#no I don’t know why we were doing photography in an English class

[little-pondhead]

There was this one time in high-school I was taking a college level English class and we had this photography assignment and I don’t remember details but we were analyzing certain key elements that showed up in like, disabled war vet pictures and similar stuff. Our assignment was to take our own pictures that featured one of the elements and present it to the class and I didn’t really have many friends in my grade so I just kinda did the whole thing myself. (I found out later people teamed up to help each other take pictures of each other.) When it came time to present like a week later I was actually kinda excited cause I like photography in general, and I thought I actually looked nice in this one. And then people started presenting and I realized very quickly I missed something because everyone had made these really sad and somber pictures like one girl even put on bruise makeup and talked about domestic abuse.

I had made my presentation about fairies.

[skyfall8600]

Sucked In Chapter 28: Faded Memories

Summary: You wake up in the world of Stranger Things before the events of Season 4. Are you able to help in the fight against Vecna, and save the man of your dreams?

Pair: Eddie Munson x fem!Reader

Series Masterlist

Eddie Munson Masterlist

Previous: Chapter 27

Next: Chapter 29

[1.8k words]

The fire alarm went off, and not long after sirens were all around the school. Eddie followed along with the others, being led outside into the parking lot. There were police and firefighters rushing into the building.

“What happened? They won’t tell us anything.” Steve said suddenly, making Eddie jump.

“I don’t know—“ he started to say before Nancy found them, taking over as the one person in the group who somehow knew everything.

“Windows exploded, they’re worried it might be a gas leak or gunshot.” She said, She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Johnathan and Robin walking out with the rest of the photography class. “Oh thank god.”

Eddie looked around, trying his best to see above the heads of all the students. His eyes scanned everywhere, looking for you. He knew that you should have been in English Lit with Miss Hughes, but when he saw Miss Hughes and the rest of the class, he didn’t see you.

“Where’s Y/n?!” He screamed, getting the attention of his friends. “Of course, of fucking course! First day back and all hell breaks loose again, oh sweet Jesus… I can’t—“

“Eddie, you need to calm down. This is nothing like that. I’m sure she’s just with another group.” Steve said, trying to reassure his friend.

The truth was, even Steve didn’t know why you weren’t with the rest of the student body. And that wasn’t good enough for Eddie.

“She’s still in there, and none of the teachers are bothering to even find her.” He said, shrugging off his jean jacket and giving it to Steve. “I’m gonna go look, keep this safe for me will ya?”

“Wait— Eddie!”

It was no use, Eddie had already made up his mind. He did not go three years of school and literal hell for it all to end now with a gas leak. Running into the school, through a side door where the teachers couldn’t see him. He began his search for you.

Dodging the fire firefighters performing leak checks and the police guarding the English Lit classroom, Eddie was surprised how easy it was for him to be unseen.

He popped his head into the Drama prop room, “Pst. Angel— Y/n?” He yelled in a whisper. After no response, he continued to make the rounds.

From door to door, he halted in his tracks when he heard crying behind the janitor's closet.

“Y/n?” He said softly, opening up the floor.

And there you were, sitting on the floor with your legs tucked into your chest. You were crying into your arms. Your hair soaking from the humid air. The steam pipe never did get fixed. He remembered how nervous and happy you were the first time the two of you were in this closet, accidentally locked in.

You looked up, tears still spilling down your eyes. Your face was cut and bleeding.

“E—Eddie?” You said. “I— I didn’t mean to make it happen. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

He got the spare pipe from the corridor, using it to keep the door open after he stepped inside.

“Hey. It’s okay, you’re okay— you're okay right?” He said, slowly moving to crouch down in front of you. His hands instantly grabbing yours.

You nodded, “it’s just a few scratches— but one kid got glass in his eye. I didn’t mean it.” Crying, you lowered your head again. “Normally, I’m good at controlling it….”

“I know.” He said, and it surprised you. Springing up to look at him, he smiled as you hiccuped.

“What do you mean you know? How could you— don’t you think I’m crazy? I just said the window exploding was my fault.”

“I know more than you think,” he said, moving to stand up. He held his handout, encouraging you to follow him. “Come on, I know someone who can help. For now, we gotta get out of here.”

You nodded, crying into his shoulder. It was weird how accepting he was of the situation, you were so used to people running away in fear or berating you for being different. Yet here he was, a sincere look of concern overriding all other emotions in his face.

He shielded you with his arms, walking you around the corridors he knew of by heart. You were shaking against him, the blood still dripping along your cheek.

Back in the parking lot, teachers were all smoking away without a care in the world for the students' wellbeing. Eddie used it as the perfect opportunity to sneak you away into his van, hoping to get you away from the crowd and prying eyes.

“Are—are you sure it’s okay?” You asked.

He nodded, taking in the sight of you once again in his passenger seat. “We’ll have to wait a bit for them to be home, but we can get you all cleaned up, yeah?”

“Y—yeah.”

Never get in the car with strangers. Your mother always told you that. She always told you of the time a strange man wanted to take you away, threatening your parents. But you saw the man for what he was, a cold blooded monster. The images of him coloured in blood, his body burned and scared haunted your dreams for years after. Unsure why your mind saw him that way, you reacted defensively. By the time you were done with him, the blonde man in front of resembled the corpse in your mind.

You felt safe with Eddie. The low hum of the rough music filling the van as he drove. Perhaps you should have questioned more about where he was taking you, but you didn’t care. Your body and mind both felt at ease, like this was exactly where you were meant to be.

“Wayne— my uncle, is at work today.” He said, nervously. He understood that this was all new for you.

“Okay.”

“I um….. I should have asked if you were okay coming to my trailer, being alone with me— I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt.” He said, his fists tightening around the steering wheel. “This is— my castle.”

The trailer was small but significantly well kept. You half expected dead grass and windows falling apart, but while the trailer itself looked old, its surrounding environment was lively.

“Not bad hey?” He said, smiling as he switched off the engine. “I got really bored last summer so the kids and I decorated and cleaned up the place.”

“The kids?” You questioned, eyeing him up. “Are you telling me you’re a teenage father?”

“No! I mean— they’re my friends.” He said, mentally hitting himself for his choice of words. Of course you didn’t know who Dustin or Mike or Will were. “I took them under my wing, shielding them from the horrors and tormenting of high school bullies.”

“Aah, I see.” You smiled, “Much like you have for me today. Thank you, I don’t know what excuses I would have given if the police started questioning me.”

Like the gentleman he was, he rushed outside to open the door for you. Giving you a fake curtsy, he bowed down. He missed this. He missed having you this close to him, laughing ever so slightly at the way he was.

“Get in situations like this often?”

You sighed, “Sort of. It’s a long story— by the way….I still don’t understand how you seemed to calm by what I said.”

He paused for a moment, running his hand through his hair. Which was easier to do now, he remembered how much you teased him for not having a conditioner and he wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice. Besides, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like how soft and bouncier it made his curls.

“And why’s that so hard to believe?” He teased.

“So you believe that I somehow shattered the glass… even though I didn’t mean to?”

Leading you inside, you were taken aback by how many mugs and photographs hung around the walls of the trailer.

“Maybe, is it so crazy if I do?” He said.

“Um, yeah.” You said, laughing in disbelief at him. “You’re not even going to question it?”

“Nope, now come here. I got the disinfectant wipes.” He patted the bathroom bench, encouraging you to jump up. You followed his orders and finally saw what you looked like in the mirror. Shuddering to yourself.

He had to stand close to you, due to the right bathroom confinement and the need to be close enough to clean the wound. Luckily there was no glass stuck inside your cheek.

He was so close that you could make out the number of eyelashes on each of his eyes. Long and thick. They partnered up perfectly with those dark button eyes.

You were so lost in taking in all his glory that you failed to register the words coming from his lips. It wasn’t until he tapped your knee did you regain focus.

“Huh?”

“I said….” He smiled, “You’re all cleaned up.”

“Oh—thank you.”

The two of you stayed in the close proximity you were in. Unable to pull yourselves apart from one another, neither of you searing to look away from the other’s gaze.

His presence, no…. His entire being was so addictive to you. Not even 24 hours knowing him and he warped all your senses. You were utterly sucked in.

You wanted to kiss him, not caring how forward it was. You had to. You couldn’t deny the feeling building up inside you as you continued to look in his eyes. And you could tell from the way his eyes were locked on your face, and the way his hands tightened on their hold of your thighs…. Perhaps he felt the same.

Unlike anything you had ever done before. You leaned forward, crashing your lips to his.

It was like heaven opened up around you. Literally. As Eddie melted away into the kiss, you had the whole world slip away. Clouds of once foggy memories played through your mind. Flashing green and red lights, screams and monsters howling. It wasn’t what you expected to be focussing on during your first kiss; but the more you kissed him, the more you remembered.

The memories overpowered you, causing your already tearful eyes to cry profoundly. Eddie felt the tears against his skin and he was worried, worried that it was too soon to be kissing you.

He had to force himself to pull back from you, “Angel— are you okay?”

You didn’t respond, you grabbed his shirt and pulled him in close again. Kissing him with full force. You remembered everything. You were safe, Eddie was safe…. And right now, you wanted to kiss him for as long as possible.

It was only until you needed air did you part from him. Leaning your forehead against his, you looked at him like it was the first time. Your hands running all along his face.

“I told you it’ll work.” You whispered.

He could see the change in your eyes, the slight change that signified you were back. It was you, inside and out.

“Y/n?” He said, this time it was his turn for emotion to break his voice.

“It’s me.” You said, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “It’s me, Eddie.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

This is it! Reader finally has her memories back and we have 1 chapter left! Also, I write this on my death bed, coughing and fever, so if you see any errors, DM me or pretend you saw nothing.

Eddie Taglist - added in part 2 of post because tag limit has been reached

Series Taglist

@assassinsasha23 @dreamingsmile @introvertedmouse @thegirlwhohides @gobringmemyfood @munchabunch @empty-and-nameless @el1997 @gooblerstan @bigbundabucket @theprettyandthereckless @earthtokace @ifellinlovewithawarsblog @secretsicanthideanymore @blueberryhitosh1 @maryan028 @bakugouswh0r3  @loliakeoghan23 @gamorxa  @stardustworlds @bakugouswh0r3 @taeddybearkim @azaleaitsgreen @eddiemunsonslips @awhoreforeddiemunson @strangerthingsstories5255 @queenotaku23 @sweetberry47 @sammararaven @anothermunsonsimp @megumimind @zephyrs-world @thegirlwhohides @lem0nb0iii @whoreforhowl @kaitebugg03 @preciousbabypeter @snapped-chopstick @cutiecusp @sl-tfor-joseph-quinn  @crescent-moon-palace @silky-luxe @resident-gay-bitch @anonymousstoryteller2000 @ches-86 @dreamingsmile @assassinasha23 @introvertedmouse @ick90

[toads-treasures]

Fifteen questions for fifteen mutuals!

(It will probably not be fifteen I am too scared to tag too many people)

I was tagged by @galaxycunt weeks ago, and I finally got around to answering.

Tagging @hereforthehaunts @cactme @plasticdodecagon @iwanttobecomeavoid @mars-colony no pressure tho!

Also, feel free to skip any questions you don’t wanna answer.

1. Are you named after anyone?

My great grandpa Tora. But he went by Tory. He was apparently a grumpy ol sonofabitch according to my dad, but it was also his idea to name me after him so 🤷‍♀️

2. When was the last time you cried?

Prolly like two days ago but I don’t know for sure for sure. I cry all the time. I think this time I was crying in frustration at packing for my last camping trip lol

3. Do you have kids?

Nope, and I don’t know if I want any tbh. It would really cut into my time of being the Weird/Fun Aunt who lets my nieces and nephews stay up too late and helps them dye their hair

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not nearly as much as I did when I was younger. We call that Growth 😌 but sometimes I can’t help myself

5. What sports do you play/have you played?

Ha. I am so uncoordinated I don’t play any sports. I played tennis for one year in high school and hated it. I’ve gone rock climbing once and really enjoyed it even though I was scared shitless, so I’d really like to get back into that. I’ve also been kind of wanting to play tennis again just for funsies with my husband and not actually pay attention to any rules or anything and just have fun.

6. What’s the first thing you notice about other people?

I think height? Because I’m pretty tall and if someone is taller than I am I definitely notice

7. Eye color?

Hazel is the least pretentious way to describe it. Or green…ish.

8. Scary movie or happy endings?

Why not both? I will say I like things to end happily, because I need to have some semblance of hope in the world lol, but also bittersweet endings will stick with me for the rest of my life.

9. Any special talents?

I am freaky good with names and faces. I will remember people who I had one college class with but never actually personally interacted with them. I can also like, trifold my tongue so it looks like a clover.

10. Where were you born?

Ha nice try fbi. Just kidding, it’s just a small town (like, less than a thousand people) in southern Utah and I highly doubt anyone would know the name or where it was, but if perchance they do, it probably means I know them in real life and I’d rather not risk it.

11. Free space

Ummmmm I love hiking and camping, and I’d love to get into photography and videography to be like a nature photographer, I think that would be cool. But I’m also Very Bad at taking pictures. I always forget to take them, or I frame it really bad or the lighting is really bad, I’ve got a lot to learn with that hobby lol. Also I wish I could just wear my crunchy/granolaey/outfits all the time business casual my absolute beloathed

12. Do you have any pets?

No 😔 I want one, either a cat or a dog, but honestly I have so much anxiety around it because there’s this CREATURE in my HOUSE and it needs me to live! And what if it eats my plants and what if my plants are toxic and what if it chews a hole in the floor or the door and we get kicked out and and and (you get the idea).

13. How tall are you?

5’10” 😎 my husband insists I’m 5’9” but he’s wrong

14. Favorite subject in school?

I’m still recovering from the god complex that being in English class gave me so, we’ll leave it at that.

15. Dream job?

I do not dream of labor, but I have a few ideas of what would be preferable than being a receptionist for the rest of my life lol. I’d like to open an online sticker/print shop and just draw and design cute silly stationary and stickers. I’ve also always dreamed of being an author, but seeing as how I can’t finish any of my wips that will probably remain a dream lol.

[dirtbra1n]

tagged by @aranarumei hi kiri. I copy-pasted these however from @sunnnfish because of post work laziness. hi sunnnfish

1. Are you named after anyone?

if we’re talking real person name then no. if we’re talking dirtbrain name then also no, unless you count a joke from 50% off, which I do not. I like both names just fine though

2. When was the last time you cried?

I was shedding tears over silly things last night if that counts. real big emotion crying I don’t remember actually how long ago, but probably not very. I’m a crybaby I cry all the time

3. Do you have kids? / recommend a song?

got apollo justice on the brain and in the membrane so Solitary Confinement - Darkness Theme. for when you’re feeling nefarious and willing to take all of your many secrets to the fucking grave

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

well. yes. way way more when I was younger but I think it still makes up like a sizable fraction of my speech. I do think I’m a little less of an asshole now though

5. What sports do you play/have played?

Ha ha. ah. I did ballet and other dance for a spell when I was a kid but unfortunately didn’t keep that up, but I was generally pretty fast and halfway athletic then too. didn’t do sports after that unless you. unless you want to count marching band, which I wouldn’t because we were pretty lax about it. like marching band can be very impressive and deeply deeply athletic but ours was not, which was fine because I got sick and fucked up for a while anyway. and I’m not doing any sports now in college, but if it doesn’t get cancelled* then I’ll be doing table tennis this next semester. Guess why

*several similar classes I’ve signed up for previously have gotten cancelled. massive bummer

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I guess from afar how tall someone is. up close more just expression, try to get a read on how they’re feeling and so on

7. Eye color?

also hazel :)

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

I think. I can probably count on one hand the amount of horror movies I’ve watched. but then again I’m not much of a movies guy to begin with. so happy endings

9. Any special talents?

ahhhh I can clap with one hand with both hands. like both hands can clap without the other. I have gotten weird looks for this

10. Where were you born / what made you make a tumblr account?

a hospital that is not in the united states :) / my sister made one and the younger sibling follower gene compelled me to do so also. and that was. maybe 9 years ago. 2014 ish. I should be clear that I was not old enough to be making an account, or on the internet in general probably, and this is definitely a big contributor to the various things wrong with me

11. What are your hobbies?

video game slash reading slash talking to myself slash writing slash watching things when I can get myself to. I don’t leave the house. occasionally I will get into a big crossword and word search phase. I almost forgot photography That would’ve been silly

12. Do you have any pets?

two of them! a cat and dog we all collectively call them the kids even though dogs an old man. he is a human person with anxiety. cat is more dog than dog, who is as we just established a human person. they both get a photo with dramatic lighting

they are everything to me

13. How tall are you?

5’6” last I checked

14. Favorite subject in school?

when there was a good teacher then anything english adjacent. specifically with a focus on literature. otherwise. band. actually I lied the real answer is essentially always band

15. Dream job?

I don’t . have one. I know what I’m aiming for and I’m really pretty sure I’ll enjoy it but I think if we’re talking dreams like ‘I don’t have back problems nor the stamina of a grandparent’ then I’d do odd jobs I think. I’d probably be content picking up trash

as for tags @x-eins @vyathacov if you wanna and anyone else who feels like it. it’s fun it’s like a sharing circle

[marvelslut16]

Shoebox apartment

Prompt number: 29 "Why are we whispering?"

Fandom: Stranger Things

Paring: Jonathan Byers x reader

Rating: T

Word count: 1.4k-ish

Warnings: Nancy bashing. Underage drinking, technically. Mentions emotional/mental abuse from a parent. Jonathan is kinda ooc because he's aged up technically, and it's my first time writing him without it being based in an episode. I think that's it. A horrible title.

A/N: So this is a few days late, whoops. I have been super busy this past week, so my day 1 is late. But, I will be posting days two and three tomorrow, so I'll be all caught up! I've had this idea in my head since I watched this show for the first time in 2019, and I finally put it into words!

You met Jonathan in your first class freshman year at NYU, you sat next to him in art history 101, and he was in your photography 102 class as well. You tried talking to him at your table in art history, but all he did was give you a quick look and then he buried his face in his beat up rented textbook. The first time you talked to him was in the dark room, he accidentally grabbed one of your photos and you had to ask for it back. For whatever reason that kickstarted your guys’ friendship, after that you’d take pictures together, you’d study together, and you’d eat lunch and dinner in the cafeteria together.

No matter how close the two of you got, he always seemed guarded and like he was keeping something from you. But you never pushed, if he trusted you enough to open up completely, he would do it on his own time. He did tell you about his father and how horrible he was one night when you were drunk on cheap beer from a bar that doesn’t card. Now going into your sophomore year, the two of you decide to live off campus in an apartment together. After some mix-up with the landlord thinking you're a couple, he ended up renting you a studio instead of the one bedroom apartment the two of you were going to squeeze into.

Your little shoebox is only big enough for one bed, and since the futon Jonathan bought at the thrift store broke a day after buying it, you two are sharing a bed at the moment. Not that you care too much, he’s like your own personal space heater, and neither of you mind if you wake up cuddled up together. Right now the two of you are sitting in the bed, you up against your headboard with your legs extended in front of you and Jonathan sitting cross leg at the foot of his side of the bed, drinking the champagne that Joyce gave you when you and Jonathan signed your one year lease.

You're laughing as Jonathan tells you about a stupid thing a classmate said in his English class today, head tilted back and eyes squinted from the wide smile. You’re pulled from your laugh at the familiar sound of a camera’s shutter, you make a face at him for taking your picture for the thousandth time, and his response is taking a picture of your pout. Your studio apartment is filled with at least twenty pictures you took in central park last year, and close to ten pictures Jonathan took of you doing mundane tasks, such as studying or cooking dinner for the two of you, or pictures of you taking pictures.

“So what made you get into photography, you’ve never really told me,” you muse, grabbing the champagne bottle off of the floor and topping your glass off. “Don’t get me wrong, your pictures are amazing! But what made you start taking pictures?”

“I don’t know,” Jonathan murmurs, finger circling the lip of the coffee mug holding his champagne. “I guess- I guess it has to do with what I went through at home. With my dad leaving and how distant my mom could be at times, I just wanted to capture and immortalize moments in time. That’s why I like taking pictures of people, the camera can capture someone’s most authentic self.”

“That makes sense,” you take a sip of your drink again. “I know I don’t know everything, but I am sorry for the horrible things that you had to go through in Indiana.

“What about you,” he ignores your apology, not that that surprises you too much.

“What about me?” you giggle, the bubbles from the champagne making you extra bubbly.

“Why did you get into photography? Don’t get me wrong, your pictures are great,” he teases you.

“Well,” you let out an awkward huff of a laugh. “My home life wasn’t that great, my parents were constantly screaming at me and blaming me for every problem they encountered. And photography, it was my escape, it was something that I thrived at and that my parents couldn’t ruin for me. I suppose that’s why I favor landscapes and architectural photos, there’s no human tainting the image. You can’t immortalize someone in film and see them days, months, or years later, after they’ve hurt you.”

“We’re both fucked up,” Jonathan says with a laugh, setting his mug and camera and the floor before moving to sit against the headboard next to you.

“I heard somewhere that broken people fix each other,” you respond, leaning your head against your headboard and staring at the ugly popcorn ceiling above you.

“I think you’re right, before I met you last year I doubted that. I thought I knew the person who was supposed to heal me in high school, but I was wrong, and now I think you’re that person. My high school girlfriend, Nancy, I really thought she was the one. But now I realize that we were only together because we understood what the other was going through at that time. After my family moved away from Indiana I realized that was the only reason we were actually together, we really had nothing in common, and I realized how self absorbed she really was. She used to always just throw the door to the dark room at our work without letting me cover my photo paper and developing pictures-”

“No! That’s so wrong! Photo paper is so expensive, and she just goes around throwing doors open and ruining your pictures! She didn’t even care enough about your work, your passion, enough to knock on the door!” Jonathan laughs at how fired up you’re getting over this, he’s happy that someone finally understands how important his pictures are to him.

“She also got us fired from our jobs that summer, she cared more about her own intuitions than she did my feelings or how I needed my job when she didn’t need hers. After I moved away all she would talk to me about was what was happening at school, or what her brother did that annoyed her, she’d pretty much just sit and complain to me every phone call. She never asked me how I was, what it was like adjusting to a brand new state. After I realized how self absorbed she was I broke up with her, she yelled at me for leaving her high and dry, and we haven't talked since.

“Damn,” you whisper, you know not to say sorry because he’ll just brush it off and get all awkward again. “Just know I’d never get you fired, or ruin the photos you're developing.”

“I know you never would,” he whispers back, you turn your head to face him. Jonathan turns to face you too, your faces inches apart from each other, a lot closer than you’ve ever been before.

“Why are we whispering?” you quietly ask, and you swear his eyes quickly flick down to your lips as you talk.

“I don’t know,” he whispers again, this time your heart spikes when he noticeably looks at your lips.

Without thinking, your tongue runs over your bottom lip and Jonathon lets out a little groan. You can’t help the little whimper that escapes in response to his groan. This is all you’ve wanted since you became attached at the hip, you wanted him. Your landlord thinks you're together, Joyce lectured you two on how important it is to be safe, and Will teased Jonathan about living in such close quarters with you when they thought you were out of earshot. Maybe he likes, no, loves you as much as you love him.

While you're engrossed in your own thoughts, Jonathan leans even closer, his mouth a breath away from yours, before gripping the back of your neck and pulling you to his lips. This kiss is awkward and short, exactly what you would expect from a first kiss. You barely let him pull away from you before you’re cupping his cheek and pulling him back in for a much more heated kiss.

[tundrainafrica]

Which would you say are your favorite fanfics ever? (Levihan ofc)

Okay, I don’t think I’m the best judge of what’s quality or not quality cause I ain’t no writing authority so I cannot vouch for whether you will like these fics or not. But I am a firm believer that good writing makes readers feel things and leaves a lasting impression. 

So lemme rephrase the question… What fics left a lasting impression?

So brace yourself for one hell of a ride while I talk about fanworks that just fucked me up in the following ways: 

Caused me to irrationally hate one random character

Made me forget something isn’t canon

Made me completely rearrange my day because I completely f-ed myself up.

Made me feel guilty for fucking up the view count because I keep going back there.

Makes me remember the fic as an aesthetic, not as actual words. Like literally I will imagine the setting almost perfectly in my head and like when I try to remember what happened, I don’t really remember the writing style or anything, but I could probably create a sim house about how exactly I imagined the house to look like or the yard to look like.

Changed the way I approach fic reading.

I don’t wanna spoil these fics because I’m assuming people are gonna read it so as much as I wanna make a long ass detailed review about why I love each of them, I won’t. I’ll probably just mention what the hell I was doing when I read the fic and how I completely fucked myself over. 

I probably will miss some since I’m just listing these out from the top of my head. So here goes…And I’m only posting completed fics because I’m just that way. 

Second chance by @fanmoose12

This is my comfort fic. The first time I read this fic, it was like 4am or 5am in the morning and I remember after reading it once, I read it like 5 more times that day. 

This is literally the fic I just randomly open on my computer at work on some incognito tab when I’m just tired from all the shit they make us do at work and this is the random fic that I just open up when I feel like reading. And this is one of the fics I plan on showing my children one day when I explain to them what love is. 

This isn’t depressing so I guess it doesn’t fall in the ‘fucked me over’ category but definitely one of the fics I read too many times to count that I remember it scene by scene like some simp. 

Partners by fanmoose12

Woops, one exception for WIPs. I just had to post this here because it definitely left a lasting impression. 

This was the first AU I have ever read and been invested in and I have been reading fanfiction since before I could remember and I have always stuck to canonverse fics until I got into Levihan. 

This fic got me into the AU genre and I have never read AUs in my life before this so I think that says a lot about how much this fic means to me. 

Somewhere Only We Know by @someonestolemyshoes

It’s not completely posted in ao3 yet. But since I beta-ed the fic, I finished it long before SSMS posted it but this fic. It started slow so it took me a week of on and off work to get through  but I got through the second part of the fic, the last 30,000 words  incredibly fast. I vividly remembered reading those last final scenes over breakfast completely in shock while my whole family was there. I literally had to leave the room and take my dog out for a second walk . 

I remember the aesthetic of the overall story vividly enough to actually make a moodboard of it and spend a good 1 hour going through country side pics after finishing it. . 

Yellow by @ariadneamare​

God, this fic. I read this over a day of work. Like breakfast, first few thousand words, Lunch next few thousand words. And I finished the rest before bed and oh god, this is the type of fic that builds a great aesthetic, some lightness and just to fuck you over in the end. 

I like to compare it to a longer and AU version of Pristine in terms of how it strings emotions along. I know they’re two completely different fics but the energy of the fic, the stream of emotions on how it strings you along is fairly similar. 

This is literally one of those fics where I’m just having a good day, and my mind goes ‘remember that one fic’ and I just wrinkle my nose like ‘yeah THAT FIC’ 

Pristine by @mannatea​

I’m sure everyone has read this, it’s practically a classic and I cannot count the number of people who told me it was depressing and I do not know why I did not believe them. I read this while waiting in line for milk tea. I lost my place in line around the time I finished that last part and just gave up on buying milk tea.

It has this build up, this incredibly fluffy build up which won’t make you think it will end the way it did. 

Well. you know a fic is good when you know it’s gonna end a certain way but you allow yourself to get strung along anyway. 

A Simple Choice by just-quintessentially-me

This is one of those fics for me that double as an aesthetic piece and a plot piece. I remember INCREDIBLY WELL, the road I was imagining that they were walking through and it satisfied my hurt comfort feels as well. Definitely one of my favorite 115-126 fics and one of the first ones I read in the fandom for sure. 

So those are the english fics, I have to Japanese fics that fall in that category. 

(For anyone who knows Japanese I guess but I personally think they’re worth a google translate.)

熱に浮く(Feverish Dream)

Classic canon compliant. Hange takes care of Levi when he’s sick fic but there are misunderstandings here, they contemplate their relationship and they are incredibly emotionally constipated here. Definitely one of the classics imo and it feeds my need for hurt/comfort.

前世なんてクソだと言う女と 全て忘れた男 

(A girl who thinks past lives are not real and a boy who forgot everything)

Hange is a teacher, Levi is a janitor. Hange remembers stuff and Levi doesn’t and just really cute stuff. 

I’m pretty sure you guys are tired of me rambling about how much this fic means to me but really, I wrote a Tale of Two Slaves (Which is just brushing 100k words already) because this was just so beautiful it got me into the reincarnation genre.

私の中の少女、あなたの中の少年

(The girl inside me and the boy inside you) 

Levi and Hange are exes/childhood friends and they meet again in a matchmaking party. This is just the greatest balance between emotional constipation and love. The premise was just perfect for the type of build up 

Closest thing I’m gonna drop to smut here. Will leave my smut recs for another post but I’m low key really still thinking whether or not I should expose myself by dropping my favorite Levihan smut pieces hahaha.

Filo Socmed AUs

A lot of these probably aren’t google translatable since Tagalog google translate sucks but if anyone is interested, most Filo Socmed AUs have a fair amount of English so it’s coherent. I guess? I completely forget though how much is in English and how much is in Tagalog but these are the Filo Socmed AUs I REALLY remember and really go back to. 

Vividly Remembered 

This one got me blowing my days worth of salary on some meal in a restaurant because I didn’t wanna go back home to my house yet so I remember just crying over a meal while finishing up this fanfiction instead of going home. 

Basically a fic where Levi and Hange were together already and were about to get married already but shit happened. I irrationally hate Nanaba because of this Socmed AU. Like everytime I see Nanaba, i think of this Socmed AU and I just hate her again. 

Photographs 

Levi and Hange are part of the photography club and shit happens. I remember being behind on work because I decided to take a three hour lunch break to finish this AU. This satisfied my sick Levi craving in so many ways (especially after reading Yellow)

Wherein Levi doesn’t have social media accounts and Hange is the class beadle

This last one just has the overall aesthetic of my own university so it really stuck tbh. And the premise of the build up is just incredibly cute. 

These are the ones I can remember from the top of my head so I’m sure these are among my favorites. I’ll definitely update this as I read more.

[going-dead]

Phic Phight:Ghostly Inconvenience

Words:1672

@currentlylurking Team Human My First 2021 phic phight phic 

Prompt from @Slyph-feather :Would love to see Danny dealing with some of the minor inconveniences/differences in being a ghost; slower heartbeat, sickly pallor, maybe not showing up correctly in photographs, etc... bonus points if this is like in the school setting (because I think that would be funny)

Danny thought he had all his ghost problems figured out, or at least was aware of all of them, at this point. Afterall he’s had his powers for almost a year now. He was wrong, oh was he wrong. 

It was the first day of his sophomore year, no longer at the bottom of the high school food chain. He stood in line to get his picture taken for his school ID. Sam and Tucker had different classes for first period so they were off getting their pictures somewhere else. After a few minutes of board waiting it was his turn. Paulina skipped past him to get her ID and look at the picture she just took. 

Danny told the photographer his name and she entered a few things into her computer before gesturing for him to stand in front of the camera. Danny tried to make a few last second adjustments to his hair. “Okay smile!” The camera woman called out as he was blinded by a flash of light.

Danny started walking over to the ID station but was stopped. “Oh hold on dear the photo came out pretty blurry I’ll have to retake it. It’s no big deal don’t worry you probably just moved too quickly after the flash went off, stay still after the picture is taken okay?” 

Danny sighed but did what he was told. After another blinding flash and staying as still as possible Danny looked towards the woman. The camera woman bit her thumb staring at the computer in front of her. “Okay it still was blurry stay there I’m going to take a few at once one of them will turn out good.”

Danny was pretty sure at this point he was going to go blind as he blunk the spots out of his vision from the repeated flashes. Honestly this was getting pretty tiresome already. He walked up to the woman silently praying at least one picture turned out fine. She clicked through the photos face growing more and more confused with each one. “Uh is something wrong?” He asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. Almost all of the photos turned out blurry and the ones that didn’t are weird.” She saw his questioning face. “You’ve heard of red eye right? What happens when you take a picture and sometimes the eyes of the people in the picture show up red? Well I can’t say I’ve seen this version of it in all my years of photography.” She turned the computer to face him more. On the screen it was a photo of him. The area around him was blurred, the only thing in focus was him, almost too in focus, and what really shocked him was his eyes in the photo. His eyes were glowing green in the picture, almost like when you took a picture of a cat in the dark. 

Danny felt like a deer in headlights, what were the chances that she would make the connection of him not being human? The woman just shrugged. “Well it looks like we won’t be able to get a proper photo today. You can use your school photo from last year for your ID for now until retakes in a week.” He let out a sigh, it wasn’t too bad though he didn’t really look much different from the year before. At most he grew two inches. Though it was weird that it happened. He wondered  if it was because of his ghostly half. He didn’t exactly take many or really any photos of himself. Danny walked over to the ID station to explain his situation and hoped that this wasn’t how the rest of the day would go.

During second period it was time for the sophomores to get their health checks done. Though most students were pretty sure it was mostly just an excuse for the local college’s medical students to get some more patient contact hours and hands on practice. This time he did share a class with his friends which was nice. Though it wasn't like they could go into an exam booth together. Calling them booths was a bit of a stretch though really they were just four curtains with equipment to take vitals and a chair inside. There were about a dozen or so lined up in the gym. 

“Daniel Fenton come to booth five please.” A man called stepping out of one of the booths as he pulled a pair of gloves on. 

Danny walked over to said booth and pulled the curtain shut behind him. The man motioned for him to sit down in the chair. Danny obliged and sat down he bounced his leg as he watched the man prepare the equipment. “Alright good morning Danny. I’m Josh, I'll be doing your check up today. It’s just a simple overview of your health no need to be nervous. All I’ll be doing is taking your vitals and checking your reflexes and the sort. Any questions?” 

Danny shook his head. He was nervous though, he couldn’t help it. He had tried his best to avoid any type of medical setting ever since the accident. It would be the first time since then that someone actually took a close look at him. But it would probably be fine right? Not like he would be giving a blood sample here or anything. 

It went fine at first as the man -Josh- checked his reflexes, checked his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. He then affixed a blood pressure cuff to Danny’s arm and stuck a temperature probe in his mouth. Once the results appeared on the machines screen his head tilted a bit. “You usually run a bit cold? Hm your pulse is a bit slower than average than normal too.”

Danny silently cursed. “Uh yeah that's normal for me.”

“Well as long as it’s within your baseline there’s nothing really to worry about. I’m going to listen to your heart and lungs now okay? The stethoscope is a bit cold so be prepared.” Josh warned. When he started to listen to Danny’s heart he seemed at a loss again. “Give me one second okay? I’ll be right back.” He stood up and walked out through the curtain. Well that probably wasn't a good sign. 

Josh returned a minute later with an older man in tow. “Danny, this is Dr. Bears he’s just going to double check something for me.” 

Danny nodded his head giving the doctor an awkward smile. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope of his own and placed it over Danny’s chest. He seemed to listen for a few seconds before moving onto a different region. He gave a small grunt before motioning Josh over. “It’s faint but he does have a heartbeat.”

“Well I know that. He’s clearly alive, he's going to have a heartbeat Doc.”

Danny laughed awkwardly as he continued to watch the two interact. “Try listening again. You’ll probably have issues with the mitral and tricuspid regions though, even I could barely hear it.” The doctor motioned towards Danny before walking out of the booth.

A few minutes later a bunch of other medical students filled into the tent to try to listen to his heart beat. Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about being a case study for a bunch of med students but as long as they didn’t figure out his secret he wouldn’t worry about it too much. 

By the time the bell rang to signal the end of the period half the college students there had listened to Danny’s chest. After emerging from the booth he was met with confused looks from his friends he waved them off promising to explain it to them later.

By the pattern that was emerging Danny was dreading third period. It was english with Mr. Lancer. After everyone took their seats Mr. Lancer stood in front of the class and clapped his hands to bring the classes attention to him. “Alright  class I hope you all enjoyed your summer break. I have exciting news for this school year. Due to the grant given to our school we now have laptops for you all to use during class.” 

The class broke out in whispers and Danny started to have a bit of hope for the rest of the day. Once the laptop cart was wheeled in and each was assigned and passed out to each student they were instructed to make accounts for them. The moment Danny turned the laptop on it gave him a shock. He let out a yelp and barely managed to restrain himself from knocking the thing off of his desk. He shook his hand trying to dispel the pain. He gave the laptop a hesitant poke, no shock. He started on his task of making an account, but was quickly interrupted by the screen glitching out. Danny groaned, occasionally electronics would bug out around him if he was in a particularly sour mood, of course it had to happen today. He waited for the screen to return to normal before trying to continue. 

He just managed to get the account created when it gave him another shock. He yelled in shock once more. Immediately after the lights flickered and all the laptops in the room shut off and the one in front of him started to smoke. The whole class was staring at him and he shrunk under their gaze. They all had bigger problems though as his laptop caught fire and set off the fire alarms. 

“Great Gatsby! Everyone out of the building now!” Mr. Lancer yelled ushering the teens out and leading them to the parking lot. 

Once Mr. Lancer made sure they were all accounted for Sam elbowed Danny in the ribs. “Nice going Danny.” Danny just put his head in his hands and groaned while Tucker pat him on the back. Why couldn’t he just have a normal life? Or just a normal day for once in his half life.

[autumnsart22]

Flat Tire: Suna x fem reader

SMUT 🔥🔥

This is technically a part 3 of First time in College: Suna x reader, but I decided to make it a stand alone. You can read the other parts if you’re interested. Also, I left the ending kind of open, so I would be super happy to continue it if anyone wants me to...

P.S. I feel like it’s rare to have someone look this fine when it’s NOT EVEN FANART BRUHHHH

Suna was late to pick you up for your “date” (was it a date? He hadn’t made it particularly clear), which wasn’t a good sign. You had spent the hours after your class at 3 pacing around, trying to figure out what outfit to wear, and questioning your whole existence. Your roommate, Kiyoko, didn’t make things any better. When you had explained how you had met Suna at the frat party, how sweet he had seemed, her mouth had dropped and her eye practically popped out of her head. 

“Out of every guy you could have picked, you chose Suna Rintarou?” She sighed, burying her face in her hands. 

“What? Is he...bad?” You asked, suddenly nervous. You liked Suna, from the amount you knew about him. He seemed like he was pretty arrogant, and also kind of lazy, but he was nice to talk to. You knew you’d be disappointed if he ended up being a piece of shit. 

“He’s just...you know…” Kiyoko was clearly trying to find a way to phrase it. “He’s ditched a lot of different girls, sleeping around and then never speaking to them again, that sort of thing. Typical frat boy behavior.” 

You sighed, since it was exactly what you expected. “Well, it’s fine. We’re just going to eat, so I’ll just get it over with and then be out of his life.” 

“Ok. I just don’t want you getting hurt.” 

You waved her off. “I know, I know. Don’t worry.”

Unfortunately, six o’clock came and went, and no sign of Suna; suddenly, despite my dismissal, “getting hurt” seemed like a distinct possibility. By 6:30, you ditched your shoes and coat, crashing on your bed and starting the newest episode of Attack on Titan. Fuck Suna and his dumb pretty face. You were good with Levi. 

Halfway through the episode, there was a knock at your door, and your muscles tensed so suddenly that your neck twinged. 

“Uh, who is it?” You yelled as you rolled out of bed, stumbling to the door. 

“Su--” You opened it and blinked up at the guy outside in shock. “--na.” 

“Oh.” You raised your eyebrows. He was wearing black pants and a black crewneck, a white collared shirt underneath. 

“Hi,” he panted, completely out of breath. “Sorry.” 

You snorted. “Um. It’s late.” 

“I got lost.” 

“Did you now?” 

“And I had to go back home to change.” 

“You could have texted me!”

“...I don’t have your number.” 

You opened your mouth, but you had nothing to say to that. “Well, fuck,” you muttered, turning away. 

“Sorry. You’ll still come to eat though, right?” 

You wanted to curse him out for making you wait so long, for making you think he ditched you for the night and forgot. 

“Fine. But you’re a dick.” 

He grinned lazily, leaning in the door frame as you grabbed your shoes and jacket again, scooping up your purse as you exited your dorm. 

“What?” You said as you finally approached him, blushing as you met his eyes despite how hard you tried not to. 

“Nothing.” 

He led the way to his car in silence, and it was a strange mix of awkward and comfortable. Suna didn’t seem like the type to be super talkative, but at the same time you felt like you should be making conversation. 

When you got to his car, you took a deep breath to calm yourself down before sliding into the passenger seat. Of course, the whole car smelled like weed, but it wasn’t overwhelming and honestly kind of nice.

“So, you’re a freshman?” He asked, pulling out of the lot, and you nodded. 

“Are you?” 

“Sophomore.” 

“What’s your major?” 

“Undecided, but I enjoy photography. Not the best career path though…” 

“Wait, that's really cool.” You glanced at him, impressed. “What do you take pictures of?” 

“Anything, but people mostly.” 

“You’ll have to show me some time.” 

“Only if you forgive me for being late.” 

You crossed your arms, snorting. “Fine.” 

The car suddenly jerked, and you gasped as you heard a rush of air coming from the rear. 

“Oh...fuck,” Suna muttered, pulling off to the side of the road. “I think we just got a flat tire.” 

“How????” 

“How am I supposed to know?” 

You rolled your eyes, crossing your arms. “Do you want me to call someone?” 

“Hang on, I might be able to…” He hopped out of the car before finishing, and you sat in silence as you heard him walking around to examine the damage. A moment later, he re-entered the driver's side with an annoyed expression on his face. “Yeah, it’s flat. Shit.” 

“What are we going to do?”

“My friend has a spare tire, but it might take him a bit to get here. Are you ok with waiting?”

You shrugged. “Sure.” 

“Sorry, this is the worst night ever.” 

“It’s not your fault. We can just hang out until your friend gets here.”

Suna’s expression didn’t change, but you thought you saw his shoulders relax a little. In the darkness of the car, you couldn’t help but admire his profile as he turned off the car and shoved his hair back from his face. 

“What?” He said, turning to look at you, and you went beat red. 

“Huh?” 

“You’re looking at me.” 

“N-no.” 

“Really?” He smirked, leaning towards you slightly. 

Your heart stuttered, practically stopping at you stared into his pretty yellow eyes. Oh my god...

“I--” 

Before you could answer, Suna sat back, still smirking. A car drove past you on the dark street and you used the momentary distraction to try and get ahold of yourself. 

“So, what do you want to do?” Suna asked, and you looked over at him again. 

“You say that like we have another option besides just sitting here.” 

He shrugged, pulling a THC pen from his pocket and holding it out to you. You took it from him, hitting it twice before handing it back. 

“What’s your major?” He asked, holding the pen to his lips. 

“Political economics right now, but I’m considering switching to english since I like writing.” 

“What do you write?” 

“All kinds of things, although mostly short stories. I’ve been working on my second novel too, and the first draft is almost done. It’s really shitty right now, but hopefully once I go back and edit it…” 

You paused, suddenly embarrassed. Were you rambling? You could talk about writing all day, but most people didn’t care enough to keep listening beyond the first sentence. 

“Yeah?” Suna said, waiting for you to finish.

“Oh. That was it.” You glanced away, waiting for a subject change. 

“What’s your novel about?” He paused, laughing under his breath. “I can’t believe you wrote a fucking book. That’s so sick.”

You couldn’t help the smile that pulled at your face, and you covered your mouth with your hand. “Ok, short version--” 

“Short version? Why? We’ve got plenty of time.” 

You opened your mouth, and then paused. No one actually ever asked to hear about your writing beyond just the basic formalities, and you couldn’t believe how happy it made you feel that someone seemed genuinely interested. 

Deciding to abandon all pretenses, you jumped into a long scale explanation of the plot you were writing, all while Suna watched your face intently. 

“...And yeah! That’s basically it,” you finished finally, smiling brightly at him. “Sorry if that was super boring, I didn’t mean to…” 

“Can I read it when you finish? I’m invested.” He took another hit off the pen while watching you, and you smiled to yourself. How was this boy saying all the right things? Fuck. 

“I suppose.” 

“You suppose?”

“Depends on my mood.” 

“What can I do to guarantee you’ll let me read?” He reached over to grab your chin, stroking your cheeks gently with his thumb, and your breathing hitched. “Ha, you’re cute when you’re all red like this.” 

You snorted, but didn’t pull away. “Flattery doesn’t work on me.” 

“Really?” He leaned closer to you, until your faces were only inches apart in the darkness.

“N-no.” Your heart thundered. 

“Hm,” He murmured. “I’ll have to try to change that.” 

And then he was pressing your body back into the seat and kissing you hard on the mouth. 

 Oh my god, it was heaven. He tasted like minty chapstick and weed, and you sighed, your mind going blank. 

His long fingers tangled in your hair, dragging you closer, and a low noise came from his chest as you opened your mouth. You pulled away after a long minute, gasping, which only prompted Suna to trail open mouthed kisses down your neck. 

You leaned your head back to give him easier access, letting out an embarrassing noise as his hand slid under your shirt to trace the skin of your stomach. 

You weren’t a virgin, but you had only had sex with one person--your previous boyfriend--and it had been less than satisfactory the few times you had done it. Apparently you had missed the physical contact more than you thought. 

You sat up, and Suna pulled away, his eyes a little glazed over and his hair messed up. God damn, he was fine. 

He smiled slowly as your eyes trailed down his chest to his crotch, and he slid his seat all the way back so there was enough room for you to crawl into his lap. 

It was awkward, and you slammed your head on the roof of the car hard enough to make you yelp in pain as you tried to maneuver over to him. But any embarrassment you might have felt washed away as he burst out laughing and kissed you gently on the mouth. 

You tugged at his shirt in annoyance, suddenly pissed that it was still in place, and he awkwardly pulled over his head. 

“Pushy,” he muttered, and you flicked him hard on the forehead. 

“Dick.” 

“No need to beg, sweetheart. You’ll get it soon.” 

You swallowed hard and your thighs clenched in anticipation, even as you rolled your eyes. 

Any annoyance you had flew from your head as he slipped a hand down your pants, the other coming up to tangle in your hair. Instead of touching you where you needed him to, he traced along your inner thighs, kissing your collarbone. 

“Suna,” you mumbled, suddenly impatient as you shifted your hips, and he grinned into your skin before you felt his fingers shove the thin fabric of your underwear aside. 

“Oh go--”  Your eyes rolled back as he slowly eased a digit into you, wiggling it as he slowly widened you up. 

“S-Shit,” you gasped, your hands grasping at his shirt as he added another finger, circling his thumb at the same time on your clit. 

“You’re already so fucking wet,” Suna grunted, kissing up your neck as you began to roll your hips, riding his hand. 

“Don’t stop,” you gasped, but he grinned wickedly and immediately pulled his hand from your pants. Your eyes widened in outrage, but you stopped when he held up his fingers, covered in your juices, and shoved them in his mouth. You almost came from the sight, clenching around nothing as your heart stuttered. 

“Fuck, you taste good,” he mumbled, and you felt his dick twitch beneath you. It was hard as a rock in his pants, and you could feel it straining against the fabric. It was pretty big, if the bulge was evidence enough. 

You quickly fumbled to get his zipper open, needing to have him inside you right now. His fingers were good, but you needed... 

Suna smacked your hands away. “Take off your pants,” he ordered, and you obliged, choosing to ignore how hot you got at his commanding tone. You could unpack that later. 

It was a struggle to get the fabric off in the small space, but finally you were back in his lap, and he was holding your hips, and his (long) cock was free of his pants. You reached down, stroking it slowly and rubbing your thumb gently across the tip, spreading the precum that had gathered already. 

“Jesus christ,” Suna said, his voice strained, and he twitched in your hand. 

“Jesus wouldn’t appreciate his name being used in this context.” 

“He’d be jealous of me right now.” 

“You’re definitely going to hell for that.” 

“And you’re not? You little slut.” Suna shoved his fingers in your mouth while his other hand fumbled with a condom which he tugged from his pocket. He slid it down over his length with expert speed, clearly having done this many times before, but you shoved the thought from your mind.

Suna held your hips tightly as you positioned yourself over him, helping you as you eased yourself down onto his dick. He was larger than your last boyfriend, and it burned for a moment as you adjusted to his size, but Suna held your face and stroked your hair as you breathed through it. “You’re such a good girl, taking my cock so well,” he groaned in your ear. “Fuck, you’re tight.” 

His praise made you clench around him, the pain easing away, and you rolled your hips experimentally. The friction on your clit and almost made you cum right away, and you let out a moan into his neck as your head dropped onto his shoulder. Holy motherfucking shit how did it feel so good...

Suna buried his face in your chest as you began to ride him, shifting your hips slowly as you felt his full length hitting points you didn’t even know existed. When he ran his tongue along your nipple, you let out an embarrassing noise and fucked him faster. 

Your legs began to burn, but Suna took over easily, thrusting up into you while you held onto his shoulders. Your moans and the sound of sex filled the car, and your hand slid across the fogged glass of the window as you grasped for anything to hold onto. You were so close to coming, you could feel it all the way down to your toes. 

“You’re doing so good, baby, you feel so good,” Suna groaned, reaching down to rub your clit, his tongue circling your nipple at the same time, and with his voice in your ear, it was enough to finally send you over the edge. You clenched around him, your mouth opening in a silent scream as you came hard all over his cock.  It was easily the best orgasm you’d had during sex, possibly the best ever. Suna didn’t take his eyes off you as you came apart, relishing in how it was him who put that expression on your face, and how only he was seeing you like this right now. 

“And you said flattery doesn’t work on you,” Suna laughed, but you couldn’t even make yourself glare at him. 

“Idiot.” 

You panted as you came down from your high, but Suna still wasn’t finished. You could tell he was getting close by the way his pace picked up and how he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him as he thrust up into you. His groans were deep and sexy in your ear, making your overstimulated clit throb as your nails dug into the skin of his shoulders. 

“F-fuckkkk…” He panted, kissing you again and shoving his tongue in your mouth. He held onto your hair, tangled around his fist, forcing you to lean your head back as he created hickies all along your throat.

He finally came with a groan, his cock twitching as he held onto you tightly, head falling on your shoulder. You both stilled, panting, and you couldn’t help the slow smile that tugged at your lips. For a moment you were too tired to move as you felt his dick soften inside you, so you gently stroked his hair instead. 

“Are you ok?” He murmured, finally lifting his head to meet your eyes. His cheeks were flushed, his hair a wreck, but you were sure you didn’t look much better. 

“I’m great,” you said, smiling. “Are you?”

 Suna blinked, looking dazed for a moment, but he nodded. 

You shifted, trying to get off his lap in the most graceful way possible, but your back slammed against the wheel and the car honked loudly. 

“Jesus!” You cursed, flinching, and Suna rolled his eyes. 

“You just woke the whole neighborhood.” 

“Ugh,” you glared at him as you pulled on your pants, readjusting your shirt to cover your chest once again. 

The car suddenly lit up as headlights pulled up behind you, and you whirled to face Suna. 

“Is that your friend? Wait, where’s your shirt?!” 

He wasn’t listening, casually tugging it over his head as he opened the driver’s side door. You heard a door slam from behind you, and then a guy with grey hair and dark tips leaned down to wave at you from Suna’s side. 

“Hi. Sorry it took so long, but I have the tire.” 

“Thanks,” Suna nodded, and then gestured to you. “Kita, this is Y/n L/n. Y/n, this is my friend Kita Shinsuke.” 

“Hi, nice to meet you,” you said, but you felt your stomach drop as Kita’s eyes went to the fogged windows, where your hand print was still visible. 

“Yeah…” He raised his eyebrows. “Nice to meet you too.” 

Suna crossed his arms, looking bored. “Wanna help me change the tire?” 

The two boys left you alone as they went to swap out the flat, and you worked on trying to get your face to stop burning. By the time Suna finally got back, you felt decently less embarrassed; he probably did this all the time, so for Kita, it was definitely nothing new. He probably wouldn’t even remember your name. 

“Hey,” you looked over at Suna in surprise as he slid back into the driver’s seat and gently grabbed your face, kissing you slowly. 

“What was that for?” You sighed when he pulled away. 

He shrugged, smirking. “Are you still hungry?” 

Part 1 

Part 2

[guzhuangheaven]

Which cdramas would you rate as having the best/most accurate costumes you have ever seen? And are also historically accurate in terms of culture and history?

We always dance around answering this question, because it is impossible (for us) to answer. For two reasons.

1) There is no such thing as historical accuracy in dramas

You can never know everything that is needed to know about how people lived, dressed, styled their hair etc. in ye olden times unless you are a time traveller who has actually lived in those times. Historical records, extant garments, paintings, drawings, statues etc. can give you an idea of what people dressed like/lived like at the time, but historical records are fickle. They do not necessarily reflect the lives of everyone in society and often can be imperfectly preserved, leading to gaps in the knowledge we can have today. Because of this, any dramas that claim to be 100% historically accurate in terms of their costume/make up/whatever is lying because that is impossible.

What dramas can do, however, is do extensive research on the cuts and materials of clothes/jewellery/make up people used at the time and try their best to recreate them with the materials available to us now. Even then, dramas, for the sake of aesthetics, will often take creative liberties, for example using chemical dyes that make clothes in colours that was probably very hard/impossible to get, or not available to that person in that social class, at that time.  

All this is to say, I personally don’t usually scrutinise dramas for “historical accuracy” in their costumes, unless the drama is so bad that I can’t concentrate on the story and that’s what I turn to nitpicking to give myself a reason to keep watching. At the same time, I will forgive A LOT of costuming sins if the drama keeps me engaged with its story. Examples of this include Oh My General with its OBNOXIOUS use of colours and The Mischievous Princess with I don’t even know what to call this travesty they call costuming Ming dynasty.

However, this does not mean that dramas can’t try to be historically accurate, of course. To me, dramas that succeed in this area makes it clear that they have done research and consulted extant garments/historical sources to make their costumes look like it could reasonably have existed in the time the story it is set in.

I guess I will talk about Ruyi and Yanxi because I just know someone will ask us about it again eventually, despite the fact that we have sort of tried to avoid answering the question of whether Ruyi or Yanxi is more historically accurate the last time we were asked.

Here’s our very inexpert, very limited opinion, based on extremely limited research, on this question: both Ruyi and Yanxi clearly consulted extant garments/accessories of the Qing dynasty, and tried to recreate them in different ways.

There is evidence that Ruyi based many of their costumes on extant garments. We have a post about it, even though we do strongly suspect these extant garments were from the wrong time, i.e. they are late Qing circa 19th century, purely because they still exist at all, rather than the early Qing period of Qianlong. Yanxi also based its costuming on extant historical artifacts, including the use of the yunjian collar and the velvet flower hair accessories, which can be seen in paintings of women from around that time.

And then there is this headdress which Er Qing wears to her wedding, which has photographic evidence that it existed, but then the time of photography is clearly not the time of Qianlong.

However, the point we’re trying to make is that, because the Qing dynasty stretched 300 years, it is highly likely that both of these dramas did their research, then cherry picked the aspects of clothes and hair from different times of the Qing dynasty that suited their drama’s aesthetics. Does that make them historically inaccurate? Well, that depends on what level of accuracy you are after. But realistically, to expect them all to dress like it was really Qianlong’s time is likely almost impossible, not to mention would require the costumes to change, as both dramas spanned like 30 years.

Also, even when you can tell the drama did consult extant garments and artifacts, they can still fail in the making of the costume. Case in point, Danshu’s pheasant robe is very polyester and has printed “embroidery”, even though it was set in the actual Song dynasty when they would have worn this garment. 

Compare that to Royal Nirvana, which was set in a fictional dynasty (based on Song), but managed to pull a pheasant robe that looked a thousand times better because it was actually embroidered.

Here’s a more important reason why we often don’t want to answer questions about what dramas are historically accurate:

2) We don’t know.  

Can I just stress again that we are not historians of Chinese period clothing, history, anything? We’re not even Chinese and can’t even read Chinese. Any random “knowledge” we put on here is result of years of accumulation from watching dramas (so take everything we say with a fistful of salt) and yes, sometimes research, but in the sense of we google things. We also have to translate things on google translate, which admittedly is a little better these days especially from Chinese to Vietnamese, but still highly inaccurate sometimes. Sometimes we have sources that has been translated into Vietnamese or English, but whether that’s accurate is dependent on whether the source is accurate and whether the translation is accurate. tl;dr: don’t believe everything we say and don’t look to us for…you know, authority.

And on that note, regarding your other asks, unfortunately we don’t think we can answer them, simply because if you haven’t found the answer you want by Googling, it’s very unlikely that we can do better. Our series of post on Qing dynasty costumes exists because the popularity of Legend of Ruyi meant that this information was available in Vietnamese, and we just did a couple of steps to make sure the information was reasonably believable by looking up the Chinese sources and putting them through translation bots. We would not have been able to do all of this research from scratch. 

ALL THAT BEING SAID, here’s some links of relevant posts on @ziseviolets tumblr, which maybe I should just have directed you there from the beginning:

Hanfu in television dramas

Recs for historically/stylistically accurate Chinese drama

- h

[ladyeliot]

Welcome Seaville. Chapter One. [T.S. / J.H.]

Series:  “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”

Prologue

Pairing: Tony Stark/Justin Hammer x Fem!Reader / Best Friend Steve Rogers

Summary:  1987. The exchange term is over, so you return to your hometown, Seaville, just before Christmas. The reunions with friends, the first day of school, everything goes back to the way it used to be.

Warnings: Insults, piques.

Word Count: 3465

A/N: Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

December 1987

It would have been enough to say that this was just another ordinary Christmas in the small Maine town of Seaville, but it was not. The Christmas lights were brighter, the streets were more beautiful under the clear splendour of the moon, and the wind brought a sweet smell of sea salts that gave you a pleasant sensation. You peered through the passenger window and let the east wind envelop you and welcome you home again. Seaville was welcoming you in its entirety and you were leaving it.

It had been just four months since you had left the coast of Maine to head off to fulfil one of your many dreams, to spend a term in the French city of Paris. Nothing in your life could have compared to that singular experience, and you even hoped to return next year having been accepted to the University of Paris, but, equally, nothing could compare to the love you felt for home.

"Please roll up the window," your father insisted. "I don't want you to spend the whole Christmas holidays with the flu."

And of course nothing could compare to your dear father.

As you rounded the corner into your little residential area you could almost smell the sweet scent of hot chocolate and puffy clouds that your father had promised you when he picked you up from the airport. You got out of the car so quickly that you barely paid any attention to the bundle of suitcases your father was trying to pull out of the boot without any help.

As you had predicted, as soon as you turned the lock and opened the door, the smell of cocoa filled the whole house. You allowed yourself a few seconds to take in the view, the fireplace lit and adorned with the three corresponding boots, the Christmas tree in place, without the star on the top, as that was your job, and the coats sorted on the hanger by colour. All the same as always.

"Don't worry, I can manage," your father said almost breathlessly as he climbed the porch steps.

You laughed and grabbed one of the three suitcases that were blocking your father's path. You both closed the door behind you and followed each other into the kitchen as if it were tradition. The chocolate was still warm and the clouds had dissolved, just the way you used to like them. The conversation with your father went on for so long, explaining to him everything you hadn't wanted to tell him over the phone, or through letters, a method your father had forced you to maintain, for we should note that his job was as a literary writer, although he sometimes resorted to writing a few newspaper columns to make a little extra money.

The point is that the little family had been talking for hours on end, not realising that midnight had already passed, and that tomorrow you had to go to the institute to settle bureaucratic matters due to your return.

"Bonne nuit, chérie," your father said in a chaste French accent, kissing your forehead.

"Bonne nuit, papa," you smiled back, preparing to be reunited with your room.

Your room, which you had not yet had the pleasure of entering, was as usual, oblivious to the fact that your father had changed the quilt on your bed so you could sleep warmer. You flopped on your back on the bed, but just as a memory came to you, you quickly got up and went to the window. What your eyes beheld brought a laugh and a sense of relief and happiness, how could you not have noticed it before?

By chance of life, you were lucky enough to have discovered true friendship in the person who lived right across the street from you. When you and your father moved to Seaville, due to your mother's death 10 years ago, you chose that quiet residential neighbourhood to settle down and raise a small family. You met Steve Rogers on your first day of second grade, and from the moment you discovered you lived across the street from each other, a beautiful friendship was forged.

For ten minutes you couldn't take your eyes off the window of the house across the street, right next to yours. A large light blue cardboard covered the whole space and a few letters in capital letters decorated it with "Bon retour". Obviously you had kept Steve constantly in mind during your term away, long phone conversations and a few postcards proved it, but during the flight back you were afraid that he had forgotten about the day you were coming back, a rather stupid fear. So, with the comfort that gesture had brought you, you decided it was time to go to bed and get some rest, as the next morning was a long day ahead.

The sunbeam fell incessantly on your face, the curtains could barely block its power, you had assumed that you were not a good early riser, but that morning you woke up in a good mood, not even the strong smell of charred toast was going to take it away from you.

"Wow, nice smile," your father notified, offering you a plate with two pieces of toast blackened under raspberry jam.

"Thanks!" you took the plate and took his usual seat. "I'm looking forward to seeing Steve, and catching up with Natasha. Although I hope they've got things to tell me too. What are you doing today?"

"I have to finish the chapter of the book to hand in to the publisher," he sat down next to you. "And I also have to go to the mall to pick up a gift."

The smile on your face that morning widened, there were only two days left until Christmas, so it was obvious that the gift I was supposed to pick up would be for you. Even though you had everything planned, and had brought some presents from Paris, you still had to buy the last detail for your father.

Just then the front doorbell rang, and you realised that time had run out on you when you noticed that you were still in your pyjamas.

"Shit!" you exclaimed, taking the last bite of toast and heading upstairs. "I'll be down in five minutes!"

Just as you disappeared your father headed off to greet his visitor. You could hear Steve's voice as you hurriedly went about getting dressed, combing your hair and getting your backpack ready for class, not forgetting to grab two rolls of film to develop, but when you heard his laughter you couldn't help but laugh too, even though you had barely heard the reason for his action. You rushed downstairs and from the third step practically threw yourself onto Steve's back in a laughing embrace.

"Have you grown up? No way, let me see you," Steve scoffed receiving your customary punch on his shoulder.

"Hey, nice cartel," you arched an eyebrow pointing to his house.

"You think so?" your friend asked. "I'm glad you liked it. I spent three poster boards until I was proud of my work. "

Steve's sincerity did nothing but thank you for the small detail he'd had for you. But time was passing and you still hadn't left the house.

"Come on, guys! You're going to be late for class," your father informed you, offering you your lunch bag. You took it with a kiss on the cheek and ran after Steve, who was waiting for you by your bike in the garden. That morning you couldn't keep a smile off your face and Steve couldn't take his eyes off you.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" you said getting on your bike.

"You're so happy. It's not normal to see that smile at eight o'clock in the morning," Steve's comment made you laugh a little.

You both set off in the direction of the school, it usually took you ten minutes to get there by bike if you cycled at a leisurely pace, but you were still able to catch up. On the way Steve was interested in the photographs you had taken during your stay in the European city, as you had sent him some of the ones you had had time to develop. Photography was a way for you to escape, your mother had dedicated all the years of her life to the art, and perhaps it was an incentive for you to admire her.

"It's different, Paris inspires me, it's so romantic and bohemian that it's very easy to get carried away," you explained. "That doesn't mean Seaville isn't, it's... different."

Steve listened attentively to your every word, possibly one thing you both had in common was a sensitivity that you only showed when you were both alone.

It didn't take you long to realise that the school was nearby, as the amount of cars queuing at the entrance informed you of your arrival.

"Welcome back," said Steve as he entered with you through the main door leading to a long corridor lined with lockers.

You both headed towards your locker area, you didn't know why you expected anything to have changed, but everything, literally everything, was still the same.

"There you go again! Have you been deported?" that voice, which you hadn't missed, made you roll your eyes. "I had hoped that you would have climbed the Eiffel Tower and let yourself plummet. But here you are, again."

"I had hoped that one of your absurd inventions would have exploded and you would have been shot to pieces with them," you shot back with a sarcastic grin. "But not all dreams come true."

"And I had hoped that being a senior in high school you two could get along," Steve interrupted. "But I see that's impossible."

A wide wry grin on Tony's face competed with yours, but you added a snip and he countered by trying to bite your finger.

"Lovely welcome Tony," Natasha joined the group hugging you from behind, depositing a kiss on his cheek. "Wait, do I smell Parisian perfume? You haven't turned into one of those French repipes have you?"

You were grateful for Nat's presence, who was your ally against the daily struggle against Tony, for after all Steve was a neutral lynchpin in the battle. Nat shook Steve's hand and when he went to greet Tony he tried to give him a kiss on the lips, which resulted in him getting punched in the arm. The bell rang, breaking up the group, depending on which subjects you were in.

"Meet me later in the cafeteria and continue to catch up?" you commented to Steve who was going the other way with Tony.

"As always."

You gave him a parting smile, but your gaze met Tony's who blew you a kiss in the air, causing you to squint and grimace.

"And we're still catching up?" repeated Nat with a quizzical arch of his eyebrow.

"I've got a lot to tell you, and I hope you've got a lot to tell me..." you arched an eyebrow.

"It all depends on the present you brought me from Paris," replied your friend, winking at you.

You laughed, but the two of you parted ways just inside the administration offices, where a long morning of tidying up awaited you.

After two hours of filling out forms and making photocopies of the documents you had brought from the institute in Paris, you had become quite an expert. You had hoped to have an hour to spare before lunchtime to escape to the developing room to develop the film, but that seemed impossible. When the bell rang, you had barely had time to approach the room and put the film in your locker, which you had been assigned to since sixth grade when photography had become your obsession, so you made your way to the cafeteria and found your friend sitting at your table, right next to the big window overlooking the football field.

"Where were you? I was waiting for you to start eating together, but this pizza... it was tempting me," Nat took a bite of pizza like there was no tomorrow.

"If I tell you I've been reading absurd, meaningless documents all morning..." you snorted sitting down across from her and pulling out your sandwich. "If I knew that, I wouldn't be going to Paris."

"You know that's not true," Nat arched an eyebrow drawing a smile from her. "You would have gone to Paris even if you had to repeat one more grade in high school."

"Anyway, I need an update," you began, turning serious. "Has anything interesting happened while I've been away? Anyone new? Anyone who's been stirring things up?"

"New? No, anything interesting? Neither. This Seaville Murph, there's nothing going on here," Nat shrugged finishing his slice of pizza.

"I'll look for the bright side. At least I haven't missed anything," you shrugged.

"I guess you could go away for ten years and when you came back everything would still be the same," Nat looked around. "Where are the boys?"

"I'll bet you five bucks they're on the football field," you commented. "By the way, have you written the application for Brenau yet?"

"It's practically finished," your friend reported. "I'll go over it during the holidays and send it off in January. Are you ready to move to Paris next year and drive the Parisians crazy?" Natasha winked. "You haven't been hiding some movie adventure from me all this time?"

"Oh! Of course," you said wryly just as Steve and Tony made their big appearance. "Now that you mention it, as I was strolling the first evening in the Luxembourg Gardens I heard a sweet melody in the background and headed for it. There was a man playing the saxophone and I stopped to listen to him for a couple of minutes. I was so absorbed that I hardly noticed that a boy had stopped right next to me until he said 'Ne pensez-vous pas que Paris a un charme particulier?' Then I looked at him, he had the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen," you paused your story to make a false sigh. "Then we strolled until late at night, and we met every evening so that he could show me the most beautiful corners of the city. I think those were the most romantic months of my life."

Three pairs of eyes stared at you showing completely different feelings. Natasha, who was sitting opposite you, was holding back her laughter, Steve, who was standing holding his tray next to Tony, looked completely confused by what had just happened and Tony was arching an eyebrow somewhat curiously at the story. At this point neither of you two could hold it in and started laughing, snapping the boys out of their trance.

"What was that?" asked Steve sitting down next to you. "Is that true? Because it would annoy me if you hadn't told me."

"Come on! He's pulling your leg," informed Tony jokingly and taking his place next to Nat.

"Wait how are you so sure my story isn't true? Couldn't I have my romantic history with a Parisian?" you rebutted somewhat indignantly at his certainty.

"Was he blind?" Tony arched an eyebrow.

For your part you squinted, just as Tony got a jolt of shock after getting stomped under the table by Nat because of his comment. Steve's change of conversation made it easier to keep the argument from escalating, but something always happened to spoil civilised conversations. A few minutes later, Tony was struggling with the Ketchup sachet which he couldn't open to spread on his burger, such was his desperation that when he took a bite of the sachet, it burst causing the sauce to hit your dress. Nat's eyes along with Steve's widened in anticipation of the contest between the two of you.

"You're an idiot Stark!" you quickly grabbed a couple of napkins Nat offered you so you could remove the sauce before it left a mark.

"At least it matches your dress," Tony interjected, holding back a laugh.

Cursing through your teeth, you headed for the food counter with the intention that some cook would have one of her magical ideas to make the stain go away. Tony followed you without letting go of his burger, even though Steve and Nat advised him to stay quiet and sit down.

"Come on Murphy! It's hardly any different from the red fabric of the dress," he said stepping up beside you, and knowing how much you hated it when he called you that.

"How many times have I told you not to call me Murphy?" you said scrubbing the stain with soap and water.

"It's your name," she shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not my fault your parents decided to name you that."

You bit down hard on your lip so you wouldn't have to blurt out all those things that were running through your mind, and put on an act in the middle of the cafeteria. You were lucky that at that instant someone appeared and diverted Tony's attention.

"Ready for Stark debate class?" Justin Hammer, with whom you shared a few classes introduced himself to you.

"Of course Hammer. I can't wait to see you try to put your meager vocabulary together in one sentence," Tony took a bite of his burger, causing sauce to smear his mustache and chin.

"Come on Tony, you've got a lifetime to be an idiot why don't you take a day off?" Hammer smiled slightly.

You couldn't help but smile at the comment, to which Tony noticed and became uncomfortable.

"Hammer, everyone has the right to act stupid for a while, but I'm not really the one abusing that privilege," Tony took another bite of his burger. "So fuck off."

Justin Hammer had gotten what he wanted, and his success was grounded in a half-smile as he walked away, leaving Tony frustrated. Within seconds he turned to you, so you gave him a raised eyebrow.

"You don't abuse that privilege?" you asked, referring to what he had just said to Hammer. "Please, Tony..."

Your smile faded just as Tony dipped his finger into his burger, and, bathed in what little ketchup he could get his hands on, rubbed it all over your right cheek.

"You're despicable!" you exclaimed wiping your cheek.

"Thank you, sweetheart."

"Don't thank me for the insult, it's always a pleasure," you cocked your head to the side and widened a fake smile leaving him alone, returning to the table.

The doorbell once again brought the lunch hour to an end. Tony followed you and jumped on Steve's back with the burger still in his hand, while you and Natasha gathered up your bags and belongings.

"Hey, what are you doing this afternoon? I thought we could all go to Barry's and catch up," you suggested to Natasha as you headed towards the lockers.

"I've got dance class, and I guess since it's the last one before Christmas it's going to run until dinner time," she lamented.

"Did someone say Barry's?" Tony slowed his pace and interjected into the conversation.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," said Steve. Barry's at 7pm?

"Nat's got dance class," you commented, opening your backpack to put your books in your locker.

"Guys, I know I'm a one-off, but you can go without me, don't worry," Natasha shrugged. "We can meet up tomorrow."

"Okay, but tomorrow you have to come with me to the mall, I'm still missing a present for my dad," you leaned in front of her.

"That means you already got mine," Tony winked at you, you hated his sudden mood swings.

"Yeah, a single ticket to the farthest place on the planet," you said, cocking your head.

"You know you'd miss me," he cut you short and you nudged him.

Oblivious to Tony, you added, "So I'll see you at Barry's this afternoon, and it's okay if you don't show up Stark."

"Believe me it's the last thing I feel like doing, but where Steve goes I go."

Taglist Open (DM) - @ravishingreid

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[canarygirl1017]

Ghosted Chapter 2

Pairing: Reader / Jungkook, Reader / Taehyung (past relationship, friends to lovers to friends)

Genre:  College!au, fluff, angst, supernatural drama, smut, friends to lovers, emotional trauma, hurt/comfort

Length:  9, 806k words

Warnings:  language, episodes of anxiety, panic attacks, sexual themes in later chapters.

Summary:  Living in a world full of things only you have the ability to see, growing up with Jungkook has been your island amidst the chaos. But when your best friend makes an impossible request, your friendship is fractured, and your sudden decision to cut ties and move abroad changes everything. Three years later, Jungkook is thriving at university as he begins his junior year. He’s a star athlete, member of a popular fraternity, and every girl’s ideal boyfriend. He tells himself that he’s long forgotten you and the friendship he never had a chance to mend – that is, until you show up on campus as a transfer student with new friends in tow. It’s been three years, and everything has changed, but the biggest change is you. Your new found determination to use your abilities to help the ghosts you used to live in fear of, no matter how dangerous it might be, makes Jungkook fear he’ll lose you before he has a chance to fix what he broke. College AU. 

Disclaimer: Just for funsies, I don’t believe in real-life shipping. But I like to write, and I like fandom, so here we are. Please do not duplicate this work or repost anywhere else without permission.

Read Chapter 1 

Chapter 2

Gettis University, and the surrounding town, were as full of creepy feelings and shadows as you’d expected. The strong presence of the otherworld could be felt as soon as you got within a couple of miles of the city limits, and the hot spots you’d passed as you drove through town would likely test your abilities in ways they’d not been tested before.

You paused in the great room of the old house where you’d be living for the next two years. It was a Victorian style home and though light, bright and newly renovated, you’d already felt the presence of something that you’d need to run out before you all slept that night.

You turned when you heard Yeontan’s little nails tapping on the floor behind you. You scooped him up and buried your face in his soft, black and tan fur. “Hi baby. Did you have a good walk?”

“He did,” Taehyung said as he walked in. “It’s good that we have an enclosed garden out back, but he loves the park down the street, too.”

“This house is way too big for two people, Tae,” you said, your tone admonishing. “What are we even going to do with all this space?”

“Well, we need space to set up an office for Namjoon and Chloe, plus the paranormal group they’ve been in contact with here will probably be over. We need extra bedrooms for when my parents visit because now that we’re back in the country, they probably will. And it was the only house near campus that also has a guest house for Joon and Chloe to have their own space.”

“Well, I’ll leave it to you to figure out what you want to do with all these rooms,” you said, knowing he probably did have some kind of plan for them. He’d need an office for himself since he often worked late on photography and art projects, and he liked having a home gym. “I’m glad your mom arranged to have it furnished before we got here. We just need to move in our personal things.”

“Yeah, Joon is sorting boxes outside.” Taehyung closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. “I’m kind of sensing something here. Dark spirit?”

“A weaker one, but yes,” you answered. “We’ll deal with it after we get Joon and Chloe set up, and then we’ll hang talismans.”

While Taehyung couldn’t see the things you saw, with the rare exception that a spirit was strong enough to break through the barrier of the otherworld, he was sensitive to their energy. It was something that had wreaked havoc in his life before he met you because he didn’t understand why he had such dark and negative feelings all the time. When he’d started getting into trouble and drinking too much, his parents had sent him to England to attend boarding school with his cousin.

You’d known as soon as you saw him that he could feel the spirits that hung around him even if he didn’t know what they were. And so, one day after classes, you gave him one of your talismans and told him that he’d sleep better if he put it next to his pillow. You could tell by his raised brows that he thought you were kind of crazy, but he’d fallen asleep looking at it that night and finally slept better than he had in years.

At first, it had been weird to talk to someone other than Jungkook and Mrs. Kim about your abilities. You kept expecting him to think you were nuts and exit stage left because even your own mother had never believed you. But Taehyung never thought you were crazy. Even when you started exploring your abilities, looking into the resources you’d gotten from Mrs. Kim, and making contact with others whose work lay in the paranormal realm, he’d never acted like you were a burden, and he’d never abandoned you. His support had given you the strength to keep going on an increasingly scary and dangerous path.

While your academic focus was English literature and linguistics, Taehyung was most interested in art, photography and art history. Taehyung’s parents had expected him to return to California and perhaps study art at Berkeley or apply to NYU’s fine arts program. Instead, he’d followed you to Oxford when you were both accepted.

You had the support of a team now as well. During your Oxford years, you’d met Namjoon, a grad student who had been doing research on paranormal abilities as an unsanctioned side project while also studying experimental psychology. His girlfriend, Chloe, had a background in engineering and computer science and a similar interest in recording paranormal activity.

With their help and that of Mrs. Kim, with whom you’d remained in touch, you’d gradually built a network of contacts – people who were able to see the otherworld as you did, sensitives like Taehyung, and those who sought to understand the paranormal world. One of Mrs. Kim’s contacts, an elderly Chinese man named Mr. Lu, also had the ability to use Taoist amulets to banish spirits.

And not just spirits – you’d been stunned to learn that demons also inhabited the otherworld. You finally had an explanation as to how the ghostly man in the library had hurt you that night. While the strongest of the ghosts in the otherworld could also harm you if they gathered enough energy, burning someone with a touch was the specialty of low-level demons.

You had worked hard for the past couple of years to hone your abilities. It was a surprise to find that many of the spirits who inhabited the otherworld were harmless. They neither sought out human contact nor attempted to cause harm; they merely drifted in the remnants of a world that felt familiar to them, or they sought comfort by occasionally observing loved ones who remained among the living.

Some were nuisance ghosts who enjoyed playing pranks, but they were quite easily dealt with and did little to cause lasting damage. A small percentage fell into the realm of dark spirits – vengeance ghosts who were still angry at their manner of passing were some of the strongest ghosts and could pose real danger to people. Similarly, places that had seen evil acts committed, or mass deaths, were often portals of darkness which attracted demons and dark spirits alike.

Aided by Mr. Lu, you discovered that you had untapped potential to help spirits cross over to the light, as well as the power to harness dark spirits and banish them from the otherworld. Demons were trickier, but you were getting better at dealing with them. It had taken you time to recognize the power you held, but as you got older and it grew stronger, and as you became less afraid, you could feel it inside yourself – a little ball of light that you could coax forward and wield at will.

Learning to wield that power had not come easily. The burn mark on your arm wasn’t the only scar you carried on your body now either; you glanced down and traced the long, jagged mark that ran the length of your left arm from your inner elbow to your wrist. Strong fingers suddenly clasped yours and you looked up to see Taehyung looking at you with worried eyes.

“You can still change your mind about this,” Taehyung said softly. “We both know that being here is dangerous for you. If your friend still cares about you, he wouldn’t want you doing this for him.”

“I’m not just doing this for him, Tae,” you said truthfully. “I’m doing this for me. Because I have regrets about how and why I left, and I can’t keep running away from my past. There’s Jungkook, yes, but also Jin, and Jimin, and Emmie and Robbie. My mom. I ran away from everyone, thinking I was better off alone, and they were better off without me. Now I have to consider how I can merge my old life with my new one, at least enough to repair those relationships.”

“And if you can’t?”

“Then at least I’ll know I tried,” you said with a smile. “I know I can’t go back to how things were, but maybe there’s a way forward.”

Taehyung suddenly pulled you close, wrapping his arms around both you and Yeontan. “You know I’ll help you any way I can.”

Leaning your head against his chest, you nodded. “I know. I just hope your parents don’t hate me for dragging you to yet another university where you never intended to enroll.” It was one of the best universities in the country, and it did have an excellent fine arts program, but it wasn’t even on Taehyung’s radar before you applied for transfer.

“Hey, my parents love you. They credit you for getting me on the straight and narrow path, and even though I told them we’re not dating anymore, I’m certain my mom is still planning our wedding.”

Taehyung’s parents were Hollywood A-listers. His mom had a long film career that had eventually transitioned to television, and she was the popular star of a long running cable drama. His father was an English filmmaker who’d won two Oscars and now spent most of his time on documentaries. Taehyung had no interest in acting or film, but with his fine boned features, dark wavy hair and almond shaped, deep brown eyes, he did a handful of modeling assignments every year that fueled his interest in photography and fashion.

You pulled back and kissed his cheek before lifting Yeontan to give him a lick, making him laugh. “Come on, we should go help Joon and Chloe sort boxes and get things set up. Then I need to have a chat with this little spirit lurking about the place.”

___________________

 You woke the next morning feeling refreshed after a deep, dreamless sleep. You and Tae had helped Joon and Chloe set up their equipment in the room designated for their office. Then you’d made up the beds and begun the arduous task of unpacking and organizing personal items. By the time the sun set, you’d been ready to tackle the dark spirit haunting the house.

Like most weak spirits, its energy grew as night fell, and you’d caught it at just the right time before it gathered enough energy to put up a real fight. Still, using your Taoist amulet drained your energy too, and you were exhausted by the time your dinner order arrived. The last task had been to hang talismans at centrally located windows and main entrances, both in the main house and in the guest house, concealing some among the curtains and hiding others behind the artwork that Taehyung’s mother had selected for the house.

Though you still thought the house was too large for you and Taehyung, you couldn’t deny you were happy to have a tranquil bedroom overlooking the garden, and you owed Tae’s mom a phone call to thank her for having it decorated in your favorite colors. The walls were the palest of lavender with cream trim, and the cream, padded headboard of the queen-sized bed dominated the far wall. The light purple of the silk duvet was accented with splashes of cream and sage, and the bed held an array of pillows in similar colors.

Dramatic, arching windows were draped in swathes of delicate cream fabric tied back to let in the light. Comfortable sage armchairs created a cozy reading nook in the corner, and a large area rug in an irregular but complementing color pattern covered the hardwood floor. She’d thoughtfully selected artwork for the walls – an abstract floral design here, a water landscape there. Considering the negative energy that you felt so strongly in town, you knew this space would go a long way towards helping you feel calm, focused and centered.

You’d been too tired the night before to take note of the spa-like retreat that was the adjoining bathroom. Its marble floors and tiles had been warmed up with sage accent colors and a teak wood double vanity, while a claw foot tub sat in front of the large window that faced the far mountains. You eyed the tub longingly before opting for a quick shower, enjoying the rainfall effect.

After drying your hair and applying light makeup, you put on a lemon-yellow sundress, a gossamer thin white cardigan, and clasped your gold locket around your neck. Then you selected the gold watch and earrings Tae had given you for your birthday the week before.

You had one suitcase left to unpack and set it on the bed to sort through its contents – mostly fall and winter clothes that it was still too hot to wear. You paused when you got to the bottom and saw the black hoodie. You’d found two of Jungkook’s hoodies in your room before you left for England. You left one of them in the box that you’d told Emmie to take to him when he returned from camp. The other, you’d thrown into your suitcase a few minutes before you left.

You remembered the night he gave it to you. A few weeks before Christmas during your sophomore year, Jimin’s parents had gone away for the weekend and as he always did when they were away, he threw a party. You were sixteen, and Jungkook had decided it was time to try beer.

Hauling his drunk ass home later that night was quite the experience.

You snorted with laughter as Jungkook stopped beneath a streetlight and did part of a girl group dance that Jimin had dared him to do earlier. But he’d forgotten part of it and had been stopping every few minutes on the way home, trying to remember.

“Damn it,” he said, frustrated as he shook his hips, arms up, and then paused. “Are you sure you don’t remember it?”

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t do it in front of Jimin’s drunk friends or here on the street,” you replied. You tugged his arm. “Come on, if we miss curfew your mom is going to kill us.”

“Nah, as long as we’re together, she doesn’t really worry. She knows we’ll take care of each other.”

“It seems like I’m the one doing the work tonight,” you said with a grunt as he leaned into you. “Geez, you are heavy.” Once he hit his growth spurt, making him nearly a head taller than you, he’d also started putting on muscle.

“But you love meeee,” he sang, spinning you in a circle.

You couldn’t help laughing even as you stumbled sideways again. “I think we need to sit and let you sober up a little. We still have about thirty minutes.” Since you were staying at Jungkook’s tonight, and you were only going to Jimin’s house, his mom had extended the curfew until midnight.

You’d reached the halfway point, a large park that connected your neighborhood to Jimin’s, so it wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get home. The park was well lit and safe as well, rarely home to any spirits. You guided Jungkook over to the swings and helped him sit before sitting in the one next to him.

“Remember when I fell out of this swing?” Jungkook asked as he started swinging.

“Of course. You just had to get as high as possible and then jump.” He still had the mark on his cheek where he’d hit the ground. “Even when we were kids, you were never afraid of anything.”

“I am scared, sometimes,” he said after a moment.

“Really? Of what?”

“Of things that can hurt you. It’s the only thing I’m really scared of.”

You looked over at him to see him staring up at the sky, a lot more sober than he’d been a few minutes ago. “You never told me you were scared before.”

He scuffed his boots against the ground and then pushed off again. “I have this dream sometimes, or a nightmare, I guess. You’re in the water and something comes for you, and I can’t get to you in time.”

You had that nightmare too, which is why you never went near the water after your encounter with the water ghost. “I’m sorry.” It was the first time you’d realized that he was carrying the weight of your personal horrors, and you felt the guilt creeping in.

“It’s not your fault. I just wish I could take it away, you know? Like, I wish I could be the one to see them and you could be safe.”

“I wouldn’t wish that on you, though.” You twisted your swing sideways, back and forth, and then leaned back to look at the sky. The moon was almost full and very bright, and it reminded you of the moon in the storybook you’d read to Emmie earlier that evening.

“I love you to the moon and back,” you murmured, leaning back further.

“I knew you loved me,” Jungkook said, laughing.

“Funny. The moon made me think of that book I read to Emmie earlier.”

“Well, I love you. To the moon and back, and to Saturn and Jupiter, and back to the moon…”

You rolled your eyes. “Okay, okay. I love you too, to the moon and back.” You shivered as you stood up, holding out your hand. “We should get going.”

Jungkook stood and unzipped his black hoodie. “Here, put this on. I’m getting kind of hot anyway.”

You pulled it on and zipped it up. He laughed at you when you had to roll up the sleeves, his nose crinkling in amusement.

As you started walking again, Jungkook said, “I love you to…. infinity and beyond!”

“Shhh, God you’re loud. Please please be quiet when we get to your house.”

You ran your fingers over the soft material as you thought about that night. You’d worn the hoodie home the next morning and you’d just never given it back. It had become a type of security blanket over the years.

You carefully tucked it in a drawer, slipped on your sandals, and went to look for Taehyung. He wasn’t in the great room or the kitchen. Next you checked the downstairs master suite he’d claimed, but he was already up. Grabbing a cup of coffee, you walked past the guest house and out into the back garden where you spotted him sitting, legs crossed in a meditation pose, on a bench near the far wall.

He opened his eyes and smiled at you as you approached him. “Good morning. Feeling better?”

“Much.” You sat next to him and watched Yeontan nosing around the bushes. “I think I’m going to drive to campus and look around, get a feel for any hot spots. Do you want to come with me?”

“I can’t. The guy is coming to finish the water features.” Since water often served to deter spirits, Taehyung had enlisted a gardening company to install a water feature that ran along the walls of the back garden. The work had begun before you arrived; natural rocks had been carefully placed in a design that would create waterfalls flowing into small pools on either side of the garden. “Once they finish up today and get the water going, I think those pools will be deep enough for koi fish.”

“That will be pretty.” It was a lovely garden. Several trees provided shade, the lawn was expertly manicured, and lush flowerbeds and carefully pruned flowering bushes presented a pop of color among the greenery. “The water will make it cooler back here too. We could add a table and some lanterns and hang out here in the evening.”

“Are you okay going by yourself?” he asked, pushing his wavy hair out of his eyes as he whistled for Yeontan. “You could take Tannie with you.”

“Probably a good idea since they’re coming to finish up back here.”

“Hey.” Taehyung reached for a lock of your hair and tugged it gently. “Don’t confront anything by yourself. If you want to wander around, get your bearings, then fine. Just please don’t follow anything or let anything follow you until the rest of us are with you. This place is… dangerous. We need to be really careful here.”

“I know, don’t worry.” You reached for his hand and threaded your fingers together. “Thank you for coming with me, even though I was afraid to ask you. This would be so much harder without you here.”

You collected Yeontan’s leash and other essentials and drove to the main university parking lot, which was central to the sprawling campus. Yeontan trotted happily next to you as you took note of buildings. The Gothic architecture was a sharp contrast to the bright, late summer sun beating down, and you imagined the campus took on an entirely different aesthetic at night.

There were also plenty of hot spots. Dropping pins as you walked, you wondered exactly what type of spirits you would encounter here. You expected the usual vengeance ghosts, but you occasionally got impressions of something much, much darker as you walked. You dropped yet another pin as you passed the building that housed the pool and athletic departments. Mindful of your promise to Taehyung, you didn’t explore further.

When Yeontan got tired, you picked him up and followed a group of students chattering away with each other about classes beginning soon, upcoming mixers and welcome back activities. Soon you found yourself at a park that abutted a large, sparkling lake. You didn’t need to get too close to sense something in those waters, and so you kept a healthy distance as you turned your attention to the group playing baseball in the field.

And then you saw him. Jungkook wore loose black shorts, a white t-shirt, and a backwards black baseball cap as he stood with a group waiting for their turn at bat. From the people talking around you, you learned that it was just a friendly game between rival fraternities, which explained the number of girls hanging around.

This was your chance to talk to him – to let him know you were here. To explain why you had left. Seeing him again brought a wave of longing, and with it the familiar anxiety you felt when you thought of him.

“Oh, such a cute dog!”

You turned to see a very pretty girl about your age wiggling her fingers at Yeontan. Her dimples flashed when she smiled, and her eyes were such a clear shade of blue that you wondered if they were contact lenses. Her auburn hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she held a sign supporting Pi Kappa Alpha.

“I’m Sera,” she introduced herself. “And who’s this?”

“Yeontan,” you replied. “And I’m y/n. You can pet him if you want. He’s very friendly.”

“Are you new here?” Sera asked, scratching Yeontan’s head. At your surprised look, she nodded at the brochures sticking out of your open bag. “I recognize the welcome package.”

“I’m a transfer student from Oxford,” you confirmed, shifting the wiggling Yeontan in your arms. “We just got here yesterday.”

“Are you off campus? I’m in the Alpha Omicron Pi house.”

“We have a house – the old Victorian on Elmhurst Street.”

“Oh, I noticed they were renovating that house this summer. I grew up here,” she explained. “My parents live three streets over from you. That’s a big house – did you move here with friends?”

“My… friend, Taehyung, came with me,” you said. You weren’t dating anymore, but your relationship with Tae had fallen into something between friend and boyfriend, a kind of ambiguous realm you both were still feeling your way through. “And two other friends, Namjoon and Chloe, are living in the guest house.”

“That’s cool that you all came here together. I guess this will be a big change from Oxford. Hey, so tomorrow there’s a big welcome back picnic happening here around noon. My sorority is co-hosting. Why don’t you and your friends come? I can introduce you around.”

Your eyes drifted back to the field to see Jungkook up at bat. As expected, he hit the ball with a loud crack and took off running around the bases, making it to home before the outfielder had even retrieved the ball. He high fived a guy on his team who you recognized as Jimin when you saw his profile. Someone shouted Jungkook’s name and he suddenly looked in your direction.

Slipping your sunglasses back on, you let your hair fall to cover your profile. “I have to get going, but I’ll ask my friends about it when I get home.” With a wave at Sera, you turned and began walking back to your car as quickly as you could without drawing too much attention to yourself.

“Hope to see you tomorrow!” Sera called after you.

______________________________

 Jungkook ran the bases with ease and did a shimmy on home base before high fiving Jimin.

“Such a showoff,” Jimin said with a laugh.

Jungkook grinned and glanced over at the crowd watching when he heard his name called, waving at Jimin’s girlfriend, Ayeong, and her friend Erin, who was waving her Pi Kappa sign enthusiastically. Then a girl in yellow caught his attention. He froze as the girl turned her face away before he could see her clearly. She was holding a small dog as she talked to Sera from the A O Pi sorority. Then she was hurrying away.

Jungkook didn’t realize he’d started walking in her direction until Jimin caught his arm. “Where are you going? You’re pitching.” Jimin followed his gaze, a troubled expression on his face. “I know that girl kind of looks like…”

Jungkook cut him off. “Let’s get back to the game.”

He tried to concentrate on the rest of the game, but he was agitated now, and pissed off. He’d promised himself two years ago that he’d stop looking for you in crowds and chasing the shadows of girls who looked even vaguely like you. That girl might have the same hair, and she might’ve been wearing one of those dumb, useless little sweaters you always liked, but she wasn’t you.

The problem was that now his head was full of you, and he did his best to push you back out like he always did when something reminded him of you. His team won, but he didn’t enjoy the victory, and he was silent in the car as Jimin drove back to the house they’d just moved into with Jin, who was enrolled in the theater program as a grad student.

“I’m glad you finally got permission from your coach to move off campus,” Jimin said. “I guess it helps that you’ll be living with family, so he trusts you not to get too wild or slack off on training.”

Jungkook leaned forward and turned up the radio, a signal that he didn’t want to talk.

Jimin sighed but fell silent. When they pulled up to the house, he jumped out and headed inside to find Jin had started painting the living room. He went straight through to the kitchen, ignoring his brother’s greeting.

“Hey, the least you could do is pick up a brush and help!” he heard Jin yell after him.

Jungkook got a bottle of water from the fridge and took a long drink. He could hear Jimin talking to Jin now.

“There was a girl at the game who looked kind of like y/n,” Jimin said in a low voice. “Plus it’s that time of year – you know how he gets.”

“Her birthday was last week, and his is coming up soon,” Jin said. “Not that he’s ever in the mood to celebrate it anymore anyway.”

Jungkook ignored them as he walked back into the living room and picked up a brush. “Let’s get this finished. Remember we have to go early to pick up the coolers and ice for the picnic.” He and Jimin belonged to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and they were co-hosting the welcome back picnic with the A O Pi sorority.

He let Jimin and Jin talk and concentrated on painting. He wasn’t going to think of you anymore and that was that. You hadn’t been back to the U.S. in three years – the last he’d heard from his mom, you opted to attend Oxford University. You’d cut everyone out of your life, and he wasn’t going to waste any more of his time thinking about the past.

That night he dreamed of you.

He stood at the edge of the lake, wading in when he saw you drifting further out in front of him. It always happened the same way; you would smile and stretch out a hand to him, and then you disappeared beneath the surface. And no matter how many times he dove under the water looking for you, you were just gone.

Jungkook woke in a cold sweat, gasping, heart pounding. He switched on his bedside lamp and sat up, glancing at the clock to see it was nearly four in the morning. Running his hands through his hair, he breathed deeply and willed his heart rate to slow.

He hated that fucking nightmare. He could tell himself all day long he wasn’t going to think of you, but then this would happen. He told himself that you were fine, wherever you were. If something terrible had happened to you, he would have heard about it from your mom or his mom. Your life wasn’t his business anymore.

Jungkook was sleep deprived and cranky the next day as he helped set up for the picnic. Students were arriving on campus now, and there were a lot of mixers and activities planned for the next week, many of which he was expected to help with because Jimin was a social butterfly who kept volunteering you both.

Ayeong and Erin were there as well, and he did his best to avoid Erin, whose crush on him was starting to make him uncomfortable. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he didn’t want a girlfriend and she definitely wanted a boyfriend. The last person he had seriously liked was Grace, and they’d broken up before senior year started. Since then, he’d kept his relationships casual – maintaining his grades and baseball took up most of his time anyway.

An hour into the picnic, he was sitting in a shaded area with Jimin and Ayeong when a little dog ran up and panted at his feet. He smiled as he leaned over to pet the little ball of black and tan fluff. “Hey, little guy, who do you belong to?”

“That would be me – sorry.” A tall man with dark wavy hair approached holding a leash. He leaned down to clip it on the dog’s collar. “He doesn’t usually run away like that, but I think he’s excited about all the new people.”

“Cute,” Jungkook said with a grin as he scratched the little dog behind the ears. “What’s his name?”

“Yeontan,” the man replied with a smile. He held out his hand. “And I’m Taehyung.”

Jungkook shook his hand. “I’m Jungkook. This is Jimin, and that’s Ayeong.”

Taehyung’s smile faded. “I should get back to my friends.”

He was leaning down to pick up the little dog when Sera joined them. “Hey, it’s Yeontan!” She stroked the dog’s head and looked over at the man holding him. “Let me guess – you must be Taehyung?”

“Have we met?”

“No, but I met Yeontan at the game yesterday when I met your girlfriend.”

“Ah, you must be Sera.”

“So where is y/n? I haven’t seen her yet.”

Jungkook’s head shot up at the name. “Y/n?”

“Oh, there she is!” Sera waved at a girl who walked over to join Taehyung.

Since your eyes were on the dog, you didn’t notice him at first. “Oh, thank God. Bad Tannie!” You reached for the small dog and dropped a kiss on his nose. Behind you were two more people – a tall man with silver blond hair, and a woman with long, brown hair threaded with blue streaks.

It was a surreal moment seeing you again. You were wearing a dark blue, silky sundress and what looked like the same thin white sweater he’d seen you wearing the day before. Your wavy hair was held back from your face with little clips, and your gold locket hung around your neck just as it always had. The little dog yapped and licked your cheek, making you giggle, and you smiled up at Taehyung, who placed an arm around your waist.

“Oh, shit,” he heard Jimin mutter next to him.

That got your attention and when you glanced over to see him, you froze. Your eyes held his for several moments. Then you took a deep breath and said, “Hi, Jungkook.”

Sera was looking between you, her expression curious. “Do you know each other?”

When Jungkook didn’t answer, Jimin said, “We all went to school together until y/n left for boarding school senior year.” He stood up and walked over to give you a hug. “It’s nice to see you again.”

You smiled at him gratefully. “I’m happy to see you, too. I was going to call or something, but we’ve only been here for two days.”

Jungkook felt his jaw clench. He said nothing as Jimin introduced Ayeong, who seemed uncharacteristically shy as she greeted you and Taehyung.

“This is Namjoon,” you said, gesturing to the blond man. “And his girlfriend, Chloe.”

“I heard you guys moved into that big old Victorian house,” Sera said to Taehyung. “I was telling my mom about it when I talked to her last night. She’s an interior designer, so she was interested in how it had been updated.”

“You should come by some time,” Taehyung told her.

The way Taehyung kept looking between you and him told Jungkook that he knew who he was. That meant that you’d known he was here before you came. You’d probably seen him at the game yesterday and you’d still scurried off rather than talk to him.

He watched Sera lead you and Taehyung away, introducing you to other friends. You looked over your shoulder at him, but he averted his eyes rather than meet your gaze.

Jimin cleared his throat and looked at Namjoon and Chloe. “Are you students here too?”

Namjoon shook his head. “I met Tae and y/n at Oxford – I was in a psych grad program there. Chloe and I are researching paranormal activity, so we tagged along when we heard they were coming here.”

Jungkook felt Jimin looking at him again.

“Huh. Well, that’s interesting. It’s supposedly the most haunted campus in the country, so good luck with that,” Jimin said.

Namjoon and Chloe wandered over to join the group of people you were talking to.

“Are you alright?” Jimin asked quietly.

Jungkook tried to swallow down the hot anger he could feel building. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Do you guys know who that is?” Ayeong asked incredulously. “That’s Taehyung Kim. As in, son of actress Jinah Park and Oscar winning director John Kim. He models for big designers a few times a year – he has a verified Instagram account, too.” She tapped on her phone for a minute and held it out to Jimin.

Jimin scrolled silently for a few seconds. “He’s also a photographer?”

“Yeah. I think he’s had at least one showing in New York under the name Vante. It was a photo of your friend that got me interested in photography – about two years ago?” She took the phone back and scrolled for a minute before handing it back to Jimin. “That one. He called it The Sighting, and it still gives me the chills when I look at it.”

Jimin looked at it and then handed the phone to Jungkook. He took it and looked at the photo, a landscape shot of you next to a river. You were in profile, but the angle showed a haunting, pensive expression on your face as you stared across the water, arms folded across your midsection, your hair lifted by a breeze.

The Sighting was a good name for the photo, and he wondered what you had seen that day. After a moment of hesitation, Jungkook went to the thumbnail view of Taehyung’s Instagram page. It was full of you.

Some of the photos were more artistic and some were just little snapshots of happy moments. It was obvious that you had spent most of your time with Taehyung over the past three years, and that anger he’d felt earlier came rushing back. You couldn’t be bothered to let him know you were alive, but you could take cooking classes and adopt a puppy with the perfect Taehyung.

He carefully passed the phone back to Ayeong before he did something crazy like hurl it into the lake.

When Ayeong was distracted by a friend she was talking to, Jimin scooted his chair closer. “Seriously, the level of anger you’re repressing right now can’t be healthy. Can you please just talk to her? Maybe she had a good reason for not coming back until now.”

“I’m not interested,” Jungkook replied.

“You are so full of shit right now,” Jimin said evenly. “You told me that it was your fault she left to begin with. You were going to fix it, you said. Well, here’s your chance.”

“She’s not my fucking problem anymore, and I don’t care,” Jungkook snapped back. “So drop it.”

A quiet gasp made them both look up to see you and Taehyung standing a few feet away. You stared at him, a flush creeping up your neck betraying your emotions. There was something in your eyes that made him feel small in that moment because he knew he’d hurt you.

Without a word, you turned and walked away towards the lake. Taehyung shot a furious look in his direction before following you.

Jungkook spent the remainder of the afternoon battling conflicting emotions. He was mad at you, but he was also mad at himself for still getting angry about something he’d spent two years telling himself was over and done with. He was hurt that you’d just shown up like this with no warning and with new friends, evidence of how you’d replaced him.

He was also confused about why you’d come to this university when you had to know how dangerous it was for you. Jungkook couldn’t see or feel what you saw and felt, but here at Gettis, he occasionally got an uneasy feeling. It was enough that he’d hung a talisman at the window of his dorm, and he’d put up more at the house he shared with Jimin and Jin.

And now you were down by the lake like one of his nightmares come to life. As mad as he was, he was also fighting the urge to physically drag you away from the water. You’d been down there for an hour with Taehyung, Namjoon and Chloe. Thinking about what Namjoon had said – that he and Chloe were interested in paranormal activity – he had to wonder if you’d deliberately chosen to come here because you were looking, too.

He reminded himself again and again that it wasn’t his business, and what you did shouldn’t concern him now. He dredged up his anger to dispel the fear that curled in his stomach when he watched you walk to the end of the pier and lean down to touch the water before looking back at Chloe, who was looking at something on a tablet.

Jungkook guessed he had an answer – you were definitely here looking for something, and you displayed none of the fear that he’d expect, either. And somehow that scared him.

He was still sitting and watching you when Jin arrived.

“I guess Jimin called you,” Jungkook said.

“Where is she?” Jin asked.

He nodded down to the lake.

_____________________________________

 “The readings here are insane,” Chloe said. “Look at this, Joon.”

“I see it.”

You closed your eyes and pushed out with your mind, searching. You heard the water ripple a few feet away – it could be mistaken for a fish, but you knew it wasn’t. Taehyung knew it too and crouched behind you to wrap one arm around your waist.

“Even after everything I’ve seen you do, these water ghosts are still the scariest,” he admitted as he anchored you.

They used to be the most terrifying to you as well, but you didn’t feel the same fear you used to feel when standing near the water. You were still scared, at least a little, and very alert to the danger. However, if it hadn’t broken you the night you went down to the lake alone three years ago, you supposed it wouldn’t now.

You could feel that Jungkook was still watching you, too. You didn’t need to look at him to know he must be wondering what you were doing down here. After all, the same fears that haunted you used to haunt him as well.

You’d been so nervous to see him, but once you were standing in front of him, you couldn’t deny the burst of happiness you felt. He looked the same in some ways, but there were little changes you committed to memory; he’d grown a bit taller, and he’d filled out even more. He’d lost the remaining roundness in his face, replaced by defined cheekbones and a sharp jawline. His hair no longer swept across his forehead, hiding his eyes, now replaced by an off-center part that exposed his strong brow.

You’d both grown up during these three years, though it was clear that he’d nursed a deep anger toward you. Maybe you deserved it, but it still hurt to hear him refer to you as a problem – one that he didn’t want to be a part of anymore.

“Y/n?”

You looked over to see Jin standing on the pier next to the lake edge. Taehyung released you as you stood and took a few tentative steps in Jin’s direction, wondering if he was angry, too.

Then he held his arms open, and you felt tears rush into your eyes. You closed the distance and wrapped your arms tightly around him. He just held you for a couple of minutes, petting the back of your head like he used to when he knew you’d had a bad day. His tall, solid presence instantly calmed you.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“I’m maybe a little mad, but I missed you too much to show it right now,” he said. “I’m glad you’re back.”

You finally pulled back and wiped your fingers under your eyes before looking up at him. “I thought you were still in L.A.”

“I was there for a couple of years. I did a couple of commercials, had a few walk-on roles. Mostly I just saved money so I could apply to the theater program here. I finally got in.”

“I���m so glad you’re here,” you said, squeezing his hand.

“What are you doing down here?” Jin asked. He looked concerned as he glanced at the people behind you. “This lake can be dangerous from what I’ve heard.”

You quickly introduced him to Taehyung, Namjoon and Chloe. Jin raised his brows when you mentioned that you were living with Tae, but he didn’t comment.

“Tae and I both transferred from Oxford,” you explained. You debated how much to say, but then added, “Namjoon and Chloe are working on a research project related to paranormal activity. There’s no better place for that than here, so they decided to come with us.”

“I see.” He looked out at the water for a moment and then held out his hand. “Come walk with me.”

As you walked around the perimeter of the lake, you noted that Jin put himself between you and the water.

“Can you really see ghosts?” he finally asked.

You stopped and stared up at him. “Did Jungkook tell you?”

“No,” he said. “You forget how many times over the years you slept over. I can’t even count how many blanket forts I built for you two on the living room floor once you were too old to share a bedroom, and if you remember, I usually slept on the couch. I heard you two talking more than once.”

“And you believed it?” you asked doubtfully.

“No, not at first. I thought you two had overactive imaginations because of what happened to you at the lake that time which, I admit, was hard to explain. But then I saw how you were after the library fire, and after that night we found you at the lake, I guess I wondered.”

You sighed and looked out over the water. “Even my mother doesn’t believe me, Jin. The only people I could talk to were Jungkook and Mrs. Kim.”

“So, it’s true.”

You nodded and met his gaze. “The otherworld is real, though not many people are aware of it. Some people are sensitive to that negative energy – Taehyung, for example. He can’t see them, but he can often feel their presence. And then there are people like me, who can see and interact with them.”

“Then why would you come here?” he asked. “This place even gives me the creeps sometimes. You used to jump at every shadow that crossed your path, and now you’re strolling near the lake looking for what? Water ghosts?”

“More than one,” you replied. “I was trying to feel them out and see how many are out there.”

He looked at you incredulously. “For what purpose? I remember hearing you and Jungkook talk once about how they sometimes followed you. Isn’t this dangerous for you?”

“They recognize me as part of the otherworld, so yes, they often follow me,” you replied. “But I haven’t wasted these last three years, Jin. I’m still learning, but I’m able to use my power in ways now that I couldn’t even comprehend before. And with all the hot spots here, I think this will be a good place for me to test my abilities.”

“So what you’re telling me is that you and your team of ghostbusters over there are here to look for dangerous ghosts,” he said. His laugh turned into a groan, and he wiped a hand down his face. “You and Jungkook are going to give me gray hair before I’m thirty.”

“Please don’t say anything to your mom,” you told him. “I don’t need her or my mom thinking I need a psych admittance.”

“That’s debatable,” Jin muttered. “Jungkook is too mad and stubborn to admit it right now, but he missed you too.”

You looked back over at the water. “He made it clear I’m not his problem anymore, and he’s right. He was kind of trapped in that world with me for ten years. I don’t blame him for opting out.”

“Is that why you left?”

You shrugged but didn’t answer.

“Stubborn, the both of you,” he said with a sigh. “He waited for you to come home that first year and then he tried to forget you. Do you know he hasn’t celebrated his birthday since you left? Like clockwork, August rolls around and Jungkook is a walking wound for a few weeks, snapping at everybody. He can push you out of his head, but he’s never been able to push you out of his heart, y/n, even if he thinks he did.”

Tears blurred your eyes as you stared at the water, and you forced them back. “I can’t force him to listen to what I have to say, Jin. Maybe he’s right and it doesn’t matter anymore.”

________________________________

 Jin spent the afternoon trying to reason through everything you’d told him before abandoning reason. That evening he called his mom and asked if she had Mrs. Kim’s contact information. If his mother was curious as to why he needed it, she didn’t say anything. She simply told him that she’d look for it and send it to him later.

When he got off the phone, he saw that Jimin and Jungkook had walked in with the pizzas they’d picked up.

Jimin looked at him curiously. “Why do you want to talk to Mrs. Kim? I don’t think I’ve seen her since before your grandmother’s funeral.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because y/n is here hunting ghosts. From talking to her this afternoon, I think she probably still talks to Mrs. Kim, and I’d like to know exactly how worried I should be.”

Jimin gaped at him. “Wait, what? She really sees ghosts? I thought Hanna and Lily were full of it when they started that rumor back in elementary school.”

Jin looked at Jungkook and then back at Jimin. “You didn’t know?”

“No.” He shot an accusing look at Jungkook. “Did you know?”

Jungkook was staring at Jin. “What do you mean she’s here hunting ghosts?”

“I mean exactly that. There are multiple water ghosts in that lake, by the way, so I’d advise you both to stay out of it.”

Jimin still looked stunned. “Water ghosts.” He visibly started. “Wait, is that what happened to her at the birthday party? And why she wouldn’t go near the lake again?”

“Apparently.” Jin grabbed a plate and loaded three slices of pizza on it.

“But then why would she be down at this lake if she thinks it’s full of water ghosts?”

“See, she seems to think that she can fight them now or something. She said she’s still learning, but it sounds like she’s here to test her learning curve by hunting ghosts in one of the most haunted places in America. And I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

Jin watched his brother while eating. Jungkook stared at the pizza on his plate, brow creased. He might try to hide it, but Jin could see he was worried.

Jimin was still trying to put all the pieces in place. “That fire at the library was always weird. Was that a ghost? Because it would explain why she stayed locked up in her bedroom if it was. And those lucky talismans? I noticed you hung a few up here, Jungkook. I thought they were just things you got from your grandmother.”

“They’re not lucky talismans,” Jungkook muttered. “They keep away spirits. Things feel weird here sometimes, so I hung them up just in case.”

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me about this,” Jimin said with a reproachful look. “I wouldn’t have told anyone, you know.”

“Can we please talk about something else?” Jungkook pushed his plate away and stood up.

“Hey.” When Jungkook looked at him, Jin said, “I don’t know what happened between you and y/n three years ago, and I get that you’re still mad, but I’m going to need you to pull your head out of your ass and help me out here. Because she’s still family even if you’re mad at her, Jungkook. I need you to help me make sure she doesn’t get hurt or worse doing whatever it is she’s planning on doing here.”

_________________________

 Jungkook tried not to think about you, but after Jin’s revelations, your new ghost hunting hobby was damn near all he could think about. Telling himself it wasn’t his problem anymore was one thing when he thought you had the sense to steer clear of the otherworld, but it was harder to convince himself when he was worried you were actively seeking out trouble.

Jin had mentioned that your boyfriend was a sensitive – someone who could feel but not see the spirits. He supposed that explained how you ended up together, and he obviously supported your newfound insanity. He still couldn’t believe you’d gone down to that lake and touched the water, knowing that it was full of water ghosts. As long as he lived, he’d never forget the force with which that ghost had yanked you into the water all those years ago, and that was only one ghost. Even though Taehyung had been anchoring you, he knew that would be useless if multiple ghosts came after you at once.

Jin had called Mrs. Kim and left her a long voicemail, but he hadn’t heard back from her yet. It had been two days since he’d seen you at the picnic; Jin had gone to visit you at your new house, but Jungkook had refused to go. He still felt confused, his emotions too raw to deal with you.

Jungkook wasn’t in the mood to go out, but Jimin dragged him down to the pool in the athletic building that afternoon.

“You need to work off some aggression,” Jimin said. “I’m tired of you snapping at everyone, and so is Jin.”

They hit the locker room first to change and then walked to the pool room. Once classes started, it would be in use more, but it was peaceful at the moment. Jungkook set his bag down on a chair, noting one other bag there, though no one was around. Then he saw your gold locket.

“Is that someone in the water?” Jimin suddenly asked.

Adrenaline rushed through him as he scanned the water and finally saw the dark shape at the bottom of the pool. “No.”

Jungkook hit the water and dove deep, fear giving him the extra push he needed to reach you within seconds. He jerked you into his arms and swam up. When he surfaced and started pulling you to the side, he was relieved to hear you coughing.

You clung to the side and coughed again before wiping your face.

Jungkook was livid as he climbed out and then lifted you out of the pool. “Are you out of your mind?”

You pushed your hair back and looked at him. “I wasn’t drowning – at least, not until you surprised me, and I inhaled water coming up.”

Jungkook barely controlled the urge to shake you. “You were at the bottom of the fucking pool, y/n! Are you fucking crazy?”

“Don’t curse at me,” you suddenly shouted back at him. “I can swim just fine now. I didn’t need you to jump in and play hero.”

“Whoa, okay you two need to calm down,” Jimin suddenly cut in. “If you weren’t drowning then what the hell were you doing at the bottom of the pool? Because the last time we saw you, you were scared to death of water.”

You walked over to your bag and pulled out a towel, wrapping it around yourself as you faced them. “I learned to swim more than two years ago. Sitting at the bottom of the pool is something I do to practice holding my breath. I like to see how long I can stay down there.”

“What if something was down there?” Jungkook asked, jaw clenched.

“I’m not stupid,” you shot back. “There was a water ghost here, but I got rid of it yesterday. It’s perfectly safe to swim here now.”

His attention was suddenly caught by the long, jagged scar on your left arm. He didn’t even have to ask to know you had gotten hurt doing something dangerous. Something like you were trying to do here. Jungkook thought his head was going to explode. “Are you listening to yourself? Are you trying to die on this campus?”

“What’s going on?”

He turned to see Taehyung coming from the direction of the bathrooms. He didn’t look happy to see Jungkook there, and in his current mood, the feeling was mutual.

“Nothing,” you said. “I want to go home.” You slid your shorts on and pulled a t-shirt over your head before fastening your locket around your neck.

Jungkook held out an arm to stop you from walking by him. “I thought Jin had to be wrong when he told me you were here hunting ghosts. Because that’s just crazy any way you want to look at it, and there’s no way you’d be stupid enough to go looking for that kind of trouble. Right?”

You stared up at him, and the stubborn tilt of your chin made his heart sink. “I think I’m not your fucking problem anymore, Jungkook. So whatever I am or am not doing, you don’t need to worry about it.”

Watching you walk out with Taehyung, he wanted to hit something. He settled for kicking his bag off the chair and then sat, raking his hands through his wet hair. “Fuck.”

Jimin sighed and sat next to him. “Maybe yelling at her isn’t the way to go, Jungkook. She’s not a child, and we have no idea what she’s experienced the last few years. It’s obvious that she’s not the same girl we knew who was afraid of everything, and maybe she has reasons for that.”

Elbows propped on his knees, he clasped his hands behind his head and tried to calm down. “You have no idea what kind of danger she’s putting herself in, Jimin, because you found out about this a couple of days ago. I lived with it for ten years. What she’s doing? She could die.”

Jimin stayed quiet for a minute. “I can’t pretend like I understand because I know I don’t. You two have ten years of secrets – that’s a lot. But it doesn’t change the fact that she has her own secrets now. Three years of secrets, to be exact, and the only way you’ll be able to understand who she is now is if she’ll talk to you about them. I’m just saying yelling won’t accomplish anything.”

Jungkook stayed by the pool when Jimin left, thinking over his friend’s words. Talking to you without getting angry seemed an impossible task at the moment. It would require him to dig at the wounds you’d left him with, to forgive you and ask for forgiveness in return. You had years of hurt and issues to hash out, and frankly, he didn’t know if he was ready for that.

His other option was just to stay away from you, but now that you were back, he didn’t know if he could do that either. And beneath it all, there was his deepest concern – how to keep you safe while he was figuring it out.

A/N – Hope you liked the update! I also updated the Ghosted playlist if you want to check that out. I put a link in my Master Fic List. My asks are open if you have any questions about the story, and I’ll work on getting Chapter 3 up as soon as I can. Yoongi and Hobi will be introduced in the next part as the U.S. liaison to y/n’s ghostbusting team, Hobi rather reluctantly lol.

Tag List:  @ggukkieland  @jikooksgirl19​  @waves-and-woods​  

[rq-s]

Title: Perfect

Pairing: Jeon Wonwoo / F!Reader

Genre: Fluff & American College/University AU

Word Count: 2.9k+

Warnings: None.

Summary: You’re nearing your college graduation, your photography degree is practically in your hands already. But every time you look through your portfolio, something is missing. And you knew exactly what it was. 

My Masterlist 

I couldn’t help but stare. A boy with eyes that piercing and teeth that shiny was hard to come by, and he was just who I needed.

I eyed him for my entire lunch break, watching him as he sat in the grass with his back against one of the few birth trees on campus. I watched as he shoved vending machine popcorn in his mouth while reading a textbook like it was a bestseller. It was surprisingly interesting. From what I heard around campus, he was as stoic as they come, but I wondered if that was just rumor when he sucked on his slightly fingertips to get the butter off them instead of using a napkin.

“Your boyfriend knows Wonwoo, right?” I asked after getting my friend’s attention. She was directly in front of me, making it easy to look over her shoulder to the man in question without seeming too obvious.

“They’re both in music theory I think, why?” She answered just as absentmindedly as I’d asked. I shrugged and took my phone out to search my contacts for her boyfriends’ name.

“I’m gonna ask him for Wonwoo’s number.” I said, bracing for the reaction I knew I’d get.

“Oh I see~ You finally over that dry spell?” Our group of friends joked and cooed at me, teasing the fact that maybe their “frigid friend” was warming up. I resigned to let them think whatever they wanted, knowing they wouldn’t take my real reason to get close to Wonwoo seriously. He’s just the type of handsome that I needed for my portfolio.

The sun was falling, signaling that evening classes were going to start soon. For me though, the rest of the day was mine. I fell back into my bed with a thump, fingers laced over my forehead as I fought between wanting to get work done or just lazing in bed for the rest of the day.

My phone rang before I could decide.

“Hey, what did you need?” A heavy but hurried voice spoke as soon as I answered. There was no caller ID, but it could only be one man. I was taken aback at his directness; I’d just sent a text saying my name and that I wanted his help with a project. He must be an opportunist to call a stranger after so little information.

In my slow register of the situation, I heard him speed walking somewhere, mumbling “excuse me” as he went.

“If you have time, I’d like to take some pictures of you.”

“For photography? Sure, I’ll text you when I’m free, alright?” He rushed, hanging up before I could finish saying okay. How did he know it was for photography? Sure, I carried my camera with me everywhere I went, but how could he know?

“Back to back classes that are across campus from each other are the worst.” He texted me an apology a few minutes later. I assured him that it’s fine, and added a gentle pester for him to focus during class. Something about him seemed to conflict: his naturally intimidating aura clashed with his lack of formality.

I was only becoming more certain that he was who I needed.

Nearly 3 hours later he texted me that he should be free for the rest of the evening. Knowing the rules against having a guy come into the girls’ dorms, especially after sunset, I invited him to a small diner near the middle of the campus where we could talk about specifics. Luckily, he agreed.

When I arrived, he was already there with a half empty glass of soda and 2 menus laid on the worn-out table. It seemed like he’d been here a while, scrolling his phone mindlessly while he waited for me. I checked my phone just to be sure for the 5th time tonight that I wasn’t late but seeing him there alone made me feel guilty anyway.

I weaved though tables of happy couples, study groups, and families to meet him at the burgundy leather booth. He smiled once he noticed me, adjusting his beige cardigan that hung on his broad shoulders and pulling the cuffs down to cover his thin wrists - it was as if he was surprised to see me here.

“I hope you haven’t been here for too long.” I said concernedly, sitting across from him and setting my bag beside me.

“I… have. I figured it would be easier than going all the way back to my dorm for a whole 2 minutes before I had to head back down here.” He grabbed his glass with one hand but didn’t pick it up, instead he tapped his fingernails against it, making the ice hit the sides in a surprisingly rhythmic way.

“That’s smart, actually. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.” This was a place I went often for dinner, so I didn’t need to look through the menu. This meant looking at each other awkwardly while we waited for the waiter to come by.

I tried to be discrete as I looked him over. Seeing him up close was so much different than watching him from across the park or the hallways. He was thin, but still appeared strong, that was clear even with the slightly oversized clothes he was wearing. His skin seemed silky smooth but also like it could start smoking like dry ice at any moment.

He was looking at me too, his deep brown eyes wandering my face and torso casually. The shape of his nose, his eyes, his jaw… everything was perfect. Even they way his bangs fell over his brow and how his glasses left red marks on the bridge of his nose was perfect.

“Why did you say I have ‘the look’?” He asked blatantly, but from his tone I could tell he wasn’t bothered by it.

“Oh, that… Basically, your face shape, features, stature, body type, all of that stuff is pretty much exactly what I’ve been looking to add to my portfolio.” I could already feel that awkward warmth creeping up my neck and towards my cheeks.

“You think I’m perfect?” The smirk was audible in his voice, it wasn’t the cocky smile I was used to seeing from college boys, but instead was one of delight.

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate, and for a moment, I wish I had. His smirk fell instantly, and after his eyes darted over my face in search of something, he turned his head completely to look out the window, his slender fingers covering his mouth.

28… 29… 30… 31-

“Thanks.” He had sat still in that position before he spoke, shifting in his seat. At the same time, the waiter finally approached us. Wonwoo ordered first, and it looked as if his skin was paler than before, like his circulation suddenly dropped. I ordered my regular and the waiter left as swiftly as they’d came. He sighed as they walked away, as if he’d been holding his breath.

“So, what would I need to do?” Wonwoo asked with a hint of meekness.

“I just need you to do simple poses and let me take pictures of you. We can work together for what to have you wear and where would be best, I have some ideas already though.”

He put his arms on the table and held his hands together and fidgeted. I was truly at as loss for words with him, I know it’s impolite to stare, but it’s as if his aura was drawing me in like a magnet. He bit his cheek in thought, then took a deep breath before speaking.

“I'm not sure, I’m really busy with essays for the next few weeks.” He was hinting at something, and I picked up on it instantly.

“Oh, you wouldn’t be doing it for free, by the way. I’m not sure how long it would take so I can pay you by the hour,” His face lit up again, and his eyes caught mine. How could someone with such a chilly reputation seem so warmhearted? “Does 15 dollars an hour sound okay?”

“If you can take at least 5 hours, sure.”

After that, talking became easier and we even laughed at silly jokes as we ate, taking the time to get to know each other. It was easy to let my guard down with him, and I hoped it was the same for him. Everything I overheard people whisper about him behind his back was wrong, I knew that for sure.

“I really don’t know though, I feel like if you go to a fancy masquerade wearing a wolf mask, going around asking strange question about peoples agendas, you have to accept that everyone is going to think you’re the murderer!” Our plates had been taken back to the kitchen, we’ve gotten 3 drink refills, and we’re now both picking at a shared slice of no-bake chocolate cake while figuring own what mask each of our professors would wear to a Clue-esk masquerade.

“Maybe that was the point? Maybe someone else used that expectation against him and would frame him! Do you know how scary crows can be when they’re upset? I think it would be her.” Wonwoo seemed in his element when in a debate, even one as silly as this. I shook my head and chuckled, taking a bite of the cake with a happy hum as he finished off this ice water. We’d spend the entire evening chapping about things we both liked, and we bonded over Shakespeare. Truthfully though, I could only talk about what I had to read in high-school English.

“Excuse me? It’s getting late. We have to close soon.” A waitress I didn’t recognize came up and got our attention. We both seemed surprised, looking outside to find the sky was completely dark, the orange glow of the streetlights lining the winding sidewalks of the campus.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize the time,” Wonwoo stood up just enough to grab his wallet from his back pocket, “I’ll take the check, now.” The waiter nodded and handed it to him, clearly tired from her shift. The diner was empty save for the few members of staff and the two of u. It kind of scared me how easily I’d gotten lost in conversation.

“Let me pay for half, okay?” I fumbled with my bag trying to find my wallet.

“No, I’ve got it, if you can cover the tip though, that’d be great.” He was already standing and making his way to the front where he’d pay. He paused for a moment though, sliding the check towards me with a kind smile before he left. His appearance paired with the amazing diner we’d shared made my mind go blank. Butterflies to spawned in my tummy and they dared to fly up my throat, making it tighten as if I could cry.

I took a deep breath and stood, placing a little more cash than was necessary on the table and went to catch up with Wonwoo. I stood to the side as he paid, thanking the waitress when they were finished.

“Thank you for spending time with me tonight.” I said shyly, hugging my arms close to myself to stave off the cold.

“You’re welcome. I’ll text you the date and time that I’ll be free. I trust your judgement, so just text me with what I should try to wear and were I should be.” It took me way too long to realize what he was talking about.

“Ahh right! Of course.” I hadn’t meant to sound so disappointed, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“My dorm is this way, so I’ll see you later, okay?” He stopped abruptly at a crossroads, pointing into the opposite direction where my dorm was. I nodded and thanked him again before he began to jog off.

I stood there under the lights for a few moments, watching as his slender legs and clean dress shoes took him away and into the night.

My breath hitched in sudden realization.

“I just went on a date with Jeon Wonwoo.” I whispered to no one.

“Right there! Don’t move a muscle.” It was a week later that I got to see him again. It was the weekend, and I’d decided on going to a park nearby. We stood at a small bridge that crossed a small stream that would eventually reach the river where families were fishing and having a barbecue. The weather was perfect, with bright fluffy clouds, warm sunshine, and a soft breeze.

Somehow Wonwoo wore almost exactly what I’d envisioned: a lightweight shirt over a white t-shirt, light wash jeans and sneakers. A perfect day and a perfect boy made for a perfect picture.

“Can you look up a little bit more? Think something wistful.” He was great at following instructions, and whatever wistful thing he was thinking made the sweetest smile spread over his cheeks. I knelt at the end of the bridge and took a few pictures of his profile as he gazed at the sky.

“Now look at me.” It was as if he looked through the camera lens and directly into my soul. It nearly took my breath away how naturally be could put on the boyfriend act. Luckily, my camera was my shield, and I was able to get the shot without fumbling like a starstruck schoolgirl. Mostly.

“Alright, I think that’s good.” We’d been at it for hours, wandering around the park looking for the best places. We’d been at the river where the trees gave enough shade to emphasize his features. We’d been to the swing set where he played up the careful style that I didn’t know he had. We’ve been to the rock garden where I learned he knew a surprising amount about geology.

“You think this’ll be enough?” He came around to look at the pictures with me, putting his arm around my shoulders, the sudden contact made me jump, nearing dropping my camera. I turned to look at him only to find me wasn’t looking at the pictures at all.

“Uh... Yeah I think so.”

“I’ve always admired you, you know?” My mouth hung open in shock. Surely, I’d have remembered if we shared classes together or knew each other before this. fear bloomed in my chest. Had we known each other before??!?

“Sometimes during lunch, you’ll take pictures of the flowers or of birds, and you have a sense of focus that I don’t usually see in girls our age.” He clarified, waving off my worried thoughts with his free hand. Yet again he surprises me. 

“And I always notice when you stare.” He added as one final blow to my heart, a killing whisper. My breath caught in my lungs and I looked away from him, only to feel his throaty laugh against my ear and neck. 

“I- thank you? and also I’m sorry?” I didn’t know what to say or how to react.  He let go of my shoulders and took a step away, moving in front of me.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m flattered.” His smile was otherworldly. When I didn’t respond further, however, that beautiful smile began to fall.

“I’m sorry, was that unwarranted?” He asked, gesturing to my shoulder. I still couldn’t say anything, as much as I wanted to. I could still feel pressure where his fingers pressed onto my skin, and how his breath against my neck gave me shivers. 

“I just thought that after our date that you were interested and so I-”

“What?” I blurted out, surprising even myself. His eyes went wide, and he stumbled back as if my words had hit him physically.

“Was that wrong? I’m sorry I shouldn’t have assumed!” He bowed his head slightly in what I assumed was an apology. Before I could correct him, he began to leave.

“I’ll text you with my PayPal info, okay? See you around.” He really was the flight in fight or flight when it came to social situations.

I sent a length voice memo after I got home, explaining that I wasn’t upset and that I thought I had begun to have feelings for him, or at least that I liked him and his company. He never replied. In fact, I barely ever saw him again. It was only a little over a month until graduation, so I assumed he was busy. At least I hoped so, that way I didn’t depress myself with the idea that he was purposefully ignoring me, despite the signs.

Perhaps it was because his image was the shining star of my portfolio, but I never could forget about Jeon Wonwoo.

“Alright, thank you for introducing yourself, you can go ahead and have a seat at your desk.” My supervisor says kindly, gesturing to the only un-decorated desk in the room. The older woman next to me smiled and shook my hand, and the meeting went on in what I assumed was business as usual.

Everything was clean and new and mine. My own desk in an actual company building for an actual newspaper. I tried to focus on what was being said, but I was too giddy to even sit still. 

“Excuse me, are you busy?” A heavy voice spoke up from behind me after the supervisor left the room. My throat tightened as if I could cry.

“No, can I help you with something?” I said as I pretended I was fine.

“I just wanted to introduce myself. Jeon Wonwoo, I’m a columnist.” He smiled at me smugly, extending his hand for me to shake. I did so and he winked at me. Instantly, the entire world fell apart until it was just us.

I couldn’t help but stare. A boy with eyes that piercing and teeth that shiny was hard to come by, and he was just who I wanted.

[uncloseted]

what a levels did the skins characters take?

Generation 1

In gen 1, all the characters take an A-level in psychology, which we know because they're in Angie's psychology class. Sid, Jal, Maxxie, Anwar, and Chris take history with Tom. Jal and Michelle take Spanish, and Michelle also takes French. Anwar, Maxxie, and Sid take Drama. Chris and some combination of Sid, Michelle, Anwar, and Jal also take Biology in their first year, since Chris uses it as an excuse for why Tony can't come over.

We actually don't get a great idea of what subjects Tony took other than Psychology. Based on his reading habits, I would guess some combination of these subjects: Philosophy, Ancient History, Classic Civilization or Classical Studies, Economics, Government and Politics, and Law. He got A, A, A, B and goes to Cardiff University.

Sid took Psychology, History, and Drama, and in the first episode it's also mentioned that he has Sociology as a class, which it seems like he may have dropped after the first year. He got B, C, C and goes to New York to find Cassie.

Maxxie took Psychology, History, and Drama, and then dropped one after the first year. He got B, E and moves to London to be a dancer.

Jal took Psychology, Spanish, and Music. She got A, A, C, with the C being in Spanish.

Michelle took Psychology, French, and Spanish. She got B, A, A and goes to York. Presumably her B is in Psychology, as Michelle is said to have a "head for languages".

Anwar took Psychology, History, and Drama. He also has a book called "A Level Business Studies" in Jal's series 2 episode, so he dropped one of his classes after the first year. He got E, E, U.

Cassie takes Psychology and Philosophy at minimum, and possibly also Drama. We never find out Cassie’s grades, although I think she got an A on her philosophy A-level.

Chris got expelled before he could take his A-Levels, but before that happened he was at least taking Biology, Psychology and History, and possibly also Drama (as he says "Drama teachers man. 'Pretend to be a tree,' 'But I'm not a tree.' 'Well pretend.' Fucking perverts, the lot of'em.")

Generation 2

In gen 2, everyone takes English Literature with Josie.

JJ took English Literature, and presumably also Math and Physics. He got A, A, B.

Naomi takes English Literature and Politics. Maybe her third A-level is in law? She got A, A, A.

Emily took English Literature and presumably also History, since she could take Katie's history exam for her in series 3. I'm not sure what her other class might be. Maybe photography, since that's what she ends up doing in Fire? She got B, B, C.

Pandora got a C in philosophy, as well as taking English Literature, some sort of Dance or Performing Arts class, and French (which we see on her A level results). And she also took History, which we know from her Unseen Skins episode and subsequent going to Harvard to study history. She got an A, A*, A*, which I guess are for English Literature, French, and History. Ridiculous.

Katie took English Literature, History, and French (since Thomas helps her with her French in series 4). She got B, C, C.

Freddie definitely took English Literature. Maybe he also took history, since one of his assignment prompts in series 4 is, "the future is history repeating". I'm not sure what the third one would be. Maybe Maths, to be with JJ? Alternatively, I think it would be interesting if his other A-level was in Psychology, given his mother's experience with mental illness. He got A, C, C.

Thomas gleefully says “I got expelled!” when talking about grades (but somehow also got into Harvard). Maybe he took French, since it's a language he already speaks and would be easy for him.

Effy takes Maths, English Literature, and French. She got A, A, A grades, but they’re fake.

Cook doesn’t have grades because he was in jail, but before that he was taking English Literature and perhaps also Politics.

Generation 3

In generation 3, we don't actually hear anyone's grades, so we don't know how many classes any particular character is taking. I'm going to assume it's 3, which is pretty typical.

We know that Alo, Grace, Nick, Rich, Mini, Liv, and Franky all take English Literature. We know that Mini, Franky, and Alo take Geography. Franky, Mini, Liv, and Grace all take "Sports Foundation" as a class, but I can't tell whether that's a class for an A-level (such as Sports Science or Physical Education) or just a school requirement, so I'm going to assume it's a school requirement. Mini, Grace, Liv, and Franky are also involved in designing for the charity fashion show, which makes me think at least Mini is taking Fashion & Textiles, since she's in charge.

Rich gets into Bradbury College to study English Literature and Philosophy, so those were two of his exams. He also takes an exam in History.

We know Grace takes English Literature and Drama, and she seems to also take Dance, given that we see her practicing ballet. I can imagine she probably has a fourth course that's considered appropriately "brainy" for the daughter of Principal Blood. But of course, she doesn't actually sit her A-levels.

Mini takes English Literature and Geography. Maybe she has a third subject in something like Fashion & Textiles.

Franky takes English Literature. In series 6, her study materials indicate that she's also taking Physics and Art History, and she's also in Alo's Geography class. So she seems to be taking 4 A-Levels, which is unusual for a character who doesn't seem particularly academic. I would have guessed her classes would have been more along the lines of Art or Film, given her love of stop motion animation.

Liv is one of the only characters that actually mentions going to uni, but ironically we know the least about her studies. She's not in Alo's Geography class, she's not taking History with Rich, and she wasn't taking Drama with Grace. Like the other characters, she takes English Literature, and she mentions studying for it in series 6. So the other two are total guesses, but maybe Psychology and maybe an Art of some kind?

Nick takes English Literature, and I think we can also assume he took something like Sports Science, Physical Education, or Physical Science.

Matty re-enrolls at Roundview in episode 5 of series 5, but then he's gone from episode 1 to episode 8 of series 6, so we can safely assume he didn't take any exams. It seems from his paperwork that he was at one point taking Geography.

Per his paperwork in series 5, Alo takes four courses: English Literature, Math, and Geography for sure, and the other one I think is Science.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #420

lol blaze it (i’m funny i swear)

In your opinion, which fast food place has the best fries? Without a doubt, Bojangle's. Good. Shit. Are there hurricanes where you live? Yeah, they're common here. What do you hate the most about yourself? I'd really rather not get into this right about now. What song are you listening to right now? "Beast of Gévaudan" by Powerwolf. What was your first concert? Alice Cooper. Also my only concert. What’s your favorite Johnny Depp movie? Alice In Wonderland. Who did you last say “I love you” to? My sister. Do you like pumpkin pie? Anything pumpkin-flavored is a hell no from me. Do you know anyone named Austin? Knew, rather. Do you know anyone who is having a baby? My friend recently announced she and her husband are having their second child in December. What was the last thing you cried about? Just PTSD. Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk? I like both, but I prefer chocolate. Do you think you are an argumentative person? Definitely not. How many deep dark secrets do you have? Two or so, idk. What was the spiciest thing you’ve ever eaten? Some wings at Buffalo Wild Wings with one of the hottest sauces. Wanted to die. ... Yet I continued to get that one whenever I went for years lmao. Who last called you sexy? I don't know. Would you class yourself as a good role model? In some ways, but in a lot of other ways, no. Are you scared of the dark? No. Do you have a motto? No. Who did you last see on webcam? The doctor that overlooks my TMS progress. Do you need a haircut? I need a trim for sure. How would you react if your mother told you that she was pregnant again? Well, considering 1.) she's way past menopause and especially 2.) she's had a complete hysterectomy, y'know... that's kind of impossible. She also hasn't been with a guy in many years, so she would have to be joking. You log into Facebook and see the red ‘1’ notification next to the message icon. Who do you want it to be? -___- Would you rather exercise alone or with other people? ALONE. You will NOT see me exercise in front of other people. What is the most difficult or involved video game you’ve ever played? The most involved is DEFINITELY World of Warcraft, and I guess you could consider it the hardest too, given some of the much more difficult things I've done in it. It itself isn't a hard game whatsoever, but you can pursue some really hard achievements. Ever watch the show Supernatural? If you have, then what’s your favorite episode? I used to love it, but just stopped watching eventually. My fave episode... Man, it's been too long to remember many. Probably one of the funnier ones. I remember I specifically liked the bit where they were in your everyday comedy show, as well as the one where I THINK Dean kept trying to prevent Sam from dying. I just remember the "Eye of the Tiger" bit that is pure gold. Ever heard of flavored honey? If so, what’s you’re favorite flavor? Oh, no, but that sounds good. Do you remember what your favorite show was when you were little? Yeah, Pokemon. Do you put anything besides cheese on grilled cheese sandwiches? Besides butter, which I think is pretty standard, no. When it comes to books, what do you think is the “perfect” amount of pages? Uh, I dunno. It depends on the book. I don't really care about page numbers. Would you ever be interested in going scuba diving? Yeah. Out of all of your friends/relatives, who would you say has the best vocabulary? Girt, probably. Are any of your fingers or toes deformed? What about the nails? I don't think so? When is the last time you cried? I was sobbing earlier today, fun stuff. Would you ever date somebody that has been divorced more than once? Most likely not. ESPECIALLY at my age. What are some stereotypically nerdy things that you like? Oh god. WoW, M:tG, big glasses, anime (does that count? idk really), video games... a lot of stuff, really. Have you ever attended a wedding that ended where the bride and groom didn’t actually get married? What happened? Y I K E S, no. That would be SO uncomf. What scares you the most about becoming a mother (hypothetically, if you don’t want to have children)? Actually raising it properly, physically and emotionally. Would you ever want a job in fashion? What would you enjoy about that type of job? No. Would you ever be a surrogate mother? No. What do you think would be the best and worst parts about being a twin? It'd be cool to have someone you feel an almost supernatural connection towards, but I'd also feel like I wasn't as "original" as I would be if I was born alone. Do you feel that your childhood was more rough compared to others around you? I mean it wasn't awful at all, but sure, in some ways compared to at least someone. How would you react if you found out today that you were actually adopted? Well today I'm a wreck, so don't tell me. I want to know that I wasn't lied to for 25 years. Have either of your parents ever cheated on one another before, that you know of? How would you react if you found out today that one of them cheated? I'm not entirely clear on this, but I'm 90% sure Dad cheated on Mom with his now-wife. Dad also accused Mom of cheating, but I HIGHLY doubt that's true. Do you like cleaning and organizing? Not really. How would you react if you found out you were infertile? If you don’t plan on having kids to begin with, what is a long-term goal you’d be crushed to find out was impossible to achieve? Fuck having kids. I'd be a terrible mother. So to answer the other question, I'll be pretty, pretty sad if I can't get permission to spread Teddy's ashes at Yellowstone. Would you take your dream job if it were out of the country? Well, obviously not considering my dream job is a meerkat biologist, and I'm not moving to Africa. Have you ever been robbed? No. Is anyone close to you an alcoholic? Not anymore. Dad was, but he's recovered. Have you ever dumped anyone? Yes. What kind of tea do you drink? I hate tea. Do you know anyone in a gang? No, and I hope I never do. What’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for you? Risk his fucking sanity and health to try to hold my fucked up self up. What is your orientation? Gay? Straight? Metrosexual? Anything other? Bisexual. I've kinda been questioning pansexual of the late, though. I don't know. Have you ever done anything really dangerous or illegal with friends? Not to my memory. Name three feelings you’re feeling right now: Regret. Hopelessness. Loneliness. And the reasons for these feelings? Take a wild fuckin' guess. How do you feel about your life right now? It's an actual dumpster fire. Is it easy for you to like yourself? Why or why not? Fuck no. Because there's just not very much TO like about me. Even on my good days, I see flaw after flaw in myself. What subjects come naturally to you? English, some aspects of science. What subjects do not? Math, economics, politics, history... Do you read more fiction or more non-fiction books? Definitely fiction. When I read a book, I want an escape from the real world. How has today been for you? BOY HOWDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What did you do? Went to TMS therapy. Sat on the Internet. Cried. :^) Are there any candles lit in the room you’re in? No. Are there any lava lamps near you? No. I want one, though. Do you like cats or dogs better? Cats. Are any of your friends a pothead? Yes. What’s a goal you’re trying to accomplish soon? Start losing weight again. That'd be pretty goddamn grand. Are you a high maintenance person? Definitely not. The last time you yelled as loud as you could, what was the reason? I was having a nightmare. Have you ever been heartbroken? For sure. Who did that to you? First Dad, then Jason. Did you go through an ugly stage as a kid? Boy, did I. The last type of sandwich you made or ate: A pb&j. The last time you spent most of the day in bed: Literally every day. I do just about everything in bed. Pathetic, I know. The last friend or acquaintance you made: Ummmm idk. The last thing you took pictures of: A hydrangea bush. The last time you were scared: Now. The future is terrifying, my friend. The last thing you looked up online: The definition of a word to ensure I was using it correctly. The last thing you disagreed with: So I've been watching John Wolfe's old stream of him playing Alice: Madness Returns, and he went on a total soapbox about smoking being okay essentially because we're all gonna die eventually from something, and I really disagreed with it. Does your house have a separate laundry room? No, just like a closet. Do your parents still help you financially? I'm still entirely dependent on them. Does your car have a backup camera? No. Have either of your parents ever been in trouble with the law? Not to my knowledge. Have you ever had a pet that lived to be really old for its breed/species? REALLY old, no. Teddy was definitely up there, but beagles have lived longer. What was the last strong scent you smelled? Lysol. Have you ever told someone to their face that they were ugly? Christ, no. Is your bed against more than one of your walls? No. Have you ever been attracted to someone’s parent? Don't think so? Have you ever pole danced before? No. Have you ever broken into someone’s house? No. Have you ever seen a live bat? Yes. What is the most amount of money you’ve spent on a meal before? I dunno. Have you ever taken a woodshop class? No. How much time do you spend on Facebook, if you have one? Funny you ask, because as of today I decided to take a break from it for awhile. I've found it's nothing more than a breeding ground for envy and making me feel like a horribly incompetent adult. Has a teacher ever made you hate yourself/your work? I had one photography teacher in college that I was NOT a fan of. He was super, super hard on everyone, like to an unnecessary degree. We were students, not pros. Have you ever been on the barrier or front row at a concert? No. Are your parents supportive of you? Somehow.

[peaceisadirtyword]

I don't know if this is any good. But can you maybe write something about: You are an exchange student in CPH. You already made some friends and you get invited to a houseparty. Where Alex also is (cause of multual friends). When you arrive he noticed you quiet quick, as you are 'new'. In a subtle way he asks about you to his friends. And later that night he tries to start a conversation with you. Turns out you guys get along very well. Through you're whole stay in CPH you become friends...(1/2)

A/N: Hello! First of all, sorry for disappearing again (I don’t feel good :( but nothing serious). I was going to finish this and post it for Alex’s bday (more than a week ago lol) but I couldn’t write that week so I'm really sorry I'm too late💔 but I finished it!

This hit me hard because I was given an scholarship to go and study in Copenhagen this year, but coronavirus said: I don’t think so, love🌚 so this was like daydreaming about it. I might have cried a bit lol. But I really liked the request, so I wanted to “celebrate” Alex’s birthday with this. I’m really late and this is absolutely terrible :( but at least I have it. So I hope you enjoy it and don’t hate me too much lol

Thank you for the request dear anon! 💕

Btw there’s a second part to this! I took another request I thought it could “match” and I'll post it tomorrow!

Warnings: none I think... an attempt of fluff and... my bad writing

Words: 1726

gif belongs to @yungonie 

You followed Ingrid into the house shyly. You only knew her in Copenhagen, and to enter a party in a house full of people you didn't know made you nervous, but she insisted and you didn't feel like staying at home all alone on a Friday night. 

Besides, it was a chance to meet some new people and make friends, which was the main reason you started this whole exchange thing. 

"Seriously, everyone is really nice, and I already spoke to some of them about you, they're dying to meet you" Ingrid winked at you "Come on!" she chuckled. 

You bit your lip as she stopped in front of a huge group of people, greeting them in danish happily. 

Looking around, you tried to recognize someone from university. You had seen some of them at the cafeteria and the library, but had barely talk to a couple of them. You saw a guy that was on your History class; he was really nice and let you take a look at his notes last week, but he was with his friends and you were too shy to go and say hello. 

In that moment, Ingrid called your name and started introducing you to her friends. 

Alex took another sip of his beer. The fourth one. He had been wanting to go out for the entire week, and he loved parties and have fun with his friends, but this party was unusually boring, and he even started missing his bed and Netflix. 

He nearly decided to leave when he spotted you. It was the first time he saw you, he knew that because he would have remembered you if he did. He frowned softly, staring at you intensely as you greeted some people with a wide smile... Until his friend called his name. 

"What?" he cleared his throat "Sorry, I was... Distracted" 

"Do you want another beer?" his friend leaned into his ear so he would hear him over the loud music. Alex nodded and left the empty bottle on the table near him. 

"So... Ingrid brought a friend" he commented in a casual tone, hoping he didn't sound as curious as he actually was. 

One of his friends turned to look at Ingrid, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, that's Y/N, her new roommate" he nodded "She's an exchange student, we have History together, she's really nice" he smiled "And hot" 

Alex held himself back from glaring at him, nodding softly. 

"Oh, okay, I've never seen her before" 

"She arrived a few weeks ago, I think" he shrugged "She's learning Danish, sounds cute when she tries" he chuckled. 

Alex nodded, but before he could keep asking, someone changed the topic. His eyes, though, didn't leave you. 

_________________________________

Alex sighed in relief as he managed to get out of the house. He was already tipsy and started to get a bit overwhelmed inside the house. He needed some air and a cigarette. 

But just when he was about to walk next to the door, to lean on the wall, he bumped into someone. 

"Undskyld" he muttered as he turned around quickly. He froze when he saw you, looking at him with widened eyes and an apologetic smile. 

"Sorry" you bit your lip "I was distracted" 

"It's okay" he changed quickly to English, smiling back at you "You're Ingrid's friend, right?" 

"Yeah, I'm Y/N" you nodded shyly, intimidated by the most beautiful man you had ever seen. 

"I'm Alex" he extended his hand and you took it, shaking it softly "Nice to meet you" 

"Nice to meet you too" 

"So... Are you okay?" He looked around, maybe looking for Ingrid, but the two of you were all alone on the street. 

"Yeah, it's okay, I just... Needed some fresh air" you chuckled. 

Alex hummed, lighting up the cigarette. 

"We have plenty of fresh air in Denmark" he chuckled. 

"Yeah" you raised an eyebrow as your smile widened "I noticed"

"I'm sure you had a lot of warmer places to choose... Why Copenhagen?" He tilted his head. He was genuinely curious, but also hoping you'd stay there with him for a while. 

"I don't know, I always wanted to come to Scandinavia, it's different from my country" you shrugged. 

"And do you like it?" He smirked at you, and you had to take a deep breath before answering.

"Yes, a lot" you blushed "People are really nice"

"We try to be" he nodded, also blushing a bit and looking down. 

The both of you stood in silence for a couple of minutes until you spoke again, nervously.

"I haven't seen you around on campus" you bit your lip. 

"Me neither" he smirked "I'd remember you" 

You decided to ignore the last part so you wouldn't start giggling in front of him. 

"What do you study?" 

"Photography" he winked at you as you raised your eyebrow with interest "Yes, I'd love to take photos of you" he chuckled. 

"I wasn't going to ask you that" you smirked playfully "But if you insist..."

Alex laughed. 

"I'm offering you an entire photoshoot in some of the best places in Copenhagen" he nodded "I can give you a tour at the same time" 

"Sounds nice" you agreed with a nod. The smirk on his face widened and the two of you stared at each other intensely before he looked away again. 

"You'll have plenty of photos for your Tinder profile" he bit his lip, waiting for your reaction. 

"I don't use Tinder" 

"Boyfriend?" this time he was the one raising an eyebrow with interest, and it made you tremble a bit. 

"No" you shrugged "He broke up with me, he felt betrayed because I decided to do an exchange without telling him first"  

"I don't know whether I should say I'm sorry or congratulate you" he chuckled.

"Probably the second" you smiled at him "He was an asshole" 

Alex nodded, actually agreeing with you. He finished his cigarette and pointed at the door. 

"Want a drink?" 

You bit your lip, holding back an excited smile. 

"Sure"

_________________________________________

All the doubts you could have before coming to Copenhagen, when you thought you would be all alone during your exchange, were completely forgotten as you got to know more people. Everyone was really nice to you, and soon you were one more in the group, and got invited to every party. 

During your whole exchange, you got closer to Alex. Surprisingly, you ended up spending more time with him than with your roommate or with other friends -they seemed to find this really amusing, as everyone always smirked and giggled every time you mentioned you were going to meet Alex-. He was fun, easy to talk to, always willing to help you -your Danish improved thanks to him- and so sweet that you honestly thought about asking him to marry you more than once. You'd lie if you said you didn't like him, but didn't want to ruin your friendship. You preferred to keep things as they were. 

That Friday night you were at one of your friend's house, like you usually did every weekend. This time, you were all having dinner, celebrating the good weather and the end of the exams while planning to spend a weekend away at a summer cottage in Jutland to celebrate Alex's birthday.

"You'll come, right?" Alex, sitting next to you, eyed you carefully. He was surprised you were so quiet, as you were always the most excited with that kind of plans.

"Yeah, of course" you smiled at him "I was just realizing this is going to end soon" you pouted "And I'll go back home and this will be over" you muttered. 

Alex frowned. He had thought about it more than once, but now he was realizing it, and his heart broke a bit. 

"But... You can still come back, right?" 

"Yeah" you smiled "Of course, I'll come back, but it won't be the same, I think..."

He licked his lips, nodding slowly. 

"Then we can also take it as a goodbye too" he smiled back at you "So it won't be that sad" 

"Okay" you giggled "I agree... Now let's just enjoy this, okay?"

An hour later, you were already tipsy. It was already dark and everyone chatted in small groups on the backyard of the house. You had drank way more than you intended at first, and you were starting to regret it. 

Getting up from your chair, you apologized to the group of girls you were talking to. 

"I'm going to drink some water" you bit your lip as they giggled softly. They thought it was cute you weren't as used to drink as they were "I'll be right back"

Entering the house, you made your way into the empty kitchen, taking a glass and filling it with cold water that felt like heaven when you started drinking. 

Suddenly, you heard some steps just behind you. Startled, you turned around with widened eyes. 

"Alex" you sighed "Fuck, you scared me" you left the glass on the counter and rubbing your face. He didn't answer, but approached you while biting his lip "I drank too much, I think... Do you want some w...?" 

He leant into you and suddenly you felt his lips against yours. His hand cupped your cheek as the other one caressed your waist. You gasped in surprise, but kissed him back as soon as you realized what was happening, putting your hands on his shoulders to stabilize yourself. 

His lips felt were soft. He tasted like the red wine and the beer he had been drinking the whole evening, but also sweet. 

Alex was the one who broke the kiss. You blinked a couple of times as he moved away from you, blushing and looking everywhere but to you. 

"I'm sorry" he muttered "I... I just realized I'm an idiot and I should have told you I like you much earlier"

You gasped, still in shock. 

"I shouldn't have kissed you before asking, I'm really sorry" he cleared his throat, nervous as you didn't say anything. 

"Don't be" you bit your lip "I... I like you too"

He looked genuinely surprised, but his lips curved in a wide, adorable smile that made you giggle. 

"So... I didn't fuck everything up?"

"No" you bit your lip and leaned into him again "You didn't"

____________________________________________

Tags: @mblaqgi @alicedopey @lol-haha-joke @hallowed-heathen @naaladareia @tephi101 @captstefanbrandt @love-hate-love @titty-teetee @readsalot73 @moondustmemories @thevikingsheaux @therealcalicali @chimera4plums @blushingskywalker @awkwardfangirl02 @credulouskhaleesi @gruffle1 @justacripple @heartbeats-wildly @inforapound @winchesterwife27 @hecohansen31 @xinyourdreamsx @funmadnessandbadassvikings @tgrrose @jadelynlace @flokidottirsstuff @lovessce @tootie-fruity @didiintheblog @alexhandersenx @belovedcherry @fantasydevil2002

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hii! Yeah don't worry about it! Live your life, the internet people can wait, I know I appreciate you taking the time to reply, no matter how long it takes! 👍✨

Oh cool! France and LA that must've been fun, have always wanted to go to those places. Will get around to it eventually. I've lived in Brazil, Canada, and now Portugal, but I've also visited Orlando (Disneyland) and Miami in the US. Hoping I can go to Spain next year to visit my best friend too.

What did you say that got people making fun of you? haha Which fic did you insert that in? The only reason I cheat while playing games is bc I get bored easily so I have to add a little bit of spice hahaha and my morals are questionable I guess. 🤷‍♀️ My mbti is the architect (INTJ-T) so I guess that explains things a bit (?). Do you know your mbti? Omg your poor roommate hahaha I mean that's the best kind of winner to be, humble winners are boring as hell lol

Aren't you glad you had those drunken experiences when you were younger instead of now tho? I can't promise I'll never do stuff like that again but I'm fine with it being behind me for now hahaha. Omg you're totally right on the accent thing, hadn't thought about it that way!

What!! You should watch Stranger Things with her! It's sooo good, it's a guaranteed fun time for you two. My favourite episodes of thobm are 4 and 6 too, I like epi 9 only up until Dani's bathtub incident.

I like doing accents too but only to myself bc I'm too self-conscious haha Although I pick up accents really easily it's kinda embarrassing, sometimes people think I'm mocking them. Do people get offended when you try to do their accents? 😂 I got a scholarship at a british english school in my home country when I was a kid so I had an RP accent growing up but ended up with a generic American accent after watching too many American movies and TV shows. Sometimes it comes out generic Canadian too haha. Nordern English accent became my favourite tho after watching Billy Elliott when I was a teen!

Awwh gee thanks! I'm happy you liked my damie fan art! Didn't know you already started writing for medieval AU, makes sense people already thought to send you prompts for it, it's a really cool universe! Looking forward to updates on all your WIPS, love them all! Take your time if you need tho!

Sounds like a really fun weekend! Yeah I know what you mean, don't worry we won't tell them you have a favourite haha. Congrats on coming second on that game of crazy golf! 🎉 and thank you, I will!

Awwh thank you for understanding!! I'll always reply to people's comments eventually it just takes longer sometimes, but I will always get around to it eventually!! France was fun I went to Disney Land Paris and shared a hotel room with my roommate (yes she was on the trip too because she was in another photography class... we have been friends for so long now) it was honestly a lot of fun and I went to LA to visit my ex-girlfriend while we were still together it was a long distance relationship and I went out to LA and my roommate was invited too so we had a trip out there and had a great time I would 100% go back to LA some time!! So jealous that you've lived in Canada that's one place I really wanna go I would love to live there it looks like such a beautiful country!! I would love to go to Orlando and Miami... I wanna see all 50 states eventually if I can... so far I've seen one so only 49 to go haha!! Awwh I really hope you can get out to Spain to see your best friend!! Which is your favourite place you have visited so far? Okay so... the thing I said is in Can't Buy Me Love and it's a bit of a long story so I'll shorten it down here, but basically a group of us were talking about myths and things and I mentioned the myth of being able to see the Great Wall of china from the moon (you can't) and to add to the myth as a buster I genuinely said "Well that's the thing, people say you can see the Great Wall of China from the moon... but can you see the moon from the Great Wall of China?" and it took a good five minutes of people telling me you could see it from my house and just about anywhere else to realise that, if the moon is out, and it's a clear night, and you're y'know facing the moon... you can pretty much see it anywhere... but that's what people still mock me about... that I asked if you can see the moon from the Great Wall of China... so I put that in CBML and had it as a story Dani tells Jamie. Haha I love your reason for cheating and think it's as good as a reason as any haha!! I do know my mbti... mine is the campaigner...EFNP-T... I don't know what these mean either I read it a while ago but forgot what it meant I just know what I am haha... oh yeah she's had a lot to put up with so she just won't play games with me anymore... oh yeah I agree humble winners are okay but I do like a good bit of bragging when you win a game I am glad yeah... although the road sign incident was only... 3 years ago haha like I would like to say I was a lot younger then but I wasn't haha the black out incident I was though... I can't drink much anymore though because of medication I'm on (life long medication) so I can have maybe one or two drinks and that's it so I can't do things like that again which is probably a good thing really!! Haha best way to be don't make promises like that because that is a sure fire way to definitely do it again the second you make that promise the opportunity to do it again will show itself haha!! Yeah Jamie just has no accent to me like she just talks like most people I know it's only when I saw people talking about it that I realised to some people the Northern accent is exactly that... an accent haha I LOVE episode 9 for me 4,6, and 8 are a joint favourite like I can't pick between them and then it's episode 9 because I do love it and I love seeing them be that happy for the first part of the episode but then it just gets so sad and I can't take it!! I do accents all the time around anyone even though I am terrible at them haha... nah people don't ever get offended they just sort of smile and shake their heads at me... some people have asked me to do their accent before but I mean, I am sure eventually someone will be offended there's a first time for everything... I just have an accent that's really similar to Jamie's it's not the exact same but it's very close I love that you've had so many accents for so many reasons... omg yeah the accent on Billy Elliot is my favourite accent ever, it is a northern accent but it's from a city called New Castle which is SO different to some

other northern accents... it's the Geordie accent and it's just beautiful I could honestly listen to people from New Castle talk for hours- people from South Shields also sound like that (SS is really close to New Castle) I can see why that accent is your favourite I wish I talked like that I loved that fan art I thought it was amazing!! Yeah I haven't written much of it but I have some of it written and when I say some I mean I have like 4 different scenes written from different points of the fic and each scene is only like 1k words so far!! It's such a cool universe and I am so happy people have sent me prompts for it!! Awwh thank you so much I'm glad you're looking forward to the updates of my WIPs that really means a lot to me!! I've had a great weekend but I am so tired now totally and utterly done after the weekend I've had haha... I wouldn't say I have favourites I have just spent more time with one niece than the other because since she was really young I've looked after her while her parents have been at work and I've had breaks from work / college / university so I have spent so much time with her and she's turning into a little mini me with some stuff she does but I love all my nieces and nephews the same (and I have so many nieces and nephews haha) Awwh thank you!! I appreciate that, still feeling really proud of my second place in crazy golf haha!! and you're welcome!! ☺️