#now there's a worm in your head; you don't know where you are and some weird elf with a neck fixation will simply not be quiet.

[binmeister]

Office worker AU

Saja Boys x Office worker! Reader

Taking over the world via, checks notes, corporate slavery.

Summary - Modern, human AU - no demons, just office romance with sprinkles of pre-established dynamics & relationships - OOC / entirely self indulgent - Fem! Reader

A/N: I don’t actually know what to classify this as, eventually may post scenarios from this AU on top of this but hey. Self indulgence for me to enjoy. This is mostly for me to read but eventually I’ll share my headcanons and notes maybe but otherwise it's entirely just something I want to work on outside of the other current ficlets I have.

CW: not perfectly proofread, fem! reader, OOC obviously - may eventually contain suggestive / NSFW content intended for (18+) readers

Wordcount: 8.8k

Note: Baby (Byeol), Mystery (Minseok) and Romance (Roman / Ro) have been given AU head-canoned names in this and Abs has just been set as Abby but if you prefer to read them as non head-canoned names please feel free to do so!

Feel free to comment, reblog or even create your own AU based off of this - just don't claim my work as your own please.

The mundane routine of an office job hadn't sounded appealing to you back in high school, but as you go through the tediously simple steps each day now you had to admit that there were some perks amidst all the major cons. Firstly there was routine, even amidst abrupt tight deadlines. Secondly was the promise of a paycheque, consistent income in the form of an annual salary had been the biggest reason you’d stayed loyal the last few years to Saja LLC. Though to be fair the other reason you may have enjoyed working there was because of the short commute time, realistically a half hour subway ride was way better than a 2 to 3 hour commute one way.

The only gripe you had now was that it still required you to wake up at 6:00am to get ready for the day, giving yourself a half hour to process the weight of being awake and the reality of being a corporate pawn before you drag yourself out of bed at 6:30 to get ready and prepped for the day. At 7:15 you’re fully dressed and refreshed from your morning routine, white blouse tucked neatly into a stretchy pencil skirt and some plain dark stockings layered underneath that. You manage to grab a quick snack as breakfast as you slip on your short pumps and pick up your handbag, slinging it over your left shoulder and grabbing your apartment keys. At 7:25 you’ve made it down to the subway in time to catch the 7:30 train and get onto the women’s passenger car, then at 7:45 you’re packed up tight with a multitude of other commuting women - ranging from students to business women to mothers on their way to attend appointments.

By the time you reached your stop and be free of the stuffy car you felt relieved that you had managed to get off the packed subway in one piece, hating how sweaty and sticky it felt being trapped amongst the other women on the train ride but at least there were no creeps that had tried to worm their way onto the women only car. You lifted your arm to glance at your wrist watch, a sigh of relief when you confirmed you’d been right on time and didn’t need to rush yourself as you paced up the stairs to exit the subway - heels clicking against the concrete stairs and echoing slightly amidst all the bustling business folk going about their day as well. By the time you’d reached the top of the stairs your calves ached a little, and you couldn’t help internally curse at yourself for not packing your spare shoes so walking could be a bit more comfortable.

“[Name]!” A familiar male voice calls out and you stop for a moment, head turning around as you tried to locate where the call originated from and then soon enough you feels his hands before you can see his face. Jinu, in all his magnificent glory like he wasn’t an 9-6 office worker not including commute time. You seriously couldn’t believe that he’s still a morning person after all the years of knowing him, thinking back about how you thought your time together in university would’ve changed him but nope. Still an early bird even when he had little to no sleep. He’d over-explain and say something about ‘waking up early just lets him think better’, yeah sure buddy.

“Morning.” Came your greeting as your eyes caught sight of his face finally, he shifted to walk on your right and you began to match your strides with him - or rather he matched his longer strides with your smaller heel cladded ones. He was dressed in a plain light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tucked and pressed neatly into black suit pants and had a laptop bag slung over his shoulder with the strap crossing over his torso. It was comforting as he blabbered on about what he did last night, how when he called up Minseok to come hang out the guy had the audacity to agree only to stand him up which you proceed to poke fun at him over it. ‘Maybe if you were prettier, he’d actually show up’ was what you said and Jinu had looked back towards you as if you called him an ugly unlovable animal. 

“I’m just saying.. you’d look great with some dangly earrings, you’ve still got the piercing holes anyway.” Was what you pointed out to him, your right hand had reached out to brush against his visible pierced ear lobe only to be met with a swift swat of his hand - an attempt to hide his reddening ear tips as well but you simply laughed at him more because of it. From the subway station was about a 10 minute walk to the office, any longer and you’d be questioning god on why you decided not packing a pair of flats was a good idea and not at all detrimental to your poor feet.

“I think I’d look better in big hoops than those flimsy dangly ones.” Jinu had retorted, straightening himself up and doing an exaggerated flip of his hand as he tossed his invisible flowing locks over his shoulder like he was some kind of actress in a show. You rolled your eyes at him and had taken a few steps side ways to get some distance from him, pretending to be embarrassed to be seen with him, which only made him complain as he reached out to grab you by your right arm and tug you back closer whilst he sang out a complaint of, “Wow, you’re so unsupportive of me. Not very girls girl of you I thought you were better than that.” 

It continued on like that for the remainder of the walk, his hand hadn’t let go of your arm and when the pair of you had made it to the revolving doors of your shared office he finally realised and let you go. Honestly you hadn’t realised he’d still been touching you until the warmth of his hand disappeared but mentally shrugged it off as you stepped forward to the doors first since he gave a mocking bow and a grand gesture with his hands ‘You first, m’lady’. Once the two of you had stepped into the main lobby you’d both began to rummage in your respective bags for your work passes, needing them to get through the gates that blocked off the building elevators as you continued to match your steps together.

“Did you remember your pass today?” He asked as he gave you a knowing look, given your history of repeatedly forgetting to bring it to work the next day and you simply pouted up at him for a moment before victoriously showing him a simple black lanyard - a plastic covered work ID attached securely. Jinu opened his mouth slightly, feigning surprise and gave a small little applause before he moved to scan his ID at the gates first then stepped through and to the side to wait for you to come on through. As you did you instinctively threw your pass back in your bag as he simply stuffed his into his right pant pocket, the lanyard hanging loosely out of it.

When you’d stepped through he fell back into step alongside you as you made your way over to stand in front of the elevator doors, Jinu taking a brief step forward to press the button for the lift to descend before shifting back and stuffing his hands in his pockets. Your guys’ conversation had lulled now and you both seemed content with just waiting in silence for a little while, it was still early in the morning so not too many people were spotted in the lobby yet. A soft ding resounded and he removed his right hand from his pant pocket for you to step in first, stepping in right after you and stuffing that hand back into his pocket after he clicked the 11th button to get to your shared destination.

The two of you stood side by side, a small gap between you both as the doors closed and the lift began it’s ascent to the next floor. The doors slid open and a few people stepped in, causing the pair of you to step toward the back of the space to be polite as the new tenants clicked buttons for levels lower than the floor either of you needed to get to. The doors slid closed again, followed by another smooth ascent to the third floor now and the same song and dance happened where more bodies entered and once again you’d both been forced to shift further into the lift and toward the back corner - your smaller body slotting between his and the railing connected to the wall but still enough space for now to be comfortable. Then it happened again at the next floor where even more bodies piled on in and Jinu had bumped into you, his hands no longer in his pockets as he tried to limit the space he was taking so he wouldn’t crush you. As if you  were in some twisted comedy it happened again on the next floor and Jinu had turned his body when he realised he was about to be forcibly shoved into you and he raised an arm up and braced his forearm against the metal wall as he let out a grunt trying his best not to squish you against the elevator wall but to no avail as someone bumped against him and now you were pressed against each other.

He felt heat rising to his face and didn’t want to look down at your face so he had looked up at the ceiling, praying to anything holy that his body didn’t have an unfortunate reaction to the proximity, ‘think about wrinkly naked old guys’  he told himself mentally. You were admittedly a little stun locked in this moment as your hands had reflexively gone up to brace for the expected impact of Jinu slamming into you but it never came so now your hands were stuck pressed against his chest and the rest of your body was flush against his as the elevator shifted and groaned slightly at the weight of so many people inside. The lift was definitely overly crowded, probably getting close to full capacity as you waited for the next ding for the potential relief of people exiting but you couldn’t see the panel to see what floors people were getting off on and some of the people inside the lift were busy chatting over something that happened on the weekend. You didn’t crane your neck to look up at Jinu, opting to keep your head down now that you realised there was no chance of you being able to see anything through the dense mass of bodies that had trapped the two of you in the back corner of the metal cell.

Jinu made the mistake of looking down finally, his neck hurting from craning to look up and he let his head fall to look down at you and he had to actively think to keep his breathing steady as he processed what was happening. Your hands were flat on his chest and you’d absentmindedly started to drum your fingers against the fabric of his shirt, your head was tilted down and he was glad for that because if you looked up at him now he was sure he’d do something stupid. He let out a grunt when he felt someone behind him elbow him in the back and he would’ve turned around to check who it was but even that was a little difficult to do given the amount of room available. It occurred to him that he wasn’t too opposed to this proximity lasting longer but soon enough at the next floor a herd of people had walked out, finally allowing him the space to take a step back as he mumbled an apology to you.

By the 8th floor there were only maybe two other people in the lift besides you then by the 9th it had gone back to just being the two of you. You couldn’t help the laugh that started to echo out of you as your shoulders shook, trying your best to suppress it but failing miserably as you couldn’t help but think back to the last 8 or so minutes of your life. As you finally spoke again, letting out a small “Rom-com drama much.” comment as you looked at Jinu. His expression made you want to laugh harder as he visibly looked like he was processing what you just said and then a smile breaks out on his face and he lets out a chuckle.

“Hah.. yeah you’re right.” He finally agreed as he hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his suit pants, looking forward for a moment before tilting his head slightly to side eye you and letting a sly comment slip out, “For the record, I’m totally the pretty female lead that everyone’s fighting over.”

You feigned hurt as you dramatically placed a hand over your heart, offended at what he could be insinuating about your dynamic. “Are you saying that I’m just male love interest #4? The unlucky co-worker that’s never going to win?” Then he hummed a small maybe and looked away from you, then the both of you let out another laugh as you both looked over to the panel that counted the floor levels - watching it flash 10 ^ for a brief second before it flashed to 11 and the elevator came to a halt. Before he could gesture for you to go first, it was your turn to give a dramatic gesture and urge him to go out the door first.

“You first my sweet lady.” You’d teased, attempting to lower your voice as you did so and it was his turn to roll his eyes at you now as he stepped off, pitching up his voice as he replied to you - attempting a very poor attempt at a feminine voice. “Ohh.. you’re such a gentleman oh my gosh.”

When you’d straightened yourself up and stepped out of the lift after him the expression on his face was sly, eye lids lowered a little as he stared down at you and then you both did your best to stop your shaking shoulders as the laughs leaked out of you. You’d parted ways after that, Jinu needing to check in with his supervisor so you gave a small wave as he saluted to you and walked in the opposite direction you were heading. As you walked to the right of the reasonably spacious area you saw a familiar mop of lavender hair over the series of cubicle walls and your pace quickened a little as you walked over towards it.

Minseok was settling down at his desk, just arrived a few minutes before you and Jinu had and was minding his business as he dropped his bag by his feet and pulled out a few essentials. Water bottle, phone, notebook, as he placed the items on his desk he shifted again to lean back down and check if he needed to grab anything else and he noticed your shoes. But his non-functioning brain was trying to process why he had apparently brought women’s heels to work and then it hits him that you’re standing there.

“Good morning.” You chirped happily at him and he straightened himself up, murmuring a greeting in return as you moved out of his vision briefly before appearing again on his left side. You’d plopped your handbag on your desk and took out the lanyard you’d thrown back in there earlier back out, hooking it around your neck and grabbing your own water bottle out as well as your phone before carefully sliding your bag to the back left corner of your desk.

You finally sat down before turning in your chair to look at him now, his appearance the same as always - a little unkempt but you’d be terrified if he walked in one day pristine and tidy. His hair was still the same familiar awkwardly long length that just barely kept his eyes covered but short enough that people couldn’t complain that he didn’t look well maintained, he was wearing a regular long sleeved light grey dress shirt, dark grey suit pants and just some regular leather dress shoes - the top button of his shirt was undone and he was currently in the process of unbuttoning the cuffs on his sleeves so he could roll them up a little.

“Jinu was complaining that you stood him up.” You said as you watched him go through the familiar motion of messily pushing the sleeves up until you reached a hand out to shoo his own away from it, wheeling yourself closer so you could neatly fold the cuffs up to his desired length before carefully tucking the sleeve securely so it wouldn’t sag back down his forearm. “You’ll wrinkle it if you just shove it up like that..” You’d huffed as you motioned for him to give you his other arm so you could repeat the same neat folds.

“In my defence, he messaged me at like 11pm on a work night.” He hummed before saying a soft thank you when you’d finished folding up his other sleeve, he’d turned his chair slightly so it was easier for you and when you were finished he fully turned in your direction now. “I’m not being his late night booty call.”

Your expression said it all, eyebrow quirked as you couldn’t help the sly smile that slipped onto your face as you gave him a look that just screamed ‘you’re kidding’ before you spoke again. “We both know that man has never gotten any ass in his life. C’mon we’ve known him since high school.“ He hummed in agreement and relaxed back into the back rest of his chair as he let you continue on.

“We’ve talked about it before mystery man, you’ve gotten laid more than Jinu’s fumbled a date. Which is an impressive number at that.” You teased the ‘mystery man’ in front of you as he shrugged you off, trying to hide his embarrassment at you bringing up his past actions and going on the defence as he retorted that ‘university was a different life time’ and you backed off after that. Both of you repositioning yourselves at your desk to get started with work for the day, occasionally making small talk before you both had quietened down to focus on whatever document either of you had to read through.

Maybe an hour or two had passed when you heard the familiar ‘ehem’ of your supervisor which caused you and Minseok to look up and away from your monitors, both turning in your chairs a little towards the right where she stood with a younger looking man with teal hair. He was dressed in a plain white dress shirt and light grey dress pants, a backpack slung on one shoulder and his resting expression seemed a little bored. She’d given you a quick run down on the new face and mentioned that the young man had recently been hired and that she expected both yourself and Minseok to train him as well as that the new hire would be seated at the spare desk beside you, she was about to introduce your new co-worker when her phone blared and she apologetically bowed at you all before having to rush off to handle whatever matters had come up.

“Uhm.. My name’s Byeol, I was hired on as a junior assistant, uh, please take care of me.” He awkwardly introduced himself, voice surprisingly low in contrast to his appearance as he bowed at you and Minseok with stiff arms by his side. Clearly uncomfortable at just being thrown into the deep end with no warning, his eyes shifted from you then to Minseok and then to the floor as he looked like he’d rather be absolutely anywhere except for here. Minseok tilted his head to catch your eye and you nodded at him like ‘you go first’ to which he did, as the both of you stood from your chairs now to bow a little to show respect.

“I’m Minseok, I’m a financial analyst so we may not be working together too frequently.” He spoke, voice still low and soft before he gestured for you to introduce yourself next. “I’m [Name], it seems like you’ll probably working with me more - I’m a finance officer.” 

After your introduction you awkwardly gestured to the desk beside you on your left, clean and tidy like no one has ever worked there which is partly true from what you knew and Byeol nodded at that as he stepped over and got himself situated in the space. He seemed a little nervous yet radiated a cool unbothered aura that made you feel like you didn’t really need to keep an eye on him too much which was a relief to you, you were not paid to be someone’s emotional support at this office. He piped up suddenly as he settled in on the slightly creaky office chair and pulled out a notebook from his bag.

“Is this floor always so empty?” He’d asked you, or rather the pair of you as he let his eyes make a quick sweep around the area. You froze for a moment as you tried to process his question and then regurgitate what information you had available. 

“Ah, yeah it is. It’s just our little group in finance and the legal guys on this floor.” When you mentioned the legal team, you pointed at the few cubicles behind you, the walls were facing the three of you so you never really had to worry on if anyone would be seated behind you. “There’s a couple more members in finance but Mimi’s on maternity leave and Jiyoung is taking an extended vacation at the moment.”

Byeol had made a soft ‘mm’ of acknowledgement at the information you gave him, seeming to relax a little knowing that there wouldn’t be too many annoyances in the work space then which was a huge relief for him. He didn’t say much else as he booted up the computer and input the login information your supervisor seemingly gave him before she had to leave, he turned his head slightly to talk to you directly now and listed off the information she had told him. Mentioning that today was just getting familiar with the systems, the workflow and for you or Minseok to assist him in getting the necessary privileges to get access to certain documents and databases. The usual corporate on-boarding. 

“Gooooood morning.” A voice boomed out suddenly which made you jump and Byeol stared blankly at you, Minseok cursed under his breath as a familiar mess of violet hair appeared above the aforementioned legal department cubicles. A muscular figure arrived, a man a good inch or two taller than Jinu had appeared after he threw his bag onto his desk - coming up to stand over Minseok’s cubicle and leant on the wall of it much to the latter’s dismay.

“Oh hey, an extra body.” He commented as he noticed the presence of a third body in the usually empty desk beside you. He squinted for a second and then his eyes lit up as he rushed over and trapped Byeol in an overly familiar headlock. “Aye! It’s my baby boy.”

“Abby hyung- let me go.” Byeol had managed to grunt out as he desperately tried to flee Abby’s grasp and failed miserably. Begrudgingly accepting his fate as you and Minseok shared a confused look and you had instinctively rolled your chair away from what was going on in front of you. Sorry new guy, you were way too weak to help in this situation.

Abby finally released him and stood up, his button up shirt was well fitted today and surprisingly wasn’t bursting at the seams despite his figure. He rested his hands on his hips as he started to badger the younger man about how he’s been, why hasn’t ‘Baby’ come along for a drinking night, when will the next game night be and you can see the way Byeol is contemplating submitting his resignation already. But you had a feeling he won’t because the pay is just way too good at Saja LLC to leave.

“Why’s Abby hazing the new guy?” You heard Jinu’s voice from behind you and both yourself and Minseok had turned your heads around at that, Jinu had his hands in his pockets and his lanyard around his neck now as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It wasn’t an unfamiliar scene that Abby would be chatting with people in the office in general, a bit of an out-going guy that just liked to get to know people but he usually wasn’t touchy feely with people at work since he never wanted to cross that line.

“Apparently that’s his baby boy.” Minseok commented, he had leaned back in his chair and lazily crossed his legs as he rested his right arm on his desk but Jinu simply said a small ‘uh huh..’ with extreme uncertainty and disbelief. A few minutes had gone by at this rate with the three of you staring at Abby babbling on at Byeol, the younger man looked drained and no longer the same awkward guy you’d seen earlier as he answers selectively to whatever he was questioned with. Then it’s like someone finally turned the light on in Abby’s head and he looks up and over to you guys like you’d just appeared out of thin air and he lets out a sharp ‘aha!’.

“My bad! Sorry, it’s lil baby man back from uni - do you guys remember? That freshman buddy program I signed up for as a credit thing.” That was it, that was his explanation and that made everything click into place for the three of you. Memories of when Abby had shown up to gush about his ‘baby’ when the four of you would hang out at Jinu and Minseok’s shared dorm, he had never actually shown pictures of the freshman’s face but you feel like you would’ve recognised the teal hair now that you really try to focus on your recounting of the events.

“Ohhh. Oh my god you were the unlucky kid that got stuck with Abby, I remember you now!” You clapped your hands, straightening up in your seat while you celebrated your little victory over your failing memory. It came together in a much clearer picture now when Abby had shown up to the guys’ dorm with a disgruntled looking student, way too tired to function and he looked like all he wanted to do was leave as he was literally forced to hang out with the lot of you who were a few years older than him and definitely had no idea how to talk to him. Byeol’s brows furrowed as he tried to remember who you were, because he swears he would’ve remembered your face if he did know you then it hits him and he briskly stands up and excuses himself to go to the restroom. He remembers distinctly now. 

The four of you were left dumbfounded at his sudden departure but Jinu and Minseok are both quick to jump on Abby’s case about it, saying that it was his fault and he probably scared the kid off now. Abby had looked at you with pleading eyes like you would save him from the other two giving him shit but you avoid eye contact as you recall how frequently the taller man used to force all of you introverts into going out to party and ‘explore your horizons’ despite everyone’s objections and complaints. Then he throws you under the bus.

“Hey, he was taking my affection - he ran off when lil missy over here talked to him.” Then suddenly all of the attention is on you and you’re complaining that the guys always bully you just because you’re a girl, but they rebuttal with how they don’t do this to any of the other women on your floor but then you’re staring at them with big eyes and they shut up for a moment. After talking in circles you had shut yourself up, grumbling a little as you tuned them out and shifted back to your desk to get some work done since it was going no where. 

It had quietened down shortly after as Jinu and Abby headed back to their respective desks, deciding finally to get to work now that they were done messing with you and Minseok had buried his head back in some new financial audit that had been sent his way. Byeol had eventually returned and was a little thrown off by the peaceful environment, the only sound really being the clacking of keys or the clicking of mice, maybe the low voices of Jinu and Abby as they discussed something in regards to work. He’d quietly sat back down in his chair, trying to hide the mild shame of what he’d done as he opened up excel and the company’s intranet to see what steps he could take to get his access sorted for the day. A minute went by and he sees you move out of the corner of his eye, you clear your throat to get his attention so he turns his head ever so slightly to your direction to let you know that he’s listening even as his eyes are scanning the information on the screen in front of him.

“Hey, did chief tell you what level of access you needed at all? Or is there a note or anything that she left?” You’d asked, voice a little soft and low and it made a tingle ripple through his body and he shifts in his chair to reorient himself. He nodded dumbly as he opened the thin manila folder HR had handed off to him earlier in the morning, looking down at them before grabbing out a couple of papers and handing them over to you which you accepted graciously. “Just some low level stuff for now, but apparently they really want me to have a look at the previous year’s finances to understand what’s going on or something.”

You’d nodded at his answer and looked at the couple of sheets he’d given you, mentally taking note of which folders and files he needed access to and turning to your own computer to start raising the ticket requests so the IT team could handle it from there. You hummed as you submitted the last request then turned back to Byeol, offering him the papers he’d given you and he’d grabbed them without turning to look while he continued to click through the currently accessible files and software that he had been approved for.

“You’ll probably be able to access stuff after lunch, if not tomorrow.” You alerted him and he gave a small nod at that. Your eyes lingered on him a little longer as you realised that he’s definitely shaped up a bit since the time you saw him at university, still relatively baby faced but there’s this mature cool vibe from him now instead of the irritable teen you remember. 

“Lunch?” Abby called out and Minseok groaned, both of you well aware that the guy definitely just stood up at his desk with golden retriever levels of excitement which means now you definitely have to go get lunch otherwise he’ll complain for whoever knows how long about how he just wants to spend time with you guys and don’t you guys feel lucky that you all ended up in the same company after university. The usual spiel he always pulled on you guys when you were giving him shit when you’d gone for company drinks and ended up staying out later just hanging out as a group. 

“You too my sweet baby boy.” Came his voice again and it was Byeol’s turn to groan, muttering complaints under his breath that you managed to catch. “Thought I’d never have to see that fucker again after he graduated but nooo.. course he’s at my first big boy job.”

Byeol shuts up when he hears you snort and then he’s smirking a little to himself. You lock your computer, using your mouse to do so and you hear Minseok doing the same thing and then you hear Byeol just clack a few keys on his keyboard and his computer is locked too so the three of you lean back in your chairs and just wait for the legal boys to get themselves sorted. It didn’t take long as you hear Jinu’s iconic chair creak as he stretched and stood up, the tell tale sign that he’s getting up from his desk which let you and Minseok know to get up as well. You stretched your arms up, as you got to your feet before patting down your skirt to make sure it hadn’t ridden up your thighs too much before grabbing your company phone.

“Are you gonna join us, Byeol?” Minseok was the one to ask as you got yourself sorted, pushing your chair under your desk  as you waited for either of the men in your vicinity to move as well. Byeol nodded, getting up himself and tucking his chair under his desk as well - grabbing his phone of the table top in the process and slipping it into his pocket. You’d walked over to the wall blocking off the two legal department desks and peered your head over to check if they had actually gotten up or not to go get lunch, you’d tippy toed a little but it wasn’t worth it as the two men were standing and looking at you like you were a kid trying to peek at them.

“Hi.” You offered up weakly as you lowered your heels back to the ground, Jinu looked like he was ready to poke fun at you when Abby speaks first. “Ro’s already there, he sent me a message complaining that he’s lonely without us.” Ping!

“And he has tea to spill.” He commented as he pulled out his personal phone to check what Mr. Gossip had to say. Like a shepherd with his sheep, the extrovert of your group ushered his herd of introverts away and into the elevator to get down to the office cafeteria. It arrives quickly, allowing the five of you to get on and hit the 3rd button and settle in as it smoothly dropped with no stops on the way down for once. Jinu and you had briefly made eye contact and had to stifle your laughs as if your connected braincell shared the same memory of this morning.

When you arrive at your desired floor - Abby leads the way and slings an arm around Byeol despite his protests, leaving you, Minseok and Jinu to follow after them as you idly chattered about what today’s food options might be. Minseok and Jinu spoke a little quieter to each other as they tried to recount any memories they had of Byeol and then Minseok admits that he had completely forgotten his name because Abby only ever referred to him as baby, baby boy, baby man, lil baby, any iteration that involved the word baby.

“I remember that. Guy had to deal with the three of us awkwardly calling him baby man or lil guy because Abby managed to cut him off every damn time he tried to tell us his name.” Jinu replied, recollections of memories from that period of time in university finally unlocking for him as well and you hummed in agreement before chiming in as well. “I think I avoided calling out to him because it was awkward to say ‘hey lil dude’ or ‘hey baby’.”

You hadn’t noticed the way your two companions freeze as you casually call out ‘hey baby’, both needing to either swallow down whatever they were about to say or clear their throat by coughing into a closed fist. Soon enough the familiar cafeteria doors are in front of you and you fall into line with the other staff members still trailing through and getting their trays filled up with food. You end up behind Minseok who handed you two trays, keeping one for youself you pass one to Jinu behind you and Abby had taken Byeol ahead of you guys already so you guys grabbed bits and pieces of food before heading over to your usual table tucked away at the far back. You’d all agreed it was for the better of everyone else if you were hidden away because lord did your last friend like to gossip about what goes on in the marketing department.

Minseok had waited for you where as Jinu had headed off to your groups’ table first so he could avoid any unwanted attention ladies from the other departments would pester him with, a fun little thing you teased him about pretty frequently. By the time you’d arrived at your corner table tucked away in the back you saw Byeol look like he was ready to murder the next unsuspecting bystander as a familiar head of pink and Abby were poking fun at him. Jinu was sat across from them, two seats available beside him and was munching on some rice as he watched his free entertainment. Minseok sits on the chair by the window which leaves you to take the middle seat between him and Jinu, placing your tray neatly and picking up your chop sticks as you tried to piece together what the three men were doing. Byeol was stuck in between them across from you, ‘Ro’ on the window seat across from Minseok, Abby across from Jinu and the two were coo-ing at Byeol like he was.. a baby.

“Oh little baby man.” Abby sang out as he prodded at Byeol’s cheeks, Ro mimicking the same thing on the opposing side until he was swatted away by flailing limbs and Byeol looked like he was trying so hard not to explode. Your eyes locked for a moment and he silently pleaded that you or either of the guys on either side of you would save him.

“So.. how’s your first day been lil baby?” Minseok was the one to ask it, your head whipped to him and Byeol had a look of utter betrayal on his face like seriously? His own department now against him. Jinu choked on his rice from the sudden laugh that he let out and your jaw had gone slack at the fact that Minseok joined in on the bullying.

“If I wasn’t on probation I’d kill every single one of you, except for her.” Byeol said threateningly, voice almost dangerously low and that made all of the men at the table freeze. Jinu had managed to clear his throat of the lodged rice and then pointed at himself with his chopsticks with an over the top ‘wait me as well?’ only to be met with a deadpan stare. “I remember you from uni.”

Jinu was about to open his mouth and argue but then he thought it over a little more, nodding in agreement with what was said and digging back into his lunch without another word. You let out a nervous chuckle finally as you looked at Ro. “...uh.. so what tea do you have Roman?”

The tension left him immediately as his eyes lit up, finally you could take in his appearance properly now as he started to lay out the details of whatever marketing team scandalous office drama was going on this time. He wore a warm yellow cardigan, a pastel blue dress shirt peaking out from underneath it but for some reason it worked relatively well together.  The top few buttons of his shirt were undone revealing a simple necklace and his hands had a few rings decorating his fingers, of course his hair was styled in that familiar heart shaped mullet that you’ve grown accustomed to as well.

“You guys remember Jia right, the one that kept hitting on Jinu?” The four of you that were familiar with the people in the office shook your head no at this information, because that did nothing to narrow down the list of people. “She tried to hit on Abby next.” Another shake of your heads. “Tried to hit on our mystery boy over here.” Nope still no bells ringing.

“She poured coffee on [Name] then called her a stupid slut?” Ah. That one yes. The three men who had been shaking their heads no at the information prior scrunched their faces in disgust suddenly, remembering that incident clearly and Byeol had looked at you in surprise at that information. Roman caught his gaze and patted the younger man on the shoulder, reassuring him that you’ll all catch him up on that office drama another day.

“Anyway that one yeah,” He started up again and started to talk with his hands as you began to pick away at your food bit by bit, being careful not to take too big of a bite in case you started choking on it because of whatever next he was due to reveal. “Turns out she got caught sexting one of the team leads in the business department on her company phone.”

Okay relatively juicy information, but pretty standard- “The one who’s wife beat cancer.” Oh god.

“Also,” Jinu, Minseok and you all shared a look with each other like ‘there’s more?’ and Abby had just raised a flared brow at all this information. He didn’t expect much from Jia after she called you a derogatory insult unprompted so he was curious what else she could’ve been trying to do. “Allegedly, repeat with me allegedly,” You rolled your eyes at him before listening to what he said next. “She may have been trying to get it on with that same team lead’s son and his nephew as well. All adults for clarification.”

“HUH?” You let out finally because damn Jia was getting busy apparently when she wasn’t trying to get it on with your friends. Jinu had stopped mid chew as he processed the information, Minseok had put the spoon he was using to drink up his soup back on his tray, Byeol looked mildly disgusted because why was he hearing about this shit on his first day of the job and Abby just looked a little bored now.

“Wow. Didn’t know she was going for a family completionist run.” He’d joked as he picked up his paper cup filled with water and took a small sip from it. It seemed like he was the only one that wasn’t too thrown off by the news but then again out of all of you at the table aside from Roman, he had a relatively good read on people and had known she was bad news since the first time he conversed with her at an office drinking party. 

“How did you guys even get this information?” You asked, your hand had instinctively gone to pick up a cup of water before you realised you hadn’t actually grabbed one. Abby noticed and simply handed you his to sip from and you mouthed a ‘thanks’ to him as you took a careful sip from the small paper cup before handing it back to him. Roman looked at you, smile on his face as he did a little rainbow gesture with his hands and whispered. “Marketing..!” As if that answered your question but you let him off with it, starting to dig back into your food since all the other guys had started to do the same.

“Well they both are on probation until HR figures out how to get rid of them without fucking up our public image.” Roman finished off finally with his tale, his tray had been emptied long before you sat down since he’d seemingly come down first and he sighed dramatically. “Can’t wait to be called at midnight about needing to sort out an emergency PR stunt to cover it up.”

You gave him a pitying look as the other guys gave their own insight on things, mostly analytical from all of them rather than derogatory since they were just curious how it even got this bad. You’d gotten more details here and there, surprised by how much stuff had happened just from this situation alone and then Byeol had asked if he was due to get a company phone at some point to which Abby responded he should be soon. The five of you had all picked up your company phones to show him what he could expect and he looked annoyed that he’ll soon have to start carrying two phones around, but at least he wouldn’t be getting contacted on his personal device for it.

“It’s okay baby, you can expect me to be contacting you twice as much once you get it.” Abby coo-ed at the smaller man before leaning away from him to narrowly avoid a fist that had gone flying in his direction and laughing it off. By the time you’d finished half of your tray of food, everyone had been long done and you felt bad you were holding them up but Minseok hushed you and told you to eat up otherwise you’ll never grow big and strong like them. You gave him the stank eye before continuing to pick at your food, Jinu had nudged you with his elbow to remind you that you shouldn’t have gotten the veggie mix if you weren’t going to eat it and you couldn’t help the small pout you sent his way. “..don’t be mean to me, I thought I was hungry.”

The rest of the guys were quick to start bagging on Jinu after that, even Byeol throwing in a few jabs as well as he seemed to loosen up steadily through out your lunch session as a group. The ravenette had raised his hands up in a mock surrender, defending himself as a simple caring friend that was concerned for his dear friend about whether or not said friend was eating well and making good choices. The topic switched after that and you finished up most of what you could, a few different things still left on your tray and wordlessly Jinu picks it up and slides it between his and Abby’s trays for the two of them to finish up your leftovers for you because they already know you’ll feel bad for leaving waste behind. At some point Minseok had gone and refilled his and Abby’s water cups so he had handed you his one so you could wash down your meal properly and Byeol’s just watching all of these interactions with Roman like a free domestic romance flick.

“It never gets boring.” Roman commented and Byeol nodded in agreement, he could get used to this dynamic again. It’s matured since the last time he witnessed it in university and honestly it’s a little fascinating to now be a part of it, not necessarily just an outsider looking in anymore. Soon enough you’d all gotten up from the table, before you could try to pick up your tray to help clean away things Abby has already stacked it on top of his and Jinu’s and gone ahead first to dispose of the food so you trailed behind Jinu as you walked towards the elevator first whilst the others busied themselves with cleaning up too.

Once again you’d lucked out on your timing, being undisturbed on your elevator lift and Roman was the first to get off at the 7th floor with a sad wave as he left you all to go back up to the 11th floor. You felt your phone vibrate in your hand and you checked to see what email you’d received, mostly approvals and the tickets you had raised for Byeol earlier had all been changed to ‘action’ states whilst a couple had been marked as ‘pending server’ which meant that he wouldn’t be getting much more done until tomorrow. You voiced that to him as he hovered beside you on your left, Abby was leant against the right wall of the lift in front of the panel, Minseok behind him and Jinu on your right and sandwiched a little between the other guys.

At least he gets an easy first day then? The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blur, you’d walked Byeol through some of your company’s oddly specific reporting processes and services as Minseok gave a general breakdown on the software that you’d be dealing with frequently as well as explained how the payroll system is handled as he’d most likely be asked questions about that from people that didn’t understand that payroll and finance were not the same department - something that still happens frequently enough despite many company wide emails being sent out to discourage people from going to bother the finance department for this reason. At some point your supervisor as well as the legal departments’ supervisors had bid you all good bye for the day and had left already, which meant that you guys could mess around a little and just chatter about whatever you felt like.

Which leads to the instance here where Jinu and Abby had wheeled themselves from their desk over into the finance space, both now eager to talk about the earlier office drama with you three now that they’ve been told that it’ll become a legal, HR and marketing department problem to deal with. Abby was complaining about how annoying the legalities will be because defamation or unfair termination clauses could apply whilst Jinu pointed out that abuse of company properties was applicable to this case as well. Minseok occasionally threw out a comment as his back was turned to them, still skimming the audit from earlier in the day whilst Byeol had simply logged out for the day and was listening intently despite playing some game on his phone.

“Contract was pretty clear that misuse of company assets was prohibited.” He commented, fingers tapping rapidly at the horizontal screen as he was slouched in his chair, his legs were spread a little and he’d turned to face the group of you as well so his voice projected better than when he’d been facing away. Then Abby responded by pointing out, “But it’ll depend on the contract she signed when she joined.”

“I thought she was only our senior by a year?” You said as you finished up your last email for the day, closing and saving out documents and any final checks before locking your PC for the day. After you sure you were logged out safely you turned in your chair to better join the discussion as well now. The chatter kept going on like that until you’d all finally decided it’s time to leave for the day when Minseok threw the towel in as well on his work, all grabbing your bags and essentials. By the time you were on the main lobby and out the front door of the building you felt exhaustion work it’s way into your shoulders, a small groan escaping you as you rubbed at the shoulder that was holding your bag.

Shortly after you feel someone pull your bag and you instinctively grab it tighter only for the voice of Abby to be by your ear as he asks you to let him carry it, then you finally let him take it as you loiter around the front of your office. Small talk and banter was exchanged, then the guys started being guys and making dirty innuendoes at each other that made you question them on whether or not they’d hooked up with one another yet before Byeol decides he wants to head home and bids you all farewell as he heads off to catch the next bus to his place. The remaining four of you decide that today will be the night you all invade Minseok’s place, even if it was only a Tuesday and you guys had work the next day surely he could be kind enough in his heart to allow some tired office workers to take refuge in his nearby apartment? He was against it until he noticed that you’d started to shift your weight from foot to foot, occasionally leaning down slightly to rub at your sore ankles and he changes his mind and leads the way back to his place which was only a short 5 minute walk thankfully. Jinu and Abby cheers in victory, obnoxious wooping for a bit until you smacked them both upside the head for causing a scene.

A slightly mundane routine that brought comfort to you as you deal with all the losers that are your friends.

[cxrsed-angel]

Cat Distribution System Fem!reader (Fluff)

wc: 1k

Warnings: none pure cat dad cuteness and fluff <3

Summary: Joel becomes a reluctant cat dad after a cat shows up on his porch couch.

A/N: shoutout to r/dadswhodidnotwantpets for giving me inspiration heres a few of my favs that I imagined for cat dad Joel. 1 2 3 4 I highly recommend if you ever need some wholesomeness.

"Do you know whose cat this is, honey?" 

Joel looks up from his paper. His black-framed glasses come into view as he lowers the newspaper to look at you. He stares a bit, trying to understand what you were saying. "Huh?" 

You turn to the fairly large kitchen window, facing his porch, pointing to the orange and white cat, curled up in his porch chair, sleeping. 

“No, probably the neighbours or somethin'." Joel goes back to his paper, bringing it back over his face. But you weren't as satisfied with his conclusion as he is. You look out the window, watching the cat breathe slowly, its back moving up and down as it sleeps. 

You frown sadly, turning back towards Joel, looking at him again. "Well, have you seen it before? Has a neighbour called or asked about it? I mean, does it have a collar?" 

Joel stands up, setting the paper down, and glances at the orange kitten still sleeping in his chair. "Fine, you can call the shelter, okay?" 

"Can we can take it to a vet I mean what if it's injuried." 

"We'll call the shelter then, and they'll take care of it, but then that's it."  You take a few seconds, not saying anything as you look at him. "Why don't you like cats?" 

"My mom was very allergic, so we never had them growin' up. And the few I've met as an adult have all been mean, they scratch the shit out of you, and tear up everything. You gotta get a litter box and clean it and it will always smellslike ass and cat piss no matter where you put it. I'm a dog man, always have been, always will be, honey." 

You nod, choosing to ignore some of the points he made, for the time being. "Fine, fine, just call a shelter, I get it. Wait, are you allergic to?"  He shakes his head, "No, just my mom was." 

"Just making sure." You grab your phone, trying to find out about shelters, keeping an eye on the cat. "I'm gonna try to bring it inside, don't want it to get taken by a hawk or something."  Joel raises his eyebrows, unsure, "You sure that's a good idea? I mean, what if it's feral or has viruses or worms, something?"  "Well, I can survive from a virus, but I can't come back from the cat getting eaten." 

He grimaces but nods anyway, "I get it… Okay fine, just be careful, please." 

You nod, grabbing two small glass bowls, pouring water into one of them, then trying to find food for it. You look through the fridge, seeing the fish Joel caught last weekend and cooked the other night, figuring it was the best option. 

"Hey, babe, I'm gonna give the cat a little bit of the fish, okay?" 

He grunts a positive sound from the living room, which you take as a sure. After setting a few pieces of the fish in the bowl, you go outside to the cat holding a piece in your hand as a peace offering. 

The second you come out of the front door onto the porch, the orange cat sits up, eyeing you curiously. Then, smelling the fish, you watch it leap off the porch couch and walk to you cautiously. You lean down, offering the fish, which it takes from your hand eagerly. You notice that the cat doesn't look much older than a year old, if that, making you glad you found it now. Thinking about how it ended up on the streets, and for how long. 

The kitten eats the fish, then sniffs your hand. "Hi cutie, aren't you just adorable, yeah. Can I pick you up and take you inside?" You rub the cat's head softly, trying to get it more comfortable with you. You carefully pick up the cat, taking it inside.  Joel watches from afar, wanting as little to do with the kitten as possible, letting you handle it. You set the kitten down in front of the bowl, watching as it goes to the water. 

"I'll call the shelter, can you watch the kitten, or are you gonna be a baby about it?" You turn to Joel, who was standing a few feet away, like it was a tiger, making you laugh slightly. 

"Ain't being a baby.."  "You're standing like 3 feet away from it, it's not going to attack you, it's more focused on the fish, not the 6 ft something man that's standing in the corner, scared of it."  He laughs, stepping a bit closer but still distant. "Im not scared of the damn cat."  "Right… Sure, you aren't."  After a few calls to the local shelters, they all said similar things about being at capacity and unable to take the kitten. You hang up, getting off the phone with the 4th shelter. 

"Joel, the shelters are full, they said we're gonna have to keep it or give it to someone who could keep it till the end of the week, when they'll have some spaces open."  Joel sighs, closes his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "A whole damn week? You call all the shelters?"

You nod, joining him on the couch. His hand goes to your thigh, rubbing it softly as he listens. 

"The ones around here, unless you wanna drive across Texas finding shelters." 

" 'Course, I don't wanna do that, but I'm not looking forward to taking care of a cat for a whole week." 

The first day Joel stays about 20 ft away from the kitten, never even being in the same room as her, leaving only you and Sarah to primarily take care of her. 

But around the second day, things were starting to change. He started feeding her, but still maintained a respectable distance. 

On the third day, it was late, usually around 10 pm, Joel would be in bed already, but he wasn't. You go downstairs, wondering if he was working on a project and got carried away, which happens every now and then. 

You go down the steps until Joel comes into your view. You see something you never thought you'd see when you brought the kitten into your home. He's sitting on the couch, watching TV, while the "temporary" feline guest is perched comfortably on his lap, blinking slowly as she falls asleep, her head resting against his thigh. You desperately wished you hadn't left your phone upstairs, wanting to capture this moment. His big hand gently petting her back aimlessly. You quietly walk further into the living room, hoping you don't disturb her. 

"Did you get another daughter?" You tease as you sit on the other end of the couch, while the kitten remains unbothered by your presence. Joel shakes his head, disagreeing. 

"She just sat down on, and I didn't feel like moving and risk getting my eyeballs scratched out." He explains, moving his hand from her back, instead reaching for the remote. You laugh, enjoying how comfortable she had gotten so quickly, 

The next day, you hear him talking, assuming he was speaking to Sarah or on the phone, but then you see it was to the kitten who was lying against his soft belly. 

"This your way of saying I need to work out more." He smiles, scratching the kitten's ears. "Well, you're gonna end up in the same boat with all the treats Sarah's been sneaking ya." 

You smile, looking through the doorway, hoping he wouldn't hear you. 

"I know, you're gonna be little chunky, aren't ya. But there's nothing wrong with that." 

The kitten gives a little mewow back, making Joel smile slightly while he rubs her head softly.  You let out a little giggle, quietly sneaking a picture of him, luckily having your phone with you this time. 

Over the week of temporarily giving the cat a home until there was a space at the shelter, you'd catch small moments between them. He came home from the pet store with a new food and bowl, a small scratching post, and some thrifted blankets he had washed. Of course, he just made the excuse that he didn't hear her tearing up his furniture or sleeping in his bed or using his good bowls.

Joel enters the bedroom, getting ready for bed, seeing you already under the covers on your phone, he joins you. 

"Hey darling, I think we need to talk about the cat." 

You nod, already anticipating this conversation from the first time you spot him talking to her. "Oh yea?" 

"Well, she isnt too bad, hasnt scracthed my arm or pissed on my couch."  "Mhmm.."

"And Sarah's gotten so attached to the little thing." 

You nod humored, "Right.. Right, Sarah's gotten attached. Are you saying we should keep her?" 

Joel shrugs, like he didn't care when it was so obvious he wanted to keep her. "If you want, I mean I'm sure Sarah would love her, and you seem to like having her around." 

"I wouldn't mind, I think we should." 

"We're keeping her!" Sarah rushes in through the door, holding said kitten. 

"Were you eavesdropping?" Joel turns watching Sarah sit on the edge of the bed holding the kitten on her lap. 

You smile at her, nodding, "Your dad said we could." 

Sarah smiles, dancing a little as she holds the kitten. "I already have a name. I've been thinking about one since I saw her."  Joel sighs, looking at her, "What made you think I'd let you keep her?"  "What name are you thinking about, Sarah?" You ignore Joel, curious about what Sarah had come up with. 

She holds up the little orange kitten, looking at her, "Maybe Clementine?" 

Joel nods, petting her head lightly, as Clementine, Sarah holds her, or Clementine, in her arms. "I think Clememtine is perfect." You agree with him, Clementine is the perfect name for the little orange and white kitten. 

It would only be about 3 weeks later when Joel would build a wall shelf for her to climb around on. As time passed, Clementine quickly became part of the family, getting more comfortable around the house and everyone else. Cat items and toys slowly start to fill up the house. Joel spent his free time building different perches for her to jump on as she found her favorite spots around the house. But his biggest project was the "catio" he had seen online. 

Clementine, or Clem, loved sleeping in different spots around the house, on Sarah's bed, on the office desk, and in the cat tower you had gotten for her. But her favorite spot was definitely against Joel. More often than not, you'd find her lying against his chest, or sitting peacefully with her head against his arm, or sleeping on his belly. 

Which is where you found the two of them now. You shake your head at Joel, laughing a bit. He shifts slightly, making sure there's room for you to join in on the cuddle session. You lean against his unoccupied arm. 

"Still think you don't have another daughter now?"

Also had to name the cat Clementine after Clem from twd <3 Joel is a destined girl dad.

tags for those who were interested in the wip <3: @baronessvonglitter @probablyreadinsmut

[gonehuman99]

Too Cozy 2

Yandere Bob x reader (1.1k words) part 1 part 3

Does not contain graphic content, but warning: Some harassment, suggestive behavior, and creepy Bob

Summary: You're just playing around — or at least you think you are. Bob offers a ride, and things get weird.

✦✦✦✦✦

Kids run around, and you almost get knocked down. Instead, you bump into the back of your aunt's plastic chair. She turns around, raising an eyebrow, and you give her a tense smile.

You continue making your way to where your father is flipping the sizzling meat on the grill. From what you can hear, he’s talking with your uncle about Mickey, aka Fanboy; that's what he told you to call him. You think it's dumb. Why did you have to call him that? You weren't in the Navy, but you didn't want to argue with him. What good would that do?

When you got here, you had an almost permanent smile on your face. The sounds of your family, music, and the smell of the food filled your chest, and that was what you felt for the first 20 minutes you were there. But that changed when you overheard your aunt talking about your cousin Mickey and how he was going to bring a friend around. You knew where this was gonna head. Was this the universe punishing you for being too friendly?

You've been avoiding the topic for a while, skirting the many questions your cousin had. Why have you been drifting for a while now?

You didn't want to think about that, about what had happened. You felt a strange sensation in your chest about the previous circumstances. Sometimes, when things were slow at work, which tended to be most evenings when you were there, your thoughts would stray back to that moment, the moment in the car. Small flashes of his hand on your thigh, however brief, made you queasy. You used to laugh it off and tell yourself it was his shyness, his naivety in women, something you could worm out of.

You used to spend all your time after work at the bar, but now you've been avoiding it, opting instead to head directly home. Text messages from Fanboy about meeting at the Hard Deck went unanswered. Finally, he ended up calling you.

“Hello?” you said.

“Aye, where you at?”

“What do you mean?” You clicked the remote and surfed through the TV channels. “I'm chilling.” No response.

You heard him sigh. “Did I do something wrong?”

You bit your lip and leaned back further into your seat.

“No, I'm just… busy.” You were lying, and you knew he knew you were lying.

“Right, I'm not buying that. If you don't want to talk, that's fine, but don't lie. Are you at least okay?”

That was a week ago.

Your foot taps the ground too fast to be in rhythm with the music.

The gate creaked open.

“Hey, everyone, we're here,” Mickey's voice boomed. Your folks near him exchange greetings, handshakes, jokes, and laughter. You can hear them get louder and closer to the table you were at.

You squeezed your eyes shut for a second. It was just one second. If you made a big deal now, you’d sound crazy. You force a bubble of laughter up. “Well, I thought you were lost at sea,” you yell out across to Fanboy.

“Eh, nice one, but I know you want us here.”

Us. That's when you finally focus on the figure standing next to Fanboy. He looks awkward. A shuffling weight on each foot.

You will yourself to get up and meet them, your feet heavy.

Now, standing before you, you see them fully. Both of them dressed casually. T-shirts and jeans. You force what you think is a casual smile, but you resist the urge to keep looking at Bob.

You nod your head at them. “Ha, yeah, I want you here. As much as I want a pimple on my back,” you lightly punch Fanboy on his arm; the gesture feels stiff even for you.

“Well,” he pats Bob on the back. “Couldn't leave this one around either. He’s been wanting to catch up.”

Fanboy grins, his arms still over Bob. “He's a good guy, this one…” He leans in closer to you, his voice dropping just a bit. “Just remember what we talked about. Be encouraging,” he gives you a quick smile.

You push whatever feeling you have down your chest, and you turn and look at him. Really, look at him. He’s wearing those Aviator glasses, the ones that hid too much of his expression. His head is tilted down, but he's still looking at you through his eyelashes. He gives a lopsided smile.

“What are you trying to stalk me now? I thought I was safe at my own home.” You try to keep your voice light and playful.

He moves his head up, and a familiar red starts to creep up his neck. That's what I've been missing, you think.

“Ha, good one,” Fanboy says rather loudly. “See, I told you you'd like this place. C'mon, let's take a seat.”

You, Fanboy, and Bob all slide into the chairs. Others offer drinks. Fanboy gets a beer, and Bob waves away his in favor of a lime soda. You get one, too.

Fanboy looks around. “So they still making you work at the bakery.”

“What do you mean by making me? My family owns that place.”

“Funny, I figured they'd kick you out by now,” he says. Bob offers a “mm-hmm” and a faint smirk your way. Fanboy laughs. You try to focus on Fanboy, but in the corner of your eye, Bob is focusing all his attention on you, even when he takes a sip of his soda.

You manage to let out a brittle laugh as you try to regain control. “Careful, Bob. You're gonna make Fanboy think you like my company way too much now.” You give him a quick, exaggerated blink.

Bob doesn't fluster. His gaze is calm, a hint of a smile on his lips. He takes another sip of his soda.

Did your game end, or was this the final straw?

The banter continues, and in a way, it's starting to feel like the bar. Before that moment. The moment in the car.

You're all sitting there taking bites of food. Then, all of a sudden, you hear an aunt calling for Fanboy. “I'll be right back,” he says, pushing out his chair.

Now that he’s gone, you and Bob are all alone. You used to be able to enjoy the silence between the two of you. You’d even find ways to fill it. Some light, playful flirting, but now you were still a bit apprehensive.

“This is better than the Hard Deck, isn't it?” You raise an eyebrow at that and lean forward. Bob’s voice is quiet. “You looked at me differently that night. I remember. I'm sorry if I… misread things.”

He doesn't say anything else. Instead, Fanboy arrives back in his seat. Bob finally looks away from you, and things turn back to the way they were.

[eldergremlin]

making new bg3 files for all my dnd pcs and i don't know why astarion has decided to NOT SHUT UP EVER around mariya. sir! you're on the thinnest ice!

better hope she doesn't clock you because the girl has vampire trauma and WILL kill you.

if i can avoid the forbidden midnight snack camp scene, i have a feeling the vibes are going to be very much this:

[gyugraphy]

the popcorn incident (r.r.)

synopsis : You hate Bob Reynolds. Or at least, that’s what you keep telling yourself — ever since he pulled away and got closer to Yelena. Now you spend most of your time ranting about him to Bucky…

Meanwhile, Bob spends most of his time avoiding you. (Because he’s pretty sure you like Bucky. And he’s very sure he’s in love with you.)

pairing : robert 'bob' reynolds x reader / sentry x reader

content : pure fluff (again lol don't hate me on this), slight enemiestolovers!au , friendstolovers!au , jealous!bobreynolds

warning/s : kinda cheesy idk

word count : 4.6k

You hate Bob Reynolds.

You hate the way he walks into a room and won’t look at you. You hate the way his eyes flicker toward you when he thinks you’re not watching. You hate how he always chooses the furthest seat from yours now, even though (once) you were the person he chose first.

And worst of all?

You hate how much you still want him to come sit next to you.

The common room smells like popcorn and vaguely burnt pizza. Ava’s cracked the windows again, letting in the cool night air from the New York sky outside. Dim overhead bulbs cast the room in warm yellow light that barely competes with the flickering horror movie on screen.

Yelena is curled on a beanbag chair with her legs tucked under her like a smug cat, hoodie two sizes too big. John’s hogging the recliner, a beer in one hand and his dumb Stars-and-Stripes socks visible from where his boots sit discarded nearby. Ava’s lounging in the corner with a bowl of gummy worms and a knowing smirk.

You walk in behind Bucky, both of you still talking about a mission briefing that had somehow turned into a discussion about raccoons with knives.

“Do not pretend a raccoon could take you down,” you mutter as Bucky snorts.

“I’m just saying, it’s more dangerous than you think,” Bucky deadpans. “Especially with a butter knife.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

He shrugs. “I’m not the one who got chased through a compound last week by a genetically engineered goose.”

“That goose had rage in its soul,” you hiss, before realizing the entire room is listening. Yelena snorts into her sleeve. Ava just shakes her head.

You clear your throat, cheeks warm. Your eyes instinctively scan the room—and stop.

There. Couch. Right side.

Bob.

He’s sitting low, one leg crossed over the other knee, navy-blue sweater sleeves bunched up his forearms. His posture is slouched, but his eyes are sharp, focused on the screen, until you catch the briefest glance your way.

Your stomach tightens.

He looks back at the screen before you can even smile.

You hesitate, then move toward the couch. The big popcorn bowl is balanced between him and Bucky. You think about sitting next to Bob, think about all the nights you used to sit shoulder to shoulder, knees brushing, fingers grazing accidentally over the same handful of popcorn.

Maybe you can fix this. Maybe he’ll say something. Maybe this silence he’s been giving you for weeks will finally end.

You hover by the bowl. “Hey,” you say, careful and light. “Can I grab some?”

Bob doesn’t look at you. His hand tenses slightly on the bowl’s rim. He shifts it toward you in silence.

Your fingers brush his.

He pulls back like he’s touched a hot stove.

You feel it like a slap.

You grab the popcorn, mutter a stiff, “Thanks,” and move to sit next to Bucky instead.

Bucky shifts slightly to give you room. You slump beside him, chewing angrily.

“Well that was painful,” Bucky mutters under his breath.

You don’t respond.

“He flinched,” Bucky continues, almost in awe. “Like your fingers were poison.”

You keep your eyes on the screen. “Maybe they are.”

“Strike four,” he whispers.

You glance at him. “You’ve been keeping count?”

“Of every tragic interaction, yes.”

You throw a kernel of popcorn at him. He catches it mid-air.

You lean in slightly, voice low. “Do you think he’s mad at me?”

“I think he’s a dumbass.”

You smile, but it’s hollow.

“I just—don’t get it. We used to talk. Like… a lot. He used to laugh at my dumb jokes. Now he acts like I stole his dog.”

“Maybe you did.”

You blink. “What?”

“Maybe you stole his metaphorical dog.”

You stare at him. “That’s the worst theory I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s still better than yours,” Bucky mutters.

From across the couch, you feel Bob shift. You glance—he’s still watching the screen, but his fingers have stopped moving. The popcorn bowl rests untouched now, perfectly still in his lap.

The movie flickers into a tense silence.

Then John, voice flat, says, “Can the lovebirds quiet down?”

Your entire spine stiffens.

“Excuse me?” you hiss.

“Shh,” John says, not even turning.

You stare ahead, cheeks burning. Bucky looks halfway between smug and offended.

“Lovebirds,” he whispers, amused.

“Don’t even—”

“I mean, if the shoe fits…”

You elbow him sharply. “I hate you.”

“You don’t,” he says, still smiling.

You risk another glance toward Bob.

His jaw is tight. His eyes are still on the screen. But there’s a twitch in his cheek. The kind he gets when something’s bothering him.

He doesn’t look at you.

You look away first.

The meeting room is too cold.

The A/C’s on full blast, humming above the fluorescent lights. You swear Val keeps it that way just to remind you she’s in charge of everything—including your blood circulation.

You’re running late.

You shove the door open with a muttered apology, the metal creaking slightly, and step inside—boots still muddy from training. Your hair’s barely dry from your post-mission shower, damp strands sticking to your neck. You tug at the collar of your jacket, feeling both underdressed and overstimulated.

Everyone’s already seated.

Yelena’s halfway through a protein bar and somehow still managing to lounge in a government-grade steel chair like it’s a beanbag. Ava’s scrolling her tablet, boots on the table despite multiple prior threats from Val. Walker’s twirling a pen and looking like he’s about to make a comment no one asked for.

Then your eyes land on him.

Bob.

Second from the right. Notebook closed in front of him. Shoulders hunched slightly like he’s trying to make himself smaller, or maybe disappear altogether.

Two empty chairs beside him.

You hesitate.

The little voice in your head—the one that’s gotten crueler lately—says, Don’t bother. But you ignore it.

You step around the table, slow but deliberate.

Your pulse kicks up as you approach. You wonder—stupidly, hopefully—if maybe this is the moment. Maybe today, he’ll look up. Maybe he’ll say “Hey,” like he used to, voice low and warm. Maybe you’ll sit beside him and feel something like before.

You stop beside the chair next to him.

Bob looks up.

Your breath catches.

And then—

He blinks. His mouth twitches. Not a smile. Not even close.

He closes his notebook.

And he stands.

Your eyes widen. He murmurs something to Yelena—too low for you to hear—but she raises one eyebrow and gives him a look that says Seriously? Bob says nothing else. He walks around the back of the table, silent and swift, and drops into a chair across the room.

Your throat tightens.

You sit down heavily in the now-empty chair next to Bucky.

“Wow,” Bucky mutters, barely audible. “That was… something.”

You just shake your head, biting the inside of your cheek. “What the hell was that?”

Bucky leans in. “He looked like you were holding a knife.”

“Maybe I should start holding one.”

Val walks in, clapping her hands once. “Alright, Thunderbolts. Everyone awake? Good. Let’s make this quick. I’ve got meetings stacked higher than Walker’s ego.”

Walker scoffs. “Hilarious.”

“Quiet, star-spangled disaster,” Val says dryly.

You try to focus. Val drones on about the last mission—errors, improvements, recon notes. Words blur into static.

Bob doesn’t look at you. Not once.

You glance at him—he’s leaning back, hands clasped in his lap, eyes fixed on the slide deck like it owes him something. He’s not scribbling notes like he usually does. He’s not twirling his pen. He’s not moving.

You grit your teeth and turn to Bucky.

“He’s ignoring me again.”

Bucky side-eyes you. “We’re mid-briefing.”

“I’m going to strangle him with his own hoodie.”

“That’s dramatic. Effective, though.”

Val clicks to the next slide.

You whisper, “Why is he like this? He used to talk to me.”

“Used to eat lunch with you too,” Bucky murmurs. “Used to laugh.”

“I know that.”

“And now he’s pretending you don’t exist.”

“Exactly!”

“You think maybe… that’s the opposite of what’s happening?”

You blink. “What?”

Bucky just smirks.

Then—

Val slaps a hand on the table. “Hey. Lovebirds. Try keeping the domestic bickering to a whisper?”

Your soul leaves your body.

You blink. “I’m sorry—what?”

Walker snorts. Ava doesn’t even look up from her tablet.

Val waves a hand. “Whatever. Just pay attention. I’m not repeating myself for your unresolved sexual tension.”

The room falls quiet.

Bucky leans into his hand, elbow on the table. “I think we’ve just been outed.”

You bury your face in your hands. “This is a nightmare.”

You chance a glance at Bob.

He hasn’t moved.

He’s staring at the table. Not at you. But his knuckles are white where they rest on his knee.

You’re too stunned to say anything.

The rest of the debrief is a blur.

The training room smells like rubber mats and frustration.

Sweat beads at the back of your neck as you pace toward the punching dummies, your left ankle throbbing with every step. You rolled it bad—stupidly—during a dodging drill with Ava and Walker. You’d laughed it off at the time, brushing dirt off your shoulder like it was nothing.

But now that the adrenaline’s fading, it hurts.

The sun’s just beginning to dip behind the compound’s reinforced windows, casting the entire gym in a low, orange haze. Yelena is by the far wall, throwing knives at a wooden dummy’s face like she’s flirting with murder. Ava’s perched on a bench with her headphones in, scrolling through footage on her tablet. Walker’s long gone, probably off to inflate his ego somewhere else.

And there’s Bob. Across the room.

He’s standing by the free weights, curling a bar like it weighs nothing. His hair’s damp at the edges, sticking slightly to his temples. He’s in his navy long-sleeve again—his favorite, the one that’s worn thin at the elbows. His eyes flick toward you as you limp slightly past.

Your breath catches.

It’s the first time he’s looked at you today.

You feel it. That familiar flutter in your chest that you keep trying to kill.

You open your mouth—to say anything—but hesitate. He looks like he might say something, too. Like he’s going to take a step forward. His fingers twitch slightly against the bar.

And then you hear it:

“You alright?”

You turn.

Bucky’s walking over from the hallway, towel slung around his shoulders, brow furrowed as he catches your limp.

“Oh. Yeah. Just twisted it earlier. It’s not bad.” You wave a hand like that makes it true.

“Let me see,” he says, already crouching down beside the bench. “Sit.”

You hesitate. “I was gonna—” You glance back toward Bob.

But he’s still standing there. Still watching. Frozen in place.

Whatever he was going to say—if he was going to say it—dies.

He takes one slow step back.

You sigh, quietly, and sit down beside Bucky instead.

He pulls your boot off gently, inspecting the swollen ankle.

You wince. “I’ve had worse.”

“Doesn’t mean you should ignore it.” Bucky digs in a nearby locker for an ice pack. “You planning on training through this like a moron, or letting me tape it?”

You roll your eyes, but smile. “Fine. Doctor Barnes.”

“I’ll add that to the list of titles I never asked for.”

Across the room, Bob hasn’t moved.

His jaw’s tight. His hands open and close once, then again. He watches the two of you quietly, unreadable.

He takes a breath, like he’s about to come over anyway.

But Yelena appears behind him without warning. “You’re glaring again,” she mutters.

Bob startles, just barely. “I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I wasn’t—” He glances over at you and Bucky. Bucky’s crouched now, wrapping your ankle in gauze, your hand on his shoulder to keep balance. You laugh at something he says.

Bob turns away.

Yelena raises an eyebrow. “You gonna keep lying or just explode already?”

“Shut up,” Bob mutters.

“Sure,” she says, biting into an energy bar. “Just let me know when you’re done pining like a 17-year-old Victorian widow.”

He shoots her a look, but she’s already walking away.

He turns back toward you, just in time to see you toss Bucky an appreciative smile and say, “Thanks, Buck.”

And then you’re gone—hobbling off toward the lockers with Bucky trailing beside you.

Bob stares at the door long after you’ve disappeared.

Bob’s hands have been sitting still for too long.

One of them rests on the disassembled sidearm laid out in front of him, the other curled tight against his jaw as he leans on the table. His brow is furrowed. His brain hasn’t registered a single thing in the last fifteen minutes. The room is quiet, except for the distant hum of the overhead lights and the occasional thud of Yelena dropping gear somewhere behind him.

He stares at the gun like it’ll reassemble his thoughts for him.

“You’re sulking again,” comes her voice, sharp and dry as vodka.

He doesn’t look up. “I’m not.”

“You’re brooding in the dark, surrounded by dangerous objects,” she replies, stepping closer and leaning against the metal counter with a crunch of her granola bar. “That’s called sulking, Bob.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.”

He exhales, long and slow. “I’m just… thinking.”

“About her?” Yelena chews. “Or are we pretending you don’t do that every three hours?”

He doesn’t answer. Just picks up a screwdriver, flips it once in his palm, then puts it back down like it’s too heavy to hold.

She softens a little. “What happened this time?”

He doesn’t know where to start. He could say, I saw her ankle give out and didn’t move fast enough. Or maybe, I saw her smile at Bucky again and it felt like a kick to the ribs. But none of that explains how badly he wants to rewind everything. Go back to when you used to wait for him after missions. When you’d lean on his shoulder while teasing Walker or smirking at Yelena like you were in on some inside joke Bob would never understand.

He remembers the sound of your laugh. That full-bodied, uncaring laugh that only came out when you felt safe. You used to laugh like that around him.

“I think she hates me,” he says eventually, voice low.

“She doesn’t,” Yelena says without hesitation.

“She used to talk to me,” he mutters, running a hand through his hair. “Every day. About random stuff—TV shows, your neighbor’s dog, the vending machine being rigged. And I was stupid enough to think it would last.”

Yelena quirks an eyebrow. “What changed?”

“I did.”

And he did. Somewhere in the space between trusting you and falling for you, he got weird. He started pulling back, dodging eye contact, brushing off conversations before they could start. He didn’t know how to handle it—how to want you without scaring you away.

So instead, he scared himself into silence.

You’d walked into the common room that night with Bucky at your side, your laugh trailing behind you like perfume. You were trying to get popcorn—just a normal thing—but then your hand brushed his and his whole body tensed like he’d touched fire. He pulled back before he even thought about it.

Your smile faded so fast it made his stomach turn.

He should’ve said something. Sorry. I didn’t mean to—

But instead, he just froze, watching you walk away, bowl in hand, settling on the couch next to Bucky like that was where you belonged now.

He couldn’t focus on the movie. He couldn’t even hear it over the pounding in his ears. Every time you leaned into Bucky’s side, something bitter tightened in his throat. You didn’t even look his way after that. Why would you?

He hadn’t just pulled away. He’d disappeared.

Yelena watches him quietly now, like she knows where his mind is drifting. “Did something else happen?”

He nods. “Debrief, a few days ago.”

She waits.

“I walked in and saw her scanning the room,” he says. “She looked like she was gonna sit next to me. She almost did. But I… I moved.”

“You ran.”

He winces. “Walked. Quickly. To the other side of the table.”

“Coward.”

“I know.” He leans back, eyes flicking to the ceiling. “I couldn’t do it. I was going to say hi. Ask about her shoulder—she took a hit on the last mission—but I panicked.”

Yelena hums in that way she does when she’s judging him quietly.

“She sat next to Bucky instead. Again,” Bob adds, bitterness creeping into his voice. “They were whispering to each other, laughing during Val’s rundown, and then Val says—” His voice shifts, mocking: “‘Can the lovebirds pay attention?’”

Yelena snorts.

“She didn’t deny it,” Bob says quickly, like he needs her to know this part. “Didn’t laugh, didn’t say, we’re not a thing. Just turned red and glared at Val, like it was a thing and she was embarrassed about it.”

Yelena doesn’t answer right away.

Bob lets his head drop forward into his hands. “I know it sounds stupid. It is stupid. But I keep seeing them together, and it’s not just the proximity. It’s the way she looks at him. Talks to him.”

“You mean the way she used to talk to you?"

He goes still.

Yelena softens, voice less teasing. “Bob… maybe she’s just trying to fill the space you left.”

He doesn’t know what to say to that.

Then yesterday happened.

He saw you limp into the gym and his entire nervous system lit up. You were trying to play it cool, but he knew that look—you were in pain and trying not to show it.

He took one step forward, almost called your name.

But Bucky beat him to it.

Hey, you alright?

Bob watched, rooted in place, as you let Bucky guide you to the bench. Watched you let him take off your boot. Wrap your ankle. You laughed at something he said again, that same sound Bob used to hear on accident—when you were scrolling your phone on the couch beside him, or teasing him over his “weird cult-leader” handwriting.

Bob’s hands had clenched. His chest felt hollow.

And still, he hadn’t moved.

“Every time I try to fix it, I mess it up more,” he says now, his voice ragged with frustration. “And every time I don’t fix it, I lose her a little more.”

Yelena tosses her granola wrapper in the bin. “So what, you’re just going to keep watching her from across the room like some tragic Regency novel?”

Bob glares weakly. “I just… I don’t know what she wants anymore.”

“Well,” Yelena stands, dusting off her pants. “Maybe she doesn’t either. You’ve given her nothing to work with.”

He swallows.

She’s right.

He remembers the way you used to look at him—eyes full of challenge, of trust. You don’t look at him like that anymore.

Now, when you glance his way, there’s hurt in your eyes. And confusion. And maybe—just maybe—a little hope you haven’t managed to kill off completely.

Bob wants to believe it isn’t too late.

But he also knows he’s running out of chances to find out.

The med bay is quiet except for the gentle whir of the portable stim unit on your ankle. You should be focusing on your recovery, on resting, but your mind’s pacing in circles. Restless. It’s been days since the last mission. Days since you sprained your ankle and Bob almost helped you.

Almost.

The sound of that one step he took toward you is burned into your skull. You heard it. Saw the flicker of concern in his expression. The way he looked like he might finally say something. But he didn’t. Again.

Instead, Bucky helped you. Like he always does.

And maybe you’re just exhausted—mentally, emotionally, physically—but tonight, as the pain pulses dully through your foot and frustration simmers in your chest, you decide you’ve had enough.

You’re done letting Bob hide behind silence.

You leave the med bay the moment your foot can bear weight and stalk the halls with too much purpose for someone supposed to be recovering. You know exactly where he’ll be. The observation deck. He always retreats there after missions, like he’s hoping the stars will answer something the rest of you can’t.

Sure enough, you spot him through the glass, silhouetted in the cool blue glow of the night sky beyond. Hood up. Shoulders hunched. Like the world’s sitting on his back.

He doesn’t hear you enter. Or maybe he does and chooses not to turn.

You stop a few feet behind him.

“Why do you keep avoiding me?”

His shoulders stiffen.

No greeting. No pleasantries. You don’t have the patience for any of it.

He doesn’t turn.

You take another step closer. “Seriously, Bob. What the hell did I do to make you act like I’m some kind of ghost?”

Nothing.

You force a breath. Your voice cracks. “You used to be my best friend.”

That finally gets him. Slowly, he turns, the hood dropping back just enough to let you see the guilt carved into his features. He looks tired. Paler than usual. And yet somehow still impossible to read.

“I’m not avoiding you,” he says, too quiet to be convincing.

You scoff. “Bullshit. You can’t even look me in the eye anymore. I try to talk to you, you bolt. I reach for the popcorn and you practically teleport away. You leave the room when I sit down. You change training shifts to avoid me.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“You didn’t mean to, or you didn’t want to be around me?”

He winces. His mouth opens like he wants to explain. But nothing comes out.

You hate how much it hurts.

“Do you hate me now?” you ask, voice barely above a whisper.

He jolts. “What?”

“Just tell me,” you snap, covering your pain with anger. “If I did something wrong—if I messed this up somehow—just say it.”

“You didn’t,” he says, fast, desperate. “You didn’t mess anything up.”

“Then why?” You’re breathing harder now. “Why did you just… drop me? You let me think I was crazy for feeling the distance when you were the one building it!”

“I had to,” he mutters.

You step closer. “Why?”

He shakes his head. “It’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not. You either care or you don’t.”

“I do care,” he blurts, suddenly louder, voice cracking like thunder off the glass.

Silence falls between you. Heavy. Fragile.

You blink. “Then why do you treat me like I don’t exist?”

Bob runs both hands through his hair, pacing away from you, then back, like he’s coming apart.

“Because it’s easier than wanting something I can’t have,” he finally breathes.

You stare.

He exhales like he’s been holding that in for months. “You and Bucky… I see the way you look at him. I hear the way you talk to him. I thought maybe if I backed off, I could deal with it. But every time I see you with him, it’s like my ribs are caving in.”

You’re stunned.

“Bob—”

“And then Val calls you ‘lovebirds,’ and you don’t deny it. You blushed. I thought…” He trails off, swallowing hard. “I thought I missed my chance. That I’d already messed it up. And if I couldn’t be what you wanted, the least I could do was get out of your way.”

Your voice comes out gentler. “You thought I was with Bucky?”

“Aren’t you?”

You stare at him. “No. Of course not.”

He blinks. “But you’re always with him. Laughing. Whispering. You lean on him.”

“Because he listens. Because you wouldn’t.”

“I was trying to protect myself.”

“And I was trying to understand why the person I care about most started treating me like a stranger!”

That lands like a punch. Bob’s shoulders sag. He looks like he’s about to fold in on himself.

You step forward. Hesitate. Then place a hand on his chest—just over his heart.

“You idiot,” you whisper. “You really thought I wanted Bucky?”

Bob doesn’t answer. His eyes are wide, vulnerable. Your touch stills him completely.

“I wanted you.” You say it quietly. Gently. Like it’s the simplest truth in the world.

He exhales shakily. His hands twitch at his sides, then lift—hesitant, slow—as if he’s terrified touching you might break the moment.

But when he finally presses his palm over yours, the tension breaks.

Neither of you says a word for a long time.

Then, finally, he leans forward, forehead resting against yours, breath shallow.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs.

You close your eyes.

“I missed you,” you whisper.

His breath hitches. “I never stopped.”

You weren’t planning on sitting next to him. Not really. You told yourself you’d play it cool. Casual. Normal. You were going to walk in, nod politely, and take your usual spot next to Bucky like the last three weeks.

But tonight… you hesitate at the door.

Bob’s already there. Hood down, for once. Jacket draped over the back of the couch. He’s wearing that old faded band tee you once teased him about—the one you said made him look like a roadie, not a superhero. And he’s looking around the room like he’s searching for something.

For someone.

Your pulse kicks up.

Yelena’s on the far couch, legs tucked under her, already spoon-deep into a pint of ice cream. John’s half asleep in the armchair with a beer balanced precariously on his thigh. Ava is floating just above the beanbag pile, watching the screen like she’s trying to decipher code. Bucky’s leaning against the back wall with crossed arms, waiting to see where you sit before he picks a seat.

And Bob… Bob catches your eye and doesn’t look away.

Not for a second.

It’s nothing like before.

There’s no flinching. No retreat. Just that soft, unsure gravity you’d missed so badly.

Your feet move before you think about it. You take the empty spot beside him like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

It feels terrifying.

And then Bob shifts, ever so slightly, to give you more space. Or maybe to meet you halfway. His thigh brushes yours. He doesn’t pull back.

You glance sideways. His fingers twitch against the blanket on his lap.

Yelena lets out an exaggerated gasp.

“Oh my God.”

You freeze.

John jerks upright. “What?”

Bucky just huffs a quiet chuckle and takes the nearest beanbag. “Took them long enough.”

You blink. “What are you—”

“Oh, please,” Yelena drawls. “This has been a six-act drama and we’re finally at the resolution. Do not deny me this.”

Bob lets out a groan and sinks lower into the couch.

Val, from somewhere in the hallway, calls out without even looking in: “If anyone makes out during the opening credits, I’m kicking you off the mission roster.”

You bury your face in your hands.

Bob coughs into a laugh beside you.

Bucky leans over and mutters, “So, when’s the wedding?”

You elbow him, face burning.

Bob’s hand brushes yours—light, hesitant—and then doesn’t move. Fingers barely touching. Like a promise he’s still too shy to make out loud.

The movie starts. Everyone settles.

You stay exactly where you are, shoulder to shoulder with the man you thought you lost. The man who is still here.

And even with the teasing, the knowing glances, and the smug looks from across the room—you’re smiling.

Finally.

A/N : another blurb before i do a request and continue finishing psyche 3 (i just have no creative juice to squeeze anymore)

A/N 2 : i love bob so much i want to write him in every trope there is LMAOO

A/N 3 : bucky barnes one shot, anyone? non-smut because i physically cannot bring myself to write smut i get very uncomfortable while writing and they end up being SO BAD

[scarletmika]

Stay With Me : ̗̀➛ Robert "Bob" Reynolds x Reader

Pairing: Robert "Bob" Reynolds/Sentry x Ex-Widow!Reader

Summary: Bob wants to feel useful, to truly be part of the team, but the others don't think he's ready. You take it upon yourself to teach him control, to guide him through. But mistakes will be made, and it might not be possible to keep the darkness from creeping back in once more.

Warnings: fluff, angst, idiots in love, violence, death, language, SPOILERS I guess for Thunderbolts*

Word Count: 5,292 words PART TWO: Always : ̗̀➛ Robert "Bob" Reynolds x Reader

Requests are open! : ̗̀➛ Find my masterlist here

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,”

To be fair, Yelena Belova had every right to be apprehensive of your idea. It had only been a few months since The New Avengers had been formally established, and the team itself was still finding its groove working together. Standing up to Valentina and saving Bob from himself? That was one thing. Receiving missions from Valentina’s team, having to travel the globe in order to save innocent civilians? That was a whole other can of worms that they’d popped open without thinking of the consequences.

The amount of missions the team was needed on was slowly ramping up, going from just two a month to now almost four in just the last month. The entire team wasn’t always needed for certain mission: Bucky, Yelena and yourself had been sent on solo missions, while Alexei had tagged along with John and Ava on others (much to their dismay at times). There was always one agreed-upon rule: Bob was staying in the Watchtower.

It’s not that the team didn’t want Bob with them, because everyone did. They knew he wanted to feel wanted and feel useful, that he didn’t want to simply do the dishes after dinner every night and read through every book that had accumulated in his room. The problem came down to control. When they had fully explained what had happened that day in New York to him, the Void and how he became his worst fears, the small sense of control he seemed to have over his powers had slipped. His worst fear had quickly become losing control once again and hurting his team, hurting the people of the city.

You, though, had another idea.

“I think it’s time, Lena,” you tried to reason with her that night in the kitchen, the pair of you working on the load of dirty dishes together. Yelena cleaned while you dried them and put them away, working in tandem just as you had for many years within the Red Room, memories you both wanted to forget. “Bob is capable of controlling it, I know he is, he just needs help. Just let me train him, show him some basics and help him find that sense of control again.”

“And if he loses control? If the Void takes over his mind again?”

“I’m not scared of him,”

Yelena scoffed, shooting a smirk toward her oldest friend before focusing back on the dishes before them, hoping to finish them sooner rather than later.

“Just because you have a little soft spot for Bob doesn’t mean your idea is the best idea,”

“I’m not asking any of you to help me,” you shot back, bumping your hip against hers with a pointed look for her comment about your soft spot for Bob. “Just trust that I can do it. I believe in Bob, and that’s enough for me to try.”

Yelena paused at the sink, quietly watching as you placed the dishes up into the cabinet where they typically went, and let out a sigh, shaking her head.

“Fine, but it’s on you if it goes wrong,”

“Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Convincing Yelena was the part that you knew would be easy. You’d grown up just houses down from her, Natasha and Alexei, kept there under the watchful eye of your own Red Room spy posing as your mother. You’d escaped America with them, been trained through the Red Room and escaped mind control with Yelena by your side, and brought down Dreykov once and for all with her, too. There weren’t many people Yelena trusted in the world, but you were one of the very few. You knew it might take slight convincing, but she’d ultimately trust your judgement in the end.

Now, convincing Bob was a whole other story, one you knew wouldn’t be easy.

“No uh, no way,” you sighed, watching Bob pace his bedroom and wring his hands together. He glanced at you for just a second before shaking his hand again. “Using my powers means being the Sentry and I can’t be the Sentry without…you know…”

“And it’s been months since there’s been any incident, Bob,” you tried to explain to him softly. Without giving him a chance to pull away you reached forward, silently taking his tense hands in your own and squeezing them. “Look, you’re holding my hands and I’m not being transported into any shame room!”

Bob tried his best to laugh at your attempt to lighten his mood. His cheeks flushed a bright red as he pulled his hands from your own, shaking his head as he sat back down on his bed, picking back up the book he had been reading before you’d come in and pitched your idea to him.

You took a deep breath, wracking your brain for any idea to hopefully convince Bob that this was good for him, that learning control again would be good. The cover of the book in his hands distracted you, a smile crossing your lips in an instant as you recognized it.

“I remember buying that for you last month, along with the rest of the series,” you told him gently, sitting down on the bed beside him and gesturing to the book. “Seems like you’re enjoying it, since I’m pretty sure that’s book three.”

“It’s not bad. Helps pass the time,” Bob shrugged, looking back to you with a shy smile. “You have good taste.”

With a shared smile between you both, you bumped your shoulder with his lightly, glancing down at the book before looking back to his eyes. God, were you fond of those blue eyes.

“You trusted my book recommendations…can you trust me on anything else?”

Bob didn’t hesitate before speaking again.

“I trust you more than anyone,”

The way he said it, so sure of himself, made your smile grow even wider.

“Then trust me when I tell you that this could be good for you. Learning control again will help you, even just the smallest bit of practice and control can be good for you. Please, just try? For me?”

It was quiet between you both for a moment, eyes never leaving one another, before Bob’s voice came out softer than it had before.

“Yeah…yeah, okay. Let’s try,”

It was a process…a long process to say the least. It took almost two weeks before you could even get Bob fully comfortable in the full gym that tower had for him to even consider channeling his powers again. He never liked going to the training room when John and Alexei were there, Walker always managing to make snide comments toward Bob. You knew Walker cared, he just hated wearing it on his sleeve and masked it instead, but that didn’t mean you appreciated the small remarks.

Instead, you’d gotten Bob comfortable with heading to the training room whenever Bucky and Ava were sparring, the pair tending to leave you both alone unlike your other friends.

“I know you can do it. Just focus on it, channel your energy into it, and command your mind to do what you want it to do,”

You didn’t have an extension range of powers the way that Bob did, so you weren’t entirely sure that what you were instructing Bob to do was actually helpful to helping him learn control, or even get comfortable with his powers again. But he was trying, and that was enough for you.

Bob took a deep breath beside you, focusing in on the 20 pound medicine ball on the ground across the room from the two of you. He held his hand out, making your mind flashback to that day in the tower when you were forced to fight against him, something you had refused to do, and you saw the furrow in his brows as he tried to focus in and command the ball to move. There was silence in the room, besides the sound of Ava and Bucky talking across the room.

You watched Bob in silence as he seemed to grow more frustrated, desperately trying to move the ball across the room toward you both. You placed your hand on his arm, thumb gently rubbing across his skin in the most gentle and comforting way you could muster, tone hushed as you spoke just to him.

“You can do this Bob, just focus. You can do it,”

The tenseness in his body seemed to leave him at your words and your touch. Bob pulled his hand back in toward him, and for just a second, he was delighted as the weighted exercise ball finally moved across the floor.

Until it stopped just an inch after moving.

Bob’s head was buried in his hands in seconds, and you could see the deep flush in his cheeks through the cracks in his fingers as he mumbled to himself. You couldn’t entirely hear him, but you could make out the words “mistake” and “useless” clear as day as your hand made its way to his back, rubbing it comfortingly.

John Walker’s obnoxious laughter from the doorway cut through the silence of the room before you could encourage Bob to try again.

“Wow! I thought after a few weeks you’d have his control and powers in better shape there, Widow,” John whistled, stepping slightly further in through the doorway. You could hear Ava mumbling to Bucky about how this wouldn’t but good, but John didn’t seem to care. “I mean an inch! Wow! I mean hey, it’s not all about size right?”

“Walker, that’s enough-”

You tuned out Bucky’s scolding of John, looking back to Bob. His hands had left his face, his eyes trained on the ground, as he continued to mumble to himself about how he was useless. Your blood boiled in an instant, reaching down to take one of Bob’s hands in your own and squeeze it in comfort as you turned your glare back to John.

“Hey Walker? How about you shut it, yeah? If I wanted to hear an ass’s opinion I’d take myself down to the zoo and ask the fucking donkeys,”

John laughed again, shrugging off Bucky as he tried to place a hand on his shoulder, pointing over at you. Your hand tightened around Bob’s as he did.

“Want to say that again, Widow?”

“Ex-Widow, thank you very much. You should remember that your dick belongs in your pants and not in your personality,”

“Keep running your mouth. This little experiment here of yours isn’t good for anyone. Just because you’ve got a little soft spot for Bobby boy here doesn’t mean-”

Walker was cut off as the medicine ball Bob had been trying to move was flung across the room, narrowly missing his head and embedding itself in the doorframe behind him, shattering and splintering the wood and burying itself in the wall. Ava’s gasp was the only other sound as Bucky grabbed Walker almost by the back of his neck, shoving him out of the room with a gruff comment of “let’s go” as Ava followed behind.

Your eyes finally left the piece of exercise equipment now one with the wall of the room, gaze turning back to Bob. His hand was held up in the direction the ball had flown, but it was shaking slightly. You trailed your gaze up to his eyes to see he was already looking down at you, eyes blown wide as she stammered over his words.

“I wasn’t, that- that was a mistake. I didn’t- I really didn’t mean to do that he was, he was just- he’s such an asshole sometimes-”

Your laughter cut him off, pausing him in the middle of his tracks as you gripped his hand tighter, forehead falling against his shoulder as he stiffened for a moment, before relaxing and smiling slightly at the sound of your laughter ringing through the room.

“Oh my god, Bob, that was brilliant! I’m going to use that idea next time Walker decides to be a dick to mask his own troubles, that shut him right up!”

“I didn’t mean to, though,” he quickly backtracked, shaking his head as you lifted your head, looking up at him, though still holding his hand tightly. “It was a mistake.”

“Mistakes happen. We’re human, it’s natural,” she smiled at him, tilting her head toward the ball. “Now…do it again.”

Bob stared at her for a moment, truly trying to discern what he possibly could’ve done to deserve you. You’d stepped between him and Walker down in the vault, keeping the former Captain America from laying a hand on him, you’d almost died in the elevator shaft to make sure he didn’t. You’d refused to fight him that day in the penthouse, trying to bring him back, and it was ultimately you who was the first one to run to him and pull him back from the Void.

When he looked at you, he could feel the flutter in his chest, something he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time. He knew what it meant, but he couldn’t find the words to say it. It was in thinking of that four letter word while staring down at you that he’d pulled the ball right back to the two of you, letting it hang in the air before you both for a moment before dropping it to the ground.

Your eyes had never left his, your smile only growing wider and your fingers slotting between his own.

“Not bad, Bob. Not bad,”

It was a month later that your idea would be fully put to the test.

HYDRA was the most stubborn organization, like an insect that just refused to die. Steve Rogers couldn’t stop them in the 40’s, and there was no stopping them now. They’d rebuilt momentum as an organization during the Blip, with cells popping up around the country. It didn’t take long for information to come in about their new main base; an underground compound hidden within the Five Ponds Wilderness in upstate New York. The New Avengers had been tasked with infiltrating and dismantling the base, taking in as many soldiers within for questioning by the US government, and recovering any intel that they’d managed to steal during their rebuild time.

It was an all hands on deck operation, the team knowing it was going to take all of them in order to fully infiltrate and dismantle this large base. In your eyes, that meant no one was sitting this one out.

“You guys handle dismantling and capturing soldiers. I’ll handle intel recovery…and I’m taking Bob with me,”

The comment had everyone at the briefing table pausing, including Bob, who had opted to sit in the corner of the room after you had asked him personally to attend the briefing with you.

John refused to meet your eyes, knowing his single apology weeks ago wasn’t enough to calm how angry you still were over the situation. Alexei and Ava shared concerned glances, while Bucky and Yelena seemed to have a conversation entirely with their eyes. The former Winter Soldier was the one to turn back to you, giving you a small nod.

“He’s ready?”

“I think he is,” you trailed your gaze over to Bob, giving him an encouraging smile. “The question is, do you think you’re ready?”

Bob looked at his teammates, his friends, seeing the apprehension in their eyes. But all it took was one look back to you, to the pride and encouragement shining in your gaze on him, that had him sitting up straighter.

“I am,”

It was that simple sentence that had Bob finding himself trekking through the wilderness of upstate New York behind you, decked out in a minimal tactical suit that the team had insisted he wear for the mission. He didn’t mind it, anything was better than that monstrosity that Valentina had put him in before.

“Is this normal?” Bob cautiously questioned you, stopping alongside you in a clearing in the woods you’d finally gotten to. “You know…splitting up? The team all uh, went another way didn’t they?”

“Our mission is intel recovery and intel recovery only, so it was easier for us to head through this separate entrance,” you explained, kneeling down in the leaves below your feet and brushing them away, revealing the steel door below your feet. You glanced up at him, smiling. “This should bring us closer to their control room, which minimizes the amount of fighting that we have to deal with.”

Both of you finally making your way through the hatch and down into the halls of the, Bob stuck close to your side as you guided him through the halls, earpieces in your ears alerting you to updates from the rest of the team. The hallways blinked in the emergency red lights you knew would be going off, signaling that the base was in lockdown mode. That meant your friends were doing their job further down the compound.

You’d briefed Bob on the mission on the very short jet ride to upstate. Taking the separate entrance would mean minimal fighting for both of you, which you wanted for Bob. You wanted to ease him into missions like this, especially when he was afraid to fully unleash his powers and be ‘The Sentry’ in fear of losing himself. You found a middle ground, instructing Bob that you would handle the majority of anyone you came across as well as the intel dump to your central computers back at the Watchtower. All he had to do was watch your back for stragglers.

With the compound in lockdown, most of the HYDRA agents had been pulled to the main fight. Using the tech embedded into your suit, you did a quick scan through the control room door, highlighting the agents that were inside.

“Just follow my lead and watch my back,” you mumbled to Bob, hand on the door of the control room, glancing back at him with a small smile. “You’ve got this.”

Within seconds of throwing the control room door open you were inside, launching yourself over the row of computers, legs spread as you took down two agents simultaneously with kicks directly into their throats. You ducked under another row of tables as shots rang out from the gun of another agent, propelling yourself up and above the table toward him. His gun tracked your movements, shots ringing through your ears, but the bullets hovered in place. Bob was barely through the doorway, one hand stopping the bullets from touching you while another held off the agent rushing toward him with ease.

In the signature move you’d learned from Natasha herself, your thighs enclosed around the neck of the agent shooting at you, twisting your body until you were both thrown to the ground, With another single twist of your legs you heard a crack, quickly scrambling back to your feet.

With one agent dead and two down you glanced to Bob, who was entirely fine holding back the agent that was struggling against his powers to get to him. Kicking the chairs before you out of the way, you quickly inserted the USB into the main computer drive, initiating the sequence to download any intel that HYDRA was harboring in the compound.

Bob was simply staring at the man in front of him, head tilted as the agent struggled against his mental hold on him that held him in place. Realizing that he needed to be focusing on watching your back instead of messing with the agent, Bob quickly threw him across the room, the agent’s head hitting a wall and knocking him out almost immediately. Bob smiled to himself for just a moment at the sight; he felt bad for hurting anyone, even if these people were bad people that needed to be stopped. But to have this kind of control over his powers was a miracle to him, something he didn’t believe was possible. And he owed everything to you-

“BOB!”

He frantically turned, seeing one of the agents back on his feet, hand wrapped around your throat and body pressed against the row of computers before them. He could hear your choked coughs from across the room, your feet pushing against the man’s chest in a desperate hope to knock him off of you. It was to no avail, though, as the agent lifted his other hand with some sort of device encased in it. The HYDRA agent pressed the button on top of the device, the entire body of it lighting up red in seconds.

“NO!”

You sucked in a deep breath as the agent’s hand was ripped from your throat in seconds, your own hands flying to your throat as you tried to regain control of your surroundings. Bob with a single flick of the wrist dragged the man aross the room, launching him into the wall opposite you at the speed of light, a sickening crack sounding through the room.

Your eyes locked with Bob’s for just a second before you both looked to the beeping, red device at your feet. Without a moment’s hesitation, Bob flew across the room in what seemed like a blink, grabbing hold of the device and launching it across the room toward the door where you had entered. In the next second he turned, covering your body with his own as he pulled you both to the ground just as the device containing a high powered bomb exploded.

In an instant your hands covered your ears, feeling the rush of heat from the blast and pieces of debris rush past you and Bob. He body stayed crouched over yours, keeping anything from the blast from hitting you. It seemed to go on for what felt like forever until all that was left was the smell of smoke and gunpowder in the air and the faint crackle of electricity from destroyed wires.

After another moment to recover, you crawled out from Bob’s arms, quickly turning to the harddrive behind you to pocket the USB and whatever intel you were able to download before the explosion. You turned back to the area of the blast, and felt your breath leave you at the sight.

The entire wall that connected to the main hallway was gone, the ceiling having come down on top of it as well, almost splitting the room into almost half of the size it had been when you had first entered and encountered the agents. Wires were exposed within the ceiling, pipes leaking down into the room as small fires burned in the explosion area of the rubble.

“Widow, Bob, answer us!” fully coming back to your senses, you could hear John’s voice through the earpiece in your ear. “We heard an explosion, does one of you copy?”

“One of the agent’s had a bomb, but we’re both fine,” you called back to the team, still breathing heavily as you surveyed the damage before you. “The room…not so much.”

“Did you get the intel-”

“That’s not important,” Yelena’s voice cut off John’s, and you could hear the concern within it. “What’s wrong with the room?”

“My best guess is we’re trapped now, given that an entire wall and half the ceiling was just blown out,” you relayed back to them. “We’re underground so I really don’t want to think about being trapped within a concrete room with what I can only assume is a limited amount of oxygen, so if the three super soldiers on this team could hurry their asses over here and help dig us out sooner rather than later we’d appreciate it.”

“Stay put, we’re on our way,”

“Stay put, as if we can go anywhere,” you mumbled to yourself, tearing the earpiece from your ear and pocketing it, ears still ringing slightly from the blast. “Bob, you okay?”

Your eyes stayed trained on the debris before you even as you asked the question. After a moment of no response you glanced to the side at one of the only walls that wasn’t destroyed, freezing in place at the sight of a black tendril like shadow crawling across the wall.

“I made a mistake…it’s my fault…”

Turning fully, it felt like ice had suddenly run through your veins at the sight before you.

Bob was on his knees on the ground, eyes trained on the floor, but he was barely Bob anymore. Half of his face, of the face of the beautiful, broken boy you’d fallen so irrevocably in love with over the last few months was still visible. The rest of him was bathed in shadows, tendrils of it seeping out through the floor and into the walls, as the Void slowly took him over.

“Bob…” your voice was low, cautious, as you took a single hesitant step back.

He looked up at you at he sound of your voice. One single blue eye remained, tears welling in it and streaming down his face, in contrast to the shadow and pinpoint dot that covered the other half of his face. He spoke like himself, but almost like there were two of him, a low and gruff second voice of his layered over it.

“It’s my fault. It shouldn’t have happened I- I made a mistake. I could’ve hurt you, I could’ve got you killed,” his voice broke for a second, a sob almost seeping out of him as the shadows took more of what was left of him away. “I’m useless. All I do is make mistakes, all I do is make everything worse.You shouldn’t have brought me, I wasn’t ready. I- I can’t hurt you. I couldn’t live with myself if I did.”

“You protected me,” you tried to explain to him, voice soft as you crouched down, bringing yourself down to his level as you held out your hands toward him. “You saved me. You didn’t make a mistake, Bob, neither of us knew he had a bomb. You did everything you could. Please just…just listen. Just come back to me.”

He stared at you, one blue eyes and one pinpoint eye, but your words seemed to go in one ear and out the other. The shadows still crept in.

“I’m better off dead. If I’m dead I…I can’t hurt you. I won’t hurt you,”

The shadows crept in again, that blue eye full of tears barely left to look at you, as the Void was seconds from swallowing him whole once again. 

Panic filled you in that instance, at the thought of losing him, and you lunged forward. Your knees dropping to the ground in front of him as you threw your arms around him, burying your face in his neck as you cried, letting the shadows consume you as well.

“Don’t leave me…please don’t leave me,”

It could’ve been minutes, it felt like hours, but in reality it had only been seconds before your eyes opened once more. There were arms wrapped around your waist as your brain caught up with you that you were still with Bob. You flung back, prying your head from the crook of his neck as you pulled back to look at him, just as he looked back at you with a similar look of confusion.

One hand came up to cup his cheek, overwhelmed to simply see his face unmarked by shadows. His eyes trailed over your face before they flickered around the room, face contorting in confusion.

“This…this isn’t one of my shame rooms,”

You followed his gaze, breath catching in your throat automatically as you took in the room. The grand pillars in front of the staircase, the white and black tiled floor beneath your feet, the dim lighting you knew all too well.

The Red Room.

“No…it’s one of mine,”

Bob’s hand around your waist tightened at the sound of heels against the floor behind you. His hand never left you, and your’s never left him as you both turned to face the scene before you.

You were so young, only 9. You stood to the side of the room, still in your ballet flats and hair slicked back impeccably. You recognized the woman in heels, of course you did she’d been your instructor since you were barely old enough to be molded into one of their assassins. She came to a stop before you, glaring down at you. God, you were just a child.

“You were given simple instructions,” her shrill voice cut through the air as you tightened your hold around Bob at the sound. “A simple task. You have been a perfect student…only to fail now.”

“I’m sorry, mistress,”

“There are no apologies here,” her voice cut in again. “Only consequences.”

Two burly men entered the room, holding the arms of a body not much bigger than your own at the time. They tore the sack upon the child’s head off, revealing her face: Polina. You’d grown up together, progressed through every challenge together. Besides Yelena…she’d been the closest thing to a best friend you could have in a place like this.

Bob’s own hands on your waist tightened as the mistress pulled out a revolver from the waistband of her skirt, loading a single bullet into the chamber. Her gaze flickered back to your young 9-year-old self, glare harsher than it was before as she saw your eyes were closed. “Open your eyes, and accept your consequence.”

A single tear made its way down your cheek as this young version of you did as she was asked, holding back her own tears as she looked into the eyes of your friend, just as the mistress’s bullet pierced her skull.

“What…what happened?”

“Simple…I made a mistake,” was the only response you could muster back to Bob. You pulled your gaze from the bloody scene before you, turning back to the man you loved as he watched you. Shaky hands cupped his cheeks, thumbs gliding over his skin as you swallowed the lump in your throat. “Bob…we all have regrets. We all wish we could’ve done things differently. We all make mistakes, whether we want to or not, but it just means we’re human. We are not the sum of all of our mistakes, but what we choose to do differently because of them.”

Bob leaned into your soft touch, his eyes never leaving yours. He shook his head, choking on his own words as he tried to find the words to say.

“All I’ve done is cause you pain…cause everyone pain, because I keep- I keep making mistakes. I don’t know how to fix it,”

You thought about the next thing to say, what you could possibly say to get through to him, but words no longer seemed to do the trick. Instead, your hands held tight to his face as you surged forward, molding your lips to his own.

In a single kiss, you tried to convey every single thing that you needed him to feel. The way that you had cared about him from the moment you’d laid eyes on him, that one single look into his blue eyes had forever held him a place in your heart before you even realized he was the one occupying it. That in your eyes, he could do no wrong, that there was no mistake he could make that would make you love him any less. That you would walk through fire, cross any ocean, or throw yourself into the void of his own mind if that’s what it took to bring him back to you. The press of your lips against his own, the hesitant reciprocation back from him as he tried to navigate this new territory, his hands gripped onto your waist in hopes to ground himself in the moment, you tried desperately to ensure that he knew everything you needed him to know in that moment.

You pulled away, eyes closed as you felt him lean back into you, chasing after the feeling of your lips on his. Your nose brushed against his, hand moving from his cheek to the nape of his neck, tangling in his hair.

“Just stay with me. That’s all I need…just stay with me,”

When you finally opened your eyes, you were back in the debris-covered room of the destroyed compound, still kneeling on the floor. You could hear the sound of your friends from beyond the debris, calling out for you as they tried to move the debris before them to get to you both.

All that mattered was the man still wrapped in your arms, shadows faded away as if they’d never appeared to begin with, leaving behind those beautiful blue eyes that shone brightly with one thing only: love.

“Always,”

[ilovethanosdick]

Choi Su-bong/Thanos (Squid Game) x fem! reader HCS

IM OBSESSED WITH THIS MAN!!!!!

also first ever post?! it’s a little short, but hope ya enjoy!!

SFW:

• he ADORES physical touch

• touching u at every chance he gets, like even simple hand holding, leaning against u

• HE LOVES IT ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES FROM U!!

• casually grabs u by ur ass in public, or give u a lil slap. when u confront him about it, he acts like he dont know what are u talking about, then giggle

• using ur breast like fidget toy, when he’s stressed

• squeezing it, when he feels like it

• shoving his head between ur boobs, bro can stay like that for a good 10 minutes until he calms down

• if u ask him if he would still love u as a worm, he would tell u that he’s not a zoophile

• pet names!! baby, babe, princess are his favs!

• he’s not so good with commitment and stuff like that, would prefer an open relationship (one sided tho, he's so possesive of u)

• have huge jealousy issues when it comes to u

• a male species near u??? he goes into rage mode, getting aggressively touchy to claim u! show everyone that u are his!!

• would apologise to u with rap songs

“Y/N” he screamed outside your house. throwing rocks at the window to wake u up.

“what the fuck…” u muttered to yourself, as u walked over to the window to check what this idiot come up with this time.

as soon as he saw your face, he screamed again, his hands clutching onto his chest “SEÑORITA!!! I WANT TO APOLOGISE TO U!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!! U DO REALISE THAT ITS 3 AM RIGHT NOW???” u screamed back at him, slightly leaning forward through window.

“I LOVE U!!!!!” he get on his knees.

“ARE U HIGH?????” u asked, clearly pissed at his presence.

“HI!!!!!” he said as he waved his hands to u, enthusiastically with a goofy grin.

even after this response, u can’t tell if he’s high. that’s pretty much how he’s acting regardless if he’s on drugs or not.

he turn on boombox, a cliche beat hit your ears. he stands up and cleared his throat.

“Yo, I messed up, I admit it, I’m a clown,

Flirting like a fool when you weren’t around.

But I swear, it was harmless, just a slip of the tongue,

Now I’m here confessing where I went wrong.

I told her, "Hey, nice shoes," and that’s all I meant,

But now I’m in the doghouse, paying the rent.

Baby, you’re the star, the queen of my heart,

And that other conversation? A throwaway part.

She laughed at my joke, yeah, I felt kinda cool,

But now I see, I was the class clown fool.

I’d never trade you for some silly chat,

You’re the boss, the CEO, I’m just the doormat.

I’ll buy you flowers, write your name in the sky,

Sing off-key if it’ll dry your eyes.

I’ll even quit drugs if you need me to,

Just don’t leave me hangin’, I’m a mess without you.

So baby, I’m here, on my knees with this beat,

Admitting my crimes, can’t handle defeat.

Let’s laugh this off, put it in the past,

‘Cause you and me, girl, we’re built to last.”

he end up the song showing a small heart formed with his thumb and index finger.

u sighed “all right, come inside”

“YAYY!!!” he did a happy jump and clapped his feet in midair.

• tbh he’s so silly

• steals flowers from a random garden for u

• night visits, but uses a window instead of a door to enter ur place, literally like some kind of teenager

• even if u gave him the keys to ur apartment, he will use the window no matter what

it was dark outside, about 11 pm. u were coming back from work. damn how exhausted u felt. some arguments with clients, boss yelling at u. it was not ur best day for sure.

u checked ur phone. still no text from Thanos. why he was ghosting u? probably he don’t want to deal with ur complains about how bad ur day went.

u opened the apartment door. u don't give a damn about anything. you plan to go to bed right away, you don't have the strength to change your clothes, wash yourself or eat something.

you threw everything aside and went to the bedroom. when you turn on the light in the room, you see your boyfriend lying on his side, resting his head on his hand, rose in his teeth.

“U WANT TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK???” u flinched. u can’t get used to Thanos randomly spawning in ur house.

“and i missed u too, princess” he grinned, standing up and then theatrically hand over the rose to u.

“i brought ur fav burgers and lotta beer” he said, pointing out at ur kitchen.

“thanks” u smiled softly at him. u can’t help but melt inside at his behaviour. he’a an asshole, but what a cute asshole.

“no problem, babe” he leaned to u, giving u a tight hug. burying his face in the crook of ur neck.

• avoids deep emotional conversation

• would tell that he loves u, but he don’t put much weight into that

• he’s saying it casually like it’s common sense that he loves u

• painting each others nails!!!!

NSFW:

• pansexual king, but he wouldn’t label himself

• he don’t care about gender, he fucks who he consider as cute and that’s it!!

• when u ride him, he would comment something like: WROOM WROOM!! or YEEHAW!!!

• A TOTAL FREAK….

• piss kink (y’all can’t prove me wrong)

• HE LIKES IT DIRTY!!!!

• public sex

• like fingering u in a club or on a party, sometimes anal when he's high

• claiming u like that in front of other people?? IT TURNS HIM ON SO BADD

• never a sub, it would hurt his ego

• bro don’t know what gentle sex is

• always rough and aggressive

• smokes weed/cigarettes during sex, blowing smoke in your face

• talking about himself in third person "yeah, babe. the great Thanos will make u feel so good”

“u like that slut? u like Thanos’s dick that much??”

• he’s not into after care. usually he just rolls down on bed, doesn't even bother putting on clothes, hug u tightly and fall asleep like that

[cinnabun-faerie]

LADS ~ Would you love me if I was a worm?

A/N: Here I am again with my Would you love me if I was a worm? saga but this time it's with LADS!

honestly surprising he didn't ask you first

he just laughs and shakes his head when you do

"If you're a worm, I have to be one too."

as your worm partner, he would make sure to pull the leaves into the shared burrow

and you'd still get to cuddle him just like you do now

he was painting when you asked him

he stops his soft brush strokes and eyes you quizzically

"Why would you want to be a worm anyway?"

would probably paint you as a worm and show it to you

"See? You're the cutest little worm!"

he'd insist that if you were a worm, you couldn't let anyone hook you and take you away, you are his worm

*Loud sigh*

"Is this what you often think about? Just last week you asked if I would love you if you were a crow."

and even then he said he would love you because at least Mephisto would have some family

even if both of you get into some trouble

but that was different

now you were going on about being a worm

though he supposed if you were a worm he could keep you in a nice place

only the best for him little worm

but he'd have to keep Mephisto from eating you

"A worm? Where did this come from?"

he'd really have to think about this

"Am I a worm too?" "No?"

what if something happened to your wormself?

what if you get lost or worse - stepped on?

he'd worry too much

more than he worried for you now

he'd have to carry you in a jar everywhere with him

"Let's hope you don't turn into a worm anytime soon."

you ask him this when he is doing your check-up

looks at you with a tired glare

"Does now seem the best time to ask this? Right now I'm your doctor."

when you prompt him for an answer, he sighs

"And you'd still be you?" "Yes"

"Did you know that worms have five hearts? I suppose I'd have to make sure all your hearts are healthy."

For you, he'd become the best worm doctor

[2tcs]

Naga (Part 1)

Next

“Slither slither hiss. Slither slither hiss. Slither slither hiss.”

“Danny? What are you doing?” Same asked as she walked into their apartment.

“Isn't it obvious? He has embraced his inner scaily.” Tucker said from where he sat on the couch in his own fursuit.

“Technically this is my own body so I'm not a scaily. I don't need a suit.” Danny gloated as he coiled his ghostly tail around himself and flicked out his tongue like a snake.

“But you're a ghost. Not an actual snake. There for, you are a scaily.” Tucker vary maturely said before sticking his tongue out at danny. He's so happy the suit could stick out it’s tongue. Ya it cost a little extra but it was so worth it.

“So now you are a snake?”

“Naga actually because of the human half.” Danne said with a shrug.

“Wouldn't you be a lamia because you're a boy?” Sam asked?

“Actually lamias are a female only species where as Nagas are not. Male nagas are called nagas, go figure, while female nagas are called nagis or naginis.” Tucker said while flipping one of his paws off so he could use his phone.

“Tuck's the one who brought up that I look like I have a cosmic snake tail so I've been been practicing making it more solid. Awesome right?” Danny said as he began slithering around the room again.

Just don't do that out in the open. Last thing we need is the Bats sniffing around.” Sam said with a head shake as she went to their room to get in comfies.

👻One week later in a random sewer under Gotham.👻

“Hood. Why are you in the sewers?”

“Damn it Orical! Don't just randomly turn on my co- shit! Get back here!” Hood yelled as he chased some drug smugglers who thought it would be a great idea to escape through the drains.

“They took a right up a head and then a left immediately after. Carful though. Something is causing major interference with my cameras down that way.”

“Got it. Right, left, then.” Sckdding to a stop Hood immediately ducks back through the entrance and peaked around the corner. “I don't think I need to worry about those specific smugglers any more.” Hood whispered.

“Hold on hood. Connecting to your camera now… Is that a snake?”

“It has a human half too so they're a naga. The human half is already around the bend up ahead.”

“Where are the perps?”

Stepping more fully in the room now that most of the naga's body was no longer occupying it Hood turns and spots both smugglers passed out.

“Looks like they ran in here and immediately got slammed into the wall.” Hood said as he went over to check their pulses.

“Are they still alive?” Orical tentatively asked.

“Hmm. I'll have to get rid of the bodies. Don't want my own men getting got. I'll talk to you later Barbi.” Hood said before disabiling his com and camera. “Should never have sold to kids you dumb fucks.” he said, shooting off two rounds.

___

Saw a post about merDanny and almost immediately saw one about Nagas. So the brain worms got to work. That and I'm currently sitting at the DMV waiting for my turn so I'm bored. Also on mobile so I know there are spelling errors. Have fun with this.

[kamospeach]

Hey girl, just read your Eren one shot and I was loving ittt. Could I ask for a one shot of Eren x black female bestfriends who have a flirty relationship but Eren finally makes a move when she gets asked out by someone else? #smutty please ☺️

we might share the same brain cell :P

plot: bestfriend!eren is tired of only being best friends.

content warning: pining, mutual pining, jealous eren, oblivious reader, slut shaming (barely), titty sucking, oral f!recieving, fingering, cowgirl

peachy's yap: wc 4k.ᐟ i've literally thought about this so many times i love best friend eren in every way !

“her? nah she's my best friend."

"girlfriend... i don't have a girlfriend. oh y/n? that's my best friend."

"yeah we live together but we're strictly best friends."

those were just three of the many different statements eren replied to strangers. strangers being people your friends brought the two of you around. your friends themselves couldn't even tell others what you both had going on.

"y/n and eren? well, they're best friends, and uh... they hug a lot."

"yeah they do that often, she always sits on his lap."

"when did he start holding her waist in public? that's new."

"truthfully i've seen them kiss. on the lips!"

all of it was true you and eren did hug a lot even cuddle when it was cold. you sat on his lap proudly in public, especially at the club you wouldn't dare let some stripper twerk on your best friend. he held your waist when you and your friends walked around the mall looking for things to buy.

you did kiss twice though once at a dinner party on accident when you turned to talk to eren and the same when he tried to kiss your cheek. another time when you both were crossfaded in your room you looked over at your best friend. his eyes were low and his pink lips shiny from chapstick and he looked very fuckable.

but even after that your friendship stayed the same and you didn't falter. you were best friends and even promised to be in the next life. and today was just like every other day.

"ren!" you yelled and eren walked to you from your shared kitchen. you laid on the couch wrapped in a blanket watching a scary movie. he stood at the end of the couch looking at you with a raised brow.

"yeah ma," he asked and you pointed at the tv his eyes followed your finger. you could barely hear the tv from where you sat. "what you scared?" he laughed at you and you frowned.

"no i ain't scared!" you defended although you were truthfully scared that wasn't what you wanted. "remember how your fat ass stepped on the remote and it broke yesterday?" you said and he looked around trying to act like he didn't hear you.

"what about it?" he asked still looking at the TV.

"i can't hear it and we haven't got a new remote. so can you turn it up pleaseeee?" you asked and he scoffed turning up the TV and looking at you to see if you were satisfied. you nodded in approval happy now that you could hear the TV. "thank you, hun."

"mhm you're welcome," he mumbled walking over to you and kissing your forehead. things like that were everyday interactions for you and eren. it was friendly and you never thought of it any other way. you watched the movie until eren came into the living room with two plates.

he handed you one and sat directly next to you in the corner of the couch. you lifted the blanket placing it over eren's legs. he grabbed your legs placed them over his lap and looked down at you.

"what movie is this again?" he asked and you scoffed rolling your eyes.

"i don't know it's on a random channel, no remote remember." you playfully remind him to which he scoffs. he promised he would go out today and buy a new remote after work.

since you took today off you sat in your room all day waiting for eren to return. just for eren to come back with two bottles of Don Julio, a family box of Cheez-Its, and a value pack of sour gummy worms. everything but a damn remote.

"you don't gotta remind me every time." he laughed and you shook your head.

"i'll go get it tomorrow." you laugh as a comfortable silence settles between the two as you both enjoy the meal. after you both finished he left to clean the dishes and returned minutes later. he sat down in his previous spot except this time he pulled you in between his legs. you leaned your against his chest looking up at him.

"hm?" he hummed in a questioning tone and for a second you weren't exactly sure what you wanted to say. lost in his green eyes that you swore swirled hypnotizing you into becoming a mute. his fingers rubbed small circles on the bare skin of your thigh. his other hand under your oversized teachers resting on your stomach.

"you work tomorrow?" you asked and he nodded looking at the time seeing it was getting close to his bedtime. he was trying to stay up later so you wouldn't call him an old man but he was exhausted. "can i ride with you?"

"yea, you can." he cleared his throat standing you up and standing up behind you. "finna go to bed," he mumbled stretching as your eyes never left his happy trail until it was hidden by his shirt again.

"can you sleep in my room? i got scared." you now admit to being scared by the low-budget horror film. he obliged as you both went to your room.

the next day was how you expected stressful, tiring, and overall draining. it was going on 3 pm and you only had one client left. you had two appointments and even did three walk-ins you were beat.

you looked across the tattoo shop at your best friend who looked even more exhausted than you. he was finishing up his last client it was his second large back piece of the day along with 3 smaller tattoos.

eren was always the busiest it was his shop and everyone loved his work. although you, connie, annie, and mikasa were good at what you did, it wasn't beating eren's talent by a long shot. you stood up walking over to his station sitting next to him watching him work.

after another 20 minutes, your client arrived, he was a regular client for you. if you were being honest you gave him discounts here and there because he was fine as hell. whenever he called and needed you to squeeze him in you never told him no.

"wassup y/n." he smiled his white teeth nearly blinding you with its reflection of the sun. you returned his smile patting the back of the seat.

"heyyy come take a seat," you said and got started with the process. you were first sitting in silence until he asked about your day. taking the opportunity to rant about your stressful day.

"man if i known that i would've waited until tomorrow or when you ain't have as many people," he said and you shook your head.

"i'll never tell you no, you know that." you send him a bright smile and he returns the gesture.

"i must be your favorite?" he laughed and you nodded slowly still keeping your main focus on his tattoo.

"you might be..." you say and he sends you a smirk. he was getting cocky and you fed into it.

"then let your favorite client take you out?" he looked at you and as much as your body wanted to freeze up from shock. you stayed calm lightly nodding your head. "not for no free tattoos or nothin'. i been liking you for a while and i've known you for three years now and..." you cut him off as he started to ramble.

"i'll go out with you." you laughed trying to lighten the mood. he was obviously a little anxious but you admired him for asking.

"oh ok cool, bet." he nodded to himself and you smiled the whole time you finished his tattoo. you were just happy someone you found attractive thought the same about you.

after that, you both said your goodbyes and you walked over to eren who sat in his chair waiting for you to finish. he grabbed your bag from you and you both made sure everything was good to be locked up. you switched the lights off following eren to his bike.

"what were you and that guy gigglin' bout?" eren asked handing you your helmet and you shrugged.

"nothin', much he asked me out and that was about it," you tell eren and he freezes turning to look at you. you weren't sure why he looked so shocked at that statement so you chuckled.

"what?" you asked getting on the back of the bike and he shook his head. not bothering to say anything to you he just wanted to get home. he sped home going a little faster than you liked your arms wrapping tightly around him.

once you both made it back home eren wasted no time jumping off the bike. he didn't even look back at you and rushed into the apartment. you followed behind him oblivious to his anger.

"what you want for dinner i'll cook," you say and he shrugs his shoulders walking to his room and slamming his door shut. you stood in front of the door in shock, you and eren never stayed mad at each other.

you shook your head going to your room and deciding on taking a shower. you sat your phone on the counter in the kitchen along with your keys and bag. you went and did your regular shower routine before going to cook. when you came out eren was sitting at the island eating food.

"you doordashed?" you asked and he nodded. looking down at your phone and then back at his food. you frowned seeing your phone had lit up meaning you had gotten a notification. you walked over grabbing your phone seeing it was a text from the client who had asked you out.

6:23 pm

it was good to see your pretty face today how does friday at 7 pm sound?

you smiled at the message about to text back until eren snatched your phone. you looked up at him with your eyebrows furrowed in anger. "eat your food." he nodded in the direction of the bag and you squinted your eyes at him.

"fuck we forgot the remote again." you groaned. eren watched your every move you felt him watching. but you ignored it not wanting him to know that you were nervous from his intense gaze. "what's your problem today?" you asked getting it over with.

"you gonna go out with him?" he asked and you turned to look at him like he had lost his mind.

"why would i not?" you say grabbing your food and sitting next to him. he hummed nodding his head almost like you were irritating him. you both ate your food in silence just as you were about to swallow your last bite eren spoke.

"you ever thought about how it'd make me feel?" he asked and you choked on your food not sure what he meant.

"what?" you asked and he sighed looking away from you.

"i'm just sayin' like we best friends and stuff..." you cut him off assuming he thought you both had to sit down and contemplate whether or not you would date this guy or not.

"you expect me to run to you like you're my father and ask if it's okay that i date him?" you said now getting angry that eren was acting this way.

"that's not what i'm getting at bruh. i'm sayin' like one guy comes and asks you on a date and you just said yes?" he said and you squinted your eyes at him.

"you callin' me easy?" you asked grabbing your empty plate and throwing it away. not only were you fed up with his attitude his words hurt you.

"no ma that's not..."

"don't 'ma' me. you sittin' here callin' me easy and getting mad that someone showed interest in me. i've never had a boyfriend because they're always scared of you. let me have this one please." you practically beg eren. and then there it was again. that swirling in his eyes that was saying everything and nothing at all. you began to storm off to your room but eren asked a question that made your stomach churn.

"have you ever... thought about me? in that way?" he asked you and you blinked in shock.

"in what way?" you asked, you needed him to be straight up and tell you what he really wanted to know.

"have you ever thought about dating me and uh... being with me?" he asked and you cleared your throat. you never thought you and your best friend would be having this conversation.

"yes i have... maybe a year ago," you admitted and he grabbed your wrist pulling you back to him.

"when we kissed? in your bed?" he asked and you nodded slowly.

"i thought about you for days, months really. i hid the way i felt, i didn't want you to know," you admitted to him.

"i've always felt that way about you," he admitted and you looked at him your eyes running over his face. his eyes, nose, lips, everything that made you feel the way you did a year ago. "don't go out with him... go out with me."

you didn't know what to say but you knew you wanted to kiss him. it had been a year since you felt those lips against yours and you needed him. you were standing between his legs as he sat on the barstool in your kitchen. his hands gripped the exposed skin of your waist as you both stared at each other

you couldn't wait another minute to press your lips against his. the softness of his lips and the urgency in his movements made it all the more sensual. your hands ran along his shoulders finding their way in his hair. you took out his bun letting his hair fall as you ran your fingers through his hair.

"have you ever thought of me like this?" you asked referring to the intimate moment you were both about to have.

"so so so many times," he said breathlessly lifting you like you weighed nothing. he sat you on the counter gripping your thighs and spreading them apart. he stood between your legs and went back to kissing you. his hands found their way to your ass and massage the flesh. your hands rubbed the back of his neck playing with the hairs on the nape of his neck.

he pushed his tongue in your mouth his tongue roaming around your mouth. the kiss was sloppy spit sloshing and swapping between your mouths. he pulled back as a line of spit followed, both of your chests raising and falling at a fast pace.

he grabbed your jaw pushing your head backward and attacking your neck. you whine at the feeling of his teeth grazing the muscles of your neck. he kissed down your neck and behind your ear, you could hear his rigid breathing. his hands reached under your shirt noticing you don't have a bra on.

"no bra?" he asked smirking and you sighed as he pulled your shirt over your head.

"i just g...got out the shower." you stuttered as he rolled his nipples between his pointer finger and thumb. he pulled at them watching your eyes flutter close at the feeling. he roughly grips your breasts fondling them and looking at you.

"put em' in my mouth," he instructed looking up at you through his lashes. your eyes widened at the thought and he nodded letting you know he was serious. he stuck his tongue out as you grabbed your boob placing it on his tongue.

his mouth latched around your breast sucking and lightly biting at your nipple. his hand grabbed your right boob fondling and playing with your nipple until he switched. he sucked so hard that you felt your need cunt clench around nothing wanting him in you so bad. your hands played in his hair pulling him away from your chest.

"why'd you do that?" he frowned looking up at you. his eyes were 3 shades darker.

"i need you..." you whined and he smirked at your neediness. he lifted you off the counter kiss you as he walked over to the couch placing you on your back.

"can i take off your shorts?" he asked and you nodded. he took off your shorts looking at your skimpy panties that were soaked. your juices creating a wet spot on your pretty pink panties. eren spread your legs his nose nudging the spot sniffing your scent.

eren let out a guttural groan and the smell and pulled off his shirt. his body was nothing new to you but seeing him hover above you with his shirt off made it so much more sensual. he unbuttoned his pants taking them off followed by his boxers. he was huge not as big as you imagined but to be fair you imagined him to be 13 inches.

although he wasn't as long as he was in your wet dreams, 8 1/2 inches was bigger than most. he was bigger than most of the guys you followed on twitter. you reached up grabbing his dick and your hand couldn't even wrap all the way around it. you stroked him slowly and he threw his head back his cock already twitching from the feeling.

"let me taste you," he mumbled and you looked up at him with a smile. you wanted to tease him, he was a naturally dominant man. even one second to be a tease was enough to make you feel superior.

"what was that rennie?" you asked in a seductive tone rubbing your thumb across the slit of his tip playing with the stickiness of his precum.

"i said let me taste you," he said louder this time and you nodded. spreading your legs. eren gripped your panties easily ripping them down the middle. your lips and swollen clit on full display your entrance dripping your wetness. "such a pretty pussy... so wet for me." he hummed leaning down to lick a long stripe down your folds.

he sucked on your clit and now and then teased your entrance with his tongue. he groaned into your pussy while he eat you out your body squirming under the feeling. your legs tried to squeeze together trapping his head between them, the feeling so overwhelming.

eren pushed your legs open letting up from your clit. his thumb swirled over your clit and you moaned loudly from the feeling. without warning he pushed his middle finger in fingering you roughly.

"you like that baby?" he asked with a raised brow and your head was thrown back as you moaned loudly at the feeling. he didn't get an answer from you so he pushed in a second finger. you whined at the pressure of a second finger. "you keep ignoring me i'll add a third." he said deeply and you pushed your limits thinking there was no way he would.

he fingered you vigorously so fast that you could hear your juices sloshing. your cunt tightened around his fingers. loving the feeling of his fingers pumping in and out of you. since you didn't answer eren did as he said he would add another finger in. you squealed he was stretching you so good and the feeling was overwhelming.

"m'close ren." you moaned feeling that feeling in your stomach.

"tell me how much you love it then i'll let you cum." he said and your voice was giving out from your moaning and screaming. "c'mon ma just three words." he taunted you while he fingered your wet, needy pussy. he ground his hips into the couch getting harder by the minute watching you leak all over the couch just from his fingers.

"i love it ren fuck!" you yelled and he smirked as your body gyrated from the orgasm begging to be released.

"cum for me baby, cum for your best friend rennie." he said as you let go cumming hard, your cream coating his fingers as your body shivered from the pleasure. "gooood girl," he said pulling his cream-coated fingers out of your cunt. he pushed them into your mouth as you sucked and slurped your cream off his fingers.

he pushed them down your throat making you gag on all three of his thick digits. you smiled at him as he leaned down kissing you. his tongue dancing with yours as he tasted you on your tongue. you sat up pushing him down on the couch. he leaned against the back of the couch as you straddled his waist.

"you sure?" he asked and you nodded wanting to show him what you could do. although you never had a boyfriend didn't mean you never had sex. you wanted to show eren what he had been missing.

you planted your feet on the ground lowering yourself onto him. he moaned in your ear and you whimpered at the way his cock stretched you. he was way thicker than those three fingers he used earlier. you lowered yourself fully onto him until your ass met his thighs.

your eyes were closed and your body ground into his, enjoying the feeling. after you adjusted to the size you began to ride him. your arms wrapped around his neck and his hands gripping your waist.

"fuck baby you feel so good, so wet, fuck." he groaned as you fastened your pace bouncing on his cock. you couldn't slow down you couldn't take it slow, not with the way you felt every inch of his cock stroking your insides.

"mmm ren." you moaned leaning your chest against his kissing him biting on his bottom lip. your pace slowed a little until eren moved his grip to your ass helping you ride him. still kissing you roughly while he moved you to keep the same fast pace.

his big hands almost covering most of your ass, he slapped one encouraging you to ride him faster. he watched the way your beautiful brown ass rippled from the force.

"you're doing so good ma. make us cum." he tells you as your knees got tired and he grabbed you. "you tired baby?" he asked whispering in your ear.

"mmm mhm." you whimpered out and he nodded. eren turned around so you both were lying the length of the couch. he planted his feet fucking up into you. "ren!" you yelled feeling him roughly fuck into you. it was extremely loud the sound of your bodies colliding and your yelling out from eren's rough thrust was enough for the two of you to get noise complaints.

"you close baby? i'm close." he rambled loving the feeling of your walls clenching and unclenching around him. "play with your clit." he demanded. you listened not in the mood to defy him. you rubbed your clit vigorously watching eren bite his lips as sweat ran down his forehead. his hair stuck to his forehead and his broad shoulders tensed as he fucked up into you with immense force.

"m'cumming ren." you moaned loudly and he grunted.

"me too cum with me ma." he said as your eyes rolled to the back of your head as you whimpered out in pleasure. "fuck i love you shit," he said and your eyes widened as his warm cum filled you up. his dick twitching and pulsing as his seed painted your insides white.

"y... you love me?" you asked still sitting on his cock as your mixed fluids dripped down his dick and his balls. your body automatically grinding into his at the feeling of being full.

"of course i do i've told you that so many times," he said giving you a confused look and you shook your head.

"no that was as friends i mean do you love me like a lover?" you asked and he smiled at your explanation.

"i never meant it as a friend," he said and you pouted at his statement and you nodded in satisfaction.

"then i love you too rennie."

[archangeldyke-all]

imagine it’s late at night your fast asleep in bed with sevika and then all of a sudden basically everyone staying is your house (jinx, isha, vi and caitlyn) just kinda make their way into your room to sleep there too, like isha is asleep between you and sevika, jinx is at the foot of the bed and vi and cait are on the floor and you guys wake up and have a slow morning where SAHM sevika makes pancakes and everyone is ALIVE and happy

CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

men and minors dni

"you need to go to bed, big mama. you were busy as hell today." you say as you crawl into bed beside your wife.

sevika rolls her eyes and closes her book, curling herself around you as you flick out the lamps. "are the girls all asleep?"

you giggle and shrug. jinx and isha you've grown used to, but this evening cait and vi decided to come over and crash too. vi claims it's because your guest room's mattress is just that good. you know it's just because she wants to hang out with her sisters. "isha's asleep... for now. jinx, vi, and cait have promised to keep their giggles quiet, but i doubt they'll manage. apparently, cait's older brother is going out with jinx's tutor-- they're gonna be up all night making fun of 'em."

"viktor?" sevika asks with a giggle. you snort and nod. she chuckles. "i thought he was goin' out with that girl..."

"sky?"

"yeah."

"no, no, apparently sky is dating jayce's ex's assistant."

"who's jayce's ex?"

"mel merdarda."

"sky's dating a merdarda?!"

"no, sky's dating elora, the merdarda's assistant. mel is dating lest-- y'know, the owner of the beauty emporium down the street?"

"the cat lady who saved vi's hair after her little goth stint?"

you snort. "that's the one."

sevika giggles. "what a small world. i'm so fuckin' glad i've got you and i don't have to worry about that shit anymore." sevika sighs.

you giggle. "as if you were worrying about it before meeting me."

sevika snorts and pinches your ass. "fuck off, i'm trying to be cute."

"you are cute. now go to bed, big mama."

sevika groans in embarrassment and you giggle, kissing her throat as you settle in for sleep.

only two hours later you're pried apart from your wife by isha's ferocious kicks. you groan as you scoot over to make room for her to worm her way between you and sevika.

"you good?" you mumble, throwing your arm over her waist. isha yawns beside you.

"mhm." she mumbles before drifting off. you nuzzle your nose against her head and let sleep come for you.

you're in the middle of a nice dream when jinx accidentally knees you in the stomach.

"wah!" you gasp, snapping awake. jinx giggles guiltliy.

"sorry, sorry. can't sleep without my isha-bean." she mumbles, curling around isha where you had just been. you pout, sad that you can't reach sevika any longer, and wrap your arm around jinx and settle in for sleep again.

you get up to piss at some point, and come back to find vi in your old spot. "are you fucking kidding me?" you whine. vi giggles.

"i gotta get my cuddles in, c'mon. they're so cute." she pouts, pointing down at her little sisters in her arms. you roll your eyes and walk over to sevika's side, nudging her toward the middle of the bed so she can squish you against the wall.

"sweet dreams." you mumble.

vi hums. in her sleep, sevika curls around you.

it's dawn when you're awoken again, a gentle "fuck!" breaking through the quiet morning air.

"mmh?" you ask, sitting up in bed and rubbing your eyes.

"uh... sorry." caitlyn's nervous voice pipes up. you giggle. "i just... got cold."

"c'mon." you grunt, waving her toward the bed. cait giggles as she darts under the covers, squished between isha and sevika.

"do you think the bed can hold all of us?" caitlyn asks.

you giggle. "i fuckin' hope so."

the bed holds until morning, when you wake up to the sound of laughter.

all your girls are awake, isha's dancing on the foot of the bed with jinx, cait and vi are cuddling, and sevika's got you in her arms.

"g'morning." you mumble. sevika kisses your forehead.

"you're awake! we're thinking pancakes for breakfast, what do you say?" sevika asks.

you giggle. "sounds good to me. bacon, too?"

"well, duh--"

sevika's cut off by vander jumping into the bed, drool leaking from his mouth at the mention of bacon. you all burst into laughter, and then the bed lets out a concerning squeak.

"oh fuck-- everyone off the bed, we are not breaking another bedframe!" you scream.

all of you scramble out of bed, but vi remains paralyzed under the covers, her face screwed up in concern. "whadya mean 'another'?! what are you freaks doing in here that could break an entire--"

"violet, if you want pancakes you'll shut your mouth this moment!" sevika calls from the kitchen.

vi comes scrambling out of bed a second later.

taglist!

@fyeahnix @lavendersgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner

@kissyslut @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther

@lavenderbabu @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai @my-taintedheart

@glass-apothecary @macaroni676 @artinvain @k3n-dyll @sevsdollette

@ellieslob @xayn-xd @keikuahh @maneskinwh0re @raphaellearp

@iamastar @sevikitty @mascdom @nhaaauyen @annesunshiner

@mirconreadzztuff22 @veoomvroom @lushh-s3vik4s @katyawooga @lesbodietcoke

@strawberrykidneystone @vkumi @fict1onallyobsessed @dvrkhcld @sweetybuzz25

@sluttysierraaa @snake-in-a-flower-crown @ruiwonderz @littlemisszaunite @biblicalcrybaby

@blackgaladriel @nightlyconfusion @dancingqu33n17 @losernb @p1nkearth

taglist!!

@sevikas-baby @ghostscandys

[thewitchblue]

"My vigilante days are over!"

Dick pouted to you dramatically. You shook your head and smiled at his melodramatic exclamation while helping him through the window, but quickly, you began to worry about him. What does he mean? Is he quitting being Nightwing? You asked worriedly,

"Honey bunny, what happened?"

Dick hissed in pain as he went to sit on your shared bed. He didn't even get hurt on patrol. It's just his age catching up to him. His back ached, and his joints creaked like a broken door hinge. He dreads becoming Bruce's age.

"I'm old, honey bunches. My knees cracked when I stood up, and I fell off a rooftop in pain."

He continued to pout. You snickered softly as you gently laid him down to check him for actual injuries. Dick gave you a look of betrayal, so you kissed his forehead as an apology for laughing at him. You told him gently,

"Honey bunny, you aren't old."

You said, amused by the notion. Dick is only in his 20s. Where is this coming from? Dick whispered as existential dread began to worm its way into his mind,

"What am I going to do when I'm Bruce's age? Or when I have to take the cowl?"

You gently ran your fingers through his hair in a soothing motion as your eyes continued to scan him for injuries. There really were no outward injuries that you could locate.

Bludhaven was very quiet tonight, so you weren't surprised. You haven't even heard a gunshot with your superhearing tonight.

Dick is going to spiral if you don't guide him out of his own head, however, so you geared your focus on him. You peppered his face with kisses as you spoke,

"You. Will. Be. Fine. I'll be the one pushing your wheelchair, hun bun."

He pouted, so you gave him a sweet kiss. You loved him dearly, and he knows that, but all he's thinking about is his alarming age and how quickly he's going to deteriorate if he keeps this up. How does Bruce manage his aging pains? Is this why he has a heater in his suit? For his muscle aches?

"How does he do it? Keep going like this? My body can't keep up like it used to."

He asked as if you had the knowledge to help him through this problem. You frowned in thought before saying calmly,

"I'll buy some Deep Heat in the morning, and we can see if that helps with your muscle stiffness and aches. For now, I'll get the hot water bottle, and we can cuddle."

Dick smiled softly and made grabby hands as if to ask you to cuddle now. Screw the hot water bottle. Your warmth should be enough to soothe both his anxiety and his muscles.

You caved into Dick's pleading eyes and grabby hands. You climbed into bed with him and kissed his cheek. Dick immediately pulled you to him but groaned as his shoulder felt a throbbing ache.

"This is why Jason cracks his knuckles, isn't it?"

You laughed and shifted to face him. He looked like he made a revelation he hadn't considered. You shrugged and said while taking his free hand in yours,

"Probably. It seems to be a nervous tic for him with the bonus of joint relief."

Dick seemed to look into the distance as he whispered to himself,

"He's so smart..."

You kissed his forehead with a smile. His eyes turned to you as if you had all the answers in the world. He took your conjoined hands and kissed yours. You said warmly,

"You are smart, too, hun bun. We can ask Alfred tomorrow if he has any tips to help minimise the pains."

Right, Alfred would know. Alfred was the one who patched Bruce up every night. Alfred had to know some tips or tricks. You smiled as you finally made it through to him.

"I'll search for ways to help with muscle and joint pain, and I'm sure we can get you a multivitamin to help with muscle and joint support."

He gave you a relieved kiss. Dick is back as he wraps you in his loving embrace. You made yourself comfortable cuddled into Dick's side, content to be surrounded by him. Dick kissed the top of your head and gave you his usual bright smile.

"I love you, my bumblebee."

You smiled back at him and rubbed your noses together. He's adorable with a small pout still present on his face and blue eyes that has seen far too much. You softly said,

"I love you too, honey bunny."

You love everything about him. You love his small head tilts when he grins at something silly you do. You love the way he melts into your touch instantly. You love the lazy kisses after patrol and the morning cuddling when he doesn't want you to leave for work. He is your other half.

He adores when you slide your hand into his own and swing them together. He loves the way you drag him into your arms instead of asking to be held with a grin. He always smiles when you rub your nose against his while cuddling as if to silently tell him you love him and to reinforce the bond you both share. He loves how you comfort him when he has a breakdown and how you always know exactly what to do when he needs you. It's as if you two are in perfect sync, and you can read each other's minds.

He was, quite literally, glued to your side whenever he can be, and the same can be said for you. You move as one unit, and it shows. Where one goes, the other isn't too far behind or hasn't even left the other's side sometimes.

Everybody found out about the relationship when Dick dragged you into the cave as "emotional support" while they were studying a gruesome case. None of the family was ready to meet you and some of them were even in the middle of changing to their suits, but Dick wanted to be by your side and he was stubborn enough to convince you with his begging eyes and eventually victorious grin.

His beautiful blue eyes looked at you, and he knew he needed you in his life, and you need him. You're his, and he's yours, so he'll keep enjoying your loving support for however long you stay by his side.

[moonstruckme]

hiiii sorry I feel like I request so much I just love your stories!!!! could you do an EMT poly!marauders where the reader is coming home from an injury or surgery or something and they’re just being all sweet and overprotective of her

Don't be sorry sweetheart, thank you for requesting!! <3

cw: mentions of hospital, surgery (no details), nausea

emt!marauders x fem!reader ♡ 930 words

“Careful of the step,” Remus warns as he unlocks the front door. 

James makes a disgruntled little sound as he passes over it with you in his arms, angling you sideways to get you both through the front door. 

“I know where the step is,” he says. “I’ve lived here exactly as long as you.” 

“I just wanted to make sure.” Remus heads straight for the bathroom. “Do you want to have some more ibuprofen, dove? It’s been long enough now.” 

“Yes, please,” you call after him. James sets you down on the couch, a divot forming between his brows at the thick quality to your voice. 

“Siri has your bag,” he reminds you. “You want it, just to be safe?” 

You nod, swallowing. 

Sirius hustles over, crouching in front of you and holding the plastic bag under your mouth. “Oh, baby,” he coos, setting a hand on the back of your neck while you shudder and cough unproductively over the bag. “I know, I’m sorry. Better make it aspirin, Rem,” he calls down the hall. “She’s still got a fever.” 

“How bad?” 

“I’ll check in a bit.” He presses his lips to your hairline, murmuring softly. “She’s under duress at the moment, aren’t you, poor girl?” 

You want to cry for the sweetness in his tone, not one ounce of teasing. It can be hard to tell with Sirius, sometimes, but when you’re not feeling well he goes gooey-soft and saccharine as honey, all pet names and gentle touches. His thumb strokes the baby hairs at your nape. 

Remus sighs as he comes back. “I knew we shouldn’t have checked her out.” 

“I didn’t want to stay there,” you say into the bag, and James splays a hand on your back, rubbing slow circles. 

“We know, sweetheart.” He gives his fretful boyfriend a reassuring smile. Remus returns it wearily. “We can take care of you just fine from here, don’t worry.” 

Within an hour of waking up from your surgery feeling nauseous and pathetic, you’d been begging anyone who would listen to let you go home. The hospital had wanted to monitor you for a couple more hours, but after that your boyfriends had been able to exercise some sort of paramedic privilege and take you home early despite the normal two-to-three-day inpatient protocol. Your troubles hadn’t evaporated the way you’d expected upon getting out from under all that fluorescent lighting, but you do feel much better being miserable on your own couch. 

You cough into the bag a few more times before relinquishing yourself to the idea that you’re stuck with this nausea for the foreseeable future. “I don’t like this,” you decide, lowering the bag from your face. 

Remus tosses a thermometer to Sirius, who catches it with a good-natured eye-roll and sets it in your ear compliantly. 

“I’m sorry, my love,” James says, his hand migrating to your shoulder as you lean back against the couch cushions. “I know it’s rough right now.” 

The thermometer beeps, and Sirius reads the number aloud as he takes it out. You frown. 

“Oh, thank god,” Remus exhales. James chuckles at him. 

“It’s okay?” you check. 

“Perfectly okay.” Sirius kisses your temple. “That’s completely normal for the first twenty-four hours. You’re all good, sweetness.” 

Pathetically, you feel a bit invalidated. To feel as gross as you do, surely your brain would have to be fully boiling in there. James must see some of this on your face, because he scoots closer to you on the couch, leaning you against his side. 

“Sorry,” you say quietly. 

You can feel Sirius gaze boring into the side of your head as he perches on the armrest. “Not sure why you would be,” he mutters, worming his cold feet underneath your thigh, “but do go on.” 

“I made you all take me home and now I’m being difficult.” 

You’re not quite looking at any of them, but you could swear a collective sigh goes up from your boyfriends. 

“Dove,” says Remus, “look at me.” 

You do, shifting ever so slightly closer to James' side for comfort. A quiet chuckle rumbles through him, his thumb sweeping back and forth over your shoulder. 

Remus’ gaze is steady and kind, his usual remonstrance curbed for your sorry state. “You’re not being difficult,” he tells you. “You’re tired and not feeling well, and that’s to be expected after a procedure like this. I didn’t mean I regret us taking you home, I’m only nervous that you’d have been better taken care of in the hospital.” 

“Impossible,” Sirius remarks. Remus nods in grudging acknowledgement. 

“I’m glad I’m home,” you say, and despite your best intentions your voice teeters on the edge of a whimper. “I’d rather be with just you guys, you know?” 

“We know,” Remus says gently. “I’m glad you’re here, too.” 

James makes a soft sound, rubbing your shoulder more firmly. “Are you feeling tired, angel? We could have a nap.” 

“We?” you ask.

“What, you think you’re the only one who deserves a rest?” Sirius wiggles his toes underneath your thigh. “You got to sleep just this morning. We’ve been worrying all day long.” 

You smile. He looks thrilled to see it, and James stamps a kiss of approval on your cheek. “Right, my bad. A nap sounds good.” 

“Perfect,” Remus agrees, standing. James needles his arms underneath you to pick you up again. 

“Fairly sure they said I could walk on my own,” you say. 

James only shrugs, carrying you towards the bedroom. “Not sure I heard that part. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.”

[emilys-bangs]

my shattered edges glisten | e.p

Tags: uc!emily, established relationship, angst, hurt/some comfort, unstable emily, prison reid arc, momily, babygirl prentiss briefly mentioned, emily goes all edward scissorhands on herself, reader comes to the rescue, use of scissors, no use of yn

Summary: Reid gets sent to prison. Emily frantically tries to regain control and finds herself with a new haircut.

Word count: 0.8k

A/N: This was entirely inspired by the tags on this post that @mxmmyprentiss reblogged. It just sparked something, so thanks Jaye <3. I haven't watched that ep in a long time so don't quote me on what happened. Also. The amount of times I had to go through the torture of writing the word scissors....it's truly my biggest opp

Emily cuts a sharp, decisive line just above the tip of her nose, feeling the tension give at her scalp as the blade severs her hair. She breaks out in shivers but continues, pooling her focus on the loud snips of the scissors rather than the feeling of taut hair jumping loose. A few more cuts and she’s finally across, long threads of her hair curled in the sink, smaller, sharper strands nestling in her shirt and poking her through the thin material.

It’s a butcher’s job.

The bangs are hardly bangs. They’re somehow uneven despite her forcibly stiff wrist, jaggedly inclining in a crude horizontal line across her face. 

At least the length is okay. They hang ridiculously long past her eyes, obscuring her vision, but she’d learned long ago to make a wide berth for the initial cut. She hasn’t cut her hair on her own since that disastrous attempt, but she’s frazzled now, close to snapping. If she’ll cut at something, better it be her hair than anything else.

This she can control. This she can fix.

“Jesus!” Your voice startles her more than she’d like. “What on earth are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Emily doesn’t look away from the mirror. She parts her hair around her eyes and trims what she thinks is an inch, shortening it down to her eyeline. Through the mirror she sees your reflection getting closer, but she keeps her gaze firmly fixed on herself, prevailing when your hand closes around her wrist. 

She loses the battle when you gently tilt her toward you and worm yourself into the space between her body and the counter.

The way you look at her makes her want to crumble. She’s barely holding on as it is, but when your eyes are soft as they are now, your fingers gentle as you tug the scissors from her hand and into yours, her eyes glaze with tears. Emily fixes them down on the slope of your neck, watching bone and muscle flex as you tilt her chin and wordlessly start fixing her mess.

She hasn’t been easy on you lately, she knows. She can barely stomach herself, her sleep fitful, her appetite dissolved, prison cells and arctic courtrooms perpetually flashing behind her eyes. It’s a miracle she hasn’t snapped at Vivian yet, but even her frazzled brain recognizes that thick, crimson line.

That still doesn’t mean her six-year-old hasn’t started picking up on her venomous mood. When she’d shyly pressed herself into Emily’s side, her frown small and voice quiet as she asked, “Are you sad, Mom?” Emily had all but burst into tears.

She doesn’t know when her hands have found your waist, but she’s clutching it hard, what’s left of her nails digging in through your pajamas. Emily loosens her grip with a start. Her fingers ache. You don’t react, sifting through her—now above eye-level—bangs and sliding the scissors between her hair and her forehead, dark tufts falling down to the floor between you.

“Did Viv go down okay?” She asks, grimacing at the rasp in her throat.

“Like a light.” You murmur. You tilt your head, do something with the bangs, then bring up the scissors just above the tail of her brow. The metal is cold where it touches her skin.

Emily’s eyes brim up again. “She’s catching on. Thinks I’m sad.” Her voice cracks.

You set the scissors down with a quiet breath. “She’s a smart girl. You’re not going easy on yourself.”

She can’t. She can’t go easy on herself, she can’t pull them out of this mess, she can’t in any way predict how this will end without it all going horribly wrong. Wide-eyed Spencer, his voice quiet behind rusty bars, childishly pouted lips taking years off of his age, calls out for her to help and she can’t do shit. The only other person she could think to call is somewhere she can’t hope to find, his hands full with another goddamn serial killer hunting down his family.

All that’s left is her. And she’s entirely useless.

Emily shakes her head jerkily. Hot tears roll down her cheeks, burning a path into her skin.

“I can’t. I can’t protect him.” 

I don’t know if I can save him.

Everything breaks. You catch her in time and keep her from falling, steady arms around her neck, fingers tangled in her hair. Emily’s tears soak your neck, hot as the acidic guilt bubbling in her gut.

“I can’t.” She gasps again, louder than your shushes and futile reassurances. “They won’t—they won’t let him go.”

“They will.” You insist, gripping her tighter as if you can force her to believe it. “Emily, you’re doing everything you can. It’ll work out, it will, just—these things need time, sweetheart. But they’ll let him go, okay? I know it.” 

She wishes she shared your conviction.

taglist: @suckerforcate @sickoherd @lextism @catssluvr @i-lovefandom @haiklya @storiesofsvu @ashluvscaterina @basicallyvivi @temilyrights @professorsapphic @decadentcatcrusade @piiinco @jareavsheavn @mourningthewicked @heartoreadallthequeerthingz @rustnroll @slutforabbyanderson @maximoffcarter @cns-mari @daddy-heather-dunbar @lcvessapphic @wlwoceaneyes @yoyo-w @upsidedowndanvers

[violenteconomics]

I am in dire need of more of that AU that The First years get The upperclassmen toxic traits,i realy want more of It,like;

A way to include octavinelle and scarabia,maybe like,3 First years(Ace,deuce,Jack) get some of azul's toxic traits,other Three(epel,ortho and sebek) get Jamil toxic traits and yuu get both

Second thing

More reactings please,i NEED The staff,ALL The dorms and even the relatives seeing The First years developing those toxic traits,the overblots+Trey and cater for deuce getting their toxic traits right back at their face i beg you🙏🙏

anything 4 u, baby.

(but for real, though, this is an AMAZING idea, love you so much for tilling the ground for my brainwormies, mwah mwah 😘)

(also, this might get REALLY long, so hang tight!)

it was just a seed at first — a tiny idea that stuck around despite the first-years not even realizing it was there. but as the poison from their actual housewardens starts to develop into something truly deadly, so does that seed. it shows up later... but it makes itself known nevertheless.

ace, deuce, and jack have all worked for azul at the mostro lounge at one point, and though it was a very brief moment in time, it was just long enough to worm its way into their heads.

it starts with ace trappola, who's already pretty slippery with his words. but working at the mostro lounge, taking subconscious note of all the underhanded deals azul is making, he starts to pick up new... skills, let's say.

it starts small, with ace starting to give out certain favors to his fellow freshmen to earn some money. if you give him ten thaumarks, he'll do one of your everyday chores for you — dusting your room, cleaning your bathroom, making dinner, what have you. if you give him fifteen thaumarks, he'll do your homework if you don't feel like doing it, or take class notes for you if you don't feel like showing up. if you give him forty, he'll help you with something less-than-moral and definitely against the rules (he did it once back at the atlantica memorial museum — he can do it again).

there's an obvious power imbalance in all of these scenarios, but ace effortlessly words in a way that makes it seem like it's a win-win situation, when in reality, it's more like a zero-sum game.

it gets to the point where ace builds a black-market sort of reputation, and all of the freshmen know that if you need something done, ace is the person to go to.

...but then, something shifts.

at some point, ace starts a black-mailing campaign for the people who paid for the forty-thaumark favor. if you don't want your secret — one that might get you expelled, suspended, or worse — getting out, then you can pay for ace's silence with a favor or more money.

the worst part is: there's no way out. if you try attacking ace, it'll seem like you assaulted him for no reason, since if you try to explain he was blackmailing you, you'll have to tell them what he was blackmailing you with, which you obviously can't do — or else what was even the point? the same rule applies if you try tattling on him to one of the teachers or the housewardens or anybody else. and ace is a better liar than most people will ever be in their lifetime, so it's a losing battle even if you do manage to get someone to take your side.

so if you want to cross the bridge, my sweet, you've got to pay the toll.

(it's not even about the money anymore, really. riddle's thirst for control and azul's desire for recognition have clashed inside of ace in the most violent way, and now, it's all about the power it gives him over other people. and after how powerless he's felt this entire school year, being thrown left and right by overblot after overblot with no say at all, this is a power trip he never wants to come back down from.)

but ace realizes he's making quite a few enemies with his little money-making strategy, and he needs someone to help him just in case someone does come up with a plan to wipe him out. i mean, just look at azul — even with all of the loopholes and leverages in the world, even he was taken down eventually without outside help. if he wants this to last as long as possible, he needs... incentive for people to listen to him.

his own jade and floyd.

his own red-and-black collar.

using his riddle rosehearts-born dominance, and taking advantage of deuce's trey-and-cater-born passiveness, ace convinces deuce spade — one of the strongest people he knows — to help him in his economic ventures.

and deuce, seeing this as a way for ace to vent some frustration and unwilling to be on the other end of ace's ire, hesitantly agrees.

he doesn't piece together that ace is acting suspiciously like azul, but he still recognizes his own role in this whole scheme. ace is running a business, right? and deuce has only ever worked in one business before. he remembers what jade and floyd were like back when he worked under them, and so he uses that experience to inform his new position.

deuce becomes known as ace's right-hand man. he'll hunt you down if you don't pay, and he's not afraid to use force to "compel" you to. there have been stories about cat beastmen getting thrown up into trees and being left there for hours. about students getting forks "accidentally" thrown at them in the cafeteria with such precision, it doesn't really feel like an accident. about a student with a spade on his face who can throw back any attack sent his way with just as much force.

and there's nothing you can do about it, because he's in service to someone who has made himself pretty powerful. ace's silver-tongue gets deuce out of any and all trouble he inevitably finds himself in — and is ace is so brutally honest, why wouldn't people believe him? so even if you try to do something to deuce, ace has his back no matter what — and he'll win almost every time.

you mess with deuce, you mess with ace, which is already bad enough. but if you fuck around with ace, you better be prepared to find out with deuce.

they're a pair — that's always been true. but never before has that fact been so threatening.

jack howl comes next. we all know how much jack despises octavinelle's business model. but, begrudgingly, he will admit there are a lot of things he can learn from octavinelle. and more knowledge is never bad. as long as he doesn't actually use it, it should be fine.

(jack is more dangerous than ace and deuce, in a way — his toxicity is insidious in a way it just couldn't ever be with them.)

with excellent hearing, eyesight, and memory, he silently keeps note of every bribe he hears being taken. every lie he knows is being told. every mistake that gets swept under the rug. it's not long before he starts actively looking for it. it's not long before jack's uncovered dirt on almost every freshmen in school. it reminds him a bit of his time working at the mostro lounge. but instead of memorizing orders from customers, he's memorizing all their dirty secrets.

it's to protect himself, jack reasons. after all, it was only his input that put a stop to leona and ruggie's plans back during the spelldrive exhibition. he's just... preparing for another disastrous event, that's all. it's just precaution. insurance.

if it's not, then he'll have to accept that leona's overblot bothered him more than he thought. that he was weak enough to let it.

(and jack can't face that yet.)

and if, once in a while, ace comes to him looking for a little bit of information, then well, that's just lending a friend some advice. nothing wrong with that.

epel, ortho, and sebek don't have any direct ties to jamil, but they are certainly... impressionable, aren't they?

sebek zigvolt is a bit dense, certainly, but even he can see how well jamil takes care of his master. and with a master that's as ditzy and forgetful and all-over-the-place as kalim, that can't be easy. even if they are merely humans, and their experiences can't even begin to compare when it comes to serving a fae prince, sebek reckons that he can learn a thing or two by observing them. so that's exactly what he does.

one day, when kalim spills food on the floor in a hilariously ridiculous move, sebek notices something few others ever would. jamil gives the tiniest twitch of annoyance — the same way silver, in all his stoicism, often does when sebek gets too loud — but then he's back to being perfectly dutiful and polite and says "i'll go get a napkin."

it's... admirable, honestly. sebek doesn't put it into practice right away, but it stays in his mind long after he first sees it.

and then, after malleus's overblot, sebek's emotions feel like they're on fire. after being stuck in a world where it took just the tiniest crack to shatter a perfect illusion, he's wary of nearly everything that disrupts his day. now every single slight against him, no matter how unintentional it may be, feels like a personal attack on his very life. but sebek can't show these ugly emotions so outwardly — that would be dishonorable behavior that could damage malleus's reputation. instead, he resorts to subtle methods that can't be easily traced back to him like putting in frogs in schoolbags and setting brooms on fire or replacing shampoo bottles with tar.

but his repressed feelings of anger start to build to the point where he's now feeling unprecedented resentment towards... well, almost everybody.

when sebek has very first negative thought about malleus in history class — "reckless bastard" — he instantly hates himself for it and throws up then and there because how dare he.

he tries to shut them out, but the more he does, the more these intrusive thoughts start to bombard him with their uncharacteristic cynicism.

he looks at lilia from across the breakfast table, and his first thought is: heartless liar.

he spots leona lying in the botanical garden and he thinks: brainless cretin.

he even sees jamil, walking through the halls, and his mind screams: manipulative bitch.

but sebek shoves it all down because he's in no position to say that. it gets to the point where he's walking around as a silent, unfeeling husk, because to be anything else would be like inviting his inner demons to visit him on the outside. he pushes his emotions down as far as they'll go, and that's just going to have to be enough to get him through the day.

ortho shroud begins to follow a similar principle. his idia-inspired pessimism has led ortho to see others as less like people and more like characters. it's easier to think of every school day as a dungeon in an rpg. it's easier to convince himself that the other students are taunting him because they're programmed to be that way than face the reality that they just don't like him.

but the problem with seeing life as a video game is that you start seeing others as just ways to complete your objectives. like npcs or maps.

and when it comes to using people, jamil viper is king. or, for ortho's purposes, the ultimate survival guide.

ortho shapes himself into a model night raven college student — kind, charming, and sweet for the teachers, but just mischievous and rude enough to still fit in with the students.

he goes to housewarden meetings with idia to "gain leadership experience", taking notes and hearing out of every single little idea he can get his hands on (these are the people who have not just survived, but thrived. they must be doing something right). one time, riddle even pats his head and praises him for his proactiveness.

his classmates adore him for always been willing to help and being so calm about even the worst outcomes.

ortho makes himself as available as possible to the rest of ignihyde, brushing off homework or studying to help them with whatever they need — fixing game consoles, wiring in controllers, checking the internet connection, et cetera.

eventually, everyone believes in him almost as fiercely as scarabia believed in jamil, once upon a time.

ortho doesn't like telling all of these lies, but it's necessary to protect himself. it's like grinding to earn coins until you have enough money to buy that special armor in the shopkeeper's store.

...or maybe it's more like those cheesy dress-up flash games ortho used to play all the time — fleshing out the perfect outfit and hairstyle and makeup that'll earn you the most points.

if people feel like they need him, he'll be able to breeze through school without any more problems. he's put the whole system on easy mode! it feels a bit like cheating, almost.

it is like a game, isn't it? it's fun.

(at some point, ortho forgets how to stop.)

as for epel... well, he knows that his sudden snappish behavior towards the other pomefiore students won't go unnoticed for too long. but this is one of his only ways of venting, so he needs it to go under the radar long enough for him to... to squeeze out all of this sudden venom that's built up in him.

epel's not oblivious. he knows how sebek and ortho have changed over the weeks, and he knows why. but epel can't pull off "repressed" like sebek, and neither can he suddenly turn into the best person ever like ortho. but they do have the right idea about taking inspiration from jamil, so epel can fall back on what there is left: gaslighting.

every time kalim blacked out, jamil blamed it on him being sick. every time someone thought kalim was being awfully uncharacteristic, jamil called it a "mood swing". every time someone asked jamil about why kalim was acting so weird, jamil claimed ignorance.

at least, that's what yuu tells epel.

and it's perfect.

so now, every time someone confronts epel about his overly critical behavior, he lies and says he's doing it for their own good. you need pressure to make a diamond, after all. and besides — vil won't settle for anything less than absolutely perfect.

("i'm just trying to catch your mistakes before he does. and i think you and i can both agree that i'm a lot nicer than he is about it.")

every time vil confronts epel about all of the complaints he's been hearing from the other students about how epel's been tearing down their ideas for outfits and hairstyles with no mercy, and disregarding all of their achievements as "not good enough" to be proud over, epel dons a confused face.

("vil, between studying for tests and the crazy physical regiment you have me do, i barely have time for myself. you honestly think i have the energy to criticize other people?")

epel even starts turning people against each other so they won't focus on him. epel subtly threatens to take away the upperclassmen's position in the hierarchy, which sets up the other underclassmen as a threat, and epel grouses to the underclassmen that the upperclassmen look down on them for not living up to pomefiore standards, under the guise of regular teenage bitching.

but all of this, combined with their self-entitlement, leads to a mini-war in pomefiore. but since this is, well, pomefiore, where being perfect and poised is the standard, the others make sure never make it obvious in front of vil or rook.

epel plays everybody like a fiddle, and ensures that none of it can be traced back to him. it's a good way to get out his frustration. and hey — it seems like everybody's upped their game along the way. vil seems pretty happy that everybody's improving in their efforts so greatly, practically overnight!

epel wakes up with a feeling of accomplishment everyday. for once, it seems he did something right.

now if only rook could stop looking so somber...

then we come to yuu, whose inner darkness has been left to fester all year. if people think they can treat them like a ragdoll, it's only fair they do the same.

there's a lot yuu doesn't have, but one thing they're really lacking is a bit of respect. that's what it means to be magicless in an arcane academy. you're at the bottom of the food chain.

and look at what a bit of self-interest can do for you! yuu studies in the library until late into the night, burning the metaphorical candle at both ends, learning everything they can about magic until they're more well-versed in it than most students in the school. yuu starts making potions that aren't nearly as good as azul's, but they're cheap and work well enough. they start making study guides for others with their new-found knowledge, even if they do bristle with the fact that a damned study guide is what caught them in azul's tentacles in the first place. they start learning anything and everything, clinging to whatever scraps of knowledge they can write down.

with this, they successfully make their case for why they should join ace and deuce's business. eventually, they're just as feared as they are among the other first-years.

but that's not enough for yuu. the power of fear is nice, but the power of controlling other people would be much more cathartic.

so that's what they do. while ace is more focused on monetary gain, yuu uses their mountains of blackmail to convince others to do whatever they want.

if crowley throws another ridiculous task at them, yuu simply hoists it off to somebody else to do. if ramshackle dorm needs a few repairs, it's only a matter of contacting a few people before a whole construction crew paid off by somebody else comes knocking at their door. and they'll do it, if they don't want to get kicked out of the school or have their reputation ruined.

but somehow, even with all of this, yuu sets themself up as the nicest out of their little trio. they're willing to let payments slide from time to time. they listen to their clients' problems. they take constructive criticism and always seem to improve in their potions and study guides based on feedback. and if you do do yuu a favor, they'll give you certain favors right back.

so even when yuu is a covetous, greedy, all-consuming shark, the students still think they're so very, very nice. because compared to ace and deuce, what else is there to think?

but this can only go on for so long. and yuu knows that.

one day, they get called to the headmage's office. yuu is already going through their contact list — a list that's quadrupled ever since they joined forces with ace and deuce — to see who'd be willing to do them a teensy little favor for them, but when they step through the door, they pause.

inside the office are all the housewardens, their vices, the teachers, and everybody else yuu has grown to know over the past year.

yuu narrows their eyes as riddle steps forward.

"yuu," riddle starts sternly, "from one housewarden to another, i believe we need to talk."

^

(i will address everyone's reactions in a reblog, because this is honestly getting really, really long, lol. but don't worry, the reactions are coming! 🥺)

(but i should mention that there is already a good reblog of the original post by @thenumberhuntress which addresses the upperclassmen's reactions that you can find here. go read it. it's peak.)

(once again, thank you for the great ask! this was fun to make!)

[pillow-priestess]

They Love You

Content Warnings: noncon, second person pov, parasites, brainwashing, betrayal, earfucking, hivemind

Your beloved smiles.

"Don't worry, sweetie. I still love you more than anything. And now they love you too!"

You struggle to no avail, your limbs held in place by other mindlessly smiling hosts. Useless pleading babbles from your mouth, every word ignored by your parasite-corrupted partner. More than half of their skin is covered in the gelatinous parasites, multicolored tendrils decorated with shimmering eyespots weaving and wrapping over their otherwise naked body. Their voice is consistent but weak, clearly unused to speaking again after so long with a tentacle down their throat.

Said tentacle is instead currently stroking along your cheek, soaking up your tears and leaving pleasant tingles where it lingers. The gentle pressure is identical to how your partner touched you every night. You hate every second of it.

"They love you so much, darling. I've told them everything. They think we're adorable together, they want us together again. They love us, so we can love them. I love them as much as I love you."

They cock their head and their smile widens. "Isn't that beautiful? In just a moment, you'll understand. You'll love them too. We'll love them together."

Their hand - their beautiful hand, their strong and gentle hand, the hand that you've held and kissed and loved so many days of your lives together - their hand is puppeted to slide up their body, tracing over the parasites one by one, stroking them to show them off to you. It presses a little at the entity latched over their groin, and the little noise of pleasure they make is enough to double the rage and despair spilling out of your tear ducts. This isn't right. It's not fair. Those moans belong to you, not to some monster that's cannibalized your lover's mind.

But it's no use. The hand keeps traveling up, up, until it clenches gently at one of the parasites latched onto their chest. Fingers sink an inch into the squishy mass of tendrils, and it's pulled off of their skin with a wet schluck. Colored stains like lipstick are left around their bare tit.

The creature is brought up next to you, hovering just inches away from your ear. Little tendrils are already stroking at your skin, and you can feel their toxins sink into you with a pleasant warmth, numbing the area to lessen the coming assault. Your partner leans in close, lips nearing your own.

"It's all okay now. I promise. We promise. Every bit of them is pure love, and love is meant to be shared."

Your head is enveloped from three sides. The loose parasite sticks to one ear, clamping down and digging in. A tentacle jams into your other ear, fucking it rough like a fleshlight. And the shell of your most beloved person in the world dives forth to kiss you, lips locked with your own, tongue worming into your mouth in a pale imitation of the alien tendrils breaking into your brain.

It's only disgusting for a moment. Once the venom hits, it's truly divine.

Hands and pseudopods roam the rest of your skin, massaging and groping and loving you in all the ways your partner taught them. More parasites latch on, kissing your skin, filling your holes, claiming you into the collective. Your mind is assaulted with a millennia's worth of experiences, of love.

The other drones don't have to hold you anymore, not with your new passengers puppeting you to perfectly replicate the way you've embraced your lover every day of your lives together. You smile at them, and it is you smiling. You are them now, and they are you. You are everything. All is one is all.

As you hold each other in body and mind, the love you feel is expanded, mirrored, blended with the love of so many others across the planet. Millions of others, and millions more every second. You remember why you were scared, but you know now that the fears were completely unfounded.

Millions are still out there, still scared, but they won't be for long. This is right. This is how things are meant to be. Nothing can stop you.

Indeed, what could ever resist the power of true, universal love?