#originally this was supposed to be some kind of sprawling au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

addictedtostorytelling · 6 months

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Thank you for your thoughtful answer about Abby Fisher! You sort of answered this in your original response, but if you wouldn't mind elaborating, how would you have written an arc like that? In canon, we see Sara connect to so many victims/survivors in a way that impacts her own mental wellbeing, and I am wondering what it might look like if that connection was maybe drawn out longer than the arc of one episode, especially because the Abby plot has all the holes you pointed out.

hi, anon!

unsurprisingly, my answer got away from me here, so in case you don't want to read this whole monstrosity, the tl;dr version is:

i'd move the storyline up, making both sara and the kid older when it took place. i'd also show their relationship develop in real time as opposed to inserting it into previously established narrative as a retcon. from there, i'd change certain details to make it more feasible that sara and the kid could stay in contact. finally, i'd put different kinds of narrative pressure on sara to make her more willing and able to open up to the kid regarding her own past.

much, much longer version after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

so to start off here, let's discuss the background specs for this potential arc:

as mentioned in the previous post, i'm convinced this storyline would actually work better and be more viable if it were to take place with an older sara who had already "come out the other side" on her s4/s5 story arc and achieved some stability and healing in her life.

i just can't really see her being prepared to adopt a mentorship role for a vulnerable child probably any earlier than s6.

that said, i also think the most ideal time for the story to unfold would be sometime after her breakdown in s8/s9, as well.

for me, the real sweet spot with her would probably be in the s10/s11 range, when she is happy, settled, stable, and thriving (and also has some free time on her hands because grissom is living abroad).

i'm likewise of the opinion that the story itself would work better if we saw sara's bond with the kid in question develop in real time, as opposed to being told about its development long after the fact (and being asked to believe that sara has maintained this really significant and even life-changing relationship for the past ten years that we have nevertheless known nothing about until present).

along those same lines, i also think the storyline would work better if the kid in question were older than five years-old when sara actually bonded with them.

the kid can still be around early elementary school-age (between 5 and 8 years-old) during the commission of the original crime that puts them into contact with csi, but when sara finally gets to know them and adopts that mentorship role in their life, they should be older, between 15 and 18 years-old.

though i don't actually believe sara is bad with small children—again, i am the one writing a sprawling geek!baby au right now—i think the fact that she thinks she is bad with small children would make her reluctant to try to befriend one (see, for example, her protestations to grissom about taking care of brenda collins in episode 01x07 "blood drops").

that so, i tend to suppose she would have an easier time dropping her guard and bonding with a somewhat older foster child in the preteen to teen age group than she would with a literal kindergartener.

i also think that her dynamic with an older kid would just plain be more interesting than one with a younger kid (because older kids can be held morally and intellectually accountable in ways younger kids can't).

as for the kid's foster situation, i think that whereas episode 15x12 "dead woods" has abby fisher in a relatively new placement with foster parents who don't know her as well as sara supposedly does, in this scenario, it would work better to say that the kid had been in the current placement for several years and that their foster parents know them well.

since sara seemingly never experienced that kind of long-term stability in a single placement herself—according to her conversation with glynnis in episode 05x10 "no humans involved," she bounced around a lot—she might end up being a little bit weird and flighty about the kid's situation in an "i'm not quite sure how to relate" type of way that would make this whole scenario more interesting.

so then thinking of the scenario itself:

let's imagine this story as a three-episode arc (which i'm going to title the "memoriae sacrum" arc).

like i said in my other post, i'm not 100% married to the "foster kid realizes, ten years ex post facto, that their father was not in fact a murderer" storyline (particularly as i find it somewhat ham-fisted), but for the purposes of this thought exercise, we can more or less stick to those bare bones.

that said, one element from the original storyline we're definitely not going to retain is the part where they retconned the nature of sara's father's abuse from what we had always known it to be in earlier seasons.

episode 1

in real life, gary dourdan became a persona non grata at cbs after he left csi under unpleasant circumstances back in 2008—hence the reason why tptb at the show never brought warrick back even in flashback in any subsequent seasons.

that so, if these were "real episodes," there'd probably be no way to swing an appearance from him.

however, let's imagine this arc more like a fic, where we can play around with what characters we want.

so let's say that back in 2000 or 2001 or so, sara and warrick work an apparent murder-suicide case together wherein a father seemingly kills his wife and eldest child and severely wounds his youngest child, shooting them*, before dispatching of himself.

* i don't really think the gender of the kid would matter, so imagine what you like here. this kid can still be abby fisher or it could be anyone else. i'm going to use they/them pronouns in reference to the kid to leave the possibilities open.

whereas in the original case, the killings took place at a mountain campsite, let's say, in this one, they happen inside the family home (which makes them even more similar to sara's own family tragedy and also adds to the circumstantial evidence suggesting the father is the cuprit).

at this time, sara is still a csi level ii, so warrick, at csi level iii, is the actual lead on the case.

the youngest child's injuries are profound. however, when they do eventually come-to enough, warrick is able to interview them.

(sara plays no part in the interviews by her own choosing and never interacts with the kid herself at any point during the investigation.)

unfortunately, the kid is unable to provide any kind of useful information to warrick, as, at this time, they are very young and the situation is so traumatic that they simply can't recall much. they also may have sustained injuries during the attack which impact their cognitive abilities/memory*.

* whereas in episode 15x12 "dead woods," abby fisher is rather improbably shown to survive a close-range gunshot to the head with no long-term impact to her cognitive abilities, i think it'd be more realistic for injury to either be entirely noncerebral in nature or to result in some actual traumatic brain injury symptoms.

warrick being warrick bonds with the child pretty immediately—seriously: one of the joys of the early seasons is watching warrick interact with kids, like when he used to babysit lindsey willows or when he interviews suzy in episode 07x10 "loco motives"—and, as is often his wont with child victims of the crimes he investigates, gives his contact information to them and/or their new social worker, telling them to get in touch with him again in case they ever remember anything and/or even just want to talk about the case with him when they're older and interested in learning the facts.

however, in the absence of any testimony from the child which might suggest differently, the evidence in the case does seem to (more or less) indicate the father's guilt.

since the father is dead along with the rest of the family, there's no one to arrest, so, in consultation with grissom, warrick closes the case—a decision sara has no real reason to question at the time.

particularly as, even back then, as would be shown in the flashback scenes, the case does squeeg her out and somewhat trigger her, given its likeness to her own family history, and she feels like the sooner she can move on from it, the better.

fast forward to ten years later, to 2010 or 2011 (i.e., s10 or s11).

at this point, said surviving child, now an older teenager, appears in the lobby of the crime lab one morning at the tail end of the graveyard shift, requesting to see warrick.

of course, by this time, warrick is dead, so once it's determined what the kid wants—which is apparently to discuss their family's case—sara is summoned to meet with them, as she was the other investigator back in 2000/2001.

and let's say the detective on the case was ray o'riley, who is also, by 2010/2011, canonically deceased, so he's not available, either.

sara is, initially, shown to be uncomfortable at this prospect, citing the fact that she's not warrick and doesn't "have a way with kids" like he used to. however, since she is the only csi still working at the lab who has any direct knowledge of the case and its details—grissom signed off on it as supervisor back in the day, but of course he's no longer on staff—she's pushed into taking the meeting, never mind her objections.

here, i'm picturing ecklie being like, "come on, sidle, just deal with this. it was your case."

she initially tries to be very formal with the kid, but it should be clear to the audience that she's wildly uncomfortable and masking.

however, while her going line is that she's "just not good with kids," between the flashbacks and the real-time scenes, the true source of her discomfiture quickly becomes apparent: namely, the whole "orphan whose one parent killed the other in front of them" likeness between her and this kid in particular.

at first, she assumes the kid has come to the lab because, now that they are old enough, they want to hear the full details on their family's case, as per warrick's offer to them back in 2000/2001 (of which sara is aware because warrick wrote it on the business card he gave to the kid and/or their social worker back in the day).

however, to her great surprise, the kid corrects her: they've actually come to provide new testimony in their family's case, based on some newly retrieved memories of theirs.

much like in canon, they would explain that something had recently caused them to remember details about the murder they were unable to remember previously—and these details contradict the notion that their father was the murderer.

however, let's say that in this version of the story, this recollection on their part happens under even more dubious circumstances than the ones in abby fisher's case, like while the kid is under hypnosis or experimenting with hallucinogenic mushrooms or undergoing a controversial form of therapy or the like.

much as in canon, sara is skeptical, believing the kid simply wants to "rewrite their family history" (an impulse she understands but doesn't necessarily condone).

let's say unlike in canon: the thing that draws sara to this kid even more than just the similarities between their respective family histories is their personality.

honestly? the kid is whip-smart and well-spoken but also angry and rough around the edges; blunt and a little bit awkward, etc.

they match sara pretty much toe-to-toe during this interview, countering her every argument.

when sara tries to let them down gently and tell them that in the absence of any new physical evidence, there's no reason for the crime lab to reopen what seems to have been an open-and-shut case, they get in her face, citing (obviously researched) precedents re: the legitimacy of their chosen memory recovery techniques to her in an attempt to change her mind.

with all of their tenacity, it's hard not to be reminded of her younger self.

but in that resemblance, it's also hard for her not to think of how she operated as a young csi: that tendency she had to "chase rabbits" and let her feelings get in the way of her professional judgment.

she remembers how often she used to be disappointed back then; how she'd get her heart hung up on certain outcomes and then have it shattered when they didn't pan out.

let's say—again, since we're pretending we can get whatever "guest stars" we want here—that after sara goes home for the day, this dilemma is one she talks to grissom (on one of his visits to the states) about, explaining to him that for as much as this kid may want her to start digging, it's possible they may not like what she finds if she does, and she'd hate to cause them even more pain.

she opens up to him: she knows what it feels like to be this kid.

maybe she even admits that when she surreptitiously searched through her mom's legal files back in 2004 (see episode 05x10 "no humans involved"), she was hoping to find not "exonerating" information, per se—as her mother's guilt was never really in question—but at least some new context that might have helped her to better understand or come to terms with her mother's actions, or at least to fill in some of the blanks in her memories.

so she gets the impulse, you know?

(of course, she notes, she never did find any previously unknown information to contextualize her mother's crime. there's nothing that could ever really ameliorate "abused schizophrenic wife brutally stabs alcoholic abuser husband to death in his sleep," is there? the whole situation was just as awful and senseless as she always remembered.)

now, she wonders what her role is here as the adult: to play the realist and put her foot down, telling the kid there is no probative evidence to suggest their father's innocence; or to actually listen to the kid and reopen the investigation (because she understands how often kids—and especially foster kids—tend to have their thoughts and feelings discounted and she doesn't intend to be one of those grownups who just brushes off everything a kid says simply because they are a kid)?

at this point, grissom gives her a nudge: asks her when she looked through her mother's files what she felt when she discovered that there was no "hidden context" and things were always just as bleak and awful as she'd always known they were.

her realization: she accepted it.

was disappointed, but accepted it.

because at least then she knew for sure, you know?

and with that determination, sara decides to reopen the case, securing permission from catherine (who is at this time her supervisor) to do so, albeit perhaps more in a "well, i guess i can't really stop you" way than an "i fully support you in this endeavor" one.

she also enlists greg to help her—or rather, he volunteers because he remembers running dna on the original case back in the day, recalling some unknown exemplar collected from the crime scene he couldn't find a match to then and wanting to follow up on it now that codis is a more fully-developed technology.

the next morning, when the kid once again turns up at the lab, sara gives them the news that she's officially reopening the case, though she makes sure to stress: she's not promising them anything.

even with that caution, the kid still lights up.

for the first time, sara sees them smile—and on the one hand, it obviously terrifies her, having all this kid's hopes rest on her, but on the other, she also can't help but feel somewhat exhilarated, offering this kid at least a chance at an outcome she never had available to herself.

episode 2

this episode marks the beginning of sara's investigation in earnest.

the physical evidence in the original case is both limited and ambiguous in nature.

there were no signs of breaking and entering at the house.

the family members were shot with a gun belonging to the kid's father, and his prints were found on the weapon, which was recovered from next to his body, right where one would expect to find it had he dropped it after committing suicide.

however, there was also a pair of microfiber gloves found next to the father's body, which, while roughly the same size as his hands, were not ones the kid recognizes as belonging to their father.

sara and warrick's going theory at the time was that he had worn the gloves to shoot his family members but then taken them off to shoot himself, though they couldn't figure out why he would have done so, given that he didn't necessarily need to conceal his identity as the killer, his intention always being to commit suicide in the end.

inside the gloves, there is one unsmudged print. however, it is seemingly unrecoverable, due to the nature of the fabric.

the mystery dna greg couldn't match back in 2000/2001 comes from a sweaty handprint on a door handle to a part of the house seemingly out of the way of the murders; it doesn't belong to any of the family members, though it's unknown as of yet to whom it does belong or if it is even probative.

there is also circumstantial evidence to suggest that the kid's father may have been experiencing financial troubles at the time of the murders and that the kid's mother may have been having an affair back then, as well, of which her husband had perhaps recently become aware.

there was nothing at the scene to indicate anyone in the family struggled with assailants prior to their deaths, and both the mother and elder sibling were covered over with blankets, indicating remorse on the part of their killer.

meanwhile, the kid's "recovered memory" suggests that the man who came into their bedroom that night had some distinguishing physical characteristic that their father didn't have.

in episode 15x12 "dead woods," abby fisher's memory centers on a distinctive smell, and maybe the same thing could be the case here, though there might also be some other difference instead; i don't suppose this point really matters much, in terms of the overall story arc.

sara decides to run everything from the top, grissom-style (see episode 01x12 "fahrenheit 932").

of course, in this scenario, the added "warrick of it all" would throw a new wrinkle into the whole operation, as she would be sifting through his old work, potentially looking to overturn it.

imagine: once word gets out that sara is revisiting this case, nick becomes upset with her for distrusting warrick's original determination, feeling as if she is just being contrary and maybe even taking advantage of the fact that warrick isn't around to defend his own conclusions anymore.

and for what?

all because some weirdo (possibly drugged-up) teenager dreamt up a pseudo-memory ten years after the fact?

of course, given his ignorance of sara's past, nick doesn't understand sara's sense of personal connection with (and obligation to) this kid—and especially not because sara is trying with all her might to repress her own feelings and memories and "remain objective" on this case, not allowing her own trauma to color either her investigation OR her interactions with the kid.

—speaking of whom.

the kid turns up again at the lab for what is now a third morning in a row to check on sara's progress.

whereas in all of their previous encounters, the kid has had this somewhat surly attitude—think sara fending off grissom's inquiries about her "diversions" in episode 01x16 "too tough to die"—now, they are starting to come out of their shell.

while it's not a total transformation just yet (much like sara, this kid has been burned a lot and is fairly "slow to warm up"), they are becoming gradually more animated and expressing curiosity about sara and greg's investigative activities.

while it's clear they're trying not to get their hopes up too much—per sara's caution—it's also clear they're not fully succeeding in that trying.

more and more, they're becoming invested.

—and so is sara, who, despite her general trepidations about being "bad with kids," finds herself getting along with this one, especially as she starts to see their personality emerge out from behind that façade of jadedness, and especially as the kid starts to speak somewhat more freely about what their life in foster care has been like for the last ten years.

though sara lets on nothing to the kid regarding her own time in the system, we as the audience should be able to tell: the instability and uncertainty of "living with strangers," of always being the "odd kid out," is something she can very much relate to, and she feels for this kid.

deeply.

unfortunately, the gods of forensics don't seem to be on their side: it seems like whatever new investigative avenues sara and greg develop all eventually terminate in dead ends.

the mystery dna isn't in codis.

the details from the kid's memories are hard to get a fix on.

as the episode goes on, sara's stress grows.

she's still fielding passive-aggression from nick, who resents her taking on the case in the first place, and she is also starting to feel pressure from catherine and/or ecklie, who are annoyed with her for continually tying up department resources (including both herself and greg) as she pursues admittedly flimsy leads in a ten year-old solved case.

worse: the more time she spends with the kid, the harder she's finding it to keep her personal feelings out of the case AND out of her interactions with them.

despite her best efforts, she's getting her heartstrings tangled up in the investigation and in them.

she's also thinking about memories from her own past that she hasn't allowed herself to think about for a long time, and she's, frankly, worse for the wear for it.

after a hard shift fraught with disappointment for both her and the kid, she goes home to grissom, and we get a cuddling in bed scene where she admits, somewhat tearfully, to him that there is still so much she doesn't know about what happened between her parents; so much she can't remember either because it all happened when she was still so young or else because she's repressed it.

memory can be a fickle thing, grissom muses, and she agrees.

tells him she doesn't remember when her mom first got sick or why she (seemingly) never received treatment. doesn't remember when her father's abuse started. doesn't remember why her mother never tried to leave or if she perhaps did but maybe somehow failed. she can't recall what, if anything, precipitated the murder—if her dad's abuse of her mom had recently gotten worse or if her mom just finally after so many years snapped or if her mom's delusions perhaps had become stronger or more violent in nature.

she admits: there is so much about that night she has actively tried to forget and so much she is terrified she will someday be triggered to, against her will, remember.

worried about her, grissom wonders if maybe she should hand this case over to greg, but she tells him she feels she owes it to the kid to keep going, at least until she can definitively say whether or not their father was involved in the murders (regardless of if they ever identify any other potential suspects outside of him).

resolved, sara returns to work the next night.

however, as she starts to dig into the case again, she still isn't coming up with anything to challenge the original narrative.

at a team meeting, nick (who, remember, is the assistant supervisor on grave shift at this point) motions for her and greg to shelve the case, as active/current cases have been piling up in the meanwhile "and warrick already solved this one ten years ago anyway." sara pleads to be allowed to continue her investigation, and catherine compromises by pulling greg off the case while allowing sara to continue to work it solo. she also presents sara with a hard deadline: if she hasn't come up with anything probative by the end of the week, then she's got to drop the whole thing and move onto something new.

the kid appears—like clockwork—the next morning and, upon sara's dismal report, practically begs her to keep going, pushing her to dig deeper, to try just one more thing, please, please.

it's here where, overwhelmed by facing so much opposition on all sides, triggered, mixed-up, and half-defeated, sara finally snaps at the kid—says something harsh about how you can't rewrite history just because you want to; tells them that they have to learn to accept the fact that their father was a bad man, and there's nothing anyone can do to change that reality.

at this point, for the first time, the kid—who, until now, has been very tough and even recalcitrant—breaks.

starts crying.

and sara immediately feels awful.

apologizes—and, in an attempt to extend an olive branch—admits (in her awkward but heartfelt sara way) that she was maybe talking more about herself and her father than she was about them and theirs.

slowly, hesitantly, she tells the kid an abridged version of her story, enough that they also can see the similarities between their experience and sara's and know that she understands where they're coming from.

earnestly, she tells them: she wishes more than anything in the world that she could tell them for sure that their father was innocent and that she could find "the real killer" and lock them away.

but the truth, she says, is that that answer may not be the right one, however attractive it may seem.

she gets real with the kid: without more details, there's starting to be nowhere left to go in this case.

the kid offers to try more of the memory recovery technique—i.e., the hypnosis or the shrooms or the therapy—to help in the effort.

but sara tells them: memory is unreliable, and that technique is unproven.

better to stick to science.

she vows, for now, to keep going.

the kid is grateful to her, expressing that they feel like she "just gets it."

cut to the final shot of the episode: sara appearing super conflicted—honored, on the one hand, to have won this kid's trust, rare commodity that it is; but terrified, on the other, that she is still ultimately going to end up letting them down, which is the absolute last thing in the world she wants to do.

episode 3

insert sara wracking her brain to come up with one last avenue of potential investigation here.

eventually, she comes back to the latent print in the microfiber glove—one piece of evidence that was never run back in 2000/2001.

she thinks the print could be the key to unlocking this case now.

however, recovery will be nearly impossible using traditional collection methods.

even with mandy's help, there's no clear answer as to how to lift the print off of the microfiber without destroying it and while still maintaining all its ridge detail.

as the end of the work week is rapidly approaching, sara fears her time to investigate may well run out before she can derive a solution to her problem. not only does she feel like she's letting the kid down but also in a weird way warrick, who she knows would have done everything in his power to get to the truth, were he still around to run this investigation instead of her.

but just as she is about to succumb to total despair, who should approach her but nick, offering up a memory of his own?

—namely, a technique warrick taught him back in the day that might be applicable to her problem.

cue both nick and sara doing their best warrick impersonations: "i can pull a fingerprint off the air!"

of course, there's no guarantee warrick's technique will work, and it could still result in the destruction of the print. however, it is the best option sara has yet encountered.

so, when the foster kid appears at the lab the next morning, sara poses the choice to them: do they want her to take this one-in-a-million chance (knowing that it could well destroy the only remaining physical evidence that might possibly exonerate their father in the process of so doing) or do they perhaps want to hold off in the hopes that technology will eventually advance to the point where the print will be recoverable by some other, less invasive means sometime in the eventual future?

though they are nervous about the prospect, the kid ultimately decides to take the chance.

so sara pulls the print and is successful in so doing. however, she also destroys the surface from which she pulled the print as she collects it, meaning that the print now only exists in digital facsimile form.

mandy then runs the print, and eventually she determines: it doesn't belong to the kid's father.

its existence strongly suggests that another person was on scene during the commission of the murders and that they handled the murder weapon.

unfortunately, there are no hits on this mystery person's identity.

all of these determinations are made during the night, while the kid isn't at the lab, and sara knows that the next morning, she's going to have to tell the kid: while there's a possibility—and even a good one—that their father isn't to blame for the murders, as of yet, there is no empirical way to definitely prove as much, much less to find out who the real killer is.

and there may not ever be.

however, sara doesn't get the chance to tell the kid anything, because they don't turn up at the lab the next morning.

instead, their foster parent does.

come to find out, the kid had been lying to their foster parents, claiming they were going to early-morning "sat prep" and then beelining for the lab instead.

after one of the kid's friends accidentally let it slip to the foster parents that the kid had never actually attended any of the prep sessions, yesterday morning, the foster parents had trailed the kid to the lab. after the kid got home, they then confronted them.

now, upon discovering what the kid was up to, they have become concerned about the kid's level of investment in the case, fearing they are setting themselves up for a major letdown.

the foster parent explains the situation to sara.

apparently, after their family's murders, the kid bounced around in the system for years. during this time, they experienced all sorts of behavioral problems. earned a reputation with the dcfs as a "problem child."

the foster parent and their spouse were kind of a last-ditch solution; the only ones willing to take the kid in anymore.

it took them a while, but they were eventually able to earn the kid's trust and stabilize them.

now, after four or five years of living in their home, the kid is finally on an upswing: doing well in school, enjoying a social life, and just really thriving for the first time since the murders.

however, given the kid's obvious emotional investment in this case, their foster parent is worried that if they don't get the results they want, they might not be equipped to handle to the disappointment and could suffer a major backslide, right at a time when they're getting ready to "launch." the foster parent doesn't want to see them get derailed or "sacrifice their future for the past."

unaware that sara knows this fact all too well for herself, the foster parent explains: the stats on most "graduates" of the foster system are abysmal, so the best chance this foster kid has is to buckle down and study for the sat, get good grades, and attend college.

"that's their pathway out."

the foster parent has now come to sara in order to ascertain whether or not there is actually any hope that the kid will get the answer that they want, all said and done.

when sara explains the somewhat ambiguous outcome with the print, the foster parent decides not to tell the kid and asks sara for help in thinking up some way to "put the kid off the scent" for the time being, at least until they're emotionally prepared to hear potentially disappointing news.

though conflicted, sara suggests that the foster parent could perhaps tell the kid that she'd sent the print off to the fbi for further analysis and that it might be "in process" for a while (months or even years), and the foster parent thanks her for the idea, assuring her it's in the kid's best interest.

they also tell her: she shouldn't expect to see the kid back at the crime lab anytime soon, as it's probably not the best place for a teenager (and especially a traumatized teenager) to be hanging out before school everyday.

though sara outwardly expresses support for this decision, it's clear she's not 100% sold on the notion that concealing the truth is the best course of action here. she is also obviously devastated that she won't even get to say goodbye to this kid.

after her encounter with the foster parent, greg quickly sniffs out sara's upset, which she blames on the fact that she regrets not being able to get the kid a more straightforward answer.

however, he intuits: she's also sad because, despite all her protestations about not liking children, she's actually gotten attached to the kid, and now she's not going to see them again; she is going to miss them.

though he expects sara to resist this assertion, she surprises him by admitting he's right.

cut to a time jump.

the next morning.

and who should turn up at the lab but the kid, having snuck out on their foster parents yet again?

like sara, this kid has the uncanny ability to detect bullshit, and they're not buying the whole "fbi" story that their foster parents tried to sell them. they want to hear the truth from sara herself about her findings, even if it hurts, they say.

please.

at first, sara is reluctant to defy the kid's foster parents' wishes. she is also scared of sending the kid on a downward spiral and fucking up their life.

but then she realizes: she knows for herself how hard not knowing can be.

so she reaches deep inside herself, sits the kid down, and presents them with the truth in the best, most honest way she can think to, even though it's not altogether positive.

she admits: she can't tell them for certain that their father is innocent, though there's at least a chance he is. she also can't tell them who besides their father might potentially be to blame, though perhaps there is someone out there.

maybe, she conjectures, the databases will eventually kick out a match to that print or the dna that at the moment doesn't exist in their datasets; maybe technology will improve enough to someday fill in some of those blanks.

she'll absolutely keep trying, running the evidence periodically to see if anything turns up.

but in the meanwhile, there's no answer.

and there's also a chance that there will never be one.

on instinct, she confesses to the kid: she's never been certain if her mother habitually kept the knife she stabbed her father with under the pillow and pulled it out "in the heat of the moment" to defend herself OR if she had, in an act of premeditation, fetched it from downstairs after he fell asleep that night.

back when she was a kid, the detectives who worked her father's case had asked her, but she couldn't tell them.

and now she's never going to know.

"i keep trying to remember," she says, "the knife block in our kitchen. if there was an empty slot. if i heard her go back down the stairs and then up again. but i can't. that memory is just gone."

she's sorry, she says, she can't give the kid the answer they wanted.

but.

you can live with it.

there are ways to live with it.

someday, she promises, the kid will make other memories that their brain will allow them to retain; happy ones. they'll still carry the memories of their family with them, too. but they'll grow around the grief. have new experiences. give and receive love.

the kid ends up crying then, sobbing, totally unguarded and childlike, that they miss their family, and sara hugs them and says she knows, she knows.

cut to the end of the episode.

the kid's foster parents have come to pick them up from the lab.

they're apologetic to sara that the kid was "bothering her," but she tells them she doesn't mind. she also explains: she told the kid the truth, and they took it well.

"kids are more resilient than you think," she offers.

the foster parents agree.

they start to take the kid home, gently chastising them, on the way out the door, that now that they've skipped sat prep for a week, they're going to have to enroll in another session and take the course over again.

on hearing this statement, sara pipes up, "i could maybe help with that—if you want." stumblingly, she explains that she got a near-perfect score on the sat and attended harvard at age sixteen. "out of foster care," she adds.

and so it is that sara becomes this kid's tutor.

i imagine from this point, though the main storyline would be concluded, we (as the audience) would still see periodic evidence that sara was indeed keeping up with this kid and continuing to meet with them fairly regularly.

there could in time be other storylines for them.

if we want to go the tamer route:

maybe something to do with sara struggling to balance her work responsibilities with her new mentorship role.

alternatively or additionally, maybe her supporting the kid as they deal with some complicated feelings after their current foster parents propose adopting them.

on the one hand, they want to say yes, because they love their foster family and crave that sense of belonging. on the other hand, it feels like a betrayal to their bio family in some way, especially since they're so close to "aging out" anyhow.

maybe the kid meeting grissom and developing a relationship with him, too.

maybe the kid doing some kind of volunteer work or internship connected to the lab to help with their college applications, with sara supervising.

maybe them, with sara's help, starting a forensics club at their high school.

if we want to go the angstier route:

perhaps the kid still occasionally struggles. gets involved with substance abuse or has serious behavioral problems. ends up in trouble with the law, to the point that sara is obliged to confront them.

alternatively, maybe the kid has to unexpectedly move placements, and when they do, they confront sara: ask her why, if she supposedly cares so much, she doesn't offer to foster or adopt them herself. after all, aren't they close? doesn't she get it?

and who knows? maybe sara actually considers the possibility or even decides to go for it. has to broach the topic with grissom. reevaluate their lifestyle. could be an interesting development for both of them.

if we want to go the super angsty route:

turns out, the kid's dad didn't kill their family, and the real killer has somehow realized that the kid survived and the case has been reopened and that sara is periodically checking into it. maybe the killer then targets the kid, knowing they are the only person who could potentially identify them. maybe the kid is in real danger, and it's up to sara to catch the killer before they come to harm.

in any case, i'd definitely want to see more of sara interacting with this kid, building a real relationship with them over time—one that fit with her core characterization and didn't attempt to make her into something she wasn't.

excepting a scenario in which she did actually choose to foster or adopt this kid, i'd like her to toe that line, being a friend and supportive adult but not trying to fill the role of "mom."

i'd like to see her friendship with this kid challenge her in productive character ways and be consistently depicted, to the point where it was easy to believe that this bond was an important and regular part of her life.

anyway.

there would be other ways to write the whole thing than with this "memoriae sacrum" version, certainly.

but that's at least one way i could see the premise of "sara befriends a foster kid" working better than the option we're offered in canon.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

#answered #anon #asks: csi #**#my meta #meta: csi #hypothetical scenario #let's talk shop #csiverse

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judjira · 2 years

Text

lost and found

AN: the plot that started it all. jihyo's story was the original idea that jumped off into apartment au, and it was meant to be a full fic that explored jihyo's relationship with dahyun in the past, before the apartment. who knows ? i might write it (lmao who am i kidding i probably won't) pls enjoy ! (note: this takes place a bit before slippery business!)

pairing: dahyo

apartment au

wc: 1039

Jihyo was tired.

How could she not be?

Years, decades, centuries of her life, given up for her search. A search that would take her across seas, above mountains, under the earth, through the forests. A search she had embarked on since she’d first learned of her return.

A fruitless search.

Civilizations had risen and fallen, species had evolved and died out, entire landforms raised and brought low by the tides.

And yet, she had still not found her.

She had come close a few times, when she could feel her soul so near she could touch it. Those were the most painful, when her search had almost been fruitful, until she came across her corpse, peaceful and content, as she always was when it was time for her to pass.

Jihyo was tired.

How could she not be?

She stepped off of the carriage, looking left and right. The directions she had been given were vague at the very most, and she had been wandering this dense urban jungle.

Humanity had progressed by much in the time she had receded from society, burdened by her lost love. Cities were much more than she was used to, sprawling skyscrapers that touched heaven, endless roads that formed labyrinthine tunnels, an uncountable amount of people that wandered the streets.

Yes, society had progressed much in the time that Jihyo was away.

“Excuse me, miss, your bus fare.”

A man called out from inside the carriage. Ah, yes. Compensation for travel. Some things certainly did not change over time.

Rifling through the pouch by her hip, she took out a few drachma, remnants of her time in Greece.

“My thanks, sir.”

The man looked confused as the coins were dropped into his hand, looking up at Jihyo.

“Um…ma’am? We don’t…er, accept this kind of currency.”

Really? Now, that was odd. Silver and gold was usually accepted everywhere.

“I have naught but coins on my person. Perhaps there is a service thou might have need of me?”

If not gold, then a favor. Favors could be used for payment anywhere, could they not?

To emphasize her point, she pulled the spear from her back, something that had drawn many gazes to her when she entered the city limits. She noticed no one carried weapons on their persons anymore. Odd, but she supposed people felt safe enough with the city guards. Not her, however.

Holding the spear in one hand, she nodded at the carriage driver.

“Is there someone thou findst a nuisance upon thy person?”

The man’s eyes widened, stuttering in response.

“What? Lady, this is a bus stop. We take money.”

“I’ll take care of it, sorry.”

The next person that walked out of the carriage caused Jihyo’s heart to stop in place.

Raven black hair, pale white skin, lean frame.

Sparkling eyes, soft smile, round cheeks.

No matter the era, Jihyo would have recognized her.

“My love.”

A strangled gasp left her throat.

Her world gave Jihyo a smile, before putting a folded piece of paper in the man’s hands. The man accepted it, muttering to himself as the carriage doors closed.

The carriage took off, leaving Jihyo alone with the woman she’d been chasing her whole life.

“You okay there? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Jihyo could not believe it. For years, she had spent all of her efforts searching lands near and far for her love, a Hero in everything but name.

And here she was, appearing to her when she was not even searching.

“M-my love, is—is it really thine eyes I look into?”

The woman that had stolen her heart tilted her head, eyebrows furrowing.

“I’m sorry…do I know you?”

No memories. Of course, she should have expected this.

“’Tis…’tis I…Scáthach. Thine…thine…”

Thine lover.

The words refused to leave her mouth, a distant ache and reminder of how, in life, she had never been able to confess her dying fervor for her hero.

“Scáthach? Like…Irish mythology?”

The recognition in the woman’s eyes only resolved Jihyo further.

“Yes, yes, I…I’ve been searching so long for you.”

The woman only laughed.

“Sheesh, if you only knew how many times I’ve heard that before.”

Then she smiled, ruefully.

“But…I’m sorry, Scáthach. If we’ve met before, I don’t recall.”

Jihyo cursed every god that lived, to steal away her love’s memories each time, to seal Jihyo in an endless state of torment.

“I…I apologize, I thought…”

Was there any point to any of it then? Her search? What good would it do Jihyo now, knowing that she would be destined to relive seeing the light leave her lover’s eyes?

“I…shall leave thee alone.”

Jihyo turned to leave, sheathing her spear on her back. Perhaps it was better this way, to not subject her heart to the pain of having to see her pass one more time.

But then a hand grabbed onto her wrist.

Soft, but urgent. As she always was.

“Hey, Scáthach, uh…do you need a place to stay?”

Jihyo turned, and the woman of her life stared at her, patiently but meaningfully, as Jihyo swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I…”

“I mean, it’s a pretty big neighborhood, and I’d prefer it if you didn’t get lost or something, y’know?”

For once, it was not Jihyo seeking out her love. It was her love seeking her out. And full of emotion, Jihyo could not find it in her to refuse.

“I…that would be very much appreciated.”

Then she grinned, and Jihyo wanted to sob at the sight of how beautiful she looked.

“Come on. I own a place. You can stay there for as long as you like.”

Jihyo could feel her heart leap into her throat, then remembered the exchange earlier.

“I…have nothing to payeth thee. Unless, thou accepts silver?”

The woman smiled, slipping her hand down from Jihyo’s wrist down to her hand, squeezing quietly. The action alone made Jihyo inhale sharply.

It was her. It was really her.

“Your story would be enough, Scáthach.”

The words left Jihyo’s mouth before she could stop them.

“Jihyo. That is…that is my name now.”

The woman smiled, taking over Jihyo’s mind, soul, and heart once more.

“Hiya, Jihyo. My name’s Dahyun. I’m the Lady of the Sanctuary.”

#apartment au #dahyo #dahyun x jihyo #twice fic #twice fanfic #drabble

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crestfallencrest · 1 year

Text

Bravus Vesperia Magica (Ch. 1)

Summary:

Between babysitting, caring for an injured stray, working a new part time job AND going to school, Yuri finds that his life is pretty busy nowadays. It doesn't help that Flynn keeps fussing at him for putting too much on his plate (which he's NOT, mind you) and taking on the world alone. Yuri knows what he's capable of, and yeah, maybe he's a bit busier than he used to be but if he didn't take on these tasks, then who would? But it's when the new girl with the pink hair suddenly transfers to his school that things start to get strange. And then Yuri finds that his destiny has taken a REALLY weird turn. And the last thing he needed was Flynn to find out so he could say "I told you so." (Basically a Magical Boy/Girl AU origin story!) Read here on Ao3 [x] (Notes at the end)

Chapter 1: Yuri Lowell

Yuri was always fond of the night sky. Whether it was on the rooftop of his school, climbing on top of the city’s towers or even sprawled out on the lawn of his apartment complex– Yuri was simply happiest when he was staring up at the night sky.

He loved how large the sky seemed. Most people would feel rather lonely at the idea of how large the sky was, but not Yuri. Never Yuri. Anytime the stress of life hit a bit too hard, or he found himself feeling lost or lonely, he would always be found staring up at the sky with a content grin on his face.

Zaphias was a big city, however, and due to the lights from the city, a lot of the stars would get overcome and would disappear from sight. The idea slightly bugged Yuri but it was fine. After all, he would sometimes take weekend camping trips hours away from the city, into the plains where he would just lay there and relax, with no one but stars for company.

But even if the stars had been missing from sight, there was always one singular star that would persevere. One that would be there, no matter how bright the lights of the city were and sometimes, when it rained and dark clouds covered the sky, Yuri could swear that this star in particular would be the first one to peek from the clouds as they cleared.

One of his neighbors (and now current landlord), an older man by the name of Hanks, would tell him and his childhood friend stories of this star and Yuri wondered if maybe that’s the reason the star stuck out to him the most. Of course, he was incredibly young when the stories were told so he couldn’t remember any of the details. (He briefly wondered if Flynn did?) But he remembered one tiny thing regarding this star.

Brave Vesperia was its name.

He loved it. He loved that star. He would likely never admit it. But that star gave him a warm feeling in his chest. A warm and almost familiar feeling. Had he known what it felt like, he almost would have suggested that it felt like Home to him.

…However, this did not stop him from feeling a bit freaked out when he woke up from sleep and found himself floating in the endless space above, surrounded by nothing but darkness and stars.

He rubbed his eyes gently, frowning to himself as he looked around. He most definitely didn’t remember signing up for any space programs at school. He wasn’t even sure he was old enough to be in space. Also, if for some reason he did sign up for a space program and just kind of went to space without realizing it, he liked to imagine he was smart enough to put on a helmet for the sole purpose of breathing.

And yet, here he was. Floating endlessly in space, no Earth in sight, and no helmet or spacesuit to be seen. But seeing as he was breathing just fine, he supposed that he could put the spacesuit situation on the backburner for now.

Now, Yuri may not have paid attention in class a lot but he was by all means, not an idiot. He found himself to be rather clever, actually. So with the cleverness that he was so skilled with, he was quickly able to deduce that he was likely dreaming, which was a rarity in its own right. He wasn’t exactly the type to have dreams, as much as they fascinated him.

So for him to have such a strange dream now…. Well, he wasn’t sure what to think.

He drifted for what seemed like forever before he finally spotted it. A star, brighter than all the rest, hovering just ahead, almost as if it was awaiting him. That warm and familiar feeling in his chest returned and he actually felt himself trying to swim through the endless space to try and get closer.

As he does so, he… swears he feels a presence. Almost as if someone was beckoning him to come closer. As he does so, he notices a red stone gently drifting towards him. It pulses as it gets closer and Yuri doesn’t even think before he’s reaching a hand out towards it.

And suddenly, he’s grabbing at the air inside of his room as he finds himself suddenly lying on his bed, staring up at his ceiling.

He lays there for a while, staring at his hand outstretched towards the ceiling, closed into a fist as if he were grabbing for something. He blinks wearily, the homely and familiar feeling quickly fading from his heart as his eyes scan his one room apartment. He can see the sun peeking through his curtains, the rays washing over his near empty room before his eyes trail over to the clock.

7:55 AM… School started at 8:30.

He stares at the clock before letting his hand drop back down onto the bed. “Well. Damn.” He mumbles under his breath.

Flynn was really going to let him have this time.

—

Flynn must have heard the saying “If looks could kill” and decided to try it out and see if maybe he could pull it off.

Because the second Yuri is trudging into the classroom, catching every single person’s attention as he shuts the door behind him, he manages to pick out the icy-blue pair of eyes first. They narrow sharply as a frown appears on his childhood friend’s face and he looked like he wanted to stand up right then and there and reprimand him for being late once again. Honestly, Yuri would have preferred that over the old, drawn out voice that spoke to him from the front of the room.

“Lowell, if you insist on being late everyday, I truly have begun to wonder why you even bother to come to class at all.”

Yuri let a lazy expression trail over to his professor, an older man who wasn’t that much taller than him. As his teacher stood there, running a hand through his graying goatee, he stood behind his podium, eyes narrowed at him in… oh, what was the expression today? Annoyance? Disgust? They all blended together after a while.

“Ah, hey, how’s it going, Ragou?” Yuri shoves his hands into his pockets and leans back on his heels, almost looking a little proud of himself. “Hey, at least I made it to the first class today, right? It could be worse.” It could be worse and it has been worse.

A light tapping catches Yuri’s attention and he finds his eyes darting over to the desk of the blonde that he knew better than anyone and he actually had to hold back a laugh as he noticed Flynn was currently bent over his desk, tapping his pen angrily against the wooden desk as he tried his hardest to stay out of the conversation. Judging from the looks of their fellow students, Yuri was not the only one who noticed Flynn’s irritation.

“Come on, Flynn, calm down, you can’t let him get to you like this everytime–”

A clear of the throat tears Yuri’s gaze away from Flynn and one of the girls in his class trying to calm him down. (Red hair, ponytail, amber colored eyes… She was a twin… which one again?) He looks back to Ragou, who is still glaring at him as if he were the scum of the Earth. Yuri merely gives him a shit-eating grin in reply.

“Lowell, I will be bringing up this intolerable behavior to the Principal. We’ll see how long the attitude stays intact.” Ragou waves his hand towards the classroom. “Sit down and I better not hear a peep from you for the rest of this class.”

Yuri whistles softly. Ragou was once again pulling out the ‘Big Cards’ as Yuri jokingly called them. He wondered how many times he had gone to see the Principal this month… This must be the fourth time, right?

He hums to himself, moving to brush his bangs out of his face. “Man, maybe I should’ve actually taken the time to eat breakfast…” He mutters to himself as he moves towards his desk, which sat by the window on the other end of the room.

He immediately halts his movement however as his eyes actually trail over to his desk for the first time since arriving in the classroom.

In his desk, an unfamiliar girl sat there, green eyes trained on her textbook and fingers absently running through short pink hair that fell just above her shoulders in a bob. Yuri eyed her curiously, raising an eyebrow.

He hadn’t heard about any new students coming to their school recently. He was pretty positive that he would have heard Flynn mention it. Especially since he was the student council president. Flynn knew everything and everyone at this school… at least, that’s what it seemed like sometimes. But even if he didn’t, Flynn would have definitely known about a new kid. After all, Flynn was also in charge of giving tours of the school. So, surely he must have known about this girl…

Why was Yuri just now hearing about it though?

The girl suddenly blinks and turns her head to look up at him. Yuri stares back. There’s a moment of tense silence between the two. Yuri could hear as Ragou proceeded with his teachings at the front of the room, which meant that Yuri couldn’t quite ask exactly who she was or what she was doing in his seat but–

The girl’s green eyes trail him up and down as she seems to be… examining him quite thoroughly. Her eyes linger on his raven colored hair, pulled up into a clip, his dark gray eyes, and his posture. Yuri got the feeling that she was looking for something but her blank expression made it hard for him to tell exactly what she was looking for.

He shifted uncomfortably, looking over his shoulder and noticing that some of his classmates were watching them curiously, past their notebooks or textbooks. Man, this was getting awkward.

“Hey–”

“Ah… Oh! I’m sorry, is this seat yours?” She pushes out a panicked whisper, eyes widening as she moves to close her book but Yuri quickly stops her by holding out a hand.

“Whoa, easy there. You don’t have to move.” He snorts out, readjusting his bag onto his back. He turns to look over his shoulder again, trying to locate another empty seat. “Technically, yes, but it’s fine.”

“Oh– No, no, please.” She moves to get up but Yuri quickly waves her off again. “Please, take back your seat.” “Hey, forget it.” Yuri quickly doubles down, trying to keep his voice down to a whisper. “It’s no big deal. We can trade back later if you want.” He spots another empty desk across the room.

He does grimace a bit, as it was near the front of the classroom and it also put him in Flynn kicking range, with Flynn sitting right behind the desk in question. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to deal with getting called an asshole for kicking the new kid out of her desk in the middle of class.

“Are you sure? I really don’t mind moving over to a new desk. I really didn’t mean–” “Lowell!”

Both Yuri and the girl both flinch back in surprise as they whip their heads towards the front of the classroom. Once again, Ragou is glaring daggers into Yuri, as he impatiently taps his fingers on his podium.

“Is getting yourself in trouble not enough for you? Must you try and distract Miss Estellise from her studies as well?” Ragou snaps, very clearly at the end of his patience. “Have a seat before I seat you outside of the classroom, do you hear me?”

The girl– Estellise (What a strange name…) – stares up at Yuri with horror and guilt on her face, but Yuri, once again, waves off Ragou’s sharp and venomous words with ease.

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Yuri gave Estellise a quick pat on the back to signal that there were no hard feelings about the situation before he moved to take his seat in front of Flynn. “I was just wondering when you were gonna introduce me, that's all.”

Ragou didn’t seem too interested in entertaining Yuri with an answer and instead, decided to ignore the boy altogether as he once again proceeded with his teachings. As Yuri finally sat down in his seat, he could still hear the tapping of the pen behind him. He had half a mind to look over his shoulder at Flynn but instead, he found himself drawn to the girl that sat in his desk, watching as she quickly tried to compose herself and return to studying her book.

He didn’t know her. He didn’t think he did, anyway. He had a tendency of remembering people that he’s met, so long as they deserved to be remembered by him. And this girl… she seemed nice. She didn’t seem stuck up or mean in any way and her name was unique enough that if he had met her before, he definitely would have recognized the name.

Her name is Estellise. Estellise. Estellise.

He repeated the name in his head. Over and over. He didn’t know her. He absolutely did not know her.

…and yet, she seemed so familiar.

—

The school day seemed to have dragged on without event. Yuri managed to stay underneath the radar for most of the day. It was quite honestly a new record for him. Maybe that alone could convince Flynn to ease up on him when it was time for the scolding that was undoubtedly on its way.

Thankfully, when lunch time pulled around, Flynn did not have the time to waste on him and instead opted to show Estellise around the school instead of eating. Yuri couldn’t help but sigh at that. And of course, Estellise seemed to agree and under the murmur of their classmates, he could hear their conversation just barely from his seat.

“Ah… but Flynn, wait–” Estellise calls out to him as Flynn begins to take the lead.

He stops and turns, offering that small and simple smile that he always wore on his face when he spoke to people. Yuri snorted to himself. It really was no wonder how Flynn became so popular and managed to score the position of Student Council President.

“Yes, Miss Estellise? What’s wrong? Did you change your mind?”

“Oh– uh.. No, I’d like to tour the school, but you don’t have to come with me! Please, you seem so busy. You should take some time to eat your lunch!”

Yuri can hear Flynn chuckle from where he sits. It was such a small and gentle sound. One he could pick from a crowd easily. After all of the years he spent with Flynn, he could definitely pick certain Flynn characteristics out in a crowd.

…Hmm. Maybe that was a talent that he should keep to himself.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me, Miss Estellise.” There’s that damned smile again. “It’s my job as the student council president to make sure that you are comfortable and familiar with this school, after all. I will have plenty of time to eat afterwards, I promise.”

Ah, right. A reminder hits Yuri’s brain at full force and he suddenly reaches down towards his bag, having laid it by his chair when he had come in that morning. Now where was it….?

“O-Oh… Well, if you’re certain, then I very well could not say no.”

Yuri hums to himself, moving to pull his bag into his lap. He really should clean this thing out. So many ‘forgotten’ homework assignments… he was sure his teachers had given up on trying to get them from him. He should be in the clear to throw them out. But that wasn’t important. Where in the hell was it…?

“I’m glad to hear it! Then by all means, please follow me.” Flynn smiles, nodding his head towards the door before leading Estellise away.

….Aaand there it was! Yuri pulls a plastic bag from his own bag, looking to make sure that the sandwich inside hadn’t gotten squashed or anything. The bread was a bit flattened but thankfully the beef, lettuce and tomato were still hanging in there quite nicely. He grins and quickly calls over his shoulder. “Hey Flynn!”

The sound of Yuri’s voice sent a jolt through Flynn it seemed, as he halted immediately, moving to shoot a quick glare of warning to Yuri, only for his anger to slip and falter as the kebab sandwich bag was tossed in his direction. He caught it with ease and looked it over for a moment.

Yuri could see it. Just the smallest hint of a smile on his face.

“This better not have been the reason you were late, Yuri.” He calls back, moving to open the bag to pull out one half of the sandwich.

Yuri looks over to the two of them, waving a hand casually. He can see Estellise glancing between them, a curious look on her face as he answers back, “What kinda thanks is that? I feed you and you decide to scold me?” His eyes trail over to meet Estellise. “Don’t let him fool you, Miss Estellise.” He lets her name draw out of his mouth with a teasing grin. “This guy likes to nag people to death. Especially people who cook food for him so he doesn’t starve.”

Flynn has to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes as he moves to pull one of the two slices out. “Miss Estellise, that absolutely frustrating man over there is Yuri. While he seems rough around the edges, please do not let that fool you. He’s a decent guy… although he could stand to push himself a bit more and come to class on time.”

Estellise just nods silently, green eyes staring hard at Yuri.

Man, she… really liked staring, didn’t she?

Yuri shifted in his seat, eyeing Estellise suspiciously for a moment. She still seemed like she was looking for something. He took a glance down at his uniform, trying to find something wrong with it. Sure, his top few buttons were undone but the rest of them seemed to be buttoned up properly. Was it because his jacket wasn’t all buttoned up all perfect like Flynn’s was? Or maybe it was because his hair was up in its usual messy clip? He didn’t have time to shower this morning so he just kinda threw it up into something acceptable, at least so he thought.

“Um… Miss Estellise?” Flynn’s voice breaks through again and Yuri looks up from his outfit and over to him. Judging by the confused look on his face, he must have also noticed just how heavily she was staring at Yuri. “Are you alright?”

“Oh!” Estellise tears her gaze away and smiles up at Flynn. “Yes, I’m sorry. I just got lost in thought…” She turns back to Yuri and gives him a tiny, polite bow. “It’s so very nice to meet you, Yuri. My name is Estellise. Thank you for letting me sit at your desk! You are free to take it back, if you’d like.”

“Uh… yeah. No problem.” Yuri nods towards Estellise as he takes a bite out of his own food. His eyes dart back to Flynn as they both exchange a quick glance. He swallows his bite and then turns back in his chair. “Nice to meet you too, Estelle. Enjoy your tour.”

The nickname came out before he could even stop it. He frowns to himself for just a moment before deciding to just drop it for now. Estellise was just simply too hard to say was all. But he can hear Estelle let out a tiny little gasp at her new nickname and when she speaks again, her smile is evident in her voice.

“I will, thank you very much! Enjoy your lunch!”

Yuri doesn’t turn to watch them leave and just gives a tiny nod in response. As he bites into his sandwich again, he suddenly feels a body move into his personal space. He doesn’t even have to look to know who it is. “Yuri…” Flynn speaks softly, laying a hand on his desk as he leans in.

Yuri swallows his sandwich and stares up into the blue eyes. Flynn’s got his glasses on again and he can’t help but admire just how much they suit him. The glasses were a recent addition to his look. He normally only needed them for reading and writing but somehow, Flynn always forgot to take them off when he didn’t need them. Yuri couldn’t possibly fathom how. Glasses seemed like they would simply get out of the way. If Flynn didn’t look so good with them on, Yuri would have had half a mind to reach up and take them off himself.

“What’s up?” He hums, noticing the focused look on Flynn’s face. “Don’t you have a tour to do?”

There’s a quick nod. “Yes, I do. But don’t think I’m letting you get away from this.” He remarks, jabbing a finger into his chest.

“Oh, trust me. I didn’t think you were.”

“I’m not.” There’s a pause. A hesitation. “I have student council meetings after school today. Wait for me, alright? I’m going to walk you home.”

To any normal person, that would sound like a demand. And, in a way, it was. But the way Flynn’s tone carried it, Yuri knew it was more of a request rather than a demand. The way Flynn’s eyes softened a bit as well helped Yuri pin it as such.

A request that he would, unfortunately, have to deny.

“I can wait after school at the very least.. I have something to do after school anyway–”

“Is it Repede?”

Yuri immediately shoots a hand up and covers Flynn’s mouth with it. “SHHH– shut the fuck up, man.” He harshly whispers, quickly earning a surprised but apologetic look from Flynn.

Yuri glances around the classroom, making sure that no one seemed to be eavesdropping before he leans in a bit closer to Flynn.

“Yes, it’s Repede. Stop talking about him at school, dude. The teachers will ship him off to the pound in a heartbeat.” He huffs and then leans back again. He pointedly ignored the way Flynn’s cheeks darkened. “Aside from that though, no, you can’t walk me home. I’m heading to Karol’s after school. His parents went out of town today. Again.”

Flynn’s face falls a bit but it’s quickly replaced with one of understanding. “Right… Well–” “Flynn.” Yuri suddenly reaches up to flick the man on the forehead. “Instead of trying to figure this out right now, how about you go do that tour? Estelle’s looking a little lost over there.” He pauses and quickly adds. “Plus, I want to finish my food. You’re bothering me. Go away. Shoo.”

He says it with a grin and he receives a tiny smile in return.

“Bothering you is the only way I can pay you back for half of the things you do to me.” Flynn gives one final remark before standing up straight and moving back over to Estelle. “I’m sorry, Miss Estellise. Let’s get going now, shall we?”

As he hears them leave the room and make their ways down the hallway, Yuri slowly puts his sandwich down and runs a hand over his face.

Damn, why was it so hot in the room all of a sudden?

—

Yuri never really considered himself a Dog type of person. They were alright. Pretty loyal and sometimes they could be pretty smart. But even then, he never really liked trying to communicate with something that clearly didn’t understand him. He had enough responsibilities as it was.

Repede made him change his tune very quickly.

He had found the small pup just outside of the school, hidden behind the old gym that was hardly used for anything other than storage now. He had ducked behind the building one day, trying to stay on the down low after pissing Flynn off beyond belief (though, thinking about it now, he couldn’t even remember what the fight was about.).

It was then that he saw the tiny lump of fur, lying on the ground in its weakened state. The young pup was hungry, dehydrated and had a pretty nasty gash over its left eye. It was probably the most nerve wracking experience of Yuri’s life. He, for some reason, decided to take it upon himself to set the pup up with a little home behind this building.

Thus began several weeks of coming behind the building, after school, to tend to and take care of the little puppy that he had named Repede. And any day that he couldn’t, he convinced Flynn to step in.

The scar over his eye was nearly healed up by now, which left Yuri with a giddy feeling in his chest.

“You’re looking so much better nowadays, Repede.” He praised the dog, moving to give him a good petting before pulling out some of his leftover sandwich. “Here, I got a treat for you. For doing such a good job on your recovery!”

“Woof!”

The tiny bark earns a gleeful laugh from Yuri as he watches Repede jump up and nab the remaining sandwich from his hands. “Hey now, what ever happened to having patience? Though I suppose I can’t blame you. It WAS a pretty good sandwich.”

He watches as Repede runs circles around him before quickly hopping into his lap, clearly wanting to be held. Yuri can’t help but smile, a warm feeling in his chest. “Man… it’s nice feeling wanted for once.” He jokes only to very quickly eat those words as Repede starts gnawing on his hand. “Okay, nevermind. I see that I’m only a chew toy to you.”

He hears a tiny and almost playful growl in response.

Yuri wiggles his hand a bit for Repede to try and catch as he examines the dog more closely. Repede, despite clearly having dog-like attributes, did not look like most dogs. His fur was definitely unique and it seemed like he had more wolf-like qualities than dog qualities. To be honest with himself, Yuri did kind of hope that Repede was a wolf… that would be about ten times cooler than a dog.

Something else that Yuri noticed pretty quickly was that Repede was… amazingly smart. Almost scarily so. It seemed like Repede was able to respond to everything that Yuri said and Yuri felt insane enough to believe that maybe he was beginning to understand Repede as well. The strange thing, though, was that it just seemed to click one day. There was no gradual learning of the dog’s habits or behaviors… the two of them just… clicked.

Repede once again began to gnaw at Yuri’s left hand, only stopping occasionally to rub his face against the boy’s wrist. “Man, you’re lucky that you’re cute, Repede. Otherwise, I dunno what I’d do with all of this chewing and clinginess you’ve got going on. I’m not a snack, you know…” He remarks under his breath before freezing when he hears footsteps approaching.

He stays quiet and is ready to snatch Repede up and hide him away in a second’s notice, knowing that Repede wasn’t really allowed to be staying on campus. But Hanks never seemed too thrilled at the idea of having animals in the apartment, so until Yuri could ask, he couldn’t necessarily bring Repede home yet. Maybe Hanks would give him a break and a chance if he got Flynn to go along and suck up to Hanks with him.

Speaking of…

Footsteps slowly approach and Yuri stays on guard for just a moment, ready to hide Repede… when Flynn turns the corner. “Hey.” He calls out, moving to remove his glasses while sitting down next to Yuri and Repede.

“Hey.” Yuri’s simple response came out as a sigh of relief as he released Repede from his arms and watched the tiny pup quickly hop over to Flynn, eager to lick the man’s face.

Laughter bubbled from Flynn’s throat as he lifted the pup into his arms, letting the small creature lick his cheek. “Hello there, Repede!” A smile appeared on his face, causing Yuri’s heart to do a small flip in his chest. “Oh, come now, it hasn’t been that long since I’ve last visited you!”

Repede gave an excited whine in response, ceasing his licking for now and just settling for wagging his tail in excitement as he wiggled and turned in circles on Flynn’s lap. Yuri began to chuckle as well as he reached a hand over to pet the top of Repede’s head, trying to soothe the pup.

“Hey now, chill out. It’s just Flynn. Who the hell gets so excited about seeing Flynn?”

“Contrary to your beliefs, Yuri, I actually do consider myself a somewhat decent person to be around.”

Flynn’s response held no venom, but of course, neither did Yuri’s insult. Instead, they sat there, smirking a bit at each other before glancing down to Repede, who was now wiggling out of Flynn’s grasp. Once Flynn let go, Repede returned to Yuri’s side, licking gently at the man’s left-hand wrist. “Oh, here we go again…” Yuri couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“It seems like you and Repede have gotten even closer.” Flynn suddenly remarks, glancing between the two. Upon further inspection, a small and fond smile had suddenly appeared on the man’s face. “I’m so glad. So, does this mean you’ll be talking to Hanks about him soon?”

Yuri is silent as he lets Repede gnaw on his hand. “...I’m working on it.” He sighs as he leans his head back.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Yuri. Hanks would understand, I just know it–”

“I said I’m working on it, Flynn.” Yuri cuts him off, a tiny pout appearing on his lips. “Don’t worry so much.”

“Don’t worry so much, he says.” The response came out a bit sharper than probably intended and Yuri could only let out a sigh.

Here we go…

“Speaking of worrying…” Flynn suddenly turns to face Yuri, a slow glare washing over his face as he jabs a finger into Yuri’s shoulder. “Yuri, what is with you lately? You’ve been running late almost every day for the past month now! I mean, you had late streaks before but at least you had the courtesy of spreading them out across the month. But this last month, you’ve been…”

The words seemed stuck on the end of Flynn’s tongue and his eyebrows furrow, as if having trouble describing it. Yuri watches him ponder for the right word, watches his blue eyes trail down to his hands as he wrings at his wrists.

“...distracted?” Flynn glances up to Yuri and it’s clear he’s studying his expression, to try and find any indication that he would be correct in this assumption.

…Which he wouldn’t be too far off.

“Well… I was trying to keep this under wraps for a while but…” Yuri leans back, folding his arms behind his head as he glances up at the sky, still as bright and blue as ever. They still had a few hours of sunlight left, thankfully. “I picked up a part time job at a restaurant, a few blocks away from the apartments. Waiting on tables, dishwashing, cooking, that kinda thing.”

“What?” Yuri can feel Flynn lean closer, voice raising in disbelief. “What happened to babysitting? Didn’t you just say you had to go take care of Karol?”

“Yeah, I’m doing that too.”

“But aren’t his parents out of town for days at a time?”

“I got permission to have Karol come hang out at the restaurant, it’s fine.”

“Yuri…”

Yuri could hear the disapproval in Flynn’s voice. He frowns and cracks an eye open to peek at Flynn, and sure enough, it’s written plain on his face that he didn’t necessarily like what he was hearing. “I thought babysitting gave you plenty of money.”

“I only get paid at the end of the month. And it’s not enough to pay rent.” He regretted the words as soon as they came out.

“Rent?” Flynn’s voice raises as he shifts even closer, grabbing Yuri by the shoulder. “Why is Hanks making you pay rent?!”

“Whoa, Flynn, chill out for a sec!” Yuri huffs and grabs Flynn’s hand on his shoulder, pushing it off. He’s not angry, not yet, but a frown does come across his face in annoyance. “Hanks isn’t making me do anything. I chose to start paying rent.”

“Why would you do that? He was letting you stay there for free, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, but I’m about to be an adult, Flynn. I have to take some responsibility, you know?”

“Responsibility, sure, but you’re only seventeen, Yuri!” Flynn gaped at him, still holding onto Yuri’s wrist after his hand had been shoved off his shoulder. “You’re practically raising a twelve year old and now you’re working two jobs and it’s clearly affecting your school life! If you keep coming in late like this, you could get into trouble for attendance issues… not to mention your attitude towards the teachers… and the fights you keep getting into–”

“Flynn–” Yuri groans and pulls his hand away. “It’s not a big deal. It’s only a few nights a week. Mostly weekends. Look, if it makes you feel better, I’ll just set an extra alarm.”

“But Yuri, how in the world do you even find time to do homework?” Flynn’s frown drops even more at this. “Have you even been doing the homework?”

“Hey, I’m passing the tests, you know?”

“Yuri.” Flynn’s voice falls low and Yuri actually has to force himself to look down at Repede instead of the warning glare coming from his friend. “That isn’t what I asked…”

“I know…” Yuri lets out a heavy sigh. “Look, I’ll set an earlier alarm and just binge the homework before school.”

Granted, he would only be getting about five hours of sleep but he knew better than to say that out loud. Unfortunately, Flynn was always too thoughtful for his own good that he picked up on that in an instant.

“Yuri, no. You need your sleep too. You’ll kill yourself.” Flynn’s hand is resting on his shoulder again and Yuri suddenly didn’t have the energy to shove it off this time.

They sit in silence, Flynn trying to come up with a plan on how to convince Yuri to accept Hanks’ generosity for just another year and a half until they graduate and quit his new job while Yuri tries to think of a way to get Flynn to back off of his case. Repede seemed to notice the high tension and began to wriggle between the two of them with a whine.

“Yuri, why don’t you come stay at the dorms–”

“You know how I feel about the dorms.” Yuri grumbles, stressfully running a hand through his hair. “Look, can we just drop this for now? Please?”

Flynn opens his mouth to protest but nothing comes out. After one quick final sigh of disapproval, he thankfully drops the subject and quietly reaches over to pet Repede. It’s clear that the man was going to be mulling over this for at least the rest of the week, if not longer, so Yuri decided to at least try and comfort the poor guy.

“Hey, if it makes you feel better, I’m cutting down on babysitting jobs. In fact, as soon as I graduate and can adopt Karol, I’m done with babysitting!”

Flynn’s eyes dart over and he just looks exasperated. “Yuri, stop telling Karol that you’re going to adopt him. He might start to believe you.”

“Who said I’m lying?”

“Yuri, he has parents.” A tiny snort leaves Flynn’s mouth. “I’m sure they’ll object to you adopting their son.”

“You said it yourself. I’m already practically raising him. I’ll just ask for his parents’ permission.” Yuri grins only to mock a smack on his forehead. “Oh wait, that’s right. They’re not home. Again.”

Yuri rarely ever let himself vent about something but Karol’s parents and their work habits were probably one of the few things he would allow himself to go off on. They were consistently having to leave town for work or trips for long periods of time. Karol rarely got to see his parents. Hell, the boy once admitted to him that he barely even knew his parents. When Yuri asked who in the hell watched him before he started babysitting, Karol mentioned his grandfather but apparently the guy was simply too old to take care of a child.

And when he passed away, his parents simply deemed Karol old enough to stay home alone.

He was only ten-years old at the time.

“I still think that they should be reported. Karol shouldn’t have to be your responsibility.” Flynn once again decided to offer his two cents. And he meant well. Yuri knew he did. Flynn had come over a few times while he was watching over Karol and the two got along splendidly.

“Yeah but then he’d be tossed around from foster parent to foster parent.” Yuri pointed out. “Or maybe some distant relative that he doesn’t even know. He might even have to move away, far from here. Far from his friends and his home. That’s not fair to him. At least with me watching out for him, he can live as normally as possible. Yeah, I’m not an official guardian but at the very least, I can be there for him. Plus, his parents have my name written down on his papers at school so I can technically pick him up if he gets sick and I can take him to the doctor and all. They trust me.”

He hoped they trusted him. He hated to think otherwise. If they willingly left their kid in the hands of someone they didn’t trust, then that meant… No, he shouldn’t go there. It would likely lead to him doing something he would probably regret later.

“Speeeaking of Karol, I should probably get going.” Yuri gently moves Repede off of his lap and urges him towards his little dog bed and then he turns back to look at Flynn. “You should also get going–”

He goes silent when his eyes meet Flynn’s crystal blue eyes and suddenly, he feels something in his chest spark up. Flynn’s tone earlier was full of disapproval, at least in Yuri’s eyes. He had done nothing but undermine Yuri’s choices with suggestions of his own. It was, of course, nothing that Yuri wasn’t used to. That was always how it went with Flynn. He was used to it. It was just how Flynn did things.

What he wasn’t used to was having Flynn stare up at him like this. His eyes were so full of an emotion that Yuri had a hard time deciphering. The way Flynn stared at him, there was clearly some form of admiration there, though it was quickly overshadowed by something more. Sadness? Silent pleas? Whatever it was, it left Yuri speechless for once in his life. His confident demeanor quickly vanished as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet, staring at the man in front of him.

He couldn’t stop from flinching when he felt Flynn’s fingers reach up to brush against his cheek Yuri felt himself glancing away, face twisting slightly, but Flynn’s hand gently cups his face and guides his eyes back to the soft and worried blue eyes that he was trying to avoid.

“Yuri…” Flynn’s eyes darted down, uncertain of his next few words. “… you’re a very kind person.” The whisper leaves his lips with a saddened sigh and Yuri can feel his heart beat faster and faster by the second as Flynn inched closer. “You’re so selfless, and kind, and… and…”

Yuri sucks in a sharp intake of breath. Why in the hell was Flynn suddenly acting like this? Somewhere, deep in his chest, he could feel a puddle of regret forming for upsetting Flynn. He takes a deep breath. He can’t regret. He won’t regret. It was hard work, yeah, but it was necessary.

“...Nah… I’m nothing special.” He forces the words out, tries to sound casual. Normal. Calm.

His heartbeat sounded so loud in his head. Could Flynn hear it, he wondered?

“I really don’t want to hear that from you.” Flynn’s fingers lightly touch his hair, tickling against the skin of his neck. Was he closer? When did that happen?

“Well, it’s true. Compared to the Great Scifo…” A light grin appears on Yuri’s lips but it wavers when Flynn’s hand pulls him even closer, maybe too close because he can feel the warmth from Flynn’s face, his breathing, why was he shaking, who was shaking–?

“Stop saying that.” Flynn’s eyes softly close.

“It’s true and all of the students will attest to that. Sodia definitely would, I… I…” Yuri’s thoughts trail to a stop as Flynn’s other hand moves to cup the other side of his face, fingers moving to tangle into his hair.

It feels nice, why does it feel so nice?

Flynn speaks again and Yuri can feel his breath on his face, on his lips. They’re close, noses touching but lips just barely grazing. “Please don’t fight me on this… Why do you always do this? Carrying the world on your shoulders, alone… insisting that you’re nothing special, when… when to me, you’re…”

Flynn’s eyes open again and he’s just staring up at Yuri with those soft blue eyes again, his expression pleadingful as his thumb moves to brush lightly against his bottom lip. Yuri can feel himself wavering, if for only a moment, and he can’t keep his mind from racing through nonsensical thoughts. His cheeks felt hot. Everything felt hot. Everything was spinning. As he sighs and presses his forehead against Flynn’s, his eyes close to just take a moment to breathe.

And yet, he still feels sick.

He can feel Flynn move forward to try and close the gap between their lips but it becomes just a bit too much for Yuri as he pulls away, out of Flynn’s reach. He backs up, mustering up the best grin he can under these circumstances. “... I’ll see you later, Flynn. Don’t forget to eat dinner again tonight, yeah?”

“Yuri–”

Yuri pushed past him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he moved past the man. Flynn’s face twists into something a bit pained as he watches Yuri, reaching out to try and grab his hand once again but Yuri moves a bit too fast for him. As Yuri turns the corner, ready to flee the scene, a movement of pink is seen in the corner of his eyes. He freezes and whips his head around, catching sight of a pink haired individual quickly diving into the doors of the gym.

What was Estelle doing here?

“Yuri?”

Flynn’s voice catches him off guard and Yuri can quickly feel the irritation bubbling up in his chest. Was she spying on them?

“Augh– Man, later, okay?” Yuri groans and runs a hand through his hair before gesturing towards the doors of the gym. “Instead of chasing after me, maybe you should go catch our little spy and make sure she knows not to tell anyone that Repede is back here, alright? I don’t have time to talk to her too, I’ve gotta go.”

Yuri didn’t wait for a response before he took off with a jog. Flynn was a smart guy. He knew he’d be able to find Estellise and explain the situation. She seemed like a nice girl as well so it wasn’t like she’d do anything bad to Repede. But he really just did not want the teachers to catch wind of the pup. At least, not until he was able to take Repede home.

He’d have to ask Hanks tonight.

He decided to focus on that for now instead of wondering why Estelle had been spying on them. It was only her first day at school and yet, she had pushed the creep factor all the way to a solid 50, at least.

Maybe he should confront her at school tomorrow.

—

“So she just kept staring at you?”

Yuri hums with a nod as Karol wanders over with a small selection of carrots. He takes them with a low hum, beginning to cut them into pieces onto the cutting board and quickly tosses them into the pot with ease. “Yep. Kept eyeing me up and down, like she was looking for something.” He pauses, as he stirs the carrots into the beef stew. “Mm… maybe one or two more carrots, Boss.”

“Got it!” Karol grinned and bounded back over to the fridge, grabbing two carrots and hurrying back over. “Maybe she thought you were scary!”

“Well, when people think I’m scary, they usually try to avoid eye contact.”

Karol folds his arms on the counter of his kitchen, watching as Yuri stirred the stew that was to be their dinner that night. He has a concentrated and thoughtful look on his face. “Hmm… Maybe… Maybe she likes you! Like, maybe she has a crush on you!”

Yuri lets out a bark of laughter at that. “Yeah?”

“Yeah!” A wide grin spreads across the boy’s face. “Maybe she thinks you’re cute! Or maybe she likes bad-boys! I mean, she was looking you up and down…”

“Looking me up and down is a sign of someone liking me, huh?” A devious grin spreads across Yuri’s face. “Is that how you look at Nan?”

Karol’s wide grin falls as his eyes widen and his cheeks turn a deep shade of red. “W-What?! No– No, it’s not like that at all!” He stammers, slamming his hands on the counter. “Nan and I are just friends! You know what, I take it back! She probably thinks you were… were… gross looking!!”

“Ouch, that was harsh, Captain…” Yuri lets out an overdramatic hiss, following it up with a fake grimace as well. “So you think Nan is gross looking as well?”

“NO–” The scream– no sorry, the squawk that came from Karol almost sent Yuri into a complete laughing fit as he went to pick up the nearby spoon, in order to taste test the stew.

“Relax, Karol, relax. I’m joking.” He scoops up some of the stew and sips it up a bit. He ponders for a moment as the spices hit his tongue and he nods in approval of his handiwork. He scoops up another spoonful and holds it out to Karol. “I dunno. Maybe she just fell for my charm at first sight. I feel bad that I’m gonna have to let her down, if that’s the case. But she’s just not my type.”

Karol eagerly accepts the spoonful which told Yuri that he should probably finish the stew soon before Karol decided to starve to death. The boy, thankfully, looked pleased enough with the taste and eyed the stew hungrily. “So, what is your type?”

“Men.” Yuri’s answer left his mouth before he could even think about it.

He froze up, trying to keep his face neutral but he was already mentally kicking himself for saying that so casually. He was used to talking about his sexuality with people like Flynn and some of his friends at his other job. Even Hanks knew about his preferences. But he had never really thought to say anything to Karol. Not that he figured Karol would be judgemental about it. The kid was just twelve years old after all. Even if he tried to be, Yuri wasn’t about to be bullied by a twelve year old.

No, he was more worried about Karol repeating this to his parents. What if they disapproved? What if they thought him a bad influence on Karol? What if they fired him? What would happen to Karol then?

“You like boys?” Karol’s eyes are wide as he stares up at Yuri.

Yuri clears his throat after a moment of silence. “...Yeah.”

“Huh…” Karol lets out a hum of thought. “Actually, that makes sense.”

Yuri’s panic suddenly sent him into a coughing fit as he turned away from the food to catch his breath. “Huh–?”

Karol’s eyes widen as he moves to pat Yuri on the back. “H-Hey, are you okay? I’m sorry! It’s just, with the way you talk about Flynn sometimes–”

“Okay, nope. We’re ending this conversation right here.” Yuri cuts him off immediately, wiping his mouth before whipping back around to wash his hands so he could continue cooking. He refused, refused, refused to acknowledge how hot his cheeks felt. “Look, just… Don’t tell your parents, alright? Last thing I need is to get fired over something that dumb.”

Karol just goes quiet, watching Yuri go back to his job of stirring the pot. Karol doesn’t say anything else for a while and Yuri begins to take that as a silent agreement. As he moves past Karol, he begins to reach up into the cabinet for two bowls when Karol’s voice suddenly breaks the silence.

“..When would I even be able to tell them?”

Yuri’s movements falter and he feels the tiny stabbing pain in his heart as he chances a glance over to Karol. The young boy’s eyes were downcast, staring more at his partially untied shoe rather than at Yuri. There was really no anger on the boy’s face, nor sadness. Just.. exhaustion. Honestly, though, Yuri would rather him be angry and sad instead of giving up hope like that.

Of course, Yuri would be lying if he said he had hopes that Karol’s parents would get their heads out of their asses. He felt a glare begin to form on his face and he quickly turned away from Karol to pull out two bowls for the two of them and began to set the table.

“Hey… Let’s not think about them right now, yeah?” He speaks up, moving to ruffle the boy’s hair. “It’s stew time. Let’s eat, do that homework that you hid in your binder and then afterwards we can play some games until it’s time for us to turn in, yeah?”

“...Yeah, okay.”

On the days that Yuri watched over Karol, they would usually take turns spending the night at each other’s house (with permission from Karol’s parents, of course.) so Yuri was used to crashing in the Capel’s guest room. In the two years that he had been babysitting Karol, he pretty much deemed that guest room his “Home away from home.” He even stored some extra night clothes there. Mostly old T-shirts and the like.

He pours some of the stew into the bowls and gestures for Karol to have a seat. Thankfully, he doesn’t fight Yuri and even begins eating as soon as he sits down, only stopping when he burns his tongue.

“Whoa, careful there, boss.” Yuri chuckles, moving to pet his back. “Let it cool a little bit. It just came off of the stove!”

“Ah– Right, right… Sorry.”

As they sat at the table together, ready to eat their dinner for the night, Yuri did his hardest to push the young boy’s troubles from his mind for the moment. After all, growing angry wouldn’t do anyone any good.

Instead, Yuri would put all of his energy into teasing Karol about his apparent crush on his classmate and put all focus into making the kid forget about his lonely family life until it was time for the two of them to turn in.

–

It was the sound of metal scraping against the outside of the house that woke him up.

Yuri jolted awake from a dreamless slumber and for a moment, he lays there in the darkness and listens as close as he can for the noise to appear again. The guest room that he stays in is quiet and still, as is the rest of the house. He can vaguely hear Karol snoring in the next room along with unintelligible mumbling mixed in. After a few moments of silence, he begins to chalk it up to him just hearing things but then he hears the metal scrape again, followed by the snap of a twig directly outside of his window.

The curtains thankfully cover the window, hiding him from view for the most part but Yuri can’t help but notice that a bit of moonlight manages to peek in between the curtains, proving that one could definitely peek into his room if they wanted. And it really did sound like someone or something was walking around outside of the house.

He frowns, eyes glancing over at his alarm clock. 2:34 AM.

Yeah, he was annoyed.

He groaned lightly as he climbed gently out of bed, tip-toeing over to the window. He doesn’t open the curtain. Doesn’t plan to. Instead, he peeks through the crack of the curtains to try and see what could have been making that noise but finds nothing worth noting.

Maybe it was a cat. Hopefully it was a cat.

But as Yuri begins to make his rounds around Karol’s house (and definitely making sure that Karol and his room were clear), he definitely had a weird feeling of being watched. As he checked to make sure the doors were locked for the third or fourth time, he began to chalk it up to paranoia but… something definitely felt off.

As the night progressed, no other weird sounds were heard and unfortunately, Yuri did not really get much sleep after that. On the plus side, at least he woke up early enough to get both him and Karol ready for school.

As he walked Karol out of the house this morning, he made sure to check the area around the window of his guest room.

When Karol asked what he was looking for, he decided to not tell the boy about the squished flowers and weeds that he found next to the guest room window.

—

The school day went by pretty normally. He was actually on time for once in his life (and he pointedly ignored the way that Flynn’s entire demeanor shifted from exhausted to absolutely exhilarated the second Yuri walked into the room and took his usual seat.) and he actually managed to make it through the day without getting too much shit from his teachers.

He noticed that Estelle had taken the seat in front of Flynn today and thankfully, she didn’t seem to be staring at Yuri today either, which was a welcome change. He did briefly wonder if maybe she HAD fallen for him yesterday but the more he looked at Estelle, the more he even wondered if she was into guys like that.

To be honest, Flynn seemed more like her style.

…He would ignore how much his gut twisted at that.

He didn’t get to see Flynn much during the school day, though he made it very clear that he was wanting to go over to talk with him. Unfortunately, life was cruel and had decided to make a joke out of it. Every time Flynn made the move to go and speak with Yuri, something would call his attention away, whether it be a student needing assistance or the student council’s vice president, Sodia, deciding to step in and drag his attention away.

Yuri does manage to catch Flynn’s eyes at one point and they are staring at him with what Yuri could only describe as “Lost-Puppy” eyes and he couldn’t help but snicker a bit at that. And then, oh so subtly, his eyes would trail out the window and towards the old forgotten gym that Repede was currently hiding behind.

Flynn would follow his gaze and then they were once again meeting each other’s eyes, silent understanding.

“Meet behind the Gym later.”

With the silent instruction given, Yuri turned away from Flynn and decided to turn his focus to the clouds up in the bright blue sky and he couldn't help but smile to himself.

Another beautiful day.

—

It was supposed to be a beautiful day, at least.

It was supposed to be a good day. He was on time for school, his teachers didn’t give him shit, Flynn didn’t have time to find something to nag him about… it was supposed to be a good day.

All of that went out the window though as he approached the abandoned gym after school. The weather was still nice as can be and he knew that Flynn would likely be a little late to meet up with him but he figured it would give him enough time to feed Repede and check to see if his blankets needed to be replaced.

However, his blood ran cold when he heard voices coming from behind the gym.

“Please, leave at once! You’re not supposed to–”

Estelle?

“We’re not supposed to what? Come on now, we just came back here because we saw you come back here.” A guy’s voice speaks up, laughing quietly. “Come on, why not let us play with you and your cute little puppy!”

“He’s not mine, I– No, I’m sorry, please leave!”

Yuri listened as close as he could. He could hear Estelle and maybe four other voices? Repede could also be heard growling from wherever he was. The guys… they didn’t sound familiar but a quick peek around the corner told Yuri that they were some other students from a different class entirely. One thing was for certain though: He did not like the way they were crowding around Estelle and Repede.

“Oh come on, it’s okay. I’m really good with dogs.” The guy in the front, a boy with brown hair slicked back and a cocky grin on his face, steps closer and slides a hand up Estelle’s arm and Yuri has decided that he’s seen enough… until Repede lets out a sharp bark and runs over to bite the guy’s leg.

“OW–” The guy reacts instantly, kicking the small pup across the ground and earning a shocked gasp from Estelle. “Stupid mutt–”

That’s about all it takes before Yuri starts seeing red.

He’s not sure if the leader of the goon squad manages to say anything else before Yuri is pushing past all of his friends and making sure his fist makes a solid connection to his face. He’s also fairly certain he sees a tooth fly out of the man’s mouth. Yuri waves his hand in the air for a moment, throwing spit (and blood?) from it and looks at Estelle, whose eyes are wide with shock and a bit of guilt. He then lets dark eyes trail over to the other three from the group.

“I believe she told you to leave.” Yuri offers only once. “Are you going to listen this time or am I about to become your problem?”

They, against all better judgment, chose the latter option.

They all closed in on Yuri, which is all Yuri needed to hear before diving in to finish what they had started. Yuri was, by all accounts, a good fighter. He was fast, he knew where to throw a bunch to really make it hurt and he had incredible stamina, so even if he couldn’t win a fight, he would likely be able to hold out until his opponent got tired.

In fact, the only person he would lose to was Flynn.

These guys, however, were not Flynn. In which case, they were soon thrown to the ground with ease, beaten, bloodied and bruised. Estelle stood not too far behind Yuri, hands covering her mouth in shock as Yuri moved over to the leader and gave him a sharp kick to the side.

“I think it’s time you leave now.” He growled out, dark eyes narrowing at the green ones laying on the ground.

The goon squad wasted no time in retreating, and Yuri thinks he hears one of them vaguely yelling that they were going to go and tell Flynn about what he did. He just as quickly pushed it from his mind. That would be a later problem to deal with. For now, he moved over to Repede and scooped up the poor pup. Thankfully, no injuries were seen on the puppy and instead, the poor thing just seemed to be in shock.

He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Man, I dunno what we were gonna do if we had to go through yet another recovery process with you.”

The laugh came out forced but Repede quickly let a tongue lap out against Yuri’s cheek, as if attempting to comfort the man.

The moment ended all too soon when Estelle spoke up. “Um… Ah… Thank you, Yuri…” She whispered quietly.

Yuri quickly turned to give her an annoyed look but Estelle definitely had a natural ‘kicked puppy’ look, no pun intended. The annoyance washed away just slightly but he still couldn’t just let her get away with this. “What the hell were you thinking, leading them here? What are you even doing here? Did Flynn talk to you about this at all or do I need to go yell at him too?!”

“No! No, he–he did. He told me not to tell anyone about Repede…” Estelle ducks her head in apology. “I just… I just needed to see him, is all. I didn’t know I was being followed. I politely asked them to leave but…”

“If you wanted to see Repede, why didn’t you just come up and ask me or Flynn to bring you back here?” Yuri’s eyes narrowed. “You’re allowed to ask.”

Estelle stays quiet as she finally looks back up to Yuri. Her eyes train on Repede for a moment but then she’s looking back to Yuri and she’s once again scanning him, as if looking for something. And Yuri has had enough.

“Hey, Estelle, no offense. You seem like a really nice girl. But you keep looking at me weird and it’s getting a bit too weird for comfort so I’d either like for you to tell me what the hell you’re looking for or stop with the staring. It’s getting a bit too intense for me.”

There is no venom in his voice. He really doesn’t want to be mean to Estelle but the weird staring was simply getting old. Mix that in with the small scare he just had with some strangers kicking Repede and the fact that something was hanging outside the window of Karol’s house last night, he was exhausted, quite frankly, and a bit paranoid. He also just did not have time or patience for the pleasantries.

Estelle, thankfully, had a look of understanding wash over her face. “Oh… I’m sorry… I just …” She looks back to Repede, who stares right back at her. “... I think that… maybe we’ve just met somewhere before, Yuri…”

So she felt it too. That’s definitely what Yuri’s response wanted to be but instead, he’s cut off from his sense of familiarity by a loud voice shouting in their direction. “YURI!!”

He cringed back a bit. “Here it comes…”

The goon squad must have run into Flynn on their way to the student council room. He couldn’t think of any other reason for Flynn to show up with a bloodied rag in his hands, face red with anger as he stomped over to Yuri. He does have a moment of hesitation upon seeing Estelle, who shrinks back at the sight of his anger. He gives her a quick nod of greeting before he’s shoving the bloodied rag into Yuri’s chest. “Yuri, what in the hell are you doing!?”

Yuri felt his eyes dart down to the bloodied rag. “Ew, don’t get that on me. I already think I have some of their spit and blood on my knuckles.”

“Yeah! I noticed!” Flynn threw the rag onto the ground and crossed his arms, eyeing Yuri’s bloodied and bruised hands.

Well, at least it wasn’t his blood.

“Heh, you should see the other guys.” Yuri jokes, earning a yip of agreement from Repede. “Though, I’m guessing you already saw them. You think their ‘leader’ wants his tooth back, or…?”

“Can you please be serious?” Flynn’s annoyance is quickly followed by a smack on Yuri’s shoulder. “Why was there a fight?!”

“They were just pissing me off.” Yuri shrugged.

In the corner of his eye, he can see Estelle’s frown drop even more. “Um… Actually, he–” She starts off and Flynn’s expression quickly turns to face her. The glare washes away just a bit which calms the girl down enough to continue. “I’m sorry, Flynn… I snuck over here to see Repede and… they followed me and started trying to pick on me–”

“I would not call that ‘picking on’.” Yuri interrupts under his breath.

“--And then Repede bit one of them. They kicked Repede and that’s when Yuri came in. He– He punched the guy who was touching me and kicked Repede and then the others tried to attack Yuri…”

Yuri throws another glance towards Estelle. “Hey, by the way, do you need to go wash your arm off or something? Just in case you caught some weirdo germs from that guy touching you…”

Estelle’s eyes widen slightly, as if she were about to ask what he meant, but Flynn’s tired sigh cuts in. “Yuri, shut up, please…”

Yuri looks back over to Flynn, watching him run a tired hand across his face, pushing his glasses up in the process. He takes a moment to consider his next words very carefully.

“Yuri… Thank you for coming to Miss Estellise’s defense. I’ll have to talk to them about their horrid behavior, especially after hearing Miss Estellise’s side as well. A witness would be good to have. I’m also glad to see that, despite being kicked, Repede seems to be alright…”

Repede’s tail wags happily as he wiggles in Yuri’s arms. He seemed to want down but the poor pup would simply have to get over it for right now. Yuri had no intention of putting him down right now. He could feel his heart racing just slightly. Surely those kids wouldn't have hurt Repede anymore if Yuri hadn't shown up, right?

“...However, Yuri… There is a process for stuff like this.”

Yuri’s gaze whips over to Flynn’s, shocked. “You’re kidding me. A process? What sort of process?”

“The school can’t condone violent behavior like this!” Flynn returns Yuri’s gaze, a serious look on his face.

“So– What? Next time I see a scumbag feeling up another student or I catch them kicking puppies, you want me to go and file a fucking report?!” Yuri’s expression was, as simply as he could describe it, baffled. “And then the school does what? A week of detention? And then the bastards can just go right back to doing it?”

“Yuri, the punishment for sexual harassment is severe, I promise you!” Flynn purses his lips. “I understand how you feel, I do! But you… you can’t keep getting into these fights, Yuri! The teachers are…They’re–”

“They’re what?!”

“They’re just growing… concerned about your presence in this school.” Flynn’s face drops, blue eyes trailing to stare down at the ground. “I’m worried if you keep getting into trouble, then you’re going to get kicked out…”

“Of course they are.” Yuri took a deep breath, trying to keep a neutral expression. “They’ve been literally fishing for excuses to kick me out. Let me guess, Ragou and Cumore are the biggest supporters of this?”

“Well, Yuri, you’ve been making it very easy for them! The tardiness, the back-talking, the fights…” Flynn grimaces. “...And now with your new job, it might just get worse–”

A scoff slips out of Yuri’s lips as he turns away from Flynn in disbelief. “I can’t believe this. You’re using this to fuss at me about my new job too?! Dude, if this school is pitching such a fit about me being here, maybe I should start putting my focus into shit that really matters.”

“Yuri, you better not be suggesting what I think you are–”

“And what if I am?”

“Stop it!” Estelle suddenly cries out, hands clenched in front of her as she quickly moves between the two of them. “There’s no reason to be fighting over this! Please!”

Yuri doesn’t budge but Flynn, thankfully, backs off. His glare vanishes into something more softer as he glances down towards Estelle. “Ah… I’m sorry, Miss Estellise… I shouldn’t be discussing this in front of you.”

“No– No no, it’s okay.” Estelle gives a quick bow, as if asking for forgiveness. “Please forgive Yuri for this. This whole situation happened because I snuck over here by myself. I should have asked one of you to let me see Repede. This is my fault and I’ll gladly take the punishment for all of this.”

“Oh, the hell you are–” Yuri snaps at her. “Are you forgetting that they were feeling all up on you? If anyone should get punished, it’s them.”

“And they will be.” Flynn promises, looking between Yuri and then to Estelle. “But Yuri–”

“--is probably going to get the worst punishment out of the five people involved here.” Yuri’s words lash out before he can stop them. “Because God forbid someone teaches them an actual lesson.”

“You don’t know that Yuri…” Flynn says but his facial expression says it all.

“Yeah, sure.” And with that, Yuri pushes past them. “Just tell me how many days I’m in detention for. Or let me know if they suspend me or something.” He growls out as he carries Repede away from behind the gym.

“Wait, Yuri, we’re not done here!” Flynn tries to call out, moving to follow him.

“You’re not, but I am.” Yuri huffs, not bothering to look back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to talk to Hanks about keeping my dog because apparently he’s not safe to hang out here anymore.”

He could hear Estelle and Flynn both call after him. He didn’t care to stop, however. He wanted to be done with the conversation. He was sure that Flynn would probably be by to fuss at him some more but what he wanted most right now as to take Repede home, beg Hanks to let him stay if he had to, wrap up his knuckles and take just a few minutes to calm down before he had to go pick Karol up.

—

As he walked down the street, he couldn’t help but feel the exhaustion begin to wash over him. His apartments weren’t that far from the school, especially if he took the back roads, but even then he was starting to feel today’s events weigh him down. Not to mention the lack of sleep he got last night after hearing something moving around outside of his window. At some point, he had let Repede down and was letting the small puppy trot after him as they made their way to the apartments.

He had since calmed down from the argument with Flynn. Yeah, he was still a little bitter, though he always felt a little bitter after fighting with Flynn. The guy always knew which buttons to press, every single time. It had simply been that way since they were kids. He knew that Flynn was worried about how he was doing things but it wasn’t like Yuri was making these choices specifically to piss Flynn off.

There were simply some things that he could not ignore. There were rumors that the prices for the apartments were going to be raised soon due to the taxes for the building. Hanks was already struggling to afford keeping the apartments in decent condition while also keeping the rooms affordable for those in need of a home. So Yuri decided to get a new job and start paying rent. He needed to learn some responsibility anyway, he told himself.

Then, there was Karol. Karol’s parents were rarely home. Yuri could still remember that day he met Karol in the park, hunched over on the bench, tears threatening to fall from his face. He remembered playing an impromptu game of soccer with the boy that day and watching the biggest smile wash over his face that day.

He remembered the day, two weeks later, when Karol admitted that he was currently home alone due to his family’s work schedule, had been for a week and would likely be alone for the rest of the month. He remembered his parents barely blinking an eye when they came home and found Karol home with a random fifteen year old cooking in their kitchen. They barely seemed concerned when Yuri insisted that they hire him as a babysitter. They had said yes. Even if they hadn’t, Yuri still would have stepped in to take care of Karol while they were gone. He couldn’t ignore that, he told himself.

He remembered all of the fights he had gotten into at school. All of the arguments that he had started with the teachers. Some of the fights he had been involved with recently weren’t even his fault. Some guys at the school liked to start shit with him sometimes. You would think by now, they would learn that Yuri never left a fight unfinished. If they started something, Yuri would make sure that it was seen all the way through.

The only time he ever started a fight was when someone was involved that really shouldn’t be involved. Once, a guy grabbed a girl’s sketchbook from her hands and criticized her doodles before tearing one out, balling it up and using it to hit his friend from across the room. Yuri had gotten suspended that day after he promptly allowed that student to perform a thorough locker “inspection” in the boy’s locker room for about two hours. Stuff like this happened a lot though. Some guys at the school just couldn’t keep their damn hands to themselves and the teachers weren’t doing a thing to stop them. He couldn’t just let them get away with it, he told himself.

As Yuri makes his way down the somewhat empty street on his way to his apartment, he takes a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds, and then releases it. Dammit, Flynn was getting to his head. He wasn’t going to overwork himself. Plenty of people worked multiple jobs, raised multiple kids AND went to school and they could handle it just fine. He could handle it. And he would prove it. Even if he couldn’t necessarily do all of his homework, the teachers couldn’t do a damn thing about it so long as his grades were passing. He would continue to get decent enough grades, he would continue watching over Karol when he had to, he would continue paying rent and working this new part time job, and he was going to do it with so much ease that Flynn would have to simply eat his words and apologize for doubting him.

With newfound determination, Yuri continued his stride down the street, ready to get home and changed before he had to go pick Karol up.

That same determination quickly drained when a gloved hand shot out from a nearby alleyway, slapping over his mouth roughly and yanking him into the dark, shady gap between the buildings.

“HEY–” He could barely shout out before he was thrown to the ground with much force and before he knew it, his attacker, a flurry of dark pink and yellow, quickly climbed over him.

Yuri kicked and swung his fists wildly, one of his fists connecting with the man’s jaw and all Yuri could hear was excited laughter bubbling from the stranger’s lips. Repede’s frantic barks and growls could be heard from somewhere behind them, mixed in with Yuri’s grunts and heavy breathing as he swings another fist, throws another kick, managing to connect a foot with the man’s stomach, he thinks?

“What the FUCK are you–?!” Yuri spits out, trying to break free from his attacker’s grasp.

But then he feels steel press against his neck and he freezes, eyes widening as he sees the rather large red and gold dagger held tightly in the man’s hands. Red crazed eyes stare down at him as a toothy grin widens across his face as he turns his head just a bit, letting pink and blonde hair move out of his eyes. The bastard giggles again. He hasn’t stopped giggling since he jumped Yuri.

Repede continues to bark furiously, letting out a few howls loose in between, but the small pup went ignored. Instead, Yuri’s attacker leans in until he is nose to nose with Yuri, who instinctively tries to inch back. Instead, the dagger’s sharp edge digs into skin, threatening to cause some serious and likely irreversible damage if Yuri struggles anymore. Instead, he holds his breath back and glares at the man who seems to be observing every little detail on his face.

What in the hell was up with people invading his fucking personal space lately?!

Another giggle slips from the attacker as he stares back into Yuri’s eyes. “I’ve finally found you, Yuri Lowell.” His grin widens, excitement clear in his eyes. Yeah, that didn’t bode well. “I was expecting a bit more resistance from you! You haven’t gotten all rusty on me, have you~?”

Yuri really was not expecting his name to leave this guy’s mouth. He takes a shaky breath, trying not to shift underneath the blade. “Sorry but if we’ve met, I-I’m gonna need some kind of reminder.”

Yuri watches as a red eye twitches in amusement as the man scraps the blade up Yuri’s neck, pressing it under his chin. “Oh? You expect me to believe that you don’t remember me?” With a click of his tongue, he shakes his head in disappointment. “Oh, Yuri, we’re like soulmates. Of course you would remember your life long enemy. Your eternal rival, Zagi!”

His name leaves his lips with a hiss, as the dagger moves away from Yuri’s throat and finally Yuri lets out a heavy breath that he had been holding but quickly tenses as Zagi drags the blade along his cheek. “Does that ring any bells?”

“Nah, I think I would remember if I had a soulmate who was a little too into knifeplay.”

He tries to keep his voice calm as his eyes are scanning the area but he’s already mentally cursing himself for getting so distracted in his own head while walking home. The streets were practically empty and now that he’s already been grabbed and forced to the ground, if he were to even call for help, he’d probably be a bleeding out corpse by the time someone got to him.

Man, what a shitty way to die. ‘Here lies Yuri. Died because he thought too hard.’ Flynn would never let him live it down.

The man on top of him (Zagi, was it?) hummed lightly as he moved the dagger from cheek to cheek and even made sure to nick the skin on the left side, as if to get a reaction from the boy. “C’mon, Yuri, where’s your sword? Give me a fight, give me something! Make this WORTH IT, Yuri Lowell!”

Another laugh erupts from the man’s throat and it just further confirmed to Yuri that the guy was a fucking lunatic.

“Okay, I have a few questions. Doubt I’m gonna get an answer but here goes. Who the fuck are you, and why do you know me?” Yuri’s face twists a bit in pain as Zagi reacts by leaving another scratch on his cheek. “And what in the hell are you talking about?! This isn’t the fucking medieval times! Why the fuck would I have a sword?”

Between his laughter, Zagi actually manages to pull off a confused expression. “Wait, wait, wait…” He trails off, raising his dagger a bit. Yuri’s eyes immediately shoot towards the blade as it moves away from his face. He glances back to Zagi, watching as he looks back to Yuri, looking rather thoughtful. Yuri’s eyes trail back to the blade.

…Was he stupid enough to try it?

“Oh… I get it!” Zagi smirks, tilting his head. “You haven’t awakened yet, have you?”

…Yeah, this guy was insane. It’s a small price to pay. This shit was going to hurt though.

Taking the chance of surprise, Yuri shot a hand out and gripped onto the blade of the dagger tightly, gritting his teeth as the blade dug into his skin. Blood poured from his wounds as Zagi’s eyes widened at Yuri’s sudden movement. Using his surprise to his advantage, Yuri shoved the hand wielding the dagger away and shot up, making sure to slam his forehead against Zagi’s. The pink haired man fell back instantly with a pained yelp and Yuri wasted no time in scrambling to his feet, trying to ignore the burning pain in his left hand and the throbbing in his forehead. He tried to run by Zagi’s form that laid on the ground but unfortunately, Zagi recovered quite fast from the headbutt as his legs swung around and nearly knocked Yuri to the ground again. As Yuri swore and stumbled back, towards the back of the alley, Zagi let out a gleeful squeal as he jumped back to his feet, daggers in hand.

“Oh, we’re getting CLOSER to the Yuri I love so DEEPLY in my heart.” His grin grows even wider, if that’s possible. “Maybe if I cut you up enough, you’ll wake up, huh?! Maybe then you’ll bring out the sword and we can have a REAL BATTLE! Just like we’re DESTINED to, huh?! Wouldn’t that be so much fun?!”

Yuri spotted Repede dart over to his side, whining softly as he stared up at Yuri’s wounded hand and he couldn’t help but huff out a weak little laugh. “I-I don’t really have time to be cut into little pieces so I think I’m gonna have to pass on that one…” Yuri’s breath came out heavy as he tried to ignore just how badly his hand was stinging, throbbing, burning–

Flynn was definitely gonna get him for this one.

“Oh, unfortunately, any plans you’ve had, Yuri Lowell, have been canceled.” Zagi begins to close in on him and Yuri begins to wonder if this is what a trapped rat feels like. “I’m TIRED of being patient like they wanted me to. I want your BLOOD staining my entire body–”

“That’s weird as hell, man, and it’s one hell of a turn off. Has anyone ever told you that?” Yuri mentally and silently takes note of Zagi’s words (“Like they wanted me to.”) and filed them away for later as his head whips to the side, spotting an old discarded broom handle. It was made of metal, and slightly bent but it was all he had. All he had to do was knock Zagi to the side and make a run for it, right? If he could make it to a public area, he should be okay, right?

Unfortunately, he had to deal with the fact that this was absolutely a targeted attack and that this would likely not be the last time he would see Zagi, if he did somehow manage to escape. Not to mention, letting a complete psychopath run free was something that Yuri couldn’t really stomach.

But then, what could he do? He could put up a decent fight but a bent metal handle (that looked as if it would rust away if you breathed on it hard enough) against an actual blade being used by someone as quick and as insane as Zagi was simply a fight that he couldn’t hope to win, unless he was delusional.

Man, staying behind and listening to Flynn’s lectures was starting to sound a bit more appealing right now.

Yuri quickly snatched up the broom handle and held it in his hands defensively, earning a pointed laugh from Zagi. “You’re still not going to bring out your sword for a proper fight?” Zagi lowers himself, ready to launch his next attack.

“I really don’t know how to get across to you that I don’t have a sword. You’re just gonna have to deal with me beating the hell out of you with this broom handle instead.” He takes a deep breath as he held his position. He was not one to be on the defensive. He was always the one to go on the aggressive but… well… charging in right now could get him killed. So instead, he would try to bait Zagi into swinging first.

Thankfully, as insane as this man was, he was also incredibly predictable. With a howl of laughter, he jumped at Yuri, daggers swinging wildly at the metal broom handle. Thankfully, Yuri managed to block the incoming swipes. One, then two, then three, four, five–

He backed away a bit more with every hit and responded by swinging his leg out to try and side-swipe his attacker. Zagi stumbles just slightly when Yuri’s leg hits the side of his ankle and he nearly falls to his knee. Taking the chance, Yuri throws a hard punch directly into Zagi’s nose and suddenly there’s a fountain of blood.

Despite it all, Zagi is still grinning, red liquid running over his lips. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” He wipes a hand over his mouth, smearing the blood away. “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me!”

From the corner of his eye, Yuri sees Repede dart between Zagi’s leg and towards the entrance of the alleyway. He can hear the frantic barking of the small pup as he stares down the street. If Yuri didn’t know anymore, he would almost assume that Repede was trying to call for help. Yuri would have smiled if he didn’t have to immediately go on the defensive again. Zagi continued his assault, swinging his weapons again with even more ferocity. The broom handle began to bend in an awkward angle and Yuri knew that it was likely not going to last much longer. His hand burned, slick with his own blood. His head was throbbing, his lungs were burning, as he dodged to the left, then the right, blocked the downward swing and delivered another swift kick to Zagi’s knees.

It’s when Zagi falls to his knees that Yuri spots another figure rounding the corner of the alleyway, causing his blood to freeze.

A smaller figure skids to a stop as bright green eyes stare back at him. Bright pink hair sticking up and face red as the young girl has to catch her breath as she takes in the scene, a look of horror washing over her face.

“YURI!” Estelle screams out and it’s all Yuri hears as Zagi suddenly takes his hesitation as a chance to jump up and swing his dagger down one more time.

Zagi’s dagger finally breaks through the metal and slashes across Yuri’s chest.

All Yuri can feel is hot pain as he’s thrown back onto his bottom, on the floor of the alley. He can feel liquid pouring from his wound as warm air is felt against his now partially bare chest. Zagi has sliced his school uniform shirt right open. Instinctively, his hand shoots to his chest and he can feel that the wound isn’t too deep but… well.

Admittedly, it was the first time he had ever been sliced with a sword so if it seemed like he was panicking a little bit, no one in their right mind could really blame him.

Still, he tried to remain calm as he tried to push himself back away from Zagi and tried to climb back onto his feet. Upon seeing just how much blood he had sliced out of Yuri, Zagi was beaming, ear to ear.

“So much for the broom handle, right Yuri?” He giggles. “So are you going to bring out your sword now?”

Yuri ignores him in favor of staring past him, towards Estelle. “Wh… What are you doing here? Get the hell out of here!” He ordered as he tried to keep his voice steady. He was beginning to feel a bit weak to the knees as exhaustion began to take him but knowing that Estelle was here, near this bloodthirsty maniac, he definitely couldn’t back down now.

As he called out to her, however, he noticed that her eyes were trained on Zagi’s back as she clutched onto something tightly in her hands, holding it to her chest. She was frightened, that much was clear. Her knees were shaking, her posture was stiff and her eyes were wide as can be. Her eyes do dart back over to Yuri for just a moment though and Yuri can see something plain in her eyes that filled Yuri with immense dread.

Estelle was planning something.

No, no, no– Run away! Get the hell out of here! Go get the fucking cops or something, it’s too dangerous to stay–“I have his sword!”

Yuri’s thoughts skid to a stop as he stares over at the girl, eyes widening. He felt a small spike of panic shoot through him as Zagi also pauses and turns to look over his shoulder at her, seemingly eyeing her up and down. “Come again?”

Estelle seemingly shrinks beneath both of their gazes as Repede continues to stand by her, trying to seem as tall as possible. She glances down at the small puppy, then to Yuri and then to Zagi.

“You… You want to fight Yuri with his sword, right? That’s.. That’s what you said.” She speaks slowly, taking the tiniest of steps forward as she lowers her hands, still gripping on the mystery object hidden within her grasp. “I-I have it here. If… you just let me give it to him, you can have the fight that you want…”

Yuri gritted his teeth. “Unless you have the world’s tiniest sword in your hands right now, I don’t know if this guy is gonna buy that, Estelle–”

Zagi, however, eyes Estelle’s hands curiously, even lowering his daggers momentarily. “His sword?” He ponders, tilting his head only for the grin to return full force. “Ah, so that’ll wake him up, right?! That blastia…!”

“I’m pretty sure I’m already awake, psycho.” Yuri growls out. “Though looking at you, I wish this was a fucking nightmare–”

“Give him his sword.” A gleeful hiss leaves Zagi’s lips again as his red eyes stare hard at Estelle. “I want it to be a fair fight for when I rip his tongue out!”

“Estelle, stay back!”

Yuri’s words go ignored as Estelle quietly walks forward, still clutching the small object in her hands. Her form is stiff, eyes darting just briefly to Zagi to make sure he didn’t actually attack her, but even still, she holds her head up high as she makes her way to Yuri. She drops to her knees in front of him and immediately, her eyes fall to his chest as she eyes the blood seeping into his shirt.

Yuri hated that she was here. He hated that she was now putting herself in danger, within reach of the bloodthirsty psychopath. He briefly wondered why the hell she was even here. Had she followed him when he stormed off from school? Surely she didn’t live in the Lower Quarter… She was nice and very sweet but every inch of her screamed “Sheltered Rich Girl” from the minute Yuri saw her.

He watches as her eyes scan over him, lingering on his chest, his cut cheeks, his bloodied hand… A look of guilt and sorrow washes over her face. “Oh Yuri… If only I hadn’t…” She trails off, biting her lip tightly as she ducks her head and lowers her voice to an almost inaudible whisper. “No, we don’t have time… Flynn is on his way here.”

Yuri feels his eye twitch but he tries his hardest to keep a calm expression as he glances to Zagi in the corner of his eye. He can see the man giggling to himself as he scrapes his daggers together, as if trying to sharpen the edges. Wonderful.

Thankfully, the man seemed a bit too distracted with planning Yuri’s untimely and possibly gruesome demise to pay much attention to Estelle’s words. “You couldn’t have brought me good news, could you? Nothing like “Cumore choked to death on a pretzel” or “Yuri, you won the lottery!” or anything like that.” Yuri can’t help but pout. “Nah, instead, it’s gotta be “Hey Yuri, Flynn’s on his way and he’s going to personally add his name to the list of casualties taking place in this alleyway today because he can’t keep his nose out of your issues for five seconds because if he does, he’ll likely suffocate and die.” right?”

Estelle purses her lips together. “That… won’t have to happen, if we act fast.” She points out, looking rather hesitant. “I think you can win, Yuri, but you need to trust me. Can you trust me?”

And then, she’s looking back up at him, her green eyes burning with a certain determination. Yuri had to admit, her energy was a bit contagious but…

“I don’t know, Estelle. Are you going to explain what your deal is if I do decide to trust you? You’re not slick, you know. I know you’re up to something.”

“I’ll explain everything. I promise.” Estelle nods, determination not slipping in the slightest before holding out her hands, revealing what she had hidden.

Yuri could’ve choked to death right then and there. Upon staring at the small object within her hands, the first thing that Yuri felt was a warm feeling of familiarity wash over him, followed second by another, stronger feeling that made it seem like his chest vibrated with every pulse of power. The small, red stone seemed to give off a small glowing light as Estelle offered it to Yuri.

It had the same glow to it as it did in his dream from the night before last. It had the same light, the same pulsing energy, the same color, the same everything.

He was almost overwhelmed by how familiar this stone seemed to him and before he could even think to stop himself, he lifted his bloodied hand to grab for the stone. He pauses when he hears the tiniest whine from next to him and he finds himself glancing over to the small puppy standing by his feet.

Repede’s eyes were fixed on the stone as well, as he stood by Yuri’s feet. His ears were perked up as he stared between Yuri and the stone with anticipation. Yuri couldn’t help but wonder if the stone seemed familiar to Repede as well. If it were any other dog, he’d wonder if he had gone insane if he thought that. But there was something special about Repede. The dog was way too smart for his own good.

Yuri was beginning to suspect that it wasn’t just a coincidence.

A strange looking dog with a mysterious wound who seemed to understand Yuri to the same extent as another human being… A new girl who transferred to his high school, who couldn’t seem to stop watching him and was now holding the very same red stone that he had seen in his dreams the night before he had even met her… and now some crazed assassin showing up, calling him by his full name and demanding that he wake up and fight him again, as if he had fought the man before…

Yuri hesitates, pulling his hand back just a bit. Was it really so crazy to think that all of this was connected somehow? He could feel the energy of the stone, still pulsating and it almost felt like it was urging him to come closer and grab it. It just felt right. But he had the strongest feeling that by grabbing his stone, it would throw open the doors to something greater that he wouldn’t be able to turn away from. Whatever that was… would he be able to handle it?

Yuri’s eyes trail down to Repede, who continues to stare at him expectantly. He focuses his gaze on the small dog’s wound across his face, that he had just spent weeks tending to…

As he turns the corner of the old, abandoned gym, Yuri notices a tiny, unmoving and bloodied heap on the ground. The tiniest of whines escapes from the limp form and Yuri could feel his heart strings pull as he steps closer to the tiny creature. He grimaced at the deep wound across the small– what was it, a dog?-- creature’s face and he quietly wondered if the poor thing would even last for much longer. As he ran a hand over the dog’s fur, he saw it. One tiny wag of a tail as the small creature tried to force itself up in order to lean up into Yuri’s hand. He couldn’t help but smile. “Hey… don’t worry. We’re gonna get you fixed up…”

Yuri’s eyes move from Repede and glances towards the sky. He could see the sky, still a bright blue, though not for much longer. What time was it? He had to go and meet up with Karol at his school soon. He would probably begin to wonder where he was at if it showed up late.

“You’re staying home alone right now?” Yuri’s eyes widen just slightly as he leans back against the bench, the ball from their game resting by his feet. “For how long? Just overnight?” “Ah… Well…” Karol’s eyes trail down to his feet, eyeing the ball on the ground instead of looking at Yuri. “...They’ve been gone since Monday…?” He grimaces slightly. Yuri feels his mouth drop open in shock. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” The words leave his lips before he can even stop them. “When are they coming back?” The silence that came from Karol was deafening and it filled Yuri’s chest with a certain, silent rage. “Two weeks…? Maybe a week and a half.” The young boy quickly begins to backtrack. “I mean, I’ve been staying at home by myself for a while! Multiple times! I’ve been told that I’m pretty mature for my age, you know? And I’m pretty good at cooking too, and cleaning and I’m pretty good about getting myself up for school and–” “Where do you live?” Karol blinks before finally making eye contact with Yuri. “Huh?” “I said, where do you live?” Yuri stares back, determination burning behind his eyes.

Yuri looks back to Estelle, uncertainty clear on his face as his eyes shoot past her and focus on Zagi, who stares at him with a wide-eyed grin, just waiting for him to make his move. What would Zagi do if he did manage to kill him? There was no way that Zagi was just going to let Estelle and Repede go.

“No, we don’t have time… Flynn is on his way here.”

Estelle’s words echo in his head as he looks towards the entryway of the alley. Flynn would be here soon, according to Estelle. Knowing Flynn, he would not be able to leave this alone. If he turned the corner and found that Yuri was hurt, or worse, dead… he couldn’t quite predict how he would react.

Yuri wasn’t stupid. He knew how Flynn felt. He knew Flynn better than anyone else and vice versa. And he knew that if something happened to Flynn, Yuri would probably fly off the handle and break every bone in that person’s body. He… cared about Flynn. He really did. Sure, those feelings were usually shoved deep deep within his chest as they danced around the topic for about two years now, but the fact was obvious. He cared. And he knew Flynn did as well.

He knew he couldn’t let Flynn get hurt or killed because of some crazy maniac’s obsession with his death.

“Yuri… You’ll be there for him, won’t you?” Yuri looks up from his phone, confusion clear on his face as he stares over at the sickly form sitting in the hospital bed. Her blue eyes stare out the window as a gentle smile washes over her face. She moves to try and pull her blonde hair out of its loose bun and Yuri is already reaching over to help her let her hair loose. Her fingers were a bit too clumsy lately. “What are you talking about?” Yuri muses, putting the hair band on the tableside. “Do you mean Flynn? It’s hard to not be there for him if we’re living in the same house.” She laughs, like genuinely laughs as she reaches over and pushes his bangs out of his face. She always did like to nag him about how he was growing it out. He knew that she secretly adored his hair though. Flynn could never grow his hair out like he could. Plus, maybe his hair reminded her of one of her dearest friends, long passed. He’s seen the pictures of the woman whom he could barely remember. He supposed he could see the resemblance. “Is that your roundabout way of promising me? You’ll make sure he’ll be alright?” “Sure… Not that it matters. You’ll be out of here in no time. So enough with the gloom, okay?”

No, he had to take care of the problem himself. He couldn’t let Estelle or Repede take the fall for his failures. He couldn’t let Flynn put his nose into his fights, even if it's a fight that Yuri didn’t want to begin with. Zagi made it quite clear that he was here for Yuri’s blood and that he wasn’t going to rest until blood was spilled.

Yuri didn’t understand why. He could probably get answers from Estelle later but right now, he had to focus on the matter at hand. He had people he needed to protect. He needed to protect them. He HAD to protect them.

Which is why he didn’t blink twice before grabbing onto the red stone that was offered to him. With a goal in his heart, he grabbed onto the stone and squeezed it in his left hand, ignoring the pain that shot through it from his wounds.

With a flash, he felt his vision go white as Repede’s howl echoed throughout the alley.

======

Notes: (From Ao3)

So Recently played Tales of Vesperia for the first time, and I might be a little late to the band wagon with this. Pretty sure I'm obsessed with this game now though and now you all have to deal with the consequences! So now, here is my magical person AU! Also a fair warning: I have a basic understanding of Tales of Vesperia lore and I'm kinda just throwing it out the window and making my own rules and changes so beware of that. (One of those being me changing some people's ages! You'll see as we go.) Ages in this chapter: Yuri: 17 Flynn: 17 Estelle: 16 Karol: 12 Also no beta-reading. We die like men. (Google Docs is my beta-reader)

I was worried about getting Zagi's characterization wrong but then I replayed the beginning of the game and he started talking about carving Yuri's name in his blood, and I was like "Actually, I think I did pretty okay." Also this chapter ended up being... way longer than I intended. It ended up being like 39 pages on google docs. The future chapters shouldn't be that long, at least for the most part? But I also cannot promise anything.

#tales of vesperia #fluri #yuri lowell #flynn scifo #tov #magical person au #Bravus Vesperia Magica #ch 1 #romantic tension between yuri and flynn #and also yuri putting the entire world and more on his shoulders bc i simply just love that shit

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sequencefairy · 2 years

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Growing up in the Temple has its advantages.

Ryan knows all the best and least-travelled-by-teachers ways to get to the kitchens in order to get a snack, he knows where all the good hiding spots are for when you just need to go away from everyone for a couple of hours. He also knows all the ways to sneak out of the Temple grounds.

Knowing these things is all well and good, but they don’t keep Ryan from fresh new disappointments. Including, but not limited to, Ryan’s new roommate in the Padawan dorms.

Ryan’s had his room to himself for nearly a whole solar cycle, which is a feat in and of itself, but Master Marchbank is indulgent and Ryan knows exactly how far to push out his lower lip in order to get what he wants. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to be done this time. So, Ryan is getting a roommate, whether he likes it or not.

He really doesn’t like it.

He knows it’s selfish, but he likes having his own space. He likes being able to retreat from the noise of the crèche, likes being able to close his door and keep everyone out while he picks apart his astrometrics homework and fights with the calculations for the aeronautics elective he’d decided to take this term. He doesn’t want to have to give that up.

He’d complained to Master Marchbank about it and received nothing but a downturned mouth and a mandatory session in the meditation garden for his insolence.

“He’s from some backwater outer rim planet,” Theela had whispered at dinner after the announcement had been made, lisping through the two missing front teeth in her upper mandible.

Ryan reached across in front of her for the plate of soft cheese.

“He’s a teenager!” Devon had hissed, when their class of Padawans had been excused from the dining hall to return to their dorms for free time before lights out. “He’s never had any training. No one knows how the Council missed him in their sweep.”

“I heard he doesn’t even know how to touch the force,” Steven tells a group of assembled Padawans the next morning, while they all stand huddled against the miserably cold wind coming off the city out on the parade grounds.

“What do you think, Ryan?”

“Whatever,” Ryan mutters, folding his hands more deeply into the sleeves of his robes. He takes a deep breath, trying to center himself in a place of acceptance. Resignation is close enough, he decides, as a cold wind sneaks in under the hood of his cloak, tangling in his still-growing curls.

The transport carrying the new padawan lands a quarter of an hour later. It lands with a screeching whine and the cargo hatch opens with a loud clang. Master Celestino takes the lead, hood of his cloak pulled up over his head. Behind him, wrapped in what Ryan thinks is probably the Master’s spare cloak, and huddled beneath it, is his new roommate.

Around Ryan, everyone erupts into whispers. He feels the sharp prod of one of Master Marchbank’s fingers in his spine and it shifts him forward out of the line of students.

“Ah, Ryan.” Master Celestino lets his hood fall, and his face splits into a good natured grin. “This is Shane.”

Ryan takes a long look. Shane is tall, of that he is sure. Already easily a half a head taller than Ryan and probably going to be taller than that. He’s whipcord lean, and looks exhausted and more than half-dead but he offers Ryan a smile from under the cowl of the hooded cloak and Ryan can’t help but smile back. The smile, small as it is, changes Shane’s whole face.

“Why don’t you take him back to the dormitory, get him settled? Orientation will start this afternoon.”

Ryan nods and Shane steps around Master Celestino. The other students part like the sea as Ryan leads Shane off the parade ground and back towards the shelter of the temple proper.

When they get out of the wind, Shane shakes the hood off and looks up. His jaw drops and he turns in a slow circle.

“Oh,” Ryan says, “this is nothing. Wait til I show you the Great Hall.”

“Yeah?” Shane asks. Ryan nods, but before he can say anything else, Eugene melts out of the shadows on the far side of the anteroom.

“New blood?” Eugene’s eyes glitter.

“Madej,” Shane says, sticking out his hand to shake. Across the back of Shane’s hand is a curving red line that disappears under the cuff of his sleeve. An older hurt, Ryan thinks, but not one that has scarred over quite yet. Ryan wonders just what Master Celestino picked Shane up from.

“Yang,” Eugene says, as he takes Shane’s hand. Shane’s chin comes up at the moment their palms meet and Eugene meets his stare. Ryan hangs back, hands clutched in the folds of his cloak. There’s a moment of silence and then Eugene lets go of Shane’s hand, and steps back. “Be welcome,” he says and turns on his heel, disappearing down one of the corridors that branch off for other parts of the temple.

Shane shakes himself. “That was weird,” he says, looking down at his hand.

“Everything okay?” Ryan asks, stepping closer.

“Yeah, I--” Shane says, turning his hand over to examine the backside before shoving it into the pocket of his pants. He doesn’t say anything else, just looks off in the same direction Eugene went.

After a moment, Ryan reaches out, touching Shane’s shoulder. “C’mon,” he says, “I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”

“Oh no,” Shane says, “I’m not staying.”

Ryan stops short, nearly tripping Shane in the process. “What d’you mean?”

“I’m not a–a whatever you call it, a Jedi or anything, there’s been some kind of mistake.”

“The temple receives all who wish its refuge,” Ryan recites. Shane scoffs, but Ryan ignores him. “Master Celestino went to get you, so they must have some reason to keep you,” he says, and leads Shane out of the anteroom and down towards the Padawan dorms.

#shyan #skeptic believer #sequence fairy's fic #on today of all days it seems fitting to post this #originally this was supposed to be some kind of sprawling au #but instead it's just this #so you can imagine all the rest of it

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xpeachesncream · 4 years

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how many drinks? | one shot (jjk)

summary: the question is - how many drinks would it take for you to sleep with your bestfriend?

pairing: jjk x reader

genre: (18+) college au, dance group au, bestfriends/bestfriends with some benefits au | fluff, smut, sprinkle of angst

words: ~12.2k

warnings: cussing, mature language/implied sexual content, kind of crack-y, dancer!jk to fulfill my needs, unprotected sex, sprinkle of dirty talk, fingering, sprinkle of a handjob, slight biting, nails digging into skin, oc almost gets taken advantage of/forced into doing things she doesn’t wanna do, rough handling, song kang is in this too because i’m also a hooch for him but he’s an ass here, alcohol consumption, intoxication, mentions of blunts/smoking, house parties, cuddling, kissing/makeout sessions, straddling, breast/nipple play, hickeys, fucking on the edge of the bed, multiple orgasms, fingering, licking/neck kisses, oral (f. receiving)

note: one shot title is taken from miguel's song ‘how many drinks’ + a couple of things--

both hoseok and jimin’s piece mentioned below are inspired by real-life pieces my old dance mentor has choreographed and taught. this is the inspiration behind hoseok’s couple piece; this is the inspiration for jimin’s piece

i’m a hooch for all three of them in this video

enjoy imagining koo and oc dancing part of their couples piece like this 🥺

"Y/N." You picked up Jungkook's call as you sat at your desk in your dorm room. You had been finishing up your bio homework until the interruption came blaring through on your headphones.

"Yes?"

"Can I nap in your room?"

"The fuck I look like? A hotel?" You snorted.

"Yeah, a 5 star at that with how good you take care of me." He tries to butter you up, causing you to roll your eyes.

"You're lucky I like you."

"Yesssssssss!" You hear him faintly exclaim on the other line. "Be there in a sec."

"You know my doors are always unlocked." Which, it was true. So many of your friends had decided to live off campus that you and your other bestfriend [and beloved suitemate] were probably the only few left on campus. And that meant people were constantly in your room, hanging out or using both of your rooms, [with permission] or the couches in the shared living room space of your suite as a place to nap. College, amirite? Why the fuck would you lose your parking spot to go back to your apartment when you have friends who lived right on campus? You weren't just good for smuggling free food from the cafeteria to your broke ass, struggling off-campus friends.

Sooner or later, you're greeted by a fluffy, black-haired Jungkook, looking like his shit must have air-dried with how wavy and voluminous it was. He swings your door open so aggressively that you jump a bit in your seat, swinging off your headphones like you weren't even expecting him. You watch as he flings himself onto your neatly made bed like he hasn't felt a bed in years.

"Ugh, yes." He moans as he belly flops onto your bed and stays in that position.

"When's your next class, you little baby?"

"In like an hour or so, I don't know." He says sleepily. "Wake me up, please?"

"Sure." You realize it's Wednesday, and he definitely has Ecology lab later at 3:00PM. You figured you'd wake him up by 2:30 just to give him enough time to groggily walk his ass back over to the science building.

You and Jungkook weren't really close before college. It was moreso that you knew of each other since high school because of mutual friends. You'd see him at parties and he'd see you, but it was never more than the casual hi and bye and small talk. Maybe the occasional comments on facebook pages and the likes on pictures on instagram. But foreel, other than that, that's as real as your friendship got for awhile. You didn't mind it though, you were good with your set of friends and he was good with his. A lot of your friends attended the same university as you two and then your groups intertwined even more.

But, it wasn't until the past couple of months or so where you both unexpectedly got really close - simply just by talking more and being around each other more. You both had similar interests and Jungkook wasn't the most vocal in his group, but with you, he seemed to talk endlessly. He loved comics and he loved raving to you about Marvel and DC superheroes. He loved to draw, and he'd draw you things every now and then - his most recent being you as a scientist superhero saving the world from overgrown malaria-infected mosquito monsters. It was the cutest thing you had ever seen, and you tacked it against your cork board near your desk. Then, small things like that turned to bringing you food or boba, being stuck at the hip where he'd only go to a certain place on campus if you were there; texting each other inside jokes and funny ass tweets all day turned to facetime sleepover calls and then late hangouts eventually turned to actual sleepovers in your bed, where he'd drape his arm around while you both slept but it never escalated into anything more than that in bed. Although he did fucking hate your medium-sized Olaf plushie that took shelter on your bed - he'd always hike it across the room and talk about how annoying he is and how he's always taking his spot. You never understood it, really.

And then soon, it turned to small displays of affection behind closed doors, where Jungkook would hold you close. Hold your hand if you two were in the room watching a show, or movie. Small kisses exchanged. Big kisses exchanged, making out sessions. But, that was literally it. Nothing else. No sex. No pressure. Lots of unspoken feelings, obviously, but you weren't gonna be the one to bring that up. Because you were comfortable, and if anything, you didn't wanna ruin what you guys already had going.

Like, is this a friends with benefits thing? Maybe? Maybe not? It was hard to label it because it's not like you both determined so, it kind of just fell together that way. And there was really no pressure to fuck every single time you got affectionate. It was cute, sweet. And no one really knew it was like that behind doors - possibly your suitemate Kass and her boyfriend, Jimin, but that's only because you shared the dorm suite with her. Jimin was also one of Jungkook's roommates and his really good friend, so whenever they had slept over on the same night, it was pure and utter chaos. But honestly, if Kass and Jimin hadn't been around you two much, they most certainly wouldn't have the idea.

Whatever it was, it was a comfortable closeness that you both experienced and appreciated. However, the both of you were afraid of discussing what this really was, afraid it'll ruin the dynamic. The atmosphere. Having to come to terms of what it might, or might not be. Neither of you can fully admit that you like the other. Although, it got hard. People did lightly tease you two because you both always looked for each other and were stuck by the hip out on campus.

Oh, well. Bottom line is that you liked your relationship where it was at, but it doesn't mean you haven't thought about the what if's. Jungkook was insanely attractive, and it's no lie that girls swarmed him left and right on campus, but he didn't give a shit [either he didn't give a shit or he was dumb as hell?]. Okay, rewind — to be fair, he would have a fling or two, flirt once or twice. He'd tell you so and so was cute and that they've hung out or texted, but that's it. He just wasn't necessarily looking for anything cause he too enjoyed where he was at with everything.

It doesn't take long before Sleeping Beauty is snoring face down on your bed, looking like Patrick Star with the way he's sprawled out. But, you continue to do your work until it was time to wake him. You gently shake him, his puppy eyes looking back at you after being face down all nap.

"Class time."

"No." He groans. "Can't I just stay here with you?"

"No, dude. Get to class." You chuckle. "You already skipped last week."

"Yeah, but this is a new week Y/N."

"Jungkook." You almost say in a scolding manner.

"Fiiiiiiine." He whines as he shoots up and hops off from your bed. "Are you going to our party on Friday?"

"I said I'd think about it right?"

"Yeah, like on Monday. It's Wednesday."

"And I'm still thinking about it." You snort, making him pout.

"Just come for a little bit."

"Why? You know parties aren't my thing and you'll be too drunk anyways. I'll end up wanting to go right the fuck back home as soon as I step outside."

"I'd like to be drunk and have you there. It'll be more fun!" He pouts as he holds your hand and swings it back and forth.

"I mean, to be completely honest, I'll probably end up going because of Kass anyways."

"Because of Kass." He rolls his eyes. "Oooookay. Not because of you, Jungkook, no." He says sarcastically, brows furrowed.

"Ew. You're such a fucking whiner. Leave." You laugh, throwing an empty water bottle at him.

"I'm kidding." He chuckles. "Wanna grab dinner with me after practice?"

"Sure. If you pay." He groans

"Fine. I'll see you later." He puckers up his lips to blow you a kiss, which you automatically reject by giving him a look before turning your attention back to your homework. You were hoping he'd offer to go to In-n-Out because you were craving that #2 with animal fries and a neapolitan shake, plus there was a Target in the same plaza that you wanted to drag him to for new pens and clearance sale shopping. And you wouldn't even warn him about it. He would tag along, no question.

Hoseok stands in front of the mirrors in the studio, pacing back and forth as your dance group learned a couple of 8-counts from this new piece he had been brewing up. Apparently, it was supposed to be a couples piece but he wasn't sure if he was going to keep it that way. He watched to see if this would be better as a group, or if he should stick to his original plans.

Your college dance group was a small group formed by people with pure, genuine interest and love for modern hip hop choreography. Hoseok was the dance lead, with Jimin being the back up lead. The group came together, taught each other pieces, taught workshops for those interested on campus and performed at the various talent shows and productions the school had throughout the year. It was just your group's way of showcasing your talents, something you all purely enjoyed, and it was nice to see the love and support given by the audiences.

"Okay, run that from the top one more time please. We'll take break after, swear." Hoseok chuckles and gives Jimin the cue to start the song back at the starting point. Jungkook makes a funny face at you as he huffs and puffs, trying to catch his breath from the last time you went through the counts.

"Ew." You giggle, slightly pushing him aside. Miguel's How Many Drinks begins to blast through the studio speakers, Jungkook doing his best to sing along and match his tone all while focusing on his steps. Once you're done going through the counts, the music continues to play, Jungkook twirling over to you just to sing—

"Cause I ain't leavin' aloneeee, I feel like I could be honest, babe." He spins to your other side. "We both know that we're grown, that's why I wanna knooooow - how many drinks will it take you to leave with meeeeEEeeeE?"

"You can give me all the drinks in the world and I swear I still wouldn't." You snort, making him frown and click his teeth.

"Too bad that's not really how you act when I ask to sleep over, though." Silence as you stick your tongue out at him. Cause, yeah. You really do tell him to sleep over without hesitation. You loved his company, you can’t lie. "Yeah, fraudulent as hell. I never taught you that." He jokes.

"Shut up, Jungkook—"

"Okay!" Hoseok says, clapping his hands. "This'll be a couple piece. I honestly think it'll work better that way, just like I envisioned it. I'll work with the couple to clean this up before the performance, but to whoever isn't casted for this, Jimin still has a piece to teach the rest of you, so don't feel discouraged!" Hoseok chuckles a bit, giving the rest of the group a small smile. "So with that being said - Y/N, Jungkook, I want you two to do this piece."

"Ouuuuuuuu." Jimin teases you from the sidelines, causing you to put up your middle finger.

"We won’t let you down, cap." Jungkook swings his arm around you.

"I'll teach you the rest of the piece next practice so we can start polishing it up and making it clean before the talent show."

"Sounds good with me." You flatly say, even though 100%, you're pretty excited for many reasons. One, you had been wanting to do a solo or couples piece for awhile, and two, your partner was Jungkook. Your best friend, your ride or die, the dude you've spent so much time with and gave your affection to behind closed doors. It made you giddy just thinking about it, even if you'd blatantly lie to his face later on when he'd tease you. And Jungkook felt the same. You missed the way he subtly bit on his bottom lip when you were named his partner, just so he wouldn't smile too big in front of you.

After practice, you egg him on enough to agree to take you to In-N-Out, without hinting at the plan you had drafted out in your head earlier. The plan that says you're gonna drag his ass to Target afterwards and he had no choice but to come along.

"Y/N, you liar." He groans. "You said you weren't gonna go to Target." He pouts as you follows behind you anyway.

"Kook, I literally just need to get one thing."

"What's the one thing that you couldn't get on your own time?"

"I don't know, I'll have to find out when we get in there." You giggled, causing him to groan again. "Plus, we're here already. Killing two birds with one stone."

"Ah shit, I suppose I can get some bottles for the party."

"Yeah, make yourself useful Jungkook."

"Yeah, make yourself useful Jungkook, aheh." He mocks your tone and does that really weird and ugly ass laugh that dudes always do when they try to mock girls, however, you ignore it because you've just stepped into Target and bitch, this was Disneyland to you. Heaven. Paradise.

"Hm, what are we drinking on Friday?" He says his text outloud as he follows you around the dollar section where you begin to pick up really unnecessary items that you're probably just gonna store away in or around your desk somewhere.

"Should be holy water because you all need it."

"Mmm, I don't know, I don't think they have that but we can check." He responds ever so seriously, causing you to chuckle.

"How many people are you expecting?"

"Honestly, I don't even know. We said we'd keep it to close friends only. I don't really have any friends, so that's all on them."

"Ah, makes sense as to how the entire class was invited." You fire back sarcastically. "Your upstairs neighbors are really gonna have a blast."

"They're invited too."

"You guys are so dumb." He laughs when you hit him against the chest. After walking a bit, the two of you head towards the alcohol aisle, Jungkook grabbing what his arms will allow him to grab since alcohol is a little cheaper here than other grocery stores. "Isn't there a limit as to how much alcohol you can buy?"

"I don't see anything anywhere." He hauls about 4 big bottles back to the cashiers. "Besides, I'm giving them business compared to Safeway and those other grocery stores."

"Grab the coupon at least, genuis. It could save you some money." You take off the coupons from the three bottles.

He looks down at the coupon attached to the 4th bottle. "Sign up today and get 2% cash back on every bottle you buy." He snorts after reading the coupon outloud. "More like sign up today and get 2% cash back turnt." He looks at you. "This doesn't sound like a coupon, miss. Where's the ‘get 5 dollars off’ bullshit?"

"2% cash back turnt? Really?" You furrow your brows at him and hand the coupons to the cashier. "Here. God, maybe you shouldn't be hosting parties with your roommates."

"Maybe not." He holds his bags, even grabbing onto yours as you both walk out to his car. He turns up the radio, the both of you singing along to the songs coming through. When he pulls up to the lot of Edgehill Village, he parks in someone else's marked spot only because it's technically next to your door and he doesn't anticipate to stay long. But honestly, that never goes as planned. He grabs your bag from the trunk, silently following behind you as you unlock your door to an empty suite - just as you expected. Kass was most likely at Jungkook’s, spending the night with Jimin, and you'd be alone for the night. It didn't matter to you though, the peace and quiet was always nice.

"You sure you're gonna be okay here alone?" You nod.

"Yup. It's kind of nice actually." You lean forward onto your bed since it's raised a little higher than usual with bed risers, and open up your laptop. Jungkook sets your Target bag down and wraps his arms around you from behind, planting a kiss on your cheek and on your jawline.

"You sure you don't want me to sleep over? Cuddles sound nice."

"It sounds like you want to."

"Only if you want me to." He nuzzles his head against your neck, waiting for your response.

"Kook, please." You chuckle. "If you wanna sleepover, then go ahead."

"Yesssss! I do."

"Well you need to find parking, or else the person that owns that parking spot will be highly upset."

"You got it, captain. Pull up a movie!" He says, dashing out of your room to move his car. He's most likely going to come back in another 5 minutes, being that the only free parking at this time of night is probably on the other end in the gym's lot, or somewhere on the streets [if he got lucky].

And so that 5 minutes sure does go by before Jungkook is breathing heavily when he walks into your room, duffle bag swung over his shoulder with a big, dorky ass smile on his face.

"I'm back!"

"I see." You snort, still going through the movies.

"Hey, let's run through what Hobi taught us first."

"Ugh, I'm so tired though."

"Cooooome on, just once." He pulls you by the hand, his body pressed against yours as his his other arm wraps around your waist. "Please." His puppy dog eyes look down at you, causing you to push him away because fucking hell, that shit makes you weak. Makes the pussy throb just a lil, you know? Christ.

"Only if you watch 10 Things I Hate About You."

"Sure, I don't mind." He pulls up the song on your laptop. The both of you face the mirror in front of you, careful not to hit each other since you had such limited space to fully move around. Running through it once was a full blown lie, being that you both are doing it for almost 5-6 times before you're laughing at how out of breath you already are. You're so out of it and winded by the last time around that you accidentally hit Jungkook in the face, causing him to whine and stumble off to the side.

"Oh shit!" You laugh. "I'm so sorry, Kookie!" You run over to cup his face. "Are you okay? You good?"

"Shit, Y/N. You have a heavy hand." He keeps his hand against his cheek.

"I'm sorry." You lean in to plant a kiss on his cheek, but Jungkook being Jungkook, he looks to the side to have his lips meet yours instead. He picks you up in one swift motion, your legs wrapped around his torso as he sits you on your bed, your hands still cupping his face. And honestly, you really wanted him. You've always wanted him since this whole thing started. God, he was attractive to you - every little thing about Jungkook was a fucking weakness, but you weren't gonna let up first. Not tonight. The scar on his cheek, his soft, fluffy hair, his toned body, his muscular ass arms, the way he held onto you when you both slept, the way he kissed you.

Lord, he was truly going to be the death of you.

Before the kiss could get any deeper, you smile into it and back away, keeping your gaze on the small, dazed smile Jungkook has on his face.

"Can we watch now?" You ask, subtly biting onto your bottom lip.

"Yeah, good idea."

"Actually, after all that, I need to shower first."

"Can I join?" His eyes light up.

"Sit your ass down. You can go after." You laugh as you hop off the bed, grabbing your pajamas for a quick shower. You literally take 10 minutes, walking back into your room with wet hair and an oversized shirt and shorts underneath. Although you had been completely comfortable with Jungkook, the both of you have never really seen each other fully naked like that. Whenever he slept over, you were both always fully clothed. You've seen him hop out of the shower and come in shirtless, but that's probably about it. You start to brush your teeth as he rummages through his emergency duffle bag full of shit that he holds in the trunk of his car, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes to change into after his shower. You already know his ass is gonna use your shampoo for everything because he loves the smell of it and always talks about how good your hair smells.

While waiting for him, you slip yourself under your covers and pull the laptop closer to you, scrolling through your phone aimlessly to see what's new on instagram. Which, is absolutely nothing, so you let out a dissatisfied sigh.

"Ready!" He comes in, tossing his towel aside and shutting off the lights to crawl into your bed with you.

"You smell just like me." You chuckle.

"It's great, isn't it?"

"Your hair isn't bothering you?" You run your hand through his incredibly wet hair as he shakes his head.

"No, I'll be good."

"Okay." He wraps his arm around you to pull you onto his body, the movie already off to a start. As the movie goes on, you find yourself getting sleep as both of your bodies sink deeper into the sheets, Jungkook still not letting you go. The laptop rests on his belly, while your head is on his chest, his heartbeat the one thing putting you to sleep pretty quickly. He's comfortable, just as you are. He's warm, you're warm. He's content, you're content. You drift off to sleep while he continues to watch, knowing your bodies will be pressed tightly against each other in the morning.

"Kook there's so many fucking people here. The cops are gonna come and shut this down quick." Jungkook shrugs.

"Oh well, wasn't my idea." He snorts. "Shot?!" He hands you a shot that you take with ease, feeling like you aren't drunk enough for all this shit and all these people. "Atta girl."

"Yuck, though." You slightly make a sour face as you feel the warmth trickle down your throat and into your stomach.

"Heeeey, whyyyyy do you look so FaMiliaR?" This girl asks Jungkook in a weird, flirty tone, where every other consonant goes up and down. She's obviously really fucking drunk and out of her mind because for one, she definitely goes to the same school as you two, and she has definitely been in class with Jungkook before.

"Oh uh, my name's Justin Bieber. I used to sing from time to time." He says nonchalantly with you furrowing your forehead at him because what kind of response did he just give her?! What did he just tell her? You're so embarrassed that you slowly turn on your heel and walk out of the kitchen as you hear him sing One Less Lonely Girl hella out of tune, with the girl completely smitten over his drunk ass.

"Where's Jungkookie?" Kass asks as she sits on Jimin's lap.

"Over there, pretending to be Justin Bieber apparently."

"Oh, nice. You don't come across that often." Jimin says sarcastically. "Are you staying here tonight?"

"Yeah, stay here tonight, with Kookie." Kass wiggles her eyebrows, her cheek resting on top of Jimin's head. "It's not like that's anything new."

"Um, I'd rather much be back in the dorm."

"That cold, lonely place? When you could be here, in such a pretty apartment with such a pretty boy?" You shake your head at her.

"Unbelievable." You mutter. Suddenly, an incredibly tall man walks into the apartment, reaching about 6'1 and almost hitting the ceiling with his tall ass. You've never seen him before, but he walks in with Hoseok and Namjoon and for whatever reason, you can't peel your eyes off of him. "Woah, who's that?"

"Who's what?" Jungkook finally comes to your side after being Justin Bieber for a good minute or so, his eyes following yours. Who was he and why were you looking at him so intensely?

"That's Kang! You've never met him?" Jimin says, doing a slight nod to greet him as he passes by. Kang and his fine self looks up at you, a small smirk creeping up at the corner of his lips as he continues through to the kitchen behind Hoseok and Namjoon. "He's a transfer and on the basketball team."

"He's fiiiiine." You and Kass swoon over him a bit, Jungkook giving you a look.

"He's alriiiight. I've seen better."

"Shut up, no one asked you." You lightly punch him on the side, making him lightly groan while Jimin and Kass laugh. The rest of the party, you suddenly have a goal to find out more about Kang and see what he's about because you and Jungkook weren't official. You both didn't really know what this was, but one thing you knew for sure was that it wasn't anything exclusive. You wouldn't bring it up, so wouldn't Jungkook - so was this really something all that meaningful?

Whatever, you didn't wanna keep going in circles about it.

Jungkook fucking hates it though, and he's honestly really jealous that you're suddenly trying to be all cute and woo the new, tall, handsome [but he's not really that fucking handsome to Jungkook for christ's sake] basketball player. Jungkook almost wants to mock his every move and how suavé he is, almost looking like a try hard with the way he's leaning against the wall and talking to you.

Wait— he's talking to you?! You were literally right next to him 2 seconds ago.

"What the fuck?" He squints, trying to make sure he's actually looking at you.

"You're so full of shit." Jimin laughs.

"What are you talking about?"

"Why don't you just admit that you like her and stop being childish about it?"

"I don't like her. She's just my bestfriend."

"Um, okay?" Jimin snorts. "When you sleep at her place every chance you get and vice versa? When she has a ton of your shirts and hoodies in her own fucking closet? When you always get so affectionate with her in the dorm? Sure, you don't like her."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do, you've done it in front of me and Kass before but you both tried playing it off. I don't understand you two."

"Well, I don't like her. She obviously doesn't either with the way she's trying to be all up on him." Jungkook glares at you, his teeth biting the rim of the cup harshly as he brings it to his lips to take a sip.

"Whatever, I'm just saying dude. Probably better to be straight up about it than not."

"Kaaaaaaay." Jungkook responds sarcastically, trying to play off how butthurt he was right now. Cause yeah, he did fucking like you. He was just scared to admit it though because of reasons like this - the fact that you possibly didn't like him back killed him. The fact that you could possibly be using him to feel wanted, needed. It made his stomach turn.

He just really liked you, and god, did he want to be the one in your bed tonight. Whether or not that ended up in sex, whatever. He just wanted to be the one to touch you, be on you.

Meanwhile, Kang was attractive as hell and ouwee, were you feeling him tonight. You were, you really were - except, you could literally feel the holes Jungkook was burning through you from across the room. You'd occasionally glance over due to how distracting it was, Jungkook literally have no shame with eyeing you, almost glaring at you, from across the apartment.

"Is it too forward if I ask for your number already?" Kang licks his lips, his teeth lightly piercing his bottom lip as he looks down at you.

"No." You smirk at him, taking his phone to put your number in.

"We should kick it soon. I'd love to hang out with you and get to know you better."

"Yeah, just let me know when." You blush, until you're suddenly pulled out of your daze by a loud 'ahem,' the loudest throat-clearing you have ever heard in your life. You turn to see Jungkook making his way back over to the shots, knowing damn well he's calling you over. "See you around?" Kang winks before he tips his cup to you and gives you a single nod.

"Sure thing, cutiepie." You bite onto your bottom lip, making your way over to Jungkook at the shot station, instantly pinching his arm.

"What the fuck?"

"Nobody was calling you over." Jungkook smirks.

"Shut the fuck up, yes you were. I know that was you clearing your throat like that."

"I'm sorry, does it bother you?" He blinks cutely, tilting his head to the side. "Besides, why come over here when you're too busy with your man?"

"Are you jealous?"

"Why in the hell would I be jealous, Y/N? Do you." The words sting you, even though part of you still wants to believe that Jungkook may actually like you. All you can do is sigh and brush it off, placing your cup down in front of him as he pours himself another shot. "You sure?"

"Just give me the damn shot." You say, making it your 7th.

And the 7th turns into 8, 8 turns into 9, 9 turns into 10. And at 10, you're pretty fucking drunk even as the party is starting to die down by the time it's close to 2am. All 10 were a good combination of shots and mixed drinks.

10 drinks.

10 drinks is what it took for you to lay in Jungkook's bed at the end of the night, hands tangled in his fluffy hair as your makeout session intensifies by the minute - all due to this sexual tension, frustration, whatever the hell it was brewing between you two after all this time. The both of you are drunk as hell, and it's pretty evident with the way you can still taste the alcohol on his tongue, both sloppily touching up on each other, kisses getting wetter, clothes coming off like there's no tomorrow.

"Wait, are you sure?" Jungkook says, about to unhook your bra.

"Jungkook, god, just fuck me." You plead drunkily, the room spinning around you. He continues to unhook your bra, tossing it across the room where your other clothes lay, peppering kisses along your neck before licking up a stripe to meet your lips again. He hooks his fingers across the band of your panties, tugging them down and letting them get lost within his sheets. You take this as leverage to tug his boxer briefs down, already stroking his hardened member the moment you come into contact with it. The sad thing is that you both are so fucking drunk, you can't even appreciate the fact that you both are naked in front of each other for the first time ever.

You can't even come to terms with the fact that you both are about to fuck each other and cross that boundary completely.

But, hell, what do you care? You were drunk. You got a cute guy's number. You're getting dick at the end of the night.

"Oh shit, Y/N." He moans into your mouth as he feels you stroking him. "Need to feel you." He quickly runs his finger down your fold, slipping in two digits to pump them in and out, quickly prepping you for his dick.

"Hnnng--Kook." You bite onto your bottom lip as your eyes shut close momentarily, your head digging deeper into the pillow the more he tries to stretch you out. "Want you inside of me."

"I got you." He says. You almost whine at the loss of contact until you feel his tip poking at your entrance. He slowly continues to slip himself inside of you, Kook letting out a small groan while your mouth was left open, a soundless moan releasing before you hiss and take in all of him. He fills you up so well, so completely. He was so big that you felt full, bloated, with him being inside of you the way he was.

"Ohhhhhgod." You whimper as he starts to steady his pace, the lewd noises of his cock slipping in and out of your wet pussy filling his room - god forbid if Jimin or their other roommate Yoongi heard this right now. It would be nothing short of pornographic.

"You're so wet. Is that all for me?" He says, causing your eyes to roll to the back of your head as he begins to aggressively thrust into you.

"Y-yes." You whine.

"Say it again."

"All for you, Kook."

"I fucking thought so." He drunkily responds as one hand grips onto your hips tightly, the other in your hair as he digs his head back into the crook of your neck, his tongue messily licking near your jaw before he nibbles onto your earlobe.

"Hmmmmgggh, Jungkook. Fuck." You moan as you start to work your hips upward into his, your clit rubbing against his pelvis, causing the pleasure to pool quickly within the pit of your stomach. It causes goosebumps to pierce through the surface of your skin, your hands gripping tighter on his hair. "You're-you're gonna make me cum. Faster." You plead. He does just so, hammering into you, the sound of his hips slamming into yours bouncing off of the walls.

"Ahhh—Y/N." He groans.

"Just like that, just like that, just like that!" You repeat, your clit feeling incredibly stimulated by the way it rubs against his skin while he fucks into you. "Oh shit! Jungkook!" You moan loudly, biting his shoulder as you feel yourself trembling hard in his grip, your orgasm taking over your entire body.

"Shit, shit, shit—Y/N, Shiiiit." He says into your neck, followed by more curses and groans as you feel him coat your walls warmly. He stays inside of you until the both of you come back down to normalcy, your breathing becoming more regulated. He slowly slips himself out, plopping next to you on the bed, but doesn't welcome you into his arms.

The night goes on, the both of you sleeping on your own sides of Jungkook's bed, not really saying a word to each other. Because the both of you, although still pretty drunk, are more aware by the time it's over and it's become so clear how fucked up this got.

You were hurt. Completely hurt. Because you didn't expect Jungkook to just fucking ghost you after that night. You wanted to talk about it, maybe come to the conclusion that you two should just distance yourselves from each other to figure this out, even if it would hurt you a lot to do so.

No.

That morning, Jimin and Kass had to take you back to campus because Jungkook had darted out of his room, nowhere to be seen until later that night. The next week or so, there were no texts, no calls. No visiting your dorm, no asking to sleepover.

Nothing.

Just radio silence, white noise, if you will.

The one thing he could come up with was a stupid response to your text when you finally caved and asked what you did wrong mid-week.

Something along the lines of 'what do you want me to say, Y/N? do you want me to force myself to feel a certain way?'

Followed by a 'i'm sorry, fuck. that came out really wrong' even though you thought it came out perfectly fine. You understood loud and clear.

Even though this wasn't really an exclusive thing, or even a 'thing' if we wanna be straight up, you still couldn't help but feel like Jungkook had just dumped your ass with no explanation and you were still waiting for that explanation to come, whether it would or not. And because of this, you started to see Kang, hangout with him more often. He even took you out on a dinner date and you really enjoyed his company. He seemed genuine, caring, supportive - even if a lot of the basketball boys were the complete opposite. He was different, you liked to think.

And so you stand in front of the mirrors in the dance studio, you and Jungkook awkwardly running through the piece with Hoseok watching, confused as to why all of a sudden the two of you have this weird tension going on. It hasn't entirely ruined the couple piece, but it hasn't brought it together, either. The both of you could barely look at each other, barely get into the movements, the emotions behind the motions. Hoseok had to correct a few things, his 'pah pah pah's' echoing in the room constantly with how many times you and Jungkook had to be set straight for your sloppy steps today.

"Okay, I'm not saying it's bad, cause it's not. But can you both please act like you at least like each other or something? What's going on with you two? You aren't normally like this." Hoseok says, coming down to a crouch in front of the mirrors.

"Nothing, we'll do better. Don't worry." You brush off the entire question with your quick response. Jungkook looks at you, his hands on his hips, lightly frowning at how much you're distancing yourself even though he knows its entirely his fault for running from his feelings and not being honest with you.

"Okay, let's do it from the top." The music starts, you getting into the piece without making any eye contact with Jungkook. Even the steps that cause you to be close and near Jungkook, you look anywhere but his eyes, and your touch is light, trying your hardest not to let any feelings pass through the motion. Hoseok is a little more pleased this time around, but it still doesn't sit right with him, so he lets you two take a break while he heads to the other studio to check on Jimin and the rest of the group.

"Hey. Are you okay?"

"Jungkook, you don't get to ask me that." He sighs and runs his hand through his hair, not sure if he should continue on or not.

"Y/N—"

"Save it, and let's just get this over with, okay? I don't wanna be here just as much as you." Your words cut him deep because dear, you have gotten him completely misunderstood and yet, he still can't speak. He still can't talk about his feelings. He still can't save this even though he wants to, even though he loathes seeing you the way you are with Kang.

"I never said—"

"Kay, ready? Let's run this full out and make it a good one so we can call it for today." Hoseok says, clapping his hands to hype you two up somehow. The music starts and you're finally able to get into the steps. The emotions. And god, it's only because you're so hurt by your own bestfriend. You're hurt that he fucked you so good, and then dipped. You're hurt that he couldn't even face you the day after. You're hurt that after all this time, he made it seem like you still didn't matter enough - at least enough for an explanation, for some kind of reasoning, conversation, behind what just went down between the both of you. Between what has been going down between the both of you.

Besides the stupid ass responses he gave you through text.

You get so into your feelings that you don't even realize you're tearing up by the time the piece is over, and Jungkook catches it even though you face away from him as soon as the music cuts out.

"Nice, okay! That was so much better! Let's pick it up next session, yeah? We'll keep cleaning it up. Thanks guys!" Hoseok says. You immediately head towards the wall, grabbing your things to avoid any confrontation from Jungkook, but he grabs your arm as soon as you slip through the door.

"Y/N, wait. Stop."

"Let me go." You yank your arm from his grip.

"Why are you crying?" He stops in front of you, his hands placed on your arms to prevent you from moving any further.

"I'm not." You blatantly lie while you aggressively wipe away the stragglers coming down.

"Really? Just gonna lie like that?"

"Why do you care? You haven't said shit to me all week." You snap back, and Jungkook is taken aback from the tone in your voice. You remove his hands from your arms, and take one last look at him before shaking your head and walking off.

Next mistake? He doesn't come after you.

This was a waste of fucking time. If he truly cared about you, he wouldn't let you hurt like this.

You let out a deep sigh before clutching onto your things and walking back to your dorm. The walk from the gym/fitness center was damn near on the other end of campus compared to your dorm. It would be a good 10 minute walk if you really took your time. A good 10 minutes to ponder on your thoughts.

Yes, you liked Jungkook. You really liked him. Having sex with him solidified those feelings even more. How could you not have feelings for your bestfriend after all the moments you've shared? Was it your fault for assuming that? Was it your fault for walking through that door when it seemed to be completely open for you?

"Sup." Kang comes out of nowhere, pulling you out of your thoughts. He swings his arm around your shoulder, gently pulling you closer to his body. "Just got out of practice?"

"Sure did." You give him a toothless smile. Yes, he was attractive as hell. He always will be. But, even with the time you spent together, the date he took you on, he still couldn't make you feel the way Jungkook has been able to make you feel.

"How was it?"

"Um, it was alright. Nothing new really, just cleaning up the piece before the show. You're going right?"

"Why wouldn't I?" He smiles down at you. "Listen, I don't know if you've heard, but there's another party tonight."

"A party? It's Wednesday." You snort.

"Yeah, I mean, one of the boys on the Lacrosse team is throwing it at his family house because his parents will be gone. Wanna come? I'll pick you up. We don't have to stay for long." You looked at your watch.

"What time is it at?"

"Like 9ish?" Enough time for you to shower and get a quick dinner in your belly. Why the hell not? You were caught up for the week. You didn't have any pressing assignments that were due asap.

"Sure. I'll come."

"Cool. See you later then?" He says, about to part ways with you. You simply give him a nod before walking deeper into Edgehill village. You hoped you wouldn't regret this tonight, and you really hoped he meant it when he said you two didn't have to stay for long. You drag yourself into your room, seeing Kass' door wide open, revealing her packing up her duffle bag.

"Hey, where are you headed during the middle of the week?"

"My two classes got cancelled for tomorrow so me and Jiminie are heading out for a mini getaway for our anniversary." You cross your arms and smile. "He's just gonna catch up on shit when we get back I guess." She laughs.

"That sounds cute. I hope you have loads of fun this weekend, babe."

"What are you gonna do?" Kass and Jimin were obviously aware of everything happening between you and Jungkook being that they had to be the ones to take you home. They never pressed on it though, knowing you both were still pretty upset about how things were playing out. They figured you two would eventually work it out, but until then, they would just sit back and keep their mouths shut. You two were being completely stubborn, but it wasn't their relationship to fix.

"Well, there's this party Kang wants to take me to tonight."

"The Lacrosse party? Messy." She laughs. "Be careful, but also have fun, yeah? I still don’t know if I trust him.”

"Yeah I know."

"Tell me how it goes!"

"I will." You wave her off as you head into your room and shut the door. You figured you would just grab dinner on campus to avoid spending more money than you should; after all, dinner seemed to be pretty bomb tonight. You didn't mind going alone, sometimes Namjoon would join you, asking for you to bring him a plate of food while he does the hard job of sneaking inside the cafeteria through the back door. He usually waits for you at a free table and ends up staying there to have dinner with you, updating you on how life has been, how school has been. Sometimes Hoseok would join you, too. Either way, you didn't mind if no one joined. It was nice to have dinner by yourself from time to time.

You get there on time to be able to grab some food, eat quietly and head out before the cafeteria gets way too busy for your liking. You slip into the shower and throw on a mini skirt, a crop top and a denim jacket, lightly fluffing your hair in the mirror and adding a dab of lip gloss to your lips before Kang is calling you to tell you he's outside your dorm. He's wearing something similar to your color palette, however, you don't make much out of it since this also wasn't really an exclusive thing and you sure as hell weren't going around telling people you and Kang had a thing going on.

To him, you two might be a thing. You've definitely overheard people talking about you two in passing.

To you though, you two definitely weren't. And it was a big fuck you to Jungkook for that.

The house is packed from end to end already, and you're surprised being that it has barely hit 10 minutes since the party was expected to take off. Kang is having to park down the hill, allowing you to hop onto his back for a quick piggy back ride up until you reach the front of the house. There's people already fucked up out on the lawn [you figured they fucked themselves over during their pre-game session cause that shit really happens from time to time], either laying there drunkily or yacking on a free patch of grass.

Gross.

Messy, indeed.

Some people are posted, smoking blunts and offering it to people who were passing by. You and Kang both pass up on it, the idea of not knowing where it has been not sitting right with you. You both head straight to the bottles, taking shots and downing mixed drinks to chase it with so that you can catch up with majority of the crowd. Kang has his arm around your shoulder throughout the night, keeping you close to him, even when he's getting pretty drunk. You realize he's a little more handsy than usual, a little more touchy than you expected him to be. It doesn't bother you for a minute, until he really tries to hike up your skirt while you sit on his lap. You gently shoo his hand away, playing it off while he nuzzles his head against your neck.

"Let's go upstairs, babe." He says, the pet name sounding incredibly off coming from him. Maybe you were drunk, maybe you really just weren't in the mood. It just didn't sound cute, if that even makes sense?

"Okay." You respond stupidly, not wanting to cause a scene at a lacrosse party. You intertwine your fingers with his as he leads the way up the stairs, eyeing the doors as they come into view. He leans forward towards each door, making sure it's clear before opening it. You assume he finally finds one that he's satisfied with when you catch the small smirk that grows at the corner of his lips when he turns the door knob and brings you inside. He pulls you into a deep, rough kiss, one that doesn't even allow you to breathe and process what the fuck is even going on. You can't get into it for the life of you, no matter how hard you try to back away. "Wait, wait."

"What's wrong, baby? Isn't this what you wanted?" He says, kissing down your neck as he drops his jacket to the floor. He gently pushes you onto the bed, his hands traveling up your skirt as you lay there trying to push him off.

"Wait, stop." He doesn't listen. He continues until his hands are literally hooking onto your panties, his finger swiping down your clothed folds. You try fighting him off, but he's way stronger than you. He continues to be aggressive, forcefully trying to shove your panties down until you muster up all the energy you have to finally push him off of you completely. "Stop!"

"What the fuck? I thought you wanted this?"

"Who the hell said that?"

"Are you serious? The way that you're dressed and the way that you look at me. The way you approached me at your friend's party - isn't it all because of this? Because you wanted me? Why are you backing out now?"

"Jesus, get over yourself." You stand, fixing your skirt back down. He furrows his brows at you before his hand grips your arm tightly, shoving you against the wall.

"The fuck, you can't just leave without giving me anything. I brought you here to this party."

"Let me go! You're fucking sick. No one even told you I wanted this to go down. I don't know who you think you are, but you need to get yourself together and stop assuming every pussy is yours to take." He attempts to pin you, his hand holding up both of your hands against the wall while the other tries to pull up your skirt. Someone accidentally opens the door, distracting him and giving you leverage to shove him off and get the fuck away. You dart down the steps, fixing your skirt as you head outside and away from the house.

Fuck, you're far from campus. And Kass and Jimin aren't around.

God.

You groan and run your hand through your hair as you continue to walk down the hill and into the neighborhood to get as far away as possible from that house and that gross ass dude. He was literally just like the rest of the basketball team. You've heard stories and they weren't nice. Looks like he was trained well already, and that shit was sad. What a waste. A beautiful human being with such a nasty, sick mindset. You hoped other girls hadn't fallen for his shit.

Ugh, it sends shivers down your spine. Bad shivers.

"Hello? Y/N?"

"Kook, can you come pick me up please?"

"Yeah, yeah. Of course. Where are you?"

"I'll drop my location. Please hurry." You say, looking back to make sure your coast was clear. You drop the pin into your text thread with Jungkook and sit on the curb until his arrival. It's getting pretty chilly out, and the denim jacket you're wearing fails to provide you with the warmth you're looking for. Sooner or later, Jungkook is pulling up, damn near hopping out before he can shift the gear into park.

"You okay? What happened?" He says, opening the door for you before rushing over to the driver's seat.

"Nothing, can we just go back to your place?" He nods silently, and doesn't press any further after hearing your tone. He watches from his peripherals how you fiddle with your fingers and constantly reach to pull your skirt down even though he doesn't think there's any other way you could pull it down even more. He watches as he parks the car on the curb in front of his apartment how you simply undo your seatbelt and hop out to walk straight into his apartment. He watches as you welcome yourself into his closet and pick out some clothes for you to change in.

You were hurt, and his blood boils thinking about who could've done this and what they could have possibly done.

I mean, no. He knows who did this, but the question was what exactly did he try?

He hears the shower turn on, then quickly get turned off after a good 5 minutes. You had stepped in for a quick body shower, using Jungkook's bodywash just to rid yourself of feeling gross. Feeling gross from being shoulder to shoulder all night long, people breathing down your neck. Kang touching you inappropriately. You slip into Jungkook's clothes, his scent wrapping around you entirely. When you head back into the room, Jungkook has his headset back on as he faces his computer, logging back onto his game of League of Legends. You silently toss your dirty clothes to the side of his room, making a mental note to grab it tomorrow morning and toss it straight into the laundry.

Straight into a fire, perhaps. But you loved those clothes so much, it was unfortunate it'd have such a horrible memory to go with it.

Jungkook slowly removes his headset again and removes himself from his game before he heads over and sits on the edge of his bed. You simply look at him, pursing your lips tightly together to prevent yourself from crying.

But he can tell.

"What happened Y/N?" The question triggers you, making you cry into your hands as he sits there, dumbfounded and worried at how he can fix this and make you feel better. "Look, you don't have to tell me all the details but please tell me how I can help. At least tell me if I need to beat Kang's ass." He says, pulling you into his arms.

"He tried to fucking take advantage of me." You mumble as you remove your face from your hands.

"He did what?" He manages to ask even though he has a hard time swallowing the lump that formed in his throat. He already assumed you had placed him in the same category as Kang even though he never intended to take advantage of you. He really took that night as something special [even drunk], and he never meant to make you feel like you were a used object. Not like Kang.

"He-he," You sniffed. "He tried to force me into having sex with him. He took me upstairs at that lacrosse guy's party or whoever the hell it even was, and he started to aggressively kiss me. And then he tried to force my panties down and touch me there, and—"

"Okay, please don't go on or else I'll literally go over there and tear his ass apart right now. I promise you." He says sternly, his jaw clenching tightly. "God, fuck. I'm so sorry Y/N. I can't apologize on his behalf but fuck, you didn't deserve that." He uses his sweater to wipe your tears.

"I don't even know why I'm crying, this shit isn't even worth it." You groaned. "It's just overwhelming to process, I guess."

"That's okay." He says, letting out a sigh as he brushes his hand through your hair and continues to wipe the stragglers falling from your eyes. "Anything I can get you right now?"

"No, I'm probably just gonna go to bed." He nods. "Thank you for picking me up."

"Of course. You know I'll always be there." He says. You slip yourself into his sheets, watching as he makes his way back to his desk. But fuck, the only thing you needed right now was him. You didn't want this distance anymore, and you just wanted to be comforted in true Jungkook fashion.

"Wait."

"Hm?" He hums as he has a hand placed on the head of his chair while he turns to you.

"Can you just lay with me?"

"Yeah." He says, shutting off his computer before making his way over to you in the dark. You feel him slip in next to you, his arm snaking around your shoulders so he can pull you close and onto his chest. "Better?"

"Yeah." You say, shutting your eyes as you listen to his heart beat.

"Y/N."

"Yeah?"

"I never meant to take advantage of you, or make you feel like I used you that one night." Silence. "It was dumb of me, but I just— I had trouble coming to terms with my feelings. I was scared that you wouldn't feel the same way, but I thought fuck it, at least you would know, right?"

"What are you talking about, Kook?" You ask, close to a whisper.

"I'm saying that I really fucking like you, Y/N. No, that's not right." He curses himself. "I-I uh, I'm in love with you. And I don't know if I messed this up already with the way I acted, god I hope not, but you at least deserve to know that I truly do value you and that you mean alot to me. That night, even though we were pretty plastered, it meant a lot to me. It was more than just sex and I'm sure you felt that too." He waits for your response as his fingers rake through your hair. "Please say something, anything."

"I feel the same way, Jungkook. You're an idiot for running off, but I couldn't even stay mad at you. You just know how to hit my soft spots and I can never say no to it. Can never turn my back on it." He presses a kiss against the top of your head.

"Fuck, I'm really glad to hear that cause I don't know what I would have done besides cry if you rejected me." You playfully hit his chest.

"You're annoying." You jokingly say as you chuckle.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I never wanted to hurt you."

"It's okay." You look up to press your lips against his before laying back down.

"And Kang better be fucking glad you're pressed against my body right now because I'm still looking to beat his ass."

"He's not even worth it." Is the last thing you say before you find yourself drifting into a deep sleep, in the comfort of Jungkook's arms.

"You two feeling okay? Nervous?" You and Jungkook shake your heads. "Good, you guys got this. You've been looking amazing during practice, the audience will love you two, no doubt. Just remember to show emotions through expressions and hit every beat sharply." Hoseok nods in unison with the both of you.

"Got it, thanks Hobi." You smile at him toothlessly. You and Jungkook patiently waited for your turn backstage, the talent show already off to a wild and fun start. So many students came by to showcase their talents - from beatboxing, open mic, freestyling [like Yoongi did], dancing, singing, you name it. It was always a fun time at the talent show, and it was always nice to see people getting love for the shit they loved to do.

"You're up next." Hoseok says. "I'll be in the front row. Kick ass and have fun!" He says as he rushes off towards the opposite end to head back out to his seat in the theater.

"Ready?" Jungkook holds out his hand for you to take.

"I think so." You playfully respond as the backstage crew is rushing out the previous talent and rushing you two in to take your places on stage. The lights pick up as soon as the music starts, Kang's big ass head already in full view for you. He's definitely not smiling, no, he has a look of pure disgust because he simply couldn't get what he wanted from you.

And boy, who's fault was that? Not yours, no sir. It was his fault for thinking he had it like that.

But anyways, you're feeling the music, you're feeling the piece because you're dancing with your bestfriend and there wasn't this grey area anymore. It was easier to get into the motions, to get into the feeling, especially when things felt right between the two of you.

And God, what else is more attractive than Jeon Jungkook hitting his 8 counts so smoothly, with just enough umph to make it pop but make it pop cleanly.

Yo, please. I beg. Send some help. You could literally melt on stage.

The moments where Jungkook has to be close to you, where he has to touch you - you let him, and you touch him with meaning. You don't stray away this time because you have no reason to. The crowd is cheering, lots of 'ou's' and 'aw's' erupting from various places in the theater.

"Pretty lady." Jungkook whispers in your ear as the move requires his hands to be placed on your hips for a quick moment. You hear him slightly singing along to the song as he parts from you, causing you to blush.

Sooner or later, the couple piece is over and the song is transitioning to Jimin's piece, you and Jungkook rushing off the stage so the next group can take their positions. Jimin wanted to test his limits, creating a piece a little different than his usual taste - Chris Brown's Came to Do begins blaring through the theater speakers. You immediately jump into Jungkook's arms once you both reach backstage, the both of you immensely happy and pumped that you got through the piece without messing up one step or beat. It went so smoothly that Hoseok was standing in the front row, clapping and cheering in typical Hoseok fashion. You intertwine your fingers with his, slipping through the side door to catch Jimin's piece on stage. You and Jungkook are cheering them on, always impressed by the shit your friends can come up with. You both loved dancing, but you couldn't even imagine coming up with your own pieces to teach people.

That night after the show, everyone heads to a nearby restaurant for dinner with everyone. You all take up almost an entire section of the restaurant, splitting two long tables to accommodate the entire group with doubled the waitresses to take your orders. You settle for water, splitting an abnormally huge and filled deep dish pizza with Jimin, Kass and Jungkook. It was a good day, a good night, everyone at the table happily eating and chatting it up over dinner. You turn down any drinks because to be honest, drinks lowkey make you queasy just from the thought of how much you drank at Jungkook's apartment, plus the added bonus of that party Kang took you to. Jungkook declines as well, knowing he has to drive you back safely.

Jimin and Kass head back to the apartment because Yoongi says he's gonna hang out with Joon And Hoseok for a bit, and they warn you and Jungkook that things may get loud so the both of you decide to really stick to the plan of bringing you back to the dorm. Jungkook does his usual routine of dropping you off first before finding parking around campus. You hop in the shower and come out in Jungkook's oversized crewneck that he left in your closet, forgoing the shorts because you certainly thing that at this point, he'd love to see you in his sweater and panties.

And he does. He smiles as he pulls you close, his hands traveling up your sweater, only to find out that you literally don't have shit on besides some cute little boyshorts. He feels himself hardening in his pants quick because he's incredibly attracted to you and everything about you, always has been, always will be.

"You did amazing tonight." He says, gently kissing your forehead.

"You did too, partner." He gives you a slightly shocked look.

"Is that all I am to you? Your dance partner?"

"Yeah, why? Were you expecting more?" You joke as you smile up at him.

"Yeah, I was."

"Oh?" He gently swoops you up into his arms, your legs wrapped tightly around his torso as he sits you on the bed, his hands resting on your thighs while you continued to hold him around the neck. "Care to tell me what you were expecting?"

"Well, you know, my best friend—" He presses a kiss against your lips, thumbs gently rubbing circles against your hips. "My girlfriend."

"Hm, say that again?" Your fingers are gently playing with the ends of his hair, your lips barely grazing his.

"My girlfriend." He says closed to a whisper, kissing you softly. The kiss deepens quick, Jungkook's tongue lining your bottom lip as his way of asking for permission to take it further. You gladly take it and let him in, your tongues instantly fighting for dominance. Your fingers travel up his hair, tugging ever so slightly just to let him know you want more. That you need more.

And he gets that.

His fingers hook onto the band of your boyshorts, tugging them down and letting them fall down your legs and onto the floor. He breaks the kiss momentarily, his brown, puppy dog eyes looking straight into yours.

"Hey." He says, brushing the hair out of your face.

"Hm?"

"I know I said the last time was special, and it was. It is." He corrects himself. "But, I wanna do right by you this time around. So, is it okay if I keep going? Are you comfortable?" He asks properly, since the two of you are both sober and perfectly coherent, aware of your surroundings and the fact that you'll be seeing each other fully naked in a few minutes.

"Yes." You respond. "Yes, I want you to keep going. I want you. This." He simply nods, bringing his lips back onto yours. His hands climb up your sweater and gently gives your breasts a good squeeze, earning a small moan from the both of you. His other hand begins to travel down to your pussy, two long fingers slowly probing your entrance and causing your breathing to hitch.

"You okay?" He asks lowly. You nod, biting onto your bottom lip as you tilt your head back and rest on your hands, no longer able to keep up with the kiss due to all the pleasure starting to pile up deep in your core. Jungkook starts of slow, his head now buried into the crook of your neck as he works his digits upward, tickling at the right spot.

"Ohhhh, Kook." You mewl as his tongue swipes across the surface of your neck, biting gently beneath your jaw. He begins to pick up the pace, the sounds of him finger fucking you filling up the room entirely.

"Fuck, you're so wet baby." He groans into your neck.

"I'm gonna cum." You whine, teeth almost piercing through your bottom lip in between your whimpers.

"Need to taste you." He removes his fingers and sinks down in between your thighs, gripping onto them and pulling you just a teensy bit more off the edge of the bed so he can get a good angle. The sight of his eyes looking up at you in between your legs is to die for, and the sight alone is enough to make you cum. But, you hold on, you ride out for a little longer - feeling Jungkook's tongue swipe in and out of your folds before he's sucking endlessly on your clit.

"Ahhh, fuck, wait, Jungkook!" He slightly smiles while eating you out, signaling that he's not stopping even if you beg him to. "Hnnng—shit!" You moan loudly as you feel yourself toppling over the edge, your body shaking in Jungkook's grip. You twitch every time he continues to suck gently on your sensitive nub, letting you ride out the rest of your high. He comes back up to your lips, the taste of your own cum lingering on it as you kiss him deeply.

"You taste so good." He says, back to twirling your nipples in between his fingers.

"Wanna feel you." You fiddle with his jeans, undoing his belt and sliding the rest down as much as you could. Jungkook gets out of his shirt and tosses it aside before helping get the sweater above your head. His eyes glow at the sight of your bare body in front of him, wanting to do nothing but please you and please you well.

"God, you're so perfect." He places kisses down your collarbone, to the surface of your breasts before quickly swirling his tongue around your perked buds. You moan as you tug down onto his boxer briefs, immediately stroking his hardened member while he tended to you. Jungkook was a fucking beauty himself - his soft hair, his perfectly toned body, his long 'thick in all the right places' dick.

"Please." You plead. "I want you inside of me." You whimper, causing Jungkook's breathing to hitch when you slightly tighten your grip at the base of his shaft. He gently pushes your hand aside to take over, lining himself up at your entrance. He inserts the tip, watching your eyes roll to the back of the head as he slowly sinks into you.

"Mmmmmgod." He moans. "So tight for me, baby. So fucking wet and tight." He repeats, close to a growl. Your moaning begins to pick up, matching the pace of his thrusting. You're still on the edge of the bed, Jungkook keeping you steady by gripping your thighs tightly. He marvels at the sight of your titties bouncing up and down with every thrust, hissing and shutting his eyes momentarily to keep himself grounded and to prevent himself from coming too quickly. Cause god, he can literally blow any second now.

"Jungggggkooook, yessssss!" You moan loudly, whining even at this point with how good he feels fucking into you at such a fast pace. You're feeling slightly sore already from him hammering into you, but nonetheless, it builds more pleasure for you and you want nothing but to reach your high again. "I-I'm coming!" Jungkook moans in unison with you when he feels your walls pulsating against his cock.

"Such a good girl for me." He says, slowing his pace. The creamy sounds of Jungkook's cock slipping inside and out is music to the both of your ears. He finally gains the courage to remove himself, sitting next to your spot on the edge of the bed and pulling you onto his lap. You swing a leg over, your hands resting on the nape of his neck while you sink yourself lower onto his length. Your mouth opens to let out a moan, but the best you can do is let out a hiss. It feels too fucking good that you can't even process it thoroughly. Jungkook pushes your lips down onto his by grabbing your neck, his other hand guiding the movement of your hips as you roll into him.

"Mmmggg—Jungkook." You whimper in between kisses. "You feel so fucking good, god. You're gonna make me cum again."

"Yeah, cum for me. Cum all over me. It's yours." He grunts, his hands guiding you to work him faster. Your movements are getting sloppier, and you feel your wetness starting to coat his pelvis. He doesn't give a fuck though, and neither do you. This shit feels too good for you to worry about the mess you're making on him.

"Cum with me please." He moans at the sound of you whispering into his ear.

"Faster, baby." He says, almost making you cry at how awfully close you are to unraveling. You tug onto his hair, your head buried deep into his neck as you try and suck onto the surface, trying to find an outlet, some kind of release, until you let go. You suck harshly as you coat his cock with your cum, leaving a purple mark right at the base of his neck. You continue to ride out your high, rolling your hips sloppily as Jungkook finally lets himself go, his moan bouncing off of your walls as his seed fills you up warmly.

You stay in your position, slowly raising your head to cup his cheeks and kiss him deeply once more.

"Fuck, I love you." He says slightly pulling away.

"I love you too." You giggle.

"Didn't actually need any drinks to do this now, did we?" Jungkook jokes, softly pinching your hip.

"Shut up."

"Damn, you both couldn't even at least try to be quiet?!" Jimin yells from outside the door.

2K notes · View notes

cha-melodius · 2 years

Note

I’m flipping out about the lokius bodyguard AU already 💗 can we also get a lokius (You caught me doing something dangerous and flipped out) for prompt 49 please?

(I originally planned to do an interstital mission fic from the middle of AGMIHTF, but then I realized that it actually fit pretty well with a story I already knew I wanted to write in this AU, set in their future. Then we got Lokius in tuxes and people talking about how it reminded them of this AU, and so I was dragged back in, lol. I hope you enjoy!)

The Risk I Took With You

(a CIA agents future fic from the What Makes A Good Man universe)

Read it on AO3

Mobius is up to something.

He probably thinks he’s being sneaky, but they’ve been working together for three years now and been in a relationship for two and a half. They spend an absurd amount of time together between work and home, which would probably be fatal for many peoples’ relationships, but not theirs. They thrive on it. Loki knows his moods and and his feelings and his thoughts better than he knows his own, and that includes when Mobius is up to something.

To be fair, Mobius could say the same thing of him, but this time it is not Loki who is plotting god knows what.

Mobius has been wound up the entire time they’ve been in Toronto for no discernible reason, which he’s also denied vehemently when Loki tried to call him out on it. The job they’d been sent on is relatively simple: they’re there mostly to act as a concerned third party in a negotiation for some stolen intelligence that Canadian intelligence is heading up. Their liaison is an agent named Charlotte Haines, a short blonde firecracker of a woman who reminds Loki a little of Sylvie, if Sylvie tempered her sarcastic wit with excessive Canadian politeness. It’s honestly been kind of boring, which is probably why Loki ends up getting into trouble when he tries to figure what’s going on with Mobius.

On the second day, he wakes, sprawled haphazardly across the bed in their hotel room, to find Mobius already up and dressed. Loki blinks blearily at him, trying to figure out if he’s overslept, or if Mobius is just up far earlier than necessary. It’s hard to tell the hour; the feeble winter light filtering through the curtains suggests that, if the sun is indeed up, it’s being hidden by dense cloud cover. Mobius glances over at him as he finishes tying his tie, then wanders back over to the bed.

“Go back to sleep,” he murmurs, leaning down to brush a lock of hair back from Loki’s face before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I’ve got a something to take care of this morning. Should be back by lunchtime.”

“Wait,” Loki protests. He just manages to catch Mobius’s hand before he withdraws again. Fuck, he’s not awake enough to process what’s going on right now. He tries to ignore the voice in his head that says that’s a purposeful choice on Mobius’s part. “Shouldn’t I go with you?”

“It’s nothing, I promise,” Mobius says with gentle smile that’s nonetheless edged with tension. “Another project. Boring stuff.”

Loki frowns. He knows all of Mobius’s projects, and he doesn’t have any others that would mean running around in Toronto. “Did Renslayer call?”

“You should get together with Agent Haines, go over the intel about the sellers before tonight,” Mobius says instead of answering the question. “Be back before you know it.”

Then he’s gone, fleeing the room so quickly that if Loki wasn’t worried about what was going on with him before, he certainly is now.

The thing is, they don’t need to go over the intel again. They’ve already done it, quite thoroughly, and a phone call to Haines confirms that she wasn’t expecting to meet with either of them that morning. Loki doesn’t tell her about Mobius’s disappearing act, but it’s clear she can tell something is wrong. He tells her not to worry, they’ll be ready before things are supposed to go down tonight, and immediately rings off. Finding out where Mobius went just became priority number one.

The possibilities are a little daunting. Toronto is a big city, and with a half an hour head start on him, Mobius could be anywhere. On a hunch, Loki checks the GPS built into their rental car, which helpfully records the location that you’ve parked it, but he only finds that the car isn’t parked at all. Mobius is driving somewhere, though the system doesn’t offer that kind of tracking. For now all he can do is wait.

It’s excruciating. The irony is that Loki’s usually the one disappearing for random stretches of time. As much as he loves Mobius, sometimes he just needs to be alone with his thoughts. Sometimes the need to go case a gallery or a museum thrums under his skin until he can’t ignore it, so he slips away just to ease it. He never steals anything, not anymore, but the process of preparing to do so is almost meditative. After a few misunderstandings, Mobius now gets it. He doesn’t worry so much anymore, though he still jokes about embedding a permanent tracker on Loki.

If one thing comes out of this, Loki might actually get better at leaving Mobius a note or something, because the not knowing is killing him. He even considers calling Renslayer, but decides he really doesn’t want to involve the division if it’s nothing. Finally, finally, the rental car notifies him of a new parking location… in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Loki has no idea what to make of it, but he has plenty of time to dwell in the cab down from Toronto. The cabbie gives him quite the look when he tells him where he wants to go, but he also doesn’t turn down the hefty fare. Of course, by the time Loki gets down to the parking lot where the car is parked, Mobius is long gone. Fortunately, searching Niagara Falls is not nearly as daunting as searching Toronto, and also fortunately, he doesn’t look for long.

Mobius had said he was working on a project, but when Loki finds him he doesn’t appear to be doing anything of the sort. Instead, he’s walking almost aimlessly along the promenade that looks over the massive waterfalls, hands shoved in his pockets, apparently lost in thought. If Loki thought that finding Mobius would clear any of this up, he is sorely mistaken. He watches for a little while longer, until he’s satisfied that he is, in fact, not going to be messing up any meetings or intelligence gathering if he goes up to Mobius and asks what he thinks he’s doing down here, taking in the sights like some kind of tourist.

Just when he’s about to make his move, though, something catches his eye. Or rather, someones. The crowds are pretty thin at the falls this time of year, otherwise Loki might not have noticed them. The two men hang back far enough not to be obvious, and indeed it seems like Mobius hasn’t clocked them. That in and of itself is unusual, but it fits his general distractedness of late. From where Loki’s watching, though, he can clearly see the men—youngish, casual dark clothes, sunglasses despite the heavy clouds—meandering after Mobius. Whatever Mobius is doing here, Loki has a feeling it’s about to be interrupted. Without taking his eyes off Mobius and the men, he pulls out his phone and dials.

“Haines,” comes the voice on the other end of the line as it crackles to life.

“I don’t have time to explain, but Mobius is in Niagara Falls and being followed by a couple of men. Could be associated with our sellers,” Loki blurts in a rush.

Haines is silent a beat, no doubt absorbing all of this. “And you are doing what?”

“Watching them. Mobius doesn’t know I’m here.”

“Right,” Haines sighs, and he can tell she’s holding back a thousand more questions. “Where exactly?”

“Right across the river from, er, the falls? The flat ones.”

“You mean American Falls?”

“Sure,” Loki agrees without really knowing if that’s true. “There’s some kind of bridge to the north, Mobius is heading toward it.”

“Jesus,” Haines swears under her breath. “The Rainbow Bridge. It crosses over to the US. There’s a footpath. The last thing we want is Border Patrol involved in this, so if it looks like they’re going to try to cross, do anything you can to stop it. Be there shortly.”

Shortly is not going to be soon enough, given how long it took Loki to get down here. Maybe if she takes a helicopter. Seems unlikely. Loki moves to put away his phone, then stops himself. Keeping one eye on the men following his partner, he flicks open the messaging app and types out something he hopes will be fairly innocuous.

How’s the project

A moment later, he watches as Mobius pulls his phone out of his pocket and smiles down at it. He taps out a few words—at a glacial pace, as always—and then Loki’s phone buzzes.

Going well

It does not seem like Mobius is inclined to offer more than that, and Loki does not resist rolling his eyes.

Am I going to find out what this is?

Eventually. Patience, dear

What if I don’t want to be patient?

It’ll be worth it, I promise

Loki stares down at the phone, far more confused than he was before. Unfortunately, his little texting diversion did little to slow Mobius, and he seems to be making his way precisely toward the bridge that Haines did not want them to take. A little ways away, the two men who have been following him apparently realize this too. Abandoning their seemingly aimless paths, they start closing in on Mobius. One of them unzips his coat and Loki catches a flash of metal that reveals that he’s definitely armed.

All bets are off now. Loki practically launches himself from his hidden perch in the park across the street, dodging cars as he runs against a green light. He can’t get to Mobius before the men do, but he can intercept the men before they get to Mobius. The one with the open coat is closest, so Loki puts himself on a collision course with him, helpfully relieving him of his pistol as they crash together. The man’s confused swearing is enough to draw the attention of his compatriot, but it also, somewhat unfortunately, draws Mobius’s attention well. Loki watches his face go through a truly stunning array of expressions as they lock eyes, all in a split second, before he has to tear his gaze away from his partner to focus on his two assailants again.

The two men seem to be undecided on whether to keep after Mobius or shift their aim to Loki, and, well, Loki can’t have that. He knows he should probably try to get to Mobius so that they can work on getting out of this together, but the men are currently standing between them. Any move in Mobius’s direction runs a pretty high risk of endangering his partner, not to mention the civilians milling around, oblivious to the peril they’re in. There’s just enough of a crowd of bystanders here to be a serious hindrance, and he’s operating on the assumption that neither man would balk at a little collateral damage. No, he needs the men to follow him and him alone, preferably somewhere isolated from other people.

“Clément should try employing people who are actually competent at tailing a target,” Loki says, loud enough for them both to hear. The man he bumped into immediately goes for his gun, and is unsurprisingly not pleased to find his holster empty. “Looking for this?”

Loki flashes the weapon, quick enough not to draw attention from those around them, then starts hurrying toward a nearby structure that is clearly closed for the season. The sign above the entrance proclaims it to be a funicular, and as he gets closer Loki realizes the track runs down to some docks on the water for a boat cruise of the falls. At this time of year the whole area is deserted, which makes it optimal for drawing his pursuers away from the crowds. With luck, Mobius will understand what he’s doing and find another way down to the docks, then they can take these two out of play and figure out who they’re working for.

He’s not surprised that the second man draws his gun. What he doesn’t factor in is him actually opening fire. It doesn’t make any sense; doing so will immediately draw the attention of the local police, and surely that would be the last thing these guys want. Right now it seems like they’d be satisfied with shooting Loki and getting the hell out of there, though, and that is definitely suboptimal. As the first gunshots ring out, the bystanders on the promenade erupt into chaos and he loses track of Mobius entirely, but he can’t afford to focus on anything other than getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Using the gun he’d stolen, Loki shoots the lock off a chain link fence barring entrance to the funicular platform, then scrambles onto a long, rickety staircase that follows the tracks down to the lower level. Bullets wing off the structure around him as he hurtles down the stairs, and it is only once he’s on them—once he’s committed, with no way out—that he realizes how much of a mistake this was. The stairs are encrusted in a thick layer of ice, no doubt enabled by the constant mist blown over from the falls, and his feet immediately do their best to slide out from underneath him. With what momentum he can find, he launches himself over the railing and into the brush next to it, which is better in his oxford shoes, but not by much. At least he gains a modicum of cover from the rocks and the low, leafless plant life, instead of being completely exposed on the stairs. The two men don’t hesitate to follow him, even when he returns fire once they’re on the hillside and away from any tourists. It’s slow going, even moving as fast as he dares. Two-thirds of the way down, the clip in the stolen gun hits empty, and he throws it away; his assailants do not seem to have the same issue. They probably have a spare clip, to Loki’s misfortune.

After what feels like an excruciatingly long time, his feet hit the flat concrete at the bottom of the hill, and he sprints for cover among semi-permanent tents and flimsy structures clearly designed for much warmer weather. He’s not entirely sure where he’s going—maybe if he can find some place to lay low, he can flank his pursuers and get the drop on them—but then he turns a corner, and any hope of this remaining covert flies right out the window. Every way forward is full of police, and Loki doesn’t know how trigger-happy Canadian cops are, but he’s not about to take that risk. He raises his hands, yelling, “I’m not armed!” and before he knows it he’s being handcuffed and bustled off to a locked room in some nearby building.

Normally, Loki would probably effect his escape immediately; he’s come to understand, over the years, that being an intelligence operative on foreign soil provides no benefits when dealing with local law enforcement, even if you’re an ally. In this case, though, they actually are working directly with Canadian intelligence, plus he did call Haines about this whole mess, and he has no idea where Mobius is, so he figures he might as well wait. Maybe he can even work some info out of the cops about the other two men. He’s not, however, going to wait in handcuffs; he dispatches them quickly and abandons them on the room’s only table.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he waits for a while. Long enough to get bored; long enough to considering revising his decision to stay there. Just when he’s starting to contemplating the lock, though, the door opens to admit an apparently seriously pissed off Mobius, hands planted on his hips and a thunderous expression on his face. It’s a pretty stark contrast to Haines, who walks in next to him looking more amused than anything else.

“I see you’ve made yourself at home,” she says, looking pointedly at the discarded handcuffs.

“Might as well be comfortable,” Loki returns. “Did you get the two who were chasing me?”

“The RCMP weren’t particularly keen on sharing, but we learned enough. It turns out our sellers got a tip that they might be dealing with spies instead of criminals.”

“They didn’t guess it was both, then?” Loki quips with a grin. He glances over at Mobius, who frighteningly does not look even a little amused.

Haines shrugs good-naturedly, though. “The good news is they think they rooted out the threat. They never saw me, so my cover is still intact. Stronger, if I play it right.”

“Is there bad news?”

“Well, neither of you can come to the deal, obviously,” she says. “Also you might have traumatized a few tourists, but they’ll get over it.”

“Right,” Loki says slowly. “Is that it?”

“For now,” Haines confirms. “We’ll meet later tonight. Until then, he’s all yours.”

It’s unclear who she’s talking to, and about, in that statement, and she’s out the door before Loki can ask her to explain. He supposes it doesn’t really matter, in the end. Mobius’s face hasn’t so much as twitched since he came in. Loki didn’t think he’d be pleased, but he certainly didn’t expect him to be this upset. After all, they got the guys, no one got hurt, and the deal remained intact. What more did he want?

“Look, can we not—” Loki starts with a sigh, but Mobius cuts him off immediately.

“I thought we covered this in Berlin.”

Loki blinks, his mouth still hanging open mid-sentence. It’s just about the last thing he expected Mobius to say. “…Berlin?”

“You, risking your life for no goddamned good reason!” Mobius snaps.

“I beg your pardon, but I happen to have a very good reason for risking my life,” Loki retorts, feeling his own annoyance rising. Honestly, as if he wants to be shot at. “Are you forgetting that none of this would have been necessary if someone hadn’t decided to take a little unscheduled field trip?”

“Oh, come on!” Mobius groans as he tips his head back to stare at the ceiling in exasperation.

“No, I think I deserve to know what was so goddamned important down here,” Loki insists, taking a step closer and using his height to his advantage. “What kind of ‘project’ that you were so wrapped up in that you didn’t even notice you were being followed!”

“You really want to know?” Mobius demands. Unsurprisingly, he’s not backing down in the face of Loki’s looming; he never has, and Loki knows he never will.

“Yes, I do!” Loki nearly shouts.

“Fine!”

With frustrated huff, Mobius wheels around and starts nearly stomping toward the door, pausing only to gesture impatiently for Loki to follow when he reaches the threshold. Loki makes sure his sigh is audible as he does, but his irritation is already slipping away in favor of his curiosity. Whatever this is, it had to be important for Mobius to be this worked up over it.

The sun has dropped below the horizon by the time they get back outside, which comes as a bit of a surprise; Loki hadn’t realized he’d been in there so long, but the sunsets are still early here at this time of year, even though the days are getting progressively longer. The evening has brought with it a biting chill, whipping off the river and doing its best to slip its icy fingers past the seams of Loki’s coat. Their breath puffs out in clouds of condensation before them as they walk side by side along the promenade, back toward the bridge again. As they approach, a sign proclaims “Rainbow Bridge—to USA,” and Mobius heads toward the guarded entrance to the footpath.

“Are we crossing?” Loki asks, finally breaking the long silence.

Mobius shakes his head. “Nope. Just about halfway.”

For all that the crowds were relatively thin on the promenades down below, they’re nearly nonexistent up on the bridge. Another couple walks by them as Mobius slows to a stop, but once they’ve moved on Loki and Mobius are alone. At first, Mobius just stares out at the falls, not unlike what he’d been doing before. His anger seems to have ebbed away now, replaced by an odd nervousness. Even though his hands are shoved in his pockets again, Loki can tell he’s fidgeting. All of it is exceedingly odd, and quite frankly Loki is starting to worry about his partner.

“Did you really come down here just to look at a waterfall?” Loki asks when he’s unable to take the mystery any longer.

“Not exactly,” Mobius murmurs. He takes a deep breath, shooting a brief glance at Loki before staring back out at the falls. “You’ve never been here before. That’s what you said, when I visited you at the prison.”

“Well, that is true,” Loki allows. He glances out at the falls again. “They’re… nice, I suppose.”

“If I recall correctly, you said you thought they’d be romantic.”

“And you said something about six million cubic feet of water, and obliteration, and I’m sorry but does this all have a point?”

Mobius doesn’t answer right away, and in the fading twilight, abruptly the falls get lit up in blues and pinks and purples. Loki sucks in a tiny, sharp breath of surprise, but only because he wasn’t expecting it, is all. He doesn’t miss the smirk that tips onto Mobius’s lips when he catches it, like he was waiting for just this moment. Ok, fine, the falls are impressive. Loki still doesn’t see why Mobius was being all cloak and dagger about this.

“I was going to do this tomorrow, after everything was wrapped up,” Mobius tells him. “Today was just to figure out the best location for it. But then you had to come barreling in, and getting yourself shot at, and ruining the surprise. I suppose that makes it all a lot more us, though.”

“Going to do what, Mobius?”

“The right kind of proposal.”

The words trigger a turn of phrase in his memory, something from the day Mobius is referring to when he showed up to offer him a job with the CIA, but he can’t quite recall it before he’s distracted. Mobius is pulling his hands out of his pockets, finally, and one of them comes with a small, black box clutched in it. He looks down at it, turning it over once before popping the lid open, and Loki briefly forgets how to breathe. Nestled inside is a ring: gold, with some kind of serpentine inlay winding its way around the middle. It looks nearly black in the low light, but there’s a glint to it that makes Loki think it’s probably a dark green.

“So,” Loki starts, surprisingly steadier than he expected. In some ways, he’s so overwhelmed by the moment that he’s come back around to even-keeled again. “This is why you were mad?”

“I was mad because I want you to spend the rest of your life with me,” Mobius corrects, a little wryly, “and I would prefer if that life was as long as possible.” Then he plucks the ring out of its box with one hand and reaches forward to take Loki’s with his other. “I’m not great with words, but for you, I’ll try. When I visited to that prison to offer you a deal, I never could have guessed that three years later I’d be here. I took a risk that day, but not in the way most people think. I never doubted what you could be. No, the risk was this, us. I thought it would be impossible. That it would never work. I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong. I’ve never been so happy, period,” he says, breaking off with a soft laugh. Then he meets Loki’s eyes, achingly sincere. “I love you, Loki. I’ll always love you. Marry me?”

Now Loki’s far too overcome by emotions to speak, now that Mobius is looking at him so expectantly and waiting for him to do so. So he does what he can manage, which is to reach up with the hand Mobius isn’t holding and pull him into a kiss. He puts everything he can’t quite say into it, in the way he holds on like he’s never going to let go, because he’s not. Mobius isn’t alone in his disbelief over where life has taken them; Loki never could have imagined he’d be standing here with this man, in this moment, and he knows he would never change a single choice. Not a single step in the path that led him here.

Eventually, after they’ve kissed themselves breathless, he pulls back just enough to press his forehead to Mobius’s, their chilled noses brushing as Loki lets out a soft, helpless laugh.

“So should I take that as a yes…?” Mobius ventures.

“Yes, yes, you ridiculous man,” Loki huff, then captures his lips in another kiss. This time Mobius pulls back first, far enough to look down and finally slide the ring onto Loki’s finger. Loki can’t seem to pull his eyes away from it, and he’s still staring down when he murmurs, “Sorry I mucked up your big plans.”

“It’s ok,” Mobius says. “Still did what I came here to do.”

“I wouldn’t have changed any of it, for what it’s worth,” Loki tells him.

Mobius’s eyebrows rise up toward his hairline. “Even all the running and the shooting?”

“Well,” Loki allows, “maybe not that part. I was right, though.”

“About?”

“Six million cubic feet of water per minute plummeting off a cliff is actually pretty romantic.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Mobius agrees, grinning. “How about it as a metaphor for love, though?”

Loki laughs warmly and tugs him close again, wrapping his arms around his shoulders as Mobius slides his own arms around his waist. They stand there another long moment, tangled together, just watching the glow of the illuminated falls.

“Still working on that one,” Loki admits eventually. “But I’ll be sure to let you know.”

#lokius #loki x mobius #mobius x loki #loki laufeyson #mobius m. mobius #wowki #time husbands #loki tv #loki series #loki au #what makes a good man #my fic #yes i am still working on these requests #i will get to them all eventually i promise

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luvdsc · 4 years

Text

too hot! hot damn!

what do you get when you mix red and blue together?

pairing :: lee taeyong x reader genre :: fluff / boyfriend au word count :: 2,121 words warnings :: a tiny paragraph about making out playlist :: cherry kisses (chungha) ⋆ daft pretty boys (bad suns) ⋆ hands on me (taeyeon) ⋆ crash my car (coin) ⋆ shy (hunny) author’s note :: to the insanely talented goddess who wrote the first nct fic i ever read nearly 3 years ago and still love to this day!!! i didn’t think i’d ever get to be friends with one of my favoritest writers on here, but here we are :’) ily els @taeyongtime ♡

“It’s hot.”

You’re draped across the old, yet still very plush couch, the kitschy pattern spread across it now fondly regarded as one of the things that transforms this dingy little place from a shoebox apartment into home. The thin spaghetti strap of your faded tie-dyed tank top from your old sorority days hangs limply off of your shoulder, threatening to fall even more when you slump over to the left. The simple drawstring shorts you have on barely cover your legs, but you contemplate tossing them off still because it’s just. So. Damn. Hot.

“It’s hot!” you whine even louder, throwing your arms up in the air before letting them flop down onto the cushions dramatically. The nearby open window only blows in a measly little breeze that does nothing except dry the sweat on your skin for a few glorious seconds before it reappears like a stubborn stain. Your boyfriend only raises an eyebrow at you from his spot on the floor, sprawled out in front of said window and using one of his Nylon magazines as a makeshift fan.

Taeyong agrees, flapping the glossy pages in front of his face desperately. “It’s too hot.”

Two days consisting of barely surviving the power outage creeps into a third, the prospect of having AC again anytime soon becoming extremely bleak. The transformer had completely blown out, and the electric company finally sent out a crew to fix it earlier this morning. The estimated restoration was initially set to noon, but it was pushed back until 3 p.m., then 6 p.m., then 10 p.m., then 5 a.m., and now the big black bolded letters spelling out “undetermined” mocks you from the screen of your phone that's already set to the lowest brightness setting to conserve battery.

To make it worse, your city was suffering a heat wave, temperatures spiking to 105 degrees Fahrenheit every single day and simmering down to 80 during the night before climbing the thermostat again. The raging thunderstorm that plagued last night only resulted in unexpected humidity, making your clothes stick to you like a second skin.

“Make it less hot,” you moan, blowing air upwards towards your forehead in an attempt to cool down in the slightest way possible.

“I can’t control the weather, babe, but I can get you a popsicle?” Taeyong sluggishly pushes himself into a sitting position to face you. The shiny magazine in his hand still flounders around until he gives up on it and tosses it aside.

You turn your head, cheek pressing into the couch cushion, as you squint at him. “We don’t have any left. We took all our food from the fridge to Doyoung’s place. I can’t believe that bastard has a gigantic generator and is flourishing in his stupid air conditioned apartment and making frozen sangrias, while his best friends are about to die from heatstroke.”

You had sent back a rather crass Snapchat back to Doyoung after he sent one earlier of his perfect, Instagram story worthy, iced alcoholic beverage. It’s honestly a miracle that he didn’t toss your beloved brown sugar boba ice cream bars out onto his pristine balcony with picture perfect potted plants to perish. That man can still hold onto a grudge even after he’s on his deathbed and descending into the fiery pits.

Taeyong stands up and slowly ambles towards the refrigerator. “I saved two popsicles in the freezer. I figured it’d stay cold enough and not melt if we ate them soon.”

“Oh my god, that’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever said to me.” You struggle to push yourself up into a sitting position before finally being able to, watching your boyfriend open the freezer and pull out the last two saving graces.

“Do you want blue raspberry or cherry?”

He holds out the two icy sweets in front of you, one in each hand. You already know that he secretly wants the red one; it’s been his favorite ever since he was five and tried his very first one from the ice cream truck that still comes around his parents’ neighborhood. But you also know that he always lets you choose first and wouldn’t complain if you take that one.

You reach out and pluck the blue one from his grasp, and he smiles happily, eyes crinkling in the corners as he eagerly unwraps the cherry flavored one and shoves it in his mouth, tossing the wrapper into the nearby wicker trash basket.

He drops down onto the empty space next to you, reclining back and slouching in his seat. The two of you sit there peacefully, side by side and enjoying the cold snacks, until he wordlessly slides over, pressing the side of his arm and leg against yours.

“Move back,” you complain, shoving him over to his original position. “It’s hot, and you’re making it worse.”

“So are you calling me hot?” Taeyong wriggles his eyebrows at you before taking a bite of his popsicle, much to your horror. He moves closer to you again for the sole sake of annoying you.

“First off, I’m calling you sweaty. Secondly, did you just bite your ice cream?” You throw him a dirty look before moving over and turning to sit with your back against the arm rest, throwing your legs over his lap.

Taeyong slightly pouts at you, munching on yet another chunk of his popsicle and ignoring the way you wrinkle your nose in disdain. “What’s wrong with that? It’s melting, and I don’t want it to drip and get my hand all sticky.”

You can’t believe that you just discovered your boyfriend is a psychopath. He’s going to the same circle of hell as people who pour milk in before cereal and those who hate mint chocolate chip ice cream once he leaves this earth (He can even say hi to Doyoung as he descends to eternal damnation).

“Why didn’t you say anything about this before we started dating?” You are absolutely appalled. Horrified. Disgusted. This is the biggest relationship deal breaker you have ever come across.

“Next, you’re gonna say you hate me because I don’t like pineapple on pizza,” he says as his free hand settles on the top of your thigh, gently tapping rhythmically against it absentmindedly.

“Oh my god, you absolute heathen.” You really thought Taeyong was the perfect man of your dreams, but you unfortunately realize belatedly that even he has flaws. Some inexcusable ones, in fact.

In the midst of your lamenting, you fail to notice melting sugar slowly trickling down until it leaves a sticky mess all over your hand. Desperately, you toss the empty popsicle stick into the nearby waste basket before licking off the remnants of your icy blue treat from your fingers.

“See? It melted all over you. I told you so,” Taeyong childishly sticks out his tongue as he waves his clean hand and empty popsicle stick around as if to emphasize his point.

“Your tongue’s red,” you say, chuckling slightly, and his eyes widen at this newfound revelation.

“Wait, stick out your tongue,” he demands as he throws away the wooden stick, and you comply with his request. He grins, delighted. “Yours is blue!”

He sticks out his tongue again, almost going cross eyed as he tries to catch a glimpse of his own. At that, your eyes zero in on his cherry stained lips, and an ingenious idea pops up in your mind as the sudden urge to kiss your boyfriend silly makes itself very known.

“Hey, wanna play a game, Yongie?” you ask slyly, and his attention immediately turns to you at the word “game,” interest piqued and eyes fixated on you.

“What kind of game?” he inquires cautiously, taking note of the mischievous glimmer in your eyes. You look like you’re up to no good, and your boyfriend wouldn’t be surprised if you have something up your metaphorical sleeve (Because nobody sane enough would be wearing something with sleeves in this weather from hell. In fact, you’re 66.6% percent certain that those fiery pits are probably cooler compared to here).

“Too hot.”

“Yes, it is,” he acknowledges, shaking his head in agreement, and you laugh, fanning yourself with your hands. “No, silly, I meant the game.”

“It’s called ‘too hot’?” He raises an eyebrow at you, and you confirm, nodding your head. The expression of skepticism on his face says it all, so you throw in your bargaining chip.

“I hid a chocolate bar in the freezer’s ice chest. The winner can have it.”

His doe eyes immediately light up at the mention of his favorite sweet, and he grabs your hand, squeezing it tightly. “Okay, how do I play?”

“We kiss,” you start, and he’s already pulling you towards him enthusiastically, causing soft laughter to bubble up from your throat, before you swat his hands away. “Hey, hey, hey, I wasn’t done explaining it yet! There’s no touching allowed.”

“That’s no fun,” Taeyong whines, lips jutting out into a tiny pout that you want to kiss away already. “You said this is a game. Games are supposed to be fun.”

“But you’re getting kisses, and it’s already hot so it’s better this way,” you coax, and he relents with a drawn out sigh, and you quietly cheer. “Okay, ready?”

Taeyong gives you a tiny nod, and you grin before leaning in, eyes fluttering close. You gently place your lips against his, and he holds still. But then, a few seconds later, you feel his fingers barely grazing your cheek, and you immediately pull away with a frown.

“Baby, I told you that you can’t touch!”

“That rule is dumb,” he complains, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child. You frown at him, pouting until he gives in again because it’s you and he’d cross oceans and climb mountains for you.

“Okay, let’s try again,” he grumbles, glowering as he absentmindedly cards his hand through his hair, and you positively beam at him, and the sulking expression on his face softens almost instantly.

“What if we do baby steps first?” You pull your legs up onto the couch, sitting up on your knees and facing him. He fully turns to look at you, head cocked to one side.

“What do you mean?”

You lean forward and peck his cheek before moving back to your original position. “Like that. Now your turn.”

A lightbulb goes off in his head, and Taeyong leans forward and gingerly places a kiss on your forehead with an endearing smile. You inch forward and kiss his other cheek. He plants a tiny kiss to the tip of your nose, and you lean in to delicately leave a kiss on the corner of his mouth. He presses a kiss to the corner of your lips, and you do the same to the opposite side, much to his utter frustration.

This time, Taeyong chases after you when you pull away. You let out a noise of surprise as he gently tugs you forward, crashing his lips against yours and muffling your laughter, and you find yourself straddling your boyfriend. Your hands wind up tangled in his hair, while his arms lock around your waist and hold you close, game be damned.

You can taste a faint trace of cherry, causing the corners of your mouth to curl into the minutest hint of a smile before you press your mouth against his more firmly as he kisses you back eagerly until you both run out of air, pulling away breathlessly with identical smiles.

“You lost,” you tease, poking his cheek with your finger as your other hand curls around his shirt. He makes a face at you, his hands still resting on your waist, and you find that you don’t mind the warmth of them against your skin even in this ruthlessly blazing weather.

“But you’ll share the chocolate, right?” he mumbles, face still flushed and lips redder than before. He traces soft patterns against your hip as you tilt your head to the side, faking your hesitation.

“Hmm, I don’t know, should I? I won fair and square.”

He sticks his tongue out at you. “Meanie.”

You laugh, sliding off his lap and onto the empty seat next to him (albeit a little unwillingly, but it’s still hot as hell unfortunately, and conserving body heat together isn’t helping at all). Your boyfriend frowns, mostly because you’re no longer sitting in his lap, but partly because he doesn’t understand why you’re laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

Your grin widens, eyes sparkling like you know something he doesn’t (because you do). “Baby, your tongue’s purple.”

Taeyong turns a shade brighter than his favorite popsicle flavor.

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crystal-snowing · 3 years

Note

congrats on 1k jilly!!! 💛💛💛 can i request felix + “i don’t always know what to say, but you always understand” from i don’t even smoke weed by empress of! mwah :)))

pairing: lee felix x gn! reader

genre: slight angst?, fluff, best-friends-to-lovers! au, mutual pining?, unestablished relationship?

word count: ~1.0k

warnings: none (that i know of !!)

a/n: thank you jules ily !! mwah <3

If you had to describe the quality that you admired the most in your best friend, you would have to say it was his honesty. Never once in your eight years of friendship has Lee Felix ever lied to you, and he intended to keep it that way.

That’s why when you stared up at him with your half-lidded gaze and sleepy smile, he couldn’t deny the way his heartbeat seemed to quicken under your eyes. Tonight was apart of the ritual you had both created back in middle school, which decreed that every Friday night—no matter the circumstances, was always [Y/N] and Felix’s Movie Marathon, with no exceptions. This is how you found yourself sprawled on top of him, your head resting in his lap while his fingers fiddled with the ends of your hair. The room was dark, the only light emitting from the laptop in front of the two of you, the soft sounds of some cheesy Netflix rom-com playing softly in the background.

In all honesty, the plot of the movie was long gone from your mind, despite being the one who originally wanted to watch it. Instead, your thoughts were consumed with something else entirely, distracting you from the film on the screen. Without a second thought, you turned to look up at the boy sitting behind you, watching with slight amusement as he furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes a bit, concentrating on the subtitles beneath the screen.

“Do you ever think about how people are literally just specks on a giant rock floating in space?” your voice was quiet against the background noise of the television but nevertheless loud enough for Felix to hear.

You could feel the soft rumble of his chest against your shoulder as he chuckled, his eyes leaving the screen to rest on your own.

“Well, that’s random. Do you have something specific on your mind?”

Pausing, you mused for a second; nothing comes to mind as you looked into his warm eyes. You suddenly felt self-conscious, biting softly on the inside of your cheek before responding.

“I mean, no, nothing really, I just—” taking a breath, you looked down for a second before repositioning your eyes back on his, “I was just thinking about our purpose in life, you know? Like our place in this infinitely big galaxy, and our ultimate purpose in life.”

You could see his eyebrows once again furrowed as he struggled to wrap his head around your question, his expression ultimately causing you to wring your hands together as you turned away from him.

“It’s kind of stupid, I know—you don’t have to say anything; I was just thinking out loud, that’s all,” your voice seemed to grow softer towards the end of your statement. Your eyes darted around the room, looking for something—anything to land on besides his gorgeous brown eyes that seemed to memorize every aspect of your face.

It was quiet for a few seconds; the only consistent sounds were the faint sound of talking coming from the laptop and the rhythmic beating of his heart against your back. Your face felt as if it was burning underneath his gaze, and after a few seconds of contemplating your actions, your gaze quickly flitted to look up at him.

There was nothing but love that seemed to be pooling in eyes, his gaze holding a special kind of softness and fondness that you have never seen before, causing a new round of warmth to spread across your entire body. You couldn’t escape him, not that you wanted to, of course, but the emotions that his gaze seemed to invoke were stirring up some feelings inside of you—feelings that perhaps you weren’t quite ready to face yet.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” your voice was barely above a whisper, rough around the edges as you desperately tried to maintain the quietness and stillness in the atmosphere.

“Like what? Is there a specific way that I’m supposed to be looking at you?” he asks, the distance between both of your faces seemed to have shrunken, and you could practically feel his warm breath fan across your face. He was so close to you, and if he were any closer, you would be able to feel his lips on your own.

The two of you were currently in uncharted territory, with your limbs intertwined, faces practically two inches apart, and eyes constantly flickering towards each other’s lips. Any slight movement would send you both tumbling, falling, and crashing into something that perhaps you both weren’t ready for—not just yet, at least.

Exhaling, you turned away from him. He seemed to understand the message, leaning back once more into the couch while his grip on your waist seemed to loosen. Broken apologies rested on the tip of your tongue, threatening to spill out if you let them, but you couldn’t bring yourself to utter a single word.

I’m sorry.

I’m just not ready.

As if sensing your distress, Felix’s hand moved to grasp your own before moving to rub soothing circles into the back of your palm. You could feel your body relaxing once more into his touch, into his embrace, your eyes looking up and searching for something, but finding nothing but comfort swimming in his dark brown eyes.

It’s okay, I don’t mind.

I’ll wait for you.

Yeah, you didn’t always know what to say, but he always understands—Lee Felix was possibly the only one who could ever understand you in this way.

No matter what, he was willing to wait for you, no matter how long it takes. And as he felt the warmth radiating off both of your intertwined bodies, he was certain that in this moment there didn’t need to be any definition to your relationship, instead whatever the two of you had was more than enough for him—and he was perfectly content with everything just the way it was.

#skz imagines #stray kids imagines #districtninewriters #stray kids #stray kids scenarios #stray kids x reader #lee felix x reader #lee felix imagines #lee felix #lee felix scenarios #event: all my love to you #my writing

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jungshook69 · 4 years

Text

.:☆.°☾.Jealous.☾°.☆.:

DISCLAIMER: This doesn’t represent the members’ actions or the army’s actions in any manner it’s pure fiction. This is an original work, do not copy. The taglist is open if you want. Taglist is now closed.

WORD COUNT: 1044 words

PAIRING/S: Yoongi X female reader

GENRE: Established relationship au ; Oneshot/Imagine

WARNINGS: None

ABOUT: This oneshot is part of a 7 part BTS imagine called “Jealous”. This oneshot is a reaction imagine of how each member would get jealous of their s/o in a given situation.

7 PARTS: Namjoon || Seokjin || Yoongi || Hoseok || Jimin || Taehyung || Jungkook

STATUS: Complete

☆.。.:*・°☾.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☾☆.。.:*・°☾.。.:*・

You sat back on the couch of you and your boyfriend Yoongi’s apartment, accompanied by the other members sprawled out along other spots in the giant living room. You had all gathered to watch a movie, which was long forgotten, playing in the background as everyone got pre-occupied in other activities.

You panned your gaze over the sight before you. Jungkook and Jin were bickering over a bag of chips, Jimin and J-Hope were giggling over something on their phone, probably a meme, RM had completely tuned-off as he was immersed in the music playing through his headphones as he scrolled through Twitter. You leaned into Yoongi’s arm that was draped on the couch behind you and observed that Taehyung, who was sitting on the other side of you, was the only one watching the movie, with boredom flashing through his eyes.

You too were going through Twitter, and something had caught your eye, which made you doubt yourself. You were going through the heaps of comments shaming you for being revealed as Yoongi’s girlfriend, as your heart clenched with pain. Yoongi had told you not to worry too much about it since the more accepting part of the ARMY fan base was larger in number, than the toxic part.

You didn’t blame Yoongi’s nature. He was a bit of a tsundere, and you had worked hard over the years to try and break his walls. He did open up to you, but when it came to comforting you, or anyone, he was still a bit hesitant and uneasy. So you decided to keep the hurt to yourself.

You felt Yoongi stir beside you as he got up. “Want coffee? I’m making some for myself.” He asked me.

“No I’m good thanks…” you said watching him walk towards the kitchen. “…babe” you completed your sentence after he was out of earshot.

You looked down sadly at the comments still flashing on your screen, unable to resist a pout from forming on your face.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung asked concern written on his face.

You always thought of Taehyung as a really good friend. He remained quite most of the time, but was secretly skilled at observing and reading people around him.

“Nothing” you said turning your phone off and turning your attention back to the movie with a stale plot.

“I know something’s bothering you, and I bet you a thousand dollars it’s more interesting than the climax of this distasteful movie.”

“Who chose the movie?” you said teasingly raising your eyebrow.

“I know I know… I thought that I should invest myself in more mature movies, like pre-historic war movies, but in reality I know I’ll never stop re-watching Home Alone.” He said earning a stifled laugh from you.

“No but seriously, what’s wrong?” he asked turning to you.

“It’s just… I know I’m supposed to ignore the hate I’m getting… but I can’t help but doubt myself when I read them. Maybe they’re all right, maybe I don’t deserve to be with Yoongi. He’s also been kinda cold ever since we revealed we were dating.”

“I’ve known Yoongi hyung for 6 years now. He’s always been a bit reserved. But ever since you guys revealed the news, he’s been working really hard and cooperating with our manager to take down those comments. All he does is brainstorm possible ideas to decrease the back-lash. I know it may not seem like it, but he really does love you, I’ve never seen him happier.”

Taehyung’s kind words hit you hard as you find a glossy sheen beginning to develop across your vision.

“Awww” Taehyung says as he engulfs you in a warm hug and threads his hands through your hair and ruffles it. You hug him back and dry your tears away as you get up to see what’s taking the coffee so long.

You enter the kitchen and you find him drinking his coffee. “You already drank yours? I thought we were gonna sit together on the couch and enjoy the coffee.” You asked puzzled by his actions.

“Oh sorry I thought you were busy ogling Taehyung, so I thought I’d leave you be.” He said, a sarcastic undertone lacing his voice.

“What are you saying? He was literally just hugging me.” You say in disbelief at his accusation.

“Yeah sure” he said rolling his eyes.

“I felt bad about reading the comments against me, and I know if I approached you, you would brush it off and tell me not to worry too much about it. So I just wanted to hear some comforting words, that’s why when Tae asked me if I was okay, I poured my mind out to him.” you said clearing the misunderstanding.

“Oh… you know… I can cuddle with you too… if you want that is…” he says murmuring enough for you to catch his words.

“Pinch me” you say immediately.

“What?” he asks confused.

“You’re actually asking me to cuddle with you? Am I dreaming? What happened to the whole ‘ew get away from me woman, you smell’?” you ask, your eyeballs nearly popping out of your skull.

“That was one time, you were sweaty from working out, it’s not my fault.”

“Still… I never expected you to be the one to ask me for cuddles…”

“Heyy! I didn’t ask you for cuddles, I’m not a simp. I just said if you wanted to cuddle… I’m here too…”

“Wait wait wait hold up… Min Yoongi are you… jealous?”

“Ew god no… cringe ugh” he said looking away.

“Oh really? Then maybe I should go cuddle up with Tae some more, do you know how warm his chest is?” you said teasingly testing the waters, holding your laughter in.

Then Yoongi did the unexpected and started laughing.

“What?” you asked him pouting.

“Your cute… thinking you can make me jealous” he said closing the distance between you, caging your petite figure with his hands, your lower back hitting the counter behind you. “Remember princess, you’re mine.” With that he plants a chaste kiss on your cheek, his hot breath still ghosting your jaw.

“You might wanna drink that coffee before it gets cold” he says full of himself on seeing your flustered reaction, as he leaves the kitchen.

☆.。.:*・°☾.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☾☆.。.:*・°☾.。.:*・

A/N: Here I wanted to show that firstly, Yoongi may be called lazy, or always be referred to be always sleeping, but he’s the most hardworking man I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t half-ass anything. He gives it his all. And secondly I wanted to show Yoongi as a bit of a tsundere because even though Yoongi might seem cold or unbothered on the outside, I know he has the warmest heart made entirely of gold. I also wanted to stress on the point that even though Taehyung might seem quite, he’s very observational and good at reading people’s intentions.

Don’t forget to follow @jungshook69 for more content:) You can check out more works of mine here. Have a great day:)

TAGLIST: -

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friendlyneighborhoodcapricorn · 2 years

Note

3,4,8,9 & 15 and my favorite fic of yours so far is ‘Let Me Come Home’ its just so soft and i love it (I love them all, also what fic are you procrastinating rn<3)

Hi May, thanks for the ask! I'm so glad that you enjoyed Let Me Come Home bc I think I wrote that in one go after reading your headcanons for them! But also, that's super sweet of you to say that you love them all omg <3

I'm currently procrastinating on a fic called "Past" (might change that title later) and it's the next part in the Living In The Sprawl series!

3: What’s a fic idea that you have but haven’t written yet?

Batfam cyberpunk AU. Don't know if I'll ever write it though, but I want to so badly. I love cyberpunk stories and I want to try my hand at it lol

4: Do you prefer writing multi-chapter or oneshot fanfictions?

I would love to write a multi-chaptered fic, but uh. I suck at coming up with longterm plots lmao. So shorter pieces it is. I won't say oneshots bc I've done a few multi-chaptered ones, but those generally all follow the same prompt and aren't really one big story, you know

8: What kind of document do you use to you write? Microsoft Word? Google Docs? Straight in the AO3 text box?

Microsoft Word, my beloved! Sometimes I'll type something up in my notes app and forget about for a few months (which reminds that there's a fic idea in there that I forgot about for a month lmao)

9: What’s your favorite line(s) or scene(s) that you have written?

I really like the second chapter of "And Where's Your Hope"! It wasn't originally supposed to have two chapters, but I just got that image in my head of Dick and Bruce sitting in the dark and having that conversation and I had to write it

15: Are there words, phrases, mannerisms or scenes you tend to use a lot?

I think there's always some sort of reference to the weather in my writing. I blame it on me being a meteorology nerd lmao

Asks are from this fic writer ask game! Feel free to send me a number and allow me to procrastinate some more lmao

#asks #answered asks #fic game #fic writer #fanfic #fanfic ask game #fic writer asks #batman #i guess #all of these fics are batman fics so yeah #batfam

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captainsolare · 3 years

Note

Heyya!!! I love this new event you're doing! Could I get a fic for Julius x fem reader please? Normal AU, roll 2 times for trope and 2 times for dialogue prompt? I hope I made the request correctly! Thank you ily 💙💙

A/N: Hey there! Thanks so much, ❤❤ I hope you enjoy it

Julius + Normal AU + Please pretend to be my date for this (dinner with my parents) + "It's freezing in here."

Warnings: includes a brief alcohol mention (Julius drinks wine), some angst/ hurt/comfort, f! reader

“Julius honey, your father and I need to have a chat with you.” The words from his mother over the communication device sent Julius into a cold sweat. He chuckled nervously, glad his mother couldn’t see his facial expressions, “What about? Is something wrong?”

“Yes of course there is! Next week marks the start of the holiday season and you still haven’t brought home a wife! Or even a girlfriend for that matter.”

Julius pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to come up with a suitable response but her next words sent a whole new wave of panic through him.

“Your father and I have been talking and I’m afraid if you don’t bring someone with you to our dinner next week, we’ll be choosing someone for you.”

Julius tried not to drop the device, an ultimatum for marriage? He guessed he should have expected this at some point but it still didn’t make this moment any better. His mind racing he said the only thing that came to mind to get out of this situation.

“No no! No need for that, you see… I’m actually seeing someone right now, I’ll bring her along!” He desperately hoped she couldn’t hear how tight his voice was, but to his relief his mother sounded happy.

“Oh really? This is wonderful news, I can’t wait to meet her.”

“And that’s why I really really need your help!”

Julius was practically on his knees outside your door, eyes wide with desperation. Your brow was furrowed as you tried to wrap your head around this situation.

“She really gave you an ultimatum about marriage?”

Julius nodded with a sigh, shoulders drooping. “Yes, she did. And since I lied and said I had a girlfriend already I need someone to play the part.”

You nodded slowly, pointing at yourself. “And you decided to go with me?”

He nodded eagerly, “Yes, we’re already so close I figured you’d be willing to help in my scheme.”

You studied his face in the ambient torchlight from the hallway, he looked so desperate, and so cute, how could you say no?

“Fine. Just let me know when I need to be ready.”

“Oh thank you, thank you!” He pulled you into a hug, heart light with relief, “You have no idea how much of a lifesaver you are.”

You awkwardly patted his back and he let you go with a quick goodbye, leaving you to stand in the doorway alone.

The gravity of the situation set in soon after he left, as it often did after he managed to pull you into one of his harebrained schemes. Collapsing on your bed, you shook your head at the ceiling as you thought about what this would involve: you’d have to pretend you were in love with him, which wouldn’t be hard because you definitely already were, you’d have to do a good enough job to fool his parents, which hopefully wouldn’t be hard since your acting skills were decent, and the final and most difficult part would come afterwards. After the dinner, you’d have to come back here to the castle, and you wouldn’t have Julius’s hand in yours anymore and you’d have to pretend that you were fine with it.

You rolled over and groaned into your pillow, “Oh Julius why did you have to choose me for this job?”

The day of the dinner soon arrived and Julius came to pick you up. You took one last look in the mirror, smoothing your clothes before you opened the door. You’d picked out what you hoped was a suitable dress, and you packed enough clothes in your bag for a few days if need be. From what you’d heard about Julius’s mother, she was quite pushy and since it was the holiday season you might need to keep up this charade for a few more days than originally planned.

“You look lovely darling,” Julius said jokingly as he walked with you to the carriage. You smiled and hoped he couldn’t see the hollowness of it, you could already tell that this would be more painful the longer it went on.

You stared out the window and watched as the towns became villages became countryside, and the cobblestones became dirt roads. It’s just one dinner. It’s just one dinner.

“Can we go over the plan one more time? Just to make sure we’re on the same page?” Julius asked, breaking your empty stare.

You blinked, returning to the real world and the imposing walls of the carriage seemed to grow closer. “Sure.” You said hoarsely, swallowing even though your throat was dry.

“Okay,” Julius leaned in closer, “So we need to pretend that we’re dating, hopefully just for tonight. But if not, and we end up having to stay for longer and things get desperate I’ll call Marx and have him set up a fake emergency for us to attend to.”

You nodded, “Okay sounds good.”

He placed his hand on yours and you resisted the urge to jump. “Thanks again for agreeing to this, I appreciate it more than you know.”

You smiled softly, “No problem.”

The carriage came to a stop outside a huge manor in the countryside, it’s sprawling lawn was lush and green, and there was a rose garden that could be seen through the iron gate.

Julius squeezed your hand, “Just for tonight.”

“Just for tonight.” You repeated. Maybe that’s the problem. a pang of sadness stabbed through your chest as you stepped out of the carriage, there’s no going back now.

The manor had a huge oak door, complete with a brass grimoire door knocker in the center. Julius had barely touched it when the door opened, revealing an excited woman and a slightly more subdued man standing in the doorway.

“Oh! It is so wonderful to meet you.” You said, extending a hand to the woman before you. She confusedly shook your hand before realizing you had mistaken her for Mrs. Novachrono, “Oh my, I’m sorry. I’m just the maid, the lady and master are in the parlor awaiting your arrival.”

You grimaced, you’d only just arrived and had already made a mistake, this didn’t bode well for your stay. Julius escorted you to the parlor, hand touching your lower back gently.

The parlor was filled with white furniture, the walls a dusty powder blue. Two people, presumably Julius’s parents, stood when you entered the room. The woman strode over to you and took your hands in hers, “Oh, it is so wonderful to meet you! You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting for this moment. I’m Marie and my husband over there is Julian.” She gushed, heat creeping up your neck at her words.

“It’s lovely to meet you as well, I’m Y/N. I’ve heard so much about you it’s nice to finally meet you in person!”

Marie gasped happily at your words, “Oh so you’ve been gossiping about me have you Julius? All good things I hope!”

Julius raised his hands in defense, “Yes mother, all good things.”

Marie nodded her pleasure, and led you to the couch. Julius sat next to you as you shook his father’s hand.

“Shall we have some tea while we wait for dinner to be prepared?” She asked. Before anyone could nod, she was calling the maid in to bring a tea tray.

“So Y/N, I want to hear all about you! How did you meet my darling boy? Has he been treating you well? I’ll smack him if he’s not, he may be the Wizard King but he’s still my son!” Marie said, watching you intently.

Julius could sense you were overwhelmed and grabbed your hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

“Well you see, I’m an archivist that works in the castle, so that’s how I met Julius. Don’t mention this to Marx but he has a habit of sneaking off to places he shouldn’t when he’s supposed to be doing paperwork.”

“Hey! That’s an unfair judgement!” Julius protested, but there was no hurt behind it.

“It’s a true judgement Julius!” You gave him a teasing grin before turning back to Marie, “Your son does indeed treat me well, he’s one of the kindest, most caring people I’ve ever met, and I fall more in love with him every day.”

Marie seemed pleased with your answer and was soon distracted by the tea that was set in front of them. Julius and his parents made small talk until dinner was announced, giving you a bit of respite from Marie’s rapid fire questions. You couldn’t help but smile, here Julius had ditched his cloak, and you got a peek at what his childhood had been like. It was interesting, watching interact with his parents, they seemed overbearing and aloof at the same time, and you wondered how they had raised such a decent man.

Julius took a sip of his wine near the end of dinner, the taste tangy sweet in his mouth.

“So Julius, when are you going to ask this girl to marry you? If I were you I’d have put a ring on that finger a long time ago?”

Julius started, the wine hit the back of his throat, sending him into a coughing fit. Once he had suitably recovered, he took a deep breath, “Well,” He considered his answer carefully, “I haven’t thought about it yet, I don’t think either of us want to rush things.”

You swallowed, nodding in agreement. “With the state of the kingdom, we weren’t sure if it would be a good idea to jump into such a serious commitment so soon.”

Your answers were deemed satisfactory and you excused yourself to go to the bathroom. You leaned on the sink and rested your head in your hands, you swallowed down a sob. This was harder than you could have imagined, not the lying, not the acting, just the fact that this wouldn’t last buzzing around in your mind. It hung over you like a cloud, this is a lie, it’s all a lie to him.

You took a deep breath, splashing your face with cold water, before returning to the table. “I’m awfully tired Julius, do you think it’s time to leave for the castle?”

Julius gave you a kind smile, “Yes, we can make it by morning if we leave now.” Marie tried to protest, but Julius won her over and you were soon saying your goodbyes in the foyer.

“Well, it was lovely to meet you. I do hope you come again soon.” Julian said, shaking your hand once more.

You nodded, pushing down the sadness that was welling in your chest, threatening to spill over. “Yes, until next time.” There won’t be a next time.

Julius’s shoulders sank with relief as soon as you were back in the carriage. “That went better than expected!” He said brightly, sinking back in his seat.

You could only nod, fearing if you spoke it would reveal how you were really feeling.

You arrived back at the castle as dawn was breaking in the sky. Julius helped you out of the carriage, dropping your hand as soon as you were down on solid ground.

“I must say, your acting was impeccable Y/N.”

That was it, that was the stone that broke the dam and tears spilled onto your cheeks.

Julius was taken aback at your reaction, he’d never seen you cry before and he was completely at a loss of what to do.

“Y/N? What’s wrong? Is something the matter?” He asked, studying your face frantically.

You blinked at him, eyes narrowing. “Is something the matter?” You repeated, “Is something the matter?! Julius, you must be denser than I thought if you’re asking me that question.”

You turned on your heel, rushing down the stone hallway to your room. Julius’s footsteps echoed behind you as he ran to keep up with your pace. He truly didn’t know what was wrong, and that only made you angrier.

You paused at your door and Julius caught you, hands resting on your shoulders.

“Will you please talk to me? Was it something I said?” He asked softly, purple eyes soft with concern.

You only sobbed harder, sinking into his chest. He wrapped his arms around you gently, as if he was afraid to break you.

“Yes! No! It wasn’t something you said per se, it was this, all of it!” You exclaimed, chest heaving and hands shaking.

Julius’s frown deepened, “Oh. I’m sorry Y/N, I didn’t know this had been so hard for you.”

You couldn’t stifle a laugh at his apology, “Hard for me? Of course it was hard for me. I meant what I said, it wasn’t acting,” your voice broke painfully as you took a deep breath to continue, “I mean it, I’m in love with you Julius.”

Julius’s hands dropped from your sides in shock, his face was a mixture of surprise and sadness when you met his gaze. Of course, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, of course, you were in love with him, and he had been too dense to notice.

“I-- I’m sorry.” He stammered, and you took your chance to run into your room, slamming the door shut behind you.

You sank against it, too exhausted to stay standing. You heard footsteps receding and fresh tears rolled down your cheeks, of course, he was leaving.

A few minutes later there was a knock at your door. “Y/N, can we talk?” A soft voice asked, it was Julius.

You weren’t certain you wanted to talk to him, but you opened the door anyway and let him come in.

“Y/N, first of all I want to apologize. I was too dense to realize that what I had asked of you may have caused you hurt, and I’m sorry for that.”

You stared at him, “Okay.”

Julius ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, debating on whether he should say what was on his heart. “I also need to confess something, if that’s okay?”

You nodded, studying him carefully; you dared not get your hopes up, but somewhere in the depths of your heart, there was a small tiny glimmer of hope.

Julius sighed, “The truth is, I only asked you to do this job because I love you as well. Maybe this was my selfish way of getting to act like a couple without telling you how I felt because I was scared of how you would react.”

You sucked in a breath, “All along?”

Julius nodded, eyes tinged with sadness, “All along.”

“Well, it’s freezing in here. The least you could do is come and wrap me in your arms.” You said, the ghost of a smile on your lips.

Julius strode to your side, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close. The hard conversation could be had in the morning, for now, this was enough.

#julius x reader #julius novachrono x reader #julius fluff #julius angst #julius hurt/comfort #f!reader #planet fate #aurora borealis

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ultimatetrashyfanfic · 3 years

Text

I’m just gonna say Non-despair AU cause I want everyone to be happy. I freaking LOVE Gundham so much, he’s wonderful and I’ve been wanting to write him for a while (but stalling cause of his DIALOGUE. It’s so hard). Buuuut I decided to finally give it a shot. And to kind of vent a little cause he used to stress me out in his dark coat and scarf in tropical heat. With Kazuichi because I want them to be friends, and because I seem physically incapable of not putting Kazuichi in every fic. COULD be seen as pre-soudam if you prefer, I didn’t write it like that but it could be if that floats your boat. I do like that ship, I just like other ones with Gundham and kazuichi more. Anyway, hope you enjoy - Circle

Also on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33543364

Warning: descriptions of overheating, sickfic. Nothing really bad here.

Kazuichi wasn’t shocked to wake up sprawled across a towel with sand in his hair and a dry mouth, completely alone on the beach. This wasn’t even the first time it had happened. When his insomnia was really bad he’d always doze throughout the next day - for some reason he couldn’t sleep in his warm, comfortable bed at night but could drop off in seconds with his head on the breakfast table or against Hajime’s shoulder. His classmates never bothered to wake Kazuichi if he was somewhere he wouldn’t be in the way, so the beach was a frequent napping spot. They always made sure to leave him in the shade with a water bottle for when he woke, so Kazuichi didn’t mind. It was normal.

What was very much not normal was waking up to Gundham grasping the front of his t-shirt, shaking him violently and yelling some weird gibberish that Kazuichi was still too woolly-headed to understand.

“Wha..?” he muttered, trying to wake up properly. For a second he wondered if he was having a weird lucid dream, because Gundham never usually touched people, especially him - though he was shaking him by the shirt instead of the shoulders.

“You’re gonna stretch out my clothes,” Kazuichi whined, sitting up and scrubbing his eyes.

“As if your tattered garments are a priority right now! Answer me with honesty, lest the demons tear your tongue from your very mouth. Have you encountered the wrath of my Crimson Steel Elephant?” Gundham cried, far too loudly.

“What?” Kazuichi mumbled. “Gundham, I can’t decipher your witchy language when I’ve just woken up.”

“Foolish mortal! This is a dire emergency!”

“Why? What’s happened?”

“I shall repeat myself just once more, so listen well. Have you encountered one of my Dark Devas of Destruction? Maga-Z appears to be missing,” Gundham said. Despite the grandeur and fancy words, Kazuichi could see he did look pretty distressed, holding the three remaining hamsters in his hand as if he was scared they’d dash away too.

“Oooh, okay. You’ve lost a hamster. That’s all you had to say, Gundham. One single sentence and I would’ve understood,” Kazuichi said.

“Do not talk so disparagingly! My Devas are far more powerful than mere hamsters. And Maga-Z has an independent spirit and often attempts to cause chaos alone. I have my concerns for the safety of everyone on this island if Maga-Z wields his destructive power without my guidance.”

Gundham was completely serious, but Kazuichi had to bite his cheeks to stop himself laughing, picturing a hamster storming across the island in a tank, decimating everything. But Gundham was clearly frantic, and Kazuichi was trying to be nicer to him recently, so he sighed.

“Okay, I’ll help you look for him. We should try to get the others to help too.”

“Indeed. You were the first mortal I came across,” Gundham admitted.

“Right, what does Maga-Z look like?” Kazuichi asked, taking a long drink of water. He felt like he’d be running around in the hot sun for a while now and wanted to drink while he had the chance.

“Your memory is abysmal.” Gundham seemed irritated that Kazuichi didn’t know the hamsters by sight.

“Look, I’m not exactly on nodding terms with your ham- Devas, am I? How am I supposed to know which is which? I only recognise the chubby one.” Kazuichi pointed to Cham-P.

Gundham reeled back like he’d been slapped, spluttering in outrage. “How dare you mock his corporeal form! If Cham-P was not so patient, he would obliterate you where you stand for such cheek.”

“Look, I wasn’t trying to body shame your hamster,” Kazuichi said irritably. “I wasn’t mocking. He’s just bigger than the other ones.”

“He is of the Golden variety, of course he is larger in stature. It has nothing to do with his nutritional intake.”

“Are we going to search or not?” Kazuichi snapped. God, talking to Gundham for more than five minutes was exhausting. “Do you know if Maga-Z has favourite places to go or something?”

Kazuichi let Gundham lead and did his very best not to talk to his strange companion as they searched through bushes and inside cupboards, asking any of his classmates they encountered to look too. Gundham muttered to the remaining hamsters, but didn’t try to talk to Kazuichi much either except to order him around - though his grandiose tone was quickly becoming softer and more anxious.

“Maga-Z has never disappeared from my influence for so long,” he mumbled, pulling his scarf to cover his mouth. “I cannot contain this feeling of dread.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Kazuichi said, surprising himself. “We’ll find him. He’ll be okay.”

Gundham blinked, then stood up straighter. “I assure you, I fear for the inhabitants of the island. Maga-Z will come to no harm.”

But he was worrying, and even Kazuichi could see it. His searching was becoming frantic, his usually careful hands clumsy, so he knocked things off their shelves and forgot to tidy up or close doors behind them. He started running between buildings and bushes, long coat billowing, calling out for his lost hamster.

“Gundham! Hang on a second,” Kazuichi gasped. “I can’t breathe!”

Surprisingly, Gundham did as he was told, leaning against a palm tree in the shade. He wrapped his arms around his chest, pale fists gripping his dark coat. His carefully styled hair was starting to droop in the heat, and his face was very pink. Kazuichi had never seen so much colour in his cheeks before. The three remaining hamsters cowered inside Gundham’s scarf, sensing his anxiety.

Kazuichi went to lean beside him, wiping the sweat off his own forehead. He didn’t know how Gundham managed in his black clothes every day.

“We’ll find him,” Kazuichi said again. “Ibuki and Twogami and Mahiru said they’d look. And Miss Sonia looked like she was going to cry when I told her Maga-Z was missing. She said she wouldn’t rest until he was found.”

“She has a good heart,” Gundham said softly.

“Yeah…” Kazuichi paused. “Hey, you didn’t say anything nice like that about me. I’m the one who’s been running around with you in the baking sun for hours.”

Gundham didn’t respond. He’d been talking a lot less in the past twenty minutes or so, though he’d originally been giving incomprehensible orders to Kazuichi every two minutes. Souda assumed he was just growing more concerned for Maga-Z the longer he was missing - so he was caught off guard when Gundham slumped over and fell limply against him, almost bringing them both to the floor.

“Dude!” Kazuichi managed to catch hold of Gundham. “What are you doing?”

Perhaps Gundham didn’t know what he was doing either, because he had a look of sheer bafflement on his face. He tried to pull himself upright, clinging to the rough bark of the palm tree, but each time he wobbled dangerously and Kazuichi had to grab onto him again.

“What is this..? I appear to be reacting negatively to your mortal world’s atmosphere.” His usually forceful speech came out laboured and slow, and Gundham placed a hand to his lips in surprise.

“What? You’ve been surviving in this atmosphere for ages already,” Kazuichi argued. “What’s up with you? You sound drunk. Can you tell me in plain English?”

“The temperature in this godforsaken land exceeds even the fiery bowels of hell,” Gundham hissed, having to cling to Kazuichi to stay upright.

Kazuichi took a second to disentangle Gundham’s web of fancy words. “Sooo… you’re too hot. I guess that makes sense. Who wears a black coat and a scarf in this heat? And I know you haven’t had any water since we started searching. I’d better take you back to your cabin,” he sighed.

“Unhand me this instant, you fiend!” Gundham growled, though he was the one using Kazuichi like a walking stick. “I could never rest while one of my Dark Devas of Destruction is unguided.”

“Well they’ll all be unguided if you get heatstroke and drop dead,” Kazuichi said. “Half the island is searching for Maga-Z - and I’ll go back out to keep looking as soon as I can, okay?” As much as Gundham might get on Kazuichi’s nerves sometimes, he didn’t want him to get really sick or hurt. He hoped Maga-Z had enough sense not to wander into the sea or something; Gundham would be crushed.

“Hmm.” Gundham didn’t look convinced.

“Your other three ham- I mean Devas probably need to cool down a bit too,” Kazuichi tried.

Another pause. “Very well,” Gundham sighed. “I shall retire to my artificially cooled domain until the effects of this oppressive atmosphere wear off. I trust you to ensure the search continues.” He turned on his heel and tried to walk on his own, staggering alarmingly.

“Hey, careful!” Kazuichi ran to steady him. “I told you I’d help you.”

Gundham slapped his hands away. “Fool! Have you forgotten I am cursed with poison?”

“Oh for God’s sake! Could you just give an inch for once! Why do you make everything so difficult?” Kazuichi cried exasperatedly.

Gundham stuck his chin in the air and started berating Souda again - but before he’d even finished the first sentence his words died away. He blinked several times, looking dazed, swaying where he stood.

“Gundham..?” Kazuichi said nervously.

Gundham didn’t respond. He took another few staggering steps towards his cabin, then crumpled as his knees gave way under him. Kazuichi cried out and hurried to catch him, their foreheads bashing together painfully. Gundham’s skin was clammy and damp, his face looking much more… alive than usual. Kazuichi realised it was because his pale makeup was running.

“Fucking hell, Gundham,” Kazuichi groaned, hauling one of Gundham’s arms around his shoulders. “Just hold onto me, okay? Try not to pass out.”

Surprisingly, Gundham nodded, staring down at his feet like it was taking a huge effort to make them move. It was clear he was trying to be helpful, but Kazuichi had to carry a lot of his weight and they were both breathless by the time they reached Gundham’s cabin. Kazuichi breathed a sigh of relief as the wall of cool air conditioning washed over them.

“Thank God for that,” he mumbled, dumping Gundham onto the bed. It was carefully made, which Kazuichi had never understood; why bother making your bed when you were just going to mess it up every night? The entire room was neat, though the giant cage meant it rather smelled like hamsters. “Right, get your coat and scarf off.”

Gundham glared at him viciously.

“Oh, that’s the thanks I get, is it? Well, no matter how annoying you might be, you’re overheated. No wonder, wearing that stupid dark coat. So get it off.” Kazuichi grabbed Gundham’s arms and yanked the coat sleeves off like he was undressing a sulky toddler. Gundham hissed a series of furious curses at him - one of which sounded like Latin, which was actually pretty impressive - and the three remaining hamsters hopped out onto the bed, startled.

“There. Was that so hard?” Kazuichi said silkily when Gundham was lying on the bed in his shirt and scarf, glaring. Kazuichi tried to take the scarf off too, but Gundham’s hissed threats became more vehement and he gave up. “Fine, keep it on then. Though I don’t think the gothic look is very sustainable in a tropical climate, man. Right, I’m going to get you something to drink.”

Gundham didn’t respond until Kazuichi had returned with a cup full of water from the bathroom. “I shall take advice from one with such abysmal fashion sense as yourself with a grain of salt, fiend,” he said, with as much dignity as he could muster while tomato-red and damp with sweat on his bed.

Kazuichi had to fight very hard not to pour the glass of water directly over Gundham’s head, but he just about managed to help him drink it instead. Then he grabbed the little fan from the bathroom and placed it by Gundham’s bed, dampened a cloth and slapped it rather unceremoniously on his forehead. Gundham yelped and glared again, water trickling down his temples. Good. Serves him right for that earlier comment. “There. Keep your head back or you’ll smudge your eyeliner. And don’t move. I’ll try to find Mikan while I’m looking for Maga-Z, okay?”

Gundham turned his face away, cupping one hand over the Devas protectively. He mumbled something into the material of his scarf.

“What?” Kazuichi asked.

“I said I am grateful for your assistance…”

“Oh.” Kazuichi was surprised. He’d never heard Gundham acknowledge he needed any help before - though maybe that was Kazuichi’s own fault. He’d been the one to start up the whole stupid rivalry thing (which wasn’t ever a rivalry in the first place since the girl wasn’t remotely interested). Maybe this was a step towards a reconciliation.

“I mean, I wasn’t gonna leave you to die,” Kazuichi added awkwardly.

“You are far more tolerable when you do not echo the Dark Queen like a parrot. I once believed you had no real mind of your own,” Gundham said bluntly.

Kazuichi flushed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You made yourself an extension of the Dark Queen. You never disputed her or challenged her. You agreed with her every word.”

“Well… I wanted her to like me,” Kazuichi mumbled. “Look, you don’t need to lecture me about all this. You know I’ve left Sonia alone.”

“Indeed. But you still wish to befriend her?” Gundham asked. Even weak and overheated as he was, his eyes were burning into Kazuichi’s with such a fierce intensity he had to look away.

“That’s her choice. Why are you asking all this?”

“If you still seek a friendly companionship with the Dark Queen, you should not forget she is a mere powerless mortal,” Gundham said. “She does not wish to be treated like she is extraordinary. She does not wish to be around those who only agree to please her.”

Kazuichi stared at him. Was Gundham really offering advice? Was this a weird way to repay him for helping out? It was pretty embarrassing to be given advice on how to make friends from Gundham, who openly distrusted everyone - but he was friends with Sonia. Maybe even something more, Kazuichi honestly didn’t know. He’d tried to stay away from Sonia as much as possibly, partly because he wanted her to be more comfortable and partly because he was pretty fucking embarrassed by his past behaviour. But he would like to be her friend. Nothing else - he knew that wouldn’t ever happen - but friends was good.

“Now make haste!” Gundham suddenly cried, making Kazuichi jump. “Continue the search! I shall rejoin you as soon as I am able.”

“No, rest. Don’t move and especially don’t put your coat on again. I’ll find Maga-Z,” Kazuichi said quickly. He dashed outside before Gundham could protest, groaning as the sticky heat wrapped around him once more.

He started searching again, after taking a quick detour to Mikan’s cabin to ask if she could go check on Gundham and make sure he hadn’t gone out into the sun again. Almost everyone on the island was searching now, splitting off into little groups to cover more ground. Nagito was one of the last to join in - and Hajime and Kazuichi watched in astonishment as he shifted the very first box he touched in the storage room of the old building and pointed. “There he is.”

“WHY didn’t I ask him first?!” Kazuichi practically screamed.

“Ultimate Luck seems a pretty useful talent,” Hajime murmured to him, not wanting Nagito to hear. It’d only start him off on a long self-deprecating rant. “Go on then, Kazuichi. Get him.”

Kazuichi peered behind the box on his hands and knees. Maga-Z was cowering in the corner, fur dishevelled and standing on end. He didn’t look too friendly. “Why do I have to grab the stupid hamster?” Kazuichi whined. “You grab him, Hajime. I don’t like them. They look like they know too much.”

“What are you on about?” Hajime sighed. “It’s just a hamster. You can’t be scared of a hamster, Kazuichi.”

“They’re Gundham’s hamsters. They probably like… worship the devil or something.”

“Hamsters don’t worship anything. They’re just hamsters.”

“Can I go now?” Nagito asked, looking like he was losing braincells just listening to this conversation.

“Yeah, thanks, Nagito. Unless you fancy grabbing this hamster,” Kazuichi said. He looked hopeful, but Nagito left without another word.

“I’ll do it,” Hajime said, exasperated. He reached behind the box to ease his hand underneath Maga-Z, but as soon as his fingers brushed fur, the hamster made a mad dash forward. Directly towards Souda. He squealed and hastily cupped both hands around Maga-Z, holding him at arm’s length. “Oh my God, oh my God, I got him… Oh God, he’s gonna bite me, I know he is,” Kazuichi whined.

“Hey, good job,” Hajime said, surprised. “I didn’t think you’d catch him.”

“I’m not a baby, Hajime,” Kazuichi huffed. Then he whimpered in a very childish way. “Ugh, he’s wriggling around. Can I… put him somewhere? A bag or something? I don’t trust him.”

“Just shove him in your pocket and let’s go. It’s boiling in here. And Gundham will be stressing about Maga-Z. Do you know where he is?”

“I had to put him to bed because he nearly fainted. He was running around in his black coat all day.”

Hajime rolled his eyes. “Nobody on this island has any self-preservation skills.”

“At least Maga-Z is okay.” Kazuichi studied the little ball of fluff cupped in his hands. Somehow his little ink drop eyes did look menacing. “Hey, he really does look like he wanted to go off and cause chaos on his own, doesn’t he?”

Hajime gave Kazuichi a look. “I think you’ve spent too much time with Gundham today.”

Thankfully, Gundham was still in his room and looking a lot better, though still very visibly agitated. His colour had returned to ghostly pale (he must’ve reapplied his makeup) and his eyes were far more focused - they snapped to the door right away when Hajime opened it. When he saw Kazuichi, his hands still full of wriggling hamster, his brow cleared.

“Take him, quick!” Kazuichi said, hurrying over to the bed. “I’m sure he wants to bite me.”

“You fiend,” Gundham murmured, taking the hamster. For a second Kazuichi was offended, thinking Gundham was calling him names when he and Hajime had been nice enough to bring the hamster back, but then he realised Gundham was talking to Maga-Z. He spoke to them in exactly the same way he spoke to his classmates, no silly mushy voices like most people did with cute animals.

“I can only pray you have not caused too much destruction while unsupervised,” he murmured, smoothing Maga-Z’s fur. The hamster sat up to greet him like a little puppy, and Kazuichi noticed for the first time that Maga-Z’s cheeks were bulging.

“Did he really run off just to steal food?” Kazuichi groaned. “We’ve been so stressed and he was just eating!”

“Ah yes, a feast befitting the magnificent Crimson Steel Elephant,” Gundham said, gently placing Maga-Z with the other hamsters. They circled him joyfully, happy to be reunited too.

Kazuichi threw his hands up exasperatedly. “I give up. You’re all nuts.”

Gundham turned to Kazuichi, his face solemn. “I am deeply indebted to you, as is everybody who resides on this island. I cannot speak of the terrors that may have occurred if Maga-Z was without guidance. I shall spread the story of your triumph to every other mortal here so they can show you due gratitude,” he said.

“Oh… Thanks, man.” Kazuichi could see he meant well, but the thought of Gundham telling everyone Kazuichi saved the island from a hamster’s destruction was pretty embarrassing. He could already see Hajime smirking out of the corner of his eye.

“You should stay inside a bit longer though,” Hajime said. “Just in case. You need to make sure you’re totally cooled down.”

“Indeed. I have had ample excitement for one day,” Gundham said.

“Me too,” Kazuichi mumbled.

“If you’re feeling better, you can tell everyone about Kazuichi saving the island over dinner,” Hajime said, grinning. Kazuichi glared at him.

“Asshole,” he muttered as soon as they were outside Gundham’s cabin.

Hajime burst out laughing. “Maybe he’ll make you sound really gallant and fearless when he tells it.”

“Then everyone will know it’s a lie right away. And anyway, Nagito saw what happened. Even if you don’t give away the real story, he’ll definitely tell.”

“Probably. But you did save his hamster, even if you weren’t that fearless about it. Is there a truce between you two now?”

“I suppose so. He’s not so bad. Crazy and dramatic and difficult… but okay,” Kazuichi admitted. He paused. “I don’t know what half of the words he uses mean though.”

“Yeah,” Hajime agreed. “I don’t either.”

#super danganronpa two #danganronpa 2 #kazuichi souda #gundham tanaka #four dark devas of destruction #overheating #Gundham’s lines were ridiculously hard #mod circle

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