#otp: we deserve a soft epilogue my love

[damnyoucully]

Everything reminds me of 4 Minute Window

“Steve wha- *thump* -mmmm”

[bayanation]

ocs as songs from evermore:

GOLD RUSH: lux potts + tony stark

“everybody wants you, everybody wonders what it would be like to love you.” — taylor swift.

[sail-not-drift]

Stucky Fic Recs

I’m waiting for my hair dye to develop and have also lost my mind to these two, so here, have some recs. All are amazing. The ones that make me FERAL are bolded, the ones that made my soul ascend have stars.

Dedicated to @neversleepingever and @mygutsforgarters, you heathens.

Dishonor On Your Cow - Shrunkyclunks (but not really, sort of) where Steve and Bucky have a hate at first sight meeting during the Battle of Manhattan and Bucky eventually joins the Avengers for feelings and hilarity.

****He's All That - College AU where frat boy Bucky takes a bet to turn disaster Steve Rogers into the class president but catches feelings instead. 

dance with a ghost - Shrunkyclunks where Bucky moves into an apartment and finds himself haunted by the ghost of Captain America.

Introduction to Fake Dating Your Best Friend 101 - Professors AU, Steve and Bucky are a pair of professors who have to fake date for academic purposes and are real dumb along the way.

Five times Steve kissed Bucky - Pre-serum “fight me” Steve Rogers to post TWS.

To Believe in Tomorrow - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky's mornings at the community garden get a little more interesting when the new guy shows up.

Blush Pink - Dirty talking, dom!Bucky PWP.

if all my mistakes (led me to you) - No powers AU, Steve has to scramble to find a plus one for Peggy’s big day after being spontaneously dumped. Bucky is his slutty neighbor.

**Unusual Weather - Tony gives Bucky Asgardian drugs to chill him out while Tony fixes his arm. Steve is there to hold Bucky down. Then Bucky starts dirty talking.

a long way from the playground - Fake dating, no powers AU, Bucky needs to pretend he has a date to Becca’s wedding and blurts out his best friend’s name.

Something Borrowed - In-universe Sam POV AU where Sam, Steve, and Bucky go to Sam’s sister’s wedding.

Bucky Barnes: Sunscreen Assassin - In-universe AU; Steve refuses to wear sunscreen, Bucky takes that as a challenge.

winter wheat, sunflower peat - Powered AU where instead of re-meeting in TWS, Steve meets Bucky as a hitchhiker. ANGST AND FEELS.

**The Daily Rogers - College AU, exchange student Bucky meets Steve “fight me” Rogers, who classmates run a nasty blog about.

No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Pine - Secret Agent adversaries-to-lovers AU where the Winter Soldier keeps tying Captain America to walls and sticking around to chat.

Drive It Like You Stole It: A Bodyswap - Steve and Bucky get bodyswapped then go on a magical road trip with Peter Parker; extreme antics and harmless emotional torture for Peter ensue.

Your Lack Of An Answer Is Kind Of An Answer: Four Questions Natasha Asked Steve Rogers, And One Time Bucky Barnes Answered - Beautiful and painful Natasha POV, so many Steve feelings, SO MANY.

Achilles Come Down - You jump, I jump, pre-serum and after.

eros and psyche - Post-TWS, Steve and the Winter Soldier start an affair where the Soldier never lets Steve see his face.

Sparked Up Like a Book of Matches - Beautiful Steve-centric, post-TWS. Sometimes Tony gives him super alcohol in a sippy cup. Sometimes he sees Bucky out of the corner of his eye and wonders if it's real or if he's starting to lose his mind.

Itinerant - Nomad Steve goes wandering the world without the rest of the team to try and find himself while Bucky recovers in Wakanda.

Sweet Relieving - Pre-serum PWP, Steve cross-dresses, Bucky talks DIRTY.

4 Minute Window - Post-TWS, Bucky “kidnaps” Steve and they build a life together.

time on my hands (could be time spent with you) - Nomad Steve runs missions while Bucky recovers in Wakanda and everyone thinks they’re married.

My Working Week and My Sunday Rest - Steve's life after he throws down the shield and hides with Bucky in Wakanda.

Cat Nap - AU where Winter Soldier Bucky and Steve didn’t know each other; Bucky deprograms himself and Steve accidentally steals his cat.

The Size of Perfection - WWII, Steve is shy about how big the serum made his dick. But then there is extreme bittersweet beauty.

Ain't No Grave - Post-TWS (with a pre-TWS prologue) where Bucky accidentally adopts two homeless kids and tries to recover before finding Steve again.

So, You've Adopted a Fruit - Retired Steve and Bucky; Bucky rescues a stray kitten.

Bucky Barnes: on top of the Polls - Steve gets extremely unbalanced during American elections and Bucky both hates and lusts for it.

Together Forever and Ever - PWP, Bucky’s birthday.

Meet-Cute AU's - A gazillion different AUs, heaven on earth.

Lessons in Normality - Shrunkyclunks AU where Steve doesn’t know his normal boyfriend Bucky is a secret agent gathering information on him, Shield, and Hydra.

Pedantic Affectations - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve is a vigilante badly undercover as a teacher, Bucky is the detective trying to bring him in. Steve in his brilliance decides to throw Bucky off his scent by dating him.

*That Ass (Property of James Barnes) - Bucky is loudly obsessed with Steve’s ass.

Strange Visitor (From Another Time) - Lois and Clark-esque Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky is a reporter pissed at the new kid in the newsroom who ends up being Captain America.

Snapshots - Post TWS: Steve is trying to find Bucky. Instead, he finds the sexy Navy "propaganda" Bucky somehow never mentioned he modeled for before the war. Painful and profound.

The Roommate - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve decides not to live in Avengers Tower and instead gets an apartment and finds a one-armed veteran for a roommate.

Side bitch out of your league - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve misdials Bucky while on a mission. Then misdials him again. Then dials him on purpose.

(760): I literally cut myself out of my pants. Waste. Of. Money. - No powers AU, Bucky texts a random number on Sam’s phone for outfit advice.

Slide To Answer - No powers wrong number AU; Steve misdials Bucky for dating advice, then keeps doing it.

a line that goes all the way. - Recovery in Wakanda pining.

**********they're gonna send us to prison for jerks - Post-TWS, Steve and Sam are undercover and move in next door to a math teacher who looks just like Bucky, but Steve can’t be sure... MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FIC.

***Siege - Post-TWS AU where Bucky sticks around after pulling Steve from the Potomac and there are some painful and beautiful plot twists and some goddamn PROSE.

a blade with no handle - AU, the Winter Soldier joins the Avengers; identity porn.

Let's Fall in Love - Tony sends Steve and Bucky to a ridiculous fake speakeasy bar, feelings happen.

***Circling Back - Steve looks for Bucky, Bucky finds Steve, Steve tries desperately to put Bucky back together. Bucky tries desperately to let him. ULTIMATE POST-TWS RECOVERY FIC. Avenger family feels.

#TweetMeDaddy - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky works for Shield and tweets something that gets flagged as a death threat. It isn’t.

Good Boy - PWP, dom!Steve petplay; Bucky is still adjusting to life with the Avengers, and Steve is willing to do whatever it takes to make him feel comfortable.

[divinespairings]

— Seventy Years of Sleep # 4. Nikka Ursula

[sail-not-drift]

“Where are we going?”

“The future.”

on the road

moments [part 2/?]

[sunshvness]

mix tape (minwoong)

send “mix tape” for my muse to make a list of 5 songs that they think explain how they feel for your muse

我怎能留下你 - EZU 

How can I leave you here all alone in the dark? You’re there when I am down. You helped me find myself. Truth is you are all that I need. 

Colors - Day6 

Me in the black and white photo… My world that has spread black.  I’m so tired, I’m so tired now, I’m so sick of it. The colors of you that I see from time to time. It raises me up because you’re the only one with your own color […] Hold out your hand. Color me like that read sunset so I won’t lose myself. 

สั่น / Sun (Shake) - Lovesick the series cast

I’m lost in the middle of emptiness, I can’t see, even though there are stars. Until the day you held my hand and opened the door to a new world […] You made me realize what warmth is like. Even though the sun will set just having you near, hugging me, just this makes me so warm. 

“ใช่…ใช่ไหม (Tell Me Is This Love)” - Tempt 

If I didn’t meet you today, I probably wouldn’t have understood what I had to do in my life, the sky probably wouldn’t be so bright,  and I probably would have had to live with my love that would never be used. If I asked for your hand to touch me right at my heart would you? […] I just want to know if my heart that was once broken is beating now. 

 能不能坐在我身旁 (Can You Sit By My Side?)- Jun

You’re just like a ray of sunshine in the spring rain that shines onto my heart letting that flower bloom quietly. If I walk closer to you little by little please don’t run away, let me sing softly like this. If you listen to this song word by word, line by line, can you sit by my side? 

[hufflepxffs]

✦ (minwoong)

Send me ✦  and i’ll write an incorrect quote with our muses.

euiwoong: i’m not really looking for a boyfriend right now 

minhwan: it makes sense 

euiwoong: it does, right? 

minhwan: considering i’m your husband… 

[flo-n-flon]

From: Andrew

To: Melinda

It’s messy and surprising.

[sail-not-drift]

#i like that bucky is burritoed and steve is titties out #good stuff (via @yourbuckies​)

mornings

[alwaysdreamingofmiracles]

"I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love. We are good people and we’ve suffered enough."

THEY. My loves, my comfort ship for 7 years. My OTP forever. Creating a happy ending for them. I have this as a short video, would anyone be interested?

[onethousandrbirds]

speaking of shipping: what does your golden age of tumblr mlm otp says about you?

drarry: you spent a lot of time trying (and somehow succeeding for a long time?) at convincing people that you were cishet. congratulations?

wincest: you had a bone to pick with twilight's realism b/c you were #NotLikeOtherGirls

johnlock: you're (were?) a teaboo

frodo/sam: you have (or desperately want to) have a day where your s/o feeds and takes care of you just because or vice versa.

cecilos: you have unironically said "normal is a setting on a dryer" at least once in your life

stony: you have written at least 1 essay about robert downy jr's acting

jeanmarco: you have participated in at least 4 failed "renew this show" or "give X a boyfriend" campaigns. mercy to your soul if you've done both

parapines: you were (or still are, and if that's the case i'm neither judging nor calling the cops) into guro

hijack: you really liked frozen, but thought kristoff was to "bear-ish" to ship with hans

the onceler: ... please don't make me drag you on this post. you've done it enough for yourself by being so thirsty for slash content (basic and boring as it was) that you thought to yourself, "why don't i consume art of this person fucking himself from different points on his personal timeline?" and, "my fetish for thin white men is so debilitating that i cannot interact with any media without my horny goggles on" and brought this monstrosity into existence. why couldn't you have stuck with homestuck like a normal person?

john/dave: weeb, but, no, you don't have the power of god on your side. yet

arthur/eames: you really *tried* to like don john OR loved venom

wiccan/hulkling: you owned at least 1 piece of fckh8 merchandise

klaine: see "drarry" above and "sasunaru" below

destiel: you've watched at least 3 seasons of riverdale despite shouting from the rooftops how terrible you think it is

enjolras/grantaire: you have at least 1 story about not getting the part in a play, musical, or solo from 10+ years ago that you haven't let go of

stucky: sometimes you find yourself whispering "we deserve a soft epilogue, my love" to nothing in particular when you're all alone

merthur: you have complicated feelings about women. even if you happen to be one.

superbat: you will reach enlightenment one day and all who laughed at your ventures will crumble into dust.

kirkspock: you have read the "it took a modern adaptation to get me there" essay. also, you really relate to Ribs by Lorde

coulson/hawkeye: like the onceler fans, you were so thirsty for two white men to ship that you basically invented content from nothing BUT somehow you're the classy ho at the back of the class drinking box wine while the rest of these losers have gatorade. congratulations?

simon/nathan: you have had at least 1 conversation where you explain that BBC programming is leagues above anything ever produced in north america. you've also claimed not to be a teaboo

sasunaru: you like making fun of weebs on the internet while snuggled up with your own dakimakura

rpf of any kind: you have been blocked by at least 3 celebrities on social media. weirdly enough, it was for dunking on them?

timkon: see "suberbat" and "wiccanXhulkling" above

remus/sirius: you have "ironically" said you would fuck your friend's dad to his face at least once

sterek: the very mention of richard siken (rip) sends you into a feral fugue state where you stalk either dylan o'brien or tyler hoechlin's twitter and chant, "godammit not this again."

[divinespairings]

There are some things in life you can't R E P L A C E 

A love like ours don't happen T W I C E 

Requested by @the-most-beautiful-broom

[sunshvness]

tag dump 7

[aproblematicpanda]

2, 3, 12!

Hi Tee! ♥ First let me just say: GREAT URL CHANGE. I FULLY SUPPORT IT AND I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK.

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP? To be quite honest I don’t really know what counts as “popular” so I’m just going to go ahead and name ships that I’ve seen people ship, whether they’re considered popular or not I’ll leave that up to you. Raven x Murphy is one that comes to mind. I don’t know if a lot of people still ship it, but I think it was gaining quite a bit of popularity in season 5 (I believe there even was a cut scene of Raven kissing his cheek but that could’ve been in season 4, honestly I’m such a terrible addition to this fandom, half the time I barely even know what I’m talking about). But I don’t see anything romantic there. If anything, I see Raven as sort of like Murphy’s big sister - she’ll tease him and call him names and he’ll give her a hard time but if it comes down to it, they have each other’s backs. So a sibling dynamic or just really great friends. There used to be a lot of bad blood between them and to be honest I’m still not entirely comfortable with Raven being best friends with the man who permanently wrecked her leg albeit not on purpose. But the show is terrible at addressing stuff like that so 99% of the time I just ignore it I guess? Anyway, I think they have an interesting dynamic and I always enjoy their scenes together, but never in a romantic way. Then, and Nicole is going to kill me for this but I’m going to say it anyway, there’s Octavia x Gabriel. Again, I don’t know if a *lot* of people ship it, but quite a few of them do and I don’t know, they just don’t do it for me I guess? I mean they’re both hot and they look amazing together, but in season 6 I feel like Gabriel only looked at her like she was a piece of a puzzle he was trying to solve, not a woman, and I just don’t get a shippy vibe when I look at them. That being said, I do think they make a good team and I could get on board with them having a great friendship. I just don’t see a romantic relationship blossoming there because honestly, this man will never look at any woman the way he looks at that damn anomaly. Also, I have not forgiven him for mentioning his friends in 7x07 and then only calling out “Echo! Hope! I’m sorry!” because Octavia should’ve gotten a mention there. Yeah, yeah, he spent five years with them but if I’m supposed to ship him with Octavia, then he should’ve said her name, too, and that’s that. And then obviously there’s BeIIamy x CIarke. At least I know for sure there’s a popular one LOL. I don’t ship them romantically, I never have. But I also don’t think they make a great BroTP, I’m just mentioning them in my reply so you’ll be absolutely positive that I don’t see any kind of TP whatsoever when I think about those two. Other than that I guess I’m pretty down with most canon romantic ships I guess? Wouldn’t have turned anyone into a BroTP instead, and I don’t think there are any (popular) ships left that I feel strongly about so here you go! 3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? Oh my god, so many times. Usually it’s because they have a very, very *wrong* opinion about Octavia or because they ship B x C and reblog them far too often. In the past I would’ve replied to those wrong opinions or made anti-gif sets to prove my point about the ship I mentioned but then I grew up so nowadays I just unfollow (and when they tag their shit incorrectly I even block them when I feel like it - I also have two people who I blacklisted via XKit so their posts and edits won’t show up on my dash, I don’t want to block them because it’s not that they tag incorrectly and I do want to allow them to keep reblogging stuff I make because sometimes they do, it’s just that they have such terribly wrong views on Octavia and the gif sets they sometimes make make me want to throw my computer out the window so I figured it was best to just make sure I don’t see their stuff on my dash, *ever*). 12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Ehh... This is a hard one, because I think sometimes fandom tends to disagree on what does or doesn’t count as an arc. But for the purpose of answering this question I’m going to go with Echo’s... I’m not going to call it “character development” because that makes it sound like she used to be a bad person and then she changed and that’s not what happened. She was never a bad person. Let’s call it Echo’s journey. She started off as an antagonist (which is why it bugs me so much when haters like to call her out on “trying to kill Octavia”: she was on the opposite side, of course she was going to do shit that the protagonists don’t like, that’s what happens when you’re on the opposing team, it’s called story-telling). There’s our group of “heroes” (god I hate it when the show calls them that) and then there was Echo, on the other side, siding with the people who wanted to harm “our heroes”. But then those people cast her out after she did everything she could think of to keep them safe (I’m not saying she did the right thing by cheating in the conclave but she did have noble intentions for doing what she did) and she had nobody anymore, until Spacekru took her in and her loyalties shifted from her former clan to Spacekru. We don’t have a lot of information about what went on on the Ark, but I like the little bits and pieces we did get. I like that it’s canon that she didn’t tell anyone much about herself, that she’s not an open book at all, that she’s closed off, distant, doesn’t let her true feelings surface because it makes her vulnerable and if there’s one thing she learned from life at a very young age, it’s that she can never appear vulnerable, ever. And I like that in season 6 and especially in season 7, she is forced to deal with what happens when she can no longer repress her feelings but instead has to let them out. Is she coping with them in a healthy way? No. Of course not. Not at all. But what did you expect from a woman who saw her parents die when she was just a little kid, who was forced to murder her best friend in self-defense and then use said friend’s name as her own and who was from then on trained and used as a (child) soldier to do someone else’s dirty work? Do you honestly expect someone who carries around that much trauma, who has this many wounds that she could never allow to heal, to deal with losing the man she loves in a healthy way? I think it’s fascination to see her wrestle with those feelings, feelings she can no longer repress or ignore, and I honest to god hope the show will allow her to work through that grief eventually without turning her back into the coldblooded woman she used to be or, god forbid, give her some kind of sacrificial death to "make up for all the bad shit she did”. Echo’s not a bad person, in fact, she’s a far better person than most of our “heroes”. Being able to do what needs to be done doesn’t make her evil, because most people on this show would be evil then. Echo is a severely traumatized young woman who hasn’t had a sense of home in decades and then, when she finally found it, when she finally learned to open up and let herself be soft and vulnerable again with her new found family, it was ripped away from her again. And I think that her journey is one of the most compelling ones of all characters because she goes through so much and yet here she is, ready to fuck shit up to get shit done. I can only hope she’ll get to soft epilogue she deserves, after a lifetime of being at war. Salty Ask List

[hufflepxffs]

Maybe there’s a universe where that’s the life I want. Where I don’t second guess everything and I’m not afraid of commitment and of the future and of love. Maybe there’s a universe without all the noise in my head and the pride that makes me so fiercely independent and the coldness in my heart that I can turn on and off like a security fence. Maybe there’s a universe where I’m the right person for you. Where both of us can shed our baggage and curiosity and issues. A universe where we’re happy — without wondering if that happiness is some messed-up Jenga game ready to topple at the slightest quiver. A universe where we’re comfortable and sure, and we have cats. Maybe there’s a universe where we fall asleep next to each other every night like spoons, like two innocent bunnies — my face buried in your neck, hugging your warmth — and we both don’t want anything or anybody else. Where we don’t want more, we just want each other.

 maybe somewhere in those infinite universes is one, or several, where I deserve you. //  Gaby Dunn

[hwarang-number]

Dream Girl: Jonghyun/Minho Oneshot

Pairing: Jongho

Rating: T

Word Count: 3400

Summary: Jonghyun gets matched up with his dream girl through a dating app and arrives at the rendezvous to find Minho there for the same reason. Inspired by this Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra skit, as well as that one amazing Tumblr post of shirtless Jonghyun with a caption about his “stupid little bitch waist” (which I, naturally, have not been able to locate since.)

I really wanted to post this whole thing for New Year’s but I didn’t have time to knock out the entire (somewhat lengthy) epilogue, so that’s forthcoming, and I’ll cross-post to AO3 at that time. This part works as a stand-alone fic, though.

Dedicated to the beautiful @wysteryas, who inspired me to try my hand at SHINee fic. 2min is my OTP but Jongho is my kryptonite, apparently. They make me so ridiculously happy.

***

When Jonghyun spots the man sitting on his designated bench, his entire body jolts in stark dismay. If his dream girl really is coming here tonight, she won’t even see him with this guy in her line of vision. In fact, she’ll probably assume that said guy was her dream man to begin with and head off to happily-ever-after on his arm.

He looks up hopefully at Jonghyun's approach and oh hell yes, this is a dream man in-waiting. Huge, stunning double-lidded dark eyes, luminous olive skin, tousled silky black hair, long lean legs crossed at the ankle – and dressed to kill.

Sodam had approved every inch of her little brother, from his earrings to his boxer-briefs (sexy ones, Jonghyun-ah, just in case!), before shoving him toward the door with a giddy laugh, but if she’d seen this guy, she’d have promptly pulled Jonghyun back inside again and cancelled his membership with the dating app for good measure.

The man wears a black leather jacket, slim-cut and perfectly contoured to his torso, with a gray knit scarf knotted artfully at his throat and dark blue jeans cuffed above black lace-up boots. The cuffs of a dusky blue sweater peek out from the ends of his sleeves, and he wears one wide silver band on his left thumb.

Jonghyun wears rings too – just a few tonight, nothing ridiculous – and had always thought it kind of worked for him, but this man owns the thumb ring look.

Fuck, even his hands are beautiful. Long, strong, and exquisitely shaped, all the way to his fingertips.

The man is three kinds of gorgeous and he's just sitting there like a handsome piece of statuary, regarding Jonghyun curiously.

“– help you?” he’s saying, and it’s really, truly over now, because his voice is deep. Not corny American hey baby deep but hushed and soft and warm. The kind of voice that raises the hairs on the back of your neck in a really pleasant way.

Jonghyun is so fucked he could cry.

"Um," he begins brilliantly. "I’m sorry, but – could you maybe move to another bench for just a little? It's just, I'm supposed to meet someone – oh fuck –“ He breaks off at a telltale burning in his eyes and brings his fists to them before he remembers his eyeliner: a subtle, smoky border, painstakingly applied by Sodam because his hands were shaking too badly.

"Hey, easy,” the man soothes in the gentlest voice Jonghyun’s ever heard. “It's okay. I’d happily move to another bench,” he says, “but as it happens, I’m supposed to be meeting someone here too.”

Jonghyun peeks at him between his fingers, rendered speechless by disbelief, and the man’s breath catches.

“You have the most beautiful eyes,” he blurts, startling them both. “Actually, um…for half a second I thought you might be – who’re you meeting?” he asks suddenly.

Conceding defeat, Jonghyun drops his hands from his face and himself onto the bench beside the man. “A girl,” he says wearily. “I signed up on one of those dating apps – the, uh, ‘compatibility-guaranteed’ one,” he adds in an abashed mumble, “and I’m supposed to meet my dream girl here tonight.”

“Hey, me too!” the man says eagerly, turning to Jonghyun, his mouth curved in a smile so dazzling that Jonghyun’s heart does a startled little flip on its way to the pit of his stomach. “Tell me what yours looks like and we can keep an eye out for each other.”

Jonghyun sighs, wishing more than anything to forestall the inevitable: that awkward moment when the man realizes that they’re both here for the same girl and makes some weak attempt to convince sad, small Jonghyun that he actually has a chance with her.

Half a month’s rent went into this disaster, and for what?

“Legs for miles,” Jonghyun croaks, his cheeks burning. “At least, that’s the description they gave me. ‘Legs for miles, a small face, and…very big eyes,’ ” he finishes lamely.

The man grins. “It’s the eyes that get me too,” he confesses.

They all say that, Jonghyun scowls to himself. “And legs for miles?” he wonders dryly.

“Nah, I’ve got legs enough for the both of us,” the man laughs. “I’m waiting on a ‘small, shapely blonde with eyes to drown in.’”

Jonghyun’s sigh of relief comes out like a moan and he claps a hand over his mouth in horror. “I just – I’m really glad you said that,” he says quickly, stupidly, causing the man to raise the inner edges of his eyebrows in a captivating expression.

“Because…?” he puzzles aloud, then – “Oh. You thought we were expecting the same girl?”

“Maybe,” Jonghyun hedges, not quite meeting the man’s eyes, and he shakes his head with a strange half-smile.

“We have very different types,” he says simply.

“Ah, that’s good,” Jonghyun replies, and in the ensuing silence, reassesses his appearance for the umpteenth time this evening.

Sodam snuck the insoles out of his shoes while he was brushing his teeth. If she’s really your dream girl, she’s not going to care about a few centimeters, she insisted when he realized the absence, halfway out the door. Just be you, Jonghyun-ah. You want her to love you as you are, and she will – she’ll take one look at you and never want to leave your side.

He absently toys with one cuff of his impossibly soft sweater: a cream-colored turtleneck, pure cashmere and wildly beyond his budget. A gift from Sodam expressly for tonight, stored in a box of lavender and allspice berries for the past week for ultimate romantic appeal. If she can resist wrapping herself around you, she’s not worth having, she declared after an appraising nuzzle of his shoulder. You’re like hugging a basketful of sleepy kittens.

“You smell really good,” the man remarks, and Jonghyun glances over with a small, gratified smile.

“You too,” he realizes. The man smells subtly, headily of musk and cloves, and Jonghyun wishes he could justify leaning over for a deeper sniff – or simply asking what it is – but maybe a man that attractive just naturally smells that good, and how awkward would it be to come up with a response to Nothing – I guess it’s just me?

“Oh good,” the man replies, visibly relaxing against the back of the bench. “I had soccer practice earlier. I showered afterward but you still worry, you know?”

Of course he’s an athlete, on top of everything else. “Couldn’t get out of it?” Jonghyun asks dryly, never mind the man really doesn’t deserve it. “Not even for your dream girl?”

“I’m the team captain,” the man chuckles, either unbothered by or oblivious to Jonghyun’s sarcasm. “I don’t let them out of practice for anything short of death, so I could hardly do it myself.”

Jonghyun smiles in reply, a more genuine expression than he intended, and directs his gaze along the lamplit sidewalk – conspicuously empty at such a prime walking hour. His nerves jangle with whispers of not coming and stood up, and he turns back almost gratefully at the man’s question:

“Where are you taking her?”

“Um…well, it’s late enough that she might have eaten already,” he says. “So I thought: coffee and macarons at this café I really love, then there’s a quiet little jazz club where a friend and I perform sometimes – uh, he plays piano, I sing,” he explains, earning an impressed eyebrow-raise from the other man. “It’s pretty casual but there’s dancing, if she wants, and decent appetizers if she’s hungry.”

Snore, he reflects miserably, and applauds himself for leaving out the bit about the open-late bookstore next door to the café and the poetry books he conveniently arranged there on his way over, just in case they happen to stop in. Not to mention the fact that Taemin performing tonight is getting them free admission to the club and a customized playlist, as it were.

Flag me down if it’s going well – or not – and you can step in and sing to her, hyung, his impish friend had urged. I guarantee you won’t make it home in one piece – if you make it home at all.

“Sounds perfect,” the man says, “romantic as hell,” and Jonghyun looks up at him in surprise, narrowly biting back a gape. Without warning, the man brushes a hand across Jonghyun’s sleeve and a shiver – not altogether unpleasant – runs the length of his spine in response. “You’re even dressed for cuddling,” he remarks with a smile.

“And what are you dressed for?” Jonghyun deflects, his cheeks burning.

“Art gallery,” the man replies. “I know, sounds pretentious, but I’m really into photography, and there’s a cool exhibit on right now. There’s a great black bean noodle place just a few blocks away from the gallery, and I thought we could wrap up with a walk around the park after and maybe…some hand-holding to finish,” he volunteers, somewhat sheepishly, as though he feels he owes Jonghyun something after the cuddling comment.

“Nice,” Jonghyun declares, and means it.

“Oh good,” the man says, visibly relieved, as though Jonghyun’s approval carries some strange weight. “So, um…you’d be happy with a first date like that?”

Jonghyun frowns slightly at the question but the man’s earnest expression seems to crave reassurance, nothing more. “Yeah – especially the hand-holding,” he adds cheekily. “Skinship’s kind of my thing.”

“Hence the cuddling,” the man responds in kind, lips curving beautifully, and a companionable silence falls between them.

“How many kids do you want to have?” Jonghyun asks abruptly, and the man turns toward him with a start.

“Come again?” he croaks, brows halfway to his hairline.

“While we’re waiting, I thought it might be good to practice a little,” Jonghyun explains, his blush returning in full force. “Conversation, I mean – for our dates.”

The man’s shock softens but he continues to eye Jonghyun curiously. “And that’s your opener?” he wonders wryly.

“No, but it’s kind of a biggie for me,” Jonghyun replies. “So I wanna make sure I get it out.”

“Ah, I hear you,” the man says with perfect understanding. “It’s the same for me, to be honest. I love kids, so it’s something I want to make sure we have in common. I’m the youngest of two, so…three?” he ventures.

“Hey, me too!” Jonghyun exclaims. “I’m the youngest of two, and I want three kids – at least a couple of girls,” he adds shyly. “I’ve got a little girl dog now, so I’m sort of practicing up.”

The man smiles, warm and wistful. “Ah, lucky. I love dogs, but I’ve always been too busy to get one of my own.”

“Maybe I can bring Roo here sometime,” Jonghyun offers, without quite knowing why. “If you live nearby, I mean, and you could play with her for a little. Dog-time is a must for quality of life.”

“I’d like that,” the man says softly.

Jonghyun lets his head fall back, gazing up through the city-glow in search of stars beyond. It’s a beautiful night, crisp and clear, and the man beside him is surprisingly good company to help pass the time until –

He shakes his head to clear it, having momentarily forgotten the express purpose for his – their – presence here tonight, and frowns thoughtfully at his companion for a long moment before asking the question he really doesn’t want the answer to:

“Just exactly how tall are you?”

The man chuckles, as though he’d expected this eventually. “184 centimeters,” he replies.

Well, fuck. “With or without insoles?” Jonghyun needles, and the man grins brilliantly.

“I can reach down things from the top shelf of my kitchen cupboards, barefoot and flat-footed,” he declares with a sort of mock-triumph.

Fucking beanpole, Jonghyun thinks, glaring at those endlessly long legs. As if being tall is some sort of accomplishment. “I need a step-stool to reach on top of my fridge,” he grumbles. “Wanna come over sometime and clean my ceiling fan?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” the man banters back playfully.

Jonghyun wonders if it would be weird to ask the guy for his number. He probably isn’t serious about cleaning the fan, but Jonghyun genuinely wants him to meet Roo. He’s a really nice guy, interesting and easy to talk to; maybe they could even grab coffee or black bean noodles sometime.

If nothing else, maybe they’ll both get a friend out of this whole dating fiasco.

Jonghyun suddenly realizes that he hasn’t looked at his phone since he sat down and pulls the device from his pocket with a small panicked sound. It’s almost twenty minutes past the appointed meeting time, and there’s no push notification indicating that his girl checked in as “running late” or anything like that.

He frowns at the screen.

“Are you getting late for a reservation?” the man asks.

“No, I didn’t make any,” Jonghyun says, pocketing his phone again with a slowly sinking heart. “And everywhere we were going is pretty low-key, so…” He trails off. No use pretending, really. “It’s too late even to be fashionable, don’t you think?” he asks the other man without looking up, not really seeking an answer, so he doesn’t notice when none comes.

Honestly, he’s not surprised. Thousands and thousands of won – half a month’s rent – and ‘compatibility guaranteed’? He should’ve known it was too good to be true.

Hell, he should’ve known it was a crock when they revealed that his dream girl had ‘legs for miles’ – as if someone like that would even look at Jonghyun twice, let alone fall in love with him.

Or maybe there really had been a girl, he thinks bitterly, but she took one look at me and ran off before I could spot her.

How the hell is he going to tell Sodam?

He stretches his lips into a weak but resolute smile and turns to his companion. “I should’ve known I’d get stood up, but you –”

The rest of his sentence falls away at the expression on the man’s face. He’s staring down at Jonghyun with a gaze to sear your soul, lips parted slightly in small, shallow breaths.

“I don’t think we got stood up,” he says quietly.

“You think your girl’s still coming?” Jonghyun asks.

It’s a fair assumption, really. He’s the sort of guy girls would kill to date – sweet, tall, fit, sexy as hell – definitely not the kind of man you stand up. His dream girl is probably cursing her shoes and running through the park in a drama-worthy montage at this very moment.

The man presses his lips together and looks away. “I think she got here a while ago,” he says, his voice strangely rough.

Jonghyun clears his throat, wondering why his breath is quickening too, and why it’s suddenly easier to inhale with the man’s eyes averted. “You…you think she saw you were with someone,” he puzzles, “and, what: she’s waiting for me to leave?”

“No, I…” The man hesitates, rubbing his palms on his jeans and biting his lips together, as though he’s struggling with what to say or how to say it, then suddenly his eyes are locked with Jonghyun’s and Jonghyun thinks he may never actually breathe again.

“I think you’re my dream girl,” the man whispers.

Jonghyun’s heart catapults into his throat. “I’m not a girl,” he says faintly.

“I know,” the man assures him, looking as apologetic as he does impassioned. “It’s just…every time you’ve managed to look at me,” he says, his voice breaking slightly, “I’ve found myself drowning in your eyes.”

The heart in Jonghyun’s throat flails like a small wild creature, caught fast in a trap.

“You – you’re small and blond,” the man points out softly, “and I was thinking – wondering – if maybe…” He trails off, eyeing Jonghyun – specifically, Jonghyun’s body – with hopeful hesitance, and Jonghyun looks away quickly, knowing what the man is referring to, or rather guessing at.

“I, um…” he fumbles. “It’s just…my waist is kind of small for a –”

He breaks off with a sharp inhale as the man brings a hand to his waistline and closes warm fingers gently around the deep, almost feminine indent. The touch sends a strange, gorgeous heat straight to Jonghyun’s groin.

“Daebak,” the man breathes.

“I like art galleries,” Jonghyun whispers over the clamor of his frenzied heart, deliberately looking everywhere but at the man. “And black bean noodles, and hand-holding in the park.”

“I like coffee and cuddling – and cashmere,” the man murmurs, cautiously curling his fingertips in the material of Jonghyun’s sweater. “And in case it’s escaped your notice in all this time you’ve refused to look at me,” he adds, so lightly: “I just happen to have legs for miles, a small face, and very big eyes.”

Jonghyun fights it, he truly does. But suddenly he’s on his knees on the bench with the man’s face in his hands, kissing each large, exquisite eye closed with desperate presses of his lips.

They’re almost amber close-up, he discovers. Soft black lashes, wide swollen pupils drinking Jonghyun in –

He pulls back with a whimper of distress and veritably leaps off the bench. He just kissed – well, not kissed, but kissed part of – a man. A breathtakingly beautiful man – the most beautiful man he’s ever seen, hands down – but a man just the same. A man who paid a boatload of money to get matched up with his dream date and has been calmly waiting for a petite curvy blonde girl, not small stunted Kim Jonghyun with his stupid little bitch waist –

He turns to bolt, eyes burning, and a large hand closes around his wrist.

"Hey, easy; it’s okay,” soothes the gentlest voice Jonghyun’s ever heard, for the second time that night, and he feels the man come up behind him. Strong arms slip hesitantly around his stupid little bitch waist, making him gasp, and the warm weight of a cheek – or chin? – settles on the top of his head.

Jonghyun’s mind is torn between Fuck, how tall is he? and Fuck, how does this feel so good?

“I’m sorry,” the man murmurs. “I-I’ve never done…this, and I’m sure I’m doing it wrong. I just…I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want to go either,” Jonghyun confesses in a whisper, and the arms snug about his waist with a stifled moan against his scalp. His nipples tighten at the combination of sensations and he arches back slightly with a whimper.

“God, you feel so good in my arms,” the man groans.

Jonghyun’s not sure which of them initiates the turn, but suddenly they’re standing face-to-face and –

“You’re so beautiful,” they both say at once, voices hushed and yearning, and the man starts a little at the statement, as though he’s only just realized that Jonghyun is as overcome and in love as he is.

“You were my dream girl the moment you walked up,” he says softly, taking Jonghyun’s face in his hands. His fingertips drift gently through Jonghyun’s moon-pale dandelion down hair as his thumbs trace Jonghyun’s sharp cheekbones. “I thought you actually were her for a moment,” he reveals. “Except you weren’t a her, and then I realized that…maybe that didn’t really matter,” he concludes with a tender smile.

His legs end somewhere around Jonghyun’s waistline, and Jonghyun stares up-up-up into the most stunning eyes he’s ever seen. He never thought for a second that this was a girl of any kind, but somehow he’s everything Jonghyun wanted when he came here tonight, minus the damn Adam’s apple that some idiot placed at the level of his lips.

It’s handsome, as Adam’s apples go, and it bobs in a gulp as the man flounders under the intensity of Jonghyun’s silence.

“Please say something,” he whispers, dropping his hands to Jonghyun’s shoulders in a more socially acceptable pose.

Impossibly, his breath smells of jasmine and Jonghyun whimpers as his cock thrums in response. He’s lost in dark eyes and endless limbs and warm olive skin that seeps musk and cloves, trembling with the urge to kiss and nuzzle and burrow and bury himself in this utterly breathtaking person.

“Why aren’t you a girl?” he whispers.

“If you don’t know the answer to that,” the man says lightly, “then it shouldn’t make any difference, right?”

It’s a joke, but neither of them is laughing as the man draws Jonghyun deep into his arms and cradles him to a racing heart. “Let’s try this again,” he murmurs raggedly. “I’m Minho. What are you doing for the rest of your life?”