#next to regular show when we find out pops was watching them all from heaven

[gojology]

Coffee With Extra Sugar.

𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒆 | Whew! I finished this after 1 hour and holy crap this is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written, I hope you like it. I’m literally sweating. 𝑷𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 | Gojo Satoru x Teacher Fem! Reader 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 | 2,314 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 | None! 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 | Gojo Satoru, the man who didn’t ever get rejected, got rejected by you. Unknowingly having a teensy tiny (or maybe not) crush on him, Nobara gets you to go on a coffee date with Gojo. Through the jumble of mixed feelings, you accept, and find yourself in a position you never thought you’d be in. One-shot.     Often times, you found yourself enjoying a nice cup of coffee with extra sugar after teaching the exceptionally unusual teens that Gojo had forced onto you. One was unlike any other, Sukuna’s vessel. Even with the threat of death looming over his head, he was one of the happiest teens you knew. Bouncing around, reminiscent of Gojo in a way. The most remarkable thing about him though, were the eyelids below his very own. Marking Sukuna’s existence on the boy’s body.        The other boy, named Fushiguro, had a troubled backstory. His father was the only one to have a complete lack of cursed energy. Maybe that was why he was always brooding, he always seemed to be off in his own land.     As for the only female, she was your favorite student. Nobara was albeit, a bit cuckoo, but that’s what you loved her for. Outside of the educational setting, she made an amazing shopping buddy and had an endless bucket list of things to do in Tokyo. Headstrong, stubborn. Happily willing to give you any sort of advice in men, even though she didn’t seem to show a particular interest in them. You told her all about the weird stuff that Gojo would do around you, and she always said that he might have a thing for you, but you never believed it until now.     The latest event had been when you were lounging in one of the spare rooms at Tokyo Jujutsu High, drinking another cup of coffee after the extreme levels of stress and torture that was training the trio. Gojo had casually strolled in, loudly announcing himself as he slid the door roughly shut.          “Oh (Y/N)! I was looking all over for you!”         “Really? I wasn’t. Leave me alone, I’m not talking to someone who calls himself a teacher and then dumps a buttload of crazy teens onto me.” you calmly replied, sticking out a pinky whilst sipping your coffee. Although you found your eyes to be glued onto Satoru.        He dramatically stuck a hand onto his chest, leaning backward just a little as if he had been told he shouldn’t have ever been born. “Me?! Oh no, I wasn’t dumping the kids onto you sugar. I’m a busy guy, being the strongest sorcerer and all.” he gloated, grinning a little.     You grunted before pulling out your phone.     “Pay attention to me, why don’t you?” he muttered softly, digging his hands into his back pockets.     Did you hear that right?    Clearing his throat, he loudly sat down next to you, even though there was another chair on the other side of the table. Crossing his legs, he began to speak.     “So, (Y/N), I felt really bad for dumping the kids onto you, and I thought, hey! Why don’t I take you out for a meal or two? You know we don’t really know each other out of work and I’ve been meaning to talk to you more-”     “No.”     “Why not?” combing his hair with his hands, he almost looked sad, but you knew where it was going to go. You had seen Gojo date girls for 2 weeks and break up with them after. It’d be weird to date a co-worker for an astounding total of 2 weeks and then immediately get broken up with afterwards. Besides, he was probably horny and hadn’t found a girl willing enough to talk to him back, even despite a face and body that looked like it was sculpted by the Gods.     “I know what you do with girls, just fuck with them, not looking for that.” You scrolled through the article you were reading, something about some 11 year old child getting their cancer removed miraculously, probably a super nice jujutsu sorcerer.    The silence grew between you two, Gojo’s eye shifting to you when you weren’t looking, and your eyes shifting to him when he wasn’t looking. You almost wished you were a bit friendlier.     “Right.” he mumbled to himself, before getting up and walking to the door. You felt something bad growing inside of you.    Looking back at you one last time, he shut the door.     “I’m telling you, (Y/N), Gojo-Sensei was trying to ask you out, ARE YOU THAT DENSE?” snapped Nobara, who was busily lecturing you about how you had seriously fucked up.     “I didn’t know!” you whined, “I thought he was just being stupidly friendly! It didn’t cross my mind!”     “Gosh, woman, men aren’t hard to work. Gojo is 100 times easier, hand him a box of candies and he’ll probably whip out a ring. All you had to say was yes!”     “...What if I didn’t want to say yes?” you shot back.     “Hah, shut up, I’ve heard the way you’ve described that man, acted as if he descended down from heaven”    You definitely didn’t have a crush on him, but you did let your mind wander sometimes, in some indecent areas sure, but wasn’t that true for everyone?    “Okay, and what do you want me to do now? Want me to just.. Go talk to him and ask for the chance back? That’s embarrassing, and as I said, I don’t have a thing for him.”    “I’ll snag that chance back for you, but you seriously owe me one. I’ll even get Fushiguro and Yuuji on board, but they’re almost always doing stupid stuff and I have to convince them with the weirdest shit to get them to cooperate.”     “Nobara, no cursing first of all, there was no reason to, plus I don’t NEED the date, why are you even-”     “Oh shut up.”     The next day, you found yourself urgently rushed to a coffee shop by a poorly disguised Nobara, Yuuji, and a less then willing Fushiguro. You scanned the shop, the scent of coffee so strong it wafted out of the interior. Gleaming windows with, “Kento and Coffee Inc.” proudly painted on the window.     Wearing a white t-shirt and a long trench coat, with a long plaid skirt, you found yourself self-conscious. Were you too overdressed? Nobara had told you that you were supposed to dress in a cute “dark academia” (whatever the heck that is, she showed you a few pictures of it online though.) style of fashion.     “Don’t worry! Just follow whatever I said earlier, I’m an amazing Cupid and I just know there’s something between you two! I’ll be in the corner, watching you guys, just don’t mess up!” Nobara chirped, handing you a red scarf to borrow from her closet.     You hastily threw it on, taking a deep breath in and breathing out. Trying to casually stroll into the coffee shop.    There Gojo sat, casually dressed in a black t-shirt. A pair of circular black shades perched on his nose, lazily eating a cake pop.     Your heart skipped a beat, even though he probably didn’t even try with the outfit he wore, you still found him absurdly attractive.    He jumped up, “Oh fuck, I thought everyone ghosted me.” he looked at you, tilting his head slightly as if he was confused. “I thought Yuuji and the crew were gonna be here too. Didn’t ever show though, do you know what happened to them?”     “O-Oh, um, yeah, I think I heard that Yuuji and Nobara got distracted and was going to some newly opened sushi restaurant instead. Fushiguro didn’t wanna thirdwheel or something like that.”     You swore you saw him smile slightly.    “So it’s just you, and me?”    You looked around, hoping to God that Yuuji would pop up and tell the world about his love for Jennifer Lawrence.     “It would.. Appear so.”    He clasped his hands together, beckoning at the cashier at front. “I’ll go get some coffee for us, any idea what you want yet?”     “Uh, just coffee with extra sugar.”     “Gotcha.”     You found yourself staring at his hands, playing with the hem of his pocket as he walked up to the small line. His fingers were impossibly long, and you couldn’t help but realize how veiny and large his hands were.     Snapping yourself out of your daze, you grumbled, taking the trench coat off, it had suddenly gotten hot. Pulling out your phone, you pretended to read, but in actuality you found yourself ogling his impossibly tall body, and how undeniably hot his voice was.     It was alright to find him attractive right? Sure, you hated a lot about him, like, like... Well, you couldn’t think of anything off the top of your head right now. But you for sure knew you hated him.    Yuuji snickered, “Gojo’s girlfriend is getting flustered, look at her cheeks.” He giggled, pointing at you. Fushiguro slapped Yuuji’s pointed hand down, hissing at him, “You’re going to fuck over this operation. Didn’t your mom ever tell you to NOT point?”     “I don’t even have a-”     “SHHHHHHH!” Nobara shushed them, gesturing to Gojo now walking over to the table where you were sitting.    He slid the chair out and sat down, grunting as he did. He looked down at you. “So, anything new with the kids?”     You gulped, a warmth flooding to your cheeks, the way he looked at you made you feel weird, and you couldn’t find yourself to make a cheeky remark.     “U-Uh, um, no, uh, Fushi-, I meant Yuuji, he’s doing as good as usual... And uh, Nobara’s doing pretty good too! Fushiguro’s just... Uh, you know, haha” you giggled nervously, “acting as normal.”    He laughed, “That’s Fushiguro, guy doesn’t even crack a smile. Yuuji’s a special one isn’t he? No idea how he acts all cheerful even though he knows he’s gonna, you know.”     “Guy doesn’t deserve it.”     “I know.” you pursed your lips, not wanting to talk about such a serious topic.     Seemingly noticing your discomfort, he turned his head over to the cashier who was now loudly shouting, “Order 132! Order 132! Two regular coffees with extra sugar, 2 donuts, 4 cake pops, and a slice of cake!”     “That’s our order~, what good timing!” Gojo sang, immediately springing up to fetch the coffee and the absurd amount of sweets Gojo had ordered.     “Gojo-Sensei sure does have a sweet tooth.” Yuuji pointed out, looking at Gojo casually walking back and handing you your coffee.     “Yuuji, did you seriously just notice that?”     “Yes. Why? Do you look at Gojo-Sensei eat? You’re really weird Fushiguro.”     Fushiguro let out a sigh, and Nobara giggled, but now all their attention was focused at the pair, drinking their coffee.    “So, uh, any idea why the kids invited us here?” he said, playing with his strikingly white hair. Your stomach did backflips, it looked so soft. Wait, fuck, why were you even thinking these things?

   “Uh, yeah, something about.. Um,” FUCK. You were supposed to say you didn’t know.    “Something about... Putting us on a... Blind date?” You mumbled sheepishly, Nobara crumpled on the table, murmuring about how stupid you were.     Shit, fucking shit, you weren’t supposed to be honest. 

   “Really now?” Gojo inquired, lifting an eyebrow and putting his arm on the table, leaning his face onto his hand. He took a bite out of his donut.     Now your face was really burning, why were you acting so strange?     Could it be true?     You had a crush on Gojo Satoru?     At first, you wanted to reject it, but the feeling settled in. It made more sense to you then not having a crush on Satoru. The feeling of regret when he tried asking you out, the many times where you found yourself ogling when he was naked, the amount of dreams you had about him.    You really did have a crush on him, huh?    You stammered, a rush of self-confidence flooding into you, “Fuck it.” you breathily mumbled, “I like you, Satoru.”     The doubt settled in as soon as Gojo looked at you, wide eyed, mouth slightly agape. Nobara was even shocked herself, she had never seen you as headstrong as this.    Fushiguro and Yuuji were in an intense discussion about their preference in women, well, more like Yuuji, Fushiguro was ignoring him, looking at the wall instead of the surprising twist in the date.    “You like me, (Y/N)?”     “Fuck, yeah, yeah I do.” you looked at his shades, oh how you wish you could see his eyes right now.     A slow grin spread across his face.     “I like you too, (Y/N).”

   Nobara, now quietly cheering and shaking Itadori and Fushiguro gesturing to you two, chewed them out for not seeing the events building up to the climax. 

   “Really?”

   “Yes, really, sugar.”

   Everything felt unreal, you had never thought you would find yourself in this position ever, was this a dream? You tried pinching yourself.

  He snickered, “No (Y/N), this isn’t a dream. I really do like you.” he rubbed the back of his neck, readjusting his crooked shades. “I would even say I’ve liked you for a while.” 

   It had never dawned on you that he wasn’t being flirtatious just to be flirtatious, he was actually actively trying to

get you.

“I can’t wait to tell the kids this.” he grinned to you, smiling widely. “Fuck, this feels like a dream to me too. I didn’t think you actually showed any interest in me.” 

   You couldn’t even be cheeky back, you were in a state of euphoria. 

   “Actually sensei.” you turned to look who was talking, Yuuji was excitingly bouncing up and down. Fushiguro looked like he wanted to be launched off a roof.     “We set up the blind date.” Nobara smiled, looking at the pair. “You know, I’ve always seen the romance and chemistry between you two, and you guys finally worked it out like adults!”   

    Why did you get the feeling that she was mocking you too?       Regardless, you had walked into the coffee shop single, and you walked out with the guy who had stolen your heart for years now, without you even realizing.     All thanks to Nobara.      

[flowesona]

Voluntary Victim - Yandere! Yoongi x reader

Warning: Sexual content

Finding a victim was like shooting fish in a barrel. Dozens of young men and women surrounded her, each adorned with accessories bought with daddy’s money and high to the heavens on whatever substance they could find.

The boy who had his arm around their waist at that moment seemed a bit more refined than the others - he was worth a million dollars, sure, but he at least seemed to be a bit more modest.

They stopped trying to spy the drunken boy they’d just seen sneak off into the restroom and turned to focus the gentleman by their side.

“Hi! My friends call me Angel.” They shouted over the thumping bass, watching in amusement as the young man’s eyebrows furrowed in trying to hear what they were saying.

“That name suits you. I’m Yoongi.” He replied simply. “Do you want a drink?”

“Of course.” (Y/N) gave him a cheeky smile and took his hand within their own to lead him towards the bar.

“What will you be having?” He called out over the music once they had arrived.

“Surprise me.” Was all they said. A simple tactic really - made them think they cared about his opinion, that they would do as they pleased.

He nodded and as soon as he made eye contact with one of the bar staff they abandoned the gaggle of people trying to flag them down and listened intently as he leaned over to talk into their ear.

That was how they knew they had struck gold. The bartender didn’t even hesitate in making their drinks right away, and the lack of payment screamed that he was on some kind of guest list.

Once he had passed one of the glasses over to (Y/N), the glint in his eye said that their night was going according to plan.

“Are you here often?” He raised his voice slightly, and (Y/N) shook their head in response.

“First time. Maybe you can show me around?”

“What?” He leaned in closer, his body pressing deliciously close to theirs. “I can’t hear you.”

“I’ve never been here before. Are you a regular?”

He shook his head, though they weren't sure if it was because of the question or because of their uncomfortable conditions.

“Should we find somewhere a bit quieter?” (Y/N) nodded, and with their cocktail in one hand and his warm hand clasping their other Yoongi led them through one of the staff only doors - receiving affirming nods from the staff along the way - and into a more secluded lounge.

There were LED lights lining the walls lighting the room up into a rich royal blue, and there were leather sofas and coffee tables dotted around.

“Normally this is where we hold member’s parties. But tonight, Father said I could have it to myself, and whichever guests I please.”

Yoongi hummed, leading them gently to one of the sofas and placing his drink down on the table so that both his hands were now free. (Y/N) took a sip for courage before following suit.

“What do you do for a living then?” They asked, her fingertips subtly rubbing circles into his thigh.

“I’m training to take over my father’s business.” He answered simply. “What about you, Angel?”

“I’m studying English.” (Y/N) purred, leaning in slightly. “But I don’t have any plans for the future, unlike you.”

“Pretty young things like you don’t need a plan when there’s men like me to take care of you.”

“Maybe so. Or maybe I could take care of you.” Yoongi smirked at their comment, leaning forward to grab his drink.

“I’m sure you can, baby.”

They continued to caress his thigh as he drank.

“You know, you seem so well spoken, Angel. There’s more to your pretty little head than most the vermin out there.” (Y/N) wanted to vomit, but they kept up their saccharine smile.

“Really?” It was time to make their move. “I know how else I can prove to you how much better I am than those other whores, you know.”

He raised his eyebrows, intrigued, as they pressed a sloppy kiss to his lips.

Their fingers found the buttons on his neatly pressed shirt and slowly started to pop them open.

“Can I ask you something…?” They whispered, their fingertips tracing over the smooth skin of his exposed chest and appreciating how he just barely shuddered under her touch.

Yoongi nodded, imploring them to go on.

“I’ve always wanted to be more… adventurous. But none of the guys I’ve fucked have ever wanted to try anything with me. But I know you’re far better than them, right?”

There was some unknown emotion glazing over Yoongi’s eyes - intrigue, maybe mixed with some jealousy?

“Will you let me…” They dug into their wallet, and pulled out a pair of steel handcuffs. “put these on you?”

He visibly gulped, but (Y/N) could tell by the flush covering his cheeks that they had him hook, line and sinker.

“Please, gorgeous. Make this night special for me?” They purred. Finally, he gave them an apprehensive nod and they sat up with a happy smirk.

Their fingers ran up and down the smooth pale skin of his arm, before they gently pulled on his shirt and pushed him to the ground, right next to the coffee table.

Yoongi’s eyes were shining as “Angel” sat on his lap, looking at them like they were a gift granted by heaven. His breathing only got heavier as they pressed their chest to his, taking his wrists and securing them behind the leg on the coffee table. When they were done, they pressed a kiss to Yoongi’s neck and he felt his face burn up as if he was eight years old.

However, rather than attempting to make any more advances as he was hoping, his companion’s focus changed entirely.

“Your watch is very nice.”Their fingers danced along his wrist, fiddling with the expensive leather. “How much did it cost you?”

“That doesn’t matter.” He huffed. “Chicken feed, darling. Please…?”

(Y/N) just continued to inspect it and ignore his subtle whines for attention.

“I could get a pretty penny for this, couldn’t I?” Yoongi felt his heart drop as he felt them unclasp it and hold it up to the light. “Cartier, one of a kind. Mind if I keep it?”

“Whatever, please just-”

“What else do you have on you?” Tucking the watch into their wallet, they finally made eye contact with him again.

Yoongi didn’t reply, a frustrated sigh leaving his lips.

“Did you bring your wallet?”

He shook his head, but they stuck their hand into his jacket pocket and found the thick wad of leather tucked away. With an impressed whistle they flicked through the cash whilst tipping his credit cards onto the floor.

“You… you can have it all. It doesn’t matter.” Yoongi rattled the chains again, desperately trying to get free.

“Thank you.” They smiled, shoving the wallet into their pocket. “Where’s your phone?”

“My back pocket.” The young man hissed. “Please, if you just want my money baby-”

“Shut it.” (Y/N) shot back as they retrieved his top model phone and chucked out the SIM card. “If you start making a fuss I’ll shut you up myself.”

He blushed. Clearly, he was some kind of fucked up to be aroused by this.

“I think I might- wait, what is this?” A smile settled on (Y/N)’s face as they unclasped the chain from his neck and admired how it shone in the LED lights.

“Anyway, as I was saying, I think it’s time I take my leave. The night’s still young.”

They pressed a kiss to his flushed cheek.

“Thank you for the great time.”

“No, don’t go. Please, you can have my shit, just come back here!” Yoongi whined as she walked away with a spring in their step, shutting the door behind them to cut off his cries from the outside world as they escaped the stuffy nightclub and out into the cool midnight air.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

Most people who’d been seduced, tied up and robbed would be humiliated, but not Yoongi. Rather, the only thing he held against his angel was that they’d left him. His wallet could be easily refilled, his jewellery and phone could be replaced, but ‘Angel’ was one of a kind and he wanted to have them.

He’d eventually managed to escape his bondage, tipping over the coffee table and sliding his hands out. Although he had to find one of the employees to help him out of the handcuffs, the embarrassment didn’t set in. Instead, he sought out one of the bouncers and pulled them to the side to ask if they’d seen someone called Angel. After nearly ten minutes of describing their ethereal appearance the bouncer was able to recall their existence, but unable to give Yoongi any more information.

But from that day forward, they had a stranglehold on his mind. His thoughts were overridden with fantasies of what could have happened if ‘Angel’ had stayed - them gripping his throat with those silky fingers, marking his neck with their teeth, unbuttoning his pants and taking him into their mouth…

They were addictive. He found himself trying his hardest to seek them out again - he knew she wouldn’t return to his father’s nightclub, so he explored every other one in the city. He’d scoured the CCTV cameras in the club and managed to find a (somewhat blurry) still, which he’d enhanced and printed out. Not only did he keep a copy to himself -  tucked away in his work diary so that he could see them every day - but he circulated it to all of the clubs he could reach, asking them to call him if they ever saw his angel for a handsome reward.

But months passed with no news, and rather than recovering Yoongi’s obsession only got worse. He spent hours futilely searching for the name they’d given him on the internet with no reward, but he couldn’t stop.

“Can I pay with cash, please?” Yoongi had been half-asleep, the night before having sapped him of all energy that could only be perked up with coffee, when he heard that voice. That unforgettable voice. The one that haunted his dreams every night and the one he’d been craving to hear.

“Of course. Could I have a name for your order?”

“(Y/N).” Yoongi’s heart sunk. Had he gotten his hopes up over the wrong person? Had he been so deluded in his desire for his angel that he’d started to hallucinate about them?

But when (Y/N) stepped to the side to wait for their coffee, he finally saw their profile and he knew they were the one who had captured his heart. That was why it had been impossible to find them, because they’d given him a fake name!

His heart was beating a thousand beats a second as he watched them take the coffee from the barista and flash the worker a smile whilst sliding them a tip. God, how he hoped he would soon be the recipient of one of those dazzling expressions.

All thoughts of caffeine were wiped out as he had now found his real drug, abandoning the queue to quietly follow them out of the cafe at a safe distance.

‘They haven’t changed at all. I guess you can’t improve on perfection.’

Yoongi admired them as she walked. They still had glowing skin, the most perfect body in his eyes, and an unmatched energy that drew him in.

It was tricky blended into the background, especially when the crowds thinned out and he was following them into a smaller neighbourhood. His heart was thudding, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be caught or not. He didn’t know what was driving him to follow them and why he hadn’t already spoken up.

(Y/N) wasn’t stupid. They stopped in place to get out their phone and observed how the hooded man also stopped a few metres away.

“Stop following me or I’ll call the police.” They called out.

Yoongi took a few steps forward.

“What will they do? Give me a slap on the wrist for being a naughty boy?”

Their brow furrowed. Did they recognise his voice? God, he hoped that was the case. He was ready to get down on his knees and beg for their love.

“Whatever. Just leave me alone, freak.” They hissed, unlocking their phone to call their friend, so he could get them the hell out of there.

Starting to panic, he rushed forward and wrenched their phone out of their hands, throwing it to the ground and digging his heel into the screen for good measure. For a second, there was silence only permeated by Yoongi’s heavy breathing.

“Someone-!”

Their plea for help was cut off by his hand pressed against their mouth.

“Can we continue this conversation elsewhere? My hotel room, perhaps?”

The blush on this psycho’s cheeks as his hands grasped theirs sickened (Y/N) to no end. Did he think this was a normal way to hit on someone, by breaking their phone and kidnapping them?

“I’m not going anywhere-”

“I’ll call the chauffeur. Don’t worry, he won’t be long.”

(Y/N) was still trying to pry his fingers from their own, but they were like iron.

“Who the fuck are you?” They hissed.

“You don’t remember me?” His eyes were filled with hurt, and the hand clutching his phone was trembling as he held it to his ear, clearly following through on his words.

“Yoongi. You introduced yourself to me as Angel, I bought you a drink and we went into the private lounge for a chat?”

‘Shit.’

It clicked, (Y/N) knew exactly who he was. They’d made so much selling his one-of-a-kind Cartier watch that they’d been able to move cities and settle into a new profession entirely.

Most rich kids were ashamed when (Y/N) got the best of them, and few chased after them for revenge. But Yoongi had a different kind of fire in his eyes.

“Look, you can have all the money I have leftover you want? I swear, we can replace everything I took-”

“Oh no, it’s all yours, baby. I want you to have that, and so much more too.” Yoongi was way too calm, his smile way too sincere. He was absolutely off his rocker. “Anything you need to take from me, it’s yours. But I want something in return, you understand?”

(Y/N) felt a shiver go down their spine when a sleek black car, with tinted windows, drew up.

“Come on. You still have a lot to prove to me, right?”

[tiny-slasher]

Thomas Hewitt x Reader | Coffee Shop AU | Part 1

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

I did the big cliche, but I really needed to get this idea out of my head. Also, there is not enough Thomas content, and that needs to be remedied, somehow, even if it’s my garbage writing. 

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

You’d heard that the coffee at Luda Mae’s coffee shop was amazing, and that the desserts were even better. A colleague of yours swore by the tea cakes, having to buy one every week to curb his growing addiction to them. Word was that the place had a coffee brew that was so silky and smooth it could soften even the stalest of cookies.

You finally agreed to give it a try after your colleague brought it up for the billionth time, only to have your shoulders grabbed and your face pulled mere inches away from his. Staring you down with a gaze that could frighten even the strongest military men, he told you to never go on on Wednesdays. He did not elaborate further when you asked him why.

And yet, you found yourself gazing up at the old, painted sign of the coffee shop, soaking wet from the pouring rain, on Wednesday.

Cold from the wind, you dragged yourself up the steps and into the shop. Immediately, the warm scent of coffee beans and baked goods filled your nostrils, as a small bell jingled to announce your arrival. Soft country music filled the small space, dimly and warmly lit, creating a cozy and comfortable space.

The lack of customers was surprising to you, and you couldn’t help the feeling of apprehension settling in your gut. As cozy as the atmosphere was, there was a tension present that was very out of place. Walking forward, mindful to wipe your dripping shoes off on the mat, you glanced towards the front of the shop.

“Hello?” You asked softly, seeing no one at the counter.

A couple of loud clinks in a back room reached your ears, and then several thudding footsteps. A door behind the counter swung open, and your eyes widened. The man who walked out was enormous, barely fitting through the door frame, and his lower face was obscured by a crudely sewn leather mask. His hair was a bit of a mess, pulled back into a sloppy ponytail and partially falling around his face. There were coffee stains all over his shirt and apron, staining parts of the green fabric a dull brown.

He paused upon seeing you, blue eyes widening ever so slightly as though shocked to see you at all, but then he simply wiped his hands off on his apron and walked up to the counter. When he stood there and said nothing, you assumed he was waiting for you to order.

“U-uh...I’ll just have a plain coffee...m-medium.”

The man nodded once and then went to work, grabbing a cup and filling it with coffee. He spilled coffee on his hand almost immediately, wiping it off with a sharp intake of breath. He glanced back at you, as if waiting for you to judge him, but you just gave him an encouraging smile. Blinking, he turned back to his work, glancing back every now and then.

You took the opportunity to admire the muscles of his back while he was turned, wondering how much strength was hiding beneath them. His hair looked so thick and soft, and your fingers itched to run through it. You wondered why he wore the mask. Was it for health reasons, or was it a style choice?

You jumped when you realized he was staring at you, gaze pointed as if he’d asked a question. Your face grew hot as you tried to stop feeling so flustered.

“S-sorry, what?”

He pointed to the sign above him, directly at the types of milk they offered.

“Oh, just regular, please. With sugar too.”

The man crouched down and grabbed a pitcher of milk, glancing back at you once with a strange look in his blue eyes. He finished it up with a couple of teaspoons of sugar, stirring it up like he’d done it hundreds of times before, and then popped a lid on it. Turning around, he placed the coffee cup on the counter in front of you, seemingly small in his large hands, and pulled up the price on the cash register.

You swallowed, noting your height difference now that he was a bit closer, and your heart skipped a beat when he looked down at you.

Blinking twice you laughed nervously, “Right, I guess I need to pay you, don’t I?”

He didn’t answer, but did tilt his head curiously. His gaze didn’t leave you as you fumbled around for some change.

He took your money in an iron grip, counting it and then pulling out some change. His fingers brushed your palm as he dropped some dimes and a nickel, and you couldn’t help the way your breath hitched. Hearing it, he snatched his hand back as if burned, and stared at you with wide eyes.

“T-Thank you!” You stammered out, your face burning as you practically ran out of the shop.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When you bragged about the delicious coffee you’d snagged at Luda Mae’s to your colleagues, you’d accidentally let it slip that you’d gone on a Wednesday. Immediately, you were inundated with strange questions, like “did you see him?” or “Isn’t he scary?”. Not long after, they began talking about the rumors they’d heard about him. You learned that apparently this man was not well-accepted.

“He’s clearly unstable. His arms have scars all over them.”

“Someone told me they saw him beating up a guy in the alley behind the shop.”

“I heard that the mask he wears is made out of human skin.”

The last one, in your opinion, was the most ridiculous, and nothing they said stopped you from fantasizing about him and the way he’d towered over you - his blue eyes burning into yours. You couldn’t understand why everyone was so afraid of him - the mere idea of him was addicting.

You lasted a day before showing back up on the front step of Luda Mae’s Coffee Shop.

When you crossed the threshold, the atmosphere of the shop was so different you nearly had whiplash. It was bustling with customers, some waiting in line and others sitting at tables.

There was a middle aged woman pouring coffee into cups, and a middle aged man working at the register.

“Mama! One large coffee and a slice of lemon cake!”

“There ain’t no need to yell, Charlie, for heaven’s sake!”

You looked around the place with intent, disappointed when you couldn’t find the man from Wednesday. You were so focused on your disappointment that you jumped when the man at the register snapped his fingers in your face.

“Hello? Anyone home?” He practically spat in your face. “I ain’t got all day!”

“Oh, gosh I’m sorry! I u-uh...”

The man raised an eyebrow and made a show of leaning on his elbows, unimpressed.

“...Um, I’ll just have a regular coffee, thanks. With regular milk and sugar. Medium.”

“You get that, mama?” the man yelled back to the woman behind him while he rang up the bill.

“I’m right behind you! Quit yellin’ in my ear!”

You waited slightly off to the side to let other customers order, and awkwardly glanced around. There was no sign of the man anywhere, and you inwardly pouted.

“Here ya are. One regular coffee.” The woman handed the cup to you with a quick smile.

“Thank you! Oh...um, can I ask you something?”

“We’re not lookin’ to hire.”

“No, no, I was just wondering...when does that man work? The one with the mask?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed and the man up front glanced in your direction. They were the only two staring, and yet you felt like the entire shop had its eyes on you. You had a feeling that your next words should be chosen very carefully.

“Why?”

You played with the lid on the cup and shifted on your feet, “I j-just...”

You cut yourself off when the door behind the counter opened, and the man in question walked through. Everyone in the shop froze and turned to look at him - some more discreetly than others. You were no exception, though your reasons were likely much different than theirs. Some of the customers finished their coffee and scurried out, as if terrified of him.

No wonder he’d been so surprised to see you order, the other day, if this was the reaction he usually received.

The man carried a large box in his hands, probably with coffee grounds and other supplies.

“Oh, just set that over here, Thomas,” the woman said, gesturing under the counter.

Thomas. 

Thomas did as he was told, catching your gaze as he stood. His eyes widened a bit, recognizing you, and you gave him a small smile. He swallowed and froze in his tracks, eyes skirting over you, when the man at the front yelled at him.

“Tommy! We need more cups up here!”

Thomas huffed and went back into the room he came from, glancing at you one last time before disappearing. You watched him go with a fuzzy feeling in your tummy.

“It’s rude to stare.”

You turned to the woman, who was watching you suspiciously.

“Sorry, he’s just...kind of handsome, isn’t he?”

Both she and the man up front did a double-take and gawked at you. The woman recovered first and gave you a kind smile.

“Yes, he is,” she agreed, her tone wistful. “I’ve always thought so.”

You cleared your throat when the two of them didn’t stop staring at you, and thanked them for the coffee before turning to leave.

“He works up front on Wednesdays and Thursday nights!”

You heard the grin of the man at the counter’s voice before you saw it, taking note of the mischievous glint in his eyes. You nodded to him bashfully, acknowledging his statement. As you walked out of the door you heard him yell “Hey Tommy! You’ve got a fan!” and couldn’t help the smile from spreading on your face.

They weren’t surprised when you showed up again that next Wednesday, with a wide grin and a happy gleam in your eyes when you saw Thomas standing there.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

PART 2

[29-pieces]

A Spot of Breakfast -- Good Omens fanfiction

From the current WIP chapter of my fluffy piece Softly, Gently

~*~

For at least those first few moments, everything else faded from Crowley’s mind as he watched Aziraphale, his own pinched expression smoothing into a soft smile. Aziraphale’s hair was mussed, which would never be permitted normally. An errant curl dangled over one eyebrow and all the worry lines were, for the moment, gone. The angel was curled into a loose ball, the quilt still drawn halfway up his shoulders, and the couch was positioned just so to allow a beam of morning sunlight to cast its glow across Aziraphale’s face and hair.

In short, he was once again, quite literally, radiant. Crowley didn’t know if he could possibly love anything in all of creation more than this, right here, right now.

Not wanting to get up and risk making too much noise, potentially waking the angel when he desperately needed real rest, Crowley ignored the cramping in his long limbs. It was a small price to pay to let Aziraphale sleep, for a change.

Thusly, by the time Aziraphale finally stirred, the crick in Crowley’s back was enough that the resulting POP when he moved drew a sleepy “Good lord!” from the angel.

Crowley grimaced as Aziraphale blinked endearingly sleepy eyes open and looked over at him in half awake alarm.

“Are you alright, Crowley?”

“Ngk. Sorry.” Crowley shifted again, this time his bones settling back into his hip sockets with a satisfying CRACK. He smirked. “Must be getting old.”

Aziraphale’s sleep-dazed face eased into the softest, dopiest smile Crowley had ever seen, bursting with so much affection that every niggling fear he’d been harboring was banished far, far away.

“Never you, dear boy,” Aziraphale replied fondly, pushing himself up to sitting and stretching his arms as though Crowley wasn’t internally flailing at the simple knowledge of being loved. “Heavens, how long was I asleep?”

“All night,” Crowley said. “How’s it feel?”

“Smashing,” Aziraphale decided after a moment. “I can see why you enjoy it so much, Crowley. I’ve never slept like that before.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot of firsts going on now.”

He regretted it immediately, chagrined as Aziraphale bashfully looked away. Crowley didn’t want to push too hard. After all, even if Aziraphale’s feelings were positive ones, he very obviously wasn’t used them being out in the open.

But Aziraphale showed no hint of imminent anxiety. Instead, he took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, I suppose there are. And I don’t want you to think for one second that last night was just wine and jocularity, my dear. I meant every word I said. I do love you, so you musn’t go worrying yourself that I was just being nice, or that I said something I wished I didn’t, or whatever else you might be over-thinking.”

“What are you on about? I don’t over-think!” Crowley protested, immediately starting to over-think last night’s conversation and if he’d given away any of those precise nerves Aziraphale had mentioned.

The look Aziraphale returned with was both knowing and fond and left Crowley to grumble under his breath as he felt his cheeks heat.

“I do know you, after all. Though I must confess, I, er… well, I don’t know quite what to do now.”

“Ngk, know what you mean,” Crowley agreed. “It’s a bit hard to find your footing, isn’t it?”

“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” the angel decided abruptly, getting to his feet. “I’ve a hankering for pastries. Tempt you to some breakfast?”

Crowley smirked. “Alright then, yeah.”

Outside, the world looked much the same as it ever had. Crowley drank it all in with the same relish Aziraphale was drinking in his Danish. The bistro the angel had selected was one of his regulars, the kind that had patio tables outside with striped umbrellas and cushions that were always just shy of being fully dry from an earlier rain. Crowley pulled up a touch of hellfire, half to steam the moisture out of the cushion, and half to see if he even still could.

“Ah, marvelous,” Aziraphale sighed happily. “Dear me, that’s much better.”

It took Crowley a second to realize the angel was talking about his pastry, and not the fact that Crowley’s bum was now dry again. He turned his attention from the world passing them by to zero in on the world that was sitting next to him with a bit of jam on his lip.

Aziraphale was, as always when eating something delightful, entirely enraptured. Crowley could probably drop a stack of books behind the angel and he wouldn’t even notice.

It was times like this, Crowley reflected, that he was left to wonder how Aziraphale actually had hid his feelings for so long. When Aziraphale loved a thing, he was not exactly subtle.

Yet he’d somehow managed to keep his feelings about Crowley as under wraps as he was able. Probably because Crowley would be just as easy for an archangel to squish under his foot as that Danish would be.

“Absolutely scrumptious,” Aziraphale hummed, eyes closing against the decadence as he popped the remainder of the pastry into his mouth with a scandalous sigh. “Now then, it’s much easier to ‘find your footing’ as you would say once you’ve had a spot of breakfast. Do you suppose we ought to—”

He trailed off as he opened his eyes, regarding Crowley. It took the demon a second to realize it was because he was staring at Aziraphale with rather intense focus, leaning in a bit with his chin propped up on his hand.

“It’s nice,” Crowley said.

“Erm… what is, dear boy?”

“Watching you enjoy things. Missed a bit, though.”

Without planning, without thinking much at all, else he might not have done it, Crowley reached out and thumbed away the speck of jam still on Aziraphale’s lip. Aziraphale didn’t move, seemingly transfixed. It was perhaps the most bald-faced physical contact they’d made. For the last several thousand years he’d been too afraid to actually touch the angel, lest anyone else in Heaven be able to smell it on him later.

Touches were careful, never more than absolutely necessary, never when it couldn’t be excused away by a fight or feud between mortal enemies, and never, ever for the pure and simple joy of being able to. Crowley felt something in his chest close up. A lump grew in his throat and he knew he ought to pull his hand away, but…

A hand reached up to catch his own, Aziraphale gently guiding his arm to rest on the table instead, not letting go; the soft, somewhat sad smile seemed to agree with precisely what Crowley was feeling. After all, Heaven wasn’t known for doling out warm hugs, and Aziraphale was a creature who craved warmth and contact and love but had been given none of it.

[praphit]

F9: What does Absurdity even mean anymore?

Due to COVID, I thought that my last movie theater experience was going to be "Bad Boys For Life". I'm happy to say that if I died today, I would be telling souls in Heaven that "F9" was the last movie I saw on the big screen (I'm sure that films are big talking points in the after life).

There weren't too many people there:

There was a woman coughing in the corner; I barely looked at her. I imagined that COVID was mugging her, and I didn't want to be a witness, and so have COVID come after me next. I'm vaxxed, but still I was thinking of ways to distract COVID, so I could enjoy the film. There was an old couple sitting up front (like REALLY OLD... sitting UP FRONT... Ha! that's awesome). Awesome or not, I was going to point them out if COVID came after me. There were two obese kids sitting a few rows behind me that I could also point out, as well as my friend that I was sitting next to... what?? Look, they would ALL want me to escape, so I could bring my "F9" review to the people!

WHAT??!

Let's not talk about my survival skills, let's talk some Vin & the Fam - that's why we're here!

It took a while for me to remember what was going on:

Dom (Vin), Letty (M. Rod), and their... kid? Oh, right, they have a kid, and they moved on to start a new life together. 

Didn't the real mom die or something?? Idk. You've got the British lady from "GOT" still hanging out with Luda and Tyrese. 

(they so crazy)

"Hobbs and Shaw" are still gone 

(making their own money, cuz bleep family!). 

Brian (Paul Walker's character - rip) is apparently, now everyone's babysitter. So, if anyone in this gang, who could die on any of these missions, ever have kids, they can just send them off to Nanny Brian's. 

There's a dude named Mr. Nobody who sometimes sends the gang on secret spy missions.

Oh, and people in the gang keep coming back from the dead. Boom! We're caught up with this absurdity. That's actually what I asked for when I got to the movies 

"Give me one ticket for Absurdity please."

In this batch of the absurd, we find out that Dom has a brother, and he's John Cena (Jakob). 

Charlize Theron is back! That must have been the worst bet that she has ever lost. I consider her to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors we've got, but movies like these ain't helping that case.

And who's idea was it to give her that haircut? - part of the bet she lost, I suppose. 

It was reported that the gang goes into space (at least two of them do). 

Annnnd the X-Men Jet is back! 

(it really does look like that - Wolverine included)

Seriously, after the X-Men's last two movies (which were turrrible), I was expecting them to crossover for a fresh start. Why not?? They're a spy team now, that goes to space! - nothing should be off the table.

They're looking for two halves of some... war sphere?? If put back together with some key... idk... John Cena rules the world.

Remember when Vin and the gang were all about street racing, money, survival, and brown booty? - those were simpler times!

But, why discuss the plot? Seriously, why? None of it makes any sense. From Dom and Letty living like Amish people (which is an ending worse than death for action heroes) 

to their convoluted explanation for bringing the latest person back from the dead (which reminds me of a married couple, when the husband or wife get caught watching porn, and try to explain that it was just a pop-up that came out of nowhere. The other spouse gulps their glass of wine and plows forward - that was me with this - gulping my soda (with a lil Henny) saying "whatever guys, let's please just move on".

and  what's going on with the two brother's is a thin thread at best. AND the villain's motivation...  

But, it's foolish to get into that., and take points off. I LOVE THESE MOVIES, but it ain't for the story. Let's grade "F9" by its own standards:

Racing, Action, and Family (they graduated from booty to family):

Racing

They've done the racing in a small city thing before, but this time it's with magnets! - SUPER MAGNETS!

YES!

I loved this! Cars are getting sucked into magnets. They're using them to make people fly away and explode. Which btw, they did my man Francis Ngannou wrong (an mma fighter). There's a fight scene with a giant white dude on top of a speeding vehicle. That giant white dude could have and should have been the role for Francis, instead he's just here to say high, and then blow up. As much as I loved these scenes, they were too quick in some areas. I think if they had slowed some of the magnet stuff down a bit, we could appreciate more what's happening.

Action

M.Rod is legit. 

She needs her own franchise. The only action star I enjoyed more than her was Vin, and that's really due to the absurdity of one scene. Do y'all remember the "Civil War" scene when Captain America has one hand on a building and another pulling back a helicopter?? 

It's the same level of strength needed for what Vin does in some underground chambers. You can see a bit of it in the trailer. He pulls the whole place down, and then, just like in "Civil War", he ends up in the water (but unconscious). Oh, and he does this after beating up like 50 people at once. Ha! I love it! Then, how he is rescued (cuz c'mon, he can't die) is splendidly preposterous, and I mean that is a complimentary way. That scene is perfection.

The only action that bothers me comes from Dom's sister (mia). 

She just doesn't sell being a fighter, but whatever. No disrespect... she’s beautiful, but... her hair might weigh more than the rest of her body.

Apparently, the highest trained fighters (agents) in the world (who have GUNS) never trained for a unskilled, unprepared, 110 lb woman in her 40's with a frying pan.

Family & Corona

Tyrese and Luda are always funny, but their act is growing a bit thin. It actually felt like an act this time around. I think it's time to add another black man in the mix; perhaps one who's older than they are... TRACY MORGAN?

Throw an OG in there and it'll freshen things up again. I do like though how Tyrese is starting to suspect that they might be immortals. I think they should test that theory out in the next movie; maybe have Tyrese break the fourth wall, kinda like Deadpool, as he realizes this is just a dumbass movie.

Dom and Letty's kid... terrible. I'm sorry! This is a bias of mine, but kids normally suck at acting. This one is no exception. Just get an older actor to play the young kid. I'm thinking Ryan Reynolds would have been a good choice.

You may be saying "that's absurd!" - I'm glad that y'all can still tell what that word means, cuz I can't.

The rest of the chemistry family magic is great!

Oh, and Cardi is here, but... barely (for like 30 seconds, if that). 

No rapping, no wapping, no cursing... kind of a waste of Cardi B, if you ask me.

John Cena aka Jakob with a K!

Meh. JC def has charisma, just not in this movie. He doesn't stand out at all. You know?? - The Rock, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, etc all have a presence about them in this franchise. Cena?! what happened, buddy?

There are certain music artists whom you'd think would have a great personality based off their music and how they dress. But, then you meet them, and you realize that they're just normal bozos like you and I (only rich and famous). And normal bozos like you and I, AT TIMES can be boring. You gotta have some flair if you're not going to have personality. Give my man some pink glittery highlights, a face tat, some vampire teeth, and maybe a chainsaw for his left arm or something.

Grade: Good action. The absurdities were funny. I was entertained! Production was great! BUT it's getting tired, my friends. It's the same formula that I've mentioned and then, like always, they're grilling and drinking Corona's in the sun. After nine movies (with at least two more on the way)... I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually not absurd enough. Wait... I seriously can't believe I just said that.

I need to say that again to know it's real.

This movie wasn't absurd.. enough? ENOUGH. IT WASN'T! They're going to need to step it up for the next two.

They were in space, but not for long. They raced for the most part in regular cars (regular for them). . You only brought ONE person back from the dead??! C'mon! We can do better.

I'm giving it an entertaining C+

I like that we saw different younger Dom's (during flashbacks) through time. I think that the next type of vehicle they bust out should be a DeLorean.

Y'all feel me?? TIME TRAVEL, baby! 

Vin and the gang race through time! They can have Tracy Morgan. They'll each have a younger version (or older) of themselves join the group. Cardi B will actually do something this time - maybe turn into a car! 

And maybe Cable shows up as they tie it to Marvel.

Think bigger, Vin!

[docholligay]

SM rewrite: any of haruka's first times meeting the inners

EPisode 92! 1960 words, I hope you enjoy, I AM HAVING FUN TODAY

“He’s SO HOT, Mina.” 

Usagi was off on yet another one of her larks, talking about some guy she’d seen at the arcade. She’d thought, at first, that she was talking about Motoki, who Mina took to be her current obsession who was not Mamoru of the moment, but maybe that had been several moments ago. It was hard to tell with Usagi. 

People always took her and Usagi to be alike, and if that gave Mina the benefit of being underestimated, that was fine with her. And it was true, that they both liked attractive people, in a way, but Mina was more of a freelancer, moving from this flower to that like a brilliant butterfly with no particular link to any one person, while Usagi fell in love with every man she ever met. 

That too. Usagi was still under the impression that she was straight, and the delusion might yet follow her all the way to the wedding altar. That, in particular, was none of Mina’s business, who had realized since the age of 12 that attractive was attractive in her eyes, which became the fact that a bedroom was a bedroom, as she got older, and what it might say on someone’s driver’s license or facebook held little notice for her when it was time to go home. 

Dating, on the other hand--well, she wasn’t bold enough to tell Usagi to never date a man, if she had other options, not while she was still enamored of Mamoru, but she certainly thought it hard enough. Mina had learned that lesson quickly. Men were like riding a roller coaster, exhilarating and fun, for a quick ride, but eventually you just get sick. 

Usagi had not yet learned this, and it was in this that Minako allowed her to keep your youthful naivete. She had time yet to learn. 

“His name is HARUKA,” she swung her bag around, “I heard the cashier say it. Isn’t that dreamy?” 

Mina chuckled, “It’s one of the most popular names in Japan, Usagi. I go to school with like, 4 Harukas.” 

“Well, it seems different on him!” She gave a little scowl and a stomp of her foot, but then smiled brightly and whipped around, “Come to the arcade with me and see him!” She narrowed her eyes playfully, “We can compete to see who he’ll fall in love with.” 

This was the point at which Rei would have chimed in that Usaig had a boyfriend, if she had denied to leave off from her shrine duties and hang out with them after school, but she hadn’t, and Mina didn’t see why something like a boyfriend should get in the way of a good time. 

“Amazing. I hope you like losing.” Mina cackled as she swanned toward The Crown. She hadn’t been in a while, not for any particular reason, other than she was doing a bunch of back work for a hostess club, which she hoped would hire her as a hostess the absolute second she turned 18. Unfortunately, they were too above-board to hire her for anything at the front right now. It was less than a year. She’d live. 

Usagi rushed into the Crown, ever with the perfect idea of how to act casual, and gazed immediately over to the racing game in the corner, hand under her chin as she leaned against an old copy of Pacman. 

“There he is!!!” she stage whispered, hissing as she grabbed Mina’s hand. 

She sighed and turned to tell Usagi that he was going to hear them, but he didn’t look over even at all, and Mina’s brow twitched as she noticed it. His hearing must not be anything to write home about. He was wearing a blazer over the top of a sweater, over the top of a collared shirt, which seemed a bit like overkill to Mina, but hey, maybe he was cold. 

MIna walked over to him, Usagi half-tiptoeing behind in a way that Haruka would find either cute or incredibly unsettling, and based on that, Mina would change her strategy. It was all a sort of chess game, flirting and seduction, and with men maybe it wasn’t even chess. Checkers, or something.

“Hi!” Usagi popped up, “Good afternoon! We saw that you were playing alone here, and were wondering, you know!” 

Mina looped her arm across the back of the car seat, and leaned against it. “Care for a friendly game?” 

Haruka ruffled his hair, and looked up at her, and Mina nearly burst out laughing. She hadn’t noticed, with the bulkiness of the blazer and other entrappings, and she hadn’t looked hard enough when she’d been standing with Usagi, but looking now, there was no mistake. Haruka wasn’t a man at all. Oh, she was tall, and gangly, and even given the sweater probably fairly flat-chested, but there was the unmistakable fullness of her lip, the softness of her brow, the way she looked at Usagi and Mina. Mina was a bit of an expert, in these matters. 

She looked over to Usagi. No reason not to let this play out. Why not, she’d earned some fun. Maybe Usagi would have a moment of realization--Mina doubted she’d ever seen a butch lesbian outside of Takarazuka, and those women were made up to the high heavens, more drag than the genuine article. 

So she smiled. 

“Just a race or two.” 

Usagi started to stammer, and step in front of her, but Mina dodged it effortlessly. Why have one bit of fun, when she could have two? Besides, Usagi may have been wrong about Haruka being a boy, but she wasn’t wrong about a certain quality of rough handsomeness that she carried, that sort of young, gentlemanly way, with a touch of insecurity, that Mina sometimes found very winning about the younger butch set. She could have a worse time. 

“Sure,” Haruka smiled, and nodded, then added, “I always like to play with a pretty girl.” 

Her voice was deep, but not overly so, and Mina found the feminine lilt at the end of her sentences quite charming. She rather liked butches, when it came down to it. They had a habit of picking up the charming parts of masculinity while letting the rest rot where it belonged. 

MIna slid in next to her. She smelled good, like sandalwood and maybe a touch of motor oil, which Mina wouldn’t have thought would be charming. Usagi was salivating as they put their coins into the slot, but she stood and watched Mina. She’d played this game plenty of times, and beaten Usagi at it nearly every time, save when Motoki accidentally spilled a drink on her in the middle of a race. This wouldn’t be too hard, but she would be careful not to humiliate Haruka, and maybe even let her win in the last stretch--

She looked over to the map. Haruka was already out in front, her car on full manual and effortlessly gliding through it, swinging the wheel and tapping on the brake and gas at perfect intervals. 

Minako, for a moment, became just a little enraged. She hadn’t even wanted to win before this moment, but for her to be beaten so easily, by whatever putz of a nerd was too old to be hanging out in an arcade but clearly WAS hanging out in an arcade, on an afternoon, and didn’t she have a job or college or something to go to? 

She slammed down on the gas, trying desperately to catch up, to make a better showin, but Haruka just kept going and going, hitting checkpoints without a second thought, not even the slightest amount of wrinkle to her forehead. 

Besides all that, Usagi was laughing and clapping her hands like the damn fool she was. 

Mina tried to weave around the fake traffic in her way, but ended up broadsiding a bus full of fake schoolchildren, and she imagined their fake screams echoing her own as the Game Over flashed across the screen. She quite forgot her seduction, in the moment, as she slapped the middle of the steering wheel and laid her head down on it. 

“I can’t believe I lost that bad!” 

Haruka chuckled, “No, you actually did pretty good.” 

Mina straightened up, smoothed her hair, and tried to regain herself. 

“Sorry, it’s just,” she giggled, “I get so competitive. The uh….heat of the moment, you know what I mean?” 

Haruka looked at her with a slightly confused sideways grin. “Sure.” 

“Oh but I am sorry, Haruka, mother was forever at lunch, sometimes I swear she asks for things only to see the human limit of what a waiter will bear before smoke begins to run from his ears. It was never my intention to keep you waiting.” 

“Oh, that’s okay.” 

Mina saw Game Over flash across the screen a second time as Haruka looked at the woman who had just entered. 

She was unquestionably beautiful, with a delicately rounded face that suggested a touch of foreignness at the eyes, eyes in green or blue but also somehow both, shifting a bit as the tides. Her hair was elegantly curled to her shoulders, and her carriage was straight and practiced, a show dog out for the afternoon with all the regular mutts. She wore a finely tailored blouse of silk with a demurely pleated skirt, round toe leather on that fit her perfectly on her feet, a bag at her side that was the sort of designer you wore if you were too polished for garishness of advertising that you wore designer. The whole of her felt wrong in the crown, like placing Italian marble in a kid’s playplace, and she smelled of rose and jasmine. 

But none of that was what stopped Mina in her tracks, no, wealth and polish was not enough to frighten her off. It was the look Haruka gave her, that wide-eyed gaze like a tourist standing in front of some great masterwork, and the softness with which she had responded. Mina didn’t know if they were together, or if they weren’t but she knew one thing for sure: 

Haruka was desperately smitten. She could have competed with Usagi for stupid in love, at that point. She and Usagi were getting nowhere with this one. 

Haruka rose to her feet, taking her bag and tossing it over her shoulder in one motion. MIchiru turned to leave the arcade, and Haruka gave a nod back to Usagi. 

“Hey, uh, you with the buns,” She smiled and tossed her hair, “We should play next time.” 

Usagi’s eyes damn near became hearts, but Mina just gave a half-hearted wave and a nod. There were fights you could win, and fights you couldn’t win, and Minako Aino didn’t ever throw effort straight into a fire. She had more of a sense of self-preservation than that. 

Haruka turned to walk next to her companion, who gave her the smallest closed-mouth smile. 

“Well, aren’t we making friends so quickly today?” 

Haruka chuckled. “You jealous or something?” She looked at the woman with what Mina noted was a mix of hope and fear. 

“Oh, terribly.” she answered. This woman knew exactly what Mina knew.

Haruka shook her head, unable to keep up the ruse. “They’re high school girls,” she shrugged, “ They seem like such little kids. But they’re cute, right?” 

“As kittens.” Noted the elegant woman, as they breezed out the door. 

There was a pause for a moment as even Motoki stood beside them to watch them leave, the perfume still hanging in the air as if the entire place were surrounded by petals. Usagi put her hands on her hips. 

“Is it just me, or were they both ridiculously good-looking?”

[riotfuckery]

Shattered hearts and clean shirts pt 2

Sero Hanta x F!reader

A/N: Hello my beautiful readers! It’s your friendly neighborhood big tiddy goth gf here with shattered hearts and clean shirts pt2! It’s all fluff this time with some tones of flirting so please enjoy!

Taglist: @thedreadthread @queensynderella @trafalgar-temptress @kingtamakimurder thank you for all the love and support senpais 💖🥺💖

»»————-　♡　————-««

It’s been a few months since things ended with Bakugo. The sharp pain in your heart now down to a rush of anger whenever you were near him. The squad (formerly known as the bakusquad) was still there for you. Always being their friendly and cheerful selves while comforting or calming you down when it was needed. The grinning boy being the main reason you didn’t go ballistic on the blonde during class at the regular rude comments he yelled.

All the stages of grief went through normally but you were still stuck on anger. You pulled yourself together after getting played by the blonde toilet brush with a bad attitude. Including going to train more, eating healthier, and healing your heart with the help of your lovely friends. You could rely on Sero the most when it came to emotional stuff.

‘HOW DARE HE PLAY ME LIKE THAT? LIKE I WAS SOME STUPID PRIZE TO BE WON. I AM A PERSON GODDAMNIT. I AM A PERSON WORTHY OF LOVE AND CARE LIKE MOST GOOD PEOPLE. I HOPE HE ROTS!’ you angrily yelled in your head as you took out your frustration on a training dummy.

Letting out all of today’s anger out on the dummy with the last slice of your blade like thorn, you sliced it so hard at the neck that you decapitated it. ‘Oh shit, went a little too hard I guess.’ You thought with a shrug while breathing heavily from your workout.

“WOAH! THAT WAS SO MANLY (Y/N)! YOURE SO STRONG!” Kirishima exclaimed loudly from the other side of the room where he had his own training dummy. He was your workout buddy now, everyday you met him at a small gym down the street from the school to hone your skills and practice your hand to hand combat. You smiled at him brightly and gave him a loud “THANK YOU KIRI, BUT I CAN’T COMPARE TO THE MANLIEST MAN IN THE WORLD!” You shot back at him.

He blushed at the compliment, stopping his own workout to catch his breath. He shyly put a hand to his neck for a moment before walking over to where you were. His eyes widening at the damage you caused and sweat dropping.

He lowly whistled before he spoke. “Woah, that’s a lotta damage. You really tore into that thing like a wild animal. But that was super manly (y/n)!” Kiri commented excitedly as he did his signature red riot pose to emphasize on the manliness. The sweat on your skin started to become sticky and you wanted nothing more to take a shower.

“That’s the 3rd one this week, I’m broke from how many dummies I beheaded!” You moped dramatically. “Hey, at least you’re getting super strong!” Kirishima replied with a smile and a pat on your shoulder. You smiled at the statement. After training for another 30 mins, you and Kiri packed up your stuff and headed to the dorms.

The walk home with Kiri was always filled with laughs and smiles. He was such a nice boy that you couldn’t help the happiness that filled your heart. The two of you arrived at the door and keyed yourselves in. You both were walking through the common room when you heard Sero speak up.

“Hey gym rats, how was training?” He jested with his signature smile. You rolled your eyes at the nickname but smiled nonetheless. You each had your thing with the squad. Kiri had training, Sero had study sessions and movies, Mina had a few days of the week allotted for girl time and gossip, and Kami would just join in whatever he felt like. Some days it was study sessions, other days ‘girl time’ but very rarely training. (Damnit Denki, you could be the next ZEUS if you put enough work into it bby!)

“It was good, decapitated another dummy today, ya know the usual. I’m gonna take a shower and then we can study yeah? ” You spoke nonchalantly while walking towards your room. You took a glance at Sero who gave you a bright smile and a loud “Yeah”.

You set your stuff down and grabbed a change of comfy clothes to wear after your shower. Pulling out a random shirt and a pair of (f/c) sleep shorts. You folded them nicely before grabbing your shower basket and towel. On your way down the hall to the girls showers, you realized it was the shirt you accidentally stole from Sero. Your face heated up intensely as you tried to shake it away.

You developed a crush on the dark haired boy during those months of healing. The first few weeks, you tried to isolate yourself from everyone. Keyword: TRIED. Sero wouldn’t let you though. He always seemed to find you and he always seemed to soothe the ache in your heart.

The reassuring words spoke softly to you during lunch on the rooftop of the school and the comforting little touches he would give made the small spark of comfort turn into a small flame. That little flame he unknowingly added to until it became a full fire coursing in your veins. The thoughts about your crush continued even while you were showering.

‘He’s so kind, patient, and smart. Plus he just smells so GOOD! He’s cute and gentlemanly while still being fun and exciting. Heavenly beings only knows we have enough excitement in our group so I’m thankful he’s so chill and rational. He’s like the balance between everyone. I don’t see why he doesn’t see himself as special! He’s the most special out of all of us! He’s got a useful quirk (not that it matters) and a good heart! Plus he’s handsome! What more could you want in a guy?” The monologe continued in your head while you scrubbed away all of today’s dirt.

You soon finished, your body and hair now smelling like (f/s) and being squeaky clean. You stepped out of the cubicle (?) and wrapped your towel around yourself. Humming a random tune as you got dressed and brushed your hair, putting in all the usual products. Exiting the girls shower and making your way up to your room. You did your skin routine before swiping on your deodorant and spraying a bit of perfume after blow drying your hair.

Taking a good look in the mirror you have on your door, you gave yourself a smile and a approving nod before grabbing your bag and heading to Sero’s room. Nervousness was setting in as you neared his dorm.

‘You were wearing HIS shirt to your weekly study sessions! Did you want him to notice? Is it too late to go back and change? Oh god why didn’t you think about this earlier! Why did your stupid butt only remember this after you did everything?!?!?’ The little voice in your head scolded.

You knocked on the door three times, the nervousness weighing on you like a heavy blanket. Taking a deep breath, you tried to clear your mind of any nervousness and worry while putting on a small smile to keep up appearances. The door opened to a brightly smiling Sero, which made you internally scream.

‘Oh god that smile! I’m already nervous about wearing your shirt around you and then you have to greet me so happily I feel like I’m going to have a SEIZURE!’ The same voice in your head was screeching.

“Hey Sunflower! You ready to study?” He asked happily. You could only manage to give a nod while you felt your face heat up. ‘God why does his voice sound so good’ you whined internally.

He stepped aside to let you walk through the door and left your slippers next to his at the entrance. You made your way to his hammock and set your bag down beside it while you made yourself comfy in the oversized sling. He went and pulled out all his materials before making himself comfy next to you.

You studied like you would normally with him, taking notes and him asking you questions. Always answering them with a smile and explaining them thoroughly. He was surprisingly smart, but he just needed it explained differently than teachers and textbooks showed. That was another thing you loved about him.

The nervousness you felt was gone by the end of your study session, mostly thanks to his jokes, memes, and overdramatic whines of why math was needed to be a hero. He made you laugh so easily, the thought popped up that he might have a second quirk. Another thing you added to the list of why you had a crush on the dark haired boy.

“You did great today Sero, lets pack up and then we can watch whatever movie you want!” You happily said as you gave him a pat on the head, a habit you picked up from All Might. ‘His hair is so SOFT! I don’t regret doing it but I know I’m gonna think about playing with his hair all the time now’ you scolded yourself.

“Sure thing Sunflower! How does a bad horror movie sound? We can roast the hell out of those dumb teens......” his tone turned from his normal excited friendly to silence accompanied by a contented sigh leaving his lips. He felt like he was in heaven. Your smooth voice humming a sweet song he didn’t know just added to his fantasy. Your hands were so soft and felt so good, that his body melted as his dark eyes fluttered close.

Your hand was now playing with his hair, focused on feeling it now while you still could. You softly pet his hair, moving your hand down to play with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck. The short nails on your hand lightly scratching his scalp on instinct. You hummed a song, “Can’t help falling in love” cover by twenty one pilots. The song subconsciously chosen purely for the fact that you were so in painfully love with him.

You both sat there for a moment, wishing it wouldn’t end. Then your love dazed state was blown away and your actions hit you with like a BUS. You stopped humming and pulled your hand out of his hair as gently as you could while you were panicking. The embarrassment and guilt creeping in your body like a unsuspecting wave.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t ask and my hand just moved on it’s own, I-i...” you waved your arms around wildly, as if trying to make yourself fly away from this painfully awkward situation. The heat on your face climbed up to your ears in embarrassment. You were cut off with a chuckle from none other the man himself.

“It’s fine sunflower! It actually felt like- uhhh really nice.” His normal friendly grin returned also with the addition of a light pink blush on his cheeks as he shyly put a hand to the side of his neck while looking the other way. Your heart that was beating wildly calmed down at the friendly tone but picked back up when he said he liked it.

“O-oh! So it’s okay?” You questioned shyly. You received an equally shy look and nod from Sero in reply and sighed out a breath in relief.

“Go and pick out the movie while I clean up, and then we can watch while I play with your hair. If that’s okay with you?” Your shy tone never leaving as you took another shot at being closer to your crush.

“That’s sounds great! Bad horror movies still good with you?” He asked. You hummed in reply as you cleaned up both of your stuff. The excitement heating up your body as you neatly stacked his books and papers and set them on his desk.

Sero couldn’t tried picking out a movie if his life depended on it right now. His focus only on you as you gracefully moved around to clear the space you were both previously in. His mind drifted back to how you were so warm and inviting, like a freshly dried fluffy blanket on a cold day. How you cute you looked as you wildly flailed around when you apologize, not that you needed to. Plus the adorable blush on your face kissed the tips of your ears.

He shifted back his focus to movies and picked a random one while he put in the DVD player. When he turned back, he saw his floor clear and you laying down on his bed. The red on your face dimmed down to a soft pink that scratched at your cheeks. He made himself comfortable as you watched the start of the movie.

He decided to lay on his side with his hand supporting his head. His pining heart sang in joy because of the closeness and thumping in his ribcage like a overjoyed bird. He wanted to be closer, fuck he needed to be. Alone time with you was rare and he needed to take advantage of it. He summoned all the courage in his body and slung his free arm over your waist, pulling you closer.

You jumped at the sudden contact and then melted into his embrace. Platonic cuddling wasn’t new to you and the squad, always cuddling up with someone while the whole group watched a movie until all of you passed out on the common room couch. This felt different from all those other times. It’s because both of you were ALONE TOGETHER.

The movie playing on the small tv in his room was the farthest thing from your minds right now. The thumping of both your synched heart sand the pink blushes on your face were the only thing on them as you hoped the other couldn’t see it. You were just struggling to breathe normally.

Sero was feeling the same way, his brain tunnel visioned on you. There you were so painfully close to him. The smell of your perfume mixed with the floral scent of your shampoo drove him absolutely insane. He took his position behind you to his advantage, his eyes trailed your body slowly.

His dark eyes started at your plush thighs, they looked so soft and so warm that he had to hold in a groan. The sleep shorts you wore just accentuated your hips and backside, the tight shorts with yellow and white stripes on the side tempted him sinfully. He moved his gaze to where his arm was, slung over your tiny waist.

‘It fit so perfectly, it was almost like you were made for him.’ He thought with dazed sigh. His mind stopped dead in its tracks when he realized you were wearing his shirt. His heart kickboxed in his chest, his subconscious screaming at him to make a move now or get over it.

“Sunflower?” He tried. You gave a hum in reply, not trusting your own voice. He paused for a moment, trying to decide if he should ask you why you were wearing his shirt. He loved you wearing his clothes so he just decided to spit it out. To see if he wasn’t just imagining things in desperation for you.

“Is that my shirt?” He teased, pulling your back closer to his chest. His deep voice was right next to your ear as his breath tickled your neck. He knew what he was doing, the cheshire grin overtaking his handsome features as his eyes twinkled mischievously.

You’ve been caught red handed. The muscles in your body froze as a burning hot blush erupted from your cheeks. The organ in your chest nearly ripped itself out when he pulled you closer and it stuttered when he spoke.

“Y-yeah, it is. I just threw it o-on after taking a shower. I can give your clothes back after I do laundry.” You managed to speak out in your overwhelmed state. He was so close to you and the way his voice dropped had you nervous.

“Keep it sweetheart, it’s looks better on you than it ever did me. Plus you look so cute in it, how could I say no?” His friendly causal tone was back, but the impish grin on his face never left. ‘When did he get so smooth? And sweetheart? He called me cute!!!!’ Your brain scrambled trying to comprehend what just happened.

Something ignited within your spirit. A mischievous grin spread across your face as you thought of a battle plan. ‘Oh he wants to play like that does he??? Aight bet. Let’s see if he could take what he dishes out.’ You smirked at the thought.

You turned so you were facing him. Mustering all the innocence in your being, you pushed your chest against his and craned your neck up so your noses were brushing. Your eyes peeked up at him through your long lashes and a playful grin overtook your face.

“Sweetheart huh?” You teased as you ever so slowly got your plush lips closer to his. You felt his breath hitch before it stopped completely, the rapid beating of his heart thrumming against your chest. His dark eyes were locked on your soft lips and you decided to test his patience by biting your bottom one softly. The strong arm around your waist tensed and you felt his body freeze.

“If I’m so cute and your sweetheart then why haven’t you made a move yet, cellophane~?” You spoke softly before you actually reached his lips. You heard a strangled groan from the back of his throat and smiled playfully before you moved away and back to your original position. An evil smile on your face as you pretended that you didn’t even do anything.

A soft and frustrated “fuck it” came from him and suddenly and you were pinned down on the bed by your wrists. Sero was straddling your hips as he held your wrists down with a tight grip. You looked up at him and saw the bright red blush on his face as he breathed heavily. The shocked and doe eye look you gave him only seemed to make it brighter.

“f-fuck, I’ve liked you for the longest time sunflower so will you be willing to go out on a date with me sometime soon?” His tone and gaze was nervous despite his dominant position over you. He let go of your hands and moved so he was sitting in front of you with his leg folded.

He shrunk a bit under your surprised gaze, but despite his feelings his eyes stayed stayed on yours. You propped yourself up and sat in front of him in the same position. A wide grin and the shine in your eyes ever present as you looked back at him.

“Of course I would love to go out with you Hanta! I’ve liked you for a bit now but was nervous asking you out after that whole ‘situation’.” You grinned brightly, cheeks flush pink and eyes slightly crinkled from how happy you were. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back as you just as brightly.

He tackled you into a hug, the joy in his heart keeping him from being polite with you. The sweet giggles that rang around the room just made his love for you shine brighter than ever. With his face buried in your neck and his arms snaked around your waist, he squeezed you like a teddy bear.

You audibly let out an “awwww’ at the boy. He just so sweet you couldn’t help it. Your hand found it’s way to his hair once again, running your fingers through it and lightly scratching his scalp while the other rubbed his back soothingly.

Both of you spent the rest of the night cuddling and making plans for your date. Laughs and the soft sound of whatever movie playing in the background just made everything feel so warm and comfortable. It felt like all the pieces had come together and placed you with Hanta Sero.

He was feeling just as warm and fuzzy with you. As he cuddled and snuggled you through the night, he couldn’t help the adoring smile plastered on his face.

Who knew he would not only tape the last pieces of your shattered heart together but made it feel full as well?

[somerandr]

royalty

Maddie lets out another dramatic sigh, huffing a little when Sophie and Jack both ignore her in favor of oohing and ahhing over the stories Lizzie has begun meticulously typing out and collecting in a leather bound binder. On one hand, Maddie gets their distraction. Her brother-in-law had never quite seen Lizzie the same way Maddie does, always knowing her as the big sister he couldn’t ever really relate to, the big sister he tended to see more as a parental figure than a sibling, creating an insurmountable distance between them. And her best friend just likes to be annoying—a talent of hers since they were in middle school. 

On the other hand, Maddie has something to get off her chest and, dammit, she needs Sophie and Jack to pay attention. 

She sighs again, louder this time, placing her mug of coffee on the table with a little more force than strictly necessary. It has its desired effect: Sophie looks up in concern, clearly thinking Maddie has dropped the mug, and Jack moves as if to act as Maddie’s support beam. 

(The first few weeks of this sort of behavior from her best friend and her brother-in-law had been frustrating and grated on her nerves. But now she appreciates that they’re here, sitting with her, acting as de facto babysitters while Lizzie is out.

To be perfectly honest, Maddie appreciates not being alone.) 

“What’s up, Maddie Bear?” Sophie asks, head tilted to the side as she closes the binder with a satisfying thump. “Annoyed we’re more interested in the stories than you?”

“First of all, as if anything could be more interesting than me,” Maddie says with a faux self-aggrandizing air. “Secondly, don’t call me that. We’re not in high school anymore.”

“It’s always like high school when I’m with you, Mads,” Sophie sings, shoving Jack aside and wrapping her arms around Maddie’s shoulders, giving her an awkward hug from the side. “But seriously, what’s up?” 

Now that Sophie and Jack are looking at her patiently, but expectantly, Maddie feels her mouth go dry. She doesn’t want to admit this to them, doesn’t want to show them that it bothers her—and yet, she needs to tell someone or she thinks she’ll combust. 

“Evie called,” she mumbles after several beats, looking down at her hands. She feels Sophie drop her arms and pull back, and though she doesn’t look, she knows Sophie and Jack are wearing identical expressions of a mixture of disgust and anger. 

“What’s Evil doing calling you?” Sophie hisses, and when Maddie looks up at her, her arms are crossed tightly over her chest, lips pressed into a thin line. Jack, on the other hand, looks like he’s turned to stone, unable to move at all. 

“Apparently, she heard the news about me. Wanted to make sure she um, expressed her sadness,” Maddie mumbles, using air quotes around the latter part of her comment, still thinking about the sickly-sweet voice of Evie Cummings and how much she wishes she could have reached through the phone and punched Evie in her perfectly made up face. “She told me I didn’t need to worry about Elizabeth.” 

(This is what’s got her so mad, not the fact that Evie called, but that she figured it would be okay to slowly explain to Maddie that Lizzie would be taken care of, ‘in cough cough, the worst kind of situation.’

Maddie’s not jealous. 

At least, she doesn’t think so.) 

“I don’t understand this whole staying friends with the ex thing,” Jack says, running his fingers through his hair and dropping into the chair next to Maddie, his legs stretched out in front of him as he slouches. He looks a lot like his sister, but his hair is darker, and his manner is more airy. Where Jack is quick with a smile, Lizzie is content to merely quirk her lips. 

(Except for if it’s at her.

Lizzie will always smile at her.)

“I agree,” Sophie says darkly, her eyes narrowed as if she’s already planning something nefarious. “Evil needs to go.” 

“She’s Elizabeth’s friend,” Maddie argues weakly, not quite able to believe her own words. Lizzie had met and dated Evie in what she still calls ‘a dark time’ in her life. The fact that Evie helped her through it—that she had been there through long nights and eased Lizzie through panic attacks—meant that Evie had a permanent place in Lizzie’s life, even if Maddie and Evie had made their mutual dislike of one another well-known. 

“Right,” Jack laughs, flicking his head so that his hair would fall perfectly on his forehead, giving Sophie a wink as she rolls his eyes at his antics. “And you stayed friends with that baseball player, huh Mads? What was his name again?” Jack asks in faux confusion, tapping a finger against his chin. “Darren? Derek? Daniel,” he stresses, flicking his hair again, smiling at Maddie as he stretches out Daniel’s name. 

“It’s different,” Maddie says, waving him off, but Sophie sighs dreamily before shaking her head. 

“And everyday I think it’s just tragic that you didn't keep him around for me. Your best friend. How could you, Maddie Bear?” 

Maddie blushes, glaring at Sophie and Jack as they chuckle at her embarrassment.

“Can we get back to the point?” she asks weakly, two seconds away from banging her head against the kitchen table. She’s sure that won’t go over well with Lizzie; Sophie and Jack would get fired from babysitting duty the second Lizzie notices the bruise. 

“Wasn’t the point that Evie is a she-devil? Because Jack and I are in full agreement on that front,” Sophie says, picking up Maddie’s mug and taking a sip before wincing at the cold, bitter coffee. “You’re really letting yourself go, babe,” she mutters, stalking over to the sink and emptying the coffee out. “Drinking bitter coffee and letting yourself become more bitter over the she-devil?” She turns and leans against the counter, arms crossed over her chest and Maddie’s mug hanging from the handle on her index finger. “It’s not like you.”

“Well, a lot of things aren’t like me. Like not going to work and spending all day watching daytime dramas. I don’t even like daytime dramas.”

“Don’t knock it, Mads,” Jack says, hand over his heart. “I for one am very invested in the bold and the beautiful—after all, I’m both bold and beautiful, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maddie laughs, rolling her eyes. “You’re a regular Prince Charming, Jack.” 

“I’m gone for half a day and I come back to you flirting with my brother?” comes a voice down the hall and the sound of keys being tossed into a bowl, announcing Lizzie’s arrival. “What has the world come to?” she asks as she steps into view, first pressing a quick kiss to Maddie’s lips before hugging Sophie and Jack. 

“I admit it,” Maddie jokes, grinning when Hamlet gets off his bed, stretches, and pads slowly over, sticking his head in Maddie’s lap. “It was a surprise to me too.”

“Surprise?” Jack exclaims, mouth dropping open. “Madeline, you and I were always meant to be.” 

“You’re right, if only you were four years older and less beautiful. It could’ve been a match made in heaven.” 

“Way to aim for a man’s heart, Mads,” Jack sighs, keeping a stoic expression even as Sophie chortles away. Lizzie shrugs off her jacket and tosses it into Jack’s face.

“Stop flirting with my wife, dork,” she says, eyes narrowed. “And Maddie, stop encouraging him.” 

“Oh, but we’re meant to be, Liz,” Maddie laughs, “would you really get in the way of love?” 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Pick on me, that’s fine,” Lizzie mutters, unable to help the smile that forms on her lips. 

(It’s a startlingly normal moment. Maddie and Jack are teasing Lizzie like always. Sophie makes sure to throw in her own joke like always. 

It’s almost easy to forget that Sophie’s hands are shaking as she pours Maddie a fresh cup of coffee, that Jack never strays too far when Maddie gets up to grab Hamlet a snack, that Lizzie watches apprehensively—as if waiting for something, a shoe to drop.

It’s a normal moment. And Maddie breathes it in, wants to keep it as long as possible.

It’s likely why she speaks up.) 

“I have a story,” she announces to the others, feeling a little shaky on her feet, not minding when Jack subtly takes her by the elbow and leads her back to the table. “Want to hear it?” 

“I do, but I better be in this one,” Sophie says, raising her eyebrows. 

“I was promised dinner, so I’m in,” Jack adds with a shrug. “I’m not going anywhere till I’ve been fed.” 

Lizzie helps Maddie sit down, pressing a lingering kiss to her temple. 

“I want to hear everything you have to say, Madeline,” she says softly, eyes crinkling as she smiles. 

And in that moment, Maddie feels a little bit warmer as she looks at her friends, and swears she falls just a bit more in love with her wife. 

XxX

She’s busy polishing boots when she hears stomping from the stairs and Ser Evie enters the armory with her hair pointing in every direction, sweat beading on her forehead, and her chest heaving. 

“Prince Jack has fallen in love!” she cries excitedly, shoving past Maddie roughly, and grabbing Ser Fredericks by the shoulders and shaking him. “Do you know what this means?” 

“Weeks of celebration with lots and lots of mead?” Fredericks says hopefully, shifting in his chair. Maddie doesn’t think she’s ever actually seen him get off the chair, though she’s heard the stories of his incredible, heroic past—how he was born a peasant but was knighted because he saved the King’s life, how at only eighteen, he’d led the King’s army into glorious battle and emerged victorious. No one mentions that at a certain point war and rank seemed to pale in comparison to a good bottle of mead. 

Though, as an overworked, underappreciated squire, Maddie can see the appeal of a good bottle of mead. 

“Stop fooling around,” Evie snaps at Fredericks, glaring at him as he shifts again in his chair, clearly feeling off-balanced. “This is serious.”

Fredericks doesn’t look very serious—in fact, he seems terribly amused.

“And why is that exactly, Ser Evie?” he asks, stroking his beard. Maddie nearly gags when he finds some pheasant still stuck in it from lunch and pops it into his mouth with a giddy expression. “Is it because you think with Jack out of the way you can finally win Princess Elizabeth’s heart?” He laughs heartily at his own joke, clearly finding himself outrageously humorous. “Somehow I doubt Prince Jack will cease being a protective younger brother just because he’s fallen in love.”  

“He’s distracted,” Evie huffs, tossing her cloak in Maddie’s general direction, followed by her boots and arm braces, not looking to see the spectacular balancing act Maddie pulls off in order to catch all the items. Maddie’s so busy congratulating herself on not looking stupid that she doesn’t notice the sword and scabbard coming her way—the hilt of the sword rams hard into Maddie’s hip, the shock of pain causing her to drop the items in her arms, and she curses under her breath as both Evie and Fredericks deign to look over at her, the former with disgust and the latter with poorly concealed mirth. “Can you carry out your duties in a more silent manner?” Evie snaps, giving Maddie a glare for good measure before turning her attention back to Fredericks. “My point is that Elizabeth will have more time to herself—time she could be spending with me, a knight of her father’s court.” 

“Princess Elizabeth,” Maddie mumbles as she gathers Evie’s things once more. She leaves the armory just as Evie launches into the story the other knights and squires have heard hundreds of times before: Evie was there for Elizabeth after the Queen died, Evie soothed Elizabeth’s fears and wiped away her tears, Evie was the one who got her to smile again.

It’s the reason she was knighted—the King had taken one look at the smile on Elizabeth’s lips, a smile that had not graced the kingdom for two winters, and had immediately proclaimed that the one who elicited it was to be rewarded in any which way they chose. Evie chose knighthood, “to better serve the kingdom and the Princess” and of course, it had been the talk of court for months. 

Elizabeth and her knight in shining armor, Evie, are meant to be—everyone knows it, from the cooks to the handmaidens to the measly squire who huffs her hair out of her eyes as she lugs Evie’s things to her quarters. 

Maddie doesn’t know the princess, doesn’t care to know her, but she feels a bit sorry for her. After all, Maddie wouldn’t wish Evie on her worst enemy, let alone the well-loved princess. 

“You look like you’re about to topple over,” Ser Sophie says, falling into step next to Maddie, grinning as she walks, one hand on the pommel of her sword, the other hidden beneath her cloak. 

“You could always help,” Maddie points out, and though Sophie makes a big show of struggling and huffing, she does eventually grab the sword that’s slipping out of Maddie’s hands. 

“You’re in a worse mood than usual,” Sophie says conversationally as they cross the courtyard, Evie’s sword scabbard dragging along the ground between them, Sophie clearly not caring about her fellow knight’s property, “does this mean Ser Evie has already bragged about her plans to woo the good Princess?” 

“In detail, unfortunately,” Maddie says, grinning when that gets a loud laugh from Sophie. 

(She’s always liked Sophie—liked the humor, liked the long, dark hair that’s always braided, liked the fact that she’s always cool under pressure, and the fact that her nose is slightly crooked from the time Fredericks accidentally broke it, liked the fact that even on a day as warm as this one, Sophie seems unaffected and comfortable in her chainmail and leather.  

She especially likes the fact that Sophie has been kind, from the day they met, expecting absolutely nothing in return.) 

“How about I cheer you up and buy you a few drinks at the tavern when you’re done polishing Evie’s boots?” 

“You only want me there because I keep you out of trouble,” Maddie says with a roll of her eyes. “And if I polish Evie’s boots any more than I have, she’ll give Narcissus a run for his money.”

“Don’t be so bitter, Madeline. Look on the bright side, if Evie marries the good Princess, she’ll be out of our hair forever. And you may finally be knighted.” She emphasizes her point with a pat on Maddie’s shoulder, but she underestimates her own strength and the weight of her armor, because the pat nearly sends Maddie sprawling to the ground. 

“That’s a good point,” Maddie muses as she pulls herself up. “Though I don’t need to be knighted, I’ll be happy with just not seeing Evie every single day.” They finally reach Evie’s quarters as she finishes her comment, and she misses Sophie’s contemplative look as she throws the door open and lugs Evie’s things into her room, setting them up for the following morning when Maddie would have to get up at the crack of dawn to help Evie get dressed. 

“Come on,” Sophie says cheerfully as Maddie takes one last look at Evie’s quarters, wanting to make sure nothing is out of place, “I owe you a drink.” 

“You owe me more than one,” Maddie says with a laugh, dodging the lighthearted punch Sophie sends her way. 

“Let’s go, O Brave Squire. You’ve earned yourself a break.”

x

They don’t get their break.

By the time they make their way to the nearest tavern, Sophie is summoned to the palace “on urgent business” along with every other knight and squire within fifty miles of the palace. Left with nothing to do with herself, Maddie pulls her cloak tighter around herself, dons the hood, and sets out for beyond the city walls. 

Before becoming a squire, she rarely spent any time at all outside the city walls, she had no reason to. Everything she wanted, her family, her home, her friends, were within the safety of the city, nestled right outside the sprawling palace grounds. But then the sickness came, everything she loved was lost (gone, along with the Queen), and Maddie became a squire and took to hiding out in the woods beyond the city.

For a moment to breathe. For a break, for a chance to lay on her back and stare up at the sky and dream of leaving and never looking back.

It’s become somewhat of a habit now. Any free moment, any moment that was hers and hers entirely, she drops everything, pulls up the hood of her cloak, and disappears into the trees. Always, it’s very quiet and still, giving her a chance to complain under her breath about Evie, not worrying about being overheard. 

(It’s the solitude, she thinks. She just craves it. 

She’s almost glad of the urgent business that allows her to do this instead of spending the night at the tavern.) 

And for a moment, barely a second or two really, she gets that silence and solitude she so craves, before she’s rudely interrupted by a grunt, a mumbled curse, and then a heavy sigh. Maddie pulls out the dagger she hides at her belt, presses her back against the nearest tree, and peers towards the source of the sound, the ragged breathing, the fairly aggressive footsteps.

“Come on, Hamlet,” says a surprisingly gentle and pretty voice, though its owner is clearly harried and stressed, “we need to go.”

Maddie takes a small step, making sure to still have her back against the tree, and she cranes her head. Several feet away, only partially obscured by the trees, is a girl. Not any girl, but the most beautiful girl Maddie has ever set eyes on: her long blonde hair almost looks white in the moonlight, her lips curved into a tiny smile despite the furrow of her brow every time she’s unable to tug Hamlet—a massive, black horse—any further. 

Maddie doesn’t need the royal insignia on the horse’s saddle or the beautiful, expensive dress the girl is wearing to immediately recognize exactly who has stumbled in on her moment of peace and quiet.

The Princess, Elizabeth herself. 

(Now, Maddie is nothing but a lowly squire, but she’s been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the princess thrice before. First, soon after she became a squire, she’d quite literally run into the princess, both of them tumbling to the ground. She’d gotten quite an earful from Evie that day, and soon after, Evie was knighted. The second time, it was from a distance during the ceremony knighting the newest members of the King’s court. And the last time was merely weeks ago, from across the courtyard, somehow managing to earn a tiny smile and a small wave before Princess Elizabeth was swept away by one of her attendants. 

Every time, seeing the princess in person had been heart stopping. This time is no different.)

Without really thinking about it, Maddie slides her knife back in its sheath then puts her hands up in a non-threatening gesture, and approaches the princess. 

“I’m so sorry—” Maddie tries, immediately cut off by the neighing of the horse, who then pulls back on its hind legs, shocking the princess into letting go of the reins. 

What happens next goes by so quickly that Maddie would later be sure she’d hallucinated the whole thing. One minute, the princess looks up at her horse in horror, clearly sure she’s about to be trampled, and the next, Maddie has tackled the princess to the ground, rolling them a safe distance away, ending up straddling the other girl, arms braced on either side of her head.

“Are you all right?”

“Get off me,” the princess shouts, managing to land a remarkably precise blow onto Maddie’s face as they scramble about. She stumbles off the princess, tasting blood, but ignores the pain radiating from the right side of her face and instead stumbles over to the horse, urging it to calm down.

“I’m so sorry,” Maddie says as Hamlet lets out an aggressive breath, but allows Maddie to rub his neck. “I didn’t mean to frighten either one of you.” She turns to look at the princess, making sure to keep her eyes averted. “I’m so sorry for knocking you down, Princess.” 

She chances a single look at the princess’ face, watching as she casts her eyes up and down, pausing briefly on the insignia on her bag. 

“You’re from the palace,” the princess finally says, a bit tonelessly, as she gets to her feet and shakes off the leaves stuck to her dress and hair. “You’re new. But you found me rather quickly, so you must not be useless. What’s your name, knight?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

This makes the princess blink and even share a look with her horse, shockingly enough letting out whinny and shaking its head—as if it is disappointed with Maddie. “You don’t know what names are?”

“I think you’ve got it wrong, Princess,” Maddie says quickly, finally catching on to the fact that there’s quite a bit going on in the palace she’s clearly not privy to. “I’m not a knight. I’m just a squire. And I, um, wasn’t looking for you. In fact, technically, you found me.” 

The princess eyes her suspiciously. “You’re not a knight?” she questions, as if she doesn’t really want to believe it.

“No, Princess.”

“And you weren’t sent by my brother to look for me?”

“No, Princess. I didn’t know you were even in need of finding.” 

“So if I just...got on Hamlet and left. You’d what? Let me?”

It’s Maddie’s turn to blink. “It’s not really my place to let you do anything, Princess. I wouldn’t try to stop you, if that’s what you’re asking. If anything, I’d just follow you.”

“Follow me?”

“Of course, your highness. There’s no honor in watching the princess venture out into the woods on her own. I’d accompany you at the very least.” 

This response is not what the princess was expecting, because her eyes widen a bit, and she steps forward, close enough that she tugs the horse’s reins out of Maddie’s hands. “And if I told you I want to leave and never come back? Would you still follow me then?” 

Maddie doesn’t hesitate. “Yes, Princess.” 

“Interesting,” the princess mumbles, head slightly tilted to the side as she studies Maddie. There’s a beat, then she bends a bit at the knees, ducking to catch Maddie’s gaze. “I know you,” she says slowly. “You’re the squire Evie hates so much.” Maddie swallows, unable to speak when the princess’ brown eyes—her beautiful brown eyes—are so focused on her. “Madeline, right?” 

“I’m honored that the princess knows who I am,” Maddie mumbles, breaking eye contact. This, for whatever reason, makes the princess chuckle, and she basically takes Maddie’s breath away when she pats her on the shoulder. 

“Don’t be silly.” She looks like she’s about to say more, but at that moment, they both turn their heads at the sound of pounding hooves and shouts of ‘Princess!’ coming from the distance. “Ah, well. I suppose they’ve found me. Thanks to you, really,” she adds, narrowing her eyes at her horse playfully. She lets the horse press its muzzle to her cheek in an apparent apology, letting out a soft laugh, then tugs on the reins, pulling the horse back in the direction of the palace. She pauses after a few feet, and looks back at Maddie. “I have a feeling we’ll see much more of each other, Madeline,” she says. “So please, stop with all the princess nonsense. It’s just Lizzie to you.” 

She doesn’t wait for a response, which is a good thing. It takes nearly a quarter of an hour before Maddie can even move again, unrooting herself with a tiny smile and a whispered Lizzie. 

x

Soon enough, Maddie becomes rather sure she imagined the whole interaction with the princess. 

Days pass by with no indication she even ran into the jewel of the royal family. No one glares at her accusingly for tackling the princess to the hard forest floor, no one comments on the way she goes about her work for Evie without a single complaint (too full of some sort of rush from the princess’ order to call her Lizzie), no one even mentions the awful black eye Maddie is sporting. 

(In fact, it’s the black eye—and the view of it she gets every time she polishes Evie’s armor—that gives her a bit of hope that she isn’t crazy. The pain is a reminder that, yes, she did meet Elizabeth, and yes, the princess knew her name.)

But, enough days pass that Maddie—deflating all at once—finally begins to accept that she’d gotten her hopes up, had thought there was more to Princess Elizabeth’s ‘we’ll see more of each other’ comment than there actually was, and finds herself accepting she isn’t going to be seeing the princess at all.

And, just as soon as the thought enters her head, she runs into the princess, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

“I’m starting to think this is just how you say hello,” Elizabeth tells her, letting out a laugh as Maddie struggles between wanting to help balance the princess and not wanting to offend her by touching her without permission (again). 

“I’m so sorry, Princess, I—”

“—thought we agreed it was just Lizzie,” Elizabeth finishes for her, raising an eyebrow when Maddie gathers the courage to look straight at her instead of a point above her head. 

“Well, agreed may be somewhat of a stretch,” Maddie says without thinking, horrified when the words register with her brain, her hand coming up and covering her mouth. “Sorry, I just meant—”

“—look. I want you to pretend I’m one of your friends,” Elizabeth says, reaching out and curling her fingers around Maddie’s wrist, tugging her hand away from her mouth. “Then, soon enough, you won’t be pretending.”

Maddie takes in a deep breath, shaking her head. “Are you sure you want to be friends with me, Pri—Lizzie,” she corrects, a little blinded by the grin Elizabeth shoots her at her correction. 

“I think the real question is if you’d even want to be friends with me,” she says after a moment, tugging on Maddie’s hand gently, pulling her towards the palace. “You see, I told my brother about our run in, and he insists on speaking with you.”

“Am I in trouble?” Maddie asks worriedly, swallowing hard as they walk through the entrance hall and towards the throne room. 

(It’s common knowledge that the King is king only in name, that he has been since his wife died years ago. All official business was up to the King, but the day to day managing of the kingdom?

That’s been left to Jack and Elizabeth for as long as Maddie can remember.)

“Trouble? No, I don’t think so,” Elizabeth says, the answer not inspiring much confidence even as she pushes the doors to the throne room wide open. Maddie pauses, unable to help it, her eyes drawn to the red and gold rugs and banners, the ornate table where the royal family took their meals, the massive throne itself—situated on a dais at the very end of the hall. “Come on, Madeline,” Elizabeth tells her softly, shifting her grip from Maddie’s wrist to her elbow, and gently pulling her forward.

Maddie’s heart pounds quickly and loudly in her chest, giving rise to the sudden, stupid thought that she was quite close to passing out in front of the royal family, but before she can voice her fears to Elizabeth, her brother Jack gets up from where he’s seated at the table, making quick strides towards the two of them.

“Ah! My lovely, adventuring sister and her rescuer arrive!”

“Rescuer?” Maddie mumbles.

Elizabeth elbows her a bit, actually winking when Maddie turns to her. “I may have embellished the story about our meeting. Leave the talking to me, yeah?” she adds in a whisper before turning to her brother with a wide smile. “Jack, we agreed you wouldn’t be too effusive with your praise, you’re going to make the poor girl uncomfortable.” 

“I’m sorry, you’re absolutely right,” Jack says, coming to a stop as he reaches them, grabbing Maddie by the shoulder before she has a chance to bow. “None of that, not for you. The woman who saved my sister’s life doesn’t bow to anyone.” 

“Sorry?” Maddie asked, unable to help it. Elizabeth, from over Jack’s shoulder, made a face at Maddie, even going as far as sticking her tongue out.

“Oh, don’t be silly, Madeline,” Elizabeth said, refocusing her brother’s attention on her. “She’s such a joker, pretending she doesn’t remember saving me after Hamlet got spooked by a snake. The way she raced into the woods after us...it was quite brave.”

Maddie, who was there and knows this is not true, keeps her mouth shut, giving Elizabeth and Jack a tight smile when they both turn to her. 

“My sister has tried to run away four times,” Jack tells Maddie slowly, and Maddie mentally corrects him, thinking five times, actually. “It was a relief, to say the least, that this latest...outing...was not planned.” He lets out a sigh, bracing his hands on either side of his waist, tilting his head back. “After your service to our family, the appropriate thing would be to offer you a reward, not ask more of you. But I am busy preparing for my wedding, and Lizzie seems to have taken a liking to you, so I would be grateful if you allow me to delay your knighthood and instead act as a companion for my sister after her traumatic experience.”

“What my little brother means,” Elizabeth says cheerfully, “is that he wants you to babysit me, because he can’t right now.” 

“No,” Jack says, shaking his head and looking at Maddie seriously, as if needing her to believe him. “My sister doesn’t need a babysitter. She’s to be Queen. What she needs is protection from, well, undesirable presences.” 

“He’s talking about Evie,” Elizabeth explains helpfully, confusing Maddie with the lack of argument on her end. It’s almost as if she wants a babysitter. 

Jack turns to his sister, hands in his hair now. “Lizzie, you know she—”

“—I’m really sorry, but is this something I should be privy to? I’m just, you know, a squire.” 

“No, you’re right,” Jack says, as if coming to himself all at once. “The reasons don’t matter. So? Can I count on you?” he asks, waiting for Maddie’s nod before letting out a little sigh of relief. “Good, good. Excellent,” he says, more to himself than to Maddie. 

And later, long after he’s gone, after one of Elizabeth’s handmaidens has shown Maddie her new quarters (right next to the princess’) and laid out new clothes, Elizabeth confesses why she didn’t put up an argument, why she merely went along with Jack’s request, the real reason she wants Maddie around:

“You’re going to help me run away a sixth time.” 

x

Elizabeth lays under the shade of a tree several days later, head pillowed by Maddie’s leg, a book abandoned on her chest.

“We should talk about it,” Maddie says, breaking the silence. It being Elizabeth’s desire to run away and use Maddie to do it, something she’s been mum about since her confession. Instead, she’d busied their days with fitting Maddie in nicer clothes, dragging her to lessons, even having her teach the little she knew about swinging a sword. 

Elizabeth sighs, but she doesn’t move, and Maddie resists the urge to smooth back the princess’ hair, to trace a finger from her brow to her hairline. “I don’t want to be Queen.”

“Then why don’t you just say so?”

“It’s not something you just don’t accept,” she says, and she turns her head, the tip of her nose pressed against Maddie’s knee. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet, I thought you said you’d follow me anywhere.”

“Yes, follow you anywhere. But I won’t help you run away if I don’t even know why.”

This makes Elizabeth sit up, book falling onto the grass and opening to a random page, twisting to look at Maddie with narrowed eyes. “You can’t talk like that, you know, I am the princess.”

“You told me to pretend you’re my friend. That’s how I’d talk to my friends,” Maddie informs her, wishing she didn’t miss Elizabeth’s warmth already. To her surprise, this response makes Elizabeth smile. 

“I’d have to get married if I wanted to be Queen. And I don’t want to get married.”

“Why? It’s not as if you’ve got any shortage of suitors.” Maddie sighs as she spots one of them in the distance. “Look. Here comes one now.” She starts to get up, to give Elizabeth privacy, but before she can, there’s a hand on hers, holding on tightly.

“Stay,” Elizabeth requests softly, and Maddie settles back down, powerless to say no, and realizing with a start she doesn’t want to say no. 

(She stays, enduring Evie’s glares and dirty looks.

She stays, knowing Evie will get her payback later.

She stays, and it’s worth it, because Elizabeth has tangled their fingers together, and doesn’t seem keen on letting go any time soon.)

x

“If you run away, where will you go?” Maddie asks several days later.

“I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it.”

“Do you think you’ll miss your brother? Your home? Your people?”

“I’ve tried not to think about that.”

“What if you fall in love? Will you marry then and take the crown?”

“I’m not worried about me falling in love, Madeline. My issue is how will I ever know if the person I love loves me for me and not for what they can get from me?”  

“Well,” Maddie jokes, “I guess you could always just ask them to run away with you and see what they say.”

x

As the weeks go on, Maddie learns quite a bit about the princess. 

For one, she never eats breakfast, claiming that she’d rather start her day with several cups of tea. For another, Elizabeth hates the long, flowy dresses that she and the other women of court have to wear, and has—with increasing frequency—donned the pants and billowy shirts that Maddie prefers. But most importantly, Maddie learns that Elizabeth loves the library and spends nearly all her time there. 

And it’s unbearably boring. 

She rocks her chair back, feet on the table, staring at the ceiling with her hands folded over her stomach, dangerously close to dozing off when Elizabeth speaks up.

“I’m not interested in Evie, you know,” she says, shocking Maddie enough that she drops her chair back down too quickly, legs falling to the floor with a thud that sounds impossibly loud in the quiet of the library. 

“Oh,” Maddie says stupidly, not quite sure what else to say. The thing is, it’s complicated.

She likes Elizabeth. Perhaps more than she should, definitely more than is appropriate. She knows, without a doubt, her feelings will not be returned (they can’t be, she’s a squire and Elizabeth is a princess). More importantly, Elizabeth’s feelings for Evie are absolutely none of her business. Except...well, except that Maddie doesn’t dislike many people but she absolutely dislikes Evie and there’s no doubt in her mind that Evie is incredibly wrong for Elizabeth. 

(There is the unhelpful part of her that, head-bowed, quietly suggests maybe there is someone else more— 

More right.)

But again, it’s none of her business.

“My brother doesn’t like her either, don’t worry. But Evie...she was there. She was there when I was—”

“—you don’t have to tell me this.”

“I know. I want to,” Elizabeth says, closing her book with a resounding snap, shifting in her chair enough that they’re staring directly at each other. Maddie tries her best not to let her pleasure at those three words show on her expression, but she thinks, judging by Elizabeth’s smile, she’s not quite successful. “Evie saved me,” she continues, letting out a deep breath. “And ever since then, it’s like...she just wants to keep doing the saving. She wants to swoop in, to be my knight in shining armor.”

“That’s romantic,” Maddie says, not believing it, and hating that she’s defending Evie when all she wants to do is agree with Elizabeth and tell her that Evie isn’t worth her time. 

Elizabeth gives Maddie a look that clearly says she knows exactly what Maddie is thinking. “I don’t want a knight in shining armor, Madeline. I don’t want someone who wants to come and save my day. I just….”

“Just?” Maddie prods, literally on the edge of her seat, waiting for Elizabeth to finish her sentence.

“Perhaps this is silly, but I just want someone who just wants to be. To sit with me in the dry, boring moments. Someone who just wants to be with me. Someone like—” She cuts herself off, clears her throat and shakes her head. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You and I are running away after all.”

“I haven’t agreed to that, actually,” Maddie says absentmindedly, trying to calm her racing heart. For a moment, just a second, she’d thought Elizabeth was about to...well, it doesn’t matter. 

Elizabeth reaches out, fingers circling around one of Maddie’s wrists. “But if I tried to leave?”

“I’d follow you,” Maddie says easily, with no hesitation at all. “If only to keep you out of trouble.”  

Elizabeth smiles, her eyes soft. “Now see. That’s what I mean.” 

x

The wedding is only days away when Maddie bursts into Elizabeth’s rooms, laden with bags. Her dramatic entrance isn’t quite given the reaction she’s looking for, only causing Elizabeth to look up from the letter she’s writing and eye Maddie with amusement. “Lost, Madeline?” she asks, eyes flicking from Maddie’s face to all the bags. 

“I’ve thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and I realized...why am I thinking about it at all?” Maddie says, dropping the bags and approaching Elizabeth, dropping to her knees in front of her.

“What are we talking about?”

“You wanting to run away.” Maddie holds out a hand, palm up, trying not to smile when Elizabeth takes it almost immediately. “I kept wanting to know why but it doesn’t matter. If you want to go, you should be able to go. So I made a plan.”

Elizabeth blinks. “You made a plan?” she repeats, almost dazedly.

“I gathered supplies,” she gestures towards the bags, “got Sophie’s help with distracting guards at the gates so no one can warn your brother or the knights, even trained Hamlet not to freak out in the woods—”

“—is that where you’ve been going in the afternoons lately?” Elizabeth interrupts, but Maddie is on a roll.

“So just say the word. If you want to go, we go. I’ve sent letters ahead to friends, so we’ll have someplace to go, or we can just travel and explore. Or if you want to stay, get married to Evie,” here she physically has to keep herself from gagging, “I can help with that too. I can talk with her about being less intense maybe or—”

“—you’re such an idiot, Madeline,” Elizabeth breathes out, and that’s all the warning Maddie gets before Elizabeth is leaning forward, hands cupping Maddie’s face, and kisses her. “The only thing I want,” she says softly as she pulls away, and Maddie is quite shocked she’s still able to speak when she’s just taken Maddie’s breath away, “is you. Wasn’t that obvious?”

“It is now,” Maddie manages to say, and this time, she’s the one who closes the distance between them, bags and plans and thoughts of running away all forgotten. 

XxX

“And in the end,” Maddie finishes, gesticulating wildly with her hands, “the princess marries the squire and doesn’t spare the dumb knight a single thought ever again.” 

Silence follows her words, Lizzie’s hand rubbing a gentle pattern into her back while Sophie and Jack merely blink at her for a moment.

“That was fantastic,” Jack finally says, struggling not to smile. “I’m actually a little shocked Evie didn’t find herself stuck in a well or something for all time, cursed forever.”

“That’s the sequel,” Maddie says, allowing Lizzie to burrow her face into her neck, running her fingers through her wife’s hair. “Part two coming soon.”

Sophie lets out a loud snort, getting to her feet and stretching. “Well, I think it’s adorable that the two of you write fanfiction about your own lives,” she says brightly, smiling to ensure there’s no bite to her words. “I for one am just glad to be included, in all fairness. Maybe a bit more next time, though. My part was tragically small.”

“They’re love stories, Soph, you’re not supposed to be involved,” Lizzie mumbles from where her face is still pressed against Maddie’s neck. Both Jack and Sophie protest jokingly at that, carrying the faux outrage even as they gather their things and wave goodbye to leave. 

When they’re alone, Lizzie pulls away and smooths back Maddie’s hair, pressing a light kiss to her forehead and lingering there.

“I’d always choose you, you know,” she whispers, ducking her head so that their foreheads are pressed together. “In this life or any other. No one else comes close.” 

(It’s sweet and nice and Maddie likes to hear the way Lizzie’s mouth curls over the words, the way she lingers on choose and you. Maddie likes the way that Lizzie knows to reassure her without knowing about Evie’s call or Maddie’s annoyance. 

She likes that Lizzie knows her.)

“But it’s nice to know you’ve got a backup, huh?” Maddie jokes, lacing her fingers between Lizzie’s, unable to help her smile when Lizzie uses her free hand to hook a finger through a belt loop and tug Maddie closer. “In case things between us don’t work out?”

“Well, it never hurts to be prepared,” Lizzie says with a laugh, her free hand now at Maddie’s chin, thumb brushing her jawline. Her expression turns serious. “You know I love you, right? Just you.” 

“Gasp! What about Hamlet and Macbeth?” 

“Madeline,” Lizzie stresses, her hand moving to the back of Maddie’s neck, thumb now brushing under her ear. “I’m being serious.” 

Maddie drops her head onto Lizzie’s shoulder, sighing into the feeling of her wife’s hand in her own, the other lightly massaging the back of her neck. 

“I know. In this life or any other, I’d choose you too.” She pauses, pressing her free hand to Lizzie’s back, running her fingers up Lizzie’s spine slowly. “Though, my backup is Jack. I think you need to know.” 

Lizzie pulls away with a start as Maddie laughs.

“Come on, Maddie, way to ruin the moment.”

“No! Come back!” Maddie cries between her laughter, watching as Lizzie huffs indignantly and grabs Hamlet’s leash, causing the dog to begin trotting around the kitchen excitedly. “Don’t go! Don’t take the children because of this,” she adds, kneeling down and hugging Hamlet lightly, grimacing and giggling when he manages to lick the entire right side of her face. 

And Lizzie, seemingly unable to help it, laughs along. 

[beautifulbuckys]

(Animal) Crossing Bridges

Word Count: 2.1k

Ship: Bucky Barnes x Y/N (platonic to romantic)

Description: You introduce Bucky to Animal Crossing!

Warnings: swearing, fluff :)

A/N: hi sorry ive been dead, enjoy

"Buckyyyyyy!" You groaning, shaking the sleeping beefy figure. You'd been doing this for ten minutes. Every thirty seconds, you'd give him a shove to wake him up. However....he wouldn't seem to budge. Deciding to wait a few more seconds, you gave him a final shove.

"Bucky!"

Suddenly, the brunette's eyes shot open. He let out a heavy sigh, covering his face with his hand. You knew it wasn't too bright because you hadn't drawn the heavy, grey curtains. The room was still dark, just light enough to make out all the objects in front of you. Bucky liked his room, it was his querencia. He felt safe inside his room because it's somewhere where he can control everything. That's exactly why you're waking him up too! Today is March 20th, and the new Animal Crossing game came out! You wanted to introduce Bucky to the game, as he'd been searching for a new hobby. You'd been playing the game since you were little. The thought of running a town with cute little animals was like heaven to you. Just strolling around, chatting with adorable Isabelle and hitting villagers with nets was entertaining.

Glancing at the clock, you felt a spike of panic. You were running late! You yanked Bucky out of his plaid comforter.

"Ow, Y/N! What the hell is going on?" He barked. You guess you accidentally shoved him into something, because he was rubbing his bicep was he approached the bathroom.

"No time to get dressed! Brush your teeth and then we're out of here, pretty boy!"

You could hear the dull groan from the bathroom. Chuckling, you left the room and jogged down the steps. Once you made it to the living room, you bolted to the shoe rack to grab your sneakers. Humming as you tie them, you heard footsteps coming from the stairs.

"Ready to go?" You asked, turning around. You clearly expected it to be Bucky, but it wasn't. You were greeted with the tall, blonde, god who'd been roaming around since 5 this morning. Thor was grinning at you. His eyebrows were raised in a questioning manner. He was wondering where you were rushing off to at 8 in the morning.

"Morning, lady Y/N! Where are you off to in such a hurry?" He asked, beaming at you with curiosity.

"We both have the same question, pal," Bucky said as he approached the two of you, "Where are we going this early in the morning? Gonna miss the new Starbucks drink or something?"

You sighed, "No! We're going to GameStop!"

"GameStop?!"  Both the men exclaimed in confusion. You figured they were confused for different reasons.

"What in the heavens is GameSt-," Thor began to ask until you shoved Bucky out the door.

Once you made it outside, you felt the apricity. It was a charming morning, the temperature was slightly chilly, the wind nipping at your nose. The mix of the bright sun and the crisp breeze was selcouth. You were from the west, where it was practically always summer. No cold weather. As you and Bucky made it to the streets, you marveled at the way the sun hit the buildings towering above you. It reminded you all over again why you moved out east. Feeling the cold wind yet again, you tucked your hands into your jacket pocket.

"So, Y/N, care to explain why we're going to GameStop at approximately," He looked down to check his watch, "8:13 in the morning?"

You looked up at him with a grin. "Bucky, do you not know what today is?" You asked. He shook his head, his face displaying a puzzled look. You giggled.

"It's March 20th! Today's the day that Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out! Isn't that exciting!?" You shouted with excitement. People looked at you, clearly judging your excitement at such an early hour. To be honest, though, you couldn't really care.

"What the hell is Animal Crossing?" Bucky asked, taking you to no surprise at all. You'd been waiting for him to ask so you could spend the rest of the walk explaining.

That's exactly what you did.  For 30 minutes, you two walked, you explained the game in its entirety. You didn't forget about Bunny Day. He asked numerous questions, varying from villager questions to questions about Isabelle. You described your favorite character, Sherb, a goat introduced in Pocket Camp. He didn't find it funny when you told him some people will beat up their villagers. You seemed to get him excited. He was walking with a pep in his step, each stride getting him closer to GameStop.

"Y/N, what do I need to play this?" Bucky questioned, now interested in getting the game for himself.

"You need a console called the Nintendo Switch. It's handheld, but if your old man eyes can't see it, I can hook it up to the TV for you." He giggled at the quip.

As you began approaching the store, you noticed how empty it was. Either it was closed or you and Bucky were very lucky. Bucky approached the door, opening it for you. You thanked him and practically skipped into the store.

"Hello!" The older man behind the cashier cheered. He seemed to be the only worker in the store. The other employees might be outback. His wide smile invited you and Bucky into the GameStop. "How can I help you two younglings today?"

"Hi sir, me and my friend here were just wondering if you had a switch in stock?" You asked. You purchased the switch as soon as it came out. You'd played so many other games on it, it was your love. The other switch was for Bucky.

"Do you want a lite, regular or do you want the special edition switch?" The worker, who's name was Ken, questioned. Bucky asked the difference between the three. Ken was a big help to Buck, explaining the differences and why there's a special edition.

"He'll take the special edition," You cheer, with much approval from Ken. "Can we also get two copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons please?"

Ken quickly helped the two of you. He checked you and Bucky out, which you paid for. Bucky was unhappy you paid for him but there was nothing he could do about it. You two were off to the compound, picking up some coffee on your journey back home. Both you and Bucky were looking forward to playing together. Bucky had so many ideas for clothes he wanted to make himself. He even offered to try to recreate a dress from your closet. Now, Bucky had a distraction. When he was upset, he could play the game with or without you. With that being thought of, you were happy to introduce the game to him. He was clearly so excited to play a game with no violence or scary noises.

Once you made it home, you were greeted with Sam on the couch., "Motherfucker! Get this ugly ass ape off my island!" He yelled. He was clearly the only one on the main floor.

"Gee, you oughta think Nick was paying us a visit," Bucky laughed to himself. He always found jokes about Nick were hilarious.

You immediately scurried to the couch to see what Sam was doing. He was playing Animal Crossing! You sat next to him, immersed in watching him play the game. Sam was wacking the ape character Al with a net. Bucky seemed to notice what Sam was doing and began to walk away. You noticed he was uncomfortable and walked away. You figured you'd tell Sam about you and Bucky's adventure later.

Following Bucky into his room, you carried your bag with you. Once you made it to the familiar dark room, you plopped the bag onto Bucky's cluttered bedside table. He reached into the bag and pulled out his special edition switch.

"You ready to play?" He asked with a smile on his face. You nodded and retrieved your switch from your room. You popped the cartridges into your consoles and began playing.

You both were silent for a while until Bucky looked up at you. "What two villagers do you have?"

"Antonio and Wolfgang, what about you Bucky?"

He turned his screen to show you. You saw a greenish elephant with purple eyeshadow and recognized her as Opal immediately. The winged eyeliner helped you identify the sassy and snooty villager. He walked closer to the famous green tent that belongs to Tom Nook and saw a lovely brown doe. You smiled at the fact that Bucky had one of your favorite villagers, Fauna. She was always so sweet and generous. At a young age, she had your heart. He turned his screen back to him, and you listened to the noises his switch made. You could hear the sound of him weeding, which put a smirk on your face.

"Whatcha smiling about over there, cutie," He said.

"Once you finish weeding, sell it to Tom Nook. You'll find the bell count funny,"

"Tom Nook is a capitalist crook!" Sam said as he passed Bucky's room. Both you and Bucky laughed at Sam's comment. The comment also helped you realize the door was wide open. Bucky leaped off his bed and shut the door. Returning to his bed, he whelved in his blankets. Not because he wanted to hide from you, he just was so focused.

The next few days you saw Bucky less and less. He was cooped up in his room playing Animal Crossing. The only time you really saw him was to grab snacks. So, you had an amazing idea! Animal Crossing sugar cookies! You knew Bucky would love them. He has a massive sweet tooth, and he'd love the Animal Crossing crossover! With the idea in your head, you got to baking. You snuck off to Tony's lab to 3-D print a cookie cutter. While that was printing, you began the baking. You found a simple sugar cookie recipe and followed it to a T. When you got to the part where you needed the cookie cutter, you asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to have one of the agents on the training floor run it up to you. Once the agent, who ended up being a baker herself, ran you up the cookie cutter, you cut them and began baking them. When you popped them in the oven, you immediately began working on the two colors of green frosting. You squealed you were so excited! Later on, you finished the cookies. You asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to let Bucky know you're coming up and began your trip. You carried the cookies, frosting and all, and knocked on Bucky's door.

"Come in!" Bucky yelled.

You walked into his room, and to much surprise, his curtains were drawn! "Animal Crossing change your mind on the light?" Bucky laughed at the comment and looked up at you. He gasped at the sight of the cookies.

"Oh yeah! I made these for you," You laughed, handing him the glass plate with the vibrant cookies. You watched Bucky immediately shove one into his mouth and moan with delight.

"They good Buck?"

"SO GOOD!" He yelled, viciously chewing on the cookie. You scrunched your nose at the sight of him chewing while talking. You slowly backed to the door and walked away. While you were walking, you heard a muffled 'thank you!' and some mumbling.

On your way downstairs, you checked the time. It was almost 8 at night, and you still hadn't had dinner. You approached the kitchen and made a quick salad. Once it was prepped, you made your way into your room. After you made it, your phone buzzed on your bed. Hustling over to check it, you realized it was a text from Buck!

Bucky Boy: check your inbox thingie on animal crossin

You quickly grabbed your switch and selected Animal Crossing. Getting gifts was a great part of Animal Crossing that you loved! It was always so fun seeing what people decided to give to others, it was really kind. Once the game loaded, you made your character run to the inbox area. You found a postcard written by Bucky.

To the beautiful Y/N, Thank you for the cookies. They were amazing and I have to return the favor once I figure out how to turn on the oven. JK I know how to turn it on, but I can't bake. I'm sending you this here instead of talking in real life because honestly, I'm shy. Long story short, I love you. You introduced me to this escape and I'm grateful. But I liked you before that too...I promise. Um...enjoy the gift. -Bucky

You teared up at the sight of Bucky's sweet yet awkward words. Quickly, you accepted the gift and opened up your inventory to get it.

There it was. A dress from your closet made in Animal Crossing. Made by the sweetheart Bucky Barnes.

And you loved it.

[dream-wreck]

A Song to Suit Yourself

It feels so good to write fanfiction again. Heck, it feels good to write again. This little thing started last summer, inspired by this post, and I’m finally sending it afloat upon the internet’s temperamental waters. Good Omens fandom, I hope you receive it well. Enjoy!

AO3

Title: A Song to Suit Yourself Rating: G Word Count: 2,186 Description: Crowley fixates on a new type of music, though Aziraphale can’t quite figure why. What would a demon want with lullabies?

Neither knew exactly how they ended up in the same Scottish field at exactly the same time beneath the same lonely apple tree, but it probably had something to do with their impending assessments.

Hastur and Ligur would be around soon to check in and report on Crowley’s Deeds of the Day, which were quickly becoming Brief Surveys of the Deeds of the Decade, as they hardly ever popped around anymore. Crowley didn’t dare complain. But he’d been putting off his Evil Deed -- you know, the Big One, which made up for a long dry period of demonic activity -- and it was time to get on that. So. Scotland.

Aziraphale still received regular unscheduled visits from Gabriel, “just checking in” to see that all was going smoothly. Aziraphale had begun to question his own understanding of omnipotence. Or, at least the Head Office’s ability to communicate sporadic schedule changes to literally the only active angel they had on Earth. In biding his time -- and seeking some overdue meditation -- Scotland.

So much for that.

“They’re calling them ‘lullabies’,” Crowley said. “They sing them at children. To make them fall asleep.”

Aziraphale considered this news while he cut off another slice of red apple. He offered some to Crowley. The demon curled his upper lip at the clean white disk.

“Humans have always sang songs to their children,” Aziraphale said once he realized that the news was not news at all. “Remember Babylon?”

They both smiled self-pleased smiles. You’d almost think they were sharing the same memory, but for Crowley baring considerably sharper teeth. “Oh yes,” he said.

“That poor woman you tormented for a spell,” Aziraphale recalled. “I was the one who recommended that she write her composition down. It was a beautiful tune...in spite of its inspiration.” 

Crowley shrugged. “I did not ‘torment her.’ She adopted me as the house god, what was I supposed to do? I was on assignment. Besides, she had a lovely home. It was nice to settle down for a bit. The point is, now they have a new word for it.”

“For tormenting?”

“No. The music. Keep up.” He let the pieces of the word roll off his tongue. “Lull-ah-bye…”

Aziraphale was occupied with his apple, plucked from the branches above. In his humble and learnéd opinion, few tastes in the world yet rivaled that of a fresh-picked apple. Being an angel, he also had an extensive understanding of the art of Music. Angels invented it, after all, but its purposes were rather limited in Heaven. If Crowley had come to him with news of a new kind of Music, or a new purpose for it, he would have been ecstatic and fully enthralled. But he hadn’t, so he wasn’t, and was therefore only mildly interested, though he tried his best to humor his associate. “Singing to babies helps them grow, you know. It teaches them new sounds, new words. And I personally don’t believe you’re ever too young to discover the joy of Music.”

Crowley chose not to tell him that he was missing the point, but he wasn’t entirely sure of his point to begin with. Something about the word struck a strange chord with him (all puns unintended and unrecognized). It had a sound like a plucked lute string and the curve of a lifting chin.

For a while, in silence, the two continued their survey of the Scottish countryside and a hundred miles beyond. Serious business. The evening began to settle in a comfortable calm, the sun yawning out a stretch of gold before its final disappearance beneath the hills. The angel and the demon each wondered what the other was thinking. Aziraphale wondered why Crowley had become so caught up in a single word. Crowley wondered why Aziraphale hadn’t.

The angel bit into another slice of apple. The satisfying crunch in the silence finally whet Crowley’s own appetite. He flicked his wrist and a bright red replica of the angel’s supper fell into his hand.

Aziraphale looked hurt. “I hadn’t realized this tree’s fruit dissatisfied you.”

“What, did I hurt its feelings?”

“No,” Aziraphale said, taking a moment to examine himself, not wanting to lie. “But I’m quite proud of this tree.” He sat a little taller. “I planted and raised it from seed myself, you know.”

Crowley -- who had been leaning against the apple tree’s trunk since the early morning -- sat up and scrutinized the bark as though he’d just noticed it were there. 

“Well what’d you go and do something like that for? When you could just --”

He snapped his long fingers. A few paces off, a plum tree that had not been there before shivered in a gentle breeze that had not been caused by anything but a general notion.

Aziraphale flushed. “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. They’ve been cracking down on miracles that are not meant for a heavenly purpose. Besides, I found that I rather enjoyed the process of raising a living thing. You might try it, learn a thing or two. Watering, trimming, revisiting the little sapling now and again to encourage it out of the ground. And it clearly paid off. It took time and it took patience. And it was beautiful. The way God intended.”

Crowley gagged. Time and patience. The plum tree disappeared, but a pile of fresh, dark plums remained at his arm’s length, the skin so deeply purple they were almost black. “Suit yourself,” he said. “Just seems a waste of time.”

“Of course you’d think that,” Aziraphale said. “You know, it’s your constant need for excitement that gets you into trouble. You never sit still.”

“I do!” Crowley defended through a mouthful of bleeding plum. “I am now! And I do when I...you know, when I...you know.”

Aziraphale did not know, but he waited patiently for Crowley to realize that. Crowley did not elaborate.

He tossed his half-eaten fruit into the field, grumbling, “Who came up with the name ‘lullaby’ anyway? They’ve been rubbish at naming things from the Beginning. I’ll never forgive them for the turtle dove...Lullaby. Luhll. Ahhh. Bye. Stupid from the start. Lull....”

“For a dissenter, it sure sticks to your tongue easily.”

“So does mud. Doesn’t make it worth the taste. They think they’re so clever. If they’re so clever, switch things up a bit, do. All those songs, all lullabies ever talk about are dreams and trees and all the pain coming your way if you don’t fall asleep right this instant. All these languages since Babel and not a single one has whipped together hardly anything to move me to tears. Frankly, I’m just not impressed.”

He stopped. Not because he was finished. He felt eyes on him. Angel eyes, confused and concerned, and certainly out of their element.

Aziraphale cleared his throat. “Perhaps if you let them know that you have been their target audience all along, they’d show improvement. Better yet, put all that wealth of yours to use and commission one to your liking. Lord knows why you care in the first place.”

Aziraphale’s apple had finally been reduced to its core. The knife he was using ceased to exist.

“They’re too much like you lot,” Crowley continued. “Or at least you. Moving so slow. Doing slow things and inventing things that make them move even slower. Want to put the goblins to sleep? They’ve got spells for that. Spoon o’ brandy will do the trick. Or a knock upside the head. Practically instantaneous.”

Aziraphale bristled. “I thank God no one has put a child in your care.”

“On that, angel, we assent.”

The angel stood up, brushed out his jacket and tights. “I best get a move on. Several evening miracles to perform in the next town over.”

Crowley didn’t move, but he was suddenly standing. “Likewise. Which way are you headed?”

Aziraphale pointed to the north.

Crowley jabbed a thumb over his shoulder toward the south.

“Will you be in Scotland long?”

Crowley looked out to the empty fields. “Depends on what I can find here. I suppose if you’ll be around, I’ll be around. You know. Cancel --”

“Cancel each other out. Yes,” Aziraphale said, low and bristling, turning to the north. “Well, good evening to you.”

He paused. “I hope you find a song to suit your heart.” And he started north across the field, leaving Crowley, who did not turn to the south, alone beneath the apple tree. 

Crowley slumped down against the trunk with his legs stretched toward the setting sun.

Sunsets start to look the same the more you see and the longer you live. There had been only a handful of truly extraordinary sunsets that stuck in Crowley’s busy memory since the Beginning, and few of them were memorable without their contexts. Context is everything. He’d given up long ago on watching sunsets for the hope of an explosion of color to beat the rest. But he still appreciated the thrill of witnessing night stretch over the world like a lumbering dragon splaying out for a nap.

He missed dragons. Not many of them left, nowadays.

As darkness settled in, Crowley began a meditation of his own.

All around him, he felt history’s fine threads weave through the air. Ghosts and imprints left on the surface of the earth and the face of Time itself that had disappeared from visual perception, but lingered as golden strands only few could ever see. Battles and laughter, deaths and creation, all tangled together and tumbling, just above the ground and through the rich soil. Threads thick as vines wrapping around the trunk of the apple tree. The eternal, distant echoes of screams and songs looping round and round the earth like Saturn’s rings, and if Crowley squinted hard enough, he could see their harmonies gleaming.

“I do sit still,” he said to no one in the dark. Or maybe, not to no one.

“Why do they get songs?” he wondered aloud. “What do they have to be comforted about? Everything is given to them, handed to them. All they do is sleep. Bet no one sings their parents songs. They’ve got the hardest of the lot. They’ve got all the troubles. No one writes lullabies for the ones who need them most.”

And he knew in his heart -- or the swirling matter he’d begun to think of as the place where part of his not-soul lived -- exactly why children got all the songs. Because children need distractions from all the Unknown they float in, until they can lift their heads and start finding answers for themselves. The Unknown is a terrible thing to dwell on, even for the youngest minds, whose curiosity more often than not sustains them.

And for the ones who know? Are there no songs for them? The Unknown scrambles the mind, yes, but the Certain, the Absolute, whittles the mind to a rounded end. Fixation on the Certain can be as maddening as floating in obscurity.

Crowley was falling back into fixation. Such was often the case whenever he sat still, so he tried to avoid it whenever possible. But true to pattern, his mind eventually numbed to the humming of the world, to the whispers of Time wrapping like gossamer around this green earth, invisible to all but the eyes of those who have seen more, who know more, and carry the burden of the Certain. And the boiling lake sloshing deep within the earth grew hot against his calves and the heels of his feet.

He tilted his head up to the sky and squinted into the cobalt. The harmonies of history came into focus, golden ribbons rippling in tired dance.

He hadn’t slept in nearly a century. When he last awoke, he’d missed a lot, and wasn’t anxious to miss any more. But now, unnamed weight rested on his head, a heavy fog that stings the eyes and confuses the senses. The kind with its own eyes lurking just beyond the haze. Not a comfortable Saturday morning fog, by any means.

He wanted to lie down forever. He wished this field were safe enough to do just that, but sensed beyond the hills the warm bodies of beasts waking up to hunt by dim starlight, and he fancied this body too much to risk its demise.

Suddenly, there was a snake, long, dark, and terrifying, and if someone were to notice this creature as it slithered around and up the wide tree trunk, they’d see its scales shimmering impossibly through the pitch black eve, reflecting an invisible light. It curled up on a scooping bough like an endless coil of shadowy rope, and it was thankful for the tree being there tonight. 

Snakes cannot hum. That’s impossible. But many impossible things had already happened that day, and the snake, feeling safe enough to do so within the dense shelter of leaves, tried his hand at melody, content for the words he deeply felt to remain unformed, unspoken, as the song was for him alone, and he was -- as he knew and feared -- quite alone for now.

[quentinxdelancret]

Discord Thread || Quentin & Jaycee

Discord thread featuring: Quentin and Jaycee ( @jayceelynd )

When: September18th

Mentions: None

Description:Quentin picks up Jaycee before the Reimagined album release party. Jaycee confronts him on his drug use and he ends up walking out on her.

Trigger Warning: Drug use and Drug mentions. Also a slight mention of nsfw-ish content.

Jaycee. Freshly showered after her dancing she was in her booty spanx shorts and one of Quentin’s worn out band t shirts. The rowdy drunk guys holler, offering to pay her for a good time. Deciding to ignore them as she kept her eyes on him. “Hey Romeo..” she kept eyeing the group as she got her bag into the back. Before carefully getting into the car as she was tender from what she’d been wearing all day. Leaning towards him as she moaned from the movement, kissing him. “Thank you for picking me up.”

Quentin. If looks could kill, that whole group of guys would have been dead. If it wasn’t for Jaycee grabbing his arm and pulling him back to the car calling him Romeo. He probably would have beaten them all to a bloody pulp right there, or at least tried. He was disgusted to say the least. Sure, he had a time in his life where he was a bit of a womanizer, but he would never talk to a woman the way these men were. Once he was in the car though he let out a deep sigh. “I can’t believe those assholes really said that shit to you” he huffed. His eyes scanning her outfit before leaning over to kiss her back. “You do look sexy as fuck though” he grinned. His hand moving to squeeze her thigh gently before starting the car and heading back to their place.

Jaycee. Watching him get protective of her caused a bit of adrenaline, almost like an anxious feeling. But she was smirking about how hot he looked on the inside. Jaycee ran her hand over his bicep as she leaned into him while he drove them home. Sadly she was used to men and even women sexualizing someone who was comfortable in their own skin. Why should she cover her body, so they don’t say those things. Hell no, she’d never hide who she was or how she felt because idiots couldn’t control herself. “I guess it’s a good thing I only care about what you think.” Playing with the waves and curls that sat at the back of his neck she played gently with it. “How was your day, baby?” She asked, leaning her head back against the headrest taking him in. “Do you feel like doing anything?” Turning sideways to face him better, her knees lightly pressed together. Caging his hand between her thighs, enjoying the endearing gesture of his hand resting simply on her.

Quentin. He would never expect her to cover herself up just to appease horny old men. Or any other men or women for that matter. He was proud to show of his girlfriend and he felt that he should be able to do so without receiving those type of disgusting remarks. He smiled over to her as she leaned back in the seat and he nodded his head. “Yeah, it is a good thing. But it’s also a good thing you kept me distracted or you might be coming to visit me in jail right now” he mused. He let his thumb trail lazily back and forth across her leg as she caged his hand between them. Pulling his bottom lip between his teeth with a shrug at her next question. “It was alright, busy as per usual” he answered honestly. He hated that he was always working so late and they barely got to do anything fun together. Aside from their trip of course, he just wished it didn’t have to end. “Always, baby. What do you wanna do?” he laughed at his own question realizing she probably wanted him to come up with an idea.

Jaycee. ”Well, I’d find a way to get your ass out before you’d go. Or try to at least” Smiling a sweet smile, batting her eyelashes before a soft chuckle escaped her lips. Her eyes instantly zeroing in on his bottom lip between his teeth. Jesus, he didn’t even try to drive her crazy and he was doing just that. “I hate being so busy lately, I’d give anything to be back on vacation with you. Be selfish of all of your time.” A soft sigh releasing as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m honestly down to going out dancing, like we used to.” Her nails gently grazing over the back of his neck and up into his hair. “Get dressed up, show the world your mine and no one else’s” she mused, laughing softly. Jaycee absolutely loved when they’d get home from a long day and make up for lost time. Even though it was just hours, it still sucked to feel like life was in the way of what you both enjoyed doing with one another. “Maybe go to an open mic, or do some karaoke. I’ll be your biggest fan always.” Smirking as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, slowly releasing it.

Quentin. “Oh, I have no doubt that you would” he laughed, shaking his head at her. He knew damn well she wouldn’t let him stay in jail, but he didn’t want to risk it being all in the tabloids either. “I know, me too. It felt like it went by so damn fast. But hey, we can go again in a couple of weeks. Maybe make it like a regular thing?” It wasn’t unlike Quentin to just pick up and go wherever he wanted. Aside from having to work on the album, he really did have a lot of free time he didn’t really know what to do with. He smiled over at her when her nails raked his skin and up into his hair and he let out a content sigh. “I’d love to go dancing, you know I would” he nodded again. “Or hell... karaoke sounds even better” he grinned. Honestly he wouldn’t mind doing anything, as long as he was doing it with her. He had a bit of a wild side and going out to get fucked up with random people could prove to be a bit risky. As long as she was with him though, she always had his full attention. “I’ll swing by your place so you can change and uh... get ride of those weights” he teased. Squeezing her thigh gently as he bit the tip of his tongue as he smiled.

Jaycee. Her tiny fingers twirling in his hair as she thought about them making it a regular thing. “Seeing the world with you, making it a regular thing sounds like heaven to be honest.” Jaycee loved dancing, especially with him. But she also loved to hear him sing and even sing with him at times. Oh he would bring up the benwa balls, when she was trying to not think of them. Every pothole or bump in the road jarred them to the point of clinking heavily together. Giving her vibrations right over her g spot. Pulling her bottom lip roughly between her teeth trying not to whimper at how he gently squeezed her thigh. Her walls tightly holding onto the balls, she was so sensitive. “I am trying to forget that they’re there, and I think you keep purposely hitting every dip, bump and hole the city has.” She laughed, teasing him as she squeezed her thighs over his hand. Thankful they were super close to her house to grab her a change of clothes. Jaycee was trailing the trip of her fingers over his bicep. Leaning over she kissed on his neck softly before leaning hear head on his shoulder. Taking her seatbelt off once they got to her place.

Quentin. “Of course I am” he grinned mischievously. “That’s your punishment for wearing them without my permission” he chuckled softly. His tongue swiping over his front teeth as he hit another bump. Turning onto their parking area soon after and parking the car. He took off his seat belt and opened his door. Looking back at her once more before leaning in for a kiss. A small smile spreading across his lips as he got out of the car and followed her inside so she could changed.

Jaycee. Playfully she glared at him as she walked, swaying her hips with more purpose as she walked up the steps to her room. Looking over her shoulder with a smite as she pulled his worn out tee shirt off of her body to toss it on the floor of her room. Walking backwards, she arched a brow. “So what you’re saying I deserve punishment for being a bad gilt?” Slipping her spandex shorts off slowly, leaving her in her black and red thong. Her long hair falling cooling her back, swaying as she walks to the closet to look through her clothes. Waiting for instructions.

Quentin. “That’s exactly what I’m saying” he nodded. Watching her with a shake of his head and a smile fore going to the couch to sit down. “Go change” he laughed. “And take those balls out so we can have some real fun later. I don’t like you getting yourself off” he said honestly.

Jaycee. Grabbing a short silver, spaghetti strapped dress that was backless. Wondering if this would get him even more worked up of jealousy. She loved that he was greedy over giving her, her orgasms. Jealous of her own fingers or pink little vibrators. Her eyes darkening with desire for the way he would ravish her, knowing her walls were tightly swollen from constantly flexing to hold the balls in. Sliding the dress on with red heels to pop she walks over to the couch and rests her foot  next to his hip. Jaycee watched him as she pulled her panties to the side, showing him how wet and needy she was and slowly pulled them out. Her head going back and placed the balls into her mouth. Letting him see her taste her own need. “Now what?” She asked dangling them on her finger, her hair fanning over her face wildly. Looking like she felt, sensationally hungry for his punishment.

Quentin. He watched her slip the dress on and let his eyes follow her as she moved toward the couch. His head shaking with a light chuckle as he watched her remove the balls and place them into her mouth. “Now you get to suffer until we come home later. That’s your punishment” he grinned. His hands reaching out to grab her thighs just under her ass as he pulled her closer to him. “Kiss me” he demanded, but with a soft subtle tone. His eyes burning into hers as he waited for her decision to either follow through or tease him back.

Jaycee. Jaycee batted her eyes as her hands rested on his shoulders. His hands right under her ass, feeling the heat of his finger that could probably feel her needy heat. Nuzzling her nose over his, her lips barely brushing his knowing her could smell her on her breath. Gently she ran her tongue over his lips before pushing back to stand in front of him. Her dress bunched up, deciding to pull it up a bit more. “Do you want my panties on or off?” She asked as her finger tips gently ran over his lips while her other hand grazed her inner thigh. Two people can play at this game, she smirked.

Quentin. He let his eyes close as her lips ghosted over his. An evil smirk pulling at his lips as she licked his lips and pulled away. “You tell me” he answered. Standing up from the couch and clearing his throat. Of course he was turned on. But the whole point was to go out and have fun, not to fall right back into bed again. “But you better hurry up or I’m leaving your ass” he teased. He rubbed his hand over his bulge trying to get it to go back down as he turned and made his way to the bathroom. If he was gonna handle her being a cock tease all night, he was gonna need to be a little more high.

Jaycee. Jaycee let her dress fall, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Grabbing his hand as he turned to walk to the bathroom and gently shook her head. “I’ll behave, I’m ready. I just had to tease you back..” she played with his fingers that were laced with her own. “Let’s go have fun.” she tilted her head towards her doorway, smiling up at him. Hoping he wouldn’t go to the bathroom to do what she already knew he was going to do.

Quentin. He looked back at Jaycee when she grabbed his arm and he smiled lovingly at her. “Good, just give me one second okay?” He stepped closer to her and pecked her lips before pulling out of her grip. “I’ll be quick and then we can go.”

Jaycee. Disappointment filled her hazel eyes as she watched him go to the bathroom. Walking down the stairs she called for a car service and stood by the door, chewing on her bottom lip. She loves Quentin, but she’s scared he’s become dependent on feeling high, and she desperately wish he didn’t need it with her. Hoping they could have fun tonight regardless, they deserved a night out.

Quentin. Quentin made his way to the bathroom and quickly did what he set out to do. Crushing up a small pill of Molly before snorting it straight up his nose. He punched his nostrils together for a moment as he tilted his head back and swallowed hard. The rush of the drug already making him feel relaxed. Just because the anxiety of not doing it had become a bit of an issue. Once he finished he met Jaycee down stairs and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Okay, I’m ready baby. Let’s go have fun. Yeah?”

Jaycee. Leaning into his arms as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Turning into his arms, looking up at him smiling softly. His pupils were blown, and she searched the blue of his eyes, her hands rubbing up and down his biceps. “Quentin what did you take?” She asked him, looking into his eyes. He’d be blind not to see she was upset and worried about him. “I..” she was scared to ask him, she didn’t want him to get mad or hurt.

Quentin. He was looking down at Jaycee with a small smile spread across his lips. Pressing his forehead to hers as she rubbed his arms and he sighed contently. He was a little taken off guard by her question, especially when she started to say something and then stopped. “I just took a bump of Molly, and I smoke a bit earlier. Why? Do you want some?” he asked. Lifting his head from hers to search her eyes.

Jaycee. Her heart was so loud and hitting her rib cage so hard. Licking her lips out of nervousness to sooth the sudden dry mouth. How can her hands be clammy all the sudden? Shaking her head no, she purses her lips. “I just.. I guess I was hoping we could just smoke weed and drink tonight.. Not sober but I don’t know. And.. I’m so scared that you’re doing too much..” holding her breath as she waited for his reaction. Oh god please don’t be too mad or hurt she thought to herself.

Quentin. “Doing too much?” he countered back to her. Unhooking his arms from around her and taking a step back to sit on the arm of the couch. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not doing to much. I like to feel good what’s so wrong with that?” Of course he had every intention of drinking and smoking more tonight as well. But if she already thought he was doing too much then why would she be anywhere near okay with that?

Jaycee. Jaycee was fidgeting as she chewed her inner cheek to try to think of the right words. “I do molly and stuff here and there. But I don’t see weed as a drug really, I use it for anxiety and pain. And I barely drink, but enjoy it from time to time. Especially when we’re having fun together..” Almost stepping forward she paused herself. He probably didn’t want her close or he wouldn’t have moved away from her. “I am only worried about the other stuff, and for your health. I love you Quentin and it scares the shit out of me that you could do too much one time..” her eyes began to water and a bit blood shot

Quentin. “I’m not gonna do too much Jaycee, Jesus” he huffed. He had been doing these drugs for as long as he could remember, and he didn’t see anything wrong with feeling good. Sure, he had been doing that pretty much every day now, but that was his business not hers. Maybe he would understand where she was coming from better if he was sober. But he definitely wasn’t that, and he definitely didn’t like being told to slow down. “You know what. I’ll do you one better. I’ll just leave and you won’t have to worry about shit. How’s that?” God, Q. Get a grip he thought to himself. But it was too late the words were out there, and with the drugs pumping through him. He was way too prideful to stand down.

Jaycee. Jaycee stood there as tears fell from her eyes, her mouth open in shock at his words. How could he be like this towards her when all she’s showing is love and concern. “I never asked you to go, but I guess you rather leave then be with me..” her voice broke, causing her to look towards the fireplace to hide her trembling chin. “I love you and I’m just trying to help, but I see you don’t want me to..”

Quentin. He just shook his head as he looked down at his own hands. His eyes rolling a bit to the back of his head each time he blinked. “Yeah, well I see you rather try and change me than just have fun with me. So, it’s probably best we just skip right to the inevitable.” He stood up and walked toward the door. His jaw clenching as he looked back at Jaycee. This definitely wasn’t like him to overreact. But he couldn’t help but to be defensive over something that took his deepest pains away. “I love you too. But this is just who I am, and I’m sorry you can’t accept that.” With those words he walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Jaycee. ”I am not trying to change you whatsoever. I’m simply worried about you and wish you’d slow down. Be in reality with me from time to ti-.. Just like that, you’re walking away.” Her voice hiccuped as she shook her head, squeezing her eyes tightly as she scuffed. “Do you? Because you wouldn’t run away from what we have and work things out.” Running towards the door in a panic after he just slammed the door. Not even thinking she grabbed a vase by the entry way and threw it at the door, screaming before falling to the floor crying. How can everyone just leave her so fucking easily.

Quentin. He could hear the vase hit the door and he shook his head. It was too late now to even go back and try and make this right. Or at least that’s what he was convincing himself at the moment. All he wanted was to go be fucked up and come back to this later. But he couldn’t even express that without getting defensive and skipping right to the easy way out. What was done was done now though, and he was sure he would regret it in the morning.

[kpoptrashibnida]

Enough Pt. 4

A/N: So, I am not super thrilled about this chapter. I just wanted to put out the important event that’s coming up and I didn’t want to extend it too much because I didn’t want to drag it out and have it not make sense or not have the flow work. So I hope this is okay and understandable and not boring. Also, please let me know what you are thinking about the series so far. Thanks! Happy reading!

You were breathing hard as you sat in the doctor's office, your leg shaking relentlessly due to the nerves you were feeling. You begged the doctor to expedite the test results because it was important that you knew that same day if you were pregnant, caught a disease or both. Thankfully she agreed once she saw your insurance card and knew she could charge them hefty fees for the expedited test. You closed your eyes and leaned back against the chair, willing your nerves to calm down as you patiently (impatiently) waited for the doctor or even a nurse to finally come inside. You had been waiting for a good 30 minutes and you glanced at your watch, debating whether or not to text your boss to let him know your “lunch” meeting was running longer than expected.

“Hi, I’m back. Sorry for the delay, we were trying to get these results as soon as possible.” The doctor said as she walked in and sat on the stool in front of you.

You sat up on the chair, your heart hammering in your chest the second the doctor walked in. “That’s fine.” You said softly, not trusting your voice.

“Well, I have good news. You are not pregnant and you don’t have any STDs.” She said with a smile.

You could almost cry of how happy you are. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding, relaxing your shoulders as you finally felt like everything was going to be okay. “I’m glad. I was just concerned because I’ve never missed my period before.”

“Well there could be a few explanations for that. Have you been experiencing any stress? Or a change of contraceptive?” She asked

“Now that I think about it, I did get a different prescription of birth control. And I’m helping my best friend plan her wedding, so I've been stressed out with that and work.”

“Well the change of birth control most definitely had something to do with your period being late. Once your body gets used to the new dosage, you should be regular again.”

“Thank you so much doctor.” You said with a smile, getting up and grabbing your purse, getting ready to leave.

“Of course. Have a great day.”

You walked back to work with more pep in your step. You were so relieved that you could scream to the heavens! You took your phone out, pulling up your text conversation with Chanyeol.

Good news. I’m not pregnant and you didn’t give me a disease. Let’s not speak to each other again now :)

You put your phone away and smiled as you made your way to work, not expecting or hoping for a reply.

After work, you were going to go dress shopping with Mina and Eunji. You two were going to walk there together after work and Eunji was going to meet you there. Once you made it to the lobby of the company, you saw Mina waiting for you by the door.

“Sorry! Have you been waiting long? The intern had so many questions I lost track of time.” You apologized as you approached her.

“No worries, I literally just got here. But since when are you in charge of babysitting interns?” She asked with a laugh.

“I’m not. But he came into my office as soon as I was going to leave.” You rolled your eyes, not wanting to be rude to the intern.

“He probably has a crush on you.” Mina teased, making you laugh loudly

“As if, Jungkook is just a boy.” You dismiss, the idea being utterly ridiculous.

“Yeah a hot one! That boys shoulders are massive! I’d give him a run for his money if I wasn’t a loyal fiancée.” Mina swooned.

“Okay okay calm down there.” You laughed, he was cute but oh so young. You halted once you saw the sight before you.

“What’s wrong?” Mina questioned at your lack of movement.

“Oh gosh let me get some ddopokki before we get there! I am so hungry!.” You said as you made your way to the food cart, ordering the largest size of ddopokki they had. “Do you want one?” You asked Mina

“I’m fine… how are you so hungry? Did you not have a lunch meeting?” She questioned, making your way to the bridal shop.

You gulped down the large amount of food in your mouth, feeling brave enough to tell your best friend the whole story. “Well, I lied. I didn’t go to a meeting. I had a doctor's appointment.”

“Doctors appointment? Are you ill?” She asked concerned

“I went to get a pregnancy test and a STD test…” You glanced at her to gauge her reaction.

She stopped in her tracks, her brain having a hard time registering what you had just said. “Wait. What? STD? Pregnancy? What the hell is going on?” She demanded, her mind running a mile a minute.

You took a deep breath and dived right into everything that happened. From Chanyeol ghosting you, from you ghosting him, from hooking up again, him not wearing a condom, you finding out that he was hooking up with other girls after he had cum in you, the realization that your period was late and the possibility of pregnancy, how you told Chanyeol and he completely dismissed you and to today. The good news of no pregnancy and no STDs. Mina was in shock after hearing everything you said, not believing what an asshole Chanyeol turned out to be.

“My god, you’ve been through a lot! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Mina said as she stopped in front of the bridal boutique.

“Because I didn’t want to put any negativity out there right now with your wedding planning. I’m just glad it’s all over and done with.” You shrug, not seeing why it was a big deal.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, you know you can tell me anything any time.” She felt a little guilty at the fact that you felt like you had to keep things in just so she doesn’t have to get stressed out.

“I know babe, let’s just focus on finding you the perfect dress!” You squealed excitedly, opening the door and heading to the countless rows of gorgeous wedding gowns.

A few weeks went by and the day to Mina and Suho’s wedding kept getting closer. Everything was going smoothly and the only things left to lock in was the flowers and confirming with the bakery the items for the dessert bar.

Currently, you were at work trying to finish the deadline for your department, making the final touches to your current marketing proposal. You were the team captain at your department and you were the one in charge of reviewing that everything was correct and in order before submitting it to your boss.

“Hey boss, the big man wants to see you.” Jungkook popped his head in to your office, making you look up from your computer screen that you were focused on.

“Okay, thank you.” You said, getting up and smoothing out your skirt.

You made your way to Mr. Kim’s office.

“Did you ask for me?” You asked as you walked into his office after knocking on his door.

“Yes, please sit down.” He said, taking his glasses off and rubbing between his eyes.

“Is everything okay?” You questioned, a little confused. Mr. Kim never usually comes and asks you into his office. Most of his questions or orders are in email form.

“Come on, how many times have I told you to call me Namjoon? You’re my star player, no need to be so formal.” He kindly admonished, making you smile at his demeanor

“Right, sorry Namjoon.”

“No problem. Has my little brother been doing well?” He asked with a small smile.

“Jungkook? I didn’t know he was your brother!” You said surprised, wondering how you missed that detail.

“Well he’s my cousin but he’s like a little brother to me.” He said, a big grin appearing on his face making him look youthful and carefree.

“He’s doing really well, knows how to get the job done.” You replied honestly.

“Good, good. Well I guess you’re wondering why I asked you here. I actually want to talk to you about something serious.” He said, his playfulness almost fully gone.

You sat up straight in your seat, a sudden wave of nervousness washing over you. “Is everything okay?” You asked as you racked your brain to see if maybe there were any missed mistakes in your last project.

“Yes everything is fine. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make this sound so serious. But I do have a serious offer. Friends Corp is going to open a pop up shop in NewYork. We are going to sell merchandise of all kinds. Shirts, cups, plush toys, etc. I have a team in Manhattan already working on the real estate aspect of the shop, merchandise and other things. But I do need someone who is good with marketing. Not just good, but great. And that’s where you come in.” He pulled out a packet from his desk drawer, showing you the highlighted documents. “The store is expected to open next year, so the contract would be for a whole year. I’d want you to oversee the marketing aspect of this pop up shop for Friends Corp, work closely with the graphic design manager and the PR director. You’d be there until the opening of the store and then you can come back to Korea. We will be giving you a pay raise, accommodate an apartment for you and transportation. What do you think?” He asked, looking hopeful.

You were stunned speechless, not expecting this kind of job offer. You glanced at the pay and your heart skipped a beat. The number on the paper was extremely impressive. “I am honored that you have considered me for this position Mr. K- Namjoon, but would it be possible to let you know later? I just need to make sure I can commit to the move.”

“Of course! Of course! Let me know when you can. But the sooner the better, that way I can book your flight and secure an apartment.” He said with a smile.

“Okay. Thank you.”

You sat at your desk, not being able to focus on your task at hand. This job offer was a great opportunity and you really want to take it. You just need to talk to Mina because you have a hard time thinking about being away from her for a whole year. After work, you two were going to the bakery that is catering her wedding. Suho was meeting you two there so you can all choose the best desserts. She and Suho decided that the didn’t want a super traditional wedding with a cake, they went with a dessert bar route. Liking the idea of options for all tastes and preferences. You decided that telling her about the job offer would be best to do so now, so you could get back to Namjoon with your answer as soon as possible.

“Ready to go?” Mina asked as you were shutting off your computer for the day.

“Yep, all set.” You smiled as you made your way over to her.

You were walking over to the bakery and Mina was happily going on about how excited she was to try out the different desserts and stuff her face. You smiled and nodded your head, a little distracted to be able to cooperate with the conversation.

“You okay? You’re awfully quiet.” Mina asked, observing your unusually quiet demeanor.

“I have something to tell you and I don’t know how to say it.” You said honestly, with Mina, it’s best not to beat around the bush.

“Oh my god, what is it? You’re scaring me.” She honestly did look scared and you felt bad for wording it the way you did.

“Okay, so today, Mr. Kim asked me into his office and offered me a job to work in the pop up shop in New York and he wants me to give him an answer soon and I don’t know what to do.” You managed to say it all in one breath, quickly glancing over at Mina.

She looked shocked for about a second before she grinned excitedly, shaking you in a tight hug, making you laugh.

“What did you say?” She inquired

“I told him I would get back at him to let him know.”

“Why though? It’s an amazing opportunity!”

“I know. But I wanted to make sure you’d be cool with it. It’s a whole year.” You said, just the thought of being away from your friend made you sad.

“Oh my gosh, don’t be dumb. I love you and I’ll miss you like hell, but I’d never expect you to miss out on an opportunity like this! As long as you leave after my wedding.” She said pointedly, making you laugh and feeling relieved.

“I would never dare leave before your big day.” You say, opening the door to the bakery where Suho and his best man, a guy named Kyungsoo who was apparently an expert on all things culinary, were waiting for you two already.

You were able to enjoy all the delicious desserts now that Mina knew of your relocation to New York. She shared the news with Suho and Kyungsoo as soon as you two walked in. Suho was very happy for you and decided that you all were celebrating your job promotion with lots of dessert and complimentary champagne.

The next day you walked in to Namjoon’s office, confident about your decision. Knocking you walk in, making him look up from his computer.

“What a surprise! Are you here to give me an answer?” He asked, taking his glasses off and reclined in his chair.

“Yes, I’ll take the offer. But I can only leave after my friends wedding.” You informed, excited about the move to New York.

“Absolutely. Just tell me the date and I’ll get everything ready.” He said, typing away at his laptop.

“Perfect. Thank you.” You said and went back to work.

“Oh yes.” You moaned, feeling hot lips touch your sensitive nipples, pleasure spreading through your body.

“You like that princess?” The husky voice said, thrusting his hips into you, making his thick length stretch you out deliciously.

You whimpered,nodding your head, the pleasure so consuming you were not able to speak.

“Use your words baby.” The husky voice whispered in your ear.

“Yes, it feels so good.” You panted, thrusting your hips against his in order to speed the process of your orgasm.

“Come for me baby, I know you’re almost there.” He said, rubbing his fingers against your sensitive clit, making your walls spasm against his cock.

You moaned as your release hit you, making you see stars.

His hips started moving faster, chasing his own release. He came soon after you, moaning lowly in your ear.

“That’s it baby, this is why you’re my favorite.”

You sat up in your bed with a start, heart hammering in your chest and a light sheen of sweat covering your body. It was a dream. A wet dream with Chanyeol. How fun-fucking-tastic. You touched your center and felt the wetness coating your panties. You threw them off into your hamper and laid back down in bed frustrated. You cannot believe you just had that kind of dream with Chanyeol. This promotion could not have come at a better moment. You need to get away from this country so you could completely erase him from your mind and memory. You were going to pretend as if he never existed. And you couldn’t wait to be thousands of miles away from him.

***

Chanyeol had stepped away from the computer to get something quick to eat. It seemed like ramen was the only thing he had to eat lately. He really needed to stop being so lazy and go get some actual food from the grocery store. He was in the middle of producing a song for an upcoming artist and he was excited at the progress of the song. This one was going to be a real banger for sure.

He made his way back to his desk with his bowl of ramen in hand, ready to put the finishing touches on the song. He saw the screen of his phone illuminating when he walked in, making his eyebrow furrow. Usually people don’t message him when he’s in the middle of producing.

He felt his heart skip a beat when he read your name on his screen, making him click on the notification at a fast pace.

Good news. I’m not pregnant and you didn’t give me a disease. Let’s not speak to each other again now :)

He read your message a few times, letting the news sink in. He was relieved you weren’t pregnant, although he couldn’t quite understand the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew you weren’t going to have an STD. Sure he had slept with someone else, but he always wore protection with them. He knew you were angry with him, but it made him feel like crap that you didn’t want to speak to him again. He decided to not answer and give you some time to cool off. He was sure you’d get over it with some time. He went back to work after that, distracting himself from the feelings he was experiencing.

“Daddy, mom won’t let me eat cake!” A cute boy with chubby cheeks and elvish ears came and angrily sat on Chanyeol’s lap.

“I know sweetie. But mom wants to make sure you have space in your tummy for dinner first. Then you can have cake.” Chanyeol said to the small child. Making a big grin spread along his adorable face.

“Promise?” He asked with his cute big puppy dog eyes.

“Of course!” He said confidently.

“Dinner is ready!” You exclaimed, bringing the home made pizza to the table where Chanyeol and the boy were waiting patiently.

“Yay my favorite!” The little boy exclaimed, making both you and Chanyeol laugh.

“I know baby. This is why I didn’t let you eat cake first.” You said, caressing the top of his head in a loving manner.

“And I know it’s your favorite too.” You said as you wrapped your arms around Chanyeol’s shoulders, giving him a sweet peck on the lips.

“Ewww not in front of my pizza.” Your son said in disgust, making you both laugh as you all ate, enjoying this sweet moment as a family.

Chanyeol sat up with a start, feeling disoriented. He looked around and saw he was still in his studio. He must have dozed off when he was finishing the song he was working on. He shook his head and took a long sip of water, trying to shake away the memory of the dream he had. What was more disturbing is the feeling that was lingering in his stomach. What the hell did that dream mean? Why the fuck did he have that kind of dream? And with you? He saved the progress on the song in his computer and whipped his phone out, scrolling through his contacts. Once he found the name he was looking for, he sent out a message.

Hey hot stuff, can I come over?

He got up and grabbed a condom from his drawer. He didn’t bother to wait for a reply, knowing what this girls answer was going to be.

Previous                                                                                                      Next

[candyshua]

It’s a Long Way Home | Chapter 9

Pairing: Joshua x Minghao x Reader

Synopsis: It was dark, and then it was light. You’re finally lucid. After 15 years of not being conscious, you wake up in a desolate and post-apocalyptic earth where infected flesh-eating beings roam the streets. Soon enveloped into a mysterious group of survivors, you consistently wonder who they are. But most importantly, who are you?

Genre: Heavy angst, some fluff here and there

Warnings: Gore, bad language, physical & verbal abuse

Word Count: 3.7k

Peace.

That's what Joshua felt when a blackness engulfed him. And then suddenly, he was Joshua Hong no more.

-

You and Minghao had been preparing for this night endlessly. You restlessly slept the previous night, but adrenaline kept you fresh and alert. It was 5 PM, and due to the wintry wonderland that was New York, the sun set quite early. Therefore, you and Minghao drove while going over the plan endlessly.

You knew what you were going to do, and you knew what the probable outcome was. But, you had run out of options - it was either fight or run away, and that never worked. You parked about a mile away from Fort Lockwood, and walked over amid the frigid, bitter air. You could see your breath, and the snow from the previous evening was sloppy and bitter.

You didn't care, nothing at this point could stop you.

You had sneaked up to the walls where the camp was, in dark black clothing which wasn't nearly warm enough for your comfort. You clasped your trusty gun in your hand, and a knife was tucked in your waistband, along with ammunition. Minghao's layout was the same, and as the two of you crouched beneath the trees, remaining hidden from the guards at the wall, Minghao knew he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"This is where we go our separate ways." You mumble, avoiding eye contact with him, knowing that this could be the last time you see each other. And suddenly, even in the close proximity, Minghao seemed so far away from you.

"I have to tell you something." Minghao admitted, whispering with a raw-esque. You looked into his eyes expectantly, and suddenly the calamity of the situation oozed with an eerie tranquility, because Minghao would die knowing he said it. He held your hands in his, his fingers trembling slightly.

"I love you, Y/N." Minghao confessed, and you knew it wasn't a platonic or casual love - you knew the love he was talking about. "If things weren't like this, I would've let you be happy with Josh, but I might die tonight. And I refuse to die knowing that I didn't tell you how much I fucking love you, Y/N."

The shock of his secret being revealed overwhelmed you immediately. The heat of his words in the winter air coaxed a feeling of comfort in you. You exhaled a shaky breath, suddenly not wanting to leave Hao's side. You knew - you fucking knew - that you were here for Josh. Suddenly, his uncanny protection he comforted you with made sense. Everything did.

Yet, hearing those heavy words lifted you up and weighed you down. He had burdened you and excited you.

You didn't return the words, but he wasn't expecting that. He wasn't expecting you to feel a sliver of love for him, and neither did you.

But you felt it, the spark that erupted in your stomach whenever he touched you, and the fire that the place he touched was on stayed burning long after he let go. Minghao was excitement, and Joshua was home.

The question was - which did you long for more?

"May we meet again, Minghao Xu." You croaked, swallowing the lump in your throat. "Whether it's in this life or the next, I hope we find each other all over again."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Minghao grinned, his beam weak and fragile. You returned the smile, and this time it did reach your eyes.

As Minghao and you parted, and the screams of war were heard in the dead winter night, a newfound determination bloomed in you. You were going to see Minghao again, whether in this life or your next one.

-

Minghao sneaked through the camouflage of the trees and bushes right underneath the watch towers. Within seconds, he shot both of the guards in the head, the sound unheard due to the trusty silencer on his gun. He noticed the other two other rushed to open the doors a bit, and Minghao recognized them as citizens. He smiled, glad that at least somebody he knew was alive.

Minghao saw you dash through the meek opening in the gates, and he followed a few minutes after. The two of you went in separate directions, him flanking right and you left. Minghao stuck to the walls of houses, trying to get to the fort's hospital. It was a warehouse, but it was endlessly supplied with the necessities you needed in case of a dire emergency.

He eyed the guards in front of the building, and he knew he didn't recognize them. He then noticed that there were guards in front of every house, all whom he didn't recognize. They held guns and maintained stern faces. He figured they're there to prevent people from escaping. The Doctor had a problem with people who tried to escape, especially you.

He peeked into the window of a one floored house, and saw a man in a white lab coat playing with syringes as a vulnerable woman looked at him with fear in her eyes. She was tied down, and Minghao didn't want to let this happen, but he would completely blow their cover if he barged into their house and shot that man.

He fought the urge that tugged at him mercilessly, and continued to "take out" guards that he didn't recognize, or even scientists. He now knew what The Doctor looked like, so he had his eyes open for him. The bitter winter air kept him awake, and the sound of his heart beating echoed in him. Thoughts of you flashed through his mind, and flashes of his friends that he left behind did as well.

This time he wasn't going to run. He was going to fight.

Soon, a scream erupted in the air. It wasn't yours, he knew your voice, but Minghao noticed the absolute lack of reaction from all of the guards. It didn't take long for Minghao to realize that screams of pain were a casualty here.

Minghao refused the urge to shiver.

He stalked down the back of houses, back brushing against the wall located in the backyards of peoples' homes. Minghao's job was to merely weaken The Doctor's forces as much as possible, while distracting everybody so you could sneak in and save your friends, among other things that involved The Doctor.

Minghao then felt a hand press against his mouth, preventing him from emitting any noise. Out of instinct, he bit the hand but then heard a yelp of pain. Minghao whipped his body around and then saw no one other than Sonny, smiling sadly.

"I spotted you when in my house. Sneaked out, since it's past curfew."

Minghao immediately hugged his long time friend, and she returned it weakly. Sonny's regular blond locks looked lighter, and she was pale. Her eyes looked hollow, Sonny overall looked worn out and fatigued.

"What the hell happened after we left?" Minghao whisper-shouted, his voice worrisome and etched with concern.

"A lot. I don't know how Josh, Jun, Kwan, Hansol, or Wonwoo are doing. Margo and Cleo are forced to help them out, along with me. We're not allowed anywhere near the hospital, or else they'll kill us."

"Sonny..." Minghao lamented, feeling the urge to cry. This place was once their heaven in a world full of hell, and now it was hell too.

"They killed Seungcheol's team effortlessly...They attacked a few nights ago. I'm just here to tell you good luck, buddy. Everybody being experimented on is in the hospital, and the regular citizens just work their day to day jobs, except now they have a gun pointed at them while they do it. Please save us, Hao. Please." Sonny murmured, her voice sounding like it was about to break. Hell, she looked like she was going to break. She was skinny and frail, nothing like the woman Minghao remembers as bright and energetic.

"Thank you, Sonny. Go home now, I can't risk you being killed. If things don't work out, you had no idea about this - okay?" Minghao ordered, but the blond girl refused and shook her head. Sonny was about to walk away, until she shook her head and bit her lip, obviously troubled.

"No. I'm going with you, and we're going to take down these bitches together. I'm going to see Jun again, even if I have to kill somebody." Sonny spat, a new fire burning in her. It reminded Minghao of himself, and how he would do anything for you.

Suddenly, Minghao smiled. Then, Sonny showed a kitchen knife she had been hiding. "This is all I'll need." She grinned, and soon the two of them ran to the hospital, knowing it was do or die.

-

You flanked to the left, knowing you had to stay much more hidden than Minghao. Your face was an enigma, everybody was searching for you so these people "could leave". But why should you believe The Doctor and his apprentices? All they ever do is lie.

You were driven by a rage that burned deep within you, and you killed whatever doctor you recognized on the spot. Any of the guards that were in your way stood no chance to the wrath of Y/N Y/L/N, for you were a flame that burned with the power of passion.

You stabbed, shot, and even choked. While sneaking in from the back of the hospital building, you slit a guard's throat that was heading towards you. Another guard was just about to shout, but you threw a knife at his head, and he fell instantly. The blood oozed out of the deep punctured wound, bubbles popping in the hot steamy liquid. His head was covered in a burning red, and you ripped the knife out eliciting a slick sound or metal against skin.

You knew you couldn't use your gun too much now, because even with the silencer it would make too much noise. So now it was you and your trusty knife, which had the power of a scythe.

You then went into the hospital through the back doors, hoping there were no cameras watching you. You locked the door behind you, and looked through the building. There were doors everywhere, and a main room that was like a foyer. You heard screams - some familiar and some not - erupt from behind the closed doors. You clenched your jaw, knowing that it was these bastard's doing.

Scientists were walking through the halls, going in and out of rooms. How many were there? Did everybody really come down back to Earth?

You waited for Minghao's cue, which was him making a fucking ruckus. Soon, gunshots rang out, and the scientists closed their doors and guards from inside rushed to the outdoors.

Your time was limited, and so was Minghao's. You open the first door to your right, finding Junhui screaming mercilessly at the hands of a familiar female doctor. You were on her in seconds, slitting her throat, blood squirting from it like lava from a volcano eruption.

"Hi." You greeted, smiling at the weak man more feebly. You ran over to him, and detached whatever IV was singed into his skin, and untied every limb that was constricted to the table. "Minghao is okay, in case you're wondering. Although right now, he might not be." You admitted. Junhui forced himself up, groans of pain falling from his chapped and cut lips. He wore a plain white hospital gown, and you knew he wasn't stable enough to fight.

"Do you know where they keep your clothing?" You asked, and he pointed to a cabinet above a sink, and you opened it and threw his clothes at him. "I won't look." You said, facing away from him. Junhui giggled sadly, and soon the man was dressed. "Can you walk?"

"They usually give me this purple serum after they...uh...ya know-"

"They call it Aftermath. I took it all the time." You interrupted, and found the purple liquid effortlessly. You then delicately injected him with a normal dose for a regular sized man, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

You were convinced that there was some magic in Aftermath, because Junhui immediately recuperated, and some color returned to his face. Yet, his eyes remained the same stoic way they were before.

"Can you fight?" You asked, and he just nodded. You searched the dead woman, and found a gun on her. You handed it to Junhui, and he just smiled at you and ran his slim fingers over the weapon.

"Do you know where everybody is?" You questioned with a bit of consolation in your voice. You knew exactly what he needed, and that was to be treated like an adult. You were in his situation before, after all.

"No, they transport me after they put me to sleep. I don't know if they're even alive." Junhui emptily explained. His words were hollow, just like his faraway expression. Soon, tears swam in his eyes, and pooled down his face pathetically. You avoided the pool of blood on the floor, and wiped it off of yourself before you gave him the best hug you could muster.

"They did this to me for 13 years. Focus on the rage, Junhui. Focus on it and let it consume you to the point where you get your revenge." You hissed, getting angry thinking about what they did to Jun.

He sniffled and nodded.

"Let's go." You ordered, and he nodded with the rage that consumed you as well.

-

Minghao and Sonny were fighting endlessly, shooting and killing whatever guards were in their way. He fought for you, Josh, Kwan, his best friend that followed him from another country - Jun, Hansol, and he fought for himself. He was blind with his rage, knowing that they tortured the people he cared about.

Sonny was weaker, but she still put up a good fight. She was doing exceptionally well for a girl with just a kitchen knife, but Minghao believed she was doing it for Junhui.

That was the power of love. Love could control you like a marionette, so many strings were attached. Sure, being in love did give somebody the sense of euphoria they've been longing for. But love is an unstoppable force. Love makes you feel everything, and soon people find themselves doing things they never thought they would've done - all for love. Love's battle cry was more furious than the fiercest warrior's scream of terror, love's power was greater than any leader's, love was larger than life. Love was what made Minghao do this, it was the foundation of his actions.

Minghao had killed, cried, and ran away all in the name of love. Even the most stoic souls are susceptible to the all powerful state of mind, but love of material or glory is what drives them. Love doesn't have to be for one another, love can be for anything.

Love can drive you fucking insane.

Minghao fought relentlessly, blood across his clothing and the floor, the guards going crazy and trying to keep the citizens indoors. He knew he had to do something big now, or else he wouldn't survive to see the sun rise tomorrow.

So, he grabbed Sonny's hand and shot aimlessly as they ran inside, and locked the doors behind them. The doors were steel, and they were soon boarded up with tables and chairs from the main foyer.

Then, Minghao saw you and Junhui running into another room, guns in both of your hands. He was slightly perplexed on how Jun got a gun, but a small and brief feeling of peace coated his heart knowing that his best friend was alive.

Sonny smiled to herself too, but she knew she couldn't call out his name and go run to him - or else it would distract him.

The steel doors were constantly being assaulted, the vibration and shaking of the doors forcing Minghao to move every time, but he bounced back and pushed with all of his might so the doors would open. "Go get the back doors." Minghao grumbled, and Sonny nodded and dashed to the opposite side of the hallway. That door was also being rambunctiously moved, but it was already locked. Minghao grinned knowing that was your clever doing.

Soon, Minghao heard an unfamiliar scream, and he cringed knowing what was coming next. Soon, all of the doors opened, and doctors with guns came piling out of the rooms and to where Junhui and you were.

They wouldn't kill you, be they wouldn't hesitate to shoot Junhui.

-

The scientists froze once they locked eyes with you.

They knew who you were, and their guns pointed at you aggressively, but you wouldn't drop them. Was this your end? You were going to die when you were so close to the prize?

Soon, they were all knocked down with a bullet to the head. Bodies piled on top of one another like a bush, and behind the pile was none other than Minghao. You smiled, and he did too. It's good to have others on your side.

He had that look in his eyes, it was just that look, and you knew that you'd either go down together or win this together. "Junhui, go help Sonny." You ordered, and his face lit up at the sound of his girlfriend's name, and you and Minghao piled into the rooms. You were faced with Hansol, Seungkwan, and Wonwoo.

You gave them the same purple medicine, finding it miraculous that they were alive. Right now, your adrenaline fused everything together. It was like a blurry nothingness, until a surge of electricity spread throughout your veins once you came to a certain realization.

There was still no Josh.

You looked at the door labeled "basement", and when you tried to open it, it was locked. A feeling of dread swallowed your gut, and soon bile threatened to pour of your mouth. You knew that he was down there, along with The Doctor.

Call it a hunch.

Soon, Minghao was behind you, and you two relentlessly broke at the door knob, until the lock finally broke. The door opened eerily, and you shared one last look - a look that screamed louder than a million words - before you went to your probable doom. Everybody else you rescued were helping with the doors, trying to keep the barricade up. You swallowed the bile in your throat.

"Together." You said to Minghao.

"On God."

-

The room was dimly lit, with various syringes and mysterious bottles scattered over the room. A curtain was in front of Joshua, along with hand cuffs chaining him to stay still. He was standing now, but struggling against the binds mindlessly, per usual.

The Doctor locked eyes with you as you came charging down the stairs, and then you heard a gargling growl that sounded just like a walker's, and it was The Doctor merely prolonging your inevitable victory.

You had won.

But then, like a dramatic play opening, the curtain was unveiled. And behind it stood an infected Joshua Hong.

You cried out, you fucking wailed. You screamed so loud and you felt nothing but pure rage, knowing that it was this bastard's doing. You wanted to run up to him and slit his throat, you wanted to kill him and feel him submit under your power.

But you were frozen. And soon, Joshua was released from the cuffs, and stumbled over to you and Minghao hungrily. "Y/N, we have to kill him-"

"No!" You screamed, and you put down Minghao's gun and ran to Joshua, or what used to be him, and you bawled.

Minghao had to kill Joshua, he had to or else he would bite you and you would be done for.

Unless you were immune.

He knew that you would never forgive him if you shot Joshua when there was a chance you were immune, because at the end of the day you loved him, infected or not. So he merely ran over to The Doctor, and restricted the man. He didn't fight at all, he just stood there while you let Joshua limp over to you.

And then Joshua took a bite of your flesh.

-

"William! Marcus! Dinner is ready!" You smiled, setting the table along with your husband, Joshua. The two of you looked into each other's eyes lovingly. You two have been married for 7 years, but the love never faded. In fact, the love brought along kids and a dog the kids named "Sparkles".

You all sat around the dining table, and Joshua led the prayers. You chanted along with him, as your sons clumsily stumbled on a few of the words, but they tried nonetheless. You then ate meatloaf with a side of rice - and it was quite delicious. You were an amazing cook.

You and Joshua were childhood friends, and in high school is when you two fell in love. Even when you went away to separate colleges, your love never died. You studied to be a psychiatrist - since you were undeniably intelligent, and good at giving advice. Joshua opened up a studio, and he made music with his friends, and sold instruments and other musical accessories.

You were unbelievably happy. Your biggest fear is that you would get bored of marriage and leave, but you were deeply in love. Joshua Hong was the love of your life, and he always would be. Your two sons, Marcus and William, were 4 and 6.

They were lively young children, with nothing but love and purity in their hearts. William, like his father, could sing exceptionally. And Marcus, like you, was incredibly intelligent. He could read English quite fluently at the age of 4. He was nothing short of a genius.

Soon, everybody washed up the scrumptious dinner, and sleep was near. Every night, you and Joshua tucked the kids in, and then watched a new movie. Tonight was "28 Days Later".

Soon, you fell asleep on him while watching the movie, and Joshua studied your peaceful face and soft breaths. He then wondered  - what did he do to get so lucky?

Like a mirage, the image of his happiness melted away from Joshua, no matter how much he reached out to it, it would never come back. That life he longed for would never exist, because to Joshua it was just this life.

What did you do to get so unlucky?

[shirtlesssammy]

8x23: Sacrifice

Welcome back to what might be our longest (and last) hellatus. This was a request that we were going to do after the series ended, but here we are. Enjoy!

Then:

Dean Winchester loves needs one (1) angel.

Now:

Jody Mills is on the Bumble date from Hell with “Roderick”. And by that, I mean she’s trying to put herself back out there after grieving the loss of her husband and son --and Roderick is really Crowley. 

Jody heads to the bathroom to pull herself together and Crowley starts his spellwork to threaten the Winchesters --again. Jody starts puking blood in the bathroom while Dean tries throwing his weight around negotiating the trials and demon/angel tablets. They make a deal, so YAY.

Kevin retrieves the demon tablet for the brothers. Dean gives him the key to the bunker. 

Cas, meanwhile, is chilling with his new friend, Metatron. He asks about God. Metatron describes God as “larger than life, gruff, bit of a sexist. But fair --eminently fair.” Hm, Metatron always did like to spin those stories. They’re outside a bar waiting for signs of the next angel trial --retrieving cupid’s bow. 

The brothers head to Sioux Falls to Bobby’s (probably theirs now?) salvage yard. Crowley is there waiting for them and ready to exchange tablets. He’s got a contract for them to sign --well, Sam to sign since he’s doing the trials. Dean demands to read the fine print before Sam signs anything. Sam unleashes his inner Veruca Salt and grabs the pen to sign. The brothers are not on the same page about this it seems. 

In Heaven, Naomi learns where Cas is --and that he’s with Metatron. 

Dean continues to read the contract and Crowley continues to needle him about how his humanity is a handicap. It’s revealed to all be just a ruse to distract Crowley when Dean throws some demon binding handcuffs on him. They tell Crowley that making him mortal is the third trial. 

Cas tries to speed up the love train for the bartender but fails awkwardly.

For Who Gives a Fuck if He’s Awkward Science:

Naomi and her squad show up. They take Metatron, leaving Cas alone. 

The brothers head to the church where the final trial will happen. They tie Crowley up and go over the game plan. Sam will inject purified blood into Crowley once an hour for eight hours. He’s going to have to confess to God to purify his blood and isn’t sure where to begin. Dean has some ideas, and, like, No ? He lists Ruby, Lilith, losing his soul, not looking for Dean in Purgatory ---and Chuck really would like a clip show of his favorite torture moments I’m sure, but support your brother a little, hmmm?

Anyway, while Sam heads to confession, Cas flaps in to ask Dean for help (like, is this the last time he flaps in to see Dean? I...really miss his wings.) He tells Dean that Naomi took Metatron, and explains that they were working on the angel trials --and planning on shutting Heaven and Hell down. 

Naomi wants answers from Metatron, and she pulls out a hand drill to extract them from him. 

Dean tells Cas that Sam needs his help more than Cas does. Sam pops up and tells Dean to go with Cas. Dean agrees and they fly off together while Sam starts the final trial.

Cas and Dean head to the bunker to have Kevin translate the angel tablet. There’s one problem: Kevin has never laid eyes on the thing before. He’s also done with all the prophet stuff. Cas, not done with all the angel badass stuff, begs to differ.

Sam continues to look SUPER rough. He’s doing so poorly, in fact, that Crowley gets the drop on him despite being tied to a chair. Crowley chomps a hole in Sam’s arm so that he can make a bloody phone call to any demon in range as soon as Sam steps away. GROSS

Dean and Cas get shot at by cupid’s arrow as a bow hunting demo airs on the bar’s TVs. Er, they wait for the cupid to arrive while continuing to strike out in the bar. Er, they wait for the cupid to arrive.

*Fourth Wall Dialogue Alert*

Cas: “You really think it’s wise to be drinking on the job?”

Dean: “What show’ve you been watching?”

Dean asks Cas about his plan to board up Heaven. He expresses worry that Cas is going to meet a bloody end locked away with the other angels. “So this is it,” Dean says fatalistically. “ET goes home.” He lingers on something unsaid, before a delivery worker arrives and distracts them. (“Nooooo,” I cry. “What were you going to say?”) The delivery lady is super cute. At last the love interest arrives! Is Ed finally going to meet his constant companion?! She bestows a glowing smile on Ed and Rod, the regular patron seated at the bar. Patting them both on the shoulder, she bids them farewell. Astonished, Dean watches the woman just…leave. 

Meanwhile, Ed and Rod mutually admire the drawing of a hunting bow on the TV. They lock eyes. Music swells! It’s love! While Dean stares gormlessly at the two lovebirds, Cas is already two steps ahead and on his way to track down the delivery driver - their cupid. 

Crowley sings Bowie to Sam as the floor cracks and ground shakes. Abaddon enters in all her stitched up glory. 

For Yes Please Science:

Sam gets hurled through a window, but Abaddon….isn’t exactly aiming to help out the current King of Hell. She wallops Crowley instead, intending to claim the throne for herself. Sam races back in, douses Abaddon in fire, and sends her smoky demon form into the night. 

Dean and Cas corner the cupid outside of the bar. Cas demands her bow, blade sliding from his sleeve. In what could be a first for him, Dean counsels, “Talk first, stab later.” MADE FOR EACH OTHER!

The cupid tells Cas that she’s avoided Heaven as its leadership has fallen. She offers the bow freely and Cas raises his blade to cut it from her palm. YIKES

In Heaven, Metatron confronts Naomi with a bloodied eye. (We clutch our blankets to our chests and think of Cas’s “re-programming” with renewed horror.) Metatron reflects that losing God was the worst thing he endured, and then he was run out of Heaven by the upper echelons of Heaven. “Did you really think you could do all of that to me and there would be no payback?” he asks. 

In Hell Quest Central, Sam sets Crowley upright again now that Abaddon has fled the building. He repaints the devil’s trap and continues the trials. Crowley drops movie reference after movie reference and I can’t help but point out that he’s targeting the WRONG WINCHESTER with those overtures. “I deserve to be loved!” Crowley declares at last, and emotion crests over him, taking both Sam and Crowley by surprise. As the cure continues, things get quiet. Crowley asks Sam how he asked for forgiveness because he doesn’t even know where to start with his own soul. 

Kevin can’t find the Heaven trials anywhere in the tablet and while Dean’s arguing with him, Naomi flaps in to talk to Cas. 

Naomi insists that Metatron is playing Cas, lying to him so he can get help enacting his revenge. “This is what you do,” Cas growls. “You twist things.” VALID mistrust! Naomi tells them that Metatron’s plan is to expel all angels from Heaven.

“Our mission was to protect what God created,” Naomi says with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know where we forgot that.” She offers up an overture, telling Dean that if Sam finishes the trials then he will die. Naomi picked that knowledge directly from Metatron’s head. 

After Naomi flaps away, Dean orders Kevin to find out if it’s true that Sam will die. Cas flies Dean to Sam, then flaps away to finish what he started. Just as Sam is about to do the final rite, Dean races into the church and shouts for him to stop.

In Naomi’s office, Cas discovers her sprawled out (mostly) dead on the desk, her probe jabbed into her brain. Metatron confronts Cas with an angel blade to his throat. Naomi was telling the truth! That rumpled eccentric is out for revenge!

Meanwhile, Dean explains to an actual, GLOWING Sam that he’ll die if he completes the trials. “So?” Sam asks. SAM BBY.

Upstairs, Cas is strapped to Naomi’s torture chair while Metatron placates him. 

He cuts a slit in Cas’s throat to extract his grace, and counsels him to go back to Earth and settle down for the rest of his life. Metatron tells Cas that he didn’t endure trials. Instead, he helped Metatron to gather ingredients for a powerful spell. He gathers Cas’s grace to finish the spell and just before he zaps Cas on a one way trip to Earth, he tells him to come see him when he’s dead so he can hear his story. 

Sam argues with Dean about the trials. He insists that Dean absolutely CAN fight the forces of evil on his own. Sam tells him that he’s been a lodestone around Dean’s neck for a long time. His greatest sin was “how many times I let you down.” OH SAMMY! 

“I know we’ve had our disagreements,” Dean argues, “I killed Benny to save you. I’m willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches who killed mom walk because of you, so don’t you dare think that there is anything past or present that I would put in front of you.” 

Sam listens to this and finally gasps, “How do I stop?” Dean wraps a handkerchief around Sam’s hand and tells him to let go of the spell. Sam stops glowing…which is great! Except he collapses in agony which is…less great. Dean calls for Cas desperately. 

Cas wakes in a field and strides out to a lakeshore. 

Sirens clang in the bunker, locking Kevin inside. And outside…stars fall. The angels are being expelled from Heaven, their wings burning as they plummet to the Earth. 

We’re just going to end this recap with a bunch of gifs, ‘kay? 

Waiting for a Quote to Fall:

It’s not a date until I’ve cried

This is a secret lair. You understand me? No keggers

Would you say that you're looking for, uh, a partner in crime? Or someone who's into nurse role-play and light domination?

There is no out. Only duty

Do you really think it's wise to be drinking on the job?

Talk first, stab later

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[stripper-patrick]

Caught my eye 👁 Chris Evans

Warnings: PenEtRaTioN, Chris Evans’s Fine ass, America’s ass, porn basically

Song: Close- Ella Mai

Relationship: Chris Evans x black plus sized reader

I’m sitting down at the club watching my best friend dance with some stranger that she’ll no doubt be going home with tonight. I’m more of a low key type of girl. I’ll go out and have fun but it’s very rare that I’ll leave with anyone other than who I came with.

“Y/N come dance with me please” Chloe begs. I sigh and roll my eyes. I get up setting down my drink and walk over to her. I feel eyes on me. I’ve felt eyes on me all night. I keep looking around but there are so many people in here I can’t see who’s staring.

My song Fuck it Up by Ocho Drippin comes on and I smile. I bend down placing my hands on my knees and letting my butt do the work.

We dance to a few more songs and head over to the bar.

“I’m gonna go pee”

“Ok do you want me to go?”

“No I’ll be fine” I nod and she leaves. I wait for a little and a drink is set in front of me.

“The man over there paid for this” he nods across the table and I see a fine ass man. He’s got these blue eyes, gorgeous pink lips, and he’s built.

Damn ok I’ve only ever been with Tyrone’s but let’s see what Tyler can throw down with.

I wink and take a sip. This is really good.

The man makes his way over to me and I smile.

“Thank you for this it’s really good” I smile

“Oh great” he smiles “I’m Chris”

“Y/N” I shake his hand and other girls glare at me “Are those your lapdogs?” He looks back and chuckles.

“Nah I don’t know them maybe they’re jealous cause I wanna spend my time with you”

“As good as you look I’d be jealous too” I say confidently

“Is say the same about you Ms. Y/N. Are you here with anyone?”

“Yea my best friend”

“Oh ok would you and your best friend like to come over to my table?”

“I don’t wanna be a burden”

“No worries please” he says

“Ok” I grab my drink and he holds my hand walking me through the crowd. We get to his table and he’s at a VIP table.

I see a few girls and one guy. Damn Chris was doing good

“These are my friends that’s Simone and my brother Scott where Angela”

“Drinks” Scott answers

“Nice to meet you” I smile. The girls move over and he sits down and I sit next to him.

I’m swaying to the beat of the song when I see Chloe come up to me.

“Hi” she says

“Hey Chris this is Chloe, Chloe this is Chris he invited us to his table”

“Oh really thank you” she smiles

“Sure” she sits down next to Scott and we enjoy the music.

“Bitch your in my seat” a Hispanic girl comes over and rolls her neck at me.

I look over Chris to see who she’s talking to.

“Yes you bitch” she rolls her neck again

“If you roll your neck at me one more time ima step on it” I stand up and take off my heels. Chris rushes up and holds onto my waist.

“Yo who is this bitch”

“The bitch that’s about to kick your ass”

“Ladies let’s not Angela this is Y/N I invited her to our table”

“Nah she finna found out who I am” he tightens his grip once he sees her coming closer.

“Enough” he yells. We both turn to him and she leaves.

“I’m sorry” I say

“Don’t be she causes problems on the regular”

We sit back down and go back to the way we were.

I take a sip of my second drink when I hear the beat of Ella Mai’s Close.

“This is Y/N’s favorite song” Chloe laughs. I get up and start walking to the dance floor.

Who can deal with all my ways

I know I got some ways

But you control the flames

So I just wanna stay right here with you

My hips sway to the music and I feel electricity course through my veins as I watch Chris gawk at me in lust.

I smile and twirl my hips a little more just cause he’s watching. I wink and smile at the man.

So if the tears wanna flood in my gates, let the water flow

Just let it fall out from my face

'Cause I never thought I'd ever hear me say

I curl my finger towards myself signaling him to come to me. He stands tall and walks over. I grab his hands and twirl into him pushing my back against his chest.

I just can't breathe without my baby

Ooh, you my baby

He laces his arms around my waist resting on my hips.

So come and kiss up on me

As we dance close

Come and kiss up on me slow

As we dance close

He drops his head and I open my neck to give him more access. I feel Chris’s warm lips on my neck as he peppers light kisses over it.

It feels like it’s only us in the club. As I’m swaying my hips I feel him growing in his pants.

“You wanna get out of here?” He asks

“How I do I know your not a pimp?”

“Pimps slap their hoes faces I slap my girls asses” he emphasizes. I bite my lip imagining the sight.

“Let’s go” he nods and grabs my hand and we duck out the crew heading outside. I wrap my arms around my chest and he takes off his jacket wrapping it around me.

“Thanks” Valet brings out his car. My jaw drops when I notice it’s an Audi G-Tron. Aka my dream car.

Chris opens the door for me and I thank him getting in. He goes around the back and gets in racing off.

I lean over the console and begin kissing his lips and neck while my hand palms him through his tight jeans.

“Y/N we’re gonna get pulled over”

“I guess the cop can get a good show then” I say “your pants are pretty tight need me to relieve you?”

He looks at me and I take it as a yes. I unbutton his jeans and pull out his rock hard shaft. I run my thumb over the swollen tip and lower my head down on him.

He hisses and grabs a handful of hair. He guides my head down further and I hum lowly so I don’t choke.

“Fuck just like that” I bob my head up and down speeding up my movement “son of a bitch”

I giggle lightly and take him out of my mouth with a pop. I let my hand do the work and my mouth works on his balls.

“Y/N if you keep that up I’m gonna cum”

“Good” he makes a right and stops. I look up to see we’ve arrived at his house. It’s a huge mansion.

“Jesus”

“Let’s go” I get out and he catches up with me. As soon as Chris opens the door he’s all over me. He picks me up and throws my body over his shoulder carrying my upstairs.

I feel a hard smack to my ass and I yelp. He lays me down gently on the bed capturing me in a blissful kiss. When he detaches from me I’m light headed a little from his lips.

“Take off your dress” I do as told leaving myself in my lacy bra and underwear.

He moans biting his lip and I pull on the bottom of his shirt. He’s next to strip and I kiss his chiseled stomach making him contract.

“Uh uh it’s my turn” he picks me up again and pushes me against the wall. Next thing I know I’m sitting on his shoulders and my underwear are on the floor. He buries his head in between my leg and I close my eyes enjoying his tongue.

My stomach tenses up and I let out a pornographic moan. He keeps my legs far apart devouring me like in the last person on earth. Chris traces the alphabet and by J I’m shaking above him.

“I can’t oh fuck” I grab his hands and shut my eyes tight letting out a string of curse words and his name on repeat.

Chris eases me down and smiles.

He carries me back to the bed staring at me.

“Face down ass up and arch” I bite my lip slowly complying to what he requests. I arch my back pressing my upper body all the way down to the California King sized mattress.

“Oh my god” he grunts. I hear him tear open a condom and while I wait I shake my butt a little. He slaps it making me moan while he pushes himself inside of me.

It feels like forever when he finally get all of his meat in there. Once he’s done Chris finds a steady medium rhythm and sticks with it. He feels like heaven.

“Ugh” I moan. My hands cling to the sheets balling them up as he slips himself in and out of me.

I may have this mans baby if he keeps it up.

His breathing becomes deeper and he moves to the right hitting my spot.

“Chris”

“Scream my name baby” he throws his head back speeding up his thrusts. His large hands knead my butt and smacking it a few times “you like that don’t you”

“Yes keep going”

Chris uses my shoulders to thrusts deeper inside of me.

“Oh my god” he pulls me up by my hair.

“Scream my name baby tell them how good I make you feel”

“Chris I’m gonna cum” I moan

“Yea? Drench me in your juices Y/N” he’s so fucking hot.

He slaps my ass one more time and that was enough to throw me over the edge. I let out a shriek feeling myself shake and squirt all over him.

“Fuck where do you want me”

“On my chest” I moan. He turns me around and pulls off the condom. I begin jacking him until he spurts cum all over my chest. He moans tending his stomach.

I juice him out and he has to physically push my hand away making me smile.

“Lemme get a rag or something” he goes in the bathroom and turns on the sink water running a rag under it. Chris comes back and helps me clean myself up before throwing it back in the bathroom. I lay back having him lay next to me.

“So your one of those girls to turn a one night stand into a relationship I got you” he chuckles

“Maybe maybe not I do know I was about to risk it all when you ate me out”

“I’ll gladly do it again” he smiles

[omgviolette12]

After Hours - Chapter 7  A professor Loki fanfiction

Previous Chapter

Summary: Evelyn Monroe has been a TA for professor Laufeyson’s Calculus course for four months now. He was known to be quite strict, but that never deterred her from applying for the position in order to be close to the man she had been secretly pining for. One evening, she returns to his office after opening hours… and with her bountiful luck, she walks in on something not meant to be seen.

Chapters: 7/?

Words: 2800+

Warnings: Explicit sexual content

Tags: @milkymaidme @dangertoozmanykids101@alexakeyloveloki @little-moonbeam-666  @marvel-ous-fics@clovermariear@lynnesm@bitchyikes@moon-child-of-a-poet, @allthecraftandthings@bubblegumspitt @shockwavee @blondekel77 @nerd--nirvana @valdemarismynonbinarylove

If you’d like to be added, let me know. I’ve also posted this on AO3

_______________

Evelyn stared blankly at the man in front of her, as his words and the close proximity between them stunned her into silence.

She attempted to formulate a coherent reply to his filthy admission, but all she could manage was a squeaky whimper.

"Oh…"

Oh? Oh?! This man, my professor, literally just said he wanted to fuck me to high heaven, and all I could say was oh?!!

Despite sensing the woman in his arms had grown increasingly flustered, to the point he feared she would faint again, Loki refused to relent as he continued to bombard her with his fantasies.

"I've watched you for so long, wanted you for so long. To see that beautiful smile of yours, shine just for me. To see you laugh, cry, and scream - Just. For. Me. I will have it no other way, from this day forward. I swear it. No longer will I settle for someone else."

His words were filled with such passion, such overwhelming possessiveness, that Evelyn could not believe that it was directed towards her. Of all the women he could have in this world, he wanted...her? Little ole' Evelyn? A student? 

She couldn't believe it. As she began to doubt the sincerity behind his words, Candice’s voice replayed inside her head.

‘He just seems the type to...you know, fuck his students on the regular...have hoes on call, you know the works. Just warning you, I don't want your feelings hurt.’

Because of this, Evelyn gradually began to think that he probably just wanted a quick romp in the hay with a student to satiate whatever fantasies he may have, and then find some way to shut her up later.

 She wanted...to be more than that.

“...And what makes you think...that..uh..I want the same thing...? That I want you?” 

Evelyn once again blurted out the first thing that came to mind, while attempting to distance herself away from him. She had tried to sound confident, but expectedly, she failed miserably.

Despite that, her words did manage to stun him for a moment - for he did not expect her to utter such nonsense.

He fixed her with a steady glare, daring her to disagree with his next words,

"Just moments before, in front of my door, you were muttering to yourself how much you yearned for my touch, despite my roughness. You expect me to believe otherwise?"

Evelyn was stumped, mouth opening in shock. She didn't want to believe he actually heard her and pushed it to the back of her head, pretending that his reply at the time meant something else. But the dastardly man held no reservations about burying her in embarrassment.

Nevertheless, she continued to play dumb in order to preserve the remaining scraps of dignity she so cherished.

"I could like...um... I don’t know, have a boyfriend..or..something...? I was probably thinking about him at the time."

The room dropped several degrees in that instant.

"...Boyfriend?" The forceful way in which he spat those words made it sound like it was the most repulsive thing in the world, his eyes now cold as ice.

He laughed mirthlessly as he closed the distance she had made between them, stalking towards her like a wolf eyeing his prey. "Now, pray tell, who would this...boyfriend of yours be? I have never seen you with -"

He took a pause before he could finish his sentence. Slowly, his face began to twist in barely concealed anger, as if he realized something.

"...You mean to say…" his eyes slowly narrowed as he spoke through gritted teeth, "It was that daft boy that came to get your things? Andrès, was it? Pardon me for saying this, but I cannot see what has you so smitten -"

She wanted to play along with it. But the idea itself was so preposterous to her brain that she busted out in laughter before she could even think to stop herself.

"Oh fuck no! Andrès? Mr. Chunky Chunks? Phew! You're real funny, you know that?"

If she were any sillier, she would've slapped a knee before rolling on the floor, still laughing at his suggestion.

Evelyn did not look up to see his expression, but she guessed he must've looked pretty aggrieved.

" He's...heh-heh... he's just a friend. Did you really think..."

Evelyn trailed off, slowly recalling her interaction with Andrés earlier that day. His sour demeanor, and anger at failing the course after speaking to Loki on her behalf.

“Uh...wait… is that why,” Evelyn laughed nervously to herself, before looking up at him to gauge his reaction, “...Is that why you failed him? Because you thought he was -“

“- Of course not,” He cut her off a bit too quickly, slowly averting his eyes from her person, “ The boy had missed classes, with today being his third absence. As my TA, surely you must know what that means.”

His words were logical - if Andrès missed that many classes, then his failing had nothing to do with her, thankfully. But if that was the case, why was he avoiding direct eye contact? And why was he getting a bit red in the face?

"In any case," her professor abruptly cleared his throat to change the subject, "We have more important things to discuss."

Suddenly even more nervous than she was before, Evelyn's heart began to thump loudly at the change of his tone.

Well, here goes nothing...

“I...um, I now know that you’re attracted to me. But...I’m not sure what you’re expecting from me,”

Evelyn began quietly, twiddling her thumbs, “ At this point, I can’t deny that I feel the same way. But...I think what we want from each other is a bit...different.”

Loki raised his dark brows at her insinuation, “ And what exactly do you think I want from you, darling?”

Evelyn sighed to herself. It was best to be honest with the man, he could tell a white lie from a mile away.

“...I think you just want me for sex. A quick lil fuck, fling, whatever. Then you’d toss me to the side whenever it’d convenience you.” She took a deep breath, hands across her chest as a source of comfort, “ ...I want more than that. I am more than that.”

His eyes revealed nothing as he looked at her in silence, seemingly unaffected by her words - but the slight tightening of his jaw was extremely telling.

Evelyn worried she might’ve been a bit too blunt about it. But his voice soon echoed within the room, unusually soft and complacent, 

“...I understand that due to my actions towards you, and what you have seen of me, that I have left a rather unfavorable impression of myself attributed by a lack of self control,” he began to move a hand to caress her face, but hesitated for a moment. 

When she did not flinch away, he rested a large hand against her neck, caressing her cheek idly with his thumb, “ You may doubt my sincerity, but please trust that I want you entirely as my woman, my lover, or whatever title you feel comfortable with. I...I admit my initial intentions towards you were not pure. However, just your body isn’t enough now, as wonderful as it is. I need your heart, your mind. And in return, you shall have mine as well.”

In response to his heartfelt confession, Evelyn could only gape at him with big, googly fish eyes. Why did she feel like she just got proposed to?!

Suddenly dry in the mouth, Evelyn forced herself to choke out whatever insecurities she had...about whatever what was between them now. He was so open with her - the man was usually extremely closed off with his feelings, she could hardly pinpoint his mood most of the time in the past...but now she could see a side of him she never thought she would ever witness. His vulnerability. She could at least show him the same courtesy.

“...I’m just - I’m afraid I won’t be able to make you happy… I’m not as experienced and knowledgeable as you, and other women... and.. uhm..” 

She could tell that her babbling had piqued his interest, as he gently prompted her to continue by massaging her neck in an attempt to help her relax a bit.

However, it only made it harder for her to speak, so her next words came out only a tad jumbled since she spoke as fast as possible to get it over with.

“You’rewaytoobigandIhaven’thadmypussypoppedyet!”

Phew, got it out there!

Feeling accomplished but mostly embarrassed, Evelyn turned her head away from his touch to cover her face, hiding behind her small hands.

An uncomfortable amount of silence passed.

“Could… pfft-“

In response to the stifled laughter before her, Evelyn slowly peeked from her hands to look at his face.

“Could you please, repeat what you just said? Just...just once more. I didn’t quite catch that.”

He was grinning from ear to ear, his expression extremely jovial to the point she gaped at him in fascination. When was the last time she had seen this cold, strict professor of hers laugh so openly? Never. With the exception of the little chuckle he graced her with once, his smile was a rarity. So needless to say, she felt herself blushing at the thought of being the source of his happiness, and future happiness to come. Oh, and the sound of his laugh was hot as hell too.

In any case, she righted herself before she decided to change her sentence completely, “Ahem! Mm! Uh...I said that I am extremely inexperienced when it comes to pleasing a man, as you’d technically be my first ever relationship.  And first everything.There. I said what I said.”

His grin grew even wider at the change, “If those are your concerns, please rest assured. I’m in no rush to… haha... ‘pop your pussy’ as you so eloquently put it. As I’ve stated previously, I intend for our relationship to be a serious one. Set the pace however you’d like. But when the time comes...”

He leaned in closer, causing her breath to momentarily falter, “ I’d be more than happy to teach you, many many things. Just as I’ve done in the past. You’re a fast learner, darling. You needn’t be so worried. I’ll be slow, and gentle. Your first time will be pleasurable - and like a good girl, you will accept all of me.”

In those icy blue eyes, she could see his barely constrained lust - the tension in his shoulders as he held himself back from giving into his baser desires. He didn’t want to scare her away like last time, she realized. 

But those very words that left his lips, awakened something primal within Evelyn herself. Her skin prickled with excitement, and she could swear the wetness from her most intimate parts could rival Niagara Falls right about now.

Since we’re both consenting adults attracted to one another...a kiss to start things off wouldn’t be so bad, right? Yep. A nice little peck. Just to see what it’s like...

Horny Evelyn™ has finally made an appearance. So, spurred on by adrenaline and hormones, she decided to take the plunge and ask for one.

"Then...then to start things off, how about a kiss? I mean - just a peck, I've..oh shit, this is so embarrassing - I mean, I've always imagined what it would be like...with you. So yeah…"

Loki seemed surprised that she even suggested it, his eyes widening by a fraction. “While extremely tempting my dear, I fear I lack the self control at the moment to have it be…’just a kiss’. Unless, you’d be willing to take the risk.”

Evelyn pretended to think about it for a moment, before replying with a sharp nod of her head, “Yep, I’m sure. Since I’m with you now...I kinda want to get used to being intimate with someone. Baby steps. So yeah... let's do it."

The air changed, charging with so much tension it was almost stifling. She watched as he came closer to her, his entire demeanor giving away the excitement he felt at the opportunity to finally kiss her without reproach.

Their breaths picked up when he snaked an arm behind her back to pull her flush against him, while using the other to tip her head up by the chin.

Without breaking eye contact, he inched closer and closer, until their lips finally touched.

As soon as they did, Evelyn felt as if she stepped into an entirely different world. Everything disappeared in that moment, as if he was the only one that existed. His scent, and the softness of his lips were now the only things that mattered. Overwhelmed with this sudden sensation, she grasped at his shirt, desperate for more contact.

Loki had indeed intended for the kiss to be chaste - but the sudden action on her part spurred him to take things just a bit further. It was a bit underhanded, but a little pinch to her hip gave him all the access to her mouth he needed.

Instead of focusing on the sudden pain to her hip, her senses were instead zoned in on the sensation of his tongue that was now inside her mouth. She moaned, reveling at how it felt to have him inside her. She imagined her first kiss to be a sloppy mess, but the man kissed with sensual grace. Aside from the masterful use of his tongue that was about to leave her a panting mess, the subtle movements of his hips against her own left her wanting for more.

Without breaking the kiss, he turned them around so that she was now backed up against his desk. The position reminded her of when he first embraced her in his classroom - her legs open for him to stand between them, and the familiar hardness that pressed against her core.

She let out a small gasp against his lips when he began to grind said erection against her with earnest, the sudden jolt of pleasure catching her off-guard. Delighted at the sounds coming from the young woman before him, he grew even bolder, slowly moving his hands away from her hips to grasp her butt - lifting her unto his desk in one fell swoop.

Heh…”just a peck” my ass. I might actually get fuckidy fucked to the moon and back at this rate. So much for going slow…

Unexpectedly however, her professor soon broke the kiss of his own volition. She was about to protest, but the look in his eyes shut her up immediately. It was filled to the brim with want, and she worried that they now passed the point of no return.

“I would like to touch you...even more. May I?

She was in a bit of a daze, so she was confused as to what he was asking of her. Weren’t they already touching?

Smiling at her confusion, he made it easier for her by showing exactly what he meant.

So, Evelyn nothing short of yelped in surprise when she felt his large hands cup both of her breasts through her dress.

She didn't stop him when he began to massage them - it was as if she were in a trance like state of pleasure. She watched his hands with rapt attention as he played with her breasts, and just the sight of her professor touching her in such an intimate way caused the ache in her sex to worsen. 

She jerked against his hardness with a sudden pinch of a nipple, causing him to release a deep groan of pleasure. 

Evelyn decided that was the sexiest sound she'd ever heard, and she wanted more of it.

So, she began to move her hips in tandem with his, bringing about a friction that left them moaning unashamedly.

"You feel so good, my dear Evelyn… fuck! - I'd give anything in the world to be deep inside your tight-"

Knock knock!

"- Hey..uh... professor Laufeyson? You in there?"

The jarring voice of Andrès froze the two lovers within the room,  effectively breaking the spell of wanton abandon between them.

___________________

A/N: I apologize for the delay! I was busy getting ready for school, doing assignments, etc. That my writing/reading really took a backseat. Also, some exciting news - I’m going to go see betrayal on Oct.13th! I’m so excited...like omg! 

Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought, what you 

hope to see, etc.