#never got to complete them due to my school library never having the complete sets

[annimoose]

*Sigh*

Thinking about buying the Amulet and Bone comic series again...

[talaok]

Chapter one: The perfect life

Pairing: No-outbreak!Joel x married!reader

Series summary: You moved to Austin Texas with your husband due to his job, but your already troubled marriage is about to get more complicated when the contractor remodeling your home, Joel Miller, will enter both of your lives.

Chapter summary: Moving to Austin was the right decision, but you can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.

warnings: hints to the reader's unhappy childhood, and a very short smut moment

Next chapter

New city, new home, new life.

You should have been happy, you really should have been, but the weight that had sat on your chest as you got on the plane had lingered.

You wanted this. You had to.

You had the perfect life.

A big house with an even bigger lawn, more money than you ever thought possible, and a loving husband.

A loving husband of two years, a loving husband who had to move to Texas for work, a loving husband who you followed across the country, leaving everything and everyone behind, because it's him, and you love him. 

Yes. You love him, just as he loves you.

You just needed time, time to adjust, and find a way to start new.

And Austin seemed as good a place as any.

It's warm and sunny here, and the city has an aura you had never quite encountered in any other place.

It's different from New York, yes, but different is good, different means change, and you needed a change.

"I smell burnt"

"oh- shit" you hissed, your gaze finally dropping from the window and down towards the pan where bacon was frying.

You turned the stove off and opened the window, trying to get some of the smell out. 

"You ok?" 

You looked at Richard, his deep blue eyes, perfectly slicked-back hair, and the tailored suit hugging his body like a second skin made him look as if he had come straight out of a commercial.

He wasn't watching you anymore, his attention had moved to the coffee maker.

"yeah I'm fine, I'm just a little tired I guess"

"you should rest today," he said, pouring some coffee into a cup

"I will" you nodded, glancing at the pan "I should probably make more bacon"

"don't worry" he stopped you "I'll just eat something on the way"

"you sure?"

"Yeah" He took a sip from his mug and set down on a stool 

"So..." you walked to the opposite side of the kitchen counter to face him "Are you nervous?"

He raised his eyes from his phone to look at you.

"Why would I be? I'm the boss"

"yeah, but it's still your first day"

He shrugged "I just want to get it over with, today's only gonna be meetings and people introducing themselves, tomorrow's gonna be my actual first day"

"right," you offered him a small smile "And have you talked to Francis?"

"Yeah, he said he'll show me around today" 

He stood up to place the cup in the sink.

"and about the remodeling?"

"Right, yeah he gave me a number, I'll text it to you"

"great"

Silence fell, and with it, a spell seemed to turn you both to stone

He broke it first

"Right" he glanced at his watch "I better go"

"Right," you said, taking a step closer to him.

His lips were on and off of yours so quickly you wondered if you had imagined it.

"Have a great day" you managed, as he walked out of the room

"you too"

__ __ __

The shelves had finally started to come to life.

"Why do we have to bring all your books, it's a waste of time" you recalled Richard saying "It's not like you're gonna read all of them again"

It infuriated you how he didn't get it, how completely baffled he was by your decision.

Like hell you were leaving such an important part of you back home.

Some of the volumes filling the living room you've had since you were a child, some of these stories raised you when there was no one else bothering to do the job.

A small, unexpected smile pulled at your lips as your gaze fell to the last remaining book in the box.

'scary stories to tell in the dark'

You were only 12 years old when you read it. You had found it in the school library, and tempted by a bravado that didn't belong to you, you had picked it up and stuffed it in your bag, carrying it all the way home as if it were the most precious treasure ever known to man.

It had helped silence the screams down the hallway, but it also made it impossible for you to sleep for a whole week.

A quiet laugh climbed your throat as you remembered watching every shadow in your room mutate into a horrifying monster.

You had never given it back.

The barely-together copy in your hands was the same one you had held 22 years ago.

For some reason, out of all the books you've read, this one you held closer to your heart.

Perhaps it was the rebellion behind the act, or perhaps, it was the feeling that that book had given you, the courage, the proof that you could do it, that you were gonna come out the other end, the proof, at last, that monsters can be fought, and at times even defeated.

You sighed, as you settled the book onto the now overflowing shelf, taking a step back to admire the living room.

That's it.

Piece by piece, you were gonna make this your home.

The next hours passed in a frenzy and by the time only a box was left on the floor, it was two in the afternoon.

You had been so caught up with your work you had forgotten to eat.

And now that you realized... god if you weren't hungry.

It's just one more box though, you thought as you peeked at it.

Yeah, c'mon I can do this

Only the stuff for the coffee table remained, and as you took the first item-

Fuck.

The shattered lamp rested on the floor like paint on a Pollok.

Fuck me, man, that was expensive.

You cringed as you bent to try and pick up the sharp pieces, but of course, as a ringing sounded across the room, you gasped and lost your focus, cutting your finger on the glass.

A stinging pain shot through you and you winced loudly, stumbling backward while trying hard not to look at the blood.

This really wasn't the time to be fainting.

Your phone was still annoyingly ringing.

"What?" you picked up without bothering to look

"I'm sorry is this a bad time?" what sounded like a confused male's voice spoke through the phone.

"Richard?" you frowned as you realized it was an unknown number "I'm sorry who's this?"

"I'm Joel, Joel Miller, from the contracting company" he paused "Your husband gave me your number"

"oh" you breathed "I-I'm sorry, he didn't tell me"

"Ma'am if this is a bad time I can call you later"

"no, no please don't worry I just- Now it's fine"

"ok good, your husband has told me you want to do some remodeling?"

"Yeah, we have a big room on the second floor that's unutilized and I'd like to build up a wall and make it into two rooms, perhaps a guest bedroom and bathroom"

He hummed, considering your words "That shouldn't be a problem, I'd like to come to your house one of these days so I can see the space firsthand"

"Yeah sure" You nodded, wrapping a paper towel around your finger once you walked to the kitchen "Would tomorrow be alright?"

"Absolutely, how does 10:30 sound?"

"perfect" you smiled 

"Alright then, if you just give me your address we're gonna be all set"

"of course"

__ __ __

he didn't come home for dinner.

"I'll eat out with some of my colleagues"

That's all he said.

And before you knew it you were heating a frozen pizza in the oven, and watching the sun disappear on the horizon through the kitchen window.

It was good that he stayed out, that's what you kept repeating in your head.

It's good that he's already getting to know his colleagues, and it's good that he's already settling in, it's perfect.

It's what you should be doing.

And yes you would have liked to spend more time with him today, but there's still tomorrow, and the day after that... there's still the rest of your life, one day certainly won't make a difference.

And it's not like you didn't enjoy the quiet, it gave you time to think, to look around the bare walls and ponder what you should fill them with.

A painting there, a mirror there, photos there... it was all coming together in your head.

The house had started to look more like a home, your home.

It was 9 pm by the time you decided to go to bed, it was early for your standards, but you'd had a long day.

He wasn't home yet.

You didn't know what time it was when you heard the front door open, but you were still awake, having tossed and turned hoping to tire yourself out for what felt like an eternity.

"hey" you murmured, once he entered the bedroom

"What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep"

He only nodded, as he started undressing

"So how did it go?"

"well," he said "Everyone seems nice enough"

"I'm glad" you smiled, turning on your side to look at him better "I unboxed everything for the living room today"

"cool," he sighed, hanging his suit and walking into the bathroom.

You laid there, listening to the toilet flush and the sink being shut on and off.

He emerged from the door again and made his way into the bed.

"And the contracting guy called" you continued, as he made himself comfortable "He'll come by tomorrow"

"that's good" he breathed, turning the light off 

"I told him what we wanna do and he said it shouldn't be a problem"

"yeah?" he asked, as you felt him shuffle closer to you

"Yup, he said he's done stuff like that before and he just needs to-" Your words got lost in your throat once you felt his hand travel to your chest.

"Richard?" you murmured, while his mouth moved to your shoulder and slowly up your neck.

The smell of his two hundred dollars aftershave hit your nostrils immediately.

"mh?" he hummed, letting his hand sneak down to find your ass through your shorts.

"Richard... I'm tired" you whimpered

"C'mon baby, you don't have to do anything I'll do all the work"

His hands on you felt inexplicably wrong right at that moment.

"I just-" you tried to slowly shift away from his grip "I've unpacked all day, I don't feel like it"

He emitted an audible groan "Y/n it's been like a month since you've last felt like it"

Your mouth closed as quickly as it had opened.

It was the truth, you hadn't been in the mood for a while now. 

"I'm sorry, I don't know- maybe tomorrow..."

He sighed, pushing himself off of you

"Whatever"

A small gust of air sent a shiver up your spine as he got up.

"where are you going?" you asked, watching his shadow move around the room.

"I'll just watch some tv or something"

"oh- alright," your voice was so small you almost didn't sound like yourself.

He didn't seem to hear you as he closed the door behind him, casting a veil of darkness over the room.

Once again, you were alone.

You turned towards the window, the moon's soft glow split the ocean of blue in the sky, shily lighting the neighborhood.

You felt a knot in your stomach, a sudden urge to cry, but as you watched the wind glide through the leaves and trees and grass, you were able to breathe, breath with each gust, slowly willing your heart to stop racing and your eyes to dry.

There was nothing to cry about.

Everything was good, great, fantastic even.

You had the perfect life.

Everything you had ever dreamed of was right in your grasp.

You just needed time, and everything was gonna work itself out fine.

…

Next chapter

...

(if you’d like to be added to the taglist comment or text me)

[whocaresstillthelouvre]

The Middle & What's In Between

Elks Chapter 3 Version 2.0

Chapter Rating: T. (Nothing explicit for the first few chapters.) Chapter Summary: You complete your mural for Joel as your feelings for him grow even stronger, and he might just feel the same way for you. Chapter Warnings: mention of child loss, first kiss, joel being ridiculously soft and touching your cheek a lot, spilled paint water (my enemy), cursive and brand new cd mentions (i'm writing what i know folks), like, zero drama at all, i'm sorry i'm so adverse to writing angst when it comes to jackson joel. Words: 3,700 Header courtesy of @saradika-graphics

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Masterlist Playlist

“The Recluse” by Cursive. 

The rain still falls on Friday, puddles grow in size and make everyone’s shoes soaked. Your students are grumpy with the canceled patrol training, and your own patience quickly dissipates due to the anticipation of going back to Joel’s house. 

You ring your bell to signal the end of the day. Your students are quick to all file out of the room–all except for Ellie, who lingers. 

“Saw what you’re doing at Joel’s,” she says, a small smile tugging at her upper lip, “I like it a lot.”

“Thanks. I figured I’d run into you while I was there. Where’ve you been?”

“I’ve been hanging in the garage. Joel ‘n I just got it all set up for me. Thought I’d give you and him some time alone.” 

“...Time alone?” 

“Yup. You know, alooooone time.” 

“Ellie. Come on now. Stop. I’m painting a freakin’ mural for him.”

“Okay, Teach, whatever you say,” she grins mischievously. “I see him looking at you all the time. He has big eyes, I don’t think he realizes I know exactly where he’s looking. I think he likes yoooou.” 

“Shut up,” you roll your eyes. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Nope! I’m leaving you two alone. I’ll see you Monday!” Ellie winks from the doorway.

You shake your head as she leaves, you’ve never met a kid like her.

After laying out your library supplies for the morning and locking up the school, you hurry home to drop off your bag. You change into your painting clothes, eat one of your homemade granola bars, and pick up the gift you’ve grabbed for Joel. With a goodbye pet and nuzzle for your cats, you turn your lamp on and close the door behind you, stepping into the chilly, soaked spring evening. The short walk to Joel’s feels longer under the pouring rain.

For the third time in a week, you’re outside of Joel’s house wearing your same paint-splattered overalls. You return his smile when Joel opens the door with a dish towel in his hands.

“Come on in,” he says, drying his hands. You’ve become entranced by the sight of someone like him–capable and rough around the edges–do something so domestic. The same hands that wash dishes, cook dinner, and adjust couch pillows have also held weapons and taken lives. His voice breaks you out of your thoughts. “Hope the rain didn’t make it too bad gettin’ here.”

“Oh, it was fine,” you say, wiping your feet on his doormat and closing your umbrella. “Nothing was as bad as dealing with the kids today, they hate canceled training days.”

“M’sure of that,” Joel says, glancing down at the two umbrellas in your hand.

You hold one out to him. “So, I had a spare umbrella in my house, and was saving it for a– rainy day. I want you to have it so you don’t have to walk in the rain when you walk me–or someone else home.” 

“Mmhmm,” Joel nods and chuckles. “Only people I’ve walked home are you ’n technically Ellie to the garage. One time Tommy when he had a little too much to drink.”

“Well, it’ll do you more use than sitting in my closet.” 

“Thanks. Real sweet of you.” His eyes stay on yours for a moment. You’d give him a hundred umbrellas just to keep him looking at you this way. 

“I should start, should be done with everything tonight,” you huff out, while trying to calm your nerves.

“Course,” he steps aside to let you move into the room. Your brushes and paints are exactly where you left them the night before, but a new addition catches your eye.

Your breath hitches. “You moved your stereo in here?” 

“I did,” he says, stepping beside you. “Thought you’d like to pick whatever CD you want without havin’ to leave the room. It’ll be louder in here. Your book’s right next to it for you.”

“Joel… this is so sweet,” you gasp out while your fingers absentmindedly rub the daisy pendant around your neck. “You moved everything, this had to have taken a long time.”

“Was no problem,” he shrugs, “I wanted to do something nice for ya.”

“You’ve already done so much Joel,” you say softly.

“It’s been real nice havin’ you around,” his voice makes your heart race. “It’s bee–I like having your company in the evenings.”

“I’ve enjoyed being here too,” you reply with a smile, barely able to hear your own voice over the thudding in your chest.

He lingers for a moment before clearing his throat. “Alright then, I’m gonna let you get started. Put on some music, let me know if you need anything. I’ll be in the dining room working.”

You nod, grateful for the moment to compose yourself as you pick up your CD book.

“And now we proudly present Songs perverse and songs of lament A couple hymns of confession And songs that recognize our sick obsessions So sing along I’m the ugly organ!”

It feels like twenty years ago. You paint as you play one of your favorite albums, The Ugly Organ. It still works, one of the few small miracles in the apocalypse. You pick it because you think Joel might just like it. 

Your mind drifts to a web of familiar thoughts as you paint…

There are so many things everyone lives without now:  traffic reports, amusement parks, cell phones, hot dogs, airplanes. Inconsequential things missed. Major life moments missed. You never got your driver's license. You never got to go to your first school dance with James, your cute friend who definitely had a crush on you too. You never got to go to Disney World. 

You learned fairly quickly that your survival was dependent on how much you could sacrifice and live without. Especially in the QZ, where bright colors disappeared under layers of dust and decay, once shiny metal rusting away. Three meals a day replaced by a morsel of food here and there to keep your stomach from growling. Freedom of choice becoming nonexistent.

But art? You still had art. You were lucky to have your three art notebooks and box of colored pencils. Those pencils whittled down by years and years of use. When the pages of your books filled up, you turned to your walls. Your ration cards were bartered for anything you could use to draw with whenever you could afford it. Your notebooks held your fantasy of a normal life:  a takeout coffee cup with a croissant on a plate next to a folded up newspaper, a Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and garland, a brick house with urns full of flowers by the front door, a bowl of macaroni and cheese. 

Then, Jackson. Jackson brought you color, Jackson brought you music, Jackson brought you a place to feel like you had a home. Jackson brought you your close circle of friends, Jackson brought you your belief in civility, and yourself, back. And Jackson gave you Joel. The thought of him sends a chill up your spine as you realize how special he’s become to you, more than just a crush… now a friend. 

The CD ends, after the rousing ten-minute-long final song. The lead singer repeats “the worst is over” along with a grand choir. The words resonate with you, you’re safe and happy here in Jackson. Life feels full… especially now as you’ve found some sort of companionship with Joel. 

You step back and admire the mural. Flowers begin to bloom across Joel’s wall. The water held in your paint jar turns just as violet as the bluebells across the wall. Your sense of pride in your art grows along with each painted bluebell. 

You pick up your CD book and flip through the pages, choosing the last CD you bought before that fateful fall day in 2003. Black birds fly across the reflective silver disc. You slide it into the stereo and hit play before picking up your brush. 

“I’m sinking like a stone in the sea, I’m burning like a bridge for your body”

The week before the world ended, you scheduled your drivers license test. Monday, September 29 at 4 PM. You were so close to freedom. You had already warned your favorite teacher that you’d have to leave art club early, and your mom requested off to take you in. You had practiced and studied, you were confident you’d pass. 

You glance towards the doorway, where you can faintly hear Joel working in the dining room. What was his life like back then? What did he drive? What kind of responsibilities did he have?  You know he was a contractor. What reason would he have to leave work early? 

You ponder about Joel's life before the outbreak as you paint each petal, getting lost in mixing the perfect indigo hues for each bell.

The final song plays, the singer croons over his acoustic guitar. He sings a story about a shipwreck, about death, about love. It’s your favorite, you never got to learn it on guitar. 

“What they call love is a risk, You'll always get hit, Out of nowhere, By some wave and end up on your own”

You finish the last few bluebells in complete silence save for the random hammer knocks coming from Joel in the other room.

You dip your brush in your jar of water and step back. Long green stems sprout from the baseboard, green wispy stalks shooting out embellished with bells of all different hues of lavender and indigo. You’re proud of what you’ve created for Joel, you hope he loves it. 

“Joel,” you call softly, peeking your head out of the doorway down the hall, “it’s done.”

You hear the scrape of the chair against the hardwood floor. Your heart begins to hammer against your chest as you hear his steps get closer. You’re nervous, so unbelievably nervous. You want him to like it, you’ve never done this for someone else. Nobody has ever asked you to share your creation with them in such a large size. Your art now takes up a piece of his home now, that feels monumental. 

You stand in front of the mural, staring forward at the mural as you hear him enter the room. You can’t bring yourself to look at him. You wait, feeling your heart thump against your chest as he stands behind you. Then, a sharp inhale from him.

“Wow…” he exhales. You can hardly hear him. “This is beautiful… thank you.” 

You want to smile and turn to him, be more present in the moment, but instead you feel like you don’t belong here. The vulnerability of this moment along with the feelings you have for him overwhelms you.

You nod, swallowing hard, still focusing on the wall. “I’m glad you like it,” you manage to say, your voice quiet and shy. 

“I… had a daughter before …everything. Name was Sarah,” the tenderness in his voice almost breaks you as you hear his revelation, “used t’call her my bluebell.”

Everything inside of you sinks at his admission. Sarah. You try to offer some sort of comfort, but everything feels inadequate. All you can do is apologize. “Joel… I’m sorry, so sorr—“

“I know you are,” he cuts you off gently. “I don’t need to hear that, please.”

He steps closer towards you, his front brushes against your back. “Seeing these flowers here… it means a lot.”

“I’m glad, I’m so glad,” a heartbroken whisper escapes your lips. 

“Thank you,” one of his calloused, large hands lands on your shoulder. Skin meeting skin where your tank top and overalls don’t cover. 

“You’re welcome, I feel honored to do this for you… and her.” You swallow down the sadness in your voice. Everyone’s lost so much, it’s an unspoken understanding for everyone who has survived.

“You’re so talented, this is gorgeous sweetheart. Y’sweet, so sweet,” Joel whispers as he turns you to face him. He grabs your hand, his thumb brushing softly over your knuckles. “The way you’ve come into here, making it more beautiful with your art, your music, ’n your laughter. You’re so soft and pure, don’t know how someone like you still exists.”

“Joel,” you exhale at his confession. Your skin tingles all over, your body begins to warm. His sweet words shush the sadness held within you. 

His hand lifts to your chin, tilting your face up towards him. “So sweet,” he says again, his eyes roam around your face. Your lips part instinctively, his eyes drop to them. He slowly leans in, his forehead rests against yours, his warm breath fans across your skin. “Wanted to kiss ya’ the day I saw your classroom. The mural on the wall… you make everything around you more beautiful.” 

You breathe in his words with every inhale, words you could only dream of somebody telling you. His hand lets go of yours and moves to your back drawing you closer against his body. The tip of his nose nudges against yours. His lips meet your lips–softly, slowly, deliberately. He’s so gentle with you, overwhelming you. The tenderness of his touch and of his care, it’s not something you’ve ever felt. He makes you feel warm, he makes you feel safe. 

You melt under his touch, your body becoming pliant as his strong arm wraps around your waist. His large hand rests on your hip, fingers tracing the fabric of your overalls. You’re a grown woman and he makes you feel so small and juvenile, kissing your crush in your paint stained overalls after a day at school. 

The kiss turns hungrier, breaths quickening, tongues tasting tongues, the casualness and comfortability of the past few days turning into fevered kisses. You snake your hands up his chest to wrap around his neck, threading your fingers through his wavy hair. He pulls you even closer, your body now smashed against his. Joel lets out a guttural groan that vibrates against your lips as he lifts you and moves the two of you back towards his work bench.

A loud CLANG interrupts everything. You both blink, breathless, and look down to see the jar of paint knocked over, indigo tinted water spreading across the floor.

“Goddamnit,” Joel utters as he sets you back down on the floor, his chest rises and falls with deep breaths. “Knocked over the paint water.”

“I’m sorry, I’m usually careful about where I place that.” 

“S’okay, I’ll go get a towel,” he says, already walking out of the room.

You use your small paint rag to pathetically mop up a small bit of water, still trying to catch your breath from what just happened. 

Were you really just kissing Joel Miller? Did Joel Miller want to kiss you? He did. He definitely kissed you, and you kissed him back. He even said he wanted to kiss you before. He called you sweet. Are you dreaming? The man you’ve written songs about, the man you’ve watched from the corner of the bar, the man you’ve thought about every day since the first time you first saw him. That man you just kissed you.

“Guess we lucked out it didn’t break.” Joel interrupts your inner dialogue as he kneels down and places the towel over the stain.

“Sorry again,” you apologize. 

“Don’t worry yourself, it’s cleaned up just fine, I’ve done much worse to these floors with stain and dirt.” He stands, offering his hand and you take it. You rise with a smile, he doesn’t let go of your hand, his palm covers yours. “See? Back to brand new.” 

He’s so reassuring and so tender, now you know why–Joel Miller has known love before. 

“Was hoping my favor to you would be done but it’s not. Come on.” 

He doesn’t drop your hand as he leads you down the hallway into the dining room. On the table lies a guitar surrounded by tools. “Should be done tomorrow, there’s a fret that’s giving me a helluva time, but other than that it’s all fixed.” 

Your eyes widen at the sight. Music. “Joel… I—I can’t believe this.” You beam at him. “Thank you.” 

“Course sweetheart,” he raises his hand to your cheek to touch you again. “It’s nothin’, wanted you to have your music back.” 

Your fingers brush over the hard wood of the body, you note a rough patch from a hole that Joel filled in. The guitar is so worn and rugged but also so soft and polished. It’s beautiful. 

Joel’s kind action surrounds your heart and plants a thought in your brain quickly realizing everything that you’ve done with him the past few days. Does Joel really like you the way you like him? It feels impossible. How would someone like him like someone like you? He’s strong and capable, you’re just a lone woman who likes to paint pretty pictures of animals and talk to her cats for entertainment. You know many of the rumors you’ve heard about big, bad Joel Miller are true. What’s this man doing using his time to make something nice for you? 

“Joel, this is–wow–so much. Are you sure?”

He nods, his eyes steady on yours. “M’sure, I’m happy to do it, it really wasn’t difficult, ’n like I said, I just have to fix the last fret and it’ll be good.”

“Thank you, again, I can’t believe this.” 

“Believe it,” he says softly, his hand lingering on you cheek before letting it fall.

It’s so much, everything that has gone on between the two of you begins to overwhelm you–making you even more tired than you realize. You hide a yawn behind your forearm, blinking your tired eyes a couple of times. “Sorry,” you yawn again, “I always get tired on Friday evenings.”

He watches you, a look of affection in his eyes. “S’alright. I know you’re tired ’n have an early morning tomorrow.”

“I do…” as much as you hate to admit it, you should get home. You don’t want to. The affection, the kiss, the look in Joel’s eyes when he looks at you. You really like being here. You don’t know if you’ll get another chance. 

“I’ll walk you home, sweetheart. You have a lot to take.” 

There it is again. Sweetheart. Three times now, he’s called you that.

“I’m going to get all of my stuff packed up.” 

“Sure, I’ll help you,” he says, following you back into his studio. 

You start gathering your paints into your cardboard box, while Joel gingerly takes your CD out of the player, his movements measured as if he knows how much the disc means to you. Another sign of Joel’s ability to care that makes you fall deeper for him. 

“You know… like I said last night… you can come over any time and use my stereo,��� he says, placing a hand on his neck and rubbing it back and forth.

He actually looks nervous as he extends his offer to you, making your heart skip a beat.

“I… yeah, that sounds really nice.” 

Joel picks up your box full of paint off of his work table, his eyebrows furrowing critically at the sight of the worn cardboard. “This box is on its last straw, you know that, right?”

“I do, I just… don’t really have anything else big enough to fit everything that I can easily carry.”

“Hmm,” he grunts disapprovingly, as if he truly does care about the inanimate objects that belong to you. 

“I hardly have to take it places, so it’s not that terrible,” you offer.

“Still deserve better than that,” he says under his breath tucking the box under his arm. 

Joel opens his door before grabbing his new umbrella. “No need to use yours, this’ll work for both of us.” 

“We’ve shared one before,” you smile.

Your comment grants a chuckle from Joel. You love hearing his laugh. “Come on, let’s get you home.” 

The rain is light now–almost more of a mist–there’s no reason for an umbrella, but neither of you acknowledge or mention it. You like being under it with Joel, you like feeling the way your bodies brush against each other. You like how he angles it to fully cover you, leaving his large frame half open to the elements. 

As your home comes into view, you start to feel a pang of sadness. You don’t want this walk to end. You’ve never felt like this with anybody before. The instant comfortability of him, the way you can make him laugh, and the way he watches you, as if he can’t take his eyes off of you. 

Joel places the box of paints down on your porch table. “You home tomorrow night?” 

“Yeah. Just have the library, but I’m usually back here by the late afternoon.”

“S’alright if I come by and drop your guitar off in the evening?”

“Yes, of course it is,” your voice squeaks a little too high with excitement. 

He smiles, stepping closer, his broad frame towering over you, blocking the soft glow of the porch light. “Alright sweetheart, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” his voice low, eyes locked on your lips.

Your back presses against the door, your heart pounding against your chest as he leans in. “Yes, tomorrow,” you manage to whisper out.

“Thank you for your beautiful gift,” he says softly, his breath warm against your skin. “I‘m gonna go sit in my chair, and look at it.”

“You’re welcome,” another whisper even quieter than the one before.

Joel leans in closer, angling his head down to place a quick soft kiss against your lips, you barely have a chance to savor it before he’s pulling away. 

He cups your cheek again. “G’night sweetheart,” his low voice makes your knees weak, thankful for he front door against your back. You watch as he turns and walks away, this time he doesn’t look back.

The Middle & What's In Between - Joel's Version

[jackiehicks]

‘Best Kept Secret’

Wyatt Lykensen x Reader

request: wyatt x wells!reader with a secret relationship? they're just always sneaking away from friends during school to meet up.

A/N: my first request and it’s a wyatt x reader?? the stars literally aligned for me on this. i hope you guys like it!! this is set after the events of zombies 2 for timeline reasons. don’t get sick of wyatt just yet though, there might be some more content coming your way…

words: 1.6k

content warning: light swearing

y/n smiled at her phone and sighed. she had been dating wyatt for a few months now, but they had decided to keep it secret due to the fact that she was human and he was a werewolf. she knew seabrook was integrated now and the human/zombie/werewolf student body was becoming more familiar by the day, but it was just easier to keep her relationship with wyatt a secret.

she didn’t really know why they kept hush about it. perhaps it was so the two of them would be somewhat left alone by bucky and his aceys who found every opportunity to say something snide and cruel about y/n and her friends. maybe it was the fear of wyatt being shunned by his wolf pack - this was the first time a wolf and a human had started a relationship in well over a century. maybe it was the judgement she would get from her family.

to cut a long story short, y/n was burdened with the surname ‘wells’. not only was her mother the mayor and her father a well-respected zombie patrolman, but she was the twin sister of star cheerleader and monster-activism trailblazer addison wells.

it’s not that addison and y/n didn’t get along, they had been best friends since the day they were born - they practically came out of the womb holding hands - it’s just that y/n had seen everything that addison had gone through last year with her zombie boyfriend zed, and she did not want that for herself and wyatt. zombies were one thing, but werewolves were still a whole other story in seabrook.

on top of all that, y/n was simply never as popular as addison. she always felt like an outsider. where addison hid her natural hair with a blonde wig, y/n always wore her white locks proudly and defiantly. this got her in a lot of trouble with her parents and the school (seriously, being dress-coded for having naturally white hair was a joke) but she didn’t care. she wasn’t like all the other kids at seabrook, why try to fit in?

that’s how y/n and wyatt met, actually. y/n noticed how all of the wolves had streaks of white in their hair, and she was curious. maybe this was why she felt as though she was different from the others? she talked to wyatt about it, learned some interesting things about wolves, learned some interesting things about wyatt, and shared some interesting things about herself. the rest, as they say, is history.

so, y/n and wyatt were seabrook’s best kept secret. when they weren’t miserably hiding their relationship, it was sort of fun. y/n liked the danger of sneaking around with her “scary” boyfriend, and the thought of doing so was more than appealing as she stared down at her chemistry textbook on the table.

she closed the book and picked it up, making her way out of the library, when all of a sudden she felt a hand on her arm and was being pulled round the corner. she yelped just as she came face to face with her boyfriend.

“miss me?”

“wyatt, you frightened me!” she smacked him playfully on the arm.

“come on, i’ll walk you to your locker. you’re not gonna need any books next period.” he grinned as the two of them walked down the hall.

y/n placed the chemistry textbook in her locker as wyatt leaned nonchalant on the lockers next to her.

“where are we even going for our… free period?” he asked in a hushed voice. she smirked at him and shook her head. the halls were completely empty, everyone was already in their next classes.

“this was your idea, honey. i figured you would have a plan.”

“when do i ever have a plan for anything? you’ve been at this school far longer than i have, surely you know some good hiding spots.”

“i don’t know if you remember this, but i’m a wells. i have to be on my best behaviour at all times.”

“god, that’s pitiful. thank god you have me, you’d be so bored otherwise.”

y/n closed her locker and kissed wyatt on the cheek.

“thank god indeed. come on, i think the football field is unoccupied this period.” she grabbed wyatt’s hand as she started to run towards the school’s exit. he laughed loudly as he ran with her, and she shushed him.

y/n and wyatt sat on the bleachers, looking out over the seabrook football field. it was a warm day, as it usually was in their perfect town. wyatt and y/n enjoyed deep conversations in moments like this, no one around them to interrupt them, simply sitting and chatting. wyatt had his fingers interlocked with y/n’s as they spoke.

“you’d think the school would be more monster-friendly” wyatt sighed.

“yeah, i mean eliza was campaigning for zombie language classes which would have been dope, but there’s not much accommodation for zombies outside of what zed’s presidential campaign was going for.”

“and for werewolves… shit, people still won’t look us in the eye half the time.”

y/n smiled softly and squeezed wyatt’s hand. he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

“sometimes i think you’re the only one outside of the pack who understands me, sweetheart.” he said. he was only inches away from y/n’s face, it would be so easy to just grab his cheeks and kiss him. so that’s exactly what she did.

y/n’s hands gripped wyatt’s face firmly and she kissed him square on the mouth - only briefly, but it left them both grinning. wyatt returned the favour, kissing her with such force that almost knocked y/n backwards. they laughed against each other’s lips until wyatt pulled away. he had a concerned look on his face, and y/n immediately worried.

“wy, what’s up?”

“not to panic you or anything, but i got a scent.”

“oh god, what is it?”

“smells like jock.”

“oh shit” y/n exclaimed, looking at her phone. there was 5 minutes left of their ‘free period’ and she had totally forgot that the football players and cheerleading squad start their practises early. this wouldn’t be much of an emergency, except for the fact that y/n’s sister was on the cheer team.

“we need to hide, right? if addison or zed sees us-“

wyatt finished her sentence for her. “we won’t be much of a secret anymore, i know. come on, let’s go.”

they made their way down the steps of the bleachers as fast as they could - why the hell did they sit all the way at the top?! - and began to make their way around the corner of the field when they saw the football team and cheer squad about to turn the same corner, with addison and zed leading the crowd.

“under the bleachers!” y/n whisper-shouted and grabbed wyatt’s hand, running to hide under the metal bleachers from her sister’s line of sight. the two were out of breath, quietly laughing with relief.

“you’re almost too good at this ‘keeping secrets’ thing, you know that?” wyatt asked, wrapping his arms around y/n’s waist. she put her arms on his shoulders and began fussing with the soft hair on the nape of his neck.

“oh please, this is a team effort.”

wyatt hummed in agreement as he leaned in for another kiss, but the two were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing.

“you guys good under there?” zed grinned. addison was standing next to him, trying to hide her smile.

“i don’t know what shocks me more: the fact that you hid your boyfriend from us, or the fact that you skipped class, y/n.” she laughed.

“please don’t tell mom and dad.”

“about your truancy or your secret werewolf boyfriend?” zed interjected. y/n scowled at him.

“if you don’t want me to, i won’t.” addison reassured her. y/n breathed a sigh of relief.

“thank you.”

zed sauntered over to wyatt, putting him in a headlock.

“skipping class, huh? remember what i said about doing it like the zombies do?”

wyatt smacked his arm playfully. “yeah, right. like no zombie has ever cut class before.”

“we follow rules here at seabrook. come on, furball, can’t be missing two classes in a row.”

wyatt sighed as zed let him out of the headlock. he was still getting used to being so buddy-buddy with people outside of the pack, and zed really could be extra sometimes.

“he’s right, actually,” wyatt said to y/n, “we probably should get to our next classes. don’t wanna get caught by anyone else.”

“yeah, you’re right. you go ahead, i’ll catch up.”

wyatt winked at his girlfriend before he began to walk away. y/n turned to her sister, engulfing her in a hug.

“i’m so sorry i didn’t tell you, addy. you have no idea how badly i wanted to. we were just worried what everyone would think. wyatt hasn’t even told his sister either and she’s the alpha werewolf and she’s, like, actually scary.” y/n blabbered, squeezing addison tight. addison laughed.

“sis, it’s okay. i was nervous to tell you about zed and i when we first started dating. don’t stress.”

“ugh, i love you. i really should go though, i don’t wanna be late and i know for a fact wyatt is waiting for me a few feet away.”

addison untangled herself from her sister’s tight squeeze of a hug.

“i love you too, now go!” she spun y/n around by her shoulders and gave her a shove. y/n waved goodbye before she jogged to catch up with wyatt.

zed wiped a fake tear from his eye, “ah, young love.”

“come on, casanova, you’ve got football practise.”

[hongcherry]

webisode: two || j.jk

Jungkook speaks to you for the first time, and the outcome shocks him.

📸 Pairing: spiderman!Jungkook x girlfriend!Reader(afab)

📸 Rating/Genres/AUs: PG-15; fluff, strangers to lovers, SBaFL au, Marvel au

📸 Warnings: Bullying

📸 Word Count: 1k

📸 Timeline: Before Tangled Thoughts, Jungkook is not Spidey yet c:

📸 Author’s Note: This has been a long time coming! I'll try to work on more high school-related fics of this couple since a lot of you guys have been asking for them thru my SBaFL survey. I greatly appreciate all the great feedback I've gotten, whether through the form or on here directly! 💖

SBaFL masterpost | bts masterlist | main masterlist

“Jeon! You’re late!”

Jungkook scrambles to grab the camera bag from its cabinet. There’s a thin layer of sweat on his body from having run from the library.

“I-I’m sorry, Mr. Jay! I got caught up with ho—”

“I don’t want excuses, Jeon. I want pictures!” he exasperates while pointing to the door. “The play starts in seven minutes. You better haul it before they shut the doors.”

“Y-yes sir,” Jungkook exclaims before rushing out of the room.

Jungkook sprints through the halls, dodging students left and right. He wouldn’t consider himself completely non-athletic. He’s not as clumsy as he looks, and he can run a decent length without getting tired. However, he’s still grouped with the “weaker” students. He blames his narrow frame. 

Jungkook’s a few feet away from the auditorium doors when he suddenly trips over something. His body slides across the tiles, and there’s a small crack as his face collides with the ground. His vision is paired with an annoying new line now that his glasses lenses are cracked.

There’s laughter behind him as he staggers back up. He doesn’t need to look back to know his fall wasn’t accidental.

“Awh, even he’s falling for you, Flash,” one of the students chuckles.

Jungkook glares at them. He wants to scold them, but the play is about to start.

“Are you speechless over my looks too, Jungpoop?” Flash smirks.

Jungkook rolls his eyes as he turns to rush toward the now-closing doors. He doesn’t have time for a pointless argument.

“Wait! Please!” he calls out.

The doors keep closing.

Jungkook pumps his legs faster and shoves his foot in the small gap. He curses mentally as the door crushes his foot. Pain shoots up his leg and instincts make him want to cradle it. Though, he pushes past those feelings and shimmies his way in.

“Excuse me, thank you,” he mumbles hurriedly even though the student worker doesn’t help him or say anything. They simply stare at him blankly—bored and unbothered.

Must be working for extra credit or something.

Jungkook takes a seat in the back while he pulls out the camera. He messes with the settings for a bit before taking a test shot. However, he fails to remember the flash is on due to the dark setting.

Heads turn to glare at him at the sudden burst of light.

“Sorry! Sorry!” he whispers loudly and quickly turns the flash off.

“Dammit,” he huffs to himself as he readjusts his settings.

The house lights dim and music begins to play over the speakers.

Looks like he made it just in time.

He puts his student worker lanyard and the camera’s strap around his neck. Time to get to work.

He carefully descends the aisle, getting closer to the stage.

“Stop right there!”

Jungkook halts in his movements, glancing around to see who said that. Then he realizes it was someone from the play.

Jungkook’s gaze drifts to the stage and his heart stops.

It’s you.

Yn.

You’re the lead?

Jungkook watches you perform, amazed by your talent. You’re embodying your character well.

He had no idea you were going to be on stage.

He mainly knows you from class, but he’s also seen you in the halls occasionally. Your bright personality caught his attention, along with others. You’re not the most popular, but you’re definitely not a shadow either.

He’s never talked to you and doubts you even know who he is.

Jungkook has always thought you were pretty. Though, not only that, you were also top of the class. Brains and beauty.

And now, you’re a great actress? He wonders what you can’t do.

Once Jungkook finally snaps out of his surprise, he begins capturing photos. He moves to and fro of the stage, getting different angles. He finds a spot that provides a good view and makes a home there. He watches the play with rapt attention, taking a few pictures during interesting scenes.

Before he knows it, the play is over and everyone is taking a bow.

The house lights turn on and people start filing out of the auditorium.

Jungkook grabs his belongings and then follows the stream of others. He spots you in the corner surrounded by a handful of people.

People you seem unfamiliar with come and praise you, and as always, you give them your dashing smile.

Jungkook adjusts his camera settings and after a deep breath, makes his way toward you.

“Excuse me, Yn,” Jungkook hesitantly calls out.

You turn from your group of supporters. Your eyes shine so brightly that Jungkook feels his breath get stuck in his throat.

“Yes?” you respond politely.

Jungkook blinks rapidly. “I-I’m with the school’s newspaper. Can I get a p-photo of you?”

You smile and nod, then point to the flowers in your hands. “Should I give these to someone?”

Jungkook shakes his head quickly. “No, it’s okay. You look pretty with them.”

You raise an eyebrow at his comment, and it’s then Jungkook registers what he has said.

“I-I mean they look pretty! They’re nice flowers,” he corrects hurriedly.

You giggle. “They are.”

Jungkook nods but doesn’t say anything.

“Where should I stand?” you ask after a few awkward silent seconds.

“Oh! Over here is fine,” Jungkook points to a blank wall.

You move to stand in front of the wall and hold up the flowers. Tilting your head, you smile at Jungkook.

Jungkook’s heart is beating quickly as he snaps a few pictures. He just hoped his hands were stable enough; Mr. Jay will be more mad at him if his pictures turn out to be crap.

“Thank you,” Jungkook says.

You start walking slowly backward toward your friends and family.

“Anytime… Jungkook, right?” you question.

Jungkook nearly drops the camera at his name from your mouth. You know his name?”

“Y-yeah. You k-know me?” he stutters pathetically.

You smile kindly. “Of course. You’re the awesome photographer for our school’s paper,” you gesture to the camera.

“And,” you continue, “you’re in my chemistry class. You always get the questions correct.”

“R-right.”

Jungkook’s too stunned to say anything. He didn’t expect you to remember his name. After all, he’s never really spoken to you, let alone told you his name directly.

“I hope you liked the show. I’ll see you Monday,” you say with a wave, then turn away.

Jungkook’s delayed wave goes unnoticed, but he’s too amazed you know his name to care.

A/N: Has anyone seen/played the new Spidey game? It's so amazing!!! I loved it so much! I'm also a big Venom fan 🤭

©️hongcherry // DO NOT REPOST OR MODIFY Please consider reblogging if you liked this work to show your support. Feedback/commentary is always welcomed.

[mamafaithful]

The Kids have discovered the dictionary again. 

Can you guess what two words were given to me?

I'll add them to the bottom of the next instalment, so you can try to make up a little snippet of your own.

The only rules are to have fun and no editing. Okay, some. I’ll allow spellings and forgotten punctuation. But I’m trying to get back in the habit of just writing. So, give me a little leniency.

Lir sat idle in front of his now whirring obsolete box of metal parts that did not see fit to aid in his quest so close to his deadline. Sure. He could, and an emphasis on probably should move his arse now could, get up and scour the musty shelves of dead trees for the information he needed. Or maybe even bite the bullet and see the wicked witch of the west wing, Professor Shaw, his mentor and employee of this fine and dusty school library. But nope. Here he sat. Lamenting about a deadline due in 4 hours that he had been on the verge of completing before the tin of junk decided to go on strike and now he cannot remember the last time he saved. Did he even save at all? Lir wasn’t going to take the chance of looking at another computer before this one finally fails and kicks him out. Because, what if opening his account up on a laptop overrides what is happening on here and it deletes all that work that may or may not be saved or set to auto-save. Word now auto-saves. Right? Or was he working on Google, or notes, or Nero? Does his cad programme have an exit save? Lir’s head thunked upon the table. He was never going to swim upstream. He was going to wallow away here in a McDonalds or a Little Chef. No Little Chef no longer exists. Maybe he’d go the way of Little Chef and disappear or like, get eaten by a bear or something. Just as he was about to set off on another spiral he felt a soft shave and a haircut knocked on his skull. “Lir mate. You've been spiralling for two hours. I’ve booted you up on my laptop. You're okay. It all saved. You’ve just got to check you did actually put your name and uni number on it though otherwise you’ll be stuck as a postgrad for another year.”

[nightcall99]

Dream from 9.5.24

I was at school in the library and I knew I had to finish off some work because it was the end of the course and everything was due soon. In addition to the normal assignments I had to get done, I suddenly remembered an old assignment from a subject I did last semester that I never finished properly. I had received feedback on it after submitting it but never got round to re-doing it. I could see the teacher's notes/alerts in the student portal in my mind's eye. It was for AO's class. I had promised to complete it ages ago but had been going on about my life blissfully unaware until now when it dawned on me. If I didn't get it done, it would present a set back that would not allow me to graduate. I thought about asking one of my classmates for help, someone who had already done it. I could ask to see their work and use it as a guide to complete my own. It would make things so much easier and surely no one would care about plagiarism at this point, since the assignment was from ages ago. I was slightly panicked about getting it all done in time. (A recurring dream, it's always this one assignment that I have forgotten about and suddenly remember again)

Another scene where I was sitting in the library and someone was doing my hair, taking sections and brushing it out or something and another person came up and my fun of my grey regrowth. I told them off.

UH was in my dream, a friend from my university days. I can't remember what we were doing, hanging out I suppose.

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

Random snippet that's been floating around my head that needs to get out

Some backstory: I do a Goodreads challenge every year and it's always for 100 books. This year, however, I did not read a book basically from mid-September until sometime in November bc I truly did not have time between school, work, and HHN. However, I have a massive curated TBR that I use to request books from the local library/request that the local library buy specific books and deliver them to my house, which I sometimes do weeks/months in advance of those books being released, which is a long-winded way of saying that I still had books being delivered to my house on a weekly (at minimum) basis. So it got to be the second week of December and I needed to read something like 15 books to hit my goal (which I did, and I even got in an extra for 101 total for the year), so I'm speeding through these books as fast as I can, which is fairly easy due to the type of book I usually read (YA romance or thriller with the occasional adult fiction or nonfiction thrown in the mix). However, there was one YA historical fiction that was so well written, especially with how the author handled the romance plot, that it had me *feeling* things (nothing dirty, you pervs). The longing, the denial, the little touches, it all came together to produce a wonderfully bittersweet story that touched my heart and my brain and my soul in such a way that had me longing for a situation of my own (or at least, what I imagine that would look like since I've never had a situation of my own). As a result, there's been a snippet of a story rattling around in my brain, which is something that actually happens somewhat frequently and I always mean to write those snippets down but I never do, so this time, I'm actually going to do it. So without further ado, here's a tiny snippet of a love story, as told from the point of the guy when he realizes he loves the girl next to him:

"Someday, when I'm 85 and can't remember what I had for breakfast or what shirt I wore the day before, I'll still be able to recall the first time I was struck by lightning.

I was sitting on the couch in my apartment watching a movie, something I did fairly frequently. Only this time was different. This time, she was sitting next to me.

The night hadn't started out as anything special. The movie was one we had both seen before, and it was mainly serving as background noise while we scrolled on our phones, alternating showing each other something funny we came across and talking about random nothings. Slowly, our exchanges began to taper off as exhaustion from the long, busy day began to set in. With every blink, my eyes stayed closed longer and longer and eventually stayed closed, until I felt my phone fall out of my hand and land on my knee before sliding to the floor. I began to reach for it when I realized there was something warm on my shoulder. It was heavy too, but in a good way, a solid, comforting warmth. She had fallen asleep and her head was on my shoulder.

For a moment, I just sat there, stunned. No one had ever fallen asleep on me before, although if that were by choice or not, I had no idea. I looked down at her as she slept, her face peaceful and free of stress and just... beautiful. The word appeared in my head as simple as if it had always been there, waiting for me to realize what I'd always known. It felt like the most ordinary revelation, something so profound but also completely normal and accepted.

Without another thought, I lowered my head and gently kissed her forehead just below her soft brown hair. At my touch, she stirred, her features momentarily scrunching and then smoothing again as she lifted her head from my shoulder and blinked, taking in her surroundings and turning her face towards mine. She gave me a tiny smile that seemed to fill her entire face before closing her eyes again and laying her head back on my shoulder, her body snuggling closer now.

That's when I knew - I was in love with her. And the bolt of that realization felt powerful enough to sustain me for the rest of my life, as long as the rest of my life was spent by her side."

Welp, there it is. I have no idea if it's good (I feel like I'm very good at formal writing and stream-of-consciousness word vomit, and less so with construction of narratives and making things sound human) or if anybody will even like it if they ever read it, but it's out there and yeah. Here's hoping that one day, something like this will happen to me (and to you, reader, if you so desire (see, good at the formal)).

[frostehburr]

A Few Games I 100% Completed but Haven't Mentioned Because I Did Them Long Ago

My recent blog posts have been about recent games I 100% completed but they're not the only games I've 100%ed.

Video games have been a big part of my life and I've been playing games since single digits. That's right, I've been a gamer my entire life. Starting with the Sega Genesis. That really ages me, doesn't it?

Admittedly, I only 100%ed one single game on Genesis and that was Disney's Pocahontas. There were a handful of games I had but couldn't invest too much time in because way back then I was a child attending school and homework.

Same story when I got an Nintendo 64. Exception was I didn't 100% any game on that console. However, I did manage to complete a few games on Nintendo's GameCube years later.

By that time I managed to get into double digits so back then I was still a child but was close to the 'edgy' phase everyone in the 2000s went through.

The games I definitely remember 100%ing were Star Fox Adventures, Wind Waker, Luigi's Mansion, Avatar the Last Airbender, Catwoman, Pikmin 1 and 2, and Geist. It may seem like a short list but that was long for preteen me. Especially considering majority of games I played were rented from Blockbuster. If you don't know what Blockbuster was, just know I'm from ancient times before the internet.

Anyhow, years later I had short lived experience with PS2 and somehow got XBox360 and PS3. Honestly, the 360 was a horrible console that destroyed itself more often that a sea cucumber. What games I managed to play on it were also available on PS3 at later time so I personally think 360 was a massive waste of money and would avoid if I was able to restart my life.

But it did give me some fun games to complete. Rare's final good game, Kameo Elements of Power, was particularly great. Fable 2 and 3 were simple and easy. I don't think it's physically possible to not complete a Fable game when it's played. And... ah, Crackdown was the only other one I 100%ed... That was... a game... yes it was...

Sadly, I do not remember 100%ing more games after that, yes even on the PS3 which I still held onto the games for.

I was incredibly busy with high school life at that time so investing an hour or so for a grind was not appealing in the slightest. Although, I do believe the majority of trophies (a new concept Sony/Microsoft came up with) being dependent on online multiplayer left a rather sour taste.

Then came a long period of not playing games as often due to having a job and college and another job to tend to. I did get a PS4 and still played what I could. Thankfully, the spark of dopamine still kicked in whenever I played so it was still something I looked forward to.

I also had a Steam account and played Team Fortress 2 a lot. Valve's most popular hat trading simulator was the only multiplayer game I ever played and enjoyed! Quite a few hundred hours went into that game. I would go back to play it if it wasn't for the forsaken bot infestation plaguing the servers.

Oh that reminds me of the first Steam game I 100%ed, Whispering Willows! It was a simple indie game I decided to play for Halloween season. Actually, it was the atmosphere and little secrets you could find that unlocked achievements that kept me going for the completion. After that, I hit up Tell Tale's Guardians of the Galaxy and 100%ed that easily. Tell Tale has the same issue the Fable franchise has.

However, I never had that sudden click of wanting to 100% all games until I played Insomniac's Spiderman on PS4. The game was spectacular with the placements for collectables and incorporating them into the game's setting. Looking at the trophies on my Playstation Profile, I had a sudden thought of finishing as much of my game library as I could so I can have as many platinum trophies as I can.

Before my PS3 fried and deleted my files on the drive, I managed to get the platinum for all Sly Cooper and Infamous games. I also platinum Second Son on PS4. I may have to restart those games if I can't save my old PS3. Don't know what I'm going to do if I can't save it. Maybe be forced to buy a refurbished one or be doomed to PSN Premium 'service' ugh, hopefully won't come to that.

Remaining platinum trophies I earned on PS4 were from MediEvil, Spyro Reignighted trilogy (with the exception of Spyro 2), and Subnautica. That list is as long as my 360 one but I'm still working on it.

I'm also working on 100%ing Nintendo and Steam games. While there's no official reward for 100%ing Nintendo games, I'm still completing them because they're fun. Sometimes you don't need a trophy or ribbon to say you 100% completed a game... it would be nice but it's not needed.

The games I completed on Nintendo Switch were Luigi's Mansion 3, Island Savers (a free kid's game that looked simple and fun to me), and Fenyx Rising... Yeah, Fenyx is available on other consoles but it feels at home on Switch.

Meanwhile on Steam I worked on and completed Helltaker, Force Unleashed, Overlord Raising Hell and Overlord 2, and Alice Madness Returns... while there's no achievements or blue ribbon for those EA games, I still wanted to complete them and never touch another EA game for as long as I can.

So, including the recent blog posts I made about recent games I've completed, I have a sum total of 21 modern titles. For PS3/360 games I managed 10 completed games. GameCube had 8 and the only other completed game was on Sega Genesis. Giving me a total of 40 complete games throughout my life. I plan on making that number higher. But I don't know if I'll stick with making blog posts about them. Sure it's easy but it doesn't feel as enjoyable or fun as gaming is. I don't know... I'll probably be stuck on here until I figure something out.

[crimsonblackrose]

73, 43 and 21 please!

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

Hmmm. I feel like you generally don't know what's a weird flavor combination until people point it out. Like I love root beer and I didn't know it was something people wouldn't like until I moved to Korea. Same with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I made those for my students and we even had a song about them and they were not fans. 😅 But like my dad and my uncle both also add butter?! to their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I just...don't hate or love that. Not my go to. Due to length I'm putting the rest of this under a readmore

I mean I like mint chocolate and I like peanut butter and chocolate but I feel like those are fairly common. I don't hate pineapple on pizza, but I also don't go out of my way for pineapple. As a kid I really liked butter on my rice until a cook teased me till i was in tears over it. And I've never eaten butter on my rice since. I do like a lot of those non-leafy-green weird American salads. A lot of potlucks and get together had them. To be fair I think they were mostly fruit in whip cream but I did like those a lot. I also like like chicken salad and tuna salad which are essentially meat shredded up with seasoning and mayonnaise which I'm sure to some is also a weird flavor combination. I'm sure there's also countless others. ice cream and french fries?

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket? I wrote a big long answer to this in my previous one but what it boiled down to was cardigan. (Despite all my high school years living in a jean jacket 🤣) 21. obsession from childhood? Also got to answer this one, but I feel like no childhood is just one obsession so I'll give you another. I'll give you a weird one. I lived in an old 100 year old house in the middle of nowhere which meant bugs. Lots of bugs. And my dad liked technology and put a computer in his library so I spent a lot of time as a kid watching him play Diablo and random other games and playing like nerdy how to do math and spelling and typing games. But because it was also the time of dial up whenever I wanted to do online things it meant waiting. And rather than get up and do something else I'd look out the window. Old farm house windows, or at least the one in the library next to the computer was two sets of glass. An inside and an outside and we NEVER opened that window. I don't know if it was painted shut or what but I never WANTED to open that window. Instead I just watched.

It was full of spiders. All sorts of spiders just living out their lives and I could watch them catch bugs or just wander around and study them without like any fear like I usually did when I encountered a spider. Morbid curiosity I suppose. I don't love spiders, but I feel like to an extent I had to sort of get used to them? I mean they were everywhere because we lived in the countryside. I'd make my dad go first when we'd leave in the morning because he was a giant and would walk through the morning dew covered spiderwebs the spiders had made through the night outside our door. We had a mail box and a bunch of newspaper official boxes and because we didn't get the newspaper those were completely overrun in morning glories and spiders. And our own actual mail box, every time I opened it was a game of am I going to end up with a spider on me just from opening the box? And I'd have to very carefully open it so one didn't like spring out, startled because it was on the latch and then get the mail and tap at it to shake off any spiders. So I was obsessed in a morbid curiosity fashion I suppose with spiders.

Thank you for the asks from this game here.

[simonmlewis]

Do I Remember the Second Time?

Most people think about the first time they saw Pulp live when they sing "Do you remember the first time?" Mine was 1994 and it was in the SFX in Dublin, 5 days before Common People was released. I was a mis-shaped, misfit, and the gig changed my life. Where I went to school, everyone wore Global Technicolour t-shirts and chewed the insides of their mouth. They weren't actually on ecstacy, it seemed to be a cool thing to do. I left my classmates to their raves and went to watch bands like Fluffy and the Bluetones. But it wasn't until Pulp's SFX gig, where I felt home with 800 other indie kids.

I watched them a couple of years later in the Point and there were many many more kindred spirits in the crowd by then. I've seen them a few times when they've come to Ireland (though I skipped the post-This is Hardcore gigs, to my regret.)

However, "Do you remember the first time?" took on a different meaning this year. Ten years after their last gig, after which I didn't sleep for three days (due to non-chemically induced ecstacy) they were back, for their This is What We Do for an Encore tour. Rozz and I booked into a hotel in Dublin, had a drink, and we were ready for action! Long story short, Rozz and I aren't drinkers, and we had forgotten the adage of never mixing grape with grain. There is video evidence of us having the greatest night of our lives. The next morning, I logged on to Ticketmaster to see if I could find any way to see them again so I wouldn't live in eternal regret.

All the dedicated Pulp gigs had long sold out so I found myself paying way over the odds to see them at TRNSMT, an annual festival in Glasgow.

Glasgow is a cool city, famous for this statue and this square with loads of statues, ☝🏼 but that was not important. I had this 👇🏼

I stayed in the Crown Plaza hotel and checked in. I'm almost certain they had no idea what they were doing when they were allocating my room but I very much appreciated the gesture.

My room didn't have a bolt across the door. Just as well.

Pulp weren't playing until after 9pm but I thought it would be a good idea to go a bit early so whipped on my His n Hers t-shirt that nobody recognises as a His n Hers t-shirt. With the pang of double wines still fresh in my memory, I thought that I may as well get some value out of my ticket, and get there early enough. Paul Heaton of Housemartins and Beautiful South fame was playing at 4:30 so I thought that would be a good time to start.

The strongest thing that passed my lips was Us+Them coffee and Scran's chicken shawarma. The woman at the box office strapped my silver grey band to my wrist and in I went.

My game plan was to ensure I got as close to the stage as possible for Pulp without having to stand through Niall Horan and George Ezra so I did my test run for Paul Heaton.

I really enjoyed his set and I knew quite a few of the songs. I ended up standing beside a guy with a Union Jack hat who booed Heaton when he sang "F**k the King" and revealed his co-singer's football team was Celtic. I had my line "I support Patrick Thistle" ready even though I haven't even looked at the Scottish League table since the 1990s. Heaton sang a good few Beautiful South and House Martin's songs. He ended with Caravan of Love, which was great.

As planned, I skipped Niall Horan completely in search of food but walked by the stage as he was covering a Tears for Fears song, which probably would have been tolerable had I have bothered standing in the pit. I watched a band on the King Tut stage, mainly a refuge for older people trying to drown out Horan but gave up after a few songs. I found myself some grub and someone smiled at and commented on my t-shirt (FINALLY!) To celebrate I grabbed my first beer and sat on a picnic table. I had a lovely chat with the people sitting there and before I knew it my phone binged a notification. One hour to go. Time for my masterplan.

I calculated that George Ezra fans would not be Pulp fans so I decided to hang out at the edge of the first few rows for the last 3 songs of his set. I knew two of the songs and it didn't make me like him any more or less than I had before. I possibly tapped my toe to the chorus of his last song, the one about yellow and green, which might be about one of the wires in a plug? Anyway, once he had cleared off, hordes of teenagers changed places with people my age. It seems I was not unique in my plan. I found myself squashed between two friends who were now in their 40s and a very young couple who seemed to like Pulp a lot. Although there were more very young people there than I'd have liked, I was happy enough with that. I chatted to a few of them who kept listing other bands they thought I might like.

One thing I remembered from Dublin was to keep an eye on the screens on the sides of the stage as the beginning of I Spy began.

And just like Dublin, up popped Jarvis...

It was as joyous as I don't remember the first time being. The setlist was pretty much the same (minus Razzamatazz) and it basically filled in the gaps of the forgotten evening. After I Spy, Disco 2000 got everyone going, partially because it was one of two songs that the young people knew.

I learned one of the women I met also had Something Changed as her wedding song. She cried all the way through it. I missed Rozz being there.

Another thing I noticed was that I was bopping a lot more than most of the people around me. I think that might have been the difference between the first gig and this one. There were a lot of people there that didn't know Pulp that well. I didn't care. I happily took on the "annoying old man trying to relive his youth" role.

There were too many highlights to mention. I videoed a little bit of "Mis-shapes" for Emrys because it's his favourite song. "Do you remember the first time?" took on its new meaning for me, and it was followed by Babies, which was just amazing. I was slightly relieved when Sunrise started because I thought I was going to faint from all my jumping. I imagine the people around me were too. I never realised what a brilliant song that was. Weeds and Pink Glove were also surprise highlights. "This is Hardcore" was stunningly good and also gave me a break from jumping but "Sorted for Es and Whizz" got me bouncing again. Nobody was chewing their inner mouth.

I'm not quite sure why but Jarvis sang Happy Birthday to Ringo Starr and threw chocolates at the crowd to celebrate World Chocolate Day. Even more puzzling, he read a poem.

I didn't recognise it. My guess is that he googled "very short Scottish poem" and that was it.

The encore was the same as Dublin. I was surprised by how many people knew Like a Friend. I didn't really know it that well. Maybe young people knew it from a film it was in? As the crowd got restless for Common People, I knew Underwear was coming first and I was possibly the most excited person in the crowd. Jarvis may have introduced it as foth-éadaí in Dublin but I don't remember. It didn't matter, it was perfect for the song everyone was waiting for. Like it or not, even if this was the only song most people were here for, there's nothing like standing with thousands of people belting it out. Jarvis teased the crowd asking had he left a song out and suggested "Pencil Skirt" before he gave everyone what they wanted. It was pure pure joy. Complete with fireworks, we chanted "I wanna live with Common People like you" over and over again, and I hoped we'd never stop. La la, la la la la la, oh you. The stage flashed. And then it was over.

I said my goodbyes to my new friends and off I walked to my hotel, back to the 15th floor, the music buzzing in my ears all night. I might not have remembered the first time, but I'll never forget the second.

[signofthestriking]

Lore dump of Three Musketeers cause I'm bored, part one of whatever lol

Aka I'm about to ramble incoherently about a dbz fanfic for a little while.

TLDR: Universe Seven got reset. Everything starts over on Earth, with a pair of friends trying to find the Dragon Balls. Their wish? To learn more about the Saiyans.

Just completely scrub your mind of canon storylines I'm kinda doing my own little thing lol

The setting: Universe Seven has been erased and remade, in the cycle of creation and destruction. Many of the places remain familiar, but the people and the events have changed. And in usual fashion, the story starts on a relatively peaceful Earth, where most Earthlings live oblivious of the supernatural.

The OCs: Konnie Sai, Maize, and Prism Lockwood. They don't call themselves the Three Musketeers but that's who they are lol

Konnie Sai: A Saiyan-Earthling hybrid living in Central City with her parents, Serenity and Okkoro. Cheerful, sweet, and notoriously bad-mouthed. Everyone's surprised when someone as sweet as her turns out to be so short-fused. Stubbornly defiant. Lover of cardigans and knit sweaters.

Maize: A teenage hermit Saiyan that lives alone on an island not far from Penguin Village. Has barely interacted with people aside from her mentor, who left her 3 years ago and hasn't come back yet. Training to avenge her dead dad. Would spend all her tournament money on fantasy books if she could.

Little bit of background about Earth in this AU:

Prism Lockwood: The sole student of a disgraced warrior. Due to a condition they inherited from their mother, they have split their body into six separate "facets" of themself. Not a man, not a woman, but a secret third option.

There's a Guardian known as Zither. He's been there for nearly 450 years, and although his active presence on Earth has diminished, he still patiently awaits any warrior that might find him.

There used to be different martial art schools on Earth, but they were all wiped out by someone. More on that another day.

The background between Maize and Konnie:

Konnie and Maize met over a chance encounter on the Internet, that Maize stumbled upon by sheer accident. Konnie wrote an angry vent post and forgot to remove a part where she talked about her Saiyan blood by name, and it was the only thing that popped up when Maize typed the word "saiyan" into a library computer in Penguin Village. They got to talking, and despite initial distrust from Konnie, they became friends.

This was quite literally the only working computer there. Maize later used winnings from a World Martial Arts Tournament championship to buy her own laptop, with Konnie's help.

Konnie's father Okkoro refuses to train her. He taught her a few basic ways to defend herself, but nothing more. This is a sore spot between them. He also refuses to tell her anything about the Saiyans, and Konnie stubbornly doubles down. After finding a Dragon Ball buried in the ground behind her school, she decides to hunt down the other six.

Oddly enough, her mother Serenity approves of her doing this behind Okkoro's back, even going so far as to design a prototype Dragon Radar for Konnie to use. There's a reason why Serenity does this, but Konnie doesn't learn about it for another few years.

Maize, who is also a Saiyan, doesn't know a whole lot about them either. Her mentor, a Namekian named Limax, never told her much about her people. In fact, she recalls that he "didn't really like Saiyans and never wanted to talk about them much". She speaks nothing but praise for her mentor, at first.

When Konnie first got the Dragon Ball, she initially didn't connect the dots between the five-starred ball and the old myth. Since I figure the normal Earthlings would at least have a few stories about things like Dragon Balls. After a bit of searching, they realize that the Dragon Balls are real, and Konnie has the idea of finding the rest.

They decide to use the wish in order to learn more about the Saiyans. After all, they also want a chance to meet each other in person. Konnie decides to consult her mother, who surprisingly agrees to help. There's something Serenity knows that Konnie doesn't, but we don't have time to unpack all that.

Konnie has to wait until the school year is up, and Maize wants to go after the tournament. It's June, Age 718, when they finally hit the road. But as it turns out, they aren't the only ones after them.

Tune in next time, maybe I'll try to explain Prism's side of things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[bush-viper-cutie]

New Student, New Friend

Pairing: Young Snape x french!reader

Word Count: 2,751

Request: #1 “Hi! Can I request a young!Snape x french!reader where the reader's transferred from beauxbatons and isn't fluent in english/has a thick accent? Love your work!!”

#2 “Hi hi! Love your work! Can I request Young Snape x French reader? Sorry if I dont speak well, english is not my first language <3”

Warnings: none

A/N: Hello everyone again! :D I combined both requests because they are pretty similar so enjoy!

Posted: 9/10/21

Masterlist

---

~*~*~ = time skip

(Y/n) = first name

(L/n) = last name

~*~*~

~*~*~ = POV change

---

~*~*~*~*~ *~

There was a strange static in the air this morning, one Severus couldn't quite place. He brushed his long hair back behind his ear and listened in to the hushed whispers of passing classmates.

"...Beauxbaton, can you believe it?"

"Nice to not know someone for a change - "

Beauxbaton? Severus gathered they were talking about a new teacher perhaps? Although it wasn't that odd to get new professors in the middle of the school year. Just last year the Dark Arts professor was promptly replaced when he went mad after a spell backfired on him; In fact, every year there was a new one.

It was strange that the new teacher should be a transfer from another school such as Beauxbaton... Maybe they were fired and no one else wanted them, must be down on their luck. And if that is the case, how very fitting for Hogwarts, home of inadequacy.

Severus, still deep in his bitter thoughts, almost tripped over the shoe that had extended out in front of him. He caught himself and whirled around angrily. "Watch it!" he growled, straightening.

James Potter smirked. "Oh, Snivellus. Didn't see you there.” His Gryffindor friends snickered behind him, bolstering his ego. "I'd get along to class if I were you. Wouldn't want to be late on your first day back."

Severus grit his teeth and did everything he could to not growl his displeasure of being in so close proximity to the pinnacle of mediocrity that was Potter. It had been a week after winter holidays had ended but after another nearly fatal encounter with Black, he’d been forced to stay in the Hospital Wing un-zippering his mouth and a couple of fingers before being allowed back.

The memory of the experience made his knees weak, making keeping his riled demeanor that much harder. He was lucky he'd had the foresight to cover his nose before Black unleashed his hex. It wasn’t a quick run from the lake to the nurse, and he certainly wouldn't have made it with his nostrils zippered together as well.

"Mind your own business, Potter." Severus spat out his name like rotten apples, furrowing his brows in an attempt to seem more threatening however he could not help but notice the hallways getting emptier by the second. He knew better than to get caught alone with Potter.

He laughed and turned to catch up with his friends. Severus watched him go, only relaxing his shoulders after Potter had rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight. The hall was empty.

He turned and continued down the corridor when his hearing perked at the scuff of loud footsteps. He whirled around, hand plunging into his robes, but it was too late.

"Levipeds!"

Severus' head snapped back as his feet whipped out from under him. He hung limp in the air, watching his wand roll away on the stone floor. His hair nearly touched the dirty ground.

James laughed. "Welcome back, Snivellus!"

He closed his eyes as his boiling blood rushed to his head. He was hanging upside down in the air, alone in the empty corridor. He couldn't scream for help, he'd just get yelled at for disturbing lessons, and he couldn't reach his wand - as long as his limbs might be, his wand might as well have rolled down into the dungeons. He'd have to hang there until classes were over or one of the portraits decided to help him out for once.

"Eh... Excuse moi?" A quiet voice wrapped in a thick French accent broke the silence.

His eyes flew open and stared straight into the face of a beautiful but completely unfamiliar student. She bent down low to meet his eyes. She must be the mystery person from Beauxbaton, the new student as it turned out.

This was worse, so much worse than being caught by anyone else in the school - except for a very select few. Severus looked around in search of anything that might make this all less embarrassing.

"You need help, no?" Her voice was more confident this time, laced with a hint of friendly amusement.

"Uhh..." He met her eyes and hoped this new student would excuse his red face to be due to all his blood rushing down.

She straightened and pointed behind him. "This is your wand? I'll give to you?" His wand was in his hand with one quick flick of her own.

His eyebrows automatically shot up at her use of nonverbal spells. "Thanks," he tried swallowing but ended up coughing. He covered his mouth and performed the counter-hex, dropping to the floor with a grunt.

She rushed forward, looping her arm through his and helping him up to his feet. She laughed and dusted the dirt off his back while he stood paralyzed.

"Better, no?" she smiled, facing him a foot from his stiff figure. "I'm new seventh-year transfer... And you?"

For a moment his mouth opened but no words flew out, and then all at once words poured out as fast as if under a curse. "I'm - oh - yes you're from Beauxbaton, right? Yeah - er - yes, seventh-year as well."

Her hands flew up and she waved them in front of herself with a laugh. "Slow please!" she laughed again. "One more time?"

Severus gave an awkward laugh that matched hers and nodded. "I'm also a seventh-year."

"Oh!" she held out a paper and pointed down to the class he was late for. "I am so lost! You help me now? Oui?"

She smiled up at him and his heart nearly leaped out of his mouth. He nodded quickly, "Yes - er - oui, I'll help you... Actually, that's my class too..."

"Oh!" Her smile widened, "I need partner for the class! You have one?"

For once Severus thanked his unlucky past self. His time in the hospital wing all week meant everyone would be already partnered up. "No, I don't..." his face flushed red again and he cleared his throat, looking away. "We could be partners?"

"Bon! Lead the way, partner," she motioned for him to lead, keeping a very close pace next to him as they walked. "I am lucky to find you, did not know anyone yet. You are only third person met!"

He gave her a small smile as they walked together, but he knew it wouldn't take long for her to find out his status at the school. Being a new student, he was sure she’d make all the friends she could ever want by the end of the day. Then she'd reconsider her luck after everyone tells her all about her lab partner, 'Snivellus'.

~*~*~

They made it to class late. The professor looked up and frowned, ready to tell them off when Severus' new ‘friend’ spoke up.

"Excuse us, Professor, I am new and got lost."

The professor sighed and waved his hand, giving her a pass. "And I see you're back Mr. Snape. Get to your seats, you'll both be working together - get moving."

The two back seats were empty and Severus was glad to be away from the front for once. His new partner set down her things, and as she bent to pick up her books Severus caught a glimpse of Sirius Black glaring at him from the front, a seat behind where Severus had been sitting the last term. Black had anticipated his return and was obviously annoyed with the change in seating.

"What may I call you, Mr. Snape?" The new student whispered, giving him her full attention despite the lesson continuing.

"S-Severus." He looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him. He'd die of embarrassment if they started teasing him in front of her for daring to open his mouth. "And you?"

She smiled. "Severus Snape? That's a beautiful name." She looked back up to make sure their conversation was still private and turned back. She reached up and gripped his tie, pulling him towards her. She leaned and held a hand to his ear, moving her lips inches from his ear. "(Y/n) (L/n)."

Severus’ heart beat faster than it ever had before. The immense drumming in his ears almost made it impossible to hear her whispers. When she released him, he turned to look at her, feeling his face heat up either from proximity or from her warm breath flowing over his face. "(Y/n)... Good to know." He swallowed and realized he had not moved since she had pulled him towards her. He would have felt like an idiot if she wasn’t looking at him so playfully.

"You gonna kiss her, Snivellus?"

Severus pulled back quickly and clenched his jaw at Black.

The professor smacked Sirius' head with a roll of parchment. "Mr. Black, disturb my class again and I'll assign you an essay for every night this week." Severus smirked. "And you, Mr. Snape," the Professor smacked the board, creating a puff of chalk, "- will hand me your notes tomorrow before class - legible notes, might I add."

Severus nodded as the class snickered and turned away from (Y/n). The rest of the lesson went by agonizingly slow. Severus counted the seconds until he could run away to the library, away from taunting eyes. He hated himself for turning so red, but he hated Black even more for making him the fool.

~*~*~

~*~*~

You could tell the boy, 'Mr. Black', had embarrassed Severus greatly. He was hunched over his parchment, focused completely on the professor's words, and never once looking back up at you.

You read the words on the board but soon your eyes ventured down to look at the tall lanky boy currently trying to visibly shrink in his seat. The moment shared between you both still played on your mind. He had beautiful long lashes and deep dark eyes to match. It had been fun to see him so flustered over you, but the guilt of what you'd caused sat heavily on your chest. That boy had noted Severus had been in the perfect position to kiss her, which... did she kind of wish he had?... Just to see - for just a curious taste.

You didn't know what specifically was so alluring about Severus, but you could imagine yourself wrapped in his arms, pulling on his long hair, biting his lips, and hearing that deep voice of his purring for more. Something about him - or maybe everything about him - made you wonder how gentle those hands of his could be.

The bells rang in the distance, marking the end of the lesson. You packed your things and sat waiting for Severus to do the same. He was slow at first and then after a quick flick of his eyes up to you hurried along.

You stood at the same time and motioned for the door, scrambling to translate your thoughts into English. "Lunch now? We can sit together?"

People filed out of the class, which Severus watched closely before turning back to her and answering. "Look, this isn't the only time… I'm not someone to hang out with unless you like hexes and spells to be thrown in your direction."

You could see the hurt in his eyes, the way his brows furrowed, and his down-turned eyes filled with tears that wouldn't fall. Before you could bring yourself to respond, he sighed shakily, giving you pause.

"It's not your fault... I'll show you down and then I suggest you forget about being friends." He pulled open the door and held it open for you without meeting your eyes.

What could you say to him? You stepped out into the corridor, contemplating how to phrase what you were thinking when laughter pulled your focus.

"I see you've met our Snivellus." The stupid boy, Black, came forward talking to you but keeping his attention on Severus. He had long curly hair nearly as long as Severus' and was taller, with proud shoulders held in a loose demeanor that still made him seem important in some way. His eyes shifted to you, "Hope he didn't drip any snot on you while he tried for a kiss."

You scoffed, “You do not understand what you saw. Please leave us alone.”

“Love, maybe you’re not understanding me. For your own safety I insist YOU leave this sniffling slime alone.” Black took a step closer.

Severus pulled out his wand but held it low, at the ready in an instant. "I’m done with your games. Unlike you, you nitwitted tower troll, I have places to be." He finally glanced your way, "Excuse me," and made to leave.

Black blocked his way, laughing at the now pointed wand in Severus’ hand. "Go ahead, I’ll be glad if you finally get expelled for using wands in the corridors. Mine's not even on me."

You eyed the smirk on his face and the tiny shift of his hand towards his trousers pocket. Was that a lie then? Whatever the case, you had enough of this game too. "My friend, Severus, is showing me to lunch. We are going now." You stepped between Severus and Black, giving the taller boy an annoyed look.

"I’m telling you, be careful," Black chuckled. "He might try to kiss you again if you’re too nice."

You paused and stepped back, looking up at Severus, whose eyes were fixed on Black, staring daggers into him. You bit your lip and chuckled the same way Black had, finding a different kind of amusement than him in this situation. "I hope he will."

Severus' head snapped to you, his cheeks slowly going a light shade of pink all over.

Black made a disgusted sound and a show of his fake nausea. “Darling, I don’t think I understood you correctly. Check your dictionary and if that’s not the problem maybe your eyes.”

This boy was really getting on your nerves now. If you’d been back at Beauxbaton you’d’ve already hexed him into a soggy pile of starter yeast, baked him into the perfect Pain au Levain, and chucked him out the tallest tower window. “Move it,” you made sure your French accent coated the word heavily.

Severus’ hand wrapped around your arm, pulling you back. He kept his wand and eyes trained on Black but spoke to you. “Go down to lunch. I’ll stay here to have the chat Black so desperately wants to have with me.” He looked up again, “Let her leave.”

Black smiled, “That’s fine. Been meaning to ask how your winter holiday was after I last saw you.”

You turned to Severus, ready to protest when the door to the classroom opened, cutting Black off. You all stood very still and awkward, hoping to hide the atmospheric hostility that had been created.

The Professor locked the door with a flick of his wand and looked at everyone with concern. "Off to lunch, no need wandering the corridors. Now." He ushered everyone down the stairs, walking close behind in equal silence.

You reached the floor second to last, after Black and then Severus, and pulled on Severus' arm the second your Professor had turned towards the staff room. You kept your hand on him to make sure he didn’t decide to leave before you could talk to him. Before Black could step towards you to continue the ‘conversation’, other Gryffindor students pulled him towards a small crowd gathering across the floor. Whatever it was seemed to be of higher interest and he left with only single backwards glance.

You both watched him go dissolve into the rowdy group and suddenly the air around you shifted. Severus turned instantly, searching your eyes with an intensity you could almost feel. You blushed and slid your hand down his sleeve and lingered on his bare hand. Neither of you said a word but the electricity connecting your eyes and the comfortable silence that enveloped you both spoke volumes. "We could eat together, no?"

His eyes settled on your hand still on his until you let go. "Oui," he whispered with a smile pulling at his lips. “Lunch then.”

As you both walked on, he slowly crept closer with every step, making your shoulders brush against his arm. His pinky tickled the skin on your wrist, making you cough to hide a giggle as you entered the Great Hall. Your eyes flickered up at his and you smiled, seeing a gentle blush and an even gentler smile on his face.

~*~*~*~*~ *~

Masterlist

—-

General taglist:

@setsuna-meiou31

@severuslovebot

@bionic-otp

—–

[awakeshedreams]

sugar and spice ( 1 )

pairing : resident bad boy!jjk x model student!reader

setting : highschool!au x stepbrother!au

summary :

a messy highschool!au x stepbrother!au where model student reader who has quite a few dirty little secrets sees her world take an unexpected turn when her mother comes home one day with an engagement announcement, to the father of none other than the school's resident bad boy.... Jeon Jungkook.

genre : smut, for laughs, kinda pornish, slow burn with collosaly overwhelming sexual tension

rating: soft m ( for now ) due to adult content

warnings : unconventional relationship of sexual nature, tropes and clichès, teenagers partaking in porn-esque activities, made up things with made up people happening in a made up world, don't like don't read XD

wordcount : 2.3K

a/n : i've been fighting in a long standing war and I have lost. the man known as jeon jungkook had his foot on my neck for years and today, I have finally submitted to my fate and surrendered to his reign.

yes. after a hundred years, i'm writing again. specifically, writing for bts. particularly, writing for jungkook. its been a long time coming.

life just took over and I transitioned into an adult and kind of grew out of the state of mind I was in before. but. sigh. jeon jungkook has been tormenting me the whole time. it was only a matter of time before i relapsed honestly.

so here I am again. in mind, body and spirit, a different person from who I was before but still the same in the sense that with the way bts have my whole heart, jk will always be the demon in the corner of my room that I invite to bed for a cuddle even though it's (probably really) not good for me.

do not misconstrue. I love him more than I can say. but. sigh. he has me in a chokehold, loves. please try to understand where I'm coming from.

anyways, enough with this ranting. you all came here for the nitty gritty so let me not hold you hostage with my dilemma rambling any longer. here's to the first bts fic i've posted in literal years. introducing- sugar and spice.

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Unless they told someone, no one would have been able to guess it.

At school they were complete strangers.

She was the nice head girl with a clean record, all smiles and straight A’s. He was the mysterious bad boy with a track record, all tatted up with bruised knuckles.

She wore plaid skirts with neat pleads in them and pastel sweaters with bows at the collar. He wore jeans with rips in them and leather jackets with studs.

They couldn't have been any more different.

As far as anyone was concerned, they existed on two extreme ends of a vast spectrum.

What they didn't know was that they shared a dirty little secret.

.

You were a girl with many dirty secrets.

For instance, you used to sell nudes online. It was a side hustle you did.

Not because you needed money.

Your mom was a renowned doctor so there was more than enough of that in your life.

Not because you needed validation from people online either.

Even without the constant compliments and the praises you knew you were visually blessed with a pretty face and a nice body too.

All things considered, you simply thought you had a nice pair of tits and you took pictures of them sometimes.

Posting the shots you snapped online came much later when you heard about this website where people were getting paid crazy money for posting racy things.

‘It’s just so degrading…’ It was one of your friends, June, who sneered, pretty nose scrunched up. She fixed her long ponytail and rolled her brown eyes while looking in the mirror at her locker. ‘Who would do such a thing, am I right?’

She said this, but June was the girl who has slept with more boys than she could count on her two hands. And those were the ones she told you about.

Like every other time, you said nothing. Even when it carried on to lunch with the rest.

‘Pretty desperate if you ask me.’ Mei the stellar track runner shrugged casually as she stretched her limbs like routine.

‘Where are their parents?’ Nina the library nerd shook her head in disapproval as she fixed her glasses so it sat right on the bridge of her nose.

‘Um… I don’t think it’s … appropriate… to talk about ….’ Kiko the one who always carried a cross and bible around mumbled into her sleeve.

All your friends spoke of it in derision and repulsion of course. This was a school for proper children so they were proper girls. At least they were supposed to be.

Regardless the conversation sparked a curiosity in you.

So you made an account and uploaded your first picture. Nothing bizarre. Just your tits in a pretty lace bra.

You made sure to keep your face out of the frame because that was the smart thing to do and you were nothing if not the smartest student in school.

In all honesty, you weren’t expecting anything out of it. In fact, in between work with student council and tutoring your juniors with finals right around the corner, you even forgot about it for an entire month.

It was by a complete whim that you decided to open the app while you’d been unwinding at your desk following a tedious day at school.

To say you were amused by the response you found waiting for you would have be a grave understatement.

You were staring at the four figure digit that now sat in your bank account.

Reading through the comment section was even more interesting.

There were all sorts of people there who had all sorts of things to say. Ranging from honestly sweet to downright dirty.

You had never been brought to tears laughing in her life before until then.

It was just so funny to see people misbehave and lose their minds over a pair of tits.

From then on it just sort of became a thing.

.

But that wasn't the worse of your secrets.

You were making a name for yourself on the crude web months later.

The next step was naturally to move from making taking pictures to making videos. Since you was already in too deep you didn’t see why not.

So you upgraded and opened another account. An amateur one where your touched yourself for an audience.

You were no prude.

You might have never been touched by a boy before but you had touched yourself plenty times. Stress and frustration came hand in hand with being head girl. Since you couldn’t quite vent it out at the annoying troublemakers at school, this was your second best option.

Third was watching porn, but that was mostly when you were extremely bored.

But that wasn’t where that little endeavor ended.

Later on it became a lot more risqué.

.

It all started when your mom hit you with a marriage announcement.

She met a guy on her business trip who she really liked and she was convinced he was the one.

Your mom had a tragic history of being a bad judge of character.

You’ve had this conversation at least five times since you became old enough to understand that boys and girls who were just friends didn’t kiss and sleep with each other.

Most times, it felt like she was doing it because she thought you needed a dad around.

You might have once, when you were younger and your mom was too busy with work to be there. But she worked from home these days and you were soo busy with school to worry about things like that.

This time it was like she was doing it for her. You were glad.

Your mom looked genuinely happy when she spoke about this guy.

Who were you to get in the way?

.

She spent almost the whole weekend in the kitchen. It was the longest you’ve seen her in there in your entire life.

She was excited for the dinner on Sunday.

Mr Jeon was the name of the chosen man.

He was coming over with his kid. A son, his only family. His wife passed away years ago.

You wore the dress your mom picked out for you, something cream in color and off the shoulders that brushed your knees. She looked pretty in her champagne dress. It was different from the office slacks and loose blouses you were used to seeing her in.

You stood by her at the door while the guests came through.

Lifting your head from a polite bow, you found herself staring straight into an achingly familiar pair of glinting dark eyes and went completely still.

‘Sweetie,' Your mother said sounding delighted, a soft hand on your stiff shoulder. 'This is Mr Jeon and his son Jungkook.’

Ah. Fuck.

‘Jeon dear, this is my daughter. Isn’t she lovely?’

.

Dinner was a mild affair, with small talk and the occasional clinking of cutlery on fine china.

From the outside looking in, you probably looked the picture perfect family already.

Only if no-one looked close enough.

Arms crossed, tongue in cheek. Your discomfort could be detected from miles away.

The two adults were oblivious.

The dark eyed boy with the slightest wave to his nape touching, brow grazing, ear covering onyx hair sat across you though; he took note of this with a passing glance and wordlessly returned to his food.

Jeon Jungkook had a countenance that betrayed his reputation.

Even though you’ve never talked, you knew plenty about him and you were sure he knew a lot about you too.

You went to the same school.

Dressed as he was in a crisp white dress shirt buttoned at the wrist and dark tailored pants with a fine belt on, it might have been hard to tell what kind of person he really was.

You lifted her gaze from your plate to look study him wordlessly, idly twisting the noodles with your fork.

People either called him the black sheep or the dark cloud but for you, Jeon Jungkook was the school’s resident lone wolf.

He smoked in the secluded areas on campus, sometimes playing his guitar. Beat up people who got on his nerves, sometimes using his guitar. Slept in class the rare times he was there, many times on his guitar.

Being his senior, you had never seen any of any of that for yourself. But you received plenty reports weekly to come to a sound conclusion.

There was no way people hated him enough to join hands in solidarity and make this all up.

It was quite the contrary actually. He had an alarming number of fans.

On the surface level you couldn’t see why. Most times you saw him, he looked bored out his mind and honestly, intimidating.

Maybe it was the tattoos. Or the ripped skinny jeans. Or the leather jackets with studs.

Maybe it was the domineering height and fit frame and structured face.

Maybe it was the intense dark eyes or the silky ruffled hair.

Even then, you failed to see the irresistible appeal in him. All those things that made him up only added to his unapproachable aura.

Bottom line was, he was bad news.

.

You didn’t want to be a spoil sport.

But how much of a thug your mom’s boyfriend’s son was shouldn’t be something that would make her like him less.

They were both their own people. Right ?

It was just that you just didn’t want her to be shocked and devastated if something happened later. When it happened.

Yet it seemed the serious conversation would have to wait.

After dinner your mom suggested you head to the living room to chat over wine and cheese.

You stayed back to do take out the dishes.

Earlier, your mom had stood to do it instead at first.

‘Don’t bother with that, dear.’ She reached for the plates in your hands. ‘Let me do it.’

‘It’s okay, mom.’ You smiled a little. ‘This is your night. I’ll meet you in the living room.’

'Sweetie...' Your mom looked close to tears. ‘But there’s so much of it…’

‘Jungkook,’ his father's voice had cut through the moment. He was a serious man in a crisp suit with a stoic countenance. His voice was just naturally authoritarian without him trying ‘Give her a hand.’

Jungkook stood, almost robotically.

‘It’s fine.’ You said. Politely. Nicely. Tightly. ‘I can handle this much.’

You left without another word.

That had been moments ago and now you were done with cleaning.

You stood at living room entrance for a while, taking in the scene.

The two adults were exchanging moon eyes and whispering in each other’s ears at the love seat.

Jungkook was sitting on a solo seat, but he was on his phone, completely unbothered by what was happening.

Your mom seemed to think it was the perfect time to pull out the photo album right then and there upon seeing you.

It was embarrassing but at least you knew you didn’t have to worry about the pictures spreading at school.

Jungkook was looking, picking up a picture occasionally to rove over, but he wasn’t the type to do that.

He also wasn’t the type to stare but you felt his glance shifting to you and lingering multiple times.

Once, you caught his eyes and he just stared at you across the coffee table wordlessly with a curious tilt to his head, idly flipping a picture of you dressed as a knight in glitter shining armor for Halloween at eight in his hands.

Honestly, it was starting to get annoying.

But you endured. For your mom’s sake.

.

Your alarm went off at exactly ten.

As subtly as you could, you excused yourself with an apology to the guests, saying you weren't really feeling well.

In hindsight you probably should have used a better excuse.

Your mom was notorious when it came to worrying, especially when it comes to your health.

Also, you probably should’ve locked the door before undressing just for good measure since people were over.

But in the moment, you were too busy setting your camera up where you were kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed to be concerned about that.

That day you were testing out a new toy.

.

Distractedly, you took note of a couple of people asking you if that was your boyfriend’s shirt you had lifted over your tits.

You ignored them.

Couldn’t a girl own an oversized tee without getting any flack?

Trivial comments like that aside, a good majority of the audience are fawning over how wet you were and how perfect you bouncing tits look being played with.

Your head fell back and your eyes fluttered shut.

You were sitting there, knees raised to your chest and legs splayed, your gushing pussy in full display where the toy was stuffed deep into her tightness, vibrating pleasantly.

‘I’m close…’ you mumbled throatily, squeezing your tits and pinching your stiff nipples in between your moving fingers. You moved your hips move faster, feeling the toy buzz against fluttering walls. You took a hand off one of your tits to rub at your engorged clit. ‘Fuckfuckfuck…’

Deep in your high, you didn’t hear the door open and close with a foreboding click.

You only heard your name being called by a deep, smooth voice through the heady haze.

Instantly you stilled.

When you snapped your head to look over her shoulder Jungkook was there, hands in his pockets, leaning against your doorframe with his sleeves drawn up to his elbows, muscle roped, inked skin on full display.

When he tilted his head to the side a little, appraisively, you dared to say as a quaking chill ran down your spine and your entire body felt like it was about to burst into flames, a bit of his hair fell over his face.

His eyes were like two black in the dark as he took you in, dragging his gaze up and down your exposed body languidly.

In the back of your mind, you wished the ground would part and swallow you whole.

‘Your mom,' he starts, capturing your attention wholly, dark gaze finally flickering to your face, his voice suddenly lower, hoarser. ‘She sent me over to check on you.’

It took you a moment to realize where you were, who you were, who he was.

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dropped over your head.

Jeon Jungkook, the school's resident trouble maker, soon to be your step brother, just walked in on you fingering yourself in in front of a recording camera.

Well. Yeah.

You gulped.

You were royally fucked.

depending on the response I get I might ( most probably will ) delete this. not because I'm ashamed of my work. because I'm embarrassed of myself. I really swore to never write again and here I am. sigh. yes, I have seen my previous works and noticed just how terrible they were and this is a big reason why. so sorry for putting you through that. a million apologies.

also, that's right. I have adopted a new style which might not be to everyone's liking. another reason why.

anyways, if you liked this filth ( i know it seems mild but I can tell you it's very likely gonna get worse ) please idk uh... fuck this isn't ao3. hm.

like and drop by in the ask box if you liked it and want to see more. it makes me happy. its like serotonin fuel to me.

have a nice day. see you next time ( maybe ). stay fresh. yeah. 💜💜.

[mrpenguinpants]

Genshin: Roommate HCs [V1]

To be honest, I just wanted to ramble some more and let my brainworms take over. This is sorta late but Happy Valentine’s everyone! I was gonna post this earlier but this honestly took me a long time to write so I moved it to today. 

Once again, this is 90% crack 10% content. Seriously, as much as I love writing this non-serious fics. Why do you people like this?

—

Based off my ramblings with Keqing anon: Link

Genshin: Holding Hands [V1]

Genshin: When you’re cold [V1]

Genshin: University AU [V1]

Genshin: Royalty AU [V1]

[Masterlist]

—

[taglist]  <- if you want to be added, please read this first.

@youaskedfurret @diaxfeliz @wintergreen-aix @kaechu @thegayrubberducky @lovelykittycatmeow @yuunoagivesmelife​  @dokidokisama @rokipersonal​@minakohasmanyhusbandos​ @strwbrry-lia @tigerpriestess​ @yuu-yuukurotsuki​ @hanniejji​  @mikeysbike @unionwitch @musekala @sunnshiii​ @stanzastic @akaasea​ @xoneaboveallx​ @adoring-ghost​ @asheseiler​ @childelover​ @dilucsz​ @dai-tsukki-desu​ @thicmitten​ @nonniechan​ @htnicayh​ @genshins1mpact​ 

---

Diluc

What? Diluc has a roommate? Did you blackmail him in living with you? Is that even possible? Did you throw yourself in front of his car because you needed someone to pay for your student loans and the easiest way was to file a lawsuit? In this economy no one would blame you. Diluc seems like such the self-isolated character that would murder his roommate in cold blood but in reality, he act’s detached from the world because he forgot how to socialize and he’s desperately trying to cover it up without choking. That or he’s trying to learn how to astral project. If he could drink away the pain he would but instead he buys 20 packs of grape Kool-Aid and injects it into his veins. 

Does not and will not ever have a normal sleeping schedule. You’ll wake up to him working, come back home to him working, and will sleep to him still working. His daily dose of Vitamin D is from the brightness of his screen rather than the sun and he’s filter feeding at this point. It’s concerning. He’s going to crumble and he’s bringing the world down with him. Through the power of tax evasion. But as soon as he needs to walk out into society, he pulls movie magic and looks like perfection. It’s both physically and mentally disgusting. 

He’s actually is a really nice roommate to have just so long as you give him space. Great cook and knows to clean up after himself. Though he does have crash and burn days where’s he’s completely out of commission. You could set the entire apartment on fire and he would sleep through it. The entire two weeks are dedicated to zombie eye marathons and then he’ll suddenly collapse and sleep for 46 hours straight. When he wakes up from his hibernation he’s the most groggy and nonsensical person. His life blood is coffee because you keep hiding the 5 hour energy away from him because, you know, life is enjoyable and those cancer bottles will actually kill him.  

“University sucks our money out of our bodies faster than our will to live.” 

Beidou [Happy Birthday Queen 💕]

Despite her appearance, she’s actually really strong and it scares the piss out of you when you’re doing something or scrolling through your phone mindlessly and you suddenly get your spine re-arranged when she slaps you on the back to ask what you’re doing. Likewise, when she hoists you up and throws you over her shoulder so you come with her on her 3am convivence store raids for alcohol. It’s either you change now or else we’re walking out of the apartment in your t-shirt and no pants self. She can and will carry you under her arm that way. It’s both incredibly attractive and horrifying at the same time. 

She’s really friendly and a great talker if you’re alright with her “I must hold you in my arms, fresh prince of bel air style”. It doesn’t matter if you’re taller than her, she’s doing it. She does however, get in a bit of trouble from her rowdiness and you often get noise complaints but Beidou just passes them off to Ningguang and everything is fixed. She has ovaries of steel when neighbors rather confront her personally and she’s ready to 1v1 in the parking lot. You’re trying to desperately hold onto her shirt to stop her from pile driving your neighbors for the third time this week but she’s too strong.  

She’s constant party until we die attitude and suffers the hangover in the morning. It’s actually really funny to catch her in her hangover moods because whatever filter Beidou had, which is none, is gone. She really takes “cursing like a sailor” or the next level and the amount of creativity she comes up with is actually impressive. She can be a bit messy but she’s really likeable and always down to go anywhere with you as long as you’ll do the same. It’s a very ride together, we die together situation. You’re my best friend, you’re dying with me. I’ll see you in hell. 

“Imma T pose over my dad and then crash the car into the parking garage.” 

Kaeya

Kaeya on the surface seems like such a chill roommate. And he is for the most part. But he’s such an ass. Your things are his things, no questions asked. If you just bought a really nice sweater or you had leftover food, that’s his now. He’s innocent until proven guilty even if he’s literally holding your lunch. The pure amount of bullshit he can spit out to convince you that no, he did not pull the fire alarm because he wanted an excuse for not going to work, puts him on Shakespeare level. He’s also very pretty, way too pretty, sir can you share some of your genes? 

But aside from that, he’s actually super dependable. You forgot something at home? Sure, he has nothing better to do so he can bring them for you. We’re missing eggs? No problem, he’s just by the store. You’re 95% sure that he just wants to be cheeky and make you thank him for 20 minutes before he actually hands you what you asked for. It’s better for you if you never tell him anything you’re afraid of because Kaeya has no social cues, or more like he throws them out the window, and he’s probably a psychopath. 

He’s incredibly private of his room and things despite his attitude towards yours. You’re convinced he either has a secret lab or that’s where he’s storing the bodies. I was the good guy but due to unfortunate circumstances, I need to stab a bitch. But he’s a really good serious talker for those 3am, because everything happens at 3am, talks about life and the meaning of the universe. It absolutely wrecks your sleep schedule but some of the things you talk about are the most crackhead things like what’s the lowest amount of money someone would have to pay you to walk outside without clothes? It’s a legitimate question. 

“Never before have I been so offended with something I 100% agree with.”

Jean

Okay, what world did you save in a past life to live with his absolutely wonderful woman? Mother Teresa take a load off, take a seat. You have nothing to worry about. She’ll bring home little treats back home and it’s the most wholesome thing ever?? Is this what love and affection feels like? We’ve been starved for so long. She says it’s not a big deal and anyone would do it BUT THE MOMENT SOMEONE BUYS FOOD FOR YOU. IT’S A MAGICAL MOMENT. They are forever stuck in your will until proven otherwise. An absolute ray of sunshine that must be protected. 

She does get super busy so you don’t often see each other or get to hang out as much. She’s a bit of a workaholic but a lot more easier to talk her into taking a break. She’s also a pretty decent cook but she prefers baking and jesus christ, girl can you calm down? Be still my beating heart, I’ve been smitten. Has mother hen vibes that you’re not sure if she’s your roommate or if she adopted you into her family. It’s time to start a petition for the Jean protection squad. Given the opportunity, I would aggressively hold your hand. 

She’s always open to whatever you want to do. Any recommendations or things that you like she will try out at least once despite her busy schedule. She’s lowkey lonely because work consumes her so any time you want to hang out or do something together, she jumps on it like she’s feral. She get’s a bit shy to ask if she can join in on your plans because she doesn’t want to bother you or intrude no matter how many times you tell her that’s okay, she still get’s a bit iffy about it. Please save this girl before she trips. In your arms. Platonically. Just kidding haha. Unless?

“I can’t wait to see you happy and not hating everyone again haha.”

Childe

First impressions of Childe were great, until he opened his mouth and you realized how much of a two brain cell child(e) he was. He has two braincells because they constantly have to 1v1 in his brain. He’s lived with a lot of siblings so he has no social awareness or concept of privacy that you’re lucky if you come home and he’s half-dressed. It doesn’t matter if you’re 2 weeks older than him, he’s going to call you 82 years old and why your bones aren’t being fossilized at this point. He’s such a little shit, this fucker licks the yogurt lid peel.  

He get’s really restless when he’s stuck under house arrest, because apparently 1v1ing in the parking lot of a Wendy’s is illegal for some reason, so he makes dying whale noises until he get’s to go outside again. But he’s actually a really wholesome guy, probably because of his younger siblings, that he’ll sometimes get you something because you seemed down and it’s such whiplash? Who is this man and where did he come from? You’re starting to have a change of heart before he tells you that he got banned from the library for accidently punching the school’s computer. How you “accidently” punch something you have no idea but Childe always comes home with some sort of injury. Maybe he’s just incredibly clumsy. For your sanity, you’re going to go with that. 

He’s actually so uncultured that it’s crippling. You can’t blame him too much considering his upbringing and it’s great that he’s so interested in learning new things but...child no...It makes you want to take your spine out of your ass and rip it like a Beyblade. Watching him take chopsticks and stab his food like it’s marshmallows makes you want to fall into a blackhole and let the chair consume you. 

“I, too, fantasize about beating the living shit out of people.”

---

Is this another tag yourself game cause I resonate with Diluc. I’m crying in insomnia. As much as I enjoy writing these fics I absolutely hate tagging them. I remember I used to have a tag anon but that was back when I wrote for bnha. 

Valentine’s Day was fun tho. I had a drinking game with friends as we played league then ended it off with a movie night. 

[strwbrryblues]

Something New

Pairing: Lee Felix x GN!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Classmates to friends, Friends to Lovers(?)

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: Kinda proofread 🤧 [I'm not good with writing lyrics, so just a warning that it might be cringey 😭]

Requested | Author's Choice

12 Gifts of Christmas Masterlist

© December 2021, strwbrryblues. All rights reserved.

Writing songs was technically hard. Words don’t just flourish in one’s mind; senseless sentences doesn’t make up for it as well. There were a lot of things to consider when writing a song.

Felix always thought he wasn’t great at writing lyrics. Even when he chose music production as his major, he wasn’t exactly confident with what he’s got. He knows there were a lot of things he needed to learn to even be considered as, a great lyricist.

But Felix, oh he was blessed. He was a complete natural at lyricism. He had stories to tell when he writes songs, and anyone who witnessed his writings were completely swooned, or moved.

However, his creativity was limited to the stories and hardships he’d been through. And so, when the professor asked for them to write a love song—assigned with different scenarios or emotions—he was faced with the realization that he was bad at writing love songs; because he knows he did decent works for different genres.

To make things worst, he was assigned to “beginnings of love”. He had never fallen for anyone.

Sure, there were things in life he whole heartedly loved, but there was only so much he can love non-romantically. At some point, he should feel an attraction towards someone, since he’s naturally a person who’s got so much love to offer.

“Are you sure you can’t give me at least a tip on how to write a love song?” Felix asked Chan—an older cousin of him, who went to the same university as him. Both boys were splayed on the couch of their shared apartment, binge watching series they watched before.

“Lix, I’d love to help you,” Chan started, reaching for the bowl of popcorn as he replied. “But I have a lot on my plate, actually. I was assigned to produce a few songs for a new group’s mini album. And it’s annoying because they gave me such a short deadline for all the lyrics, as well as the music sample.” The older sighed as he explained his predicament to the younger.

Felix pouted unconsciously. He understood that his cousin’s work was very much demanding, due to his natural talent, but the boy could not help but feel dejected at how Chan would not be able to help him.

The boy tried to ask others as well. There was Jisung, who was his best friend, as well as classmate; however, the boy was tasked with a genre opposite as him, and Jisung confessed his lack of talent with composing love songs as well. In short, the boy was very much all about angst.

Felix even approached his senior, as well as the department’s student committee president—Seo Changbin. Oh, but the man was busy as well. He couldn’t even handle the committee properly as he was already fully booked with homework, and finals, and internship. He’d help in a heartbeat, but everyone just kept on intervening in their conversation.

The freckled boy even asked help from some other of his friends. Kim Seungmin, who couldn’t help because he prioritized school, and baseball, to even focus about something as relationships. There was also Hwang Hyunjin. A very imaginative boy, who almost helped him, but was rudely carried away by fan girls and boys who threw their self at him for attention. And then, there’s Jeongin who didn’t give two shits about love and affection because he was panicking about an event he was supposed to participate for class.

Just when Felix was about to surrender inside the library’s learning area—also low key known as the students' sleeping area, due to the number of comfy bean bags, sofas, and throw pillows—a miracle showed up.

You sat on a blue bean bag right next to him. A socket was in between you and it was the only place left with a good seat. Setting up your laptop and placing your bag beside you, you plugged in your phone and laptop charger. Once you were all set up, you went straight to work—not really, you took advantage of the library’s free wi-fi (albeit it sucks) and started gaming. You were procrastinating.

Felix noticed how you look very familiar to him. It made him thought how you looked so laid back and carefree when it was literally a week before exams start to roll in.

“Uhm…” Felix cleared his throat, thinking of something to get your attention. “Excuse me?” He asked, his voice soft so as not to disturb anyone else within your radius.

“Damn it,” you cussed out. Your attention now split in two as someone had caught your attention; it resulted to you taking hit of the weekly boss’s special attack, highly damaging your character’s hp. “Son of a—” you didn’t even dare finish the curse word nor the boss anymore and just left the domain. You then turned to Felix who was next to you. “Yes?”

Felix was suddenly nervous, “Uh…you take Fundamentals of Songwriting with Mrs. Kim, right?” He asked.

You nodded. You were going to feel weirded out at how he knows the subject you’re taking, when you took note of his whole face and presence. It only now dawned at you that you were actually talking to Lee Felix. The Lee Felix who was popular around the whole arts department for his iconic and moving lyrics.

“Wait! Oh my gosh!” You gasped almost too loudly until you realized the enclosed learning area of the library should still uphold to it’s silent atmosphere, so you clasped your hand around your mouth. “I’m so sorry for only now recognizing. You’re Lee Felix!” You whisper shouted at him.

Felix was quite baffled at your reaction. You reaction piqued at him, making him ponder if people from his department had the natural reaction as you towards him. Was he really that popular?

“Oh, you don’t have to be sorry about those things. I don’t mind not being recognized at all.” The freckled boy waved it off meekly, letting out a very quiet and shy chuckle. “I actually wanted to ask you about the final work for our subject.”

“Fundamentals of songwriting, yeah?” You asked, making sure.

Felix nodded, then spoke once more, “I was wondering which genre or scenario you got.”

You thought back to when your class had a draw lot. “Hmmm, I got love-hate. It’s hard to work with, to be honest.” You sighed. Felix nodded in empathy as he was in the same predicament. “But I did a rough draft already. I might pass it as is, or do some more changes.” Or maybe not.

“Do you mind if I see your work?” He asked, unsure of his question as it might be something you’re uncomfortable with.

You gave it time to think. Sure enough you quickly explained to him your answer, “I don’t mind, though, it might come of as cringe so that’s a warning,” you chuckled nervously. “But if you have thoughts to give, I’m very open to constructive criticism.”

Felix was glad you’re not uncomfortable. Maybe with your piece, he might get some bits of inspiration.

You handed him your laptop, where a word document was open. Long gone was the game you earlier played.

The freckled boy read through your draft. To say he wasn’t impressed was a big lie. He actually thought you were better than him.

“I think it’s great!” Felix almost shouted from amazement. You grew flustered at his words.

“Not really,” you grew meek at his words, suddenly wanting to feel small at how fluttering his praise was.

��Although,” he started. You perked in attention at him, ready for the constructive criticism. “It’s too much hate I guess? I don’t know. I shouldn’t be speaking about love because I don’t even know a thing about it.”

You stood up and moved your bean bag closer to his to glance at the laptop screen. Suddenly, Felix felt something bubble inside his chest at your close proximity. He was confused, but he didn’t exactly hate the feeling.

“What did you get for the project?” You asked him.

“I got uh…beginnings of love.” Felix felt heat rush to his face.

“Oh! That might be easy for you. I’m sure you’ve been in a relationship before. You seem really nice and you look really handsome.” Your praises made Felix want to bury himself on the ground from so much embarrassment.

“Actually…I’ve never been in one before…” He muttered so quietly you almost missed it.

When you caught of his words, you almost screamed again, but you remembered you’re in a place where quietness is practiced. You pinched yourself to stop yourself from screaming.

“Really?” You whisper shouted in disbelief. Felix nodded in confirmation. The red that painted his face never left. You thought it was cute.

“You must have at least the first verse covered, right?” You asked.

“Not a single word.”

You were surprised. You didn’t know that Felix—the great lyricist who’s on par with his best friend, Han Jisung—was struggling.

“Oh…” You muttered. You tried to think of a way to help a classmate out, when an idea popped in your head. “Oh!”

Your sudden raise in volume turned a few head within your radius, Felix being the most surprised of all. You bowed your head in apology for disrupting their silence, before you turned to Felix. “We can hang out.”

Felix raised an eyebrow in query. You took it as a sign to continue, “I have a lot of places where I take inspirations from. Maybe we should also consider this as a minor let loose before exam week starts.” You explained.

The freckled boy was not opposed to it. Maybe a change of pace and scenery can help him in coming up with ideas. “Plus,” you interrupted his train of thoughts. “We still have like, 8 more days to finalize the lyrics. Mrs. Kim didn’t actually ask for melodies, just lyrics. But I guess if you want melody on it, we can use my brother’s studio. He’s in a band with his friends.”

Felix felt so grateful. You’re like a blessing from the heavens, and he didn’t know what he did to even deserve you. “Thank you so much! I don’t what else I’d do, to be honest. I was on the verge of purposely failing this project.” The boy comically sobbed in his palms.

“Glad I can be of help!” You cheerily replied to him.

And so, days passed into looking for inspiration. To which Felix was actually nervous about.

You two had been to libraries in search of references or novels with the same genre, went to parks to people watch—or in this case, couple watching as you’ve only ever watched couples for better understanding of different love languages. You even went as far as going to cafés or restaurants for couples to understand it better!

Felix was nervous and a bit bummed out; nervous because even with all these hangouts with you, he still can’t wrap his head around the concept. Bummed out because all this week’s worth of expenses to go to places and he can’t even juice out at least a single line for it.

He either come out to you that it was no help, or cram it, because he had two days left.

…

TWO DAYS LEFT?!

Felix went into panic as he bustled around the clutters of his room.

Oh gosh, what’s he supposed to do now?

He then thought back to his cousin’s words, Like mate, stop procrastinating.

Oh, he’s in for trouble now.

Felix sent you a quick message, saying that the trip to your brother’s band studio will have to be cancelled. He thought that it’s no use when he hasn’t come up with any lyrics yet.

It was currently 9 in the evening. A bit late for people who sleeps early, but it’s the earliest time for sleep for people who stayed up late. Too early, in fact.

But Felix thought it was enough time, as tomorrow would be the last day to pass in drafts, while the day after is the presentation as well as the passing of the final works.

The freckled boy didn’t want to waste days worth of supposed inspiration. He tried to wring out his brain for possible lyrics.

He thought back to the events that occurred during the week of your hangouts.

Felix was suddenly reminded of how he’d have this feeling in his core. The one that makes him feel jitters and the nibbles of the cold from his finger tips, despite his face overheating from something he can’t explain.

And with that thought, came you. Suddenly the thought of you made all that feeling return. He’d never felt that way before from his friends.

He’d think of Seungmin, and the feelings disappeared.

He’d think of you, it comes back.

He’d think of Jisung, it disappears again.

Then he’d think of you again, the feelings resurface once more.

Good gravy.

He’d only realized now.

Was he in love? All this time? Was that it?

Then you appeared once more in his mind, reading a novel to him out loud, to reference the feeling of liking or loving someone.

“The girl looked at her friend, and thought, ‘oh. So, this is why I feel nervous around him.’ Only then did she finally realize that the clamming of her hands, the constant cold she feels, the pulling in her stomach, or the rapid beating of her heart, was not a sign of sickness. But rather, love.”

You’d said softly due to your distance back in the library, but clear enough for Felix to remember it. Word for word.

And at that revelation, the eruption of heat on his face was too much that it’s enough to make him cry from too much hotness. “Sweet Jesus. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The thought of you smiling directly at him in a café suddenly crossed his mind.

His heart picked up its pace.

No. No one’s playing tricks on him.

He groaned out loud, burying his face in his palms, as he rested his elbows on his desk. He pouted, looking to his open notebook, devoid of words.

“I should be thinking of lyrics, but here I am thinking of you.” He muttered to no one.

Lyrics.

Right.

And like a geyser’s sudden eruption, words spilled out from his brain.

Picking up his former neglected pen, he wrote, and corrected, and wrote again.

The night wrapped up, and he slept soundly on his table. He was awakened by his cousin, Chan, who waked him by gently squeezing on his shoulders.

He started the day very light, the burden finally off his shoulders. He passed the draft to his professor, who in turn gave him a few suggestions and corrections where he needed it.

Soon enough the day of the presentation came. Students were given the choice of whether they choose to sing the lyrics—if they’ve made the melody—or if they choose to recite it as is.

Felix settled for the latter. He felt the song had much more potential when given more time. He didn’t want to half-ass the melody for the song, especially since he only started to work on it just two days ago. For now, he was content with the result.

“Are you ready, Felix?” You turned to him, eyes pumped with excitement, but he hinted the nervousness in your tone.

Felix nodded his head, “I’m sure we’ll get through this. We did well!” He hyped you two.

Jisung suddenly joined you two, sitting right in front of Felix. Soon you emerged yourselves in conversation until the calling of names to first perform were called up.

The whole presentation were divided in to halves. The first half, being the students who’d prepared a melody for the song—some even carried a guitar or ukulele. The second half, were the students who chose to recite it as is. The grading system for the presentation is the same, only that, the students who’d chosen to present with melody or instruments , were given additional points.

When it was Felix’s turn to present, he nervously stood in the middle of the platform or the small stage at the classroom. There, he spoke, “Uh…I’m presenting with the concept/genre of ‘beginnings of love’.”

A few classmates whistled and teased. He suddenly became even more nervous, but he felt the need to speak up more, “uh…before I start, I have something to say first…” Felix glanced at his professor, who just gave him the ‘go ahead' signal, with a nod.

Felix cleared his throat, then spoke, “this song is dedicated to a friend of mine, or rather a gift for them. They helped me out of my slump, and I owe it all to them that I can finally present to you my work.”

Now, everyone in class were making a fuss about it. Teasing him, and making suggestive comments that made him blush furiously. Jisung was the noisiest among all.

The professor hushed everyone, before signaling Felix to start whenever he feels comfortable.

The freckled boy met your gaze. He blushed. But he held it, as he finally recite the lines.

Hey

Have you ever had this feeling before

There’s something blossoming in my core

Surely, I can’t be the only one to be clueless

Of the heat rushing to my face from our closeness

Gap barely a strand

You finally make understand

Felix's eyes avoided yours, looking back to his paper, where the lyrics were printed into finality. He then recited the chorus, ideally making frequent eye contacts with his audience.

This must be what they call love

The cause of my butterflies

The one to make feel light and fluff

I just know it must be love

His eyes went back to yours, as if trying to tell you what he’s felt around your presence.

Hey

Have you ever felt this before

I’m not sure you’ve an idea who I adore

We’ve spent so much time

And I can’t deny

There’s something there

Something that wasn’t there before

A feeling so out of me that it wants to break free

Come on, please help me out

Can’t you see?

He closed his eyes, reciting the chorus once more. Once he opened them, his eyes directed to yours again, like second nature.

He recited the last chorus, tone suddenly with found gentleness. His eyes never left yours, as he felt the slight heat creeping on his face.

This must be what they call love

The cause of my butterflies

The one to make feel light and fluff

I just know it must be love

It’s hard to miss

Believe me when I say, it’s you who I always miss

Who I want to kiss

‘Cause I now know what this feeling is

Once he finished his presentation with a shy bow, the class erupted into cheers and more teasing and wolf whistles. Jisung was making a ruckus in the back, screaming, “That’s my best friend! You go, hoe!”

Felix wanted to die of embarrassment. Both from Jisung’s yelling, and because of his presentation.

Amidst the noise, however, you made eye contact with him. Felix noticed the pale redness dancing on your cheeks.

You were mot oblivious to who Felix was referring to. You knew perfectly well who it was, and it made you flush. It made you feel ecstatic.

In the midst of the chaos that the professor was trying to calm, you two had found your own world. It’s unspoken, unacknowledged, but you know it’s there. You know something’s beginning.