’s it tHAT’S the person

but then it isn’t that person

tae knows you enough and well,, he tries to interfere with your decisions from time to time because you get crushes and well sometimes they’re not crush material at all lmao

he knOws you have the hots for jungkook

but he’s not sure whether or not jungkook feels the same

://

he needs to keep his mind open ok

he doesn’t know jungkook that well but he does know that there are a LOT of guys like jungkook

that sounds pretty hypocritical of him but taehyung’s just that way hehe he just doesn��t speak his thoughts loudly

but he is THINKING

and he’s shutting up and he won’t go off on you yET of how maybe you should feel this one out with jungkook and try to analyze if it’s uhm a two-way thing y’know….

that you’re not the only one who’s getting attached….

it’s officially the opening for the shop and jin and jungkook couldn’t be happier

everyone’s having so much fun!!!!

they didn’t expect these many people and ph god the tears are definitely coming whew

it feels like everyone and everyone’s mother is at the shop and they’re all genuinely having a good time :D

there’s tONS of flowers and you all surprised the both of them with an additional blowout and wow it’s really endearing to try and digest

the people that came in for their tatts and piercings to be done?? they aLL went to the stall!!! their appointment isn’t due yet and they’re a bit early??omg why not go to that pretty shop WITHIN this shop???

they’re all done with their appointment and wanna buy a bomber jacket?? some stickers?? some prints within this frame?? that’s it they will go rIGHT now

vice versa too!!!

the people that initially came for jin and koo’s shop?? they were intrigued and went “lol why not let’s get a piErcing while we’re at it!!!”

business is booming

u gotta say that

satisfaction levels are off the roof

jimin is absolutely having THE time of his life because he gets to chat and he LOVES chatting!!! so much!!! omg who are u!! lemme talk to you about this pretty kitty i saw on my doorstep this morning :D

this whole time, jungkook is beaming and glowing and it makes your heart go whOosh

everytime he bumps into you or sees you in his peripheral vision? would absolutely waddle towards you and sling his arm around your waist and point to all the people in there as he giggles excitedly

whatever’s going on

whatever tHIS was

you’re loving it :(( you want more and it’s driving you crazy that you’re too chicken to make any moves towards jungkook and hE ALSO WON’T

you don’t wanna approach any of the guys either because adding them into this equation won’t make it any less confusing

hobi would just furrow his eyebrows at you because it’s ???? not that hard ???? just confront him and ask if he wants to take it to the next level with you ???? or like idk cONFESS ????

jimin would absolutely tattle and before you know it, you’re already in a reddit or quora thread because he too needs advice, before he himseLF gives advice

taehyung??

well you’re not exactly sure on how tae would react but u know that you’re scared to open up either way because you just aren’t prepared!!

“whatcha doing?? :D”

jungkook’s been awfully too enthralled and his eyes are literally less than an inch away from whatever it is that he’s holding

he’s slouching too and you distinctly remember seokjin getting these chairs with these backrests on them, specifically not for him to do so

he hasn’t been speaking for awhile now and nORMALLY you’d hear his voice every now and then even if you were back to your station or even in the break room

he’s just so fOcused and although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he needs a break every now and then ok

here you are with a glass of iced tea you just made :)) only supposed to fix up a glass but then taehyung had glared and pouted you from across the room :)) so now you have made a pitcher and everyone’s happy :))

kook kinda jolts at that and it’s what reminds him to blink and tear his eyes away from what he’s holding, looking up at you and a fat tEAR drops from his eye

oh god did you make him Cry

lol no

jungkook’s just wiping it off because he hasn’t blinked in awhile and his eyes are beyond strained at this point

“i brought you-…”

did jungkook just-

oh

did he-

you were supposed to put the iced tea down on his table and you even brought a cOASTER for it

but then jungkook probably doesn’t think of that because he’s wordlessly put his hand on your tummy and sat you down

he’s sat you down.,..,. on him.,…

in technical terms

jungkook’s sitting with his legs slightly spread apart and you’re sat rIGHT at that remaining space

and mind you

this chair is not the biggest chair in history

nor is jungkook’s thighs small.,., hence him taking up the entirety of the chair and leaving a tiny space on it for you to sit

aND YOU KNOW THAT

and out of instinct did you think that you’re gonna fall off, you hoist yourself up and he even helps you out for it, going so far as to wrap his arm around your tummy once again and bring him up on his lap more securely

you’re now sITTING ON JUNGKOOK

although you’re not sure if he realizes this bit that much because he still seems genuinely preoccupied with what he’s doing

his chin’s propped up on your shoulder and his arms around yOU all while it looks like he’s stringing a thread through these beads before he decides to speak

“this mom came in today asking if we could make party favors for her kid’s birthday party,” he absentmindedly hums and for any other scenario would

you ask him to continue on

but now you’re in a PRESSING scenario

literally

your cheeks feel so hot right now and it’s worse than when you try those hiit workouts that straight out come from hell

“so fORTY kids, right? this seven-year old has so much friends?? anyway!! she wanted to have bracelets spelling the kids’ names bUt with these acrylic pendants — sounds good but a lil complicated, right?”

“rIGHT you’re right!!!! :)”

jungkook suddenly stomps his foot down as he huffs because this goddamn string just won’t get in this damn bean and u feel your sOul quiver

“aha let me get that for you!!!”

you’re flustered if it wasn’t that any mORE obvious but apparently, jungkook takes no notice at all because he just scrunches his nose in thanks when you take it from him

“but then, she said that she wanted one more thing to give away!! wanna guess?” he nuzzles further to your shoulder and by your neck and you swear that you’re absolutely dYING

you cock your head to the side the moment jungkook gets back the unfinished bracelet from you and he even nUDGES HIS NOSE TO YOUR

NECK

mhmmm

good food…. good fucking food…..

“matching little cream bERETS that have their name embroidered on them.”

jungkook snorts because hmmm isn’t that a bit too much?? is this kid 7 or 70

“and so yeah, okay, jin-hyung entertained the order and the beret part. and then we gave her a quote. and then she said that she needs it tWO days from now!!! T W O !!!”

the way he emphasizes is adorable but gOd the way he’s practically teasing you right now and pretending to not know about it at all is just sINFUL

“it was a rush order, and she said that she’d pay triple even bEFORE jin could say that she’d have to pay extra!!!” he wraps up on this particular bracelet then before tying it off, having to lean more so he could see better and in turn making you aDJUST

makes you screw your eyes shut because you’re positive that kook would be the death of you

“do you know how mANY variations the name kayleigh could have?? because i certainly dO”

jungkook snorts once more before he could even adjust the way he’s sitting but this time though it’s you who’s caught him off-guard

“this chair hmm???”

now listen

he’s had this scene play out in his head and yes he may or may not have planned for it

of cOurse he would take any chance that he gets to sit you down on his lap

HOWEVER

this one was purely innocent!!!

jungkook was so endeared with you preparing him iced tea and he was just so stressed with these bracelets and he wanted to show you them!!!! that’s all!!!!

but then the equation played out in his head that oh.,.., there is Not Enough Space for two people in this chair that is clearly built for one person only

and tHEN the realization came to him that oh you are INDEED sitting down on his lap and the way you’ve reversed this card is commendable

he swears you were flustered just awhile ago but nOw??? you’re full-out hinting him on this directly and not beating around the bush and oH god that just made him-

“y-yeah this chair, hmm?? what about it??”

jungkook’s the one that’s stuttering now and he unconsciously wraps his hands around your waist tightly as he chews on his bottom lip

your throat’s a bit dry but there’s just this sudden desire that’s popping into you and it automatically cuts our whatever awkward filter you have on

he feels you obviously grind on him in a clockwise motion and you’re playing it oFF so smoothly that he almost forgets that the two of you aREN’T exactly alone

“why don’t you show-

“are those bracelets??? omg”

hobi’s voice resonates from the distance and it automatically goes higher because he’s walking towards the booth in an eager pace

okay fUCK

you automatically yelp and jungkook squeals and before you know it, he’s standing up sO quick before he practically sits you down on his chair forcefully

jungkook’s legs are literally in a tWist as he’s standing behind the backrest and you have to grasp your cheeks to try n cool them down

“yeah!! aha it’s for this client omg but i have so many more to go through and it’s just really busy and all and so i-“

“lemme help!!! today’s a slow day for me anyways!! :D”

hobi’s walking in and he’s aiming for jin’s unoccupied chair that is literally just beside yours and kook is sCRAMBLING away oh god oh god someone’s gonna see this tENT in his fucking pants

“aha omg need to pee!!! y/n’s iced tea makes me wanna pee so badly aha she’s — IT’S so good omg just need to go the bathroom!! aha brb!!!!”

hobi is a little bit perplexed? but uh he doesn’t wanna delve into it that much

you’re shoving your face into your hands because that’s… the glass of iced tea…… it’s not even sipped from yet…..

it’s okay it’s cool

delayed gratification!!! yeah, that!!!! that applies to here, right????

right???

pls say right

it’s always been this flirty and touchy and affectionate atmosphere between the two of you

you were testing out on jumping in puddles basically :((

of course you don’t want jungkook to be this “friend” that you have frequent loving banter and sexual tension with aND is the type to sit you down on his lap and then completely ignore you as you stew in tension

.... of course not

do you know what to feel? not really

truthfully you aREN’T that strong-willed and you only become proactive when the case is absolutely necessary

you have a backbone in you it’s just not THAT strong

which is why you don’t know how you should treat jungkook’s sudden shift in emotions and the way he’s practically avoiding you

you don’t wanna push into him and force yourself over anything he isn’t ready with!! of course not

you don’t know whether you should be enraged because it’s hIM who’s sending mixed signals and right when you think you’re making progress, it’s always two steps back

you don’t know whether you shouldn’t think about it that much because maybe just mAybe it isn’t your loss!!!! jungkook just has a lot on his plate and you shouldn’t be bothered!!!

you DO know that you’re kinda sad 

because you’re just so clueless and no matter how tiny of a nudge (you wrote on a paper towel and slid it to him) or big of it (you wrote on a piece of tracing paper with jimin’s glitter pen) that you give him, he wouldn’t be open to you

atleast let you in just the tiniest bit

atleast tell you if you’ve done something wrong or if he needs anything from you

:(

is jungkook losing his shit?? 100% percent

here’s the dish

jungkook is a bIT of an asshole

to further explain, he’s just so mighty afraid of commitment while knowingly doing y’know.... things that you’d DO in a committed relationship

maybe afraid is not the word

it’s a mix of fear and uhhhh perhaps disinterest

:D jungkook is totally an asshole isn’t he :D

he’s had mORE than a fair share of experience lol that’s for sure

but perhaps his first real experience of an actual relationship was with ji-eun from uni

aha well it did initially start with one-night stands :)) and then eventually it became friends with benefits :))

then ji-eun addressed him as boyfriend one night to her friends and jungkook remembers stiffin up that night because uhhhhh??? oh do i have a girlfriend now

he didn’t ask and he didn’t complain

now ji-eun eXPECTED for him to roast her for it but??? he played along???

he’s noticed that ji-eun’s become more affectionate with him and tOuchy but it’s not for escalating things

she’s constantly texting him and inviting him out to eat and normally,,, after sex,,, the most jungkook could ever get was a gRANOLA BAR that she lets him steal when he’s sneaking out but uH you wanna eat lasagna??

he was just sO out of it because is this what being a boyfriend entails??? aha safe to say that he does NOT want a relationship ://

he tried out this boyfriend thing for a 7-day free trial and he immediately left and broke things up with ji-eun (she hates him now but she’s still pining over him)

(( whenever jungkook adds something to his stories, ji-eun goes hAM on those heart emojis ))

he’s just not into commitment

he wants the time and the freedom that most people get less of when they’re in a relationship

jungkook doesn’t get why these girls still get mad at him when he’s made it clear in the first place that he’s oNLY in it for the s-

yeah ok maybe he’s an eternal douche of a frat boy ://

he doesn’t want you to take it the wrong way though

bECAUSE HE LIKES YOU

HE’S SURE

OK MAYBE NOT A HUNDRED PERCENT SURE

but he is sure of it to a degree :D

he just finds it as another ji-eun situation but this time he has more interest!!!

he’s actually thought that maybe being a boyfriend isn’t all that bad

however jungkook’s mind immediately started drifting to how maybe you aren’t a fan of him staying up in the early hours of morning, doing something he could’ve done mUCH earlier and then you’ll hate him or something

he doesn’t wanna go to brunch or wear matching clothes :////

he once came into the shop wearing a black button-up with a black shirt underneath and THEN jimin came in later but with just a black button-up with that he completely REFUTES the idea of relationships because lit rally everyone in the shop kept teasing him to jimin and he doesn’t even liKE jimin

“oh uHhH you wanna take it... slow?”

you’re blinking slowly at jungkook who’s standing in front of you and is looking a little... nonchalant??

nonchalant but in the same time he looks nervous

nervous sweats but he’s playing it off by running his hand through his hair and making these tired eyes at you

quick is he pulling this off oR does he look like an absolute ass

“yeah!! it’s just like uh y’know... casual. a casual, laid-back type of thing!!!”

you don’t know how you’re gonna process that

but you do wanna respect jungkook’s wishes no matter how much you feel it’s a bit tIMELY and insensitive

“o-oh!! casual.,,. slow!!! of course aha no problem :D”

you can’t help but connect the dots aha

he’s decided to tell you THIS right when you were being called by jimin to do a piercing and you have no time to spare

the week before, you remember getting him a drink even if he hasn’t asked for it

or five days before when jungkook materialized out of nowhere and put his hand around your waist before nuzzling his nose to your hair

*immediately spots you and squeezes you when he comes up to you from behind*

“i want a conch piercing!!!! not now tho but i want yOU to do it to me :D” 

*immediately dying*

“of course ggukie i’d literally want nOTHING more aha :D”

*immediately regretting making it sound that you are a goddamn sIMP*

or like two days before, you were all eating lunch and you were so full and a little bit sleepy that you rest your head on his shoulder

or maybe just yESTERDAY, jungkook’s sat you down on his lap and hobi interrupted whatever that was happening

and perhaps after that encounter

uh

you may have kissed him on the nose before going to your station

:((((

it’s okay

it’s tOtally ok lol

it’s not like you’ve been distracted the whole day or perhaps the days after that because you’re kept up with the thoughts that maybe jungkook isn’t into you as mUCH as you’re into him even though his actions say otherwise

nope :D

taehyung’s worrying at this point

lmao he knows that you don’t know that he kNOWS what’s going on

sure,, you and jungkook are sly but tae’s observant to the point that he’s memorized all these little quirks about you

he’s been your friend for the longest time!!! of cOurse he knows when something’s bothering you

he’s deduced that maybe jungkook broke your heart or something along those lines,, although he doesn’t assume that it was an actual relationship just yet because if it were, then you would totally tell him about it

... right??

there’s this distance thing going on in between the two of you and he’s tested it out a couple times to test his theory

first, the two of you aren’t iGNORING each other but all your interactions are either short-lived or dare he says,,,, casual n basic

he’s commanded jungkook a couple of times things like “the extra roll of receipt paper is in y/n’s station go get it” or-

“get me a pair of gloves from y/n’s cart”

“tae you already hAVE gloves in your cart”

“ok wHO is the owner and who is the tenant here?? or maybe you and y/n just fought and you’re sO SCARED OF-“

“jesus christ oKAY!!! i’ll get the gloves!!!!”

you look so dejected

taehyung pokes your cheeks and you just LET him

he bought you mac n cheese and spelled out “cheer up :-)” using the shells and you merely smiled at it before proceeding to bOW your head to the table and look distraught

he’s offered his ear as tribute because you haven’t done a rook piercing in awhile and you miss it but you just shake your head nO at him and :(((

and the thing is

you’re so tIRED about being hung-up with jungkook

usually you just shut down and you get back to your feet a week later and you’re all happy!!!

but no jungkook just had to be a pesky little shit in your head and decided to LIVE THERE RENT-FREE

“hiii welcome to hope ink sLASH vante studios!! walk-in, appointment, or are you just here to see me?”

jimin looks up from his phone because he was cLEARLY not trying to help organize some of the audits that hobi told him to lol

hmmmm now this customer does look interesting

he looks cOOL if jimin’s being very honest

he also wants his hair color fo sure and maybe if he just snapped a picture of it right now, this customer tOtally wouldn’t notice at all!! :D

he’s a very tall lad and is in this denim jacket and his HAIR

his hair’s a combination of dirty silver and ash grey and it’s all slicked back!!!

“oh uhhh i’m here for a piercing!! i don’t have an appointment.”

jimin nods at that and turns to him a logbook with the needed contact information and the sheet

kim namjoon

hmmmm

a walk-in customer?? a handsome one at that?? the fate of whose piercing artist would dO his piercing lying on his hands???

hee-hee

now normally jimin with his stereotypical secretary traits, he either knOws or assumes everyone’s business

he doesn’t know what happened to you and jungkook but he for sure knows that you need a pick-me up!!!

you need an appointment

a dick appointment mayhaps lol

usually jimin’s always scolded to how he’s letting the customers pick when unnecessary, and this is the PERFECT timing to correct that tendency

the P in park jimin also stands for Petty

“smoking hot dude for a piercing session with y/n please!!! :D”

he of course had to yell that outloud into jin and jungkook’s stall,,, one in which everyone’s there and you and jungkook are sitting at the opposite ends of the room

hobi shakes his head at that and jin instinctively oOOOOOOHs his way to but jungkook nudges his ribcage pretty fucking hArd and it wasn’t discrete at all

taehyung purses his lips because hmmmm.,.,.. jimin actually doing his job correctly.,..,.. that’s sus

“hot as in as hot as you?? oR hot as in he has the same hair color as what taehyung had back in uni and-”

“ʸᵒᵘ ᵖʳᵒᵐᶦˢᵉᵈ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵗᵃˡᵏ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵐᵉ ᵃˡᵐᵒˢᵗ ᵇᵘʳⁿᶦⁿᵍ ᵐʸ ˢᶜᵃˡᵖ ʷᶦᵗʰ ᵇˡᵉᵃᶜʰ :⁽⁽”

tae pouts and grumbles at that because if he focuses hard enough, he could feel his scalp on fIRE

now you and jimin have always been jokingly flirty with each other

and neither of you take offense and shit bUT a certain jeon jungkook certainly does because he used to not care about both of your antics ok

he didn’t mind because well uH who in between the two of us actually gets to be that intimate with y/n???? me buddy mE

it’s not a competition tho and jimin finds kook to be weird because it looked like that everytime he has his hand around your shoulders or something

jungkook looks like he would bARK at him for doing so and ???? he’s weird

he’s brooding right now if it wasn’t obvious

because for the most part, this distance and casual thing was working for his side

but now that jimin’s escorting you back and you’re play flirting with him again,, he just can’t feel this certain twinge in his gut

he’s not jealous

he’s sure that this is everything but jealousy

he doesn’t get jealous ok

jealousy is just reserved for people who have feelings for someone and are in committed relationships :)

goddamn

jimin was right

you are nOT in cowboy boots nor are you in the matching chelsea boots jimin got you for your birthday but you are definitely shAking alright

“h-hi i’m y/n, your piercing artist for today :)) what’s, uh, what’s your name? :))”

the man in front of you raises his eyebrow but chuckles later on bc for second there he thought you were rEALLY straightforward and he’s used to be the one catching people off-guard

“namjoon. kim namjoon.”

he puts out his hand for you to shake and almost nO customer at all does that and so you’re internally squealing because omg :) wow :) namjoon you polite thing :)

you’re clearing your throat to break off because you swear namjoon looked like he was about to devour you whole with only his gAZE!!!!!

perhaps you were too enthralled into the stare that you don’t notice to how the guys are looking at the interaction while hiding behind this wall

someone’s getting TOO huffy to the point jin had to ask if this certain someone needed some allergy medicine

“what are you getting done today??”

“oh, about that! dealer’s choice, if you may. i trust you.”

did he just-

jungkook instantly scowls thay because excuse yOU denim jacket guy

tHAT’S HIS LINE

dealer’s choice!! that’s his line!!! that’s what he said to you and god does he need to trademark that line??? that’s what he pulled and that’s what anyone getting pierced by you that looks like they have a shot with you, sHOULDN’T pull

:((

you hum at that and you’re trying to keep your smile to yourself it’s all cool

“how do you sleep, by the way?”

jungkook’s eyes are widening twofold because WHAT is he hearing correctly???

he’s looking up at taehyung because he’s the other piercing artist here and he’s looking at jungkook weirdly because he looks so panicked

“that’s a legitimate question, jungkook.”

IT IS

because you’re figuring out if the plan in your head isn’t a good combination with how he sleeps and namjoon laughed at that

“by myself or with you?”

you choke on air at that and namjoon laughs once again as he mumbles that he was kidding before giving you an actual answer

you can’t look at him in the eye because you are still flustered that tHIS fine specimen is flirting with you

y o u

i mean there is no harm in this right.,.,.

jungkook said he didn’t want anything between the two of you anyway :D

“i’ll do your right ear for today. two upper helix and a tragus, how does that sound?” you wait for an answer before putting on your gloves and namjoon nods when you point them out, a sly smile on your face before marking

“you could come in anytime to have me do your left when you’re ready for it — i got you anyways; it’s on the house.”

this time it was hIS turn to be flustered but he keeps his cool, clenching his jaw when you mark him out

“do you need anything before we start? slime?? stress ball?? oOh this keychain i made???”

you proudly hold up this stuffed heart shaped keychain, one that you put in your belt loop because it went very well with your get-up to go to waste

jungkook has his eyes narrowed because he knows you’re innately irresistible but wHY the hell are you pulling out all the stops to emphasize that

taehyung meanwhile has a scowl on and if it was possible to sizzle then he’d be burnt barbecue by now

“no WE made that :///“

you’re cute,,,, namjoon really thinks so

“does your number belong to those options? it really shouldn’t.,.,. it should be a priority”

:)

aHEM

OKAY NO

jungkook has his eyebrows furrowed and at this rate he’d be getting wrinkles on his forehead

next best thing for him? taking his phone out his pocket and tHROWING it to the ground

it snapped everyone out of their trances

he pretended to be sheepish while getting it because aha :D omg how did my phone go there :D

his case is a heavy-duty one but that’s nOT in his worries rn

you proceed to pierce namjoon and it finished as soon as he came because lol piercings really don’t take that long at all

ended with him still paying tho as he insisted

even tipped you more eXPENSIVE than the rate of the piercings themselves and you even tried to give it back to him but namjoon,,, the man that he is,,, he is PERSISTENT

“best piercings i ever had,, besides :) i like the one who did it on me anyways :)”

“but namjoon you have nO piercings :)”

“exactly :)))”

now that tHAT’S done and you are now $$$ richer.,.,.

“jimin you fucker i kNOW what you did there”

the boy smiles brightly and giggles and you aren’t really mad at him because absolutely who in this world would have the heart to??

“i have no idea what you’re talking about”

that has got to be one of your most memorable interactions ever this week perhaps throughout your whole professional piercing career

and it tRULY made you smile and it’s one of the only things throughout this week that genuinely made you smile

yeth you may have scribbled your number very quickly on his palm before he left

you’re just about to pass out on the couch over to the break room because wHEW your heart is racing and you aren’t really exactly opposed to that

namjoon was such a dream and he was very polite too and he was fLIRTY but not the creepy kind

although the door to the break room suddenly swings open and you’re rattled

“jungkook.”

he obviously doesn’t look like he’s gonna greet you back because he looks stone-cold with his gaze set on you

you’re a little bit intimidated because what could he pOSSIBLY want after saying that he doesn’t want anything to do with you??

“you like him? hmmm??”

there it is

there’s this jealousy that’s raging off from him and currently he is fAR too in it to even acknowledge that he iS jealous

this makes you scoff for a moment before crossing your arms across your chest because really,,, is tHAT what it takes to give jungkook a wash of reality???

“m’better than him — whatever his name is.”

your throat is dry because jungkook’s taking these big strides towards you and god he’s just tOO intoxicating for you

even just hIS scent wants you to light yourself on fire because whew.,.,. if he was a drink then he’d be too hot and flammable

not that you’d drink him in or anything :D

“you don’t even kNOW him”

you’re just about to chew him off and before you could, your words get caught in your throat because jungkook dIPS down right at the exact moment

his lips hovering around your neck and testing little licks on it

you whimper because holy fUCK and jungkook takes that as invitation to bOldly kiss you right on your skin, trailing down towards your clavicle where the hem of your shirt meets

“don’t need to, baby.”

you’re sat on the middle of the couch with both his hands trapping you besides your head and he’s crouching down, just mERE mere centimeters from your lips

jungkook’s just staring you down and you audibly gasp because look at him!!! he’s so beautiful!!!!

wait you’re supposed to be mad at him :((

“mind if i have a taste?”

he whispers as soon as he breaks eye contact from you and you whine at that, feeling him suckling on your jaw as you clench

“why not?”

oh

okay

he knows what you’re playing at alright

just awhile ago you were a whimpering mess and noW that he was asking for permission to do something that’s more scandalous than him kissing your neck.,..

hmmmm

you’re being dismissive of him intentionally

just a last-minute plan that involved a shot at his ego and not to embarrass yourself further because after all aha :) not eVERYTHING is all forgiven

ok then :)

jungkook’s kneeled riGht in front of you and he has such a tight grip on your waist even if you know you won’t be going anywhere any time soon he’s licking to your folds with feather-like intensity

if you’re not gonna show any reaction, then atleast hE wouldn’t give everything to you

of course his underlying motive is to tease you and make you beg for it

but every now and then jungkook’s looking up at you and his nose is nudging you in the process but you sTILL won’t back down

did you just-

DID YOU JUST BRING OUT YOUR PHONE

you’re practically dying in the inside but you keep your reactions to yourself and your jaw clenched

in truth you’re just scrolling through your expenses through this month in your notes because it was the fIRST thing you could open in your phone ok

jungkook huffs so loudly because first of all wHERE did you get the audacity

fine then :D

he suddenly stops and that’s when you shoot him a sly look from behind your phone, feigning an irritated quirk of your brow

“you really won’t budge??”

before you could register his words tho you’re iMMEDIATELY moaning he’s eating you out toO good and it was just plain-out sinful with how he was able to make you come from that to this

“jungkoOK fuck-“

his thumb presses firm on your clit before quickly retracting it and that earns him another mewl and a tug on his hair

“that’s right… my name sounds better on your lips, yeah?”

your pure pleasure is consuming you wholly and before your eyes could shut again with how overwhelming the sensation is oH MY GOD is the door unlocked?????

there’s something to how your eyes widen towards that fact and to how jungkook quickly notices that hmmmm he dID leave the door unlocked something about it makes him even more passionate in devouring you and it makes you wanna tHROW yourself into oblivion because the fact that someone.,., someone could literally come in this room aNYtime given is enough to make you almost yell

“fuck fUCK jungkook i’m gonna-“

his lips are all red and puffy and even his cHIN is messy and it makes you moan because fuck it was impossible to how he still looks so dreamy!!!!

he makes no move to slow down as he squeezes at your exposed thighs, his dull fingernails scratching at you before he stares back up at you, nOt even lifting up his mouth from your core to speak

“not stopping you, baby.”

that alone throws you into bliss and you’re cumming sO hard that you feel like you’re gonna black out

jungkook’s lapping on your release as if he’s starved and still tastes you out through your orgasm

that… was an experience alright……

your eyes are fluttering because wow that drAined you

before you could even look for him, kook’s coming at you to clean you up :))

lol he found this face towel on the couch and he figures that it belongs to jimin but nOPE not anymore aha

he dampens it with the water available and he’s EXTRA careful with you because you r sensitive and fragile at the time being

he even wipes at your arms and your neck to cool you down!!!

jungkook’s biting down on his lap as he rests the towel meanwhile on your nape and there it is

that dreamY look on his eyes again that just makes your heart flutter :(( your nose nudges his and it makes him giggle the slightest before he leans down to kiss you

and it hits you that you haven’t even kissed jungkook in the lips eVER

although that doesn’t really happen.

just as you were about to pull him in, something must have snapped in jungkook because he suddenly retracts from you as if he’s got burned

he looks empty and lost, not even sparing you another look before he’s storming out of the break room

and you’re all alone 

again.

:(((

“you wanna tell me what happened with you know who?”

taehyung has HAD it okay

he’s trying to be as patient as he possibly could with you

he wishes that he could just read minds so tHAT way he won’t have to budge out the answer from you

because in his very humble opinion, this approach helps too!!!

you’re sad and distraught and he gets that!! he does!!

but maybe if you let him know what happened to you, then he could be sad WITH you

you were the one who taught him that :((

you were roommates in uni and he was so down in the dumps when he got this almost failing grade to the point that he’d take his frustrations out on you

and you very kindly put up with him but then he drew the line to when he blew raspberries to his palm when you made him dINNER!!!! and that’s when you yelled at him and told him to tell you on what the fUck is bothering him

so that way he won’t bottle it up and that way you could try to help and eliminate what it is because you’re also caught in the crossfire thank u very much

it’s his idea to take you out to this party and you’re not being your usual self in this one

and the way tae talked to you upfront made you look up from your drink that you still haven’t finished, a pout on your face

now ok taehyung wasn’t close to giving up on fishing the answers from you but you thOught he was because he was leaning back on his chair

you also really wanted to tell him what was happening too and so you did!! completely caught him off-guard when he stole your drink away from you and almost spit it out the moment you started telling him what was happening

“you didn’t have to open up with THAT y/n jeez you could’ve opened up your story with the start!!! not tHAT”

the somehow comic relief taehyung brings you puts a smile on your face because although you don’t voice it out often, you’re infinitely grateful to have tae

he is perhaps the most understanding and rational person in your life and he’s just so soft and supportive and quick-witted that

oh my god are you crying

you’re in the middle of telling the whole timeline when taehyung feels your head nudging at his shoulder and nOrmally he presses it down

but this time it felt different because well you were sobbing

and now you felt so heavy and there’s this unexplainable weight in your chest because god jungkook is just so fRUSTRATING!!!

he’s beyond angering and frustrating and he makes you want to launch yourself to the ground

“i-i don’t — tae it’s juSt god fuck aHhH!!!! h-he’s so-“

taehyung nods in agreement even though you couldn’t see him because your face is shoved into his chest and he’s rubbing soothing circles onto your back

“i know, baby :((“

he’s in disbelief too

jungkook is an ass and no matter how much taehyung wants to understand that he may have good n pure intentions, his execution is just so fucking horrible

there’s no in-between

either you wanna be committed or not!!!! that’s it!!!

this just wasn’t a netflix trial you could have for a month and when it hints to you that you’re gonna have to give a little bit more,, you immediately fLEE

or maybe it’s just taehyung trying to see the best and over-analyzing things that maybe,,,, maybe jungkook’s just… jungkook

there’s no changing him

he’s unhinged and does whatever he wants (would sometimes stop when reprimanded) and whatever repercussions that are brought out, his first instinct is to toss it aside instead of facing it head-on

you must’ve been lying on taehyung’s chest for atleast an hour because you realize that you aren’t crying anymore and the tears on your cheeks are dry :((

“d-do you want a punch?? i’m gonna go get a punch. four seasons?? we like that, right?? okAy i’m gonna get us some punch!!!”

that’s you for sure :))

you’re immediately bouncing up and clapping your hands pretending that you weren’t a sobbing mess just minutes ago

taehyung knows that you do whatever you need to cope so he just puts his thumbs up,,, even if he prefers pineapple more than four seasons but it’s okay,,.,. whatever you want :))

you needed that

tae was mumbling whatever he had in his mind while you were crying and you listened!!! you don’t know what part should you take from it but you dO know that somewhere along the lines, maybe he’s right

you just want some punch is that too much to ask :(( crying has left you dehydrated and water is the most preferred option but uh that shit is PLAIN

maybe this party isn’t so bad after allthe lights don’t give you a headache 

and you see the punch table rIGHT ahead of your path and oooh red cups aren’t the only cups available!!!! that’s so-

“Y/NNNNNNN!!!! look, look!!!! look at me!!!!!”

a voice shrieks from behind you and you immediately feel a pair of arms wrap around you

you’re kinda in panic because taehyung isn’t tHIS heavy and you look down on the arms wrapped around your middle and that’s-

jungkook?

the man in question comes to your view and it’s clear that he’s beyond intoxicated with his glassy eyes and the drunk blush on his cheeks

you took a two-day leave from work that taehyung gracefully granted you to avoid jungkook.,,. jungkook who’s standing right in front of you

“loooook!!! look at meEeeeeEe!!”

you’re rigid in your place because out of aLL the people you could possibly see in this party, why did it have to be him??? you’re okay with seeing yoo-

he’s pointing on his ear and he even waves his hand across your face and is that what he’s talking about??

it’s glimmering underneath the light and???

is that

is that a conch piercing???

you’re rendered breathless because it seems wrong to you…,. not criticizing it as a professional but rather, criticizing it as-

“i thought i was supposed to be the one to do that to you?”

jungkook’s blinking at that as if he’s digesting your questionmeanwhile 

your throat is tIGHTening and there’s this fresh wave of tears again because you’re literally quite reminded of him

wHEN HE’S IN FRONT OF YOU

and he’s still pointing at his ear before he’s using his other hand to something or someone behind you and you cAN’T bring yourself to care because-

“oHhh lisa did it on me!!”

taehyung arrives at the exact time you needed him to just hastily, frazzled because he’s trying to connect the fucking dOts on what’s happening

here is his five-second deduction

you’re tearing up and your bottom lip’s trembling which means you’re about to sOB

jungkook’s right in front of you and his right hand is pointing to his reddened ear

a) taehyung has never seen this conch piercing before

b) he would know because he’s one of the two piercing artists in the shop jungkook also works iN and he’d remember if he pierced him or not

c) it’s reddened and there’s some dried blood near the piercing which indicates that it was freshly-pierced

and jungkook’s other hand is pointing to this girl that’s sitting on this couch with a lamp beside her and she’s nOT wearing gloves and taehyung guess that she’s the one who pierced kook???

he’s not sure

although he’s sure that jungkook is fucking wASTED and you can’t bear whatever that’s happening

“can you go home by yourself?? or should i call hoseok to pick you up?? i’m uh, i’m gonna take jungkook home..,. are you sure you could take yourself home???”

you don’t need to be told twice because you’re bolting out of the house so qUICK

oh god you need to get out you nEED to

jungkook doesn’t remember sHIT

he’s drank himself stupid last night is what he’s certain about

there’s no explanation to how he even got home last night and the post-it notes on his console table doesn’t help in the slightest bit

“you’re stupid. - taehyung”

that dumps cold water on him because oh god what did he dO this time

he’s done enough stupid things in these rocky weeks alone!!! what did he do this time :(((

“taehyung told me how stupid you are. he’s right. you’re stupid. - jin”

jin too???

jungkook cusses himself underneath his breath because his head is kILLING him (rightfully so) and he’s about to run his hand through his hair when-

wait

wait a damn second

… he has a new piercing?

he’s immediately fumbling towards the floor-length mirror and he just then realizes that jin’s already went to work wITHOUT him and that puts the pressure on him even more

true enough, his conch is pierced and he’s racking his head on wHY does he have it until it all snaps in his head

lisa.,,..,.

it’s coming back to jungkook now

he remembers you taking two days off and those were the loneliest two days ever he’s ever had working in the shop

then by the end of day two he was such a mess that jin didn’t even know what to do with him

thus came to him via text that there was this hUGE party that’s about to be thrown and he honestly thought why not!!! :D

everything’s going wrong anyways lemme go to a party :))))

and then he bumped into lisa!!! his sorta fling back in uni that he may have dropped suddenly and here she is,,,,

she complimented him on his piercings and jungkook was confused because he already had them back in uni???? okay then thank you????

and he doesn’t know how he obtained this piercing but he’s sure that lisa was the one who did it on him

AND THEN HE SAW YOU

you were crying and he can’t remember wHY but then jungkook’s piercing stings again and it’s like his soul hates him too

because oh

right

lisa shouldn’t have been the one who did that on him

there’s a lot of things jungkook sHOULDN’T have done

god why is it only hitting him now

he’s took a shower as fast as he could and he may have been crying

while he was taking it but that’s not the point

the point that shocked most was you

in work

you actually came to work!!!

taehyung wasn’t able to reach you that night besides get a text from you that you arrived home safely and that’s about it

he thought you needed more time off considering what happened but you’re hERE now????

jin, who had a crash course on everything that’s happened between you and jungkook is also even MORE shocked and he keeps gasping every two seconds

hobi’s happy to see you back again and he welcomes you with a warm hug that you melt into :((

jimin on the other hand completely invades ur personal space in 0.01 seconds because he’s bounding towards you vERY happily

“i missed you!!! i missed you sO much!!! my two days were basically pOINTLESS without you!!!! i asked myself wHy am i still working here without you here-“

“jimin i hired you to work-“

“and i already know that this place is falling aPART without you here and if i leave??? then what???? so i decided against resigning and waiting for you to come back and then you cAME BACK!!!! :D”

he’s so giddy that you automatically become as giddy as he is, just letting him twirl you around while he still has you in a bear hug

jin has a sorry look on his face as he hugs you and you knOw that he knows :((

he’s mad disappointed in jungkook

you automatically know that there’s one person missing here and you’re slightly thankful for it

you just wanna work in peace and it seems that there’s kinda a big waiting list for you to get through and jimin’s calling them up at the moment to let them know that you,, the piercing artist they specifically requested for,, is back!!!

you’re not chirpy and that’s understandable

lol you’re in spain but the s is silent

this quiet you’re encasing yourself in leaves you along with your thoughts and your thoughts are the fUrthest thing away from quiet

it’s not just about the piercing, y’know?

it’s not that piece of jewelry on his ear and it’s not jUst about who pierced it on him

it’s about the sentiment and things that you can’t explain because you don’t wanna say the L word considering that jungkook doesn’t feel the same

and he probably never would

you think growth and suddenly it’s not!!!

you think jungkook wants something more as much as you do and then suddenly he leaves you!!!

you think you’re moving up steps but in reality you haven’t even left your initial one in the first place!!!

you’re so preoccupied with your thoughts that you managed to ignore jungkook who came in late and was beyond surprised and at the same time nERVOUS that you came in for work

although not to preoccupied to ignore that someone was plopping themself on the client’s chair in front of you

you can’t recognize them from their hair color but you dO recognize with how it’s oddly familiar with it’s shape

and then your eyes trail down and upon see only the eyes you’re immediately freaking out

“YOONGI!!!!!”

oh my god

it’s yOONGI!!!!!

your shriek practically leaves everyone in alert and even hobi who was in the tattoo room rush out mid-session to see what was going on

yoongs is more than happy with your reaction and he squeezes you even tighter than the embrace you’re giving him rn

….

….

jungkook doesn’t know if he is the only one here who is beyond lost but uhhhh not to be rude or anything

but who the fUCK is yoongi???

his heart sinks seeing you hug this unknown person and god he could do nothing but wish that it’s him on the receiving end

he’s immediately stalking towards jimin because after all, he iS the one who’s let this guy through

that’s right he did let yoongi go to you asap and it was a surprise for you too and he’s the only who knew that he was visiting :D

10/10 secret-keeping skills

jungkook has a cat-dog relationship with jimin but he’s putting that aside for now because he’s dESperately pawing at jimin’s arm to ask who tf is this yoongi

jimin’s shocked because he didn’t think jungkook would be literally begging him rn but okay,, he’ll give in since this kid looks like he’s gonna bawl

“ah!! yoongi-hyung!! haven’t seen him in awhile :D”

jimin answers and that doesn’t answer shit for jungkook but now that someone else said his name, it sounded familiar??

he can’t exactly put his finger on it but it just felt so distinct

“are they related or?”

he’s asking more because he’s prying for an answer and well jimin’s still watching your interaction unfold

ngl he’s enjoying not giving answers for awhile

but then again kook is shaking him slightly and he’s pleaded again to give the younger boy an answer

“lmao they’re exes, jungkook”

w hat

a prick of fear arises on him because him?? you?? relationship????

“… y-you mean yoongi’s y/n’s ex-boyfriend?”

he’s trying to take in this bit of information and he doesn’t know HOW

he doesn’t know how he should react nor can he explain this sinking feeling in his stomach

the fact that jimin is now speaking without being asked doesn’t help at aLL

“yup!! from what i know and what y/n told me, they were together for three years!!”

“tHREE YEARS???”

o-oh

jungkook’s eye is twitching and his breathing skips because wow

that’s nice

three years :)

that’s a small number, right?? you were in a committed relationship with someone for three years!!! and said someone is now your ex-boyfriend

and for sOME reason, you’re hugging him and the two of you are all good!!

there’s this fear in him again because he doesn’t want to entertain these thoughts, honestly

thoughts that maybe he’s a tad too late and that perhaps you’re back with your ex-boyfriend and you want nothing to do with him because compared to yoongi, jungkook is perhaps nothing!!! :D

“mhmm-hmm. broke up on good terms tho as u can see, they’re still cLOSE, yoongi went abroad and well,,, y’know”

you missed yoongi so much

well uh you don’t love each other like that anymore

it was bound to change anyway

him going abroad to pursue his dreams and you just wanting to stay

it was a mutual decision to break up but although the label wasn’t there anymore, the both of you still looked out for each other :)

lol he’s the reason anyways to why you’re in this job in the first place the both of you were drunk after a date (you watched a basketball game) and then came on the dare that hey.,.,. baby what if you get a piercing license or something

and originally you were supposed to be the only one who took it but then yoongi joined you :))

and some time later you took a break and then resumed and hence the piercing license :))

“c’mon. if i’m gonna get my helix pierced, then i should atleast get it done by my best girl, right?”

yoongi nudges you and it’s this playful aura with him again that makes you laugh

he never really was the one to make you cry or break your heart now that you think about it

kinda sad to think that no one was really at fault for the breakup :(( you and yoongi…. it just wasn’t gonna work

it makes you wary because there always seems to be a trend in your lovelife

the common denominator is that things don’t work out lmao

:((((( lmao :(((((

you’re done with his piercing in a blink and you still can’t stop thinking to how maybe you just aren’t cut out to be loved :((

that sounds so sad

it’s always the word almost for you and it’s exhausting!!!!

after your breakup with yoongi, you didn’t have a relationship after because uH you just didn’t want to

you just didn’t want another off-chance to spend perhaps the best years of your life and then have them move abroad to pursue what they want 

you were afraid to be hURT after yoongi

and somehow yoongi is now a timestamp in your life because there’s eras

there’s B.Y. (before yoongi) and A.Y. (after yoongi) lol

then jungkook came along and it’s this sudden shift in you that you were decided!!!

you are gonna love again and you tOTALLY are into jungkook :D

sike he’s just not into you

…or not?

jungkook’s rushing towards to where you and yoongi are sat and no one was able to register the situation even if everyone was on their toes watching

“do you have a basketball game tomorrow????”

he’s staring at yoongi like a madman and yoongi is so confused because what

“i said dO YOU HAVE A BASKETBALL GAME TOMORROW???”

okay yoongi is dumbfounded

but then he repeats this madman’s words again for two more times and then it hits him

“how did you know?”

yoongi is laughing because how could this dude pOSSIBLY know about this

he’s taking out of his phone from his pocket so quick and then he’s taking out the case

AND THERE IT IS

that sticker

that sticker jungkook made aGES ago

HI MY NAME IS YOONGI AND I HAVE A BASKETBALL GAME TOMORROWWW

fuck

he’s met you before!!!

he didn’t meet meet you but his point is that your paths have crossed before!!!!

the gears in your head are turning because how did jungkook know???? he doesn’t know yoongi and no one would know not unless-

“y-you? you’re the one who made that for me??”

ok this is clearly now a private moment and jimin is dragging yoongi back to where the rest of the guys are eavesdropping but mAybe it’s for the best that they leave altogether

jungkook nods and it feels like his head’a gonna fall off

you’ve got this done and customized for yoongi’s birthday back then and you never thought that a sane graphic designer would do it for you.,..,.

you could always do it but you were in a slump back then and for once, you wanted someone else to bring what you want to life

you thought it was a stupid idea to base yoongi off this vine for one of his presents

and you said to yourself that if the fIRST graphic designer i could get in contact with refuses to make it, then u r gonna scrap that idea

but then this graphic designer eagerly accepted your commission even offered a discount but you still paid him full-price with a tip

who kNEW that it was jungkook???

“i know i’m the most confusing and aNGERING human being ever and a sHITTY one too-“

it’s somehow coming back full circle and he’s only realizing now to how mUCH deeper this goes

“but you have no idea how much i want to hold your hand.”

jungkook has commitment issues he’s refused to address for quite some time now and it’s only now

god it’s only now that he has someone that genuinely makes him want to question this mentality of his

“i kept looking for reasons to nOt love you and it’s impossible because they make me love you more”

he’s tried hating to how you go and make tedious crafts like making stuffed keychains (the latest one is named mang and he’s a hORSE) or trying to channel that restless energy into anywhere you could get your hands on

tried to despise the way you yearn for affection and how you’d go so cranky as to give people quips when you don’t get your fix

tried to loathe the way you’re so understanding and nurturing and gOd he sounds like a real asshole

“it’s not being tied down if it’s with you”

jungkook is sure

he has nEVER been more sure

because god he feels like he doesn’t have to pretend to be anything he’s not when he’s with you

he dOESN’T mind adjusting and he doesn’t mind complying to what you could possible require of him

“and if it in a literal sense is, then i don’t mind at all”

jungkook has never wanted someone sO BAD ever in his life

and he couldn’t agree more that he is a total dummy and how he wants to repent a million times over even if it means to get shut down by you a million times more

“because it’s you.”

:D

he means that

he really does mean that

he’s a sensitive thing and it’s hitting him now to how much shit he’s made you go through and he wants to make up for it!!! pLS

“let me take you out on a date, please?”

oh god is he tearing up

is jeon jungkook tearing up in front of yOU

his arms are glued to his sides but the moment he meets your eyes he absolutely losEs it and goes leaping to hug you

maybe he shouldn’t have done that

maybe he should

but jungkook knows that he’s never felt more calm and complete and loved whenever he’s with you :(((

he’s hanging in there

maybe at the slightest nudge of your nose to his neck in his embrace

somewhere along the lines

somewhere along the lines to how the guys are over there peeking out of the break room and in an array of emotions.,..

jungkook’s fiNAlly hugging you

your hands behind your back

his hands holding yours

:))

[takerfoxx]

So long as I'm getting caught up on all my stuff, here's the next installment of the Walpurgis Nights girls watch The Rebellion Story, this time stretching from Homura shooting herself in the head to her talk with Sayaka the vague-poster!

Reminder:

G=Gretchen

H=Homulilly

Op=Ophelia

Ok=Oktavia

Ca=Candeloro/Mami

Ch=Charlotte

...

=still screaming=

G: Turn it off, TURN IT OFF!

Ok, panicking: I got it, I got it! Off!

=TV winks out=

Ch: Sweet Christ!

=long pause, and then Gretchen gets up and runs off. Homulilly quickly follows=

Ch: This was a mistake.

Op: What. The fuck?

Ca: I should have known. I should have known it would go this way.

Ch: Candy, there’s no way you could have-

Ca: No! There was! I knew how bad it could get! I knew how far we could have fallen! I shouldn’t have let you guys see any of this.

Ok: It’s not your fault.

Ca: I still should have known. I should have at least screened this!

Ch: Yeah, one of us probably should have.

=another long pause=

Ok: So, uh, are we, like, done?

=suddenly Gretchen reenters the room, followed by Homulilly. They silently return to their seats=

G: Okay. Play it.

Op: Gretch, are you sure?

G: I need to know. I need to know what happens to her. I need to know if we turn out okay. Play it.

=everyone exchanges uncomfortable glances, and then look to Homulilly, who slowly nods=

Ok: Okay, if you say so…

Op: We’d better ease it with the commentary. I mean, this isn’t something we can-

G: No! Please, no. The talking…and the jokes…well, it makes it easier.

Op: Sure.

Ch: It’ll be kind of hard to find anything funny about this.

Ca: We can try to do what we can.

=they start the movie, and silently watch as Homura falls in slow motion, blood and brains spewing out. And then…=

Op: Wait, hold up! How is she still moving?

Ca: As I said, something like that won’t kill her. You would need to destroy her soul gem.

Op: So she can straight up just blow her own head off and walk it off?

Ca: So long as the act of healing didn’t use up too much magic, yes.

H: Okay, but why? Why would I do something like that?

Ca: Let’s find out.

…

Ok: Uh…Ooooh.

H: Oh. Really?

G: What’s going on?

H: I couldn’t get rid of the ribbon on my ankle. Every time I tried to shoot it off, Mami would just grow it back. So I tried shocking her so badly that she wouldn’t think to regenerate the ribbon long enough for her to be caught in the time-stop.

Op: By shooting yourself in the head?!

H: Clearly, I have a considerable amount of emotional issues.

Ch: You know, it’s really starting to concern me how you keep referring to her as yourself just now.

H: I apologize. I will try to differentiate between my alternate selves.

Ok: Oh great, now I’ve gone cross-eyed.

…

Ch: So…this is really uncomfortable. Again.

G: Is she going to shoot Cand-I mean, Mami?

Ca: I mean, there’s clearly a moral struggle.

H: Well. At least I didn’t turn out as a complete sociopath.

Ok: This is seriously gross. Can we just skip this part?

Ca: No.

Ok: But-

Ca: No.

Ok: Okay.

…

Op: In the leg. Well, I guess that’s not as-

Ok: HOLY!

G: What’s happening? What’s going on?

Op: Sweet flames, she’s…a ribbon monster? The fuck?

=pause, and then Charlotte starts laughing hard while Candeloro just sighs=

Ok: Charlotte! Explain! Now!

Ch: She did it! She actually did it!

Ok: Did what?!

Ch: You’ll see!

H: Wow, I am…I mean, she is just all tied up now.

G: Wait, Mami’s there? But I thought…then what was…

Ca: Oh, good grief.

Ok: Wait. Wait a second, you can clone yourself?!

Ca: It’s…not so much a clone as it is a puppet.

Ok: Since when could you do that?!

Ca: Um, well, I had figured it out a short time before our, um, deaths. I was training with Kyo…with Ophelia, and we were practicing with her illusion magic. You know, the duplicates?

Op: Uh-huh.

Ca: Well, she suggested that perhaps I could do something similar with my ribbons, since I could use my ribbons to form other objects. And, well…it worked.

Op: Ooooh. Okay, that’s actually kind of awesome.

H: I was fighting a copy the whole time?! How is that fair?

Ch: You can literally freeze time!

H: Hey, wait. How do you know that she could do that, Charlotte?

Ch: How do you think?

Ca: Like we said: our therapist suggested building positive associations around my change. We had to get creative.

Op: Oh, come on, that’s not fair!

Ok: Wait, you were the one betting on her!

Op: I’m not talking about that! When I do my duplicate trick all I can do with them is give Tavi a show! It’s not like she can touch any of them!

Ok: Babe. Relax. It’s honestly fine.

Op: All I’m saying I should be able to give you a lap dance while the striptease is going on.

G: TMI! TMI!

Ch: You, uh, do know that you can give her the lap dance and let your illusions handle the striptease, right?

Op: Do you know how hard it is to handle two kinds of dancing at the same time when you’re horny?

G: Please, I am begging you to stop!

…

Ch: So…I think someone owes me and Fee-Fee some talents.

Ok: Fight’s not over yet!

Ch: It clearly is…

G: You don’t know that! Maybe Homura will drop a hand-grenade to blow the ribbons up! Or maybe Kyoko will come to save her.

Op: Look, if other-me tags in, that’s an automatic forfeit. This is supposed to be one-on-one, and that clone trick is stretching things as it is.

H: Wait, wait, shut up. Wraiths? What are wraiths?

Ok: Dunno.

Ch: Did we miss something? I get that that nightmares replaced the witches, but what are wraiths?

G: Maybe…after I erased witches, wraiths are what replaced them!

Op: We should’ve just watched the damn show first.

Ch: Do you really think it’ll make things make more sense?

Op: Probably not, but at least we’d know about half of these names!

Ch: Jesus Christ, the fuck is that?

Ok: The sky wants to eat that giant walnut, apparently.

Ch: I can see that, but what does it mean?!

G: I think that’s an eye, actually.

Ok: An eye with teeth.

Ch: None of that answers any of my questions.

Op: Nope, this would still be just as weird even if we watched the show.

…

Ch: And here comes the rescue! Via…fire extinguisher for some reason. Sorry girls, Mami takes this.

Ok: Fine, fine. Thanks a lot, Homulilly.

H: Not my fault. None of us knew about the duplicate thing. I had her beat until then.

Ok: Wait, is that a sword?

Op: Guess it ain’t me with the steel chair, then!

G: Well, of course not. It’s a sword.

Op: That’s not…never mind.

Ok: It’s me! I’m coming in to save you!

H: I’m touched. But…why?

Ok: Because I had fifty talents riding on you, and you let me down.

H: Oh, don’t start.

Op: Wait. That ain’t your voice, Tavi.

Ok: Who else has a sword?!

G: Um, who is that?

Ch: Some kind of kid. Candy, do you recognize her back from before?

Ca: No, I really don’t…

Op: Wait, BEBE?!

Ch: Excuse me?!

H: Um…this is…a turn.

Ca: Don’t look at me, I’m as bewildered as you are.

Ch: Oh, so first I’m a creepy idiot doll, and now I’m a fucking child?!

Op: What is this, some kind of alternate universe bullshit?

Ok: I mean, basically. Uh, you okay over there, Charlotte.

Ch: Nope!

Ok: Wanna take a break?

Ch: Yes!

…

=everyone returns after half-an-hour=

Ch: I think I’ve figured it out.

H: Oh?

Ch: Butterfly effect. Like, okay, in this universe, Madoka somehow erased all witches, right? I mean, made it so magical girls don’t turn into witches anymore, right? And did it all through history, right?

H: Presumably.

Ch: So that means that there has to be major repercussions! Like, like, this girl doesn’t turn into a witch fifty years ago, so she doesn’t eat some random passerby, and that rando goes and marries someone that would have married someone else in the original timeline, so they have a completely different set of kids, so the kids they would have had originally don’t get born! So somewhere down the line, things got all screwy and I ended up being born a few years later!

G: Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Op: I guess we’re all super-lucky that we got born at all. And that the rest of us ended up more-or-less the same. Um, no offense.

Ch: Right. That’s all it is. Different timeline, things happened differently, and I’m a little girl in this world. That’s it.

Ok: So…are you okay with this then?

Ch: Oh, absolutely not! But I can at least deal with it now!

Op: Bet’cha anything that good ol’ Bebe here still has a major crush on Mami.

Ch: Oh, God! Don’t even go there!

Op: I’m just sayin’…

Ca: Ophelia…

Op: Stopping, stopping.

H: Shall we continue?

Ch: Yeah, I guess. I’m gonna need major therapy after all this is over, though.

G: We all will.

…

Ok: Okay, I know this is probably a bad time to point this out, but Sayaka has style!

Op: I mean, you’re not wrong. Look at you, being all effortlessly cool! Not that you aren’t already.

Ok: Nice save there.

Ch: Haha, Sayaka’s got it right! Taking on Mami was a dumb idea. Speaking of which…

Ok: Oh, come on! That clone trick was dirty and you know it!

Ch: Oh, I’m sorry. Are you upset that she so happened to have something that counters Homura’s extremely unfair timestop power?

Op: She’s got a point. A bet’s a bet.

G: All right, I guess it’s official. Mami won.

=Candeloro smirks=

H; You don’t have to be all smug about it.

Ca: True. I don’t.

…

G: Wait…

Op: So, what, Sayaka knows what’s going on?

Ok: Of course I do! I mean, I’m the brains of the bunch!

=Homulilly coughs=

Ok: I heard that.

H: I didn’t say anything.

Ch: Well, finally some exposition!

G: I do sort of wish that she’d just tell Homura what is going on without being so vague about it.

Ok: Look, I’ve been pretty much on the wayside this whole movie. Let me have my monologue.

Ch: What’s she getting at though?

H: Oh.

Ch: Huh?

H: I think…Never mind.

G: What is it?

H: I just had sort of a realization, but I’d rather not say it now.

Op: Eh?

H: Hang on. Let’s just watch a bit more.

…

Op: Jesus, Tavi! No need to show Homura up like that!

Ok: Let! Me! Have! This!

Ch: That was pretty cool, though. Shwing! Stopped her cold!

G: Wait, so one of us is the…

=voice trails off=

G: Is it me?

H: Um…

Op: Oh.

Ok: Oh.

Ch: What? Oh, okay. I get it now.

Ca: I sort of put it together too.

G: What? What are…Oh.

=everyone looks at Homulilly=

H: Well, it only makes sense. I guess.

Ch: You don’t seem all that upset about it.

H: Well, at least I get to become my best self in this movie.

G: But…how though? I thought I erased witches or whatever!

Ok: Let’s find out.

Ch: If your other self can ever get to the point.

Ok: Shhh…

…

Ca: Wait, I’m the witch? Is that what she’s implying?

Ch: Pretty sure that’s just a red herring.

Ok: You know, it’s nice that Sayaka is actually being all sympathetic toward witches. I mean, it’s kind of fucked up, isn’t it? That even the magical girls that know the score still hunt down witches instead of trying to help them.

G: I mean, it can’t really be helped, can it?

Ok: I know, I just like that I’m saying it.

G: The Law of Cycles? What’s that?

Op: Probably whatever trippy business you replaced the witch stuff with.

H: Oh, now I’m finally just saying it out loud! Madoka erased witches. Took us long enough to get to that point.

Op: Wait, sacrificed herself? Only Homura remembers her? What?

Ch: Pretty sure this was all explained in the show.

Op: Well, that’s what we get for watching this first. Should we go back and-

Everyone: No.

Op: Cool.

…

Op: Oh, freaky!

Ok: Wait, so I’m the witch now?

Ch: Could mean that in this timeline you turned into a witch before Madoka did her un-witching…thing.

Ca: That is what you looked like. Right before you became one with Charlotte, I mean.

Ch: Er…

Ok: Phrasing…

Ca: Oh, for Heaven’s sake. It is literally what happened. You turned into a witch while we were fighting Charlotte, and then the two of you fused. Then I became a witch and fused with that witch. And then Ophelia became a witch and we all fused together.

Ok: Yeah, but the way you said it…

…

H: Where’d she go?

Ok: Clumsy? You have the gall to call me clumsy? Who just saved who’s ass, just now!

H: Cut me some slack, it’s been a long evening.

Ch: Y’know you still got blood and brains all over your cheek, right?

H: I am certain that Homura does not care.

Op: I am certain that Homura is about to blow the brains out of the first punk-ass that looks at her wrong right about now.

Ok: Headshots for everybody!

H: Except Madoka.

Ok: Except Madoka. She can be the token un-brain-slushee.

G: Gee. Thanks.

Ca: I’d like to just point out that Homura came very close to turning me into a brain-slushee, but changed her mind.

Op: I doubt she’ll let you off so easy a second time.

Ch: Easy. Hey, may I remind you who won that fight?

H: You’re not going to let that go, are you?

Op: Tell yah what. Losing party treats the winners to dinner at the Tradewinds. Fair?

H: Fair.

Ch: Seriously? With the prices they have down there it’ll be cheaper just to cough up the fifty talents.

G: Yeah, but onion volcanoes!

Ch: Hard to argue with that logic.

Ok: So…on a scale of one to ten, how badly is Homura going to flip out when she realized that she’s the witch.

H: I will accept nothing less than a massacre.

Ok: Cool. Just so long as it’s not of us.

Op: I don’t know. The way this movie is going I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into a straight-up snuff film.

[mxvladdy]

More than just a flirt

John Hancock X OC

Hi hi! My smut hand be rusty but nothing like completely self indulgent OC smut to bring me back :)

So I’m still new to tagging and the like but my Fallout 4 OC is GN but I do insinuate female genitals. Soooo ye *finger guns* 

If ya read it I hope a like it! 

John was a flirt; that’s all he ever could be. He was charming. He was witty. He was an adventure covered in an oversized trench coat. What bed partners he had came for one thing. The experience. The ability to boast loudly about fuckin’ a ghoul. Like it was a damn badge of honor. His whole life had been a stream of one night stands, and cold beds. That's all he ever could be. That’s all he ever would be.

So then why did he wake up so warm?

Cracking an eye open John reached behind him searching blindly for what was heating his back. His burned fingers were a complete contrast to the soft flesh that greeted him. Slowly, he traces down it, following the flow of the dark muscular till he is holding on to an arm wrapped around his middle.

“Morin’.” His bed partner huffs in his ear. Chestnut curls tickle his cheek as they hug him closer. Whiskey and melon sweet breath bringing back memories of their lips against his. Last night clicks in place. Ophelia. John rose quickly as if burned. This was wrong, they are a friend. A good friend, a trustworthy hardworking leader. They deserved better than-than…

“John?” Ophelia rose uncaring of how the blankets slipped from their arms. Old fabric pooling around their bare waist. They rub at their eyes wearily. “You ok?”

He froze at the edge of the mattress. Long fingers reaching for his pants on a very recognizable floor. He was in Ophelia’s room; or rather this was their hotel room. Damn. He couldn't remember a thing from last night. What did he take? Fuck. He could kick himself. Of all the one-nighters, he wanted to at least remember this one. “Ye doll, sorry...just didn't wanna wake ya.” He smiles, covering his momentary panic.

Ophelia frowned, sleepy hazel eyes narrowing into a familiar piercing glaze. They size him up. Reading him better than anyone ever had before. John couldn’t help but squirm. They looked at him just like when they had first met. Strong jaw tense and their chin high, silently calling out his bullshit.

“I'm fine, honest. Didn't expect to see you is all.” Hancock tried again tugging on his pants.

“In my own room?” His friend snorts, rising to go open the curtains. “Where else would I be?”

John is silent. “I don’t know. Not here-with me.” He keeps his back turned. It was stupid to linger. The warm tingling of their soft body seeps down into the floorboards leaving him aching and cold. Staring at his irradiated hands he could almost cry. Almost- his tear ducts had been scarred shut years ago.  

“John?” Ophelia comes within arms reach. He could sense their hand hovering close to his own boney shoulder. They drop it moments later. “You sure you’re ok? You coming down from a bad trip or somethin’?” John chuckles humorlessly. Was he that predictable? Stepping away from them he finishes dressing.  

“Ye sunshine. Don’t worry about it. Ain’t my first time and sure as hell won’t be my last.” He tosses out over his shoulder. “I’ll give ya a minute ta get ready and meet you out front.”

If Ophelia had anything to say after that they kept between their pretty little lips.

“I think we should head for shelter.” Ophelia says, looking up from the fallen mutant. Their arms filled with loot. John follows their gaze. His black eyes reflect the eerie shade of green growing in the sky. Rad storm. Looked like a big one too. He lights a cigarette and sticks it between his grimy teeth before helping collect a few more useful items.

“Closest place is probably that supermarket couple o’ klicks back.” He jabs a thumb over his shoulder. If they hoof it they could probably get there and pick off any ferals before the worst of the storm hit. Ophelia sighs, John knew how much they hated backtracking. The decision was made for them when their pip-boy starts clicking in warning.

“Well-” They frown, throwing a glance back at the ghoul. “You alright with taking two steps forward and ten steps back?” John laughs, tipping his tricorn up to flash them a quick wink.

“Shit doll- You just summed up my life in a sentence.” Offering a hand he helps the sharpshooter over some loose rubble. “You keep an eye out K? I know you’re low on ammo so I’ll take point.” Ophelia nods. Their sniper rifle slung uselessly across their back. Readying his shotgun John follows behind.

The storm hit just when he had expected. Dropping rain and hunks of debris on the two as they struggle to close the supermarket doors against the high winds. Thanks to their combined dumb luck the place was empty. The sentry bots long since destroyed and even a few tins of food were still scattered about the aisle. Ophelia left him to collect some and scout out any hidden lock boxes, leaving him to set up the sleeping bags and start a small fire. Cracking open a room-temperature beer he stares idly into the flicking flames. It grew steadily as he fed it bits of cardboard and kindling. The yellow glow touches his skin and starts to dry his drenched clothes. John contemplates his predicament while he waits for Ophelia to return. The memories of last night slowly start to come back to him in the silence. The tastes, and smells of washed sheets and sweating skin permeate his senses. Ophelia’s sweet mewls and gasps echo around in between his ears. Who gave them the right to make his name sound so sweet?

Shit-He knew he shouldn’t dwell on it. First rule of one-nighters is to live in the moment then walk away clean. But damn if he wasn’t the worst at following rules.

He relives it all the best he can, parts still blurring and blocked, like a scratch in a holotape. But he’ll take it. He’ll take the phantom feel of strong, sure fingers mapping his body. The ghost of a tongue slipping against his. Washing away the taste of mentats and cheap drinks. He can’t remember the last time he had felt so warm and wanted. Made the sudden distance he put between them hurt even more. Fuck him for getting greedy.

John flicks the butt of his cigarette into the roaring flames and searches for another. He grumbles in irritation as each pocket bears no fruit. “Here. I got some.” A familiar red and white box appears in his peripheral. Ophelia’s chipped yellow nail polish clashing with the old carton.

“Thanks, sunshine.” He rasps, taking the box. He can’t bear looking up for the crumbled container. The thought of making eye contact with them while his blood and brains were living in his trousers seemed unholy. Pulling out the least damaged cigarette of the lot he lights it with a practiced flick of his wrist. “Found anything good?”

They shrug, putting a few cans of beans and corn in the growing amount of embers around the fire pit to heat. “Some ammo and super glue. Also-” They grin, forcing him to look up. “Got you a present.” They pull a bottle out from behind their back to brandish it at him triumphantly. He stares. Not at the bottle, but at the way that little pull of muscle brightens up their whole face. That signature gapped tooth smile warming him better than the beer and firelight combined. He reaches numbly for the bottle. A Nuka-Cola Quantum, the chill of the bottle a welcomed surprise.

He and the rest of the crew had learned over the years not to reject a gift, no matter how valuable. MacCready nearly had a heart attack when he was gifted with a shiny new sniper rifle. That pretty little custom piece came with all the bells and whistles. Not to mention a few boxes of specialized ammo. John had zoned out when the other man started rambling rapid-fire over specs clutching the gun to him like a newborn. Each of the core companions got some good shit from time to time. He had some absolutely sinful blades and an old bottle of pre war bourbon tucked away in his office. Valentine had gotten some fantastic upgrades to his hardware and repairs to his offices. Hell- Curie got a whole bloody body.

Can’t beat these job perks.  

“What’s the occasion?” He pops the cap off with the blunt end of his pocket knife, taking a pull from the bottle. The rush of sugar and god knows what else damping his headache.

Ophelia shrugs from across the pit. Pulling off their worn boots to warm their feet by the fire. “I remember you said they perk you up after a particularly bad crash.” They pause, face closing down for a moment, before looking up in horror. “I would have thought- I mean. I- you-I hope I didn’t do anything last night that upset you. I know you were a bit buzzed and I was way past tipsy. But, if I stepped out of line you would tell me right ?” John looks at them beyond confused.

"What?" He asks dumbly.

" Is," Ophelia waves vaguely at the distance between them. Normally when they camped together they were thick as thieves. Joking and nudging at each other's shoulders. Others used to joke about them getting a room. Now it felt like a great chasm had opened between them. "all of this about last night."

"Oh. Nah. Don't gotta worry none doll." John shrugs. Best to rip the bandage off now then later. "It's in the past, best leave it there. " He lies. It burns his throat worse than jet, but he has to. If only to protect his crumbling pride. One day he'll believe his own words. Hopefully.

"Well I am worried. How 'bout we start over. What’s wrong?" Ophelia jabs.

John feels heat rise under his thick skin. Just pokin’ a fresh cut tonight huh..."Kinda hard to start over after having someone's dick down your throat." He tosses it out carelessly. A shit attempt to derail the coming train wreck. Ophelia doesn't even flinch.

"Well, it's a damn good thing we both know how flexible I am then.” They rebuttal smoothly. “So, I'll ask again. What’s. Wrong?" The ghoul shrinks under their heated look. He was never keen on being hit with these eyes. Meant another kinda storm was brewing.

John throws his hands up in frustration. Had they never heard the phrase 'read the room'. "What, ya never had a one nighter before?" He regrets it the second the words leave his lips. He'd never seen someone flinch from words before. "Look, doll, I ain't one for making things awkward. I know the rules so let's just forget it and move on."

Ophelia deflates. Their signature look that could pin a super mutant in fight extinguished just like that. John watches them mouth over his words slowly. Clearly hating the taste of them as much as he did. "Is- was that what you wanted out of it?" Ophelia sighs. They dig a hand through sweat tangled locks. The tight coils of their hair protesting the drag of their fingers. His own fingers itch watching them, remembering the feel of their hair wrapped around his hand as he pulled them in for a kiss.

"What did you want out of it?" He asks, feeling dumber than a radroach.

Ophelia mimics him, throwing their hands up with a short laugh. "John, I thought it was clear. I don't go sleeping around with my friends and colleagues for shits and giggles. Who do I always ask to join me on travels?"

“Dogmeat?” John jokes, the knot in his stomach loosening with hope. It's unimaginable really- and yet. Were they serious? The past couple of times out they had always come to him. Even when they would be at a strategic disadvantage for whatever crazy scheme they had brewing. Only time he wasn’t Ophelia’s top pick was when some Minutemen tasks needed to be done. Even then He could always expect them at his front door the moment their feet landed on safe ground. A bottle of liquor in hand and an unbelievable story to tell.

“Not funny.” They chastised him scooting until they were seated next to him, knees brushing. "My idea for this morning was to maybe get breakfast and a semi decent cup of coffee. But I guess this is fine." They scrunch their nose in distaste at the cans warming in the fire pit.

“Shit doll,” John reaches out, wrapping a wiry arm around their waist. “Can I make it up to you? For being such an ass?” They hum in jest covering his hand with their own. The kiss that follows was unlike anything that he expected. It was slow and sweet. So different from the fast pecks he would get with others he slept with. He deepens it greedily, not ready to part just yet.

“You’re lucky I find you attractive.” Ophelia whispers into his mouth tossing his tricorn to the side and straddling his narrow hips. “We are going to have a talk about all this. Just-later-much, much later. I need a repeat performance of last night now that we are both sober.”

John groans letting them push him down. “Damn-you got it. You got whatever you want if you mean it.” Ophelia scoffs, ridding themselves of their baggy jacket. John can’t help but marvel at how beautiful they were backlit by the roaring flames. The orange glow of the light wrapping around their dark skin much like he craved to do. The flicking of it lapping at their smooth skin. Flashes of last night coming back to him of his tongue traveling down the same areas. He would have to remap them.

“As if I could ever lie to your smart ass.” They scoff grinding down on the growing bulge hidden in his rough pants. “But you have been lying to me and yourself it seems.”

He grunts in acknowledgment eyeing the way their ass moves. “You are absolutely right.Fuck- how can I make it up to you?”

Ophelia smirks cupping his cheeks. Their eyes meet. Rich hazel meeting cold black. The moment digs dip under his tough hide. The raw emotions in their stare makes his throat dry. “Put that mouth to good use- hmm? I know it’s good for more than some self-depreciation.”  

Spurred by Ophelia’s words he flips their positions, placing the sniper down on his bedroll. John sinks lower, kissing and nipping at their hip bone. Mapping out all the sensitive parts of their body. His tongue tracing the silver little streaks on their belly. Ophelia’s stomach twitches at the feel of his warm breath on their stretch marks, cursing quietly as he finds their slick core. Their nails score his scalp, dragging a hiss of pleasure from his lips. He licks with gusto, taking full advantage of their isolated positions to make them scream.  

“John-” They mew clawing at his shoulders to pull him back up to their kiss swollen lips. He goes leaving a trail of kisses in his wake before giving them a surprisingly chaste kiss on their lips.

“You sure ‘bout this doll?” He didn’t know what would happen after this, but it felt so different compared to his other recurring bed partners. He did want to see them again. He wanted this relationship to bleed into every aspect of his life. If he could relive that morning wrapped in their arms till his brain was splattered out on some dusty alleyway then he would. Without question.

Ophelia nods, reading in between the lines of his multilayered question. If there was one power figure in this wasteland they trusted, it was him. Wrapping a strong leg around his strong waist they shimmy off their tactical pants. Their eyes lock onto his pants as if the ratty briefs offended them.  John chuckles and casually loosens the draw strings keeping his pants up. Ophelia takes it from there scooting the rough material down his legs. They pur, grasping his erection and stroking it. Their dexterous fingers play with his head drawing out a healthy bit of pre.

John sighs and rests his forehead on Ophelia’s brow breathing in their naturally clean scent. It reminded him of the rare times he could get freshly washed laundry mixed with the springtime. Shen the wild plants strong enough to brave this cruel world sprouted. He kisses them, nipping at their chin and collarbone while they drive him wild. “Doll, please.” He gasps, back arching into their touch. “You’re killin’ me ya know.” Ophelia chuckles returning a deep kiss.

“Good, consider it penance for thinking I couldn’t love you.”

John heaves, lost for breath as their words hit him. He pulls back floundering.  “You mean that?” He sees the rapid fire thoughts racing through their wide eyes. Shock that they let slip that dirty little secret, fear of what he would do, then a stark resolution.

“Of course.” Ophelia nods through their embarrassment. Their sharp cheeks beginning to warm under his gaze. They say it like it’s an obvious statement. Like he should have just known. In a way he did. He just couldn’t believe it.

John takes the initiative now.  Dragging Ophelia down to his scarred lips preening when he feels them sigh into it. Their tongue teasing his telling him point blank what they wanted. Grabbing onto their plush hips John grinds down on them, rubbing his stiff erection through the seam of their thighs and wet entrance. The moans that elicited from them made his radioactive blood boil with need. He had to have them again, last night was a dud. He would savoir this time.

Positioning themselves over John’s cock Ophelia shoots him a sultry wink before sinking down onto him slowly. “Oh fuck me.” He groans, dropping his head to his pillow. Their body was feverish around his, soft, pliant and so willing.

“That was my intention.” They grab onto his shoulders for support. Eyelids fluttering heavily. “If I’m not getting that across now, perhaps I should quit while I’m behind?” They joke as they ride him. Their hips move in slow tight circles. It’s enough to drive him wild.

John digs his fingers into the supple flesh of Ophelia’s hips. With any luck he’ll leave bruises. Excellent. Ophelia couldn’t stop John as he flipped their position. He pinned them roughly down on his sleeping bag. “Don’t worry Doll. You got your point across very well. Don’t need to go putting yourself out like that.”

“You’re one to ta-” John thrusts into them cutting off their snark. Taking  devilish delight in flustering them. Setting a fast pace he drives in deep revealing in their cries of pleasure. God damn- this was almost enough to make him wanna go sober. How did he ever think one night would be enough?

“Fuck! I don’t deserve you.” His hisses cutting through the wet slaps of skin on skin. Ophelia does nothing but groan. Neither of them last long. Much to John’s chagrin. He finishes with a choked shout, hips and stomach twitching as he spills himself on their thigh. Ophelia doesn’t fare much better. They bite hard at the rough skin of his neck, nails scoring his back with a perfect mixture of pleasure and pain while they came undone beneath him.

“Do you mean it?” He asks, cupping the back of Ophelia’s skull. They wrap an arm around his neck nuzzling close, draping their body across his.

“Ye- but if you talk down about yourself again I’ll have to feed you to a deathclaw.” John chuckles feeling his eyelids getting heavy. He wouldn’t put it past them.

[queenlua]

hey, i started following you recently and ur bio says ur a hacker? any tips on where to start? hacking seems like a v cool/fun way to learn more abt coding and cybersecurity/infrastructure and i'd like to explore it but there's so much on the internet and like, i'm not trying to get into anything illegal. thanks!

huh, an interesting question, ty!

i can give more tailored advice if you hit me up on chat with more specifics on your background/interests.

given what you've written here, though, i'll just assume you don't have any immediate professional aspirations (e.g. you just want to learn some things, and you aren't necessarily trying to get A Cyber Security Job TM within the next three months or w/e), and that you don't know much about any specific programming/computering domain yet.

(stuff under cut because long)

first i'd probably just try to pick some interesting problem that you think you can solve with tech. this doesn't need to be a "hacking" project at first; i was just messing around with computers for ages before i did anything involving security/exploitation.

if you don't already know how to program, you should ideally pick a problem you can solve via programming. for instance: i learned a lot back in the 2000s, when play-by-post forum RPGs were in vogue.  see, i'd already been messing around, building my own personal sites, first just with HTML & CSS, and later on with Javascript and PHP.   and i knew the forum software everyone used (InvisionPowerBoard) was written in PHP.  so when one of the admins at my RPG complained that they'd like the ability to set multiple profile pictures, i was like, "hey i'm good at programming, want me to create a mod to do that," and then i just... did. so then they asked me to program more features, and i got all the sexy nerd cred for being Forum Mod Queen, and it was a good time, i learned a lot.

(i also got to be the person who was frantically IMed at 2am because wtf the forum is down and there's an inscrutable error, what do??? basically sysadmining! also, much less sexy! still, i learned a lot!)

the key thing is that it's gotta be a problem that's interesting to you: as much as i love making dorky sites in PHP, half the fun was seeing other people using my stuff, and i think the era of forum-based RPGs has passed. but maybe you can apply some programming talents to something that you are interested in—maybe you want to make a silly Chrome extension to make people laugh, a la Cloud to Butt, or maybe you'd like to make a program that converts pixel art into cross-stitching patterns, maybe you want to just make a cool adventure game on those annoying graphing calculators they make you use in class, or make a script for some online game you play, or make something silly with Arduino (i once made a trash can that rolled toward me when i clapped my hands; it was fun, and way easier than you'd think!), whatever.

i know a lot of hacker-types who got their start doing ROM hacking for video games—replacing the character art or animations or whatever in old NES games. that's probably more relevant than the PHP websites, at least, and is probably a solid place to get started; in my experience those communities tend to be reasonably friendly to questions. pick a small thing you want to do & ask how to do it.

also, a somewhat unconventional path, but—once i knew how to program a bit of Python, i started doing goofy junk, like, "hey can i implemented NamedTuple from scratch,” which tends to lead to Python metaprogramming, which leads to surprising shit like "oh, stack frames are literally just Python objects and you can manually edit them in the interpreter to do deliberately horrendous/silly things, my god this language allows too much reflection and i'm having too much fun"... since Python is a lot of folks' first language these days, i thought i'd point that out, since i think this is a pretty accessible start to thinking about How Programs Actually Work under the hood. allison kaptur has some specific recommendations on how to poke around, if you wanna go that route.

it's reasonably likely you'll end up doing something "hackery" in the natural course of just working on stuff. for instance, while i was working on the IPB forum software mods, i became distressed to learn that everyone was using an INSECURE version of the software! no one was patching their shit!! i yelled at the admins about it, and they were like "well we haven't been hacked yet so it's not a problem," so i uh, decided to demonstrate a proof of concept? i downloaded some sketchy perl script, kicked it until it worked, logged in as the admins, and shitposted a bit before i logged out, y'know, to prove my point.

(they responded by banning me for two weeks, and did not patch their software. which, y'know, rip to them; they got hacked by an unrelated Turkish group two months later, and those dudes just straight-up deleted the whole website. i was a merciful god by comparison!)

anyway, even though downloading a perl script and just pointing it at a website isn't really "hacking" (it's the literal definition of script kiddie, heh)—the point is i was just experimenting a lot and trying a lot of stuff, which meant i was getting comfortable with thinking of software as not just some immutable relic, but something you can touch and prod in unexpected ways.

this dovetails into the next thing, which is like, just learn a lot of stuff. a boring conventional computer science degree will teach you a lot (provided you take it seriously and actually try to learn shit); alternatively, just taking the same classes as a boring conventional computer science degree, via edX or whatever free online thingy, will also teach you a lot. ("contributing to open source" also teaches you a lot but... hngh... is a whole can of worms; send a follow-up ask if you want that rant.)

here's where i should note that "hacking" is an impossibly broad category: the kind of person who knows how to fuck with website authentication tokens is very different than someone who writes a fuzzer, who is often quite different than someone who looks at the bug a fuzzer produces and actually writes a program that can exploit that bug... so what you focus on depends on what you're interested in. i imagine classes with names like "compilers," "operating systems," and "networking" will teach you a lot. but, like, idk, all knowledge is god-breathed and good for teaching. hell, i hear some universities these days have actual computer security classes? that's probably a good thing to look at, just to get a sense of what's out there, if you already know how to program.

also be comfortable with not knowing everything, but also, learn as you go. the bulk of my security knowledge came when i got kinda airdropped into a work team that basically hired me entirely on "potential" (lmao), and uh, prior to joining i only had the faintest idea what a hypervisor was? or the whole protection ring concept? or ioctls or sandboxing or threat models or, fuck, anything? i mostly just pestered people with like 800 questions and slowly built up a knowledge base, and remember being surprised & delighted when i went to a security conference a year later and could follow most of the talks, and when i wound up at a bar with a guy on the xbox security team and we compared our security models a bunch, and so on.  there wasn't a magic moment when i "got it", i was just like, "okay huh this dude says he found a ring-0 exploit... what does that mean... okay i think i got that... why is that a big deal though... better ask somebody.." (also: reading an occasional dead tree book is a good idea. i owe my firstborn to Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development, as outdated as it is, and also O'Reilly's kookaburra book gave me a great overview of web programming back in the day, etc.  you can learn a lot by just clicking around random blogs, but you’ll often end up with a lot of random little facts and no good mental scaffolding for holding it together; often, a decent book will give you that scaffolding.)

(also, it's pretty useful if you can find a knowledgable someone to pepper with random questions as you go. finding someone who will actively mentor you is tricky, but most working computery folks are happy to tell you things like "what you're doing is actually impossible, here's why," or "here's a tutorial someone told me was good for learning how to write a linux kernel module," or "here's my vague understanding of this concept you know nothing about," or "here's how you automate something to click on a link on a webpage," which tends to be handier than just google on its own.)

if you're reading this and you're like "ok cool but where's the part where i'm handed a computer and i gotta break in while going all hacker typer”—that's not the bulk of the work, alas! like, for sure, we do have fun pranking each other by trying dumb ways of stealing each other's passwords or whatever (once i stuck a keylogger in a dude's keyboard, fun times). but a lot of my security jobs have involved stuff like, "stare at this disassembly a long fuckin' time to figure out how the program pointer got all fucked up," or, "write a fuzzer that feeds a lot of randomized input to some C++ program, watch the program crash because C++ is a horrible language for writing software, go fix all the bugs," or "think Really Hard TM about all the settings and doohickeys this OS/GPU/whatever has, think about all the awful things someone could do with it, threat model and sandbox accordingly." occasionally i have done cool proof-of-concept hacks but honestly writing exploits can kinda be tedious, lol, so like, i'm only doing that if it's the only way i can get people to believe that Yes This Is Actually A Problem, Fix Your Code

"lua that's cool and all but i wanted, like, actual links and recommendations and stuff" okay, fair. here's some ideas:

microcorruption: very fun embedded security CTF; teaches you everything you need to know as you're doing it.

cryptopals crypto challenges: very fun little programming exercises that teach you a lot of fundamental cryptography concepts as you're going along! you can do these even as a bit of a n00b; i did them in Python for the lulz

the binary bomb lab is hilariously copied by, like, so many CS programs, lol, but for good reason. it's accessible and fun and is the first time most people get to feel like a real hacker! (requires you know a bit of C beforehand)

ctftime is a good way to see when new CTFs ("capture the flag"s; security-focused competitions) are coming up. or, sometimes CTFs post their source code, so you can continue trying them after the CTF is over. i liked Stripe's CTFs when they were going, because they focused on "web stuff", and "web stuff" was all i really knew at the time. if you're more interested in staring at disassembly, there's CTFs focused on that sort of thing too.

azeria has good ARM assembly & exploitation tutorials

also, like, lots of good talks out there; just watching defcon/cansecwest/etc talks until something piques your interest is very fun. i'd die on a battlefield for any of Christopher Domas's talks, but he assumes a lot of specific x86/OS knowledge, lol, so maybe don’t start with that. oh, Julia Evans's blog is honestly probably pretty good for just learning a lot of stuff and really beginner-friendly?

oh and wrt legality... idk, i haven't addressed it here since it hasn't come up in my own work much, tbh. if you're just getting started you're kind of unlikely to Break The Law without, y'know, realizing maybe you're doing something a bit gray-area? and you can cross that bridge when you come to it? Real Hacking TM is way more of a pain-in-the-ass than doing CTFs and such, and you'll learn way more with the latter, so who cares lol just do the fun thing

[reincarnated70sbaby]

star crossed

-chapter one-

jimmy page x fem!OC

warnings: none!

A/N: so I’ve been toying with this idea for a while, and I’ve finally felt inspired enough to put it in motion!!

words: 2.4k (🤨)

star crossed masterlist

next chapter>>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fresh off the success of Led Zeppelin, the namesake band were already quick to get back into the studio and start recording material for a new album.After a long eight months of non-stop touring, the band already had a sizeable amount of rough demos, all written on the road or between concerts.

On a warm day in September, they reached Mystic Studios, and were finally able to transform the songs from paper to production. Arriving at the studio early, the band entered, not knowing what to expect as the manager and owner of the small studio, Tom, was quite vague on the equipment available.

“Finally, that car ride took fucking years” Bonzo complained, after being stuck in the small vehicle for almost an hour straight in the balmy Los Angeles climate.

“God damned Yankee traffic, they should really fix that, I mean, how is it normal to add an hour to your commute time every day?” Robert inquired, getting out of the sleek, black car.

“We’ll we’re here now, let’s just get down to recording eh?” Jonesy stated, ever being the optimist.

They walked through the wide double doors, upon which they met Tom. Jonesy, Bonzo and Robert chatted shortly with Tom, before continuing on with the tour of the studio. Jimmy, having been napping in the car ride, was stretching his legs while his band mates were entering the studio. When he entered, he collided with a flock of red hair, the owner of which stared up at him in shock.

“Uh, s-sorry Mr Page, didn’t see you there, hope your ok” Alice stuttered, unaware that the famous band were arriving this early in the morning.

“I would hope you’re ok, after all you’re the one who ended up on the floor” Jimmy chuckled, extending a hand to the young woman, Alice taking it and rearranging her disorganised stack of paper in her hands.

“Thank you, Mr Page” Alice replied, avoiding Jimmy’s eyes in embarrassment.

“Please, call me Jimmy, no need for the formalities” Jimmy replied coolly, slightly intrigued by the aura of mystery that surrounded her.

“Yeah okay, Jimmy, I should uh get going” Alice said with a smile, while pointing to a random direction behind her, her legs kicked into action and she walked quickly to the back office.

Jimmy stood there for a brief moment, liking how his name sounded in her voice, before getting his head straight and navigating his way to the recording booth.

“Ah, there he is, the famous Jimmy Page!” Tom declared as soon as Jimmy entered the mod room connected to the booth.

The rest of the band rolled their eyes, most publicists and managers often overly praised the guitarist, aware of his famous temperament and trying to stay in the good side.

Finally, once introductions and navigation were over, the band could finally start the recording process. They started off with a bit of a loose sesh, playing random riffs and melodies that came to them in the moment, as well as prepared verses and choruses written on the road. Then they decided to begin recording ‘The Lemon Song’.

Upon hearing the song playing, deciding since all of her small errands and messages were complete, Alice walked into the mod room.

“Hello, Alice, how y’a doing this morning?” Tom questioned, his heavy southern accent reverberating through the soundproofed room.

“Great, how’s the band? They sound great” Alice replied, still not sure of what to think of Tom, this only being her third week as an intern in the studio. She desperately needed the money, it was actually good pay considering all the work she did all day, part- receptionist, part assistant, part cleaner.

“Pretty good honey, now will you go get me a coffee from the store down the street? Two sugars and cream please” Tom commanded, obviously not up for conversation at the minute. Alice rolled her eyes behind his back, wishing she could be a bit more involved with the recording process. It was her dream after all, to be a sound engineer. That’s why she moved out to L.A, leaving everything and everyone she knew behind at home.

Walking down to the diner down the block, Ellie collected Toms usual of coffee and bagel with cream cheese, the order she knew by heart at this point. Wondering if the band would like coffee, she decided against it incase they weren’t on break yet. Knowing the work with of rockstars, they might only take a break at 10pm once they got into the groove of recording.

Returning to Mystic, Alice walked through the reception , straight to to mod room. When she entered, they entire band, along with the recent arrival of their infamous manager, Peter Grant, were all situated around the room, conversing over the song playing over.

“Working hard or hardly working boys, Hmm?” Alice quipped before handing Tom his coffee, before exiting.

“Who was that? I met her briefly today but I didn’t get anything out her” Jimmy inquired to Tom.

“Oh, that’s Alice, she’s our intern, great little thing, always round to help if anybody needs it” Tom replied curtly, looking up from the mixing table.

“Hmm, quite the looker isnt she eh?” Robert joked, noticing how bright her eyes went when she saw all the band in the control room.

“If you say so, but we keep it professional in this studio boys” Tom instructed, his fatherly side coming out, after all he did feel a bit responsible for Alice. If she didn’t get the job he could’ve only assumed that she would be out on the streets.

“Ah just some fun and games Tom, we’re very professional, as you know yourself” Bonzo joked, knowing he would only flirt with her as a joke, he was married after all.

“Right enough chatter about the bird, let’s get back to recording” Peter demanded, not there for gossiping.

———————————

The following days ensued similarly, the boys would record a track, dissect it in the booth, before recording any new ideas or improvements. The band often stayed early into the morning hours, determined to finish a song, not matter how long it took.

Once Alice arrived early the next week, Tom immediately asked for his usual order in the diner. On returning however, Tom asked Alice to stay in the control room.

“Alice, thank you for this” Tom said, gesturing to the coffee on the table, realising only recently that he wasn’t the nicest to Alice. Determined to work on the friendship with her, he decided it would best if she got more experience into the recording and mixing process, knowing she wanted to move into that career path.

“Of course, what did you want me for” Alice asked, unsure of her boss’s newfound friendliness.

“We’ll Alice, I’m just going to be straight with you here for a moment” Tom started, looking her in teh eyes with a stern face. Alice gulped, fearing she was going to be fired. She couldn’t fathom why though, she thought she did everything perfectly. Maybe she got his coffee order wrong and ordered it wrong each time? Maybe they didn’t need her anymore? She couldn’t understand that possibility, as the office was a lot more organised and certainly cleaner, after her arrival.

“Uhm, sure?” Alice replied uncertainly, not sure where the conversation was going.

“Well Alice” Alice gulped. “I know I haven’t been the friendliest to you, and I am aware of your aspirations to become a sound engineer, am I correct” Alice nodded quickly, keeping her eyes on Toms. “I am very thankful for everything you do in this studio, you are the backbone of us here, always picking up the grunt work when It needs to be done” Alice released a deep sigh, thankful that she wasn’t going to be fired.

“Oh phew, thank god, uh yeah, no thank you for keeping me on” Alice replied releasing a quick sigh.

“Keeping you on? You didn’t think I was going to fire you was I? Oh god Alice, I’m sorry for making you feel anxious, I could see you were getting a bit agitated” Tom said, trying to calm down the redhead.

“Thank god, anyway, you were saying” Alice continued, curious to know where he was going with his spiel.

“Oh yes, uh, where was I? Right, yes I want to break you into the engineering side of this job, if that’s ok with you. I’ll teach you the basics later, but you’ll be learning on your feet okay? It might be a bit overwhelming, to put it nicely, at first, with all the jargon and knowledge. But soon you’ll catch on, you’re a very bright girl so I know it won’t take too long” Tom finished, hoping he didn’t sound to brash.

“Oh my god, I can’t uh, thank you! I really appreciate this Tom, it’s my dream, wow!” Alice excitedly replied, finally happy to get down with the business. She sprung to her feet, and flew her arms around Tom. He didn’t really know what to do, but nevertheless he hugged her back, happy they were on an amiable relationship.

“Okay, uh, hate to say this, but could you just bring me in the extra tapes in the back room, then we can start the whole process when you get back, before the band get in obviously. Once they are in you will just shadow me ok?” Tom requested.

“Yeah of course, I’ll go get those now, anything else” Alice asked, not really wanted to do any more errands after weeks of doing them, but still being polite.

“No that should be fine” Tom answered, resisting the urge to ask her to get him a donut. He just reminded himself that it would be good to have a second engineer in the room, especially one he could train with his liking.

Alice walked to the back storage room, looking for more tapes. On entry, a small box on the bottom shelf caught her eye. On the top of the box ‘FRAGILE’ was printed in dark red letter. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, with the amount of dust covering it. Swiping away the dust on the label, it read ‘THEREMIN’. Alice eyes widened, she had heard of this instrument when in school, but hadn’t seen one in real life, as they were hard to master and not in fashion with any music genre currently.

Re-entering the mod room, she placed the extra tapes on the large table at the back of the room. Sitting down on the large swivel chard beside Tom, he started explaining the control board to her, as well and slang for certain keys and nobs. He continued until the band arrived, around 30 minutes later. Tom requested Alice stay in the control room, feeling she could be of benefit. Checking over her notes, she began to familiarise with the huge board. There must have been around 100 nobs and switches, all with different functions. Tom was impressed with Alice’s intellect, she responded well and added thoughtful questions about the mixing process. Tom could tell within a week she would be well roped into the process.

Taking a break, the band, Alice, Tom and Peter all sat down for lunch in teh small break room. There was only two tables so they conjoined them and ate together. Conversation flowed easily, everyone exchanging funny stories from the business, touring and random tidbits of memories.

“And I was sitting there with a frozen banana smoothie all down my front, absolutely frozen - I mean what are you supposed to do when you tell a girl no to her invitation to you coming back to her house, in god knows where, then she throws an fucking smoothie at you” Robert stated exasperatedly finishing off his sandwich

“Come on Rob, that was nearly five months ago, you would’ve thought you’d have forgotten it by now” Peter joked with a gently shove to Robert.

“Yeah I know, still gives me nightmares at night” Robert answered while playfully rolling his eyes.

“Same thing happened to me Robert, except, it was my wife and she was giving out shit to me for missing my daughter Grace’s dance recital” Tom added.

“Um, actually Tom, you missed Hannah’s recital, Graces is on next week. I think the handprint Cheryl left on the back of your head was a cute accessory hm?” Alice added, casually calling Tom out on his bluff.

The entire table went quite before bursting out in laughter. Alice panicked for a moment, fearing she went too far but calmed when they all laughed, joining in too.

“The bird is English? Why didn’t you tell us Tom?” Bonzo asked, directing his eyes to Alice.

“Excuse you, the bird is sitting right here” Alice said, pointing to herself.

“Well I thought you would’ve picked up on it by now John” Tom replied.

“Well uh, the drums, y’know” Bonzo answered, shaking his hands around his ears with a smirk plastered on his face. He was actually quite embarrassed that he overlooked her that much, she seemed like a talented girl behind the booth screen.

“Where you from love” Jonesy enquired kindly to Alice, opening up the conversation to her again.

“Well, I’m from a small village beside Heston. I used to live in France til I was five, as my mother is French” Alice replied with a smile, Jonesy was the one she talked to the most.

“Well would you look at that. How small the world is, you and Jim being from the same place. Mad world Hmm? How did someone from Heston like you end up in the city of angels?” Peter enquired, finding the whole situation rather funny, both Alice and Jimmy going slightly red.

“Um, I finished school at sixteen and moved out her shortly after, and have been here since” Alice answered, slightly embarrassed that she didn’t know she was reared in the same town as Jimmy Page.

“So you must be what, around 20 something?” Robert asked.

“No, I actually just turned 36 last month, I guess I look younger that I am” said Alice, trying to keep a straight face. She was met with dumbfounded faces of the Zeppelin lads. The boys looked between her and Tom, who kept his expression neutral, running with the joke.

“Gosh, you don’t look it’s, that’s for sure” Robert interrupted, still hoodwinked by the new information.

All of Alice’s self control was lost, she and Tom both bursting out simultaneously, wiping away tears after a coupole minutes of gut laughter.

“Of course I don’t, I’m only 18 for gods sake!”

“Right, enough small talk, let’s plan the songs you wanna record next” Tom interjected, stewing the conversation back to business.

“Well I think we should start with Whole Lotta Love and see how it goes” Jimmy piped up, only now joining the conversation, previously he had being staring at Alice, trying to place her as she looked familiar.

“Yeah I agree, that one probably needs the most work” Bonzo added, happy to get down to the complicated track.

Various forms of agreement were sounded from the rest of the band and staff. When they had finished up they all returned, energised to continue the recording the album.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

navigation

star crossed masterlist

ok so first chapter! this was going to be a prologue but I think I’ll just add another chapter before we time skip!!

again, please feel free to leave any criticism in the comments!! if anyone has any ideas or plot points they think would work, just message me and I’ll see what we can do!!

tag list - @rebel-without-a-zeppelin @princesspagey

ask me if you want to be added!

[unitchiefs-blackbirdphoenix]

Opportunities Will Come And Go

Summary: JJ leaves to run the New Orleans field office, and she and Emily have their last conversation with each other.

Read on AO3

Emily had heard the rumors. JJ was planning to leave D.C. to go to New Orleans with her family. The older woman frowned at the thought. She was leaving for the second time. How badly did JJ want to leave her home? On the one hand, Emily knows their job isn’t exactly the easiest one in the world. On the other, she knew JJ loved her job, and showed so much dedication and resilience.

Emily walked through the small aisle, picking at her fingernail and rubbing a thumb over it. Her eyes scanned over the jet to find the top of a blonde head. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and slowly walked over to her, so as to not startle her.

JJ sensed movement in her peripherals, despite the music playing in her earphones, and looked up to see Emily sliding into the seat across from her. She brightly smiled at her and used one hand to shake the earphones out.

“Hey,” Emily softly greeted with a smile of her own, folding her hands together on the table. “Can I bug you for a second?”

JJ gave a small nod. “Please do.”

“There’s a rumor floating around.”

JJ scoffed, knowing who exactly told Emily. “Penelope.” Of course .

“Is New Orleans something you’re seriously considering?” Emily asked. It might have been a bit of wishful thinking, but JJ heard a pleading tone in her voice and her heart ached at the sound. Did Emily not want her to leave?

She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. It… sort of came out of nowhere. B- but believe me, I’m not gonna do anything without consulting all of you first,” she tried her best to reassure Emily.

JJ found out she was offered to run the New Orleans field office when she and her family visited Will’s family in New Orleans. Initially, she was shocked that they wanted her to fill in that position, and was torn about leaving the BAU that she barely slept a wink on their flight back to D.C. JJ had kept the secret from the team, but tried to avoid Emily the most, as best as she possibly could. As far as JJ knew, she had only told Spencer and Penelope before work, but apparently it had spread amongst their coworkers.

“They would be lucky to have you.”

JJ couldn’t help but smile at Emily’s statement. All of a sudden, she felt her cheeks flush a light pink and she looked at the window, hiding her blush from the woman in front of her. Emily was always so proud of JJ, and the blonde readily accepted her compliments without hesitation or doubt. JJ was going to miss that.

“But,” Emily continued. “Something to factor in, you know, should things get serious. If I were to move on from my position, I had you in mind to take over as unit chief,” she finished, gauging in JJ’s reaction.

“Whoa, wait. Are you-” JJ blinked as she tried to comprehend Emily’s words. Was this a hypothetical question or a genuine one? She’s not leaving too, is she?

Emily shook her head. “No. At least, not until I’ve consulted with all of you,” she said. “But I wanted you to know that when you weigh your options.”

JJ shyly smiled again. She didn’t know what Emily meant by that offer, but she was flattered that she was her first choice as the successor of her role as unit chief.

“That’s all,” Emily finished with a small smile, standing up from her seat and walking away.

“Emily?”

It was soft and quiet, and Emily turned her head the same time JJ did. Brown and blue eyes were locked with one another. Emily raised her eyebrows, a spark of hope in her eyes.

JJ wanted to tell her at that moment. She wanted to say “I love you” and “I’m gonna stay” to Emily. Her mind was conflicting her courage to make her decision right then and there, and ask Emily to beg her to stay.

JJ’s eyes broke the nearly intimate exchange as she shifted them in thought. “Um…” Come on, Jareau, just say it . “Thank you,” she nodded instead. With a small laugh, she looked up at Emily again, “That means a lot that you said that.”

Emily silently nodded and walked away, leaving JJ with her thoughts again. The blonde looked down and mentally kicked herself for not telling Emily. What was she going to do? Should she go take that job offer to be special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office or stay and become unit chief? Should she go to Louisiana and live a new life there or stay in the BAU and watch Emily continue to accept gifts and affection from Andrew?

It was a lot to process and so, JJ plugged her earphones in before glancing out the window.

*****************************************************************************************

It was a day of celebration for Penelope. Everyone was congratulating her on her new job and saying their farewells. JJ’s eyes scanned the backyard quickly before she excused herself, tearing her body away from Will's and giving him a small smile. Before walking away, she lightly squeezed Emily's arm, signalling that she wanted her to follow. Emily furrowed her eyebrows in confusion but followed anyway, letting Andrew know she was going to be gone for a few minutes.

JJ walked to the back door of Rossi’s mansion, and held it open for Emily. She closed it behind them and rubbed her hands together, taking a deep breath.

"What was that?" Emily asked, pointing a finger towards the backyard. "The arm squeeze?"

"Um, you’re good," JJ said with an exhale. "Tonight’s not about me, ok?”

Emily slowly nodded. “Ok…” she squinted her eyes at her questioningly. “But there’s something.”

JJ sighed and played with her hands. “Will and I decided… it’s time for a change.” Well, that was mostly a lie. JJ had told Will she wanted to leave and he asked if that’s what she really wanted, in which she, after a few moments, said yes.

“I’m going.” JJ said with confidence.

She had about a week to make up her mind about the two options she had, and finally decided to tell Will what she wanted.

“What are you talking about, JJ?” Will asked, muffled by a toothbrush in his mouth.

“I think I’m going to run the field office back in New Orleans.”

Will had to spit out the toothpaste and rinse before turning around to face his wife. He saw that she was playing with her fingers and staring at the bathroom mirror, not him. He grabbed a towel to wipe his mouth and grabbed JJ’s hands in his.

“Are you sure that’s what you want? I know how much you love your family here. And your job,” he pointed out. He didn’t want to force JJ into anything that huge, especially because he had already become more supportive of her and her work later in their relationship.

JJ looked down at the floor and their hands for a moment, rubbing soothing circles on his hands with her thumbs. She needed to ground herself a little to remind herself why she wanted to take this risk. She couldn’t be doing this because of Emily and Andrew’s relationship, that would seem a bit selfish and impulsive. It does seem like a great position for her. She had some experience in leading people most of her life.

JJ finally nodded and squeezed his hands. "I'm sure. I mean, we said we'd call it at some point, right? Maybe this is our chance." She wasn't sure if she was convincing more, Will or herself. Maybe she wanted to call it and work a much easier but still stressful job. Maybe she wanted to call it to let Emily and herself be happy.

Will smiled. "Ok, let's do it."

Emily felt her heart sinking to her stomach, knowing what JJ meant. “You’re gonna run the New Orleans office,” she said in more of a statement than a question.

JJ bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I am,” she murmured, choosing not to make any more eye contact with Emily. “But if Penelope finds out-”

“No, I won’t.” Emily shook her head, cutting her off. “Not tonight. I am so excited for you guys,” she lied. Well, sort of. She really couldn’t believe JJ was actually thinking about leaving again.

“I’m so sorry, Emily. I know how much you wanted that FBI director position and I just completely ruined it," JJ frowned and started to apologize.

“No.” Emily shook her head again and smiled. “No, it’s not your fault. Uh, I guess now’s a good time to tell you that I got taken off the list.”

“Oh my god,” JJ gasped with a hand over her mouth. “Emily, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s ok. Really.” Emily assured with a smile. “I’ll still be unit chief, but… I guess things will be different, huh? I mean, with you and Penelope gone.”

JJ nodded. “I guess so.” She glanced at the floor, still fumbling with her fingers. Emily tilted her head to the side and noticed this.

“JJ.” Her head shot up at her name. “There’s something else you’re not telling me.”

JJ looked at the backyard behind her and saw Andrew getting along with everyone. Her eyes drifted downwards again. He's a good guy. He's good for her . She turned back to Emily. It’s now or never, she thought with a sigh.

“I love you, Emily.”

Emily gave a confused but small smile. “I love you, too, JJ.”

JJ shook her head. “No. I mean, I love you. You know…” she gestured vaguely with a shrug of her shoulder.

Emily’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth in shock. Oh . “Oh. I don’t know what-”

JJ humorlessly chuckled with a wave of her hand. “It’s fine. I didn’t really expect you to say anything. I just wanted to,” she let out a puff, “get this off my chest.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know…" JJ shrugged again. "For a while now.” She took a shaky breath and chewed on her bottom lip again. “I couldn’t do anything about it because we were both living different lives. Our own lives. I was married- um, still am, and you were in London. Now… we’re here and with other people.”

Emily was trying to process everything in her brain. JJ loved her, and still does. All these years, Emily wasn’t the only one who felt some sort of attraction or romantic feelings between the two of them at some point. She was afraid that JJ wouldn’t like her back, so she never said anything.

“Emily?” JJ began to feel anxious. “Please say something, or don’t say anything.”

Emily blinked before smiling. “I love you, too, JJ.”

JJ shook her head in surprise. “You’re not just saying that to spare my feelings, are you?”

“No. I do love you. I always have, but… like you said, we both have our own lives now. I knew I couldn’t stand a chance with you, so after a while, I… stopped. I wanted you to be happy, and that’s ok with me,” she smiled. After leaving for London after JJ and Will’s wedding, Emily thought she would be able to get her mind off of JJ, and it worked a little as she began seeing other people. When she came back, all those intense feelings did, too, but she knew she couldn’t chase JJ anymore, so she tried her best to keep a safe distance from her.

JJ nodded, feeling guilty. “I’m so sorry, Emily. I wish I’d known sooner. I thought it was this little crush that would quickly go away but you kept pulling me in. And I don’t think I can stop, if I stay here any longer," JJ slightly laughed and felt tears falling down. "Don’t get me wrong, I want you to be happy, too. I just never realized how much it would hurt seeing you with someone else.” JJ's small cries made her choke on her words, lips forming a tight line to stop them.

“Come here.” Emily opened her arms, and JJ immediately crashed into them. She sniffled and buried her face into Emily’s shoulder. "It's ok." The older woman hushed and let JJ's tears wet her dress and neck.

“I love you, Emily. I’m so sorry,” JJ muffled, hands gripping onto the fabric on the back.

Emily nodded and stroked her hair. “It’s ok. I love you, too.” She closed her eyes and let the blonde stay in her arms for a few more seconds. She decided to kiss the side of JJ’s head, still stroking her hair. The action made JJ pull back and stare into Emily's eyes. Her own blue ones flickered down to her lips and back up into Emily's eyes. Emily awkwardly nodded with a small smile, "We- we should get going."

She started walking until she felt a hand tugging at hers. JJ pulled her flush against her body and cupped her face with both hands. She kissed Emily, sighing when their lips connected. The older woman was a little shocked but rested her hands on JJ’s waist, pulling her closer. JJ took this time to pour in all the love she’s had for Emily for so long, and Emily reveled in this moment to receive something she’s yearned for a long time.

Emily pulled back to rest her forehead against hers and they both closed their eyes. JJ lifted a hand to hover her fingers on Emily’s cheek, lightly tracing one over her jawline.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Emily whispered with a voice crack. “You’re gonna do great.”

JJ nodded and whispered, “I’ll miss you, too.” Two seconds later, she pulled back and exhaled out a breath. “Well, it’s time to go now,” she said, pointing outside.

“Yeah,” Emily sighed. JJ held the door open for her again, watching Emily go back to Andrew. She saw how happy Emily really seemed with him, as she interlocked their fingers together and smiled at each other. JJ chewed on her lower lip and looked down with a sigh before closing the door and going back to Will.

*****************************************************************************************

Everyone was out on the dance floor, talking amongst themselves and dancing. Andrew asked Emily if she wanted water and started walking up to the table, pouring it in two glasses. JJ stepped away from the dance floor and decided to approach him, exhaling out a breath. She nervously rubbed her hands and tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey, Andrew. Can we talk for a moment?"

He shrugged. "Sure. What's up?"

JJ took another deep breath and quickly glanced behind him to see a smiling Emily dancing with the others. She looked back at Andrew.

"Take great care of her," she simply said.

Andrew furrowed his eyebrows at her, so she explained a little further while still being vague. "Emily. She's… she's a really amazing person," JJ said, casting her glance towards the other woman, making Andrew follow. "I promise you, she's not someone you just meet every day, so don't let this one go."

Andrew looked at JJ, who was still staring at Emily from a distance. "You really care about her, don't you?"

His voice broke through JJ’s little reverie before she sighed and sadly smiled. "More than you know."

Andrew noticed the way JJ looked at his girlfriend. It was the same way he looked at her. “You love her.”

JJ’s eyes widened and she stammered. “I- um,” she slumped her shoulders slightly in defeat. “I do, but… I want her to be happy, and I think you can do that for her.”

Andrew nodded in understanding and smiled. "I'll do my best." He wasn’t looking for any blessing from JJ or anyone on the team, but he wasn’t jealous either. JJ knew Emily for a very long time, so he understands. Andrew wanted to make Emily happy and so did JJ.

“Thank you.” JJ smiled at him, a genuine one. They both went back to the dance floor, Andrew handing a glass to Emily and her thanking him. Her eyes looked over to JJ behind him before smiling softly at her. JJ reciprocated with one of her own and a small nod.

This is what Emily wanted, the blonde knew that. Someone who would love and care for her, even if that someone wasn’t JJ. She was letting go and moving on, and so was JJ.

[yes-ihavealwaysbeengreen]

Day 5: Holy - Llewyn Davis

Day 5: Holy - Llewyn Davis

Pairing: Llewyn Davis x F!Reader 

Rating: 18 + for language 

November Writing Challenge 

Day 4: Tweeted: Benny Miller 

December 24th, Christmas Eve, 1962

Christmas, the best time of the year. Your small studio apartment is decorated on every surface. Fresh garland draped around the window, a wreath with a large red bow on the back of the door, a small Christmas tree with twinkle lights and few bulbs of red and green. The room is as festive as you can make it on a small budget. It was a small luxury to buy the fresh decorations instead of the synthetic but to you it’s what makes it worth it. You go around lighting small candles, and the warm smells of vanilla fill the room. You take in a deep breath and smile at the glow from the lights. 

You move to the small coat closet and pull out the two packages wrapped in old newspaper, wrapped with a large silver bow and you smile at the name on the tag before placing them under the tree. You move to the window and look at the picturesque scene outside. The blanket of snow on the ground was made almost brighter by the colorful lights bouncing off it. You turn over to your small heater and turn it on. Making sure the room is as warm as you can afford. This was a special Christmas this year.

Last week your sometimes “roommate” Llewyn Davis was making his usual rotations of couches when he came to you. During the visit you asked about his holiday plans knowing he usually spent it with his sister and her family. He got very quiet before telling you he and her had a small falling out and he honestly didn’t know where he was going to end up. You immediately offered your small home to him and after some deliberation he agreed. He was hesitant, worried about ruining your holiday with your family but when you told him you would be alone he agreed. 

As you watched the snow blow thicker outside the window you began to wonder if maybe he got a better offer or made up with his sister and was now spending the holiday with her. Your thoughts began to grow sad before you realized the buzzer was ringing loudly in the small space. You ran to the door before pressing the button for the speaker. 

“Hello?” 

“It’s Llewyn,” can the slightly shaky reply. 

You press the buzzer and walk back to your couch grabbing a blanket before putting the kettle on the stove to boil water. A few minutes later knocking draws your attention. You walk over to the door and pull it open gesturing for him to come inside. Wearing a threadbare coat, shoes leaking water on the floor, and shivering you begin grabbing his things from his hands. He opens his mouth to protest before you silence him with a look. He lets out a sigh lifting his arms to help you take off his coat, wrapping the warm blanket around his shoulders, you push him towards the couch. 

Dropping to your knees you remove his shoes, and socks. Reaching for the slippers on the coffee table before sliding his feet into the furry shoes. 

“When did you get those?” he asks, pointing to the shoes. 

“I just had them around,” you gesture with your hand vaguely. 

“Y- you just so happen to have a pair of men’s slippers in my size sitting around your apartment,” he asks, the shiver not quite gone. 

You choose not to answer, rising from the ground back to the small kitchen pulling down a cup and putting a scoop of instant coffee inside before topping it off with the boiling water. You bring the cup over to him and you swear you can see the steam rise as his frozen hands envelope the cup. 

“Where were you? I was expecting you here a few hours ago. I was beginning to think you forgot about me…” you ask. 

“No...no I didn’t forget I had to go over to Jim and Jeans and get my stuff. Although I almost didn’t come I know how much of a downer I can be and I didn’t want to ruin your Christmas.” 

You take a moment before answering, “I’m glad you didn't. I can’t tell you how much I have been looking forward to spending Christmas with you Llewyn. It’s all I have been able to think about.” 

You look away from him afraid that you had said too much, you feel his hands slightly warmer from the cup take your own and you raise your eyes to meet his. “I’m glad I came too, I...I’ve been looking forward to this. It’s so easy to be with you, you don’t expect me to be a performing monkey like the Gorfeins or make me feel like a piece of shit like Jean. You just let me be myself and I love that about you.” 

You smile brightly at him before you're interrupted by the sound of the timer going off in the kitchen. You hop up and slide on your oven mitts pulling out several dishes all at once. Fluffy mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, a small honey ham, and a cherry pie. Llewyn slowly rises from the couch walking over to you.

“I know that it’s not prime rib or a big fancy turkey but I wanted to do something special for us, plus we’ll have plenty to eat for the next few days, I’m sorry it’s not more I ju-” your rambling is cut off by Llewyn who wraps his arms around you in a tight embrace. 

You let out a large sigh before you wrap your arms around his neck. He still feels cold beneath your hands. You pull back, placing your hands on his shoulders. 

“Your skin feels like ice Llewyn, why don’t you take a hot shower, I’ll leave a change of clothes for you in the bathroom and make us each a plate. Does that sound ok?” 

“Ok… but I don’t actually have anything else to change into, I haven’t been to the laundry mat in a few days. This is the last clean thing I have I wa-”

“I will leave you something clean in the bathroom for after your shower,” you cut him off before he can finish. 

He gives you that look again, “you just happen to have clothes my size sitting around-” 

“Just go take a goddamn shower Llewyn,” you roll your eyes at him. 

He looks surprised at your outburst but doesn’t argue with you further. His hands slowly leave your waist before he turns towards the small bathroom. When the door shuts behind him you go to your dresser and pull out some boxers, dark blue sweatpants, thick wool socks, and a short sleeve white t-shirt. You hear the water turn on and the gentle sounds of Llewyn humming under the water before you slightly open the door putting the clothes on the toilet seat before closing it again. 

You know he’s probably going to say something about the clothes, but you could care less. You cared about Llewyn and that included getting him some clean clothes, a pair of slippers, necessities. To your immense surprise he says nothing, only comes behind you and hugs you from behind tightly, a quiet whisper of thanks against your ear before he’s pulling back and helping you put the plates on the coffee table, pouring each of you a glass of red wine. 

You clink glasses and dig in. You both have seconds and with your encouragement Llewyn has thirds, you’ve polished off a bottle and a half of wine and you’re both warm and comfortable under a blanket, your feet in his lap. 

“Llewyn,” you purr, “will you play for me?” 

Llewyn reaches towards his case and pulls out his guitar. You go to move your feet but he pulls them back and places one hand on your ankle keeping you in place. Balancing the guitar on your legs gently, “what do you want me to play? Something happy? Sad? Festive?” 

“Festive, it is Christmas after all.” He strums the guitar and you fall a little bit deeper in love with him. The way he plays is like he’s making love to the room with his music, and god when he sings....

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees

O hear the angels' voices

O night divine

O night when Christ was born

O night divine

O night

O night divine

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees

O hear the angels' voices

O night divine

O night when Christ was born

O night divine

O night…

You can’t help the tears that slowly make their way down your cheeks and when Llewyn looks up from his guitar he frowns before putting the guitar down. His hands are warm and calloused as they wipe the tears from your cheeks and when he speaks it’s no louder than a whisper. 

“Why are you crying?” 

“It’s just...you're so incredibly talented and it breaks my heart that everyone doesn’t get to see that,” you tell him. 

His smile is small and gentle before he pulls you closer to him so you’re sitting in his lap, his arms wrapped around your waist, your head in the crook of his neck, his own resting against yours. You're so warm and comfortable and when Llewyn starts to sing quietly your eyes grow heavy and you drift off to sleep. 

December 25th, Christmas Day, 1962 

The next morning you wake up and feel slightly disoriented not knowing exactly where you are. A strong arm is wrapped around your waist and a warm body is pressed against your back, a blanket draped over the both of you. You're on the couch and you turn as slowly as possible to look at the body behind you. His curls droop slightly over his forehead and all the creases in his forehead are smooth, he looks truly at peace and your heart beats a little faster when you look at his lips soft and slightly open as he breathes. You don’t move afraid to break the spell, his grip on your waist tightens before his eyes slowly open. 

You both say nothing, but his lips pull up into a small smile which you quickly return. Your not sure what to call this thing between you, friendship, or something more. But, you know there is no one else you want to wake up too. 

“Merry Christmas,” you whisper. 

“Merry Christmas honey,” his words are slightly slurred with sleep. 

“I’m going to get up and get us some coffee then we can open presents,” you don’t miss the slight droop of Llewyn's mouth. 

“You told me last week we weren’t doing presents, I don’t have anything for you.” 

“Are you here?” you ask. 

He gives you that look again, “yes,” he says. 

“Then I got what I wanted for Christmas this year,” you pull away and he reluctantly lets you go, letting out a small sigh. You know how much it bothers him that you buy him things, but at this point you really don’t care anymore. 

You boil the water for the coffee, preparing two cups. Llewyn cracks your window taking a long drag from his cigarette. The kettle whistles and you pour the water bringing them over to the table. Llewyn blows the last of the smoke out the window before coming back to the couch. You go over to the tree and grab the two packages. One small box and a medium sized package. 

“Two? Honey, I know what you said but I-” 

“Just open it Llewyn,” you hand him the medium sized box first. 

He tears the paper gently and when he opens the box his mouth drops open looking at the new brown boots, and wool socks. His eyes tear up, but before he can protest you are handing him the small box. He puts the boots aside, and carefully unwraps the box before pulling back the paper, and when he lifts the lid his breath stops. 

Inside a gentle pillow of tissue paper is a single key. “Now I know what you are thinking, but hear me out. I didn’t give you this key out of pity or anything. I am giving you this key to my apartment because I want you to live here Llewyn. I want you to play at the Gaslight, gigs, and chase the dream I don’t want you to ever stop. But I also want you warm, fed, and safe. I want our days to be spent with music, laughter, and….” you trail off leaving it open. 

“What honey?” he begs quietly, “music, laughter, and what?”

“Fuck…” you promised yourself you wouldn’t cry, “fuck it….I love you Llewyn. I want you to make music, and I want to support your dream and I want you to do it here where I can keep you safe and love you. I know you think that you have nothing to give me but I....I just want you.” 

Llewyn doesn’t respond for several minutes and your heart feels like it’s about to stop. “Do you mean it?” he asks quietly. 

You can only nod. 

He scoots off the couch and over to you still sitting in front of the tree. On his knees he places his head in your lap and his hands sit on your waist. You don’t move for a moment before your hands run through his curls. He slowly raises his head looking at you, his eyes glassy. 

“Fuck...you are the most incredible woman I have ever known in my entire life. I thought for so long that I was destined to fail in everything, my music, my life, my relationships. But then one night when I was at my lowest bleeding in a fucking alley this angel appeared. You took me home, cleaned me up, and I have spent the last year falling deeper and deeper in love with you. So if you are serious and you will have me, then yes I will move in with you and I will spend however long you have me...proving to you how much I love you, how much I adore you, and how fucking grateful I am to have you in my life.” 

You release a sob and pull him by his shirt and when he kisses you can only describe the feeling in one word, home. 

Day 6: Carpet - Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

[nerdbee]

Sunshine and Shadows- Chapter 1

Watching Nico talking to Annabeth and Percy, Will mentally slapped himself in the face. That conversation had gone about as smoothly as the surface of the moon. There was no chance of Nico ever willingly talking to him if he behaved like an overprotective mother hen, although part of him still wanted to wrap the son of Hades up in a blanket, burrito-style, and hand-feed him nutritious snacks.

“Solace!”

The harsh tone of Clarisse’s voice snapped him back to reality.

“Quit admiring Di Angelo! I know you’d be more than happy to do that all day, so I’m reminding you now! You have an appointment after lunch to give Chuck a check-up DO NOT BE LATE OR YOU’LL BE GETTING AN APPOINTMENT WITH MY SPEAR!”

On that friendly note, the newly-elected godmother stormed over to the Athena Cabin to harass the campers who had offered to weave clothes for the new-born satyr. Gods help whoever stood in the way of her warpath. She adored Chuck and was determined to make his life as perfect as possible. 

Will nodded vaguely, before turning back to watch the son of Hades. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t his fault that Nico was so gods damned attractive. Nico laughed at something Percy said, the action lighting up his face, making him truly look like the angel his name said he was. He gave Annabeth a high-five before heading back towards where Will was standing in front of the Apollo Cabin. 

Will noticed a blush creeping into his cheeks and quickly turned away, mortified. A moment later he felt a prod at his shoulder and looked up to see the son of Hades regarding him questioningly. 

“Will? We’d better get these 3 days over and done with then, right?”

Startled, Will let out a weird laugh that sounded like a piece of machinery made by Cabin 9, before nodding, turning round, and promptly walking into the doorframe, much to the amusement of Kayla, who was sitting inside, waxing her bowstring. Embarrassed, he quickly changed from his flip-flops into something more suitable for the infirmary before emerging again onto the porch. 

✧✧✧

Nico was waiting for him on the porch, leaning against a post, drumming his fingers against the railing. When Will approached him, he stood up and gestured for the son of Apollo to lead the way. The walk to the infirmary was short, thank the gods, and Will spent the time determinedly staring forwards. A few campers were hurrying around, carrying supplies. Will nodded a hello towards Jake Mason, who  was with a few other Hephaestus kids. The older boy didn’t have crutches any more, but preferred to use a cane when he had to walk around. Typical Cabin 9-style it had several cool additions, such as being able to extend into a fighting staff and, if Harley had anything to do with it, probably a flamethrower somewhere. The scarily muscular 8-year-old was chatting animatedly to his older brother, but he wasn’t at his usual bouncy self. Harley had worshipped Leo, and had been devastated by his loss. It didn’t help that now, closer to the start of school, all of his siblings, save for Nyssa, would be heading home or to college for a while. Will made a mental note to hang out with him more. 

The two boys reached the doors of the infirmary and Will opened one, stepping aside to let Nico in first. Once they were inside, Will made a beeline for an empty bed at the back of the infirmary.

“We save the front beds for anyone that comes in with a really severe injury”,

he explained. He gestured for Nico to sit on the bed while he fussed around, clearing some of Austin’s sheet music away from a chair before plonking himself down on it. He’d have a word later with his brother about working on his compositions in the infirmary. Glancing up, he noticed that Nico was looking rather awkward (and adorable). He kept moving his hands around, as if he weren’t quite sure what he was doing, whilst desperately avoiding eye contact with anyone. Right. Nico wasn’t a people person, and it was currently quite busy in the surrounding area. Will stood up to draw the blue curtain around their area, before turning to address the son of Hades. 

“I know this is primarily for you to get some rest, but I think I should give you a general check just to make sure nothing other than your irresponsible use of underworldy powers is a problem.”

Nico scowled at him but didn’t argue, instead opting for a curt nod. Will continued,

“I’ll start by looking under that bandage on your arm”

He reached out to Nico’s arm 

“Is this ok?”,

he asked. Nico paused slightly, before nodding again. As gently as he could, Will raised Nico’s arm and began to slowly unwind the bandage, revealing several nasty-looking red claw-marks gouged into his skin.

“Werewolf claws”,

mumbled Nico. Will frowned.

“These are definitely infected. I’ll check for a fever and get some ambrosia for you. I reckon these will leave scars.”

He hesitated, then leaned in and brushed Nico’s raven-black hair from his forehead. It felt soft and, to his dismay, Will found his cheeks turning pink again. Holding the back of his hand against Nico’s pale forehead, he noticed how warm the son of Hades was.

“Nico, you’re burning up!”,

he announced before rummaging around in a nearby cupboard for some ambrosia and anything else he could use to treat the wound. He noticed a rather sad-looking Aloe Vera plant. Didn’t his siblings know that Aloe Vera should be placed in direct sunlight and not at the back of supply cupboards? He placed the poor plant in the windowsill, before taking a washcloth and some antibacterial ointment from the cupboard, along with the promised ambrosia. After thoroughly washing his hands, he handed the ambrosia to Nico, who began to delicately take small bites out of it, while he wet the cloth under the tap and started to carefully clean the wound. Nico winced slightly when the cloth made contact with the infected area, but had a slightly dopey faraway expression whilst he ate the ambrosia. Will wondered what Nico tasted when he consumed ambrosia. When Will ate it he tasted the sweet lemonade his grandma made whenever he returned home to visit. He tended to remain at camp most of the time, due to his mum always travelling for work and his insistence not to attend any sort of boarding school, but every now and again, he would fly over with a satyr protector to stay at his grandparent’s house with her. When he left, he would spend most of his time wondering when, or if, he’d ever get to go back. Especially after having 2 big wars in the space of a few years. Of course, his problems were all miniscule compared to what Nico had had to go through. He’d had to face the death of his sister, being alone with only a ghost for company, knowing about Camp Jupiter and not being able to tell anyone, being kidnapped and locked in a jar by crazy giants, and then on top of all of that had to deal with everyone at camp avoiding him, because they thought that he wasn’t normal. It all made Will so angry at the world, for allowing some people so many good things, when Nico could probably count the number of times he’d been happy since coming to camp on one hand, and still have fingers left over to spare.

Nico cleared his throat, and Will realised to his embarrassment, that he was staring again. He sheepishly placed the cloth in the sink, before lightly spreading a thin layer of the antibacterial ointment over the claw marks and murmuring a prayer to his father, while wondering if it would even work, seeing as Apollo was probably at that moment in time in the middle of a long lecture from his father, Zeus, concerning Octavian, the evil stuffed-toy destroyer (Percy had treated the whole camp to a story at the campfire of how his panda pillow pet had been brutally slaughtered). 

He then covered the wound with a gauze pad, finishing by gently wrapping a length of bandage around, to prevent further infection. 

He turned round to clean up while giving Nico strict instructions,

“I’ll talk to Chiron and explain that you are under no circumstances to partake in any sort of training exercises. You should spend most of your time here, getting some much needed sleep, however I think it’s a good idea for you to attend 1 meal a day at the pavilion, which will also allow you to have some healthy time outdoors. The rest of the time I will provide food for you.”

Even though he was facing away, he could imagine the son of Hades glaring daggers at him. 

“I can get food myself. There’s a McDonalds near enough that the shadow travel shouldn’t hurt me.”

Will sighed in exasperation, running a hand through his hair and turning around to face his stubborn patient.

“Really? What part of ‘you can’t even summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness’ do you not get? I’m not even going to start on the ridiculous lack of proper nutrients in a McDonalds meal. What can they offer you that camp doesn’t?”

Nico raised his chin in a show of defiance

“Does Camp Half-Blood offer snazzy boxes? No I thought not. It also has an over-bearing mamma bear watching my every move. When I agreed to this, I expected gentle rest, not a prison sentence.”

He dramatically flopped back on the bed, his head on the pillow. 

“I’m not even tired! Not one bit!”

Fixing his glare at the ceiling he mumbled

“This is a nice pillow. Soft and squishy.”

On that note, he fell asleep, still muttering about how fully awake he was. Amused, Will shook his head and stepped out of the curtained area into the main area of the infirmary to see Cecil and Austin chuckling in his direction. Austin was in the process of checking Cecil’s strained calf muscle and met Will’s eyes with an amused look.

“Why William my dear brother, I do believe that you have met your match. He’s just as headstrong as you are!”

Disgruntled, the senior counsellor of the Apollo cabin went to the storage closet to reorganise the medical supplies.

[nightingale101]

Don’t take the money.

So slowly writing chapter 2, i figure i might as well post the first chapter here.

~~~

Somebody broke me once, Love was a currency A shimmering balance act, I think that I laughed at that And I saw your face and hands, Coloured in sun and then I think I understand

~~**~~

This was different. Those other times, love had burnt like an uncontrollable fire, consuming everything and everyone in its path and burning itself out in the process. It was all consuming, a fire they had lit under his skin that turned everything it touched to ash and ruin. But with V… with V it was different. It was…. Warmth

One

Sweet Disposition.

 A moment, a love

A dream, a laugh

A kiss, a cry

Our rights, our wrongs

   “I don’t understand. They- Grayson said - at the oil fields”

 “he either lied or wasn’t high enough up the Chain to be in the know.”

 “But I-“

 “Focus, We have to move. Reinforcements are probably on their way here as we speak.”

 “I know- I just.”

 “It’s alright, we can figure this out. Together, as a family.”

 “yeah. Ok... one thing at a t- oh shit, that alarm. Fuck”

 “We have to move. Now. Do you think you can help me carry him, V?”

 The voices came to him from far, far away, a lifetime away it felt like. filtering in through the inky blackness he currently found himself drifting in. afloat, lost, confused.

 He didn’t know them. At least he didn’t think he knew them, he couldn’t remember. Well, he really couldn’t remember much of anything right know. He wasn’t even sure he knew himself. He wasn’t even sure what his name was. Where was he… How did he get here… why was he here... why couldn’t he remember?

 V… was that a name...? Was that his name? No… No he didn’t think so, but it was confusing. He knew V… He was sure of that. He wanted to… save them.

 ~~**~~

 He didn’t know how long he’d been there. floating in the dark, it seemed timeless. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours, it could have been a year as far as he could tell. He wasn’t sure where he was, or why, or how he got there. But he remembered his name now.

 Johnny.

 ~~**~~

 The voices still floated to him though the darkness. Not as clear as the first time, but he caught the occasional word through the muffled haze that seemed to surround him.  

 Plan. Silverhand. Night City. Dying. Border. Wake up. V. Bleeding. Badlands. Lucky. Wake up. Please.

 There were more than the first two voices now, although he couldn’t tell exactly how many. Some of them seemed to blend together and he couldn’t distinguish one voice from the other. He heard the first voice, the voice he now could recognize as V, the most often. She often talks to him alone, or at least he doesn’t hear anyone else while she’s around. He wonders if this means he saved her. If he could just remember what happened.

 ~~**~~

 He knows who he now. He is Johnny Silverhand. Deserter. Rockerboy. Terrorist. All round bastard.

 He remembers all of it. Alt. Arisaka tower. Rouge. Smasher. And V. God he remembers V. A pang of guilt clutches around his heart when he thinks of her. That’s new he thinks. He hadn’t really felt guilty about something before. Everything was inconsequential to him before, someone else’s problem.

 He remembers It felt like torture to him. Watching her slowly get worse, her body and mind slowly being taken over by him, with nothing he could do about it. He remembers when he stopped the elevator, taking control of her arm to push the button, the fear in her voice. And he remembers his own fear, when she’d passed out, and he couldn’t reach her, no matter how hard he tired. But, he could still hear her voice… she was talking to him, wherever he was. Which means she was alive, right? He’d… Gone with Alt? is this what being a part of her was like? This… nothingness... but something. And still being able to here V.

 He doesn’t remember anything after speaking with V in Cyberspace. Seeing her red digital form, arguing with him of all things. She didn’t want him to leave, wanted to find a way for them both to live. One moment they were talking… and then he was here. Nowhere.

 ~~**~~

 He was starting to feel things again. and everything… Hurt. There was pain firing in all his nerves all over his body. His head was throbbing, sharp pain spikes were running down his back and adding to the dull ache in his legs…. His... legs...? Was this phantom pain from his non-existent body? Like what he had felt when he first lost his arm. Was he feeling the injuries that his body would have sustained from that last fight at the tower...? Or- no. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea that he actually had a body again. Because that would mean V... was... and he didn’t want to think about that. As long as she was alive, it was all worth it. He’d given his life for hers, and he couldn’t think of better thing to lay down his life for.

 ~~**~~

He’s… confused. He has a body, he’s pretty sure of that, can feel jolts of pain running down his spine, way to vivid to be phantom pains. But he hears V talking… wherever he, they, are, she’s here, and talking to Panam. He tries to pay attention to their convocation.

 “… signs of improvement.” Panam was saying. “but no guarantees, V.”

 He thinks they’re talking about him. Whatever is going on, he thinks he’s getting better too. He didn’t feel like he was floating anymore. He felt anchored. Secure. Still in darkness, but he didn’t feel like he was floating endlessly. He was more aware of his body; of the pain he was feeling. Or whoever’s body he was in, because as far as he knew his body was a skeleton and some rusted metal buried under the oil fields.

 “I know…” came V’s voice, she let out a sigh. “One day at a time, right?”

 V sounded exhausted. She sounded like she did when he’d taken her to the Pistis Sophia, after she’d woken up, a pain in her chest and barely being able to walk. Like she was running on empty, holding on by a thread that was threatening to snap at any moment and send her plummeting to the ground.

 “Right. And anyway. We should talk about you.” Panam said.

 “one thing at a time, Panam.” V responded, “Besides, there’s not a lot to talk about on that front anyway. Mitch is still chasing down his old contacts, isn’t he?”

 “Yes, but that’s not really what I meant.” Panam continued. “I meant, how are you doing? I know you haven’t been sleeping and-“

 “Time is short… Sleeping seems like a waste.”

 “If you don’t sleep, you’ll burn out so much faster. You-“

 The conversation faded to the background as his thoughts sawm around his head. V. It was odd not knowing exactly how she was feeling, what was going through her head. When he was in her mind, her thoughts and feelings flowed into him, and he could reassure her without even speaking, steel her nerves, calm her racing heart. He wanted to reach her now. He wanted to reassure her. He wanted to speak to her…

 “…V” His voice was so small he thought as the blackness surrounded him, not his intention at all.

 “Johnny!?” he heard V say, her voice full of concern but also hopfullness, and then the nothingness came once again.

 ~~**~~

 When Johnny Silverhand woke up it was sunrise, the pale orange light stung the edges of his vision. His eyelids were heavy, like he hadn’t opened them for so long that they resisted the unfamiliar movement.  It took an enormous effort to even open them at all, and even more effort to try and keep them open. His whole body ached. Every inch. From his legs to his head. From dull aches, to sharp jolts, he felt it all. Even moving his eyes too look around like it hurt.

 He was in a tent. He recognized it as an Aldecaldo tent, like the one V had awoken in after she’d passed out in front of Panam. He was vaguely aware of frantic voices around him, but he was more focused on breathing, the ache in his chest as his lungs rose and fell. The fact that he was even breathing at all.

 And then she was there.

 “V…” His voice was hoarse, and his throat felt like it had been fucked by a sandpaper covered dick. But it was worth it, her face lit up with a smile the second he spoke.

 “Johnny… Oh my god.” She sounded so relieved, he heard her dragging something to his side and she sat down next to him. With the most effort he’d ever needed to do anything, he turned his head slightly to look at her. His neck protested, loudly.

 “I don’t…” it was taking all his effort to stay awake. He felt Vs hand on his shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance.

 “It’s okay.” She said softly, as he was rapidly losing the fight with his eyelids.  “just rest… we can talk later”

 ~~**~~

 The next time Johnny woke up he felt marginally better, as in he didn’t feel like he had been runover by semi-truck, just a minivan. He wasn’t sure what time it was, sometime at night he thought, Judging from the lack of light in the tent. When he turned his head slightly, he could make out a person sleeping, or at the very least laying down, on a cot opposite him.

 He moved his hand to reach out to them, not entirely sure why, but just knowing he wanted to. With a protest of pain that shot out from his wrist, up his arm, and down his spine; his hand slid off the cot and thumped onto the floor. It felt like trying to move a waterlogged post, slow and impossibly heavy. He almost imdently wanted to bring his arm back up onto the bed, to a more comfortable position, but quickly decide that was way more effort that he was willing to put in right at this moment and would probably make him pass out again. He settled on moving his fingers, enjoying the feeling of his nails scraping though the carpet, or mat, or… whatever was on the floor of the tent, he couldn’t be bothered looking. He became aware that he couldn’t move his other hand, or his other arm in general. His arm that in his original body would have been his cybernetic arm. He hated that feeling. He let out a sigh.

 He saw the person on the other cot stir and begin to sit up, it was V.

 “Johnny.”

 “Hey... V.” he croaked out. She stood and walked over to him, taking a seat by his side again. “I ...” he began, but wasn’t sure how to finished that sentence, or even what he wanted to say. she reached for something next to him, a bottle of water. She placed a straw in it and brought the other end to his lips. He drank. It made throat feel significantly better. When he was done, she put the bottle back down, somewhere just beyond his sight.

 “Its okay.” She picked up his arm and placed it back on the bed, resting it across his chest. “first off, how are you feeling?”

 “Fucking preem.” He said, throat still protesting slightly, “Apart from the fact that I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck or ten”

 “Yeah, I figured...” V responded, her eyes looking over his body, as if she could see the pain. It was quite for a moment.

 “V…” He said softly, breaking thought the quiet, she looked at him. “What the fuck happened… I don’t... I don’t remember”

 She let out a sigh and looked up at a ceiling. He could see her eyes dart back and forth as she got her thoughts in order. The last time he’d seen her do this, they were on the roof above Mistys, making one last choice, and he was feeling sick to his stomach. But at this moment, it felt like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was. “Johnny, what’s the last thing you remember.”

 “talking to you… inside Mikoshi and then… Nothing.” His voice came out more of a hushed whisper than he would have liked.

 “okay… its… right.” She began.  She slapped her hands down on her lap, he wasn’t sure why, maybe to psych herself up. “so, while we were talking in Mikoshi, before we came to a decision, Alt appeared. Do you remember?

 He shook his head slightly. He knew he’d already came to a decision; he would die so she could live. It was V who was still wrestling with the choice. V continued. “She said there was an anomaly. Something that she didn’t account for, and then you disappeared. Just… Blinked out of existence right before my eyes.”

 She paused to take a shaky breath.

  “She then told me a location inside Arasaka Tower to go to, close to where we were, If I chose to go back to my body... which I obviously I did... and in that room was the anomaly. In that room was you.” She looked at Johnny. “Your body.”

 He swallowed. “I don’t understand…. Grayson said…”

 “He lied” V said. “Or he just genuinely didn’t know. But this” she placed her hand on his chest, right above his heart. “This is you. Not a clone, or a replica. You.”

 He let that sink in for a moment. He’d known that he was in a body. He just hadn’t thought it had been his body. At least it was slightly less concerning that he couldn’t move his left arm now. The prosthetic must have been damaged. “...How?”

 “Cryogenically frozen.” V said. “honestly, lucky you still have all of your fingers and toes. Cryo freezing’s a crapshoot even these days, I couldn’t imagine how it was back then.”

 Lucky to even be alive, he thought, from what little he knew about the Cryo technology from 2023, but leave it to Arasaka to have the top tier technology squirreled away in their basement. “so, is that why I feel like I’ve been run over?”

 “Maybe partially.” V said. “but, near as I could tell... they froze your body right after they used soul killer on you. So all your injures from the tower, they’re still fresh.”

 Oh. That made more sense now. He did fall out of a helicopter, and get his ass handed to him by Smasher. “so... Alt just uploaded my mind back into my body? And I was good to go.”

 V smiled at him, a sad smile. He decided he didn’t like it. “not exactly… Johnny when I got to you, you were dead. You had no pulse, you weren’t breathing. Me and Panam just barely managed to get you back. We didn’t know if you were going to wake up…. I didn’t…. you scared the hell out of me.”

 “It’s payback…” He said. She was upset, and he hated that it was because of him. Her hand was still on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. Despite the protests from his arm, he moved to place his hand over the top of hers, letting his fingers come to rest between hers. “For when I thought...”

 “its not funny Johnny.” She sounded annoyed, but she didn’t move her hand.  “You’ve been in a coma for nearly a month.”

 A month his mind echoed. He could feel himself slowly slipping back into unconsciousness, but he was suddenly aware of the implication of sleeping for a month. The moment V’s mind was placed back in her body, she was a ticking time bomb, and the clock was set for six months. And now that was down to five. She didn’t deserve that. His chest ached as guilt wrapped itself around his heart.

 They were quiet. His hand was still over hers, their fingers interlaced. She had begun to move thumb, gently and slowly stroking the side of his palm. He in turn began to move his thumb, caressing the back of her hand. Her hands were so much smaller than his and they seemed much more delicate, but he knew they could be just as deadly as his own if she needed them to be. He wanted to ask more questions, but more than that he didn’t want this moment to end, just being able to touch her- actually touch her. And just enjoying this. This unspoken thing between them.

 He was in love with her. He’d been aware that for a while now, although he couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it started. He thinks it might have started bubbling in his chest around the time he took her to the Pistis Sophia, when he’d committed to saving her.

 He’d been in love before, he knows that. Alt. Rouge. And even Kerry at some points. But this… This was different. Those other times, love had burnt like an uncontrollable fire, consuming everything and everyone in its path and burning itself out in the process. It was all consuming, a fire they had lit under his skin that turned everything it touched to ash and ruin. But with V… with V it was different.  It was…. Warmth. Like a fire you had built to keep the winter chill at bay. it surrounded you with its warmth and comfort so that whatever storm you were taking shelter from, didn’t matter.  It still burned with ferocity, like all fires did, but it didn’t feel like it would consume him and everything thing in its path. It felt... safe… like he needed this fire to survive, and not like he need to survive this fire.

 He wanted to tell her, but as the thought crossed his mind, he felt his grasp on consciousness slip. “V…”

 “You should rest..” She said, she had the softest smile on her face. “Its late. And we’ll have all the time in the world to talk when you’re stronger.”

 He thought that sentiment was laughable, as his eyes slowly fell shut against his will. He’d always been weak.