#my previous order GOT SO DELAYED???? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lovesuhng · 4 months ago

Text

fake

fake dating, strangers to lovers, fluff w.c: 4.5k

The college exams were really getting to Johnny, but another complicated situation was troubling his mind: his parents' pressure for him to seriously date someone. It was no secret that Johnny was focused on his studies, but he also didn't miss a chance to have fun with friends and even get involved with some people, yet he never started a serious relationship.

One of Johnny's cousins' wedding was approaching and his mother asked him to be there, once again bringing up the fact that he wasn’t dating anyone. In response, Johnny ended up saying he was in a relationship, which was a big lie.

“Why did you tell your parents that?” Jaehyun, Johnny's friend and classmate, asked him while they were in the cafeteria.

“To see if they would stop pressuring me so much, but now I have a week to find a girl to pretend to be my girlfriend.”

“But that’s easy, look at how many women you’ve hooked up with here.”

The fact was that Johnny was well-known and very desired at college. His charm, good humor, and his sculptural body attracted a lot of attention.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to and can’t just take anyone. It’s a wedding!”

So, Jaehyun started suggesting various possible candidates, but Johnny had very convincing excuses. Then Jaehyun looked around the cafeteria and spotted you.

“Why not talk to her?”

Johnny looked in your direction, seeing you laugh at something your friend was saying. You both were in the same major, but you started college after Johnny, making him your senior. You and Johnny had talked a few times, but you were far from being friends. You were known for being a dedicated and very reserved student, not fond of attending the college parties, which made contact with him rare.

“But how am I supposed to ask her? I can’t just go up to her and say ‘do you want to pretend to be my girlfriend for a few days?’”

“That’s not my problem. Think about it, maybe fate will bring her your way in the next few days.”

And it seemed fate was indeed on Johnny’s side. He had gone to talk to the professor of the subject he had been a teaching assistant for the previous semester to resolve some issues. Upon arriving at the office door, he found you talking to the professor, saying you had some questions and needed help to finalize the final project for the subject.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you because I need to make a short trip to take care of some personal matters.” That’s when the professor noticed someone at the door, directed his gaze to Johnny and asked him to come in. “But it seems you’re in luck. I think you know Johnny. He was my TA last term, and I think he can help you.”

“Really?!” You said, quite excited and hopeful.

“I can help, we just need to figure out some days and times that work, so I can also study for the final exams.”

“Perfect. Are you free after classes tomorrow?”

And so, you arranged to meet in the library the next day for Johnny to help you with the project. He was already waiting for you and it didn’t take long for you to arrive, a bit flustered trying to balance your notebook and notes in your hands, which made Johnny chuckle.

“Sorry for the delay, but the professor wouldn’t stop talking.”

“It’s fine, I just got here.”

After organizing your things on the table and turning on the notebook, you started asking questions and sharing some ideas you were considering for the project. Johnny proved to be very helpful, definitely more than you expected. After some time in the library, you left together heading to the exit, when Johnny offered you a ride since he had a car and saw you were heading to the bus stop. Initially, you tried to refuse but ended up accepting with the condition that you would stop at a coffee shop near your house.

Once there, you placed your orders, which you insisted on paying for, and began talking about various topics, like the similarities of being only children, your tattoos and their meanings, the reasons for choosing that major, and so on. You were discovering more about each other's lives when suddenly Johnny heard someone call his name and recognized his mother’s voice.

“My dear! It’s so good to see you here.”

“You too, mom. What are you doing here?”

“I came to buy some things for your cousin’s wedding and decided to stop for a coffee.” She then looked at you with a very friendly smile. You stood up to greet Johnny’s mother.

“Mom, this is…”

“Don’t tell me she’s your girlfriend?!”

You were about to say you were just a university colleague when Johnny interrupted.

“Yes. My girlfriend.”

Confusion was written all over your face. While being pulled into a hug by Johnny’s mother, you looked at him, seeking an explanation, he just whispered, “I’ll explain later, but please help me.”

“I can’t believe Johnny is finally dating and with such a beautiful woman like you.”

“Ah, thank you…”

“I’m leaving now. It was a pleasure meeting you, dear. And I look forward to seeing you at the wedding.”

“Of course, mom.” Johnny hugged you by the shoulders, startling you a bit. “We’ll definitely be there.”

After saying goodbye to Johnny’s mom with fake smiles, you pulled away from him and demanded an explanation.

“Long story short: I lied to my mom saying I had a girlfriend and she wants me to bring her to my cousin’s wedding. I hadn’t said who it was yet and I was going to talk to you about it before, but then my mom showed up and all this happened. I’m sorry for putting you in this situation.”

“And you think this will work?”

Johnny held your hand and kept his gaze on your eyes. That gave you butterflies, something you didn’t understand why it was happening.

“They say desperate times call for desperate measures. Will you help me?”

You took a deep breath and said, bringing a smile to the man in front of you, “You helped me, so… we have a wedding to go to.”

Since you had only a few days before the wedding, your meetings became more frequent, both inside and outside the university. Johnny helped you finish the project, which you presented impeccably and you also studied together for exams, each for your respective subjects, keeping each other company, thus forming a friendship between you.

Already on vacation and on the eve of the wedding, some final details were decided: the wedding and the reception would be in a neighboring town, so Johnny asked you to bring comfortable clothes for the trip and you created a story about your relationship in case anyone asked (you studied at the same university, Johnny always saw you in the corridors and fell in love with you, asked you out, and you had been dating for 2 months).

On Saturday morning, the day of the wedding, Johnny was already at your doorstep, waiting by the car and laughed when he saw you walking towards him with curlers in your hair, holding the dress and a small suitcase.

“Why are you like that?” Johnny laughed as he helped you put your things in the car.

“To speed things up, of course. We would be late if I did this at the hotel and I hate being late. And this isn’t the way to greet your ‘girlfriend’ on a saturday morning.”

“You're right. Good morning, my dear.” Johnny said, putting his hands on your waist and then laughing at the face you made. So, you decided to be as affectionate as he was. Standing on tiptoe, you gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, leaving him very surprised.

“Good morning, honey. Now let’s go, the road is long.”

That little kiss, innocent as it was, significantly affected Johnny, who took a while to process everything and got into the car.

A little over two hours later, you were at the hotel, and since you were returning the same day, Johnny only booked one room for you to get ready for the wedding. You checked in, ate something, and started preparing. You had already showered and were now doing your makeup. Johnny was in the shower but soon came out, complaining that he couldn’t put on the tie.

“I have no idea how to do this, I think I’ll go without it.”

“Calm down, Johnny, I’ll–” You stopped talking when you saw him with wet, messy hair, the first four buttons of his shirt open, giving a glimpse of his chest, and pants perfectly fitted to his body. Even like that, you thought Johnny was the most attractive man in the world and didn’t want to imagine how he would look when fully ready. You approached him, hoping he wouldn’t notice your blushing face, started buttoning his shirt and tied his tie perfectly. Unlike you, who was very “focused,” Johnny looked at every detail of your face, how your eyelashes were long, how your eyes were mesmerizing, how your lips seemed so soft that he wanted to kiss you right there, but he was snapped out of his trance when you patted his shoulder.

“How do you know how to tie ties?”

“I had to wear one for an event and watched some tutorials online.” You said, smiling. “I’ll add the final touches to my makeup and put on the dress.”

It didn’t take long for Johnny to get ready, so he waited for you until he heard, “Johnny, can you help me?” from the bathroom. He entered the room, seeing you struggling to zip up the dress, and quickly positioned himself behind you. This was your moment to hold your breath at his proximity as he slowly zipped up the dress. You felt your arm hair stand up when his breath touched your neck and when his hands touched your waist. You looked at each other in the mirror, and a smile appeared on your lips.

“So, how do I look?”

Johnny, even nervous, tried to talk to you more casually. “You’re so beautiful we might end up going from a fake relationship to a fake marriage.” He laughed at what he said, knowing he was trying to give you confidence. Johnny turned you to face him and said in a more serious tone, giving you goosebumps for the second time that day, “But seriously, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

Arriving at the wedding venue, Johnny extended his hand to help you out of the car. You held his hand, intertwining your fingers with his, after all, you had to appear as a couple from the moment you stepped into the wedding. You started to get nervous about it, but when you looked into Johnny’s eyes, you felt calmer. As the wedding was about to start, you only waved to Johnny’s parents, who were radiant with the fact that their son was “dating.” The wedding proceeded wonderfully. Mark, Johnny’s cousin, and his bride were happy, and from a distance, it was clear they truly loved each other. His speech made most people cry, including you, which Johnny noticed. In an unthinkable act, he wiped your tears and held your hand, caressing it afterward. You were startled for a second but then gave a subtle smile.

After the ceremony, there was the reception, where you had to really act like a couple. Johnny’s parents greeted you right away. His mother kept talking about how beautiful you were as a couple, made for each other, while his father said he was delighted to see that you made Johnny very happy. A few minutes later, your “mother-in-law” took you to meet Johnny’s aunts, leaving him alone with his father.

“I’m so happy for you, son. It’s clear how happy this girl makes you.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Just by looking at you, it’s obvious you’re head over heels for her.”

Johnny didn’t respond to his father, unsure of what to say. He just looked at where you were, cheerfully chatting with his aunts, fitting in like family. Your eyes crinkled as you smiled, your contagious laugh making him smile unconsciously. You noticed his gaze, smiled genuinely, as if to say everything was fine, and it was then Johnny realized he was actually falling for his fake girlfriend.

The party continued. You had already had a lot of fun with Johnny's aunts, talked to the newlyweds and even danced a bit. Now you were sitting next to Johnny, just waiting for the right time to head back to the hotel, after all, the weather was turning and you would need to hit the road before it started raining. That’s when the bride announced that it was time for the much-anticipated bouquet toss. You weren’t planning to join the others, but your “mother-in-law” pulled you in, you gave Johnny a look pleading for help, but he just gave you a "can't do anything" expression.

There you were, in the middle of some women, trying to give polite smiles but clearly not wanting to be in that situation. Then, you heard the bride’s voice saying that the next one to catch the bouquet would have to get married and soon started the countdown.

And by the irony of fate, the bouquet came your way and you caught it before it hit your face. Your wide-eyed expression made Johnny laugh as he rushed towards you. He was about to speak when his very excited mother arrived, saying:

“I knew that bouquet was yours! Now I want a photo of you two.”

You approached Johnny and whispered for only him to hear: “You two are the same, love taking photos of everything!” In the days you spent more time together, you discovered that photography was one of Johnny’s passions and that he was incredible at it.

When you saw Johnny’s mother positioning the phone for a picture of the two of you, you felt Johnny’s hand on your waist, pulling you closer and you felt a kind of warmth there. You posed for the photo, but you didn’t look like a couple. That’s when Johnny’s mother, quite cleverly, said, “Son, kiss your girlfriend!”

Johnny’s eyes widened. Now what? He couldn’t make you do anything like that. He couldn’t keep up this act. He was about to tell his mother the whole truth when he felt your hand on the back of his neck. There was a brief exchange of looks and you said, “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t have time to respond as your lips on his prevented him from doing so. It would be cliché to say that “it seemed like everything around had disappeared and only you two were there,” but that’s what was really happening. The gentle touch you gave to the back of Johnny’s neck with the hand not holding the bouquet was reciprocated by the way he held your waist. Johnny knew he was in trouble but didn’t want to think about it at that moment. For him, it was like a dream, but he was “awakened” when you pulled away, only to see the man in front of you with his eyes closed. You couldn’t help but smile when he opened his eyes and you ended up wiping the gloss that had stayed on his lips.

After a while, you decided to return to the hotel and, just as you arrived, a heavy rain started.

“It’s like we predicted this would happen,” said Johnny. He asked you to go to the room to start organizing your things while he settled a few things at the reception. The time you spent alone in the room was enough for you to think about everything that had happened, how much you loved being near Johnny, how welcomed you felt by his family, how nervous you got when you had to pretend to be his girlfriend and how much you loved that kiss. But, did he feel anything for you? Did he feel something with that kiss?

Some time later, Johnny returned to the room, and he didn’t look very happy. “The rain is getting worse and some trees have fallen on the road, so we’ll have to spend the night here.”

“Oh, that’s fine then.”

“You don’t mind us sharing the room?”

“Of course not, John, it’s okay. I’ll sleep on that little sofa and you can take the bed,” you said, pointing to the small sofa in the corner of the room.

“Are you crazy? I’ll sleep on the sofa and YOU can have the bed.”

“I think you’re the crazy one. Look at your size and the size of the sofa.” You were right. The sofa was too small for him, so you thought of a simple solution that made you nervous. “If you don’t mind, we can share the bed.” Johnny looked at you as if to say, “Are you sure about this?” You understood his expression completely and said, “It’s fine. We’ll put some pillows in the middle and it’ll be perfect. The bed is huge.”

After showering, Johnny was arranging the bed while you were combing your hair.

“Did you enjoy the wedding?”

“What? So much! Seriously, Johnny, your family is so lively and funny. I talked for ages with your mom and aunts.”

“I noticed. You even danced with them. You spent more time with them than with your boyfriend.”

“What’s up with that? You should have pulled me to dance.”

“Oh really?”

Then, Johnny picked up his phone and selected a song, specifically “More Than Words” by Extreme and, in a very exaggerated manner, extended his hand to invite you to dance with him in the middle of the hotel room. You couldn’t help but smile, which he noticed, and took his hand, accepting the invitation. The dance continued, Johnny made some exaggerated moves, leading you along with him. With each twirl he made you do, your laughter increased. It was amazing how, even in such a short time, you felt light and happy around Johnny, as he didn’t have to make any effort to make you smile, he just was… himself. The “exaggerated dance” went on for a few more minutes until Johnny lifted you and spun around, but ended up tripping and falling onto the bed, taking you with him. Despite the scare, you both laughed at the situation. But the smiles faded as you realized how close your faces were. You had been this close before, after all, you had kissed earlier, but it was all part of a “show”, now you were alone. Your mouths were almost meeting when Johnny’s phone rang, bringing you back to reality for the second time that day. You got off Johnny and went straight to the bathroom to catch your breath. Meanwhile, Johnny answered the call, discovering it was his mother, just asking if everything was alright.

When you left the bathroom, Johnny was already lying on his side of the bed, ready to sleep, and you did the same, wishing him a good night.

Although Johnny’s mind was racing because of everything that had happened the day before and because of the new feelings in his heart, he had a great night’s sleep, except he felt some weight on him. Because of the sun rays entering through the curtain gaps, he slowly opened his eyes and realized that the “weight” was your leg over his, your head using his arm as a pillow and your arms hugging him like he was a giant teddy bear. Johnny noticed that the pillow barrier you had made to divide the bed had fallen and now you were in that situation. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw your squished face, sleeping so peacefully and comfortably in his arms. As much as he wanted to stay there, he had to get out of bed. He tried to do it in a way that wouldn’t wake you, but it didn’t work, and your eyes started to open.

“Good morning, sleepyhead. Is this pillow comfortable?”

“Good morning, sort of, it’s just a bit hard…” The next second, you realized you were clinging to him and jumped out of bed. “OH MY GOD, JOHNNY, I’M SORRY! You must have slept all crooked because of me. How embarrassing!” You said while running your hands over your face, while Johnny, still in bed, just laughed at your “panic.”

As the days went by, you exchanged messages with trivial updates about what was happening in your lives. With each message you received, you could feel your heart beat faster just thinking it was from Johnny. All your friends knew when you were talking to him because you always had a silly smile on your face, like a lovesick teenager. Missing him so much, you decided to ask him out and he accepted right away.

You arrived in front of the chosen place: a homemade food restaurant where you had once worked and were still friends with Joe, the elderly owner. A few minutes later, Johnny arrived and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw you, especially because of the sunflower-patterned dress you were wearing. He didn’t miss the chance to joke, “Is that dress in my honor?” knowing that he had a sunflower tattooed on his forearm.

Upon entering the restaurant, you took Johnny’s hand to introduce him to the owner.

“Mr. Joe, it’s been so long!”

“Hi, my dear, I’ve missed you.” With a friendly smile, he turned his attention to Johnny. “Did you come to introduce me to your boyfriend?”

Lately, you two were so often mistaken for a couple that Johnny didn’t mind what was said but couldn’t help but feel sad when you stated that you were just friends.

“I see, well, enjoy the evening and maybe things will change tonight.” The elderly man shook Johnny’s hand, winking at him. Was it that obvious that he was in love with you?

You took the lead, followed by Johnny, who found it strange that you were heading somewhere other than where the customers were eating. He was about to ask where you were going when he was surprised as you reached the restaurant’s terrace. It was a rarely used place but very well-decorated and had an incredible view at night.

“Wow, this place is amazing!”

“I think so too. It was one of my favorite spots. I used to stay here during my breaks and sometimes came here to study or just think about life. The owner doesn’t use it much, but I asked a friend who still works here to set it up, just in case I brought someone here.

“And do you often bring people here?”

“To be honest, you’re the first person I’ve brought here.” Johnny gave a restrained smile, feeling special for some reason.

After placing your orders, you talked about various things. It was incredible how you always had so much to talk about. Then, a cold breeze passed, making you shiver and complain about wearing a dress and forgetting your jacket. Within seconds, Johnny promptly got up, took off his jacket and put it on your shoulders, making you momentarily forget how to breathe due to his sudden closeness.

When he returned to his seat, Johnny found it odd that you started laughing for apparently no reason.

“Please don’t get me wrong, I just think it’s amazing how you can sometimes be so sweet despite being so...” You gestured to indicate his height.

“Tall? Handsome? Hot? No need to be at a loss for words to describe me. They say that’s my charm: being sweet to balance out the fact that I’m extremely attractive” Johnny said in a charming tone and you decided to play along.

“For sure, and very modest too.”

After dinner and more conversation, you suggested to Johnny that you go to an ice cream shop near your place.

“What? But weren’t you cold?”

“No cold can make me refuse a good ice cream.”

And that’s how you ended up on your street, heading to your building with your ice creams, you looking like a happy child finally eating your favorite dessert and Johnny laughing at everything you said.

“Well, I guess this is where we say goodbye,” you said, but deep down you didn’t want the night to end.

“The night was amazing. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

“Oh! Before I forget.” You said while taking off the jacket and handing it back to Johnny. “I swear I’ll bring mine next time.”

“So, there will be a next time?” Johnny said provocatively while putting on his jacket. You pretended to be thoughtful for a second and replied, “Maybe… Wait a second.”

You stepped closer to Johnny to adjust his jacket collar, bringing you just inches apart. Your eyes locked, but this time in a more intense way. You could admire Johnny’s beautiful honey-colored eyes while he examined every detail of your face, which looked even more beautiful in the moonlight. You made a move to pull away, but Johnny placed his hands on your waist, preventing you from leaving. Your gaze dropped to his mouth as he said, “You’ve already kissed me once, what are you waiting for to do it again?”

“Now it’s your turn to take the initiative. Kiss me, John.”

Closing the minimal gap between you, Johnny kissed you. Unlike the first time, you felt the intensity of this kiss, and when Johnny’s tongue touched yours, you could swear you would explode with happiness, so much so that it made you smile in the middle of the kiss, causing Johnny to pull away, laughing. “Are you that happy to kiss me?”

“Of course. Because now we’re really kissing.” You kissed Johnny again, unable to believe he felt something for you too. “Hm, does this mean we’re really dating now?”

“Hmm, let’s see.” Johnny made a mock thoughtful face and listed what had already happened between you two. “I’ve introduced you to my family, we went to a wedding as a couple, we slept together… so I guess we are dating.”

“Good.” You threw yourself into Johnny’s arms, standing on tiptoe. “I won’t have to pretend anymore for your family because next week I’m going to play golf with your mom and your aunts.” You said, giving him a peck.

“YOU WHAT?”

“That’s right, I’m going to spend some quality time with my mother-in-law and show her that I’m the best girlfriend her son could have.”

Johnny’s laughter made you smile even more, he couldn’t believe how quickly you had won over his mother. He hugged you tighter, lifting you off the ground.

“Get inside before I end up kissing you all night, girlfriend.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from doing that, boyfriend.”

You both smiled and kissed once more, savoring the moment that was more real than ever.

217 notes · View notes

itsmrshamilton · 6 months ago

Text

Last Goodbye | LH44

summary: reader is involved in a car accident during qualifying. can Lewis make it to her on time to say one last goodbye

a/n: lol, the summary is way more dramatic than it needs to be. I'm trying a different pov. Let me know what you think. Requests are open.

💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌

The sun was positioned high in the sky, the wind softly tickled the trees and there wasn't a single cloud in view for miles. The perfect Saturday afternoon to hold the Qualification Races for the British Grand Prix which would take place on Sunday. Lewis had left earlier that day just like the other racers in order to get to the track on time and begin preparing with their teams. Due to her work, Y/n was unable to attend most races on the calendar but she wouldn't miss the Silverstone race for anything in the world. It was their home race, the one time she got to spend the whole weekend with Lewis and their family while he worked. As scary as it was for her, she loved watching her favourite person do what he did best and inspire millions while he did it.

As was their tradition for home race weekends, Lewis had left Y/n her favourite breakfast in the kitchen, a handwritten note on a counter and a soft kiss on her forehead while she slept then quietly snuck out with Roscoe under his arm. She would have offered to bring their son with her later in the day but she knew that Roscoe had eager fans in the engineers' garage that were waiting to spend the day with him. So she got up and went about her morning on her own, tidying up and making snacks for later when Lewis came home knackered and starving.

She picked up her bag, patted herself down for keys then checked her phone for any last minute requests from her boyfriend. Seeing nothing new since the previous texts she sent, she figured he may have already started racing so she took a quick selfie and sent it with a caption. "I think I stand a chance of overshadowing your paddock outfit today, lol. I'm leaving the house, see you soon. Knock 'em dead, love" She giggled at her awful sense of humour before leaving the house and locking up.

The drive to the track was usually short but on such an eventful day, there were many cars on the road and one could feel the buzz of excitement and anticipation in the air. Y/n wasn't an anxious driver but seeing people pull risky moves between the lanes made her drive with a foot hovering above her brakes just in case.

💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌

"Okay, Lewis, P2 for Q1 was a great start. Let's keep that up and improve if we can. Q2 starts in 10 minutes, yeah?" Fred clapped Lewis' shoulder and walked off to another part of the garage.

"Yeah, thanks, man." Lewis replied as he stood in the red garage looking at the screen replaying his latest performance on the track. Roscoe pawed at his foot and whined, clearly requesting to be picked up. The bulldog seemed to forget that at his old age he was getting heavier but his father lovingly adhered and brought Roscoe to his chest with a grunt and a kiss to the forehead. "Where's your mum, eh? She's usually the one cuddling you during qualy, huh?"

He looked around the garage to see if his girlfriend had entered while he was distracted. He knew that the drive there wasn't very short but she always arrived before Q2 began so he was slightly confused. "Hey Marc, have you heard from Y/n or my dad?" he asked an engineer as he glanced at his phone. "No, nothing. There is traffic at the entrance though so that may be causing their delayed arrival." the Italian responded. Lewis nodded seeming satisfied as he read Y/n's text confirming that she was on her way. He grinned like a love struck fool at the picture she sent of herself decked out from head to toe in Ferrari merchandise. She was truly the most beautiful being he had ever seen and he wondered for umpteenth time how he had lived before he met her. He sent heart emojis in response and went back to watching the recording on the screens.

💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌

Y/n sighed in relief as she reached the last intersection before the paddock entrance. She could see gates from here and couldn't wait to get out of her car and see her son and boyfriend. The red light she had stopped at turned green and she let her foot off the break to move forward. As she was about to cross the middle of the intersection, she noticed the cars behind her screech to a sudden holt but before she could assess the confusing situation her car was hit from the side and she was sent jolting forward. The last thing in her vision was the airbag exploding into her face. She was unconscious by the time the horrified bystanders saw her car get thrust into the nearest pole by the driver who ran the red.

💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌 💌

Lewis was seated in the red and yellow car and about to put on his helmet when he saw marshals, guests and staff hurrying in the direction of the paddock entrance. Focused on the next part of the race, he tried to stay grounded and drown out the sounds of shouting. "Lucas, radio check." he said to his engineer. "It's Lewis, radio check." Silence on the other end. He could now hear the sound of sirens in the air. "Lucas? Can-"

"Loud and clear, Lewis. Apologies for the delay, we were receiving a call from the stewards that there has been a car accident outside the entrance so there will be distractions during the second session."

Lewis grimaced and secured the position of his helmet on his head. Car accidents were awful to witness so he really felt sorry for those who were involved. He took hold of the steering wheel.

"That's awful. Do we know who it is? Has help arrived?" He asked sincerely.

"Uh, not really. They say it's a blue and red Audi and a black-"

"A what?" Lewis felt his blood run cold and his suit get tight. He didn't think he heard right. He couldn't have heard that right.

"A blue and red Audi. Anyways, let's focus on the ra-" Lewis didn't let Lucas finish because he shot up and scrambled to get out of the car he was strapped into. He fell out, landed on all fours but got up to rip off his helmet. His knees stung and there were shouts all around him but he had no time to listen. His skin was hot, his throat was tight and DAMN IT, WHY WOULDN'T HIS GLOVES COME OFF! Frustrated, he took off in a sprint towards the paddock entrance, shoving everybody out of his way. In the back of his foggy mind, he thought he heard barking right behind him but was too distracted to check.

When he finally made it off the racetrack property, he was buzzing with adrenaline, covered in sweat and coughing from screaming at the crowd to let him through. At the end of the driveway he could see two green ambulances and multiple police cars parked in a taped off area. "Oh, God. Oh God, no."

He only knew one person with a red and blue Audi. A red and blue Audi that he had gifted them. One person who hadn't yet arrived to the Ferrari garage.

He stumbled forward to take in the scene illuminated by flashing lights. But before he could mumble out another plea to God, he stopped dead in his tracks. A black body bag. Beside what was left of the blue and red Audi that belonged to his girlfriend.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Thanks for reading! Be sure to interact with this post before you leave. Requests are open.

Do not repost on another platform, alter or translate my writing. I don't consent. If you do, I will send evil shongololos to bite your toes off at night.

#lewis hamilton #lewis hamilton x reader #lewis hamilton x you #lewis hamilton angst #lh44 #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #lewis hamilton imagine #f1 ferrari #f1 #lewis hamilton x black reader

214 notes · View notes

whumplump · 5 months ago

Text

part 1

part 2

Whumpee would take the eggs out of the mold as gently as possible and place them in the refrigerator as if they were made of crystal. They were being as careful as possible, so they were taking their time, and they were afraid that Whumper would complain about the delay, but the punishment for breaking the eggs would be worse than the punishment for taking too long on a task.

The doorbell rang lazily. Whumper was on the couch, working on the computer, and didn't bother to tell the housekeeper. Whumpee set the eggs aside and got ready to open the door. They were greeted by a person who seemed to have visited the house before. The person had a bag on their shoulder and had the kindest face Whumpee had ever seen in their life.

"Good afternoon, how are you? I'm Caretaker, is Whumper home?" the stranger greeted, offering their hand.

Whumpee responded, but their throat was raw and their voice was inaudible. The visitor asked them to repeat it. Whumpee smoothed their throat and tried again.

"...They are in the living room..."

"Can you let them know I'm here, please?"

Whumpee raised their hand, asking for a moment. They walked into the living room and stood next to Whumper.

"What do you want?" the owner said, dejectedly.

"There's someone at the door, wanting to talk to you... They said their name is Caretaker..."

Whumper lowered the computer screen and got up from the couch in a bad mood. Whumpee returned to their previous duties while Whumper welcomed Caretaker into the house. The two seemed like old friends.

“Whumpee, make Caretaker some coffee" Whumper said amidst laughter.

Caretaker furrowed their eyebrows, a little uncomfortable with the way Whumper spoke.

“Ah, no need, I'm fine, thank you—"

“I insist," Whumper interrupted. They turned to Whumpee. "Now," they said in a firmer tone, like a threat.

“Y-Yes sir," Whumpee responded promptly.

After making coffee, Whumpee returned to their previous activity without looking back. They noticed a slightly sad look in Caretaker's eyes as the guest accepted the cup.

Whumpee continued tidying the kitchen and pre-preparing rice for dinner, while they watched the other two in the living room, talking, chuckling. Apparently, Caretaker was a good friend of Whumper who just returned from a long trip. Whumpee confirmed this in their own head when Caretaker took out some items from their bag and showed them to Whumper.

They were distracted, not paying attention to Whumpee in the corner.

'At least I won't have to worry about any complaints for now…'

Whumper's voice coming from the room made them think otherwise immediately.

"Whumpee, my coffee is too bitter. Make another one, with more sugar, now.”

Whumpee rescued Whumper's coffee mug, made new coffee, adding a few extra spoons of sugar, and handed the new drink to the master.

Whumper didn't look pleased. They asked for another. This misfortune was repeated three more times, until Whumper gave up.

"You're no good at all. Not even for making a cup of coffee. Nevermind, I don't feel like it anymore," they said, putting the mug aside.

Caretaker felt bad about that attitude. Why the hell was Whumper treating the other like that?

“My coffee was great, thank you very much," they said to Whumpee, a little awkwardly, trying to ease the tense atmosphere.

Caretaker spent the whole afternoon at the house. Whumpee did all the chores while enviously listening to the conversations between the two friends.

As night fell, Caretaker had to say goodbye. Whumper continued to treat Whumpee with contempt, and ordered them to take their friend to the door.

Before leaving, Caretaker took a look at Whumpee. They had sweet eyes and a worried expression.

“Why do they treat you like that?" They asked quietly.

Whumpee didn't answer the question. They just hurried to close the door. Before they did, they said, almost inaudible, in a voice full of pain:

“Please save me…”

#whump community #whump #whump writing #whumpee #caretaker #whumper #whump fic #whumpee x whumper #slave whump #domestic whump #cruel whumper

140 notes · View notes

izzyspussy · 3 months ago

Text

i once read or scrolled past or saw a post about an au where kash accidentally hits ian when he shoots at mickey, and i remember literally nothing about it but it's stuck in my head. so.

au where kash accidentally hits ian when he shoots at mickey. he calls 911 right away of course, and neighbors call too because of the gunshot. paramedics and cops arrive, and with ian out of it it's kash's word against mickey's. so obviously What Happened is that mickey was robbing the place - which he's been documented doing before via the cameras - and kash shot at him and mickey pushed ian into the line of fire. so they're arresting mickey and loading ian into the ambulance, and they're letting kash in with him.

mickey is fighting like hell. he's shouting at the paramedics that they can't let kash in the ambulance with ian because he shot him - and maybe from mickey's point of view it looked like an accident, but maybe it didn't. hey who knows, crimes of passion and all, maybe it really wasn't. so mickey is absolutely flipping shit. he's got two grown ass cops on him trying and failing to get him into a car even though he's already cuffed.

and lip just happens to be walking by. and mickey just happens to see him, and starts screaming his head off for him. and lip of course was already coming closer in worry since he knew ian was working today. mickey fights the cops harder and harder as lip gets closer, shouting to lip that kash shot Ian and shouting to the paramedics that lip is ian's brother. in the end, the paramedics kick kash out and let lip in for the sake of putting a stop to the hold up.

mickey keeps his fight up, getting knocked around, arms twisted, head slammed into the car door, punched, and everything, all the way up until the second lip gets in the ambulance with ian. he's asked if he's resisting arrest (tricked into confessing, oink oink you know how it is) and he says, "damn fucking right I'm resisting arrest, I didn't fucking do anything!"

maybe one cop is sympathetic or still thinks she has an honest job. she points out to mickey that they have kash's testimony, mickey at the scene, and months of evidence of previous acts of the same crime he's accused of now. she says in order to have any doubt that he's guilty, he needs to tell them what he was actually doing. he stands there for a moment, glaring up at her with his teeth grinding. and then he silently, stubbornly puts himself into the car. (and yes, of course this wounds the pathetic egos of the pigs. acting with his own autonomy rather than being forced by their power? how disrespectful!!)

at the station, mickey uses his one phone call to reach the gallagher house. the slightly less bastard cop is long gone now, leaving mickey with the proud boys (reference intentional lol). they deny him his call at first, but he makes enough of a racket about it they give in pretty quick for appearances sake. they tell him he only has three minutes.

mickey tells fiona in a rush (the bare bones of) what happened, what hospital was on the side of the ambulance, that lip is with ian. and he gets most of the way through begging her to let him know if ian is okay before the cops take the phone away from him. fiona hears him protesting he didn't get the time they promised before the line cuts off.

ian is fine of course. nothing important got hit, the bullet didn't fragment or get stuck. they're able to pull it out low risk, stitch him up, and he's home within the week (or uh... whatever amount of time he would be home in). there's a delay between that and when anyone thinks to let mickey know of course, none of the other gallaghers other than lip know he and ian even know each other, beyond knowing Of each other.

but eventually, lip goes to deliver the happy news to mickey in juvie. mickey gets brought out for visitation, has to be restrained briefly when he makes too sudden a move after seeing who it is. he stiffly tolerates some mild verbal abuse from the bull escorting him (the little piggies don't like him, and they oink oink amongst themselves; even if he wasn't uppity he's got that name on him, and you know what fascists say about apples and the trees they fall from).

mickey isn't even fully in his seat yet, phone barely to lip's ear, before he's demanding, "is he okay?"

lip lets a pause settle, not really out of cruelty or power tripping or any reluctance to tell mickey about ian - if he was he wouldn't have come at all - he's just... slowly figuring mickey out.

he says, "didn't realize you cared."

he also didn't expect mickey to react the way he does. he actually flinches a little bit - if blinking hard counts as a flinch, which in southside it does - when mickey slams his hand down on the little table holding up their partitioned off booth, demanding again, "is he fucking okay?" it would be a snarl or something similar, if mickey's voice didn't crack (juuuusst enough for lip to notice).

"jesus, yeah he's- he's fine," lip blurts, half in surprise half in (perhaps uncharacteristic) mercy. "didn't hit anything important, he's already home."

mickey visibly slumps in relief, practically collapsing onto the table, only held up by his own hand on his forehead to hide his eyes. his hitching gasp and shaky sigh, the slightly wet quality of his next breath, are all clearly audible through the shitty, muffled and crackly phone-to-phone line.

lip solves the mystery. if it was ever much of one.

"...you love him." it's not a question, but he's careful to keep his tone flat and his voice as low as possible. nonthreatening to mickey, hopefully (he's not looking to be smeared on the sidewalk when mickey gets out), and kept private from the other delinquents if unfortunately not the bulls (but maybe mickey will get lucky and they won't listen to the recording unless they find an excuse to).

mickey looks murderous at first. so murderous lip wants to lean back (he doesn't, of course, you never show your belly like that). but... maybe it's because ian got shot, or maybe it's something else, but after a moment mickey is just the same tired and scared kid trapped and abandoned in the gutter of the city as the rest of them.

he can't meet lip's eyes, but he doesn't deny it. doesn't threaten. he just pleads (or at least, he comes as close to pleading as an early seasons milkovich can get), "don't tell him."

"why?" lip asks. mickey rolls his eyes dramatically, ends it on another vicious glare.

"come on, ain't you s'posed to be the smart one?" he sneers. he thumbs at his lip, you know the way he does, looks away to the side again. "if he thinks for one second there's something- that we could- he's already getting fucking shot, and we're just- ...he'll get us both killed. or worse."

"what the fuck's worse than killed?" lip snorts, thinking it'll be something stupid, mickey's priorities all warped.

"pretend we're women," mickey says darkly. "you'll figure it out."

so... lip doesn't tell. it's an au where mickey realizes he's in love with ian, that they're in love with each other, years sooner. he's even admitted it, sort of. just... not in words, or even actions (yet) really. and it's an au where lip knows mickey and ian are in love before ian so much as thinks they could be someday - and keeps it from him.

i'm almost tempted to write it, but i doubt there would be a worthwhile return on that investment. not to mention i'd have to rewatch the show, and i'm pretty sure that qualifies clinically as self harm.

c'est la vie.

#jack facts #shameless #mickey milkovich #lip gallagher #gallavich #hc #my fic #sort of lol

73 notes · View notes

mynameismckenziemae · 6 months ago

Text

All of Me

Part 5

(previous part here, next part here)

Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin x You

Summary: You wake up to an empty bed but not for the reason you think.

Warnings: 18+ MDNI! Smut, fingering, teasing, orgasm delay/denial, kink discussion, femdom kind of? Lmk if I missed anything.

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•

Your eyes slowly blink open a few hours later, feeling more rested than you have in years. “Good morning,” you murmur as you roll over. Jake’s not there, though the bed is still warm.

Disappointment fills you when you hear the front door closing softly.

You sigh as you reach for your phone. It’s only fair; it’s exactly how you left him after your first night together.

But there’s a text from Jake, sent only 5 minutes prior.

Jake: BRB, just going to go get breakfast.

Reese: Sounds good. Scared me for a second, I thought you pulled a Reese 🥴

Jake: I wouldn’t do that to a friend 😉

Reese: Couldn’t blame if you did. I’m sorry for that btw.

Jake: It’s all good. I’m just I got to see you again and that’s saying a lot because I hate going to the doctor.

Jake: Since you’re awake, what do you want for breakfast?

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

He’s back 20 minutes later with coffee and your favorite breakfast in hand. He looks good enough to eat in his gray sweatpants and black tank top.

“It’s called iatrophobia,” you say between sips of coffee in bed, continuing when he gives you a confused look. “The fear of going to the doctor. It’s more common than you think. Is it something you’ve always struggled with?

A flush works up his neck as he nods. “Yeah, as long as I can remember. My mom said it started after I got a round of shots at 3. I don’t get it, shots don’t even bother me that much anymore but even walking into a clinic or hospital makes me antsy.”

“You could start having lunch with me in my office,” you offer, happy that you sound nonchalant while your stomach does somersaults. “See if it helps?”

The way he grins tells you he can see right through your ruse. “Sure, kinda like exposure therapy.”

“Exactly.”

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

“Hey, I’m gonna run home to change but I’ll see you…” Jake trails off as he re-enters the bedroom to you half-naked.

“I had to change,” you huff as you pull on another pair of bikini bottoms, “Because someone left not one, but two hickeys on my ass.”

You turn and groan when you see the marks still not covered by fabric in the mirror.

He doesn’t need to know you like it.

“I’m sorry,” he walks over with the cutest grin and turns you so you’re again facing the mirror. He’s already hard against your ass.

“No, you’re not,” you laugh breathlessly as he kisses your neck.

“No, I’m not,” he agrees as his eyes find yours in the reflection.

“Make it up to me?” You ask as you take his hand and bring it to your lips, drawing two of his fingers into your mouth.

He nods and his hips jerk into you when you swirl your tongue around the digits, before dragging them down your body and into the front of your swimsuit.

You sigh as you let him take over between your legs, rubbing slow circles over your clit. Your head drops back onto his shoulder when your hand pushes down the fabric covering your breast to find your nipple begging for attention.

“I’m gonna be fighting a hard-on all day now that I know what you’re hiding under this bikini,” he complains, slotting himself between your cheeks with a gentle thrust. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs, feeling the way your heart races as he kisses your pulse point, “I can’t get you off my mind. At work…when I’m with friends…especially at night when I’m alone in bed.”

“Tell me what you think about when you touch yourself,” you order, eyes falling close as he slides two fingers into you. Lewd, wet noises fill your bedroom giving away just how much he turns you on. You gasp, pinching your nipples just as his fingers rub against your g-spot while the heel of his palm gives your clit attention.

“Imagining you sucking me off,” You can hear his smile, “and now I know and it’s even better than I thought.” His free hand finds your butt and squeezes, pulling a moan from you. “I think about your ass and what it would be like to take you from behind; pulling out and coating it with my cum.”

“Yes,” you breathe, clenching around him as you picture it. “What else?”

“You sitting on my face, using me to get off,” he grunts as his hips rut faster as if he can’t help it. “N-not…”

Your eyes flutter open as he trails off; embarrassment paints his face in pink. One of your hands slides up to turn his chin towards you to give him a biting kiss. “It’s okay, you can tell me,” you pant against his lips; his breathing matching yours.

You turn back, eyes meeting his again in the mirror. “Tell me,” you order softly as you slide your fingers back over his jaw and into his hair; refusing to give in to the pleasure rapidly approaching until you hear what else he has to say.

“Never told anyone this,” he whispers, working his hand harder in an effort to distract you. “I-uh…I think about you edging me; making me beg you cum,” his eyes close and he flushes even further as he tells you all of his secrets, “not letting me cum at all.”

Picturing him begging and at your mercy is all it takes for you to fall apart with a broken moan of his name, one hand tugging his hair and eyes locked on his as the pleasure consumes you.

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

He groans as he watches you and your hips press against your ass more insistently; like he’s getting close.

“W-wait,” you say, still catching your breath. He instantly stills his hips. “Not yet. I want you to wait.”

“Fuck,” he shudders, hiding his face in your neck. “You don’t-I mean…if you’re not into-“

“I’m into it,” you interrupt him, shivering as you pull his hand from your bikini bottoms. A punched-out noise leaves him when you lick his fingers clean. “Look at me.”

He slowly raises his head and you have to bite back your whimper at his half-lidded, lust-gazed eyes.

“You aren’t going to cum,” you whisper, reveling in the way his breath hitches, “until I say so.”

His eyes darken before he nods slowly.

“We better get going,” you sigh reluctantly as you step out of his arms and bend over to look through the bottom drawer of his dresser. “It’s almost noon and I’ve got to find some shorts to wear over these yet.”

“Yeah, I should uh…” he sounds entranced as he clears his throat before trying again. “I should go home and change.”

You have to fight the urge to jump him when you turn around to pull up your shorts.

He’s standing where you left him; skin flushed, hair messy from your fingers up hair, still hard and straining against his sweatpants, precum darkening the gray fabric.

“Yeah,” you swallow. “You better go home or we’ll never make it to the beach on time.”

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

“Mom!” Drew’s face lights up when he sees you approaching across the hot sand.

“Hey bud,” you return his hug, knowing the days of him hugging you willingly in public are sadly numbered. “How was boys night?”

“Good,” he doesn’t elaborate, of course. “Come meet Roo’s friends.”

“Okay,” you smile , letting him lead you over.

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

“I’ve missed you,” Penny murmurs as she pulls you in for a hug. She and Mav are like family.

“This is Javy,” Drew says as he pulls you away from Penny. “Javy, this is my mom.”

“Nice to meet you,” Javy smiles and you realize he’s Jake’s friend; the one who threw the football the night you met. Either he doesn’t recognize you or has a good poker face.

“I’m Reese,” you laugh as Drew moves on before you shake his hand. “Nice to meet you too!”

“This is Nat, Javy’s…I don’t remember what it’s called but they’re getting married. She’s a pilot too, like Dad was. Her callsign is Phoenix, isn’t that cool?!”

“It is,” you agree, returning her smile as you shake her hand. “I’m Reese. I’ve seen you around base. Nice to put a name to the face.”

Bob and Callie are familiar faces; they transferred here a few months prior to your deployment. You hadn’t met their daughter, Elsie, yet who’s cute as a button at 3 years old.

“Did you seriously shower before coming to the beach?” Javy says as you feel a presence walking up behind you.

“Jake!” Drew exclaims, tugging you around and saving Jake from having to answer.

It’s been less than an hour since you last saw him but your breath catches when his green eyes meet yours.

“This is my mom, she’s a doctor,” Drew says as he’s looking at Jake like he hung the moon.

You know how he feels.

“Never been a fan of doctors,” he teases, winking at Drew and ruffling his hair.

“Do you wanna play football? I think there’s one in the Bronco,” Drew asks, bouncing with energy.

“Sure, why don’t you go see if anyone else wants to play? You’re on my team though,” Jake replies. Drew nods eagerly and runs off to do just that.

“Did you take a shower?” You ask, noticing his wet hair.

“Yep,” he nods. “A cold one.”

“How come?” You ask, trying not to smile.

“You know why,” he says under his breath, nodding at Bradley who’s looking over at the two of you. “Can’t hide anything in swim trunks.”

“Jake’s on my team!” Drew waves at him excitedly.

“Reese, you’re with me,” Bradley picks you next.

“Good luck,” you say, smiling at the double entendre as you walk over to your team.

•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

A/N: I didn’t want to end it here but I didn’t want to rush what I have planned next. I hope you liked it ☺️

As always, any interaction is appreciated but I love hearing what you think in the comments/reblogs!

Please let me know if you want to be added to (or removed from) my taglist!

@lexixstewart

@dizzybee03

@its-the-pilot

@hookslove1592

@hisredheadedgoddess28

@atarmychick007

@littlezee80

@buckysteveloki-me

@k-k0129

@phoenix-rising-starbird-one

@jessicab1991

@djs8891

@lonelysoul504

@mrsevans90

@landpiranha-blog

@bellaireland1981

@angelbabyyy99

@writtingrose

@shanimallina87

@mizzzpink

@dempy

@linkpk88

@hardballoonlove

@lynnevanss

@entertainmentgirl80

@coldmuffinbanditshoe

@midnightmagpiemama

@emma8895eb

@seitmai

#jake hangman seresin #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin x you #jake seresin x you #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake seresin x reader #bradley rooster bradshaw #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw #robert bob floyd #top gun smut

122 notes · View notes

wukong-s-only-wife5000 · 1 year ago

Note

Let’s keep that Mac love going can I request “he asks you out” from the master list? Gotta love The Emo Monkie manss😂💜🖤

LMK!Macaque: He Asks You Out.

Content/Trigger Warnings: N/A.

Authors Notes: Gladly. :3 Hope you enjoy!

<---Previous | Masterlist | Next--->

“Hey, Macaque,” your voice startled him.

“(Y/n), hey, you're here early,” he managed his charming smile at the sight of you. He wore casually appropriate clothes for movies, his hoodie was up, hiding his ears and the majority of his head.

“MK said it was important, but seeing that we’re in front of a movie theatre, I was obviously tricked into having friend time,” you rolled your eyes. “What are you doing here?” you smiled at him, his world felt like it had frozen solid even though his face felt like it was on fire.

“Oh, well…” He lost his voice. He couldn't remember why he was there for a second, but collected himself and cleared his throat. “MK invited me too,”

“Oh, cool,” you smiled at him then turned your attention to your phone as it went off.

It was MK texting you to let you know he was on his way, but running late. Luckily for him, you didn't have a busy day, so you didn't mind waiting a bit for him. Especially now that it meant having Macaque as your company for an extended period of time. You stole a glance at him to find he was already studying you with a somewhat content expression.

“What?” you smiled awkwardly at him, to which made him clear his throat and look away.

“Nothing,” he tried to play it off as nothing even though his heart was skipping beats in his chest. “You just, um… look nice,” was his lame excuse, even though he did think you looked pretty.

“Thanks,” you glanced away to hide your blush. “MK said he's a bit delayed, so there's that,”

“Hm,” he nodded as he took in this new information. Not really something he didn't already know, he was the reason they were delayed in the first place, after all.

“I know we should wait for the others, but we can get something light to munch on while we wait.”

“That's fine,” he gave a nod.

You and Macaque walked into the theatre and got in the short line at the cafeteria section. You both had looked over the menu in the hope to get a light appetizer while you waited for MK and the others. It was silent between you both, but not an awkward silence. You both unnoticeably stole glances at each other till you caught each other’s gaze, to which you both looked away with blushes.

Once your appetizers were ordered and collected, you found an empty seat in the waiting area and sat down. Silence took over the two of you once more. You spent a good five minutes looking towards the entrance in hopes to see the group, but had no such luck.

“So, (Y/n),” Macaque’s voice snapped you out of whatever trance you were previously in.

“Yeah?” you looked up at him with a curious smile.

“I was wondering if maybe…” his hesitance caught your interest.

“Yeah…?” you encouraged him to continue, which he did.

“I was wondering if you'd wanna do this again sometime…?” he asked. “With me… alone.”

“Like…”

“Like a date,” he nodded slightly and looked away to hide his embarrassment, which you thought was cute.

“Like… a date date?”

“Yeah, a date date,” he nodded sheepishly.

He’s too cute! You internally squealed before collecting yourself.

“As long as you promise it's gonna be a shadow play,” you teased. He looked at you with a dorky smile. “I'd like that a lot.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” you couldn't stop smiling at him. “I really liked the one with the Warrior, the one with the Goddess was nice too,”

“I bet,” he chuckled deeply and shook his head at your antics. It was no question about it, he was so smitten with you. “Tomorrow then?”

“I'm free,” you smiled at him. You were now, anyway. “You have my number, let me know when to get ready,” you added, then glanced around as people started crowding. “This place is starting to wake up, where are those idiots?”

“No clue,” he shrugged, but he smirked to himself at the thought of how ticked Monkey King must be at that moment.

“I'm hungry, let's get something to eat before the lines start to get long. Then we should catch a movie,”

“I could eat,” Macaque said as he lazily followed behind you. “Wait, a movie?”

“Yeah, who knows how long till they get here, I'm not gonna just wait around,” you stated and looked at him with a mischievous smile. “We can call it a practice date.”

That made him laugh.

“You get the food, I'll get the tickets,”

“Sounds good!” you grinned and once you decided on what to watch, and he told you what he wanted to eat, you divided to conquer.

Let’s just say… the unexpected practice date was a lot better than you'd thought it would be.

#request #x reader #lmk #lmk x reader #lego monkie kid #lmk macaque #lmk six eared macaque #macaque lmk #six eared macaque #lego monkie kid macaque #monkie kid macaque #macaque #lmk macaque x reader #lego: monkey king #monkey king

222 notes · View notes

thrillered · 4 months ago

Text

"You Know I Mountain Dew It For Ya" | Spencer Agnew x Reader | Pt. 12

Part 12: What Would Spencer Do?

You and Spencer spent a lazy sunday together. You woke up before him, sneaking away to the kitchen to make some coffee and start on breakfast. You had some nice bread you bought from the bakery you adore that was going to be stale soon so you decided to make some french toast.

You set your phone on the counter, playing some soft music while you cooked. You cut up some strawberries while you waited for the pan to heat up, allowing the bread to soak up as much of the egg mixture as possible.

It didn’t take long for everything to cook. You were plating up the pieces, spreading a few strawberry slices on each when you jumped at the feeling of warm arms snaking around your waist.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Spencer yawned, resting his cheek against the flat of your shoulder blade.

“Morning.” You responded, turning off the stove top and turning around in Spencer's arm. “Sleep well?”

“Well besides you snoring like the t-rex from jurassic park, yes.”

You playfully slapped his arm, “Sounds like someone isn’t getting french toast.”

“I'm kidding! I kid! I slept well, probably better than ever.” Spencer said, rescinding his previous joke.

“That's what I thought.” You mused, handing him a plate before stepping around him to sit at the island.

You shared a wonderful breakfast, Spencer complimenting you on the food. He insisted he washed the dishes, ever the gentleman. You didn’t argue, just sat on the counter next to him, admiring the domesticity of everything. You could get used to this, you thought.

The rest of your day consisted of watching movies and playing games, relishing in the company of the other. You had your leftovers from dinner last night for lunch, switching with Spencer since you ordered his usual and he yours.

Around 8 pm Spencer decided he should go home, he had to tend to his cats and do some house work. You reluctantly allowed him to leave, delaying the process by looking at him through your lashes, enticing him to kiss you again and again.

—

On Monday the energy at the office felt electric. It was a new shoot week and everyone was rejuvenated from the weekend. The first thing on your itinerary was shooting “What would Spencer Do?”. At the same time the Smosh Mouth episode from last week would be uploaded.

Shayne stopped you on your way into the sound stage, “Everything okay now?” He asked, seeing your new song after what had transpired the previous week.

“Everythings great.” You grinned, feeling like a schoolgirl caught with a crush.

“Good.” Shayne replied, wiggling his eyebrows at you before getting mic’d up.

–

“Guys, welcome to: What Would Spencer Do?” Spencer began, introducing the video as everyone clapped and cheered. “Right now I’m trying to check out and, uh, buy a shirt. I’m trying to buy this shirt that dropped at 12 pm, it's 12:02 and my checkout is frozen.”

Everyone bantered for a moment, you were drawing a silly picture of Spencer on your whiteboard.

“I’m going to be asking questions that I have written on these cards, well rather Bailey has written them on these cards, and these questions will be about me.” Spencer continued. “Cuz’ today’s all about me. And three of my good friends here: Y/N, Alex Tran, and Shayne Topp will be answering the question.Whoever gets closest to my answer will get points”

“I didn’t know there were points.” Alex commented.

“Woo! I drew you!” You said, flipping your whiteboard to reveal a little sketch of Spencer.

“That's the unabomber.” Spencer joked. “Okay guys, first question: What is my favorite movie I have seen in the last year?”

You knew this right away, you had gone to see it with Spencer. Quickly writing down your answer you waited for the boys to finish. “Easy, Simple, Done.”

“Y/N, let’s start with you.”

“Challengers, motherfucker. You loved that movie, you couldn’t stop swooning over Mike Faist.” you laughed.

Everyone got points that round, the crew cheering everyone on.

“What is my go-to phrase?” Spencer asked, continuing the game.

“Okay this is different because you have so many..” You muttered, writing down a few.

“Okay this almost isn’t fair, Y/N spends more time around you than anyone.” Shayne protests.

“Sorry you’re an L friend.” You retorted, sticking your tongue out at him playfully.

“I might have to defer to yall,” Spencer began, “I’ll write a few down.”

“Shayne, let's start with you.”

“Something I've noticed–it’s not really a phrase– but I just, you often say ‘It’s frankly ___. And then also just ‘Alright I’m heading out.”

Spencer prompted Alex to go, “so I wrote: collect my pages.” Alex answered, explaining Spencer’s recent vocal stim.

Moving onto you, you flipped your board revealing, ‘Collect my pages’, ‘Unfortunately-’, and ‘Oof’. “I couldn’t choose just one so I went with the top 3 I think you say the most.”

You and Alex high fived, seeing you both knew ‘collect my pages’. “Spencer was over the other day and he asked me to grab his bag from the kitchen and immediately followed it with ‘oh and collect my pages, while you’re at it’” You recalled an instance from last week.

“Unfortunately that did happen…” Spencer responded, laughing when he realized his phrase. “Well, I’m gonna give Alex and Shayne 1 point and Y/N 2 because those are all very true.”

You continued the game, Spencer reading off questions that you knew the answer to immediately. Everytime you were the first person done writing Spencer couldn’t help but smile at you. He was aware you knew him better than himself but there was something so much more special about you loving him because of that. To know someone so deeply and still love them so much was truly amazing Spencer thought.

You and Alex were neck and neck, he was 2 points behind you coming up on the next question. “If I had a spotify– I’m an apple music guy– If I had a spotify, which artists would make my top 3 on wrapped?” Spencer asked, giving a few more parameters.

“I know you said top 3 of last year but I’m gonna do something crazy,” You looked around the room, “I’m gonna try and guess your current most listened to artists too.”

“Ya know what, I will give you double points if you can correctly guess all 6. But! If you get even one wrong then you get no points at all.” Spencer compromised.

“Deal,” You agreed, “Maybe it will give these chumps some time to catch up.”

“Okay.. okay… calm down” Shayne taunted, finishing his answers.

“Y/N, let’s start with you since you’re so sure of yourself.” Spencer insisted.

You turned your board around, “For last year I wrote Limp Bizkit, NewJeans, and 100 gecs. And I know those are right for a FACT! For current I said Creed, NewJeans, and ME!” You accused, causing Spencer’s ears to turn pink.

“Okay well.. Let’s let Alex and Shayne go and we’ll see whether or not you’re right.”

Alex answered Blackpink, John Wiliiams, and Beastie Boys while Shayne answered Weezer, John Williams, and The Weeknd. You remarked that Beastie boys is a great answer and they were in your top three last year.

“You hate to see it but,” Spencer flipped his board, a mirrored response to your first three answers. “That is exactly correct Y/N.”

Shayne and Alex groaned, knowing you were wiping the floor with them. You did a little dance, celebrating your victory. You sniffed the air, “Is that? Is that 6 points I smell??” You goaded, shoving the win in the other's faces a little.

“How humble of you to say yourself Y/N.” Shayne ribbed.

“I kid you not, Saturday we were getting dinner together and when his phone auto connected to my car MY ALBUM started playing… I don’t need to be humble when my biggest fangirl is right here.” You gestured to Spencer, blowing him a kiss as he tried to refute your story with a groan.

–

“Second to last question: Who is my #1 Fictional crush?”

“I know this, and I hate that I know it, but I’m gonna embarrass you so bad Spence.” You laughed, writing down what you knew for certain the answer was.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know what you’re gonna say and It’s kinda scary.”

Spencer started with Alex, wanting to keep yours for last. Alex answered Indiana Jones. Moving to Shayne he answered ‘whats her name from evangelion’. You smiled, glad the boys were doing well with knowing Spencer’s answers.

“Okay, I like that,” Spencer remarked, “Y/N?”

“Shayne, her name is Misato,” You corrected, revealing the name on your board, Spencer flipping his own to show his identical answer. “Did you guys know Spencer really smoothly (not), tried to get me to be her for halloween last year.” You smirked, outing Spencer's lame attempt.

Shayne cackled with laughter, Alex joining him soon after. “It’s not what it sounds like!” Spencer attempted to quell the laughter and embarrassment.

“It was hilarious because he came up to me and was like ‘You have a costume for halloween yet?’ and when I said no he pretended to think for a moment and was like ‘Ya know… you could be this cool anime character.. I uh I think you'd like her.” You deepend your voice slightly to mock Spencers.

“Okay let’s move on to the last question.” Spencer announced, drawing everyone's attention. “Okay last question: Can you… Collect my pages? Okay no, actual question: What am I having for dinner tonight?”

“Unfortunately-” You began, pointing at Spencer when you realized you said his phrase, “This will also be what I’m having for dinner because it’s monday night movie night, which always includes food, but it’s Spencer's week to pick.”

“That actually is true, I hadn’t put two and two together.” Spencer realized.

You didn’t actually know what he had chosen for the two of you so you wrote down a tried and true answer: Homestate. Alex answered the 50 piece nuggets which made everyone laugh. Shayne, being a genius, answered Cane’s, which immediately made Spencer reconsider everything.

“You might have legitimately changed my mind.” Spencer faltered.

“Okay Cane’s does sound good so I wouldn’t be mad at that.” You chimed in. “Like Fred Durst said: Damn right I'm a caniac.” You said, waiting for the joke to land. Spencer immediately laughed at its stupidity.

Spencer pondered the idea of Canes for a minute before sending the question to you finally. “I said Homestate, because 1: I swear to god you choose it 8/10 times on your week and 2: because I know that’s the office lunch today and you always sneak an extra into the fridge to take home.”

“Bro, you’re airing out all of my business.” Spencer strained.

“I came here to win and if part of that is spilling your beans… so be(an) it.” You joked, looking for confirmation of your joke before waving it off.

“I did say homestate though.” Spencer revealed.

At the end of the game you had 17 points, followed by Shayne with 13 and Alex with 10.

“I wear my best friend title as a badge of honor!” You saluted Spencer who did it back to you, enjoying the attention and playfulness.

Spencer wrapped up the video, finishing the shoot and getting your mic’s off. Spencer sided up to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “Not bad.”

“Not bad? I aced that, I got a 4.0 in Spencer GPA, that’s gamer point average.” You laughed, shrugging off his arm to give your mic to Greg.

—

The rest of the day all Spencer could think about was how well you did in the game. You answered in ways Spencer didn’t even realize was correct, and often more so than what he would write down, often deferring to your answer. He felt giddy, like a schoolboy holding hands for the first time.

He couldn’t get over how much information about him you had stored away, he wondered the extent of it. He had a lot of friends, and he had grown close to a lot of his coworkers, but no one held a flame to you, you knew him like the back of your hand.

To be loved is to be known.

#spencer agnew x reader #spencer agnew #spencer agnew/reader #shayne topp #smosh games #smosh #smosh pit #smosh spencer #smosh cast #smosh fanfiction

104 notes · View notes

raven-at-the-writing-desk · 6 months ago

Note

Hi! I would like to add a rambling thought to your Silver ramble, if you don't mind <3 From what I recall, Lilia, after waking up in his dream, ensures he can combat Malleus since he has the magical reserves IN the dream world in order to do so. If this is truly the case, then maybe something similar is happening to Silver's magical reserves? A type of reset whenever he dream-hops? It's quite a stretch, of course, but I have a feeling what Lilia said may help! Just a thought :D

[Referencing this post!]

Oh, interesting idea 🤔

That kind of supplements another theory I frequently saw in reactions to the original post. The idea is that since they’re in dreams, maybe they technically don’t actually use “real” magic and thus don’t accumulate “real” blot.

Other suggestions I saw (from comments, reblogs, and my inbox) were:

His UM doesn’t need a lot of magic in order be be cast, so it’s perfectly safe for Silver to use it so many times. (Thank you to @irafuwas for confirming that Silver does, in fact, state that his UM does not require much magic.)

Silver does not have magical reserves large enough to the point where he would be at risk of blotting.

Silver’s ring (gifted to him from his father) may have a a protective/healing property or enchantment which is slowing blot accumulation or clearing it up for him.

The blot is offset or balanced out by the fact that Silver is dreaming; rest is stated to be one of the ways to deal with and recover from blot buildup.

Delayed blot accumulation; the blot will only make its effects known once he awakens in his physical form irl. The blot does not impact his dream self.

The blot is contained on a different plane of existence than the dreams; this could be how its naturally works or it could be the result of Malleus’s magic “suppressing” the bad stuff (blot included).

Silver’s sleeping curse is actually reframed as a blessing that provides him with blot resistance.

Malleus’s UM has stopped time within the AOE of his spell. Perhaps this means Silver’s body doesn’t yet register that he has used up a lot of magic (meaning he has also built up a lot of blot). This one is similar to the “delayed effects” theory in the previous bullet point.

Plot convenience—

Thank you to my readers for sharing their ideas ^^ I didn’t even consider some of these myself! Love that we’re able to pass around ideas and have a discussion about them.

Hopefully TWST will give us a clearer explanation in a future update. (jcbsksbKvsjwnw It really makes my brain itchy not knowing; it doesn’t seem happy with a short throwaway answer like “my UM doesn’t use a lot of magic” that we got in the recent update… OTL)

#twisted wonderland #twst #Silver #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #notes from the writing raven #book 7 spoilers #book 7 part 8 spoilers #twst theory #twst theories #twisted wonderland theory #twisted wonderland theories

101 notes · View notes

wackus-bonkus-maximus · 11 months ago

Note

In the special, why emonette couldn't make a wish? Was it because of Supreme leader?

hello october anon, i'm very sorry for the delay i've had such a time but believe me when i say toxigriffe hasn't left my brain. i'm about to give you so much more of an answer to what you asked (but dw there will be pictures)

so it looks like whatever seal plikki have on their mouths does belong to the supreme. and it appears that even in their true forms this seal still lasts.

and it's not just a block either. it seems like resisting actually hurts plikki, like a shock collar.

and then right after marinette makes the wish, the seal appears again beneath her feet.

whatever power the supreme has, it's more powerful than the wish. but what could have made the supreme so powerful to begin with? my theory is this: the supreme got a hold of the ladybug and black cat miraculous (maybe even the whole miracle box) and made a wish. we don't know what it was, but it seems that there's evidence enough to back up the inclusion of the clause that no one can supercede their wish. that's what makes them the supreme.

lets take a look at what the miracle box looks like in fu and then marinette's possesion:

and then here's the supreme's (from the intro), complete with their symbol and everything:

doesn't it look like the symbol of the order of the guardians?? just with an x superimposed over it??? and since fu had the lb & bc miraculouses at the start of the series, maybe this miracle box that the supreme acquired as the guardian also had those miraculous. that's how toxigriffe ended up getting their proper miraculous in the paris special!!

i think the intro is telling us a story of what happened, actually. first, the supreme got a hold of the miracle box. next, they made a wish. (i assume it's an image of the wish, given what the wish looked like in re-creation)

the image splits into hexagons, with the one with the wish happening forming in the center. i'm guessing all those other hexagons are parallel worlds, and this world in the center is the one the supreme became the supreme of

then we get an image of this person, who i assume is the supreme, given the giant x they are standing in front of - the same symbol that blocks the guardian insignia on the box and on plikki's mouths. like all the fractured worlds featured in the previous image, the supreme stands in the midst of fractured pieces of what looks like glass.

maybe all the shards represent worlds the supreme has tried to take over before, but failed to. maybe they are all the worlds the supreme has conquered already. or maybe the broken mirrors are meant to parallel the supreme to poor emonette, whose misuse of her powers (under the supreme's threat of her life) have fractured her body and soul.

but unlike emonette, the supreme doesn't have the miraculous of creation. the supreme isn't the girl who can fix anything.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, YOU WANNA KNOW WHO I THINK IT IS? (you know who i think it is!!)

to begin with, we get this sneak peek of the supreme's suit. those colors are unmistakeably purple and gray (and green but idk why that's there).

who know who else would have a purple suit?

YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE HAS AN X SHAPE?

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF RE-CREATION?

YOU KNOW WHO CAN GRANT UNIVERSE-HOPPING POWERS??????

the person with the butterfly miraculous, that's who.

maybe there's a reason the supreme wants the butterfly back so badly. the toxigriffe universe is a universe where the supreme doesn't have a complete miracle box after all. at least, it was when we left off.

but maybe s6 will change that.

#ml paris special #ml into the reverse #toxigriffe #hesperia #the supreme #lila rossi #ml s6 prediction #ml s6 speculation

179 notes · View notes

captain-joongz · 9 months ago

Text

Abraxas; Act 1, Interlude I

Pairing: mafia boss!Min Yoongi x police officer!reader

Genre: angst, humour and some fluff, investigative, dark themes, slowburn, enemies to lovers, eventual smut

Chapter summary: Amidst a possible scheme against him and his organisation, Yoongi also has to also deal with the new and quite ambitious police officer. But why does he find himself so reluctant to?

Word count: cca 13.5k

Warnings: Yoongi POV! , discussion of illegal activities, drugs, tailing/stalking, mentions of death and blood, allusions to murder and drug deals

THIS ISN'T THE FIRST CHAPTER, IT'S ACTUALLY CHAPTER 2, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE SERIES MASTERLIST OR CLICK PREVIOUS PART FOR CHAPTER 1

Series masterlist | Previous part | Next part

A/N: it's Yoongi's POV!!! yes i'm on the midnight sun trend hehe. sorry for the slight delay, but here it is in all its glory, hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter too ^^

I threw back the remnants of my whiskey and sighed with the pleasant burn. I wasn’t exactly having the best evening and I entirely blamed Jimin for it. And Tae too, he wasn’t about to get off scot-free. I wasn’t even supposed to be in Dynamite tonight and the incessant buzzing of my phone in my pocket kept reminding me that I was sorely needed in The Rose to deal with a difficult customer.

The longer I stood in the hallway leaning against a wall waiting for Taehyung to show up, the more nervous and pissier I was growing. Someone kept blowing up my phone as if that was going to get me there faster, when I had to take over from Namjoon to deliver these documents and Taehyung was late. I tapped my foot on the floor impatiently and hypnotised the corner leading to back to the club with my eyes. It was just one of those nights.

Ten minutes later I finally lost my patience and made my way back into the main room and beelined straight for the bar.

“Hyung,” Yeonjun greeted me as soon as I got there and automatically reached for my favourite whiskey, “Rough night?” I just hummed, too frustrated by the absolute shitstorm today was to keep up the friendly chatter.

“Some fucker’s tearing apart The Rose because Jimin messed up and Tae’s late,” I grumbled and accepted the glass gratefully. I kicked it back in a single gulp and handed the glass back along with the folder of documents. Yeonjun looked at it confused but accepted it nonetheless.

“Give this to Taehyung once he finally gets here, thanks,” I said and immediately turned to leave. It didn’t sit well with me leaving it here just like that, but Yeonjun was trustworthy, the kid’s proven himself a few times since he started working the bar here, so I at least felt a little consoled by that. And if he did try to fuck me over, I knew who I left it with last, so it would be fucking stupid.

My phone started buzzing again, but this time it was a phone call. Jimin. I gritted my teeth and moved back to the empty hallway to take it.

“Hyung, please, Mr. Cho is going to kill me,” Jimin pleaded immediately, “He’s been asking for you for the past 30 minutes.”

“You were the one that messed up his order, Jimin,” I said irritated, “You should deal with it.” There was a beat of silence which allowed me to hear the distant screaming in the background.

“I know, hyung, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,” the blond man answered, and he sounded so genuinely remorseful, I didn’t have it in myself to keep scolding him. I let out a sigh and took it a bit easier on him.

“I told you to check the goods,” I chided him a bit more gently, “and to make sure you’re working with reliable sources. You sold him subpar shit for the full price. We can’t have that happening at The Rose.”

“I know, hyung,” Jimin repeated, and I could hear his pout through the phone, “I’m going to deal with Dongwook once I’m done here.” I smiled a little at that. Jimin often fooled people into thinking he’s soft and weak with his angelic looks, but he was a force to be reckoned with once crossed. So many have tried to fuck him over thinking he’s the weakest link only to be very painfully proven wrong by him.

“Take Kookie with you, I think he’s with Namjoon right now,” I told him simply, much less angry than when the conversation started. I checked my watch again. Taehyung was still nowhere to be seen, even though he told me he’d be here almost a half hour ago. Jimin on the other side of the phone just hummed.

“Do you know where Taehyung is?” I asked him, some frustration making it back into my voice, “I’m going to have to teach him what 30 minutes mean.” Jimin started answering but was cut off by aggressive knocking on a door somewhere in his background.

“Oh no,” he just said, “That’s definitely Mr. Cho. When are you going to get here?” I sighed and pinched the root of my nose.

“Put him on the phone,” I told him and leaned fully on the wall to prepare myself for this. There was some shuffling, muffled screaming, then the door opened and suddenly I could hear the man yelling at full volume. Jimin told him something and it made him calm down a little. Then I could hear heavy breathing.

“Mr. Min,” Cho growled into the receiver, “Explain yourself. I paid full buck for this shit, it’s barely consumable. I gave it to my boys and they barely even touched it.”

“Calm down Mr. Cho,” I said calmly, “Jimin made a mistake by not checking it over, but there seems to be some attempt from our suppliers to fuck us over. We’re thoroughly investigating it now, my apologies. If you could wait a few days, I’ll get you your usual. And a guaranteed discount on the next batch.” Technically, I wasn’t even lying. There was an attempt to fuck us over, only they weren’t our usual suppliers, they were some ghouls Jimin was trying out. I warned him to be sure they’re trustworthy and he assured me everything was under control. Sure seems like it…

“Fine,” Mr. Cho finally gritted out, “You’re so fucking lucky your services are otherwise top-tier, or else I’d you have you swimming with the fish.” I fought to supress a scoff. Mr. Cho has always been like this, all bark no balls. He loved to threaten others as if he had some power, but all he had was a hefty inheritance that has thinned considerably through the years he spent getting high in my clubs. Always quick to blow up and throw his name around, but calmed down the moment he spoke to me cause he knew I wouldn’t tolerate his bullshit.

Jimin fucking hated him and hated dealing with him, cause he’d always get yelled at for everything, but it would get resolved the moment I’d get involved even though I said the same thing Jimin did just moments before me. Mr. Cho would always grumble and make vague threats, but ultimately go with it cause he knew if one of us had the power to make people disappear in the river, it was definitely me. That’s why I occasionally took the time to remind him of his place.

“Be careful with your words, Mr. Cho, to some they could be taken as a provocation,” I warned him with a faux friendly tone, “Give the phone back to Jimin.” The order was clear, and Mr. Cho didn’t even argue more, thoroughly settled and not interested in getting into more trouble. There was some shuffling and then Jimin was back on the line.

“Hyung, thank you,” he heaved a sigh of relief as the door slammed shut on his side, “He just left. I don’t fucking understand why he always needs to hear from you when I tell him the same shit. What did you tell him anyway? He deflated like a carnival balloon.” Jimin chuckled a little and I hummed.

“The usual stuff,” I answered vaguely, “I gotta go now. If you hear from Taehyung, tell him he’s dead meat.” With that I hung up and went back to the bar.

Only, I stopped dead in my tracks on the way over. There, sitting on a bar looking incredibly out of place in plain t-shirt and jeans, sipping on a drink and watching the dancefloor with intense displeasure, was a quite familiar face.

Immediately on my return from the station last week I had Jungkook run a background check on the new officer in the force. I was surprised I managed to miss they got a newbie, but now I was as familiar with her as she was with me. What I didn’t expect though, was running into her in one of my clubs. I took a moment to watch her, coming up with a strategy on how to deal with this. Either she’s here undercover or she’s a naughty cop and wants something. And finding out which one would infinitely improve my day.

Mood instantly better at the prospect, I made my way over to her side. Looking back, I had no idea I was about to step into something that changed the course of my entire life.

In terms of first meetings, it was a tense one. Surprisingly, I found her quite easy to read, with her pursed lips in annoyance and fire in her eyes. She had the aura of a new young cop, eager to prove themselves, eager to solve all crime. It made me want to mess with her.

Every fibre of her being just screamed ambition and conviction, and even though I could see her naivety, I sensed the sharp edge that she was carrying inside. I knew, this was a person that has fought for everything, and they would continue to claw their way up until they tore themselves a piece of the world they deserved. In shock I realised I saw a little bit of my younger self in her, which forced a surprised laugh out of me. We both strived for different things, but I recognised the emotion with startling clarity.

Maybe that was what led me to talking more openly than I usually did. But somewhere deep down I needed her to understand. The world isn’t what she wants it to be, especially not in these parts. The sooner she would realise that the easier it would be to swallow.

Really, I shouldn’t even have been surprised when one day Jungkook came into my office with a tablet in hand and a serious look on his face. I immediately turned away from my notebook and leaned to the side, preparing myself for whatever he had to show me.

When the tablet finally did make it in front my face, it was a picture of a black, old and slightly banged up car. The car that we’ve noticed cruising suspiciously around a little too much. Jungkook’s tattooed finger swiped right and the next picture showed a close up of a driver taken probably from some nearby security camera. It was our little friendly neighbourhood police officer.

I smirked to myself. So, it seems she does not in fact know how to step away from things that might prove to be a little too much for someone with her ambition. I hummed to myself a little, not knowing whether I was disapproving or impressed at her continued ignorance despite my warnings.

Jungkook swiped one last time to a document showing the license plate being registered to her name. I laughed and leaned back, making myself comfortable in the chair. Jungkook, on the other hand, sighed and put the tablet away.

“What do you wanna do about that?” he asked seemingly neutral, but I knew the look on his face. It was the kind of disapproval I saw in him often when police force was involved. He believed I should be more careful and not toe the line with the detectives this much. Jungkook already knew I wouldn’t ask for him to deal with it, but that I would let things progress naturally, and he was preparing himself for swallowing the order down even though his opinions differed.

“Jungkookie…” I sighed, “What am I supposed to say when you look at me like that?” I teased him gently, giving him a little smile.

“Hyung, you know how I feel about this,” he explained softly, looking a little more like a kid when he pursed his lips like that. I often felt guilty about pulling him into this shit all those years ago, no matter how much Jimin insisted the kid’s okay with it, that’s why I always treasured those moments when it was just the two of us, when Jungkook would stop being the mad dog protecting a criminal and go back to a youngster playing around with his hyung. I patted his shoulder and tried to look as reassuring as possible.

“It’s fine, Jungkookie,” I assured him, “I’m not gonna get in trouble.” He looked at me like a kid that already knew the Santa wasn’t real and felt insulted his parents still tried to bullshit him every Christmas.

“You’re playing with fire too much,” Jungkook answered petulantly, “You’re making my job infinitely more difficult.” I sighed and stood up. Jungkook had a sudden growth spurt some years ago and now towered over me like a mountain, so I found myself looking up even though I wanted to console him. I gently clasped my hands over both of his shoulders and smiled again.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, “I swear. I know what I’m doing.” He frowned but ultimately said nothing.

“Let her be for some time,” I ended up declaring after a moment of silence, “I want to know what she’s doing. What she wants to know. Then we decide what to do next.” Jungkook tensely nodded and looked out of the window with a grumpy face. I laughed at him a little and patted his head. That set his mood a little better.

“Do you think they’re back to tailing us?” he asked eventually. I had gone back to looking over the email I had been in the middle of answering, so I looked up at the younger man surprised he chose to continue with the subject.

“Hard to say,” I hummed thoughtfully, “I don’t think so. She’s not using the official police car, but hers. I bet she’s on her own.” I wondered what she was trying to do, following me for days. With a slight smile I looked out of the window and zeroed in on her car parked a little ways away from the building, but still within eyesight.

What game are you playing, officer?

In the end Jungkook didn’t let me allow her to stalk us longer than a few days before he started pushing me to deal with it properly. There wasn’t a clear read of what her goal was, which disappointed me a little. I doubt she was in it just to follow me around and watch me run errands, but maybe I was expecting a little more than she actually planned on achieving. I didn’t know why that bummed me out so much and I didn’t want to dwell on it, lest I start sinking into some uncomfortable realisations.

I was aware that part of this sudden sympathy was coming from knowing her personal history, and I couldn’t have that. Not when her story was so similar to my boys, not when it made me soft while dealing with potential danger to everything we worked so hard for.

She was the other side of the coin of kids growing up on the street – you either end up a criminal or the police. Her injustice made her want to solve everything wrong with this world. Our injustice made us realise the perfect way to exploit a broken system. But really, we were both one and the same, born from the same mud and moulded by the same violence.

In some way, it made it even harder for me to understand how she could stand on the side of the law.

But in the end, I did have to deal with it. Except I wouldn’t. Few days later when I was sitting in my office with clear view of her car and Jungkook’s burning eyes throwing daggers my way, I decided it was time to test her a little. Just a little push wouldn’t hurt.

I went out the side door, the one I knew she wasn’t aware of so I could give her a little surprise. And I wasn’t disappointed. Laughing at her frustration was easy, toying with her notebook and watching her nervously eye me was easy, teasing her was easy, and before I knew it, it slipped out.

“Good job. Try a bit harder next time, though.”

The second I said it I knew Jungkook was absolutely going to whoop my ass and Namjoon will wholeheartedly agree that I deserve a good thrashing. But I also had my own game and the burning of her eyes when she internally cursed me out made me want to see where this one was going. I left with a pep in my step even though I felt Jungkook’s disapproving aura.

“Relax, Kookie,” I told him once we were comfortably sat in our car, “We just need to know where exactly she’s going with this.” The man just stared at me blankly before resigning on this.

“Fine, but if I think she’s getting too close, I’ll report her to the police for stalking and harassment,” he growled and sulked the entire rest of the way. I couldn’t even tell him not to do that, so I conceded on it. We both knew what the stakes were.

“We haven’t been visited by our blue friends in a while,” commented Taehyung one normal Saturday and thus cursed it into existence, as not even ten minutes later Jungkook got a call the cops are demanding entrance into Pied Piper.

I groaned and leaned my head on the top of the couch, as the two youngsters started bickering.

“You just had to fucking jinx it,” Jungkook whined and Taehyung laughed at him. “We were all thinking it!” was his defence while popping fruits in his mouth. I tried to just disappear into the sofa. Today I was not in the mood for the police at all.

“God, why now,” I allowed myself to whine out and pout a little, giving them a little rare cute display of displeasure. I was fucking exhausted, it was one hell of a week dealing with the mess Jimin made.

The rats were trying to dodge us and make a run for it, maybe seek help from one of our rival gangs, but I had Jimin and Hobi track them down before the end of the week. As usual, Hoseok worked his magic and found them within two days, but the problem was they already moved onto enemy turf. And if I didn’t want this to turn into a big mess, I had to bargain them out. So I spent the week going back and forth with the Kims. First I tried being nice, explaining to them I will deal with this and it will be easier for all involved if they just move over and let us do our thing, until I ultimately had to subtly threaten them to get the fuck out of my way or we burn our path through their ranks too. I had just enough of snarky interactions for one week.

I swore that once this has been dealt with, I would fucking tear Jimin into two and the man was very well aware of that, so he has been acting cute and sending me little gifts, teasingly telling me he’s “trying to get back into my good graces”. That did put a little smile on my face again, as I did have a huge soft spot for him, and gave me tiny bit of energy to deal with this tonight. I sighed. The sooner this is over the better. I resignedly gestured at Jungkook, and he immediately called back to allow them entry.

“I bet you 200 bucks the other half is trying to mess with the dinner the mayor planned for today in your hotel’s restaurant,” Taehyung said eagerly, moving closer to us to look at us expectantly. I looked towards Jungkook, too tired to play this game and kind of hoping for him to take the lead, but he only shrugged.

“Ugh, I think it might be The Rose,” I said eventually when the silence stretched on for too long, “they may have caught wind of the scene Mr. Cho made there.” We both looked at Jungkook again, but he didn’t say anything and just threw his hands up in an ‘I have no idea’ gesture.

Few minutes later the bouncer entered the balcony and behind him Jang and lo and behold – officer Lee, our righteous stalker, the warrior of broken laws. Immediately, my mood skyrocketed. Now this should be fun.

“Did we crash a funeral or what? What’s with the fits?”

That startled a laugh out of me. What an entrance. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Taehyung leaning forward in interest and immediately knew that these two, if given the chance, are going to be the biggest menaces and pains in my ass.

I’ll be honest, I did want to test her a little. Find out how strong her resolve actually is and how good she is at reading the room. While Jang pissed me off and kept his mouth running, I focused on her body language and facial expressions, which was a beautiful blend of resistance and nervousness. I thoroughly enjoyed the uneasiness with which she was watching everything around her, no doubt remembering our first official meeting. “No one is above the law”? Well, look at you now, officer. Unwittingly I smirked into my glass.

This time, I took my time to ease into the teasing and tested her reaction to little quips here and there. I knew she wouldn’t want me to go talking about the time she spent lurking in front of my office, ever since I confirmed her actions weren’t sanctioned by the department, so I tried an inconspicuous little remark about it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

It took me years to perfect “the stare”. The maknaes especially always made fun of it, but even they couldn’t deny it worked. While yes, part of it was an intimidation technique, but what I truly was interested in was the person’s reaction and, inevitably, when they met my eyes, what I would find reflected in them. Cowards wouldn’t meet my eyes at all, those who tried to put up a fight but ultimately would break under the pressure looked for a moment and then turned away or their eyes flitted around and never stayed on anything for too long. Shifty people who tried to fuck me over also had a specific look to them, I could tell just from a single glance that they were greasy motherfuckers not worth anyone’s while.

What I saw in her eyes when she looked at me head on, was pure fire. For a moment I lamented that she wasn’t on our side, because I would kill to recruit someone like this for us. She was playing it well, and even though I could see her discomfort, there was weight to her stare, and a challenge. From the corner of my eye, I could see Taehyung watching her with rapt interest and even Jungkook seemed to pay more attention. They knew about the trials I sometimes put people through, and would no doubt ask me after the police left what I had seen.

I smiled and relaxed. I could see Taehyung do the same while he leisurely sipped on his margarita. He undeniably already knew. Very well then, for now we would continue playing this game. I even found myself quite eager to see what was in store for us in the next few weeks.

It’s not that the other policemen were bad or lacking, well, some of them were, but particularly Park and Jang, who I’ve seen the most around, they weren’t exactly bad at their job. Just… Park was a little too old-school, he was intelligent and experienced, but left lagging behind the modern world. His eyes spoke of an upright but boring man, a jerk but one that couldn’t care less about some clown sitting in an expensive suit in a club he owned spouting bullshit. That’s why I did quite like the man, I could respect him to some extent, despite everything.

Jang on the other hand, my dislike for him knew no bounds. He was a slimy little shifty fucker, all polite smiles and acting decent, but I’ve dealt with enough scumbags to know not to trust a guy like that. There was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way and made me wary of him; honestly, I was just waiting for him to slip up to deal with him.

When they left, just as I expected, Taehyung leaned towards me and whispered: “So that was quite good.” I hummed and kept my eyes trained on the stairs. Jungkook had left to deal with the situation at the office, where presumably Namjoon had been going through another impromptu interview, so we were the only ones left in the club.

“It was definitely interesting,” I answered finally. This time it was Taehyung that hummed.

“So it’s safe to say we’re not getting rid of her that easily,” he mused out loud in between chomping on strawberries and sipping on a fresh drink. I snorted and looked at him. I gestured at Soobin, who was left here by Jungkook to supervise over me until he either returns or I go home, and he nodded and made his way back to the bar to get me another whiskey.

“No, I think we’ve only just begun.”

I finally checked my phone to see a few messages from Joon and surprisingly even one from Hobi. I scanned through Namjoon’s, which could be summed up to “police showed up, don’t worry I have everything under control”. I wasn’t too sure what Park was trying to achieve by this, but I trusted Namjoon to deal with these things completely. We’ve been by each other’s side for as long as I could remember and we’ve seen it all together, I knew his capabilities and there wasn’t anything the police could do to move him.

Taking the fresh whiskey from Soobin who had just returned, I opened the chat with Hobi. His message was short, simple and perfectly ominous.

Hope, 19:22: got em hyung, me w/ boys gonna deal with it 2nite

I smiled and sipped the cool drink, at long last able to fully relax into the couch and just let the background hum of music lull me into a state of comfortable calm. At least one thing would be handled. Next to me I could hear Taehyung make mindless conversation with Soobin, but at that point I was already half asleep. With a slight smirk on my lips, I took another sip and knew. No one would fuck with me.

“Is it just me or we haven’t seen our little detective in a while?” Tae asked while leisurely lying on a sofa in my office. Seokjin turned to him and then back to me to gauge my reaction. I made sure to keep my face neutral as I returned his stare.

“Last time you said that they showed up like ten minutes later,” I murmured looking out of the window on the snowy streets as if expecting the police van to materialise out of thin air.

“Yeah, well, she hasn’t been around for a hot minute,” Taehyung reiterated, his eyes jumping between his two hyungs and waiting would take the bait and entertain him with a conversation, “There was a week when hyung couldn’t even piss without her knowing about it.”

“Why are you so interested in that?” Seokjin asked neutrally, leaned against a bookshelf on the wall opposite of the sofa, “All I hear from Jungkook is grumbling that Yoongi’s being stupid and it’s a safety concern.” I scoffed and looked back towards the two men.

“It’s hardly that,” I said calmly, “I don’t know what he’s expecting me to do, she’s still the police. She’s breaking the laws, yes, which is hilarious by the way, but I’m not petty enough to go through the whole ordeal of reporting her just for sniffing around our business a little.” Seokjin gave me a look, a look that was so specific to him and exactly what I’d been afraid of, that I just dodged his eyes for my own sanity. I hoped Taehyung would keep his mouth shut because Jin, even though he acted silly a lot of the times, had the clairvoyant gift of perfectly guessing what was going through our heads at any given moment. I quickly spun around and averted his gaze despite the fact that it made me look even more suspicious. I just had to keep him from saying anything while Taehyung was still here, because the younger man could not keep himself from telling all the hyungs and Jungkook everything and I had no intention of being discussed like that.

“When is Hobi getting here?” I decided to change the subject. There was a moment of silence, and I could almost see Jin sending Tae warning glances to not bring it up anymore even though I had my back turned to them.

“He should be here in a few,” Seokjin answered at last and brought over to my table the cup of tea he was making, “It’s supposed to be a calming mix. It might not do much, but it’s better than whiskey.” I thanked him politely and the room slipped into silence again as I sipped it slowly while Jin watched me like a hawk.

Suddenly there was a groan coming from the sofa and Taehyung was clambering to his feet. “I can’t fucking take it anymore, I’m so bored,” he whined and skipped over to my table, “hyungs, let’s do something.” He did the thing when he tried to be cute (he was cute, but I made it my personal goal to never tell him or he’ll take advantage of it), started pouting and grabbed my shoulder lightly.

“Go take a walk then, he needs a moment of rest,” Jin told him resolutely. He clearly decided not to fall for it today, even though he usually indulged the younger man. “After all, that’s why I’m here in the first place.”

Taehyung dropped the cutesy act and teasingly scowled at him before walking back over to the sofa to grab his phone. He just jokingly whined “You can be so mean, hyung” and was gone out the door before anyone could reply anything.

Once the door shut closed, Jin’s full attention suddenly was on me, and I grew a little nervous. He wouldn’t let anything slide and took his role as a doctor and a hyung very seriously, especially since he was the only one who was older than me and thus had a little bit of authority over my stubborn ass. I knew that Jin and Namjoon often consulted each other on how to approach me, Joon would oftentimes notice something and immediately snitch to Jin cause he knew Jin was the only one I allowed to care for me in such a capacity. It wasn’t unusual that Namjoon would raise a concern about my health, and I would tell him it’s nothing, only to have Jin coming to my house later that day, fully informed and prepared to deal with it (and me).

“How’s your migraines been?” Jin decided to play it safe at first, dancing around what he actually wanted to ask.

“Shit,” I replied dryly and squinted my eyes at him. He looked at me with worry and I sighed. “It’s been getting better,” I begrudgingly told him, and he gave me a look a parent gives their annoying child.

“You need to rest more,” Jin started, and I groaned. Once he got into full parent mode and began nagging, nothing could stop him. Poor Kookie had to listen to a 30-minute-long lecture about the risks of smoking every time he only looked in a direction of a cigarette pack, which then almost every time moved on to us for being bad influence on him. Especially Namjoon who was basically glued to a cigarette. I have over the years got out of the habit and now mostly smoked only occasionally, much to Jin’s content.

“I know, I know,” I stopped him and started imitating him, “I need to sleep more and eat better and drink less alcohol, work less and have other hobbies other than hanging out around bars.” Jin gave me an unimpressed look and pursed his lips.

“So sorry for caring for your measly pathetic life, Mr. Bossman,” he retorted sassily and went to sit down on the sofa. Then he pierced me with his eyes again and I knew there was no running from this.

“So what’s all this about?” he asked and I started speaking basically even before he finished. “Nothing.” Jin raised his eyebrow and relaxed into the couch. “Really now?”

“Yes, no matter what Kookie says, I know what I’m doing,” I said resolutely and gave Jin a look that made it clear we would not be speaking on this matter anymore. That softened the man a little and he relented.

“Okay then,” he said softly and smiled at me, “I trust you, Yoongi. I’m just trying to make sure you’re all safe. I would be a fool not to worry about the police.” While I accepted it was a slight dig at my approach to this, I also knew it was the closest I would get to Jin conceding and leaving this subject behind. I smiled at him with all the charm and charisma I could muster, and he just scoffed at me and busied himself with his own mug of tea.

Though I was also a little surprised, just as Taehyung, at the sudden absence of detective Lee. She was everywhere for a whole week and then just suddenly disappeared, but I was anticipating some sort of new plan was abrewing on her part. I supposed it wouldn’t take too long.

“What do you mean they’re messing with the docks?” I growled into the phone and stomped the cigarette butt into the ground. Namjoon next to me tensed up and also put down his cig only to immediately light up a new one. Hobi on the other side of the phone sighed and apologized.

“It seems that when we stormed them last month some little creative critters managed to slip by us,” the man explained over phone, “They’ve been sabotaging in the docks, stealing cargo and ganging up on some workers here and there, but we’ve got them now. Gonna deal with it tonight.” I scoffed, mildly annoyed but not wanting to take it out on him. Still, I couldn’t stop a little petty remark.

“Funny, I think I already heard that from you once,” I said gruffly and looked over the street to where Jungkook’s car just pulled up. Namjoon waved at me, gestured towards the young man and then set out to welcome him and bring him up to my office.

“I know, hyung, I’m sorry for messing up the first time,” Hobi said with genuine remorse, and I felt like I was inside a one huge déjà vu as he sounded the same as Jimin when he apologised for causing this whole ordeal in the first place. I sighed and softened my voice. After all, this was just a bad month, I knew their abilities.

“It’s fine, I’m just annoyed with how persistent they’re becoming,” I explained to him and also slowly moved towards the office entrance, “who would have thought that they would be this hard to deal with?” Hobi laughed and I heard some shuffling noises from his side, slight murmuring and then a bang of a door.

“It’s good we’ve dealt with them now; they were on a good way to becoming unbelievable menaces. Thank god they trusted themselves enough to mess with us this early while still unprepared for the retaliation, or I bet we’d spend weeks slowly eradicating them like annoying pests.” I laughed at Hobi’s words and nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“Hubris has a funny way of catching up to you,” I mused quietly, Hobi only humming and then suddenly exclaiming loudly.

“Oh! That’s right!” he shouted out suddenly making me flinch a little. “Christ, Hobi,” I grumbled, “You’re going to make me embarrass myself. What’s up?” The man laughed a little and continued.

“Kookie’s on his way with some very interesting footage you’ll want to see,” the man said mysteriously with a happy lilt to his voice, “We found it when checking the security cameras for the little fuckers messing with our cargo.” I hummed, secretly smiling at the younger man’s antics while waiting for the damn elevator to come to the ground floor.

“He just got here, he’s with Namjoon upstairs. I’m on my way up too,” I told him and finally stepped into the elevator.

“Oh, I better go then,” the man laughed, “I have my plate full here anyway.” With that he hung up and I spent the rest of the ride up building anticipation on what Jungkook wanted to show me.

Upon walking into the office, I found Jungkook already showing something to a smirking Namjoon sitting in my chair. I regarded them both with slight suspicion and then wordlessly made my way to stand next to Jungkook. He immediately put the tablet away and I frowned. He was just about to open his mouth to explain to me, but I beat him to it.

“Hobi already told me you found something on the CCTV, so you can just show me,” I told him gruffly and motioned for him to put the tablet back on the table. He did. With a few quick swipes of his tatted fingers, he presented to me a video. I squinted my eyes at a it a little bit cause it was so dark and hard to see, automatically leaning forward towards the tablet.

It was a view from one of the side alleys by the warehouse we’ve been having troubles with. I was well acquainted with this camera, it was so nicely installed it became practically invisible to anyone who already didn’t know it was there, thus over the years it procured us some very useful evidence. For a moment there was no movement, just a dark alleyway in one of the seedier parts of this city, but then a figure appeared out of the shadows. They were dressed in all black and were slowly slinking by the wall with their eyes trained on something in front of them. We watched it for a few seconds and then the figure turned around and left.

I was just about to question Jungkook, when the man swiped and an enhanced picture of the figure filled the screen. I leaned towards it for a moment and then laughed. It was detective Lee. The picture was grainy and dark, it was quite hard to see, but that was unmistakenly the rookie cop sniffing around.

“The warehouses? What is she doing in the docks?” I speculated out loud.

“I don’t know but I don’t like her sniffing around there,” Jungkook said resolutely, “She’s probably looking for evidence.” I hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, she would have to break into the offices and decode the documents, which would be highly illegal and inadmissible in court, so I doubt she would do that,” I retorted and finally pushed Namjoon out of my chair to sit down, “She’s most likely looking for something specific.” Namjoon leaned over the table and gave us a mischievous smile.

“Or someone specific,” he pointed out. We both looked at him and pondered over it. “She could be just getting the hang of our locations,” Jungkook mused, “I think it’s more probable she just wants to be familiar with the places that we own. Or she thinks we’re just doing illegal shit out in the daylight like a bunch of idiots.” I laughed at that, but the first part of the statement was definitely possible.

“We have to wait for a little more,” I told them both, “She’ll reveal her cards soon.” Jungkook gave me a look but said nothing. Namjoon was just watching us with a smile. I knew the younger man was getting antsy because he cared about my safety and this detective was getting closer than the others. But that was also her weakness – to get more info she abandoned the law, so while yes, she was more determined to find out, but also she was making herself more unreliable to the force and in the eyes of the court. It was a slippery slope for her.

The situation would need some supervision, for sure, but in the end we had the upper hand cause we could report her anytime and cost her the position in the force. I hummed again and smirked.

“We’ll deal with this shortly, don’t worry,” I attempted to soothe the man, “Right now we have to focus on the fiasco with these dealers.” At the change of subject both of the men perked up.

“Do you know anything about how Hobi-hyung wants to go about this?” Namjoon asked Jungkook. They were both standing at the opposite sides of my table looking at each other. Kookie deliberated a little before saying: “He didn’t say much, just that they’re doing it tomorrow. He’s pretty pissed they managed to dodge him, so he’s most probably not gonna be very nice.” To that both me and Namjoon laughed.

“Good,” I said, “They’ve been pissing me off too. Who would have known they would be such pests.”

All three of us shared a look. “Fucking cheers to that,” Jungkook said, and we moved on.

The next day I had gotten a single text from Hobi that sounded very similar to what he texted me last time he went after them. The plan was to surprise them during lunch, storm them quick and blindside them. Ideally it would be over before they ever realised something had hit them. And as someone who had seen Hobi in action before, I knew he was absolutely capable of that.

I was just smoking outside with Namjoon, who was making fun of me that I had gotten back into my habit the whole time he was attempting to light my cigarette, when I got another text.

Hope, 14:49: done

I smiled to myself and patted Joon’s shoulder. He gave me a confused look that melted into satisfied realisation when I winked happily.

Me, 14:51: are you absolutely sure? no more surprises?

Hope, 14:52: no more surprises. i’ll be over in twenty

I pocketed my phone again and stubbed out the cig, lightly slapped Joon’s shoulder again and moved to go back inside. The man followed after me without a word or a question, only gave me a celebratory smile when getting off the elevator a floor beneath my office.

I waited gingerly for the man’s arrival, drinks ready for us and words of gratitude on my tongue. Faithful to his word, he got there in twenty minutes on the dot, bursting into my door with a wide smile, no doubt also happy he managed to teach a lesson to some pesky kids messing about with things way beyond their capabilities.

I clasped a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, I left no loose ends this time,” was the first thing he said, “though I wish I had more time for clean up, but the cops were called. They’re most probably already there.”

“As long as there’s nothing linking us to them, it’s okay,” I reassured him and pulled us both to the sofa. He shook his head at that.

I trusted Hobi, I knew he was damn good at his job. He was always so excellent at making everything that was causing me headaches disappear, and I felt endless gratitude to the man. For a moment we both just sat there in comfortable silence and sipped our drinks.

I took another swig of whiskey and winced. “Jin would kill me if he saw me right now,” I muttered and Hobi laughed. “It’s for celebration, I’m sure he would understand,” the man joked, knowing full well how obsessed the doctor was with making us all live healthily, even when we all knew it was a losing battle. I snickered again and relaxed into the sofa.

“If the cops are there right now, that means they’ll probably show up here by the evening or early tomorrow,” I mused out loud, already too familiar with their strategies. Hobi agreed with me, but I could see that he was thinking about something else.

“What’s up?” I asked gently. Hobi looked at me and hesitated a little. “I might have to go to Japan for a little bit,” he said eventually. I looked at him in surprise.

“Japan? Why?”

The man reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of folded paper. One of the corners was painted with a splatter of blood and the paper was all tired and frayed from whatever it went through.

“He was really trying to make sure I wouldn’t read this, so I made extra sure to get it,” Hobi explained, looking at me observantly and carefully continuing, “And for good reason. I’m sure you yourself recognise this.” He handed me the paper and I slowly unfolded it to not do any more damage to it.

I did recognise it and immediately felt a rush of cold rage hit my bloodstream. Before me, there was a formal invitation to meet with the Watanabe family, one of the smaller suppliers from Japan. They weren’t the ones that we were doing the most business with, but we had a mutual trust to keep out of each other’s way, occasionally help each other out and otherwise not cross each other’s paths.

Whether they knew what these little fucks were planning or not, it seems that a connection between them was established. And as such, I couldn’t let it slide. Especially since the dead rat wanted to keep it secret so bad. There must have been something going on.

For the Watanabes it would be beneficial to try and get us out of the way, since we were blocking their way to most of Seoul, but I couldn’t believe they were this fucking stupid.

“That explains a lot,” I said, reverting back to my business self, “and here I was, thinking we were cordial with each other.” Hobi hummed. I looked at him and let him feel the full force of my anger with the behaviour of our supposed allies.

“Let them know just how disappointed I am with them for me, please,” I told him, voice full of ice. This wasn’t a playground, we weren’t kids messing about in the sandbox. We had to act quickly, before someone got the idea that they could cross our path.

The conversation was a little stunted after that, both of us thinking about the implications of an alliance between these two; so once Hobi finished his drink, he moved to leave, finally deciding it’s time to get back to his boys and make sure everything’s going off without a hitch now. He turned around, mouth opening to tell me one last thing, when he opened the door and promptly bumped into someone. I stood up from the chair, worried for a moment, only to grin wide when I realised who it was.

Hobi had managed to catch the nosy detective before she fell, and I had the best view in the house for when she looked up and realised who was it that she slammed into at my office. As every time, her face was an open book there for everyone to read and I saw it go from apologetic to absolute mortification to some sort of astounded glee. I watched her like a hawk while she stared at Hobi and the wheels in my brain were turning full speed. Huh, could it be?

Even when she snapped out of it and Hobi started to tease her, her eyes remained glued to the man with clarity and determination. If I was a jealous man, I may have even gotten a little angry at the display of open interest, I thought to myself jokingly while I watched them amused. So this was her goal, huh? She was after Hoseok. It did make sense, he would be someone the police found interesting, but he also had considerable experience at dodging them.

Once Hobi left and I could see her gearing up to bullshit me to the max, clearly totally out of her depth here, I decided to test my theory a little bit. But I would need help with that. I gave her a little bait and only waited for her to bite. She did. She didn’t even ask how I knew about what was happening in the docks, just started scrambling to explain herself somehow. I pulled out my phone again and texted the one man I knew could accomplish this.

Me, 16:29: how fast can you get here? need a distractor asap

TaeTae, 16:29: be there in 15 hyung <3

I chuckled a little at his fast reply, but quickly got up to move towards the bar. I had to distract her well and leave her distracted enough to slip a little bug on her. I weaved my web, pulled her in different directions, and I lied.

“We had nothing to do with it,” I said, though I had ordered the strike as retribution. But some things she wasn’t prepared to hear upfront, with some honesty I would have to wait until she was too deep to be appalled by the reality.

Taehyung burst into the room just as he always did, in the perfect way to steal all the attention. Her head snapped to the door with panic, and I seized my opportunity. I moved behind my table and fished around in the first drawer for the small device. I checked on Taehyung who was doing his best magician act, though by definition he would be more of my beautiful young assistant tasked with distracting the crowd while I faked the magic trick. It took only a second for my skilled fingers to slip the tracker beneath her phone case and by the moment she looked at me in horror at Taehyung’s behaviour, I was already sitting on the side of the guest chair satisfied with myself and watching the man work.

I couldn’t help the pleased hum when she grabbed her phone and flustered stumbled out of the door.

The moment the door closed behind her Tae looked at me curiously. “What was that about?” he asked full of mischievous keenness. I shrugged and smiled at him mysteriously. “Just trying to prove a theory of mine,” I uttered nonchalantly and thoroughly enjoyed the eager interest of the younger man.

“That was a tracker, wasn’t it?” he asked again, ever so observant. I gave him another grin. His curious eyes never missed anything, they always flitted around wherever he was, taking in people’s actions and expressions, that’s why he was my favourite spy. People didn’t take him much seriously, they didn’t see him as threat and he knew how to take advantage of it perfectly and bring every little dirty secret right to me.

“Hmmm, we’ll speed up the process a little bit and Kookie will hopefully relax now,” I told him. He hummed too and got up to get himself another drink.

“Guess we’ll see.”

Maybe we were having a little too much fun pretending like we didn’t know she was tailing us. How do you school your face while talking when you know that a cop is sitting 10 metres away from you? Though we did agree that we like the upgraded look with the motorcycle, so I guess that’s what she was up to the whole time we didn’t see her following us.

It would be a little better had Hoseok been in the country, but we had to entertain ourselves while he dealt with the traitors. I hadn’t heard from him really for around two or three days, which surprisingly was a good thing. It meant he was too busy solving problems to reply. In the end Jin decided to go with him and I had absolute confidence that they would deal with it no matter what that entailed.

I heard Jungkook lightly complain that she’d gotten craftier and how he often had to drive around to lose her to be able to go about his day peacefully. She did go after Namjoon for a little bit and then promptly gave up, which didn’t surprise me as he only spent time home or in the office, she did try to follow Jungkook, but he never gave her a chance. Tae and Jimin didn’t seem to be her targets in the slightest, much to Taehyung’s displeasure, who grumbled about how he’s also interesting. So she mostly stuck with me. But I was patiently waiting for Hobi to return and see.

The moment Hoseok and Jin stepped foot into the country, I warned him to not show up around for a while. He was very confused, but when I said it’s related to the police, he obliged happily, though we had to meet up to discuss his trip to Japan and its conclusion. One day when her little red dot didn’t move from the station, I called him over.

I had to go to the Magic Shop, which was one of the newer clubs Tae was trying to transform into a popular spot, and Jimin came over too. He was still trying to “sweeten my rage”, in his words, which I no longer felt but didn’t tell him. I’d never admit it, but I quite liked the way he was trying to be so damn cute and play up how much he loves me, though I was pretty sure he knew and that’s why he hasn’t stopped yet. I was just laughing at the two younger men’s antics when Jungkook’s car pulled over to the club and the two newcomers jumped out.

“Hyung!” Jimin shouted out, “You’re finally back!” Hobi laughed and threw himself at the blond, tackling him into an aggressive hug, both of them giggling. Tae couldn’t stay still and joined them, with me and Jungkook watching them fondly with smiles on our faces.

“Okay, okay!” I talked over the commotion and pulled them apart, “Unfortunately I have to steal him away for a bit, you can have him later.” The youngsters pouted at me, but it was all in jokes. But when I looked over at Hobi, he had a guilty expression on his face. I sighed a little and smiled at him.

“Sorry hyung, I actually have to go check on the warehouses in Songhyeon-dong, the boys have been asking for me,” he explained and gave an apologetic smile, “You can come too, though. If you have time.” I pursed my lips and thought about it, but I already knew I couldn’t make it.

“It’s across the whole city, unfortunately it’s not convenient for me today,” I told him. We needed to debrief properly; it would be best if Jin was present too, but the man was hard to come by during the weekdays due to his clinic. Every rich person in whole of Seoul wanted him to attend to them and he usually ran from patient to patient, while Hobi was the number one contact for those who worked in or around the warehouses and thus found himself driving around Seoul just solving shit that went wrong. If he couldn’t wait here to have a conversation, it must have been pretty serious there. He was looking at me stressed, most probably trying to think of a way to make it work for everyone, but I patted his shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

“It’s okay, Hobi,” I assured him, “I’ll visit you tomorrow or the day after. I’ll bring Jin too.” He returned my smile and moved back to Jungkook’s car.

“Wait, Hobi-hyung!” Jimin shouted out again, “I drove here with the silver Porsche, you can take it cause Tae’s gonna drive me back.” The blond-haired man fished around in the pockets for a moment and then threw something small and black towards Hoseok, who caught it without problem with a cheeky wink and a smile.

He was gone in a minute, and I soon followed with Jungkook. In the end Jimin took my car and I asked Kookie to drive me to the office, since he was going to stay there with me and Joon anyway. I kept thinking back to the Japan issue, wondering what the boys found out and what the Watanabes tried to claim. And whether we should prepare to burn some bridges.

The next day, though, started in a somewhat peculiar manner. When I came out in the morning and got into the car, Jungkook was sitting next to Soobin with a sombre expression. I immediately straightened and prepared to hear whatever it was that went wrong in those few short hours I was gone.

“I messed up hyung,” he said sheepishly and handed over his phone. The little tracking red dot wasn’t in its usual spot, by my house or by one of the clubs, not even by the office or the station. It was in Songhyeon-dong. Right across from our warehouses. I laughed and Jungkook looked at me nervously.

“Where’s Hoseok right now?” I asked immediately and the younger man snapped into attention.

“He’s in there right now, got in about 7 o’clock, was talking about some papers that have been waiting for him to approve,” Kookie answered, mind back on business and unpleasant feelings left behind to focus on this fully. I grinned at the man wildly. “Perfect.”

I swiftly pulled out my phone and started writing a simple and quick message.

Me, 8:15: stay in the warehouse, don’t walk out at all

Hope, 8:17: what do you mean hyung? are we in danger?

Me, 8:17: no, don’t worry. our little spy is on you and i’m trying to prove something

“Do you want to go to Dynamite today, or are we expected at the hotel?” Soobin’s voice pulled me away from my phone, back to a nervous Jungkook sitting next to the unsure bodyguard. “The hotel, thank you Soobin,” I answered politely with a mild smile and redirected my attention back to Jungkook.

“Don’t worry Kookie, I’m not mad,” I said with a smile, “This is actually exactly what I wanted, just hoped that I would have more time and control over when she found him. Guess she must have been on us yesterday.” The young man stiffened and looked back to his phone.

“Do you think she’s aware of the tracker? Left it at the station purposely to mess with us?” he asked all business-like, probably already trying to come up with a new plan. “It’s possible,” I hummed, “It’s time to find out.”

Silence took over the car as we made our way through the city. I smiled to myself. Even though it happened a little faster than I was planning, but I was glad she was still going in the direction I had predicted. I look away for a moment and you leave for one of my friends, huh? You definitely work fast.

I laughed again, earning a strange look from the two younger men, but only gave them a mysterious wink. We might be able to deal with this shortly, if everything goes well. The key was to find out what the goal was, then I could control what she found and make sure she’d stay away from what we needed to hide.

“Let’s give her a few days,” I told them and gave them another grin.

Me, 8:25: how would you feel about going to the warehouse every day and just staying there?

Hope, 8:26: ???

Four days later I sat into my car and instructed Soobin to drive to the warehouse with a shit-eating grin. Jungkook had been keeping me updated on her movements and she spent her days either at the station or staking out in the building across the premises.

Hobi, as promised, had been going to the warehouse and just sitting on his ass there, thoroughly complaining through his phone the whole time. I had been trying to calm him down and keep him there, while Joon and Kookie took it upon themselves to tease him all the time with pics and cheeky texts about eating in restaurants and hanging out in clubs together, so he was slowly losing his patience with my plan. I had to move forward quickly for the benefit of us all, even though I did find it awfully funny.

Reaching our destination, I took the time to walk around very self-assuredly for a moment knowing she was watching this angle. When I tired of putting on a show of how free and relaxed I was this day, I finally made my way inside. Through the door you entered straight to the short hall which led to our office, so it was a relatively short and quiet trip.

Hoseok and Jungkook were already sitting inside, Hobi behind the table and the maknae occupying an armchair sitting a little more towards a corner to the left of the door. With the sound of the door opening, their heads snapped towards me and as soon as they saw my smug smirk, Hoseok groaned loudly.

“God, please tell me this is over!” he whined and dramatically draped himself over the surface of the table, “I can’t take another day of this! I’m going to fucking lose my mind here!” Jungkook chuckled at him and retorted with a slight smirk: “You should have treated this as a holiday or something. Watched Netlix and all that stuff.” To that Hobi screamed out loud and grabbed something on his table to throw at the now laughing Kookie. “Yah! You think I have time to burn? I’ve got shit to do!”

I snickered at them and moved inside, Soobin following me in. I gestured at Jungkook. “Did you bring the cup as I asked?” The man nodded at me. I smiled, as relaxed as I haven’t been in a long time, and sat down on a chair by the table. Soobin remained standing by the door so I gestured at him to also sit somewhere, as this would take a while.

“So what’s next in your amazing and genius plan that involves the literal torture of your beloved dongsaeng?” He asked, suddenly pretending to be all business-like and serious, while Jungkook still occasionally giggled in his spot to our left.

“Now we talk for a bit, draw it out a little,” I said smirking meanly, “Then we send in Soobin and wait what he brings back.”

“It’s pretty cold outside, hope she’s dressed for the occasion,” Hobi noted cheekily and relaxed into his chair. I hummed and schooled my expression. I did have to bring up Japan, we haven’t had a chance to talk about it properly yet and I couldn’t visit him sooner cause we were planning what to do about our little spy.

“I don’t think she knows about the tracker,” Jungkook mused out loud, “she keeps bringing it. I don’t think it’s a statement like ‘look where I am’, it wouldn’t make sense to let us know.” Hobi nodded, humming in agreement, and they carried on for a moment, the conversation heading to the clubs as Hoseok asked about how it went while he was gone. I let them speak for a little while, just enjoying the company, until their chattering died off and they both looked at me questioningly.

“We have to talk about Japan,” I said simply, not feeling the need to beat around the bush. Hoseok immediately sobered up and straightened in his chair, while Jungkook looked on curiously, no doubt also dying to know the situation in which we found ourselves in.

“Well, they claimed innocence,” the dark-haired man said sombrely, “I’ve heard bullshit enough time in my life to smell it a mile away, but there wasn’t anything I could really pin on them. I checked the dates of their stay, and it was relatively recently, there wasn’t much correspondence between them, that I found. And we did thrash the dealers’ hiding spots. They must have gotten rid of it. But the head of the Watanabe family is such a slimy motherfucker that I don’t believe a word he said. They surely must have been planning something together.” He shrugged and sat back. “I’m afraid right now we can’t do much about it unless we want to seem like vicious usurpers.” Jungkook leaned forward and looked at us thoughtfully.

“Japan is outside of our turf, if we did something rash without substantial evidence, we could risk losing the support of the Satos,” he contemplated out loud, “God knows what’s going on between them right now.” I hummed and nodded, smiling at the man satisfied. He really did grow up, god. Time flies so fast.

“There seem to be two main issues right now,” I surmised solemnly, “First, the Watanabes are small and cowardly. The reason why they’re where they are is because they just suck up to others and hug their thighs to drain all the benefits from them. If they stirred up trouble with someone, they would no doubt end up eradicated before sundown.” The men looked at me with similar serious expressions. I took a moment to get myself a glass of water and continued talking standing up by the office desk.

“So, what gave them the confidence to get involved with an effort against us?” I mused thoughtfully, “There is a chance that they couldn’t have known that their new friends would immediately go and cross us and get themselves all killed, but I trust Hobi’s instinct. The fucking clown that leads the family now is a sleazy bastard, one with an ego that doesn’t match his wit nor his guts. He loves to gloat and provoke, but only when he knows someone stronger’s got his back.” Hobi nodded. He knew the man well since he had the displeasure of meeting him a few times when we were in Japan and had to attend a few of the same events as he did.

“If he knew he was at risk, he would have met me already grovelling,” Hoseok muttered with distaste, his immense disdain towards the man showing through, “that’s the kind of a pathetic vermin he is.” I agreed with him and carried on.

“So that means he probably feels comfortable timidly opposing us, cause there’s someone that’s got his back,” I concluded, “Someone who’s probably on our side of the puddle, someone who probably hooked him up with the rats we just got rid of. They probably weren’t expecting them to go against us immediately and die, but they don’t feel intimidated by the fact that we suspect something.”

The room sunk into silence as we all pondered about it. I could be looking too much into it, but in this world one never knew. You couldn’t survive here by assuming everyone’s best intentions. Quite the opposite. The little shits feeling confident enough to swindle us, them trying to desperately hide the invitation before they lose the chance to, the Watanabe’s approach to a meeting with Hobi. It wasn’t much to go off of, but it was suspicious enough to keep track of and keep in mind. If there potentially was a beginning of a plot against us, we had to stay alert and monitor the situation before it spun out of control.

“The confidence means their alliance is already pretty sure, then,” Jungkook broke the silence and took turns looking at us both. I gave him a single jerky nod in return. “Probably. Who knows.”

“What’s the second issue?” Hobi suddenly asked. Kookie looked at me questioningly and his face suddenly looked so much younger with his eyes wide, it almost shocked me speechless.

“The Japanese families,” I shook off my surprise and continued, “If we do decide to make take some precautions, we need to properly communicate so with the Satos and get their support. They need to be in full agreement with whatever we choose to do with the Watanabe clan.” Hobi scoffed and turned to me.

“That shouldn’t be too hard. They’re not that influential and going against us means they’re going against the Satos too.”

“Still,” I repeated, “We need to test their alliance to us too.” A realisation hit Jungkook’s face and he nodded enthusiastically. That made me laugh a little at his earnestness. Hobi also smiled, but it was still strained.

“Let’s bide our time for now,” my voice carried through the office resolutely, “Lay low, pretend we’re over this issue and gather our wits. And prepare for potentially dealing with this.”

We nodded at each other. Even if years have passed since our youth and the fire and passion and determination that comes with it, we were still prepared to fight for what was rightfully ours. We climbed our way here through hell and there’s no way we’d let some snotty little brats try to take everything away from us.

“I’ll keep my eyes and ears out,” Kookie stated, phone in hand ready, “They’re bound to come across something juicy.” Hobi murmured his approval and turned his attention back to me.

“Today we should deal with the other issue at hand, or I am actually going to go insane between these four walls,” he complained whinily and I laughed at him. I moved towards the little kitchenette in the right corner from the door and started preparing some coffee. I made a cup for all present and then one extra into the cup Kookie brought with him, which I promptly handed to Soobin.

“My boys scoped it out and she seems to have her hideout on the sixth floor to the left of the staircase,” Hobi instructed the young man, who patiently waited on me to send him off.

“Tell her something that will piss her off,” I said only, grinning wildly. The blond man smirked at me and disappeared out of the room swiftly and silently.

“Now we wait,” I told the room, sitting gingerly back into the chair with my fresh cup of coffee, playing with the spoon like a spoiled little kid waiting for his birthday present. We all stayed silent, too much on our minds to keep mindless convo. Kookie was typing furiously on his phone, a slight scowl sometimes tugging at his features, while Hobi relaxed into the chair and serenely looked off into the distance. I tried to keep the self-satisfied smirk on my face while my mind slipped to more serious issues.

I couldn’t help but be worried about the current situation. Their potential ties to a stronger gang, or maybe even a family, would explain the surprising difficulty with which they went down. I knew I stepped on many toes when I stole half the fucking Seoul right from under their noses, and even more when I proved impossible to dethrone. It didn’t surprise me at all to uncover a supposed scheme like this. Truly, this didn’t even have to necessarily be aimed against me and my gang, but the boys fucked up by involving us in their business. But no matter what, we would emerge victorious from this, that I had no doubt about. Once someone crossed a line, we would make an example of them and teach a lesson to whoever it was that wanted to mess with us.

Over the years in this “business”, I had learnt a lot. One of the things was: what couldn’t be solved with threats, would be solved with blood. And it never failed me before. I looked at Hobi and Kookie again and smiled. We had each other’s backs and I trusted their abilities more than I trusted myself. The truth was that we were more a family than many around us that were actually blood related. That was the second reason of our success.

Soobin returned within 15 minutes, of which he probably spent most time going up and down the stairs. He walked back into the office slightly breathless and a little red, so I gestured for the single cup of coffee left on the mini kitchen counter. He walked over and took a tentative sip, probably finding it the perfect temperature since it’s been waiting for him here and slowly cooling down.

We all found ourselves hanging onto him with our eyes, some excitement coursing through the room at what he was about to divulge to us. Kookie broke first.

“How did she react to you?” he asked eagerly, waiting to confirm his theory about the tracker.

“She was shocked and surprised, and frankly pissed off,” Soobin answered immediately, his deep voice having a calming effect on us, “She didn’t seem to understand how you were able to find her.”

Jungkook exclaimed happily. “Perfect, that means she doesn’t know about the tracker,” he said satisfied. I was about to destroy his whole joy though, so I let him bask in it a little before speaking.

“We’re gonna mess with her a little, make it obvious,” I told the room and Kookie immediately groaned. “Hyung, having her tracked without her knowledge is the safest way to let her be but still have control over the situation. Why would you want to give that up?” I winked at him and pursed my lips teasingly.

“To provoke her. Rile her up, frustrate her, push her to her limits,” I explained, eyes flitting between the three men, “She’ll reveal herself then.” Kookie hummed in understanding, but Hobi squinted his eyes at me somewhat suspicious. I quickly averted his eyes and focused back onto Soobin.

“What else did she say?” I asked him. The man immediately snapped to attention at me addressing him and answered. “That you’re annoying and she hates you.” His voice was neutral, but I could detect some undertones of amusement. I agreed it must have been an amusing sight.

I laughed lightly and finished my coffee in one gulp. The game was on.

Now that Hoseok was free of his prison, he went back to flitting between the docks and ships like a mother bird trying to take care of all of her young. Jin was similarly busy by his practice, so he also missed out on all of the fun. Namjoon kept saying he was above messing with the police, even though I caught him sneaking smirks and grins every now and then, and Kookie was just as disapproving as ever of my tactics. Jimin tried to stay neutral as he hadn’t met her yet, but thoroughly enjoyed our shenanigans.

That left me and Tae on the shit-stirrer team, and we did milk it for as long as we could. Just the ultimate annoyances, hoping to send her into a complete rage over this. She still had the tracker regularly on her, so we were forced to assume she was none the wiser, but the longer it dragged on the more suspicious I was becoming.

Once she started showing up to the office regularly, cheshire grin firmly plastered on her face, tracker still firmly attached to her, I pretty much guessed she must have known. Suddenly I was spending my afternoons making her tea and watching her leisurely stroll about my office, studying every inch of it and grinning from ear to ear. I waited patiently for her next move, and admittedly, I found myself quite excited with this game we were playing with each other. She was a fast learner and had a quick wit, and I did appreciate her readiness to throw all laws aside to try to stick it to a guy that mildly annoyed her once. The anticipation was steadily rising the longer we just danced around and pretended we both knew nothing.

I did start to slip. I watched her move about less, focused more on work. I would always suddenly shake myself out of the work-induced haze to find her still sitting at the sofa curiously eying everything in the office like a little kid first time in an amusement park. But while we were in this strange stale-mate, I didn’t dare refuse her visits. I was truly curious, dying to know her next move, especially since she suddenly became such a showman.

I didn’t immediately realise what was happening when she suddenly stopped showing up. One day she was sitting there, smirking up a storm, and the next there was no trace of her. I found myself walking around my office, inspecting the objects at display and the decorations, trying to catch anything different. I even allowed Jungkook to thoroughly comb through the room to make sure there weren’t any planted bugs or things in the same vein, but the space was clean.

We kept checking on the tracker app, but it became quite obvious immediately she had gotten rid of it, as it was moving in areas that she never went to. So she did know. And she did do something.

It wasn’t until two days later, when Jungkook stormed my house and decided to comb through my clothes with a device detector; and found a corner of my coat beeping curiously. I had to stop him from tearing into it in his haste to find out what she planted on me, and instead took it upon myself to inspect the piece of clothing. I managed to find a small tear and smirked at her craftsmanship. I fished the little gadget out and handed it over to the younger man.

Jin and Hobi were sitting on the couch watching this whole ordeal go down with curious, slightly amused and mildly alarmed faces, but I wasn’t too worried about it. Jungkook was grumbling something next to me, but I paid him no mind. My fingers felt something else slipped into the coat and I was trying to get a hold of it. By its thinness and elusiveness, it must have been a piece of paper.

“It’s a tracker, similar to what we planted on her,” I heard him explaining it to the other men present, but suddenly exclaimed in victory, startling the three men, as I finally managed to pull the mysterious note out. I took a single look at it and burst out laughing.

They snapped their eyes to me and Jungkook immediately rushed to my side as if prepared to defend my life against a piece of paper. I lifted my gaze to look at their confused faces and flipped the paper around for them to see.

fuck you min yoongi :p

Only Hobi seemed to be as amused by it as I was, Jungkook deliberating something silently and Jin watching us all like a hawk, his sharp eyes taking in the interaction with burning interest.

Once I had calmed down and sent Kookie off to the office to get Joon and figure out what to do about the little device, I found myself sitting between the two other oldest of the group, amusement slowly slipping into nervosity. I knew them well enough, I could see the cogs turning in their heads, I could feel they were on the doorstep of a discovery, and I wouldn’t like the conversation that would follow, but I truly didn’t expect Jin to just jump into it head first.

I had leaned towards the table to grab one of the snacks Jin had graciously prepared for us, when he cleared his throat.

“Kookie had been talking to me a lot about how this whole situation is unfolding. Hobi too,” Jin said, seemingly just holding mindless conversation, but I still tensed up. I turned to look at him.

“Yeah?” I turned to the other side to look at Hobi, who avoided my eyes.

“Yeah,” Jin reiterated, his voice gravelly, “So can you fucking explain to me why have you been testing this cop like you did the boys before they joined?”

Series masterlist | Previous part | Next part

Taglist (open) : @wobblewobble822 @viankiss @jjkwifestyle

103 notes · View notes

flowerandblood · 2 years ago

Text

A Winter Beauty (19)

[Aemond Targaryen x fem!Stark reader]

[warnings: mention of sex, pregnancy and giving birth, fluff]

[description: Aemond and his family arrive at Winterfell for Rickon Stark's Name Day. There, Aemond meets his daughter, who arouses his desire. I changed some names and facts for the sake of the plot. Viserys is also slightly younger in this version.]

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Previous and next parts: Masterlist

_____

Lady Stark woke up in her husband's bed in the Red Keep, feeling a strange, unpleasant pain. She sat up, trying to catch her breath. Aemond woke up, asked her sleepily what had happened. She got up quickly and ran to the table, grabbed the bowl and vomited. Aemond, terrified, immediately called the maester, fearing that someone had poisoned her.

Aemond waited impatiently beside the bed for the maester to examine her. The man looked at him.

"My Prince, I would like to ask you to wait outside for a moment." He said calmly. Aemond frowned.

"No. What does that even mean? Do you know what's wrong with my wife or not?" He said angrily at his impertinence.

"My dragon." His wife looked at him disapprovingly. He pursed his lips, turned and left without a word. Lady Stark and the maester were left alone.

"My Lady, I will have to touch your breasts." He said and slipped his hand gently under her nightgown. She shuddered, but let him do it, turning her face the other way, embarrassed.

"Have you bleed this month, my Lady?" He asked calmly, taking his hand out and looking at it expectantly. Lady Stark pursed her lips.

"No. But it has happened in the past that my bleeding has been delayed." She said softly. The man nodded and asked the servant to lead Prince Aemond back. He stared at him, angry and scared, waiting for an explanation.

"Your wife is expecting your child, my prince."

***

The whole Red Keep received the news with great joy. Alicent immediately came to congratulate her as soon as one of her servants reported what had happened. She thought Lady Stark had trouble getting pregnant and was glad her prayers had been answered.

The truth was, it wasn't because of the prayers. When they were in Harrenhal, he had come inside her, even though those weren't the days he could do it. He'd done it before, sometimes, during their great passions, but usually she bled every month anyway. This time it was different.

That day, he practiced sword fighting alone all day, striking the wooden opponent with great ferocity. He thought that the gods had sent him his wife only to mock him, to take everything from him again and leave him even more crippled for the rest of his life. Even his mother, seeing how he approached the matter, could not reason with him.

He was not like his father. He wouldn't cut open her womb to take out his offspring. But even if he didn't, they'd both die anyway. The thought of her, pale, dead in a pool of her own blood, haunted him and drove him to despair. He wanted to scream.

When he returned to his chamber, he asked for a hot bath and ordered that no one should disturb him. He stepped into the still-steaming water, felt his skin burn and his muscles relaxed momentarily. He rested his head against the back of the tub and stared at the ceiling. He pursed his lips as he heard the door to his chamber open.

"I said do not disturb me." He spoke coldly, but no voice answered him. He heard the door close and then the sound of clothes being removed. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that his wife was undressing. The sight of her naked body, which constantly gave him so much pleasure, made him hard involuntarily.

"May I join you, my dragon?" She asked quietly, looking at him calmly and proudly. Aemond swallowed and grunted approval. Lady Stark approached the tub lightly. For a long time she was no longer ashamed of her nakedness in front of him and did not cover herself, allowing him to enjoy the beautiful view of her naked skin.

Aemond watched her as she put her foot in the water and sat down with her back to him, leaning against his chest. She felt his hard manhood press against her, throbbing. But she knew she wasn't in the mood for their games right now. She wrapped his arms around herself tightly, his lips involuntarily kissing her shoulder and neck.

"Not too hot?" He asked softly, placing wet and tender kisses on her skin. Lady Stark leaned back with a contented sigh, giving him better access.

"No, my husband. I love our hot baths, you know that." She said and he grunted contentedly as he ran his tongue over her neck. She shivered as he did so. She felt his nose pressed against her hair. They were silent for a moment, only the soft splash of water caused by their slightest movement around them.

"Forgive me." He said finally, he felt his throat tighten. Y/N gave him a pained look, turned to him and touched his cheek.

"I want this child, husband. Holding Helaena's children in my arms, seeing you carry them and play with them, I felt that I wanted this for us. I want to hold our child in my hands, give you an offspring and heir to your entire legacy. If we both choose to do so, we may not have any more children." She said confidently, placing her hand on his chest. Aemond took her hand and kissed it tenderly.

He didn't want to admit it, but as he watched Lady Stark cradle his nephew, he thought about what it would be like to hold his own child in his arms. What would it be like if he could teach his son or daughter the Old Valryian language, choose a dragon egg for them. He ran away from these thoughts, but they kept coming back to him.

After a few days, Aemond slowly came to accept that there was no going back. He entered the chamber of his wife, who gave him a surprised look, thinking that he should be at the king's council. Aemond held in his hand the dragon egg he had personally chosen for his child.

***

After the morning sickness that bothered Lady Stark in the first month of pregnancy, these unpleasant ailments stopped. Slowly, her pregnant belly began to show, so finally the ladies and lords of the keep gave her a break, ending the rumors that she could not have children.

Aemond was surprised to find that his pregnant wife was even more insatiable than before. During their walk in the garden, she would drag him into the bushes, pull her dress up and beg him to fuck her. Helpless against her charm, he never refused her, coming inside her with delight.

Lady Stark began to eat fruits in huge quantities and at all hours of the day. Sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night and start eating an apple, telling her sleepy husband that she couldn't stand it until morning, she wanted it so badly. She also ate plenty of plums, strawberries, and peaches, anything sweet, crunchy, and wet that made her hungry.

Her husband made her happy by bringing oranges for her from distant lands, which she loved so much. They were juiced for her, which she often drank instead of wine on dinner.

Aemond was very protective and condescending, and he would be the happiest men in Westeros if his wife lay in bed all the time and rested. He got mad when he saw her shooting arrows in the yard, but she explained to him every time that if she wanted to bring his child into the world, she had to have strong muscles and keep training.

He allowed her to be physically active, but he accompanied her every time. Slowly, items for the child began to be brought to his wife's chamber - a cot, toys, robes. Aemond was getting used to his new reality and tought he's about to become a father. One night, lying with his wife, stroking her slightly rounded belly, he asked her if she thought it was going to be a girl or a boy.

"A boy." She said without hesitation.

***

Throughout the keep there was anticipation of the impending denouement and the birth of the prince and Lady Stark's child. Y/N took a lot of cool baths, because with such a warm climate, the heat was unbearable for her. Her ankles ached and swelled terribly, which her husband tenderly massaged each evening, as did her back and shoulders.

Their baby was very active and constantly kicked her. It stopped when Aemond pressed his head to her stomach and hugged her. He would fall asleep like that sometimes while his wife was stroking his hair in the meantime.

Although the maester's instructions were different, they couldn't help but get physically close. It always started with them rubbing against each other and panting as they lay on their side with her back pressed against his chest.

Her husband's hand found hers wet and suffering cunt, clenching at his every touch. It always ended up with Aemond fingering her entrance, shoving his cock inside her, saying he wouldn't go all the way in, that he would only stay in her for a while, and then he would fuck her with all his strenght, unable to stop himself, to her and his delight.

Although Lady Stark felt like she was now carrying a huge barrel in front of her body, her husband thought she looked as beautiful pregnant as before. Maternity dresses beautifully emphasized her large belly and made it easier for her to move. She was no longer able to shoot bows, but went for walks every day, unable to sit still.

Everyone was surprised to hear of Lord Corlys Valeryon's likely death at sea. It turned out that his brother, Vaemond Valeryon, and Aemond's nephew, Lucerys Valeryon, will fight for the right to the Driftmark.

Lady Stark knew that Lucerys had taken her husband's eye. Her husband himself told her this story early in their marriage, even though she didn't ask him. Apparently, he didn't want her to hear about it from rumors, but from him.

It was then that he told her that the dragon could not be stolen, only that it had to be tamed. He did it first, denying Leana Velaryon's daughters the ability to inherit and tame her mother's dragon.

She hadn't told him that, but if she were Leana's daughters, she'd be furious too. But she knew that the past could not be changed, that her husband had had a difficult childhood, and that the loss of an eye only plunged him further into the darkness. She knew he needed her endless and unquestioning support and devotion.

Veamond Velaryon and Luke and his family came to Red Keep to present their case to the king. Lady Stark was able to see Rhaenyra Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne for the first time in her life. After Lord Veamond's statement, she began to present her son's case on his behalf. Y/N thought she was a beautiful woman, her confidence and way of speaking impressed her.

She stared in shock and clutched her pregnant belly as Veamond shouted that her children were bastards and she was a whore. She felt everyone froze, her heart pounding like crazy. She screamed as she suddenly saw Veamon's head hit the ground and the rest of his body hit the floor. Daemon Targaryen was standing over him, a pleased expression on his face.

"He can keep his tongue."

Aemond watched this with a smile and involuntary appreciation for his uncle, which was why he didn't see his wife cringe in pain at first, unable to utter a sound. He looked at her in horror as she fell to the floor, all eyes suddenly turned in her direction. He knelt beside her, touching her cheek, terrified, she was panting heavily, feeling a wave of water run down between her thighs.

"Beloved wife, what's happened?" He asked, seeing her pale face, his heart pounding like crazy.

"Aemond, the baby is coming out."

***

Aemond immediately carried his wife to her chamber. His mother and Helaena told him to leave. To his surprise, as he left, pale and terrified, princess Rhaenyra, Beala, and Rhaena entered, closing the door behind them.

Aemond went to the window, leaning against the stone parapet and lowering his head. He heard his wife's muffled groans of pain and pressed his lips together, feeling everything tighten within him. Daemon walked over to him, seeing what he was going through, and looked down at him.

"Women are much stronger than men, nephew."

Meanwhile, inside, Beala and Helaena helped Lady Stark strip down to her nightgown. She felt very strong contractions and once in a while moaned in pain, breathing rapidly. She felt her heart pounding, she was afraid and trembling all over. Alicent had the pillows raised high on her bed for her. Rhaenyra walked over to her and put her arm around her.

"Do not be afraid. Walk a little. It'll speed things up. Breathe deeply." She said, circling the room with her, breathing with her, reassuring her. Y/N thought she needed any motherly care and support and immediately felt her hand tighten around her waist.

"We'll get through this together, easy." Said the princess, her voice firm and composed, just what she needed now, when she was all panicked. Alicent watched this scene with tenderness, herself full of emotions.

Lady Stark screamed loudly in surprise, feeling the contraction stronger than before, she sobbed softly, but felt that the baby did not move.

"Tell me if you want to lie down. Breathe, breathe." Rhaenrya spoke, holding her hand tightly, his arm still around hers. Lady Stark fell to her knees and sobbed as another brutal spasm ran through her body. She had never felt such pain in her life before, she knew it was close.

"Lie down, come on." Rhaenyra said, helping her up. Y/N lay down breathing heavily, Rhaenyra adjusted the pillows behind her back so she could be in a semi-sitting position. The midwife spread her legs apart to see what was going on.

"Start pushing, my Lady, when I tell you." She said looking at her. "Now, my Lady! Push!”

Lady Stark squeezed her eyes shut and cried out with the effort, trying with all her might to dislodge the child. She threw her head back, Rhaenyra brushed her hair away from her sweaty face, squeezing her hand tightly.

"Very well, sweet girl, you're doing great." She said in a reassuring, firm voice that calmed her.

She felt her whole thighs tremble with fear, tears of great exertion flowed down her cheeks, she was afraid she was going to die, she wanted her mother to be with her. She gripped her hand tighter and screamed loudly as the midwife ordered her to push again. She felt the baby inside her move.

She threw back her head, the princess told her to breathe deeply with her whole chest, she showed her how to do it, and they breathed together. Helaena took a bowl of cold water, put a cloth inside and then placed it on her forehead, giving her a sudden feeling of temporary relief.

"You're doing great, my Lady, you'll be fine, just a little longer." She said reassuringly, Beala sat next to her and fanned her with a fan to keep her cool on this hot day.

"Push, my Lady, now!" Said the midwife. Lady Stark pursed her lips, gathering herself and began to push hard, a loud moan of despair escaped her lips. She threw her head back on the pillow and shook her head.

"I don't have the strength, he doesn't want to leave." She sobbed, squeezing her eyes shut, tears flowing from her eyes and she couldn't see anything anymore. Rhaenyra kissed her hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Just a little longer, hold on, you'll be fine." She said it with conviction and emphasis, as if she was trying to convince herself that it was true.

"My Lady, push!" Said the midwife. Lady Stark clenched her fists with the last of her strength and screamed loudly, pushing with all her might, but again she felt nothing. She sobbed loudly, panicking, unable to calm down.

"Aemond!" She screamed loudly and wept, Rheanyra combed her hair, trying to calm her down. She suddenly heard the door open.

She saw her terrified husband standing in the doorway, all pale, his eye red as if he were crying too. He just stared for a moment, frightened by the sight that had been haunting him for months. He approached her from the other side of the bed and knelt beside her, taking her sweaty hand, which he began to kiss.

"Don't leave me." He whispered helplessly, his voice breaking. The sight made her, when the midwife told her to push again, squeeze her eyes shut and do it with all her might, screaming loudly and sobbing.

She thought that she would not give the gods satisfaction, that she would not give herself to the Stranger, that she would survive. She pushed again and again, feeling like she was making the most titanic effort of her life. Aemond stared at her in horror mixed with admiration, his face glued to her clenched hand.

"My Lady, I can see the head, don't stop! Now! Push!” Lady Stark screamed loudly and lingeringly, sobbing in pain, feeling her baby literally tearing her flesh as it came out of her, and then she was relieved when something suddenly slipped out of her.

She heard soft whimpers and cries. She laughed in disbelief, panting and sobbing at the same time as she saw her baby, all red with blood, squirm in the midwife's arms.

"Congratulations, my lady. You gave birth to a healthy prince."

_____

If you want to be tagged in the next parts, let me know. ~

@zenka69 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @namoreno @dreamlandcreations @darkenchantress @moira-strangle-me-please @yentroucnagol @cloudroomblog @thehumanistsdiary @a-beaverhausen @avadakadabra93 @hangesprofessionalashholder @lilostif16 @sirenangelroyal @aonungs-tsahik @xmaiaaa @writingaboutlove1998

409 notes · View notes

translatemunson · 6 months ago

Text

we play dumb but we know exactly what we’re doing • ttfd

chapter two of the tortured firefighters department

previous chapter | masterlist | next chapter

cw: fem!reader, afab!reader, no descriptions of reader, banter (because i love it), mentions of food, bobby almost adopting brains, proofread by my bye-lingual ass (let me know if i forgot anything)

Your sneakers made funny noises while you walked up the stairs to the communal room — the mezzanine with a view for the ground floor — at the 118 firehouse. The fresh baked brownies — that you baked the night before, just in time to put it on the blue tupperware and take with you for your shift — jiggled as you approached the top of the stairs.

You checked the garage again, looking for Chimney’s ambulance, when you found the loft empty. Well, not that empty.

“Good afternoon, Captain Nash.” You greeted the man. As a dispatcher, your voice was your most recognizable mark, only giving out your name when necessary. And in your job, it was your responsibility to know the names of the captains. You wished Captain Nash was just an occasional contact, but lately he has been the one on the other end of the comms.

“Afternoon, dispatcher.” He was preparing some lunch for his team. “How can I help you?”

“Is Chimney around? I have something for him. Actually, it is for Maddie and baby Jee.” You motioned to the tupperware.

“He’s gonna be back soon, got stuck in traffic after delivering a civilian to the hospital. But if you are in a hurry, I can give it to him.” The captain was busy with the pans on the stove and chopping vegetables for a salad, you supposed.

“Just left my shift, I can wait. I don’t trust firefighters with carbs and sweets, no offense.” You pulled one of the chairs and took a seat, still watching the man moving effortlessly in the kitchen. “She called in sick and I need to deliver these to her before I have a kid on my doormat demanding more than just brownies.”

“None taken. Can I get you some coffee while you wait?”

“Tell me where to find a cup and I’ll get it myself, don’t wanna delay your lunch.”

“Second cabinet on the left.”

“Thanks, Cap.”

You stood up and walked into the kitchen. You have to admit: they were definitely eating well because it had all the appliances necessary for any recipe, and the smell was divine. Even the coffee had a unique aroma. Who could you talk to in order to get half of what they had in the firehouse?

“It’s the least I can do for the mastermind behind the calls after that huge traffic jam downtown last week.” He smiled. “How did you manage to divert the teams and the civilians so fast?”

“Just like ants follow patterns, so do the LA drivers. GPS apps can give up the fastest options based on their data, but it takes too much time when it comes to rescuing someone.” You explained as you walked back to your seat. “Glad no one was badly injured that day.”

“I’ve never got to an accident scene so fast. You’re really good with predictions.”

“I think my future could be bright if I used my superpowers for fortune telling and betting,” you joked. “I should be the one thanking you for all your work. And your team.”

“Bring us some of those,” he was clearly talking about the brownies, “any time.”

“Will do.”

As you finished your cup of coffee, you saw the ambulance entering the garage. Chim and Henrietta, his paramedic partner, left the vehicle and went straight for their lockers. A few more minutes wouldn’t kill you.

“Wanna stay and have lunch with us?” Captains Nash offered.

“Maybe another time. Thanks.”

It didn’t take long for Chim to show up upstairs. He looked surprised to see you in the 118 kitchen. You stood up and gave him the tupperware. “I told Maddie how many brownies I got her, so don’t fuck it up,” you warned him.

“Your package is safe and sound with me, Brains. Are you in a hurry?”

“Kinda. I have an important meeting with my bed.”

“Fair enough.” He patted your shoulder, acting like the big brother Maddie warned you about.

“See you soon, Chim. Thanks for the coffee, Cap!”

They waved goodbye, and you looked forward to spending the rest of your day sleeping. No calls, no traffic, no thesis: just you, your recently washed bed covers and fluffy pillows. The only thing in your way was a few miles to your apartment.

“I thought I’d hear you before seeing you again, Brains.”

It was scary how, after one meeting, you could recognize his voice anywhere.

“Guess it’s your lucky day, Buckley. Don’t get too happy, I’m already leaving.” You turned around to face him. The black firefighter uniform fitted him very well, even better than the white polo shirt and jeans he wore to the dinner.

“Is everything alright?” He tilted his head slightly, and kept his voice low.

“Yeah, just dropping off something for Maddie. Busy day?”

“Small domestic incident with light injuries, and a foundation problem.”

“So just a normal day in LA.” You knew about the banned Q-word, it was kinda a thing with every single 9-1-1 worker, including dispatchers. “Saved any cats from trees lately?”

“Ha-ha, you’re funny.” His voice was warm, but his face was dead serious. You were playing hot and cold, again and again. “Did moving go well?”

“My arms are sore, but it’s finally over. Thanks for asking.”

“You could start working out to help next time you move. Or if you decide to join the firefighters.”

Both are definitely bad ideas. Why would you need to add another activity into your packed agenda? You turned around and followed your way to your car. “I’ll leave the muscles for you, Buckley.”

“See ya, Brains!” He shouted on your back.

“Bye!” You motioned your hand in a goodbye, but didn’t look him in the eye.

Unbeknown to you, the rest of the crew was watching you both and placing bets on how long until one of you realized the banter was just the first step of something bigger.

author's note: first of all, thank you for all the love on the chapter one!!!! i think it was the first time a first chapter gets so much love, likes and attention on its first week! again: you can share some thoughts and request scenes and blurbs for this series anytime, feel free to be creative! see y'all next week

#evan buckley fanfic #evan buckley #evan buckley x reader #evan buckley x you #9 1 1 abc #9 1 1 fanfiction #evan buck buckely #buck fanfiction #evan buckley imagine #effie writes

102 notes · View notes

letsquestjess · 1 year ago

Text

My Symphony - Part 1 (Tech x GN!Reader)

Summary: After Tech hears you playing music, he can't help but listen, slowly falling for the musician tugging on his heartstrings.

Word count: 2.7K

Warnings: Putting an 18+ / MDNI on this one since there is a slightly heated bit in the middle. Mentions of injury and death. Set pre-order 66.

A/N: This one has been quite long in the making but I finally got it finished. Enjoy!

Part 2

-- -- -- -- --

Mumbling quietly to himself as he reviewed his daily schedule, Tech made his way down the blinding white corridor, scratching absently at the itch on his chin. His brothers had already fallen behind on their duties, so he reorganised the items to accommodate any contingencies.

Wrecker usually spends an extra twenty minutes in the mess hall around this time of week, he contemplated, analysing the pattern of delays from previous weeks. And Crosshair and Hunter are still occupied by their disagreement over the bunk situation. Deep ridges settled between his brows and he clicked his tongue.

The end room emitted a delicate melody, tender notes muffled by the room’s sound insulation. He paused by the partially open door and stole a glimpse of what was inside. Rooms in this section of the city were mostly abandoned, but a staff member sat at the Pantoran spinet, pressing at the instrument and mollifying a lullaby in a tempered arrangement of tones and pitches.

Music ebbed and flowed in perfect rhythm, and Tech lowered his datapad. As you focused your attention on creating that blissful sound, your eyes danced from key to key, and a serene smile formed on your lips. Mellow harmonies merged to create a soothing theme that eased his worries and allayed his brilliant, yet always racing, mind.

A set of footsteps approached, and springing into motion, he darted away from the soft sounds and headed for the simulation centre to wait for his brothers.

But the harmony never left him. In the weeks that followed, he still felt the vibrations in his chest and often found himself humming your tune as he tinkered with his latest project. Your music had built a home in his mind, haunting him in the most welcomed way possible, and he purposely began taking the same route to linger outside whenever you played. At first, he wondered if the instrument’s frequency had hypnotic qualities, but after conducting some thorough research into the matter, he concluded that it simply had a pacifying effect on him.

Finding some free time after lunch, he made his usual trek to the training facility and slowed at the euphoric vibration filling the vacant corridor. Rather than checking through the door as he normally did, he opted to sit on the floor outside and let the music wash over him, eyes fluttering shut as he tilted his head against the wall. Every shift and lull caressed him, whispering sweet words and-

“Tech?”

He bolted upright as soon as he saw Hunter looming over him with folded arms and a lifted eyebrow.

“What are you doing?” his brother asked, amused.

“I was… I was merely…” Tech prepared to fire his excuses, but the rich melody behind him continued to play, continued to turn every rational thought to mush. As it stopped and the door slid open, he was saved from one embarrassing situation and launched into another, whirling round and coming face to face with the musician he’d been admiring for weeks. He shoved his goggles up to the bridge of his nose and cleared his throat.

You smiled apologetically at the two clones and scanned the deserted corridor outside. “I wasn’t playing too loud, was I? Didn’t think many people came this way.”

“No, of course not, we were…” Seeking to ignore the knowing smirk his brother aimed at him, Tech stood up straight. “I overheard you several weeks ago. You are exceptionally skilled.”

A breath snagged at the compliment, and ignoring the flush of heat rising, you stepped aside, inviting them into the hushed hum. “If you have some time, you’re both more than welcome to come in and listen.”

“I have places to be,” Hunter stated, “but I’m sure Tech would love to take you up on that offer.”

The clone in question nodded, his jaw clenching against the urge to reprimand his brother for his behaviour. He made a mental note to have a stern conversation with him about it later.

As Hunter strolled away with a tickled grin plastered on his face, you prompted Tech into the room and encouraged him towards the array of chairs. Introducing yourself, you slid onto the cushioned bench behind the spinet. “I didn’t realise anybody came here anymore,” you said. “I thought this part of the city was mostly used for storage.”

“It is, but I discovered a route that gets me to the training facility three minutes quicker,” Tech replied.

“And it leads you right past here?”

“Precisely.” He chose the seat closest to you and scanned over the assortment of badges on your left sleeve. “You work in the data department.”

“Mostly archives,” you sighed, arranging the sheet music and selecting one from the middle. “It can get pretty boring in there but occasionally something interesting shows up.”

With a slight shrug, you began to play, hands floating up and down, and back again to inspire the instrument to sing. The song started peacefully, affectionately, like a friendly explorer coaxing a frightened animal out of hiding. An impassioned lilt of treble notes soared and Tech hung onto every alteration in sound, eyebrows lifting of their own volition as though to follow the stirring rise.

You suppressed a grin at the reverie in his gaze. It had been a while since you’d had an audience, and never one as enraptured as this.

* * *

After your initial meeting, Tech became a regular visitor, often finding reasons to stop by and listen while you played. He conducted his research while in your melodious company, and you quickly found a sense of ease in his presence, admiring his directness and his curiosity.

“Would you like to sit with me?” you asked one rainy afternoon, the elements battering on the ceiling. His eyes flicked up from his datapad and the amber speckles glistened at the proposition.

“I assumed you would need adequate space in order to play comfortably,” he said.

“There’s plenty of room for you, me and the music,” you jested, tapping the vacant spot next to you on the bench.

He approached with a hint of hesitation, but seeing that you could still perform unhindered by his closeness, he relaxed and observed in fascination. Up close, he distinguished each keystroke and the length of the notes as you held them in place, assisting them to shine just a little longer. He was accustomed to the cacophony of war, to blaster fire and the shrieks of the fleeing and dying, but your music sounded like pure starlight and the notion warmed him.

“If you want, I can teach you a few basics,” you said, pausing your pleasing tune. He responded with a keen nod, and you helped him position his gloved digits over the lower level of keys, encouraging him to apply a gentle pressure. “Now, go up a set. That’s it. And up again.” Step by step, you instructed him from one end of the spinet to the other in a series of precise scales and the odd false note. “Okay, keep that going.”

A graceful composition sparked from your fingertips as they glided effortlessly across the top level to harmonise with his rhythm. Concentration occupied his expression, but you picked up on the hint of a grin at your united effort.

As you finished your song on the lower set of keys, his thumb grazed yours, light and controlled. No longer focused on the music, his reverent gaze fixed onto you.

Instinct drove his movements, shaky hands abandoning the musical instrument to find the curve of your waist and cradle your cheek. Seconds ticked by endlessly in a palpable silence. As though a switch had flipped, he abruptly retreated. Alarmed, his demeanour coiled in on itself and his leg bounced.

“I apologise, I am not sure what came over me,” he said, embarrassment blossoming pink on the tips of his ears.

“It’s okay, Tech.” You guided him to your waist and your cheek again, and he melted into your touch. “I’ve been thinking the same. Wanting the same.” His guard slowly eased, but you sensed the vulnerability in his movement. “You can tell me what you want.” Noting him struggling to form a sound, you leaned a little closer to whisper in his ear, “Or you could show me if that’s easier.”

An endearing furrow scrunched at his eyebrows, and you almost saw the thoughts circulating, calculating his next step. He gradually raised his eyes and held them steady, determined not to look away this time. The scent of standard issue shampoo welcomed you into his space and you set a tender kiss on his cheek, letting him adapt to the experience. Like a tightly wound coil snapping, he was on you.

Hesitancy vanished as he surrendered wholeheartedly to his desire to feel you. Eyes squeezed shut, he studied every fluctuation of your lips as though it was his only purpose, to chart the gradual developments, the tender, the passionate, the clambering, urgent need to be part of each other.

The datapad on the sheet music stand beeped and Tech detangled himself from your comforting embrace with a grumble, shooting the infernal device a cursory glance. “A briefing has been called.”

From the way he pursed his lips, you gathered he wasn’t thrilled about going, but you didn’t want to risk him getting into trouble. Certainly not on your behalf. “Go,” you told him. “I will meet you here after dinner. Might even play you some more songs, if you’re lucky.”

“Already am lucky,” he said in his love-drunk haze, squeezing you close to him and only releasing his grip once you insisted he get going. Gathering his belongings, he gave you one last kiss and headed out into the silent corridor.

Tech didn’t meet you after dinner. You paced between the instruments and listened to the persistent click of your steps until exhaustion finally led you to your quarters. After sending him a quick message, you tried to settle down for the night, but the quiet was deafening and sleep only came when you were too drained to do anything but rest.

You woke with a start to the sound of your shrieking alarm, and your heart raced as you fumbled for your datapad, searching for any messages. Inbox empty, you got yourself up and prepared for the day ahead.

The weeks seemed to blend together in a monotonous blur of loneliness and worry until you received news of Clone Force 99’s disappearance during a covert mission. Upon discovering the reports, you made a beeline for the music room and settled at the spinet in silence. Unable to touch a single key, to hear a note without your fear boiling over, you clamped a hand over your mouth and bawled. Your tears dribbled through your fingers and onto the old instrument, salty droplets mixing with the dust on the peeling redwood.

After a while, it all became a distant memory, and you stopped visiting altogether. The kiss was vivid in your mind, and you couldn’t help but think about what might have been if you had asked him to stay with you. But wondering about it now would accomplish nothing. What was done was done, and all you could do was wait.

Bleary-eyed and still half-asleep after another restless night, you traipsed towards the archives and passed a group of clones congregated outside the mess hall, deep in discussion.

“Yeah, it was definitely Clone Force 99,” a clone said to his brothers. “By the sounds of it, they almost got caught by Seppies. Nasty stuff. Couple were brought back on stretchers. Don’t think they’ll be out of the med bay soon.”

Your thumping heart drowned out the rest. Everything you had endured over the past month shattered, crashed, burned, hurt more than you could handle, and you hurried along inconspicuously.

It couldn’t be true. Tipoca city was always abuzz with rumours, and this was merely another. But in the recesses of your mind, in the house of all your dread, you saw Tech lying lifeless on a stretcher, transported home through blankets of rain and howling winds.

You took a diligent breath and straightened your clothes, forcing yourself to slow your flurried steps as you made your way to the medical facility. Beyond the doors, the clone on duty signalled for you to retreat.

“We have active surgeries going on here,” he said. “Unless you’re hurt or there is an emergency, I can’t help.”

“No, I…” You could tell he wasn’t going to let you see Tech, and you glimpsed the badges on your sleeve reflecting in the mirror behind his desk. “I work with data management,” you told the medic. “There were some reports about Clone Force 99, but they were scrambled. I was sent to talk to one of them to clarify a few things.”

“Afraid not,” the clone replied. “Two are in surgery and the other two are getting checked over. I’ll send someone to your department as soon as I can.”

You refrained from asking for more information about who was in the operating theatre. Instead, you nodded your thanks and departed to the one place you knew held some solace. Darkness hid the instruments and the benches until you switched the lights on. It seemed odd returning after weeks of avoiding it.

The spinet, untouched since you’d last played it, beckoned you, promised sanctuary and shelter from your pain. As you wriggled to get relaxed on the bench, the smooth discoloured keys tickled your fingertips, cold and forgotten.

You ran through the practice scales and drove headstrong into the melody that had been haunting you: the tune you’d played almost six months ago when you had found Tech in the hallway and invited him in. Fateful notes mounted and swelled like a gushing river, tearing out of you to expand in the current of song placed earnestly by your hands. Every atom of your soul poured into the music as you rocked forward and your fingers ached from the obstinate pressure.

“If you keep pressing the keys in that manner, it will wear them down considerably.”

Abruptly halting mid-press, the reverberations deteriorated, and you shot from your seat. Tech’s weary eyes met yours as he braced himself on the door frame. The blotchy red and violet smudges beneath his lower lashes crinkled, and he grappled to keep himself upright.

Without a word, you offered him your arms to lean on and he stumbled into you. You noted the bruises and cuts, the bandage wrapped around his bicep, and the way he limped and leaned to the left.

In measured movements, you eased him onto the bench and let out a surprised yelp when he tugged you down. “You had me worried,” you said, mindful of his injuries as you nestled into his lap. “I thought… I didn’t know if…”

Nose nuzzling your neck and arms caging you closer, he gave you a murmured, “I’m sorry.”

Those whispered words wrenched at your heart and you shook your head at him. “Don’t apologise. It wasn’t your fault, and I am just glad you’re okay.” His usually bright eyes stared at you sluggishly and you traced your thumbs along his unscathed jawline. “Are your brothers all right? When I went to the med bay, the medic told me two were in surgery.”

“Hunter sustained multiple shots to the chest and Wrecker got caught in an explosion,” Tech explained. “I have been assured that they will both recover, but it is going to be a slow process.”

“And Crosshair?”

“Minor injuries like mine.”

You wanted to ask more, but all you could think about was his body close to yours, alive and warm. The two of you were together, and that was all that mattered. “You should have gone to your barracks and got some rest.”

“I did not know what to do,” he said, so small and fragile, and unlike him it plucked at your composure. “The medics would not let me stay once they were certain I would be all right, so I came here.” The corners of his lips rose gingerly in a tired but determined smile to be brave for you. “I came here to my symphony.”

As you shifted cautiously and sat down next to him on the bench, you gently guided him to lie down and rest his head in your lap. He adjusted his position until he found a comfortable spot and his breathing evened out.

“Perhaps this will help,” you said, playing a slow lullaby. Sweet notes drifting between you both, you stroked your hand through his hair to soothe him with your touch and the music you hoped would bring him some peace.

TAGLIST (Message if you’d like to be added, 18+ only)

@freesia-writes @the-hexfiles @theeyesofasoldier @savebytheodoresnonjosestuff @skellymom

194 notes · View notes