#rushed a lil because I meant to have an update done by the end of Wednesday

[jellisdraws]

Orc Pinup!!!!

Uncropped image is available on Patreon! Link in blog description

She heard the weather was getting cooler and wanted to know if you needed a new set of earmuffs <3

[jaedore]

BINDING BONDS | 4

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parings: jung jaehyun x reader

genre: ceo!au, arranged marriage!au, consumption of alcohol, asshole/player Jaehyun, swearing

[ ◇ angst ]

note: BB deals with themes of mental and physical abuse, which can be upsetting for some readers. If you feel uncomfortable reading these types of plots, you are advised to not continue

a/n: just a little update before things get a lil crazy. i didn’t want the characters to go through so much so quickly, so enjoy this filler chpt!! also send me some feedback, i’d love to hear from you guys! ♡

[ 6.2 k ] 

You woke up to a throbbing headache and the sun shining in your face. You tried moving away from the light, but a firm pair of arms held you in place. Turning your head, you see Jaehyun sleeping peacefully behind you. You instantly jolt away from him, aghast that you two were in the same bed. 

Jaehyun stirs from the impact but immediately falls back asleep after mumbling incoherent words. Out of all the moments you’ve had with him, this is the first he held such placidity, you couldn’t help but see those features of his that everyone admires. Jaehyun’s skin coated with a honey tone that looked like it was made for a polished statue, the way his feather-like eyelashes kissed his cheeks, and the tint of his lips. It felt like you’ve done this before, admire him. 

Oh no, we didn’t...you looked down and realized you were wearing his shirt, clutching the black cotton between your fists. 

“You’re awake,” Jaehyun whispered, rubbing his eyes. 

“Uh yeah,” you avert your gaze elsewhere, even his morning voice made you jittery. 

“Don’t worry, we didn’t do anything,” he responded, looking at your disheveled state. 

Your hair was put in the worst bun possible, last night when Jaehyun was removing your makeup, your hair was all over your face so he had no choice but to put it up somehow. Since you slept in it, more hairs poked out making you look bizarre. The bare face you possessed brought out the puffiness of your cheeks and the swole in your lips. Jaehyun couldn’t help but look at you, who sat in his shirt. Considering that it was bigger on you, he noticed your shoulder poking out. Nervously, Jaehyun diverts his gaze elsewhere. 

“Then how did you get into my bed?” you asked, the last thing you remember was drinking to the sight of him and Chaeyoung at the after-party last night. 

“You wanted me to stay,” Jaehyun clarified. 

“And you listened to me?” you blurted, clearly frustrated with your actions. As you threw the blankets off, Jaehyun gently grasped your hand to stop you from leaving. 

“Y/n, please. About last night, I meant what I said at the Charity Ball,” he began.  

“I don’t know,” you brushed him off, standing up. 

“Please, just hear me out,” Jaehyun begged. 

You hesitated for a bit, what if he doesn’t mean his words? What if he just goes back to how he was? You inhaled enough air to inflate your lungs, making your decision. You sat back on your bed, crossing your legs, letting him continue. 

“I know what I did was wrong and nothing will ever justify it. I was just angry that I wasn’t allowed to find love for myself, I was angry that I couldn’t be with Chaeyoung. All of the words I said that tore you down, every action that I had done to hurt you, I take it all back. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that and I’m truly sorry. I know it’ll take a while for you to forgive me, but please, I want to apologize for everything.” Jaehyun looked up at you and you knew he genuinely meant what he said because you’ve never seen such misery in his eyes. 

You sat dazed in front of him, your mind couldn’t stop asking questions. Does he even mean all of this? “So what does this mean?” you looked up from your lap. 

“I don’t know, but I do want to try this out with you. I want to see if I can get there with you...no-” he shook his head, “-I want to get there with you and we can go as slow as you want!” 

You sat there thinking to yourself, you were so conflicted and guarded. Is this too soon? Is he just saying this to get in my head? 

“Please say something,” he pleaded, fiddling with his fingers. 

“I-“ you inhaled a sharp breath, “-I don’t know Jaehyun. We’ve been so hostile towards each other the entire time. This is toxic, this isn’t good and I don't want this.” you faltered. 

“Then what should I do?” Jaehyun asked, brows furrowed. As desperate as he sounded, he genuinely wanted to be better for you...and for himself. 

You didn’t know, you didn’t want to say anything because there was a lot that you wanted him to do, “Jaehyun,” you fumbled for the correct words, “I-your words really hurt me, don’t think I have the heart to trust and forgive you right now.”

“Oh,” he lowered his head, clearly disappointed. 

“I appreciate you apologizing though. I think it’s just going to take me some time to figure this out on my own.”

“Of course, take as much time as you needed,” he stood up and with soft steps, walked out of your room.

Why is he so sad in the way he walked? What happened yesterday and why is he suddenly acting differently? You threw your blankets aside and rested your hands on your propped up knees. Your pounding headache wouldn’t stop as you tried to recall the events that happened last night. You remember the vibrations of the blaring music, the flashing lights, the sheer coating of sweat on your body, Jaehyun dragging you away, the dried tears that stained your cheeks, and...you crying. Oh my gosh...you winced at your humiliating behavior as the conversation you had with Jaehyun came back. How can you be so stupid? Get your shit together, damn it y/n!

It took you a while to get yourself out of bed, you didn’t want to risk facing Jaehyun. Maybe that’s why he’s all apologetic now. You thought, citing your conversation with him from last night. When you finally heard the familiar sound of his door shutting, you got up to wash your face. It was then you realized you didn’t have any makeup on. Oh, he must’ve taken it off…

After getting yourself ready for the day, you walk downstairs and there’s a saturated aroma of savory breakfast food filling the air, “You made breakfast?” you walked down to see two sets of plates placed on the table filled with food. 

“Yes,” Jaehyun’s lips pressed together. 

“Oh, thank you.” 

“I’m sorry for not making you any last time,” he scratched the back of his head, “um, let’s eat.” 

If you were to be honest, the tension between you wasn’t exactly there, but it was just a little awkward. You sat across from each other in silence as you ate, the quietness was eating you alive so you took the courage to speak first.

“What happened last night?” you asked him, you just wanted confirmations of your thoughts. 

“Well” he began, “at the club, you got super drunk that you started dancing with one of my friends, Johnny Suh. So I took you home and...you started crying.” 

“Oh my gosh,” you rested your forehead on your palm, embarrassment washing over you, so everything I said was true. “Please don’t tell me what I said,” you held up a hand and continued eating your food. You already knew what you said, you just didn’t want to hear it from Jaehyun.

“Oh. Okay,” Jaehyun thought that maybe you were just embarrassed, but he also felt like you didn’t want to talk about how you truly felt. He figured he’d have to wait for you to be ready without being intoxicated. 

The day went on how it usually did, you both went to your rooms, this time leaving your doors opened a bit. Occasionally, you’d go to the kitchen to get a snack and you’d see him doing the same. Instead of just staring at each other with a void, a small nod would come.

It’s going to take time. Jaehyun reminded himself as he watched you go back up to your room.

You, on the other hand, you weren't handling it too well. You were so used to people coming and going as they pleased, that you’ve built yourself a wall. You’re just trying to be cautious because of the past and because of how Jaehyun regarded you. 

Your phone rang, interrupting you from your thoughts, “Hello?” 

“Hey, how are you doing?” Haewon asked. 

“I’m fine.” 

“You left me last night without telling me that you were leaving early with Jaehyun,” you knew your best friend was pouting on the other side. 

“I’m sorry, I was just really wasted,” you sighed, you needed to stop doing that. 

“Yeah I know, at least you got home safely,” Haewon commented, “he didn’t...yell at you again right?” 

“No.” 

“Oh really? What happened?” 

“Well this morning, Jaehyun apologized and said that he wanted to actually try. But I don’t know, Haewon. I really really don’t know what to do,” you faltered. 

“Really y/n? He apologized? And you’re going to really believe that? ” Haewon doubted. 

“I mean he sounded sincere,” you shrugged.

“Well, I don’t trust him at all! I hate the way he treats you. There’s no way he whole-heartedly meant it.” Haewon retorted. 

“We’ll see,” you huffed. 

“Anyways, I know you're still planning your collection for spring and summer, but I just wanted to check up on you. I hope you’re doing okay,” you felt her heartwarming smile melt your heart. 

“I’ll be okay,” you reassured her. 

“I’m serious, y/n! If he mistreats you again, Imma just have to come over and give him a little punching!” Haewon threatened. 

“No! Don’t!” you said in bewilderment, “Mark already did and it didn’t end looking good, so please, no more fights.” 

“What? Mark Lee? No way.”

You explained to her the situation of that morning, you still couldn’t erase the image of Jaehyun who looked defeated and contrite at the time. The way his full shoulders suddenly withered over his sturdy body, his firm hands collapsed beside him, and his eyes painted in poignant. The image stained your brain and no matter how much you tried forgetting it you couldn’t help but feel the slight twinge in your chest. 

You rushed the conversation, in hopes of ending the topic, “alright, it’s late and I have to get into the office early tomorrow. Goodnight, I’ll talk to you later,” you yawned. 

“Okay, love you,” Haewon replied. 

You hung up, feeling your stomach grumble. You’ve been in your room all day, you haven’t gone out to eat yet. You headed to the kitchen for a late snack and as you opened the fridge, you spotted a written note stuck to the top of a container.

[ I made some for dinner, but you seemed busy on the phone. Just heat it in the microwave until it’s the way you want it ] 

You took off the top, smelling the stir fry. You nodded, impressed that Jaehyun can actually cook. Once it was warm enough, you sat at the table and scrolled through emails.  You had more files that needed to be approved, hopefully, it wasn’t as much as the last round. Launching a new collection was definitely hard, especially when it’s for two seasons of the year, which meant two different concepts. You loved your job, but sometimes you wish that there were easier ways to approve things. 

“Good morning,” your mother greeted.

You pressed your lips together at the familiar sight on your desk. Once again, there were stacks of files sitting on your desk, so you had to literally move them to make room for yourself. As you sat down, you ordered the files from most urgent to least and immediately got to work. 

This time, you weren’t so harsh on yourself. You often took breaks and occasionally got food with your mother, you enjoyed the time you shared with her because it wasn’t often that you did. 

“How are you and Jaehyun?” 

“We’re...good,” you hummed, stirring the tea that sat before you. You watched as the tinted liquid swirled after your spoon in the glass cup, it went with the flow. Maybe I should too. 

“Honey, I know when you’re lying,” she took your hand in hers, almost as if she was trying to shield you from the dark world of being hurt. 

“Mother, really, we’re fine,” you sighed. You didn’t want to trouble her or stress her out, you both already have enough on your plate. 

“Just know that you can tell me anything, okay? I’m your mother.” 

“Of course,” you thinned your lips. 

When you came back to your office, you were persistent on finishing, so you worked hard until the series of words soon became blurred and your brain couldn’t absorb any more information. When you looked at the clock, it was suddenly 7pm. You felt the tension in your shoulders, rolling them back, you knew you needed to reward yourself before you started on another department. You strolled into the break room and brewed a cup of tea and sat at one of the closer tables, you heard a text from your phone. 

[ Jaek-ass: hey I made some food and stored it in the fridge again. Just reheat it when you come home ] 

You haven’t changed his name from your contacts, you were going to leave it at that for a bit. Of course, he was gentle in caring for you when you were wasted, you could still feel the warmth of his arms around you. Also when he apologized and when he made you dinner, but despite all that, you were so guarded. You know he was trying, but the hurt that he caused you was blocking you from accepting it. 

When you came home around 9, it seemed like Jaehyun was already in bed. He usually worked from home, but this week he was in the office. You envied how he always seemed to have it lucky, everything usually goes his way. You walked to the fridge to take out the container of food he prepared for you, this time it was macaroni and cheese. You chuckled as you set it in the microwave, you always ate this during your college days whenever you were pulling all-nighters. The taste brought you back to your old days. 

You found your mind wandering to Jaehyun and his old days. You wondered where he went to think and process his thoughts, who were the friends that made him laugh and formed those dimples of his, you didn’t know a lot of things. Did he talk to Chaeyoung yet? You sighed, they had so much history. You knew you were intruding into their relationship, but this was a situation that you couldn’t help. 

As you got ready for bed, you called Haewon for a little chat, before you moved in with Jaehyun, she would always come over and spend time with you. You missed her dearly, she was the crazy friend that always gave you a good time, but this time you wanted to talk seriously with her. You expressed to Haewon your concerns about letting your guards down and opening up to Jaehyun. She always knew you were guarded and always did her best to make you feel comfortable, but she felt like if you never let your walls down, there was going to be no one waiting for you. You huffed when she said that, all you wanted was to find someone for yourself… but maybe that person is you. 

“Well, I’m going to head to bed. You probably have a busy work schedule too, so go to bed, I’ll talk to you later. Love you.” Haewon bid. 

“You have no idea. Goodnight, love you,” you hung up the phone and threw yourself on the bed. It’s not like you can blame your parents for putting you in this position, this is all they know, they were put in this situation, and so were your grandparents. To be honest, it felt like a family curse.

When you woke up the next morning, Jaehyun had already left for work. Breakfast was stored and as you reheated it, you scrolled through your emails. The Designing Department had already sent digital images of rough drafts for the upcoming Spring-Summer collection. The designs didn’t look right, so you figured you’d have to go to their department today. You exhaled in annoyance, going down there meant that you weren’t able to work on the files, which means that everything you hoped to finish was going to be put back. 

“Morning sweetie,” your mother greeted from her desk. 

“Good morning mother, I have to go down to the Designing Department for a bit today, have my assistant call me if I'm needed.” you quickly set your bag and made your way.

You double-check your notes, making sure everything was ordered and organized. As the upcoming CEO, you had to have your life together. As the elevator doors open, you stride to the open doors that hold one of the most important assets of the company. 

“Good morning, Ms. y/l/n.” everyone greeted you. 

“Yes, good morning, everyone. Today we have a busy day, I went over the files that were sent to me and some adjustments need to be made. That being said, I want to work with the design processors first, we’ll get all of the designs done for the prototyping to begin today. Everyone, get to work!” You commanded, everyone dispersing into their job. 

You walked over to where the processors were, they were in charge of designing the outfits. The colors, patterns, print, and proportion were all done by them. Several of them had their head buried in their desk, Park Chaeyoung. There she was, sitting in her desk, solely focused on her designs. Her head perked up once you towered over her. 

“I heard you’re very good at designing-” you nodded at her drawings, “-may I take a look?”

“O-oh! Of course,” she handed you her stack of papers. 

You quickly scanned her sketches, her lines were delicately drawn with preciseness and the patterns complimented the outfit, she unexpectedly met your expectations. One thing that bothered you was that the colors didn’t harmonize well together, instead, they clashed. Nonetheless, you were still impressed. 

“They’re not bad,” you sighed, handing them back, “but I advise you not to play with the colors too much. The designs are very well drawn, but the colors clash too much. It makes it hard on the eye.” you advised her. 

“Yes, Ms. Y/l/n, thank you for the advice.” Chaeyoung bowed her head. 

You smiled back before drawing your attention to the rest of the team members. You went to each of them, making sure the designs were well correlated with the collection. You made sure to speak with every designer and ensure that everything corresponded. Every fabric, texture, detail, and sampling had to be perfect, there was no room to mess up. 

By lunchtime, you weren’t as close to finishing as you wanted to be, but you can tell that you lacked effort from the designing team. You huffed in annoyance, “alright, everyone, thirty-minute lunch, please. Be back as soon as possible!” you demanded. 

As you let the entire team to lunch, you sat and scanned over the designs again, ensuring everything was perfect enough to move on. You wrote corrections and notes here and there, so the processors knew what to revise and change.

Jaehyun sat in his office chair, fixated on the papers in front of him, his hair tousled, and his tie slightly loosened. Going over the accounting finances were a pain in the ass, he had to make sure everything was correct, and so far, they weren’t. The debits and credits were mixed up, even an elementary student could’ve figured it out. It wasn’t even better that he was meeting up with Chaeyoung at her place tonight. Jaehyun was going to clear things up with her and for once, he felt like he was doing the right thing. 

Back at Audace, as soon as the department was back, it was time to get to work. You gave the processors a few minutes before beginning the prototyping process. Not only was designing hard but so was sewing. Everything had to fit together, the fabric needed to be embedded, and it had to be the fabric that the outfit was designed for.  You glide the folded textile through the sewing machine, yarn connecting it into one. As you put the finished textile on the mannequin, you heard someone scolding. You turned your head to see the head department, Jieun, lecturing Chaeyoung as she held her head low. You walked over, hoping to alleviate the tension. 

“You should know better! Even if Ms. Y/l/n gives you thirty minutes, you only have twenty minutes! We are launching our Spring-Summer collection. We don’t have time to be flexible, we don’t even have time for lun-”

“Everything alright here Jieun?” You raised a brow. 

“Y-yes,-” she bowed, “-everything is okay.”

“Then let’s get back to work, we have a lot to do.” 

You led the Designing Department through the whole process in making the outfits. Textiles were sewn, fabrics were slipped on the mannequin, and outfits were completed. You sighed after completing a few, the department still had a few more to go and it was almost the end of everyone’s shift. Your fingers flowed through the silky fabrics of one of the blouses you put together, you were putting your whole heart and soul into this collection, you had to impress society that you were made to be the next CEO. A ring from your phone suddenly distracted you from your thoughts. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey y/n,” it was Jaehyun. 

“Hi, is everything okay?” It wasn’t usual for him to call you at all.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’m just letting you know that I won’t be home until later tonight,” he said. 

“Oh, ok-” you paused, “-do you want me to leave you some dinner?” 

“No, that’s okay. I know you’re busy with work, just get some sleep when you get home. I’ll eat when I’m done.” Jaehyun said. 

“Okay,” you bid him goodbye and hung up the phone. 

You could hear the fatigue and stress in his voice. Maybe he’s busy at work, hopefully, he gets some sleep. You didn’t want to meet an angry Jaehyun again. You eluded your thoughts and got back to work, you figured that you’d be working overtime also, so you did your best to rush with preciseness. 

Jaehyun cleaned his desk, he grabbed his bag, ready to leave for Chaeyoung place. He hadn’t figured out what he was going to say to her, but he had a clear idea. 

“Goodnight Mr. Jung,” his employees bowed as he passed them. 

Once Jaehyun was driving on the road, his mind strayed to you. He wondered if you were okay at work, if you had a lot, and if you were taking breaks often. Jaehyun didn’t exactly know you, but he knew how stubborn you were, especially when it comes to work. You liked to plow through the work, you liked to get things done. Jaehyun sighed as his palms tightened on the steering wheel, he was nervous to talk to Chaeyoung. So many ‘what if’ scenarios flashed through his mind.

When Jaehyun pulled into Chaeyoung's parking lot, he felt his palm sweat. Uneasiness settled in his bones, he didn’t want to break her heart, he didn’t want to break the woman he loves. He’s already broken you, he didn’t want to break another, especially Chaeyoung. Jaehyun timidly walked up to her door, quietly knocking on it, hoping that the hush of it was heard. 

“Jaehyun!” she pulled him in for a hug, shutting the door behind him. 

“Hey,” Jaehyun gently pulled her away, “we need to talk.” 

Chaeyoung pulled him to her couch, she sat and grasped his hand sensing the seriousness, “Is everything okay?” 

“I-” Jaehyun rubbed his face, hoping it’d release some of the tension behind his expression, “-we need to stop.” 

“What do you mean?” Chaeyoung’s voice quieted. 

“This,” he pointed back and forth between them, “we need to end this.” 

“W-why? Did I do something wrong?” Her voice weakened.

Silence drapes the room as Jaehyun sits across Chaeyoung. He knows he has to tell her the truth, that’s what she deserves, but her reaction made Jaehyun anxious. Would she hate me? What if she never wants to see me ever again? He couldn’t afford to lose her, but at the same time, the guilt ate him alive every time the image of you flashed in his head. 

Jaehyun tangled his fingers through his hair. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he exhales, “I’m engaged to someone.” 

“What?” Chaeyoung’s eyes widen, “who?”

There was a long pause before Jaehyun can speak up, “Y/l/n Y/n,” he lowers his gaze at his fiddling hands. 

“My boss? You’re engaged to my boss?” Chaeyoung stood up appalled. 

“Please sit,” he begged. 

She yanked her hand from his, “How? Why? Since when?” 

“Since a while ago, we won’t be getting married until the summer. It’s for business, but honestly, I just don’t think my dad wants me to marry you,” he quietly scoffed, “Jung Corporation is a joint company with Audace.” 

Chaeyoung’s head falls into the palm of her hand, “I hate you. How could you do this to me? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” 

“Because I wanted to be with you! But I’ve treated y/n like shit and now...I want to try this with her,” Jaehyun whispered the last part. 

Chaeyoung sits in silence, before she releases a long-awaited sigh, “Please go,” she points to the door. 

“Ch-Chaeyoung, please,” he pleaded. 

“Get out, Jaehyun!” 

So as much as Jaehyun wanted to stay he knew he had no choice but to leave, he knew that you were probably waiting at home for him. This is now over and he knows that it’s time to focus on fixing this up with you, but he can’t help but feel the pain in his chest. For such a long time, he’s waited for Chaeyoung to come back from the states and start a life with him. Of course, things never work out for him. 

Before he drove home, Jaehyun drove to the edge of a cliff. The twinkling lights that lit the city helped him overlook his problems, it helps remind him his problems were only small. Jaehyun rested his head on the steering wheel, a choked cry came out, which grew into sobs about everything he’s done. Jaehyun wanted out, he didn’t want to be put through this, not anymore, but thought of you always reminded him that he wanted to be better. Even though he had you, his heart hurt for Chaeyoung, the memory of her crying, pointing out the door, telling him that she hated him would resonate in his mind. 

When you got home, Jaehyun hadn’t made it back yet, usually, he’d be home around 5 if he was ever late. You shrugged it off, making your way to the kitchen making dinner, and turning on some music. You were making your favorite dish, pad thai. Hopefully, Jaehyun liked it too because you were going to pack a little for him. 

The rice noodles that sauteed with the sauce and vegetables filled the kitchen with a delectable aroma. You set yourself a plate and a container for Jaehyun, leaving it uncapped to cool down. You sat by the table, munching on your dinner as you scrolled through your phone. You replied to text messages and emails that required your approval. 

“Maybe I should just stay later,” you sighed. Since you spent the day in the Designing Department, you didn’t get the chance to work on any other department files. You rubbed your temples in frustration, you were going to have to bring them home. You were never fond of bringing work home, you cherished the moment you had after work because it was your time to relax and be at peace. Work was work and whatever work you had you left it in your office until the next day, but everything was so demanding now. 

You didn’t want to think about it anymore, you set your phone down to enjoy the food in front of you, but you shortly heard the door open and a tired Jaehyun walked in. His hair was tousled, his tie was loose, and a couple of buttons were undone. His eyes held dark bags and were stained red, was he crying? Jaehyun looked at you curiously, to him, you looked overworked, considering you were still in your work clothes. 

“I just got home,” you answered, it was like you read his mind, “I made some pad thai and packed it in the fridge, just give me a second-” you got up from your chair, making your way to the fridge, “-I’ll heat this up for you.” 

“O-oh, you don’t have to. I can do that, just come finish your food.” Jaehyun stuttered. 

“It’s okay,” you already had the pad thai on a plate and placed it in the microwave.

You set the warm food in front of Jaehyun who seated himself beside your chair. You watched him from the corner of your eye, you wanted to see his reaction. 

“This is really good,” his eyes widened. 

“You like it?” you asked. 

“Yes, what is this?” Jaehyun asked, taking another bite. 

“Pad thai,” you replied, “when I was younger, my family and I would often take trips to Thailand. One of the chefs taught me how to make it since I like it so much.” 

Jaehyun nodded, continuing to eat as you quietly sat and finished yours. You offered to clean up and let him get ready for bed, but he was persistent in doing the cleaning, so you let him. You walked up to your room to get ready to shower, hoping that the hot water would release the tension in your shoulders. As it did, you couldn’t help but feel unsettled, you were typically good at giving people the cold shoulder, especially to Jaehyun, so why were you suddenly being considerate of him? You dug into your subconscious to see where your feelings were with him. You convinced yourself it was going to take time to forgive him, but your actions already said that you did. Colliding with your thoughts, you didn’t know who to listen to. 

It was late and you wanted to leave for work early in the morning, but as you laid in bed, you couldn’t stop shuffling in your sheets. Your body was physically drained, but your mind was everywhere. Why did he come home late? Was he crying? Your brows furrowed. You remembered how he looked at you when he came in, for a split second you thought you saw heartbreak and regret in his eyes. Maybe he went to go talk to Chaeyoung. You sighed. Only your thoughts of tomorrow could confirm it. 

So there you were, 5am, sitting in your office going through the files. With your tea beside you, the shuffling of papers swayed the steam coming from the cup, almost cooling it down. 

By the time your mother came in, you had finished the Marketing Department’s files. “You’re here early. When did you come?” Your mother set her bag on her desk. 

“5,” you said, grabbing the files leaving the office. 

You stood alone in the elevator, employees coming and going. On the 5th floor, Chaeyoung stood wide-eyed as the doors opened to the sight of you. She bowed and quickly came in, standing a few feet from you, you saw how she tightly held onto the files in her hands. You figured she had to drop some paperwork off at another apartment, but your assumptions stood true, Chaeyoung’s eyes were swollen, bags shadowed beneath her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days, even though you saw her yesterday. 

The two of you stood silent until the 4th floor was met, you nodded to her and left for the Marketing Department. On your stroll there, you could hear whispers occurring as you passed by. The Marketing Department was notorious for gossiping, they knew many of the present trends and updated buzz. Usually, they spoke about you, but a familiar name was called and you slightly stiffened. 

“Did you see the pictures of Jaehyun at the after-party?” one of them said. 

“No, show me!” another begged.

“They’re blurry, but isn’t he handsome???” the girl gawked. 

“Who’s that girl he’s carrying?” another asked, frustration glazing her question. 

“I’m not sure, but I’ll figure it out. I always do,” the girl chuckled. 

Your eyes widened as you realized that girl they were referring to was you. You quicken your strides to the head office, you quickly drop it off to make your way back to your office, avoiding the girls. You panted as you fell into your chair, you weren’t aware that you were holding your breath through all of that. 

“Are you okay?” Your mother noticed your thwarted expression. 

“Yeah,” you sighed, getting back to work. 

As you worked on your files, you lost track of time as your focus was solely on completing them. Your mind was distracted the second your secretary stood in front of your desk. 

“Can I help you?” You asked, your focus not leaving the papers in front of you. 

“Ms. y/l/n, someone is here for you.” She said. 

“Unless they have an appointment, I don’t have time to talk.” 

“M-Ms. y/l/n,” your secretary hesitated, “it’s Mr. Jung.”

You sighed, looking at the clock. You hadn’t realized it was already noon. Why is Jaehyun here? “Let him in.” 

Your gaze avoided the door to your office, you didn’t want him to think you were waiting for him. When Jaehyun walked in, he was dressed in a dark grey suit, his tie well done, his hair slicked back, he looked rather composed, unlike last night. 

“Hi, I hope you’re not too busy,” Jaehyun walked up to your desk, you could smell the cologne he always wore. It held a clean, wood, and rich scent like it was made solely for him. 

“Just a little bit, is everything okay?” You quietly asked. 

“Yeah,” he sat down in one of the seats in front of you, “I was wondering if you have time for lunch.” He enjoyed the moment last night as you two ate, so he wanted to have lunch with you today. 

Oh...Your eyes slightly widen, you didn’t know if you were excited or surprised. “I have time,” you nodded. 

“Great, I don’t know what you like so I just brought some kimbap that I made,” Jaehyun’s lips pressed together. 

“That’s okay, I like it.” You reached to grab one and popped it in your mouth.

Before you could grab another, your mother marched in, “Honey, I’m ba-OH! Mr. Jung, I wasn’t aware you were coming. I’ll leave you two be.” she quickly ran out. 

“No, mother it’s okay!” You begged, anticipating the awkward tension between you two, but she was quick to leave. “Sorry about that,” you commented, lowering back into your seat. 

“That’s okay,” Jaehyun chuckled, you saw those dimples and his whiskers again, it sent jitters to your spine. “What are you working on?” he nodded at the papers in front of you.

“Um-” you looked at your files, “-just approving the departments’ files. We’re coming out with a new Spring-Summer collection, so they need my approval for several things.” 

“That’s a lot. When do they need it?” 

“By the end of the week, I usually finish by Thursday but it looks like I’m going to have to bring some home so I can just finish on time,” your smile fell when you realized who was standing at the door. 

Jaehyun picked up on your expression and turned around in his seat, “Ch-Chaeyoung.” 

It felt as if time had slowed down, the three of you stood still in your places. None of you said a word and let the unsettling feeling resonate in each other’s bones. The silence blanketed the room and brought tension between everyone. 

You held your breath before speaking up, “What is it Chaeyoung?” you asked.

“Your secretary wasn’t at her desk and I needed to drop these off as soon as possible, they need your approval.” She walked towards your desk and gently set them on your desk. 

You thank her as she bows and leaves, Jaehyun’s gaze never leaving her figure. You felt your stomach lightly drop, was it the kimbap? Or were you flustered, hot, and maybe a little jealous? Nope. 

You cleared your throat, earning Jaehyun’s attention, “I’m full and I have a lot to do, so I’ll see you at home.” you said, this was a way of forcing him out of your office. 

“Y/n,” Jaehyun’s head fell to the side.

“I don’t want to know Jaehyun. Whatever you have with her is your issue,” you opened the doors to your office, “please leave.” you did your best at keeping your composure together. 

“Y/n, I ended things with her.” Jaehyun’s palms fell in front of you in reason. 

“Please, Jaehyun,” you gulped, “go.” 

[charliesradiodemon]

Pwease pwease pwease do 15 passionately 💗💗charlastor , fat nuggets need it

(I was inspired by a couple of comics that are similar to this fic. For the sake of the fic making sense, Charlie never dated Vaggie and is single here.

Also don’t worry! I’m still working on Arranged Marriage! I’m just also working on many other things! You’ll be seeing an update soon! For now I’m bum rushing for Charlastor week!

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends ❤️❤️)

15. Passionate Kiss

It was Valentine’s Day, a holiday that humans came up with and celebrate once a year on Earth. It was a day of love and cherishing your significant others. Some even used the day to confess their love to another. Charlie remembered when she first heard of Valentine’s Day and only sighed at how sweet and romantic it sounded. But she never had anyone to celebrate it with. In her last relationship, Harold never wanted to celebrate the holiday in any way. He’d always tease her for wanting to practice “lowly human customs”. And before that, the holiday hadn’t even existed yet.

Today Charlie had a slew of ideas to celebrate the holiday with everyone at the hotel. Today was about love, and what better way to turn around a sinner than with love? And chocolate!

Before Charlie could skip out her door, she paused mid-step. “Oh!” She exclaimed, jumping back in surprise. A large red heart, along with a vase of red roses stood in her way. Had she finished that step, she would have crushed the heart entirely.

Charlie knelt and carefully picked up the glass vase and heart before backing into her room. She set the vase by her bedside and felt a smile creep up once she got a good view of the bouquet. The vase was simply brimming with perfect red roses, but there was no card amongst the densely packed flowers. Who could afford such a thing, Charlie wasn’t quite sure. It could have been from her parents, but they weren’t the biggest fans of Valentine’s Day considering the origins of the holiday. Nevertheless she loved the roses and took a deep whiff of their subtly sweet scent before heading out to find and thank whoever left them.

On her way down, she took a quick glance at the heart. She knew what hearts were and how it was a common symbol used on Valentine’s Day and for love in general, but this thing was different. When she shook it, it rattled. There was something inside, but how was she supposed to open it? Could she even open it?

When she reached the lobby, the giddy princess started her hunt at the bar to ask Husk first. When she got there Angel was already leaning against the bar counter, flirting with Husk so early in the morning.

Charlie skipped up to the bar, greeting both Husk and Angel a happy Valentine’s Day. She set the heart on the bar and slid it toward Husk. “Hey Husk, do you happen to know where this came from?”

Angel’s face lit up when he focused on the heart in front of Charlie. “Ohhhh! Who gave ya Chocolates toots?”

“Chocolates?”

“Aren’t they chocolates? I mean it’s Valentine’s Day, it’s gotta be chocolate.”

Charlie knew that lovers would exchange gifts like chocolate and flowers on Valentine’s Day, but she had no clue that the heart contained chocolate. She didn’t even notice that she could open it!

She turned to Angel, leaving Husk to his morning drinking. She placed her hand over the box and looked up at Angel. “Someone left me this outside my door…”

“Did they leave ya a note?”

“Nope.”

Angel quirked a brow. “Alright… that’s a lil’ creepy… Do ya think it’s safe? Maybe there’s no chocolates in there.” He pointed to the heart-shaped box with a suspicious look in his eye.

Charlie shrugged and looked around the heart until she found a prominent line under what seemed to be the lid of the box. She lifted it by the lid and wiggled it, letting the box slowly separate from the heart-shaped lid.

When the trio looked into the box, sure enough it was full of chocolates. “Oh wow these look pretty expensive,” Angel took one and closely examined the morsel. “Bet they taste expensive too,” He predicted before tossing the whole square into his mouth. “Yep! Damn that’s good!” He exclaimed before reaching over and grabbing four more pieces.

Suddenly, the blonde got between Angel and her gift. “Hey!” Charlie pouted. Little did she know, Husk also picked up a piece and tossed it in his mouth. His face scrunched and he washed the sweetness from his mouth with the beer he’d already been working on.

Angel scoffed and rolled his eyes. “What, you’re gonna eat all that all by yourself?” He returned to lean against the bar and continued, “So expensive chocolates huh? Whoever gave ya that must really have it bad for ya Charlie.”

Charlie felt her face heat up at Angel’s comment.

“I wonder who the sucker is,” he looked around the lobby to find only a few of the patrons sitting around, waiting for breakfast. “Can’t be one of these bozos.” He huffed a laugh and popped another chocolate in his mouth.

Charlie took one of the squares and took a tentative bite. She perked up as the chocolate melted in her mouth, coating her tongue in it’s sweetness. It reminded her of the chocolates her parents would give her when she was younger. She tossed the rest of the delicious chocolate in her mouth and hummed in delight. “You’re right! It’s amazing!”

“I’m glad you think so dear.” A radio backed voice came from behind Charlie. She jumped and whipped around. Expectedly it was Alastor who stood fairly close to her with a satisfied grin on his face.

“Wait Al, this was you?” Charlie greeted the radio demon with a wide appreciative smile.

He nodded proudly. “Yes it was! I made it was only the best of the best!”

“The roses too?”

“Why of course! No-“

Angel gasped and yelled, “Woah woah woah! Roses?! Holy shit Romeo I didn’t know you were some kinda romantic!” The group eating breakfast turned their attention toward the commotion.

“Angel, it would be in your best interest if you would keep your mouth shut before I take it away.” He said in a crackling, eerie distorted voice. The air around the bar became increasingly thick with tension. Angel retracted back in fear while everyone at the breakfast table watched with interest, as if they were hoping the radio demon would make good on his promise.

Charlie slid the box between her and Alastor to grab his attention before the situation escalated. “Hey Al, why don’t you try one?” Immediately the heavy tension dissipated at the sound of her voice and Alastor returned his full attention to Charlie.

He chuckled and picked up a piece, casually examining it. “I’m not one for sweets my dear,” he bent forward slightly, holding the chocolate between two clawed fingers. He extended the chocolate right before Charlie’s lips. “I bought these for you, so why not have another and I’ll consider trying one.”

Charlie glanced up at him and then the chocolate. It was an odd deal but it seemed like it was harmless. She shrugged and opened her mouth to let Alastor place the chocolate on her tongue. She shut her mouth and let the chocolate melt over her tongue once more, savoring the flavor.

Alastor admired her face, which lit up with pure joy. Her smile never failed to set his heart on fire and inspire contentment at the same time. Today was the perfect day to show her exactly what she meant to him and when he continued to execute his flawless plan, she would be his by the end of the day.

But then his eyes drifted down to her closed mouth and watched it move with her swirling tongue. Though he didn’t enjoy sweets, his curiosity began taking over. Then his imagination. Then his hands and feet. Unknowingly, he moved closer and used his right hand to tip her chin up. He met her snapped open eyes before meeting her black lips.

He didn’t realize it either when his tongue forced its way into Charlie’s mouth. The dulled down sweetness of the chocolate on her tongue made the flavor bearable enough for him. It was good, even. Though he wasn’t sure if it was because of the high of the moment or the chocolate itself at this point. It was then he discovered that Charlie was kissing him back, her tongue moving with his and further amplifying the sweetness of the kiss.

Realizing what he’d done, Alastor pulled away. He never took his eyes off of her, not wanting to see the faces of the individuals around him. Usually he’d revel in the attention, but now he just exposed a soft side to him no one had ever seen before. He’d have to kill them all- no, that would upset Charlie.

Oh Charlie…

This wasn’t how the day was supposed to go. He’d inadvertently ruined all of his plans to whisk the princess off her feet and now he stood there like a fool. He needed to leave. He summoned his cane and tapped the floor, melting into a shadow that frantically slithered up the stairs.

The room was dead quiet. Charlie looked around to find all eyes on her. Even Angel Dusk was wide eyed and slack jawed in shock. Truly nobody expected that from Alastor, not even Charlie. She turned back around to hide her burning red face. He kissed her, and she kissed him back! Then another realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Today was Valentine’s Day and he gave her presents… and kissed her! Did he really feel that way toward her?

She needed to find him. She’d never find out if she didn’t ask. He went up the stairs so he must have retreated back to his room.

Without another word, Charlie slammed the lid on the chocolate box and sprint up the stairs with it in her arms.

‘He likes me! He really likes me!’ Charlie thought giddily, letting her emotional high carry her up the stairs.

Ever since she met him, she was drawn to his charm, his personality, his voice, his dancing- everything about him. Sure he wasn’t the kindest or most gentle mortal soul out there, but she’d always smile with him around. He was dangerous, Vaggie would always warn her, but Charlie didn’t care. No matter how bad the rumors about him were, she’d look past them and got to know him better. He could cook, he loved his mother and he’d always find ways to cheer her up in his own strange way. To her, he was human: flawed and full of his own unique personality. He was still a monster who committed atrocities, but Charlie still couldn’t help the aching in her heart. It was strange, but the heart wants what it wants.

When she realized her feelings, she immediately feared rejection. It was difficult to be around him at first, but over time it got much easier and she’d managed to push her feelings aside. After all, she didn’t want to scare her professional business partner away.

But now that was all coming to an end. She needed to talk to him and work this out.

Charlie knocked on his door and called out his name. When he didn’t answer, she tried the door knob. Surprisingly it was unlocked and when Charlie slipped into his room, she found Alastor sitting on the edge of his bed, staring blankly out the window with his signature smile.

When she approached, he snapped his gaze toward her. They stared each other down for a few moments. “Al, we need to talk.”

Alastor nodded and patted the bed beside him to which Charlie obliged. They now sat shoulder-to-shoulder in silence. It should have been awkward, but for some reason it felt comfortable. It almost felt natural. Charlie could feel him slowly relax beside her. He was calming down and Charlie smiled knowing that he was getting comfortable around her. Feeling brave, Charlie placed her hand to rest it on top of the hand that sat tensely on his knee. He flinched, but didn’t move away. Instead he shifted his hand to where he held her fingers in a gentle grasp. He even began to run his thumb over her knuckles.

When Charlie looked up at his reaction, he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, his gaze shifted down to their joined hands. His grey cheeks held a hint of red. His closed-lipped smile was soft and content. He greatly disliked being touched and yet here he was, being touched by her and looking completely at ease.

They didn’t need to speak after all. Their actions spoke a thousand words and they understood what the other wanted. This was new to them, but their interactions have never felt so natural and so sure. Charlie sighed and let her head fall to rest on Alastor’s shoulder. He jumped a bit, still not used to contact, but let his head fall to rest on top of Charlie’s head, relishing in the warmth that blossomed in his chest because of her.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Al.”

[blewink]

Two Meant To Be //kth Chapter Two

previous chapter // next chapter 

warnings: fingering, dirty talk, college au, dom!taehyung, sub!reader, lil bit of exhibitionism, Ta’s a lowkey tease this who chapter, and some fluffy stuff near the end

word count: 4.9k

a/n: I accidently added in an extra character in the last chapter, i’m gonna fix that but i thought i’d address it. but this chapter is way longer than the last one but i had a lot of fun writing it! I hope ya’ll like it

-blue 💙

After hours and hours of walking around the mall and trying on dozens of dresses to find a few that actually flattered you well. Jennie had a few pictures from the night of Wendy’s party since you apparently looked really good then, you made sure the dresses you bought has a similar silhouette to the dress of that night. You also bought some jackets and tights since the weather had gone completely freezing over the past week and you hadn’t updated your wardrobe for winter yet. Your friends would say you were very committed to keeping style and overall vibe to “pastel child meets cottagecore whore with a little bit of some risque form fitting clothes.” Although you did like spicing things up sometimes and went for all black outfits too.

After finally meeting up Wendy and Mina, it didn’t take long for Jennie to spill the beans to them. As soon as the words left Jennies mouth, the two girls started squealing and jumping around like children. You weren’t gonna lie, this familiar rush of liking someone was a really good feeling, it made you excited for what was gonna happen next. Mina whisper shouts,”I knew you liked him, I really did.” You could feel your cheeks straining from smiling so hard. “Okay okay! The whole mall doesn’t need to know!” You tell them. The chaos then got interrupted by Jennie clapping her to make an announcement. “Alright girlies, in honor y/n having a crush,”  she draws out the last word and nudges your side, “I say we should have a nice dinner today. And not just some fancy restaurant, we should make it ourselves.” You all nod in agreement. Jennie continues, “Then it’s settled. I’ll call the boys and see if they can go to the grocery store to buy some stuff.” She pulls out her phone and calls Namjoon. “Hey Joon, so the girls and I want to have a nice dinner with the roomies.” You hear Namjoon’s muffled voice on the other side of the line. “No, no specific reason,” She giggles and looks at you, your cheeks surely turning red. “Alright, well take Jimin and Chan with you. Tae’s gonna help us when we get home. See you soon, bye.”

On the drive home you get a text message from Taehyung, you feel your stomach flutter and you open the messaging app.

Tae🐯: hey do you know why joon left me home all alone? he said jennie had something   for me to do.

You:  idk, jennie just wanted to do something fun and we can’t go against the birthday girl

Tae: yeah you’re probably right. anyways, how are you holding up? yknow with the breakup…

You: i’m doing a lot better, thanks for checking up on me tho :)

Tae: yeah ofc, i care abt you a lot and i just wanted to make sure you were okay

Wendy’s voice takes you out of your trance, you look up confused as you didn’t hear what she said “Sorry, what did you say?” Wendy and Mina laugh causing Jennie to ask what was happening, since she was driving and didn’t notice what happened. Mina answers, “I was calling her name but she’s been smiling at her phone like an idiot.” The car erupts in laughter and you try to hide your face in your hands. “Come on guys, don’t make fun of her. It’s kinda cute, it’s like a first crush.” You're relieved that you had Mina on your side at least. In an effort to stand up for yourself you say, “He just texted me to see how I’m holding up.” Mina lets out a small ‘awe’ then says “That’s so cute.”

      After about twenty minutes and more teasing from your friends, you arrive at home. Yes, you live with your friends in a giant house and no,  it’s actually not as bad as some might think. Everyone puts in their share for rent and you actually prefer living with other people as it makes you feel more safe. As you and the other girls pull out all your bags from shopping, you see Taehyung walking out of the house and towards the car. Seeing him now, your mind couldn’t get rid of Jennie’s words. The thought of him thinking of you in a romantic way makes you feel a little lightheaded. “Hey girls, any of you need help with your bags?” Mina, Wendy and Jennie in unison said no and left you with a few extra bags so you wouldn’t be able to hold all of them and you would need the help of Taehyung. “What was that about?” he asked while giggling a bit. Flustered, you don’t answer his question and try to grab all the bags. You don’t notice him making his war to your side of the car until you feel a hand on your waist. Immediately causing you to gasp and drop your bags.

   You’re beyond embarrassed at this point and you feel you could crawl in a hole and die. “Hey are you okay?” Taehyung's deep voice fills your ears causing your body to shiver. “Y-yeah I’m okay, could you help me carry some stuff though?” He nods, “Yeah, of course. But let’s get you up first.” He reaches his hand to you and you grab it, pulling yourself up. You pick up a few bags and Taehyung grabs the others. As you were walking to the front door, you noticed how cold it was outside already and it didn’t help that the wind was picking up too. Taehyung matches your pace and then he asks you, “Are you still gonna go to New York for Jennies birthday?” You respond, “Yeah I’m not gonna let Lucas ruin my best friends birthday and I love New York too much and I’m not missing out on that.” You let out a soft laugh before you finally reach the front door.

   Once you were finally inside, you made your way up the stairs to your room, Taehyung following close behind you. You reach your door and you set your bags down to open the door, and walk into your room. Walking over to your vanity you set your bags down and when you turn around Taehyung eyes move quickly to meet yours. Was he just looking at your ass? No. You’re just imagining things. He walked over and placed the bags next to the ones you had. “Thanks for helping me out” you say. He grabs the back of his neck and says,” Yeah no problem” A couple seconds pass without either of you saying a word. You’re staring into his eyes and he’s staring back. After about fifteen seconds of this he clears his throat. “So I’ll see you at dinner.” You say a quick yeah, feeling down that he hadn’t said anything. He closes the door making sure to look at you before the door blocked his view.

   He stood with his back to your door for a couple seconds and let out a sigh. He didn’t understand why he didn’t say anything, you looked amazing but you always did. He didn’t know how you felt and it was tearing him up inside. He decided it would be better to not do anything stupid and just walked to room. After Taehyung left, you decided to try on your dresses again and pick one to wear to dinner. You’re half naked with a dress half way up your legs when the door busts open. You scream and try to cover your body but it results in the dress falling down. It’s Tae. He starts apologizing profusely “Oh my god, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to barge in.” At this point you grabbed a towel and covered yourself. “It’s okay, just knock next time.” You nervously laugh. “Oh yeah right, well Jennie wants us to make desert. So you should come down to the kitchen when… you’re done changing.” His face getting mildly red near the end of the sentence. “Oh okay I’ll be there in a few.” He makes his way out but your heart is still pounding.  It takes you a couple minutes to compose yourself, but you change into a loose t-shirt, some small shorts and a pair of fluffy socks because it's still a little chilly.

  You hear Jennie's voice telling Taehyung about the desert and once you enter the kitchen they both stop talking and look your way. Confused, you say ”what?” Jennie quickly says, “What are you wearing?” “I thought we were baking so picked out clothes I don’t mind getting dirty.” She shakes her head and sighs, “God, what am I going to do with you?” You make a face to Taehyung, mocking Jennie, and he giggles back. Jennie interrupts your moment, “Anyways, you guys are in charge of making a pie. Can I trust you two to not burn the house down?” She cocks her eyebrow up. “Um yeah probably” says Taehyung. Jennie lets out another disappointed sigh and walks out of the kitchen. You make your way to the fridge to get the ingredients to make your pie filling and dough.

  While you're searching inside the fridge when Taehyung says, “Can I be honest? I have no clue on how to make a pie.” You can’t say you’re surprised, Tae was more of a cook than a baker. “That’s alright bub. Not to brag but I’ve made a few pies in my day.” You close the fridge and head to the cabinets to get a bowl. When you set the bowl and your other utensils, you look up to see why Taehyung was so quiet, you notice his gaze is again on you. You clear your throat, causing him to snap out of his trance, out of pure curiosity you say, “Liking what you see?” You regret saying those words as soon as they come out of your mouth. “Oh my god, pretend I didn’t say that! Let’s just ignore that.” You make your way to your bowl and start mixing your ingredients as an uncomfortable silence fills the room. You hear his footsteps come closer and you look up at him, his eyes seem darker than they were just a couple minutes ago, “What if I did?” Your jaw drops a bit, leaving your lips parted just a bit. How were you supposed to respond? Did he have feelings for you? Your emotions were all over the place. He lets out a little laugh as his face gets closer to yours to where you can almost feel his lips on yours, “I think you’re enjoying this a little too much baby” The pet name causing you to blush and his eyes look down at your lips and he continues, “And you’re drooling a bit.” He taps your bottom lip and walks to the other side of the kitchen, sitting back in his previous spot.

 Feeling flustered, your actions were a little jumpy while you finished the pie. Not to mention that you could practically feel his gaze burning on you. Finally you put the pie in the oven, when you look up you see Taehyung distracted by his phone. You place your hands on our hips and clear your throat, when his eyes meet yours, the familiar darkness is still there. “Gee thanks for being such a great help Taehyung.” You made sure your words were coated in sarcasm. “You said you had it covered, didn’t you?” His eyebrow cocks up at the end of the question. You graon in anger and storm out of the kitchen while shouting, “You’re going to be the death of me Kim Taehyung!”

 He always enjoyed teasing you like this, he liked seeing you get all flustered just from his words. He couldnt help but think of all the things he could do to you, fuck, now he’s hard. He didn’t understand why affected him this much but he needed to get ready for the dinner. You found yourself in your room with dresses all over the place, it was surprisingly hard to find the perfect dress to wear to something so casual yet so important. You ended up choosing a form fitting, simple black dress. It only took you thirty minutes to pick it but it was perfect. You quickly curled your hair a bit, did some soft glam makeup,  picked out a few gold accessories and finished with a few sprits of sweet smelling perfume. You were lowkey feeling yourself when you looked at  your complete look in the mirror and you even snapped a few pictures and posted your favorite two. As if on cue, your alarm went off, indicating your pie was ready. You made your way to the kitchen as fast as you could, which wasn’t that fast since you had your heels on.  

      Luckly, when you took it out it was perfectly golden and not burned. You sighed in relief and sat on the countertop. It was only a couple minutes when Jennie came rushing in, “Oh thank god you’re here, can you help me set up the table?” You nodded but were still confused by her urgency as your friends were never ones for punctuality. “Jennie, why are you so stressed? It’s just gonna be us and the roomies.” A loud, sarcastic laugh comes from Jennie, “I wish, my mom just called and she’s on her way. I ordered pick up from some restaurant because we’re not going to have time for cooking, the boys are picking that up.” You two were now in the dinning room, you were placing the plates on the long table. “Why don’t you ask the girls and Tae to help us? Wouldn’t it be more efficient for more of us to help out?” Jennie gives you a small smile after mentioning his name. “Yeah you would like that wouldn’t you?” Your face heats up for the hundredth time today, seems like you’re going to have to get used to this.

The boys had finally arrived and you were all in the living room sitting on the couch. It was funny seeing you all dressed up but cuddled up on couch. Jennie was telling the rest of the group about her mother’s surprise visit, you looked over to Taehyung to see his reaction but not so surprisingly, he was already looking at you. You continued moving your gaze, pretending you didn’t see him. Jennie’s lecture was interrupted by the doorbell, indicating her mother’s arrival. You all quickly stood up and fixed your apperances, you smoothed down your dress and walked to the door with the rest of your friends. You all stood in a small group as Jennie opened the door. “Hi Omma!” Jennie said in an overly cheerful voice, her mom gives her a hug. Her mom turns to look at the rest of you, “Hi Mrs. Kim!” You all say while bowing.

After all the greetings and catching up, you made your ways to the dinner room, which had already been set up by you and Jennie. While you were each picking a seat, Taehyung made his way next to you. Once Mrs. Kim sat down, the rest of you did too. The rest of the night was filled with laughter and new memories, the food was delicious too. But every now and then you would find yourself getting distracted by Taehyungs hands. The way his fingers gripped around the utensils making his veins prominent, made you feel a little hot. It also didn’t help that he was constantly sneaking his hand down to rub your inner thigh. This was tourture for you, it had been months since anyone had touched you like this. You were able to ignore it for most of the night, that was until Mrs. Kim was saying her goodbyes. You were all gathered at the entrance and you felt Taehyungs hand on your side, giving small squeezes causing you to stutter with your words when talking to Mrs. Kim. Once she left you all made your way to the living room again.

Jennie was the first one to throw her her body on the beanbag next to the couch. The rest of you doing the same soon after. Your feet were starting to feel sore so you were eager to get your heels off. “Well that went well.” You all laugh at Jimins remark. “For real though, the food was pretty good, Jennie where did you find that restaurant?” Chan questions as Jennie sits up to face the rest of you. “It’s my mom’s favorite,” Jennie says as she fixes her hair, “We used to eat there a lot when I was younger.” A comfortable silence falls between the group, but only a minute passed before Mina stands up. “I think we all need to de-stress, how about a movie night? We haven’t done one of those in a while.” A movie night was exactly what you needed right now, so you were very excited, and it appeared so were your roomates. A couple of minutes of bickering later, you all had decided on a movie that none of you had watched yet, which happened to be a scary movie. You weren’t fond of the movie selection but you figured it was bound to be fun. You were now in your room changing into pajamas you had worn earlier, you were too lazy to get a pair of panties so you remained commando. A buzz from your phone interrupted you removing your makeup. You walked over to check what it was, a text from Taehyung. Your stomach fluttered again, yet another sensation you would come to get used to.

Tae: hurry the fuck up, we’re all waiting for you.

You checked your phone to check the time, but only three minutes had passed since you made it to your bedroom. You hurried to remove the last of your makeup and brush out your hair. You picked up a few blankets and a stuffie, and made your way to the living room. To your surprise, you found yourself in an empty room. Where was everyone? “I didn’t think you would get down here so fast.” Taehyungs deep voice fills the room from behind you. You turn around to see him in a loose white t-shirt, hands in grey sweat pants and his hair a ruffled mess. “I thought you said you were all waiting for me?” Your eyes follow his body as he makes his way to the couch. He lets a small laugh out once he’s on the couch, “You really will believe anything I say, wont you?” He pats the side next to him, indicating you to come sit with him. You roll your eyes, you should have know he would something like this. “Why do you keep teasing me Tae?” You sit next to him, leaving enough space between yourselves. “I like seeing how flustered you get, it’s cute.” Before you could answer, Jimin and Chan walk in, Namjoon not too far behind them. It’s only a couple more minutes, when the girls come in too. What did he mean by ‘cute’?

The movie had already started but you didn’t know what was going on, your mind was too busy repeating the words Taehyung had said. You shook your racing mind and tried to focus on the movie. Some girl was hiding in her bedroom from the intruder, at least you think that what you think was happening. She’s on the floor behind the side of the bed when the door opens. She covers her mouth to prevent the intruder from hearing her breathing while the man in the background walks to the closet, the floor creaking underneath him. The music gradually getting louder and louder, suddenly the intruder does a jump scare, causing a few of you to scream. It caused you to jump and reach for the person beside you, who happened to be Taehyung. You gripped his arm and buried your face into his chest. Once you realized you were practically on his lap, you let go of his arm and whispered “sorry.” He placed his hand on your thigh and started rubbing small circles with his thumb. He brought his lips to your ear before whispering, “No need to appoligize sweetheart.” His voice caused you to shiver and you weren’t going to lie, you were a little turned on.  

He left his hand on your lower thigh for a couple minutes until he started moving upwards. Your thighs had always been sensitive and you wondered if he still remembered that, even over a year later. You almost panicked, thinking maybe one of your roomates might see you but you realize you have two blankets over you and Taehyung. His hand starts rubbing you over your clothed core, you let out a small whimper. “Don’t make any noise baby, you dont want our friends to hear what a little mess you are for me, do you?” You shake your head. He continues his movements, rubbing right over your clit, you feel your wetness already seeping onto your shorts. His actions stop as he reaches further up to the top of your shorts, his fingers playing with the waistband before they delve into your shorts. Your breath hitches as his hand is now touching your bare cunt, “No panties?” He tisks, “Were you expecting something like this to happen?” You don’t answer his questions and the sensation of his touch makes your skin feel as though it’s on fire. His other hand reaches your chin, forcing you to look into his eyes, “Answer me when I ask you questions, kitten.” The new pet name causes you to gush a little more, you could tell he felt it too because of the cocky smirk he has on. “Does kitten like being called names?” It takes everything to respond to him. “Yes,” you whisper. You’re still facing him when he plunges a finger into your needy cunt. You slap your hand over your mouth as moan threatens to come out. Taehyung smiles at your reaction, he always loved how reactive you were to him touch.

You two were now facing the TV again while his finger was sliding in and out of your pussy agonizingly slow. It was probably for the better, if he was going any faster, you were sure your roomates might hear your pussy squelching. His thumb circled around your clit causing your walls to tighten around his finger. Once he added another finger you felt yourself getting closer to your release. His pace picked up a bit causing you to bury your face into your blankets. “Are you close baby?” You nod, as you’re incapable of opening your mouth without a moan coming out. Only a few more trusts later and you open your mouth in a silent scream as your orgasm overtakes your body. His fingers ride you through your high and your body shakes as he pulls his fingers out. His fingers glisten in the light provided by the TV, he takes in index finger into his mouth, tasting your release. He then orders for you to open your mouth as he sticks his middle finger into your mouth. You suck on it, circling your tongue around his digit while tasting yourself. He pulls his finger out, “Good girl.” The praise makes you feel warm. He puts his arm around your waist for the rest of the movie, his hand rubbing your side until you stop shaking.

About an hour later, the movie finishes and you look around. Your roomates are all fast asleep leaving you and Taehyung as the only ones awake. “Should we wake them up or leave them here?” You ask worried as you all had class the next day. “Uh I say we be good friends and wake them up. You get up first, losing your balance and falling to the floor. Taehyung giggles, “Damn, I wonder how you’re gonna walk once I fuck you for real.” You ignore his comment, “Stop being a dick and help me up.” He walks over and picks you up, you stare into each others eyes before you say, “Are we gonna talk about what’s going on here?” You still weren’t sure what was going on between you two and you wanted to see how he felt about all this. He pats your side before saying, “We’ll talk about it in a bit but lets wake them up first.” Not exactly the answer you were expecting but you’ll take it. You walk over to Chan, who’s sprawled all over Namjoon, you snap a quick picture before shaking the two to wake them.

You walk each of your friends to their rooms, you make sure to set alarms on all their phones incase they forgot to. Once you close Wendy’s door, you turn to walk to your room, which was straight across from hers, Taehyung’s there leaning against your door. You walk up to him, “I assume we’re talking about this now?” He moves out of the way so you can open the door, “Of course.” You walk into your room, keeping the door open for him to walk in and closing it behind him. You switch a light on so it’s not too bright. You turn on your heel to face Taehyung “Um I need to change first, my shorts are… well, they’re ruined thanks to you.” “Oh it was my pleasure baby, no need to thank me.” He replies slyly. “Okay well turn around then.” He turns his back to you and you step out of your shorts. They’re practically drenched and you throw them in your hamper, making a mental note to wash before you leave for New York. You walk into your closet, opening a drawer and grab a pair of clean underwear and slip them on.

When you walk back out, Tae’s sitting on your bed so you make your way over and sit on your bed near him and cross your legs. “So, do you have any questions for me? Because I know I have a few for you.” You ask nervously. He licks his lips, “Just one I think,” you look at him curiously. “You’re sure you and Lucas are done? Like for real this time? Because this has happened before and you just went right back to him in less than a week.” This was true, Lucas always found the right things to say to make you take him back. But this time, he hadn’t reached out to you in days and you felt ready to move on. “I can assure you, I’m not getting back with Lucas. Not tomorrow, not next week or ever.” You give a small smile to really seal the deal. He smiles back, “Okay that’s good. One more thing,” He pauses, “When was last time someone touched like how I just did?” Your face heats up and you lift your pillow to hide your face. You feel the bed shift as he moves closer to you, his feet now up on the bed crossed just like yours. He grabs the pillow from your hands and makes you look at him, “There’s no need to get shy with me kitten. Answer my question.” You bite your lip nervously, “It’s been about three months.” Taehyung hums in response. “Well I’ll be making those months up to you from now on.” His hand nw on your cheek. “So what were your questions for me, kitten?” You almost forgot about them but your glad he brought them up. “Do you intend on having a serious relationship with me?” Your eyes tear up a bit at the thought of him saying no. A shocked expression crosses his face, “Of course I do. I don’t want to use you like that, I would never want to hurt you.” You nod your head slowly in response, “Okay I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.” He nods back, “Yeah we are. One more thing,” He pauses again, “Let’s take this slow okay? I don’t want to make you do anything you regret.” You giggle at his sudden softness in words, “You say that as if you didn’t just make me cum all over your fingers.” He laughs a little too, “Oh baby, if you think that’s going slow, I’ve got a lot to show you.” You looked at him and the way he looked in the light that was barley there, he was nothing short of beautiful.

You snap out of your trance, “Alright alright, it’s time for us to go to bed.” You hop off your bed clapping your hands together. Taehyungs still on your bed looking at you confused, “I was wondering if I could stay here with you tonight. If that’s okay with you?” You were taken aback by the idea of having Taehyung sleep in the same bed as you. “Um yeah sure, that’s okay.” He giggles like child before pulling your blanket over himself, “Come on I can’t sleep without my kitten.” Your heart swells as you crawl back into bed. You settle yourself under the blankets facing him, his draps his arm around your waist and pulls you closer. You can feel his breath on your face, “Can I kiss you?” You nod and tilt your head up. Your lips connect and your eyes fluttered shut. You felt your stomach fluttering and you wondered if this was how a real kiss was supposed to feel. When you pulled away, you looked into his eyes and everything felt calm. He pulled you closer so you were now laying on his chest. The hours of shopping and baking finally catching up to you as you drifted into sleep.

tag list: @wangxian-nation @supersamzzz @jujujangona526 @togetherminmin @dreamsndrabbles @annietaeyong

[madmadmilk]

Like  Dark Chocolate Part 7 | Tom Holland x Reader (FINALLY)

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, BUT WE’RE BACK IN THE GAME BABEYYY. Thank u for waiting so patiently~ it literally took like 6 months lol pls be kind ((pics not mine))

READ THE TEASER FIRST | PART 1 | PART 2| PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7 | PART 8 | (Updates next week?)

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: You can’t help but fall into something familiar, something warm, something you deserve. He’s been waiting for you while you’ve been wondering. They say time heals all wounds, but the real question is, how much time does it take to even believe you’ve healed?

Warning: Swearing, sweating, and something like forgiveness

Word Count: 10.8K petals on the floor

Special thank you to some of my lovely BETAs: @fangirl-writer-awesomeness @laucontrerasv @spidey-waffles11 (and honestly anyone who sent asks looking for this. thank you)

-

“Same old Tom.”

Your head tilts as you look into those familiar chocolatey browns. You can see the arrow run straight through his heart. It’s the first time he’s hearing your voice say his name in a month. And it’s one of the few times you’ve let yourself say it out loud.

There’s a familiar taste that coats your mouth.

I don’t want to admit it but––

A shallow breath catches in your throat, a faint smile on your lips. You just can’t hold it back anymore, old feelings threatening to spill over.

I do miss you, Tom.

They were never really forgotten.

Just a little bit.

And well, you could never hide it from yourself.

You fight the smile on you dry lips from widening, you fight the warm flush ferociously crawling up your chest, you fight every urge in your body from jumping up to wrap yourself up and all around him.

You missed him.

And the bare sight of him is enough to drive you mad.

“It’s been a long time.”

“It has been,” you reply curtly, eating up the sight before you. He was dressed in a rush, slouchy, ruffled but smelling like a cosy detergent and sexy shampoo. The giddy smile has never left his lips.

The space between you both is maddening, easy to be made close, easy to pull further apart.

Your fingers twitch by your sides.        

Ha.

He probably can’t even remember the text he sent you–– “Blink 3 times if you miss me,” how the hell would you count how many times a person blinks? We do it all the time? When does the clock run––

But, Tom… Tom gets it. Of course he does.

1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.1, 2, 3.

A devilish grin stretches across his boyish face, an overwhelming excitement vibrating through him. He stood taller, shoulders hunched up as he leaned forward. It was a short victory he would hold against you and then it evenly faded into a relieved smile. The corners of his brows pull down as he lets out a soft sigh. You can hear the click of his tongue. His shoulders slump in satisfaction, and cheeks pinken as if his whole body being was saying, “thank god, thank god.”

He finally has your attention, better, at your admission.

His quiet voice confirms,

“So you have been reading the things I’ve sent you,” whispering now, “And listening?”

Haha.

You give him a blank stare, but inadvertently stretch your lips from smile to pucker to smile. You’re trying not to give him anything more than your telling blinks. You’re not going to make yourself anymore vulnerable, any more needy, any more…. generous. This was already too much.

But the silence gives him one more confirmation; tells him that you still think of him, at least enough to let him think you do. And this circular rationale reminds you of just how much of a sweet lil cavity he is.

An aching pain you can’t ignore.

He nods, wiggling his jaw while his eyes dance over your shoulders to your nose and back to your eyes,

“Good to know.”

Oh, hell.

Tom’s confidence comes and goes as he laughs to himself, only to flush in embarrassment. Neither of you can keep your composure. Both of your minds roll over all the little things he’s said in the messages and that’s more than enough to fill the remaining gap between you.

You feel like you know almost everything he’s feeling right now.

Almost, almost.

He clears his throat, scratching his head and bowing down,

“Listen, I–I really didn’t expect to see you at all. For the while. It’s just that Mal messaged me about an emergency, just saying that it was you and––“

“It was me. I sent it,” you clarify, not wanting to smear any more blame on your ill neighbor. Hadn’t she had enough? Questionably.

“I used her phone.”

“Oh,” he laughs emptily. You see his entire face sink in guilt. He scratches his head a little harder, trying to piece it together.

“She practically begged me to get your attention and she––“ he hums to your truth, “She showed it to me. I… I saw the messages she sent to you.”

Tom freezes, and drops his hand. He searches for an answer in your eyes. His blinks are slow, and the deep stare makes you all too aware.

Suddenly, you wonder if that was a breach of his privacy, if his healing should have been done alone. If you had stepped into a part of him you weren’t meant to see.

You step forward, putting your hands up.

“Sorry! Uhm, she… She let me read what she sent you, at the end… end of it all,” an uneasy chuckle falls past your lips, “She left your conversation open… and yeah, I saw a little bit. I think she was apologizing to me with it… or something like that.”

He nods, stare looking past you now, far away. He mutters under his breath,

“I’m still waiting for one too.”

And now you felt the restlessness of guilt; maybe it was a breach of trust. You squeeze your eyes tight for a second, trying to reorganize yourself, trust this and trust that. You’re getting tangled deeper into problems you were trying so hard to move past, smooth past.

The truth is all you have left.

You offer him a way out of the storm, praising softly,

“At the very least, I want to say thank you… for uhm, letting me know you were coming.”

His brows twitch into a furrow before he smiles gently, his cheek pulling.  His hands were itching to reach out, to hold you. And, honestly, if he did… you wouldn’t resist too hard. Maybe.

“Of course,” Tom confirms so lovingly. In that short phrase you can hear the tumbling of his feelings, the way he had to hold back from spilling his heart out and taking all of you in his arms, up and away from this cursed apartment.

But you both hear the echo of your own words, cast like a spell, “give me time.” So he did.

“And…. I’ll be getting out of your hair now.”

Your head tilts as you take him all in. His hair has dried, somewhere between curls and waves, the bags under his eyes are deep but the expression on his face is warm. You notice his pause, wondering if you should ask him to stay.

You can’t.

And he knows that.

Tom cracks into a laugh, rolling his head in a circle. You stand back on your heels, tension dissipating. He rocks back too, and starts to pick up his scattered jacket and hat. He puts them on quickly and you lean against the back of the couch. The apartment is quiet, save for the sound of his rustling clothes.

He heads to the door, ruffling his hair before he sticks it back under his cap. His hand is on the doorknob, cranking it slowly. He turns back to give you a dazzling smile,

“It was really, really amazing to see you again.”

You stomach flips. You can only nod and smile, as he holds your gaze. He looks down stepping out and––

“Hey! Tom?”

He looks over his shoulder expectantly, and you take the door. He’s still halfway inside your apartment, and sorely full in your heart. He raises his brow in question, stuffing his hands in his pockets as you hold the door open for him.

Here it goes.

“I… I stayed around because… I kind of wanted to see you.”

His jaw drops.

“It was nice.”

And that goddamn heart-stopping grin is burned into your memory. You could see the sunshine and hope leaking out of his pores as he smiles with an open mouth.

Ooh.

And with a boyish chuckle, he accepts.

“Thank you, Y/N,” the flushing boy turns back and retreats with a happy skip,

“I’ll see you around.”

My name.

You don’t let yourself watch him walk away for too long, and shut the door quickly. Similarly, trying to shut out the emotions welling in your chest. Warm, worn, weak.

If Mal was awake, listening, or even remotely on “your side” you could just imagine her slow clapping to that awkward exchange.

You and Tom had finally moved forward; maybe they were baby steps. Or maybe they were even something less.

Anything is better than where you were nearly a month ago.

You retreat back to the couch and sink into your spot, alone with your rambling thoughts. Are we in, or are we out? Are we back? Is there more? Are we less––?

Gah.

You laugh as you wipe your hands over your face. You pull your cheeks down and let out a garbled sigh.

It’s really annoying how much you miss the taste of chocolate.

-

☎️ “Hey, It’s Tom. Again. Uhm, alright… This…. This feels ten times MORE awkward now that I know that you actually listen to these. Haha, shit! And I’ve sounded so pathetic in every single message–– hahaha, but, uhm, thanks. Not sure what part I’m thanking you for… but… I’m just thankful for you. Hah, hope that’s okay. I really just can’t believe I got to see you. It’s really been a long while, and I… I just wasn’t sure how we were even going to meet again. And, I realized I don’t have many pictures of you and you haven’t updated ANYTHING so––– oh, oh my god. I didn't mean to sound so fucking creepy! I swear I’m not checking on you everyday or something, hahahaha. Wah! I–– well. I don’t think i’ll ever forget what you look like, and I hope you’ll let me stick around……………… ugh, I’m the worst. For fucks sake. Hm….. you…. You really did look amazing, babe. I couldn’t breathe. And maybe you look even better without me……. Ahem. Ah, yeah. Sorry this is a fucking, that I’m a fucking mess. I’ll leave you be. Yeah. I’ll-- uhm, later. Bye, Y/N. I’ve missed you too.”

-

☎️ “Hey! Hey, uhm, It’s me. Tom. Again, again. Haha. Okay, uhm, totally slipped my mind, but I’ll be at Jay and Jae’s wedding like next, next week. Harrison said you were going as his date? Yeah, no problem with that. Just– uh, yeah. Just letting you know i’ll be there too. I know Mal, is invited so, she might be around? I’m not too sure. And… shouldn’t Zendaya be back around that time? Hahaha. Yeah, i–– This is just a heads up. I…. I won’t bother you there but…. Can i say that i’m looking forward to seeing you again so soon? Because I am….. Ooooohhhh….. Okay. Yeah, sorry. I’ll see you there, or not. Bye, babe.”

-

You smooth out your dress over your legs as you sit in a stiff chair. You kick your feet next to Harrison, lost on his phone. He ignores your fidgeting.

True to Tom’s voicemails, that you did listen to the moment you got them, you were at a wedding. Together, but not exactly. Jay and Jae were distant friends of yours, closer to Tom and his group of friends more than anyone else.

So naturally, Tom was there, sitting alone and far off, since Harrison took you as his date. He kept a professional distance, you would say.

Now, Mal was meant to be here too–– but she wasn’t. She declined without giving a specific reason, but you could imagine a few. The idea of fluffy bright whites, bouncy chatter and the honest glow of fairy lights might not shine too well on her particular shade of red.

Not that she doesn’t deserve her own sparkly moment in time, but you suppose this is all too fresh. And all too soon.

You reach out to touch the flowers wrapped around the chair in front of you. Were they real? Were they fake? You occupied yourself like this, and wondered…. Should you be feeling the same way as Mal?

Your eyes dart around, following strings of lights and greenery and warm sounds. Being at weddings, whether you knew the party well enough or not, has always made you feel loved. There's a certain warmth and love and respect that just overflows and spills into your own heart. Making you nostalgic for things you’ve never felt before.

So lovely.

Your thumbs smooth over a large petal.

And a ceremony like this…. Isn’t that bad. One day…

Your eyes flicker up, immediately finding that curious cute cavity.

One day maybe.

Tom is sitting with his arms resting on his legs. He switches between looking up, waving at distant friends and checking his phone, only to put it away quickly. He’s fidgeting too– trying his hardest not to look directly back at you.

You still catch him a few times.

You lean back, obscuring yourself from his view and  line up your arm with Harrison. You lean your head on his shoulder and laugh to yourself, pressing a fist against your lips to stifle it.

“Hm?” Harrison hums, craning his neck to see your face, “What’s so funny?”

You quiet down and smile gently. Curiosity is bubbling inside you and you feel like you’re in such high spirits–– the giddy nature of weddings is infectious, after all.

Is it because you feel like you have the upper hand tonight? Because Tom is trying so hard to not stare, but is so bad at hiding it? Because you feel like nothing can go wrong from this point?

Knock on wood.

Having Harrison by your side definitely feeds you a bit of confidence, at his expense. But you don’t think of that immediately. Things are only just coming to focus for you, and you eyes are willing to see.

You squeeze Haz’s arms softly, and suggest,

“Shall we invite him over?”

The golden haired boy scoffs, cocking his head back before looking at you,

“You sure about that?”

“‘Can’t leave him looking like a chump all by himself, right?”

He smiles at your thoughtfulness, raising his eyebrows then standing up. He calls over his friend quickly without much question. Tom perks up at the call of his name, and you could see his eyes widen across the ways.

He shimmies his way over, dodging people with a easygoing smile. He stands next to Haz, nodding his head politely,

“Hey, guys.”

“Hey, come sit with us,” you offer plainly, pointing beside Harrison.

You could see Tom doing the math in his head, but he doesn’t challenge it. He smiles instead, a little wary and a little stiff but thanks you. You could hear Harrison snort in dull annoyance, making you giggle.

You’re giddy for real.

Haz is sat between you two during the wedding ceremony, but you can feel whenever either of them turn to look at you, hot stares on your cheek. You all sit and stand together, following the procession.

“Is it hot in here, or is it just me?” the taller boy teases over the tension, bumping you with his elbow. You bump him back and he continues, “I’m in the line of fire.”

“Shut up!” you whisper back to him, catching Tom’s attention.

He turns to you, only like quarter cheek, but you can see the side of his eye wrinkle and how his cheek lift in a smile. You’re left looking at the teasing image of his jaw and ear and cheek and the tangle of waves on the nape of his neck––

Bring the heat.

The ceremony ambles on, and in the lull you hear Tom joke with Haz,

“Can’t wait for the drinks, man.”

Pffft.

His face was dusted pink. He needed something to keep him cool, something to do with his hands, and it might as well take the edge off too. It really couldn’t do much harm at this point. But would it even help with his nerves?

You stop yourself from giggling again, some kind of ancient, wretched, cliche girliness crawling out from you. You’re trying to play coy, but you can’t go exposing yourself.

Is this what it’s like to be wanted? And know you’re wanted?

Feels a little nice to be on this end, you have to admit.

You pull through the rest of the service, crying as the grooms whisper their vows to one another. Honestly you could barely hear it, but the way that they cried and smiled and cheered told you everything you needed to know.

Your heart swells as they kiss and walk by, everyone throwing handfuls of petals over them. It rains pink and white, a small flurry of love.

And while you take in the loving visual, you miss the way that a certain brunette turns back to catch a glimpse of you. Through the light mist of flowers, he sees a happy tear mark down your cheek and wishes nothing more than to be by your side and wipe it away.

“Catch you in a few,” comes Harrison’s voice and parting tap on your shoulder.

“Huh?” you blink, rubbing the corners of your eyes delicately.

He smiles, tilting his head towards company calling his name. He disappears into the crowd after giving your shoulder a squeeze and Tom a sharp pat on the back.

Ah, alone at last. You roll your eyes and nod to yourself.

There’s a wave of people leaving the ceremony to walk over to the reception hall, but you end up waiting in your row with Tom. You step close to his back, peering over him to see if it would be any easier to get out. You don’t talk.

After a while of being stuck, you both dart between chairs and exit the opposite way. You feel his hand almost touch the small of your back as he urges your way through.

The touch doesn’t connect, but a part of you wish it had.

You laugh bitterly as you push through the doors that lead out. It’s more than a bit ironic that you meet again at a wedding. The place of commitment and love and attempt at eternal happiness.

It’s kind of funny actually.

You step onto the sidewalk, shivering slightly at the cool spring weather. The smell of spring and summer was strong, but your teeth still chattered.

You stand side by side as you wait to cross the street, cars zipping through. You’re too aware of the space you hold between each other. You hold your hands to your chest and look ahead to the reception hall, glittery lights and soft noise wafting through.

“That was beautiful,” Tom comments quietly.

“Wasn’t it?” you smile, brought back to those glimmering emotions. You blink the wetness away from your eyes as you face him for a moment.

I’m such a sucker.

His hair is gelled back neater than usual, though a rogue curl tries to coil at the side of his head.

For…. things………..

“Mhm,” he hums, returning your gaze warmly. Those dark browns caught a twinkle the evening glow. Your heart beats oddly, as your lips pressed together. Tom smiles then taps the back of your arm, looking ahead of you.

“Let’s cross this street now.”

And you walk behind him, following his steps while skipping in your formal shoes, watching the broad sweep of his back in a smart black jacket.

You felt safe here.

Again.

-

Tom stood by your side as you crossed the threshold of the reception hall. The clack of your shoes against the hardwood didn’t catch any new attention but it sounded so fucking loud to you.You felt his shoulders roll back, as yours did, taking in the beautiful sight. Fairy lights and flowers and white drapery, hidden and highlighted by crowds of people. Wah.

You turn your cheek softly to look at him, your lashes fluttering. He was doing the same thing, both cautious of what to do and what to say next. You can’t stand at the entrance forever.

Oh, fuck it all––

“Hey! Tom! Is that you–?” a new voice crackles into range. Said boy ducks down and hollers back to an unfamiliar crowd, stepping away from you.

“Y/N!” and that call was for you, from a blonde you could hardly call yours.

You bounce back to Harrison, quickly hooking your arms into his without thinking. You wanted cover, fast.

Tom’s presence beside you was short lived as you went separate ways to greet some familiar faces, to your frail relief. You both get swept away in the tides of people, hardly saying goodbye to one another. Hm. You look back over your shoulder to see Tom smiling back at you gently. Hmm. He nods simply, then turns away.

See you later.

You suck in your cheeks, feeling a pang of disappointment as your expectations didn’t last long. But it’s fine. It’s fine. You weren’t even counting on spending the time that you did with him. Its fine! Really!

You float between hanging out with Harrison to meeting up with some old friends. Eventually starting to be dragged away by some especially gossip-y pals, Jenn and Sam. You hold on to Harrison’s arm as they tug you away,

“Nooooooo, guys, I can’t leave him by himself!”

Haz pries your fingers off one by one, sticking his tongue out and pointing behind him,

“Don’t worry about me, I have some other chumps to hang out with.”

You tilt your head for a second to see Tom, of course, looking down. His hands are stuffed deep into his pockets, laughing to himself, a pretty smile you wish you could have ignored. There’s a little unease that you notice about him too quickly, and that’s when you bounce back up.

Ha.

“Enjoy,” you say quietly, quite literally being pulled to the bar.

Conversation blends in seamlessly, with the help of some casual alcohol and swishy dancing. You haven’t met with them in along time, catching up and dissecting updates you’ve only seen through instagram and facebook. Then that drama starting spilling out as you look deeper into your cup, seeing where it all was heading….

“So, I heard Tom and Mal officially split,” Sam starts.

“Tom and Mal? They were a thing?” Jenn gasps.

“Yeah, official-ish–– right, Y/N? You roomin’ with Mal right now, yeah?”

And you nodded, “Yeah.”

“And they’re over? Done?”

Their eyes both shone bright with excitement, nearly licking their lips for the spill. Please, oh please! Share that shit!

You hold your shakey glass to your lip, wishing you didn’t have to answer this. But under their wide eyed stares and the desire to speak some truth, you squeak,

“Yeah, something like that.”

And they assume the pitying position quickly with,

“Oh, poor Tom. I knew he’d get dumped. He’s too nice and Mal was obviously taking advantage of that––”

And,

“Oh, well, I heard that Mal was just trying to use him to get back with someone.”

“Like, Jon, right? Or was it Tobey? I don’t remember––”

“Yeah, and Tom isn’t the type to date frivolously, so he must have known––”

Their story was wrong, but not so wrong. Just enough to get you itching. Itching to set it straight  and itching about whether or not you had the authority to correct them. Like what, just save Tom’s face, and tell them that Mal got what she deserved? That could be easy. But what happens when they ask about your role in this story–– is it even yours to tell?

“They did look great together though, Tom was head over heels for that bitch.”

“How could she let him go? I mean, the girl was all over everyone all the time, but Tom was a good one.”

They looked for him in the crowd, spotting him and cooing in pity. They were being so obvious, god. And at this point, you really couldn’t help yourself. You spoke in a hushed tone,

“Hm, actually, Tom dumped Mal.”

“Huh? For real?” and “Tells us what happened!”

You pause for a second, trying not to get in too deep.

“I don’t know for sure, but Tom realized he could… be better.”

“‘Be’ better? Not ‘do’ better? What do you mean by that?” Sam pushes, leaning closer to you, stepping by your side so you could both get a view of Tom swaying with some friends.

You shrug, turning your back to Tom, “I don’t know! I just saw the aftermath. I haven’t really talked to him, or Mal. It’s been tense–– you know?”

“Yeah, we get it,” Jenn nods solemnly, but perks up to wave, “We can just ask Tom himself! Hey! Tom! Harrison!”

Gah–!

Both of them are waving and making a scene towards the pair of boys somewhere behind you. You can only hunch your shoulders to brace yourself. It’s not like you could just walk away––

And “poor” Tom didn’t even realize you were there until the last second, freezing as he stops next to you.

Huuuu.

You’re very aware of how close he is.

With no formalities, no greetings, your friends cut right to it, only directing themselves towards the darker brunette,

“So, how have you been, Tom?”

He shrugs coolly, laughing sheepishly. His eyes are a little half-lidded as he blinked,

“Just… ask what you want to ask.”

Woah.

You look at him in dull surprise, Harrison too. You notice the soft pink glow on his cheeks and how he’s supporting himself on one leg. Maybe he’s drunk?  Maybe he’s just that ready to get it over with.

Cheers.

“Sooooo, you? And… Mal?”

“Not a thing anymore,” he shrugs again, holding up his beer bottle and smiling cryptically.

Your old friends turn on the pity again.

“Awwww, but you guys were so cute together!”

You have to squint your eyes at that remark, knowing they were egging him on. Buttering up the situation, but…. Ugh. You hate these kind of exchanges. But hey, transitions are important right?

Tom tries hard not to look at you as he nods slowly, explaining only a little bit more.

“Yeah, we… just didn’t work out. We… we wanted different things.”

You could see the questions bubbling in their pretty lil heads, but they offer some kindness, some room to take a breath.

“Oh, well good on you for getting out, Tom. We’re happy for you.”

And there it goes. You laugh under your breath at their blatant flip of the coin.

Tom smiles a little warmer this time, eyes crinkling genuinely.

“Thanks, ‘appreciate it.”

“And you know,” Jenn sings, shimmying her shoulders, “If you’re looking for a new, new love. There’s plenty of candidates right here!”

She bumps your shoulder, making you fall towards him. You dance a few steps forward, clinging onto his arm to balance yourself. You scoff as you stand up straight, your hand gripping his sleeve and nearly stretched across his chest.

Oh.

He stiffens beneath your touch.

Right.

You pull back to yourself, stepping aside as he clears his throat. Your brows furrow but he continues to speak uninterrupted.

“Ahem, yeah… thanks. I’m still–– I’m figuring things out. But I’ll be sure to do it right next time.”

Next time.

And you crack a one-sided smile, pursing your lips and looking down. Haha.

Harrison gives Tom’s shoulder a hard pat, not to be forgotten.

“If you get a next time!”

Oh, that was a bit pointed. A little sharp.

Tom opens his mouth in reaction, booing. Harrison laughs wide hugging his shoulders as everyone teases. You can’t look straight at him, knowing that you would fold and join into the glee all too quickly.

He looks too pretty in this light.

“Well, we still have some rounds to make,” Haz hugs Sam, then Jenn, then you, “We’ll grab a drink with you later.”

You close your eyes in the short embrace with Harrison, recharging. He squeezes your shoulder and starts to pull Tom away. Tom was in the middle of hugging your old pals, no hard feelings.

He gets to stand before you but speaks to the group,

“Yeah, ‘nice seeing you guys.”

The one rogue curl has turned into three framing his face, his canine pokes over his lip in a warm smile, and you feel the world stop turning.

“Y/N.”

You nod, giving him a quiet goodbye, tracing the lovely expression on his face. You blink softly, calming the pinpricks in your heart.

Damn.

And before you realize it, you’re smiling.

Greaaat.

It’s getting harder to deny that he’s got you got.

Cos now....

I’m actually kind of rooting for you.

-

How great is it that wedding playlists are full of love songs, huh? Gives you lots of material to think about as you bob your head to some bops with a chilled glass of wine in hand.

“I love you” and “I need you,” those are the songs singing. And the warmth in your face? You can blame it on the bubbly.

Right.

You raise your glass with another circle of friends as you spin in a daze. You let yourself blend into the blur of company, focused on remaining present.

Present as in–– not falling too back into those chocolatey clutches. Too soon anyway.

You don’t need to spend this time thinking about Tom. You don’t need to worry about where he is or how you’ll meet again–– in the next hour? After this wedding? Next week or…

Stop!

You’re just two separate people living on this planet, and your worlds don’t need to revolve around each other. At least, not all the time.

Tom is respecting your space, and you his. You don’t know what happened during this month long break, but… you still have time to think some things through. Whatever.

You nod along with friends to the music, finding your attention drifting away as the songs switch to something slower. The spell is wearing off, clarity is coming.

“I’ll be right back,” you hum but sure they didn’t actually hear you, and head to the bathroom.

And what a surprise, he is standing outside talking on his phone.

He doesn’t see you at first, kicking his feet on the floor and spinning alone.  You tiptoe past him, and maybe that was when he notices you–– you can’t fully tell either because you’ve already made it inside.

You make no impression of it, only looking at your face in the mirror. You take out an oil-blotting sheet and press it against your forehead. You look at your reflection, and it simply stares back. Nothing new, just some lines of wear and tiredness beneath your eyes. The usual.

You exit the restroom, and he isn’t there.

Hm.

You make your way, pulled into some conversations and breaking free for another drink, waiting at the counter of the bar. Your fingers tap against the counter fidgeting not out of impatience and––

There’s a raucous eruption of laughter and rustling beside you. You turn your cheek to see none other than, that man. He’s hugging another guy as they stuff a few bills into the tip jar. He notices you this time.

Small smile, and then disappears into the crowd.

You managed to smile back as your drink came and you flit away just as quickly. There’s an incredulous laugh that edges in the back of your throat.

Hmm.

Next, you go out for some fresh air on the balcony and, huh, he’s there, too. Harrison and Tom smoke some cigars with the grooms and you quite literally smack your lips and turn a heel to the other direction.

Not the kind of air you were looking for at the moment.

You sputter a laugh in disbelief, shaking your head as you clomp your way to… wherever the hell else.

God, you weren’t even looking for him! He was just always fucking… right there. Your pace quickens and you focus on the tap of your shoes as you run away––

But there’s something else in your step.

Disappointment?

Maybe it’s weighing on you that he isn’t making any moves. Not that you want him to, but you kinda did expect him to.You see him miraculously after a month and he leaves all those begging and wanting messages and now you see him here and–– nothing.

Shit, Tom. Don’t be such a great guy.

You laugh, shaking your head, feeling your hair come undone a lil. You tuck it behind your ear as you come back to face the twinkling lights.

You’re making it hard to ignore you.

You take a deep breath, rolling your shoulders back in an attempt to relax. Sliding your way back onto the dance floor, you find friends and hold onto your waning freedom.

Dancing is the best way to get him out of your head. He’s outside, you’re in a tangle, you won’t find him here. You won’t even look for him here!

Shimmy. Sing. Shake. Grind.

Your eyes are closed to just fall in tune with the music, and maybe you’re dancing badly but that’s always alright. Just enough to get the feelings out.

In the throes of expressing yourself with your body, you fail to ignore another body coming up behind you, shushing your friends. Warm hands melt down your waist, rolling with the contours of your hips.

You yelp, jumping up and falling back into the body. You turn to see that it’s just Harrison, laughing smartly. His cheeks are flushed as he hugs your waist close to him,

“Hello there, thing.”

Thing.

“God! You scared me.” You swat at him, as you struggle against his arms to face him. You hug his own waist back easily, fingers spreading across his back. You giggle sheepishly, feeling the full weight of tiredness as you’re finally able to lean on someone.

His warm fingertips gently brush hair away from your sticky face, commenting,

“You’re look beautiful, even 3 hours into this thing.”

“That’s the alcohol speakin’, Haz.”

“No, no.Just accept it,” his eyes soften, watery blue, “I mean it.”

Oh, the pang of guilt.

“Not looking so bad yourself,” you say, patting his cheek. You could feel the beginnings of stubble beneath your hand, sending shivers down your spine.

The song slows and you collapse into a dance together, feet shuffling softly and heads leaned. You take solace on his shoulder, breathing in his manly cologne, still going strong. You can smell a feminine perfume mixed along in there somewhere too––

“So, where’s Tom now?” you callously ask.

“Why are you looking for him?”

“N-no, I’m just wondering,” you callously reply.

Harrison shallowly laughs at your obvious interest, shaking his head to hit his chin against you.

“‘Trying not to keep bumping into you, he says,” you hear a deep sigh come from deep within, “Ya’ll are so annoying.”

His bold hand pats the space right above your ass in poor punishment. You inhale deeply, words spilling,

“I don’t know what to do with… with this, honestly.”

“Spend some time with him, you’ll know.”

You frown, craning to look back at him, eventually standing straight before him, “I… don’t want to.”

“Then don’t look for him,” Haz says firmly, bluntly, clearly.

He’s giving you an empty smile, his eyes icy. And it hurts your heart, hurts you knowing that he’s still having a hard time with this too. You step back, making distance,

“I’m sorry, Harrison–– I didn’t mean to.”

“No, no, you’re alright,” his eyes close, tilting his head. His perfect hair falls with his movements, “I don’t want you to pity me, just–– just let yourself be happy, or else i can’t move on.”

Woof.

That’s the first time he’s said it out loud.

And you hear it loud and clear.

You don’t know what to say, offering him a crooked smile, eyebrows pulled. You try to give him a look that looks more like understanding rather than pity.

He chuckles, a bit more genuinely this time,

“What are we going to do with you?”

You bob your head. You’re a wreck and you know it.

“Dance?”

“I dare you to dance with Tom.”

“What?No way! I can’t do that,” you look past Harrison as he spins you. That pretty boy is standing alone against the wall somewhere far off. He’s not looking in your direction now, but you could never be sure of where his eyes were mere seconds ago.

“No!”

You want to tell Harrison that you’d rather dance with him, no one else, but that would just be twisting the knife in further. Pure cruelty.

“Come on,” Harrison hugs you from behind, swaying for a moment while he presses his cheek against yours. The grain of his stubble tickles your face as he whispers into you ear,

“There’s nothing to be worried about.”

Easy for you to say, is what comes to mind. There’s PLENTY of things to worry about–– but further burdening Harrison with your troubles is just.... Unfair, and you know it.

Fuck it all.

The song ends, and Haz lets you go with a soft spin and swivel. Your shoes tap on the hardwood, as he motions for you to go. It fills you with a little bit of confidence, if you can call it that.

You make your way, looking back to see the beautiful boy already chatting up some people nearby, his perfect smile on display. There was a little ease given back to you there. A little.

The songs get slower, and it’s harder to make it out there alone.

Your stupid eyes keep trailing back to Tom leaning against the wall, glass in hand. You suck in a breath and finally waltz yourself over to him.

At least you have the element of surprise on your side, right?

“Hey.”

“Ah! H-hey!” he’s caught off guard, pushing himself off the wall to stand tall.

You fall into place next to him, looking around as you control the pace.

“You enjoying yourself?”

You’re aware of how strange this sudden exchange must be, but you’re tired of running in place. You think Tom picks up on that too as his shoulder slumps in casual ease, able to speak loosely,

“Of course, great company and an open bar. It’s a good night.”

You break into a wry smile, wondering who and where his company was. You were out there with his best friend, who was left?

That’s a little mean, haha.

“You’re not gonna go dance?”

“No one I wanna dance with out there,” he bumps his head to the music, looking out into the sea, and back at you.

You exhale, taking a small leap,

“No one for the… past few months?”

Tom fights a grin, puffing his cheeks up as he turns to you fully. His eyes scan over your face, looking for permission to be back on that cheeky shit,

“There’s only (1) person that comes to mind.”

Mmhmm.

“––Well ,a few ones. But you’re the main one, don’t worry,” he jokes with a weak smile.

That’s enough to make you laugh though, his easy teasing. You fix the strap of your dress as you smooth out the conversation with just as much tact,

“So, how have you been otherwise, busy?”

“Yeah, a little bit, and you?”

“Not busy enough,” you laugh, maybe this wasn’t so easy. The nervous energy boiled in the pit of your stomach as you kept talking, “––with work and class and stuff. It’s been slow but i’d rather be stressed. I don’t know it’s weird, being idle.”

“No, no, I get it,” Tom points his finger as he takes a drink, maintaining eye contact, “Don’t overwork yourself though.”

“Thanks.”

And the conversation stops, not flowing to the next thing like it used to.

There should be so many things to talk about, so many things to catch up on, movies, shows, life, anything! But there were still wrinkles you had to iron out, not to be forgotten.

The silence isn’t unpleasant though, though you can credit that to being at a loud and rowdy wedding. Lots of background noise and things to avert your gaze to.

“How’s Mal?” he asks outright and suddenly.

“Doin’ better,” you reply just as earnestly, “Haven’t talked to her much though, if I’m being honest.”

“That’s good. She… really worried me last week, but we left on good terms.”

Thank god.

You face him fully this time too, “I’m glad. That’s great, Tom. I’m really happy for you.”

He puts down his glass, scratching his nose to hide his face. You can see his eyes were a little watery while his brows furrowed,

“Listen, I– I gotta clear some things up with you too. If you’ll––”

You hear the loud crackle of a microphone, eyes directed towards the mass of people rushing to the dance floor. The DJ announces it’s time for the bouquet toss, people pushing beside you asking you to come join, Hands reaching out as they pass.

Uhm, hell no.

You shake your head in rejection, it may just be superstition, but you’ll take no chances. Predictions for the future made you queasy, forever waiting for those star sign events to come true. It’s limiting, in a way. Strings of people pass by you, pulling at you and Tom to join. They smelled a little too hopeful and a little too much like alcohol.

“Come on, you’re single. Just go!”

“No thanks,” you breath.

“Why, are you taken?”

“No,” you had to reply over and over.

You held still, your stomach churning for some reason. Maybe it was just having your future ~love~ predicted and dissected by a crowd of people. You just felt rushed and hot and annoyed. These festivities were meant to be fun, harmless! But you feel too conscious about it in this state.

“Want to get out of here?” Tom offers, expertly sensing your nerves, his hand already hovering over the small of your back.

“Please.”

He takes the outside and you walk along the wall, weaving through threads of people while his hand guides you. You couldn’t look at him, embarrassed about your mini-meltdown as he leads you out into an empty hall. It led to a quiet lobby.

No one was there, the only sign of use were the half-drunken booze littered across a table. There was still plenty of room to stand and talk. You lean against a marble column and look out the window. There’s meant to be a view of the city, sparkling at night, but the glare allowed you to see your reflections. Both of you stood apart and stiff.

You hug your shoulders, thinking of just moments ago, “Pushy.”

“Sorry about that,” Tom offers, leaning against the same pillar, close. “Is this alright?”

“It’s not you,” is all you can return.

You both take the moment to try to look past your own reflections to the outside world, listening to the muffled sounds of the DJ and blurry cheering. Soon enough, you push off the column stand closer to the glass, looking out and seeing clearly.

“I have to apologize for speaking on your behalf… about Mal.”

There’s a beat of silence before he comes beside you again, searching for the same view. In the faint reflection, you see his hand reach for yours and stop, stuffing his back into his pocket. He pretends he hadn’t moved at all.

“No, no, thanks for saying something. I, uhm, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”

You both chuckle, looking down–– no one really knows anything. It’s contained, it’s a secret.

It’s stills something that’s only between the three of you.

And it’s all you can think about lately.

What are we now?

During this gap, you’ve spent so much time thinking about what to say, and what you would do when you get the chance to speak one on one…. But now you’re fumbling. So far, you don’t know anything about thisTom. This Tom you have seen for days, weeks, months. You don’t know what he’s being doing, how he’s doing or what he’s even thinking about–– not like before. Not like back when you could read his mind. Not like when you knew, “I’m on my way” meant “I’ll be 10 minutes late, but I’ll be there.”

There’s so little to go off of.

The boy before you wasn’t a complete stranger, but not exactly a friend either.

And you don’t know where to start with that.

You cross and uncross your arms in the dragging echo of silence.

You feel like a child, helpless. You feel like a teenager, confused. But worst of all, you felt like an adult who has no idea what the fuck to say.

It would have been comforting to know that Tom felt the same way, but you didn’t notice that. You didn’t see how his forefinger pressed into his thumb, and how he bit the inside of his cheek, navigating the same path to the truth and apology.

It would actually be a relief for someone to burst in at this moment.

But the time for peace and clarity has arrived, and you both know you shouldn’t let it go.

“I’m sorry for… kissing you the last time I saw you. The last, last time, I mean. At the party,” Tom courageously blurts, turning a frustrated red. He steps back to the column, leaning against it as he balls his hands into fists,

“That’s one the biggest… things I have to say sorry for. And… yeah, you know the rest. I just–– I know that I shouldn’t have done that. The alcohol and confusion isn’t an excuse… and yeah, it’s disgusting, I know.” He trails off, hoping that you would pick up from there. But you don’t, properly giving him time to say what he needs to,

“I–I’ve been so lost for so long, you know? Looking for someone to be with, and Mal was there. She was someone who wasn’t perfect, needed help… Someone I thought I could help. And I wanted to stick through it, but when I met you––aside from what happened between us, you taught me that I deserved better. Better than someone who wouldn’t do anything in return for all I’ve done. That that relationship isn’t… something I had to destroy myself to save,” he looks up, looking for you.

“You just… none of this is your fault and you don’t need to feel bad for any of it. For me.”

Tom laughs, shaking his head more curls and waves coming undone.

“You don’t need to be anything to me. But I’m just going to be the sap that’s still falling in love with you for a while longer.”

The laugh takes a bittersweet turn, and you can tell he wishes he were holding your hand–– anything to physically show you he means it. But you’re not sure you’re ready for that kind of direct touch just yet.

You’re just absorbing it all in. It’s been a tumultuous few months, both caught in a vicious tide. Rolling, tumbling, drowning–– and it’s not an excuse for either of you. You can’t just let things fall where they may.

“No… Tom, I have to apologize too,” you start shakily, after you hear cheers from the vibrating reception.

“For what?”

Breathe.

The past few months of getting close to Tom, getting closer and falling apart, run though your mind. And you really wonder if he thinks that you are blameless in this catastrophe.That you hadn’t seduced him or wanted him while he was promised to someone else.

That’s pretty shit of you, right?

You lick your bottom lip in a small smile, Tom always had that kind of innocence about you. The assumption that you don’t play the game, that you could never wish ill-will. He could never think that you had ever schemed against his relationship.

And you didn’t, explicitly, but….

“Tom,” you dig your heel into the ground, leaning against the window while you watch his face, “I shouldn’t have ever… tempted you–– or spent that time with you. Back then, in the beginning, you had Mal. And I walked right in between you.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did, and maybe it wasn’t forcefully or with the intention of taking you away but… it was wrong of me to even try to confuse you. It was selfish and stupid.”

And it hurt everyone involved.

Whether it started with you is up for debate, but you want this cycle of hurt to end with you. Or end with the truth.

You think of Harrison and even Mal. Maybe it’s not your fault or Tom’s fault, but it’s hard to feel blameless as you assess the damage.

“If I hadn’t gotten involved, none of this would have happened and…”

Your eyes shift left and right as you wait for his reply. Tom hangs his head, rocking for a moment before coming back up to smile,

“It’s okay.”

His words hang in the air, releasing you. And something has changed, with your confessions, something has reverted back to those glossier days. He teases,

“I’m glad you confused me.”

You scrunch your nose at your words being brought back.

Tom and Mal’s relationship was rockier than either of you knew at the start, and with your intentional slash unintentional meddling, lots of things came to light, got messy and now… you’re here.

Confused.

Far from the start, but still just as lost.

Tom’s brows raise and soften as he watches your heart on your sleeve,

“I…. I know there’s still a lot to think about but… I gotta say that I’m so happy that you’re still here talking to me.”

You have to laugh, one that you can’t swallow and pretend. You rub the corner of your eye, and muse,

“I’m not that cold, Tom.”

But you had been, and he knew he deserved it.

And while time has not swept away all the hurt, the path seemed a little bit clearer.

There were still some things you couldn’t deny.

“Hey... You know what?”

He hums in response, kicking off the column to come stand beside you again. You could see the pretty wrinkles on the side of his mouth deepen as he breathes into a smile.

You start,

“Despite this mess, I’m glad I got to know you. At all.”

His dark eyes widen as he takes it in, the future still in question. His pale hands yearns to reach out to you, and even with this new confidence he is wary of rejection. Instead he cuts through the still and get straight to it,

“What does that mean?”

You felt caught off guard at his parry, but your answer comes out all on its own.

“It means that, I’ve liked you, Tom. and––”

And?

“I don’t completely want you out of my life.”

You find yourself smiling as you tuck your chin back in embarrassment. That sounded an awful lot like you still felt That Way about him. You shut your eyes and sigh, shaking your head a little bit.

“Not completely?” he repeats, egging you on for more. He leans close to you, making his way back to your heart.

You chuckle under your breath.

“Let’s start over.”

Tom’s brows harden.

You stretch out your hand towards him, which he cautiously accepts as you put out the flames.

“As friends.”

There’s another loud round of applause that echoes through the hall. Shouts and whistles bleed out to the lobby.

“As friends,” he murmurs.

You shake firmly, avoiding his eyes as your hands fall back to your sides. You turn your cheek to face away from him and suggest,

“Let’s get back in, yeah?”

You don’t want him to see the strange, flustered, excited, happy expression drawn so obviously on your face.

“Let’s,” Tom agrees easily.

His hand smoothes over the small of your back, in a brave and bold little show of camaraderie.

Let’s start off as friends.

You smile stiffly, because you don’t want him to know that your heart is pounding like it used to.

That it would be too easy to melt back into that old mold.

Let’s just see where we go from there.

-

As with all romantic dramedies, you enter the party together with no resolution or closure to your prior conversation. And once again, you are immediately swept away into the tide.

You lose each other for a moment, following the flow of people and conversation.  But this time, you find your way back to one another, willingly.

Tom stands tall by your side, instead of cowering away, and you roll your shoulders back with inviting poise. You feel at ease and he smiles warmly.

That’s not to write off the unbelievable and undeniable tension stretching in the small gap between your shoulders. It’s TOO real.

Your hand had bumped his once, and you both jump back and fumble over hurried apologies.

“Sorry.”

“You’re good.”

And it’s back to standing still but not too still. You both manage to relax with your favorite blonde slash brunette makes his way, and stands in between. He’s throws his arms over both of you, drunken weight pulling down as he sways.

You laugh at the rumple in his collar, fixing it while berating him for still being so drunk at the end of the night. Harrison waves the hand on your side and twirls a finger in the air,

“Indulge a little.”

The celebration nears the end as the lights dim and people start making two lines by the exit, standing together holding party poppers to burst over the grooms in the grand finale. A parting gift of glitter and petals and kisses.

Tom has placed Harrison in a chair by the wall, both of you standing nearby. You both snicker  as he rubs his eyes and checks his phone, undoubtedly texting you both.

Facing forward, you hold the small device in your hands as you wait together, scraping to make small talk. Your voice startles him.

“You know, Z is coming back in a week.”

Tom’s eyes widen, looking at you with genuine surprise. He nods, looking for more,

“Oh, for real? Does she want––” His eyes dart from side to side, thinking of his next words carefully.

You finish it for him.

“She wants to see you. And uh-oh, biiiiig trouble.”

“Oh,” he pulls an exaggerated face, tugging at his collar.

“Not all bad trouble. But–– you know, it could help your case if you could help us with the move. Uhm, If I could trouble you with that.”

Tom smiles wide, his eyes crinkling near shut as he looks down. This is your arm stretched out towards him, offering a path back to where he wants to be. But it’s just a feeler, if anything at all.

“Yeah, of course, I’d love to.”

You giggle, shaking your head. No one wants to help anyone with a move, dummy. God, you don’t want to take advantage of his feelings but–– he does have a car and some apologies he wanted to make. Haha, it’s nothing malicious! You could just use the help.

“I can bring Haz and Jacob too, if that’s alright.”

“Oh, I don’t have that much shit.”

“Just Harrison then?”

Your eyes scan over him, wondering if he was worried about spending time in the same place as 3 women who were, arguably, after his throat. You really can’t blame him for looking for some protection.

You offer your sympathy with a edging smile, “Yeah, bring the drunkard with you. He’ll be a lot of help, yeah?”

You both turn back to look at him, squinting into the crowd. You laugh as he finally finds you, and offer him a little wave. You turn to Tom to see if he was waving too, but he wasn’t.

His face is close, and tilted towards you. You could see those freckles you missed so much, and the brow you’ve always wanted to tame. You could smell that faint boyish cologne that always reminded you of home––

“Oh! Here they come!” Tom interrupts, his whole face perking up animatedly. His smile is so wide and true, leaving you in a daze and you turn back to the grooms.

They make their way through the lines, dressed in white, only to be covered in glitter and streamers and petals.

You squeal in excitement, screaming congratulations as you pull the string and feel the pop in your bones. Tom is whistling and howling beside you, a cheeky hand making its way across your back.

Goosebumps prickle across your skin as you watch the new couple pass.

Hey.

They disappear into night, as the crowd collapses into one. You hear stray pops and fizzles, delayed responses but none to go to waste. The flurry of confetti is dense and never ending, feeling like a stubborn snow flurry in the early spring.

You lean into the warm palm into your back, and spin to find it’s owner.

Through falling flowers, muted music and passing bodies, you turn back to Tom.

Lovely Tom.

And he’s found you too, hair tousled just right and lips a rosy pink.

Picture perfect and sugary sweet.

“Hey, you.”

Your back is still blooming with warmth even after his hand falls away.

“Hey.”

Before the flurry ends, he’s pulled you aside to avoid the bustling of people making their exit. The dim light and soft rustling makes you feel small and lonely, yearning to be held again.

Your eyes shift towards Harrison, coming up from his seat and taking a video of the falling flowers. You blink back into your body.

Straightening yourself out, you tuck hair behind your ear, making rogue petals fall out onto the floor. You and Tom laugh, as he brushes his shoulders off and shakes his blazer.

You’re shaking off your dress as Harrison comes up, and Tom speaks low,

“Can I give you a ride home?”

Oh, the night’s not over.

You look at Haz, still in and out of his coordination and seeing that he was your ride… you agree. You walk with the pair of boys clinging to each other into the warm night and softly bump into Tom’s shoulder.

“Did you plan for this?”

He raises his brows to give you a smug smile,

“Nope, only hoped.”

You roll your eyes as you get into Harrison’s car–– Tom must have gotten a Lyft or something. Harrison surrendered his keys and quickly settled into his seat up front. He dozes off quickly, dropping his phone and making no reaction.

Tom snickers as you take a picture of the blonde sweetie, sitting back to type on your phone.

He plays some whatever late night radio music, and it’s quiet in the car but it’s not so bad. It’s comfortable.

You don’t feel the pressure to talk after all the talking you had already done.

You focus on picking off flowers that have gotten into precarious places, and rub the glitter off your skin. You seethe,

“These better be biodegradable.”

And Tom laughs, glitter and paper confetti falling out of his hair.

He takes you home on familiar dips and turn, getting back to your apartment in no time. You almost forgot about your roommate for a moment too––

He parks to the side and as you gather your things he runs out to get the door for you, making you blow up at your hair. You take the hand he offers as you step out,

“Thank you, thank you. That’ll be all.”

You start to walk to the front door, realizing Tom is following you after the car door shuts and you hear his hurried steps. You look at him, lips pressed to avoid a smile. He shrugs,

“Just want to make sure you get inside.”

You both look towards the door, only a short distance away. And reconvene with those dark browns, curious to see what could happen next.

He understands that there’s still a line, still a few things to settle. And you appreciate that–– except for the fact that your insides are buzzing to take him in, to watching something dumb or to catch up or to drink drinks or to just to have him on your couch again.

But it can’t be tonight.

You climb up a few steps, making yourself a lot taller than him, and lick your lips,

“”Thank you, Tom. Uhm, it was nice talking to you again.”

“It’s my pleasure,” he scratches the side of his neck, “This eases some of my worries.”

“You don’t have to worry,” you say softly leaning back.

“But I want to.”

You shake your head, throwing your shoulders up as you laugh,

“Stay worried then!”

Tom pouts, slapping his arms at his side in defense, and you only rub your nose.

“Thanks,” he sarcastically nods, continuing the banter. He wants to spend more time with you too, to wrap himself in that fuzzy gray blanket and tell you how much you meant and mean to him. But he rocks back on his heels, trying to get away from your sweet scent and away from the sweet licks of temptation.

Let’s not make the same mistakes twice, yeah?

“Text me when you make it back, okay? Tell Harrison to too,” you conclude, stepping on the brakes.

He smiles a little too wide at the permission you just gave him, and you only realize it a second after. Then the lines of communication were open again, that this is something you will really move forward with–– and as Tom bows his head to hide his ecstatic grin, you catch sight of a stray white petal knotted in his locks.

“Hold on!”

You reach forward instinctively, and he keeps his head lowered. You hold the side of his head with one hand, the bottom of your palm smoothing across his forehead and the other plucking the petal from a nest of gel,

“Got it.”

And he looks up then, with no warning. You hand frozen in place, and ultimately cupping his cheek. Your thumb presses against the corner of his lip, pressed in a gorgeous and heartbreaking smile.

You manage to speak, “Look, silly.”

Your hand shakes as you show him the white petal between your faces, and he defiantly looks past it and straight at you.

“You can keep that,” he whispers, making your hair stand on end.

And it’s funny because your arm lowers, and your hand slides off his burning cheek onto his chest. You smooth down his lapel and hold his gaze before you let your hand fall back to your side. You wished nothing more than to tumble forward, to collapse back into his arms. To embrace him wholly, for him to embrace you back.

To forget the stupid messes made and fall in love with the sweetness again.

“I will.”

There’s still a trust to be earned, a new recipe to follow. Proper ingredients, real sugar and in the end, it’s still gotta taste good too.

But, oh, what would wouldn't do to kiss him again.

To take a bite of that sweet chocolate.

“I’ll see you soon, Tom.”

I wonder what it would taste like now?

-

-

-

A/N: …… FINALLY. OH MY GOD. it’s been like what, 6 months? Since December? This series took a hard hit because of my birthday and holidays and tumblr banning blogs left and right. I’m glad to return to it, and fucking… END it. Thank you so much to those of you who have stuck around, remembered this series and asked for updates! This is for you.

If you can, please like, comment and reblog. I want all of those who have been waiting for this to see the end! Maybe like 2-3 more chapters left?

And i’ll let you know when i can update next. The next one won’t be as long, so maybe i can get it out in a week or two?

Track #LDC or #Like Dark Chocolate to see the updates!

Again, thank you so much and i love you guys! See you very soon.

Peace,

Madmadmilk

[matrixaffiliate]

Saudade - Jape

Day seven of Blackinnon Week 2020! (I’m not going to be able to post tomorrow, so this is going up early.)

Story Update! FFN and AO3

July 19th Prompt:  Prompt: First anything (it can be canon or au): House, marriage proposal, kid, etc.

Today’s story is inspired by this picture the lovely @maraudersobsessed posted a while ago. - Enjoy, the first time Marlene pranked Sirius.

Jape

The Marauders had just pulled off their end of year prank, their final one, the one to be remembered by students for years to come. And as they celebrated in the common room, Marlene wondered if anyone had ever pranked the Marauders. When she mentioned it to Dorcas and Lily, they both agreed that no one had ever succeeded in pranking the four boys without getting pranked back tenfold.

But the Marauders had sworn they were done with pranks now. Which meant that there wouldn't be the concern for retaliation from the best pranksters the school had ever seen.

The three girls determined it would need to be done after they were done with Hogwarts, mostly because they couldn't come up with anything to pull off in less than five days. It also helped that if the Marauders did determine they were going to fight back, they wouldn't all be living in the same room.

And then Dorcas had a stroke of genius when she suggested they hit all four boys separately with personalized pranks. Peter's would need to be done remotely somehow, but they could each be there to personally prank their respective favorite Marauder of the group.

And Marlene knew exactly what she was going to do. Because if she'd learned anything watching the Marauders prank for years, it was that the best pranks had a worthy return for the prankster.

The girls waited until a few days after they'd ridden the train home to coordinate their prank. Which for Marlene involved coordinating with Mia Potter to sneak over to the Potter's shed before the sun was fully up.

She crept into the shed and quietly pushed out Sirius' most prized possession, his motorcycle.

The Potter's back garden had a lovely old stone bench near the back door. It was close enough to the back door to be seen from the kitchen table. Exactly what she needed. Marlene parked the bike right next to the bench before sitting down next to the bike and waving her wand. Golden chains wrapped themselves around the bench and the bike. Then she cast herself invisible.

Now all she had to do was wait.

Which surprisingly wasn't long. Marlene had been sure she'd have to cast the bike invisible so James wouldn't see it before Sirius made it downstairs and where he could see his bike chained to the bench. Fate, apparently, had other ideas.

Marlene held her breath as she watched Sirius stumble groggily into the kitchen and reach for the bread box. He cut a slice before returning the loaf and looking up out the window.

He dropped the slice of bread.

Sirius bolted out of the kitchen and through the black door, wand raised high.

"What the Hell?" He pointed his wand at the chains and vanished them.

Marlene muttered under breath and put them back.

Sirius stared at the bike for a moment and then spun around with his wand held out in front of him.

Carefully, he pointed his wand at the bike and transformed the chains to vines.

Marlene transformed the vines into gold ropes.

Sirius stayed silent, but his eyes were calculating now. He transformed the gold ropes, this time into shoelaces.

Marlene changed them back into gold chains.

Now Sirius smirked.

"Come on out, McKinnon."

Marlene felt her jaw drop. How did he know?

"Marls, it was a great prank, but you didn't think about the fact that only you would choose to make everything gold."

Marlene swore under her breath. He was right. She hadn't even realized everything had been gold.

So, she likes shiny things, so what?

"I'll make it worth it if you come out now, Marly," his tone left no doubt what he had in mind.

"Fine," Marlene huffed and dropped the invisibility charm.

Sirius grinned and flicked his wand at his bike, the gold chains disappearing in a shimmer. Then he climbed on.

"Hop on, McKinnon," he motioned behind him.

Marlene grinned; this was her return on the prank.

"Will you let me drive?"

"Probably, but you'll never know if you don't climb on, will you?" Sirius started the engine and gave Marlene a pointed stare.

She jumped on the bike.

"Are Doe and Lils in on this too?" Sirius maneuvered the bike out onto the road.

"They've got their own things to worry about," Marlene evaded the question.

Sirius laughed and pulled the bike up into the air.

"You didn't leave poor Pete out, did you?"

"Of course not," Marly scoffed. "His surprise should be getting to him about now, Doe was going to send the owl first thing."

"What are the rest of them getting?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Marlene pulled herself closer behind him.

Sirius laughed and took the bike into a dive. Marlene laughed at the rush as he pulled them up just before they came too close to the ground.

"Knowing what the other girls have planned might be just the persuasion I need to teach you how to ride." He took them back up into the air. "Looking at motorcycles your entire life and all you have to do to get to drive one today is tell me what James, Rems, and Pete are getting for their pranks today."

Marlene bit her lip. "You won't try to stop them?"

"Marauders honor," Sirius brought them close to the treetops and Marlene let her hand brush against the top most leaves.

"You have a deal, Black."

Sirius brought them down to the ground to park the bike and then tugged Marlene to straddle the bike in front of him, face to face.

"Pleasure doing business with you McKinnon," He kissed along her neck and Marlene ran her black nails along his scalp.

"First I get the riding lesson though," Marlene murmured in his ear.

Sirius shook his head, "First, we do this," he brought one hand from her waist to her chest. "Then I teach you to fly," he bit lightly on her neck. "And then you're going to tell me what the lads got so that I can make fun of them for it."

"How do you know they won't make fun of you for what I did?" Marlene grinned.

"Doesn't matter, because they aren't ending like this, Mar." He nuzzled behind her ear. "I'm definitely getting the best prank."

Marlene laughed, "Are you, by chance, impressed Black?"

"Damn, straight I am," Sirius captured her lips.

And when the sun was much higher in the sky and Marlene steered the bike over the Potter's house, she was pretty sure that she definitely had come up with the perfect prank.

[what-the--curtains]

Braving the Elements

Chapter 18: Cooling Off

Tw: swearing

Authors notes: I am SOFT

(When you’re swimming)

1AM - One Week Later

You can hear his voice calling you, taunting you, daring you to find him. You’re jolted awake, the words of what your father had told you still ringing in your ear. “You killed her. You were meant for destruction. Born by murder. Stop hiding, embrace your destiny my child.” You can feel the anger boiling in your veins, threatening to spill over. Crawling out from under Bucky’s arm, you roll out of bed and quietly grab his red henley lying on the floor and tug on a pair of joggers heading to the kitchen in search of the keys to Sam’s car.

Bucky wakes up when he’s hit by the distinct lack of your body beneath him. Groggily he gets out of bed and makes his way to the door. Opening it he hears the jangling of keys coming from the kitchen.

“Jesus, where are you going now?” he asks, rubbing his eyes “Is that my shirt?”

“What I gotta update you on my whereabouts 24/7 now? It’s not like we're dating.” you say more harshly than intended.

“Well if you’re not telling me then you’re not going.” he says grabbing you and swinging you over his shoulder.

“James I swear to god, put me down.” you say trying to suppress a laugh but ultimately failing. For a moment you forget why you were so angry. He throws you on the bed, pushing you back down with a smile when you try to get up.

“Look I’m going, but I’ll be back I promise. Scouts honor” You say, standing up and placing a hand over your heart.

“You’re obviously upset” he says

“So what?” you drop your hands back down to your side.

“So, if you go I’m coming with you. I’m not letting you drive around in this state you’ll end up killing yourself”

“Fine, put on some clothes first, there’s bugs where we're going.”

“How can I when you keep stealing all mine?” He laughs before pulling on one of his many sweaters littering your bedroom floor. You grab Sam’s keys and drive out of the city, for what seems like hours, not really talking because you’re afraid you may snap at him again.

“So where are we going?” he asks, startling you.

“Who says we’re going anywhere.” you retort.

“God what’s up your ass tonight?” he says with a partial laugh.

“Jesus James just shut the fuck up!” You exclaim before biting down on your lip, immediately regretting your words.

“No and that was way out of line (y/n).” He says.

“I know. You’re right. I’m sorry.” you say pulling over “We’re here. Stay in the car, I’ll only be a second.”

You throw the keys at him and head off along the trodden path into the forest. You used to come here when you were at Xaviers, it was only a 40 minute walk or so from the campus. You turn off the main path, following the sound of water. Stepping out into a clearing you find the place you used to go to when everything got too much the only place you ever felt truly safe. You walk out a bit further until you're looking out over the top of a waterfall, water rushing down drowning out the noise of the city. When you were younger you always came here when everything got too much. You look around at the pristine environment, completely unscathed by humans. You look up at the clear night sky and let it all out. Screaming you fall to your knees, scorching the earth around you. Bucky’s almost dozed off when he hears a blood curdling scream. He fumbles his way out of the car and rushes towards where the sound came from. He stops at the edge of the falls where he sees a singed patch of grass and your clothing in a small pile just off to the side. He panics for a second thinking that you may have spontaneously combusted before hearing splashing coming from below. Leaning over he sees you happily swimming in the lake.

“Coulda told me you were trying to wake up the whole city!” he shouts down to you.

“I thought I told you to stay in the car?” you respond

“Ya well you forgot to crack a window!” He hears you laugh

“Well are you gonna do it?” you taunt

“Do what?” He asks.

“Jump in? the water’s fine!”

“You're insane,” he laughs, “it’s a 80 foot drop!”

“Oh don’t be such a baby! Steve told me you’ve jumped onto a moving train. You scared of a lil jump now?”

“Well now you’ve gone and done it!” he says, removing his shirt and sweatpants and dropping them into a pile near yours before jumping in.

“So you come here often?” he asks swimming over to you

“God what a line!” you respond causing him to splash you lightly. Which you return in the form of a tidal wave.

“Stop cheating” he says wrapping his arms around you and dunking the two of you under the water. Breaking the surface you wiggle around to face him, kissing him deeply. After which you dunk his head under the water laughing. After a few more minutes of messing around you get out and you blow dry the two of you wit the surrounding air. He piggybacks you up to your clothes before returning to the car. He drives back. He can sense your weariness as you stare out the window.

“You know next time you feel like that, you can talk to me.”

“I can't, I'll just end up hurting you” Silence “I have this fire inside me and if I get too angry, if I let it escape, I could hurt anyone. I have do it alone.”

“Where’s the anger come from?” he asks, looking over to you. Then back to the road. Guess there were still some things you still didn’t want to tell him. That was okay. He could wait.

[cncoh-damn]

Late Night Calls

Summary: As much as you love talking to the guys, late night calls with them isn’t always the best thing, especially when timezones are in the way.

Word count: 4,993

Tags: @richukisbb @quierick @mamacamacho @erickspretend1 @whymyeyeslikethat @zaddydejesus @zabdielsdimples @cncownerxcr7 @streamdecero @cncoxpmxvibes @marveloucnco

Wanna join the taglist? 

Ah, tests. No matter how good you were at school, there would never come a time when you’d look back on them with a smile. Of course, with this being the last year you’d have to take them (at least, until you decide to go to college), you just can’t afford to flunk a single one. Despite several protests from both your own squad and the boys, you promptly locked yourself in your room with nothing but several cans of Red Bull and one too many snacks that definitely didn’t count as dinner. Of course, you couldn’t really ignore the repeated knocking on your door (courtesy of Elodie, the twins, and Alex) nor could you ignore the buzzing of your phone, no doubt caused by the guys trying to convince you to take a break and actually eat something that didn’t come from a vending machine, so with a sigh, you get off your bed and unlock the door.

Unbeknownst to you, Alex stopped banging on the door roughly half an hour ago, and she’d been put on update duty; sending pictures and telling Zabdiel–who would then tell the others–how things were going on their end. Zabdiel did the same, although he still sent you messages every half hour or so. By the end of your five-hour study session, you swear there would be little grooves on your door from where one of the girls’ bracelets or rings hit. Checking your phone for the notifications, you’re mildly impressed to see the number of messages and missed calls you got, most of them from Erick and Chris. Probably something about your unhealthy habits, but really, you’re not about to listen to them; those two were sometimes worse than you after all.

And that’s how, ninety minutes later, you went back to your room after a somewhat excruciating–but delicious–dinner. As she came from a family that put a premium on academic achievement, Alex was the most sympathetic to your wanting to spend the rest of the night studying, though she was quick to tell you to not “study until you pass out” again. Slipping on a stolen hoodie (probably Christopher’s judging by how it wasn’t too baggy on you), you put on your studying playlist and get lost in your textbooks, a feat more difficult than it would seem.

The hours pass in a blur of flash cards, ink smudges, notes scrawled messily in the margins of a page, and several breaks for you to pop the knuckles of your hand when it feels like it’s about to cramp up from writing so much. By the time you finish, it’s already nearing eleven in the evening, and judging by the lack of noise from beyond your door, the others were already asleep or out. (E/c) eyes glance over the mess on your desk, papers and books and pens strewn around your laptop. You then glance over to the vanity-turned-extra-desk-space in front of your bed, brows furrowing at the mess. Not really the most ideal set-up, especially when everything you needed had to be within arm’s reach, but you could fix it later on. Or once your tests are over, something that seems more likely than the former.

Stretching your limbs, you let out a yawn before your eyes fall upon your phone, a notification light blinking to alert you of, well, unseen notifications. Placing your thumb over the home button for it to acknowledge your fingerprint, you rub your eyes with the other hand as your phone unlocks to show everything you’ve missed.

Thirty missed WhatsApp calls from the guys.

Several puns from Erick telling you to stay hydrated and take care of yourself.

Memes from both Chris and Erick that are related to the subjects you currently had.

Khan Academy videos from Zabdiel and Joel.

And finally, a group selfie from Richard, with all of them looking like kicked puppies. You have no idea who came up with the caption, but you were sure the dorks were trying to guilt you into studying and looking after your health. As much as you wanted to deny it, the fact that they all cared enough to spam your phone with messages telling you to take care of yourself warmed your heart. Needless to say, that picture gets saved to your gallery, where you’ll keep it to look at every time you needed a reminder to look after yourself it’ll stagnate and probably end up buried under the copious amount of memes and videos you save from your chats with the guys.

Noticing that your phone’s about to die–you both love and hate them for spamming it, because that meant your battery got drained quicker than it normally did–, you snag one of the many phone chargers on your bedside table, plugging it into the socket behind your table lamp and leaving it there. Next, you stretch some more before you pad over to your bathroom, fully intent on taking a shower before falling asleep. Hey, you might even get the chance to try out that new body wash you and Joel got from Lush the last time you hung out with him.

You step out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, shea butter-scented steam wafting into your room. Mental note to self, (Y/N): thank Joelito next time you see him, because shea butter smells so good. Plus it felt great on your skin, a bonus that usually came with the skincare products you bought. Yes, where most people bought skincare stuff for the sake of making their skin better, you buy the stuff because it smells good. After you wring out the excess water with a towel, you plonk down on the stool in front of the bathroom counter, a hairbrush in one hand and the hair dryer in another. Five minutes is all it takes for your hair to be just a little damp, and you set the dryer down to brush your hair until it’s no longer wet. Once that’s done, you brush your teeth and rush through the five step skin regime that Iana and Joel set up for you. Yeesh.

By the time your head hits the pillow, you don’t bother with anything aside from getting the blanket over your head as sleep claims you. Too bad you’re not getting the uninterrupted eight hours of sleep you wanted.

CYOA: Pick Your Boy

Christopher Velez:

maybe it wasn’t a good idea for you to set one of the most iconic songs in your music library as his ringtone

but really, Sk8r Boi was the song for him

YES IT’S BC HE’S AN ACTUAL SKATER

plus it was the first song you two ever jammed out to, so it’s got a special spot in your friendship

ANYWAY

as much as you love Avril Lavigne, you weren’t fond of waking up to the guitar riff you always played when you got your hands on an electric guitar

honestly you were tempted to let it go to voicemail because DAMN IT BRYANT, YOU WERE SLEEPY

but you figured that Chris wouldn’t call you at fuck knows what time in the morning if there wasn’t a reason

so you pick up, pulling the micro-USB connector from your phone’s charging port before pressing it into your ear, half your face smooshed into your pillow

“Nena!”

now normally the hyper ball known as Christopher Velez wouldn’t annoy you by simply saying one word, but… you were tired

so you grunt before speaking. 

“Hola, Chris.”

bear in mind you were rudely awakened by his ringtone playing, so you’re not in the best mood rn

but he deadass doesn’t pick up on it

so he’s babbling on and on, switching between Spanish and English way too quickly for your still-sleepy mind to comprehend

just as you’re about to yawn, he stops mid-sentence

“(Y/N)? Cuál es tu color favorito?”

you actually yawn while he’s asking, and it takes a second or so for you to realize he asked for your favorite color

“Uhh (f/c),” you say, yawning right after.

he doesn’t say much to you after, and you’re about to let the background noise from his end lull you to sleep

HA SIKE

just as you close your eyes, he makes this triumphant little noise that wakes you up again

and really, you don’t want to rain on his parade (even if he’s keeping you from your precious sleep), so you pull the phone away to let a tiny groan out

(Y/N) wants sleep

pero Christopher, el loco, just had to call you. smh

once you press the phone back to your ear, you barely just get the tail end of what he was saying

and really, you missed the guys (and Chris’ crazy laugh, but shh), but you needed sleep

so you yawn again before interrupting him

“Dude, I miss you and all, pero estoy cansado, chico.”

on one hand, he feels bad. but on the other, your sleepy voice is hella cute so… he has no regrets.

maybe a little guilt bc he knows you needed sleep to help with your test

so he’s all like “Ah, lo siento conejito. Go back to sleep, si? Just call me after your test!”

too bad you fell asleep in the middle of his apology lmao

he was waiting for a verbal response, but then he heard a snore

headass wanted to record it for blackmail purposes but nah

so he just hung up

gracias mucho, Christopher

(Y/N)’s circadian rhythm salutes you

also you called him as soon as school let out so you could tell him you did decent on the test

when you got it back, you sent him a picture. perfect score, hell yes.

lowkey you had to beg him not to post it on his IG. it’d be awkward af, plus it’d fuel some rumors that really wouldn’t be good for anyone

Richard Camacho:

okay, so you really had to set a punk rock song for this somewhat emo lil bish’s ringtone

but rn, you’re regretting it

no, Ronnie Radke, (Y/N) (L/N) doesn’t know why good girls go for bad guys now please shut it

it really suited Richuki tbh, what with him definitely pulling off the bad boy daddy dom look, but goddamnit it was loud

also Good Girls Bad Guys was the first Falling In Reverse song he ever listened to (courtesy of your emo phase that didn’t quite end, just turned lowkey) and he liked it

2012 (Y/N) is thrilled that 2018 (Y/N) has a friend who’s willing to listen to punk rock with her, even if said friend is a bit of a flirt

so he calls you around 4 am your time

you’re still a lil grumpy, but since you were in NREM 1, you woke up pretty easily

doesn’t mean you’re happy about it though

adios eight hours of uninterrupted sleep

but you figure this would happen sooner or later, especially since you and the guys have this sibling-like dynamic now

you pick up ofc, bc you’re already awake and you really don’t like sending any of your friends to voicemail

and he’s just surprised you picked up

there’s a little tremor in his voice and it makes you worry because you’ve never known his voice to not be even because of anything other than anger

or so you thought

now that he sounds upset, you’re a little more awake than before

“Que pasa?”

you usually switch between Spanish and English when talking to them, and it stays that way no matter how sleepy you are

there’s silence on his end for a while, and while it does make you worry more, it makes you a lot sleepier

you swear you’re about to fall asleep before he speaks up again

“No es nada. Just go back to sleep, okay?”

as tempted as you are to do just that, you’re not about to. bitchass had the guts to call you before dawn and make you worry before saying it was nothing? nuh-uh

you love sleep, but you love your friends (and your hobbies) more

“Don’t give me that bullshit Camacho.”

using his last name? he screwed up, and Richard knows it

he’s kinda quiet on the other end though, and you! don’t! like! it!

“Yashel? Richuki? C'mon man, what’s wrong?”

blame it on the fact that it’s like 4 am, that’s the only reason you’re being a softie rn

“It’s nothing. Sorry for waking you.” And then headass fucking hangs up

much to your chagrin

THE AUDACITY

he calls you before the asscrack of dawn, makes you worry, then decides that it’s nothing before hanging up on you? R U D E 

like, screw the fact that you only had four or so hours of sleep, something was up with Richard and you’re determined to find out what

so, against your better judgement, you call him

he picks up bc headass didn’t set a different ringtone for you even if you’re friends hmph

“What happened?” literally no hesitation or beating around the bush here; if something was wrong, then you sure as hell wanted to know about it, especially since he called you

“It’s nothing (Y/N). You have a test tomorrow, just go sleep.” and then he hangs up on you AGAIN

by this point you’re cranky and mildly insulted, so you plug your phone back in to charge before you go back to sleep

you didn’t wake up in the best mood that day, ngl

lil bit snappy, kinda sassier than usual

basically your mood was like Joel’s every time he was on Twitter

the bad mood followed you all the way through your test, and it was pretty obvious from how tightly you were holding onto your pen

after school, though, you call him again and hope he doesn’t hang up on you

“Wanna tell me what’s wrong now?”

“Am I a good dad?”

oof this was not something you were prepared for

“The hell are you talking about? You’re a better dad than most are, man.”

as it turns out, he misses Aaliyah and worries that he’s not doing the best he can as a father

and you’re like “???” because the fact that he and Yocelyn are co-parenting means that he’s doing his best

especially given that he’s away on tours and doing promo stuff a lot

and he’s slowly spiraling into this really dark space and you! refuse! to! let! it! happen!

“Dude, listen to me. Yes you’re not around as much as you want to, and yes you may miss some parts of her life, but look at it this way: you’re making an effort to be part of her life, and that’s way more than I can say for most of the guys who accidentally knock up their girlfriend. So chill, okay?”

soft hours have been extended all bc Richuki doubted himself :((

by the end of the call, he’s feeling a lot better

“Gracias, nena.”

“De nada, dude. Next time though? Don’t call me sounding all upset and shit and then hang up.”

he laughed at that, but then apologized, so you’re not annoyed at him anymore

lowkey you’re considering changing his ringtone but… nah

Zabdiel de Jesus

if there was anyone of the guys you thought would know not to call you when you’re supposed to be asleep, it’d be Zabdiel

but nOPE

he called you probably thirty minutes after you fell asleep

and even if Britney Spears is a guilty pleasure, you don’t want to wake up to Womanizer blaring from your phone

sorry Elodie

but it’s blaring and you’re rudely awakened and now you’re sleepily squinting/glaring at the stupid thing as if it would make it stop. it doesn’t.

so now you’re picking it up because damn it, what the fuck could Zabdiel want?

you yawn as you accept the call, laying on your side so you don’t have to hold the phone to your ear

“Que?”

you didn’t expect to hear loud ass bass and what was probably a party on the other end

but you did

and now you’re trying to keep yourself from cussing at him. you two weren’t that close yet, and no way were you going to risk offending someone because they called you at lord knows what time in the morning.

so you take a page out of his book and take several breaths to calm yourself before repeating the question

“Cometí un error,” he groans, and you’re so tempted to just yeet your phone away because fucking hell, he’s drunk! or somewhat intoxicated.

either way, you are not in the right state of mind to speak to a drunk person

“¿Qué hiciste?“ It’s a struggle to not let the annoyance in your voice show, but you barely even manage to hide it. Thankfully, he’s too drunk to notice.

“I screwed up, (Y/N).” The way he says it is almost too pathetic and you sigh.

“Si, you said that. What happened?” There’s mumbling on his end and all you could make out is a name: Gwen. it takes a while before you piece it together, and you facepalm once the puzzle pieces slot together.

he was upset about his ex

his ex that, according to rumors, he cheated on

and then, for some reason, he figured you were the best person to talk to? okay, not the best person, but one of the first people he should call. 

you were not equipped for this. nuh-uh.

“Zabdi, that was a whole year ago. Hell, maybe even more.” Really, you wanted to ask why the fuck he was thinking about this now

it’s been a Y E A R

“I really liked her,” he continues slurring into the phone, and you muffle a groan with your hand. did befriending an entire boyband mean that you had to listen to them talk about their exes even if it’s been a year? even if they were probably the cause behind the breakup in the first place?

can you resign from being their friend now? (you say this despite knowing you wouldn’t go through with it. you love the dorks too much)

“Zab, you can’t do anything about it now.” You’re trying to be a nice and comforting voice of reason, you really are, but damn it the bass is too loud and you still have a test later in the day

you don’t know what’s happening on his end, but you think you hear something that sounds suspiciously like a sob

cue another eye roll

“Escúchame, Zabdiel. It’s in the past, si? Nothing you can do about it other than learn from your mistake and no lo hagas de nuevo. Lo tengo?”

there’s a bit of scuffling on the other end, and your brows furrow. the hell was happening?

you get an answer when Clara’s voice comes through, and you blink. huh, guess they were bringing him back to the hotel. or his room, who knows.

“Lo siento (Y/N), the rest of the guys thought he went off with a girl,” she explains, and you muffle a yawn.

“It’s okay, Clara. Just–”yawn, “Make sure he doesn’t puke or something. G’night.”

you hang up before she does, plugging your phone back in before you finally conk out again

during dinner that evening, you ask the girls how to deal with a friend who’s an emotional drunk, just so you’re prepared for the next time he calls you when intoxicated.

after that, you send him a few feel-good texts. mostly stuff that siblings would send each other, so you’re really living up to the familial nature your friendship has begun to take on

Joel Pimentel:

just so we’re clear, the only reason you call Joel more than any of the other guys is because he rarely checks his messages, groupchats or otherwise

that said, you’re surprised when, instead of the first of your alarms, The A Team plays from your phone

it’s weird that he’s the one calling you and not the other way around, but you shrug it off

at least he’s calling around the time of your first alarm

“What,” you deadpan into the phone

“When the fuck were you going to tell me you were at the Infinity War premiere.”

whatever it is you were expecting to hear, this ain’t it folks

“Uhh… never?”

and cue a cranky Joelito ranting about you getting to be there and not telling him so he could’ve tried to get tickets 

to which you needed to cut him off

“Bitch, my parents got tickets. Besides, my godfather invited us.”

“Who’s your godfather?”

and cue the silence

“I’m not allowed to say.”

“W H O .”

it goes from this to you deflecting the topic until you decide to bring up your test.

he knows you’re trying to change the topic, but he’s going along with it. he’s been there before.

you start spewing out random facts, both to keep his mind from going back to anything Marvel-related and so you can see how much you remembered from last night’s study session

for the most part, it works.

Joel’s listening to you talk about facts, and every now and then he’d interject with a question, to which you quickly launch into an explanation that spawns even more questions from him

and so you two talk through the next two alarms you set, with you explaining concepts that would probably (hopefully please please please) show up on the test later

“You think I’m going to pass?”

“Hey, if I understood that because you managed to explain it to me, I’m pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah, unless it doesn’t show up on the test.”

“… Don’t jinx yourself.”

you two hang up around the same time, and you’re in a considerably good mood considering he called you to ask how you managed to be at the Infinity War premiere

also it’s shocking how you two didn’t sass each other much during it

come to think of it, what time was it there when he called?

meh, you’ll figure out later. right now, you have to get ready for school, and that uniform tie isn’t going to tie itself.

#privateschoollife

ANYWAY, you get to school and shit, breeze through most of your classes until last period

DUN DUN DUN

test time

you’re shaking with nerves bc the teacher for this one is notorious for giving college-level tests to his AP classes

and even if he’s been your teacher for the past three years, you’re still terrified of failing any of his tests

but one look at the questions had you breathing a sigh of relief.

those were the things you explained to Joelito! you were going to pass!

ngl, you nyoom through the multiple choice questions and double check your math for the ones that need calculations

once school lets out for the day, you find a nice, secluded area near the botanical garden (again, private school feels) so you could call Joel and tell him you’ve got a good chance of passing the test

but when he picks up he sounds groggy af

oh, how the tables have turned

but you’re sympathetic bc he needs to look pretty; his face is one of his main selling points after all

“Hi, sorry I woke you, but I think I’m definitely gonna pass. Thanks for a while ago, bye, love you dude! Get some more sleep!”

how you managed to say that in one breath, no one has any idea.

meanwhile Joel’s just staring at his phone in confusion before realizing you thanked him for helping you recall what you studied

you two didn’t acknowledge the “love you” that got dropped in that quick, minute-long call and you never will

later that night, he calls you again because he saw another picture of you at a Marvel premiere

and this time, you two sass each other until you fall asleep

sass buddies til the end of the line

unlike Steve and Bucky BC THE END OF THE LINE WAS APPARENTLY A CHANCE TO TIME TRAVEL

anyway

it’s back to your regular, sassy program with (Y/N) and Joel. except for when tests come along, especially midterms and finals.

you two have late night calls just for him to help you study

Erick Brian Colon:

after a bit of shifting around in your bed so you can comfortably nestle in your blankets, you finally drift off to sleep, dreaming of getting an Academy Award in the future

as you were about to accept said award, the dream gets shattered when the fucking Guachineo begins to play

along with the shattering of that dream (because damn it, it’s been a near constant goal since you were a kid) comes a rude awakening not even thirty minutes after you fell asleep

as much as you loved Erick (PLATONICALLY), you were going to throttle him, pretty eyes or not

at least, that was the plan until you hear his voice

who knew someone could sound so shaken up over the phone?

okay that was rude and insensitive af but you weren’t expecting this

he literally sounded like he was about to cry, and damn it, this was the baby! this was little bebito Erick on the phone sounding like he’s about to cry and you’re not going to hang up on him.

to be fair, you wouldn’t hang up on any of your friends, but least of all Erick.

so in the sleepy voice you swore never to let anyone but the rest of your squad hear, you yawn out a “Que pasa?”

he’s practically sniffling, and even if he doesn’t quite want you to hear him cry, you’re one of the first people he thought to call, especially since the guys were out at the club 

“Extraño a mi familia,” he admits, voice shaking and you just want to wrap the guy in a blanket and cuddle him.

sure you don’t really get homesick much since you don’t live far from your parents, but it’s a wholly different thing for Erick

for one thing, he has a tight bond with his family. for another, he was what, 14 or 15 when CNCO was formed. it was probably the first time he was away from them for a long period of time, and sometimes, it didn’t get easier to bear with the passage of time

“No llora, bebito.” You’re trying to comfort him and all but you’re not exactly the best person to go to when you need emotional support. Hell, you can barely support yourself emotionally.

which brings you to the question: why me

and why when you had a quiz the next day

but this was Erick. not only was he your fellow group baby, but he was little bebito as well

you’re not about to let him be upset like this, not when you could do something about it

one problem though: you have no idea what to do about it. nice.

thankfully, he keeps talking.

as it turns out, it’s not just homesickness he’s dealing with

it’s also the pressure he puts on himself to be as good as the rest of the guys are

to be as charming as Chris, as good of a dancer as Richard, as intellectual as Joel and Zabdiel

and suddenly, you get where he’s coming from. mostly

it’s like an inferiority complex, but also, not really

as the youngest, you two had the most to prove

you two had the most expectations ahead of you

so it’s natural that you’ll end up pressuring yourselves to meet and exceed those expectations

now you know what to do, BUT you don’t know what to say

“It’s okay to feel like that, bebito,” you start, sitting up and pulling your knees to your chest. “Pero you need to remember that you don’t have to be like them. Dejaste de competir con otros when you guys won La Banda. Now, the only competition you need to worry about is yourself, si?”

you really want to baby him, especially with how soft and watery his voice sounds over the phone, but you know he’s not going to like it

as the youngest, you two end up being babied by those who know you as a member of your respective groups

and it gets annoying after some time because you just want to be treated like an adult

so you’re not going to baby him completely

you kind of stick to a soft voice the whole time you two talk

and when you feel a yawn coming on, you muffle it with your hand bc you don’t want him to feel bad

it takes a while before you ask how he’s feeling

but when he says that he’s feeling better, you immediately feel relieved

not just bc this meant you’ll be able to sleep soon, but bc it meant he wasn’t as upset anymore

a crying and upset friend always made your heart sad, but a crying and upset Erick? you were half-tempted to book a flight to wherever they were and give him a hug, exam be damned

“Gracias mucho, nena.”

“You promise you’re okay now?”

“Si. Good night, (Y/N).”

Yawn. “Good night, bebito.”

so you go back to sleep, then wake up when your alarms go off

the school day passes by in a blur, but you’re hurrying to go home bc you wanted to check in on him via FaceTime

so you do, but he doesn’t pick up

instead you just leave him a message in his voicemail

hopefully he listens to it bc as his fellow group baby, he needed to know that you were gonna be there for him when he can’t share stuff with the other guys

literally though, he’s the only one to always bring out your soft side.

but at least you love the dork.

[madamslayyy]

Cake prt. 3 (Trevante Rhodes x Reader)

A/N: Whats up! Back with another weekly update!! Sorry I know I was supposed to post this yesterday but I really had to edit so it’s a day late. If you haven’t read Part 1 or 2 please catch up on the entire Dadvante! Series via my Masterlist

Disclaimer: Yeah I actually don’t know anything about Trevante Rhodes, his mother, or if he even has siblings. This is all fictionalized and no actual research about this man or his family was done prior to writing this.

Trevante:

Malik:

Diane (Malik’s Girlfriend):

Jaime (Trevante’s Brother):

Mama Leigh (Trevante’s Mother):

~*~

“You two spoil him.”

“Okay.”

“It’s too much responsibility for him.”

“He’s a good kid.”

“Yes, he is a good kid but this is too much.”

“Not too much for us. Financially it wouldn’t put us in a bad place so why would we ever limit our kid?”

“To keep him safe! What if he got in a car reck!?”

“He could get in one of those in the car with me. Or Tre. At least this way he’ll have his independence.”

“What if-

“Look, mom, I didn’t call to talk about his gift, I came to tell you that his birthday dinner is going to be this Tuesday and we’ve already picked a restaurant and a time.” You had been on the phone with your mother for only 10 minutes and she had already gotten on your nerves to no end.

“Oh you booked a restaurant? He’s having a party?” She asked.

“No it’s just a family dinner plus his girlfriend and that way he can have all the fun he wants with his friends when the weekend hits.” You said waving to your husband who just entered the house.

“Okay okay, me and your father will be there.” She said and you sighed in relief. Why did everything have to be pulling teeth with her?

“Thanks mom, Love you.”

“Love you too, bye.” You hung up and rubbed your eyes. Well at least that was over.

“They set for Tuesday?” Tre said coming out of the kitchen chomping on celery.

“Yeah, your folks?” You said getting up and wrapping your arms around his neck to hang on him.

“Yep, called them yesterday.”

“Great,” you said closing your eyes.

“You think we’re doing too much getting him a car?” You mumbled into his chest.

“Baby, we got him the safest car out there. And it’s electric so we’re saving the environment too. A lot of planning went into it, dont over think it right before the finish line.” He laughed and you immediately felt your mind go at ease. He always knew how to calm you down when you felt yourself getting worked up.

“Do 16 year old boys even like to drive Hydroelectric cars?’” you asked, cocking your head back to look at your man.

“It’s a brand new model fresh off the lot, he better love to drive it,” Tre chuckled. You leaned up to kiss him but could only reach his colorbone due to your height. He lifted you up, allowing you full access to his lips and neck. Right as you began gnawing at his jugular, the two of you paused at the sound of a growl coming from below. You both looked down to see Malik’s pit bull, Cujo, growling on the floor, warning Tre to put you down. He obliged and you bent over to gather the midsized pooch in your arms. He seemed to purr the second you picked him up and held him in your arms, his tail flailing back and forth with joy.

“Can’t believe he likes you best after you were the one against getting him.” Tre scoffed.

“He can recognize the leader of the pack, can’t he? Yes he can,” you cooed, cuddling the dog like a newborn baby even though Cujo was way past his puppy days.

~*~

Tuesday was here and you were exhausted. You’d been hearing it about one thing or another by your mother and Tre’s Mother since you got here. Tre’s little brother kept flirting with the waitress’ and you were about to kick him out. Malik and his girlfriend seemed to be enjoying themselves, feeding each other off their plates while the while Malik’s other friends teased them. Meanwhile your combined families seemed to find one thing or another to fuss about all throughout the evening.

“I’m just saying I don’t entirely agree with allowing him to go off so far for school. I know college is still two years away but he’s an only child.” Mama Leigh, Tre’s mother, said.

“He’ll be fine. We sent this one off the second she got that acceptance letter and she turned out just fine.” Your daddy said gesturing to you.

“Well not every case is the same, besides she-“

“Time for cake!” You said ending the conversation. The last thing you wanted was your parents and Tre’s getting into it. It seemed there was only one thing they could ever agree on and it was that they wanted more grand babies. You were not about to have that discussion again and was ready to just get the night over with. Plus, the sooner you served the cake meant the sooner you could get to presents.

One Birthday song, followed of course by the infamous Stevie Wonder version, later and it was finally time for gifts. You let Malik’s girlfriend give him her gift first, followed by Jaime, Tre’s mother, you and Tre’s more mundane gifts (sneakers, video games, etc.) when finally the only thing left was the grand finale.

“Alright is that everyone? Great! So Malik, me and your father have been doing a lot of thinking an-“

“Wait where is Dad? And Grandpa?” Malik asked and the room went silent. You knew where Tre was: pulling the car around and slapping the biggest bow on the hood imaginable, per your request of course.

“He’ll be back in a minute. As I was saying, we-“

“Um, Y/N-“ Tre said rushing back inside.

“One second-“

“This really can’t wait, we have a problem.”

“With the, um, thing?” You said trying to be discreet. You did have the entire room’s eyes on you.

“Um, yeah, you might wanna step outside real quick.” You could tell by the look on Tre’s face it was something bad. Real bad.

“Why don’t we all step outside!” Your mother said cheerfully.

“NO!” You and Tre said in unison.

“Watch your tone, you two. We’re going outside, that’s final. Come, Malik,” she said rising from her seat. Malik hopped up excitedly, the rest of the party getting up as well following him.

“Who’s in charge here?” You asked exasperated. You rushed out with your husband and your jaw immediately dropped to the floor.

Parked right next to you and Trevante’s gift to Malik was a brand new cherry red Dodge Charger complete with a fresh set of rims and neon lights illuminating the underside of the vehicle and the interior.

“What the-“

“Happy Birthday Malik!” Your parents chimed in unison tossing him the keys. Malik was having an absolute fit of excitement bouncing up and down while hugging his grandparents. He then ran over and hopped in the car, immediately revving the engine.

“B-But But we-“ you were in a complete state of shock as Trevante rubbed your lower back, trying to calm you down.

“I know, baby” Tre grumbled, kissing the said of your forehead.

“They stole our thunder,” you whined.

“Yep,”

“I didn’t even get to say my speech,” you said in a watery voice, the tears beginning to well in your eyes.

“Hey hey hey, it’s still the little man’s birthday, no tears where he can see em. You wanna go inside?” Tre asked cupping your face.

“No, no. I’ll be okay.” You composed yourself, while Tre rubbed your arms, effectively calming you down but you couldn’t deny you were hurt. Your mother knew you were getting him a car and she’d turned around and done this anyway. It was probably why she’d been so adamant about talking you out of it in the first place.

“Aye what’s this other car here with the bow?” One of Malik friends asked.

“Ughhh....?” Malik looked over to where you and Tre were standing.

“Suprise....” you said dully.

“It’s for me?” He asked, confused.

“Yeah, we see we weren’t the only ones with this gift idea,” Tre chuckled, tossing him the keys.

“Damn, Lik, yo folks got you two whips?! And both them bitches brand new? Oh y’all got MONEY money!” One of his friends exclaimed, clamping him on the shoulder.

“Forreal,” Diane smirked.

“I don’t know what to say....” Malik said looking at the keys.

“You don’t have to say anything, go take it for a spin,” Trevante winked and you elbowed his side.

“He doesn’t have his license yet,”

“He can go get it tomorrow, c’mon baby let him have some fun,” Tre smiled showing you all them pretty ass teeth and you knew you couldn’t say no.

~*~

Later on that night at home, you and Trevante were sipping wine in the kitchen while Malik was putting away the rest of his gifts that could actually fit inside the house. Tre was seated across from you, giving you a foot massage that was out of this world while you downed your second glass that night.

“You really think he enjoyed today?” You asked for what had to be the third time since the dinner party ended.

“Lil man had a blast. You saw him earlier, he couldn’t stop smiling the whole rest of the night,” Tre was right, of course, but you always needed the extra reassurance.

“I’m gonna kill my mother next time I see her,” you said mundanely. Just because you were happy your son enjoyed his birthday did not mean she was off the hook.

“Y/N...”

“Okay okay I’ll settle for never talking her again,” you took another swig of wine.

“Mom... Dad...,” Malik came down the stairs and entered the kitchen. You could tell by his pajamas and sleepy expression he was ready for bed. He was even wearing his new Yeezy’s Trevante had just gifted him, having already vowed earlier he was never gonna take them off.

“Lik Lik...” you reached for your son and he came and sat in your lap like when he was a little kid, only this time he was much heavier. Your feet were still sprawled across Trevante’s thighs so they were really the ones supporting this whole arrangement. He was strong enough to take it though. Hell he was strong enough to pick you, Malik and Cujo up if he wanted to.

“I came down to tell you guys thank you for the car, and my birthday in general,” he yawned, wrapping his arms around your shoulders. Sometimes you didn’t know who was the bigger baby, him or Cujo.

“Your welcome. After all you only turn 16 once.” You smiled. “But you know you’re not keeping both those cars right?”

“Grandpa said legally you couldn’t make me choose,” Malik said, already half asleep.

“Whose the lawyer, me or Grandpa? Plus legally speaking, until your license is acquired and you’re insured, you’d be driving any vehicle unlawfully.” Your words fell on deaf ears as Malik was already fast asleep.

“Seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital,” Trevante said, looking at the two of you with nostalgia in his eyes.

“He’s growing like a weed,” you smiled and ruffled his hair. “A weed that’s getting pretty heavy, can you take him? And please remove those ridiculous shoes when you put him down.”

Trevante chuckled as he took his sleeping son from you and began carrying him to his room before stopping and turning at the base of the stairs.

“Aye, meet me in bed in five minutes.”

“What for?” You asked, stretching.

“You been working hard coordinating all this, thought I might show a little gratitude. Love on my baby,” he winked, heading back upstairs.

You had to pick your jaw up off the floor for the second time tonight. You poured yourself another glass of wine, knowing it was about to go straight to your nether regions which were already buzzing with excitement. You knew it was about to be a long night, because when Trevante was feeling a special type of grateful, he could eat it for hours. You found yourself humming as you strolled up the stair grinning ear from ear.

~*~

A/N: sorry I had planned on dropping this weeks ago but life kept getting in the way. Hope y’all enjoyed this and let me know what y’all think!

@chaneajoyyy @queen-of-the-jabari @queennanayaa @clydevevo @queennanayaa @chaneajoyyy @killmongerthiskoochie @theunsweetenedtruth @blackgirloneshots @blmforeal @erikkillmongerstan @jozigrrl@quietstorm-73@sailorsenshi420 @wakandamama @mxearth @chefjessypooh @macfizzle @chasingsunlight @dameshaemonique @rubiesandravens @raysunshine78 @melaninmarvel l @melanisticroyalty @softnani @vibranium-soul@itstaliaduh @cinki-the-black-goddess@thehomierobbstark @darkangelchronicles @bartierbakarimobisson @doublesidedscoobysnacks @blackpinup22 @tchokemedaddy @clydevevo @amirra88 @labelletemps @wawakanda-btch @supersizemeplz @purple-apricots @musicloveand-pride @babygirlofwakanda @laketaj24 @itstaliaduh @sailorsenshi420 @scentedclodauthorhairdo @4ftwonder

[itsclydebitches]

Can we have a prompt with hugs? After everything going down this volume I think Oz/Oscar need all the hugs!

Apparently I’m really bad at coming up with excuses for hugs so here, have some super classic fic cliches… 

(Updated prompt list is here!) 

“I officially hate you.”

Now, now. No need to get snippy just because we’re cold.

“You mean I’m cold.”

I assure you, Oscar, I am just as capable of sensation even while ‘riding backseat,’ as you so eloquently put it. You know that well enough by now.

“I don’t know anything because I can’t think because I’m cold!”

Up ahead Ruby and Blake exchanged glances. Oscar’s one-sided fight—going on ten minutes now—had done a lot to lift the group’s spirits. They hadn’t expected the grimm attack on the train, nor to crash land in Mistral’s wintery wilderness when a manticore’s blast had decoupled the luggage cars, half of their group still on top at the time. Though Ruby supposed things could be worse. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were still on their way to Argus, their last look at one another a silent, We’ll reconvene. No one had been injured thanks to Weiss’ quick thinking—even the relic had remained secure against Oscar’s hip. They’d found a path to follow. Beyond some general grumbling at the situation itself, there wasn’t too much to complain about.

Well, except the cold.

“We’re really not dressed for this weather,” Blake admitted, pulling her coat closed over her midriff. “I should have at least grabbed my other coat…”

Ruby shook her head. “You know there wasn’t time. Besides, it’s not like we thought we’d be out here any longer than the fight. Ugh. Fights keep me so nice and warm.”

Blake’s lips twitched. “Want to spar while we walk?”

“…Is that a thing people do?”

“It’s a thing we can do.”

With a blur of rose petals Ruby was suddenly launching a punch at Blake’s face, easily dodged with a quick turn of her heel. Ruby went ploughing into the snowy bank in front of Qrow (who neatly stepped over his niece, barely blinking) and shrieked something about being even colder now. She was up a second later though, the two of them flitting ahead as they tried to work out how to keep a sparring match moving forward.

Oscar watched with hands wrapped tightly around his elbows and his nose buried in the crook of his shoulder.

It seems Ms. Rose has improved her technique after all, Ozpin commented, both of them following the arc of Blake’s body as Ruby managed to sweep her feet out from under her. Already they were both a little rosier in the cheeks. Would you like to join them? Ms. Rose is not wrong to think that movement is one of the best ways to keep warm.

For a moment longer Oscar watched the flurry of semblances and long limbs. He grimaced. “Don’t think I can keep up with them.”

You sell yourself short. You’ve just gotta play a lil’ dirty, eh?

Oscar stumbled, thrown by the advice. It took him a moment to realize that Ozpin had only said the first half. The second had come from Yang at his shoulder. Voices got garbled like that sometimes.

He turned to find her grinning. She at least appeared warm enough while in the mood to tease. “No one ever said a good fight was a fair one,” she continued. “Ruby? Super ticklish. Go for anywhere along her side and you won’t even have to worry about landing a hit. Just touching her there will send her into a fit of giggles. Blake? I love her, but that long hair is a disaster waiting to happen. At least Weiss keeps hers tied up. Grab a decent handful and—bam! You’ve got her right where you want her.”

Oscar’s eyes strayed up to Yang’s own hair. “Then shouldn’t you…?”  

I would recommend you not complete that sentence.

Yang’s sharp smile said exactly the same.

“Never mind.”

“Keep walking,” and Yang gave him a thump on the back hard enough to nearly send Oscar into the snow.

“Is this what having sisters is like?” he muttered, low enough that the rest wouldn’t hear. Except Ozpin of course. It was always Ozpin, picking up on every stray, stupid, impulsive thought that flit through his head. Oscar had found it overwhelmingly invasive at first—who wouldn’t?—but now it was just…a thing. One more thing in his life with upsides and downsides. Right now at least, when Ozpin filled their consciousness with barely repressed amusement, the upside was an emotion so strong Oscar could almost pretend that he was warm.

Almost. His boots were meant for muddy fields and years long use, not insulation. Oscar wanted to say that his toes were numb, but if that was the case then why did they hurt? He grit his teeth and kept slogging forward, leaving a shambling trench behind him.

“You’re, like, a bajillion years old,” he said, teeth starting to chatter again. “Haven’t you learned anything useful in all that time? Like how to keep from becoming a human popsicle?”

Beyond conventional means we currently have no access to? I’m afraid not. I may be knowledgeable and long-lived, Oscar, but I am no god.

There was a tinge of self-reproach in those words, an emotion Oscar didn’t understand, but he knew better than to ask about it. Instead he just bent his head against the wind and closed stinging, running eyes.

A second later Oscar walked directly into Weiss.

“Watch it,” she hissed, pitching forward. Oscar instinctively made a grab for her arms and ended up chest-to-back as he worked to keep them both from losing their balance. In theory? Not a bad way to stop a cold, wet fall. In practice with a girl who had two inches on him, not counting the heels? Kinda awkward.

Yang was making a noise somewhere between a squeak and a car backfiring. “That’s one way to keep warm!”

And so was blushing. Oscar felt what little heat was left in his body rushing into his cheeks. “Um… sorry. Wasn’t looking.”

Weiss just rolled her eyes. “It’s fine. Besides, Yang might be an idiot—”

“Hey!”

“—but in this at least she’s right,” and to Oscar’s utter shock Weiss pulled him around to her left side, slotting him neatly against her hip. One arm wrapped down around his shoulder while her scarf—some sort of cashmere material that was softer than anything Oscar had ever owned—swayed against his cheek.

“Weiss?”

No need to call attention to a kind act. Especially one that benefits you both.

…Right. Weiss was shivering too, even more badly than Oscar, though she somehow hid it better behind a stony expression, squared shoulders, and a carefully lifted chin. Oscar had heard the group call her Ice Queen more than once. Seemed a little funny that an Ice Queen kept giving tiny, almost imperceptible sniffles from her red, runny nose.

“You two are disgusting,” Yang said, coming up on Oscar’s other side. She draped an arm around his shoulders, overlapping Weiss, like that was a thing they just did, normally, and beneath her skin thrummed a semblance hot as fire.

“You three,” Oscar corrected, missing the brief surprise that crossed Yang’s face, settling into something wary. She didn’t remove her arm though and Oscar was too busy trying to bury himself into the warmth. Weiss kept pressed to his other side as the four of them kept up an awkward, lumbering pace through the snow.

Yang opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sudden cloud of rose petals swarming around her shoulders. A second later they reformed into one little sister, clinging monkey-style to Yang’s back. She briefly staggered.

“Ruby!”

“Warm,” came the only answer, muffled as Ruby buried her nose against Yang’s neck. A very cold nose based on the shriek that tore from her throat. Ruby just hummed and reached over to wrap her free hand into the fabric of Oscar’s shirt, tugging them even closer.

Weiss let out a huff that clouded the air in front of them. “We’ll never reach… wherever it is we’re going at this rate.”

“Better than dying before we get there,” Blake said, finally catching up to her easily distracted partner. She did look warmer, red in the cheeks and panting even as she shivered. She immediately slotted herself next to Weiss and tried to adopt the hip-bumping walk they were all practicing.

As the smallest Oscar felt rather squished. But squished in a good way. Like when his aunt crushed his ribs during one of her infamous birthday hugs. Or when Morado two farms over had once let his dogs pile on Oscar and wouldn’t call them off no matter how much he claimed he couldn’t breathe.

Good squished, Ozpin echoed. Oscar thought he could feel the nod of their head, even though they hadn’t actually moved. Yes, I’m quite familiar with that feeling.

“You are?” There were a few curious glances at his whisper. 

I am indeed.

And Oscar had a…sense. What literally felt like a new sense, an alien smell or touch or sound that suddenly flooded through his being, the feeling of memories re-surfacing when they weren’t your memories at all. Oscar’s shoulders felt the press of hands he’d never seen, his chest was tight with emotions not his own. Someone’s fingers ran through his hair and brushed a tear from his cheek and straightened glasses he’d never worn. Oscar took a deep breath and felt his whole body engulfed in a hug that was everything and nothing like the ones his aunt gave him. It was lifetimes worth of them. All at once.

“The hell are you lot doing back there?” Qrow called. He had started walking backwards, surprisingly balanced as he watched the group huddle and scoot through the snow. His lips twitched, catching sight of Oscar’s astounded expression. Attributing it to Weiss’ arm now wrapped safely around his waist. Yang’s arm linked through his. Ruby’s face buried halfway between her sister’s shoulder and her friend’s hair. “Lil’ chilly?”

“Something like that,” Blake said, all but purring the words as Weiss tugged her closer. An exhausted, but otherwise happy chuckle spread through the group.

We’re getting there, Ozpin noted. It was for Oscar’s ears only, but it turned his chuckle into a laugh that the whole group got to enjoy. 

They bottled the sound up, drank it down, and let it warm them from the inside out. 

[lilithhawthorne]

It’s time for me to share what I created for the reverse MASS EFFECT BIG BANG hosted by @mebigbang!! I was lucky enough to get the amazing art of @jubberry and inspiration for a story where a Shepard who never left the Reds has a run in with everyone’s favorite C-Sec detective. I had a few personal issues that meant I wasn't able to finish in time, so I hope you don't mind that I will be posting the THRILLING conclusion next week. I thought this was a better option than rewriting something that had a rushed ending.

BUT ANYWAYS, here is CHAPTER ONE (of two) of 

[Cross Posted on AO3]

Skulking. The shop keeper said they had been skulking, and when he had gotten the call from dispatcher Omega Schebler she had shaped the word skulking into a concussive round that said your punishment isn’t over. That’s why Garrus Vakarian, the detective with egg on his face so fresh it could have been salvaged to make an omelet, got the call and not a beat cop who had the time. 

“Be nice to the old lady,” his partner quipped as Garrus called up a patrol car. “The Citadel can be a scary place for lonely old ladies, and you know groups of humans are never a good thing.” 

Garrus opened his omnitool while Dix blathered on behind him, the human’s self-deprecating jab avalanching into a series of anecdotes from his first days working the Wards. The skycar flashed a green light, accepting his authorization code, and the door lifted with a gentle hiss. Stale cigarette smoke and the stench of unwashed bodies, of all kinds, permeated from the worn upholstered seats. 

“I thought they were required to clean these things out more often,” Garrus muttered. With only Dix around, he didn’t bother to suppress the ire in his voice. 

Dix stuck his head in the open door and took four open-mouthed and rapid breaths, his stomach caving in and billowing out beneath his shirt. “I don’t smell nothin’,” he said. “But, hey, I only got this human nose.” 

His omnitool beeped, an automated reminder that it had been 10 minutes since the call had been logged scrolling rapidly across his screen. With a click, he sent a response that he was en route. He turned back to look at his partner before folding himself into the car. Whoever had sat it in last must have been human, and his bony knees chaffed against the dash before he could adjust the seat. “No one has a nose like you, Lemley. I hear they’re thinking of making it a Citadel Monument, the thing is big enough to direct traffic.” 

“Oh har har.” Dix looked over his shoulder to make sure no one from the office was in the lot before raising his middle finger in response. “Have fun on your petty crimes beat, Detective Vakarian.”

Garrus bristled in response, his mandibles pulled tight and his talons splayed across his lap. The joke soured between them. After a moment, Dix leaned close, his hand pressed against the sensor to keep the door from bumping his head on the way down. His brows knitted together and his voice dropped. “Hey, look, it’ll be a lil’ bit longer, so what? Someone will fuck up sooner or later, and Boomie will forget all about - “

“Yeah,” Garrus interrupted, “sure.” It had been said before, by everyone at least once, and by Dix at least once a day since he had been called into Captain Baumvi’s office. That had been two weeks ago, and the captain seemed disinclined to forget anytime soon. 

Dix puffed his cheeks up and squinted at Garrus, his not-so-subtle indication that he was hurt Garrus wouldn’t let himself be comforted. “Fine,” he said, letting his mandibles loosen in a display of affable good-faith. “I’ll tell the captain that you and Seegmiller call her Boomie behind her back, that’ll put me in her good graces again.” 

“Ehhh that’s the spirit. Okay now fuck off and go wrangle those errant skulking humans.” Dix stepped back from the car, rapping the window with his knuckles as goodbye. Garrus entered the coordinates of the store, and the patrol car lifted off into the orderly flow of Citadel traffic.

Garrus stopped himself from pinching his mandibles, but he couldn’t keep the warble of frustration from his voice. “So you didn’t see them do anything?” he asked Orsant Varana for the second time. 

“Well, they were - “

He raised a hand in the air, halting the shop keeper before she launched into another diatribe about what the humans she saw were planning to do. “Again, it’s a yes or no question. Did you see the group of humans do anything besides skulking?” 

The salarian blinked up at him, her large eyeballs audibly moist. He wasn’t an expert in xenoculture, but he guessed her body language suggested she was very angry with him. Her tiny frame hunched before him, eyes blinking rapidly, he recalled Captain Baumvi’s warning: I don’t give a fuck who you are, who you think you are, or what you think you bring to the team. Cut the attitude - you’re a detective, not a Spectre. 

Keeping a trill of frustration buried beneath his subvocals, he made a conscious effort to uncross his arms. “Orsant,” he tried again, using her first name in a bid to come off as friendly, “I can’t arrest a group of tourists on the Citadel for being in one place for too long. Believe me, I would if I could “ - he broke off and forced a laugh, his arms splayed in a suggestive display that he hoped she would appreciate. Tourists are the worse, his carefree laugh said, I hate them, too! 

Orsant looked unimpressed. 

“Ahem, anyways.” He looked back at his omnitool, paraphrasing from her extensive complaint. “Despite the fact that they were all wearing red and looked suspicious, I can’t do anything about it unless they actually commit a crime. Did you see them do anything illegal?” 

“You can never trust humans who have a uniform, especially when they are in groups,” she warned. 

“Yes, well, I’ve never heard that saying,” he replied slowly, hesitant to say that she was wrong because, well… she wasn’t. “But other than that….” He trailed off, hoping she would supply him with the kernel he needed to take her complaint seriously. 

She didn’t take the hint. “Mark my words,” she intoned aggressively, gesturing with a long finger up at him, “they’ll be back! They’ve been outside the store every day for a week! They’ll be back!” 

Garrus excused himself and exited her store, his omnitool ringing the captain as soon as he was out of earshot of the shop keeper. He was required to check in with her whenever he wasn’t at the station, a condition of his punishment that inconvenienced both of them and kept her angry. 

“What is it?” she barked into the line. 

“Hey, Captain.” His greeting fell flat and was unreturned, so he rushed to fill the silence. “I’ve just spoken to the shop keeper, Orsant Varana. The group of humans she called in about, although annoying, haven’t done anything.

“Her initial report said they come back every day. Have you seen them yet?” 

“Well, no, but - “

“Great. Pull up a seat. Wait ‘em out.” 

Silence dipped between them as Garrus searched for something to say. A stakeout? For a group of tourists? She was trying to kill him with boredom. 

“Is there anything else you need, Detective Vakarian?” Her voice was almost cruel over the line, and he was glad it was only voice so she couldn’t see his mandibles flare in frustration. 

“No, captain, that’s all.” 

Baumvi disconnected the line without saying goodbye. He thought about sending an update to Dix, but committing the idiocy of his detail in writing would only further irritate him. Instead, he turned the display off and looked across the sprawl of shops in search of a suitable spot to begin his watch. Across the way, impeded only by a few benches and a shallow pond, he saw a volus cafe with more than half the tables empty. 

There was a vidscreen behind the counter playing a news station with CITADEL: ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME emblazoned in the corner of the screen. The volume was distracting, and Garrus raised his voice to compete with the newscaster. “Do you have any dextro drinks?” he asked, eyeing the menu with trepidation. There were many variations of lattes.

“Just one,” the volus breathed back.

“I’ll take it.” 

The volus went to work making his drink, a complicated whir of machinery and shakers adding to the cacophony that overtook the small cafe. There were four others, scattered across three tables, and only the couple in the corner seemed unaware of the ruckus. They seemed oblivious of anything that existed outside the circle of their intertwined arms. 

He took a seat close to the door, the spotless glass walls allowing him full view of the gift store across the way. 

The news program had shifted stories, a cheerful asari talking over a picture of two humans in matching armor. Garrus’s gut heaved as if he had just been thrown across the room. It was the newest Spectres, a team of humans that the council had entrusted to go after Saren Arterius. He focused on what the asari was saying, although he already knew the story. He had read it every day since the story had debuted just under a month ago. 

“ - Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams, humanity’s first Spectres, unexpectedly encountered their rogue counterpart on Virmire. Although the total number of casualties has not been confirmed by the STG, sources close to the battle suggest that the numbers would have been higher had the two Spectres not been present. Leaked footage shows Spectre Williams facing off against a charging krogan! The two could not be reached - “

Garrus slammed his fists down on the table, startling the volus who had approached from behind with his drink. 

“You will be charged for anything you break,” she warned, placing the glass cylinder in front of him with extreme care. 

“Can you turn that off?” He motioned to the news, the asari still gushing about the fine work of humanity’s greatest assets. 

The volus shrugged and lowered the volume, but the screen stayed on. 

“Not a fan of the news?” a voice from behind inquired. 

There was a leaden ball bouncing beneath his carapace, and the question irked him more than it should. “Tired of hearing about their exploits,” he responded with venomous disdain. 

“Tell me about it. Blah, blah, blah, we get it, they’re saving the world. Let me know when it’s about to blow up, that’s all I care about.” 

With a huff of amusement, Garrus turned in his chair, his eyes connecting with a human woman sitting the table over. Her feet were propped on a chair across from her, a crumpled jacket and bag thrown across the other two. A little human taking up a lot of space. Typical. But her smile was easy and engaging, and she seemed keen on conversation.  

“I’m Shepard,” she supplied without him asking. She stuck a hand out, leaning forward to reach across the table. Hunched over, he could see the couple in the corner table, an asari and a human man, were sitting knee to knee and staring intensely into each other’s eyes. 

Garrus took the offered hand, focusing back on the least weird of the strange things in the cafe, and gave it a stiff pump, up and down, before letting go. Dix was also a fan of handshakes, he handed them out everywhere they went, but they felt strange to Garrus. Maybe it was because humans had such small, soft hands, and even with gloves on, he could feel how fragile they were. Yet he had witnessed Dix attempt to shake not one but two krogan’s hands. “Vakarian.” 

Dead silence filled the space between them. Shepard smiled blithely, unaware or uncaring that his introduction was wooden. She gestured to his drink and asked, “What’s that?” 

“Uh.” He looked at the untouched beverage in front of him, then took stock of the four empty glasses in front of Shepard. “Dextro, I don’t think you’d like it.”

“Ah, right.” She nodded, a curly red ponytail bobbing behind her, and tapped her temple with a finger as if she had been given the missing piece to a puzzle. “Different biology.” 

“Very.” 

The volus was busy behind the counter helping a new guest, her machines chugging away as she ripped open fridge doors and slammed them back shut. The amount of noise she was making seemed impossible. 

Shepard smiled wide enough to bare her teeth, and she jerked her chin towards the volus. “She’s always like that. This place, too. Super loud, impossible to have a conversation. Or concentrate. Forget about making plans,” she said with a laugh as if she came here often to make plans. 

Then why are you trying? he thought, but he managed to say, “Must be bad for business.” 

“Could be why it’s so slow.” The human shrugged and readied herself to say more, but a beep from her omnitool cut her short. Her brow furrowed for a moment, but she looked back up at him with another quick and easy grin. “That was work. I’ve got to run.” 

Garrus tensed his mandibles as she began to gather her things, but nodded as if he understood her rush. He thought about his own work, the monotonous task that brought him to the cafe in the first place and had by extension trapped him in an awkward conversation. 

The woman breezed past his table, her unfolded jacket revealing a brilliant crimson geometric pattern on the back. “It was nice meeting you, Detective Vakarian.” She paused mid-step to glance back at him, her smile morphing into something wicked. “It’s usually better to make your calls to the captain in private. Never know who could be listening.” 

Shit. 

He rose to his feet, but before he could make it around the table, she had pitched her bag at him. He raised his arms, expecting something hard to pelt him, but instead, the limp fabric bounced off his carapace and clumped at his feet. A crude but efficient distraction; it bought her enough time that she had made it out the door, pushing through a crowd at a full sprint. 

The volus yelled something after him, but he was out the door in pursuit. Even at this hour, the Citadel was crowded, and he could see Shepard fighting her way through a crowd near the stairwell. 

“Citadel Security!” he shouted, his voice carrying over the din of conversations. “Stop that human woman!”  

Shepard had just worked her way through the crowd and was rocketing down the less congested stairwell. She jumped down the last few steps, stumbling before correcting herself and turning the corner, descending out of sight. 

“Hey, officer, which human?” someone shouted back as he ran by. 

“Forget it,” he hissed between clenched mandibles. 

He made the stairwell in half the time she had, his long legs carrying him a greater distance and making it easy for him to vault down double the steps. The floor below was slightly less crowded, but the red-headed human was nowhere in sight. 

That’s not a problem, he thought. He opened his omnitool and turned on the pathway that allowed his visor to pick up bio-signs. Not strictly legal and not something the captain would be happy about if she found out. He had promised to use it only with prior authorization. Baumvi claimed it amounted to illegal use of monitoring equipment, but he had a point to prove. 

Tiny heat signatures flooded his field of vision, and with a few more taps he had limited the readings to include those that belonged to “xenobiology: human,” increased heart rate, and perspiration. The pinpoints of activity reduced to a more manageable number. 

He took a brisk but controlled tour of the floor, matching the signatures to anyone he could see. There were a lot of sweaty humans, but only one he was interested in. 

His tour stretched past the show floor and into what should have been an employees-only loading dock. It contained the back product and newest arrivals for all the stores, restaurants, and cafes in a specific floor range. The door was coded, but the friendly green light indicated this one had been unlocked recently. And just inside the room, no more than a few feet from the door, a panting, sweating human.

Got you. 

Garrus wasn’t interested in a shoot out - though he had no idea if she had a gun - and wrestling with a suspect never looked good. The room would be full of crates and shelves, and though she looked low to the ground, he couldn’t tell what she was behind, or how much stood between them. There were too many unknowns, even if it was just one human. He opted for the more peaceful route, rapping the back of his hand on the wall before hollering, “If you come out now, all I’m going to do is ask you a few questions!” 

The signature bobbed, a sign that she was shifting her position in some way, but the distance remained fixed. She wasn’t coming out and she wasn’t running. 

“I’m going to come in,” he warned, and after a pause, he stepped into range of the automatic doors. 

A few things happened all at once, but before she smacked into him, he noticed with unease that the room was empty. There had been nothing between her and the door, and as soon as it opened, she lunged at him, her arms wrapping around his waist and her legs dropping between his. She was falling to the ground and taking him with her. 

He was dense and under normal circumstances, she shouldn’t have been able to take him down, but she had the element of surprise. He was unsteady on his feet from the shock, and she dragged him down before he could correct his stance and stand firm. 

“Ooof.” The fall knocked the wind out of Shepard, and she lay still beneath him, a look between mild amusement and frustration playing across her features. 

“Didn’t think that out did you?” Garrus rose quickly to his feet, alleviating some of the pressure she was feeling. She had managed to take him down alright, but she hadn’t been prepared for the weight of a turian. 

She regained her composure quickly and rejected his offered hand. “No,” she admitted as she stood, her knees still a little shaky, “but I thought it was worth a shot. Did the job well enough.” 

He didn’t take his eyes off her as he unholstered his weapon. “Did what job well enough?” he inquired. Though it was all beginning to make sense. 

She took a few steps away from him, her lips pinched together as she eyed the gun in his hands. Then her face relaxed, the now familiar grin pulling at the corners of her lips, only this time he saw how fake it was. “I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. You’ll get a notice that there’s been an armed robbery, and it will be awful embarrassing when it turns out you were at the scene of the crime, chatting away in a cafe.” 

“We were talking for two minutes,” he spat. Two minutes was all it would take for professionals, he knew that, especially if they had already started by the time he sat down. It was just enough time for them to slip out, and even without alarms, he would have clued in on a group of humans leaving. Would have looked enough to know that something was up even before the alert was sent. 

Shepard knew what he was thinking, and the grin reached her eyes as she looked up from the gun, her chin tilted back in defiance. “Plenty of time,” was all she said. 

I’m never going to hear the end of this.

A quick sweep of the room confirmed that they were alone, but there was nothing more he could do with her here. He was going to have to take her in and face the wrath of the captain. “Alright,” he began, holstering his gun again and pulling out a pair of handcuffs. “You’ll be coming with me.” 

The ease with which she submitted should have raised a few alarm bells. If not that, then the toothy grin she offered up as the handcuffs tightened over her wrists. Everything pointed to a reckoning. But all Garrus could think about was how angry Captain Baumvi was going to be. 

Orsant was right; groups of humans couldn’t be trusted. 

[ohalemalia]

Daily Dose -  Part 10 (S.M. Imagine)

Pairing: Scott McCall x Sick! Reader Warnings: vomit, death talk, angst, not proofread, scott mccall hurting A\N: we’re down to the wire here folks, we’re almost done with dd. ): seeing that made me a lil sad Word Count:  1869

“Let’s do something.”

“We are doing something.”

By that, I meant we were sitting on Scott’s couch, trying to decide what to watch on Netflix. I found myself tucked under the warmth of Scott’s arm, my legs curled up under me. There was a blanket over the two of us, giving some extra heat. The worst of the season hadn’t even hit yet, but I found myself getting cold a lot. Good thing Scott was like my own personal heater. I wasn’t sure what to call us at this point. It felt weird to say Scott was my boyfriend, but at this point was it far from the truth? We kissed. We cuddled. There was a long list of things I would do for him (take that however you want).

I found myself gradually moving back into the McCall household, but Melissa didn’t know about our kinda-almost-dating status. Neither did my parents. And I don’t think either of them would be happy. It’s one thing if you’re dating, but it’s another if you’re two teenagers living in the same house right next door to each other. I don’t think my dad would be too thrilled about that. We weren’t hiding it, but we weren’t exactly making out on kitchen counters for Melissa to see.

“No,” Scott shifted his position on the couch so he was facing me, “I mean let’s go out. Like a date.”

My thumb hovered over the OK button on the remote. I moved my thumb over, muted the TV and twisted my body to look at Scott, “A what?”

“A...a date?” Scott looked just as confused as much, but it was an endearing obliviousness.

“Uh…” I laughed. I wrapped a loose red thread from the blanket around my index finger and pulled at it. The thread snapped free, “I don’t know about that.”

Scott leaned to one side and dug in his back pocket.

“Scott? What are you--”

Scott pulled out a folded sheet of notebook paper. I could tell exactly what it was because of the purple gel pen bleeding through. I threw my head back and let out a laugh, “Seriously? Why are you still carrying that?”

“Because,” Scott leaned over and grabbed a pen off the end table, “We have to update it.”

“Or we could just throw it away,” I leaned over to try to pluck the list out of his hand. Scott was quicker than me and held the paper just out of reach.

“Scott! Give it here!” “Number one, a friend’s house,” Scott crossed out an item on the list,  “Done. Number two, a sleepover, also done. Fatburger or any place with real food and a diner I guess are both done. In the arms of someone I love--”

“Okay now I’m really going to--” I tried to grab the paper from behind Scott’s head, but again, he moved it out of the way. I threw my leg over his lap and sat down on his legs. I reached for the paper again but Scott moved it to the other hand with a wicked grin.

“Scott!”

Scott’s free arm went around my waist and the next thing I knew we were spinning. With a scream, I landed on my back and sank into the couch cushions. Scott hovered over me, keeping my arms pinned above my head.

I cocked an eyebrow, “Werewolf perk?”

Scott shrugged, “Lacrosse perk.”

Two could play it that game. There was no way I was winning this one with strength, so I had to rely on a different tactic. I lifted my pelvis up and wrapped my legs around Scott’s waist. When Scott looked down to see what I was doing, I craned my neck up and planted my lips onto his. Scott deepened the kiss but didn’t let my hands go.

“Hello? Is anyone--oh, my god.”

The loud smack of Scott and I’s lips breaking apart was loud enough to fill the awkward silence left in the air. Melissa stood at the foot of the couch, in her pink scrubs, her purse still on her shoulder and her mouth open in absolute shock.

“Mom--”

“Melissa--”

“So this,” Melissa gestured between the two of us, “This is what happens when I leave you two alone?”

“No!” I defended, “Not at all! N-no!”

Melissa crossed her arms and looked between the two of us, waiting for an explanation.

“I mean,” Scott rubbed the back of his neck, “Not until recently.”

“Scott!” I hissed at him.

“How recently?” Melissa demanded to know.

“Um,” I went back in my head, “Two weeks?”

Scott nodded, “Something like that.”

Melissa looked up and shook her head, “Unbelievable. I can’t believe--”

I was sure Melissa was going to kick me out. I had ruined everything. I stood up, figuring the next thing she would do is pack my bags and throw me out, “Melissa, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean--”

Melissa held a hand up and I knew that as the universal sign to shut up. So, I clamped my mouth shut. Melissa’s eyes were shut, her hands were pressed together and held in front of her mouth, “I just can’t believe it took you this long. And two weeks to tell me, god, I mean I’m all for a slow burn but Jesus, if you burned any slower the fire would’ve been out by now.”

Scott looked just as shocked as I felt on the inside, “Mom.”

“What?” Melissa shrugged as she headed towards the stairs, “I’m just telling the truth. Decide what you want for dinner, I’m gonna go take a long nap.”

Once we heard Melissa’s door close upstairs, I collapsed on the couch with my face in my hands. Scott burst out into boisterous laughter.

“It’s not funny, Scott,” I groaned, “I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.”

“It’s fine, it could’ve been worse,” Scott shrugged, “A lot worse.”

And he was right. It could’ve been worse.

It got a whole lot worse.

I held my arms out to steady myself as I got off of Scott’s bike. Scott placed his arm under my elbow, keeping me from toppling over, “You okay?”

I nodded, though that was far from the truth. I figured (more like hoped) that I was just tired because it was finals season. But the stress of finals didn’t explain the heaviness in my body, the swelling of my ankles and the fact I needed to pee at least three times during each class.

But yeah, finals. That was it.

I didn’t want Scott to worry. I knew it was going to pass eventually, I just had to wait it out.

I mustered up a smile, “I’m just tired, that’s all.”

Scott frowned but didn’t prod any further.

It didn’t pass. Not this time.

Instead, I woke up at 1:23 AM feeling like someone was jabbing a hot poker through my sides. The pain burned through my entire abdomen. It paralyzed me and trapped me in my bed. Even the slightest movement sent white-hot pain radiating through my body. Hot tears leaked down my cheeks as I stared up at the ceiling, willing the pain to go away.

Please, please don’t do this.

I was frozen on my back. The longer I laid there, the worse I felt. I felt nausea build up in my stomach and I knew that if I threw up I wouldn’t be able to move. I would probably choke on my vomit and die. But I couldn’t move. My body shut down, it was as if my head was somewhere else while my body had been tossed into a bonfire.

I managed to turn my head to the side before dinner came right back up. I sobbed. By the looks of it, something was horribly, horribly, wrong.

“Sc-Scott,” I called out, weakly hoping he would hear me, “Scott!”

Time moved way too slow. I threw up again and at this point, there was nowhere for it to go so I was basically laying in a pool of my own upchuck. My crying made my body shake, my body shaking made pain rip through me, and the pain ripping through me made me cry harder. I was sure I was going to die here. Melissa and Scott wouldn’t find me til the morning. Scott would come in my room, that grin on his face and try to wake me up. Then he would realise something was awfully wrong. His body would collapse. He’d shake me and beg for me to wake up, but it would be too late. It would be too much. Too much like Allison.

“Scott!” I cried out, “Sc-Scott, help! Help me! Me-Melissa? Please! So-someone!”

I heard quick and heavy footsteps in the hall. The hall light flicked on and there stood a shadow in my doorway.

“Y/N!” Scott rushed to my side, dread all over his face, “Y/N, what’s wrong, what happened?” I tried to shake my head, “I ca-can’t move. Everything hurts, I can’t move.”

Scott frantically looked around, his hands hovering over my body, trying to decide how he could help.

“Okay, Y/N, what should I--”

I didn’t hear what he said because I hurled again.

And again.

And again.

“Mom!” I had never heard so much fear in Scott’s voice, “Mom, help!”

I wanted to reach for him, to comfort him and tell him everything was okay. That this would pass. But I had never felt anything like this before. This was new territory I didn’t recognise. I couldn’t tell where I was, let alone if I would make it out of here.

“Scott,” I wasn’t sure if Melissa would get here in time, “Scott, something’s wrong.”

“I know,” Scott’s hand brushed over my forehead and down the back of my head, “I know, I know, I know. Mom! Mom!”

Scott was looking towards the door, but my eyes never left him. I wanted to remember every detail about him. Sound started to dull until Scott’s shouts were muffled together.

“Scott,” I tried to get his attention. My eyelids were getting too heavy to keep open.

“No, no, no, Y/N,” I felt Scott’s hands on either side of my face and gently patted my cheeks, trying to keep me away, “Hey, Y/N, please, stay with me, baby, please.”

“Scott,” Scott was blurry through my tears, “Scott, I’m scared.”

“It’s okay,” Scott pressed his lips to my forehead as if that could save me from my fate, “It’s okay, I’m right here. I’m right here.”

“I don’t want to die,” The weight of my words hung heavy in the air. It was the first time I had ever said it out loud. I put on this front that I was okay with my eventual death, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t ready to let go, “I don’t want to die, please, don’t let me die, I don’t want to go, Scott, please, I don’t want to die, I’m scared.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Scott was trying to stay strong but I heard his voice break, “I got you. I got you.”

Those words sucked me into a dark tunnel I couldn’t outrun.

“I got you.”

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[p-weezy1]

Sell Out Boy?

Life is pretty good. Figured it was time to update because lately I’ve been crazy busy and ended up not being as social as I wanted to. So, MANIA is postponed until January next year. Bummer, right? I know we’ve disappointed quite some people, but I’m trying to make that feel a little better. There’s no one more bummed about it than us, believe me. But the tour is still happening and we’ll have a record we are super stoked on in the end.

The set/stage design for the tour are still MANIA based. Began planning that a month ago. Dang, October is super close now.  Our new stage gear arrived too, super rad jeans jackets.

Setlist won’t change either and been talking to the merch store about the preordered MANIA bundles- they’re still gonna be send out as planned, the vinyls and CDs that come along with them will be arriving at everyone’s homes in February. I think that’s a pretty good solution for this issue and I hope it will make up a little for the disappointment. Oh, yeah. I’m going to put a read more here- basically because (shock) I’m probably going to complain about a few things concerning Fall Out Boy, or should I be saying Sell Out Boy? Nobody knows what the correct version is anymore. Honestly you don’t have to read this or anything, it’s just me bitching and finding an outlet through writing.

Okay. If you’re still here with me right now and have no idea what I’m talking about- we’re that band that always does everything wrong, no matter what we do. I’m also that dude with the asshole reputation that gets hated on for pretty much just breathing- so we had Patrick write the announcement about the release date of the record being pushed back to January. Because he’s like that lil dude people can’t be upset with, for some reason he gets like five times less hate than I do when I open my mouth about something. But yeah, most of the kids in our fanbase reacted pretty positively, they’re being supportive and understanding although they’re disappointed because everyone has been looking forward to September, just like us.  Then you also have these jerks that hide behind social media profiles and start bitching about whatever flaw they can detect and of course shit has been blown out of proportion and it’s kind of saddening to see that we’re being made out to be something we’re not, just through plain assumptions. At the same time they would never say these things to my face. I generally am very open towards criticism so if you come up to me and tell me you don’t like my music for this or that reason I’d be stoked to discuss why. But yeah, it usually never happens. Online they have big mouths though. We did this for us, so we can put out an album we’re 100% content about. At the end of the day it’s the four of us that have to put our names on this CD and I won’t put my name under something we rushed to finish just because we had to meet a deadline while knowing we could have done ten times better. We also did this for the fans. I don’t want to give them a half-assed album, they deserve better. But here’s the tea (I actually almost spilled some earlier): People are suddenly calling us Sell Out Boy (doesn’t get old it seems but the pun has stopped being funny in like 2005) because we’re postponing an album and they’re drawing wiiiild conclusions. Basically, it’s because of how weird Young and Menace sounds. I said the album is going to be something inbetween Champion and Y&M but that apparently means we saw people’s reaction to the first single we put out and because it polarized and probably was too different and strange for some people, we’re now rewriting songs to adapt them to whatever it is that the general public favors. And that’s bullshit. It’s what this song is meant to do. We released it, completely aware it wasn’t supposed to be a radio hit. This album is meant to be different. We will have to play these songs countless of times so at the end of the day we as a band need to like them. That’s the most important part here. And we simply felt like the record wasn’t ready and after years of experience you kind of get a feeling for these things. So a mutual decision was made, considering what’s the best for us and the fans. Wouldn’t we be sell outs if we would have done the opposite? Putting out an album because we have to meet a deadline without actually considering the quality. Makes no sense. Just like the fact that people complain about our sound and pretty much want From Under The Cork Tree back but then buy our records anyway. I don’t need you sending me hate tweets and all (yeah, I’m a human person and have feelings too, oh snap) but then your ass will show up at our show anyway. You’ll probably buy the album too, just out of spite. Well, don’t.  And if we wouldn’t have pushed back the release you would have complained about the way our sound has changed, now it’s us trying to adapt our style to the liking of the masses, which would pretty much defeat the purpose of this entire thing for us as a band evolution wise- it’s not changing. It’s still going to sound the way we want to and it’s still going to have that MANIA vibe. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Don’t come to our shows, don’t expect us to deliver what you think we should sound like. We’re always going to be the underdogs and I’m cool with that, as long as I get to make the music I want to be making. Thankfully our fanbase has been super supportive of the way we’ve changed throughout the years and has always given everything new we’ve tried a chance. These are our real fans and I’m pretty grateful for them. Haters, shitty fans or shitty friends, those come and go. But the real ones always remain. You kinda figure that out after a while. It’s completely normal not to like every single song or album by your favorite artist but you have to accept that they want to evolve and grow as well and that’s impossible by releasing the same kind of record over and over again. Rant end. Love Pete

Peee Es: Super thankful for our fans but please keep in mind we’re humans, not machines.

[subconfessions]

Day 15

It’s been 38 days and 2405 edges since my last orgasm. My edges have been going so fast recently cause of how desperate and horny I am all the time 🤤 but doing 100 a day still isn’t easy 😅

So I’m already very behind again on my blog so I’m gonna touch on some of the more fun and bigger things I’ve been up to to try and catch up 😅 maybe I’ll just start posting smaller updates instead of such long big ones. Either way I just need to be more consistent about it 😅

But anyways, going back about a week ago, with the Fourth of July coming up, I had walked my way into another punishment 😅 I kinda asked for this one, there was certainly that voice in the back of my head saying “this is a baaaaaad idea” but uhm I thought it would be funny 🙈 so Daddy had asked me to add an American flag to my name on wire. Alright easy enough. I plopped it on at the end, not thinking anything of it. Then daddy said “excuse me” and my heart dropped and I was of course starting to feel very submissive, but I had no idea what I did till Daddy asked if that’s where that emoji belonged. And that was when I got my brilliant idea (🙄 rolling my eyes at myself for this one) to play dumb. I moved the flag in between my one hundred and peach emoji, of course knowing that’s not at all what Daddy meant. I asked if that was better and he told me almost.

And this was the make or break decision, and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time because it shouldn’t take me long to move the flag to the front.

But I got the brilliant idea to add either the New Zealand flag or the Australian flag instead 😅 since I didn’t have any other place to move the American flag and I wanted to poke one last timeeee 🙈

I initially wanted to do the New Zealand flag, but I couldn’t find it fast enough, and my eye caught on the Australian flag and just decided to roll with it.

I only left it in my name long enough to be sure that Daddy saw the flag 😳🙈😅 as soooon as he read the message I flew to change it to the American one cause I just knew I was about to be in a world of trouble. And of course, he let me know just that 😅

Daddy asked what our Australian friend thought my punishment could be. And I transferred messages back and forth between them, only for him to suggest putting the American flag in bruises on my tits 😑 those would coverrrr them and would be sooo hard to do. Thankfully daddy seemed to ignore that idea 😅 and later the next day told me about the punishment he’d thought up. I was supposed to get the other sub in our chat to learn and recite the pledge of allegiance by the Fourth of July, aaaaaannnnddd I was supposed to talk to the other dom from our chat and get her to teach me a pledge she’d made about Daddy’s dick, and I was supposed to learn that for the fourth.

I figured getting her to help would be a lot easier than getting him to. So at worst, maybe I would earn a 50% bad punishment, but I was certainly gonna try and get them both on board with helping me 😅

So the next day, after work and after filming a little tik tok for Daddy I set off and got to work trying to convince the two of them to help me.

Like I thought, it was easy to get her to help me (although when I told her I picked the Australian flag and not the New Zealand flag, I thought I might lose her support) the only problem was that she didn’t remember all of the pledge 😅 so there was going to have to be a lot of work on her side to figure it out for me so I could memorize it for Daddy.

Eventually, she came up with it for me, and I was beyond grateful 🙏🏻 cause yet again, there was no real reason to help me. And she didn’t even ask me for anything in return (yet).

While getting help from her I continued to try and get help from the other sub. He even told me he was very tempted to just tell me no and let me get my punishment. But then realized he could probably get quite a bit out of me for learning this pledge. He decided that he wanted my last favor he owed me and either those American flag bruises, or the last 5 baseball logos I’d promised him cranked out by his time Friday at 8 am. I groaned internally and picked the 5 baseball logos and my favor.

But ya know, I convinced them both to help me in the end, and avoiding whatever punishment Daddy would think up for me 😳😳😳

After all that hard work I went out and got a pedicure, and during that, Daddy mentioned how he wished he’d put me in my tack bra and I very sassily told him he should’ve, and I quickly earned a tack bra for when I got home up until I asked to be tucked into bed. Oops. But I definitely sassed my way into that one 😅

My only problem was forgetting to put my tack bra on when I got home 🙈

So about 45 minutes later when Daddy texted me asking about if I was home, it hadn’t clicked what he was asking for yet, till he asked if I had it on. And I jumped out of bed telling Daddy I was gonna put it on right away, but as I was rushing Daddy told me no and to stop and not worry about it now. And like that small bit of relief washed over me, until he said that now I’d be putting it on at bedtime. And just like that the little inside me was like “whine, pout, tantrum, now”. I hadn’t worn my tack bra overnight beforeee and I knew it was gonna be serious ouchies and probably pretty hard to sleep, especially considering I sleep mostly on my stomach or side. Thankfully daddy let me take my stuffies out of the box to help me sleep.

I got started writing my blog post about how to keep Daddy happy, and got myself a little message from the other dom 😅 from the get go she asked me for a favor since she’d helped me so much the other day. She explained about how Daddy was bragging about how I wouldn’t notice his football had changed into a rugby ball, and she asked if I would point it out and make a huge deal about it to him (In all honesty, I probably would’ve noticed myself eventually 😂). And since she did help me so much yesterday, I definitely felt like I owed her a favor 😅 aaaaannnddd she’s had my back quite a few times already (she’s also punished me but for understandable reasons). Also, hearing that Daddy was bragging that I wouldn’t notice definitely helped urge me to support her cause 😛.

So I did the only reasonable thing, I asked Daddy why his football changed colors, and called him unamerican for changing the ball so close to the Fourth of July 😬🙈 time to hide.

And boy oh boy oh boyyy was it hard to not just spill the beans to Daddyyyy.

As soooon as he started questioning me I was feeling so submissive and little and I just shrunk down and did what I could to stall while asking the other dom what to do 😅 I felt bad because I didn’t wanna just rat her out right awayyy especially after what she’d done for meeee cause obviously there would be a punishment at the end of that rainbow.

But then Daddy started taking away my stuffies.

And Daddy counted down 😳🥺 which just really finished the job making me feel so so so little. And it took everything to not save Teddy at 2. But then Daddy came for another one so I just had to give in 🙈 plusss I was starting to really not like hiding things from Daddy, even though I knew it was gonna get her in trouble with him. So I showed Daddy what he wanted to seeee 🙈 and apologized to the other dom for ratting, but she did put me in that situation 😅🙈 what was I supposed to doooo 🙇🏼‍♀️

But thankfully Daddy thought she was funny in our conversation, so I got Teddy back for the night. And goodness knows I was gonna need all my stuffies to fall asleep with my tack bra on.

I had managed to earn a couple bowls, so I smoked them, took some melatonin, finished getting ready for bed, lied down, and hoped I would stay on my back all night 😅

Nope.

Definitely woke up a few times when my sleeping self wanted to get more comfy and roll onto my stomach, and got some nice pokes. But thankfully I was able to find a comfortable spot on my side to fall back asleep in that wasn’t that bad.

Thankfully morning came, and I was able to take my tack bra off, it stung taking it off, the tacks having been settled for so long in the same spot, and it left me with some nice pokes all over. Sent daddy a quick picture, put my stuffies back in the box, and got ready for work.

The next day was fun too, after work I had a haircut, and Daddy had managed to catch me before I left and told me to put either my tack bra on or my large plug in before I left. I begrudgingly had to pick the tack bra cause I had just started my period 🙇🏼‍♀️ so no plugs for me just cause my body was in full on revolt mode. So with my tack bra on I left for the salon.

Once I got there and finally in (cause you know Covid) my hairstylist took one look at the sweatshirt I had on and was like “do you have anything on under that?” And I was like “Noo??” Very confused cause no hairstylist had ever been concerned with me wearing a sweatshirt before. But she promptly told me it was too bulky and I’d have to take it off. Thankfully it was me her, and two other women in the salon and that was it 😅 cause all I had on underneath was my tack bra.

I was like oh of course this had to happen today.

Only I would have to strip in my salon while wearing this😛

So I stripped cause fuck it 🤷🏼‍♀️ if I move quick enough hopefully they won’t notice and just think there are polka dots under my bra, not racks of course.

So with my little smock and my tack bra on I sat in that chair for almost three hours just knowing that I had all those tacks making those fun marks on me for Daddy.

I sent daddy a lil selfie and made my way home, I knew that night was the Tourettes show and I was really excited for it and didn’t wanna miss anythingggg.

Thankfully cause of the time zone I didn’t miss a thing 😋

Tourettes was obviously super fun again, I was happy to get to see it a second time ☺️ it would be cool to get to see it a third but I’m not sure with things opening back up again. While watching Daddy let me take out my stuffies from my box after seeing another little snuggling with hers, and I turned on my cam in the show so Daddy could peek in on me too hehe.

I had a great time watching it with Daddy, and even flashed at the end with everyone else hehe sadly daddy missed ittt but I think he got real happy when I told him I did 😋

I’ll be bummed when it’s back in person and not online anymoreeee ☹️ but I’m enjoying it while it lasts ☺️

And making sure I gave daddy all his goodnight kisses from me and my stuffies, I went to bed

Till next time 😋😋😋

[amongushq]

Welcome (back) to Among Us, ROSIE! KOLBY O’NEAL ( with the faceclaim of TOM HOLLAND ) has found shelter in CAMP HALF BLOOD, where we hope HE will fit in nicely. Please make sure to check the “after applying” section of our navigation here!

The app was well written in terms of backstories and personality. The fact that he kept himself to a minimum was evident of the lifestyle he ran during his teenage years. Who would want to know that he was part of an illegal business? And if people ever knew about that, would he be seen as a nuisance or would they accept his presence in camp? We see a demigod who is currently coming to terms with his whole godly identity even if he had been using his godly talents in the long run to keep himself financially stable. It would be interesting to see how he develops into his own godly heritage and accept it. Would it make him better at what he does? Would it make him aware of what skills he could do with it? Would he be opening up his past to someone in camp or is he going to hide it forever? It’s exciting to see how he would be able to socialize with people who have already accepted their own godly heritage and people who have the same situation as he does. 

AND YOU ARE...?

What is your full name, and when were you born?

Part of me was still convinced this was a lie, that there had been some mistake, a mix up, a case of mistaken identity. There was no way that I was the son of some god. I was just...just plain old orphan Kolby. There wasn’t anything remotely special about me despite the half goat man sat opposite me insisting there was. “You already know my name. I told you it three days ago when you first found me and hit that big guy with a bin lid.” That felt like a lifetime ago now. The goat guy didn’t respond save for tapping his pen on the clipboard in front of him so with a sigh I gave up and said, “Kolby Nigel O’Neal. But can you just call me Kol, please?” I hate my name, partly due to the fact it was one of the only things my mother had seen fit to give me before vanishing. It was a pretty shit gift, I’d decided, a first name didn’t get you far in life unless you were someone like Adele. “I was born August 28th 2000.”  I wondered if they were going to ask for the location next, I’d would tell then if he asked even if it was the last thing I wanted to do right now. Confrontation was something I liked to avoid at all costs and apparently that included cashing in my privacy card. This whole situation was putting me on edge, it seemed so formal and a bit like an interrogation. I wondered if there were any wrong answers to give, and if their were would they throw me in Demigod prison? I slipped one hand in my pocket, feeling reassured as I traced the outline and ridges of the compass face. This was fine, everything was fine, they’d brought me here after all.

Have you been claimed, or do you belong to a legacy? If yes, state your godly parent / heritage.

I frowned at the goat man – sorry the satyr – for a moment to see if he would expand on what the hell he meant. It seemed like a cruel question to ask someone you picked up off the streets, because surely if they had a family to be going home too that was where they’d be. Not selling dodgy phones on street corners or illegally upgrading whatever the highest paying guy was handing over that night in a dead end alleyway. “My mums name is Maura O’Neal. That’s what the paperwork says anyway. Could be a fake name for all I know.” There had been a time when I’d tried to find her, had tracked down every O’Neal in Northern Ireland, but if she had been one of the women I talked too then she was a damn good liar. I shook my head at the satyr, not understand rest of his question. “I don’t know who my dad is either.” It was an odd feelings, not being claimed by either parent. Not knowing my dad was one thing, he hadn’t carried me around inside him for nine months like my mum had. I often wondered what I’d done that was so bad at three days old what warranted her dropping me off at police station in the middle of the night and never coming back. The satyr muttered something about Hephy-someone but before I could ask he had already moved on to his next question.

Where are you currently based? Are you attending a Camp (Half-Blood / Jupiter), or are you living full-time in New Athens / New Rome? Is it a combination of both?

“I’m guessing you don’t want to know which alleyway I’ve been conducted business from?” I sighed, growing tired of all these questions and wondering how much longer it would take. Since being brought to Camp no one had thought to answer any of his questions about things. “Hey do they allow pets here? Like say dogs?” I asked, thinking about little Isaac who had been following loyally since New York. My new satyr friend acted like he didn’t hear me, but that was fine. I’d find someone of sneak Isaac in if needed be. I wasn’t about to abandon my only friend. Someone had given me a rushed group tour, pointed to an already over cramped cabin and left me to find my way, not answering my pet question either. You’d think they’d have some sort of orientation session that started with a jolly ‘So you’ve discovered the gods are real!?’ and was followed up by a powerpoint show on what the hell was going on. “The Camp. The er...the Half-Blood one.”

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? ( If you’re applying for a canon character, are you diverging from book-canon? If so, how?)

Oh boy. That was a tricky question to answer, and it suddenly struck me that this might finally be my chance. My chance at a fresh start, no one here really knew me yet. I could be whoever I wanted to be. These people didn’t need to know I’d bounced around foster homes and orphanages in three different countries for sixteen years, they definitely didn’t need to know I might have wet the bed until I was seven. This was my chance to finally be the guy that was cool, who wasn’t scared of bats, who didn’t avoid black cats or breaking mirrors because they were superstitions. I could be the guy who knew how to hack into any phone once I knew the make and model, I could be that guy who was tall dark and mysterious that people whispered about and thought was a myth. Everyone always thought I worked for someone bigger and tougher than me on the streets, but now I could be the big bad boss everyone thought I worked for. I opened my mouth, confident in my decision to lie through my teeth and be someone new, but I hesitated. Sure being the me in my head – the guy who wasn’t afraid to actually say what he thought and who could throw a hardcore punch – all the time seemed like a good idea, but...but what if I missed being, well me? I mean sure I was shy, kinda scared of anyone bigger than me, got more action with a tool belt then with any girl ever, awkward when asked questions, eloquent, slightly nerdy and had read more books then I could technically afford, but that guy had gotten me this far in life. “I’m just...just me. Y’know. Pretty average in most aspects, off the charts when it comes to mechanics though.” Maybe one day I’d get to be inner head me, but keeping a low profile around here might be for the best.

What were you doing prior to The Recall?

I was suddenly regretting not taking my chance to be a whole new person as I contemplated how to explain I’d been dumped as a baby, passed around orphanages in Northern Ireland and England until I was eight when a super nice family took me to America with all these promises of adoption and a great life in the land of the free. Then the mum got pregnant and suddenly they didn’t need lil ol’ me anymore. The American care system was different then the British one, not by a lot, but enough that eventually – after a lot of playing pass the Kolby – I faded from the system all together. I forged some signatures and went to middle school, high school, slept rough, woke up way too early to use the gym showers. It was all going well, I was doing just fine by myself on the streets. I made extra cash by fixing people’s fancy gadgets and sometimes the occasional car, it was lowkey stuff. Enough to buy a meal a day, save some up for some new shoes, but when you’re good at something turns out people start hearing about you.

Before I knew it I had a whole underground (it was actually at the back of an abandoned police station, fully above ground) hacking, fixing, updating and remodeling business. My clientele were mostly the bad sort who all seemed to want to make things or people go boom. I’d had to drop out of school to keep up with it all, I’d also had to lie and say I was just the errand boy, that the guy who did the work wasn’t actually a kid. I wasn’t sure how this satyr would take the news that I’d accidently ended up with an illegal business at sixteen and abandoned it as seventeen when I’d saved up enough money to get myself back to Ireland, despite the protests of my customers. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as he waited for an answer. “Just here and there. School. Bit of work. Bouncing between homes,” I shrugged at him.