#outfits for senior girl photos

[bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue]

Rebecca is ready for the new school year and so am I!

[wintrwinchestr]

strangers | part 1

summary: following in the footsteps of a girl you once knew, you decide to up and leave home one morning without looking back. when you find yourself to be tired, hungry, and alone in the middle of nowhere, you're thankful when a kind stranger offers you a ride, a warm meal, and a place to sleep for the night. he only tells you about himself in bits and pieces, but he seems trustworthy enough, and what you don't know can't hurt you, right?

!!PLEASE READ WARNINGS, THIS IS A VERY DARK FIC!!

I've tried to label this fic as detailed and as boldly as possible. I will not be held responsible or bullied off the internet if you choose to read this potentially upsetting/triggering work of fiction anyway.

warnings: joel miller x f!reader, 18+, smut, age gap (reader is college-aged, joel is mid-50s), no outbreak au, serial killer!joel, dark!joel, talk of death/murder and blood, mommy & daddy issues, brief talk of domestic violence, lying/gaslighting, manipulation, f-receiving non-con somnophilia (no sex, but groping, fingering, dry humping, kissing, and choking), degrading language toward victims, pet names (baby, darlin', sweetheart), some joel pov, no ellie/sarah but tommy has an unnamed daughter, somewhat inspired by "strangers" by ethel cain, takes place in illinois/ohio/indiana, vaguely set in the 70s/80s, this part is mostly introduction/storytelling/yapping, please respectfully let me know if i missed anything and i will rectify the tags

word count: 9.8k

a/n: i started this as a oneshot way back in november, and then it sat abandoned for a very long time. thank you to my lovely friends @polaroidpascal and @chippedowlmug for encouraging me to finish it, and also bestie kiers who never hesitates to match my freak. also thank you to the many writers who made me feel inspired to write something dark and not give a fuck what people think about it. i hope you enjoy this joel he's a freak and i love him and if you say anything mean about him i'll send him after you <3

divider by @saradika

series masterlist/moodboard

read this chapter on ao3

part 2

Ruby Carpenter.

You had spent all day trying to remember her name without really knowing why. Maybe it’s because as the sun sets on what would be the first day of your junior year at the nearby state school, you wonder if she ever made it to one of the fancy ivy leagues she had always aspired to attend. You wonder if she’s even still alive.

Ruby had disappeared a few years ago now, the summer after your senior year of high school. For nearly a year afterwards, her missing posters remained stapled onto every telephone pole and stuck onto every store window around town, until the paper began to disintegrate and the ink began to fade. In that time, you couldn’t even make a quick run to the grocery store without being confronted by dozens of replicas of her yearbook photo printed onto the sides of all the milk cartons. Despite all of the efforts to find her, including several search parties and a decent amount of statewide media coverage, everyone had just stopped looking for her, eventually. Even the police. Even her parents.

It was decided that she had probably just run away, and you can’t entirely blame her, but you can’t imagine why she would, either. You remember her perfect head of blonde ringlet curls that shone a yellow gold in the sun, and her bright blue eyes that turned fiery in her more passionate moments during classroom debates. She had every boy in your grade wrapped around her finger, was the teacher’s pet in every class, and it wasn’t even a question whether she would win prom queen your senior year. She was always sweet to you, always complimented your outfits or your makeup or your art projects with a genuine lilt in her voice and a kind smile, so you could never bring yourself to hate her even though it would’ve been so easy to. You figured she was going to cure cancer or become the president after you had all graduated, which is why you never really stopped wondering whatever happened to her that summer. She was beautiful, with boundless potential and a bright future ahead of her, why would she have just given it all up?

Everyone around town knew Ruby, or at least it seemed that way. But maybe nobody ever really knew her as well as they thought. Maybe she’d had a secret boyfriend all that time who whisked her away that summer, maybe she had decided to try drugs and fell down a rabbit hole that she couldn’t claw her way out of, maybe she had finally figured out that the only thing this town would ever be good for is holding people back. Maybe she did just wake up one day and decide to run without ever looking behind her.

Maybe you should do the same.

With your dad long gone now and your step-father doing a piss poor job of filling in the hole he left, following in Ruby’s footsteps has sounded like a better idea with each passing day. Rob isn’t even really your step-father, anyway, just your mom’s sorry fucking excuse for a boyfriend. The guy’s already been married upwards of three times before, why try for another one? He’s a lazy son of a bitch who can’t hold down a job at a fast food joint for more than a couple of weeks at a time, who sleeps every second of the day that he’s not chugging through a six pack, and who leaves marks on your mother uglier than his fucking face. 

She doesn’t deserve to be treated that way, of course, but it’s not like she’s winning the “mom of the year” award any time soon, either. She’s never even been nominated. She’s forgotten just about every one of your birthdays, been the reason you’ve never had any friends come over, and in her most recent offense, blew all the savings you had put away for your last two years of college. Which is why you’re not spending tonight celebrating being one year closer to at least having an official-looking piece of paper to show for yourself. Instead, you’re using the rattling of your bedroom window unit and the booming bass of your radio to drown out yet another drunken screaming match between your mother and the guy she lets live in your house now, watching the world outside pass you by and knowing that if you don’t do anything about it now, you’ll never make it out of here. You’re thinking about Ruby Carpenter, hoping she found somewhere greener and more promising and was able to make something of herself, far away from here. And you’re thinking that this rusted orange sunset is the last one you’ll ever see from your bedroom window.

It’s decided, then. You’re leaving, first thing tomorrow.

—

You’ve only gotten a few hours of sleep by the time your alarm clock chimes to life at five o’clock on the dot. You’re quick to silence the shrill beeping with a swift swat of your hand, careful not to wake anyone else in the house. The sun has just barely begun to stream in through the blinds of your bedroom window, but it illuminates the room just enough for your eyes to land on the backpack you had stuffed full of a few changes of clothes last night, waiting for you by the door. 

You don’t waste any time stripping off your pajamas and pulling on just about the only clothes left in your room that aren’t in your bag. You’ve got your teeth brushed, face washed, and hair tamed in all of about ten minutes, too anxious to spend even one more unnecessary second in this house. You swing your backpack over your shoulder, pull your bedroom door open at just the right speed so that the hinges don’t squeak too loud, and tiptoe delicately down the stairs, careful to avoid the creaky floorboards that you know like the back of your hand—the one three steps from the top, the one at the landing about halfway down, and the very bottom one.

You land softly when you leap over that tattletale bottom step, successful in the most difficult part of your escape plan so far. Rob is passed out on the living room couch in typical fashion, his mouth full of crooked teeth hanging open as his grating snores permeate the calm morning air. He’s still got a death grip around an empty beer can, even in his sleep, and your mother will likely be the one to toss it into the trash for him, useless fucker that he is. You aren’t going to miss either of them, and you imagine they’ll just skip trying to replicate the first half of the aftermath of Ruby’s disappearance altogether—no posters, no search parties, no police. You’ll just be gone, one less mouth for your mother to feed. Though, you’d been mostly feeding yourself since you were tall enough to slide a couple of bills across the counter at the corner store down the street, anyway. You’re ready to disappear, the same as candle wax when it burns, the same as the end of a rainbow, the same as Ruby Carpenter.

You don’t bother looking back when you shut the door behind you, content to leave it all behind just as the sun begins to rise and set the sky ablaze. By the time it sets again tonight, you hope to be in a different county, in a different state, anywhere that isn’t here. The rest, you’ll just have to figure out when you get there, wherever “there” may be.

—

You had only realized about an hour ago that you’d forgotten your cheap digital watch in the drawer of your bedside table, where it’s laid unused for the past couple of months, because who needs to tell time during the summer? You never had anywhere to be, never had to get to class or turn in a paper by a certain time, so it’s just been collecting dust since you had unclipped it from your wrist on the last day of spring semester. It sure would have come in handy right about now, when you have no fucking clue what time it is. The sun had disappeared behind the hills several mile markers back, so it must be… eight o’clock? Ten o’clock? Fucking midnight? You have no idea. What you do know is that you’re exhausted, hungry, and your feet hurt like hell. You aren’t really sure what you expected, the reality only just now setting in that you don’t even have ten bucks to your name anymore, thanks to your narcissist of a mother. The crumpled up bills you do have in your pocket are hardly enough for a goddamn sandwich, let alone a motel room. The cool night breeze raises goosebumps on your skin, and you swear you can see your fucking breath, even in the middle of August. You wrap your arms around yourself just as tears begin to prick at your waterlines, and you let them fall as you collapse onto the scratchy patch of dead grass on the side of the freeway, not a park bench or a bus stop or even a gas station in sight for God knows how many more miles.

You sit cross-legged, elbows propped up on your knees so that your hands can support your weary head, the skin of your palms becoming slippery with salty tears as your crying just doesn’t seem to stop. The road you’ve found yourself on seems relatively low-trafficked, the heaving sounds of your sobs accompanied by more cricket chirps and rustling wheat than rumbling tires. But a few high beams do streak across your vision every once in a while, coloring the backs of your eyelids a flaming scarlet.

After several minutes, your tears seem to dry up on their own, your body likely too dehydrated now to produce any more. You wipe the moisture from under your eyes with the back of your hand, sniffling as you gnaw at the skin of your bottom lip and debate if you should just turn back now, give up on your stupid little plan (or lack thereof) and just call the whole thing a loss, pretend it never even happened. Your mother and Rob won’t have even noticed you’d left.

Just as you pull yourself back up to your feet, set on at least finding somewhere that isn’t the hard ground to sleep on tonight before you make your way back home tomorrow, the warm headlights of an old pickup truck are shining bright in your eyes. You put your arm up to block them as the truck slowly squeals to a halt in front of where you’re standing, and you squint your eyes at the driver as your vision adjusts.

“You need a ride, sweetheart?” A man asks in a gravelly voice, and you can still hardly make out what he looks like. Based on the southern accent you pick up on, he doesn’t sound like he’s from around here. 

“N-no, thank you. I’m okay,” you respond shakily, taking a nervous step back from the stranger and his rusted pickup.

“You sure? Looked like you were cryin’ over here, like you might be lost or somethin’.”

“‘M not lost, I know where I’m going.”

“Oh yeah? Where’s that?”

Shit. 

You take a guess.

“Um… the motel down the road,” you reply, tilting your head in the direction you had been walking in.

“There ain’t a motel down there, sweetheart. Ain’t nothin’ in either direction for miles, ‘s all just farmland out here. Reckon you’ve already figured that out, though.”

You pause, unsure of what your next move should be. He knows you’re lying, knows you’re alone with no fucking idea where you are or where you’re going. You could run, but even that shitty truck of his could catch up to you in a matter of seconds. You take another step back, swiveling your head around to look up and down the road as you try to figure your best way out of this.

“Just lemme give you a ride somewhere, darlin’. There’s a diner just off the exit, ‘bout twenty miles up ahead. Could take you that far, at least, get you somethin’ to eat,” he offers. A warm meal does sound pretty good right now, and you suppose you aren’t exactly in a position to refuse his help.

You think on it for a second. “What’s it called? The diner.”

The stranger huffs. “Moody’s.”

“What do they have?” you challenge.

He sighs. “It’s a fuckin’ diner off the side of the freeway, darlin’. They got greasy food and black coffee, ‘s about all you need.”

You don’t say anything.

Then, after a beat—“They got some kinda sloppy mess they call the Thunder Burger. ‘S got onion rings and shit on it. Ain’t half bad.”

You have to admit, he’s passing your pop quiz with flying colors. His answers have been too quick, too specific for him to be lying to you. There’s a pretty solid chance this diner does exist, and that he’s been there before. The man hasn’t said anything that’s indicated he wants more to do with you than to offer you a ride and some dinner. He’s probably just somebody’s harmless grandfather, anyway, judging by his motheaten flannel and gray-stricken beard you can see now that you’ve approached his truck a few paces closer.

“Okay,” you concede, your stomach growling loudly as the man leans over the bench seat to pop open the passenger side door for you. You shrug off your backpack and climb into the cabin, clicking your seatbelt into place as you situate yourself on the cracked leather seat. 

“All set?” the stranger asks.

“Mhm,” you hum, finally getting a better look at the man you might just owe the rest of your life to after tonight. For being somebody’s grandfather, he’s… kinda handsome. Really fucking handsome, actually, in a rugged sort of way. He’s got warm amber eyes that sparkle even in the dark of night, a kind smile that completely disarms you in an instant, and a splintering scar across the bridge of his nose that somehow only adds to his good looks. You try to suppress your own grin as you look away from him quickly, opting to focus on fidgeting with one of the fraying edges of your denim shorts instead. Even in your peripheral vision, you don’t miss how his eyes shift from your own to the exposed skin of your thighs. He doesn’t say anything, just clears his throat as he shifts gears and steers his truck back onto the road again. 

He lets the next few minutes pass in comfortable silence before asking, “You got a name, sweetheart?”

You tell him, and he flashes another charming smile at you. “I like that, ‘s pretty… Well, I’m Joel. Sure you were wonderin’. Now you ain’t gettin’ a ride from a stranger no more, are ya?”

“Yeah, I guess I’m not,” you giggle, and you’re surprised at how comfortable you feel with him. “So… you’ve been to Moody’s before?”

“Handful of times, yeah. When I’m passin’ through.”

You nod. “So you come up here, like… for work or somethin’?”

Joel chuckles. “Or somethin’. You never even heard of the damn place, so… reckon you don’t find yourself out here very often, do ya?”

“No… ‘M not even really sure where ‘here’ is, to be honest. I just kinda… started walking.”

“Ah… a runaway, then, are ya?” Joel asks, with an appreciated amount of understanding in his tone rather than judgment. “‘M sure your folks are missin’ ya right about now, must have your boyfriend worried sick.”

You scoff at that. “Fuck no. They probably don’t even know I’m gone, won’t even bother trying to come look for me. And I don’t have a boyfriend, so…”

“Damn shame. ‘M sorry about that, sweetheart,” Joel comforts, placing a large calloused hand on your thigh. It makes your breath hitch, but his touch isn’t entirely unwelcome. You let him squeeze once at the plush of your leg before he replaces his hand on the wheel, and your cunt spasms out a little fluttering pulse against the seam of your shorts, despite yourself.

The rest of the drive to Moody’s is relatively quiet, save for the gentle crooning of an old country singer emanating from the cassette player on the dash. The soft singing and steady strumming of a banjo combined with the muffled chugging of the truck’s engine is enough to lull you to sleep, especially after the day you’ve had. You know that just about every mental alarm bell you have should be screaming at you to jump out of the car, to run, that sleeping alone in the dirt would’ve been a better decision than getting into this strange man’s—Joel’s—truck, but you’re too tired to hear them. He smells good, like woodsmoke and pine and cinnamon, and if he wanted to do something awful to you, he probably would’ve done it by now. So you trust him, for now at least, and let your lashes fan out against your cheeks as your head falls back against the cushioned headrest, coaxed into sleep by the lullaby of tires against pavement and fingertips against guitar strings.

—

You only rouse when you feel the truck come to a stop about half an hour or so later, slowly blinking your eyes open against the bright neon sign that reads “MOODY’S” in bold capital letters. Your jaw stretches wide as a yawn overtakes the muscles, and you hear Joel’s southern drawl replace the one from the cassette as he shuts the engine off.

“Mornin’, sleepyhead. Not too tired to eat somethin’ now, are ya?”

Another unpleasant-sounding rumble from your empty stomach answers for you, loud enough for both of you to hear this time. The air puffing out of the diner’s kitchen smells strongly of fatty bacon and rich coffee, just like Joel had promised you the place would offer. Although the digital clock on the dash read just after 10:30 before you fell asleep, you’ve never craved breakfast quite like you do right now. You absentmindedly lick your lips as you imagine the sweet and savory—and more importantly free—meal that could be waiting for you beyond that blinding beacon of a sign.

“Well, alright then. Let’s get some food in ya before you keel over, hm?” Joel says as he exits the truck, landing on his feet in the dirt parking lot with a soft groan. He waits by the hood for you to meet up with him, and you walk up the couple of steps to the entrance together. He holds the door open for you, and you offer him a shy ‘thank you’, to which he responds with a soft spoken ‘welcome, sweetheart’. You stand shyly behind his broad form as he asks the hostess for a table for two, and she leads you to a green leather booth tucked into the corner of the diner. She hands each of you a sticky laminated menu, the pages a charming mess of clashing colors and faded pictures and retro-looking fonts, then departs with a promise that your waitress will bring the two of you some water as you take your time deciding on what you might like. 

You light up upon reading that Moody’s serves breakfast all day, and that they can make you exactly what you were hoping for—a stack of chocolate chip pancakes with sides of bacon and hashbrowns. You can’t help but smile to yourself as you wiggle in your seat, excitedly anticipating the waitress to come back around so you can order.

“Whatcha so excited about over there?” Joel asks, eyeing you from across the table as he glances up from his own menu.

“Nothin’, I was just hoping I could get some pancakes, and they have ‘em on the menu,” you explain giddily. “I’ll probably get some coffee, too, really complete the whole ‘breakfast for dinner’ thing.”

Joel huffs through his nose. “Decaf, I hope. ‘S the middle of the goddamn night, sweetheart. Gonna be bouncin’ off the walls in the room later, hardly get any sleep.”

He’s right, you suppose. But wait—“What room?”

Joel shrugs casually. “There’s a decent motel another exit or two down, figured they could probably get us a couple o’ beds for the night. But, ‘m sorry, shouldn’t have assumed—”

“No! No, it’s okay.”

Is it? You only met the man less than an hour ago, and you already agreed to let him give you a ride before you even knew his name. You suppose you hadn’t really thought about what would happen after he bought you dinner, but not thinking ahead seems to have been a theme today, hasn’t it? You remind yourself that he’s only been kind and respectful to you so far, save for that placement of his hand on your upper thigh soon after he picked you up. But that could’ve just been a friendly, paternal gesture, right? And he said a couple of beds, when he mentioned the motel, which seemed to imply that he plans on the two of you sleeping in separate beds, maybe even separate rooms. You’ve found yourself having to make yet another somewhat reckless decision tonight, but one that would be in your best interest to say ‘yes’ to, at this point. What other option would you have if you declined his offer?

“Don’t really have anywhere else to go, so… yeah, okay. Motel sounds good. And decaf it is, I guess.”

Joel’s apologetic expression quickly morphs into a satisfied smirk. “Good girl,” he praises. You like how the words sound coated in his thick drawl, even though you probably shouldn’t. You shift where you sit as that familiar fluttering sensation returns to the seat of your panties, just for a moment. You’re grateful that the waitress arrives at the booth not a second later, cheerily introducing herself as she sets down a glass of water for each of you. When she asks if you’re ready to order, Joel gestures to you as if to say ‘ladies first’, and you politely prattle off your request. You make sure to emphasize that you’d like your coffee decaf, and ask if she could please bring some more of the little cups of vanilla creamer to the table. “Not a problem, honey,” she replies, and Joel winks at you as she asks what she can get for him. He orders the Thunder Burger he had told you about earlier, and a black coffee, which he doesn’t request to be decaf. The waitress leaves the two of you alone again with an ‘I’ll have that right out for ya,’ and you let your eyes follow the calming baby blue color of her dress as she glides her way back to the kitchen. When she disappears around the corner of the bar, you take the opportunity to study Moody’s other patrons. There isn’t another young person in sight, mostly just men around Joel’s age with similarly heavy bags under their eyes, likely truck drivers indulging in their first hot meal of the day within the diner’s comforting wood-paneled walls. You wonder if that’s how Joel knows about this place, because he “passes through” this area on long hauls across the midwest. You open your mouth to ask him if your assumption is correct, but he cuts you off before you can say anything.

“I gotta admit, sweetheart, I’m curious… The hell was a pretty thing like you doin’ out in the middle of goddamn nowhere tonight? I mean, I know you’re a runaway ‘n all, but… shouldn’t you be one o’ those college party girls or somethin’? ‘M sure you got plenty of friends wonderin’ where you are.”

You sigh, shaking your head as you distractedly pick at a splintered piece of wood at the edge of the table.

“I was in college. Was supposed to be going back again this year, but… my mom spent all the fucking savings I had left for the rest of it on fixing up her dumb boyfriend’s car. It’s just been sitting in the fucking lawn all summer, sure as hell not being used for something useful like going to the job he doesn’t have. That bastard…” You say the last part under your breath through gritted teeth.

“Shit… Tha’s a tough deal, baby, ‘m real sorry to hear that,” Joel comforts. “But y’know, everybody’s got mommy ‘n daddy issues, don’t mean you just up and start walkin’ all by your lonesome, not even have any idea where you’re goin’.”

“Well, it wasn’t just that. There was… nevermind, it’s stupid.” You slump into the cushioned booth, silently cursing yourself for even bringing it up.

“What is it?” Joel pushes, sitting up straighter to show you that he wants to listen, wants to get to know you. And God dammit, he might be the first person you’ve met in a long time who actually seems to care about what you have to say, as strange as it is. You flick your eyes up to his face, and he’s wearing a sincere gaze that convinces you to continue.

“There was this girl I went to high school with. She disappeared a couple of years ago, nobody ever found out what happened to her. People figured she probably just ran away, and I thought… I dunno. That maybe she had the right idea, leaving that place behind. I always held onto this hope that maybe she was still out there somewhere actually doing something with her life, that maybe she just changed her name or something and disappeared on purpose.” You pause. “I guess I just thought I might be able to do the same, if I left.”

“I see…” Joel muses sympathetically. “Maybe I oughta give you a lil’ more credit, then. Must’a been tough losin’ a friend like that, not knowin’ where she ended up.”

“I mean, Ruby wasn’t really my friend. She just—”

“Hang on. Ruby, you said?” Joel interrupts, his eyes suddenly looking a little wild.

“...Yeah. Her name was Ruby. Ruby Carpenter.”

—

Fuck.

Joel has to adjust himself under the table, his dick now hardening uncomfortably in his jeans at just the mention of her name. He remembers Ruby, remembers chuckling to himself when he realized the irony of her name matching the color of her blood, remembers watching the news coverage of her disappearance in this very same diner, those handful of years ago. She was a sweet thing, he remembers this, too. It was a shame she had ended up being such a fighter, that she had to get put down the way she did. But she shouldn’t have thrown that fucking rock at his face, called him a sick fuck and a freak as she made her pitiful little escape attempt. Joel is lucky that all he came away from it with is that ugly little scar that mars the bridge of his nose. He can’t say the same for her.

“Why? You heard her name before?” You ask him, an unfortunate little twinkle of hope in your eyes.

“Maybe.” Yes. “Sounds a lil’ familiar, might remember hearin’ about it on the news or somethin’.”

That goddamn news coverage sure as hell taught him a lesson. Joel had spent months trying to keep the cops off his fucking tail after he had dumped her body on some forgettable patch of land behind an old decaying barn. He had even gotten pulled in for a fucking interview at the station in what he now presumes to be your hometown, where they had questioned him for an hour or so about her disappearance. He still isn’t sure how he talked his way out of that one. Ruby might not have been good for much else, other than pissing him the hell off with all of her pathetic crying and begging to just please, please let me go back home, but she did help him perfect his craft, he can give her that much. It’s because of her that Joel makes certain now that any girl he picks up doesn’t have anybody who will miss her or plaster her face on every local channel or send out goddamn search parties to find her. Girls like you.

You’re just so perfect, it would be so fucking easy for him to make you disappear for good, it’s almost comical. It had hardly taken any convincing at all to get you to climb into his truck, had taken even less to get you to agree to go to some seedy ass motel with him that might not even exist, for all you know. It does, but you didn’t even try to test him about it this time, just put all of your trust in him like a stray puppy would to the first person to pick it up off the street. That is just about what you are, he supposes. So far, you seem like the perfect candidate to become his little captive pet. If you keep it up, maybe you won’t meet the same fate as the rest of them. He’d told himself he’d be done after the last one, anyway, his body too old and achy and slow now to chase after the ones who put up a little more fight, like she had. She’d nearly escaped, made it a decent way through the woods and almost reached the main road before tripping on an exposed root and snapping her ankle. He remembers how weak and scared she’d looked before he’d used his knife to put her out of her misery, and it makes his dick twitch. Joel doesn’t plan on snuffing you out, not right now at least, since you haven’t given him a reason to. But his fingers still twitch where they rest on the table, moving out of instinct as he can’t help but imagine what they’d look like wrapped so tightly around your little throat. Would you cry? Would you beg? Would you pray? Would he have to glide his blade across your vocal chords just to get you to stop screaming so fucking loud? He wonders.

“Oh… Was that one of the times you were just ‘passin’ through’ for whatever reason you haven’t told me yet?”

Joel hadn’t realized that his eyes had been unfocused for so long, or that he’d been holding his breath, or that his hand had been squeezing his glass of water so hard he’s glad it hadn’t shattered. The airy sound of your voice brings him back to reality, and he huffs a light chuckle as he fixes his face into a more pleasant expression. 

“Yeah, ‘spose it was.” 

You roll your eyes at him playfully. “Come on, Joel. I just told you, like, my whole sob story. I feel like I deserve to know at least one thing about you now.”

You have a point.

He gives in. “Fine. I got a brother, used to come through this area when I’d pay him a visit. That good enough for ya?”

You cross your arms. “No. What’s his name?”

“Tommy.”

“What’s he look like?”

“Like me. Little younger. Little uglier.”

You laugh at that.

It makes Joel smile.

Maybe you could be the one he’s been looking for all this time. Too bad he had to waste so many others before he finally got to you.

—

The waitress comes back to your table soon after that, with your steaming plates of delicious-smelling food and hot mugs of coffee balanced expertly on a large plastic tray. She sets them down in front of the pair of you with a cheery smile, and you thank her happily when she doesn’t forget the extra sickeningly sweet cups of creamer you had requested. Joel doesn’t take his eyes off you once during the interaction, not even to feast his eyes upon the monstrous burger now sitting before him, not even as he thanks the waitress for delivering it to him. His lingering gaze makes you feel a little warm, but it could just be from the heat radiating off of your plates.

“What? You’re not getting a bite of mine, if that’s why you’re looking at me,” you tease, already getting to work putting the sugary creamer to good use.

Joel just shakes his head, his caramel colored eyes still never leaving you as your coffee begins to resemble their hue. “No, ‘s not why.”

“Whatever,” you reply through a giggle, making a poor attempt to hide your girlish grin behind the lip of your white ceramic mug. 

The two of you eat your meals in relative silence, mostly enjoying each other’s company and basking in the relaxing ambience created by silverware tapping against porcelain, hushed conversations, and the local country station playing through the old radio sitting on the counter. The reception is a little spotty way out here in wherever the hell you are, so you can’t quite tell what song it is. But Joel seems to know, judging by the rhythmic bouncing of his knee under the table that creates little circular ripples in your coffee. Maybe you’ll ask him what it is later, how he knows it, if you can listen to it again in the truck together. He doesn’t seem to be as much of an open book as you’ve already given yourself away to be, and you respect that about him. It doesn’t make you any less curious, but you resign yourself to getting to know him better in the small doses he’s willing to offer you. 

You decide to begin a mental list of all the things you want to ask him later, knowing that by the time you make it to the motel tonight, you’ll be far too exhausted to do anything more than just collapse onto the springy mattress and sleep until you get kicked out of the room the next morning. You almost wish you hadn’t listened to Joel’s request for you to take your coffee decaffeinated tonight, and you still aren’t quite sure why you did. It just feels so strangely easy to give into him, to trust him, to let him make decisions for you. You suppose that’s what you’ve been needing all this time, someone to guide you and understand you and at least pretend like they care about you. Joel has shown you more concern and care and protection in the last hour or so than either of your parents have pretty much your whole life. And he’s good at this, making you feel wanted, making you feel like somebody, even in subtle ways, just by looking at you.

“A’right, why don’t you finish up, darlin’, ‘n we’ll hit the road again. Practically usin’ your pancakes as a pillow over there.”

“Oh, sorry,” you apologize sleepily, waking yourself up enough to make quick work finishing off your plate and your last few sips of coffee. 

“Nothin’ to be sorry ‘bout, sweetheart. Lord knows you need some rest, won’t be too much longer now,” Joel assures, fishing a few tens out of his faded leather wallet and placing them on the table. He slides to the edge of the booth and stands himself up with only a few pained noises as he straightens out his back, then offers his hand for you to take. You use it as leverage to pull yourself upright, and your hands linger in each other’s hold for a few seconds longer than they need to. The hostess thanks the two of you for stopping in when you pass her by, and Joel opens the door for you again as you leave Moody’s. He opens the truck door for you, too, and promises you that the motel is just another couple of minutes down the freeway. You make an effort to stay awake in your seat this time as Joel begins the drive, opting to gaze out the window and focus on trying to make out the sparkling constellations above the treeline. You smile privately at the moon when you find that she’s following closely behind you just as she always does, bright and full. 

She doesn’t leave your side until you reach the unassuming little roadside motel, which to your gratitude, proudly displays their vacancy on the flickering sign in the parking lot. It doesn’t look like a five star joint by any means, but you know it will serve its purpose just fine. Joel instructs you to stay in the truck while he goes about getting a room for the two of you, and you don’t object. He’d insisted that you didn’t need to be on your feet any longer than you already had been today, and you were too tired to argue with him even if you wanted to. When he returns, he taps lightly on the passenger side window so as not to startle you from the half-asleep, half-awake state you’ve found yourself in, and swings your backpack over his shoulder as he helps you out of the truck. He leads you to the room at the end of the row, and the door takes some finessing of the key and a shove of his shoulder to open. Joel flicks on the light, and you let out a disappointed-sounding ‘oh…’ when it reveals your accommodations.

There aren’t two beds like you had assumed Joel was going to request. There’s only one.

Joel catches your reaction. “‘S this gonna be alright? I know it ain’t the Ritz Carlton, but—”

“No, the room’s fine, it’s not that. I just thought… I just assumed that… I didn’t know it was gonna be, like… just the one bed.” You try to explain your discomfort as gently as possible, without seeming ungrateful for everything Joel has done for you tonight.

He looks at you sympathetically. “I know, I ain’t tryin’ anythin’, I swear. Guy told me it was the last room they had, jus’ figured it was better than nothin’.” 

You offer him a soft smile, but your eyes must still look a little wide as you begin to nervously pick at your fingernails. Joel continues, “I can take the chair if you want, darlin’. Get the bed all to yourself, how’s that sound?”

You visibly relax at that, your shoulders deflating as your smile becomes a little more genuine. “Okay, that’s good. Thank you.”

“‘Course, sweetheart. How’s about you take a nice hot shower, rinse off some o’ that dirt you picked up from walkin’ all day… Don’t suppose you got some suitable clothes in here for sleepin’ in?” Joel asks, handing your backpack off to you.

You shake your head. “Just some jeans and t-shirts, and another pair of shoes. And… y’know, some underwear, and stuff.”

Joel pinches the bridge of his nose, then rubs his fingers across his forehead exasperatedly. “I swear… it’s like you didn’t think there’d be a tomorrow or somethin’, girl. Christ.” Joel looks out the window to his truck parked just outside. “Tell you what, think I got somethin’ in the truck you can wear. Why don’t you see if they got anythin’ on the TV tha’s worth a damn, ‘n I’ll be back, alright?”

You nod, “Okay,” then set your backpack down on the drab carpet in favor of picking up the remote perched in front of the small square television. You sit yourself down on the edge of the bed as Joel leaves the room, and begin to flick through the few channels that aren’t just a screen full of snowy static.

Local news. Commercial. Game show. Commercial. Documentary. Commercial. 

Eventually, you land on what seems to be one of those old black-and-white western shows that you can never remember the name of. You only know that the reruns used to play on Sundays around lunchtime, because Rob would always be half paying attention to it with a beer in his hand when you and your mom would get home from church. For how adamant she was that you attend every weekend, she sure never called him a harlot and a sinner for not wanting to go with her. You’re not sure she had ever even tried to get him to go, but he probably didn’t own anything decent enough to wear, anyway. Whatever, fuck them. The show seems like the kind of thing Joel would like, so you let it keep playing. 

He comes back a moment later with a small stack of folded up clothes, tossing them over to where you sit on the bed. You unfold what he’s given you and examine them—a pair of simple pink cotton shorts, and a white tank top with a ditsy floral pattern scattered across the fabric. The clothing is a little more revealing than you’d like, but you figure you’d be a hell of a lot more comfortable wearing them to sleep than the denim shorts you have on now.

“These are… great. Thank you, Joel. But…” you snicker. “Should I be concerned that you have a very convenient supply of girls’ clothes in your truck?” Joel scoffs. “‘S for when I got Tommy’s kid with me, smartass. He’s got a daughter, few years younger ‘n you.”

“Okay, well, I dunno how I was supposed to know that, but… as long as you don’t have a girlfriend who’s gonna come after me for wearing her clothes.”

Joel only chuckles in response, his attention suddenly pulled to the TV.

“Gunsmoke, huh? ‘S a good choice, definitely what I’d classify as ‘worth a damn’.”

You smile to yourself, and his approval makes that warm fluttery feeling return to your belly. “I didn’t even know what it was called, just seemed like something you’d like.”

He turns back to you. “That obvious, huh? ‘S just ‘cause I’m old and southern, ain’t it?”

“Maybe a little,” you admit, making a pinching gesture with your hand.

Joel nods as he makes his way over to the armchair on the corner of the room, collapsing onto it with a groan. “Well, why don’t you go ‘n get yourself all changed and cleaned up, ‘n if you’re quick enough maybe we can finish the episode together and then get some shuteye, hm?”

You swiftly unzip your backpack to retrieve one of your clean pairs of underwear, then bound over to the small bathroom with them and your new change of clothes in hand. It’s not the most spotless one you’ve ever had to use, but you’ve honestly seen much worse. You rinse off quickly in the steaming shower, using the scratchy motel-provided washcloth to scrub the dirt from your legs, stuck to you with the sweat you worked up from God knows how many miles of walking today. 

Today. You can hardly believe it hasn’t even been a full 24 hours since you left home yet. It seems like you’ve already known Joel for days, maybe even years, as silly as it sounds. You wonder if he might just take you in after this, or if he’ll have had enough of providing for you after just one night. He seems like a man of limited means, and he’s already given you so much. If you’re brave enough, maybe you’ll ask him tomorrow, when you get to the ‘so… what now?’ part of your time together.

For now, you step out of the shower and dry yourself off with an impossibly scratchier towel, then pull on your panties and the tank top and shorts Joel provided you with.

Jesus, how much younger is Tommy’s daughter?

The shorts just barely cover your ass, and there’s a sizable gap between their waistband and the bottom hem of your top. The thin, white material of the shirt only serves to accentuate the way your nipples poke through the fabric, but you suppose there isn’t anything you can do about that.

You quietly crack open the bathroom door, and are somewhat relieved to find that Joel’s already fallen asleep in the chair. You do wish you could’ve finished the episode of Gunsmoke with him, but the end credits seem to be rolling already anyway, and you’d rather avoid being seen in your very ill-fitting pajamas. Although, you do wonder if he’d say anything, or if he’d just let his hungry gaze linger in silence again, holding himself back from touching you beyond a comforting pat on the thigh.

You pick the remote up off the bed and use it to make the TV screen sizzle to black, then tip toe over to the lightswitch by the door and turn it off, the room now completely shrouded in darkness. Joel snores softly from the chair as you blindly feel your way back over to the bed, pulling the covers back and nestling yourself underneath them. The bed is surprisingly comfortable, considering, and it doesn’t take long for your exhaustion to catch up with you. Your thoughts become slower and slower along with your breathing, and you’re asleep not even five minutes after your head hits the pillow.

—

The last room they had, yeah, right. You’re just the most pathetic little thing, aren’t you? You’ll believe just about anything that comes out of his mouth if he turns up the ‘southern charm’ dial a few ticks, throws in a feigned apologetic-looking expression for good measure. It’s sad, really. For you, anyway.

Joel fakes his snoring for another thirty minutes or so, until he’s certain you’re sound asleep. He had heard your breath even out almost immediately after you had tucked yourself in, but he had chosen to lay in wait for a little while longer, just to make sure you wouldn’t put up too much of a fight when he made his move. You don’t seem like the type, considering how you’d hardly argued with him at all tonight, like when he had convinced you to forgo the caffeine with your dinner. There’s a reason he wanted you sleepy and subdued tonight, but you didn’t know that. Joel likes how well you listen to him, how easily you do as he asks.

He also likes how warm you are, how small your body is compared to his own, the difference in size especially prominent now that he’s laying snugly against you, his front pressing firmly into the back of you. You don’t wake from his lumbering movement, only coming to slightly when you feel his arm slide underneath your body, his warm hand snaking its way beneath your tiny shirt to squeeze at your plush tits. 

You mumble out a little “Hm?”, which he’s quick to quiet with, “Sorry, darlin’. Chair was too hard on my damn back. Just go back to sleep, ‘kay?” That chair felt like laying on a goddamn cloud compared to some of the other surfaces he’s found himself having to sleep on before, but again, you don’t know that, and what you don’t know won’t hurt you. You probably won’t even remember this in the morning, how his hard cock is slotted so perfectly against your ass, especially without the confines of his thick jeans holding him back. They’re discarded onto the floor now in front of the armchair, along with his flannel shirt and jacket. Joel holds you tightly against his bare, hairy chest as he circles a roughened pad of his finger around one of your nipples, smirking to himself at how quickly the bud hardens from his touch. He knew you wanted this, and the wet spot that the fingers of his other hand are teasing in the gusset of your panties is proof of it. How long have you been leaking for him like this? Had you been soaking the seat of his truck earlier today? Filthy thing.

You still don’t rouse when he pulls your panties aside and slips a finger inside your slick cunt, or when his grip on your tit loosens in favor of sliding up higher under your tank top, his hand coming to a rest around the base of your throat as he pumps his finger in and out of your tight heat. It would be so fucking easy…

But he can’t, he won’t, because you’re not like the others. You want to get to know him, you let him take care of you, you seem to like his company, and you don’t leap out of bed and call him a fucking perv and a dirty old man for what he’s doing to you. That’s what the others would have done. It’s what they have done. And they faced the consequences.

But you’re different. You’re not like them. You’re like him. A lost soul, that’s what you are. Nowhere to call home, no one who misses you or loves you or gives a damn what happens to you. Joel’s mouth had tasted bitter when he had told you about Tommy, or rather, lied about him. Joel hasn’t seen the fucker in years, certainly doesn’t pay him any visits or watch his brat, not since Tommy had learned the truth. You better not show your goddamn face around here ever again, you understand me? Tommy had spat at him. You’re fuckin’ sick. Only reason I don’t turn your ass in myself is ‘cause you’re my goddamn brother. But if I ever fuckin’ see you again, I won’t hesitate. Better make yourself pretty fuckin’ scarce ‘fore I change my mind. That might’ve been about the only time Joel had ever taken orders from his little brother. 

That bitter flavor is cut by the sweet tang of you that he tastes on his finger now, so young and eager and fresh. The hand around your throat squeezes a little tighter, and Joel’s hips begin to move against your ass as he allows himself to suck wet kisses onto the skin under the hinge of your jaw. Softly, gently, so as not to wake you. He could come just like this, using your pliant body in your sleep, rutting himself against your still form with the taste of your pussy on his tongue and his fingers pressed against your pulse points.

He’s close when you stir again, making broken hiccuping sounds as you choke on your breath.

“Shh, shh,” Joel soothes. “You’re alright, sweetheart. ‘S just me. Just—fuck—hold still, go back to sleep, baby.” You let out a quiet whimper, squirming against him just a little bit, but return to your unmoving and silent state a second later. Joel finishes himself off quickly with another couple of shallow thrusts against you, his large hand still gripped around the column of your neck, trying to stifle his groans as he spills into his briefs. He removes his suffocating hand and keeps you pressed tightly against him for a while after that, tanned arms wrapped around your waist and breathing in your scent as he waits for you to settle back down. 

When he’s sure he won’t disturb you again, Joel releases you from his hold and pads quietly back over to the armchair, redressing himself and resuming the position you had left him in. In the morning, if you do remember any of it, you’ll just chalk it up to a very strange dream, one fueled by the desire he knows you’ve felt towards him since he picked you up. You’ll be left with a strange assuredness that he feels the same way about you, without really knowing why. 

But Joel will always know.

—

The digital clock on the nightstand only reads around 8:00 when you’re awoken by a beam of sunlight shining brightly against the backs of your eyelids, streaming in from the window’s lopsided blinds. You had gone to sleep with your back to Joel, but you find yourself facing him now. He looks kind of peaceful when he’s asleep, that permanent furrow etched between his brows finally smoothed out as he dozes. A small smile tugs at the corners of your lips, but they fall quickly when you adjust your legs and feel the cool dampness against your core, the sensation bringing back the memory of the dream you’d had last night. 

It had felt so real, but it couldn’t have been, could it? There’s no evidence that Joel had really laid next to you last night, that he’d really touched you like that, that you’d wanted him to keep going. It must just be some kind of strange side effect of the affection you feel toward the man who had rescued you, more or less. You’ll likely just part ways after today, anyway, so it’s probably best to just try and forget about the whole thing, put on a fresh pair of underwear and pretend it never happened. 

Joel is awake by the time you’re done freshening up in the bathroom, and he greets you with a raspy ‘Mornin’, sweetheart’ as you retrieve your backpack from next to the bed and shove your ruined underwear into the bottom of it. “You get some good sleep last night?” He asks, rubbing a hand over his eye.

“Mhm, the bed was nice, more comfortable than the one I had at home, honestly.” You finish zipping your backpack closed and sit back down on the bed, pulling on some socks and the lace up sneakers you had been wearing yesterday. “I hope the chair was okay, like, for your back and everything.”

“What makes you say that, baby?”

You pause in the middle of tying one of your shoelaces, turning to look at him with a confused pout. “Didn’t you…? I thought you had told me something about how the chair would be hard on your back. Like, last night.”

Joel frowns, shaking his head. “Don’t think so, darlin’. Chair was just fine.”

“Oh… Well, that’s good.”

Maybe it had just been a dream, then.

Joel hands you a few bills from his wallet, and tasks you with getting the two of you some breakfast from the gas station across the street while he cleans himself up. He tells you that he doesn’t eat much in the mornings, but that you can get yourself whatever you want, as long as you bring him back a carton of cigarettes and a black coffee. You obey eagerly, retrieving what he asked for and getting a pack of miniature powdered donuts and an equally as sugary coffee for yourself.

He’s just stepped out of the bathroom when you return to the room, and your face feels hot when you see him with his dark hair slicked back and wet from the shower. The few strands that fall onto his forehead as he laces up his boots almost make him look a little boyish, despite his whitened temples. 

“Such a good girl, thank you,” Joel praises when you hand him his items. 

You respond with a shy ‘You’re welcome’, but he doesn’t miss how you seem to light up at his words. You plop yourself down onto the worn-in chair that Joel had used as a bed last night, happily munching on your gas station donuts and sipping on your coffee. It all makes you feel warm from the inside out.

But you figure you should find out what the rest of today might look like before you let yourself enjoy the beginnings of it too much.

“So, um… We’re just gonna check out this morning and then… what?” 

“Whaddya mean, baby?”

“I mean… are you just gonna, like… take me to the nearest bus station or something?”

Joel’s confusion is written all over his face, embedded deep into those lines between his brows. You could swear he almost looks a little hurt. “Why would I do that? ‘S that what you want?” He asks softly.

You try to backpedal a little, afraid you might’ve offended him or seemed ungrateful in your question. “I just thought it might be what you want. That you probably have somewhere else you need to be, like Tommy’s or—”

“No, I don’t,” Joel says definitively.

You pause. “Okay, so—”

“You ever been to California?”

His question stumps you for a moment, seeming so random in its nature. “No.”

“You want to?”

You shrug. “I mean… sure. Maybe someday—”

“Why don’t you come with me then, baby?”

You let out an awkward giggle. “...Come with you where?”

“To California. Come with me.” Joel’s tone is genuine but firm.

“Like, today? Are you sure?”

“I mean, we ain’t gettin’ there today, darlin’. But yeah, I’m sure. We both got nowhere else to be, do we? So let’s just go, we’ll see it together.”

You beam up at him, realizing that he’s being serious. Joel does want you, wants you to be his companion, maybe even something more that you’ll discover on familiar-looking back roads and in cities you’ve only ever seen pictures of. 

“Okay,” you agree excitedly. 

Joel nods. “Okay, then. Lemme go check us out ‘n we’ll get back on the road again. Burnin’ daylight already,” he jokes. He carries your backpack out to the truck for you, setting it down between your feet after he opens the door and helps you inside with a stable hand. It only takes a few minutes for Joel to hand in the room key and pay for the night, and then he’s back at your side. You begin to feel like that’s where you always want him to stay. 

“So, where to first, baby? California ain’t goin’ anywhere, can take as long to get there as we wanna. We’ll go wherever you like, take your pick.” Joel leans across your body to dig a folded up map out of the glove compartment, handing it to you. 

You examine it, your eyes darting across the dozens of dots with the names of cities next to them, some you’ve never even heard of. You point to one that you have heard of, but have never been to, because you’ve never even left the state you grew up in before.

“Um… how about Detroit? I’ve heard it’s nice, I think.”

Joel belly laughs at that. “It ain’t, but sure. You wanna go to Detroit, that’s where we’ll go. Buckle up, baby,” he instructs, patting your thigh. You oblige, and it feels good to finally know where you’re going, and that you’re going there with someone who cares about you, who feels safe, who wants you around. You also feel a little hopeful that maybe you were right about Ruby, after all. That you didn’t start walking for nothing, that you weren’t following some childish delusion, that if something as good as Joel had happened to you when you left, that maybe she had found herself on a similar path, ran into somebody good who took her wherever she wanted to go and helped her find someplace she belonged. Maybe she found her way out to California, eventually. What you are certain of is that neither of you ever have to go back to that town ever again, and that feels good, too.

And if it feels good, then it can’t be bad.

tag list: tag list: @beefrobeefcal @iamasaddie @rebel-held @dilfgestivo @zliteraturehoe @joeldjarin @kamcrazy123 @hellowoolf @rexamongthestars @stevie75 @luxurychristmaspudding @noisynightmarepoetry @mewantpeepaw @pedritoferg @alex-does-art-things @evolnoomym @annoyingmarvelreader @k1l4ni @joelsdagger (if your name is crossed out, it won’t let me tag you!!)

[sp0o0kylights]

I once had to pose in a ton of photos for a friend's AP photography final back in high school so may I present to you:

Steve Harrington, who gave in to Robin's begging that he act as her weird art model for her senior year portfolio (the same one her teacher is encouraging her to bat out of the ballpark and enter into contests.) 

She's doing a whole thing on fashion, subcultures and sexuality using photos and collaged poetry, a project that has Steve trying on different outfits and posing in different places. 

"This might help me land a scholarship, Dingus." She hisses while she's got him bent over her bathtub, spraying parts of his hair blue with wash-out dye.

Steve, soulmate and best friend extraordinaire, goes through it all with minimal (for him) bitching, even if the goth outfit feels absolutely ridiculous, and the 'geek' photoshoot downright laughable.

He starts to have fun when she has him mimic Nancy's straight laced, all A's good girl aura, and equally has a blast with the country look (he has no idea where Robin got a miniature horse but it conned him for every piece of food he had on him and then some.) 

The final piece is the one they're struggling with, the one Robin's now (fake) dying his hair partially blue for. 

A few hours later and he's dressed up once again in a studded leather jacket, the tightest jeans he owns ringed with belts, and combat boots.

 Robin had even talked him into letting her use eyelash glue to attach a few metal studs on his face--two acting as an eyebrow piercing and one on his nose. 

The looks he drew took a minute to get used too when all was said and done, Robin dragging him around Hawkins while she tried to find the 'perfect backdrop' but he's not gonna lie. 

He kinda enjoys being punk Steve.

That is, until Robin has him posing in an alleyway and Eddie Munson comes around the corner, jaw right about falling to the floor.

Even better? 

Eddie doesn't recognize him. 

Not at first, when he siddles up to Steve, nodding to the handkerchief in Steve's back pocket and then flicking the pink triangle pin on his jacket with a finger. 

Steve owes Jonathan a bottle of his father's best alcohol for giving him enough knowledge to get through the music razing Eddie subjects him too, and Steve's all too happy to play the part of punk asshole to Munson's music-snob metalhead.

It's not until Eddies playing with his hair and Robin gives in to letting him have a quick break from the shoot that he gives up the ghost, leaning in to whisper in Eddie's ear. 

"Gotta say, Munson," Steve all but purrs."I wasn't expecting you to fall for the Harrington Charm that fast."

"What?" Eddie asks, jerking his head back to look at him with wide eyes. 

Maybe it's the outfit giving him the extra ounce of courage, but Steve likes to think more that it gives him the freedom to lean forward and brush their lips together. 

Eddie doesn't return it, but that's alright. 

Steve's played this game enough to know that it was merely a hook for a real kiss. 

"Okay." Robin says, annoyed, camera at her side. "Steve, I'm happy that you're finally exploring that repressed as fuck homosexuality we keep arguing about, I really am, but I have to get this last photo!" 

He ignores her, instead nudging Eddie's shoulders.

"Care to pose with me?" Steve asks, grinning. He can tell Eddie still isn't sure if this is a joke, that he's seconds from running, and reaches out to tug on his black handkerchief. "Get Robin her photo, and then talk about this after, Mr. S&M."

Eddie flushes scarlet, but after some reassurance (and wheelding) from Robin, finally agrees. 

(Later, he agrees to a date, which Steve also credits the outfit for.

Even if Robin demands half the credit.) 

[deadhands69]

Something More [than a hangover]

Katsuki Bakugo x gn reader

MDNI + eventual smut/afab

Setting: fuckboy!Bakugo, mid-time skip, Senior Year of College. Reader did not attend UA high, just joined for university. Enemies to lovers (with a lot in between.)

Warnings, etc: series contains eventual smut, slight angst, light violence/injuries, mentions of drinking/intoxication, swearing.

part 1 - this is part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7 - part 8

“Oh my god, what was I thinking,” you grumble into Jiro’s bed. You’d been lying there face down for twenty minutes after waking up, remembering your night, and stumbling down the hall to her dorm.

“It’s not that bad, right?” she reassures you, lightly untangling the knots in your hair with her fingers. “I’ve known him since high school. He definitely takes things too far sometimes, but he can be a good friend. He seems to have changed a lot in some ways since then though. But still, it’s not like you did anything with him…?”

“I don’t think so…” you trail off, “I think I’d remember that.”

Last night. You remember being in a closet with Katsuki Bakugo, which for some reason unknown to you now, you enjoyed more than you should have. You remember drinking with him, talking all night, and - that’s about where your memory ends. Checking your texts, it looks like you wanted to kiss him. Did you? You’d remember that right? 

Then there’s the photo you sent Mina and Jiro. Blurry and underexposed but you could definitely make out the situation. His arm around you as you lean into his neck, glossy eyes half closed but focused on him. His huge smile as he leans into you. You looked close. A wave of nausea hit again, sending you running to her bathroom. 

It’s Katsuki Bakugo, what the fuck were you thinking?

After pulling your hair back, Jiro leaves to grab you a cup of water. 

“Hey, uh,” she hesitantly starts, “maybe not the best timing but Bakugo just texted you to make sure you’re still on for the library today.” 

“Ughh I do not want to deal with him,” your voice echoes through the bathroom.

“I can tell him you need to reschedule?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll have to meet up with him eventually. Might as well rip the bandaid off.”

An hour later, you’d showered as well as you could after taking off your bandages (or what was left of them, it looked like you snagged them in the brush on the walk home.) The cold water helped the nausea and some of the pain. Dehydration made the remaining burns feel much worse so you try to drink as much water as you can keep down. Your raw and slightly blistered skin looks brutal but it’ll be better when you can visit Recovery Girl again on Monday. A few tylenol for your headache and pain, that was about all you could do for now.

Choosing an outfit, you put on basically what he made you change out of last night - skinny jeans and a huge hoodie, this time with cute sneakers in your favorite color. No makeup today, you throw on some oversized sunglasses instead. Grabbing an extra cup of coffee and your backpack, you head to the library.

Bakugo is already there. Leaning against a pillar, looking way too put together for the amount you saw him drink last night. 

“Aww, you look great,” he says sarcastically as you half drag yourself to meet him.

“Ughh. How are you alive right now?” you groan back.

“I threw up twice, ate a lot, and slept it off. Looks like you didn’t.” 

No words come to mind so you flip him off.

“You’re sweet when you’re hungover, this will be so fun,” he gestures towards the entrance, “come on, I already reserved a study room.”

In spite of being an asshole, he proceeds to hold doors for you.

The study room is small but quiet. There’s enough room for the two of you to sit on one side of the table with the notes and writings you’ve done on each other’s quirks, it’s not much. Each of the pages is crinkled from some combination of being passed back and forth between being on the receiving end of outbursts. Various colors of ink have crossed out each other’s writing, adding corrections. At least the quirk descriptions are done. You’d love to say the rest has been easier to work on in person but an hour and a half has dragged by without much progress. Still hungover, you wish you would have stayed in bed.

His phone sits on the table, buzzing with a new message. Glancing down, you notice five unchecked messages from three different girls' names.

You laugh and he silences his phone before setting it back on the table, this time face-down.

“Didn’t learn from last night, huh?”

“Eh, I dealt with it this morning when she was sober. Plus, it was an isolated incident,” he grumbles while you notice the tips of his ears turning red.

“Sure it was. Well,” you continue, ”when it happens next time, and I’m sure it will, I won’t be so nice and let you in my hiding spot.”

“Oh, your spot? Because if I remember correctly, I got there first. And I let you stay.”

“Aren’t you sooo sweet,” you lay on the phony niceness, batting your eyelashes at him before he throws it back.

“I really am,” his fake smile makes your heart flutter. 

What. The. Fuck. 

Back to our regularly scheduled sarcasm.

“Is that so? I’ll bet your mom must be really proud of you.” 

“She is,” he asserts, “really. My mom is so fucking proud of me. Want me to call her and ask?” He picks his phone up to start dialing and you swear she’s saved as ‘Hag.’

“No, I take your word for it.”

 Part of you is curious who raised the monster next to you, but most of you would like to be out of this room as fast as possible to figure your shit out. You really can’t tell if you’re annoyed, disgusted, or trying to flirt with him. All of the feelings blur together into one big mess while you helplessly watch your own reactions. You need to get through this.

Pulling your pen from behind your ear and grabbing one of the papers in front of you, you get back to work.

“So,” you begin before rolling your sleeves up, “right here you said your quirk works with...” but you realize quickly that your words fall on deaf ears. He’s staring at your arms, seeing your damaged skin for the first time. Awkwardly, you move to cover your wrists again before he grabs your hands to stop you. His mouth opens to speak but the words don’t come. Licking his lips, he tries again.

“I- uh, fuck,” he squeezes your hands a bit harder, “I really meant it when I said I’m sorry. I owe you. More than opening doors and walking you places and stuff.”  

Recovery Girl is convinced you’ll make a full recovery with minimal scarring. You don’t say this though, staring at your hands in his instead. There’s nothing romantic about the way he’s holding onto you. More desperate and uncomfortable, but you can’t say the closeness doesn’t do something as his huge fists completely engulf your own. It leaves you speechless.  

“I uhm…” you pull your hands away from his and pause to think.

You can’t let yourself get this distracted by him. He’s Katsuki Bakugo, your natural enemy. And on top of that, how long will he be nice to make-up for hurting you before he goes back to being his asshole self? If you let him get under your skin too much, you won’t be able to handle that when the time comes. 

“I know why you’re being nice,” you start, “but two days ago you were being a total dick to me. I appreciate you trying to make up for everything, but it feels more confusing than friendly.”

“Two days ago, you weren’t exactly nice to me either. I know we never really became friends,” he hesitates for a moment and you cringe thinking of how you slapped him, “but you don’t know why I’m doing this.”

“Go on.”

“Yeah, at first it’s because I felt bad, but Racoon Eyes and Shitty Hair said we have a lot in common. And they’re right. I’m trying to be nicer because I don’t absolutely hate being around you, you’re kind of cool when you’re not going off on me.” 

“You do deserve it sometimes,” you add.

Bakugo says nothing, instead he just nods. Sucking on the inside of his lip, he considers your comment before continuing, “If you don’t wanna be my friend it’s fine, just fucking say it,” you stare silently and he continues, “but with the way you’re acting I think that’s what you want too. And even if it’s not, we still have to find some way to work together because we have all this shit to do,” he says gesturing to the table of scribbled notes. 

That’s it.

“Wait,” you nearly whisper while reviewing the papers in front of you, “no, that’s totally it.”

“Uh, care to explain?” he furrows his brows at you, his vivid eyes searching your face for an answer.

“That’s why this has been so hard to finish. We’ve never worked together. I know what your quirk does but every time I’ve ever seen it, we’ve been so busy trying to beat each other we don’t actually have time to observe. We need to work together.”

The rest of the hour went by quickly, mostly planning where and when to meet next. ‘Where’ was easy. You want to train together and the forest near campus works great. ‘When’ was harder. It has to be after you’re healed but before a huge storm rolls in early on Tuesday. Bakugo is leaving today to visit family and won’t be back until Monday afternoon anyways, so it has to be that night. You think you can sleep enough to recover after your appointment. You hope you can, at least. Parting ways at the library doors, you agree to text him Monday when you wake up. 

On the walk back, you consider the last few days. Your biggest enemy now wants something like a friendship. A chill runs down your spine when the winter wind picks up, blowing air straight through your hoodie - making you wish you’d worn more layers. You walk faster. 

Can you even be friends with Bakugo? Bickering with him has been a lot more fun without a bite under your words, but it almost feels too flirtatious considering who’s on the other end. And, as much as you hate to admit it, he’s hot. Too hot for his own stupid good. 

You nearly trip over a curb in a rush to get back to your dorm.

Fuck, you need to sleep.

part 3

m.list

[kiromiix]

love4eva

wc: 5.7k

cw: modern au, high school/ college au (goes back and forth) football player bakugou, childhood friends to lovers / enemies to lovers(?) angst (kinda) eventual smut. not proofread bc I'm lazy, sorry if theres any mis spells.

-----

you and bakugou's friendship had always been a bit weird? your mothers were friends when they were younger and they never grew apart, you and bakugou being forced to grow up together and naturally became friends. Most people wouldn't expect you to be friends since you were complete opposites, you with a bubbly and bright personality while him on the other hand wasn't that friendly and was only really popular because of his good looks and the fact he was on the football team but beside that you two had a close bond nobody could come between..

senior year of high school~

"y/n!! hurry up were going to be late" Ochaco exclaimed, you mina and ochaco were all hanging out getting ready to go to the first football game of the season, "yes yes hold on guys I can't find a cute outfit to wear" you said, you've been looking for a good outfit to wear for the past 15 minutes even though the theme was neon you just couldn't seem to find any cute neon colors in your closet. "ugh y/n just wear this !" mina said while tossing you a bright pink off the shoulder shirt, "okay okay I'm ready lets go.." you said while throwing the shirt on.

Ochaco was on driving duty tonight as she was probably the best driver out of you three, you were all in the car blasting music singing along to the loud pop music you all liked. "y/n is bakugou playing tonight?" mina asked "oh uhm I don't really know.." you lied. you knew he was playing tonight but for a while now the girls have been teasing you about how close you are with bakugou, although you've always been close now that your both older the girls are convinced your secretly dating or something.

The car pulled into the back lot of school driving around in circles looking for a parking spot, as you all got out and made your way to the student section of the bleachers. You all met up with some more of your friends pushing your way to get to the front of the stands.

As the game went on you guys were 25-2 as of right now, most of your friends were mainly chatting it up and taking photos using the football game as just another hangout place. While you in the other hand couldn’t take your eyes off the field, carefully watching the blonde boy in the jersey number 53, he was the schools star player even with his bad attitude and snappy comments towards everyone they all still loved him and praised him, with him on the team their was no chance of losing the game.

and of course you guys won the game, no surprise to anyone.

“y/n !! come on we’re all going out to eat” Mina said while trying to grab your arm, “hold Mina I can meet you guys there, I’ll be back” you said while flashing them a smile and walking towards the middle of the field, where you found bakugou chugging down water with his teammates surrounding him. “hey good job on scoring the winning point” you said as you got closer to him, “yea well what’d you expect, I always win” he said while smirking and walking up to you as you rolled your eyes at his snarky remark, “kirishima and ida said they were leaving with the girls for food, why didn’t you go?” the blonde boy said while using a towel to wipe the sweat dripping off his face, “oh well I knew you wouldn’t go unless I quite literally came and grabbed you..so here I am” you said while shrugging and kicking at the dirt, he looked up at quirking a eyebrow and shoving his stuff in his bag, you knew bakugou and you knew how complicated he could be, even though you’ve known him for 18 years now, he was still difficult to read. “sooo do you wanna go? I mean you did win it should be a victory celebration” you said while awkwardly smiling, “okay yes I’ll go but only to get you to shut up” he said while getting up and walking away, you just looked down and started following him.

You and Bakugou walk into the pizza shop all your friends were meeting in, “y/n !!! You finally made it!! ” Mina said enthusiastically while running up to you and pulling you in a hug, “oh and you're here to bakugou, congrats on winning” the pink haired girl said while glancing at bakugou. She grabbed your arm and started walking towards the table, bakugou following behind. As you settled down next to Mina, Bakugou squeezed himself in-between you and dinky.

You could hear the boys having they're own separate conversations about the game and just other random stuff as you and the girls talked.

"so y/n.. are you going to prom with anyone?" mina said while picking around at her pizza, "guys come on that's not until like two months, I think I have some time.." you said while sipping on your bubbly soda, Even though it was only your guys junior year your friends were so set on making prom some big thing, and your just played along without complaint to make things easier for them.

"well what about you guys? have you thought of asking any girls to prom yet?" mina said while turning to face the boys, she’s always been so blunt with her questions making sure she got all the gossip, why's she so stuck on this prom thing right now.. you thought to yourself, but you couldn't help yourself from being a little curious on what a particular blonde had to say about her question.

"yea right I'm not asking anyone" he said while scoffing.

of course he's not.

"come on bakugou! they're has to be one girl you think is attractive" dinky said while shoving his shoulder.

"no! why would I waste my time on having to worry about some stupid girl"

apart of you was just a bit disappointed in how he answered.

As the night ended and everyone was walking out the pizza place you and bakugou walking side by side, "hey did you bring your car?" he asked you, "hm?, no I didn't I left it at my house..mina drove us." you said while fiddling with your dangling phone charm, "ill give you a ride let's go." the blonde boy said while walking ahead pulling out his car keys.

The whole ride back to your house was mainly silent, Just some comments here and their as he blasted his music, you knew that bakugou didn't like to talk that much after his football games, you could never quite figure out if It was because he was tired or he just wanted some silence.

"what are you doing tomorrow?" you ask looking up from your phone,

"hm? nothing, why?" he answered, eyes moving to glance over at you.

"lets go to the mall, I need to look for some things I need." you say even though it was partially just a excuse to see him on a weekend.

"ok I'll pick you up at 3." the blonde says while pulling into your driveway.

As you pulled into your driveway, you took your keys out of your purse unbuckling your seatbelt and getting out the car, bakugou following you to the steps of your front door which he never did, usually he would just pull to the sidewalk and say goodbye as you got out the car. He followed you up to the steps of your house before grabbing you by the waist and pressing his lips against yours.

the kiss was short, as he quickly let go before muttering a soft "sorry." and getting back into the car and driving off, leaving you shocked on your front porch.

He didn't pick you up the next day to go with him to the mall.

chapter one end.

ok !!! this concludes chapter one of love4eva!!! (pls be nice this is my first ff) anywayyy yes a cliff hanger. and if your wondering why he's kissing them already well it ties into the plot of the college arc and it will all make sense later *wink wink*plus this is taking place at senior year and reader and bakugou have known each other since forever so its not like he jus met her lolsies. Well I hope you like it and I already have chapter 2 half way finished ^^

[azzifudd]

we just sort of get each other

paige bueckers x azzi fudd

summary: insp by an article an anon sent me that said paige was with azzi the whole day before her senior prom

rated: teen

1.3k words

disclaimer: many made up events obviously

Paige sits on the couch, leg propped up on a pillow, hands fidgeting with her phone. She opens Tiktok for a moment, but closes it after a few quick swipes, jiggling her healthy leg as she waits for Azzi to emerge from her bedroom.

She had been in there about an hour earlier, watching as the makeup artist worked on Azzi’s face. In her opinion, Azzi didn’t even need all that, but she had been clearly enjoying the full day of pampering. 

But when the makeup artist had complained for the third time that Azzi would not stop laughing at Paige’s antics, Katie had sent Paige out and shut the door behind her. 

Jose and Jon are playing Mario Kart, pushing at each other as their characters race around the track. 

“You wanna play, Paige?” Jose holds out one of the spare controllers to her.

“Nah, man, I’m good.” She stands up, grabbing her crutches and limping into the kitchen to grab a drink. She’s walking back into the living room when Azzi’s door finally opens. 

Paige turns eagerly at the sound of heels on the wooden floor and drops her bottle of Gatorade at the sight that greets her. 

The bottle thunks heavily against the floor. 

Azzi smiles shyly at her, one dimple peeking out. 

“How do I look?” 

Azzi looks…

Paige has no words. Paige has a million words. She can’t seem to pick her jaw up from where it has hit the floor. 

Paige is nearly breathless as she runs her eyes up and down Azzi’s body. 

She’s wearing a floor length dress, a silver shimmery thing with pink and blue tones throughout it that bares the skin of her chest and arms. A slit runs up one leg, exposing what appears to be miles of tan skin and toned muscle. 

Paige clears her throat, hoping she isn’t blushing as hard as it seems as her cheeks heat up. 

“You look..” She hesitates, unsure if anything she says can even measure up to the emotions that swell in her chest as she looks at Azzi. 

She’s saved from speaking as Azzi’s parents round the corner. Tim has his phone in outstretched hand as he approaches.

“Baby, you look amazing!” He snaps a few photos as Azzi poses. 

Paige stands back and watches as Azzi’s parents direct her in an impromptu photoshoot. Soon her little brothers are roped in to take photos with her, and before she knows it, Tim is gesturing for Paige to stand beside Azzi. 

“Aw, no I don’t want my crummy outfit to make her look bad.” She’s in a wrinkled AZ35 t-shirt and a pair of Nike pants, boot heavy around her ankle. At least she brushed her hair earlier instead of just throwing it into a messy ponytail. 

“Paige, please?” Azzi holds out a hand. 

Paige is at her left side before she even realizes it, hand wrapping around her waist as Azzi leans into her. 

Soon, Azzi has to leave to go take photos with her date James at the National Mall. The family all load into the car, but Paige stays behind because it’s a little too much walking for her ankle. 

But before Azzi can head out, Paige grabs her hand, holding her back until they’re alone in the house. Paige leans her crutches against the wall, and grasps Azzi by the hips, pulling her until their foreheads touch. 

“I wish I was the one taking you.” Paige says, her voice a whisper against Azzi’s lips. For a moment, Paige wishes things were different, that she was just a normal girl who got to take the girl she liked to prom. 

But if she was just a normal girl, she never would have met Azzi, and that’s not a world that Paige can bear to imagine.

“You look beautiful.” 

Azzi’s responding kiss feels like a ‘thank you’ and an ‘I’m sorry' all at once. They are interrupted by a loud honk from outside and Jon’s voice yelling for Azzi to hurry up. Paige’s lips are sticky with gloss. 

“Have the best night,” Paige says, and then Azzi’s out the door. 

***

Azzi has a good night. She does. She spends the night dancing and talking with friends and just having a normal high school experience, something that has become more and more rare as her high school career has developed. The pandemic had ruined so much of what she had hoped would be a perfect senior year, so she is grateful that prom at least has gone off without a hitch.

But as the night wears on, she can’t help but think of what was missing. James is handsome and charming; a dream prom date for so many girls. But he isn’t who Azzi wants. She wants the annoying, sweet, beautiful girl who is waiting for her at home. 

Surprisingly, none of her friends question her when she tells them she will be heading straight home after the dance, rather than hitting up the after party that nearly everyone else is going to. 

When she gets home, she finds her family finishing up a movie in the living room. Strangely, Paige is nowhere to be found. 

“Did you have a good night, honey?” 

“Yeah, it was a lot of fun.” She doesn’t elaborate. “Where’s Paige? Did she go back to her dad’s?” 

Her mom looks unsurprised at her question, smiling as she tilts her head toward their basement door. “She’s downstairs, waiting for you. Don’t change out of your dress yet.”

Azzi is a bit confused, but she heads downstairs anyway. She takes her time going down the stairs in her heels, watching her feet, and as she hits the last step, she realizes there is soft music playing. She looks up and finds the room lit only by what seems like dozens of candles interspersed throughout the room.

All the furniture has been pushed to the edges of the room, and standing at the center of the room is Paige. She is wearing a button up that looks just a bit too tight around her shoulders and a pair of black pants. A baby blue tie is loose around her neck, and Azzi knows when she gets close enough that she’ll be able to see how it brings out the color in Paige’s eyes. 

“I know it’s not the same as if we’d gotten to go together, but I got us these. 

When she gets within arms reach, Azzi notices that Paige is holding a plastic box. She pops it open to reveal a beautiful corsage, pink and vibrant with a matching boutonniere. 

Azzi can’t stop herself from reaching out to hold Paige’s face in her hands and kissing her. Paige smiles against her lips.

“You like it?” She asks, laughing when Azzi nods and kisses her again.

With gentle hands, Paige slides the flower onto Azzi’s wrist and she stands still as Azzi returns the favor, pinning hers to her chest with shaky fingers. 

“Can I have this dance?” Paige loops her arms around Azzi’s waist, pulling her even closer.

“Will your ankle be okay?” Azzi asks, bringing her arms up around Paige’s shoulders. 

“Yeah,” Paige shrugs. “I asked during PT this morning, and they said swaying was okay.” 

“Then let’s sway.” Azzi giggles, pressing their foreheads together as they move gently to the music. 

“Did you have fun tonight?” 

“Mmhm.” Azzi nods. “I missed you though. I always miss you.” 

“Just a few more months and we’ll be together all the time.” 

“You won’t get tired of me?” Azzi scratches at the back of Paige’s neck, smiling as Paige’s eyes flutter and she leans into the touch. 

“Never.” Paige makes sure to look Azzi right in the eyes, her own piercing and honest. 

Azzi twists a hand into Paige’s tie, pulls her in, and kisses her and kisses her. 

[pinkthrone445]

Partner in crime part 4!!!! Pleaseeee it’s all my heart desires

God! I thought nobody was liking it for the low interactions and that really took my inspiration away, but thanks for sending a request, that really helped ♥️

~Partner in crime~ Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Pairing:Melissa Schemmenti x Reader/Melissa Schemmenti x Joe

Gender:soft, cute, young Melissa, friends to lovers, slow burn, hurt

Warnings: SMUTTTTTT! This smut is for the sinful souls that also want to be loved. Also, mention of drugs and drug abuse

Summary :When they send you to work back in your home town, you start to recall all your memories from your teen years involving the redhead.

Remembering that first kiss with the redhead brought a twinge to your chest that you hadn't felt in years. No matter how much time had passed or how much you wanted to deny it, your heart still missed her immensely, your heart was still hers.

She wasn't your first kiss but she was undoubtedly the best, she was not your first partner but she was your first love, she was not the love of your whole life but she was the one who stole and stayed with your heart forever.

Letting out a sigh, you took your wallet and very delicately took out an already worn and a little opaque Polaroid, a photo you took with the redhead on the most magical night of your life, and although you knew that this story ended in pain, you decided anyway to continue walking that path of memory.

-Years Back-

After that first kiss many more came and it made you feel proud how at school they began to know that you were a couple when you walked hand in hand through the halls of the establishment. While kisses and caresses were not lacking, you had not yet been completely intimate with each other, but that was good for you, the redhead was giving you time and you were very nervous about it, since it would be your first time having sex with someone.

It wasn't until the end of the year, that you definitely prepared your head to do it.

As you looked yourself in the mirror in your polished outfit, your hands trembled with anticipation thinking about what will happen on this important night.

Since it was Melissa's senior year of school, her prom had arrived and she had invited you as he plus one, as her girlfriend. With nervous hands you adjusted your hair once again and took the perfect corsage you had bought after seeing a thousand options, piece which matched the flower on your pocket.

After crossing the street, you knocked on the door of her house, her grandmother opened immediately smiling widely

-"Look at you! So handsome! You look like a cute and fancy penguin with your tuxedo!" - Her grandmother hugged you tight, full of happiness and pride, which almost made you cry but you didn't want to ruin your makeup, so decide to hug her tightly and take a deep breath to control yourself

-"Mom, let the poor girl go, you will wrinkle her suit..."- Melissa's mother came over and adjusted your tie and suit and then kissed your forehead-"You look perfect..."-her voice was interrupted for a sound of clacking shoes coming down the stairs, when you lifted your head, the most gorgeous woman in the whole planet smiled at you. There she was, using a long dark green dress that matched your tie and had a perfect match with her eyes. Her pale skin shone like a diamond under the sun light and her dark red lipstick looked like a delicious and juicy red apple.

Your mouth felt dry and your heart started beating very fast, your ears ringed, your hands were sweating but your body felt cold, you were almost convinced that you were having a heart attack. Her mother rested her arm on your shoulder and whispered in your ear

-"Breathe..."-When you did what she said, your body began to relax and return to normal, just in time for the redhead to reach the bottom of the stairs where you were standing

-"Hi Melissa... You look amazing" - You whispered and she smiled softly, resting her hand on your cheek, giving little caresses with her thumb. Looking at you with such love in her eyes

-"Hi... You look so delicate and pretty" - she gave you a little kiss on your lips, the stickiness of the gloss she had applied on top of her lipstick transfer a little to your lips, mixing with the color of your own lipstick, leaving a cherry taste on you. Carefully you took the corsage and put it on her wrist making her smile. She was so perfect, she was a piece of art that deserved to be admired forever.

In that moment, in a flicker to the future, you could picture how you will be putting a ring on her finger one day. They said you will know it when you know it, and you knew in that exact moment, that you wanted to spend your life with her no matter what.

A flash made you come back to the present, you blinked a few times adjusting to the light to see her grandma with a camera on her hands

-"Okey, we have an hour to take pictures with all your siblings, so let's start" - she said calling all the kids by their names.

By the time you finished with the pictures, the limo, that you has rented with all the money you could save doing little jobs here and there, was outside the house waiting for you two. Taking her hand in yours, you said goodbye and walked to it.

The night passed in the blink of an eye, nerves made you remember little of it, but the Polaroids you took in the photo booth made you have a memory that would not be easily erased. You danced together, ate and drank a little, and although Mel didn't won as prom queen, for you there was no one more beautiful in that room or in the whole world than her.

By the end of the night when her feet were already sore from wearing her heels, you gave her your shoes and walked with her hand in hand to call for a taxi.

The parking lot lights projected a warm glow, illuminating the quiet intimacy of the moment. Hand in hand, you stood beside her waiting for the car to arrive, the night air thick with anticipation. Prom's magic still lingered, but this was a different kind of enchantment.

-"Hey..."-she called your attention and you looked at her lifting your eyebrows - "Your hands are trembling, are you okay hon?" -she caressed your cheek lookin deeply into your eyes, you could see how she worried about you even if she was tired from the night, you smiled and turned your head a little to kiss her palm

-"I'm thrilled and exited to be by your side..."-you took one of her hands and covered with yours

-"I feel like I'm floating" - she whispered, her eyes locked on yours. Melissa's smile was soft, hesitant

-"Me too" - You whispered, her thumb traced gentle circles on your hand.

The world around you melted away, leaving only the thrum of crickets and the beat of your own hearts. Your gaze drifted to Melissa's lips, and you felt the familiar flutter that came with having her around

-"Melissa?"-Your voice barely rose above a whisper

-"Yeah?"-Melissa's eyes searched yours, filled with a mix of longing and trepidation. You took a step closer, your heart pounding

-"I love you"- You said, the words tumbling out like a confession. Melissa's breath caught

-"I love you too..."-Her voice trembled, but her eyes shone with conviction. The vulnerability of the night wrapped around you like a blanket. No pretenses, no fears – just the raw truth.

Without another word, you leaned in, your lips brushing against Melissa's. The kiss was tender, exploratory, filled with the promise of forever. It wasn't your first kiss but every time you kissed her, they made a diferent part of your body tingle and a new way of loving her appear.

As you broke apart, gasping softly, Melissa's hands cradled your face

-"You make me feel seen" - she whispered.

-"You make me feel alive."-you kissed her again softly and briefly. Melissa's eyes sparkled, her fingers mapping the little freckles of your face

-"I've dreamed of this moment for so long" - she confessed and your heart skipped a beat

-"Me too...I want all with you" - You whispered, your voice barely audible, making her understand that you were ready for the next step and she took the hint. Your lips met again, this time with a deeper connection. The world around you dissolved, leaving only the gentle pressure of her lips, the softness of her skin.

As you parted, your gaze lingered on Melissa's

-"I never thought I'd find someone like you, I never thought someone could make me this happy, this complete..."- you confess and Melissa smiled, your voice filled with emotion.

-"You don't have to worry about losing me, (Y/N) . I'm yours" - she reassured you and your soul swelled with happiness

-"You're mine" - You repeated, the words settling deep within you. In that parking lot, under the stars, you found your forever, a love born of vulnerability, trust, and the courage to take a chance.

When the taxi arrived, you explained to Melissa that you had rented a room to spend the night together, that there was no pressure for anything to happen but you really wanted to be alone with her to make the magical night last longer.

When you arrived in the room, you took off the Melissa heels you were now wearing and turned around smiling at her. She was surprised seeing the beautiful room you had gotten

-"How did you manage to get this room?" - she asked looking at the fancy towels forming a heart on the bed

-"You are not the only one who knows and has a guy for everything..."-you teased trying to play mysterious even when the true was that her grandmother payed for the room with the money you gave her because you were a minor and couldn't rent it on your own.

-"You are getting too smart and cute... You will be the ruin of me" - this time she teased hugging you by the waist and kissing your forehead-"Thank you for all of these... I thought you were working to save money for something else, not for this...Not for me... " - Her voice was filled with emotion, she was truly touched to see the effort you put into this

-"I did it for us... Tonight was a important night on your life, I just wanted to make it last longer"-You whispered just inches from her lips, she kissed you in a very soft and caring way, short but giving you chills on your lips

-"You make me feel so seen, like never before" - she kissed you again, slow, passionate, enhancing your sences, you could smell the aroma of the fresh and clean sheets and the perfume of the salts on the bathroom, you could hear the soft breeze that came from the window that she opened when she just came in, you could feel her soft hands teasing the parts that the suit didn't covered, playing with the loops of your belt and the end of your shirt, you could taste her cherry chapstick on your lips, you could see little sparkles that were projected on your closed eyelids... You could feel every little thing, you could feel her in every little way.

You let your hands travel to her back and play with the zipper of her dress, she parted lightly from your lips

-"Hey... We don't need to do this right now, there is no pressure, we can keep kissing all night and that will be okay with me" - she said caressing your cheek and you smiled. You've talked about this before, she had more experience than you, basically because you had none, but you wanted for her to be your first time

-"I'm scared, I won't lie... But I want this, I trust you, I've been waiting for this too much" - You pulled her zipper a little more down and she smiled with lovely but hungry eyes

-"If you want to stop, at any point, you tell me and we will do it, okay?" - she asked and you nodded. Her arms contured your waist and kept their path up to your arms, slipping her hands between your body and your jacket, taking it off of you and tossing it to a chair on the corner. She kneeled at your feet smiling at you, opening your belt gently and taking it off, making a little loop on her hand, that made you think of wilder things for the future, before she put it away carefully. Her hands slipped inside your pants a little and your heart started beating more agresibly, she hooked your shirt with her fingers and pull it out of your pants, freeing you from the tigth tension on your shoulders because of how tigth and straight you tried to put your clothes on to look perfect for her. She lifted your shirt a little and kissed your tummy

-"Your skin is soft and warm, you smell heavenly" - she said in a soft voice and you smiled looking how her lipstick left a mark on your skin. But even if this was what you were wishing for it to happen, you were very nervous about looking good in a moment like this and your excitement was mixed with insecurity as her hands unbutton your clothes and uncover more skin, so you tried to diverge the attention to her, grabbing her hand and helping her stand

-"Let me help with your dress" - You whispered but she just smiled and kissed your lips cutting you midd sentence, seeing rigth through you, gently grabbing your hips and guiding your backwards towards the bed

-"Your body is shacking love... I know it's a little scary and you are worried, but is me, it's us, it's a safe space... I've seeing you get changed and I've seen you naked before, I know your body and is the most perfect thing in the whole world, so you don't need to worry about it... You just need to focus on enjoying this..."-when she gave you a little push on your shoulder you seated on the bed and she bit her lip-"Just... Enjoy" - she unzipped her dress all the way down and let it pool at her feet without breathing eye contact, her breasts bounced free from the dress, making you salivate. You tried to be respectful and look at her in her eyes, but she noticed that and laughed, making them bounce again and attract your attention to them. You felt your hand buzzing from the need to touch them. She sat on your lap leaving her breast almost in front of your face-"You want to touch them?" - she asked and you nodded enthusiastically, Melissa grabbed your hands and placed them on her milky thighs. You squeezed her soft flesh, running your hands along her skin until they reached her hips, you took the little string of her underwear between your fingers and let it snap on her skin, making her jump a little and release a soft whimper. You kept mapping her skin with your eyes and hands, trying to engrave her perfect body on your mind. When you finally reached her boobs, each one of your hands took one carefully, they were full and heavier than yours, also her nipples had such a perfect pink color that invited you to taste them, between her breasts there were a lot of freckles decorating her light skin like starts on the dark. While you admired her, on of her hand made gentle circles on your cheek and the other carresed the soft skin of your exposed neck

-"Do you like what you see honey?" - she asked, her voice deeper than normal, you were worshipping her in suck a way with your eyes that made her very aroused

-"Your body is so perfect, like a blank canvas ready for me to paint with kisses" - You whispered and she smiled, putting her hands on your shoulders and pushing you all the way back so you could be laying flat on the bed

-"First, you have too many clothes" - now that she saw that your mind was focused on her body and no on how you looked, it was easier for her to unclasp all your buttons and completely remove your shirt. She made sure to cover with kisses all the new exposed skin, scratching gently your abdomen with her nails making you feel electricity down your body. With her hands she unzipped your pants and I a quick motion she took them off of you. A cold breeze made you realize how naked you were, but that same breeze made her perky nipples be more awake than ever. Unaware, you parted your lips thinking about sucking them, she lowered herself on top of you and kissed you, carefully slipping her tongue on your mouth, making you moan in her lips. Her hand slipped inside your soaking and ruined panties and she smiled on your lips when she felt how weat you were already. You let out a small whimper when you felt her hand, but she sat on one of your legs, letting you feel how wet she was too through her panties.

The redhead sucked your tongue a little into her mouth and guided your hand to touch her breasts at the same time that her other hand carresed your outer lips.

Her breasts were soft and perky at the same time, her niple was an hipper sensitive part for her and as soon as you realized that, you started pinching them making her grind harder on your leg.

Her middle finger separated your pussy, finding that sweet spot on top, your perfect button, your clit was so sensitive and needy that, as soon as she started to gently masagge it, you felt like you could orgasm rigth there on the spot. She made gently circular motions over it and her mouth started kissing your neck when your moans made difficult to keep kissing you.

Your eyes closed trying to let your other senses flow. Her wet clothed pussy grinding on your leg felt heavenly, her slow rhythm on your clit accelerated the beat on your heart, your hands squeezing her breast felt like they belonged there and her little whimpers and praises made you felt like heaven.

When her finger found your entrance you opened your eyes and she smiled at you with love

-"Do you want me to stay where I was before?" - she asked when she noticed how nervous you got, embarrassed you nodded. Her hand went back to your clit adding more speed and one finger to massage it. She gently pinched it between her fingers and your body made and involuntary jump. Her kisses went from your neck to your breasts, and when she started sucking them, your body started shacking, your toes curled and you bit your lip, her hand moved with more speed and you stared to see stars even when you had your eyes closed. Even though you felt like the sound around you died for a few seconds, you must have been moaning very loud because she came back to kiss you to swallow your moans.

When your body came down from its peak, Mel kissed from your forehead down to your pussy, your body was too relaxed to notice what she was doing until she removed your ruined panties and tossed them aside to kiss and lick your pussy, even though she was cleaning you gently with her mouth, your hand went to her head to hold her hair, moving your hips against her mouth and arching your back a little. Her hands slipped under your legs and she pulled your pussy closer to her mouth, this time she could easily slip her tongue in your entrance and your body didn't seemed to have any reaction of nervousness or discomfort, on the contrary, you opened your legs more for her. She started sucking eagerly, addicted to your taste, the more she sucked the wetter you got and the sloppier she moved, her tongue started to bump gently against your clit and before you could proses it, you orgasmed again, trapping her head between your thighs and letting a long scream out with her name on it.

A few minutes later when your mind returned to your body, you noticed how the redhead had you hugging her body, making gentle patterns with her fingertips on your back. You smiled and gave her soft, short kisses on her lips

-"Welcome back to earth" - she teased and you weakly laughed-"How are you feeling?" - she caressed your cheek

-"A little stupid for not doing this earlier" - You said and she laughed-"I feel like heaven" - You whispered and kissed her again

-"You taste like heaven... I love you so much" - she whispered back

-"Can I taste you?" - You asked, your body was tired but you wanted her to enjoy too

-"Your body is barley responding... Tomorrow you can have me for breakfast..." - she kissed your forehead and hugged you closer-"Let's rest... I really love you"

-"I really love you Mel... I'm so happy that you are my first time" - You whispered hiding on her neck.

As amazing as that first time was, all your new experiences together were, she always made everything feel like magic and she always made you feel loved.

-More years passed-

As the years began to pass, you grow up together and the love you had for each other did too. Even when Mel went to study for teacher and you for police, your love kept growing and you overcome every rock that was put on your path. When she was not on campus she was with you and every little time together was like magic.

More years passed, and when both of you finished your studies and got jobs, you decided to live together, and you were so sure that she was the person that you wanted to be forever with, that you bough a ring to propose to her, very convinced that she would said yes.

You had planned everything perfectly, you had called her telling her to get ready and elegant since you were going to eat with her family, when the truth was that you would take her to a terrace with the best view in all of Philly, with a fancy meal and a whole tub of ice cream to remember those nights spent on the roof of your house talking, to remember how that love that was just blooming then, now had become a leafy tree with strong roots, and after remembering that love, you would tell her that that love still had a lot of room to grow and that your story still had many years to be fulfilled, then you would pull the ring out and asked her to marry you.

You had your ring in your pocket and the speech ready on your head, the only thing you had to do to finally propose was finish your shift, nothing could stop you from asking her that question and for her saying yes, or that's what you thought, because after that shift, everything changed.

When you got home, Melissa was ready and more gorgeous than ever waiting you with an bright smile, but when she saw your pale face and the way you dragged your feet until you could sat on the couch, her smiled faded. She had seen you come home traumatized before for loosing someone on the job or something going wrong, but now it was different. Usually you hugged her for confort, but instead of that, you stayed on the couch covering your face with your hands

-"Love... Are you okay?" - she asked and sat by your side, grabbing your hand and forcing you to look at her. Your eyes were full of tears and you had shacky hands, you grabbed her hands in yours and you kept shacking your head

-"I'm so sorry Mel" - You whispered and she tried to figure why you were apologizing

-"What happened?..."-she asked and got worried when you started to avoid her eyes

-"I... I got called for a noise complain on a dangerous neighborhood... And we got to a big abandoned house... Someone OD on it and apparently a fight happened... And I'm really sorry" - You kept repeating and she seemed more confused than before, worried for you and lost-"We arrested a few people and... And Tony (Melissa's younger brother) was there..."-Your voice was barely above a whisper and she frowned

-"What? Why? Is he okay? He... He was just there because he has some dangerous friends but he would never do anything bad..."-she started to get nervous and you denied

-"Mel... He was there selling drugs... All of it was on him" - You tried to explain and she let your hand go

-"You... You know him, he is just a kid and you are a police woman, if you said something he would have listened and let this drug things go... Please tell me you let him go" - she asked looking at your eyes

-"I... I couldn't, all the drugs were on him, he even tried to shoot one of my coworkers... Mel he is in jail..."-you said and she stood from the couch

-"He is just a kid, they will let him go rigth?" - she seemed scared and you tried to took her hand again but she didn't let you

-"Mel... He is not a kid anymore, he has 21, he is old enough to be responsable for his actions, he made a kid OD with those drugs, a literal kid died because of his drugs... He will go to trial, but he also shot one of us... He will be facing a few years of jail at least..." - You tried to explain the most calmed as you could but her anger only grew

-"Can you do something for him? Call someone? Take him out?" - she begged you

-"I can't, I won't... I could loose my job and someone has to respond for that death..."-You insisted that this was the correct thing to do, but she didn't saw that way. Tony was her younger brother and she practically raised him, this was something very painful for her, and you being the one making the arrest and not wanted to do something to help him only made it bigger and worse.

-"I... I can't see you right now" - she said before grabbing her purse and going outside the house.

After that, things only got worse, the oficial sentence came and her brother had to spend many years in jail for being the one selling drugs to a minor who passed away. She did everything to avoid looking at you or being with you, and when she was there, she couldn't even breath the same air as you, less alone talk to you. The love she once had for you became despise, she stated to hate you for breaking her family apart and for taking her most closer brother into jail. She started to move her things away from the house little by little and no matter how much you insisted, she didn't wanted to listen to you or talk to fix things.

You maintained the ring on your pocket and your facade of a relationship for a little while, trying to convince yourself that she would come back at some point, but she never did. And without any conversation in between, you both realized that your relationship broke the day you got home after the arrest.

At one point she stoped seeing you and you stoped insisting.

And even though it hurt you, you walked away from her.

Sometimes you found something about Melissa when you talked to Kristin Marie, sister that hated you the least of all of them and was still your friend because she understood that you were doing your job and that her brother did something wrong. Kristin tried to avoid talking about Melissa with you because she could see how sad that made you ,and tried to see how you were, but sometimes things slipped, like when you found out that a year after you broke up, Melissa started dating her school friend Joe, the one that was in love with her when you were younger and went to high school.

You tried to go on with your life too but it was hard when every plan in your life usted to include her.

At one point you decided that the best thing to do was moving out of the country and try to forget her, because she was in every fucking corner of the city, all the memories and dreams were there and you couldn't live with her gosth following you every where.

The last time you saw the redhead in person was from very far away, when Kristin told you that Nana died and that before passing she asked about you, that she wanted in her funeral, so you went, even when that meant that you could see Melissa again...

After the memorial, you watched from the back of the room as Joe hugged and comforted Melissa, your body barely moving, so little that you where almost invisible, completely unnoticed by the others in the room. You paid your respects to the redhead's mother and her siblings, but your body didn't have enough strength to get close to her, you couldn't, it was as if hands from the ground came out and held you in place, digging their nails on your skin and giving you immense pain and taking away your strength to move. Your breathing was agitated and your body begged you to get out of there, but even for that you didn't have the strength, the only thing you could do was watch as her eyes full of tears sought refuge in the cleft of his neck.

She was wearing a matching ring with him, a ring that shined every time that Joe dried Melissa's tears with his hand... At least one of you could fulfill your dreams of getting married and forming a family.

That's the last time you saw her and where your memories with her ended forever.

[hongcherry]

pretty please || c.sc | masterpost (18+)

A collection of stories of the Pretty Please couple.

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

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

🍒 General Major Warnings: Reader has she/her pronouns (referred to as girl, miss), reader dresses really feminine, reader isn't the nicest, character outfit descriptors, reader wears cheol’s clothes, parent/family issues [refer to specific chapters for more]

🍒 Current WC/Last updated: 92.8k (September 26, 2024)

pretty please couple tag

seventeen masterlist | main masterlist

join the taglist

also read on: AO3 | Wattpad

f = fluff | s = smut | ac = action | ag = angst | c = crack/humor | hc = hurt/comfort

➢ pretty please (stay with me) | ag, f, s ~ 76.6k

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

➻ pretty please (forgive me) | ag ~ 1.8k

Seungcheol’s POV of the argument in Chapter 4.

➻ pretty please (rid your worries) | f, ag ~ 2.6k

Seungcheol's been away from you for too long and just wants your attention; however, it's a little difficult to get between you working and your family being around.

➻ pretty please (be a perfect night) | f ~ 3.7k

You and Seungcheol celebrate your one-month anniversary; however, a guest from the past makes an unexpected appearance.

➻ pretty please (hear me out) | ag ~ 2.8k

Seungcheol's four weeks after the Big Argument™ in Chapter 5.

➻ pretty please (love me) | ag, f ~ 1.2k

Seungcheol knows he can’t force you to say the eight words he wants to hear, but seeing you avoid the topic entirely makes him wonder if he’s done something wrong, or worse… Do you regret being with him?

➻ pretty please (just this once) | f ~ 4.1k

Seungcheol comes to visit you while you're working on a photo shoot; however, he ends up staying after you ask him for a favor.

©️hongcherry // DO NOT REPOST OR MODIFY Please consider reblogging if you liked this work to show your support. Feedback/commentary is always welcomed.

[axelsagewrites]

I don't know of you write for Sansa Stark. But in case you do coul I request something like a friends to lovers set in Modern days? Maybe they go to University together and reader just had her heart broken by some boy and things evolve into another direction while Sansa comforts her. Ending smutty maybe!

(if you don't write for Sansa or you're not comfortable please feel free to ignore!)

Sansa Stark*Roommates

Pairing: Sansa x f!reader, ex podrick x reader

Word count: 3012

Warnings: breakup, make out, light nipple play not full smut

Masterlist Here

Somehow after many sleepless nights, awkward moments, questionable decisions, and dodging the strangest rumours you had did it. You had survived high school relatively unscathed. The only reason you had made it this far was being able to do it side by side with your best friend. 

The first day of freshman year you walked in with bushy hair and a nervous bracey smile as you navigated the brutal halls of Northern Hills High. You were surprised you managed to get to your first class without losing a limb but when you did you soon flung yourself into the nearest seat as the class filled up.

You felt yourself shrinking into your seat as the rows filled up and still no one had sat beside you. That was until a red head with a shirt two sizes too big and slick French braids hurled into the class looking equally as sick as you felt. Her eyes scanned the room in a frenzy till she spotted the empty seat next to you, quickly moving to grab it. 

You smiled an awkward smile at her and for a second the nauseous look washed away from her face, "I'm Sansa," she with a toothy grin and no sooner had you responded Mrs Tarth walked in to begin your first lesson.

That was years ago and ever since you had been glued at the hip. You would eat lunch together, study together, get ready for parties together. You even would join in on the Starks annual vacation and had practically been adopted by Ned and Cat.

Then came time to apply for college. You had talked about schools sure but when the letters came in and you found out you had both been accepted at Kingslanding university the choice was obvious. If you had to pack up and move halfway across the country better to do it with your best friend.

There was just one issue. You were in love with your best friend. You had realised it at the start of senior year of high school, but Sansa had never mentioned anything about liking girls and the couple boyfriends she had had did not make the odds look promising. When prom was approaching Sansa kept bringing up the topic of dates. 

The different cute ways to ask people, matching your outfit with your dates, poses for photos. She even had you practicing slow dances with her so she would know what she was doing. Then one day she dropped the news. She was going with Ramsay Bolton.

You hadn't thought he was exactly her type; you could tell Ned thought that exact same while he grimaced at the boy when they first met, but you didn't want to ruin her mood so let it slide. She suddenly became very insistent on finding you a date and soon you had agreed to go with Podrick Payne. 

He was a dorky kid from your bio class but the cute kind of dorky. Even you had to admit he was cute as he stuttered out his promposal. You knew you had to get over your crush one way or another so for the next few months your supposed to be one date with Podrick turned into a summer fling before university started. 

You still hung out with Sansa but deliberately tried to pull back a little so that you could get over your feelings. It wasn't that you didn't like Podrick. You did. He was thoughtful and cute and interesting and smart and surprisingly good in the bedroom, but he didn't make you laugh the way Sansa did or take your breath away from just a photo. 

You knew it was wrong to lead him on but for a while it seemed to be working. Sansa however did not have a second date with Ramsay, but she was always saying how cute you looked with Pod, and everything felt normal again. 

When dorm applications came in it was a no brainer that you would dorm together. As soon as it was confirmed you began shopping for supplies and picking which clothes to take. everything was beginning to shape up to be perfect as the week before college rolled around. it was the day before you were leaving, and you had just finished packing all your things into a box with the help of Podrick.

your high-fives Pod, so relieved to be done packing, before flopping down on the bed. “Thanks for helping babe. don’t think I would’ve done it if you hadn’t shown,” you said, sitting up on your elbows with a laugh as Podrick sat down, sober look etched on his face. “You good?”

“About that uh,” Podrick began to stutter, “Well we’re gonna be ages away from each other. so, like I was thinking because um classes and that we’d only get to see each other maybe every month and it is college and that,” the boy began to ramble before you finally grabbed his hand, shaking him from rant, “maybe we should think about breaking up?” he said with an awkward smile.

you looked up at him, eyes wide but not filled with the sadness you expected, “Oh um well I hadn’t given it a thought- “

“It’s just I was talking to my uncle, well step uncle, but he was saying that it’s better to not be like tied down- “Podrick said before his eyes suddenly widened twice the size of yours, “Not that you’re a burden it’s just like. I think we should break up,” he said with a sorry smile etched on his lips, “I hope we can still be friend,”

you couldn’t face telling anyone, especially not Sansa. that night you, your family, and all of the Starks headed out for a final dinner before you and Sansa would leave for college. even Robb and Jon were there for the dinner since they didn’t leave to go back to the Wall for college for a few days. “Where’s your little boyfriend honey?” Catelyn asked as you all sat around a ridiculously large table.

“Oh, he was busy with packing for college,” you said, a flush tinging your cheeks as you pushed your food around. Sansa flicked your arm under the table making you look at her and her questioning gaze. you gave a half-hearted smile as you tried to play it off, but you knew each buzz on your phone was a text from Sansa sent from under the table.

as dinner was wrapping up Sansa had suggested you sleeping at hers, but you declined, using the excuse you wanted a final night in your own bed. it was as soon as you crashed down onto the pillow that the waves came crashing over you as you began to ugly cry, your makeup smearing around your face. you knew it was a summer fling, but gods why did this sting so much?

part of you wish you had told Sansa since if you had she’d be here right now with four pints of ice cream and more snacks than you could imagine. but she wasn’t here, and neither was Podrick and tomorrow you’d have to explain it all to her anyway. for now, all you could do is blast Taylor swift in your headphones and wait.

the drive up to college your parents could tell something was off, but everyone assumed you were sad about leaving. when you arrived at Kingslanding you recognised the Starks car in the parking lot. you already knew they would be there before you so you weren’t shocked when you arrived at the dorm to see Catelyn sat on Sansas bed holding her face telling her about party safety and Ned stood desperately trying to hang Sansas posters as straight as he could. “Is this right honey?” he asked as he straightened out the poster.

“No dad the harry styles one goes over there- “Sansa said, turning to point before bursting out in a grin, “Hey roomie,” she said as she shoved her way off the bed to fling herself in your arms as if you had been off to war instead of a seeing each other only last night.

the hug however was a welcome invite as you felt the wheel of emotions threaten to bubble, “Sup roomie,” you grinned back as you pulled away and tried to look normal, but Sansa could tell. you knew she could. luckily the attention quickly turned to all the adults trying to agree how to set up the room while you and Sansa sat on your bed and watched.

as Catelyn debated another way to lay out the beds Ned finally sighed his final sighs, “I think the girls will want to finish this one off,” he said, clamping his hands on his wife’s shoulders, “Don’t you girls?”

“Yeah, mum we got this,” Sansa said, confidently standing up as you both hurried to get your families to leave. “See you guys!”

“Bye!” you both hollered down the hall as you waved them off, “Thank god for that,” you laughed as the elevator door finally closed and your families were official gone. “Decoration time,”

“Nu huh,” Sansa said, quickly moving to grab your wrist. you turned to her with a heavy sigh as Sansa practically forced you to sit on the bed, “Spill,” she said as she stood over you cross armed.

you sighed, throwing your head back and hitting the wall with a gentle thud, “Pod broke up with me,” you finally mumbled as Sansa gasped. “He said we could still be friends, “

“That bitch dumps you- “

“He didn’t dump me,” you tried to defend and stand but Sansa shoved you back onto the bed. “Hey!”

“And then pulls the line?” she said as she began to angrily pace the room, her face almost as red as her hair, “Does he not know what he’s missing out on? is he blind?”

“He doesn’t wanna be tied down,” you said, sighing as you stood while Sansa’s jaw dropped, “Cmon San he has a point,”

“No he has a penis and that is apparently what he thinks with,” she snorts and finally you start to laugh, “Is this why you were being all weird last night?” when you nodded Sansa sighed as if she had seen a kicked puppy before wrapping her arms around you and pulling you in for a tight hug, “Fuck him,” she mumbled as she held you tight, “You’re too good for him anyway. so you’ve got two options,” Sansa said as she pulled out the hug which you already missed and held you by the shoulders, “We either get made up hot as fuck and go out and post us so he knows he fucked up,” she said making you laugh at how crazy she could get, “Or we scour the nearby takeaways and go to a mall and get all the snacks you can think of and pig out,”

“The second,” you said, knowing right now the idea of going out would make you feel worse.

Sansa nodded as she grabbed her keys and purse, “Perfect then tomorrow we get hot as fuck and go out,” she said as she flung your hoodie at you to put on as you tried to argue, “and no buts. im not having my best friend being all sad and down on our first week. you’re too cool for that,”

you ended up hitting up the local mall and getting bags of snacks before walking to three different takeaways and getting a selection from each. now you were sat on Sansas bed with Chinese food, Indian food, Korean food, and more snacks than in willy Wonka’s factory sitting on her bedside table.

 “This was way too much,” you said as you opened up your kung pow.

“We need supplies anyway plus the leftovers can be lunch and dinner tomorrow,” Sansa said as she dug into her fried rice with the single spoon you had thought to bring. “Besides you can’t go through a breakup without chocolate,”

“Touche,” you said as you clinked your takeaway containers. you had to admit it felt nice to let it all out as you sat beside Sansa, shoulder to shoulder as you devoured your food. She listened as you vented about your breakup backed up all your points, “Like I knew it wasn’t gonna be forever, but it hurts. is that weird?”

“Nah,” Sansa said as she opened another bottle of diet coke for you to share, “Besides it kinda felt like that’s what was happening,” she said with a distant look making you question her further, “Its just like,” she sighed, “I didn’t wanna say anything because he was your first proper boyfriend, but I missed you. it was like you were always busy or he crashed half our plans so it just kinda sucked. I missed my best friend,”

“Aw Sansa,” you gushed, wrapping your arms around her shoulders, “I didn’t mean to neglect you. you’ll always be my best friend,” you said making her smile and relax into your hug before you pulled away, “Boyfriends come and go but we are forever,” you said with a grin as you swiped the coke bottle out her hand, but you couldn’t help noticing her smile falter, “You good?” you asked as you sipped the diet coke.

“Yeah, it’s just,” Sansa sighed as she looked up to the ceiling, “I wonder what it’d be like if it was always just us,”

a weird feeling began to grow in the pit of your stomach, but you couldn’t tell why. Sansa wasn’t suggesting something…was she? “You want me to be alone forever?” you half joked half wondered if your best friend was maybe more than that. you knew better than to be hopeful and wait around for a straight girl.

“Not alone,” she said finally looking back at you, “With me,” she said, her cheeks tinging pink like she would do in school when her crush would talk to her. you wondered if yours had done the same when she spoke to you.

“Like with you?” you asked as you noticed how close your faces were, “or together?” you finally asked, the words scrapping out your dry throat.

Sansa blushed as she glanced away for a moment, “I probably shouldn’t have said anything, you’ve just ended it with Pod and- “

“Don’t,” you said cutting her off and making her look at you suddenly, “I mean you should say it. whatever you’re thinking. you can tell me,”

Sansa didn’t listen however and before you realised what was happening you felt her soft lips crash on to yours. they tasted like strawberry and candy and were far softer than you’d ever imagined. the kiss made you breathless as your hand moved to rest on her hip while Sansas clutched at your shirt. “Together? she asked, breaking the kiss with hopeful eyes.

“Together,” you said, a soft smile grazing both your lips as you leaned back in for another kiss.

it was slow and tender, and you could feel Sansas hand gently move down your body till it settled on your waist. but it was almost as if you could feel the kiss get needier as Sansa began to paw at your skin, “Is it bad I used to be jealous of Podrick?” she asked, breaking the kiss breathless.

“Why were you jealous of him?” you laughed as you tried to swop back in for another kiss.

Sansa dodged it with a slight smirk, “Because he got to do this,” she said as she kissed you suddenly, her hands moving to your hair as the kiss depend. but this was nothing like how it was with Podrick.

wordlessly and without breaking the kiss you both shoved the remaining snack packets off the bed as Sansa began to pull you down till you were laying over her, your legs between her legs which she soon wrapped around your waist. your hands moved to gently squeeze her thighs, grateful for the tennis skirts she loved to wear that let you feel her soft skin. Sansa moaned into the kiss as your hands moved to gently grab her hips.

her hands moved down from your hair to running down your chest, squeezing your tits lightly over your shirt. now you were thankful you had ditched the bra under your baggy tee as your nipples began to perk under Sansas touch.

you could feel her smirk into the kiss as she gently squeezed your tits before moving to pinch your nipples gently making you moan in her mouth. “You are amazing,” she murmured against your lips as your fingers squeezed her hips in agreement as your lips moved to kiss down her jaw and neck.

just as your lips grazed her collarbone a knock made your head snap up followed by a scramble off of your new girlfriend as someone barged through the door, “Hey some of us-oh my god!” a girl the same age roughly as you gasped as she turned around covering her eyes, “Im so sorry I didn’t even think I- “

“Its okay,” You said as Sansa straightened her skirt and sat up, face beat red now.

the girl turned back around with a sorry smile, “I just came to see if you wanted to come to our floor mixer tomorrow, but I am legit so sorry there was no tie, my mum said there be a tie on the door- I’ll buy you guys a tie,”

“It’s alright,” Sansa grimaced as her face got redder, “We will make sure for next time,” she said as you silently celebrated a next time.

 “Okay well I’ll be going um I’m Baela by the way. and again, totally my bad,” she said as you finally managed to get the stranger out the door and back to what you had been waiting for for years. everything was perfectly until Sansas parents visited a few weeks later unannounced and you had to explain why your beds were pushed together.

Taglist: @clairacassidy @valeskafics @nyotamalfoy

[lillypad910]

Brother’s Best Friend

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Emerson!Girly girl!F!Reader

Word count: 5846

Warnings: none really, mostly fluff, girly crush on a boy older than you, unrequited love, little bit of angst but not a lot, happy ending!

Summary: You are 16, the little sister of Gareth Emerson, the drummer of Corroded Coffin. You take every opportunity to be around the band of guys. Why? Not because of your brother, no! Because of him! Eddie Munson, the man of the show, the 20 years old in his second run of Senior year, also your brother’s friend. And boy, do you have such a school girl crush on him.

A/N:Trying to make more interesting photos, specifically with this one.

You wake up in the morning, the sunlight just making its way into your room. It’s Monday, band practice for Corroded Coffin tonight would take place at your house. You get up, panning your closet to find an outfit. You wanna look cute, charming, no more simple little girl, you’re a grown up now. You stare at the colorful array of clothing, the pastels and neutral colors stare back at you. ‘Ok,’ you think to yourself, staring at the items of fabric completely mesmerized by the cute frilly skirts and Peter pan collared shirts, ‘maybe one more week.’ Pulling out your favorite skirt and blouse, you put it on before putting your hair in a half-up, half-down look with a flower clip. You pull out some frilly white socks, and your favorite shoes, a pair of Mary Janes.

After putting everything on, you make your way downstairs, and get greeted by your mother, who’s making breakfast. “Good morning, dear! Gareth! Breakfast!” She calls out to your older brother. Gareth comes sprinting down the stairs, almost tripping on his untied shoelaces. “Thanks, Mom!” He starts shoveling food into his mouth as you sit down at the table to calmly eat. “It’s still ok for the guys to come over this afternoon, right?” Gareth asks your mom, “Of course! They can stay for dinner also if they want, is that alright with you, (y/n)?” You look up at your mother then towards your brother who stares at you, “yeah, that’s fine.”

You remembered the days the band of boys came crowding your garage. You remember the times and days they do gigs at The Hideout, Tuesday’s at 8. You always beg your brother to take you.

After eating, you both grab your bags and head towards Gareth’s car. The drive to school was full with Van Halen screaming in your ears, but you don’t mind. You like the band, just as much as your brother, but refuse to admit it to anyone but him and his friends.

Gareth parks the car, and you immediately step out, waiting for him as he takes his time gathering his belongings. “Come on, Gareth! Class starts soon!” You glance at your wrist watch. “If you’re worried then go. I don’t get why you have to wait on me.” You feel your cheeks heat up, knowing the reason you always did. Him.

Your brother locks the car, shoving you lightly towards the school. About half way towards the doors, a voice calls out. “Gareth!” You both turn to see Eddie Munson running up, throwing his arms around you both before walking with you both towards the door.

Eddie Munson. He is a 20 year old senior who was held back for two years. You didn’t care. To you, Eddie is perfect. Eddie Munson couldn’t do anything bad. You were so smitten you didn’t understand how your brother didn’t know. Your mom sure as hell did.

Ever since that first day of freshman year, when you came in dressed in your usual way and immediately met with rude teens, bullying you, Eddie jumped in. He defended you, protected you. So now here you were, completely and utterly in love with a boy you knew to be completely unreachable. Unless-

“How was your weekend, (y/n)?” Eddie’s perfect voice pulls you from your internal thoughts. “What?” You ask, looking at the older boy with such admiration. “Your weekend. How was it?” Eddie chuckles, removing his arms from you and your brother and opening the door. Your brother walks in and you follow close behind. “Good! How was yours?” You ask. He smiles at you, walking through the door and letting it shut behind him as you both start down the hall. “Alright, oh, Gareth, we still on for practice at your house tonight?” You continue to stare at Eddie as you walk. “Yeah, asked this morning.” “Good.” Barely a second later, you’re pulled to Eddie, your back pressing to his chest for a brief moment, making your heart pound, before being pushed in front of him by a couple steps. You almost walked into a pole while staring at him. “Careful, Sweetheart.” Eddie laughs at you as your cheeks flush red.

Sitting in class you stare at the board in front of you before feeling bored and scribbling into your notebook. You draw simple sketches before completely zoning out into your work. Your hand continues to move as you defocus. “(Y/N)!” You snap out of your daze and look up at the board, your teacher practically glaring at you. “Sorry, what was the question?” You ask, laughs fill the classroom and you sink into your chair. “I was asking if you knew the answer to question 7.” The teacher speaks, venom filling her words. You nod quickly yanking out the homework from your binder. You give the answer, honestly scared it was wrong for a minute. “Thank you.” You look down towards your note book. Your face goes red. Written multiple times on the page in pretty lettering was ‘(Y/n) Munson.’

When the school bell rings, you scurry to shove your things into your bag. You get up from your seat and walk out of the door quickly. Your class was just down the hall, but you quickly turn down a separate hallway. Just as you walk by a certain classroom, out comes a certain boy, “Oh, hey, (y/n)!” Eddie greets you, you smile at him, “Hey!” You greet back, “I was meaning to ask, are you coming tomorrow for our gig at The Hideout?” He asks, holding out his hand to you. Your heart flutters, you think about taking it for a split second before it lands back at his side, “Yeah, if Gareth is willing to drive me. I’d like to.” You express, a blush fanning over your cheeks. “Well if he refuses to, let me know, I can come pick you up.” You feel butterflies form in your stomach, “Really? You’d drive me to your gig?” “Yeah! Your like our personal cheerleader! You have to come!” Eddie smiles at you, shoving into you slightly. You giggle, before shoving back into him. “Well this is me, just let me know ok?” He smiles, you nod before he turns around and walks into his next class. The warning bell dings and you quickly book it to your next class, just slipping into your seat as the late bell rings.

As classes go by, you enter the lunch room to see your brother at his usual spot with his friends. You take a deep breath before joining your own, knowing it’s too weird if you joined your brother for lunch. That just goes over your limit of contact with him. You deal with his foolery enough at home.

Sitting down in your seat, you watch as Eddie chats with his friends, excited about something. You can’t help but smile. You love seeing him excited, it makes you feel all giddy. “(Y/n), are you coming?” Your friend, Jenny, interrupts your starring. “You coming to the party tonight? At Jason’s?” Jenny is a cheerleader you’ve been friends with since elementary school. “Oh, uh no, I have a project to work on, sorry.” You glance back towards the boys. Jenny turns and smiles. “Right. A project.” She smiles at you. You blush as you continue to eat your lunch.

“(Y/n), come on!” Gareth calls out to you, spinning his keys around his finger, his other hand in his pocket while he steps out of the school. Jeff walks next to him chuckling to himself. “Cut her some slack, dude, she has short legs.” You glare at Jeff before running up and shoving him lightly, making him stumble, but it really just makes him laugh. “Good shove.” A voice comes from behind you, you turn to see Eddie, your heart flutters instantly. He glances at the top of your head, before reaching up. He takes the flower clip out of your hair before putting it in his own. “How do I look?” He asks you with a smirk. Gareth and Jeff chuckle to themselves a bit, as Eddie takes the clip out of his hair and stepping behind you.

His nails run over your scalp instantly relaxing you. Your eyes shut at the comforting feeling of your hair being lifted back into its original hold, the clip being put back into place. “There.” He steps back. “Perfect.” He smiles at you, and you smile back. “Nice clip, (y/n). Got it out of the garbage?” A cheerleader walks by but slows as she passes you all, laughing at her own joke. “Nice hair, got it from your grandma’s closet?” Jeff calls back. The girl immediately stops laughing and struts off. “Thanks, Jeff.” He nods towards you, you look back towards Eddie and he’s glaring at the girl as she walks off, “Bitch…” simply mumbles from his lips. You can’t help but smile. “Well, I’ll see you guys at my house in about an hour,” Gareth says, stepping back. “(Y/n), come on.” He gestures to you, and you quickly follow after him.

After getting home, you drop your bag off in your room, before quickly finishing your homework. You hear cars pull up into your driveway, looking out to see Eddie’s van. A smile plasters onto your face and you wait a minute before running downstairs, slowing down as you reach the bottom. “Dear, can you take these snacks into the garage? I know your brother’s friends just got here.” You nod, happy that your mom always gave you a task, aka a reason, to go into the garage when they were here.

“Snacks!” You announce, opening the door to the garage. Everyone turns to you and smiles. You sit the plate down on the small side table they have sitting in the corner.

You sit on a stool by your brother’s drum set, watching as the guys start playing. Your eyes watch Eddie as his fingers strum the guitar, admiring him.

During a break, everyone takes a minute to either use the bathroom or get drinks, that kinda thing. Eddie walks over to you, sitting on the stool for the drum set, just in front of you. “How y’a feeling, Sweetheart?” He asks, you smile at him, giddy after the loud music they were just playing. “Good! You guys are really good.” He smiles at you and stares at you.

For the short few seconds he actually watches you, it feels like ages to you, your heart racing and pounding in your chest.

Eddie stands as the rest of the band walks back in, going back over to his guitar. As they get ready to play again you try to get your heart to steady again. A hand places on your head and you look up to see Gareth behind you, only stepping by you to get to his drums. “Good?” He asks, giving you a thumbs up. You nod and he sits.

Later that night, after the guys had left after dinner, you sit in your room and pan over the notebook you were scribbling in during first period. Your name with Eddie’s last name makes your face go bright red and your heart quicken. “God dang it..” you mumble to yourself. Before closing the book and climbing into bed.

In the morning, Gareth drives you both back to school, and you ask him on the way, “Will you take me to see your gig tonight?” Your voice was sugar sweet. “Nope. It’s a bar, (y/n), we’ve talked about this.” You pout, annoyed he never lets you, all you want is to cheer them on! “Please?? I wanna be there to support you guys!” Gareth glances at you as he parks the car in the parking lot. “I said no. If you want a ride you’re gonna have to figure it out on your own.” You glare at him before getting out of the car.

Eddie greets you both down the path,placing his arm around your shoulder “well?” He asks, looking between you and Gareth. “Well what?” Gareth asks. “He won’t drive me, Eddie.” You tell him, pretending to look hurt. Gareth glares at you, obviously knowing the game you’re playing. “What??” Eddie turns to his friend. “She’s 16, Eddie.” “She’s our personal cheerleader! She a genuine fan, Gareth!” He expresses. Gareth shakes his head. “She’s my little sis, you’re not putting her in a place I can’t watch her.” Eddie thinks for a moment. “Then we will have her sit at the bar where we can keep an eye on her! I’ll take personal responsibility for watching her!” Your heart skips. “I’ll even drive her! Please, Gareth, she’s the perfect energy we need!” Eddie makes a pouting face towards your brother, nudging you. You quickly make a cute pout face, hoping it works to convince him. Gareth grumbles to himself for a minute before letting out a soft “fine.” He then follows with “but you’re driving her.” Eddie and you let out laughs before walking into the school.

School goes by fast today, doing your usual routine of walking down the hall Eddie’s classes are on just to run into him. You chat about simple things, one being how excited you were to finally get to come to their show. Eddie can’t help but smile at your excitement.

When you get home in the afternoon, you quickly change into the (very few) things you have that are a mellow version of yourself. You don’t wanna draw attention, knowing Eddie and the gang won’t be really able to jump in to your rescue. You ask your brother if you can steal one of his band tees to blend into the crowd, and he lets you, also not wanting you to draw too much attention.

So there you were standing in your one pair of denim jeans, your brother’s (quite large on you) Iron Maiden t-shirt, and some short cut ankle boots. Gareth also gave you a flannel in case you got cold, but he made you wear it completely.

Of course, knowing your parents also wouldn’t want you going, you both stayed quiet about the engagement. When Gareth walks outside to get into his car later in the evening, he had told you before to wait on Eddie, in your room, and climb out your window when he got there.

You watch the driveway like a hawk, trying to watch for Eddie’s van. He pulls up and your heart skips. You open your window and wave at him, as he parks and steps out of the van. He stands just outside your window as you climb out onto the roof. You carefully make your way to the ground, Eddie catching you when you reach the bottom. His arms wrapped around you thighs as he holds you against his chest. You feel your face heat up. “Nice outfit! Iron Maiden, I like it!” He sits you down smiling. He goes to open the passenger van door, letting you take a seat, before shutting it for you. “To the Hideout we go!” He says, pulling out of your driveway.

Eddie has you sit on a bar stool at the bar for the entire night, obviously wanting to know where you are at all times. You ask for a glass of water, and the bar tender gets you one, smiling kindly. “You must be (y/n).” He speaks. He’s a boy you’ve seen around school, but never really paid much attention to. You nod. “Gareth talks about you all the time, they all do.” He smiles, gesture towards the band as they set up for the show. “There isn’t much to talk about.” You admit, sipping your water. “I beg to differ, Eddie never shuts up about how adorable you are.” Your heart stops.

He thinks you’re adorable? Your heart begins to race. Eddie Munson thinks you’re adorable!

When the guys start playing, they are just as good as they are during practice. You’ve gotta admit, as annoying as you brother can be, he’s great at drums and looks hella bitchin up there. You look over to Eddie only to see him look back down at his guitar.

Was he looking at you?

You watch the show, the loud music blares in your ears, just like at practice. But somehow it’s louder, the adrenaline rush you get is crazy, wanting to bang your head to the music, but also not look like an idiot.

After the concert ends, Eddie comes over to you and smiles, “So, whatcha think, Sweetheart?” You smile at him, “You guys are really good! Way better than practice.” You giggle at him. He ruffles your hair, “It’s nice to have you here, you raise a lot of moral for the guys. And as much as Gareth didn’t want you here, I can tell he’s glad you are.” Eddie nudges your shoulder. “I’m glad I’m here too.” You smile at him. He glances back at stage, “Do you want me to drive you home?” He asks. “Yes!” The word slips out of your mouth faster than you could think. “I mean- yeah, I would like that.” You try to play off. Eddie chuckles at you, before ruffling your hair again, “cool.” He walks off and you finally breath.

Eddie drives you home, stopping towards the bottom of your driveway. You stare at your house, not wanting the night to end. “I had fun.” You simply say, Eddie smiles at you. “I’m glad! Well, you should probably go inside, we do have school tomorrow.” Eddie shoves your head playfully, making you giggle.

You both say goodnight before you climb back up to your window, softly dropping onto the carpeted floor of your bedroom. You sigh thinking of Eddie’s soft smile. You hear his car drive away, and pop your eyes over the windowsill to watch the van drive down the road. You are head over heels for that boy.

Sitting at lunch the next day, you chat with Jenny as she tells you about the party you missed the other night. You don’t care, obviously, but you let her finally reveal to you all the gossip that occurred. She loves to spill everyone’s secrets to you.

“And then Jason said- (y/n), are you even listening?” She smiles at you softly. To be honest, no, you weren’t, you were too busy staring at the ‘freaks’ as they ate lunch. “Snap a picture it will last longer.” Jenny’s comment pulls you from your stare, “What?”

“Why don’t you just talk to him! You are totally in love with him! Not to mention he’s always been protective of you!” “Yeah, because of Gareth! I’m his friend’s little sister, of course he’s gonna be protective of me! He doesn’t like me like that, Jenny! Besides he’s too old!” “Too old? Please! You stare at him like he’s a new Fleetwood Mac cassette! Girl, get a grip on reality!! He likes you! And yes, he’s hot, so talk to him!” “No!” “(Y/n)!” “Jennifer!” She glares at you, obviously not a serious one. “If you don’t I will.” Your face goes pale, “you wouldn’t dare!” Jenny smirks at you, “You bet money on that?” She stands and you quickly stand after her.

“Jenny, please!” You follow her as she walks across the cafeteria, your heart racing. “Hey! Munson!” Jenny yells out, and the entire group turns to you both. “Jenny, I swear!” Eddie raises his brow as you both walk up to his table. “Yeah?” He asks, pushing his chair back to give you both his full attention.

Mike, a freshman Eddie has brought into the group, looks at the cheerleader you are friends with. “What’s going on?” Mike asks Dustin, who is seated next to him. Dustin shrugs. “I have a question, Munson,” Jenny places her hand on her hip, striking a pose. Eddie glances at you and you glance back, before you both look back at the cheerleader. “Shoot.”

“Would you be interested in a date? Say Friday, 5:30, diner across town?” Jenny’s voice is overly confident. You heart pounds in your chest, scared for his answer. Jenny is the prettiest girl you know, even you know that. “Uhh,” Eddie glances at his friends, “all kindness, Darling, but you’re not really my type.” Your eyes widen as you pan to Jenny’s face. You can tell she wasn’t exactly expecting him to say yes, but also wasn’t expecting to be rejected. “Is (y/n) in that type?” Jenny asks. “Ok!!” You grab your friend and start pulling her back.

“I mean,” Eddie glances at Gareth. “She cute.” He simple states.

“Cute?” Jenny smugly reiterates. You feel your heart burst from the word. Eddie Munson thinks you’re cute! You quickly grab your friend and drag her back to your table. “See you guys later!!” You yell out as you shove Jenny. You can’t help but have a huge smile on your face for the rest of the day.

Walking towards your brother’s car, before you round the corner, you hear the guys talking. “Cute?” Gareth asks. “Yeah, I mean she’s adorable.” Eddie tries to explain. You stop in your tracks. They are talking about lunch.

“Eddie, she’s 16.” Gareth glares at him. Eddie holds his hands up defensively, “I’m not saying I’m attracted to her, Gareth,” your heart stops. You feel like everything around you slows. “Her friend just asked if she fit my type. Besides what did you want me to say! You know (y/n) is self conscious in the way she dresses! I didn’t wanna make her feel bad.” He only said you were cute to not make you feel bad?

“Eddie, just be careful with what you say. She’s sensitive, always has been. One wrong choice of word and her mind goes everywhere.” “Yeah, which is why I said cute. I didn’t say pretty. I’m not hitting on her, Gareth.” Eddie lets out a soft chuckle. You feel your eyes water, everything shatters.

You wait a few minutes after they stop talking, or at least change the topic. Turning the corner you greet them, “Hey!” You put on a fake smile. Eddie smiles back. Gareth signals you to start walking as you catch up about the rest of the day.

When you get home you go straight to your room, crawling into bed and shoving your face into your pillows. You allow yourself to cry, smothering your sadness into the fabric of your bedding.

Friday comes quickly, as the rest of the week goes by in a blur. Sitting in the gym as the game goes on in front of you, Jenny doing the cheer routine she’s been working on with the other cheerleaders. You feel out of place.

As the night comes to a close, you follow the rest of the school out of the gym, the cheering the whole school makes, congratulating the team for winning the championship game. But you don’t care, you just want to go home. You spot the Hellfire club running out of one of the side doors, happy to know your brother was ready to go too. You walk over to them silently, faking a smile. “Hey, how was the campaign?” You ask Gareth. “Great! Erica Sinclair beat Vecna!” Gareth smiles back at you. Erica?

You look past your brother to see a young girl, maybe 11, standing proudly. You smile and go to wave but Jeff cuts in front of you. You hesitate, and just put your hand back by your side. “Gareth, I wanna go home.” You tell your brother, gripping at his flannel. He doesn’t pay you any attention and continues to celebrate with the rest of the group. You feel your stomach turn.

“Gareth.” You call out, but he waves you off. “What’s up?” A voice comes from behind you and you whip around, Eddie stands there smiling, but stops when he sees your face. “Whoa, hey, you ok? You look tense.” He asks. You nod, feeling awkward. You’re not gonna lie, you’ve been dodging Eddie since Wednesday afternoon, since he said he didn’t like you.

“I’m ok. Just tired.” You explain. He nods and slaps Gareth over the head, “Hey, jackass!” Gareth hisses at the slap and turns around. “Take her home. You’re her ride. Don’t ignore her.” Eddie tells your brother. You feel your cheeks heat up. Eddie places his hand on your head, “hey,” you look up at him, “get home and get some rest, ok? Make sure to eat something.” You nod at him.

On Saturday morning, you wake up and head down into the living room. Your parents sit around the tv, the news displayed on screen. “This morning, a Hawkins High Student was found dead. We have no name or suspects to note just yet, but have been told the family of the student will be made aware.” You rub your eyes as you eye the trailer behind the reporter. Your eyes widen. “Gareth!!” You yell up.

Gareth comes running downstairs. “What?” You point to the tv your parents are watching. Gareth stares at the screen and you watch his expression go from confused to concerned. You both look at each other. “Eddie.”

The next couple of days follow with no new news of Eddie’s whereabouts, what’s worse is people are claiming he killed the student, which is bull shit! Eddie wouldn’t do that.

By the end of the following week, your small little corner of the world had been flipped upside down, but Eddie was found, his crime proven innocent. He was in the hospital for a good week before he was finally released.

You didn’t know what happened to him after he left the hospital, truth be told you never say him again. Gareth says he left Hawkins, drove out west towards California probably, but even he didn’t seem certain.

The years flew by and before you knew it, you were 22, standing outside a bar in Indianapolis with your college friends, one of them still familiar, Jenny from high school.

“I can’t believe I was able to get these tickets!” Your newer friend, Steph, grins ear to ear. “I can’t believe I get to actually see them live!!” Jenny shrugs, “It’s crazy, I swear I’ve heard that name before, too.”

You glance down at your paper ticket, the name ‘Corroded Coffin’ inked on the page. You know you’ve seen it before too, but you can’t put your finger on it.

After getting into the bar, you all crowd around the stage, and the moment it starts you know where you’ve seen that name before.

Suddenly you were that 16 years old girl again, heart fluttering under your Peter Pan collared shirt, back to your garage, the loud music blaring through you, but this time the drummer isn’t your brother, the other two members aren’t Jeff or Kevin, but there he is.

Eddie Munson walks out on stage, his long curls still the same, his body still littered in those tattoos you wish you could have seen up close.

Steph giggles, leaning into you, “isn’t he so hot?” You glance at Jenny, who doesn’t seem to recognize him. “Yeah,” you simply say, “definitely.”

As the band takes a break you spot Eddie sneaking off to the bar. “Hey, I’ma get a drink,” you pat Jenny’s shoulder and she nods. Stepping closer to the bar, you take this opportunity to admire him, his scrawny body now has a bit more muscle, but he’s still pretty lean. “Eddie…?” You call out to him, and he whips around quickly, smiling already.

“That would be my name, yeah.” Eddie stares at you, before his smile drops. “(Y/n)…?” You nod at him, “yeah, s’been a while.” You smile. Eddie steps closer to you, looking you up and down, “damn,” he smiles, “you’ve grown up.” You laugh a bit, “yeah, that kinda happens when you are older than the legal drinking age.” He chuckles, holding out his arms to you and you embrace him, hugging him close. “God, I haven’t talked to the guys in years! How’s Gareth? He doin’ ok?”

You shrug, leaning up on the bar, “he’s ok, believe it or not, that jackass got married last year.” “What!? And I missed the wedding??” Eddie pouts, utterly disappointed. “Yeah,” you simply say, you can’t stop your eyes from looking him up and down, checking him out. “Damn, is the girl nice at least?”

“She’s sweet, they still live in Hawkins, he’s got a musical instruments shop there, now.” You inform, watching as Eddie nods, taking a sip of his drink. “Well that’s good. What about you?” He asks, looking at you inquisitively. “I’m in school, college.” You point towards your friends, “Still friends with Jenny, made a new friend Steph. She’s actually the reason we are all here tonight, she’s a fan.” I gesture towards the stage. He nods, “theres a lot more of them in this room than there was ever at the Hideout.” You nod, glancing around the room. “It’s weird, I remember always wanting to see you guys play live, and then you invited me. Now here I am with a bought ticket because you actually have to buy one now.”

He laughs, Eddie can’t help but look you up and down, but you don’t notice. You watch your friends giggle in the crowd, until you feel a hand press to your waist. “I have to get back, meet me after?” He moved closer to you, so when you turn your head he’s right there.

That small 16 years old in you would have died, but you’re not 16 anymore, sure the crush hasn’t died, that much is obvious. But you’re actually a grown up now, wearing a short dress that cuts at your mid thigh. You know you look hot, and that’s all that matters.

“Yeah, I can meet you after.” You glance across his face, before he leans closer, placing his lips by your ear, your heart racing faster. “Good, can’t wait.” He pulls away and walks off leaving you a fluttering mess.

You wait outside the venue with your friends, Jenny and Steph talking about the show, they don’t know why you are here waiting, all you said was you saw an old friend. “That was so cool! God, gonna be holding that memory forever!” Steph cheers, genuinely happy. “Glad you had fun, Steph.” You tell her, she smiles.

“Hey!” A voice calls out to you all, and you all whip around, Jenny and Steph freeze. “Oh. My. God.” Steph looks at you. Eddie walks up, his hand up in a small wave. “Nice to meet ‘cha.” Jenny takes a second, “Oh my god!” The realization hits her, “Eddie Munson!” Steph never mentioned the names of the members, so Jenny never made the connection until right now. “Holly shit, I knew I’ve seen you before!” She grips your arm and shakes you, happily laughing.

“You two-“ Steph speaks, “You two know him??” Jenn corrects her, “I definitely only know the bare minimum, (y/n) here was obsessed with him in high school.” Your eyes widen, “Jennifer!” “Oh?” Eddie tilts his head, “obsessed? Elaborate.” Jenny smiles from ear to ear, you can tell she’s been waiting for this moment practically her whole life. “Oh my god, she used to have this journal that she would doodle in, I can’t tell you enough how many of the pages were just (y/n) Munson-“ “JENNIFER!” You slap your hand over her mouth. “You two need to go back to the hotel, I’ll meet you there,” you order pushing them to the curb before hailing them a taxi. “But-“ “Nope. You’re cut off, Jennifer.” The two get into the taxi, Steph sticks her head out the window and waves as the car drives off.

You turn back to Eddie, dropping your head in embarrassment, “Ignore her. Please. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.” “It’s fine, I…” he hesitates a moment before continuing, “I kinda already knew…” A soft chuckle leaves him. “What!?” You look up at him, face red and your arms scrunched over your chest like a T-Rex.

“You weren’t exactly… subtle, Sweetheart.” That old nickname makes you groan. He leans against the wall behind him, watching you carefully as you get more and more flustered.

“How long did you know?? When did you find out?” You ask, utterly blown. “The way you looked at me was enough to let me know. Sweetheart, you almost ran into a poll one time when staring at me.” You groan even more. “Oh my god, this is so embarrassing…” you cover your face in your hands.

He steps closer, lifting his hands to grab your wrists, pulling them away from your face. “I… thought it was cute though.” He mumbles. You realize very quickly how close he is to you. “I thought…” he glances away from you, “you were cute…” he mumbles, you feel the butterflies go wild in your stomach. “To be honest,” he looks back at you, “I didn’t think much of it back then. You were Gareth’s little sister.”

He sighs a bit, running a hand through his hair. “I thought it was cute you had a crush on me, but I never thought about reciprocating it, I mean fuck, I’m 4 years older than you, to me back then you were a little kid.” He chuckles a bit. “This might sound weird so bare with me,” he smiles at you, his stupid grin making you smile. “I didn’t ever think of you more than just Gareth’s sister, for the longest time. I honestly didn’t think much of you at all over these past years. But then there you were, smiling at me just in there, during my half time of my show.” You blush a bit. “I mean, what’s a guy supposed to do when God throws him his best possible catch. In a pretty dress, that adorable flower clip still in your hair.” You instinctively reach up to touch the clip, “yeah I noticed that too, don’t think I don’t see the old you still there.” He smiles. “You look good, more than good, you look pretty.” He stops talking for a moment.

“Eddie-“ you try to cut in but he continues. “I’m about to be an idiot or the smartest man alive but I’m willing to take that chance.” Before you can react, Eddie reaches out, cupping your cheeks in his hands, pulling you closer to him. your eyes widen when he leans forward.

Your lips press together perfectly. You hesitate before leaning into him, kissing him back. He moves one hand down to your waist, pulling you closer as your arms wrap around his neck, tangling your fingers into his hair. He pulls back a bit, laying his forehead on yours while you both catch your breath.

“So… am I an idiot…?” He asks, voice soft, his fingers balling up the fabric of your dress at your sides. “No…” you smile, “Not at all, Munson.” You lean into him again, pressing your lips together once more.

Tag list!

(If you wanna be tagged when I post shoot me an ask or comment on my posts saying so!)

@cagethemunson @cherrycolas-things @spikeybatt

[mangohunny]

Yandere! Loser X Popular Girl! Reader

content warnings: blackmail, female reader, mentions of bullying, stalking, isolation

Yandere! Loser who’s been in the same class as you all the way up to senior year and has never been on your radar, you who was so well beloved by teachers and students alike for your looks, personality, and actions. 

Yandere! Loser who has admired you ever since you were kids but could never get close because of the guard dogs you have around you at all times, or as he likes to call them ‘the swarm of flies’. Three people that have been with you for years, the same three that are aware of his stares and hate him for it. 

Yandere! Loser who has memorized your class schedule and paths through the halls, always watching you walk with so much confidence and a sway in your hips, your skirt swishing and grazing the back of your thighs that make his pants tighten at the thought of getting a closer look at the contents under them. 

Yandere! Loser who follows all of your social medias on a burner account and knows your true self from how open you are on the internet. How you scorn the people in your life and rant about how you hate your horrible family, eager to finally move away from everyone once you get enough money. 

Yandere! Loser who knows the true you, and takes advantage of that. 

Yandere! Loser who corners you in a hallway with no camera and blackmails you with screenshots from your private social media accounts, making a deal that they won’t get out if you do exactly what he says. 

Yandere! Loser who is no longer terrorized by your friends on his order to call them off. 

Yandere! Loser who requires you come to his house every weekend and takes photos of you in whatever he wants, bunny suits, nurse outfits, nothing. 

Yandere Loser! who slowly isolates you from you friends.

Yandere Loser! who takes you on romantic dates and makes you slowly warm up to him, despite the circumstances

Yandere! Loser who comes up with enough money to move across the country with you, so it can just be you and him for the rest of your lives.

[h0ck3yl0v3r]

you belong with me

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

high school au!bb24 x bestfriend!reader

warnings: toxic gf, swearing, kissing, angst -> fluff

growing up in the sunny state of california had it’s ups and downs. thankfully i had my best friend brendan.

we met in kindergarten, i was sitting alone during lunch when he came up to me. he asked if he could sit with me and every day since then he sat with me at lunch. we were now in high school, seniors. we always waited for this day. we had so many dreams. brendan being a hockey star he quickly became popular, i was somewhat well known but never like briss.

our friendship remained strong, but it soon became rocky once high school hockey season took place. hockey being a winter sport, it put us in a rocky spot around the holidays.

see brendan always had a girl wrapped around his fingers. he could have anyone he wanted. he had gotten into a relationship with a girl who did not like me. she made it a big deal and a fight broke out between them. he slowly pushed me away, i knew he didnt want to but his girlfriend didn’t care.

our families became close after me and brendan became best friends. our yearly holiday trip to big bear was here and i sat in my room in the place we always stay at. polaroids and photo booth pictures of me and briss as kids hung on the wall next to the paper made flower bouquet he gave me on the first day of freshman year.

all the memories of every item always makes me emotional. i didn’t realize until Brendan’s mother came into the room and gave me a soft hug and passed me a tissue to wipe my tears. “your guys friendship is truly something beautiful, i noticed you guys haven’t hung out much lately, is everything alright honey?” she said while i sat on my bed and shook my head no before all the tears that didn’t make its way out then all crashing down now. “oh my sweet girl, it’s okay. i got you.” she said coming to me hugging me letting me cry onto her.

after a while i calmed down and she sat next to me. “ever since he got his new girlfriend right now everything’s been different. all his past girlfriends never had a problem with me until now. and it hurts. but what hurts more is knowing he’ll never look at me the way i see him.” i said and she rubbed my back. she knew i liked brendan since freshman year, she saw the way my eyes lit up whenever he got me flowers, or any gift. “trust me honey, my son is very oblivious. me, pat, and your parents all think you guys are destined to be. when the time comes you’ll know it.“ she said placing a kiss to the top of my head as i held onto her. “everyone else should be here soon, ill be downstairs if you need anything else alright?” she said and i nodded.

i decided to shower and change into a different outfit. after i got ready everyone finally got here. i stood at the top of the stairs when my breath got caught in my throat. i had locked eyes with brendans girlfriend. i didnt know she was going to be here.

i went downstairs and greeted everyone hi, but the worst one was greeting brendans girlfriend. she just glared at me the whole time.

“dinner will be ready soon” brendans mom said. “i think i’m actually gonna go explore, visit some old friends.” i said and everyone just hummed in response. i grabbed the keys and i felt someone grab my hand. “be safe alright, roads get a little hard to drive on at night.” he said and i just smiled and nodded before leaving.

truth being told, i didn’t have any friends here. i didn’t want to go exploring. its an excuse I’ve always used to get out of the house. i pulled into an empty park me and briss used to sneak off to all the time.

‘everything has changed’ playing softly in the background as i cried my heart out. we would joke about how this song would be played at our wedding. i wiped my eyes when i heard someone knock on my window, jordan brendans younger brother was there. i rolled down my window and he came up to me. “i had a feeling you’d be here, brendan may be oblivious but i’m not. i brought some of the food mom made, figured you didn’t eat.” he said and you couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh and told him to get in the car.

after eating in silence with only music softly playing in the back, jordan spoke up “my brother’s an idiot. i know you probably wont believe me but hes so hooked onto you. thats why none of his relationships ever last, and i don’t think you’ve ever noticed but all his girlfriends have some sort of resemblance to you. but they’re never you so it never lasts.” he said and i was shocked. “thats silly jordan, he would never.” i said. “trust me on this. and also you aren’t the only one who doesn’t like his current girlfriend. after you left during dinner mom almost lost it. his girlfriend was being super disrespectful and dad had to calm her down. i decided to leave the vibes in that house was not it.” he said and you just shook your head, of course she would cause trouble. “thanks for coming, it means a lot and it’s getting pretty late so we should head back home.” i said before putting my seatbelt on and driving us back home.

the whole trip wasn’t the best but i tried to make the most out of it. i barely hung out with briss, as much as it broke my heart i sucked it up to try and not ruin the trip.

its been a month since the trip. time has been going so fast. brendan was still with his girlfriend but they were extremely off and on. today i had a date, it was someone who played lacrosse. brendan was over at the house and i could feel him staring at me. “i’ll be back later” i announced before leaving.

but of course, i got stood up yet again. he didn’t show up. i decided to not head back home yet and sit at the beach instead. why does this always happen. all i wanted was to feel loved the way i love people. in reality, all i wanted was him. but i couldn’t have him.

after the sunset i decided to head back home, what i didnt know what brendan drove past where i was supposed to meet my date and saw that he never showed up.

as soon as i got home brendan rushed outside. “where have you been, and don’t even try to say on a date because i saw you get stood up.” he said and i felt my words get caught in my throat but i managed to get out a small sentence. “i was at the beach” i said softly and he came up to me and hugged me for the first time in a while. i hugged him back and cried in his arms.

“i broke up with my girlfriend. for good.” he whispered into my hair. “why would you do that?” i said looking up at him, feeling the small drizzles of rain. “she wasn’t you. none of the girls were. i didnt realize it until i saw you walk out that door for a date. that should be me taking you out, holding your hands, and kissing you like this.” he said before kissing me softly in the rain. neither of us caring about wether or not we’d get sick.

just happy that we finally had each other the way we both wanted.

[hananoami]

𝚂𝙲𝙷𝙾𝙾𝙻 𝙰𝚄— the second button ;

ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇᴍᴀᴋᴇʀ 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑠 ———♡ sᴀᴋᴜʀᴀ ᴍᴏᴄʜɪ : Since I took your coat, I'll give it back to you next semester. ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇᴍᴀᴋᴇʀ replied to sᴀᴋᴜʀᴀ ᴍᴏᴄʜɪ : okies but like remember to check the pockets before you give it back there's a graduation gift for Sakura

「 Unlocked Moment Post 」

This was a special Moment Post for taking a Snapshot at Twinkle Photobooth of both Rafayel and MC wearing matching ❛ Academy Uniform ❜ outfits. His ❛ Academy Uniform ❜ is available for purchase in the Shop for 1280 purple gems. It was previously discounted for 960 (25% off). Her ❛ Academy Uniform ❜ is available for purchase in the Chocolate Shop for 5000 chocolates. That's around 3 weeks of saving weekly cap.

narrator voice: he never got his coat back.

Based on the in game moment's post, I have this headcanon where student!MC "borrows'" student!Rafayel's coat after taking their graduation photos. She doesn't really have any intention of returning it. Even though she said she'd return it there would be no 'next semester' as they have already graduated, hehe.

Speaking of keepsakes, I also have this idea that the “graduation gift” inside the pocket of the coat Rafayel was referring to would be his second button. In case anyone is unfamiliar with this Japanese folklore:

it is usual for a female junior to ask the senior male student she likes for his button. if the male student likes her too, he may give her his button. some popular male students may receive many requests from female students, but he will give his second button to the girl he likes the the most, and the other buttons to the other girls. the significance of the second button is that it is located closest to one’s heart.

[freebooter4ever]

ok i shouldnt be picking on geno's 2000-2010 era photos without laughing at a few of my own...

my under shirts were all black. because i was emo or something. but yes that shirt says something about cute witches and features a pumpkin.

my favorite oversized sweatshirt that i wore everywhere in the seattle winter drizzle. im knitting bc of course.

my other sweatshirt with the school logo because i was one of Those seniors. nuri is in the center - unlike me she grew out of the fandom life though sometimes she reminisces. note my bobbed hair. i hated this haircut but my mom would nag me and tell me how terrible my hair looked long until i cut it. maybe this was her idea of being a mother without actually living with us anymore. I stopped cutting my hair the year i finally was brave enough to cut her off.

another one with nuri. im the bright blue pj bottoms that were 100% silk and i have had since i was very very young and still have to this day, i love those things. my hand looks about ready to tackle my bff there who hated photos so is hiding behind a blanket grandma sewed. note the vhs tapes in the cabinet back there. im so fuckin old.

abby and jelly bean with their 'nut sacks'. im pretty sure every kid our age in america had those jump rope for heart tshirts. rite of passage.

fast forward to 2008 painting the fence at carne*gie, i still have this jacket, i still wear it regularly. i think this is telling me i really should update my wardrobe and stop dressing like its 2010.

if you happened to go to flagstaff hill across from the burgh conservatory sometime in may 2009 and discovered a tree covered in a 10 story tall knitted scarf....i had nothing to do with that

absolutely nothing.

this red coat was My Thing. i was the red coat girl all through college. it was the first 'real' coat i ever bought because would you believe it was actually cold in pittsburgh and i couldnt just wear sweatshirts like i did in seattle. if you know where this photo was taken you also probably grew up very wealthy in connecticut like my college 2007-2009 bff who i used to go home with during the holidays and who i was very much in love with.

i cannot believe i actually left the house while wearing this outfit. and to a concert no less. a fitz and the tan*trums concert at club cafe before the band was popular and Cool. my outfit here probably brought down the general Coolness factor of the concert. I knitted that blue sport weight lace hat which maybe saves it a little. i normally did not get invited to Cool things like concerts so this particular outfit is me Trying Really Hard (and failing). I still have that blue shirt.... i use it for running now.

this attempt at layering was less atrocious than some of the others. i matched the under shirt to my earrings at least. and next to me is my favorite person from college <3 a day after this was taken my mother visited for graduation and forced me to cut my hair into a bob, subsequently ruining all my graduation photos. i also will never know if my mothers appearance at graduation made my dad decide not to come or if he truly just didnt give a shit. i would have rather had my dad there.

[chanothy]

lost in the puzzle of a teenage mind

-F lure is surprisingly well known in the school

-(Partially because Lato is attached to him on the days he comes to school)

-like everyone seems to know him but he doesn’t have a lot of friends

-The theater club is where he THRIVES and is basically a celebrity there

-He makes all the costumes for the play and musicals they put on, and that saves them massive budget sometimes.

-Mans has never come to school in a half put together outfit and gets asked for fashion advice by half the girls in his class.

-But you get special privileges >:)

-your basically the female lead for EVERY school play since middle school.

-And you’ve been wearing his clothes since middle school

-Thats right, you’ve heard it here folks, you’ve known this guy since beginning of middle school.

-but Flure, being as shy as he is, has never been able to get close to you.

-and it PISSES HIM OFF

-mf definitely didn’t have many friends in middle school

-and he wanted to your friend 🥲

-but he literally cannot function around you

-You would think after working with you for so long he’d be comfortable around you

-nope

-imma make things hard fo you no happiness

-Middle school passed and ya’ll were nothing more than members of the same club

-much to flure’s dismay

-AND MUCH TO YOURS TOO

-At this point you just wanted to hold a freaking conversation with him thats NOT related to theater

-but he seems so uncomfortable around you so you come to the conclusion that he hates you

- i don’t make the rules anxiety and misunderstanding do.

-But then there is the magic that is the first year of highschool

-And my god did it do wonders for you guys

-Mostly because the awkward phase of middle school was over and you were both first year theater kids that didn’t know anyone :’)

-and slowly you got to actually know Flure as he did you.

-flure was more sassy then you thought he would be from your few conversations with him

-and Flure could see why you were popular in middle school

-no matter what you think your a joy to be around

-flure is now apart of your fan club

-you guys had more than half your classes together so you basically spend every school hour together

-and after school since you guys are in the same club

-after a while Flure started inviting you over to his house

-(he had to hype himself up for that)

-but he managed in the end and y’all probably spent half the school year messing around at his house after school.

-Flure definitely tried to show you how to sew but he didn’t prepare enough bandaids 💀

-…..it didn’t go well

-but he also found out YOU BAKE?

-like you always have sweet on you and you share them with him cuz sweet toothed people unite.

-he’s helped you bake a few cakes and he’s not that bad actually.

-and eventually you get added to a small friend group with Lato and Miyaji

-but since lato doesn’t come to school often and miyaji is a senior it’s usually y’all just ducking around all day with each other

-and this just further solidifies Flure’s crush on you.

-AND HE TRIES TO GIVE HINTS HE REALLY DOES.

-it seemed like anytime he planned to do something cool to impress you it goes horribly wrong.

-Did you see his super cool moves in the gym?

-…..no he did not get hit in the face with the ball

-yeah he made you this super cool bow to match your dress

-your dress got shredded by your cat

-yeah he studied extra hard to show off in class

-he studied the wrong materials and knew nothing

-oh here’s white day chocolates

-no they’re not obligatory 🤬

-let’s you borrow his phone and you find the folder he made that I’d JUST PHOTOS OF YOU.

-(and yes he has a bunch of pictures of you cuz your his muse and his inspiration 😤)

-AND LATO DOES NOT HELP

-teases flure about his obvious favoritism forward you.

-BUT HE TEASES HIM IN FRONT OF YOU AND HE DOESN'T WANT YOU YO FIND OUT LIKR THIS

-he’s both lucky and unlucky that your dense

-But also unlucky for him by the time second year came around you made other friends

-he, in fact, did not make new friends

-he’s shy and really just content with hanging around y’all’s little friend group.

-BUT WHY ARE YOU HANGING AROUND AMMON?

-that guy is so cool ;-;….. and Flures not….

-you also started skipping some of the club activities to the point you lost your part as female lead for the upcoming play.

-now he has to get measurements for a new girl but he has your memorized >:(

-although he doesn’t know how to say it he’s distressed by you not sticking to him like usual

-like besides Miyaji and Lato he doesn’t have any other close friends and your not even showing up at the lunch room anymore ;-;

-And he literally likes you so much, but your too dense for your own good like—

-you still go to his house after school, but not as often anymore.

-went from having you over five days a week to two or three.

-and it wasn’t like anything else had changed.

-you still acted the same and brought them sweet treats

-Flure starts to think he’s just being sensitive ;-;

-he also doesn’t know how or if he should even bring it up.

-but he gets kinda desperate to confess to you cuz what if you grow apart and he never gets to tell you?

-anxiety go 📈

“I think telling them would be best,” Miyaji said one day while at lunch. Miyaji always being the mature soul he was, was more than happy to give Flure advice where he could. Flure played with a straw of his drink in thought, “this is troublesome.”

“You both value honesty,” Miyaji pointed out, but he knew Flure likely would struggle to vocalize his thoughts in your presence. “Living honestly,” was all Flure could mumble in response. Flure wanted to be honest with you. He wanted more than anything to tell you that he was upset with you spending less time with him. He wanted to be honest about how he wasn’t sure if it was proper for him to be upset about these things, because he didn’t own your time.

“Why not write a letter,” Miyaji came to a final resolution, “You can be honest about how how you feel, and not have to face her directly,” Flure lit up at that. Because it was perfect! And with this is he ended up being rejected it could be non verbal and hopefully you both could just ignore that this ever happened!

-Flure spent three days pouring his heart and soul into a letter that he rewrote at least seven times.

-but the real challenge came when giving it to you

-he couldn’t give it to you in the morning cuz you would read it and it’s be awkward the rest of the day (preparing himself for rejecting guys)

-BUT HE SETTLED ON GIVING IT TO YOU AT LUNCH

-he has some confidence >:)

-but here’s the problem

-WHERE TF ARE YOU??

-He never really learned where you went during lunch.

-so he goes on an adventure to find you

-he eventually came to find you in the garden.

-which is shocking because you kill any plant you touch—

-BUT WHY ARE YOU WITH AMMON AGAIN >:(

- you skip lunch with him to talk with Ammon? ;-;

“I don’t really know how to describe it,” you hummed playing with the flower Ammon had handed you. Visibly lost in deep thought as you gently touched the soft petals of the flower. This particular flower was going out of season, there's no way Ammon would pluck his precious flowers for any reason. As a matter of fact he refused to let you touch the flowers in the garden knowing your reputation with plants. “Is it possible to just wake up one day and decide I don't enjoy something? Especial when i revolved my entire life around it…”

Ammon only hummed as he finally sat down by your legs, hands covered in dirt from his previous working. “People fall in and out of love all the time,” He said after giving it some thought, “People, foods, hobbies, it's okay to fall out of love.”

“I,....” It seemed as though the words almost hurt to admit to yourself but after a moment you were finally able to accept it, “I don’t… really like doing theater.” The words were heavy, and it made you feel anxious just admitting to this, and it felt shameful in a way. Like you were ashamed to be honest about your feels. But you valued honesty, and you couldn’t lie to yourself anymore.

“And that's okay,” He hummed, tapping his foot, “But you can't run away forever,” he said, poking you in the leg with a grin on his face. “Don't get me dirty,” you hissed, swatting his hand away, “And I'm not running away! I'm just… easing myself out of the situation. So it’s not a big deal when I do leave”

“Your just nervous what your little boyfriend will feel betrayed so your running away,” he leased further only causing youtube blush even more. “He’s not my boyfriend!” you denied kicking Ammon over onto the grass, while he only laughed at your flushed face.

-Whta. the . FAWK

-Your leaving theater? ;-; AND not telling him??? Jail.

-You indeed did not get the letter then

-But you did indeed get a text to come over to his house after school

-You were done being stupid if Flure had anything to do with it.

-The letter? Somewhere in his backpack.

-You? All over his mind.

-And you could tell

-You’ve known him long enough to know when something is bothering him

-And the fact that he wouldn’t tell you was stressing you out royally.

-Like Flure would sometimes open up to you?

-But when he didn’t it made you nervous, especially when you could tell it was seriously bothering him.

You’ve been to his house a thousand times but his was very different. Your anxiety was doing loops as you sat on his bed, a bed you have concluded was wayyy better than yours. Many of the blankets he had made himself, and were all the most comfortable. He even made you one before, one you had religiously kept on your bed since you received it as a Christmas present. You always preferred things made by Flure, the quality was something you could count on when he made it himself. Scarfs, sweaters, and other sloth gifts he had spent his time on just to make you happy. Giving gifts and acts of service were his love languages and you knew that more than anyone.

“You should have told me you didn’t enjoy theater anymore,” he saw quickly breaking the silence. He had been thinking of what to say to you on the walk here. He had thought of a thousand things to say. But when it came down to it his thoughts scrambled themselves and he could only string together half baked ideas that struggled to fit together. “I mean just not showing up is more inconvenient- and it made us scramble to put things together- And I know you’ve been avoiding me and honestly that made thins worse-” He spoke quickly in a scramble to try and convey his thoughts. But for some reason it felt like you guys were back in middle school. When he struggled to put together any sort of thoughts around you. And before you had properly gotten to know each other. Four years just to be back to square one.

“I-...” You bit your lip as you struggled to put together one coherent thought, trying to defend yourself in any way you could. But there was no denying that you were selfish to run away. “I’m a big coward aren't i?” you mumbled in responses. You pulled your legs up to your chest and buried you face in your knees. You wanted to hide, once again you wanted to be a coward and hide away from the stress of simply admitting you did something stupid. But Flure didn’t deserve that.

“I was scared you would hate me,” you mumbled with your eyes closed. Your chest felt heavy, but relieved at the same time. Admitting your flaws was hard, but you wanted to be honest with yourself as well as lure.

“That is by far the most stupid thing you could have thought,” He said plainly, which caught you off guard. You looked up from your knees to see Flure’s face was almost a red as yours. Being this honest with each other was new for the both of you, but that was okay.

So you laughed

You laughed at how stupid you were, at how you were worrying over nothing, “Yeah.. i guess your right,” was all you could say as you finally recovered from yout fit of laughter. With a huff, Flure moved to sit in front of you, “And don’t think ill just forgive you!” he said crossing his arms with a huff, which only made you laugh once again. Finally you felt like you could lift yourself.

“Alright Flure,” you said, unfolding yourself, feeling more comfortable, “i'll bake you your favorite cupcakes? How's that sound?” But Flure looked unsatisfied, but also became more red you waived patiently for him top agree aesthetically. But he never did, instead he looked away from you. “Flure?....”

He mumbled.

“I can’t hear youuuuuu.”

“.well ..Date….. Just once?” He mumbled through his words and you could barely pick out what he said. But what you could make out made your face flare up with red. Flure sputtered at your quiet reaction, “Well I-! If you're okay with it then…”

“Yeah okay,” Your said with a bright red face leaning into his side, “Let's do it.”

“That…sounds nice”

[kores-pomegranate]

So, I’m feeling Very Trans™️ tonight, and I realized I have never really written out my gender journey, or tried to put it all together chronologically. I think it would be nice to do that, so here we go.

I was in high school in the early 2000s in very rural Georgia. There weren’t any openly gay kids, let alone any openly trans kids. I can’t recall ever hearing the word nonbinary until after college.

Despite having no frame of reference or language for anything to do with gender, this is how I looked in high school.

I can remember getting tagged in that photo on MySpace and feeling what I can now identify as gender euphoria, but I didn’t have language for that. I just felt like I looked so *good,* but I couldn’t explain why I thought that. Now I’m like, hey bro you look pretty androgynous there, so maybe that was it.

I can remember begging my mom, from about 7th grade on, to let me cut my hair short. I cut out a photo of a very short pixie cut from a magazine that I kept as my inspo photo for like…five years? I had it stashed away in my box of keepsakes (I actually still have it) and I looked at it all the time. I just wanted to look like that model so bad and my mom was so firm on not letting me cut my hair that short. She was worried I would look like a boy, and I couldn’t understand that fear. My brain kept asking itself “who cares if I look like a boy? It doesn’t matter.”

She finally let me cut it the summer before my senior year of high school, and that is the first time I can remember feeling gender euphoria.

I loved how I looked and how it made me feel. My daily outfit of choice was usually “boy pants” and something very…gender neutral on top? I rarely wore dresses or anything hyper femme, but I never went hard in the other direction. It was all vibes, baybee.

I started growing my hair out when I started college. I went to an extremely small, extremely conservative Pentecostal college still located in rural Georgia, and there was a lot of unspoken expectation to be a “cool church girl.” For those unfamiliar, “cool church girls” were “edgy” because they had nose piercings and wore makeup and pants. They had “hippy vibes” while being hyper-religious. For the first time, I felt like I stuck out in a very bad way. Somehow, the gender expectations of my college were way worse than those from high school. So, I went in hard on that vibe, because I lost all sense of self.

These photos suck because it was the early 2000s and THAT’S JUST HOW IT WAS. In that particular picture I was also very much in the clutches of an eating disorder, so obviously there was a lot of self and body hatred happening in that person.

I got married the summer before my senior year of college. I was t w e n t y years old (it’s 9 and a half years later and I’m getting a divorce…soooo 😬). I was still so deeply immersed in this hyper feminine imagine of what a good Christian girl looked like. I was miserable for a lot of reasons, not just related to gender, but not unrelated either.

(That’s a candid of me like an hour before I was supposed to get married. Staring into the middle distance and dissociating a little 😅)

So, I got married, and then I thought, “okay, I did the thing, now I can go back to being this more comfortable and less feminine version of myself, because I successfully got the Ring Before Spring. No need to pretend any longer. So I chopped my hair off and instead of paying attention in class I fucker around with Snapchat filters and edited beards onto my face.

I remember my husband at the time messaging me after I posted that selfie on Facebook asking me to take it down because it “made him feel uneasy and uncomfortable” to see me looking like that, even if it was supposed to be “funny.”

That same year, for my big senior paper for my capstone class, I chose to write about why gender affirming medical care was the most compassionate and moral thing a Christian physician could ever offer to a patient. I was starting to wake up to issues of gender and sexuality insofar as how they related to larger society. As I learned about trans folks, I felt a deep yet confusing sense of empathy for how miserable it must feel to be in a body that doesn’t feel right, but to essentially have no medical options (especially at the time), to feel more affirmed in their gender.

I wrote that it is the responsibility of every physician to heal, and traced it back to the disciple Luke, who was often referred to in my school as “the first doctor.” I pulled out scripture references about the unrestricted love of god along with how preposterous it would be to deny care to someone who had a “more acceptable condition.” I think at the time I used cleft palate as an example. I wrote that it would be monstrous to deny reconstructive facial surgery to someone with cleft palate (if it was something they wanted), but if a trans woman wants facial reconstructive surgery in order to look more feminine, suddenly everyone has a huge problem.

At the time I still firmly identified as a cis woman, but it was while writing that paper that I remember having my first conscious thought about my gender. I thought to myself, “this…really all makes sense to me. Uh oh.” Then I shoved those thoughts and feelings into a box that I didn’t touch for almost a decade after that.

The next three pictures represent the “my egg is about to crack but it hasn’t yet” period of my journey. I went back to being hyper femme for a long time, and ended up with really long hair. I got pretty obsessed with makeup and makeup culture, and usually didn’t leave to do anything significant without a full beat. Eventually that waned, and I started to get this restless feeling that I sometimes got. I felt that I needed a change, because I wanted to look…more like myself? I just knew I wasn’t happy with the current state of things and something had to change. So I dyed my hair…a lot.

That felt good for a long time. But the restlessness returned in full force.

By that time, I had fully deconstructed Christianity and had been out of church and Christian culture for years. I had accepted my queerness and come out to most people, and was also practicing polyamory. I realized that so much about me had changed in a way that finally felt authentic, and yet. Something still felt like it wasn’t right yet.

I had gained a lot of language for gender expansiveness by then, and had a lot of experiences with being around trans folks, really for the first time in my life. Existing closely with people who threw all concept of gender out the window and reformed it into something that felt good to them made something click in me. Finally, f i n a l l y, it made sense to me. I wasn’t a girl, and I never had been. I wasn’t a boy either, and I didn’t want to be one, at least not in the stereotypical binary type of way.

I slowly started talking about maybe being non-binary to the people I was closest to, and while the first reaction was a solid dose of surprise, when they actually processed it 100% of the people I talked to said something to the effect of “oh that makes a lot of sense, actually.”

So here I am now, Very Nonbinary and very very very rarely femme. A lot of times I lean toward a trans-masc-ish identity or way of presenting, but it changes so much that a more specific label feels pointless.

I’m happy, finally. I don’t know where my gender journey will take me, but what I do know is that I fully have the freedom to go where I want and continue finding who I am, and that feels goddamn good.

Bonus for those who got to the end: me in the seventh grade dressed as Henry David Thoreau for, and I cannot emphasize this enough, *literally no reason.* there was not a school project or presentation, there was no assignment. I just wanted to do it, so I did it. The fact that I didn’t question my gender earlier frankly just confirms that I have always been the biggest thembo of them all.