#now to work on my other fic ideas and the exchange fic lol

[7s3ven]

GREEK ROMANTIC. luke castellan

IN WHICH… luke castellan joins an exchange program to visit camp jupiter for sword fighting experience but ends up spending most of his time with a girl from said roman camp.

Warnings : lowkey loser! Luke, kinda long… so uh yeah, Luke kinda thirsts over reader (he’s 19 and has spent most of his time in a camp, he does not get girls), i worked on this for like a week (PLZZZ READ AND LIKE AND COMMENT AND SUBSCRIBE 🫡), less strict version of Camp Jupiter

—

idea inspired by @the-empty-refrigerator !

I literally do classical studies, this is perfect for me to yap abt my roman knowledge. I have no idea what Camp Jupiter looks like so imma just use my Roman architecture knowledge for this. THIS IS MY FIRST LUKE FIC IN A WHILE LOL.

( disclaimer : info will differ from this fic to the canon plot bc i don’t know much abt camp jupiter )

In all honesty, Luke was a little nervous. He had willingly signed up for an exchange program between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter but now that he was on his way to the latter, he was anxiously bouncing his leg.

Years ago, there was a thick mist between the two camps due to previous events involving bloody wars. Now, that mist was lifted and the campers were free to sign up for an exchange program to visit the other.

Luke was wondering why he had agreed to sign up in the first place. Chiron promised he’d gain further experience in sword fighting, but warned that it wouldn’t be easy.

Camp Half-Blood prided itself on its friendly approach. Camp Jupiter was anything but that. Their campers were rugged, harsh, and disciplined by Lupa, the wolf who raised Romulus and Remus. Of course, their war-like nature made sense because the camp was founded on bloodshed when Romulus slayed Remus.

Luke lifted his head, looking around to see if he could spot anyone in a purple shirt. He was waiting on the side of the road, looking rather pathetic and sad to those passing by.

A black car with tinted windows rolled to a stop in front of Luke, and the car jolted open. “Are you Luke Castellan?” The demigod inside asked. Luke slowly nodded his head. “Hop in.” There was a bit of awkward shuffling from Luke to squeeze past the unnecessary amount of swords in the car. “So, how’s Camp Half-Blood?” The demigod driving questioned, looking at Luke through his shaded sunglasses.

“Good…” Luke was secretly relieved that someone was talking to avoid an awkward car ride. “Probably less demanding than Camp Jupiter, though. I’ve heard horror stories of your training from campers.”

The boy laughed as he sharply turned around a corner. “Yeah. It’s pretty bad. Made me wish I was a normal kid when I had to do all those pushups.” He paused before starting a new conversation. “Do you workout? Because you’ve got some nice muscles. Not to be weird or anything.”

“Uh, yeah.” Luke cleared his throat, “I sort of have to. Being a swordsman and all that.”

The other demigod whistled. “Must be hard, man. I’m Sohan, by the way. Son of Mercury, Hermes for you.”

Luke leaned forward, “I’m son of Hermes. That makes us like… distantly related or something.” Sohan laughed and tilted his head back.

“I like you, Castellan. Mind if I call you Luke?”

“Go ahead.”

The rest of the drive was each demigod taking their turn to explain different parts of their camps. Luke realized that Camp Jupiter didn’t have all the fun activities Half-Blood had. Though, there was a more bloody version of Capture the Flag.

“So you know how you have camp councillors, right? We have something similar but we call them praetors. They’re basically the leaders of the camp.” Sohan explained as he bit into his sugary chocolate bar. “We have two at a time, one girl and one guy.”

“So there’s only two leaders?” Luke questioned while opening the wrapping of his cheeseburger.

“Praetors are the highest leaders. Other than that, we have centurions, augurs, and quaestors. It’s confusing, I know, but you’ll get the hang of it. You don’t really need to know what everybody does, just who’s who.”

It was all too confusing for Luke.

“Our current male praetor is also a son of Mercury, his name’s Jae. Our other one is a daughter of Venus, Aphrodite for you. I think.” Sohan paused before shaking his head, dismissing his doubt. “We all thought she was kind of crazy for going after the position. That’s when I learnt to never underestimate a child of Venus because they are brutal.” Sohan chuckled as the car finally came to an abrupt halt.

Luke peeked out the window, gazing at the tall trees. Past the thick forest, he could faintly see a river.

Sohan grabbed the swords from beside Luke, sheepishly chuckling. “New sword delivery.” He uttered, “Didn’t have time to put them away. Some are still in a box.”

Luke merely hummed as he hopped out of the car. “Need help?” He questioned. He took a handful of swords from Sohan’s pile, easily supporting their weight. Sohan carefully stacked a box on top of everything else before nodding.

“You know, if I was a girl or gay, I’d have a crush on you.” Sohan uttered as the pair walked through the forest. “How do the girls at Half-Blood like you?”

“I’ve been chased multiple times. That should say it all.” Nothing was scarier to Luke than a hoard of girls sprinting towards him on Valentine’s Day.

“That’s the Tiber River.” Sohan pointed out as Luke stumbled into a sunny clearing. “The river that Romulus and Remus were thrown into.” Sohan led the way towards small, slightly unstable bridge. He effortlessly walked over it, ignoring the way the rickety wood creaked.

Luke sighed, having no choice but to follow after Sohan unless he wanted to swim.

“I’ll be the one showing you around. I just have to drop these swords off with the praetors, or at least one of them, and then we can begin.” Sohan piped up. He was shorter than Luke with shiny black hair and olive skin. Luke assumed he was Asian with the slight accent peeking through and the red-inked tattoo on his shoulder displaying a dragon with Chinese characters.

“Praetor!” Sohan suddenly shouted. Luke spotted the H/C-haired girl as she turned around, in the middle of talking with another camper. Luke couldn’t instantly tell who her mother was.

“Oh, the swords. Soldier, go find Praetor Jae.” Y/N hurried the other girl off before jogging towards Sohan.

“This is Luke Castellan. The exchange camper.” Sohan said, trying to gesture towards Luke. The action caused the box on top of the swords to slip. It opened, a group of swords toppling out.

Luke was quick to react. Instead of attempting to catch every sword, he simply grabbed Y/N and pulled her side before the swords could skewer her.

There was a second of silence before Sohan spoke up. “I apologise for my clumsiness, Praetor.” He immediately crouched down to rearrange the weapons, his movements so fast Luke thought they were rehearsed.

Y/N pressed her lips into a thin line as she stared at the swords on the ground. Her gaze flickered to Luke, who still had a tight grip on her arm. “Luke Castellan, right?” She asked, lips curving into a small yet charming smile.

Sohan looked at Y/N then at Luke. “I need to talk to Praetor Jae about something important. Praetor, would you mind showing Luke around?” Sohan didn’t wait for an answer before clumsily hurrying off, dropping swords every two seconds.

“You forget these swords!” Luke called after him but Sohan wasn’t listening.

“Dump them here with the rest.” Y/N instructed with a shrug. Luke dropped the swords, watching as they hit the floor with a loud clang. “Let’s get started with the tour.” She formally clasped her hands behind her back, standing up straighter than Luke had ever seen somebody stand.

“This is the Praetorian Gate, the entrance to the main barracks. On your right is the bathrooms. This street is called the Via Principalis, it’s the central road lined with barracks, the mess hall, and other necessaries needed for our wellbeing.”

Luke was a little stunned with how Y/N was speaking. She was talking like her words were scripted and had been practiced a million times in the mirror. Luke usually free-styled his tours.

“Centurion Sohan will show you your room once he finishes with his errand. For now, all you need to know is that you’ll be staying in one of these buildings. Behind them is the compost bin. Please do not jump in there because we have had to go dumpster diving to retrieve Half-Blood campers.”

Luke let out a quiet sigh. “It was Travis, wasn’t it?”

“You know him?” Y/N questioned, looking over her shoulder in mild interest.

“Unfortunately. He’s my brother.”

Y/N silently nodded, holding back a comment. “Beside the compost bin, where your raccoon of a brother jumped into for a game of hide and seek, are the stables.” Y/N led Luke down a smaller path to show him the stables. He glanced at the bin, arching an eyebrow at a badly drawn version of Travis on a sign with a large X on it.

“We had to ensure nobody else jumped in again.” Y/N explained, “So we put up a sign. It’s not very well-drawn. All the Apollo kids were away so we had no one artistic around. Over there is the training centre. Feel free to use it whenever. We have plenty of new swords as you already know.”

“What about those buildings?” Luke asked in curiosity as they walked back towards the main entrance.

“That’s the Praetorium and Principa, used to hold meetings and act as headquarters. Those aren’t important to you.”

Camp Jupiter was bigger than Luke expected. There were two main areas for civilisation and even a university.

“This is the forum. This area of camp is basically a replicant of Rome itself.” Y/N piped up, “There’s the senate house, also used for meetings, New Rome University, the Coliseum where we sometimes train or host mock battles, Circus Maximum, again used for training, sometimes chariot racing, ceremonies, and so on. There’s a lake over there if you ever wanna spend your free time swimming, but I will warn you that if you ever take your shirt off, it will attract attention.” Y/N teasingly smiled, confusing Luke. She was strictly sticking to her job as a praetor a moment ago, reciting a speech about the camp.

“Uh… why will it attract attention?” Luke sheepishly asked, feeling a little embarrassed for not catching on.

“You’re a new boy, Luke Girls here love fresh meat, especially when they have as much muscle as you.”

Luke’s cheeks flushed light pink. “Right.” He uttered, suddenly aware of how a group of girls was waiting for Y/N to leave so they could pounce on him. “Let’s uh, go back to the bin. I wanna see that sign of my brother again.”

Y/N slightly chuckled. “They aren’t gonna hurt you, Castellan.” She said, referring to the girls behind her, “Unless you want them to.”

“I would prefer to keep all my limbs attached to my body, thank you very much.”

Y/N cracked another amused smile. “Suit yourself. I like my boys missing an arm.” She joked.

“Guess I’ll cut mine off then after all.” Luke wittily retorted.

“We have a game of capture the flag happening tonight if you want to join.” Y/N offered, “You can sacrifice your arm for me then.”

Luke grinned, happy he was actually getting along with someone from Camp Jupiter given their rivalry with Half-Blood. “I’ve heard your games of Capture the flag are a little more harsher… to what extent is that actually true?”

Y/N quietly laughed. “It’s Roman style, someone will probably lose an eye to be honest.” She said it in such a joking tone but there was a look in her eyes that alerted Luke she wasn’t joking.

—

Luke would definitely come to regret even thinking about joining this game of capture the flag. The teams weren’t organised by Cabins, instead each leader strategically chose their members months before the actual game to ensure a high chance of victory.

Luke ended up standing across from Y/N, dressed in golden armour and holding a sword that seemed to be a little too heavy. Sohan was with Luke, checking his arrows.

“They still allow you to use how and arrows?” Luke questioned, remembering how said weapon was banned from Half-Blood’s game of capture the flag because of an incident.

“What’s fun without a little arrow wound?” Sohan joked. Luke slowly turned his head, eyes wider than usual.

“Not being stabbed by an arrow seems more fun.” He muttered to himself.

He glanced at Y/N, who was carelessly swinging her long spear around. She met his gaze and paused for a second before lightly dragging her thumb over her throat with a patronising grin.

Luke gulped. “She’s gonna kill me.” He whispered.

“Oh, good! That means she likes you.” Sohan nudged Luke with a smile, “The harder she tries to kill you, the more she likes you.”

“That seems a little contradictory.” Luke replied, almost shaking.

“When the bell rings, and trust me you’ll hear it, just follow me. We’re paired together to hide and defend the flag. All you have to do is hide and jump out to stop the opponents. They’ll think it’s only me and then, bam! You come in.” Sohan explained the plan to Luke, who was listening intently so he wasn’t the one to lose an eye.

Sohan tightly gripped the flag in his grasp. “We have ten minutes to plant the flag somewhere. A second bell will ring and that means the game has started.”

Luke nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. A loud bell suddenly rang out through the clearing and Sohan immediately sprung into action. He sprinted off and Luke scrambled to follow him.

“This way!” Sohan exclaimed as he sharply turned to the left. Luke leaped over a log, landing heavily on the hard dirt. The forest should have felt familiar since Half-Blood also played surrounded by trees but this felt different. Luke had no idea where they were going until Sohan came to an abrupt stop.

“Here should be good.” He panted.

Luke looked around. They were surrounded by heavy vegetation and he was barely able to see past the thick tree leaves. Sohan lodged the flag between two stones and nodded in approval.

“The bell will be ringing soon. Hide over there.” Sohan ordered, pointing at a bush beside the flag. Luke sighed as he ducked behind the bush, the twigs below him scraping at his knees. “I hate this hiding place.” He muttered, “I feel like a Guinea pig.”

“That sounds like a you problem.” Sohan replied. “The bell should be ringing any second now. Remember to stay quiet.”

Luke silently rolled his eyes as he ducked lower to the floor in order to get comfortable and peek past the bush branches. In the distance, he could hear the sound of the second bell ringing followed by loud shouts varying in volume. Some kids at Half-Blood, mainly the Ares kids, loved battle cries but not to that extent.

Luke waited ten minutes and when nothing happened, he resorted to lying on his back. Twenty minutes passed and there was still no sign of any other demigods. Luke had resorted to seeing how many leaves he could count before he heard a quiet rustle. He paused, waiting.

Everything was still before Luke heard weapons clash loudly together. He peered above the bush, instantly recognising Y/N past her bronze helmet. There was another kid reaching for the flag while Sohan was struggling with Y/N.

Luke quickly reached for his sword, flinging it at the Roman demigod before he could grasp the flag. The handle hit him in the face, temporarily stunning him. Luke was swift to jump out and grab his sword, holding it in front of him.

“Sorry ‘bout that, man.” Luke uttered. He swung his blade at the demigod boy, who he later realized was named Nikolai because of the inscription in his helmet.

Nikolai counterattacked Luke, effortlessly pushing the Greek brunette back. Luke was reluctant to injure a kid he barely knew but Sohan continuously shouting “hit him” was getting annoying.

Luke grabbed Nikolai by the shoulders, shoving him away from the flag. Sohan was battling against Y/N, who had a spear similar to Clarisse’s. Compared to her spear, Sohan’s bow and arrows and backup dagger wouldn’t be of much use.

Nikolai swung his sword at Luke but every time, Luke managed to block the hits. Luke pushed Nikolai’s sword away, but he underestimated his strength and the sword went flying.

Both Nikolai and Luke turned their heads to stare at the weapon lying on the floor.

“Hit him!” Sohan exclaimed through gritted teeth as he held Y/N back by her arm.

Luke, on instinct, punched Nikolai’s shoulder and scrambled for his sword. He leaned over to grasp it but he was unexpectedly kicked from behind.

Y/N, who Sohan should have been holding back, had knocked the son of Mercury to the ground and made an instant beeline for Luke.

“Don’t chop my head off!” Luke yelled as he rolled to the left to avoid Y/N’s sword as she forcefully swung it down. Luke kicked her ankles, causing her to sway.

Nikolai made another reach for the flag but Sohan managed to shoot an arrow his way, luckily not hitting the boy but it served as a warning.

“You said this was an easy job!” Luke yelled at Sohan as Y/N made another attempt to hit Luke. He tried to strike her ankles again but the same trick wouldn’t fool the praetor twice. She effortlessly pulled him up and slammed his back against a tree, holding a smaller knife to his throat.

“I am literally so scared right now.” Luke wheezed as he wiggled around in Y/N’s surprisingly strong grip. Sohan shot another arrow, this time at Y/N. It barely missed her head. While she was shocked for a second, Luke grabbed her by both shoulders and pushed her back.

“We got a runner!” Another voice suddenly shouted. A member of Y/N’s team, sprinted into the area, followed by two boys from Luke and Sohan’s group.

Sohan scrambled to stop the runner aiming for the flag but Nikolai knocked him back to the ground. Luke made the executive decision to pursue the runner. There wasn’t much Luke could do with his sword so he tossed it aside and did the only other thing he could think of; he tackled the other demigod.

Y/N let out a laugh as the two boys toppled down a hill, each trying to let the other take the brute of the floor. Luke groaned as he spat out a mouthful of daisies. His helmet had fallen off somewhere and he had no energy to actively search for it.

The bell rung once more and the demigod beside Luke sighed as he removed his helmet, running a hand through his messy blond hair.

“You’re the Greek kid, right?” He questioned. “I’m Kato.”

“Yeah. Luke, nice to meet you.”

“Do you also feel like you’ve got internal bleeding?” Kato grumbled as the two boys made no effort to sit up, instead choosing to just lie on the floor among the flowers.

“Oh, definitely.” Luke replied, “Think I might be sick later.”

—

“You both have bruised ribs. Honestly, it could have been worse. Drinking this will help.” An Apollo kid handed Kato and Luke a foul smelling drink.

“It’s best to get it over and down with.” Kato whispered, “Cheers.”

“Not sure if I actually want to consume this.” Luke wrinkled up his nose but tilted his head back away.

The pair gulped down the liquid as fast as they could, both gagging once they had finished.

“Wow, you guys are almost like twins. If Kato had brown hair, you guys might actually sell it.”

Kato and Luke exchanged a look before they both grinned.

“I didn’t know there was temporary hair dye.” Kato said as he stared down at the box. Y/N sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

“Do you want it or not? Coloured hair spray might be easier for you.”

“Yeah, give me that.” Kato threw the box of temporary dye aside. Luke easily caught it, handing it to Y/N.

“Thanks.” She smiled before looking through a trunk of hair supplies. “Good game out there, Castellan. Are you always that quick thinking on your feet?”

Luke shrugged as he stood beside Y/N, leaning on the bunk bed behind him. “I guess? Most of the time we have to think quickly at Half-Blood. We don’t exactly have strategies for every little thing.”

Y/N and Kato stared at Luke in mild surprise. Y/N let out a quiet huff, “I guess you Greeks are disorganised like Lupa said.”

“She said what?” Luke stood up straight. “We aren’t that disorganised. We still have tactics.”

“Yeah, and they kind of, forgive my language here, suck.”

“At least my whole existence isn’t based on a brother who killed his sibling because of anger issues.” Luke muttered loud enough for Y/N to hear.

“You are so dead, Castellan.” Y/N retorted, leaning forward.

“I don’t really want to use the same threat as you because that’s boring. But I will kick your ankle again.” Luke replied.

Kato cleared his throat. “Don’t mean to interrupt whatever… lover argument you have going on but how does this spray work?”

“The cap’s still on. You gotta take it off first.” Y/N exasperatedly sighed.

“Oh, yeah, got it. Go back to your lovers quarrel.”

Y/N picked up an empty box of hair dye, tossing it at Kato. “There is no lovers quarrel!” She exclaimed.

“Really? Bc I felt something.” Luke teasingly piped up from behind her.

“I hope you choke.” Y/N mumbled, sending Luke a warning glare. “Maybe I should’ve cut off your arm. Would’ve taught you a reason.”

“I’ll just take my shirt off because like you said, no one can resist me.” Luke grinned as they bantered back and forth.

“Don’t rely on your looks to escape me, Castellan. Next time we play capture the flag, I’m kicking you down another hill no matter whose team you’re in.” There was a knock on the door and a rough-looking teenager peeked his head inside.

His body was covered in cuts, grazes, and purple bruises. He had a slit in his left eyebrow and an earring dangling from his right ear. When he turned to Y/N and said something in Latin, Luke noticed a shiny piercing on his tongue.

“Castellan, right?” The boy asked, pointing at Luke. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jae, the other praetor.” Jae stepped forward and reached for Luke’s hand, firmly shaking it.

“Nice to meet you.” Luke greeted him.

“I see you’ve already found yourself acquainted with the devil reincarnated.” Jae slyly grinned at Y/N, who could do nothing but huff and cross her arms over her chest in annoyance. “I’ve got to borrow Praetor Y/N for a second, hope you boys don’t mind.”

Y/N sighed as she followed Jae out the door. “This couldn’t have waited?” She asked.

“I was reluctant to interfere. You and the Castellan boy seemed quite close.” Jae replied with a shrug.

“I will literally feed you to the monsters if you don’t shut your mouth.”

“She likes you.” Kato uttered once Y/N was out of ear range.

“How can you tell?” Luke arched an eyebrow as he sat down on a nearby chair.

“She never argues with anyone. Not like that at least. When she argues, you have to listen because there’s no choice. That was more like… bickering used as an excuse to talk to you.” Kato said as he finally put down the can of hair spray. “Yo, we kind of do look alike. That’s freaky.”

Luke ignored Kato’s last point. “How do you know she doesn’t bicker?”

“Praetor Y/N is a straight to the point type of girl. You’ll know when she doesn’t like something. If she was really arguing with you, she would’ve had you shut up within your first two words.” Kato laughed, “She made me shut up once by shoving the words down my throat… literally. She wrote my words on a piece of paper and made me eat it.”

Kato paused, shivering as he remembered the chilling moment. “Anyway, Centurion Sohan, me, and a couple of other guys are going to the lake for a swim. You wanna join?”

“Yeah, sure, why not. I’ll act as eye candy like Y/N described me.” Luke sarcastically said, making Kato chuckle.

“Trust me, the girls will love you.” Kato only reassured Y/N’s point.

There were already a few smaller groups at the lake when Luke and the others arrived. As Luke combed a hand through his hair, he noticed a few girls looking his way and giggling. Kato nudged him.

“See? Told you they’d love you.”

Luke simply nodded. He lifted his shirt to pull it off but unexpectedly saw Y/N not too far away, locked in what seemed to be a serious conversation with Jae. Her eyebrows were tensely furrowed before her gaze suddenly switched to Luke.

He almost jumped at how fast her eyes moved. He quickly pulled his shirt off, giving Y/N a small wave. She slightly raised her eyebrows but never looked away. Slowly, she waved back.

Jae finished speaking and Y/N nodded, pointing to her right and uttering a few more words before they split ways.

“Wow, you two really do look like twins.” Y/N said as she looked at Luke and Kato. “You sure you don’t share a mother?”

“You out here for a swim too?” Luke questioned, squinting under the bright sun.

“No. I came here to check out the guys and pick my next murder victim.”

“How charming. And I thought what we had was special when you threatened to roll me down a hill again.”

“I’m saving you for last, Castellan. When the police find my victims, I’ll ask you to hide me then I’ll stab you in the back.”

“You know what I’m craving right now?” Luke switched the topic, “A pina colada.”

Y/N stared at Luke for a minute before furrowing her eyebrows. “Is that… some sort of drink?”

She heard Luke dramatically gasp. “You’ve never tried one?! Lucky for you, I’m a master at making cocktails. Just sit here, look pretty, and choose your next target. I’ll be right back.”

That was how Y/N found herself hanging around Luke almost every day, trying different cocktail mixtures he made while sitting under a large umbrella to avoid the heat.

“Why’d you put so much vodka in this one?” Y/N questioned, frowning, “It’s all I can taste.”

“My hand slipped.” Luke shrugged. He was lying on a towel beside Y/N, taking advantage of the sun to gain that perfect summer tan, as he liked to call it. “How come you never join your friends in the water?” He questioned, glancing over at Jae and a few other campers who were beckoning Y/N over.

“I don’t like water.” She covered her eyes with her shaded sunglasses, ignoring her friends. “It messes up my hair.”

“I’ll go swimming then. I think my back is turning red now.” Luke stood up, stretching. Y/N gulped down the rest of her drink, carelessly throwing the cup to the side as she jumped to her feet.

“I’ll come if you’re going.” She announced.

“Why the sudden change in attitude?” Luke teased, nudging her.

“I will force your head under water and let you drown.” Y/N deadpanned, causing Luke to take a small step back. Luke reached for his water bottle and took a large sip while Y/N peeled her shirt off. Luke’s eyes flickered to her for a second before his cheeks turned red and he spat out a mouthful of water.

Y/N looked at him weirdly, a judging glint in her eyes. “You good?” She asked.

“Yeah… fine.” Luke choked out.

Y/N didn’t believe him. She looked down at her bikini with bows and ruffles before raising an eyebrow. “Are you staring at my boobs?” She accused him.

“No! Are you staring at my abs?!” Luke tried to change the conversation but his attempt backfired.

“Yes. You’ve got nice abs.” Y/N shamelessly admitted like a true Roman, never scared to state the obvious.

“Well, in that case, you’ve got nice boobs.” Luke wanted to punch himself as soon as he said that.

“It doesn’t sound right when you say that to a girl.” Y/N scrunched up her face which only made Luke’s desire to be swallowed by the ground stronger.

“I realised that.”

“Praetor! Luke! Are you gonna keep chatting or finally get in the water?!” Sohan yelled from his position on a rock in the water.

“My makeup’s gonna get all ruined.” Y/N huffed but still dipped a leg into the lake. “It’s cold.”

“Lake’s are usually cold.” Luke retorted, not hesitating to jump into the deep end of the lake. Water splashed everywhere and Y/N shielded her face from the droplets.

“Watch it!” She yelled out a warning at Luke as he resurfaced, grinning.

“Oops.” He sarcastically apologised.

Y/N sat down at the shore’s edge, soaking her legs in the lake. “I’m good here.” She said, kicking her legs.

“You sure? The water isn’t that cold once you get used to it.” Luke swam closer to her and heaved himself up onto the warm rock.

Y/N kicked the water again, nodding. “Yeah… I’ll ruin my hair and makeup if I get in.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear but it slipped out again, much to her annoyance.

She frowned, reaching for it again, but Luke beat her to it. “You’re pretty without makeup.” He said as he securely tucked the strand away.

Y/N glanced at the boy beside her, suddenly feeling very small. Luke made her feel vulnerable, not necessarily in a bad way. His deep brown eyes made her want to pour out every secret.

Like how she secretly hated an Apollo boy because he kept beating her to the last piece of cake.

Or how she cheated on every English paper in school to raise her GPA because she simply couldn’t read properly.

Or perhaps about how she was afraid of love, despite being the daughter of Venus herself. That fear always made Y/N feel a little stupid.

Or… how she couldn’t swim and refused to swim because she almost drowned once while her so-called friends laughed at her.

“Castell- Luke…” She quickly corrected herself, realising how accustomed she had become to Luke’s presence. “I can’t swim.” She blurted out. “My hair and makeup don’t matter… I just can’t swim. And I don’t want to swim.”

Luke carelessly shrugged and for a second, Y/N was scared he’d dismiss her fear.

“I’ll stay here with you then.” He said instead. “I’ll keep you company.”

“You can swim if you want to.” Y/N replied, fidgeting with her hands. Her heart leaped in her chest and her stomach felt queasy. Was this a crush?

“Nah. I like it here better.” Luke shifted closer to Y/N, slowly slinging an arm around her shoulder. He was expecting her to immediately shove him away but she remained still. Her back was rigidly straight until she hesitatingly relaxed.

“Thank you.” She said as the sun began to set, hues of orange, yellow, and blue painting the sky and reflecting into the lake. Y/N was surrounded by laughing demigods and legacies but she could only focus on Luke; how his hair looked perfect despite being damp, how his skin glistened in the sun, and how his arm was wrapped tightly around her as if he was protecting her from something.

For once, she felt safe. There was no quest she was required to complete, no glory to seek for the Legion, and no heavy exceptions weighing her down.

It was just her and Luke sitting beside each other in comfortable silence.

—

“Are you sure you have to go?” Sohan asked as he tightly clung to Luke, fully prepared to force the son of Hermes to stay.

“My little sister’s waiting for me.” Luke said as he hugged Sohan back, firmly patting his shoulder. Annabeth. Luke had told Y/N about his sister; they weren’t related by blood but she was his found family.

“Make sure to visit and right.” Jae uttered as he struggled to pull Sohan away from Luke. Y/N stood silently next to Jae, holding Luke’s bag.

“Have a safe trip.” She told him, which wasn’t the goodbye Luke had been expecting. He envisioned a small smile, maybe a hug if Y/N was in a good mood.

“Thanks. Good luck with your praetorian duties.” Luke replied, nodding his head.

“You ready to go?” Kato piped up, throwing the car keys in the air and effortlessly catching them.

“Yeah… I guess.” Luke muttered, stealing another glance at Y/N.

‘KISS HER!’ His mind screamed at him. This would be his last opportunity to address the feelings he had caught for Venus’ favourite daughter.

Jae and Sohan looked at each other then at Y/N, who seemed to be restraining all emotions. They almost seemed like they were begging her to make a move on Luke before it was too late.

“Bye, Y/N.” Luke stuck out his hand and Y/N didn’t hesitate to grab it.

“Good bye, Castellan. Camp Jupiter will miss you.”

Luke knew Y/N was too prideful to say ‘I’ll miss you’. This was her alternative.

Luke and Y/N stared at each other with their hands still gripping the other before they finally halted the awkward exchange.

Luke followed Kato towards the car, somewhat hoping Y/N would chase after him. She didn’t.

Y/N watched with her head held high to conceal her frown as Luke walked away, waiting for the moment he’d turn around and run back. He never did. He passed the stone arch that acted as entrance to Camp Jupiter, most likely to never return and if he ever did, it’d be in a few long years.

—

A year had passed since Luke’s departure from the Roman Demigod camp. He was pleased to be back at Half-Blood, but there was someone who was missing. As expected, some Aphrodite girls showed strong interest in Luke, but he never paid them attention.

They were beautiful, but Luke missed the girl who would threaten to throw him to the wolves if he even looked at her. He found her guarded personality charming.

“Luke, Chiron needs you to show one of the exchange campers from Jupiter around.” Chris, Luke’s brother, said. “She’s the last one.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Luke spent months hoping Y/N would show up randomly one day but after three, he gave up. He had heard from Sohan’s regularly written letters, which often featured Jae and Kato too, that Y/N was busier than ever as a praetor. She had doubled her work load, working until she quite literally passed out. Sohan expressed his concerns but didn’t quite know what was wrong.

“She’s waiting in the strawberry field.” Chris told Luke, pointing him in the right direction.

Luke took his sweet time in walking towards the field, his hands shoved into his pockets. There was a figure standing amongst the strawberries, admiring the various flowers and berries.

“Late as usual, Castellan. How Greek of you.”

Luke’s eyes lit up at the sight of the girl in front of him. He cracked a large grin. “What can I say, Y/N? I’m a true Greek demigod.”

FIN.

A/N: while writing this, I was randomly reminded of an old classic book I read where the main characters are clearly in love but know they’ll never see each other again after they split ways. And now I’m sad.

PJO TAG LIST (will update later, I’m tired 😴): @lostinhisworld @julielightwood @jennapancake @evrybodydies1 @kkrenae @s0ulsniper @be-bap @kamiliora @2hiigh2cry @gisellesprettylies @ur-lacol-dsylexic @lilacspider @lukecastellandefender

[perotovar]

A Writing Challenge from August 1st - September 21st

"Erin, what is Frith?"

Frith, is an Old Norse term, typically used among friends and kinsmen, that would often be used in a diplomatic way to bring peace.

Or, more plainly, “a mutual agreement to avoid causing each other physical, emotional, or mental harm, and to avoid negatively affecting each other’s honor, worth, and luck.”

This is meant to be a long-lasting agreement among those that take part.

Now, I’ve spent a decent amount of time to know, in this fandom, that that could very well be wishful thinking, but I’m choosing to stay positive here. It’s no secret that there have been things happening lately that are less than stellar, to put it mildly.

But I’m not here to talk about that.

I’m here to have fun and be creative so that’s what we’re going to do!

I’ve had this idea brewing for several months, and it’s a subject matter that’s very near and dear to my heart. In my personal life, I’m a practicing Norse Pagan. For those that are unfamiliar, I like to describe it as worshiping the Old Ones. I follow the teachings of the Norse Gods.

Why am I telling you this? Well, since this is something that’s so close to me, and we’re all here as fans of one Pedro Pascal and his work, I figured why not combine the two? Initially, the goal was to write all these fics myself, but when I discovered just how exhausting and time-consuming that would be, I decided to include all of you!

I failed to do a follower milestone to thank you all and celebrate, so take this as my thank you for sticking around here and showing support to my fics and gifs.

Alright, so how is this going to work?

huge shoutout to @scenaaario and @kedsandtubesocks for all your help on this you lovely humans ♥

Another important aspect of Heathenry (Norse Paganism) is reciprocity. “Gifts given for gifts received.” So, you all wouldn’t just be giving me a bunch of fics to read. I’ve made something for those of you who will participate as well. This is an equal exchange.

I’ve paired up several of the PPCU with Norse Gods and made moodboards for each of them. I have reasons for matching them up the way I have, and I’ll go into more detail as to why later.

So, yes, this is a writing challenge at its core, but it’s also a way for me to show a little peace of myself with you all and for us all to be creative and have fun! Maybe you’ll step out of your comfort zone a little and that’s okay!

There is an expectation that something will be written/received, so if you don’t think you’ll be able to participate, that’s totally okay. There’s no pressure at all, and I appreciate any support or boosting to get to those that would like to!

Okay, enough of all that, which Gods have I chosen to match up with the Boys?

I’m glad you asked! Matching up traits and personalities was really fun, and really challenging. Nothing is a 1:1 match, but that’s okay. Nothing is supposed to be, and that’s where some of the challenge may come in.

For those that are participating in the challenge, you’ll send me an ask declaring which God/Pedro Boy you’d like to write. In return, and my part of the reciprocity, you’ll receive a moodboard to use for your fic, and a little blurb telling you a little more about the God and why I’ve chosen that character to pair them with. I’m hoping some of them will be a little obvious, but I’m aware not everyone is as familiar with the Gods as I am.

There are only 14 slots and therefore only 14 moodboards made, so once someone has been claimed, that’s it. As much as I’d love to have even more people participate, I don’t think I can make that many things lol.

If you’d still like to contribute somehow, I’m open to any questions you may have about the Gods (and maybe how the boys relate), because I’m a big ol’ nerd and love talking about this shit.

So, who’s who?

Maxwell Lord – Odin [Óðinn] (The All-Father and God of wisdom, magic, war, death, but also cunning and trickery.) claimed by @missredherring

Pero Tovar – Thor [Þórr] (God of thunder, lightning, sacred groves and trees, strength, and the protection of humankind.) claimed by @morallyinept

Max Phillips – Loki (The Trickster God of mischief and chaos.) claimed by @qveerthe0ry

Oberyn Martell – Freyja (Goddess of love, sensuality, sex, passion, war, and magic.) claimed by @guiltyasdave

Javier Peña – Freyr (God of fertility, harvests, and peace.) claimed by @almostfoxglove

Ezra – Týr (God of victory, law, and justice.) claimed by @marisferasiop

Marcus Moreno – Frigg (Goddess of domestic life, marriage, and maternal energy.) claimed by @joelalorian

Joel Miller – Hel (Goddess of death and guide to the underworld.) claimed by @beefrobeefcal

Dieter Bravo – Bragi (God of poetry, oral traditions, and the Skaldic Poet of the Aesir.) claimed by @schnarfer

Javi Gutierrez – Baldr (God of light and purity.) claimed by @thesluttylittleknee

Dave York – Vidar [Víðarr] (The Silent God of vengeance.) claimed by @kedsandtubesocks

Din Djarin – Heimdall [Heimdallr] (Gatekeeper of Asgard, the gods’ stronghold within Valhalla. God of guardianship, vigilance, and protection.) claimed by @djarinmuse

Frankie Morales – Skadi [Skaði] (Goddess of winter, skiing, bow-hunting, and mountains.) claimed by @agentmarcuspike

Jack “Agent Whiskey” Daniels – Ægir (Brewmaster of the sea.) claimed by @lotusbxtch

extras:

Marcus Pike – Idun [Iðunn] (Goddess of eternal youth and sacred apples.) claimed by @gasolinerainbowpuddles

Silva – Ymir (First being in existence and the reason for the creation of Earth.) claimed by @yopossum

Santiago Garcia – Fenrir (Most famous of all the wolves in Norse Mythology and the bringer of Ragnarok.) claimed by @for-a-longlongtime

There are no rules for your fic itself. You can write whatever and however much you want. All I ask is that some aspects of the Gods stay intact, otherwise this would just be any old writing challenge.

I wanna see you guys get creative with what the Gods offer. How are they speaking to you? What energy/vibes are you getting off of them? Run with it.

Now, I’m posting this the day before Lammas, the Pagan holiday that often takes place in the Summer, August 1st. I think it would round out the summer nicely if everything gets published around Mabon, September 21st, the holiday that celebrates the Fall equinox.

That gives everyone almost two months to write their stories. I’m hoping that’s a decent time? If it’s not, I’m not picky and typically run on Pagan Standard Time, so if it’ll take you a little longer, just let me know and it’ll probably be fine.

Thank you for sticking with my ramble, and I wish you all gọ̄der hēle (good luck)!

And remember, have fun!

[boqvistsbabe]

truth or dare - matthew tkachuk

A/N: this is for the summer fic exchange!! I got the chance to write for @ohmyeyesmyeyes as a part of @wyattjohnston 's summer fic exchange. I was pretty nervous because tbh I havent written in so long mostly because of writers block, but here it is! Super excited to have been able to take part in this especially cause it got me out of a writer's block lol. I absolutely loved doing this. Also in this Matt and McDavid are friends. Hope you enjoy it!!

Warnings: Some swearing but I think that's it! (also my computer started acting weird halfway through so the formatting got a little funky so apologies for that)

Wordcount: 4,705

So it finally happened. Matthew had won the Stanley Cup. And you somehow found yourself driving from St Louis down to the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate with him and his family. 

To be completely honest you don’t know why you were invited, Matt and you texted every once in a while for birthdays and other holidays, maybe congrats on a game or promotion, and maybe saw each other when he visited home occasionally but nothing like when you were kids growing up together. You were in the same grade as Brady and quickly became best friends with him. With how much family means to the Tkachuks, you were easily brought in as one of their own. Being brought on family vacations, going to the lake each summer, and traveling to the boys’ and Taryn’s games was a big part of your younger years. Though you were best friends with Brady, there was always something about Matt that drew you to him. He treated you just like one of his siblings always teasing and trying to beat you in games but as you got older things changed. You’re not exactly sure when or why but he stopped messing around with you so much, he still hung out with you but when it was just the two of you it was less teasing and more deep talks about the future and what it held for both of you. Of course, you ended up having a little crush on him, he was too nice and familiar for you to not. Even though you never told a single soul about it, you had a suspicion Chantal knew anyway.

When he made it to the NHL he moved and you stayed in St Louis you kept in touch, making weekly calls and texting all of the time. Then he got a girlfriend and you started hearing from him less and less. You understood of course, things change as you grow up and life goes on. Though you still stayed close with Brady and Taryn when they moved on to college and the league.

Flashforward to playoffs this year, you were watching whatever games of Matt’s you could like always and then the Panthers won, and you got a text from Matt saying you should join the family at the lake to celebrate “like old times”. You had asked Taryn if she thought it was a good idea when you FaceTimed the night after and she told you of course and looked at you like you were stupid for suggesting otherwise. She didn’t know about the silly little crush you still had on him so of course she would think that. Brady knew though, not fully but you slipped up one time when you were drunk and he won’t let you live it down. 

So here you were taking time off work for the first time in forever, driving two hours to get to the lake to celebrate a man you were probably in love with. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matthew’s POV

“Brady would you stop that!” I was fed up with him bugging me right now. Everyone had made it to the lake so far, Sasha, McDavid, all the other guys their plus ones, and of course my family. The only one left to show up was Y/N. At first, I wasn’t even sure she would accept my offer. I knew she had been working a bunch and honestly didn’t know if she was keeping up with hockey anymore. She liked it a lot when we were younger but things can change. And with us not being super close anymore I didn’t know if it would be worth it to her. Thankfully according to Brady, she left like two and a half hours ago so she should be here any minute. 

But Brady won’t leave me alone about the whole Y/N thing. I don’t see what the problem was, I wanted to see an old friend and this was a good excuse to do so. Well, that’s exactly what I had told my family, it’s not entirely untrue. I just didn’t tell them about how when I was lifting that cup in the air I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to have her there with me. When I first made it to the show I was still hung up on her so I dated around to distract myself. Never anything too serious, the whole point was just to get my mind off of her so I could focus on hockey I wasn’t trying to get caught up on someone else too. Of course, it never really worked, which is why I got up the courage to even ask her to come. As soon as I got back to the locker room after that game and had a moment to myself, I texted her. Brady was there and being nosey as usual saw my text from over my shoulder and won’t stop bugging me about it. 

My plan was just to have her come here to just see her again. Yeah maybe partially because I want to see if that little spark is still there, but also just because I hope we can get closer again. I hope we can.

~~~~~~~~

Y/N POV 

You pull in front of the garage, put the car in park, and give yourself to breathe for a second. The second doesn’t last long though.

“Y/N!!! You’re here!!” Taryn was running up to your car with Brady right behind her. And there he was, Matthew Tkachuk standing there in all his Stanley Cup Champion glory on the porch watching his siblings pull you from your car and into a big hug.

“Matt you can’t just stand there and watch them maul me and not even try to do anything!” You shouted over to him even as you squeezed Brady and Taryn tighter. It had been months since you had seen either of them in person and you were planning on savoring every moment you had with them, and Matt before you all had to return to your busy lives. 

Matt started making his way to the three of you a big smile on his face, “Ahh you’re right, I’ve got to join in.” 

Next thing you knew, another set of arms was wrapped around you. Maybe Matt was right, it was gonna be just like old times. They all let you go and you turned to give Taryn her own hug first.

“Hey kid, I missed you.” Somehow it feels like she’s gotten taller since the last time you saw her. Taryn responds with a, “You’re not that much older… but I missed you too.” 

Brady’s next and you get a hug and a big paw messing up your hair like he always did when you were younger. When he lets you go you turn to the only one left, Matt who’s standing there smiling at your interactions with his siblings. You’re trying to fix your hair from Brady messing it up and he reaches over and tucks a piece of hair back to help out. Then Brady says something about helping Mom with dinner and drags Taryn along with him. 

You mumble a thanks to Matt and he opens up his arms and you step into them. 

“Thanks for coming, it means a lot,” Is mumbled into your hair. 

“Yeah of course Superstar.” The old nickname falls out of your mouth unintentionally.  

“Oh my gosh, I’m never going to escape that am I?” You’re still hugging him.

“Definitely not now with the Cup to prove it.” He laughs but is still hugging you too. 

You take a step back and wipe your hands on your shorts not knowing what to do with them. 

“Alright let’s get your stuff and then I’ll help you get it inside, you’re staying in Taryn’s room since she’ll be in the basement with her friends.” 

“Alright works for me.” 

~~~~~~

As you make the trek up the two flights of stairs to the upper floor you’re grateful for Matt taking your bags. You forgot how steep the stairs were. You make it to Taryn’s room before you notice that the corner room, the one next to yours has plastic covering the doorway. Without turning you ask him what happened.

“Oh a big storm came through a couple of weeks ago and a tree fell on that corner of the house.” He shrugs and reaches around you to open the door to Taryn’s room. 

“Isn’t that your room though?” You haven’t moved into the room yet.

“Uh yeah, I’m just staying on the couch and keeping my stuff in Brady’s room.” He nudges you forward and you move into the room, setting your backpack on the bed before turning to him.

“Why don’t you take Brady’s room and make him sleep on the couch? This is like your thing, you shouldn’t be sleeping on the couch.” 

Matt shrugs, “ His girlfriend is staying here too so they get a room and I’m fine with the couch.” 

“Matt you should sleep here and I’ll take the couch and leave my stuff with Taryn and the girls.” You move to grab your stuff from him, but he doesn’t let you.

“Absolutely not, you’re a guest and Mom would kill me.” He’s got a frown on his face that you refuse to admit to yourself is cute. 

“I don’t care, this is your gig I’m taking the couch.”  With that, you run out of the room and bolt down the stairs and Matt is hot on your heels as soon as he figures out what you’re doing. 

It’s not hard to locate Chantal and Keith, they’re out on the back deck grilling and watching the kids (aka Taryn and her friends) play with a volleyball in the yard. It seems like some of Matt’s friends from hockey are here too because they’re taking up the chairs scattered around the deck. But you barely pay attention to them, you’re on a mission.

“Chantal can you please tell your son to liste-” You’re cut off by a strong arm around your waist and a hand over your mouth. 

“Mom don’t listen to her please.” Matt is out of breath behind you, holding tight cause he knows as soon as he lets go you’ll convince his mom to agree with you like always.

“You two are already back at it huh? Hi Y/N it's good to see you, honey. What am I trying to agree to?”  She looks amused at the spectacle of you two. She’s used to it, this is exactly something that would happen whenever you wanted one of the boys to listen to you when you were kids. You would run to Chantal and get her on your side without letting her know the real context so you would get your way. She thought it was hilarious and always sided with you because you were always right. 

“Mom she’s trying to take the couch and make me sleep in Taryn’s room.” You lick his hand and he immediately retracts it and Keith laughs. He doesn’t let go of you though.

“Y/N you’re a guest you know better.” She’s giving you a look and you know you’ve already lost.

“But Chantal it's Superstar’s celebration, not mine! And he has camp starting here soon, we can’t have him in pain from sleeping on a couch.” You heard a few chuckles from the guys at the nickname. 

“If it’s that big of a deal to both of you just share the bed, it’s a king and it’s not like you haven’t shared before. Don’t give me those looks, you think I didn’t know about your little sleepovers?” You feel your face heat and refuse to look at Matt’s friends who are now 100% interested in what’s going on, “ I don’t care what y’all do but I don’t want to deal with arguing right now, it’s day 1. Now shoo and get stuff to set the table.”

Without speaking he lets go of you and you both turn and walk right back into the house and into the kitchen, the sound of laughter following you. The next couple of seconds are completely silent before you both burst into laughter. You make eye contact across the island and start laughing again. Together you get the tables set for dinner. 

“You know she’s not wrong, it’s a good compromise.” You look over to where Matt is perched on the counter. 

“What?” He can’t be suggesting what you think he is, if he is it’s a bad idea. 

“We could share, the bed is big enough and we’re both adults.” He shrugs, “ I don’t see why not. As long as you’re fine with it, I’m fine with it.” 

It’s a bad idea and you should say no, “Yeah I’m fine with it.” So your mouth and brain were not on the same page at all. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’ve forgotten about that agreement until everyone is headed to their rooms or cabins and you’re standing in the doorway of the room watching Matt put his stuff up. You tell yourself it’s fine and move to grab your pajamas out of your bag.

“What side of the bed do you want?” Matt pops his head out the bathroom doorway to look at you.

“I don’t really care.” You shrug, you’d prefer the side by the window but you weren’t going to say that.

“If I remember right you like to sleep closer to the window, so I’ll take the side by the door.” Matt winks before shutting the door to change.

You’re not going to think anything of the wink or of the fact that he remembers little things about you. Instead, you plug your charger in on that side of the bed and set your water on that side table. When Matt gets out you take your turn. You change first then brush your teeth and wash your face before heading out to the bedroom. Of course, you manage to open the door right as Matt tugs off his shirt. You pause for just a second, taking in his muscular back and arms. When he starts to turn around you look away and start heading to your side of the bed. You don’t know why you were so shocked at him taking off his shirt, he always slept without a shirt on. Maybe it just felt a little different now, you stop that train of thought before it finishes leaving the station. 

You grab two of the big decorative pillows that Matt threw on the floor and place them next to each other in the middle of the bed.

“Really? I’m not gonna give you cooties I promise.” That teasing glint is in Matt’s eyes, “I’ll stick to my side of the bed don’t worry.” 

You roll your eyes before flopping into bed and snuggling up under the covers. 

~~~~~~~~

Waking up the next morning with a heavy arm draped around your waist wasn’t something your brain was able to process that early. Turning you realized it was Matt who was all cuddled up close. You try to wiggle away but it doesn’t work and he just holds on tighter. Sighing you reach over to grab your phone. You pull up the text thread to Brady and snap a quick picture of Matt snuggled up with you.

Y/N: he didn’t stay on his side of the bed and now he won’t let me go.

Brady: don’t pretend like you’re not enjoying it, also you should be thanking me rn 

Y/N: ???

Brady: you forgot to close the door last night, got this on my way to the kitchen. Dw i was up first and i shut the door

Attached to his message is a picture from the doorway of the room, and it clearly shows you half lying on top of Matt, face tucked into his neck and his arm wrapped around you. Before thinking better of it, you save the picture to your photos. 

Y/N: well fuck, thanks

Brady: yw, breakfast is ready when y’all are

Y/N: perfect thanks

Turning around you poke Matt until he stirs.

“What do you want, it's too early for this,” his eyes aren’t even open.

“So much for staying on your side of the bed and its 9:30 its not that early.” You tease, poking him again.

Matt’s eyes flutter open and he takes in the situation. Once he realizes his arm is around you, he quickly retracts it and brings his hands up to rub his eyes.

“Whoops sorry.” He doesn’t sound sorry at all.

“Uh huh sure. I’m gonna go get breakfast.” And with that, you roll out of bed, grab your phone and water, and slip out of the room.

~~~~~~~~

Matt’s POV

“Fuuucccckkkk.” I stretch out across the bed. I didn’t intentionally cuddle Y/N last night but oh well. She’s a good cuddler. Maybe I can convince her to cuddle tonight. Actually, maybe I need to stop thinking like that. Sitting up I grab my phone and see a notification from Brady.

Brady: if you don’t want everyone knowing about your little crush maybe you should remember to shut the door 

Right after the message is a picture of Y/N lying on top of me with her face tucked in my neck and a leg hooked around mine, I assume she wasn’t aware of this but if she was she conveniently left that out when teasing me about breaking the pillow wall.

Matt: shit did anyone else see, i don’t want anyone to bug her about it

Brady: nah just me, i shut the door on the way downstairs and I was the first one up.

Matt: K thx, she said breakfast is ready?

Brady: ya, get your ass down here and eat its boat day

Groaning I push myself up from the bed and head downstairs. And if I saved the picture to my phone who can blame me, it’s cute. 

~~~~~~~~

Brady POV

If these two don’t get their shit figured out before the end of the trip I’m gonna scream. They obviously like each other, and I know for sure Y/N has liked him for years and I’m pretty sure it’s the same for him. They just need to do something about it.

~~~~~~~~

Y/N POV

Boat day means us “kids” are out being stupid and Chantal and Keith stay home and get to relax by themselves. It also means you get to drive the boat because that’s your favorite part besides the actual wake surfing. And Matt and Brady know not to argue with you about driving. With so many people though you had to rent a second boat. This meant Brady and his girlfriend were on the boat with Taryn and her friends and you got stuck with Matt and his friends. Not that it would matter too much because you’d stick close together for the most part. 

When you left the dock Matt was sitting in the back with his friends but now he’s moving up to sit in the chair by you. He doesn’t say anything, it's far too loud to have a conversation right now. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt’s POV 

I can’t stop looking at her. I’m trying not to be too obvious, but she looks so pretty. The wind is pulling the hair out of her braid and the blue of her swimsuit looks so good on her. And even though I know she grew up on the lake with us, her knowing all about the boat and loving to drive it is so attractive for some reason.

Once we get far enough out she gets the boat stopped so we can set everything up. The guys have already decided who’s going in what order so I’ll probably stick up here with her while she’s driving. Even though she didn’t seem to mind about getting stuck with us I still feel a little bad. Plus I like being in her presence. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N POV

“You know you can hang with the guys, they came here to see you.” You don’t turn to look at him, instead choosing to keep watching the boys get set up. 

“Yeah, I know but so are you. And I Like spending time with you so,” he just shrugs. 

So throughout the laps of the boys going one after another, he sat there next to you while you drove. Finally, it was his turn and then you were up next. And this continued till lunch when you all took a break to eat before starting back up again. 

It was the last run for everyone and Matt was up and you somehow ended up in the back watching him because one of the guys wanted to drive a lap. However, this lap was a little different. Matt ended up losing his balance and falling off the board but when that happened the board ended up catching his head as he fell into the water.

The boat stopped and he popped up like nothing was wrong but he had blood dripping down the side of his face starting at his eyebrow. 

“Matt you good man?” Came from McDavid. 

���Yeah, the board just barely caught me.” He seemed fine but you still wanted to make sure.

“Come up here I’m gonna check that out and make sure you’re actually okay.” You told him gesturing up front where the first aid box was. He followed without complaint. You motioned for him to sit in the captain's chair.

“I’m just gonna clean it up and put a bandage on it but once we get back to the house I might have to get something better okay?” You grabbed the kit and got an alcohol wipe out to clean up the blood. His curls had fallen in the way so you brushed them back before cleaning him up. He sat there without complaint, even though the alcohol probably burned a lot, looking up at you as you held his face to keep him still while you doctored him up. The cut wasn’t as bad as you originally thought, but it was still pretty bad. You grabbed the biggest band-aid you found and gently placed it over the cut. 

“Alright good to go.” You declared standing back up. 

“What no kiss for my boo-boo?” Matt teased.

Without even thinking about it you leaned down and kissed the band-aid before walking to the back of the boat to get ready for your last turn. Not even realizing the look Matt is giving you or the fact that Taryn is recording it all from where they stopped not too far away to make sure everything was okay. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After dinner that night it was time for the firepit. Chantal and Keith were inside in bed already, and Taryn and her friends were watching a movie, which meant truth or dare mixed with a little alcohol. Just like if you were all teenagers again.

Though not everyone was drinking it did surprise you that Matt wasn’t. This was normally his bread and butter. And when you asked he just shrugged it off. 

By the time the game actually started, you might’ve been just a little tipsy. Thankfully Matt was sitting next to you so at least knew who you were next to. Though maybe you were a little bit more out of it than you thought because you couldn’t stop looking at Matt and you’re pretty sure it’s really obvious but you also don’t really care.

At some point, someone asks you the age-old question of truth or dare. Normally you’re a truth kind of person but even through the alcohol, you can tell that drunk confessions might not be the best idea right now. Of course, the only other option is dare so you pick that, which in hindsight still might not be a great idea because you are far gone enough to agree to whatever dare they threw your way. 

“I dare you to kiss Matt, on the lips.” 

Oh, that was, unexpected. Especially considering it came from McDavid. 

You glanced over at Matt who looked like a deer in the headlights. You nudged him and he turned to look at you.

“I’m fine with it if you are?” You whispered to him.

“Are you sure, you’ve drank tonight I don’t want that to be influencing your decision.” He looked concerned which you found sweet. And even though you were drunk, you still wanted to kiss him. This might be your only chance and the alcohol is giving you the confidence you need.

“I’m sober enough to consent to it, but are you okay with it?”

“Yeah.” He was still looking at you, eyes jumping around different parts of your face before landing on your lips. So you did what any sane person would, slid your hand into the curls at the nape of his neck tugged him towards you, and kissed him. Your eyes fluttered shut and one of his hands came up to cup your face and the other wrapped around you to pull you closer. 

You broke apart to a couple of whistles from the guys and Brady saying something about how he doesn’t wanna see that.

Matt was still sitting closer to you, but you didn’t move away until you stood up to grab another beer.

Later on when it was time for everyone to go to bed you were on wobbly legs so Matt offered to give you a piggyback ride up the stairs and of course, you said yes. He brought you all the way into the room and dropped you back on the bed before disappearing into the bathroom.

“Thank you Mattyyyy!” Okay, maybe you were still a little drunk. Matt reappears and sets a cup of water and some pills on the side table.

“Yeah, not a problem. I’m gonna need you to go ahead and sit up so you can take this and not feel totally horrible in the morning.” You raised your arms and he grabbed your hands to tug you up so you could take the medicine. Once you get it down you flop back onto the bed, kick your shoes off, and curl up under the covers. 

“Come on Matty I wanna cuddle and you’re taking forever.” He had just gotten into the bathroom to change and get ready for bed. 

“Give me a second and I’ll be right out.” And sure enough he was. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt POV

I was royally fucked. 

That kiss, was good. Too good. Cause now I can’t stop thinking about it. 

After rinsing off my face I walked back out expecting Y/N to be asleep, but she was still awake waiting for me covers pulled back and everything. 

“Hurry up Matty,” she looked so cute snuggled up and ready for bed. So I climbed into bed next to her and she immediately tucked herself under my arm and was out a minute later.

Yeah I was in big trouble.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N POV

Waking up the next morning sucked big time. Thankfully the planned hike was not until later this afternoon so after breakfast you could come right back upstairs to sleep some more. At least you could remember the night before. But also remembering the night before means you could remember the kiss and how good it was and then Matt getting you upstairs and taking care of you and of course you begging for cuddles. Which speaking of, Matt himself was still asleep and still holding you close. Though this morning you were able to roll out of his grasp before he could pull you back. You went to the bathroom and grabbed more medicine and some water before running downstairs and grabbing two granola bars. No one else seemed to be up either and you didn’t feel like making real food. 

When you got back upstairs Matt was sitting up in bed. You tossed one of the bars at him before crawling back in your side and opening up your own. 

“Everyone else is still asleep, and the hike isn’t untilater so after I eat this I’m gonna go back to sleep.” You exclaimed before eating your granola bar. 

“Alright. Thanks by the way. And if you don’t mind I’ll probably join you, we were up late last night and I’m tired.” You just shrugged in response because your mouth was full. 

True to your word both of you were back asleep after setting an alarm to give enough time for getting ready before the hike.

~~~~~~~~~~

You were all about halfway through the hike when it happened. Somehow you had managed to trip over a tree branch that was across the path. Through this area of the trail it was a small path so everyone was in a single file line and just just happened to be in the back. So no one even knew you fell until you tried to stand up and couldn’t put any pressure on your left foot without yelping in pain. As soon as they heard you they all turned to look to see what happened. And even though he was leading everyone, Matt made it to your first.

“Hey hey, what happened?” He asked as soon as he got to you, kneeling down next to you.

“I got caught on the branch and hurt my left ankle. I can’t stand up.” You had tears running down your face. More out of pain than anything else. 

“Alright, you probably sprained it. I’ll take you back and they’ll continue on okay?” He reached up to wipe your tears away and all you could do was nod. Your ankle really hurt.

He turned around to face the group, “Hey Brady, you keep leading everyone and I’m gonna take her back to the house, she can’t walk.” Brady said something in response but you didn’t even hear him. Before they left Taryn came back to tell Matt to keep them updated and give you a hug. 

When the group started on their way Matt turned to look at you again. 

“Okay I’m gonna have you get on my back and we’ll get back to the house that way okay?”

“Okay, thanks Matt. I’m sorry you have to deal with this instead of finishing the hike.” You did feel really bad.

“Hey hey no it’s fine, you didn’t mean to do this. And I’d rather take you back and know you’re okay than have someone else do it okay?” You ignored how that cause butterflies to errupt in your stomach and just nodded.

“Alright I’m gonna stand up and help you up then get you on my back alright?” You just nodded again.

Matt stood up before leaning down to grab you bridal style.

“When I set you down stand on your good foot and I’ll get lower so you’re able to hop on easier.”

“Okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~

You made it back to the house, Matt checking on you the whole way, making sure nothing else hurt and making sure he wasn’t hurting you.

Once you get inside Matt sits you down on the couch and disappears. When he comes back he has an ice pack and a bandage to go around your ankle. You lean down to start to undo your laces but he stops you and does it himself.

“Hey let me take care of you.”

“Thanks Matt. I really do appreciate it.” 

He makes quick work of getting you all bandaged up. And you both decide to have a little movie night and Matt gets up to get snacks and turn the lights off. And when he sits back down, he’s sitting a lot closer than before. And you don’t mind.

Eventually you do end up cuddling together, him pulling you close and you tucked in next to him but still with your foot resting on the coffee table in front of you. 

And that’s exactly how everyone finds you later when they get back. 

~~~~~~~~

Matt’s POV

Someone is shaking me. I open my eyes half expecting Y/N to be telling me I’m on her side. But its Mom and I’m in the living room and the TV is showing the ending credits.

“Honey I think y’all need to go to bed its late and y’all are tired. Is she okay?”

“Yeah she’s got a sprain. Nothing too bad thankfully but she is gonna be in pain for a bit.”

“Alright honey, go ahead on up to bed, I’ll see you in the morning.” 

I untangle myself from Y/N and stretch before standing up and lifting her to head upstairs. When I make it to our room and kick the door shut, lay her downa dntuck her in before laying down next to her. And when she automatically cuddles closer who can blame me when my heart flutters for a second.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N POV

Today was the day everyone was leaving. Myself included. Thankfully the ankle I hurt was not the one I needed to drive. Matt of course helped me get everything to the car. By the time I’m ready to leave everyone but Matt and I are gone. And of course Chantal and Keith. 

I’m sitting in my seat procrastinating leaving. I have tomorrow off of work so I’m in no rush. And I want to keep talking to Matt who’s standing in the doorway of my car looking down at me with soft eyes.

“Hey Y/N?” Matt is suddenly serious.

“Yeah what is it?” 

“I like you.” 

“What?”

“I like you. Actually I think I kinda love you and I always have. And if you feel the same which I think you do, or at least I’m hoping you do, I’ll do whatever I can to make it work with us. Even though we would be so far apart. But I just had to telly you that before you left. If you don’t feel the same we can pretend this never happened, but for the record I really don’t want to have to forget that amazing kiss.” There’s a blush covering Matt’s whole face.

“Matt?” 

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m kind of in love with you too.” Relief washes over Matt’s face. 

“Can I kiss you Y/N?” 

You don’t answer, you just pull him close and plant one on him.

“And Matt,” he leans back to look at you again, “I think now is a good time to mention that I got a promotion that requires me to move out of St Louis.”

“I don’t care where you move if you want to I am willingto make it work no matter where you are.”

“Well me moving might make it a little easier on us.”

“Oh yeah? Where do you have to move to?” He rests his hands on your hips, a smile across his face.

“Well I kinda of have to move to Miami. So like maybe twenty minutes from you?” 

Matt’s smile somehow gets bigger as he lifts you up to spin around.

“I think that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

[yoonieper]

His Majesty | KNJ

Come and serve your King.

・❥・ Pairing: King!Namjoon x Maid!Reader

・❥・ Genre: smut, angst, a tiny bit of fluff

・❥・ Rated: B for Bow 

・❥・ Warnings: cheating, oral (m+f receiving), clothes are ripped, bondage, spanking, exhibitionism, unprotected sex (this the past, but not you <3), joon’s a little too hot in this one, get your fans ready

・❥・ Word Count: 9.6k

・❥・ Summary: His majesty was always fond of you. Little glances here, longing touches there, it was obvious something was going on. When the Queen left the kingdom for a little while, it was finally time. He could finally have you the way he wanted. 

・❥・ Collab: This is part of @erotikkook Kingdom collab! My first collab piece, yay! Thank you so much Levi for finally giving me a reason to write this lol! Please check out the other stories as well! 

・❥・ Now Playing: Earned It by The Weeknd

・❥・ Beta: @xxxanimangxxx thank you so much for reading this so quickly 😭 

・❥・ Author’s Note: HA! I’m back already (hehehehe)~ This was meant to be posted for Joonie’s bday, but things happened… Anyway, fun fact, I got this idea when me and my sister were discussing frozen fanfiction, in particular a very snacky older Hans brother. I owe a lot of these ideas to my sister so shout out to her who helped me come up with this 😩✊🏽 I hope to post a less angsty Joon fic in the near future *hint hint wink wink something might be in the works* :,) Anyway enjoy this y’all ;)

No reposting, modifying. Translating is not allowed unless given explicit permission. Thank you so much :D

You never thought of yourself as nosy. You didn’t think your friends nor your family would disagree at this claim, you were honestly more known for being good at staying out of other’s business. However, your job at the palace seemed to challenge this standard you had for yourself. 

You would oftentimes find yourself in the room when important court officials would be having discussions, but you always tried to pay no mind to their words and carried on with your assigned duties. However, you were just a maid to most of these officials and it always seemed like they wouldn’t care if you were dusting a shelf right across the room. You weren’t nosy, but you were human after all. You had ears. 

You often enjoyed the palace gossip, never spreading it yourself necessarily, but you wouldn’t hesitate to take part in the chatter among the other palace staff that seemed to always spread like wildfire.  

Most court officials always made you feel invisible, you didn’t mind it that way honestly, but one managed to snake his way into your life and became a chapter you never would have pictured for your humble existence. 

“Are you sure that is the best idea?” A deep, booming voice reverberated throughout the empty throne room. You tried your best not to turn around. 

“Your majesty, if you must know I have just gotten word from my father detailing my mother’s illness. I think this is enough reason to leave the palace grounds despite what’s going on right now.” Her voice was firm like she wasn’t even asking.

“I understand. Just considering what everyone is saying at the moment, I am worried. How long are you requesting leave?” 

“I hope to return in one month’s time, but depending on my mother’s condition it might be longer.” You could feel his gaze even with your back turned to them both. He wanted you to listen.  

“That is fine by me, just be sure to inform me of your mother’s condition from time to time, send her my dearest regards.”

“Thank you, your majesty.” 

In your peripheral you saw her majesty get up and turn toward the entrance, but she stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him. 

“Your majesty, upon my return I feel it is best to listen to our people. We need an heir.” She spoke plainly, lacking complete emotion. This was just business.  

Silence filled the room for a little while. 

“I will see you in a month.” He too lacked that emotion one would expect from the weight of her statement. 

No more words were exchanged between the couple and soon you heard the door to the room close behind her majesty. 

Happenings at the palace have been quite tense lately. Security has been tighter than ever and the crowds outside the palace have grown more restless by the passing days. Only you know the true reason for the controversy surrounding the newly appointed King. 

It still felt like yesterday when the news of the death of the former King and Queen was spreading around the kingdom. Their son was of age to take the throne, so from a political standpoint the kingdom was secure, but with how sudden their death was, a lot of things needed to be rushed. 

You had recently started working at the palace when it was announced that the newly crowned King would be marrying the princess of Alreda, a neighboring kingdom you had heard the former King had been trying to make peace with. 

Everyone knew that the marriage was more of a political move than anything out of love, but because of his parents, everyone started with high hopes for the new couple. It was infamous across borders the story of the King and Queen of Kleier was a match that started off as nothing more than an arrangement that eventually blossomed into a fiery romance that seemed to spread over the kingdom.

Everyone had hopes for their son as well. 

King Namjoon though was nothing like his parents by far. His last few years of reign were nothing bad, but he was known around the kingdom as a cold, yet thorough, meticulous, and a questionable ruler. Gone was the same light the former King spread over the kingdom, instead was a husk of what was once a kingdom filled with life and love.

No one complained at first however considering the suddenness of the King and Queen’s death. It was like the entire kingdom was still grieving. 

There were some people however that were not as forgiving, demanding immediate perfection from the new King. Recently the topic everyone seemed to talk about was the fact that his majesty had been married to the Queen for 4 years and still had yet to produce an heir. 

It was tradition that the King and Queen were to consummate their marriage and that would bless the kingdom with good fortune while they ruled. It quickly spread around the kingdom that this ‘blessing’ never happened on their wedding night. That’s essentially what started the gossip. 

The fact that they had been married for so long and the Queen wasn’t even with child at the moment caused a bit of an uproar. Their voices grew louder as time passed and they took advantage of people’s grief about the former King and Queen and turned any small concerns they had into even more voices. 

The King and Queen had even been advised to stay inside the palace gates because of safety concerns.   

No one knew why the King had yet to spend the night with the Queen, no one knew why they hadn’t produced an heir yet, no one knew but you. 

As soon as the door closed, you heard footsteps approaching from behind.

They were slow, calculated, and you could feel his gaze piercing through the back of your skull. You could feel your skin starting to burn, but you never faltered in your task of cleaning the relics that lined the throne room. You never turned around, not even when you felt his sturdy chest against your back. 

“Did you hear that?” His voice was low and soft, not at all the same way he spoke with her majesty.

“I’ve been waiting for a time like this to come. I hope you have as well.” You felt shivers go down your spine, every word making you more eager for his touch than you thought possible. You felt his arm snake around your waist, before he pulled you even closer.

It was not out of lust but of longing, the pain of needing to put his role as the ruler of the kingdom first before his own selfish desires. The reason why the King had yet to spend the night with her majesty, was no reason as complicated as what the kingdom had spread. It was simply you. 

It had been the first time you had laid eyes on the King, it had merely been days after you started your job as a maid in the palace. The head maid had been ushering you to the tea room, when you saw him walk down the hallway.

The head maid urged you to make room and bow, but as you felt his presence sweep by, you had looked up curiously to see his majesty and you felt your heart nearly stop when your eyes met. Instead of the strong, powerful, gaze you expected all you saw was how tired he seemed and pain you didn’t quite understand until later. It was in that moment his eyes locked onto yours as he passed by, a moment that felt like an entirety but was really only a few seconds because he stopped right in his tracks to look at you. 

His entire party that followed closely behind, bumped into each other. Everyone was surprised at him suddenly coming to a halt. 

“Who is this?” He questioned the head maid. You had felt your blood run cold wondering if you had made a mistake already. 

“L/N Y/N your majesty, she’s a new maid I’m training.” The head maid had bowed deeper and her eyes remained trained to the ground. Immediately you senesed the terrible blunder you had made already. 

Namjoon’s gaze returned back to you for a second. Part of you expected him to order for you to be thrown in jail or maybe even sentenced to a vicious beheading, but instead his eyes only lingered for a second longer before he was continuing with his party.   

Some may have not expected this interaction to be much, but anytime you happened to work in the same room as his majesty you couldn’t shake the feeling you were being looked at. Every time you were proved right, he was always staring at you. 

It was one fateful day that basically started this predicament. You had been working one late  night and you happened to walk into a room his majesty was in. As soon as you pushed open the doors, you heard the sounds of pained sobs and pitiful whimpers, and that’s when his majesty sitting by the fireplace turned to you and your eyes met once again.  

You apologized and was about to leave but he stopped you and he told you to continue working. His voice was groggy and you only wondered how long he had been crying. While you tried to work in peace your concern for the King got the best of you and you finally had to ask what was troubling him.

This led to you taking a seat right beside him by the fireplace and you let him vent his frustrations out. He went on about how much he missed his parents, how much he did not want to get married to the princess from Alreada, all the overwhelming Kingly duties that had suddenly been sprung onto him, and pretty much everything that he had seemingly bottled up inside his troubled mind since he took the crown. 

You were there and despite you just being a maid, he let you listen to all his struggles almost as if he had just been waiting for someone to ask him that one question for months. 

Things after that changed between you two, what started as making eye contact longer than you knew you were meant to, almost as if to reminisce the memory of the night you shared, slowly grew longer and longer the closer to the day Namjoon was meant to get married. 

You both never said a word to each other, but it seemed as if you both knew exactly what you wanted the moment you looked into each other’s eyes.

You were confused and you sensed the conflict every time you met his gaze, but that didn’t stop the marriage. You sat in one of the furthest back pews in the church that day. You saw that same saddened look as the day you caught him crying alone as he said his “I dos” and his vow to love the princess. 

For a while whatever was happening between you two ceased completely. As much as your heart ached you knew he had a duty and he was put into a marriage he couldn’t escape. Now that his majesty had gotten married it was finally time to put an end to your foolish fantasy, there was no way you could have been together anyway. 

As the months turned into years, you tried your best to move on and focus on serving the King and Queen, but as rumors about their relationship started to spread around the palace, even escaping past the gates, you could not help but think about that night once more. 

The more rumors that spread the more you noticed the signs yourself. You would sometimes walk into them arguing, you saw how distant they were. They were hardly ever in the same room together, let alone a couple that had been married for some time. The more you noticed the more you also started to see the King’s gaze return to yours once more. 

It didn’t stop there. 

Anytime you were alone he would make sure to move closer to you and watch you work, he would talk to you sometimes and you both would be merry and laugh. Whatever moment you shared before he was married was not a dream like you had been convincing yourself over the years. It slapped you in the face one day when you found yourself in a similar position, alone with his majesty. 

It was late and the guards were right outside, but you both stood on the balcony facing the gardens as he held you in his arms. Nothing happened, but you could feel it, feel just how much he wanted you. 

As much as you wanted to push yourself away from his enchanting presence, he was a married man after all and you were merely a maid, but each time you found yourself alone with him, your skin burned and all you wanted was to have him closer. You needed him closer. 

As his majesty pulled away you only wished to pull him close again and have his way with you. 

What did he mean, what was in store for you?

You found out the very day her majesty boarded her carriage. All the palace staff had been called outside to wish her farewell. You hadn’t been too far from the King, and as her majesty stepped onto the carriage you noticed his gaze was always locked onto yours. 

You felt dirty, the Queen being right there ready to embark on a journey to visit her ill mother, yet all you were thinking about was what his majesty, what her husband was going to do to you. 

It was awful, yet at the same time after she left and everyone was heading inside, his majesty stayed behind with you and whispered something in your ear that made you forget about the questionable morality of the situation. 

“Cellar. 2 strikes on the clock. Don’t be late.” 

And you weren’t, while everyone slept you crept out of the maid’s quarters and down to the cellar where he said he would be. You could not be happier to see him waiting for you.

He was still wearing his royal robes, the blue fabric decorated intricately with lighter swirls along with his family crest sewn into the back and shoulders. He was still even wearing his crown. It was almost like he was waiting for you for a lot longer than you thought. 

You hardly had time to fully grasp he was in front of you before he was grabbing onto your arm, pushing you against the wall, cupping your cheeks, and kissing you like he had been holding back for so many years. 

The passion erupted as you clumsily raked your hands over his body, his crown falling off his head, clanking loudly on the ground, but that didn’t sway you both as he picked you up onto a table and hiked up your nightgown. It was quick, you both were conscious of the fact that someone could walk downstairs at any moment but the tension that’s been built over the years didn’t sway you. 

He took you right then and there and despite everything you couldn’t have been happier. 

You found yourself sneaking down to the cellar while most of the palace staff slept more often than not. It was almost as if it was all a dream, a dream both you and Namjoon knew you would have to wake up from sooner than later. The Queen was to return and for some reason you knew that whatever was going on between you and his majesty would have to end. 

Namjoon would finally have to fulfill his duty and give the kingdom an heir. He had a kingdom to take care of and you wouldn’t allow yourself to come in between that because of feelings. A beautiful kingdom going down for something as trivial as this? No, you wouldn’t do that to everyone. 

Instead you let yourself enjoy this time before her majesty returns, let everything end with happy memories before you needed to say goodbye.  

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

You weren’t paying any mind to the world around you as you focused on polishing the fireplace. The head maid had always complained whenever she would see it, saying you would always do a lousy job. You were set on impressing her this time so you had been concentrating on all the gold and making sure the fireplace sparkled, you didn’t even notice the sound of the door closing and locking. 

You still didn’t really focus on it until you heard the sounds of slow, calculated footsteps walking toward you. It was at that moment you stopped working, feeling every part of yourself light ablaze just at the mere thought of being in the same room alone. 

As his footsteps drew closer you finally allowed yourself to turn around. You were delighted to see him giving you a warm, dimpled smile and you found it impossible not to smile back at him. He was glorious. 

His red robes were wrapped tightly around his frame making his physique hidden underneath almost on full display. Gold accents lined the fabric, along with the chain wrapped around his shoulders that connected the flowy cape dragging behind him. His crown sitting on top of his head sparkled brightly with the array of jewels that decorated it. The room was illuminated by the various colors, alluring rainbows covered the wall behind him making him appear quite heavenly. You couldn’t help but be enchanted by this one in particular, yet also resent it knowing knowing such a simple piece of headwear was the reason you could never be with him. 

“What are you doing?” his powerful, yet kind voice almost made your knees buckle. You turned back around to the fireplace. 

“Polishing your fireplace, your majesty—“ Your heart nearly stopped when you felt his arms wrap around your waist. 

“Is that so?” He sighed as he buried his head in your neck, enjoying the way you smelled like the flowers in his garden. 

“Yes sir, I was almost done if you wanted me to le–” Your voice was shaky. He was normally never so bold during the day. 

“Mmmm, I think you missed a spot.” You noticed the subtle way his words slurred together and the smell of wine on his breath. You suddenly remembered that he had lunch today with neighboring rulers. 

None of that mattered though, knowing now you had somehow missed a spot again despite your efforts. 

“I did your majesty?” You panicked. 

“Here…” He grabbed a hold of the hand that was holding the rag and slowly guided it to a higher spot on the fireplace. 

“Try going a little harder…” Namjoon said softly before stepping back a little. You did as he said, rubbing the metal a little harder but Namjoon was right behind you again and grabbing onto your hand. 

“Not too hard, just– yeah like that.” He intertwined his fingers with yours and helped you work the rag slowly in a circle. You felt your breath hick when his grip on your waist tightened.  

“Go in a circle like this and with just the right amount of pressure…” He let his words linger and you weren’t sure if it was from how close he was standing, his hand around yours, or the words that made your whole body tingle and you wished nothing more than for him to pull you close. 

He pulled your hand away from the metal and you were delighted to see it sparkle like the rest of the beautifully crafted fireplace. “Look at how pretty it shines.” He smiled, finally letting go of you entirely and made his way to sit on the ottoman that sat at the foot of his bed. 

You turned around and you shivered seeing the way he was looking at you. His gaze was dark and almost… hungry? 

You cleared your throat and bent down to grab a different rag, one that you would use to clean the wooden furniture the King had decorated the palace with over the years. 

You moved closer so you were standing right in front of him, he smirked at you as you got on your hands and knees.

“Sorry your highness, I was going to clean this next. Is that ok?” You looked up at him, an act normally that would get you thrown away, but one you knew the King loved when it came to you. He always told you how much he loved your eyes. 

He chuckled darkly and leaned forward so he was only inches away, you noticed his gaze drift down to your lips and back up at your eyes.

“Don’t let me stop you.” 

Everything, everywhere on your body burned, but you maintained a level head and got to work. You started working your rag along the beautiful wooden legs of the ottoman, making sure to do it just like the King had instructed you earlier, all while maintaining eye contact.

You didn’t exactly know what the aim of this game was, but you wanted him just as hot as you were. 

After thoroughly going over the legs you slowly rubbed the cloth along the wood lining underneath the red cushion. As you got closer you slowed down, but maintained that eye contact. When you were right by his leg, he leaned back and parted his legs further. His gaze challenged you and you didn’t hesitate moving in between his thighs to continue working your rag along the lining.

You made sure to go extra slow, making sure you missed no spot, all to make sure the King knew you knew how to do your job correctly. You didn’t miss the way he bit his lip and tried to move himself closer to your hand, all the while you seemingly paid no mind and simply did your job.

You were about to move on to the other side, but as you scooted away Namjoon grabbed onto your arm and pulled you back. 

He stared into your eyes and then glanced over at the door. You knew if his majesty was here his guards would be standing right outside the door. This little game would just have to end for now, maybe later you could sneak downs–

Namjoon’s hand came up to lightly caress your cheek, you stared at him wide eyed as he used his thumb to gently trace over your features. You glanced over at the door and back at him, wondering what he was doing.

He leaned in closely.

“Stand up.” He commanded. 

You were slightly confused but did as he asked. He got up slowly and looked you right in the eyes.

It was like time stood still for a moment, uncertainty lingering in the air the deeper you looked in his eyes.    

But the tension broke and before you knew it, he was pulling you close and kissing you. You could immediately taste the exorbitant wine on his tongue, the price of one bottle amounting to more than you’d ever be worth in your lifetime. Each time you kissed, the forbiddenness of your relationship would become all you could think about, but every time it always made you so hungry for his touch. You wished you could do this all the time…

You were quick to feel Namjoon’s plead for more as his hands eagerly ran down your dress and kissed you with a more hurried need. Your body was quick to be set alight by his lips against yours, sparks being sent all throughout your body. You needed him closer. 

You both slowly pulled away and the look in his eyes was pained with lust. He almost seemed upset, angry, but you knew that wasn’t it.

His hand came back up to cup your cheek and the other that was resting on your waist pulled you closer. You looked up at him curious as to what he was going to do, and your eyes immediately focused on his lips as he started leaning in. Your heart swelled when his lips gently kissed your cheek, but the sweet moment didn’t last long as he pulled you back toward the ottoman and he took a seat. 

Namjoon grabbed your hand and pulled you so you were standing right in front of him. You stood there as his eyes raked over your form and his hand came up to play with the fabric of your skirt.

That angered expression returned. 

“Take this off.” He looked up at you. His words made you shiver but your eyes quickly darted over to the door where the guards were standing outside. 

“What about–” you started, a little concerned but Namjoon quickly interjected.

“Take it off.” He repeated.

His tone was serious and you knew what he was suggesting wasn’t a good idea, risking the secret that you’ve managed to keep between you two for years getting out. But in that moment you remembered the Queen’s words before she had departed. These last few weeks might very well be the last time you even get to glance in his majesty’s direction let alone be intimate the way you wished you could be all the time. 

This was the end of the road and the fact he was so confident knowing that his guards were merely behind his big ebony doors, you knew he would handle the situation if the word were to spread. You trusted him so much that you reached behind you and tugged at the strings that laced up your dress. 

You looked him directly in the eyes as the fabric started to loosen around your skin, the way his eyes darted around your body eagerly awaiting for the slightest skin reveal. His gaze made you warm and the ache between your legs even more unbearable but you couldn’t hide the excitement at having this power over him.

Your apron hit the floor first, then the outer layer of your dress, and the undercoat that gave the dress its shape. You noticed the labored breathing as more of yourself was revealed to his majesty, the more pained his expression looked, and the more you noticed the tent between his legs become more prominent. 

Once the undercoat was removed all you were left in was your white stockings, garters, and the under dress that hung loosely over your form.

“Please…” You heard him whisper as he finally looked up at you. You didn’t hesitate with removing the last layer, revealing the underwear that was encrusted with his initials. All palace staff had a uniform they were required to wear, everything you wore had his mark somewhere on your body. It was standard palace procedure but in this moment you relished in the thought that it was him who covered up your most intimate parts. 

Namjoon sat up and he quickly let his hands explore the exposed skin, he groaned softly at the way you felt underneath his grasp, almost as if he couldn’t stand being apart from you for a second longer. 

You tried to make no noise despite how good his hands felt on your body, but before too long he grabbed onto your hand and pulled you close so he could whisper in your ear. 

“Get down on your knees and serve your King.” The words were filthy, essentially forcing you into complete submission. This was an order. You would have moaned if it wasn’t for the guards outside. You wanted to please him so well, serve your King so well that you instantly dropped down like he wished, eager to make his majesty feel good.

Namjoon looked down at you with hungry eyes as your hands came up and ran over his clothed thighs. He was quick to let you know he was not in the mood for teasing, nor for taking things slow, guiding your hand up to the tie around his waist. 

You didn’t hesitate pulling on the fabric, making sure to maintain eye contact with his majesty. In your peripheral you still noticed his fleeting grip on the ottoman, the red fabric being pulled between his fingers. His head leaned back slightly and even saw his crown tumble clumsily from his head and onto the bed behind him. You were making him a mess before you had truly touched him.

As soon as the tie was undone the King stood up so you were face first with the tent in his pants. He hastily unclipped the chain holding up his fur cape and it draped onto the ottoman. He reached into his pants and you watched with bated breath as you were once again blessed with the sight of his majesty. 

You could not help but stare. No longer being hidden in the darkness of the cellar only lit up by the flickering light of one mere candle, to see him in his full glory, you felt unworthy. You marveled at its slight curve, the way the pink tip leaked and pleaded for you. How his majesty wanted you at all was still a mystery to you as well, you were merely a maid, a maid who had nothing to give him. He had everything to give to you and you stupidly allowed yourself to get mixed up in affairs you knew you had no business in. 

This might very well be the last time you will be blessed with the opportunity of even looking into his eyes. You wanted him to remember you, to remember that there is a maid whose heart he stole, even if only for a short while after the Queen returns.  

Your attention was returned when his majesty reached his hand underneath your chin and pulled you closer to what you have been staring at. The motion forced your eyes to return to his. 

His breath was heavy as he used his other hand to tease his cock between your lips, a primal, guttural moan escaping his lips as you happily opened your mouth and took him whole. 

You watched his eyes flutter shut as you let him get adjusted to the feeling of your mouth before moving back and taking him all once more. 

“Oh– fuck.” He sighed, your mouth feeling too good too quickly. His filthy words made the ache between your legs even worse. The words were filthy, improper, something a King should never say, yet with you he felt comfortable enough to let the title and expectations slip his mind when he was with you. 

Namjoon’s hands hurriedly came up to tangle in your hair, his tight grip made your scalp burn and he forced you into a quicker rhythm. 

His moans were prettier than any tune on the harpsichord ever offered you. For a second you forgot that there were likely people outside listening. Either his majesty didn’t care whatsoever, or he was trying and horribly failing at keeping quiet. 

“So fucking good to me–” He groaned. The words of praise made you want to do better, serve him better. You slacked your jaw so he could more easily push into your mouth, you weren’t prepared for the whine he let out as a result. 

“Ohhhhh…”

You let him fuck your throat completely ignoring the way your eyes started to tear up, instead you focused on his expression and his drunken gaze staring down at you. He seemed amazed, and utterly taken aback by how filthy you are. Your rushed nights together in the cellar was nothing like today. 

His pace started growing more irregular and you knew it would not be long before you could taste his highness.  

Namjoon started to slow down, not yet wanting to finish, but your hands came up to run over his thighs once more trying to keep him from leaving.

“Y/n…” He warned. He didn’t want you to stop either but if he didn’t soon he would–

He finally worked up the will to pull himself out of your mouth, but you did not let him away that easily. Your eyes remained fixed on his as you ran your tongue along the vein and swirled around the tip.

“I’m close, I want–”

“I want to please you, your majesty…” You were practically begging him to finish in your mouth. He stared down at you, taken aback, but he found you incredibly wanton at this moment. It just made the ache worse. 

You teased the tip between your lips, your hand came up and stroked him gently, eager for him to let go. 

His majesty moaned, unable to resist the temptation and pushed his cock between your lips once more. It only took one slow glide of his hips before you felt him release into your mouth. 

In the moment you forgot where you were, the world outside the ebony doors didn’t exist to you anymore. You forgot about the possible consequences of your actions, how the palace staff outside could likely hear you. In that moment it was just you and his majesty, the King was yours and you never wanted it to end. 

You marveled at his soft expression tightening, the strangled moans and unseemly curses that slipped from his lips, the grip on your hair pulling you closer so he could make sure you swallowed every bit of the cum you begged for.

As his high rolled over, his attention returned down to you once more and reached out his hand for you to take it. You grabbed it and stood you up. You ignored how achy and sore your knees felt, choosing instead to focus on his grace and the way he stared at you.

His attention fleeted from your eyes down to your exposed breasts and trailed further down to your garter belt and eventually settled on your panties. His gaze made your skin burn and even more eager for him to finally touch you, you knew he would. 

What you didn’t expect was for him to take a step closer and grab onto your waist. He leaned in close enough that your noses brushed against each other. 

“You perplex me so much Y/n. I’m told you are but a maid, but my heart and body yearn for you as if you were her majesty herself.” It was then that his hands traveled further down until you felt them suddenly grab firmly on your ass. You nearly yelped, his confession so direct and his hands on your body making sure you knew he meant every word. 

“Her majesty is not here and we have only but so much time before my responsibility as the King of this nation must take priority– but right now I want the opportunity to take my time and ravage your body.” You felt every word down below and couldn’t stop yourself when you finally closed the distance. 

You kissed him hurriedly, making sure he knew that you felt the same way and you couldn’t wait for him to take you the way he wanted. Namjoon was quick at getting into rhythm and his hands ran along your body, desperately grabbing at anything he possibly could. 

You fell into his arms, wanting, needing to feel him more closely. You felt him begin to pull at your stockings and panties, you were waiting for him to finally rid them of your body but you could tell he was struggling to remove them. It was then that you remembered you weren’t normally this clothed when you would meet down in the cellar, your nightdress and underwear usually being the only barriers between you two.  

You weren’t prepared for the sudden ripping sound and the coolness of the air on your legs. You finally broke the kiss to look down and saw him ripping your stockings, the force ruining your garter belt. 

Instead of dwelling onto it too much, you aided him in removing your bra as he tugged down your panties down your legs. 

Standing nude in front of him, he looked you over once more before guiding you over the side of his bed and ushering you to take a seat. 

You watched curiously as he hurriedly tugged on the unraveled belt of his pants. You were not prepared for him to order for your hands and begin to tie the belt around your wrist. You were confused yet excited seeing the gleam in his eyes. You knew whatever his majesty had in store for you was more than you deserved.

You were about to ask him what he was doing but the minute his majesty seemed satisfied with the knot he pulled up further up the bed so he could tie the other end around his bed frame post. 

He then ripped the belt that had tied his robe around his waist and did the same to your other wrist. You were bound and at his mercy, he could do anything to you in this position. You did not mind at all though, trusting him completely. 

Once his majesty was done, he moved so he stood at the foot of the bed and just stared at you. His gaze made your skin burn and on instinct you tried to cover yourself up, but with your hands unavailable you could not do much except cross your legs slightly. 

His majesty shook his head at your actions. “Need to see all of you princess.” He whispered quietly, leaning in a little further. 

The nickname was new and you could have melted right there knowing his majesty saw you worthy enough for a nickname as high as the one he decided on. A pedestal higher than you knew what you were worth was enough to give you that little bit of confidence to follow his command. 

Your eyes begged for him and as you spread your legs, it was obvious how much you truly wanted his majesty. You reveled in the way his eyes held desperation as he stared right where you have been wanting him.

“I need you, your majesty…” You pleaded, needing his hands to cool your burning skin. 

Your words visibly got to him, your shy demeanor shedding in favor of something more bold. You knew he knew what you were trying to do and it was clearly working. He desperately threw his robe to the ground and climbed over the ottoman and onto the bed, slotting himself between your thighs. 

You both stared into each other’s eyes for a second, the gaze saying more than a thousand words could have in that moment. You both wanted so much more out of this than you knew was possible, but this will just have to make do. 

His majesty leaned in and planted a soft kiss right on your lips before pulling back. You felt a hand run up along your thigh as he leaned in so he was right by your ear. 

“Let me worship you.” His voice was shaky and you were not sure if it was from emotion or of pure need. 

You couldn’t even speak before you felt his hand move from your thigh to between your legs. You were knocked breathless when his fingers ran up your slit and settled on your clit, rubbing gentle circles that made your eyes flutter close and a soft moan escaped your lips. 

You made sure to maintain eye contact as he watched your face intently, you wanted him to know how good he was making you feel already. 

“Touch me please, your majesty…” You sighed, leaning up to pull him closer. Namjoon knew what you wanted and leaned in further so he was planting his lips on yours. You were hungry and desperately received him, you knew you caught him off guard but he was quick to match your energy. 

You sighed impatiently when his lips trailed further down to kiss your neck. You were not prepared for the glorious sensation of his mouth when he began sucking lightly on your skin. Every touch he gave made your head spin, but just knowing there was a possibility this might leave a mark, that you might walk out of this room branded by his majesty himself for everyone to see made your heart flutter. 

You pulled lightly on your restraints, wishing so badly in that moment to touch him, but was harshly reminded that was not possible right now.

Namjoon’s lips trailed down further, kissing you down your chest, over your breast, down your stomach and closer and closer to where you craved him.

“Please…” You cried. You probably looked pathetic right now, but you needed him so bad you didn’t even care.  

Namjoon smiled up at you, before quickly leaning in to fulfill your desires. His arms wrapped around your thighs to keep you steady as his tongue ran up your slit. At this you couldn’t contain your moan.

You had long forgotten that there were likely people standing outside the door, but your own voice surprised you and you hurriedly tried to shush yourself. The consequences of your actions today were nice to pretend did not exist, that you could both walk out of this room hand and hand and everyone in the palace and kingdom would accept your relationship. 

In truth you both were taking so many risks being together like this in the open. It was already risky enough sneaking into the cellar every other night, but to be out like this in broad daylight people might have assumed the Queen returned home early from her trip. 

Affairs happen all the time for court officials of a kingdom, a lot of their marriages are only ways to advance their political careers so having “someone else” wasn’t uncommon. If this was a normal case people wouldn’t bat an eye at your relationship with his majesty especially considering this was more than your average affair. It was the heart that pulled you both together, not the lustful demon that resided inside you both. 

But this wasn’t the normal case. The people, after experiencing a loving King and Queen, wanted that once again and seemingly wouldn’t settle for less. His Majesty had to give his heart to the Queen in order to avoid a possible rebellion. You simply can not exist. 

You tried to shush yourself as his tongue got to work pleasing you, he knew your body so well after only a few weeks.  

You wished desperately to reach your hands down into his hair like you usually would, but the grip on your wrists once again reminded you were bound and completely at his majesty’s mercy.

You cried out as he eagerly lapped at your folds before he leaned back and let his fingers run through your slick once more.

“Marvelous…” He quietly mumbled to himself, finally getting a great view between your legs.

You didn’t have any time to feel embarrassed at all before two of his fingers were inside you and suddenly it became impossible to be quiet with the way his majesty curled his fingers, hitting a spot he knew all too well made it hard for you to be quiet.

You tried to shush yourself once more, but a glance down to the King himself made you realize this was all intentional. His eyes were locked on your expression and his subtle smile whenever you would moan out for him made it obvious. For some reason he wanted you to scream for him, despite the guards who were standing outside or any passersby he still wanted to hear you.

The revelation made that growing ache down below even worse.

“P–Please, your majesty…” You moaned, hoping he would put you out of your misery soon. You heard a low chuckle before the situation somehow managed to get even worse. His majesty showed you no mercy and made sure everyone in the palace would hear you scream.

He used his tongue along with his fingers, his thumb circling your clit and his tongue had made its way inside you. He would switch, suddenly his tongue on your clit and his fingers inside you. It was too much, he was too good to you and the emotion you felt had that cord inside you wanting to snap.

“Your-your majesty, I–”

“Cum for me princess.” The nickname and his voice was the last thing you needed before your whole body surged with excitement, pleasure flooding all of your senses. It was so good, his majesty was just so good to you, you could hardly believe it when you were able to open your eyes to see the majestic painting that decorated the entire ceiling and to feel the soft sheets on your back.

You were in his majesty’s room and… you glanced down to see his adorable smile looking up at you. Right, he was so sweet to you. 

That dopey expression fleeted quickly though as he reached up and began untying the knots that were around your wrists. 

“So pretty… Everyone in the palace likely heard you princess. You know this is meant to be a secret. I feel like I need to make sure you understand that.” At first you were confused by his words, he knew you were trying your best to quiet yourself, but the smirk on his face told you he was not being serious.

Oh. You understood what was going on.

The minute he was able to wrangle you free, he guided you so you were on your hands and knees in front of him. You couldn’t stop the excitement building up once again at the thought of what could be in store for you next. 

That excitement was raised when you felt the dip in the bed rise and turned around to see his majesty hurriedly tugging down his pants. You felt your face flush the minute you caught sight of his cock springing free and instinctively turned back around. 

 The bed dipped once more and it didn’t take long for you to feel the slow drag of his cock along the swells of your ass, your body shivered and you wanted to scream for him to finally get inside you.

You heard him curse lightly, making you turn around to see his eyes glued to the mounds and you felt his hand come up, run up your thigh before lightly grabbing at your ass.

“So fucking pretty… you’ll be good right? I promise to have you, but first I must…” He didn’t finish his sentence and you were about to question him until you felt a firm slap right across your cheeks.

You yelped, not at all expecting that nor the increased desire you felt to finally have him.

“Count to 10 for me princess, I promise I will fuck you right after.” He almost moaned as he softly rubbed the irritated skin.

You wanted to please him. 

“1.” 

SLAP!

So good, you needed him inside you. This punishment was less of one than a chance to have his hands on you. 

You loved it.

“2…”

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The two guards looked at each other worriedly. The King had said that he was tired after his meeting earlier. He said the wine was getting to him and the guards simply expected a long, but boring rest of their shift. 

What they didn’t expect was merely a few minutes after the door closed behind him, were for moans of his majesty to be heard. That wasn’t the concerning part though. What had them worried was hearing the sound of moans of a woman on the other side of the door.

It became obvious that they were witnesses to an affair. With how rocky the political climate was, they both knew if word were to get out about this, there would be horrible consequences in store.

“Excuse me.” The voice startled them both, but they were relieved to see it was only the King’s right hand. 

“Yes sire.” One of the guards said, standing at attention.

“I have an urgent message for the King.” Jae-su declared– Namjoon’s right hand, someone that’s almost been like a second father to him. Usually it was only protocol to declare the purpose of entering the King’s chambers and as the palace staff all knew him so well, nothing more was needed.

Jae-su was surprised when the spears the guards were holding crossed over each other, preventing him from entering. 

“I’m sorry sire, but now may not be the best time–”

Muffled from inside the room was the clear sound of a female's voice inside, seemingly moaning a number. 

Jae-su looked at the guards confused and they clearly seemed worried. 

“No one has entered, but there seems to be someone else inside but his majesty.” The other guard said, slightly panicked. 

Normally this would just warrant Jae-su to walk away and be sure to give his majesty a stern talking to about his behavior, but he was carrying a red sealed letter, something that was meant to be delivered to his majesty immediately. Unfortunately he could not simply walk away and deal with this later.

“I’m sorry gentlemen, but this is a red sealed letter. This must get to his majesty immediately.” He tried to keep his professional front on, but he was clearly flushed.

The guards looked at each other worriedly, before moving their spears.

Jae-su stepped closer to the door and hesitantly knocked. 

“Your majesty, it’s me. I’ve come to deliver you some news.” He called out. 

There was silence for a little while before his majesty finally answered. “Jae-su, this isn’t the best time right now. Can’t you not come back later?” Namjoon questioned.

“Unfortunately not your majesty, this is a red sealed letter from the Queen.”

More silence passed.

“Come in then.” As much as he didn’t want to, his duty had him turning the door knob and opening the door.

Jae-su still had hope that this was some big misunderstanding, but when he went inside he was horrified to see clothes strewn about the room, his majesty’s crown upside down on the ottoman by his bed and right there on the bed was his majesty and a woman together in a less than pure position.

Jae-su nearly screamed when he heard the slapping sound as he walked around the bed to his majesty’s nightstand. 

“8…” You moaned softly. Your cheeks were burning, the right hand seeing you like this was embarrassing, but you also couldn’t help feeling a little fluttery at the thought of Namjoon being so comfortable letting someone in on your little secret.

You wanted to imagine that after all this somehow this might have a happy ending, it was nice to think about.

“I’m sorry your majesty, but this is from the Queen. It details about her soon return and I would suggest you read it immediately.” Jae-su said, sitting the letter on the little silver platter on the nightstand. 

SLAP!

You were taken aback and so was Jae-su at the continuation of your punishment. “9…” you tried to quiet yourself.

“Thank you Jae-su, I’ll read it as soon as I’m done.” Namjoon sighed, taking a fistful of your ass.

“Right… I’m sure you will… your majesty, I’m sure you’re aware that this is an issue. We must talk.” Jae-su said firmly. It was then that the reality of your little fun came crashing down. Those consequences you tried to pretend didn’t exist were made oh so obvious. 

“Please leave. I’m busy Jae-su.” Namjoon sounded frustrated. Jae-su quickly sensed this and hurried his way out the room. 

Silence lingered for a little while, part of you was sure he’d stop, the moment shared being broken by reality. But you were surprised to feel him grab onto your hips tightly before pulling you back onto his cock. 

You both moaned at the feeling, all this playing leading up to this moment. Finally, finally you had him inside you and you never wanted him to leave. 

“Feel-feel so good m’lady…” Namjoon shakily breathed out. He tried to take in as much as he could, the warmth your walls provided, the way you gripped him like you never wanted to let go, your soft sighs of pleasure. You were absolutely perfect in his eyes, he didn’t, he couldn’t let you go. 

After he let you get adjusted, he slowly pulled back his hips before pushing back in. His steady pace turned punishing, almost desperate, quite quickly. You felt so good around him and he wanted everyone to know.

He relished in the way you cried his name. He wanted everyone in the palace to know you were his. If it wasn’t for this stupid fucking marriage he was forced into, you would be. If his parents were still around they wouldn’t have made him marry the Queen, as soon as he would have told them his heart belonged to you, you would have become his bride instead. 

Namjoon felt tears pricking his eyes at the thought, but he shook them away, instead he wanted to focus on you as this could possibly be your last night spent together. 

“Your maj-majesty!” You cried, your hips high up while your face was buried in the pillow gripping onto the fabric tightly. 

“So good to me princess.” Namjoon sighed, hastily pulling your hips back to meet his. He was close and so were you. 

Namjoon could stand it no longer and quickly pulled out and flipped you back over so you were laying on your back. You were a bit taken aback by this, but the minute he pushed his cock back into you, suddenly that did not matter anymore.

If anything it made things better. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he continued to pound into you. 

He clumsily leaned down to meet your lips, kissing you like his life depended on it. In some ways it did. 

His hurried pace was starting to falter making you realize he was close. 

Namjoon pulled away, his gaze trained on your eyes and every little expression you would make. 

“Y/n–” He rushed out. 

“Yes, your highness…”

“Say it…” It was a command, but he sounded so desperate to hear what he wanted.

“What–what your maj–” 

“My name, please I want to hear you say my name.” You and him both knew what this meant. No one of your status was allowed to simply call the King by his first name. The only one in this palace who had that pleasure was her majesty. 

You stared up at him, taken aback by his words.

“Please, please, please– so close–” He begged, his majesty was begging you to say his name. 

You wrapped your arms around him tightly, pulling him as close as you could. 

“You’re making me feel so fucking good Namjoon, please cum for me…” If anyone heard you outside of this room you would surely be beheaded but his name falling from your lips and your crude language was enough to have him spilling into your warm embrace without any notice.

You helped work him through it, rubbing his back lightly as he moaned softly into your neck. 

He took a moment to calm himself down before he was pulling back to stare at where your bodies connected, his thumb coming down to hastily rub on your clit once more. 

You were shocked but your body reacted instantly, it did not take too long before your orgasm was hitting you once again so suddenly. It felt good, from the tips of your fingers down to your toes your body cried out for Namjoon. 

He helped work you through yours as well, slowly moving his hips as you started to come down from your high.

For a minute you both just sat there, staring into each other’s eyes, but Namjoon was quick to bend down once again and kiss you. He kissed you with all the passion, yearning, and love he had for you.

For a minute he wanted to pretend like the world outside his ebony doors didn’t exist, that he didn’t have responsibilities that were going to keep him away from you. 

But alas, he found himself eventually pulling away to read the letter sent to him by his wife. 

Namjoon stared at the fancy penmanship, reading the words and not wanting to believe them.

Her mother was now well and she is to be returning in three days. 

Namjoon crumbled up the letter and went back over to you who was staring at him, wondering what the letter said. Instead of answering immediately he put the both of you underneath the covers and pulled you close. 

“Your– Namjoon, what did it say?” His name sounded so pretty from your mouth. 

This time he couldn’t stop the tears he felt coming into his eyes. 

“We don’t have much time left– let’s not think about it though. I find greater pleasure holding you close like this.” He smiled at you, but you could see his eyes starting to well up.

Instead of pushing further on the subject you let yourself relax in his arms. 

It was on the tip of your tongue to tell him, but you knew that would only make things worse. You hope he knows how much you love him and will continue to do so even after the Queen becomes with child.

You would cherish today for a lifetime.

[emry-stars-art]

Just read the whole 'how Andreil pans out' ask and all I'm saying is that I love the idea of Andrew Courting Abram and Abram just absolutely misses that it's what is happening. Part of it is just a cultural difference, Evermore and Palmetto have different courting cultures perhaps?

Another part is that Andrew really does not act all THAT different. He's giving Abram gifts but like Andrew is always giving Abram stuff? It's not new? Yeah they had dinner together but that's just like what they......do?

Another another part is just Abram not even considering himself as someone worthy to be with Prince Andrew like that. He wasn't worthy before and after Evermore and everything I could imagine he feels even less like a person let alone a person who deserves Andrew's positive regard.

IDK I just love the idea of Abram at some point like 6 months into Andrew trying to court him seeing that behavior somewhere else, being told that's how nobility in Palmetto court others, and going to Andrew like "Have you, perchance, been trying to court me?"

Andrew setting his glass aside and looking up from where he's seated, "For 6 moons Abram, glad you've finally noticed." - @jtl-fics

jtl I. Wish. You could have seen my face as I read this, this is so hilarious and heartbreaking and lovely all in one and I’m in LOVE okay i love this so much. And we can totally make it work ahhhhh

Like yes! Yeah! Andrew’s already a gift giver, it’s just what he does as far as Abram’s concerned, and they spend so much time together that dinner isn’t strange those are perfect points. Like to the court it’s starting to become obvious - maybe in the kinds of gifts Andrew gives, or some other small things that are new, yes, but Abram has always taken these things in stride and usually his lack of judgement when Andrew tries new things or changes in little ways is a huge relief but not this time Abram PLEASE

Finally Andrew just bites the bullet and goes for a gesture that’s way more out of character and harder to mistake, which might look something like this (and thank you @leedee013 for tags about them giving each other flowers that I LOVED):

And Abram can’t really form his thoughts into words because like you said; he doesn’t think he should be allowed something like that, there’s no way he’s ever EVER going to assume that Andrew is trying to confess or clue him in to a courting like this, even if it’s in his head now

But then Lady Reynolds sees Abram later heading back to the castle/wherever he stays carrying this bouquet of carnations (fascination), narcissus (honesty/truth) and acacia (hidden love) (let’s not look too closely into these flower meanings lol, i picked the first ones I found and I’ll field all further questions with ‘artistic liberty’ 🫶) and they’re pretty close friends by now so she’s immediately like “oh my GODS Abram who gave that to you”

And Abram quietly says “the prince”

And Allison’s won like three separate bets between various other people of the court and she’s elated

But maybe she takes pity on him when she realizes exactly how clueless Abram is, so she does her best to explain everything and finally, Abram begins to allow the possibility that maybe Andrew is doing all this on purpose. But he would really rather like to be certain.

And of course I had to draw your little exchange but I did it from memory so apologies for the changes in dialogue but I love it:

ANYWAY from there, when it’s cleared up, it’s just them being dumb and sweet and grasping at straws for how to be in love and natural about it (because they’re both very private people and a good number of average/expected acts of courtship aren’t necessarily in their wheelhouse) 😭🥹 and not to add yet more hurt/comfort but Andrew is so so determined to figure out a way to assure and reassure Abram that he knows what he’s doing, yes Abram is worth it, yes he’s doing these things because he wants to. If he didn’t want to he wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. And I’ll bring it back around by using my previously mentioned artistic liberty to say that yes Prince Andrew loves having his hands held/kissed (just by Abram naturally) and Abram figures this out and absolutely uses it against him. They love each other your honor

Okay anyway thank you for the ask, I’m SO lucky to have such brilliant people in my inbox 🥰

[icarusignite]

So i have a weird reaquest heheh i just read you finan x reader where they die instead of osferth and the final sentence being about them meeting in heaven SO i got this idea about like in the next life maybe like a modern AU they meet by accident in our time like idk the boys go to a bar or something after a day of work and she is there and Finan just feels like they know each other and something and massive fluff!!!

Thank you<3333

A/N: Heyyoo, I love love loved this request, so cute. Hope you like this fic. I had alot of fun writing the "in another world" vibes lol. This is my first time writing modern AU so apologies if it's abit nonsensey.

Word Count: 2.5K

Pairing: Finan x Fem! Reader (no use of y/n), Modern AU

AO3

In this labyrinth of time, our souls entwined

The bar hummed with an energetic atmosphere, vibrant and alive. Warm, dimmed lights cast a golden glow across the space, illuminating the polished wooden surfaces and richly upholstered seating. The air was filled with the mingling scents of aged whiskey, fragrant hops, and delectable cuisine, creating an inviting aroma that embraced the four men who had just entered.

The sounds of conversation, laughter, and clinking glasses merged harmoniously, creating a symphony of human connection. Patrons leaned against the sleek bar, engaged in animated discussions, their voices rising and falling like waves crashing on a distant shore. Bartenders, skilled and swift, expertly crafted cocktails, their movements a well-practiced dance behind the counter. The clatter of shakers, the clinking of ice, and the pop of corks added a rhythmic backdrop to the bustling scene. There was also the occasional burst of applause that erupted from a corner where groups engaged in friendly games of darts or pool. The walls were adorned with eclectic artwork, vintage posters, and memorabilia, and the music, carefully curated to suit the mood, resonated throughout the room. 

As for Finan, Osferth, Uhtred, and Sihtric, they navigated their way through the bustling crowd, exchanging nods and friendly greetings with familiar faces along the way. Their destination was a cozy booth nestled against the far wall, worn leather seats beckoning like old friends. The table, scarred with marks of countless conversations and camaraderie, stood as a testament to the memories made within its embrace and the friends settled into their respective spots, each claiming their corner of comfort. 

"Now, Osferth," Finan teased, nudging his friend playfully. "Remember, moderation is key tonight. We don't want a repeat of last time, do we?"

"Hey, that was not my fault!" Osferth retorted. "Sihtric was the one who made that stupid wager."

"Well, whatever it was, your girlfriend wasn't too happy about having to drag your drunk ass back home when we called her," Sihtric smirked.

Uhtred rolled his eyes, "How'd someone like you even get a girlfriend Osferth?"

"You're just jealous that our boy here is in an actually stable relationship. Maybe you should learn a lesson or two from him?" Finan threw an arm around the blushing younger boy. 

"What, and deny the ladies all this?" Uhtred spread his arms wide and gestured to himself, making the table erupt in snickers. 

Osferth's face reddened slightly as he chuckled, his eyes flickering with embarrassment, "I'll make sure I don't lose it today. I don't really wanna bother her."

"Awww, he's in loooove," everyone cooed together, making Osferth blush harder.

"Can we-uh-can we just order, please!"

Uhtred raised his hand and summoned one of the waitresses over. She was a confident-looking woman, and when she caught sight of the boys, her eyes sparkled with familiarity and warmth. 

"Evening, gentlemen. What can I get for you today?" she grinned. "Will it just be the usual?"

Uhtred raised a hand to his heart, "Oh you flatter us Amelia, you know us so well."

"It's only right that I remember the order of my best tippers," she winked.

"I supposed it does help that we come in here every Friday night and order the exact same thing?" Sihtric raised an eyebrow playfully.

"I suppose. So yes, the usual then?"

"Thanks, Amelia, you're a doll," Uhtred smiled widely and leaned conspiratorially toward her. "And by the way-"

"Nuh-uh, don't try that with me," Amelia tapped her pen against her notepad. "Cassie from last week was here earlier and she did not look happy."

"Hmm, I wonder what that was about."

"Uhtred..." she warned, equal parts amused and annoyed.

"Oh c'mon, it's not my fault she got attached. It was a one-night kind of thing."

"Uhtred, Uhtred, Uhtred."

"Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, your disappointment in me stings."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "Good. You should learn from Osferth here. Now this is a true gentleman."

She ruffled his hair affectionately, making Uhtred groan.

"I'll send someone over with the food and drinks boys. Have a good time!"

As she walked away, Uhtred leaned back in his seat, a self-satisfied grin playing on his lips, "Did you see the way she looked at me? No woman can resist my charm."

Finan chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh, Uhtred, your ego knows no bounds. She's definitely not into you!"

"Hey, but she could!"

Sihtric sniggered, "Leave it to Uhtred to flirt with every pretty face he comes across."

"And besides, there's no way she'd be into you when you go around breaking the hearts of every woman in her establishment," Osferth chimed in.

Just then, their drinks arrived, and Uhtred was saved from responding. He took his glass absentmindedly from the news server, eyes still lingering on the woman who had retreated behind the counter and was now currently issuing orders. 

The four friends were just raising their glasses, toasting to the adventures they had shared and those yet to come, when there was a sudden hush in the atmosphere. The boys turned their eyes toward the commotion along with everyone else in the room. 

A drunken man, fueled by liquid courage, had crossed the line of decency, attempting to grope a young woman who had been enjoying her drink in solitude at the bar. The atmosphere crackled with a mix of anger and concern, a collective discomfort rippling through the patrons. The woman's discomfort was palpable, her eyes darting around for help as she swallowed nervously. Uhtred stood, accompanied by his friends, ready to step in immediately, but then a figure burst through the crowd.

You were fierce and unyielding as you emerged, eyes flashing with defiance. Your voice boomed with a fiery determination as you confronted the perpetrator. 

"Get your fucking hands off her before I cut them off!"

The drunken man, taken aback by the unexpected confrontation, slurred a profanity-laden response "Mind your own business. The whore was asking for it."

The victim, your friend whom you had left unattended for a moment while you went to the washroom, shuddered at his words and it made your blood boil. You stood your ground with unwavering resolve, managing to stare down your nose at him despite being almost several inches shorter. 

"And you know what you're asking for, you pig? A fucking beating?"

The drunk man snarled and the entire bar waited with bated breath. Finan watched you curiously. He had never seen you in his entire life, he knew that much for sure, and yet there was something about you that seemed so familiar. Something about the steely determination in your glare and the way your voice echoed without strain. He found himself worrying for your safety just then, and he told himself that it was just very human of him to be wishing for the safety of a fellow patron of the bar.

"Oh yeah, and who'd gonna give me the beating? A pathetic thing like you?"

The drunkard lunged toward you, his intentions clear. But he had gravely underestimated your strength and resolve. In a swift movement, you dodged his attack, your smaller stature and sober mind giving you the advantage of speed and better coordination. Your fist connected with his jaw in a powerful counterstrike. There was a satisfying crunch and he crumpled with a howl. The sound reverberated through the room, silencing it for a split second before the eruption of applause and cheers.

"Alright, the show's over, get that fucking clown out of my bar!" Amelia finally arrived at the scene with security and everyone watched them throw the man out, returning the familiar buzz of conversation to the environment. 

The aftermath of the confrontation still hung in the air as Finan, Osferth, Uhtred, and Sihtric returned to their booth, feeling quite impressed at your bravery. However, there was something else lingering in the air—Finan's undeniable fascination with you. 

As they settled back into their seats, Osferth's eyes twinkled mischievously, "Finan, my friend, it seems your attention was captured by more than just the excitement of the moment."

Uhtred chuckled, leaning back with a knowing grin, "Indeed, it appears our fearless Finan has met his match. A strong-willed woman who can throw a punch? I totally see the appeal."

Finan's cheeks flushed, a mix of embarrassment and amusement tugging at the corners of his lips. "No, no, it's not that. I feel like-I feel like I know her."

"You seen her before?" Sihtric raised an eyebrow.

"A one-night-"

"No! Nothing like that!"

Uhtred raised his hands placatingly, "Alright, alright. Shall I ask Amelia then? Maybe she's a regular here?"

"Maybe, I don't know."

"Just go talk to her Finan," Sihtric sighed in exasperation. 

"What if she thinks I'm a creep or something?"

"Oh I think she's more than capable enough to handle creeps don't you think?"

"Hey! I don't wanna be handled like a creep!" Finan exclaimed indignantly.

"Well then, you better be on your most gentlemanly behaviour dude," Osferth clapped a hand on his shoulder.

With the resounding support of his friends, Finan steeled his nerves and rose from the booth once more. He crossed the bar, weaving through the mingling crowds until he reached your side. You were still comforting your friend in hushed whispers when she nudged you to turn your attention to the newcomer.

Finan wore an easy confident smile as he leaned against the bar, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"You know," he began, his voice filled with playful charm, "I could swear we've crossed paths before. Perhaps in a previous life?"

You snorted, "Oh wow. That was-"

"Charming?"

"Oh, is that your go-to line?" you raised your eyebrow unimpressed. 

"Well, it hasn't failed me yet. But I must admit, it doesn't seem to be working splendidly in this instance," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Well, consider my curiosity piqued, charming stranger."

"Finan, at your service," he extended his hand which you took in a firm handshake.

The moment your palms met, a kaleidoscope of emotions and sensations cascaded through his being, and Finan felt a jolt of familiarity as if the tapestry of time had woven your destinies together long before your paths had crossed here in this bar. Time itself seemed to stutter, as though a forgotten melody had suddenly resurfaced, stirring memories buried deep within him and his heartbeat quickened. He knew you, he could swear it. Within that ephemeral moment, the boundaries of space blurred, and the present moment fused seamlessly with echoes of the past and the whispers of the future. The sensation transcended the confines of the physical world, creating a bridge that spanned eons, traversing the realms of memory and eternity. Finan then pulled away, feeling quite foolish. No girl had ever made him feel this way before but surely it was foolish to be drawn this way to a stranger he had just met. He looked up at you, trying to deduce whether or not you felt a similar connection, or if this familiarity was something on his part alone. 

Your eyes were warm as you smiled at him, but there was no recognition in them. That was all well enough, he supposed. The stressful week must be getting to him. This was the first time he'd seen you because there was no way he'd ever forget someone like you if you had made his acquaintance in the past. 

"So, will I get to know your name, or are you determined to stay an enigma?"

Your smile grew wider as you introduced yourself. 

"That was quite a punch back there," Finan eyed your bruised knuckles in concern. "I must say, I'm impressed."

You laughed, the sound echoing through his ears pleasantly. 

"Flattery will get you far, Finan. But tell me, do these lines usually work for you?"

Finan leaned in, his tone conspiratorial, "I'd say they've got about a 50/50 success rate. Though I must confess, it's never been quite as genuine as it is with you."

"Well, you certainly have a way with words. Perhaps, just this once, I'll let you get away with it."

"Wow, in that case, would you let me buy you a drink?"

"Hmm, I'd like that. Thank you."

Finan flagged down the bartender, ordering your preferred drink. Then, with a worried glint in his eyes, he added, "And may we also have some ice for her bruised knuckles, if you don't mind."

The bartender returned, placing your drinks on the bar along with a small bowl of ice. Finan took a few napkins and wrapped a few pieces of ice in them, reaching out to brush his fingers gently across yours.

"May I?"

You nodded hesitantly, and he pressed the cool relief to your knuckles, making you sigh. 

You smiled, "Thank you. It's not often I find someone who pays such attention to the little things."

After that, the conversation seemed easy, your words flowing effortlessly like a dance. The bar's ambient sounds faded into the background, leaving you wrapped in a cocoon of shared laughter and connection. You didn't even notice your friend slip away from your side, leaving you two alone at the counter. 

Finan's friends observed the scene from their booth, their eyes fixated on their smitten companion. Uhtred leaned in, his voice filled with mischief. "Well, well, it seems Finan has truly met his match."

Osferth nodded, a warm smile on his face as he watched the two of you laugh and engage in witty banter, "He's found someone who can match his wit I guess. It's entertaining for sure."

"How long before he works up the nerve to ask her out?" Sihtric chimed in.

"If he hasn't already," Uhtred pointed out.

"Nah, I don't think he's done it yet. He seems different this time."

"Oh you think you're the expert now Osferth," Sihtric nudged him with his elbow.

"Well, I am the one with the long-term relationship, so yeah, I guess that makes me the expert. We can't very well call Uhtred the expert now can we?"

Back at the bar, you and Finan had continued to share stories, your laughter intertwined with glimmers of vulnerability and shared interests. Finan leaned closer, his voice uttering your name sincerely.

"You know, there's something about you that is so truly captivating. I find myself drawn to your spirit, and I can't help but want to know more."

"My spirit huh? Damn, you definitely have a way with words. So what is it that you want to know, Finan?"

"Everything. I want to know your dreams, your passions, and the adventures that have made you the person you are. I want to know everything about you!"

"Oh."

"If you'll let me of course," he amended quickly, not wanting to scare you off.

Your cheeks flushed a deep red, "I assure you my life has been very ordinary so far, but perhaps you shall hear about it another time."

Finan reached out, gently taking your hand in his, "I eagerly await that time. Until then, may I have the honour of taking you out for dinner?"

"Oh," your eyes widened. "Well...okay yeah, I'd like that. I'd like that very much, Finan."

Your voice tugged at his heart. The cadence of your voice, the melody of your laughter, and the animated movements of your hands, as you talked, resonated deep within him, stirring emotions that defied explanation. The sense of déjà vu enveloped him, painting the air with shades of nostalgia and anticipation. he tried his best to recall the origin of this profound connection, but they slipped through his fingers like whispers in the wind. 

His heart called your name, even though it had just learned the shape of it today and your souls, separated by the veil of existence, recognized each other anyways.

[hongcherry]

pretty please (stay with me) || c.sc | 1

"After being assigned a fashion show for your big senior project, you set off to find volunteers to make it successful. However, when you meet Choi Seungcheol and his unfriendly clique through your volunteers, you realize they’re an unwanted package deal you can’t escape from. Can you handle Seungcheol's obnoxious friends, and can he handle your brash behavior?"

🍒 Pairing: businessMajor!Seungcheol x fashionMajor!Reader (f)

🍒 Rating/Genres/AUs: M(18+); Slice of life (!!!), slow burn, drama, fluff, angst; Unrequited enemies to lovers (lol), strangers to lovers, college au

🍒 Warnings: [general tw (won't be repeated in the other chapters)] reader has she/her pronouns (referred to as girl, miss), reader dresses really feminine, reader is not nice, character outfit descriptors, parent/family issues (marital problems), bullying | [chapter tw] “joke” that implies prostitution in a negative way, near car accident (rear end), brief mention of death thru a joke

🍒 WC: 14.8k

🍒 Betas: Huge shout out to my bae, @love-strike, for being with me throughout this whole process, for listening to me whine, for helping me brainstorm majors for OT13, and for being so supportive! tysm 😭 And thank you to @playmetheclassics, @here4kpopfics, @angelwoozi for also beta'ing this series! ty for your time and for your sweet feedback! i really cherish everyone's efforts and brains hehe 🥰💖 i understand this was not an easy task to take on.

🍒 Author's Note: HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY TO THE LOML, CHOI SEUNGCHEOL!!!!!!!!! 🎂♥️ I started this fic in September 2022 and contemplated even publishing it multiple times. I think this will be the first fic I've worked on for so long and published. Also, this is the longest fic I've ever written, so that's exciting! It was supposed to be one long one-shot, but I ended up writing way too much for a one-shot LOL. I'm really proud of myself for powering through and not abandoning it, as I've done in the past. I also wrote this all in past tense and spontaneously decided to change it to present 😪 Anyway, please enjoy the start of this couple's journey 😁

also read here: AO3 | Wattpad

seventeen masterlist | main masterlist

previous chapter \\ series masterpost // next chapter

When people say good students are those who arrive on time, you find it hard not to scoff. Professors should care more about how hard-working one is rather than if they show up on the dot.

Of course, you do try to make it on time, but can you really leave your house looking less than perfect? Absolutely not. Plus, the first fifteen minutes usually consist of professors getting set up for their classes, so you don’t feel like you are missing anything of importance.

Today is no different.

Ten minutes past the official class time, you stroll inside the room. Students are seated where they normally sit, some are on their phones, and others are trying to finish some last-minute homework assignments. It’s a fairly small class, and being in your senior year means everyone knows each other well. Although, most of the people in your class think ill of you and don’t talk to you.

At first, you thought it was a pity, but in the end, you realized you didn’t want to befriend those who would only talk shit behind your back. This is what you figured they did since they were never discreet when they exchanged whispers with their eyes glued to you. 

Luckily, you have at least one friend in the class. Quality over quantity, right?

“Right on time,” your friend, Dae, says with a sly smile when she spots you.

You chuckle and slide into the seat next to her. “Class started fifteen minutes ago.”

“It did, but you’re right on time for you,” she explains with a knowing grin.

“Guess I need to be more late from now on,” you tease as you take out your iPad.

The device is a holy grail to you. Majoring in fashion design means all your ideas and creations over the past few years are stored there. When you don’t have it, it’s stored in secret in your house. Maybe that’s a little excessive, but losing it would feel like losing a part of yourself. After all, art creations always include a part of the creator. The device almost feels like it’s an extension of yourself—something too personal for others to peek at.

Dae rolls her eyes. “Or you could come on time. That would be different.”

“Why would I? The first fifteen minutes are worthless,” you huff and open your notes.

“I wouldn’t quite say that,” Dae answers, sliding a piece of paper over. You glance down at it.

Prepare for the annual Senior Fashion Show! Students are to create their own fashion show with a theme of their choice. The show will be toward the end of the semester in the Main Theatre (official times and dates TBD). The project will count for 80% of your grade as this will require you to use all the skills you’ve acquired as a student. When creating your show, be sure to be mindful of the following…

“This was handed out at the beginning of class. Seems like we’re going to have to work with students from outside our department,” Dae comments after she gives you a few minutes to read everything.

So, this is it.

Every senior majoring in fashion design is required to participate. You attended every fashion show hosted during your time as a student here. You were always left in awe, motivated to be a student that would leave behind a name for themselves at the college. You want to inspire the next seniors just as the ones inspired you before.

While this assignment has your body giddy with excitement, there is a part you are dreading.

People skills are not your forte.

Not because you feel awkward talking to new people, but because the conversations always end unpleasantly. Sometimes with back-handed compliments, insults, or them trying to scold you. You hope that won’t be the case while recruiting volunteers.

“So, do we have the class period to start getting things together?” you question once you finish skimming through the instructions again. You’re responsible for a lot more elements than you anticipated. You need lighting, music, a theme, backstage helpers, hair and makeup artists, an advertiser, and most importantly, models. This is when you wish you had a large network. Though, every friend you tried to make didn’t end up lasting. Dae is the only person who has stuck by your side.

“Yup,” she replies. “We’ll be doing mini assignments throughout the semester to help us prepare. I think it’s just a way for Dr. Lim to give us grades so he doesn’t get in trouble.”

“Probably,” you sigh. You are already feeling stressed. Quickly, you scribble down a list of to-do’s in your notes.

“Do you have a theme in mind already?” Dae asks after a moment.

“No, do you?” you wonder.

Dae sits back in her chair, pen resting between her fingers. “I was thinking about something with space? Maybe my main colors will be blue, purple, and black.”

“Oh? Isn’t that what you’ve been doing, though? Don’t you want to try something different?”

Although the question is harmless, the tone of your voice must have rubbed Dae the wrong way. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then looks at you again.

“Think of it as branding, okay? Why does it bother you so much?” she wonders with a frown. Realizing your mistake, you inhale slowly.

“It doesn’t. I didn’t mean to sound rude. I’m sure your stage will do well,” you reply, forcing a small smile on your lips.

“No ‘sorry’?” Dae asks despite knowing it isn’t part of your favorite vocabulary.

You narrow your eyes at her. “Nope. Just don’t be so defensive next time.”

“You’re insufferable,” Dae answers. “One day, you will be sorry for your behavior.”

Shrugging, you say, “There’s always a chance, but maybe if the world wasn’t so insecure, saying sorry wouldn’t be so wanted.”

Dae exhales disapprovingly at your thought process, displeased with your reply. “Well, for now, maybe try to be more empathetic?”

“I have bigger things to worry about right now. For instance,” you start, a finger at the top of your to-do list, “I’ve got to find someone who can provide me with music.”

Fuck, it’s too loud in here.

The sounds of different instruments being played at once, all emitting different tunes, have a migraine bubbling in your head.

You make a beeline to the professor who is sitting in the corner. She is an older lady, evident by her wrinkles and gray hair. Yet, her features are soft, and the smile she gives you makes you feel at ease.

“Hello, miss, can I assist you?” she asks when you’re in hearing range.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I was hoping you could help me with an assignment?” you wonder and offer her a kind smile, hoping she won’t shoo you away immediately.

“Ah, it’s alright. They’re just practicing for an upcoming assignment today. What is it you need, dear?”

“Who would you consider your best student? Is there a way you can get me in contact with them?”

The professor’s eyes widen slightly at the question. She didn’t expect that. Nevertheless, her gaze rises to scan the classroom.

“There,” she points as discreetly as she can. You follow her finger, which lands on a blonde-haired guy tuning his guitar. “Lee Jihoon. He’s the most talented student I’ve ever had.”

“This semester?” you ask out of curiosity.

The professor shakes her head. “Ever.”

You can’t stop the small disbelieving huff that escapes you. The best student ever? You aren’t sure how long she’s been teaching, but you doubt out of all her time, he is the best. He looks too young.

“Now, now, don’t judge a book by its cover,” she scolds gently. You have to force yourself not to roll your eyes at the phrase. You’ve heard it too many times that its meaning lost its effect on you.

“What makes him your best student?” you question, sight going back to the man who is oblivious to your stare. He sits next to another student who also has a guitar. They seem to be friends from the way they are laughing together.

“His work is versatile and very good. I’m positive he will be the perfect person for your project.” The way she speaks about him makes you believe her. There was no waver to her voice, and her eyes hold a fondness in them you know one can’t replicate if not genuine.

“How long until they have their assignment due?” you wonder, realizing you may have to wait until the class ends before you could talk to him.

The professor smiles. “I’ll let them have five more minutes so you can introduce yourself.”

Internally, you sigh in relief. You’re grateful you don’t have to wait.

“Thank you,” you say before strolling to the man.

As you near, his friend glances up. He’s mid-sentence when he spots you, eyes growing slightly at the sight of you. You’re used to getting looks like that. Your fashion is always dressier than the average college student's. People just aren’t used to it.

“Hi,” the brunette friend says. He has prince-like features, and you almost consider asking him to be one of your models. You give him a small grin out of politeness before turning to the whole reason you came over.

“Lee Jihoon?” you ask.

Jihoon’s mouth parts slightly in surprise. “Uh, y-yeah. Do I know you?”

“No. My name’s Yn. I have a project in a class and need someone to provide music for me. You won’t get paid, but any extra experience is always good, right?” you greet, not wanting to dance around the subject. After all, this is only the first of many on your to-do list.

“What major are you in?” he wonders, brows knitted in confusion.

“Fashion design,” you answer.

Jihoon is silent for a moment. “And how did you find me?”

This guy is more difficult than you wished. You just need him to say yes.

“I asked for the best student, and you were recommended. So, what do you say? Will you help me?”

Jihoon gives you a small smile, but something about it rubs you wrong. “Sorry, my plate is a little full right now—”

“Do you need money? I can give you some afterward.”

You try not to sound desperate. Lee Jihoon is not the only music major—this is obvious by the amount of noise you hear in the background.

But you never settle for less than the best.

You have been looking forward to this project since your college tour here. 

“It’s not that,” Jihoon chuckles awkwardly. “I have other assignments I have to practice for, but I’m sure there will be someone else to help you. There’s a lot of talented students her—”

“But they’re not the best,” you interrupt. What else can you offer him that will make him say yes?

“Well, being the best is subjective,” Jihoon counters, voice light so you know he doesn’t mean it rudely.

You open your mouth to bargain with him more, but his friend leans into his ear. The noise from the other instruments behind you makes it hard to hear what they are saying.

Patience is something you rarely have. The longer you stand there waiting, the more annoyed you get.

“Look, you have almost a full semester to get a song done by then. I’m sure you can find some tim—”

“Fine,” Jihoon grumbles as he shoves his friend away. “I’ll do it.”

“Oh,” you pause. You are fully prepared to go down the mental list of how helping you will help him in return. One that will be complete bullshit, but if it gets him to say yes, then so be it. Luckily, you don’t have to. 

“Great!” you say.

You aren’t going to give him time to back out, so you quickly retrieve a business card you had made from your purse. It’s easier to exchange contact information, and you never know when you may run into someone important. Being in an artistic field means competition. You always need to have an eye out for something, or someone, that will help you get your name out there.

“Here’s my number. Please contact me before the day ends.”

Jihoon takes the card and examines it. “Got it. What kind of music will you need?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll let you know,” you reply. He nods in response.

“I look forward to hearing your music. I’ll talk to you later then,” you say.

You have half a heart to wish them both luck on their assignment, but part of you is a little petty that Jihoon put you through some trouble. Instead, you give them a wave before turning on your heel.

As you’re leaving, you hear a loud sigh followed by a laugh from behind you. 

“Shut up, Shua,” Jihoon groans before the professor calls everyone’s attention.

Music, check. Now, what’s next?

As you make your way down the hallway, you stumble across Dae. She is surrounded by two other male students, none of whom you know. You don’t plan to greet her since she seems busy, but the sound of your heels clicking against the tile catches her attention.

“Yn!” she calls out cheerfully.

You halt in your tracks, turning to see her smiling at you. She gestures for you to come over, so you do.

“Hey,” you say to her.

“How’s your project going?” she asks.

“I got someone to help me with music,” you reply, then glance behind her to see the two guys staring at you. Dae follows your gaze and makes a small “oh!”

“Is that all? Do you have anyone for advertising or graphics?” Dae wonders, her voice seemingly excited.

“I don’t,” you answer hesitantly. Her eagerness has you worried.

“Perfect!” she exclaims, then turns to the others. “This is Yejun and Jeonghan. They’re both advertising majors. Yejun agreed to help me with my project, but Jeonghan,” she pauses to address the man. He has blonde hair that goes past his eyes. His soft features are handsome and almost angelic. 

“Jeonghan, would you mind helping my friend with hers? She’s super talented.”

Jeonghan glances at you, but before he can say anything, you ask him, “What are your skills? Do you have some work I could see first?”

Jeonghan looks taken aback. “O-oh, I don’t have a portfolio yet, sorry.”

“Ah, that’s fine,” you say before looking at Dae. “Thanks for trying to help me, but I’ll find someone else.”

Dae’s eyes narrow at you. “Come on, Yn. Jeonghan is really good!”

“Didn’t you just meet him?” you question and try to stop the scoff that threatens to escape.

“Well, yes, but Yejun has been my friend for a while, and I’ve seen his work. Yejun and Jeonghan have worked together as well, and their creations are unique!”

You inhale deeply, eyes roaming from your friend to Jeonghan. He offers you a smile.

“What your friend said,” Jeonghan replies with a small chuckle.

“Trust me on this,” Dae says. “Jeonghan won’t disappoint you.”

You don’t feel at ease agreeing to someone blindly. Dae’s definition of “really good” could be different from yours. Although her work is good, you feel your standards are way above hers. You had planned to ask for the best student for each assigned task, so having been offered a random helper with no proof of their credentials is unnerving. 

Granted, you haven’t heard Jihoon’s work, but you were sold on the way the professor spoke about him. Dae, on the other hand, is not a professor and could be biased as Yejun is her friend. Though, you still have a lot more positions to fill, and you need to do so soon.

Sighing, “Fine. You can work with me.”

From the way you word your sentence, it’s almost as if Jeonghan is supposed to jump up and down with glee. He doesn’t.

You grab another business card from your purse and hand it to Jeonghan. He takes it slowly.

“Just so you know, I have the right to replace you with someone else if I see your work isn’t fit,” you warn as Jeonghan slips the card into his pocket.

His eyes lock on yours. “That won’t be necessary,” he answers, not bothered by your comment.

“Oh?” you wonder and quirk an eyebrow up.

“Hm. You also need graphics, right? I have a person for that as well,” Jeonghan says.

“I haven’t seen their work yet—”

“You’re not very trusting, huh?” Jeonghan observes with a laugh. You shift your weight on one hip, not liking the way he is trying to tell you about your personality when he doesn't know you.

“I just know what I want, and I won’t settle,” you answer sharply.

Dae huffs next to you and gives you a gentle shove, indicating you to ease up. That isn’t going to happen.

Jeonghan doesn’t reply and instead takes out his phone. His fingers dance around the screen for a minute before he turns the device for you to see. On the screen is an Instagram account with various posts of different art and graphic pieces. Your eyes drift to the username. by_xuminghao_o. His art is impressive and definitely not an amateur like you half expected.

“So, about not settling,” Jeonghan trails off, a hint of a cocky smirk on his lips.

“I expect you both to contact me before the day ends,” is all you respond with.

Jeonghan pockets his phone and nods. He seems content with your answer even though you don’t confess the art meets your standards.

“All good then?” Dae asks, glancing between you two.

“We’re good,” Jeonghan replies and gives you another smile of his—one you are starting to hate seeing. There is just something about it that seems like he knows more things than you in a cocky, condescending way.

Yejun glances at his watch and then nudges Jeonghan.

“Thanks, ladies, but we have a class to attend. Nice to meet you, Yn,” Yejun says.

You hum in response while turning away from them. Dae says her goodbyes, watching as they leave before putting her focus on you.

“Do you have to be so picky?” she sighs.

“As I said, I know what I want. I’ve waited to do this project for years. It has to be perfect,” you explain and pull out your iPad. You check off music and advertising from your to-do list. Graphics aren’t listed, but you figure it will be a nice addition.

“I understand, but—”

“Just focus on your project, and I’ll focus on mine, okay?” you interrupt. You don’t feel like hearing her lecture you for a second time today.

“Alright,” Dae answers. “I’ll see you around,” she says, walking away before you can say anything else.

With her back turned, you roll your eyes at her attitude. It has your mood lowering, and you conclude you’re done with human interaction for now. You carefully place your iPad back in your bag, then make a beeline to the parking lot, ready to go home to figure out a theme for your show.

Home is somewhere you don’t enjoy being.

It always has this melancholy cloud looming over you. You can never seem to get rid of it completely. Even on the good days, it lingers in the corner of the room, always threatening to float above you. You doubt it will ever dissipate.

Your back is against the headboard of your bed, your iPad resting against your legs that are pulled to your chest. The music playing is too low for your liking, but you know if it’s any louder, your father will scold you for the high volume. Sometimes you will raise it just to get him to talk to you. Though today is not one of those days. You want to be left alone for once, which isn't usually too hard to do unless your sister needs attention. Like now.

“Today is the last day. Pleaseeee, Yn!” your sister whines at the foot of your bed. Her small body is bouncing with desperation and eagerness.

Reluctantly, you flicker your gaze up at her. The slight scowl on your face doesn’t seem to faze her… Probably because she’s seen it so much.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” you exasperate, gesturing to your iPad.

Seoah frowns. “When are you not? Come on! It’ll take, like, ten minutes. I’ve been looking forward to getting a Fallin’ Flower frap for months! You know it’s a seasonal drink.”

“Didn’t Dad say you couldn’t have any more sweets?” you say and peer down at your iPad again. You’re in the middle of brainstorming themes for your show. There are various words within bubbles, each connected with a line.

“I’ll just get a small,” she explains. When you don’t move, she walks around the bed to stand next to you. Her voice becomes softer, sadder. “You said you would take me. Dad can’t.”

“That was before I got assigned this project. It’s my—”

“Senior project that you’ve been looking forward to since your freshman year, yeah, I got it,” she responds, reciting what you’ve told her before.

You finally look at her once more. “I’ll take you for the next seasonal drinks, okay? They’re probably better anyway.”

“But I really want a Fallin’ Flower,” Seoah pouts.

“Next year,” you offer and return your attention to your homework.

“Yn—”

“Next year,” you repeat firmly without looking up.

Seoah pauses in her begging. You think she’s going to continue, but you hear the soft padding of her feet as she moves.

“Oh, Seoah?” you call out, glancing up.

She pauses by your door and looks up with some hope in her eyes.

“Don’t forget to shut the door all the way.”

“Right,” she mutters slowly, then leaves the room. You wait until you hear the door click close prior to getting back to work.

You sit on your bed the remainder of the day, only getting up to cook dinner for your father and sister. Your eyes feel strained and your body weak, but the sooner you pick a theme, the sooner you can get started. 

It’s days like these when your body is mentally and physically exhausted, that you miss your mom. You try not to think too much about her as it only makes the gloomy cloud above your head darker. 

Is she happier? Surely, she is. She is living her dream as a traveling journalist. Sometimes you will see her adventures if you peep at her social media. It’s self-torture to do so, but curiosity gets the best of you. You hope one day you’ll have the willpower to block all her accounts. 

At this point, you’re having the same conversation you have with yourself once a month. It never ends the way you want.

Inhaling deeply, you finish plating all the food before calling your family for dinner. While your father eats in his office, needing to continue his work, you and your sister eat in silence in the dining room.

Maybe one day things will change, but for now, you’ll have to settle with this.

You are about to knock on the door a second time when no one answers it. You have allotted only an hour for this meeting, so the longer you wait outside, the more you grow impatient. You have set mini-deadlines throughout the semester to ensure you will complete this assignment in a timely manner. You just hope your recruitees aren't going to slow you down.

Suddenly, the door is yanked open. Jeonghan stands on the other side, hair a little damp and a few wet spots on his shirt.

“Sorry about that,” he says hastily. “I thought I could shower quicker.”

“I told you eleven o’clock,” you scold. Jeonghan simply smiles.

“Never hurts to give people some wiggle room. Plus, aren’t you the early one?” Jeonghan leans back to view something. He looks at you after a few seconds. “It’s only three minutes past.”

“Early is on time,” you say as if that is an obvious life choice. Although you’re never really on time for classes, you reason that to be because the first fifteen minutes are a waste of time. This, on the other hand, is not. “Invite me in?”

Jeonghan moves aside and lets you enter. His apartment is tidy for the most part. It seems as if he had started to clean up but gave up toward the end.

“Where’s Minghao?” you wonder when you saw you were the only one here. He’s supposed to be here with Jeonghan, so you can all go over the advertising designs.

“He called and said he hit some traffic. Have a seat anywhere; I’m going to grab my laptop,” he instructs before jogging to another room. Shaking your head in disappointment, you glance around again.

Spotting his couch, you walk over and make yourself comfortable. You take out your iPad and open what you have so far—color ideas, font ideas, and a few mock-up fashion designs. It has been two weeks since you last saw Jeonghan. The majority of your tasks have already been assigned to people, but you still have to find a few more models.

“Alright, so, what’s the theme?” Jeonghan asks when he comes back. He sits down next to you, causing you to bounce slightly from his weight.

You angle your screen, so he can see it easier. “I decided on the four elements—water, ice, air, and earth. The title right now is Pinwheel.”

“This gives us multiple color options,” Jeonghan examines. “Maybe we could have five designs. One for each element and then one with all of them? That would give you a variety of exposure and make the audience feel they’re not looking at the same promo material every time.”

You sit still as you ponder his suggestion. “You don’t think people will get confused seeing different designs?”

“We can make it all tie in some way. You have your own logo, as I saw on your card. We can use that and the same fonts.”

“Okay,” you say slowly. “That sounds—”

A knock on the door stops you.

“Ah, that must be Minghao. Do you mind getting that? I’m going to get my notepad, so I can try to sketch some layouts.”

You nod, setting your iPad down next to his laptop, then walking to the entrance.

“You’re late,” you groan while you pull open the door.

“Oh? Am I?” the person says with a little playful smile on his lips.

Although you’ve never met Minghao, you have seen pictures of him on his Instagram. You expected to see a head of blue hair, but you are greeted with black. Instead of a narrow face, his is slightly wider. He wears an oversized white shirt, jeans, and a colorful necklace. He looks like every other college student. Sure, he’s more handsome than the average, but not by much. Behind him are two women and one man.

“Can I help you?” you exhale a disheartened sigh when you conclude it isn’t Minghao. Meaning, he’s even later than you wished for.

The guy chuckles. “I doubt it, but Jeonghan can. Is he here?”

His voice is slightly deep. You may have found him soothing to listen to if it wasn't for his irksome words.

“He’s busy right now. You can come back in an hour, though,” you instruct and start to close the door. You don’t need any distractions.

The man sticks his foot out to stop you, causing you to exhale annoyed when you can’t get rid of him. You open the door slightly again.

“Just tell him I’m here,” he says, his teasing tone not so visible anymore but still light enough to not sound too rude.

“And who are you?” you question apathetically.

“Jesus,” someone hisses behind him before shouting, “Jeonghan, come here!”

Your eyes gaze past the man to see a woman with short-length dark hair. She eyes you haughtily, hand on the man’s forearm as if she were to push him away. Though she never does. She takes in your attire, and you once again get a look of judgment at your choice of dress. Your white dress paired with a same-colored, opened button down and beaded chain around your hips is apparently not her style.

“What’s going on?” Jeonghan asks behind you. Reluctantly, you move aside so he can see. “Oh, Seungcheol! Right. One second. Come on in. I’ll get those papers for you.”

“Actually, do they need to come in? They’re not staying long,” you say quickly before any of them can move.

“Relax, princess, he’s just being friendly. You know, like when someone is kind, thoughtful, and considerate?” the girl questions as if you’re dumb and makes her way inside despite you standing close to the door. It forces you to move over. 

Her friends follow along. Three of them stand in the living room, while the second guy sits at the kitchen bar before pulling out his phone. You watch them with a fire inside your chest. Not only are Jeonghan and Minghao late, you now have to deal with this obstacle.

Just as you’re shutting the door, you see a glimpse of blue down the hall. Finally.

“You’re late,” you repeat, but to the correct person this time.

“I know, I’m sorry! Oh, are they helping too?” Minghao says, pausing at the entry when he sees the group of people inside.

“No. Get in,” you huff and point a finger in the apartment. Minghao enters without a fight.

“Hao!” the second girl exclaims with a smile.

Great. Do they all know each other?

“Hi, Hana,” Minghao greets with a gentle grin.

“What are you doing here?” Hana wonders.

“I’m helping Yn with her project,” he answers and gestures to you while you shut the door.

Hana looks your way, and you can see the distaste in her expression; however, she doesn’t say anything.

Jeonghan walks out of his room with a folder in his hand. “I hope this is what you need,” he tells the first man—Seungcheol, you presume.

Seungcheol smiles and takes it from him. He flips open the folder, doing a quick glance through the papers inside.

“Looks great,” he says. “Thanks for getting these for me.”

“Of course,” Jeonghan replies.

“Hannie, do you want to come to Shining Diamond with us this weekend?” the first girl asks, tilting her head in a way that appears as if she’s begging for a yes.

“Ah, this weekend?” he hesitates. “I have a test on Monday I was going to study for.”

“A few hours won’t hurt you,” she replies.

“Alright, Hajun, but only for an hour or so,” Jeonghan says with a not-so-stern voice.

“Great! Minghao, do you want to come, too?” Hajun asks.

Minghao shrugs. “I’ve got nothing else, so sure.”

Hajun grins widely. Her eyes go past Minghao to see you standing in the corner, your arms crossed and eyes staring daggers at everyone.

She doesn’t say anything, but her look tells you you aren’t invited. As if you are silently begging to join. The thought makes you scoff quietly.

“Cool. You all scheduled your weekends,” you start and walk back to the couch. You turn briefly to Seungcheol, who is eyeing you already. “And you got your things. Can we please continue?”

Your gaze shifts to Jeonghan at your question. He offers you an apologetic look before nodding.

“I’ll see you all this weekend. You can text me the time,” he says while walking to the door.

“We can decide that now,” Hana suggests.

“Or over text like Jeonghan said,” you interject. She narrows her eyes at you.

“Be patient. It’ll only take a few minutes,” she replies.

A few minutes, my ass.

“I’d rather you use those minutes to walk out the door.” You give her a faux smile.

“Have some respect,” Hajun scolds.

You laugh though you don’t find any of this humorous. “What a hypocrite. How about you respect people’s times?”

“I did tell Yn I’d help her,” Jeonghan cuts in sheepishly and opens the door to hint at them to leave. “I’ll text you all later, or you guys can come back in a bit.”

Seungcheol’s gaze lingers on yours as he walks toward the door. Your eyes catch on his as he makes his way into your line of sight. His stare has an unsettling feeling form in your stomach, and you contemplate asking what his problem is. Before you can, he turns to Jeonghan.

“Thanks again,” he says as he lifts the folder.

“No problem. Talk to you later,” Jeonghan replies.

All his friends have filed out except for the one male who hasn’t said a word. He glances at you. You expect to receive another jab about who knows what. Instead, he gestures at your body.

“Nice chains,” he compliments with a smile.

Your eyes widen slightly as you glance down briefly at your outfit. That was certainly unexpected. “Uh, thanks.”

“Come on, Vernon!” Hana yells from the doorway. Vernon gives you a thumbs up, which is uncanny given the situation, then follows his friends out the door.

Once they leave, you narrow your gaze at Jeonghan and Minghao. They’re quick to apologize again and start asking questions about your project before you can lecture them. Lucky for them, your hour is almost up, so there isn't enough time to do that anyway.

Weeks go by with you working nonstop on your project. Annoyingly, you also realize that the majority of the people you recruited to help all know each other. It usually isn’t something to be irritated by, but each time they run into each other, they usually end up making small talk that you have to break up. They can do that on their time, not yours. Even more frustrating is that this so-called Seungcheol and his groupies know them all as well. Their reactions to seeing you are always the same—ones of displeasure. Though the feeling is mutual.

You learn they are all business majors, except for Vernon. Well, he was a business major, but he plans to switch to something else. You can’t blame him. If all the business majors act revolting, you would leave that department as well.

Seungcheol… He isn’t as bad. 

You have only ever hung out with him by himself for less than five minutes. Those conversations spur when you’re both left alone after one of your “mutual friends,” because none of these people are your actual friends, abandon you both. The conversations are awkward and never hold any weight. He doesn’t throw snide remarks at you, but his presence still makes you uneasy with the possibility. You’re normally the first to leave because of that. Maybe if he didn’t have those obnoxious friends, you could tolerate him more. You can’t help but associate him with them though. You simply want to get away from them, even if that includes him. Not that you are craving his presence anyway. You barely know him and aren’t interested in changing that.

“Those are looking awesome so far!” Dae exclaims when she peers over your shoulder to see your sketches.

You smile at her and set your iPad down on the table. The weather outside is perfect, given the cool breezes in the heat. It eases your mind, and you feel more creative being in a new environment.

“Thanks, how are yours coming along?” you question and wait for her to angle her own iPad to you. On the screen are various designs, each with a hint of purple or blue.

“Those are neat,” you compliment.

“Yeah?” she says and beams at you. “What about this one? I think the shoulder looks a little weird.”

You reach over, using two fingers to zoom in on the screen to examine it.

“Maybe just lower this,” you gesture on the screen, careful as to not move the screen on accident. “You could take this part out too and make it asymmetrical.”

Dae hums, lips pursed in thought. “I’ll try it. I guess I won’t really know until it’s on someone.”

You nod in agreement before focusing on your designs again. After a while, Dae excuses herself from your homework session. She had planned to meet with one of her helpers. You bid her a quick goodbye.

Ten minutes pass when you see someone standing in front of your table, blocking your sunlight. Your eyes rise to see who it is.

“Hi,” Seungcheol greets.

You straighten your posture upon seeing him. He wears a basic navy suit that fits him well. To your surprise, it actually looks decent on him. Your eyes dart around him to see if any of his friends came.

“Just me this time,” he answers the question in your head.

“What is it you need?” you ask blankly.

“Must I need something?” he retorts.

You suppress the eye roll you want to give him. “Well, I’m sure you didn’t come here to tell me about your day.”

“I can if you want,” he responds, then to your utter dread, he sits down across from you. From the position he is sitting at, the breeze is blowing his hair forward and into his face. He raises a hand to push it back, but it’s no use.

“You can spare me. Tell me what you want and go,” you instruct. This is the first time he has approached you—and alone, for that matter. You don’t want to make it a regular thing.

“Always straight to the point,” he chuckles.

“I just don’t like my time being wasted,” you explain.

“So, I’m wasting your time now?” His eyebrow quirks up.

“Should I spell it out for you?” you scoff. It should be obvious that you don’t feel like talking to him.

“You can try, but do you know how to spell it?” he stares at you through the hair on his face. Even though you can’t see him clearly, you can tell he has a challenging gleam in his eyes.

“At this point, I think you just came to bother me,” you sulk.

He smirks at you. “I didn’t, but it is a little fun to see your feathers ruffled.”

“They’re perfectly content being unruffled.”

Seungcheol chuckles at your response. He pushes his hair back, but this time he rests his hand against his head, keeping his hair in place. His elbow is propped on the table while his other arm lays flat on the surface. 

All the times you have seen him, his hair has covered part of his forehead. Now, it’s all exposed, and you feel you can see him. Maybe it’s because he’s donning a suit for once, but he looks almost… handsome like this—dressed formally with a small glint in his eyes and his lips spread in a gentle smile.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he replies. “I think you need to have more fun.”

Well, he was handsome until he opened his mouth.

“I don’t need a stranger telling me how to live my life,” you say.

“A stranger? I would think we’re at least acquaintances,” he frowns.

“You only see me because your friends are helping me. Speaking of, is that why you’re here? Does it have anything to do with one of them?”

Seungcheol bites his bottom lip, and you can’t stop your eyes from lowering to his mouth.

“Maybe,” he answers slowly. Your eyes snap back to his when he speaks. He gives you a knowing smile that has you shifting in your seat. You had only looked at his lips because he brought attention to them. Nothing more.

“Are we playing twenty questions?” you groan, finally unleashing the eye roll you have been trying not to do.

“We can,” Seungcheol says with a shrug. “You asked three already—more if you start from the time I sat down.”

Exhaling a deep breath, you put your forehead on the hand that’s propped on the table. The conversation is slowly draining your energy. The need to be alone becomes stronger with each second.

“Seungcheol,” you warn. You are not about to play a guessing game with this man. “Please.”

“Oh, so that word is in your vocabulary.”

“Yes. Would you like me to use it in a sentence?” you question, pitch raised as if you’re talking to a toddler. You lift your head to glare at him.

“Sure,” he smirks and leans forward. He still holds his hair back and this time, you can really see the way he is goading you.

“Please fuck off,” you grin widely. Your head tilts to the side as you push your arms together to act overly cute.

“Please make me,” he counters. The smirk he wears is still plastered on his lips.

“If we weren’t in public, I would,” you say, voice returning to normal as you relax your body—the cute act over.

“Oh? How?” he chuckles. From the way he looks at you, you know his mind has gone elsewhere.

You push at the arm that is stretched across the table. “Because I would rather not get caught for murder, you pervert.”

Seungcheol laughs and sits back, letting his hair fall back into his eyes. It’s the first time you notice he has dimples. Your first impression is that they are cute, but you quickly recall who they belonged to and shove that thought from your mind.

“Seokmin wanted to let you know he lost your card,” he finally discloses. “Asked if you could give him another.”

“If he lost a simple card, is he really reliable?” you sigh as you grab another from your purse.

“The good news is those stage lights are so big, he won’t be able to lose those,” he says, taking the card from your hand.

“Thankfully,” you mutter. “I hope you’re better than Seokmin at not losing things.”

“I’ll get this to him, don’t worry,” he replies and puts the card in his suit jacket. You want to ask why he is wearing that, but that will mean you will prolong this conversation. Fortunately for you, he starts to stand up before you succumb to the temptation.

“Thanks for the talk,” he says as if you had a choice. “I’ll see you around.”

You would have doubted that, but you know that won’t be true.

The second time Seungcheol approaches you by himself is a few days later when he catches you exiting a building he is approaching.

“Don’t tell me someone else lost my card as well,” you say after he calls your name. You readjust your bag on your shoulder as you wait for his response.

“About that,” he starts sheepishly.

You put your weight on one hip and cross your arms, and set your mouth in a straight line. You wait for him to tell you who is the perpetrator.

“I may have left your card in my suit jacket when I washed it.”

Well, that explains why you haven’t received a message from Seokmin yet.

“Seriously, Seungcheol?” you exasperate.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” he says, lips pouting and eyebrows angled.

Shaking your head, you retrieve another card. You make a mental note to restock later as you are running out.

Seungcheol reaches out to grab it from you, but you quickly pull back.

“Put this in your bag,” you instruct. 

You slowly give him the card and watch as he slings his bag around to his front. He makes a show of unzipping one of the front pockets and sliding it inside.

“Done,” he says, acting like he should be rewarded for doing as he was told.

“Good. Is that all?” you wonder. You’ve just finished your last class of the day, and all you want to do is climb into bed.

“Yes.”

Seeing no need to continue the conversation, you start walking in the direction of the parking lot.

“Great. Bye, Seungcheol,” you say over your shoulder.

“Hey, wait,” he says quickly, walking briskly to be by your side. “We’re going in the same direction.”

You peer up at him momentarily. “That doesn’t mean we have to walk together.”

“You said before we’re strangers. This would help us not be that anymore,” he shrugs casually.

“I never said I wanted that,” you reply flatly.

“It might benefit us since we’ll have to see each other a lot.”

“Is that so?” you sigh sadly.

Seungcheol smiles at you before shoving his hands in his pockets. “You did ask my friends to help you.”

“Well, if I knew you were a package deal, I wouldn’t have.”

“Come on. I’m not that bad.”

Sighing, you slow your steps to look at him better. He stops next to you, awaiting your response. His gaze is hopeful, but you’re not sure why.

“I’ll agree if you leave me alone,” you finally say.

Seungcheol’s lips dip in a frown. “I’ll get you to admit it one day.”

He starts to walk again before you can reply. Now is your chance to let him get a few feet from you. You have the opportunity to finally end this conversation you’ve been dreading. Though, for some strange reason, your feet quickly move on their own accord.

Seungcheol’s steps are small, and you catch up with him easily. Neither of you says a word, but you can see a hint of a smile on his lips.

Instead of parting ways once you reach the parking lot, he follows you to your car. Something about it being dangerous for you to walk to it alone, even though it’s light out.

“Yn?” he says to catch your attention when you open your door. You turn and give a small “hm?” in response.

“My friends and I plan to go to this poetry lounge in two weeks. Would you want to come?” he asks. You aren’t sure why he appears to be anxious.

The shock you feel must be evident on your face because Seungcheol’s apprehensive expression relaxes into a gentle smile.

“Business friends or our ‘mutual ones’?” The idea doesn't sound so bad if you are hanging out with the people who are helping you. Although you have your issues with them, they aren’t that bad to be around if you’re being honest.

“Business.”

That’s not what you want to hear.

“Do your friends know you’re asking me this?”

Seungcheol shakes his head. “No, but I don’t need their permission. What do you say?”

You can’t recall being invited to a night out with someone other than Dae. If you were to go out without Dae, it would be with your family or for a class assignment. To be invited to a place by Seungcheol, out of all people, catches you off guard.

Despite having an opportunity for a different change of pace, you answer, “No.”

“No?” he asks, perplexed.

“Your friends don’t like me, Seungcheol,” you explain matter-of-factly through a sigh, leaning against your open door.

“They just like to tease you. I’ll talk to them before,” he explains. 

Tease is a funny way to describe it, you think.

“I don’t need you fighting my battles,” you answer, referring to the latter part of his reply.

“Still. I want you to enjoy yourself. You’ve probably been glued to that project of yours. Step away for a bit,” he reasons.

He isn’t wrong. Your focus has solely been on the project. Of course, you have other classes, but you aren’t putting as much effort into them as you are this one.

“I’ll pick you up and pay for any expenses,” he offers. The more he talks, the more taken aback you are. You figured he’d drop the offer once you rejected him. From every interaction you’ve had with these “friends,” it never ends well. You doubt this will be any different. Regardless, something in you feels a little… honored he is so adamant about getting you to come.

Thus, hesitantly, “Fine.”

Seungcheol’s face breaks out in a grin. “Okay. I can give you my number, so you can text me your address.”

He starts to pull out his phone, but you stop him.

“No need,” you say. At Seungcheol’s confused expression, you continued with a faint smile, “You have my card.”

His mouth opens briefly in realization before the corners are pulled up.

“One step ahead, I see,” he teases, pulling it out to inspect it as if confirming your number is there. You suppose he may think you’re lying to get out of going.

“I’ll text you then,” he concludes and places the card back.

“Alright,” you say, shifting your weight. You aren’t sure if he wants to say anything else. Why are you giving him the time to? You have already given him enough of it.

Sensing your readiness to leave, he waves as he slowly takes steps backward. “Drive safely, Yn.”

“You too, Seungcheol.”

You climb into your car’s seat, turn on the engine, and watch as he makes his way through the maze of cars until he is out of sight.

That Friday comes sooner than you would’ve liked.

Throughout the times you had met with your “friends,” you had bumped into Seungcheol one-third of the time. Sometimes, you were left alone with him again. Each interaction you had with him became easier the more you talked to him. 

Dare you to admit; his presence wasn’t actually teeth-gritting anymore? At least when he was alone, you didn’t have to deal with his business friends. Despite him not usually laughing at their jokes, he never really stepped in to stop them teasing you at first. Maybe only a few times when he felt things got too heated. He wasn’t your best friend, but part of you did hope he would’ve said something. 

Each time he didn’t, you felt your disappointment rise. He apologized on their behalf constantly, but his apology meant nothing when they kept insulting you. However, lately, he has been stepping in sooner. Although you didn’t want him fighting your battles initially, some things you couldn’t do alone. One thing you and his business friends had in common was that no one really knew where the sudden change of attitude came from. For once, you didn’t complain, though.

You’re tempted to cancel this outing, but talking to Seungcheol a few days ago made you realize he was a little more excited than he was letting on. The reason is unknown to you—maybe he really likes poetry lounges—but you’d feel slightly guilty if you ditch last minute.

It’s not like you haven’t been out on a Friday night with people, yet your heart is beating rapidly in your chest. You have changed about six times, exchanging your accessories with each outfit. Normally, you would dress up more, but these aren’t your friends you’re about to hang out with. They are Seungcheol’s—business majors who think skirts more than two inches above the knees mean you’re a slut. Though, you can’t figure out why that matters. You never dress with the thoughts of others. If you want to wear something that day, even if it’s “over-the-top” for some, you wear it. So, why are you in such a fashion dilemma now?

In the end, you settle for a simple, spaghetti-strapped red dress that is slightly bunched on the sides with strings that are tied in bows. You pair it with a small, heart-shaped purse and white heels. There isn’t any bling in your outfit, which is unusual for you. The accessories you wear are minimal and small. They are a matching cherry set you were gifted by your mother on your 12th birthday. Although it’s been years since you received them, they’re still wearable and delicate enough not to call much attention—unlike some of your other accessories. 

You reach for a white fur jacket only to stop when your fingers graze it. Your eyes travel to yourself in the mirror as you debate on wearing it. The jacket will be too much, you conclude.

The buzzing of your phone catches your attention. It’s Seungcheol telling you he’s five minutes away. After stuffing your phone in your purse, you quickly apply red lipstick and toss it in your purse for later touch-ups.

When your phone buzzes again, you hurry to your front door. Your family is home, and you don’t want Seungcheol to meet them. Life at home isn’t ideal, and the only person who has a hint of what is going on is Dae. You doubt Seungcheol will find that out from one quick meeting, but you don’t want to risk it.

You throw your door open, ready to meet him at his car. Instead, he stands in front of you with a hand raised. He takes a step back in surprise. His eyes glide down your body quickly, but you’re too concerned about your family coming to notice.

“Oh, hey,” he greets. “I was just about to knock.”

Before any of your family can intervene, you close the door and start your way down the porch steps. Seungcheol follows you.

“You didn’t have to. I can make my way to your car by myself,” you answer. Although you’ve never been in his car before, you’ve seen it around. Plus, it’s the only unknown vehicle near your home.

You stand next to the passenger door and wait for him to unlock it, arms wrapped around your body when the chilly weather hits you.

“You sure you don’t want a jacket?” he asks when he notices you didn’t bring one.

“It didn’t go with my outfit,” you explain. It’s a lie. The coat did go with your fit, but you didn’t feel like disclosing the fashion crisis you had gone through.

Seungcheol chuckles. “So, you’re going to freeze instead?”

“It’s not that cold,” you lie again.

“It’ll get colder later, though,” he explains and comes closer to you. You step aside when he is a few inches from you. You press your arms tighter around you, eyes averting from his because of his close proximity. The small distance has you wanting to squirm away, but your feet can’t move. He peers at you with a small smile while he reaches behind you.

“My lady,” he murmurs when he pulls the door open and gestures for you to get inside.

“How chivalrous,” you reply after you force your nervousness away. You carefully slide inside his car, situating yourself comfortably in the seat.

Seungcheol waits to ensure you have all your limbs inside before shutting the door. As he walks around to the other side, your eyes scan his car. The seats are leather, and the interior has higher tech than you thought it would. It is a nice car—not overly luxurious, but enough to show it isn’t cheap. It makes you wonder how much it costs.

“You warm enough?” Seungcheol questions after he gets in and buckles.

“Yeah,” you reply quietly, hands resting awkwardly in your lap. The heat from the vents aids in your goosebumps disappearing.

Your mind is already wondering what to expect tonight. You know his friends aren’t fond of you. At least most of them. That guy, Vernon, seems nice enough. He is the quiet one in the group; however, you did notice he has his own quirks that make him unique. You foresee yourself hanging out with him most tonight. But even then, you don’t feel too great about going.

The longer you sit in Seungcheol’s car, the more you regret agreeing to this.

He stares at you for a moment; brows knitted together slightly. You feel uncanny acting so meek, and Seungcheol can't help but notice.

Silence consumes the small area for a few seconds until Seungcheol says, “Seatbelt.”

You look at him confused, then realize he is talking to you. Of course he is, who else?

“Right,” you mumble, quickly pulling the belt over your body.

“You don’t have to come, you know?” he says with one hand on the steering wheel while the other is on the gear stick.

You sigh and gesture to the road ahead. “Let’s just get going. I’ve got stuff to do after.”

It isn’t completely a lie. You still have to work on bringing your designs to life for the show, but it isn’t like you are behind schedule that you need to do that tonight. You just know you might actually back out if you ponder on leaving more.

Seungcheol bites his bottom lip, averting his focus to the road. He doesn’t reply and obliges to your request by shifting the car into drive.

During the ride, your gaze drifts to Seungcheol. He is relaxed in his seat. One arm stretches to hold the wheel while his other rests on his thigh. One which is clad in a pair of light-washed jeans with a black belt between the jean loops. He wears a white shirt tucked in and a black jacket.

You peer forward slightly to read what his shirt says. Propriety of Balenciaga? The Balenciaga? You don’t think he’s wealthy enough to afford one of those shirts. Perhaps it was a gift or a knock-off brand? Maybe he thrifted it… Though, Seungcheol doesn’t seem like the thrifting type.

“Do you need this?” he asks, breaking you out of your thoughts. He’s holding his jacket open to show you what he means. You must’ve been staring too much.

“No, I’m okay,” you say and turn your attention away quickly. “I just didn’t realize you wore glasses.”

Although the comment is true, you need something to say before he questions why you truly are staring at him. You had noticed the spectacles earlier but didn’t feel like mentioning them.

Seungcheol laughs lightly, “Actually, I don’t. I just thought I’d try to improve my fashion. What do you say, did it work?”

He glances at you after stopping at a traffic light; his mouth quirks up in a teasing smile. You turn toward him and scan his face quickly. They do look good on him, but you aren’t going to tell him that.

“They certainly did something, but whether that effect is good or bad is a secret,” you reply, looking away again.

“I’ll take that as you not wanting to admit they look nice on me,” Seungcheol says and continues driving at the green light.

“I think they’d look better on someone else,” you answer. Though, you don’t believe what you said. Something about the glasses on him has you wanting to stare at him more. They fit his face well and make him appear more attractive. You don’t want to sit on that thought for much longer.

“Is that so? Here,” he says, pulling them off his face. The glasses come into your view, and you stare at him, puzzled. 

When you don’t take them, he adds, “They won’t bite.”

You roll your eyes at his comment and finally grab them from his grasp. You pull down his sun visor to look at yourself. After sliding on the spectacles, you turn your head from side to side to see the different angles.

“I think I was right. They do look better on someone else,” you tease and face him as you shut the visor. Seungcheol turns to you at your reply.

His eyes wander across your face, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips.

“Maybe I’ll have to agree with you this one time,” he says. His stare lingers on yours so much that it has you shifting in your seat. When you avert your gaze, your eyes widen.

“Cheol!” you shout as he was about to rear-end another car. Instinctively, he shoots an arm out across your chest that has your back pressing firmly against the seat. The sudden act causes you to reach up and grab onto his arm tightly.

The car screeches as it comes to a sudden halt. Luckily in time to not hit the other car.

You both sit still, breathing intensified at the near accident. After a few seconds, Seungcheol retracts his arm. It’s then you realize you’re still holding onto him. Your eyes dart to his forearm and frown when you see small crescent shapes indented in his skin.

“Sorry,” you say sheepishly.

Seungcheol’s focus is ahead of him but glances at you in confusion at your apology. “What?”

You quickly gesture to his forearm. When he sees the marks, he rubs a hand over them absentmindedly. “It’s fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?” you reply, heart rate slowing down to normal.

“I’m alright. Sorry. I guess I shouldn’t make you play dress up in the car.”

“No, it was my fault.”

Seungcheol eases on the gas pedal when the light turns green, keeping a safe distance from the car in front. He remains quiet for a while to ensure you are both safe.

“Are you sure you’re okay? First, you apologize, and now something is your fault?” he jokes.

You don’t remember what you said a few minutes ago, so it takes a while for you to comprehend what he is saying. “Shut up,” is all you can respond with in the end.

Seungcheol laughs but doesn’t pester you about it any longer.

“Oh, you can take these back,” you say and tug off the reason for almost hitting another car.

“Thanks,” he mumbles as he slides the glasses back on his face.

You nestle yourself back in the seat again and glance out the window. As the buildings pass, it dawns on you that you’ve never called him Cheol. The thought of using a nickname for him has your body tingle with an unknown feeling. It’s strange. You aren’t the first to call him that, but you aren’t that close to him to start using nicknames. Annoyingly, you spend the remainder of the car ride fretting about how he felt toward you shortening his name. 

Did he even notice? If he did, did he like it? Had you crossed a line?

When he parks, you become acutely aware of everyone’s attire. Many wear jeans or tights with a plain shirt and jacket. A few have on skirts or dresses, but they are more t-shirt dresses or plain skater skirts, if anything. Plus, they are accompanied by tights because of the weather. No one has as much skin showing as you do.

The sinking feeling of not belonging consumes you. You can’t remember the last time you felt this way, and that alone has you questioning yourself even more.

“I’m too dressed for this, aren’t I?” you think out loud.

Seungcheol turns off the car, eyes raking your body again. Though this time, you’re aware of it. You tug down the bottom of your dress at his stare. It’s not like it’s predatory, but it still has your nerves skyrocketing.

“Since when did you care about what others thought of your outfit?” he wonders. The question has you sighing, momentarily closing your eyes as you remind yourself you dress for you, not for others’ approval.

“Right,” you swallow harshly and sling your purse over your shoulder—mentally throwing away the negative thoughts too. “Let’s just go.”

With that, you open his car door and step out.

“Yn wait—” you hear Seungcheol call out right as you shut the door.

Your hair is immediately pushed from your face as the wind blows past. It makes your body shiver, and for a split second, you wish you took up Seungcheol’s offer to grab a jacket when you were at your house.

Seungcheol’s car beeps as it locks before he stands in front of you. His broad body blocks the wind, and you feel your own ease from feeling a tad warmer.

“I’m sorry if that came off rude,” he apologizes softly. “I think you look great.”

You look at him, face void of emotion. You don’t believe him, but you don’t want to argue. At least not standing in this weather. 

“Okay,” you reply. “We need to go meet your friends.”

You take a step forward, thinking it will get him to start walking toward the building, but he doesn’t budge. You only decrease the distance between you two.

“I mean it,” he whispers.

Goosebumps are forming on your exposed skin the longer you stay out. You blame the cold weather for them, but something in your chest tightens at the way Seungcheol is speaking to you.

“I think red is your color,” he pauses. “You should wear it more, Cherry.”

Your head tilts at his last word. “Cherry?”

The corner of his mouth raises at hearing it from your lips. Slowly, he brings a hand to your face. You stand still as you stare at him with wide eyes. His hand brushes past your cheek before he grazes his fingertips along your ear. 

“It suits you,” he murmurs, eyes moving away from yours. 

You follow his gaze and realize he has been looking at your cherry-charmed earrings. His eyes then flicker to the matching cherry-charmed necklace resting below your bare collarbones. You’re not sure if he means the color suits you or if the nickname he just made suits you. Either way, you’re surprised at his words.

Suddenly, the weather doesn't feel as chilly anymore. Your body heats quickly at his comment, or maybe it’s from how close he is to you. Nevertheless, you need to distract yourself from this warm, odd feeling bubbling in your chest.

You clear your throat and step back. His hand lowers steadily.

“I’ll think about it,” you reply more confidently and clearly.

Seungcheol takes the hint and moves aside, hands stuffed in his jeans pockets. He nods his head in the direction of the building, and you start walking toward it. Your pace is slightly faster than his, but you don’t mind not walking next to him. If anything, you need distance from him anyway.

The moment you open the door to the lounge, the heat from inside greets you in full force. You step inside and are welcomed by a worker. He is young, maybe a few years younger than you. He gives you a friendly smile.

“Hi, are you wanting to be seated, or are you with a group already?”

“With a group,” you reply. The worker nods.

“Do you need help locating them?”

You shake your head as the jingle of the door opening sounds behind you. Seungcheol stops behind you. His hand comes to hover over your lower back, not really touching you, but close enough to feel the heat radiate from his hand onto your skin. It has you shuffling away.

“They’re over there,” he says. You peer up to see where he is gesturing. Fair enough, you see his friends at a table toward the back of the building. There are five of them, all smiling at each other. You can spot a few familiar faces—one of them being Vernon. You feel a little at ease knowing he made it here.

“Thanks,” you murmur to the worker before making your way to the table. The closer you get to the table, the slower your steps become. You’re used to keeping your chin high in situations you aren’t completely comfortable in. The whole “fake it until you make it” is on repeat in your head.

Yet the saying is not encouraging you much right now.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Seungcheol asks when he catches up to you. You don’t realize you had stopped a few feet from the table.

“No,” you say. You aren’t mad at him; you just need some space from him for now. You don’t like how you aren’t in control of your emotions when you’re around him. “I’m going to freshen up in the bathroom.”

Seungcheol eyes you for a second before nodding. You make your way to the bathroom, but right before you enter, you can hear the welcoming echoes coming from his table of friends. All of them sound cheerful and excited to see him. You don’t expect any of them to look forward to your presence, yet you feel a little disappointed when no one brings up your name—in a positive way.

After using the restroom and washing your hands, you stand in front of the mirror with your hands lingering under the warm water. Your eyes roam your face and body, taking in your appearance. Compared to your normal fashion, you really did dress down. You sigh when you realize you’re circling back to the same issue.

You retract your hands from the faucet and grab a few towels to dry them.

It doesn’t matter if you’re overly dressed. You usually are and don’t care. You look great. You should feel confident in your fit. 

You gently tug the dress down before turning in front of the mirror.

You look fine. You look nice.

As you reapply your lipstick, you keep repeating compliments and reassuring phrases in your head. 

They’re going to look at you funny. You are going to ignore them.

“That’s right,” you sigh to yourself as you toss the lipstick back into your purse. 

Suddenly, your phone starts to vibrate. You pull it out to see Dae’s name appear across the top. You eagerly answer her call.

“Hey babe,” Dae’s voice comes from the other line. “How’s it going?”

“I’m ready to go home,” you say with a small huff.

“Damn, that horrible? Is he treating you badly?” Dae questions. You had told her about Seungcheol’s invitation when you got home that day. She was shocked, but ultimately supportive of you going.

You shake your head despite her not being able to see you. “No, he’s been fine. I just,” you pause. Although you have your ups and downs with Dae, she has stayed with you when no one else has. You don’t disclose your troubles often, wanting people to not see that side of you, but you’re feeling too low that you can’t stop the confession from coming out.

“I’m way overdressed for this place. Everyone’s in jeans or tights. I don’t belong here,” you say.

Dae sighs sadly. “Jeans are boring. I think I only own a pair,” she answers, trying to make you smile. “Just remember, if you were to die right now, would you want your last outfit to be something boring?”

“No,” you answer slowly.

“Exactly. These are people who are used to looking plain. They’re probably jealous you’re outdressing them. Don’t let them get to you, Yn. I’m sure you look beautiful.”

Your shoulders ease at her words. “Thanks, Dae.”

“No need. If they had the talent to dress themselves better, they would.”

You let her words sink in, but the reassurance doesn’t last long.

“I shouldn’t have come,” you say, beginning to pace the small area in the bathroom.

“It’s good for you to be around people from outside our department. It’ll make you more open-minded,” she encourages. “Plus, Seungcheol isn’t as bad as he seemed, huh?”

There is a teasing tone to her voice that you don’t like.

“One outing with him doesn’t mean he’s my friend,” you argue.

Dae giggles. “No, but it’s a start. Do you like him?”

“No!” you answer quickly.

“I was just asking in general. Not ‘like’ as in crushing on him,” she explains nonchalantly, but you can hear her smile.

“He’s,” you pause as you try to think of a word to describe him, “he’s been alright.”

“Well, I better let you get back to him then. I just wanted to check in,” Dae answers.

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” you say.

“Remember, you don’t need their approval. You never have, and you never will. People want the confidence you have.”

“I’m not feeling too confident right now,” you mumble.

“That’s because you’re overthinking. Chin up, okay?”

Sighing, you reply. “Okay.”

“Good. Talk to you later!”

“Yeah,” you say before hanging up.

Taking one last look at yourself, you roll your shoulders back and exit the bathroom.

Seungcheol is sitting in the middle of Hajun and someone you don’t know. His eyes lift to meet yours when he hears the sound of your heels.

“Hey, you okay?” he asks. 

Nodding, your eyes roam for a spot to sit.

“You knew you were just going to a poetry lounge, right? Not the runway,” Hajun comments with a small scoff.

Your eyes move to look at her, and you quirk an eyebrow. She wears leggings with a graphic tee. Her discarded jacket is slung over the back of her chair. “Are you sure you know that, as well? Or did you think you were just going back to your bed?”

“This is how normal people dress,” she replies.

“Relax, Hajun,” a voice you don’t know sounds. You direct your attention to them. 

The guy has black hair that is parted on the side to expose his forehead. His eyes are narrow, and even though he has a soft appearance now, you’re sure his gaze can be fierce when needed. 

“People don’t need to dress up for special occasions,” he says.

You’re taken aback by his comment. Seungcheol’s friends have always questioned your wardrobe, so for this new “friend” to not agree with Hajun is surprising. 

“No, they don’t, but you gotta’ admit she’s a little overdone huh, Soonyoung?” Hajun replies.

“Hajun,” Seungcheol interjects, giving her a pointed look.

“I understand not everyone knows how to dress. It’s okay, though. I can offer my services if you need some help,” you comment, half tempted to reach in your bag to get a business card. Although you aren’t on campus, you never know when you’ll run into someone who will make a good connection, so you keep them with you wherever you go.

“Services?” Hajun laughs and rests her crossed arms on the table. “And what ‘services’ are you offering? Because from the looks of it, I can tell exactly what you offer. Sorry, I’m not interested.”

Her eyes roam your body once more, indicating that the way you are dressed, means your services consist of paying to be with people in bed.

“I don’t think those services would help you anyway. Your rotting attitude is enough to repel anyone. Though I guess some people are willing to lower their standards when they’re desperate,” you counter.

“You’re such a—” she starts.

“Can we talk?” Seungcheol asks Hajun quickly, but he doesn’t give her the option to answer because he takes her hand and pulls her away from the group.

The table is silent for a few seconds before Soonyoung speaks up again.

“Don’t pay any mind to her. It’s nice to meet you. You must be Yn?” He smiles at you, slightly bowing at you.

“Correct,” you say, trying to not show how irritated you feel.

“Come sit,” he offers, pulling up a chair so you’re sat between him and Vernon. You thank him before sitting in the chair. You sit your purse in your lap as conversations begin to spark again.

Their voices become background noise as your gaze drifts to Seungcheol and Hajun in the corner. They stand close to each other and are in a deep conversation—clearly about you. Seungcheol has his back to you, so you can’t see his expression, but you can see Hajun’s. Her lips are in a frown, her expression not as sassy as before. 

Though her pouting seems forced, her bottom lip a little too far stuck out. Soon enough, she rolls her eyes, an expression similar to how it was earlier. Her eyes then move from him to you over his shoulder. When she catches your gaze, she smiles and raises a challenging eyebrow. However, her gaze doesn’t last long because Seungcheol’s hand comes up and guides her eyes back to him. Even though his hand isn’t touching her completely, she leans into his touch. The act has you stilling.

“Yn?” Vernon questions, tearing you from your thoughts. You don’t realize you’re clutching your purse until your focus goes to Vernon. You ease your grip and raise an eyebrow.

“Soonyoung was asking what your major was,” Vernon explains.

“Oh,” you say, glancing around the table. It appears the others are in their own conversation.

You look at the man to your left. He gives you a reassuring smile that tells you he is patient. “I’m studying fashion design. Are you in business, too?”

Soonyoung shakes his head with a laugh. “I could never. I’m a dance major.”

“Wow, that sounds nice,” you say. “Aren’t your career choices limited with that, though?”

“A little,” Soonyoung replies honestly. He doesn’t seem offended by the question. Maybe he gets it a lot. “But it makes me happy. I can always teach or maybe even become a dancer in a well-known group.”

You hum, understanding his words.

“Isn’t fashion design limited, too?” Vernon asks.

“Clothes are everywhere. I can do a lot with it.”

“But not everyone will wear your clothes,” Hana says, having finally heard your discussion.

“There will always be someone,” you argue, confident in your work. It may be a slow start, but you believe in your designs.

She laughs. “Who? Your mother?”

Your eyes narrow at the mention of your mom, and Hana is quick to notice the change in attitude. Instead of letting go of the topic, she continues.

“Ooh, trouble at home? See? I knew the ‘Great Yn’ isn’t as perfect as she seems,” Hana says. What makes her think you are so “great” is unknown to you, but you aren’t surprised to guess people have made up a persona for you. 

“Stop, Hana,” Vernon says, but it has no effect.

“Oh, so we were right?” Hajun’s voice comes from above. You glance up to see she and Seungcheol have returned. It appears their little chat did nothing to keep Hajun from being a bitch.

“Seems so,” Hana says with a smile. “Care to share with the class what kind of mommy issues you have?”

“No wonder she dresses like that,” Doyun, another one of Seungcheol’s alleged friends, adds. “She’s not getting attention at home. I guess Daddy isn’t there either?”

“That’s enough,” Seungcheol scolds them all.

Your eyes are darting from everyone at the table. Their stares are akin to shrink rays, making you feel tiny and minuscule. You know when you aren’t welcomed, and there’s no reason to stay listening to this. You want to snap back, end the conversation with your own last words, but nothing comes to mind.

In lieu, you push your chair back and stand up. Your hands twitch with the temptation to dump their food all over them, but you just want to get out as soon as possible. 

You waste no time careening for the exit. 

Seungcheol calls your name; you ignore it. The worker from before sees you, telling you goodbye, but you couldn't care less and push past the door before he can finish his sentence.

Your breath gets caught in your throat at the sudden breeze that slams into you. Instantly, your arms wrap around you once more. You glance around and see a bus stop down the street. You don’t care that it’s the other way from Seungcheol’s car. You hurry to the station, not sure when the next bus will come.

The bus stop isn’t deserted despite the cold weather. The area must be busy all the time since the sidewalks are littered with more people than you expect. All the seats at the stop are taken, yet you still shuffle under the shelter in hopes to get away from some of the breeze.

You are shaking, and your teeth are chattering. It’s impossible to force your body to stop since you need to generate heat somehow. You probably look like a pathetic naked chihuahua in winter.

You take out your phone, open up a browser, and search for bus times. Thankfully, there’s one coming in three minutes in the direction you need. The thought of taking the bus is not pleasurable. You hate the idea of your skin touching something so many others have touched. It feels unsanitary.

Accidentally leaning back against the wall while you silently groan has you jumping at the cold material touching your bare skin. Your jolt catches the attention of an older woman who is sitting near you.

“Aren’t you freezing, child?” she asks as she stares at your attire—or lack of. 

“I’ll be fine soon,” you say, not really in the mood for talking.

“Where is your coat? Did you not know the weather was going to be cold?” she continues.

Utterly done with all the people-talk tonight, you hiss, “Focus on yourself. I’ll focus on me.”

She seems startled at your outburst. Her already crossed arms tighten as she turns away from you. Her muttered “bitch” doesn’t go unnoticed, but you don’t say anything about it. There’s no point in arguing with a stranger.

The sound of the bus calls your attention, and you mentally thank the universe for the great timing. After people leave and all the new patrons enter, you finally take a step up the bus’ steps. Before you can climb all the way, you hear your name being called. You look past the bus doors to see Seungcheol running toward you.

Just what you need.

You disregard him and step farther up the steps of the bus.

The bus driver looks expectantly at you, and it dawns on you that you need to provide payment before you can board fully.

“Card?” you wonder. The bus driver nods and gestures to a device to the right.

As you unzip your purse, you feel a hand grip your arm.

“Where are you going?” Seungcheol asks, slightly breathless. His hair is disheveled from running, but he doesn’t seem to care.

“Home, idiot,” you huff and pull your arm out of his grasp so you can retrieve your card.

“Just come with me. We can talk somewhere else,” he pleads, a hand stopping your movements again.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Seungcheol,” you hiss. “Now, let go of me.”

He hesitates but slowly releases your arm. He doesn’t leave, though. “I’ll take you home. You don’t need to take the bus. Come on.”

“Go with him or get on! We have places to be,” a passenger exclaims, clearly annoyed with your drama.

You raise your head to the person, narrowing your eyes in a glare that tells them to pipe down. It has no effect on them. They shoot a fierce look back.

“I know you don’t want to take the bus,” Seungcheol comments quietly.

He’s right. Not only do you not want to sit next to a lady whose arms are filled with shopping bags—the only available seat—you really don’t want to add time to your trip home.

Seungcheol reaches out again and carefully takes your hand in his. This time, you don’t fight him as he guides you off the bus. Once you’re both off, the bus doors shut and begin its trip down the road.

You watch it silently, not knowing Seungcheol is discarding his jacket until you feel the warm material cover your shoulders. Your eyes snap back to him as if remembering who you’re with.

“I’m sorry they said all that stuff. I told them not to do that tonight,” he says remorsefully.

“Oh, so you’ll let them talk shit about me another day?” you chide and start walking away from him. Thankfully for Seungcheol, it’s in the direction of his car.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he replies as he hurries to catch up, which doesn’t take much effort as you aren’t walking too fast due to your cold, stiff legs.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll do that whenever they want to. They wouldn’t be the first,” you scoff.

“It doesn’t make it right regardless,” he says. You halt in your steps, causing Seungcheol to stop and turn to look at you.

“I talk shit about people behind their backs, too. Does that make me a bad person?” you question. Perhaps if he sees you as one he’ll leave you alone.

He exhales a deep breath. “Let’s just get in the car, okay?”

“You can admit it,” you challenge and walk closer to him. “Does talking shit about someone make me a bad person, Seungcheol?”

He stares down at you, soft gaze turning dark with annoyance.

“To the car, Yn,” he demands slowly just in case you won’t understand; his tone is sharp in a way you haven’t heard before. You don’t let that scare you away. Maybe if you weren’t so fired up, you would have been a little intimidated.

You laugh darkly and roll your eyes at his command. “You want me to sit next? Bark, too?”

“Now, you’re just being dramatic.”

Dramatic, he says.

“Woof?” you reply, dramatically giving him the best puppy-dog eyes you can muster.

Seungcheol’s jaw clenches at your response—not pleased with your sarcasm. However, instead of replying in an annoyed tone, he takes a step forward. His head draws closer to your face to ensure your eyes are glued to his.

“Wanna be a good girl and go to the car, Cherry?” he murmurs lowly, an eyebrow quirking up for a second.

His sudden change in tone has you stiffening. You want to bite back—figuratively or literately… you aren’t sure yet—but you can’t even remember what you are mad about in the first place.

“Hm?” he croons when you don't reply quickly.

Rather than a sarcastic reply, you simply grumble, “whatever,” before pushing past him to get to his car.

You stand next to the passenger side like before, waiting for him to unlock it. Seungcheol comes beside you and swiftly unlocks the vehicle. Although you aren’t arguing at the moment, you can sense some irritation lingering from him.

You get the feeling he'll always hold the door open no matter how annoyed he is with you.

You feel suffocated.

The air in the car is too hot. The weight of his jacket has you overheating. The tension is unbearable.

Seungcheol keeps his eyes on the road, not throwing you a single glance as he drives. Every once in a while he will tighten his hold on the steering wheel. One time you even catch the way his muscles flex at the motion—now exposed from not wearing his jacket. You never realized how fit he is. This isn’t the first time you have seen him sleeveless, but you just never stared long enough to notice. Or if you did, you simply didn’t care. Regardless, you notice now, and you have to force your eyes away before he catches you staring.

You want to ask for music so you don’t have to sit in this insufferable silence, but your mouth feels dry. You decide to just deal with the quietness, shifting in the seat so you’re facing the window more. Your eyes drift close as you let the hum of the car distract you. 

Seungcheol’s jacket is snuggled around you, and his woodsy cologne fills your senses. It’s pleasant, and you don’t mind if you smell more of it in the future.

By the time you arrive home, you are on the verge of sleep. You stumble out of the car and shut the door without saying a word to Seungcheol. You expect him to drive off, but the sound of his tires moving never comes. Instead, you hear his car door opening and closing.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door,” you say while you glance behind you. Seungcheol is following you languidly.

“No, I don’t,” he says and pauses at the bottom of your porch steps. He places a foot on the first step while a hand holds onto the rail. You have your keys out, ready to slide them into the keyhole when you speak.

“Then don’t,” you reply sternly.

He chuckles lowly but doesn’t say anything about it.

“You can go now,” you say when he doesn't move.

“You have something of mine.”

Puzzled, you stare at him for a second. Seungcheol gestures to your body, and you quickly remember you’re wearing his jacket. You tug it off and toss it to him. He grabs it from the air with ease. The loss of heat makes you wish he didn’t say anything.

“Goodnight, Cherry,” he murmurs as soon as you click open your door. You step inside before turning to face him.

The nickname you used earlier forms on your tongue, yet you can’t find the courage to say it consciously.

“Night,” you answer, then shut the door before either of you can say anything else.

With your head bowed, you turn the lock slowly while you exhale deeply. His nickname falls from your lips under your breath—unable to keep the desire at bay.

previous chapter \\ series masterpost // next chapter

A/N: Can't believe the first chapter is actually published 😭 I sat and stared at this for a few before hitting "post" because I'm so anxious! dfl;kbjdvs. Please feel free to share your thoughts on it so far!

For my “shy/silent” readers, I’ve created a feedback form where you can share your thoughts on my fics in a more anonymous and private way. ^-^

taglist: @iammisstora, @christinewithluv, @lithelust, @musingsofananxiouspotato, @yoozuku, @lockburn-castle, @mystikhal-blog, @oncloudvii23 (couldn't tag :c), @cheolcherries (tysm!!!)

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

[frownyalfred]

Do you have any tips on gaining more popularity/engagement/success? I'm sorry I have no idea how do phrase that question without sounding like a douchebag influencer lol, honestly I just want to connect with people. I started posting fic a couple years ago but I barely get comments or kudos or hits, so it's easy to feel as though I'm doing it all for nothing especially when I keep comparing myself to all the incredible and way more successful writers and artists in the fandom. It's becoming harder to stay motivated even as I tell myself it's just for fun and I should write for myself first and foremost. I want to make a mark, you know?

Thank you for your amazing writing and posts! Have an amazing day <3

I think that’s a tough one and I’m sorry you’re experiencing that right now. Fic popularity often depends on 1) the popularity of the fandom you’re writing in and 2) the tropes and pairings popular within that fandom at any given time. Then, in third place, we have writing quality. It’s there! It’s important. But for a large chunk of readers, it’s not always the first thing they look for.

That can be really crushing. Because authors might have brilliantly written fic that just doesn’t appeal to the current fandom as much as another pairing or trope. You’ll find yourself staring at nearby fics with thousands of kudos and ask yourself why it’s so much better than yours, when it has so many typos etc.

I have fics I’ve worked really hard on and loved that have gotten very little traction. There are fics I’ve written that got viewed at a lucky time and got tons of kudos virtually overnight. My writing quality, myself, the author — none of that really changed much between those two fics. Not enough to explain the difference.

My advice is to write what makes you happy, but to think critically about what’s popular in your fandom or circles right now. Is there something you could write that would cover both? Are there challenges or exchanges you could participate in that would get you access to popular fandom requests?

My typical advice for these kinds of asks is to keep writing, to read other fics by authors you admire, to comment and engage with content, to get your name out there during exchanges or in discord channels.

But maybe that advice is missing the bit above I’ve outlined — that sometimes, you might be writing just behind the wave of popularity, and it’s not your fault at all. It doesn’t have anything to do with your talent or writing ability. But it will impact the kudos and comments you receive.

Comparison is the thief of joy. But if popularity and success are what you want, see where your writing can overlap with marketing. And no matter what happens, don’t stop writing!

[angelgendered]

Can I interest any of you fine folks in a Good Omens Fantasy AU which I'm affectionately naming The Oath AU?

Here there be a vague outline of the some stuff I jotted down earlier about it. It's vague for now but I'm working kn fleshing it out! I'm Working On The Longfic(tm) and possibly other bonus scenes and further adventures of theirs in this world if this hits a mark with folks and people actually read it.

Rambling under the read more! No CW or TWs I don't think...? Let's jump in!

It's DnD style fantasy (but dark, at the risk of sounding Edgy. This ain't the kind of DnD you'd play with a 13 year old cousin, for example. The world is harsh and unkind, and there be monsters in the woods, child. Inspird partly by Discworld, partly by FFXIV, especially the Endwalker expansion, partly by Mtghew Mercer, Exandria and his players and all their side content to do with Exandria, partly by Dungeons and Dragons shenanigans I've had over the years myself, and partly by the worlds Patrick Rothfuss and our beloved Neil Gaiman, amongst other authors i adore, come up with. Its a big mash of inspirations but km hoping to mold it into something coherent. )

Fiendish Blooded Sorceress and Druid Crowley - who can mold their body and appearance from the very essence of the earth and who transcends mortal ideas of gender and presentation, straddling the lines of male and female and both and none. They have appeared as maiden, mother, crone, ancient warlock, youthful child and more besides, giving rise to many rumours about her 'true' heritage.

Human Holy Knight of The Order Aziraphale - who has crusaded for years in the name of his Goddess, only to be faced with a moral dilemma. He was offered a priceless, holy artifact in exchange for a pact with a Devil - this pact, which has left him visibly facially scarred - dictates that he must kil one person, no more or less, for this Devil at a time and palce of the Devil's choosing. Until now, he hasn't been called to do such a thing... And he hopes that the Devil has forgotten about a lowly Soldier Knight such as himself.

Rituals! Sexy and very unsexy ones! There's a lot of this cos I'm exploring my own spirituality lately so. You get a ritual! You get a ritual! Everyone's naked and dancing! There's a fire! It's great! Until it isn't.

Probably Hurt/Comfort AND Whump.

This is an E rated AU bc everything I write has sex in it, but whatever! Maybe some light kink too, but I'll be guided by my muses on this. This is more story than smut anyway - the 'additional scenes' I may do if people like this AU? They'll be dirtier, lol.

I have Pinboards, Playlists soon, and no doubt a buttload of other worldbuildingy bits to come! Along with the fic et al of course. If you're interested I've made a tag on my blog for the AU where I'll try to remember to organise this stuff cos I'm really into this AU and really want to finish a longfic so I want you guys to hold me accountable tbh.

If you're interested, the tag is on this post and it's 'Good Omens Oath AU'. In time I would adore to commission artists for this project of mine, so if you're up for collaborating and will accept payment (I don't do trades usually cos you're worth money! Your time and art is too! But I could maybe be convinced...) I'd love to hear from you!

[juniperss]

“First Steps First” Jessamine ‘Lark’ Waterson (OC) x Neil ‘Chick’ Harding

A/N: so I’ve really been wanting to write something for Jessamine and Chick for a while but was super anxious and self conscious about it for a couple of reasons. The first being that I don’t write much fanfiction anymore and the second is because I’m not wholly convinced I nail the atmosphere of period shows/movies. But this idea just wouldn’t leave my head so I’m biting the bullet and swallowing my doubts!

This fic takes place in episode 4 during Dye’s celebration party (I can’t get over Harding saying “single fillies”, okay?) and inspired by the song “First Steps First” from the musical Bandstand. The song they dance to is “It’s Been a Long Time” and I don’t care that this version came out in 1945, it’s my favorite LOL

also hey autocorrect pls stop changing Chick to Chuck, thanks

Word count: 1,730 words (😧)

Warnings: none, other than the fact I don’t know how the military works so please ignore inaccuracies🤡😂 this is about the FICTIONAL version of Col. Harding

I saw that you said it was okay to tag you in OC stuff @rosies-riveters, so I hope this is alright and that you enjoy!

“Pardon my brashness, dear

Seeing you standing here

Dancing's more customary

For a soirée."

As much as Jessamine Waterson took pride in her work as a nurse on the Thorpe Abbots base there was no denying the fact that it was grueling, emotionally draining and often went without the accolades that came with other roles in the war. And while most days she was just fine with that, today had been particularly tiresome and Jessamine was glad for the change of pace the evening’s festivities allowed. The anxious energy that had gripped every person on the airbase had been exchanged for easy laughter, jokes, and celebration. After all, it wasn’t every day a pilot and crew successfully flew 25 missions. 

As she sat with Beth and Ginny, an American nurse and mechanic respectively, who had become two of her fastest friends, listening idly to them chat about the dances they’d returned from moments ago, it took much of Jessamine’s will to avoid allowing her gaze to linger for too long on the man who had just entered the room. She had spent months chiding herself for the way her heart started racing at the mere thought of Colonel Harding being so near and despite the effort she put into acting completely normal on the instances their paths crossed, she feared her feelings were all too transparent. 

 It was inconvenient to have a crush during war and even more inconvenient that it was on a man who was not only a good handful of years older than she was, but compounded by the fact that he was an American soldier. An American soldier who was dashingly handsome and confident, who had just looked in her direction and caught her staring. Jessamine busied herself with the drink in front of her trying to ignore the heat burning in her ears.

 “Oh well that was just adorable.” 

Beth’s voice with it’s charming southern accent was usually a source of soothing reassurance and good advice, was now riddled with mischief and good natured humor now that the two women’s attention was focused on their friend. “You know there’s no shame in a little flirting, a little conversation. Why don’t you go ask him to dance?”

Ginny nodded in agreement, leaning across the table, “It’s not like you’ve never spoken to him before,” before turning conspiratorially to Beth, “remember how she gave him pain medication for his headache that one time.” 

Jessamine’s hands came up to cover her face, the full weight of her body resting on her elbows as she suppressed a groan and a laugh. Of course the two of them remembered the  first time she had met the Colonel; a simple exchange of names and him asking for something for a headache. Jessamine, partly sleep deprived and partly fighting off the butterflies in her stomach fumbling with the bottle before spilling a handful of pills across the floor of the nurses station.

It certainly wasn’t necessarily the most romantic or charming first meeting on her part, but Col. Harding had only smiled before kneeling and helping her gather the runaways. There had been a quip about how she could’ve just said no that resulted in flustered laughter from her and another grin from him. And her friends hadn’t let her live it down since she confided about it to them the following day over breakfast. 

“I’m surprised he said anything to me after that.” Jessamine admitted and revealed her face to her friends. Though there had been more interactions with the Colonel after that, they remained confined to mostly professional settings save for a few pleasantries while off duty. “And to answer your question, Beth, I’m certainly not going to bother him and ask for a dance!” 

Ginny rolled her brown eyes and tossed her head back in a sign of exasperation, looking up to the ceiling pantomiming someone experiencing a great tragedy which in turn caused another round of laughter at the table. “Well, if he asked you to dance, would you say yes?” Beth finally asked.  This time all the hints of teasing had left her friend’s tone and there was nothing but curiosity and sincerity. 

Jessamine nodded slowly, allowing the fantasy to tease at the corner of her mind just for a moment but unable to answer because just as she parted her lips to reply another voice cut in. 

“Excuse me, ladies.” Colonel Harding’s voice sent a rush of heat through Jessamine’s body and she felt her posture straighten. She pried her eyes off of Beth to glance up, up, up at the tall soldier now standing beside their table and found that, despite him addressing them all, he was looking determinedly at her alone. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could steal Miss Waterson for a dance.”

“You’re not interrupting at all, sir.” Ginny chimed in, eyes flitting from the Colonel to Jessamine, “In fact, we were just talking about how much Jessamine was wanting to dance.”

Oh, that Ginny was going to get stern talking to later, Jessamine promised herself, but at that moment she was already standing. Hardings’ hand reached out and enveloped hers as he guided her to the dance floor. 

"Isn't the band sublime?

And as it happens I'm

Just in the mood to do

A two-step, Do step

Out on the floor with me.”

The two of them found a place surrounded by three or four other couples just as the band changed from the upbeat, two step to a slower tune that made Jessamine’s heart pitter faster. If Harding felt any nervousness at the now much more intimate situation the change of song put the two of them in, he didn’t show it. Instead he wrapped an arm around her waist with the ease and confidence of a man who knew what he was doing. Her breath hitching just slightly before she felt him placing the flat of his hand lightly, respectfully against her back. 

Every nerve was firing at once, each hair on her arms standing on end, she was sure of it as her mind raced. She was trying to remember just how one slow danced fighting through the nervousness, when she felt the firmness of her foot under her own. 

“I’m so sorry, colonel.” The apology came out high pitched and squeaky and with the attempt to pull away from the man in front of her. But Harding kept his gentle grip and shook his head.

 “It’s not the first time someone’s stomped on my foot. At least this time it wasn’t on purpose. And Neil is fine, or Chick if you think Neil is too familiar.” 

There he goes again, Jessamine thought, being so effortlessly charming and saving me from my own awkwardness. Sometime in the desperate squeak of an apology she had been repositioned to properly be dancing. One soft hand held in his much larger one, the other placed on his shoulder, and her face precariously close to his as she found herself peering up at him. The rhythm was easy to find with Neil leading and the familiar trumpet crooning at the stage and Jessamine had to fight to keep her eyes from closing. 

“Might you be charmingly coerced

No need to be so shy

Take reassurance, I

Know how to guide you through

The worst steps, first steps first

 “It’s not too late to admit you picked the wrong dancing partner.” Jessamine finally found her voice and the confidence to add just a bit of a teasing tone to it, a smile itching at the corner of her lips. Her cheek had come to rest just slightly against his shoulder as they swayed to the music and as a result her voice was slightly muffled by the material of his dress shirt.

 “You’re selling yourself short. It’s been at least a minute since we’ve had another incident. You’re a natural.” Each time he spoke she could feel the rumbling of his chest against hers and her head felt dizzy with the warmth and solidity of him. 

“And I’m certainly not going to say that after I finally got up the guts to come ask you for a dance in the first place.” Neil’s confession took Jessamine by surprise and she pulled back to look him in the eyes searching for any signs of jest but only finding an intensity that sent her stomach exploding into a storm of butterflies. 

“You...you had to work up the courage to ask me?” The image of Colonel Neil Harding having to work up the nerve to ask anything of Jessamine was too comical to be taken seriously but there was no denying the truth behind his statement. “You’re a beautiful woman, Jessamine. And smart and successful. Hell, you’d have every reason to reject a dance from an old colonel like me.” 

This was almost too much for Jessamine to take and she struggled to wrap her mind around his confession. All she could do was blink dazedly up at him as her cheeks flushed bright red. A smile broke out across Neil’s face and he laughed, arm tightening around her waist for a moment. “I hope that wasn’t too out of line and that I haven’t just read this entire interaction incorrectly. But your friends made it pretty clear to me earlier that you felt the same about me.” 

Oh…oh…oh it was all coming together now.

Jessamine couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up from her chest and she leaned forward to rest her forehead against his shoulder. His own rumbling laugh was mixing with hers and soon Jessamine had relaxed with the words of his confession replaying in her mind. The song faded and another slow ballad picked began, nothing but their breathing and the shuffling of shoes on the floor mixing with the music to fill the space between them.  “So,” Neil murmured, dragging Jessamine’s attention to his face once again, “you do feel the same?” 

This time, Jessamine didn’t shy away from the intense and earnest way he was looking at her. Instead she lifted herself up on the tip of her toes just enough to bring her lips to his cheek. 

 She would have words with Ginny and Beth about this. But later…after another dance. 

Yes, after another dance with Neil.

[tranquilpetrichor]

i'm inside your head

synopsis: y/n's ability to read minds with a simple glance and communicate telepathically gets them into some interesting situations.

cast: fem telepathic!reader (uses she/they) x gyuvin ft. gunwook & ricky

genre: fantasy, superpowers!au, angst, comedy, fluff

wc: 2.8k (2,845)

warnings: mentions of crowd anxiety, reader has a period, cursing, descriptions of illness, mentions of discrimination against people with powers, brief mentions of family members insulting each other, people y/n isn't close with tend to use only she pronouns with y/n so fair warning, touching grass jokes, events of fic are in non-chronological order, this attempts to go by the korean high school system, lmk if i missed anything

a/n: first zb1 fic and it was kinda a word dump stemming from one of my crazy ideas LOL. the inspiration from this series came after seeing the character nahida (from genshin) and her ability to read the mind of any sumeru npc with her skill. i also thought it'd be kinda cool to explore the different scenarios that y/n could get themselves into if they could do that.

if you were to go back and ask six-year-old y/n what superpower they would have wanted, they would excitedly have said, "mind reading! it's so cool to know people's thoughts!"

the eighteen-year-old version of you knew better than that, though. since the age of seven, your abilities had only continued to develop, and if you tried enough, you could communicate telepathically with people.

telepathy's fucking annoying sometimes. but it has its perks too.

you can recall many anecdotes, ranging from humorous to depressing to gross, that were the consequence of your telepathic abilities.

1. so he does have a crush..

year 2 of high school

if there was one thing you learned today, it's that kim gyuvin was not great at hiding his thoughts.

when you wanted to focus, it was natural for you to suppress your mind's tendency to peer into the minds of others, but depending on how active their thoughts were, it was difficult.

so that was how you learned in your science class that your cute lab partner wanted to ask you out, but never had the chance to really talk with you until now.

that was all accompanied by a cascade of other thoughts like y/n's such a talented student, I'd love to even be friends with them, and that's a cute necklace.

hm, kinda cute, you thought to yourself. truth be told, you were a little hesitant to make the first move romantically, but a tiny little push couldn't hurt, right?

you innocently whistled while scribbling down a few more notes—you couldn't make it too obvious that you knew his secret. but since the two of you had to make a joint presentation presenting your findings from today's lab, you figured that it would be a lot easier if you exchanged contact information with him.

and hey, he was cute.

you tapped gyuvin on the shoulder and smiled, showing him your lab paper with your personal info written in the right-hand corner.

"i’ve finished this part of the worksheet—here's my number and kakao talk id so we can talk more. let's work hard on the presentation together!"

his lips formed an o of surprise, and you swore that he was blushing. "alright then! uh, thanks for giving me your info!"

AHHHHH wait wait wait oh my god what just happened was all you could hear in his mind. a subtle smile bloomed on your face. science class just got a lot more interesting.

2. a (mostly) clean separation

year 1 of high school

you actually didn't enjoy telling people about your abilities. it wasn't that people with powers were so uncommon (you forgot the exact figure, but you thought it was about 2 percent of south korea's population that did).

no, it was the specific nature of your abilities. people tended to make assumptions about you as soon as you trusted them enough to drop this info.

it was as if you were suddenly someone not to be trusted, even though you were acting no differently than you had before.

although, their assumptions were understandable. you couldn't say you had never abused your abilities for personal gain, but it was something you didn't want to make a habit of.

revealing to your friend, gunwook, your secret had caused a minor but turbulent period of conflict in your friendship.

he clenched his fists and released them with a sigh. "how did i not connect all the dots? i'm hurt that you've kept this from me for so long."

6 months was a long time to keep a secret, but you were cautious by nature. you knew that not everyone liked people with superpowers, and that some still faced discrimination and greater scrutiny.

besides, you wanted people to get to know you for things outside your powers.

"i'm sorry, gunwook. i had my reasons. i thought you would judge me harshly, and i've had several negative experiences of this happening."

you paused to catch your breath, and continued, trying to silence his troubled thoughts, but it was getting increasingly more difficult. you held a hand to your head.

"look, i'll understand if you want to stop being friends."

he grabbed his water bottle and drank some of the liquid, presumably to calm down. he was facing away from you, and let out a sigh.

gunwook was actually quite level-headed most of the time, which was why it pained you to see him trying to hold back signs of emotional distress.

"y/n, i don't want this to ruin a great friendship. it's just, i have to take time to think about how my perception of you has changed. i don't want to say anything i might regret. this is a... personal issue."

if it was personal, you weren't going to pry. it was up to him to decide if and when he would tell you.

you got one final glimpse of his thoughts before he bid you goodbye.

"not a monster.. they're not a monster. they're not..."

as he walked away, all you could hear were the autumn leaves crunching beneath his feet and the wind that drowned every noise out so easily.

3. the donut order

year 2 of elementary school

there was no better feeling for you as a kid than the chance of getting a treat after school, and since you had quite the sweet tooth, there was no better place to go than the donut shop.

"which one do you want?" your mother had said, gesturing to the display case of donuts. back then, you could barely see the whole thing, so you had to stand on your tippy-toes.

your gaze settled on one particular flavor. "chocolate, please!"

"you got it, kiddo."

your mother's thoughts were creeping into your mind. this had happened a few times before, but now, they were clearer.

i think i should try something new. lemon sounds good. oh, i'll get another donut for him too, maple. i'm sure hayoung won't mind an oreo. shoot, i don't think i have enough reward points. maybe next time.

"mommy, i think you're getting a lemon donut and bringing back a maple for daddy, and an oreo for hayoung!"

she nodded, but her eyes soon widened with surprise. "yes, that's—wait, how did you know? we'll talk about this later."

you wondered if you had said anything wrong, but quickly returned to the thought of getting a donut.

the employee working the counter was busy refilling certain sections of the display case and seemed to give no indication that she had heard the conversation between you and your mother.

"miss?" your mother asked politely, and the employee looked up. "i'll get one maple, one lemon, one oreo, one chocolate."

"will that be all?"

"yes."

"okay, one maple, one lemon, one oreo, one chocolate," she repeated for confirmation, grabbing each flavor mentioned and placing them in a large box. "you can insert, swipe or tap your card here."

your mom took out her credit card and followed the instructions on the kiosk.

"would you like a receipt?" the worker asked.

"no, thank you."

"alright, thank you and have a good afternoon!"

you followed your mother out the door, watching her quickly stride towards the car. after both of you got in, she sighed.

"y/n, you've always been a pretty smart kid, but i wasn't exactly ready for you to be a mind reader. i'm pretty sure that's why you knew what i was ordering."

you grinned, eyes wide with curiosity. "so i can really read people's thoughts?"

she hummed thoughtfully. "well, let's make sure. i'm thinking of an animal right now, what is it?"

pink giraffe with wings. she should be able to sense that thought.

"a pink giraffe with wings... but that doesn't exist."

she sighed. "what am i going to do with you, my dear child?"

4. money before morals

year 3 of middle school

you were walking around campus after school, wanting to enjoy a few minutes to yourself. you had your headphones on, not wanting to be disturbed.

however, a figure began to approach you. as you took in his facial features, you suddenly recognized him.

that’s jeon jaebeom. his dad works for the school administration…

he walked in line with you, so you started walking towards a more crowded area to try and get away from him. you could hear him yelling.

“hey, wait! you’re the one who can read minds, aren’t you?”

you took off your headphones and glared at him. “ah, so someone was looking at something they shouldn’t have. keep it down, will you?”

he chuckled, and you wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face, even if it would get you in trouble.

“but you would be useful to me. i’d like for you to help me cheat on our next math test. see if you can get the answer key or something. i’m close to getting a c in that class, anyways.”

you groaned. what an idiotic request. “and why would i do that? so i can get expelled on your behalf?”

he shrugged. “because i’d pay you.”

you did a quick scan of his thoughts.

this bitch would be stupid if she actually did it.

hm, why not play around with him for a bit?

you looked at him quizzically. “how much?”

“100,000 won. you could probably buy a pretty nice meal with that amount.”

it would be useful, but i can't stoop that low to get it, you thought.

you laughed and pretended to thoughtfully consider it for a couple of seconds.

“i don’t think so.”

jaebeom glared at you. “what, you want higher? come on, isn’t this a good enough amount?”

you were truly annoyed and just wanted to blast your music again. why did you even remove your headphones, just to hear him say some nonsense? at least you were the same age as him, so he couldn't say something like "respect your elders."

it was time to go home.

“no, i don’t want your money, i want you to leave me the fuck alone. i’m not someone who stoops that low just to pass one test, but apparently someone thinks i’m a ‘stupid bitch.’”

he sneered and walked past you, shoving you as he did so. “fine. no one would trust someone like you anyways to help because all you’ll do is read their thoughts and manipulate them."

you staggered sideways, trying to regain your balance. you scowled.

really, you should have known better than to entertain a conversation with someone as spoiled as him. he shouldn't have soured your day, but in your defense, the middle school you was bad at picking the correct battles to fight.

still, you wondered if no one would trust you after all.

5. i'll be your destination

year 2 of high school

you groaned, trying to get up from your bed, and failing. usually, when your time of the month rolled around, the cramps weren't so unbearable, but of course, it had to be more painful than usual this month.

your sister had already gone off to school for the day, but your parents had allowed you to stay home, thankfully. they'd gone off to work, but they left soup that you could reheat in the microwave.

you grabbed a cup and filled it with water. you were bored, but you didn't want to risk getting any of your friends in trouble by texting them (seriously, how hard was it to silence a cell phone?).

although, there was one thing you could potentially try...

hey gyuvin, what class are you in right now?

you didn't expect an instantaneous response or one at all. then again, the more often you contacted someone telepathically, the easier the process was, and you would say you and gyuvin had developed a pretty strong bond.

oh, hi y/n! social studies. you sound like crap by the way, haha.

you could practically visualize his smile. if you had the energy and were with him in person, you'd playfully elbow him.

ugh, so mean.

you just thought of elbowing me, so who's the mean one? ok but seriously, are you sick? fever? your attendance is usually pretty good. or wait, it's that time of the month?

bingo. should i give you a cookie or something for getting it right?

no, but you could give me a kiss...

you smiled. he always got away with cheeky remarks like this.

what an idiot.

heard that.

hey, wait. you have work to do.

it was some boring worksheet and it's done, i swear. besides, i'd rather help you feel better. is there anything i can do?

you've learned that despite initially pegging gyuvin for a jokester, he was incredibly caring and emotionally receptive.

well, talking has already helped me so much. but if you really want to do something... then i want to hear you sing. it doesn't have to be long.

hey, if it makes you happy,

in your head, you heard his boyish voice, singing one of his favorite songs.

i'll be your destination, tell me your favorite song...

he continued the lyrics while you finished your soup, and you felt more relaxed. even the worst days could turn bright whenever he was in your mind.

6. don't spoil the ending!

year 3 of high school

watching dramas was a slow process for you, and it was another reason why you had to block people's thoughts sometimes.

because occasionally, a certain friend would be thinking about the ending of a show you weren't caught up on...

hey y/n.. guess who finished alice in borderland!

park fucking gunwook. i'm trying to finish this essay, don't you dare. and let me finish season 2 in peace.

come on, you're good at filtering out my thoughts anyways. i think you'll like it.

i have 4 more episodes to go. it's so tempting to just read spoilers online.

clearly, not god's strongest soldier—you should finish soon. honestly, we should have just had a watch party. gyuvin and ricky still need to finish season 1.

true. it's hard to watch a whole show together.

you typed another few sentences. perks of being busy, right?

despite that, you'd noticed that gunwook did manage to finish a few more dramas throughout the year.

being on student council sure does take a lot of time.

still, you get all the work done.

speaking of work, i'll leave you alone. finish the essay, and then we can talk about dramas.

fine, i guess it's time to be a good student.

yeah. but touch some grass every once in a while, i heard the cherry blossom trees are nice this time of year. i honestly think we should have debate club outside.

well, you're indeed the president, so you could probably do whatever you want. anyways, see you soon.

you laughed. nothing like friends telling you to touch grass, right?

quickly, you resumed your research for your argumentative essay, realizing how enjoyable (and yet distracting) it was to talk and reconnect with friends. maybe you'd have time to watch one episode tonight...

7. information overload

year 2 of high school

family reunions weren't always the greatest place to be. of course, there was a lot of good food, whether it was homemade cooking, or people used another catering option.

but the downside to a large family reunion was an abundance of thoughts to read, which was the case anywhere that was crowded. however, family reunions made you quite nervous.

people's thoughts began to creep into your headspace, the voices semi-recognizable.

she got so fat.

i wonder where he's working? some tech company, i've heard.

auntie's boyfriend is so ugly.

dinner looks good.

can we go home? now?

he'd better get into a sky university.

i hope the kids don't crash into the wall..

of course, it had gotten easier to block these thoughts out, but you could never get rid of them a hundred percent. people had more on their minds than you'd expected.

if your mind was too muddled, it just induced headaches and sometimes, other symptoms such as suddenly feeling nauseous. that's why you couldn't be in crowded places for too long, and you usually had some sort of water bottle with you.

damn, you thought. i need somewhere to be alone.

you tried not to invite conversation as you found your way to the bathroom, shutting the door quickly as you entered.

you sunk to the floor, leaned against a wall, and closed your eyes, glad to be able to rest, if only for a short while. a peaceful smile appeared on your face.

you'd long accepted that your experiences as an adolescent weren't ever going to be entirely normal, whatever that meant. your powers were a blessing and a curse, a gift and a tool for destruction.

of course, it was up to you to decide how you would use them in the future.

but as long as you had people in your life that accepted and cared for you no matter what secrets you held, you'd be alright.

[moodymisty]

Hi! I am a huge fan of your work and might have just binged all of your TBB fics in preparation for the season 2 premiere 🙈 during my indulgence I read through your kink list and the “helmet stays on” one really got me thinking how the batch (or any clone for that matter, I love them all so much) might use their helmets, maybe as a way to limit their partner’s senses (it seems like a fun combo between dom/sub and an armor kink)

Anyways, whether or not you use this prompt, I am always looking forward to your next fic!! Whatever you are willing to share with us I am more than happy to read 💕 Sorry for the anon, I’m still a little shy about being horny on main lol

Author's note: This has got to be one of the sweetest asks I've ever gotten, I'm so glad you enjoyed my stuff enough to binge it!! (also don't be shy about not wanting to be horny on main, there's no obligation to be. Anon is on for a reason)

But since you mentioned senses, of course the first person I think of is Hunter; And it's been a hot minute since I've done something for him so, why not? I hope this is up your alley!

Relationships: Hunter/Fem!Reader

Warnings: NSFW, Pre-established relationship, Armor kink, Helmet kink aka "the helmet stays on", Very light Dom/Sub dynamics, Clothed sex, Semi-public sex(supply closet), Quickie, Some light sensory overload on Hunter's part

It wasn’t your idea to stay behind at Cyd’s, not in the slightest. The last mission had run you ragged, and so Hunter had effectively forced you to stay back for this one, and give some time to recover. But you still had to admit- The rest was an incredible luxury that you couldn’t refuse.

Though it had taken well over an hour of tossing and turning to get to sleep at first; You’d grown quite quickly used to the sounds of five other people’s breathing, Wrecker’s snoring, and Tech’s mumbling. Without the unique symphony of the Marauder as a lullaby, it had taken a bit to finally nod off.

When you woke up that first night, it was instantly noticeable how much better your body felt. To have a night without waking up multiple times because of shift changes, or emergencies, and to just actually let your body shut down and recover. But as the days went by that became less noticeable; And instead, a tense worry began to replace it.

It’s hard not to worry about them, especially now that you aren’t beside them. They’ve been barely footsteps from you for so long to have them all this far away for so long is eating at you. Especially Hunter. You miss him, miss the way he’d sometimes sneak into your bunk and lay with you for awhile before everyone else woke up. Or how he’ll sometimes walk behind you and press his face against the top of your head, sneaking a small moment while no one is looking.

At least working around Cyd’s keeps you somewhat busy, and she lets you keep a small portion of the tips in exchange for keeping the bar running smoothly. It’s something;

Especially considering the last time you all ran out of credits you had to sell Echo.

It’s late tonight; The bar is empty after the last patron drank his weight and stumbled out, falling onto the sidewalk before recovering enough to toddle on home. Now you’re just cleaning glasses, counting tips and trying to keep busy. It’s tedious, mindless work, but it keeps your hands and head busy enough.

Busy enough until Cyd suddenly shouts from the back, having apparently seen something of note on one of the security cameras.

“Hey! The Dream Team is back!” Cyd emerges from the backroom counting something in her hand, while she jerks her head in the direction of the front.

“Keep your man busy while I count my credits, will you?”

They enter through the front mere seconds after she finishes speaking, Wrecker holding the desired loot in both arms. He starts moving to drop it in Cyd’s room in the back, while you dart past him and yell:

“Hunter!”

You instantly run for him, until you reach him and suddenly stop; Trying to brush it off and just smile.

“Oh, so how come only he gets the welcome party!?”

Wrecker, halfway to the backroom scoffs and crosses his arms, before Echo starts pushing him and Tech away. You had turned around, looking at them embarrassed.

“Lets just give them a bit.”

Tech goes his own way, nose deep in his datapad while Wrecker, Echo, and Omega all shuffle into one of the bar’s booths. You stay close to Hunter however, standing with only a short distance between each of your chests still only a few steps from the entryway.

It’s well been established for awhile now that there is absolutely something going on between you and Hunter, but everyone has pretty much elected to act as if there isn’t. Or at least, that they can’t see it. You don’t do anything that would ever hint at you being romantic within sight of the others, but the looks you share and the undertones are so obvious that everyone had eventually realized.

The whole thing is, complicated. For far more reasons that just your current predicament.

Both of you finally move away from the entry, moving to sit on one of the bar stools. Hunter takes the one right next to you, sitting his helmet on the bar and turning your way.

“I’m sure you’re happy everyone managed to not get injured.” Hunter’s giving a tiny smirk, watching as you roll your eyes at him.

“I wasn’t upset you guys got hurt because it was inconvenient, I was upset because I don’t like seeing you guys get hurt.” You don’t like seeing any of them deal with pain, no matter how hard they all try and shrug it off. You’re just as guilty of the same, though as the person treating others, you’ll always have an excuse for why it doesn’t apply to yourself. You jerk a head in the direction of the booth that the rest of the batch is sitting at; Tech having returned from where ever and is now sitting next to Wrecker.

“At least for them. For you I don’t mind as much, because then I can kiss it better.” Hunter coughs, looking away for a moment and shaking his head. You can see the way his lips twitch as if he wants to say something, but can’t quite figure out how to put it.

“You…” He shakes his head, letting you see a small smirk. “Glad to hear I’ll be getting your special beside manner.”

Sometimes it catches him off guard some of the things you say, especially so casually.

In his moment of looking away from you, your eyes instead turn focus onto his helmet; Which is staring back at you from on the bar top, tinted visor reflecting the scene it’s staring at. When you reach a hand out to grab it Hunter watches, as you hold it hovering over your lap. It looks so normal and lifeless here, but there’s something about when it’s on, that it almost seems like it holds emotion; No matter how silly it sounds.

“I never noticed that you copied your tattoo on your helmet…”

You hold it in your hands, thumb brushing over the scuffed paint. The paint isn’t solid; Patches of the helmets original color peak through the brushed streaks of lighter grey. It gives his helmet a ghostly look, which suits him.

In fact, suits him very well.

It’s a complete spur of the moment decision that has you sliding off the barstool, and grabbing Hunter by the hand. He follows and while confused, takes your lead, walking through the bar and towards the back. Hopefully before anyone notices.

They do of course, but Echo is smart enough to keep anyone from questioning your antics.

Hunter watches as you pull him in the direction of the supply closet, closing the door and pushing something in front of it- a crate. It’s small and compact in here, but it’s quiet. And it’s private; Which is the main appeal.

And it’s here you take quick use of that, as the moment the door is fully shut you step towards Hunter and wrap your arms around his neck, pulling his lips to yours for but a moment.

“Now that we’re alone; Did everything go well, Sargent?”

Well you’re certainly playing with fire now, he knows that well.

“Everyone’s on one piece, and we got what we needed.” He knows that isn’t really what you’re asking, but it’s amusing to watch you look at him like this anyways. You know that if you want him you can just ask, but it’s far more fun to play around. Especially after them being gone for admittedly not all that long; But after being around him every moment, it feels like forever.

In his quick glance over you he can see you’re still holding his helmet in your hands, having carried it with you in your rush. It’s pressing against your chest, as you look down at it.

Hunter is watching you intently, the way your fingers look so gentle over his helmet. Before he can say anything however you lean up, and quickly plop the helmet on his head.

“You look good with it on.” His chest is pressing against your own, unyielding, unmovable plastoid armor against your skin. He hasn’t taken one bit of armor off since they returned, he hasn’t had the chance to. He can hear your heart pumping faster in your chest, wanton as you look up at him. His senses never lie, no matter how much you can try to hide it.

He’s used it to his advantage with you, but it’s almost proven to be his weakness. There’s been times where you’ve overwhelmed his senses so much that he can barely stand it; Both intentional and not. In theory he could cut it off if it ever felt like too much, but he doesn’t.

You know that part of him likes it, and the feeling of being so close but unable to fulfill his senses that drives him borderline insane.

You can feel his hands sliding down your back, moving to wrap around your hips as your thighs spread apart enough to let him in. Instantly he steps between them, pressing his body tight against yours. Once you’re as close as you can one of his hands comes up to palm your chest through your shirt, though he’s unable to free them due to the nature of your outfit. At least not easily, though part of him more than enjoys the way your push into him, silently pleading for more.

He won’t give it to you that easy, not after so many times you’ve done him in the same.

He feels your nipple harden through the fabric of his glove, while your pupils dilate and skin flushes hotter. One of your hands even moves to grasp at his wrist and press it harder onto you, as your breath leaves a fog on his armor.

“You don’t even know how much I’ve missed you, Hunter.”

He can smell you want him, even though his helmet it’s so obvious it overwhelms his senses.

When you attempt to work around your outfit and take off your top, Hunter stops you; And you look up to see your reflection in the tinted visor of his helmet.

“Turn around.”

There’s no way to describe the way your cunt clenches at the way he says those words, distorted by his helmet in a way that makes it sound even more erotic.

Lifting up off the crate you’d been sitting on your turn around, attempting to quickly undo your belt in the process and abandoning the idea of undoing your top. While doing so, you swear you can hear his breathing through his helmet, ragged and already coming undone. It only worsens as he sees your pants pull down and wrap around your knees, the fabric of your underwear contrasting with the color of your skin.

It almost is too much, the way he feels so hot and tight underneath his armor and his own breaths echo inside his helmet.

His fingers are frantic as he peels away the only thing impeding him, hearing his groinplate clank on the ground. He may want to take off more, but the sight of you whining for him keeps him from doing so.

He grinds his clothed cock against you, the clear outline pressing against your ass. You quickly demand more, aching and empty.

“Hunter, please… Come on.” He stills, and ignores the way you attempt to demand him continue.

“You don’t get to say that. Not after what you did on the Marauder.”

That makes you smile, remembering how much you had teased him until he snapped. You feel the way he finally moves the fabric of his body glove aside just enough to free his cock, feeling it lay against your cunt. He feels so hot it almost makes you jolt, body tighten as he grinds against you.

Only a short while later does he slowly attempt to press the tip of his cock inside of you, listening to the way you gasp. Your toes curl in your boots, and you can’t control the way you suddenly jolt when the cold plastoid of his thigh armor brushes against the bare skin of you ass. Hunter abruptly stops, having felt your body stiffen.

“You ok?” He asks when he feels you jolt and tighten around him, his hands around your hips loosening their grip.

“Yeah; Your armor is so cold…”

It feels good, but it was just a shock to have it suddenly against your skin. But now knowing he has the green light, he slowly pulls part way out of you before slowly thrusting forward and pulling your hips enough to meet him halfway.

The feeling of so many sounds echoing in his helmet has his senses on overdrive, not even considering how loud everything might be in the room itself. It isn’t as if you’re being particularly quiet; Moaning his name as he slams his cock into you. At least the door is made of metal, and it’s unlike any of quieter sounds will pierce it.

Apart from perhaps the shaky moan you let out as he presses against a bundle of nerves deep inside your cunt, enough to have you almost seeing stars.

“Shit,”

His helmets distorts his voice, making it seem almost more gritted, angrier than normal. It amplifies how tense he sounds, almost as much as his body as you feel his armor hit the back of your thighs as he fucks you.

But Gods do you want to turn around and kiss him, feel his skin on you so badly but he won’t let you; Depriving you of the sensation. Even if the unforgiving coldness of his armor feels so good too. It’s enough to have you speak up, hissing through your teeth for more.

“Fuck, Hunter… You can go harder…”

His fingers tighten around your hips, watching the way your top has bunched around the middle of your back.

“What, all the sudden you’re open to pleas of mercy?” Your throat tightens.

Of course now is the time he decides to get you back a bit for torturing his senses while stuck in the Marauder, and he’d pleaded for you to stop. You hadn’t listened, and now it seems he’s going to attempt to let you feel just a fraction of what you’d done to him.

It seems unfair; Unable to kiss him or touch his skin while he fucks you. Though you’d done worse to him, a man with senses multitudes stronger than your own.

“Do you, fuck… Do you want an apology?”

The edges of his thigh armor press against the skin of your ass and will more than likely leave marks, unforgiving against your much softer skin.

“No. I want you to feel what it’s like to not get what you want.”

His thrusts slow until he’s only grinding against you, feeling the way your cunt leaks all over his cock. Your thighs keep tensing as you attempt to press against him, feeling so, so close but having him deny you. You can’t feel the heat of his skin, the roughness of his hands or his hair against your cheek; As he looms over your body with a black, grey and red silhouette.

He looks almost like a ghost, when you turn to look at him for just a moment. The dim, mostly broken lights of the tiny storage closet only further the illusion.

He swears he can almost hear his teeth grind against each other when he cums, filling you as you grind against him for more. His visor is becoming fogged from the amount of his hot breath, too much for the filters to try and fight against. It’s never fogged before; But granted, he’s never fucked you while he’s had it on.

He feels you cum around him, gripping the crate your bent over so tight as you intake a breath and hold it long enough he almost tells you to breath. Your fingers grip the crate your bent over with such a tight grip it almost is turning your knuckles white, seeing stars as he fucks you slowly through it all.

Gods, you missed him. Even in the short time he was gone.

When he slowly pulls out of you, you take the time to turn and sit on your bottom instead; Legs partly spread and sore.

The entire state of you looking like this almost as Hunter’s blood pumping again.

“So, can I kiss you now?” You look up at him, face red and lips ever so slightly parted. He takes off his helmet and leans down, pressing a hand against the wall behind you to support himself as he kisses you. It feels ten times more intense after being denied for so long, you can’t help the way your hands quickly around the back of his neck fingers slipping into his hair.

“I missed you too, you know.”

He mumbles it against your lips and feels the way you smile back, giving a satisfied laugh.

“Then don’t leave me behind again? Ok?”

[blackbloodteeth]

13th Sentence Game

@bcbdrums linked me this post (about sharing the 13th sentence from any WIP), and then ended up spurring me into sharing them from all my WIPs. I hope this chaos is what you wanted.

While this is mostly everything, I've skipped some WIPs for reasons such as maybe ending up as potential Resbangs™, but otherwise enjoy this absurdly long list I've put together over the course of like three hours.

You can play along and try to guess what each one's about, if you want hahaha

1, "2021 July 15"* You're sitting up, sweating like crazy, all you can focus on is taking in air.

*Technically my first fic, but it was scrapped. Never really posted it because it's too confusing and now outdated.

2. "2021 Sep 24"* As the previously stated unpredictable behaviour has led to only a small number of assessments on combat, the full extent of his abilities remain undocumented.

*Was originally for an event, but I've considering expanding upon it.

3. "(WIP) TBN" It was like the world here at DWMA was some kind of grand show, and he was just some background character.

4. Inner Strings They all called him the Soul Eater.

5. "be crime do gay" Just. Not like that.

6. Scythes don't make for practical weapons He had no idea if he was going to be able to make friends at all, let alone find a meister, someone willing to accept him for himself and actually be able to use him effectively.

7. "(simple au)" He had an odd combo of red eyes with white hair and tan skin, sharp teeth pulled into a defiant scowl, and a black jacket hunched over a frame that didn't look to understand posture for shit.

8. When Death City snows over "Come on, I doubt it'll actually snow; that shit never happens here."

9. I ain't Feline fine She gets him to stand in the center of the spell zone while instructing Maka to keep behind her, eagerly fixing her hat with her paws before starting.

10. Teeth So he'd take to his now familiar hideaway, a piano tucked away in a sparsely used room.

11. Happy Birthday, Soul Not even Maka.

12. "cursed hall" Given they've gotten to know each other to some degree before now, he was already pretty adjusted to seeing the two other members of this makeshift team: Soul and, well, Soul.

13. It's been a long night for my entire life There was always work to be done and he couldn't wait to get started.

14. One Word* Seeing all those intertwined neighbors, how easily they all sent signals together, that part of him craving to connect and belong made him feel hollow, made him wish he could have that just like everybody else.

*Let it be known that this is the notorious development hell WIP.

15. It was a dark and stormy night Of course with her literary weapon and the sudden jolt of her appearance, the figure seems to have been startled enough to give an auditory following to their jumping back, dull gleaming red blinking wildly back at her tense confusion while- Wait, Soul??

16. Ride by night only [6:19 PM] Kinda with him actually, why are you in a hurry then lol

17. The Very Hungry Soul “Well if the very hungry caterpillar would like to make sure we’re not late, he should hurry up and get dressed before I eat his breakfast for him before it gets cold.”

18. See you on the other side "Soul?"

19. The Dragon and The Moth He’s stopped entirely in his tracks when she abruptly goes in for a hug, snout nuzzling against his chest with a much softened sweetness.

20. Draconic Upon further noting its smooth surface he soon realized it wasn’t a star but in fact some sort of rock, blandly opaque like that of salt despite its odd moonlit shimmers, which even stranger still became steadily see-through in the absorbed heat of his fingertips.

21. "(wings made of arms)" Could it... really be......?

22. The Unknown Caller Caller unknown. But for him that was a lie.

23. The Exchange [8th] "Drink?"

24. Don't Escape Making his way around the back, his eyes glide along the sides until he reaches the pile of small logs, the ax resting up against them exactly as he’d left it.

25. The 42nd Story (Ch. 2)* The muffled talking of a woman, determined to be coming from a nearby room.

*As stated in The Ramble Room, this entire story was scrapped. While I didn't share the second and only other chapter despite it being finished, the first chapter was still shared.

26. "2023july11" He proceeds with actually cleaning himself up, a faint smile keeping him still awake and upright.

27. "(Aug31)" Her smile fades a little as she looks him over, a different sense of intrigue making her face bunch up funnily.

28. "hand pun" Her horrid fascination grew to the point of needing a new name for it (morbid curiosity, that's a classic) as the guy turns the hand around while it signs to him, eyes impossibly wide when she notices the similar skin tone under his hood and the missing space in his left jacket sleeve and the red of his eyes when he suddenly looks directly at her.

29. "WereWeek prompt 3" There's this girl – new student who moved in this year – who is so bossy.

30. "trees"* So much on his mind that he can't hold at bay and he can't even walk about it.

*Technically a small one-shot collection, but it's all going to be in the same fic.

31. "here and now"* His fingers stretch out from his palms in front of the glass, hurriedly ruffling through his hair, his tongue sticking out and then grinning ear-to-ear at her again with all the sunlight in the world.

*My current WIP! It's been slow-going, but I can't wait to see it through to the end haha

The rest are unsorted WIPs in my "drabble zone (2024)" doc:

32. 'Cause you are more than just a dream There's an odd look he pauses on her with after hopping off that she can really only describe as him expecting her to feel like he just sealed her in with a wild animal.

33. "blacksmith au" While his body shown well the signs of having dedicated much of his life to his craft, there was a strange affliction splitting much of it in twain, diagonally from hip to shoulder as if sliced by the very heavens itself in warning.

34. Devils don't go to Heaven (working title) “...Where is this?”

Anything else is so disorganized or only a small handful of sentences that I'm just gonna go ahead and stop it here haha

Thanks for tuning in, hope this was at least entertaining, or possibly even enlightening to the sheer amount of WIPs I've manged to collect over the past few years. I do want to go back to them eventually, but one step at a time, eh?

[misc-obeyme]

what’s in your wip/request list of you don’t mind sharing? 😊

I don't mind sharing, anon!

Right now I have about 16 requests, back from when I last had them open. I'm sorry to all who have sent one, I promise I'm still working on them! And I say about because my ask box is wonky and does this thing where it disappears my second to last ask until I answer enough other asks and then it reappears again. So there might be 17 lol.

There are a lot in there, but there are a couple that I'm especially intrigued to do. One is a Barb x MC x Mammon request, which has been brewing in my brain for a bit. I also got a request for Arrie x Barbatos which I was not expecting, but am happy to write lol. I (not so) secretly ship them so. Oh and someone asked for a drabble about Asmo and bartender male MC based on that one ask! I won't list all of them, but yeah those are some of the requests I've got!

As for just wip stuff, I have a half written admiral!Levi story that I want to finish one day. I got the urge to write Levi being a dom and I thought it'd be cool if he kinda flipped the switch when he was in admiral mode.

I also have a sololuci thing I've been working on for a while. Because those two intrigue me.

I haven't started these, but there are a couple of things I've been thinking a lot about. One is another Barbatos x Mammon fic because I'm obsessed with them. I wanna write about them going on a little date and then getting smutty lol. But I've also been thinking a lot about a long Solomon fic. I'm just really interested in the idea of him meeting MC before the exchange program. I like the idea that MC was a sorcerer before ever showing up in the Devildom and that they'd been training under Solomon all along. I just think that would create a really interesting dynamic. I don't know if I'm actually gonna write it, but I've been thinking about it.

I've also kinda been kicking around an idea for a sequel to The Threads That Bind... but no guarantees there either lol.

Anyway I didn't mean to ramble so much, but these are just some of the things I've been thinking about! I admit I haven't done much writing in general lately, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon enough!

Thanks for asking!

[writergirl2011]

I got tagged by @musing-and-music!! Thanks!! 😊 So here goes...

Story I'm proudest of...

Argh. That would be so unfair to the other stories I've written. But if I had to choose, it would be the baseball story, Diamond in the Rough simply because I always wanted to write about baseball and finally found the perfect pairing for it! Not to mention how much research went into the story.

Your story that's gotten the most love online...

Funny that this came up because this just overtook the baseball story for most hits--though to be honest, I probably would've put this anyway given that it actually got several mentions on Twitter during the 2022 J/B fic exchange: you who know what love is (lol, musing-and-music, you tagged me in this and our regency stories are the most popular!!)

Tease a current WIP or idea that you're currently working on...

Speaking of fic exchanges, I just started working on my very short story for the 2024 J/B fic exchange. So sorry, can't...oh, what the heck. Heeeeeere's...a little bit from the next story in the "A Girl for All Seasons" series!!

JAIME: I don’t know whether I’m going to kiss you or kill you next time I see you

TYRION: ahhh I see you talked to ros

JAIME: you didn’t think she’d keep that to herself did you

TYRION: guess not

TYRION: it was for your own good

TYRION: not to mention mine because if I had to listen to you moaning about your blue balls one more minute I was going to smother you in your sleep

TYRION: though now that I think about it that would’ve cured yoru problem too

Your top 3 fandoms...

I only have two. A Song of Ice and Fire and Bridgerton at the moment.

Your top three ships...

Jaime x Brienne, Eloise x Cressida (shut up) and I guess that's really it. If I had to have a third, it would probably be Sansa x Margaery since I've paired them off in some of my fics, but they're not the main focus of my stories and I don't write for them specifically.

Rec someone else's fic...

Yikes, there are far too many I want to rec, but I'm going with the story I received in this year's smut swap because I just love it to death: BT, Phone Home by @angelowl-fics. Brienne as an alien!!!! Jaime as her wannabe boy toy!!!! If you haven't read this already--go read it!!!!

Pick one!

Fluff or Angst: I don't think I write things that are especially fluffy. At the same time, I don't think my fics are super angsty for the most part. Dramatic at times? Sure, but angst--the part that really, really hurts--not so much. But I'll put angst because I do drift in that direction more often than fluff. Where's the "snark" option? That's definitely my speed.

Oneshots or longfics: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Was this even a question???????

Canon compliance or canon divergence: I think it depends on the canon. For example, I'm not great at writing canon fic for J/B, so I stick with mod AUs. I was better at writing canon fic in other fandoms, though. So I'd say that for now, canon divergence. But I'll read both.

AO3 or ff.net: I somehow completely missed the ff.net experience. AO3 all the way.

[weirdbeancurd]

Not so Scary- An ATSV Tickle Fic

Michelle is my OC who is basically a more upbeat version of miguel from another universe. They have a sibling relationship and love bothering each other lol.

@cantsaythetword I finished the fic yippee

I took a small break to work on an article, but I realized it's gonna take a LONG time, so I'm still gonna be writing other stuff in between. We out here multitasking lol

Michelle sighs fondly from the sidelines, amused with Miguel and Miles antics. The two have been getting along better lately, but it was clear the kid still had his qualms with her "brother," which was more than fair. He could be intimidating, sure, but he's a kind person at heart. Anyone could tell that he has a fondness for children, especially the arachkids, as they called themselves.  Man, if only there was a way to show him Miguel's just a big 'ol softie, she thinks. Her attention is pulled back to the present as Miles shies away from Miguel's touch, thinking he was about to subject him to another round of tickles. Suddenly, an idea pops into her head. A mischievous smile forms, resembling the one worn on her mask. Oho, this is gonna be good.

Michelle makes her way over to the two boys, who are still too focused on their own conversation to notice her approaching.

"So, you two having fun? I didn't think you were one for horsing around, Miguel."

Said man looks away abashedly, a slight blush spreading across his face.

"Aw, don't be like that. I was just messing with you." She playfully punches his shoulder and turns to Miles. "Hey little man, wanna see how it's really done?" The boy's eyes light up with excitement.

"Uh, yeah! I wanna see Miguel get knocked down a peg for once. No offense. Sir."

"None taken, but don't be too sure she'll win this match."

"Nah, Miles knows what's up. Come on Mig, don't hold back on me now." Michelle stalks over to the sparring grounds, Miguel in tow.

"Only if you don't either," he replies.

Miles watches as the two circle each other like sharks, posture predatory in nature. His heart thuds in his chest from anticipation; it wasn't often that he got to see some of the top spider society members in an everything-goes type of match. Michelle huffs, narrowing her eyes.

"Wasn't planning to; you look like you need a good whack upside the head."

Somehow, Miles senses him rolling his eyes even with the mask on. Their circling stops, sizing each other up and looking for weaknesses. A tense moment passes where neither dares to breathe. Suddenly, Michelle pounces, making the first move.

Miguel easily evades the attack and counters with a kick aimed at her turned back. His shin meets the back of her forearm, stopping any damage from occuring. Still crouched, she sweeps his legs in one swift motion, knocking him to the ground. Michelle aims a punch at Miguel, only for him to roll out of the way at the last second and strike her in the shoulder. 

"Kick his ass, Michelle!"

"Language!" They both shout.

He watches as they exchange a flurry of kicks, punches and claw swipes that are effortlessly blocked by the other. Their fighting styles are very similar (they are the same person after all), but there are a few stark differences. Michelle moves with confident grace, not quite cocky, but sure of herself nonetheless. She weaves in and out of the way like she's dancing to some unknown tune. Miguel fights with the same assuredness, but trades a bit of elegance for unrelenting ferocity. He keeps his head low like he's ready to launch himself at his prey. They're both apex predators, and blood is in the water. The speed at which they trade blows makes Miles' eyebrows raise in awe. Damn, I hope I get that good one day, he thinks.

Michelle, meanwhile, is carefully analyzing her counterpart for an opening that'd let her turn the tide of the battle. She's playing more defensively to give herself time for analysis, something Miguel takes note of.

"I thought this was supposed to be a spar, not just me wailing on you until one of us gets tired." 

She side steps a lunge, noticing a falter in his footsteps: an opening. 

"Well if it bothers you that much," Michelle says, tackling him to the ground. "I'll stop pulling my punches."

Normally, Miguel would've been able to escape her hold, but she has a couple tricks up her sleeve. Michelle jabs him in the side, causing him to squawk and lose his balance. Hey, he said it himself, tickling isn't cheating.

"Gah! Michelle, what are you-" He crosses his arms over his torso to protect himself. In response, she webs his wrists together and manages to wrangle his arms over his head after a series of distracting pokes to the ribs. Michelle halts his defiance with a couple more well-placed webs. He attempts to scooch away from his assailant, but only succeeds in shifting to a more vulnerable position, his arms folded behind his head like he's lounging at the beach. By the end of it, his face is flushed from the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. 

Miles looks on with amused curiosity. He sees the crooked smile her prodding provokes and puts two and two together. No way, is he- 

Michelle pinches at his ribs, pulling a string of giggles from his throat. Miguel's face is turned away, likely to hide his embarrassment. Oh my god he actually is. The scary ninja vampire is ticklish.

"See, kid? Migs is just one big, ticklish teddy be-"

"Dios mios, shuhut uhup." She glares at him, squeezing his hips rapidly. He cackles and scuffs his heels across the floor, feet failing to find purchase on the slippery sparring mat. 

"What was that, Miguel? I couldn't hear you over all your laughing. Maybe you should tap out."

"Oho, screw yoHOhou!" 

Miles has to admit, the infamous spiderman 2099 looks a lot less intimidating when he's giggling and squirming on the floor like a worm. It's hard to believe that this is the same man who hunted him down on all fours just a year ago. He's torn from his thoughts by a shriek piercing the air. His eyes settle on the sight of his boss desperately thrashing around. Michelle is skittering her claws over his stomach, which is an apparent weak spot. 

"Gehet ohohoff mE! Wait nOHOHO!" Michelle runs her claws over the soft bit of skin on his lower stomach, watching with a smug grin plastered on her face. After a couple moments, she stills her fingers, giving him a much needed period of respite. After all, he's going to need it for what she's going to do next.

"Now Miles," She turns to the boy, moving to sit between Miguel's legs, facing his feet. "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. You can make him do pretty much anything you want, including tap out, if you just do this~" Michelle hooks an arm over the bend of his leg. Miguel instantly knows what she's plotting and snaps out of his laughter-induced daze, pleading for his life.

"Waitwaitwaitwait Michelle doHOHON'T! MIERDAHAHAHA!" She mercilessly claws at his thighs, making him wheeze helplessly. He's brought his elbows together, shielding his eyes, but not hiding his grin in the slightest. His fangs now look less like weapons of mass destruction, and more just like an adorable part of his smile. 

"Language, Miguel!" Miles teases. 

In the chaos, one of his claws manages to slice the webs holding him down, but he still can't escape. She has his leg in a headlock, and the tickling has sapped all his strength. He settles for draping an arm over his eyes and using the other to take turns either pounding the ground or thumping at her back.

"AHAHAHA! PLEHEHEASE! I CAHAN'T-" 

Sensing that's the closest to a forfeit she's going to get, Michelle releases his leg, letting him curl up on the mat, still giggling. Miles rushes over, giddy from this new discovery.

"Oh, man. No one's gonna believe that the Miguel O'Hara is ticklish. I feel like I've just learned classified information." Michelle grins.

"It is classified information, but you've earned it. Don't think I haven't seen the great work you've been doing on missions." She winks. It's true, Miles was making spectacular progress in terms of combat and stealth skills, quickly climbing the ranks. He beams with pride.

"O-oh. Well, thank-"

"Michelle, you are dead to me," Miguel interrupts.

"Wow, rude. You should be glad I didn't tell him that you can purr."

"You can purr?!" 

"N-no! Shut it." He covers his face with his hands, still sprawled out on his back. Suddenly, he turns and points at Michelle, leveling her with a menacing glare.

"You have ten seconds to run."

Her heart sinks. She knows all too well that Miguel is one for revenge. Maybe it was a bad idea to poke the sleeping dragon. 

"Uh, Miles, it looks like I gotta dip. I'll see you late-"

"Ten."

A web tacks itself to the back of her suit, pulling her towards Miguel, reeling her in like a fish. 

"AH! W-wait, Migs, don't get ahead of yourself, now. We can tahAHAHA-" 

Miles chuckles to himself. It's nice to see the more human side of his boss. He certainly seems like less of a monster now that he's seen him let loose, though he's definitely a utterly terrifying tickle monster that he'll need to worry about in the future. But for now, he'll sit back and watch the show.

"Hehehey, you ahahASS! Wait, not tHEHEHERE! MIHIHIG!"

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