#saw people complaining about this card and saw red. she literally looks so cute

[vampuppyy]

Also I'll be very honest some of the people on the d4dj fandom are so fucking dumb. Yes aoi presents masculine however it sometimes sounds like people haven't read any of the aoi focus stories at ALL. aoi is learning to appreciate her androgyny by herself step by step, yes, however we shouldn't forget that for years she felt forced into this role by having people say she looked masculine and didn't fit a girly appearance. Seeing aoi looking "girly" with her short hair still is something so so dear and that means so much to me and she literally looks so good. People complaining about how "they're making aoi feminine!" Literally don't care about the way her character is written and I doubt even knew she felt forced into it. Seeing aoi allowing herself to look cute and feminine shows her development and it isn't the end of the world that she's doing it once in a blue moon. Grow up and start actually reading about characters

[velveticamoon]

AOT : HOLIDAY HEADCANONS

these totally weren’t supposed to go up yesterday ahaha- 

P.S: this is my first writing post!! i thought it would be an easier transition by writing hc’s, and i got my friend saniya (@bokesaniyaboke) to help me out with writing them, so i hope y’all enjoy :) (enjoy our 2 am chaos-)

i have more writing planned for the future too, and decided that i’ll be writing for: 

- attack on titan

- bungou stray dogs 

- free!

- fugou keiji: balance unlimited. 

don’t be shy to send in your requests, i’m more than happy to do them ;) 

anyways, i hope you guys enjoy, let me know if you want more! and to those of you that celebrated, hope you had a merry Christmas :) 

LEVI

Decorating the house with him!! Except he’d be trying to get out of doing it at first lol

He’d be pissed about the mess that would come with decorating the house 

But if you keep pestering him enough he’ll eventually give in lol 

He’d be very meticulous about which decorations go where, but you’re just gonna have to put up with that 

Pls don’t complain too much, he really wouldn’t be doing it with anyone else 

(in the words of saniya: “ur the only exception be happy about that)

Idk why but i feel like he’d be really good at hanging up the lights?? With the placement and whatnot? 

He probably has a very keen aesthetic eye i feel like (saniya: “pinterest but as a person vibes”)  

At the end of it, while y’all are sitting on the couch drinking some tea, he quietly mumbles how he likes the work you two did 

But you felt like teasing him and he got all huffy and said it louder, obviously calling you a brat right after cuz why wouldn’t he 

EREN 

Ask him to make gingerbread houses!! pls he’d be so excited about it 

He’d even go to the store himself and get all the supplies on his way home and you both wouldn’t waste a minute to start a baby

Look he’d start getting competitive (pls we all know how he is) and would turn it into a competition so be prepared for that lol 

But when his gingerbread house falls over he starts getting angry

Proceeds to drive to the company’s factory to break it down in his titan form (there’s no stopping him now) 

Gets Armin to join him and they smash the houses in their titan forms together LMFAOFNDND PLEASE IM WHEEZING- 

But for real, he’d probably get pouty, and turn into a whiny baby

Don’t call him out on it though he’ll just get even worse lol  

Shower him with kisses right after and he’ll be blushy but he’s fine dw about it 

He’ll get over himself eventually and then proceed to ask with a boyish grin on his face if you wanna give up and just eat the houses as they are 

Y’all end up with stomach aches but it’s fine he makes it a little more bearable :))

MIKASA 

Making ornaments (pls it’d be so cutenjdjn)

Saniya: “she would stab me with an ornament and i’d say thank you” 

Comfortable silence with a little chatter here and there

Every now and then she rests her head on your shoulder (softie) 

Just like Armin, getting super flustered and blushy when you compliment her 

She helps hang the ornaments onto the tree and the tree turns out to look so pretty

Would take your hand and sit the two of you on the couch and just admire the tree in silence 

It’s so comforting you slowly feel like you’re about to fall asleep 

Make her some hot chocolate pls all she really wants is to cherish this atmosphere the two of you have created, all huddled up on the couch together 

She’d totally fall asleep cause the girl’s always working in overdrive pls does she even sleep-

Make sure she’s warm alright?? If u don’t i’ll stab you ;)

JEAN 

Watches hallmark movies with you, only to make fun of them (romance at it’s finest amirite) 

Popcorn fights while watching them 

Will get mad when you see a horse and say “look it’s you horse face” 

He says the dumbest pick up lines during the movie as an attempt to impress you 

“hey y/n, can i have your picture so i can show santa what i want for christmas?” 

“jean, we’re literally dating-” 

Something romantic will happen in the movie and Jean will continuously ask you to recreate that scene. “y/n can we-“ “if your about to ask me if you can spin me whilst ice skating, then no” “aw :(“ 

Oh to be spun by jean while ice skating- but that’s not the point 

Wrap him up in a blanket while watching the movies, he’ll melt 

Call him out on it and he’ll turn into ereh 2.0 (aka another whiny baby) 

Jkjk but he’ll definitely try to deny it cuz u know he’s a “biG oL maNLy maN” but he’s a softie ;)

ARMIN 

Making holiday cards with him 

When you bring up the idea his face lights up instantly it’s the cutest thing omg

I can see him bringing his own supplies to help with getting started

Envelopes, letter paper, markers. Hell, he’ll show up with glitter markers (those things are god-tier istg-)

he gets super flustered and red when you compliment his card

SUCH A CREATIVE BOI

If you mess up on your card he’s totally gonna be there to cheer you up!!

“Hey don’t worry, you can just start on a new one :D”

He probably won’t ask but he lowkey wants the card you messed up on cuz he thinks it’s cute

Makes cards for everyone and then takes you with him to deliver them

Would be really shy at the post office cuz he’s never done this before 

*cue you falling even more head over heels for him because he’s just so?? endearing?? it’s insane??*

Eventually, he gets the hang of it and ends up having a really fun time :D

Let him be the one to place the stamps on the envelopes, it’s ~therapeutic~ for him 

Overall, he’s probably the best person if you wanna use this as a healing opportunity tbh, the entire day is just filled with the calmest atmosphere one could wish for, and the smiles never leave your faces, even after you’ve finished

CONNIE 

Snowball fights w/ our resident baldy jKJKJK

Pls you wouldn’t even plan for it to happen 

It just kinda,, did,, 

Y’all we’re walking through the park, on your way back from lunch or something 

But you decided to make a pit-stop at the park cuz you saw an ice cream truck (do y’all know how rare those are in winter?? I’d be running to get to it pls i have no self-control) 

Anyways, other ppl had the same idea, so now y’all were standing in line waiting 

As he was looking around, his eyes landed on some other kids throwing snowballs at each other, and ideas started forming in his head uh oh-

And there just so happened to be a pile of snow right next to his feet- 

Y’all can probably guess what happened- 

“Hey y/n” “yeah-?” *throws it right at your face* 

And so the war begins 

Two words: S N O W  F O R T S. pls ppl would be concerned as they walked by and saw y’all just trying to fucking PUMMEL each other (sounds like fun tho i wanna do it now :( haven’t done it in years pls-) 

But you have to stop it before one of you gets hypothermia considering how long y’all have been going at it 

Anyways, he’ll buy you a hot chocolate to make up for making you frozen to the bone dw :)

SASHA 

Popcorn and cranberry garland 

Look away for one second and the popcorn is gone but you don’t really mind

Make sure to bring a second batch of the popcorn because the first one WILL be gone 

(maybe even a third stashed away-)

She’s really excited about it tho!! But didn’t expect it to take so long omg 

I imagine her to be really clumsy while making them, so pull a move straight out of a cheesy romance movie and help her out while holding her hands ;) 

She probably won’t notice what’s going on for a good minute tho 

Pls be patient she’s doing her best 😔🤚🏻

But once she does she has the cutest blush on her face pls (i just love her a lot can y’all tell-) 

She’ll eventually get the hang of it and you both make really pretty garlands!!

She suggests hanging it up in the bathroom as a snack pls-

HANJI 

Caroling with them omfg- 

It’s gonna be chaotic

The neighbors hate y’all but its fine 

Look man if ur like me and can’t handle people being loud all the time bring earplugs cuz it’s gonna get L O U D

But if you tell them that their screeching is giving you a headache they’ll absolutely tone it down!!

But don’t be surprised when they inevitably forget about that-

But if you're more energetic than I am then have at it ;) 

Pls me and my lazy ass could never handle that- 

Anyways when y’all reach the houses where they refuse to open the door?? Hanji’s breaking that shit down and hollering into their house at the top of their lungs

Ur literally gonna have to drag them away before someone calls the cops 

Moblit pls get over here and collect them I’m begging u dude-

Don’t be surprised if y’all spend the night in jail that’s just how it’s gonna be oops 

[auroracalisto]

i don’t wanna be alone

summary: college is filled with events that happen one right after the other.  that being said, montana practically begs the reader to go to a party, and there, our dear reader finds herself in quite a predicament.  

pairing: xavier x reader, platonic! montana x reader, platonic! montana x xavier

word count: 3.6k words

warnings: alcohol, drinking, slight ooc with the characters, reader is touched up by some guy while she’s drunk, please DO NOT read if you are uncomfortable with mentions of sexual assault and things like that.  it is in this.

a/n: modern! college! au with select characters from ahs (mostly 1984 tbh).  not me going off of a plot idea i created while driving home from work,,,, wouldn’t be the first time.  characters include: xavier, chet, montana, mentions ray and brooke, also nodes to kyle spencer’s frat, kappa lambda gamma.  also, would this be considered an innocent! reader?  maybe just a female reader that really hasn’t done much of partying and drinking.

You sighed for what seemed to be the fifth time, your head pressing up against the library book you were searching for. You couldn’t find what you needed for your essay, and this had been the third book you had pulled off the shelf. You rubbed your eyes, flinching as someone nudges your arm. You furrowed your brows and quickly looked over, spotting Montana, your roommate who had yet to leave your side, and her pretty smile. 

“Once you're done,” she said, “Xav and Chet wanna meet up by the cafe.”

You groaned softly and let your head fall back on your book. “What time is it?” you asked. 

“Almost six. If we leave now, there might still be something good left.”

You knew she was right. As Montana started to get her things ready, you stood up and stuffed what you brought with you back into your backpack. You then grabbed a couple other books, taking them up to the counter and checking them out. 

“Is that even what you needed?” Montana asked, popping her bubblegum as she came up beside you. 

You just shrugged. You didn’t even know what you needed, but at this point, anything would have been better than nothing. When the librarian handed you back your student card, you stuffed it into your pocket and grabbed your books. Montana took a hold of your elbow and led you out of the library. The two of you trekked over to the building that held your cafeteria, noting that there weren’t actually a lot of people inside at the moment. It was odd. Six to seven were usually the busiest hours, but you weren’t about to complain. 

Montana got in front of you, swiping her card to get her meal for the evening. She got your card out of your backpocket, after realizing it might be hard for you with all the books you had in your hands. 

She handed the cook your card, and just as she was swiping it, a strong hand came down on your shoulder. You flinched, quickly looking back with wide eyes, only to see a grinning Xavier. 

“If I would have dropped my books—”

“—you didn’t,” he said, sticking out his tongue in a teasing manner.  He grinned at you, handing the cook his own card as Chet got his card ready.  Montana stuffed yours back into your pocket.  

“Wanna sit towards the windows?” Montana asked, grabbing a hold of your elbow again.  You nodded, following close behind her.  

Xavier came up right beside you, taking a couple of the books from you and sitting them down on the window seal.  “What are these for?  The fu—Nicomachean Ethics?  What the hell is that?”

“It’s for my philosophy class,” you huffed softly, sitting your book bag down on your chair.  “I don’t even know if I can use that.”  Your eyes slightly widened as you looked over at Chet.  “You’re in my philosophy!  What are you doing for your essay?”

Chet blinked slowly at you for a moment before he spoke.  “I haven’t started.”

You let your head fall back, closing your eyes.  

Xavier poked your arm.  “Come on.  Let’s get food and then you can worry about that.”

You did as you were told, trudging up to the counters.  You got your favorites, and then you also went to the drink counter and got your favorite drink.  Before long, you were the first one to return to the table.  You sat your things down and then you put your bookbag on the floor, replacing the bag in the chair with your body.  You waited until your friends came back before you did anything else.  

Xavier sat beside you, closest to the window, while Montana sat directly across from him and Chet sat directly across from you.  

“Did you hear?” Montana excitedly began, sitting on the edge of her seat as her fork sunk into her salad.  “Kappa’s having their Homecoming party this Saturday.  It’s supposed to be the biggest one of the semester,” she spoke, looking over at you.  She sent you a smile.  “I would love it if you went with me, [Your name].”

“Uhhh, I dunno,” you shrugged, beginning to eat from your own plate.  “I don’t really do parties.”

“We’re all going,” Chet said, leaning back in his seat as he picked up a carrot off of Montana’s plate.  “Hell, even Ray and Brooke are going.  You’d be the only one out of us not going.  You’d really wanna be the odd one out?”

You rolled your eyes.  “Do you really want me to go?” you looked over at Montana, exasperated.  

It was almost as if you were the odd one out.  Your little group of friends, save for you, all came to college, knowing each other one way or another.  You just so happened to be Montana’s random roommate, and she slowly integrated you into their lives.  They each thought you were awesome, but it still didn’t make you feel any less out of touch with them, at times.  

Xavier leant over, his face close to yours.  You turned to face him, flinching slightly at how close he was.  

“What?” you asked, taking a piece of your food and shoving it at his mouth.  

He ate whatever it was that you had given him, sitting back in his chair.  “You should come.  It’ll be fun.  At least for a little bit,” he grinned.  “I heard they’re gonna have Kappa juice,” he said, looking over at Montana, who’s eyes brightened at the mention.  

“What’s that?” you asked, crossing your arms over your chest.  

“It’s like.  A bunch of alcohol.  No, a shit ton of alcohol all mixed together.  God, it’s supposed to get you hammered with one fucking cup,” Montana grinned.  

“And you wanna do that?” you furrowed your eyebrows.  

“Come on, [Your name],” she practically begged, launching herself over the table to take a hold of your hands.  “We’ll have Xav get you something like Smirnoff, so you can still drink but you won’t have to have Kappa juice.  How about that?”

You blinked slowly at Montana before you groaned.  “Fine.”  You looked over at Xavier, unable to stop your cheeks from burning.  “Could you…?”

He smiled and nodded.  

“I’ll pay you back,” you said, a relieved smile quickly forming on your lips.  “But,” you looked over at Montana, narrowing your eyes.  “I have to get this essay finished before Saturday.  So nothing else crazy.  Okay?”

Montana grinned and quickly nodded.  “Got it.”

You finished up your food before everyone else and you grabbed your book bag, looking at Montana.  “I’m gonna head back to the dorms.  I’ll try to finish this essay,” you sighed.  Picking up your plate and your cup, you looked at Chet.  “Text me when you start yours?”

When he nodded, you took your leave, unaware of the silent victory party Montana was celebrating.  

“This will be her first party,” she said, wiggling a finger in Xavier’s direction.  “Don’t do anything stupid.  And don’t let me see you hooking up with anyone while she’s there.  I’ll personally end you.”

Xavier grinned.  “Whatever.”

Montana rolled her eyes.  “I’m serious, Xav.  She really likes you, even though she won’t admit it.  It’s probably the only reason she agreed to come,” she laughed, leaning back in her seat.  

“Whatever,” he repeated, his smile only growing.  

[]

Saturday came sooner than you had anticipated.  Luckily, however, you had finished your essay just the day before, so you spent most of Saturday afternoon getting ready for this damn party.  

Montana came out of the bathroom, her hair done up nice and her makeup as perfect as always.  She looked over at you and grinned.  “How do I look?”

You looked over at her and grinned.  “Great.”

Montana laughed and went to grab her phone.  “They have a frat house.”

“I know.”

“I meant, that’s where the party’s gonna be.  You wanna walk or have Xav drive us?”

“I already owe him for the drinks.  I’ll just walk.”

Montana pouted at you but she nodded.  “Alright.  I’ll wear comfy shoes then,” she sighed, grabbing her purse.  “Are you ready?” she asked you.  

You looked at yourself in the mirror and you gave a hesitant nod.  “Yeah, I’m ready.  Do I look okay?” you turned to face her.  

You wanted to wipe that shit-eating grin off her face.  “Xavier would think you’re cute—”

“—what!  Could you stop saying shit like that!”

“It’s true, [Your name]!” she dramatically cried, grabbing onto your arms.  “You’re wearing his favorite color.  I should know.”

You sighed, remembering that the two of them did have a thing back in the day.  You shook your head and grabbed onto your friend’s hand.  “Can we go now?”

Montana smiled and led you out of your dorm.  

[]

Just moments after you left the dorm, you found yourself in front of the frat house.  It was already bustling with drunk students.  People were making out, dancing to the loud music, playing beer pong, and quite literally drinking so much alcohol that it probably wasn’t good for their organs.  

You stood close to Montana as she got a cup of whatever the hell Kappa juice was and you looked around.  You spotted Xavier and Chet, who weaved their way through the crowd.  Xavier smiled when he saw you, and you swore your heart skipped a beat.  

Xavier extended the case of Smirnoff he bought for you, and you thanked him by giving him a quick hug.  It felt like your heart had stopped at this point, and your cheeks burned red.  But that quickly diminished when Xavier hugged you back with a laugh.  

“You must be nervous!” he practically shouted over the loud music.  

You smiled and just nodded, eyeing the Smirnoff.  

Chet took one of them and opened it up for you, which you gladly took.  You sat the rest of the case down by the couch, where you knew you would be staying for the rest of the night.  

Montana came back over to you, grinning as she took a bite of fruit.  “[Your name], I know I begged you to come out here, but I’m gonna do it again.  Please, pleeease,” she came in front of you, holding out her cup.  “Try this.”

You furrowed your eyebrows, grimacing at the smell of alcohol.  “Uh, no thanks.”

“[Your name],” she pouted, staring you down.  “You should like.  Chug it or some shit.”  

You purse your lips, knowing that Montana wasn’t going to stop.  You took the red solo cup and braced yourself for the sting.  

“You don’t have to drink it,” Xavier said, frowning over at Montana.  

“Shhh,” Montana swatted his arm.  You had only been there for a couple of minutes, but Montana must have already drank quite a few.  

You ignored Xavier and downed the drink in a couple gulps, fighting back your watery eyes.  You coughed after you finished the drink, shoving the cup back in Montana’s hand.  

“Shit,” you breathed out, squeezing your eyes shut.  Whatever was in that drink was potent, all in itself.  You sat down on the couch, watching as Xavier walked off to get himself a drink.  

Montana grinned at you.  “Want another one?”  

She had already grabbed two cups.  Before you knew it, you were downing a second.  And then a third.  And then a fourth.  Two of the Smirnoff bottles were empty, thanks to you.  The rest had been taken by some other party-goers.  

Montana took your hands, forcing you to your feet.  The room began to spin and you held onto your roommate’s hands, stumbling slightly into her.  Montana just laughed at you, leading you to God knows where.  

Just a moment after she had forced you to walk into the kitchen, she left you standing there.  Some guy had offered her another drink, and she took it.  She was just as drunk as everyone around you.  

You stood in the kitchen, your head resting against the cabinet.  You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to shake the fuzzy feeling that ran all through your body. 

“[Your name]?”

You looked up, trying to figure out who said your name.  You spotted Xavier there and you grinned.  

“Xav…”  

“Shit,” he frowned at you.  “How much did you drink, sweetheart?” he asked, coming over to press a hand to your forehead.  You were burning up.  

“Hmmm,” you shrugged, not knowing the answer.  “Why aren’t you drinking?” you grinned, taking a step forward.  But that single step almost sent you tumbling to the floor—you were lucky that Xavier caught you.  

“I’m tonight’s designated driver,” he rolled his eyes.  “Come on.  You look like shit, [Your name].”

“Shhh,” you swatted at his arm.  “Don’t say that…”

He rolled his eyes, again, causing you to pout up at him.  

“God, you’re gonna be so hungover,” he breathed out, taking a hold of your hands.  He led you out to his van, getting you into the passenger seat.  “I’m gonna get everyone else.  We need to get you back to the dorm.”

“Wait, wait,” you quickly said, taking his hands.  “What time is it?” you grinned.  “It was just nine—”

“It’s almost three in the morning, [Your name],” he said, a dumbfounded expression crossing his features.  

You blinked at him, furrowing your eyebrows in confusion.  You let him go, sitting back in the van’s seat.  

It felt like Xavier had been gone for hours, but in reality, it had only been a couple of minutes.  Leaving you alone probably wasn’t a good idea.  

You got out of the van, slamming the door shut behind you.  You leaned against it and breathed in the cool night air, closing your eyes.  

You didn’t notice the frat boy that came up beside you.  

He cleared his throat and you looked up at him.  He gave you a kind smile.  

“Hey,” he softly said, standing in front of you.  

“Hi…”

Something about him made you uncomfortable, but you couldn’t quite place it. 

The man came closer and he took a hold of your hand.  “You look like you’re completely fucked,” he let out a laugh.  “Maybe we should make that in more ways than one.”

You didn’t understand what he meant by that, and it still barely registered by the time he had slammed his lips against yours.  One of his hands quickly took ahold of your wrists and he held them above your head.  You weakly tugged, most of your basic abilities being dumbed down from the alcohol.  

“Wait,” you began, a look of panic washing over you.  “Wait, stop—”

He didn’t listen.  He continued on, his other hand grabbing the edge of your shirt.  

Tears began to form in your eyes and you began to say the only name that came to your clouded mind: “Xavier.”

He pulled back from your lips, rolling his eyes.  “My name is John.”

You realized that this might help you.  You repeated his name, again and again, to the point where John was getting pissed off.  He slammed your shoulders against the van, your head hitting off the glass window just behind you.  You gasped in pain, squeezing your eyes shut.  But then, the weight that was once on top of you was gone.  You didn’t dare open your eyes, afraid that the same person would be there, watching you.  

The sound of flesh hitting flesh met your eyes, but you couldn’t make much of anything else out of it.  

Someone came over to you and cupped your cheeks.  You quickly opened your eyes, your hands pressing against the chest of whoever was holding you.  

“Stop, stop,” you quickly said, your eyes wide until you recognized those baby blues.  “Oh.. Oh, Xavier,” you began, unable to stop your tears.  Xavier enveloped you into a tight hug.  

“Come on…  Let’s leave, okay?”

You quickly nodded and he helped you back into the passenger side, quickly buckling your seatbelt. 

[]

The rest of that night went by in a blur to you.  The only thing you remembered was waking up with Montana in the corner of the room talking to whoever the hell was in your dorm.  You quickly pulled the covers off of you, trying to get out of the bed as quickly as possibly.  Once your legs were untangled from the blankets, you took off to your bathroom, and practically fell right beside the porcelain bowl.  Everything that you had eaten the night before and everything you had drank came up that morning.  

“Gross,” Montana groaned from where she sat, looking over at Xavier and Chet.  “She really got that drunk?”

“Some of us can hold our liquor, Tana,” Chet nudged her with his sock-clad foot.  He sat at Montana’s desk, while Montana and Xavier sat on her twin-sized bed.  

Montana rolled her eyes.  “Next time, stop her,” she said, looking at Xavier.  “You were the DD, right?  Why didn’t you pay attention to her?”

Xavier looked at Montana in disbelief.  “You’re kidding, right?  I had to babysit how many last night?”

Montana blushed and she mumbled about something, grabbing her phone.  

When Xavier heard you flush the toilet, he got down from Montana’s bed and grabbed one of your towels.  He walked into the hallway that was connected to your bathroom and he hesitantly crouched down beside you.  

“Hey,” he softly spoke.  

Your head pounded, but Xavier didn’t hurt it as much as you thought he would have.  

You looked up at the man, tears rolling down your cheeks.  He reached forward with the towel and gently wiped them away.  

“How you feelin’, sweetheart?” he asked.  

“Like shit.”

“Fair,” he chuckled softly.  

“How much did I drink..?”

“Hell if I know,” he admitted.  Xavier dabbed the towel against your forehead, and around your mouth.  “Brush your teeth and then sit it on the counter.  You’re probably gonna get sick again, but after today, we’ll throw your toothbrush away.”

He went to stand, but you quickly grabbed his wrist, making him stay where he was.  

“Thank you, Xav.”

He looked at you in confusion.  

“For last night.” 

Xavier just smiled at you.  “Yeah…  No problem, [Your name].”

He went to stand again, but you stopped him once more.  

“I know I probably look so gross,” you winced at the thought of how you might look to him.  “And you probably don’t wanna be around someone that smells like a bar.  But please.  Just.  Stay.”

He watched you with soft eyes but nodded.  He sat back down on the tile floor, staying with you for as long as he could that afternoon.  

[]

You were mad at Montana, to say the least, but you knew you couldn’t hold it against her.  She was drunk when she pressured you into drinking, and you fell for it.  It was as much your fault as it was hers.  

That next day, the Sunday before your philosophy essay was due, Montana had left to go out to eat with Chet.  You had your dorm to yourself.  And you were glad.  

But you kept thinking back to Xavier.  

He literally saved you—you remembered that much.  And then, yesterday morning, he stayed with you, well into the later hours of the day.  You couldn’t believe him, for a second, but at the same time, it only made your crush for him grow.  

You laid back on your bed, staring up at the white ceiling.  You didn’t know if you should tell him at this point.  However, one thing was certain, there was a part of Xavier that had to care for you.  Sure, you were pretty good friends, but pretty good friends stop at some point with how much they help you.  At least, you were hoping.  

You sighed and rolled over in your bed, picking up your phone.  You had a couple of text messages from Xavier, and right as you clicked on one, there was a knock at your door.  

You groaned and got up from your bed.  Not even checking the peephole before you opened the door, you unlocked it and swung it open.  

Xavier stood there, a sheepish grin on his face.  

“You weren’t answering so I thought you were busy.  Uh,” he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his throat.  “[Your name], I’ve been thinking.  And maybe it’s because of what happened the other night.  Seeing that guy touch you up made me so mad.  I don’t—I don’t ever wanna see another guy touching you like that, [Your name].”

Your eyes widened a bit as you stared him down.  “What?”

“[Your name], what I’m trying to say was, I’m sorry it took for a party and someone assaulting you for realizing that I should have asked you out sooner.”

Your cheeks burned once more, just like they did many times the past couple of days.  You looked up at him, biting the inside of your cheek.

“You, uh, do you have plans today?” he asked.  

You shook your head.  He smiled.  

“Let me take you out for lunch or something.  You, uh, probably wanna get out of your dorm, yeah?”

You thought for a moment before nodding.  “Yeah.”

Xavier smiled.  “Just, uh… just tell me I’m not crazy for thinking you like me back?”

“You’re not crazy, Xav.”

He smiled even more.  

“I’m sorry you had to see me drunk before you realized you liked me,” you couldn’t help but laugh.  

He blushed, shaking his head.  “Yeah.  That was dumb of me.  But, uh, now you know?”

You rolled your eyes.  “Don’t even start.  You sound like my philosophy professor.”

“What the hell—”

You just grinned, reaching into your closet to grab a coat.  “Let’s go, then.”

Xavier wasn’t lying when he said that—he did hate that it took such a build up for him to confess to you.  But at least he knew that you really did like him.  And the fact that you agreed to go out to eat with him made him feel even better about the situation, even if you still had a dull headache and his knuckles were all scratched up.  

[your-enby-antihero]

Caleb and the two very hot purple people that are sitting at the next table over

Based on a tumblr post Caleb works as a teacher at the Soltryce Academy. His life is fairly normal, not very notable at all, but when he meets two people at a bar he becomes an utter mess. also available on ao3

—————————————————————————— Chapter 3: Beau is Sick of these Pining Idiots in her Bar

Beauregard Lionett loved her jobs. The Cobalt Soul allowed her to help make cases against corruption and injustice and owning the bar let her relax. Though Yasha was the one who really owned it, since Beau did work during the day. But the one thing she was slowly getting tired of is listening to her basically older brother pine for two of her wife’s best friends. Caleb had been coming into the bar more than usual, dressed up more than usual. At least that’s what she saw, his cardigans and sweaters didn’t have coffee stains on them and his hair didn’t look like a rat's nest. Which she felt was a step forward, after he had broken up with Astrid and Eadwulf after things got messy in their first year of university, she had worried about him a bit. But that was years ago and she could see that this was the first time he seemed to be infatuated with people romantically again. She was happy for him, but not happy enough not to complain to the Chaos Crew ( Beau, Yasha, Jester, and Veth “book club”) about it.

Their weekly meeting was held at Jester and Fjord’s house. Veth brought snacks and Yasha and Beau provided booze and Jester of course was the host.

“You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve tried to tell Caleb to just go and talk to them but then he gets all red and just like-” Beau sighed, gesturing wildly with her hands.

Yasha puts a hand over her wife’s pulling them from almost hitting Veth’s face and nodded in agreement. Jester was grinning ear to ear, fangs on full display.

“You know~ I was talking to Molly and Essek and they were saying that Caleb’s eyes were so pretty and then Molly got all like,” Jester said and mustered up her most smitten face.

Veth glared at Jester suspiciously, “what are you planning?”

Jester smirked and began explaining the most elaborate and rom com style plan to get them all together. The funny thing was that everyone was on board. Beau could stand watching them all make eyes at each other for another month. Veth was Caleb’s best friend and wanted to see Caleb happy and Yasha could see how much it would benefit all parties involved.

——————

The plan was simple: Beau and Yasha would simply set up a date for them. A blind date to be exact. They would sweet talk them into a date at the cafe Caduceus ran. It would be cute and they would finally get to talking.

Jester had said that in all the romance novels she had read and all the stories she had heard around blind dates were the best way to go about it.

It was simple, literally so simple.

——————

It was not in fact simple. The week they had planned it for happened to also be the week that Caleb had to oversee a huge school function and caught the flu. Molly was swamped with commissions for a set of tarot cards that had the deadline pushed for all the preliminary designs. Essek was asked to substitute for a course and exam season was fast approaching. Every time anyone brought up going on a blind date in the weeks before it had been a total bust.

“I’m so sorry darling but I’m up to the brim with work right now, I’m discussing with an author about doing some illustrations for a children's book,” Molly had smiled apologetically, face covered in graphite and ink.

“My students are dependent on me to give them the best chance on these exams, I know Molly and I would be interested but we can’t make the time.”

Through a thick cough Caleb sputtered, “The Martinet has assigned me to hand the schools of magic introductions for first years for the upcoming school year and I have just come down with the flu. I wish I could make it but I’m afraid to spread this flu to anyone else and this is my chance to finally get one up on Ludinus.”

The next time The Chaos Crew met everyone was disheartened. Until Jetser came up with another brilliant idea.

“We could ask Molly and Essek to drop something off at Caleb's house since he’s sick! It would be so cute!!!”

——————

Beau called up Molly, “Hey Molls could you and Essek drop something off for Yasha?”

Molly’s voice spoke from the other end of the call, “of course, what can I do. I’ve been desperate to get out of the house. I think the alcohol markers are getting to my head.”

“Cool Yasha and I have a friend who has the flu right now and refuses self care so she made soup with the stuff from the garden. Jes said that she and Fjord are heading to visit her mother and Veth and Yeza are taking Luc somewhere so I can’t ask them. I would go but me and Yash have a meeting with a musician guy who wants to play some stuff in the bar.”

“No problem Beau, text me the address and Essek and I will make sure it gets to you friend.”

“Thanks Molly I owe you one.”

She hung up the phone and pumped her fist, texted the group that the plan was in motion. Then Beau really did get ready for an interview with a musician looking for a venue.

[nightowlfandom]

Fortune Teller! Park Jimin - I Wanna Take You Down My Path

So huge credit to @smallestplanets on Twitter for the inspiration behind this imagine. To my knowledge the requesting person got permission from the artist for me to use this as inspiration. Let me emphasize that I take no credit for this art or the idea of  a fortune teller alternate universe. If the owner of the artwork would like me to take the picture off this post then I will. That being said you should go support them because their art is top tier!

Credit for this ask goes to @youmaiiwasherebeforeu​

hallo! can u please make a oneshot w explicit smut and fluffo of dis fortune teller jimin and oc?? like timid and quiet oc w this DOMINATING man. if ur not ok w this than it's ok. I asked the artist who created this masterpiece permission to ask for a oneshot using their piece. if u do make this, please include this ask in the post as well. @smallestplanets requested this.

CHECKOUT MY MASTERLIST HERE

Disclaimer- Nasty Time with a dude you just met....hehe VERY SLIGHT Bloodplay

Okay so I didn’t do that much smut...sorrryy! If you want I can rewrite it! Or something else you might want!

LEGGO

.....

There was nothing like the Summer Festival that rolled around every year. It was like the citizens set aside their differences and just have fun. Everyone was so happy. You just adored the smell of fresh flowers showering from up above. People wore all sorts of fun colorful costumes that lit up the festivities even more.

“Y/N! You’ve got to see this!” one of your friends called you over to a street performer. A singer with a guitar, wearing a large sparkling purple top hat with a matching blazer. You joined the crowd in hearing the man sing. You were so lost in the music that you didn’t notice the man standing right across from you in the little circle the crowd had made around the performer.

You had found it in yourself to look up. He was looking right at you, so your eyes met almost instantly. You held back a slight gasp. This man was dressed in a crisp dark grey jacket with an ivory colored shirt underneath. His hair had looked like he had just rolled out of bed and the wind wasn’t helping either. 

“Hey Y/N! we’re gonna go on the rides! We’ll catch up!”

You didn’t even process your friends parting ways with you. You felt like he was trying to study you. You would have stared longer had somebody not completely rammed into you, sending you straight to the floor. 

“Owww” You whined.

“Allow me.” a soft spoken voice cut through the air.  The same man from before was standing above you, his pale hand outstretched towards you. “That looked painful.”

“Thank you.” you didn’t think twice before lacing his fingers within yours. You stood to your feet.

“First time?”

“Excuse you?” you were a bit taken aback. “W-what did you just say?” you raised an eyebrow. 

“At the festival.” he clarified, a slight smile teasing the corners of his mouth.

“Oh...No. I come here every year.” you replied, suddenly feeling very silly. “I’ve never seen you here before.” you tried to make conversation. “I mean, is this your first time here?”

“I like to be in the background.” he shrugged. “I’m surprised you haven’t stumbled across my booth.”

“Booth?” you repeated. Maybe it was because you always hung in the back, but you’d remember someone looking like him around.

“Yes.” he nodded, that teasing smile still gracing his face. “Interested?”

Something in you trusted him, even though you had just met him. He seemed welcoming, inviting even. “Hm, what’s the matter? Scared.”

“No.” you scoffed, laughing a little. “It’s just I don’t know your name.”

“Right, I just didn’t expect to get this far.” he shoved his hands in his pocket. “Guess I didn’t see that one coming.”

The way he said ‘that one’ made you curious.

“I’m Y/N.” you smiled. 

“Jimin.” he replied. “Feel like taking a chance on the future?” He removed his right hand from his pocket and held it out to you, waiting. 

“Fortune teller?” you guessed.

“I like to think of it as...a guardian that leads people on the right path. I wanna take you down my path.” he winked. 

Call it adventurous, call it crazy...but you wanted to know more. So you grabbed his hand. “You knew I’d do that didn’t you?” you couldn’t help but ask.

“No...but I was hoping.” he winked. Jimin began leading you to a tent looking room with black curtains. “Take a seat.” he let go you you, leaving your fingers cold. There was a table with two chairs on either side. There was a deck of cards, three white candles, a strange looking blade, all sitting on a red velvety tablecloth. You sat in the chair closest to the entrance of the curtain. 

Jimin sat across from you, his aura now completely different. He seemed focused, intent on breaking down your barriers to see through you. Your eyes darted down to the strange knife, which was about to slide off the table.

“Hey, be carefu- OUCH!” You tried to grab the handle, only to have it slide off the table and nick you in the process. Your index finger was bleeding. The wound wasn’t deep enough to require medical attention, but it hurt like hell. 

“I knew that’d happen.” Jimin’s voice didn’t waver nor change. 

“Shit. I’m such a klutz.” you complained. “Sorry about that-”

“No worries. Give me your hand, I’ll help you out.”

Without thinking, you held your hand out. You though that maybe he had a napkin on him or something. You were taken aback to see Jimin raising your hand to his mouth.

“What are you-”

His tongue darted out and slid down your finger, You could feel his wet tongue slither around your finger. You could see the red collecting on the tip on his tongue.

It took a minute to snap out of it. but your hand back.

“I don’t know what you problem is bu-”

Before you could finish your statement you saw something flash before you eyes.

You were laid against a plush surface, writhing under a scorching hot body. Sweat ran down your back. 

“I knew you were mine the minute I laid eyes on you.” a voice cut through the air. “Mine, m-mine.”

~

“Hey Jimin! Come look at this!”

“Must we stop and look at every cute animal we come across?”

“Umm yes?”

~

“Jimin, don’t you ever get tired of knowing the future? Doesn’t that take the fun out of life?”

“What do you mean?”

“Knowing everything before it happens...Seems kinda sad.”

“Well that’s one way of looking at it. I never thought of it that way”

...

“P-please don’t make me order by myself!”

“My darling it isn’t that bad.”

“Do you want the world to explode?!”

...

You had no idea what the hell just happened, and you weren’t sure if you liked it or not. “What the hell was that?”

“Your future.” Jimin’s voice was wavering. Almost as if he wasn’t expecting that ‘vision’. “And apparently mine.”

“Oh.” You went completely quiet now. You had no idea how to respond. “W-wow.” Suddenly you were overcome with a large bounty of fear. You literally just saw you future with a man whom you just met. How the hell were you supposed to respond?! You instantly felt small. As if you were shrunk down to size and the world was way too big to navigate through.

“Um...I should go.” Jimin rose to his feet and left without another word. He disappeared through the curtains and didn’t look back. You stared longingly, part of you hoping he’d return.

...(Hours later)

You hadn’t run into your friends all afternoon, and you were too in a daze to even try and look for them. Last you saw, they were headed for the circus tent. 

The festive bright colors had dulled to red, black, and purple as far as the eye could see. It looked straight out of a vampire romance novel. You tried not to think about Jimin all day since your interaction, but you couldn’t. 

“You know what, fuck him.” you seethed. “He’s lucky I didn’t call the cops on his ass.” you stopped in place.

“Free mask?” a woman came up to you, holding out a gem encrusted masquerade. “Enjoy the festival the right way.” She had white gloves on that matched her own mask that covered her entire face. You took a look around and many people were wearing all sorts of different masks. “Don’t worry each one is special. You won’t find another one like it.”

“Sure...thank you.” you smiled politely. As the woman walked away, you slipped the mask on. Lucky for you, you could see just fine. As you got your mask on, you could see a man in the distance, wearing a sparkly black mask that kind of reminded you of the mask from Phantom Of The Opera. 

You didn’t think much of it. In fact, you continued walking. You ignored everyone else. You were gonna enjoy yourself until morning.

“Ladies and Gents! The fireworks show is about to begin!!” 

You found yourself wandering to the back of the crowd, leaning against a tree. It felt nice. It was almost like your own personal show. 

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

“Very.” you breathed in response. His presence could be felt like a space heater. 

“I was thinking about you...”

“Really?” you hummed thoughtfully. “Before or after you left me sitting with a bleeding hand?” you turned around to face Jimin, his sparkling black mask seemingly glowing under the fireworks. 

“I didn’t know how to process it.” he explained. “It’s the first time I’ve ever come across a vision like that.”

“I can see that.” you shrugged. “So what do you want then?”

“Meet me back at my tent.”

And so here you were, arms crossed and dragging your feet to follow Jimin back to his tent. A woman was standing outside the tent and all Jimin had to do was nod her way for her to walk away.

The second you both went through the tent, you were taken into his arms.

Jimin kissed you passionately, walking you backwards towards the now empty table. He gently pushed you down, letting you land on the hard table. 

Jimin stared at you, particularly the rise and fall of your chest. He knew the blood was rushing to your had, because he was going through the same thing. Without thinking, you reached out and took his mask off. 

“Don’t cover your scar.” you smiled sadly.

He mirrored your face and removed your mask. “Only if you don’t cover your face.”

Whoever took whose clothes off first didn’t matter.

Slowly, he slid in, his jaw going slack as he felt you tighten around him.

“I’ve been waiting for this.” he whimpered. “You don’t know how badly I need this, how badly I want this.”

 His touch was scorching hot, like fire against your naked skin. “Do you trust me?”

You wordlessly nodded. All the motivation he needed. He took his pinky finger nail, which you noticed was very sharp and poked your shoulder. 

He neared closer and collecting the blood on his tongue.

“Wanted to gaze into the future again?” you couldn’t help but laugh.

“Could you blame me?”

[jbbuckybarnes]

Time Stops

Pairing: Bucky x Reader Desc: This is for @ussgallifreyfics​  #gallifreys500 writing challenge. Not beta read. Prompt: “They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true.” - Big Fish Warnings: FLUFF

MASTERLIST

They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true. You’ve seen it with friends that had met their soulmates the day they were ready to. They stopped aging. When you turned 18 you could find your soulmate and never age again. While that was beautiful, it also put a lot of pressure on you and a lot of pity on people growing old. Usually people would just feel who their soulmate is, but there also were soulmate marks. They weren’t big or anything to brag with, but yours was a little heart-shaped darker spot on the back of your right hand. Right between the thumb and the pointer finger connection. Definitely a space you massaged a lot when you got nervous.

Right now was one of those situations. You were waiting in line to get onto a plane to New York City. A trip you made once or twice a year to meet your friends. While you loved New York, you hated flying. The many alien attacks and whatnot of the last decade weren’t helping with your anxiety. The plane being delayed on top of that was even worse for your mind going in circles. A big man sat down next to you, putting down a duffle bag and getting out a book with the title, “Love, Simon.” Wasn’t that a book about a closeted teenage boy? Didn’t match up at all with the giant frame the man had, but you smiled to yourself. You scrolled through Instagram, created a new collection for cute cat pictures and went on about your anxiety soothing. When you were finally boarding, your anxiety went through the roof again. Thankfully you had downloaded a whole documentary for the flight, otherwise you’d go insane. When you were situated in the plane and had gotten out your headphones, the giant man found his seat, the one which just so happened to be next to you. It was about to get cozy, but you weren’t complaining. You’d rather have a giant man with a good taste in books next to you than a creep or a family with a newborn baby. After your heart almost jumped out of your chest while you took off you finally could relax and start watching your space documentary. Every now and then you felt him flip a page in his book very delicately. Your hand landed on the little table your phone was situated on to give him more space, which is when you started to feel the stare on you. Well, now it WAS a little creepy. He tapped your shoulder and you stopped the show and looked at him. Woah, wait, you knew that face. That was Bucky Barnes, wasn’t it? “Sorry for interrupting, I just...I saw you like space and, uh, could you tell me what documentary that is? It looks awesome.” he gave a shy smile before looking away, right hand going through his beard. Wait a damn second. “Huh?” he looked back at you confused. “I said that out loud.” you stated to yourself and closed your eyes. “Yes, you did.” Now he was grinning at you, eyeing your slightly flustered face. “Uh, your soulmate mark. Are you…?” your eyes went from his eyes to his hand. “What makes you think that?” “You didn’t really age but you also were in cryo a lot, so it’s quite difficult to tell.” you grinned. He smiled wide and looked down on his hand before shaking his head, “No, haven’t found them. I don’t think I ever will. 70 years is quite a lot-” He saw your right hand come into his field of vision and his eyes went wide and back up at you. You were amused at the weird situation you had just put each other into and you couldn’t deny that you liked how he turned into a soft dorky man. But maybe that was just him outside of the news. “So...uh...wow.” Another time that he went through his hair. “Yeah,” you looked up at him with shimmery eyes. You respected the man in front of you so much for what he went through and that he was still here. But that giant dork that looked illegally good was your soulmate? That must be a dream. “So...would you like to go on a date anytime soon? I’d love to get to know you.” he got a little confidence back and gave an unsure smile to you. “Of course, I know this really great brunch place in the Upper West Side.” you smiled a little giddy. “Spring Natural Kitchen?” he asks. “Spring Natural Kitchen.” you nodded chuckling. “Wanda told me about it. She loves testing new places whenever she’s not on call.” “Sounds like I’d get along great with her.” “So...why are you flying to New York? You live there?” he finally asks and you shake your head. “I live near Denver and come here sometimes to meet friends and have a good time for a week or two.” “Which city’s better?” he smirked. “I like both, but I have a job back in Denver that I love. I’m working in a very laid back modern restaurant, café kinda establishment.” you explained. “Well, if you’re my soulmate, you might as well open up a second one of those in New York City, cause that sounds great.” By now he was so deep in your flirting battle that he totally forgot that he just met you. “You just want that cinnamon cupcake goodness.” you laughed. “I’d never say no to any food, I think that gets very clear when you look at me.” he looked down on himself. “Hm, yeah, a little.” You grinned, “Hungry giant.” “Oh, we’re already starting pet names, huh?” his brows went up. The giggle escaping you widened his big smile. ___ *You ready to get picked up and judged by Sam Wilson?* *Why not by Wanda? Or literally anyone that’s not Sam?* *I ask myself that every single day, darling.* *I’m ready by the way...and ready to fight Wilson if I need to.* *Sure, darling.* you could practically feel him grinning at his phone screen. *And by that I mean, if he dares to, you’ll defend me anyway, cause you’re cute like that.* Not too long after the AirBnB’s doorbell rang and you ran to the door in your comfy outfit. It was a brunch date, not a fancy gala. When you opened the door you were met with his audacity to wear a leather jacket. “Aw, come on. Really? A leather jacket? Like you don’t know that it’s super hot?” you pouted and were pulled into a hug. “You look cute. Is that Totoro on your sweater?” he held you and looked down on you. “Old man knows Totoro, check.” you grinned. “Hey, I’ve been catching up for 4 years. There needs to be SOME stuff that sticks.” “Could the lovebirds that both can’t drive please move their asses a little faster?” you heard out of a car behind Bucky. “Could the angry bird please chill?” Bucky answered without even looking at him. “C’mon, let’s go and give the man a break.” you chuckled before taking his hand and dragging him towards the car. “So, tell me about yourself. Anything that I don’t already know from social media and our chats.” he grinned. “I stress bake, my favorite shows are all documentaries, I’d love to have a cat, I’m into astrology, I love to draw and paint, my music taste is a literal dumpster fire and I really like sneakers.” you counted a few that you found to be relevant to yourself. “I’m still learning to cook new foods. I actually have a cat, her name’s Alpine, she’s an absolute whirlwind but she’s the most loyal little thing ever.” he smiled. “What kinda cat is she?” you asked excited. “British Shorthair and white.” he beamed. “I already love her. I’d love to get a completely black cat.” you leaned onto your hands. “We could.” he squinted with a cheeky smile. “You’re already thinking about moving my ass to New York, aren’t you?” you chuckled. “You’re my soulmate, why not? It’s not like you’re a shot in the dark or anything like that.” That made you feel warm inside, very very warm. “Yeah, guess you’re right.” you looked at the table flustered. “So, assuming you would stay here…” he got your attention back and god were his eyes sure of you staying here, “...would you actually open up a cool place like this?” “I’d love to but...renting a place like this in New York City? Making it look nice and advertising it? That’s so hard.” “Hi, you’re sitting in front of the longest prisoner of war. If you think Sam didn’t sue the shit out of the military to get me paid for that, then you’re wrong.” he grinned accomplished. “Bucky, you can’t-” “I can, tell me what you’d want to do.” he smiled at you softly, grabbing your hand. After a few moments of grasping the moment you continued, “Well, similar to this place, but with cakes, pies and cookies. And with a completely different color scheme. Very bright, like white and some pastel colors. I’d try to find tons of recipe’s online and let you try them until I have like 12 good and special ones that work. I’d always have a jar of triple chocolate cookies and a chocolate bomb cake. Maybe even sweet ice cream in summer? I’d have chessboard tiled wall behind the counter and hang nice art work in the rest of the place. I’d probably have someone bring in dog cake every week so they also get some good food. I’d make milkshakes, have a barista working and would create some special hot chocolate mix. Maybe I’d do something themed after you. Like little cookies with the- wait, do you hate the red star on your old arm? I know it’s very much a connection to the Sowjets, but I don’t really look at it like that.” “I’m neutral about it. I write autographs on cards with red stars all the time.” he shrugged. “Then there will be red star cookies. Maybe something themed after your bird friend?” you grinned. “He needs to work for it.” he laughed. “I make a mad cinnamon banana milkshake. That would sell very well.” you mumbled before taking a sip from the drink in front of you. “Cookies with red chocolate melted into it...that’s a good one for Wanda, isn’t it?” you smiled shyly, trying to not misjudge his friends. “I love that idea. Maybe something egg based for Sam, you know, cause he’s a falcon. I’ll shut my mouth…” he grinned and watched you snort laugh. The waffles you ordered were set down in front of you and you continued talking about the interior of your dream place. “I don’t know if I’d do it in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I mean Brooklyn literally has cute food places as its elevator pitch.” “I guess it depends where you’d find a place.” “Yeah, forgot, we’re in the ultimate place of renting stuff.” you grumbled and heard him chuckle. ___ “Finally!” you jumped around in the empty space that was about to become your own little store. You’d been with Bucky for three months now and your old boss was more than happy to have a new venture. And you were more than happy to have gotten such a great soulmate. He even got his driver's license to drive you around and go on little trips with you when he wasn’t working. Brooklyn Heights, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge, with an apartment right above. “Let’s measure and buy a nice kitchen for you to bake cupcakes in, darling.” he grabbed you close. “You just wanna eat, honey.” you pouted. “Of course, I eat everything you make.” he planted a kiss onto your forehead. “Hm, okay, let’s measure and drive to Home Depot too.” you smiled content and got another kiss. “You know, I think I found you at the right time. I like how you look. Not a day too young or too old.” you mumbled. “I would have loved you at any age I could’ve found you.” he hummed. “Yeah, that’s because you’re a hopeless romantic.” you giggled. “Only for you, darling.” “Love you,” you mumbled before pressing your lips against his, “so much.” “Let’s get your dream kitchen,” he said while lightly slapping your ass. “Hey! Watch your hands, Barnes.” you playfully scolded him. “Yes, ma’am.” he rolled his eyes before picking you up and carrying you to the damn car himself.

[daylightinathousandcuts]

Reddie oneshot - ‘Cheeks As Red As Rudolph’s Nose’

Summary: Richie buys an ugly Christmas jumper, but lies to the shop assistant and says it’s for his mum in embarrassment. Later, Richie sees the cute shop assistant again, while wearing said awful jumper.

Richie loved the idea of Christmas.

Christmas time was a happy, joyful time in which you’d see your family and friends. It seemed amazing, and it was - when you had family or friends, or even a boyfriend, it’s spend it with. But this year, Richie was alone.

He had his family, sure. But after moving out of Derry to New York to fulfil his acting career, which his family were supportive of, he was broke. And so were they. Meaning, he did not have the money to go and visit this Christmas. Be with his family.

Being alone didn't seem so bad anyways. He didn't need people to have a Christmas dinner, and he didn't need people to watch stupid Christmas movies and eat chocolate with.

He didn't need it, but he wanted it.

Taking a long, self-deprecating sigh, Richie glanced at the Christmas decorations as he stepped into his local store, Morrisons.

Deciding to not be a complete grinch and actually have involve himself in the Christmas spirit, he quickly grabbed a basket and popped a few, cheap and tacky Christmas decorations in.

And then, he saw it.

An ugly Christmas jumper, that happened to be the mouldiest shade of yellow possible. It had a bad excuse for a Christmas pudding plastered in the middle, and the designer had made the poor choice to have the pudding dripping off the jumper (when really the pudding just ended up looking like shit, literal shit).

Richie snorted, prancing over time jab at it and make some funny comments to poor shoppers walking by; when he finally touched it.

And holy shit, was this jumper soft. Running his fingers through the fabric felt like heaven.

Trying to keep his pride, Richie quickly scattered through the racks before finding his size, and throwing it in his basket. Grabbing a chocolate bar and a sandwich, he made his way over to the self-checkouts, not in the mood to talk to an overly enthusiastic cashier that day.

But it was just his luck today, because as he scanned his "ugly but looks really

comfortable" Christmas jumper, ‘Satan’s Girlfriend’, as Richie called the self scan alert; making people turn to look at Richie.

'Please place your item in the bagging area.' The voice said, and Richie groaned in annoyance.

"It's in the fucking bagging area!" Richie shouted at the self-scanner gaining him some strange looks from confused shoppers. Some glaring at him for his language.

"Do you need any help?" A quiet, timid voice said from behind him. Richie just nodded in annoyance, not even bothering to turn around and look the shop assistant in the eye.

Richie groaned, “Uh, yeah. This machine has got a major case of dumb bitch disease. It doesn’t even realise my shit is in the bagging area.” He complained, still slamming the Christmas jumper onto the bagging area repeatedly.

"Wait,” the shop assistant said, obviously a little startled by Richie’s aggressive nature. “let me help you out." The man said, and Richie turned around to face him.

And holy shit, was he cute.

Richie grinned, “Can I put you in the bagging area? Or somewhere else, if you’d like?”

The man (or angel, as Richie had just decided) only scoffed, before swiping his badge onto the self scan checkout.

He looked back up at Richie, “There, all sorted.” He said, looking down at Richie’s shopping. “tell me if-“

He paused suddenly. Richie seemed to notice a distraction so he filled the gap, “what’s the matter? Am I too beautiful to handle?”

The man glared at Richie, but it was obvious he was surpressing a smile, “seriously?” He started. “You’re buying that?” He finished, pointing at the ugly and ridiculous Christmas jumper.

Richie, for the first time ever, was lost for words.

"You know, you’re the first person I've seen buying that Christmas jumper." The shop assistant continued. “It’s the ugliest shit I’ve ever seen.”

Richie panicked and tried to think of millions of excuses, before attempting to hide his burning red cheeks and stumbling out a weak, "What?”

The shop assistant pointed down at the Christmas jumper Caspar was now stuffing into his plastic bag. "They aren't very popular, you obviously like the more...different kind of styles."

Richie shrugged, regaining his posture, "It's for my mum." He lied. "She always likes ones like the ugly ones. Makes her feel more christmassy. Do you seriously think I’d put a jumper like that, on a body like this?” He asked, jokingly running a hand on his hip.

Yes, I would, Richie thought.

The shop assistant didn’t respond, and looked slightly flustered at Richie’s action and words.

“Anyways,” Richie started. “What’s your name then, sweet cheeks?”

“Don’t call me that.” The shop assistant quickly responded. “And it’s Eddie.” He smiled.

Richie grinned in return, “Well, Ed’s, I think you’d look pretty damn cute in one of these jumpers. You’d make it work.” He commented.

“Don’t call me that either,” Eddie snapped again. “And-“

Before Eddie could finish his sentence, another one of the self scan machines went off. Eddie flashed him an apologetic grin before quickly jogging over to fix the problem.

Richie, in a moment of quick panic, payed with his contactless card and started for the exits. He felt like he was going to pass out, but, in a good way he convinced himself. Cuteness overload maybe, he thought.

He felt damn stupid walking away, but he knew he’d see him again, he’d make sure of it. But he’d be more prepared.

-

It was now Christmas Eve and Richie, like planned, was alone. He was frantically cleaning his apartment preparing for Christmas Day, even though nobody was coming over.

"Oh crap," He mumbled to himself. "I haven't brought any lunch."

He rumaged through his cupboards hoping there would be something to eat in there, anything at all. The truth was, if there was nothing in there, then he'd have to go to Morrisons. There were no restaurants or other places where he could get food nearby by walking distance.

He could have punched someone when he realised he had to go to Morrisons. Not because he hates it there, because he might bump into Eddie again. And he was terrified, he's been thinking about him since that day in the Morrisons with the self-scanner.

He was halfway to Morrisons, remembering what had happened. Firstly he ran out the store, and ran straight into the revolving doors straight after the automatic doors. He ate his chocolate bar on the way home out of worry from just meeting Eddie, and for the jumper, he was wearing it right now.

Fucking hell, he thought. He was wearing the Christmas jumper right now. In plain sight, without a coat or anything. He was too lazy to go back and get his coat or change, and not to mention absolutely starving.

There was a chance he could bump into Eddie, and he's probably going to laugh at him for his stupid Christmas jumper. And be angry at him for lying and never ever want to see him again or even breathe the same air and oh no...he was fucked.

After a few moments of waiting outside Morrisons car park planning what to do, he finally decided to turn on his ninja mode and successfully get a sandwich and bag of crisps and pay for them without being spotted by Eddie.

He put his plan into action, by firstly sprinting to the other end of the store to where all the sandwhiches were. Possibly knocking a few things down in the process, but he considered it collateral damage.

He grabbed a chicken sandwhich, and walked over to the crisps. Grabbing a packet of Salt and Vinegar, his plan seemed be turning out very successful.

Paying for it was the hard bit, because that's where Eddie was.

Cute cute cute Eddie. Who made Richie nervous in a good way. Who Richie had chickened out and walked away from in a moment of gay panic.

Richie did some kind of run-jogging thing over to the tills and placed his items down.

Eddie, to Richie’s luck, was at the self scanners. This was his best bet.

"I'm sorry sir, you need ten or more items to use the tills. Can you please take your items to the self-scanner?"

Okay so now this was his worst bet.

He nodded in defeat, and grabbed his food and tried to go over without being spotted. He placed his items down and scanned the crisps, when suddenly the lady blasted out again with the 'place your items in the bagging area.'

"Oh...shh up! I'll pay you extra money if you just be quiet-"

"Hey.” A voice said behind him. It was Eddie, of course it was.

Richie tried not to turn his body around so he wouldn't see his jumper, and he attempted to get out of this.

"Don’t worry, everything is fine. Go back to your scanning shit or whatever!” He almost begged.

Richie, still trying to scan his sandwich hopelessly trying to get out of this, looked like a mad man. It wasn't working affectively because he couldn't see what he was doing, and his hand was shaking. He was sure he hit someone. He couldn't think of any excuses, "I’m not who you think I am.”

"What are you talking about?" Eddie asked with a sigh. “If you need help-“

“No I’m fine.” Richie cut him off.

‘Item not detected’ the lady rang out again.

Eddie huffed loudly, "For Gods sakes, if you don't want to talk to me just say. But at least let me help you so the machine can shut up.”

Richie shook his head, "It's not that." He breathed out. "I'm bisexual and I saw you yesterday and I nearly passed out because you were so hot and nice and stuff.” He glanced up to see Eddie looking at him intently.

“So I ran because I was scared because I've been alone for a while and now I'm here and I'm trying to get away from you because I'm in that ugly Christmas jumper that‘s actually super comfortable but embarrassing.” Richie blurted.

Eddie nodded, a small smile on his lips, “so it’s not for your mum?” He questioned. Richie just shook his head.

He giggled, which Richie almost passed out again at, "I thought you hated me. Now turn around, I want to see you with this Christmas jumper on."

Richie nodded, "Okay." He turned around and Eddie burst out laughing. Richie decided it was his favourite sound.

"I have to be honest, it really suits you." He said muffled by laughter.

"Are you trying to say that I'm ugly?" Richie playfully joked, and Eddie looked up at him.

"No, quite the opposite, actually." Eddie commented. “I never asked your name.”

“Richie,” he breathed out. “Richie Tozier.”

At that moment, a lady in the line for the self-scanner spoke up, "excuse me, you are kind of holding up the que." she said politely.

They both nodded and apologised before Richie paid the money, and took his sandwich and crisps.

"But surely you knew I was going to be here." Eddie told him as they walked a respectable distance from the self-scanners. "So why wear the Christmas jumper? If you said it was for your mum after all.”

Richie shrugged, "I was cleaning my apartment and I decided to be more festive so I put on some Christmas music and my jumper. I then discovered I actually didn't have any thing to eat, and I wouldn't admit it but I really wanted to see you again even though I was worried and...yeah I forgot I was wearing it."

Eddie laughed, "Okay, how's this. I take you out on a date tonight. But one rule, you don't wear the Christmas jumper on our date. I promise I won't wear my ugly Christmas jumper." He giggled.

Richie took his hand to shake, but he didn't let go afterwards, "Yeah,” He agreed. “Sounds groovy.”

Eddie almost groaned, “don’t say groovy.”

Richie only winked in return, “the Christmas jumper won't be the only thing I won't be wearing."

[livian-lucifenia]

Soft Fic™

Literally what this was titled when I found it.

This can be manga or game verse. I tended to combine manga Red with game Green, anyway so just pick a side and go for it.

It's cute but v rushed at the end.

It's old fanfiction, there's only so much you can do to it without saying fuck it and rewriting the whole thing.

You know the drill. If anything is fucky, overlook it and keep going.

That being said, enjoy.

____________

Green has such a soft heart and Red loves that about him.

Red thinks about this as he watches Green play peekaboo with a baby shiny eevee at his grandfather's lab. It was the last one from the most recent litter, and Red really hoped Green would take it home before someone else did. He seemed to make up excuses to visit the lab just so he and his eevee, Vee, could play with it. He even bought a little squeaky toy for it, so it would have something to play with when no one was around.

Green's birthday was coming up, so Red made a trip to the lab early one morning and asked the professor if he could take the eevee. Of course, the professor happily allowed him to have it, telling him to wish Green a happy birthday for him just in case he forgot. And with that, Red was on his way back to Viridian.

As expected, Green was still asleep in his room when he arrived. Red had thought about how exactly to give the eevee to Green, and decided on placing it in bed with him so he saw it when he woke up. Vee seemed okay with this arrangement, as she curled around the smaller pokémon and both fell asleep easily. Now to just wait until Green woke up.

It was an hour later when Green's bedroom door opened to reveal a very happy, messy-haired Green with his arms full of just as happy eevees. Honestly, Red could have died right there on the living room couch. Seeing Green like this was something he would never get tired of. Green was so damn adorable and Red was so happy he could live with his best friend.

Green also had a thing for toys and cute plushies.

Red knew this well. After all, Green had collected them as a kid, so it made sense that he would still like them now. He made a trip to Celadon every now and again to get supplies and always took Red into the large toy store. He would show him various things, explain what they did, or what he liked about them, and then put them back on the shelf. He always looked a little disappointed when he did this, and Red knew it was because Green secretly wanted to buy it, but didn't want other people to see him doing so. He was a popular gym leader, and didn't want some embarrassing article to pop up online about him being seen in a toy store. Red thought it was a little silly to worry over stuff like that, but Green liked to keep up his public image.

The wall at the back of the store was filled with various plushies, and Green always gravitated towards it. He liked the small, cute ones best, "How can you not like them, they're adorable!", he'd said as he picked up one that looked like an eevee, but was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He made comment about wanting to recreate his team with plushies, just as room decor or something, and Red instantly knew what he was buying as Green's Christmas gift this year.

And that's exactly what he did.

Of course, he had no idea how to wrap a gift, so he asked his mom for help. She gladly wrapped up the large box of plushies, and let Red fill out the To/From tag himself while she tied everything up with a pretty, dark green bow. As payment, she asked for him to stay a while longer and help her bake cookies for some gift baskets.

Red was in the middle of 'sampling' the third batch of cookies when his mom asked him a question, "You like Green, don't you?"

"Of course I do, he's my best friend. I wouldn't be living with him if I didn't.", he replied without hesitation.

She laughed a little as she slid another tray of cookie dough into the oven and turned to face him, "No, honey, I mean like a crush."

Red paused, did he have a crush on Green? "I... I don't know."

"How do you feel when you're around him?"

"Happy, but I've always felt like that with him. But there are some things he does that make me feel... different. I don't know how to describe it..."

"Do you ever think about him or miss him while he's at the gym?"

"All the time."

"You bought him those plushies for Christmas, why did you pick those over something else?"

"Because every time we go to Celadon, we go in the toy store, and he always looks at the same ones. He talks about them, too. About how detailed they are, or how soft the material is, or just that he likes them. He never buys them, though. He really wants to, I can tell, but he has an image to keep up. So... I bought them."

"That's very sweet if you. So, I take it you like making him happy?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I? He's cute when he's happy."

It took Red a moment to realize why his mother had paused their conversation to give him a knowing smile. His face felt hot and he just knew he probably matched his name and hat. The silence made him come to a realization, one he never saw coming, and probably wouldn't have if not for his mother.

"Mom, I think I have a crush on Green."

Now the question was, how the hell was he going to tell Green? Or... should he even say anything? Would it ruin their friendship? What if Green kicked him out?

All those thoughts made his head spin, and made him feel bad about even having those feelings towards Green.

He had to tell him, though. According to his mom, even though he had just realized what he was feeling, he had always acted differently with Green and vice versa. This all felt like something a teen should be dealing with, not a twenty year old league champion, but it is what it is. He couldn't complain, after all, the guy he was crushing on had a childish side too.

After having another long talk with his mom, Red decided the best way to confess was through a letter. That way, he wouldn't mess up his words or make an idiot of himself. The letter would be disguised as a card on top on his Christmas gift, and Red knew Green ways opened the cards first, so there was no way he would miss it. When Red sat down with a pen and paper to actually write the letter is where the problem came. What was he supposed to say?

It took two days to write the letter, and the trashcan next to his bed was filled with all the failed attempts to write a decent love letter.

A love letter...

That's what this was, wasn't it?

Arceus, he felt like he was in one of those sappy teen romance movies.

Finally, the day had arrived. Red woke up extra early to go pick up his gift to Green from his mom's house. He'd left it there because he didn't have enough room to hide it, and he didn't want the wrapping paper to be torn accidentally.

He placed the box and letter on Green's desk and quietly walked out, hoping he hadn't disturbed Vee or Viri, as they would surely wake Green up earlier than anticipated.

Red kept the apartment quiet as he waited, too afraid to even turn on the tv. He decided to go back to bed, it was still pretty early, and Green wouldn't be awake for another couple hours, anyway. So, after changing back into his pyjamas, he went back to sleep with Pika curled up at his back.

"...Red.... Red!"

Red woke with a start at the sound of his name being called. The first thing he saw was Green with his glasses on and tears falling down his freckled cheeks.

Oh.

Oh shit, Green was crying. Why was he crying? Is he upset? Red sat up, scooting closer to Green on the bed, "Green, what's wrong?"

Green looked down at the letter in his hands, "I... I got your gift."

Red's breath caught in his throat.

"Do you really feel like this about me?"

Red leaned in a little closer, "Yes..."

"Even... E-Even after all the shit I put you through?" Green wouldn't face him. Still staring down at the letter and wiping his face with the back of his sweater sleeve.

"Of course, I do. I forgave you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I didn't deserve it. I still don't. I... don't deserve any of this. You're too nice to me. I mean, I appreciate it, I really do, but I feel like I'm not good enough. I forgot your birthday this year and then you brought Viri home for my birthday... and now this. You picked out exactly what I liked, and you couldn't have known unless you really payed attention, and I can't even remember what kind of cereal you like, and I love you so much... but, I don't deserve you."

Red pressed his hand to Green's tear-soaked cheek, making him look up. "You don't have to remember stuff like that for me, or do anything special. You make me happy, Green."

Green closed the gap between them, kissing Red with everything he had. Red responded with just as much eagerness, his hands finding their way into Green's soft, messy hair.

He loved Green, and Green loved him, too.

Red broke the kiss so they could breathe, and wiped the remaining tears from Green's face, "I love you."

Green smiled, "I love you, too."

................

One year later, Red was helping Green put together a shelf for all of their collectables and plushies they had acquired over the year, Viri had surprised them a month earlier by evolving into a Sylveon, and Red was planning a different kind of surprise for Christmas this year.

He was going to ask Green to marry him.

____________

Ah, yes. More fluff.

Don't worry, there's more angst content coming soon.

Asks and add-ons relating to my content are always accepted!! 💜💜

Have a good day/night, my dudes.

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Chapter 10 | Chapter 12 | AO3 link

“Excuse me, best friend.”

Oops. Well, one can only escape from Alya Césaire’s determination for so long.

“Hi, Alya!” Marinette pastes a wide smile on her face. But she’s not fooling either of them.

“So.” Alya loops her arm through Marinette’s, locking Marinette in place as they head into the school courtyard. Guess there’s no escape from this interrogation. “You’ll talk to Chat Noir but not to your best friend?”

“Huh? How did you –”

“Adrien called me last night. He ran into Chat Noir and asked him to check on you,” Alya says. Marinette bites back a growl. Adrien, that snitch. “But, you know, when your bestie gets there, you’re just too distraught to talk to her.”

“I…don’t know. I guess because you were there, but Chat wasn’t, so it was easier to talk to him about it. And after all the times he’s visited –”

“Wait. Hold the fuck up. Excuse me?” Alya skids to a halt. Marinette just grins sheepishly. Oops. “Since when has one of Paris’ superheroes been visiting you? Multiple times? And you didn’t even tell me, the Ladyblogger?”

“Because it would’ve ended up all across Paris, Miss Ladyblogger,” Marinette says dryly.

“Excuse me! As if!” Alya says. But she deflates when Marinette raises an eyebrow. “…Okay, yeah. I’ll give you that one. Anyway, Marinette, details. Now.”

Marinette sighs, but there’s no wriggling out of an interrogation with Alya the journalist unless either a) there’s an akuma attack, or b) she’s literally dying on the spot. So, she resigns herself to telling Alya all about her realisation after the group work with Adrien and Lila, her attempts to navigate being Adrien’s friend while dealing with her crush on him, Chat Noir’s occasional visits, and then what had happened last night. By the end of her tale, Alya’s eyes are as wide as golf balls.

“This is major!” she says. “Why didn’t you call me for all this Adrien stuff? I mean, sure, I love that you got to use a superhero as a diary, but I’m your best friend!”

“I’m sorry,” Marinette says. “I guess…well, after all the effort you put into getting me and Adrien together, I didn’t want to…let you down.”

“Excuse me?” Alya huffs. “Let me down? I was putting all that effort in to make you happy, girl, not because I got off on it or anything. You think I’d have been upset if you’d said you didn’t want to chase after him anymore? I’m with you no matter what, Marinette.”

Marinette smiles down at the ground before directing that smile at Alya. “Thanks, Al. I just…my head’s been a bit of a mess and I wanted to sort it out first, so I knew what I was exploding about.”

“That, I can accept,” Alya says. “But “not wanting to let me down”. Honestly, Mari, if I’ve sat through every single attempt to ask Adrien out and they didn’t let me down, I’m not sure what you think letting me down would involve.”

“True,” Marinette says just as they draw level with Adrien and Nino, who are sitting cross-legged on the ground next to one of the courtyard walls. She and Alya flop down next to them, and while Alya immediately snuggles into Nino’s side, Adrien waits until Marinette nods before he rests his head in her lap. Her stomach does a flip-flop, but she’s not in danger of melting into a puddle, and if Adrien’s choosing to act like everything’s normal between them and he hadn’t learned of her massive crush last night, well, Marinette’s not going to complain one bit.

“I can’t decide whether that’s the cutest or most sickening thing I’ve ever seen,” Alya says, then leans up to kiss Nino. Marinette raises an eyebrow.

“You were saying?” she drawls as she starts to rake her fingers through Adrien’s hair. Adrien makes an odd laugh-cough sound that has Alya narrowing her eyes at him, but that sound quickly morphs into a long purr when Marinette scratches a certain spot behind his ear.

“Did you just purr, dude?” Nino says.

“No!” Adrien bolts upright with pink cheeks. “Nope!”

“Uh huh,” Alya smirks. “Sure you didn’t. Speaking of purring –”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Adrien says.

“– Mari, since you’ve got a new pet superhero,” Alya continues as though Adrien hadn’t spoken, “will we be expecting kittens anytime soon?”

“W-What?” Marinette splutters. For some reason, Adrien also reacts to Alya’s question by flushing a deep red and gaping like a fish. “Alya!”

“What?” Alya grins rather devilishly. “I mean, since you’re not going after Adrien anymore –uh, I mean –”

“It’s okay, I know,” Adrien says. Marinette makes an odd squeaking sound because how does he know that? “Uh – Chat Noir told me that she just wants to be friends. Because I asked if Marinette was okay last night after Glaciator attacked or if she was upset with me. I just wanted to be sure? Sorry if I overstepped…”

“I hate each and every single one of you,” Marinette says, wondering if it’s possible to boil her brain in her skull. “Except Nino. I’m adopting him.”

“If it means I get to live in the bakery, I got no problems with that, dude,” Nino says dreamily.

“I didn’t cross a line, did I?” Alya says, the teasing smile vanishing like smoke. “If I went too far –”

“No. No. It’s fine. I’m fine,” Marinette says. “If Adrien knows and he doesn’t care, tease away. But I’m still adopting Nino.”

“Like hell,” Alya says. “I got him first.”

“You can adopt me if you give me more head scratches?” Adrien says with a pout that might have made Marinette spontaneously combust before today, but now only fills her with pleasant warmth. He knows. He knows about her crush. And he doesn’t hate her! He still wants to be her friend! He’s even lying back down in her lap!

“So long as she gets to put a collar on you,” Alya says with her evil grin back in place. “Maybe she can even custom-make it Chat Noir style.”

“Alya!” Marinette whines, once again carding Adrien’s hair through her fingers as she leans against the cool brick wall behind her.

“What?” Alya says as she pulls out her phone and flicks through her notifications. She grimaces. “Ugh. That annoying Alternative News blogger’s trying to smear me again just because I’m willing to go out and get the footage. You know, instead of pinching off other sites and then whining that the quality’s always shit.”

“Hi, guys!” A beaming Lila bounds over to them. “Mind if I join you?”

Marinette, Adrien, and Nino exchange looks, while Alya’s so invested in her drama that she doesn’t even seem to have noticed Lila’s presence. Lila’s smile fades.

“I’m so, so sorry, Marinette,” she says. “I never meant to hurt you! I’ve never had many friends and I just wanted to tease you like friends do and, well, I guess I forgot that Adrien was right there. Do say you’ll forgive me!”

Marinette wants to say no. She really does. But that’ll only make her look like the bad guy at this point, so she just shrugs. Lila beams and throws herself down next to Marinette and pulls Adrien’s legs into her lap while he closes his eyes. Marinette wonders if she’s imagining the slight stiffness to Adrien when Lila’s got hold of his legs.

“That’s so cute!” Lila says when she realises what Marinette’s doing. She nudges Marinette and sidles even closer so that their arms are touching. Marinette’s about to slide away and cite personal space, but Adrien beats her to it when Lila leans over to try and stroke his hair too.

“No!” He hisses like a cat and curls himself around Marinette, cracking one green eye open to look at Lila. “Only Marinette.”

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry!” Lila says. “I shouldn’t have assumed! I just saw how happy you looked, and like I said, we’re very touchy in Italy –” Before she can finish her self-deprecating apology, she jumps up. “Never mind! See you in class, guys!”

“Is it just me, or does she make it all about her when she’s apologising?” Alya’s finally detached herself from her phone, just in time to catch the tail end of the drama.

“You noticed it too, babe?” Nino says. “Felt like she was trying to make Marinette feel bad.”

“I just don’t get her,” Marinette says. “She’s nice enough but…am I the only one feeling like there’s more to her than she lets on?”

“Definitely not.” Adrien pushes himself up and stretches with a groan. His shirt rides up and exposes a sliver of belly and even though Marinette’s trying to focus on being his friend rather than eating his face, she can’t help but look away with flaming cheeks. “She could just be scared of opening up. Or there could be more, because I don’t think last night was an accident. But I don’t think we can judge her until we know more about her.”

The four of them sit in silence for another minute or so, until Alya and Nino start to once again lean in closer.

“Okay, that’s our cue,” Adrien says. He jumps to his feet and offers Marinette his hand to help her up. “Wanna go for a walk and give them some alone time?”

“Yeah, go with him, Mari,” Alya says. “Both of you can go far away and get bent.”

Marinette sticks her tongue out at Alya, then follows Adrien just in time to avoid seeing the kiss that she knows is happening. The two of them escape to the courtyard’s staircase and huddle together on one of the steps, leaving enough room for people to get around them when heading up or down, and the feeling of Adrien’s arm pressed against her is probably going to make her spontaneously combust on the spot. But at the same time, why is there this tiny, nagging feeling that she’s somehow betraying Chat Noir by drinking in the physical contact with Adrien?

“Hey…sorry about yesterday.” Adrien finally shatters the silence that’s surrounding them like a bubble to keep out the chatter of the other students.

“Why are you sorry?” Marinette says. “Lila’s the one who ruined it, not you. I’m just glad to know you don’t hate me for my c-crush.” She gulps around the lump in her throat because there, she’s finally dropped the c-word to his face, and she ends up wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.

“Wait, what?” Adrien says. “No way I’d hate you for the way you feel! I’m just glad to know why you were always so weird around me. Look…do you want to hang out this weekend? For real, since last night got interrupted? I’ve got a photoshoot on Saturday but I’m free on Sunday.”

“What if your father doesn’t let you?” Marinette says. “It must’ve been a pain to get out last night.”

“I’ll sneak out if I have to,” Adrien says immediately. “A certain friend told me that I need to stop walking on eggshells just to avoid upsetting my father because I’ve been worried about him since he became the Collector. My friend made me see that my freedom is worth more than letting my father dictate everything just because I’m worried that I’ll upset him. Part of it is keeping my head down so things don’t get worse but…that’s a reason and not an excuse, and just because I ignore what’s there won’t make it go away.”

“Your friend sounds wise,” Marinette says.

“He can be,” Adrien says with another little smirk that leaves Marinette feeling as though there’s an inside joke she’s missing. “When he’s not being a brat about everything.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were still talking about Chat Noir,” Marinette teases, giggling when Adrien rolls his eyes at her and crosses his arms.

“He can be mature and wise,” Adrien says with an honest to god pout. “But the way he gets to be so free when he’s jumping through Paris is…inspiring. He helped me see that Father’s always going to control my life no matter what I do and that I’ve got good friends who are worth sneaking out for. I guess he helped me realise what I do have rather than what I don’t have.”

“Wow,” Marinette says, at a loss for words. There’s still so much she doesn’t know about her partner and while it’s partly her fault for insisting they not talk to each other about their private lives, she’s also certain that this is the best option for now. She already cares so much about him, so if his civilian identity was someone like, say, Nino or Adrien, she’d probably spend all battle worried sick about him and maybe even slip up in the heat of the moment. “I never knew Chat Noir had that side to him.”

“Not too many people do,” Adrien says. “So…do you want to hang out on Sunday? We don’t even have to go out anywhere if you don’t want to. I…really like your house. It was so cosy and warm when we trained for that gaming tournament.”

Marinette’s cheeks heat up at the fact that Adrien had literally just said to her face that her home is awesome. “I – sure! I’d show you fashion design but of course you know all about that, since you’re a model and all.”

“We’ll think of something. I’m just super happy that you actually like me and want to hang out with me.” Adrien looks like he’s made of pure sunshine, so brilliantly bright that he melts Marinette into goo on the spot. “Hold on…you could come to the photoshoot on Saturday! It’s really boring, so only if you want, but you did design that hat that Father liked and you did just say that you’re into fashion design, so it might be something that interests you.”

“Really?” Marinette tries to process the fact that she’s got an actual invitation to be there with his knowledge instead of awkwardly skulking around to look like she’s not watching. She tries not to wince at how…cringey she was. Tikki would totally scold her for thinking that and say that she’s just a teenage girl making mistakes and figuring things out but…still. “You’d actually want me there?”

“Of course,” Adrien says. “It might be nice to have a friend along. I can text you the details. So long as it doesn’t cause schedule conflict, Nathalie won’t care. I can –”

“Ugh, move!” Chloé shoves past Marinette, despite having plenty of room to climb the stairs, even with Sabrina right behind her. Marinette yelps and would’ve plummeted face-first if not for Adrien rushing to grab her and pull her back.

“Thanks,” Marinette says breathlessly.

“No pawblem,” Adrien grins, and she groans. “I guess I just have cat-like reflexes.”

“Well, at least you know your place, Dupain-Cheng. Beneath me.” Chloé scoffs. Her whole face changes when she turns to Adrien, and she bats her eyelashes and coos, “Hi, Adrikins! When you get tired of hanging out with this baker’s daughter, come and find me, okay?”

“God, she makes me so mad,” Marinette growls once Chloé and Sabrina are gone. “I don’t even know why she still gets to me! It’s so – so old!”

“I’m sorry,” Adrien says. “I should’ve said something. I know I said I’d try and stand up to people but…the thought of telling Chloé off scares me.”

“You’ve done it before,” Marinette says. “Remember when my uncle was akumatised?”

“Yeah. I know. But that’s…different.” Adrien sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “If I push her too hard, she could decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth. And I know I’ve got you and Nino and Alya but…I just…”

“The thought of anyone leaving you is terrifying because it feels like you weren’t good enough?” Marinette says softly. Adrien just grimaces and shrugs, so she holds her hand out and lets him make the move to take it and lace their fingers together. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I do get where you’re coming from. Um…how did you and Chloé even end up friends? And how are you both so different? You’re both rich and…well, you know, you both live with your dads, but you’re so nice and she’s so…”

“It’s…not really my place to say.” Adrien scratches the back of his neck.

“Oh! Then you don’t have to tell me!” Marinette babbles. “Really, I’m just poking my nose in –”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Adrien says with a small laugh. “I can tell you how we ended up friends. I just can’t tell you anything about Chloé’s mother unless she says I can. It’s not for me to say. All I can say is…I only lost my mother recently, so she was around for most of my life.”

“I get that,” Marinette says. All anyone knows is that Chloé’s mother is world-famous fashion critic Audrey Bourgeois – a fact that Chloé loves to parade around when she feels that being the mayor’s daughter isn’t enough of an advantage – but no one knows why Audrey doesn’t live in Paris with her husband and daughter.

“Father was actually found by Audrey Bourgeois when he first started designing. She helped him make a name for himself. And…she was my mother’s friend. That’s why Chloé’s my childhood friend: our parents knew each other since before we were born. And I know she’s not the nicest person but…she was all I had for so long. I don’t want to lose all those years where she was the only friend I was allowed to have because my parents didn’t want me out in the real world.”

“True friends call each other out when they’re wrong,” Marinette says. “Alya always tells me if I mess up. If Chloé hates you because you make her take responsibility for her actions, then she’s not really your friend. Sometimes…the right thing is the hard thing, and you just have to do it, even if that means losing those years of friendship. And I’m not saying that because I don’t like Chloé,” she hastens to add. “Part of why I love Alya so much is because she doesn’t sugar-coat things, so I know I can trust her to help me be a better person.”

“Yeah…” Adrien says.

“It’s not just that Chloé’s not a nice person. I’ve met a few people who weren’t nice but were also good people. She’s a bully, Adrien. She made my life so miserable for four years before now. I didn’t have any friends before Alya because Chloé made sure of that. I’m not telling you this because I want you to stop being her friend. I’m telling you this because you’re the only person she’ll listen to.”

“Well…I’ll try. I just haven’t stood up to anyone since my father was akumatised. I don’t want to make him more upset than usual. I’m still not sure he’s forgiven me for borrowing his book and brooch.”

“Feels like you can’t ever make him happy,” Marinette mutters, then she gasps. “Did I say that out loud? Crap, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to badmouth your dad in front of you –”

“Hey, no, don’t apologise!” Adrien squeezes her hand. “I appreciate knowing that you care. Just don’t say it in front of him, okay?”

“I make no promises,” Marinette says, trying to calm down her racing heart because holy shit, she’d just badmouthed her fashion idol in front of his son! “There’s a quote by Majestia that Alya told me on our first day of school that’s stuck with me: “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing”. What it actually means is that I can’t seem to keep my big mouth shut when I need to.”

“Well, Ladybug can’t either, but everyone loves her for it,” Adrien says. “Although probably only Ladybug could get away with saying that to Father’s face, so I’d probably not do that unless you were secretly her or something.”

Marinette swallows. Oh, if only Adrien knew.

“Which is partly why I was in love with her, you know?” Adrien says, and that makes Marinette’s breath freeze in her lungs. “She’s just so…strong and independent but she’s also kind and gentle. You can tell she loves Paris and her job and she’s not just doing it because she has to or for the attention. I just love how she cares.”

“O-Oh,” Marinette forces out. “You were in love with her?”

“I still love her,” Adrien says. “I don’t think those feelings will ever fully go away. But I’m trying not to be in love with her anymore, so I can be a good friend without focusing on trying to make out with her – uh, if she ever wants that…you know, if that makes sense?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That, um…pretty much sums up how I feel about you.”

Adrien smiles and nudges her. “I’m flattered. You’re a great girl, Marinette. Whoever you end up with is gonna be so lucky to have you. So long as they can get through me first.”

“Oh, ha, ha.” Marinette rolls her eyes. “I don’t need you to defend my honour. Chat Noir would probably get in first.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?” Adrien says thoughtfully. Before Marinette can reply to that, the school bell rings, and both she and Adrien reflexively jump to their feet and laugh at the same time.

“Oh – right – we should get to class,” Adrien says.

“Yeah!” Marinette says. “For once, I’m not late!” She falls in step with Adrien and they dash down the stairs to their classroom’s corridor, laughing and weaving around the gaggle of students also swarming inside.

[writing-appreciation]

Hazel Eyes

SYNOPSIS: You have hazel eyes, but in most lights they appear to be a dirty brown. Instead of giving that complicated explanation, you just say you have brown eyes; but one day a boy says otherwise.

PARING: Stark!Reader X Peter Parker

WARNINGS: Moderate language. Possible Endgame Spoiler? If you look into it, yes, but on the surface, no spoilers.

WORD COUNT: 1,807

A/N: Just a little imagine for my fellow hazel colored eyes people out there. I am over it. This is actually inspired by something that happened to me not too long ago at class. Some elements are fictional, but inspiration is everywhere. So, enjoy!

..................................................................................................

It was annoying having hazel eyes that look brown. It made the question, "What colour are your eyes?" difficult to answer.

And that's the situation I found myself in today in Newspaper class. We weren't doing much as the school year was winding down. Other than planning stories for next year, we had nothing to do. Ultimately we all ended up playing random personality quizzes we found online. It was all fun and games until my least favourite question appeared.

“What is your eye colour?”

Without a beat I responded with a simple, “Brown.”

Ned, who was working the computer, just clicked on my answer.

Although I noticed how Peter seemed caught off by this question.

“Wait, my eyes are brown.” He said. “Look at me.”

I looked up, knowing what his answer would be. The lighting in this room sucked. The green specs in my eyes would be basically invisible here.

Peter looked into my eyes for a bit. Not gonna lie it made me feel awkward.

“No, she definitely has hazel eyes.” He finally spoke up, still eye locked with me.

I was taken back. Peter was the first person to notice my eye colour. Clearly he noticed my confusion as he cleared his throat and clarified.

“I mean, look, there’s clear green specs on the inner ring of her eyes. There’s even a little bit of blue. Ned look at them.”

Peter pulled Ned up by the arm and positioned him to face me.

“Hey Ned.” I said.

“Hi, (Y/n).” He replied awkwardly.

This is starting to feel like a circus show.

“Nah, man I’m just seeing brown eyes, not any green or blue.”

“Well, the lighting in here does suck.” I finally spoke up. I was a little confused because I had never noticed blue in my eyes.

“Yeah, but Peter saw the the colour.” Ned called his friend out.

This did throw me off. How did Peter see the colour in my eyes? It could be his hypersenses, but that still doesn’t make that much sense.

This seemed to hush Peter. A slight blush also climbed up his neck.

“Let me see.” MJ looked up from her book.

I walked over to her. She was sitting in the corner of the room. She observed my eyes.

“You know Peter likes you, right?” She whispered, looking into my eyes.

“Pft. No he doesn’t.” I defended.

“Dude, he just talked about the green specs in your eyes. He was one sentence away from confessing his love with you.” She said quickly, still keeping her voice low.

“Brown. Definitely brown.” MJ called out to the boys, but not breaking our eye contact.

“Okay, that’s it. (Y/n), come on.” I heard Peter call to me.

I looked at him to see him grabbing a camera and a hall pass.

“Peter, what are…”

“I’m proving you have Hazel eyes. Come on.” He began to walk out the room.

“Good luck.” MJ said, smirking.

Without anything to do, I decided to roll with this.

Peter was walking incredibly quickly. He was already halfway down the hallway when I exited the room.

“Peter, you wanna slow it a bit?” I called to him.

“Oh sorry.” He said and stopped so I could catch up.

“Not all of us have spidey powers of high endurance.” I whispered.

He laughed, “Alright I’ll keep that in mind. Come on, what’s a well lit area in this school?”

“Cafetiera? The lights are way too bright in there.” I suggested.

“No, I think we should go outside. Your colour comes out really well when you’re outside.” He absentmindedly remarked.

I looked at him puzzled.

“Well, I mean, like from what I’ve noticed. Not that I’m just staring at your eyes constantly. I just like keeping eye contact with people. Plus they’re good eyes. I mean, not that they’re not pretty. They are beautiful I MEAN, the colours go well together. The green specs and blue accents really bring out the element of kindness. They compliment your pr.. personality.” He stumbled on his words.

I laughed at his rambling, “Peter, breathe. And thank you.”

He finally looked back at me and looked mortified.

Maybe there was some truth to what MJ told me.

“So, I have a macro lens, so I should be able to get a nice photo of your eyes.

“Oh, the eyes that have green specs and blue accents that bring out my element of kindness?” I asked innocently.

He blushed even harder, if possible.

When we got to the school courtyard, Peter went into full photographer mode. He began correcting the white balance and setting the ISO.

“Where do you want me Photographer Parker?”

“Uh, here. Sit on the bench and I’ll try this lighting.”

I did as I was told.

Seeing Peter behind a camera was a sight I don’t think I’ll ever forget. He looked hyper focused. Not to mention the fact that a camera was centimeters away from my eye. Peter himself was directly in front of me. He licked his lips in concentration. I stayed still, not particularly wanting to leave this position.

I heard the shutters of the camera.

Peter pulled the camera away and sat next to me. He began to go through the photos. They looked great. Peter was right, there was definitely some blue in my eyes.

“Wow, if those weren’t my eyes, I’d love them.” I joked.

“You don’t like your eyes?” Peter asked, searching my eyes for an answer.

“Not really. They always look brown. But look at their real colour. It sucks.” I complained.

“Well, I think they’re pretty.” He said, smally. “Besides you don’t have ugly poop coloured eyes for real. That’s something I have to deal with everyday.”

“Peter, your eyes are not ugly. Their nice.”

“Yeah, just nice. Yours are beautiful.”

My breathing hitched. Peter Parker just called my eyes beautiful two times in the past 15 minutes.

Without thinking I grabbed the camera off of Peter’s neck and stood up. Peter followed my lead.

“Oh, no , no Parker.” I pushed him back down, “I’m taking pictures of your eyes now.”

“No, (Y/n), the goal was to get a picture of your eyes, not mine. Besides, they aren’t worth the memory.”

Instead of a response, I positioned the camera in front of his left eye.

He kept moving.

“Peter, stop moving. You’re gonna ruin the picture.”

And he did. So I focused in on capturing Peter’s eye in a photo.

It was my turn to sit down by him and show him the photo.

“See, nice eyes. Dare I say beautiful.” I teased him.

“(Y/n)...” He trailed off.

I looked up to him and saw him looking at me. His eyes flicked to my lips.

“Peter?” I responded.

Before I knew it he had his lips on mine. I felt the camera go limp in my hands. Peter pulled away and swiftly caught the camera. Damn, I couldn't lie. That was attractive as hell.

“Drop this?” He asked, confidence in his voice pronounced.

I just nodded as I stood up.

“We should probably get back. The bell’s gonna ring soon.” I quickly took off.

I heard him jog ahead of me. The little gentleman went to grab the door for me.

“M’lady.” He stepped aside so I could get back in the school.

I muttered a quick thanks and proceeded to walk back to class.

I couldn’t help but let my thoughts wonder. What the heck just happened? Peter B. Parker, the most awkward, adorable dork in MidTow Tech history just kissed me? I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to kiss him more regularly. I mean, come on. He's cute, funny, smart, and is a superhero.

“(Y/n), please stop.” He lightly grabbed my arm before I could get far. This pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Listen, I don’t think it’s a secret that I like you.”

Wait, hold up. Does everybody know about this except for me? Why, more how, was I left out of this memo?

“Say something, because you’re starting to freak me out.” He pleaded.

I paused, trying to find some type of confidence. Luckily, I did.

“You know, my dad loves you, but loves the idea of me being single more.” I finally looked at him.

His face lit up. This could be interesting. Especially given who my dad is.

“Mr. Stark loves me? I don’t see a problem here.” He smirked.

I smirked too. This was definitely going to be interesting.

"Well then, talk to him. See how it goes." I suggested.

He looked mortified.

"May I suggest wearing your suit because you may want to make a hasty exist after you tell him you have a crush on his eldest daughter."

That clearly didn't help him feel any better.

"Okay, cool thanks for the tip." He breathes out as we enter the classroom again.

This time all eyes were on us.

"The pictures?" Ned asked as we sat down.

Peter slid the SD card into the slot and pulled up the photos.

"You're right, definitely hazel." Ned replied, now changing the quiz answer.

"(Y/n), come here!" MJ called.

I walked over to her corner. That's when an epiphany hit me. Her spot was adjacent to a window that overlooked the courtyard.

"So that kiss."

I heard a pin drop. Yep, her corner would've given her a front row seat to everything that just went down.

I feel like for a moment I forgot how to speak english. A series of strange noises left my mouth.

"Yeah, Ned and I saw everything."

I looked back to Ned and Peter, who was now completely red.

"We didn't expect Peter to make the move, but here we are."

I chuckled at this.

"Well, MJ, I guess you were right."

"I'm always right."

I waved goodbye and walked back to the boys.

"Hey, so I just texted your dad telling him we need to talk."

"Already? Somebody's in a rush."

"(N/n), I've literally been waiting since 7th grade."

I laughed, "Really? 7th grade, wow."

"Yes, really. Trust me, I was there. It was almost embarrassing how much he liked you." Ned chirped in.

"Dude." Peter playfully hit his friend.

"No, no Ned. Tell me more about how Peter's embarrassing crush." I pleaded.

And so he did. Ned went on about every detail he could remember.

I smiled as Peter sat with his head in his hands, clearly embarrassed about everything.

"It's fine, he's embarrassing and cute." I said.

Peter slowly raised his head, a familiar shade of pink dusting his cheeks.

This was going to be fun. All that was left was to break the news to dad that his daughter and his mentee both liked each other. That's a story for another time.

A/N: Trying to cope post Endgame, this helped. I'm still in denial.

[sheeple]

The intern | 3: ‘First’ blind dates

GIFS NOT MINE. THIS IS ALL FICTION. Genre(s): intern!au / fluff / mild angst Group(s): NCT / Red Velvet Pairing(s): Moon Taeil x fem!reader Summary: The new Elysion Publishings intern is the youngest they ever had. It’s not a problem until she grabs the attention of the IT guy. Warning(s): Age-gap of five years [Masterlist] [Mini masterlist]

“Ahhh”, I groan, smelling my hands in disgust, “my hands still reek like onions. I washed them more than twenty times the past three days.” 

As punishment for running away and hiding from Wendy, I had to peel forty unions to help her make some dish she had to make for a family gathering. The worst part is that I couldn’t even eat it.

Wendy scoffs. “That’s for smart-mouthing me. Don’t forget hiding from me! How did you even get from the roof back to your desk without me noticing.”

I shrug with a slight smile. “A question for you, knowledge for me.”

Wendy scoffs again and hits me on the head. I yelp and almost fall of my chair. 

“Stop it! I already said that I’m sorry over a thousand times, what more do I have to do to earn your forgiveness?”

She spins around and leans closer to me with a sly smirk. “Go out with my cousin.”

My eyes grow wide and I choke on air. “I.. what?! Your cousin?”

Wendy nods while grabbing her phone. “Yeah. His name’s Mark, a good kid. He only games and hangs around his friends. It’s driving my aunt crazy.”

She shoves her phone under my nose with an Instagram account displayed on it. 

“‘mork_thedork’? That’s cute. He’s cute too, though.”

“I know right!”, beams Wendy as I send his Insta to my dm. “Shall I text him to tell he has a date?”

I hum while giving Wendy’s phone back. “Yeah okay. Tell him that he can choose where to go.”

She nods as she turns back towards her desk. Her knee bumps against it and a pen fall off the edge, landing right under my desk. I groan and slide off my chair, reaching my pen.

“Fan of hiding under desks, I see”, jokes a voice and I yelp, letting out a loud ‘oof’ as I hit my head on the desk. 

I get away under the table while rubbing my head and see the IT guy standing there with an amused grin on his face. 

“Jezus Christ, you scared me to death”, I pout as I get back on my chair. 

He laughs, leaning casually on my desk. “Well, you seem fine.”

I roll my eyes. “Har har. What even are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be knees deep in some digital problem?”

“Well, I should, but I was called down to fix the copy machine. And to grab a cup coffee but it seems like that machine is also broken.”

Taeyong lets out a relieved ‘finally!’, and throws his hands up in the air, earning a high five from Johnny

I hum as I ignore the dweebs on front of me, resting my head on my hands and going through my finder to open an InDesign document. “Isn’t fixing copy machines the job of the janitor?”

He nods. “Yup”, he says, popping the p, “but he’s home with a broken foot. Someone dropped an old copy machine from the 90′s on him.” 

I giggle. “How suitable.”

As the IT guy wants to say something, his telephone rings and he picks up. He nods and hums, giving multiple yesses before he hangs up. 

“I have to go. Promise me we will grab a cup of coffee soon.” He holds up his pinky. 

I laugh and link our pinkies. “Promise. Now go.” I shoo him away and wave before he steps into the elevator. 

“He was totally flirting with you”, says Wendy while jabbing in my side. 

“Was not”, I roll my eyes as I turn back to my laptop screen and push her hand away. 

“He was”, say Taeyong and Johnny together in union as they peek over the wall dividers. “From the way the smiled, leaned closer, and not forget the linking of pinkies.” Johnny flutters his lashes dramatically while clasping his hands together.

I snort and push his face away. “Whatever, dweeps.” 

“Does he even know that you're a literal child?”, asks Wendy. 

I clap my hands together and breath deeply in and out, convincing myself that it is not okay to hit old people. Can’t have a case of elder abuse on my criminal record. 

“No”, I say calmly. “I don’t even know his name, how would he know my age?”

“Moon Taeil”, says Taeyong as he picks up a card from the floor, “born June fourteenth in ‘94.” 

“He old”, I joke, what earns me a hit on the head from three different sides. 

With a pout, I rub my head while grabbing the keycard out of Taeyong’s hands. “I’ll return it during my break.”

“Which is now”, says Johnny after he checks his watch. 

“Go to your loverboy.” Taeyong waves me off as I grab my lunch. 

“You know, from all the people, I had the most trust in you, Taeyong.” I shake my head in faux disappointment. 

And as I walk away, I hear: “call me Oppa, goddamnit!” I imagine him dramatically shaking his fist in the air as he stares at me with drama in his eyes.

I press the button on the twenty-fifth floor and smile at the other people inside the elevator as I get off. 

I knock on the door with a slight smile before I walk into the IT room and lean against the desk. 

“Well, when I said ‘soon’, I didn’t imagine it being this soon.” The IT guy, now known as Taeil, shows me a charming smile.

It makes my heart flutter, but I quickly dismiss it. I’m not here to find a significant other. I’m here to learn and that’s the only thing I will do. 

“Neither did I. But you dropped this on the ground and I thought that you wanted this back.” I lay the keycard on the desk and slide it to him. 

“Did I lose it then?”, he questions and I raise my eyebrows.  

“Yes. It’s not like Taeyong sneakily grabbed it from your back pocket or so.” 

Taeil shakes his head as he puts his keycard back into his pocket. “Thanks, though. You saved me from a lot of unnecessary expenses.”

I cock my head to the side. “How so?”

He folds his arms in front of his chest while leaning onto the desk. “Well, the company doesn’t like it when we lose stuff that is essentially theirs. Such a little keycard can cost up to one-hundred-thousand Won.”

My eyes bulge out. That’s like 75 euros for such a small thing! 

“Better not lose mine then”, I chuckle as I grab my lunch. “Well, I will be off to lunch. Bye-bye!” I wave Taeil goodbye and turn around.

“Wait!”, he calls and I stop dead in my tracks. He walks up to me with his hands in his pockets and with a smile, he asks: “have you already eaten up on the roof?”

I shake sadly my head. “Wendy says it’s too cold, even though it’s mid-September. And the guys won’t join because they're just boring.”

Taeil shakes his head smiling. “Shall we go to the roof, together?”

My eyes grow wide. “W... we? Like you and me?” 

He licks his lips. “I mean, only if you want to! I’m not forcing anything. If you rather go to your friends, I completely understand.” Taeil turns away with slumped shoulders and I quickly grab his wrist. 

“Dude, chill okay? I would really like for us two to eat our lunch on the roof. Lemme text my friend and then we can go.”

“Okay, let’s go”, I say with a bright smile as I send Taeyong a quick text and we walk to the elevator.

After a short ride with the elevator, we arrive at the rooftop and I look in awe around me. 

The rooftop is divided in two floors; the first one with bushes and benches where you can lounge around. There’s also a rooftop bar where you can order lunch or just sit around. Above the bar is another garden where you also can sit and eat.

“Wanna sit inside or outside”, questions Taeil and I look around. 

Inside is pretty full and the temperature is pleasant since it’s halfway through September. 

“Let’s sit outside if that’s okay with you?” I turn towards him and he nods. 

We grab a plate of food and settle outside in one of the tables surrounded by bushes and trees.

“So”, I smile, “tell me something about yourself.” 

Taeil looks weirdly at me and I cock my head. Did I say something wrong?

“Ahh well... I like to sing? I have a really annoying neighbour.”

“Oh, drama! Tell me about them.” I stuff my face with whatever kind of food is on my plate and munch on it as I look expectantly at him.

Taeil chuckles. “You love your gossips, don’t you? But my neighbour is this old man with twenty cats. He always complains when I have my friends over that the hallway gets dirty and disturbs his cats.”

I scrunch my nose. “That’s nonsense.”

“Right? But I can’t do anything since he’s the uncle of the landlord.” Taeil rolls his eyes as he takes a sip from his coffee. “Just a bunch of favouritism.”

After we chat some more I get a text from Wendy that there’s a team meeting in fifteen minutes. So Taeil and I finish up and get into the elevator to go down.

“See you around?”, I turn around to Taeil and he nods with a smile.

“Definitely.”

I walk out the elevator and give one small wave before I turn around, not seeing his lingering look on me before the doors close.

It’s Saturday, the day of my ‘date’ with Mark. And I am panicking. We’ve agreed to meet at three in a cafe not far from my apartment. But it’s already two-fifty-five and I just left the comfort of my home. 

I just couldn’t decide what to wear. First impressions are the most important, so wearing something cute is a must. The weather is also working against me. It’s too cold for just a t-shirt but too warm for a sweater. So I just decided to go with a cute blouse, denim jeans and jacket, and just a small bag to put my keys and phone in. 

As I rush into the cafe, my eyes scan around the place. I see a hand shoot up and wave at me as a smile grows on my face.

I walk towards the table where Mark sits and take a seat in front of him. 

We’ve texted before so I have a general idea what he looks like because he sent me a snap of his face. But still, a snap is only a couple seconds and he’s cute as fuck.

What is it with Korean people and being fine as fuck? 

“He-hi!”, he stutters nervously as he shows me a small smile. “I’m Mark Lee. But you already knew that since you saw my Instagram and Snapchat. You probably also heard it from Wendy and... I’m babbling...” Mark awkwardly scratches the back of his neck, looking away embarrassed. 

“It’s okay”, I smile adoringly. “Being nervous is okay. To be honest, I’m quite nervous too.” I lean a bit forward as I whisper the last part. 

Mark snorts. “Yeah, as if. Just... look at you.” He points at me and I look down, searching if there is something wrong.

“You’re so beautiful and probably perfect. You should have done this plenty of times.”

My cheeks heat up and I feel the blood rush to my ears. “I have... I─ erhm... Oh my God, I am speechless. Thank you... for the compliment” I bite my lip and run a hand through my hair, ruffling it slightly. 

“But I have actually never done this, to be honest. I am always so focused on school that going on dates or even dating never really seemed a thing for me.”

Mark shakes his head. “You should, tho. I bet you have guys falling at your feet back home.”

Now it’s my turn to snort. “As if”, I chuckle while roll my eyes. “I don’t really fit the standard girlfriend-mould most guys my age have.”

He scoffs. “Stupid.”

I smile and turn away, trying to control my blushing cheeks.

“Hi! What can I get you both?”, chimes a girl, taking a notepad out of her apron with a big smile.

“Erm... An iced Americano for me.” Mark folds his hands together.

“An iced Americano noted. And for you?”

I lick my lips, glancing over the menu. “Just a frapé caramel.”

The girl nods while noting our orders and turns around.

“So, your a frapé kind of girl”, laughs Mark while leaning back in his chair.

I shrug and laugh. “Oh well, you know, just being a basic white girl.” 

Mark laughs loudly at my statement as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard.

Our drinks come shortly after since there are only a few people in the cafe and I sip it.

“Are you also one of those anti-reusable straw supporters?” Mark grins while sipping his Americano.

“As if. Back home the whole save-the-turtles-thing”, while saying, I spread my hands and shake them, doing way too enthusiastic jazz hands, “is not really big.”

Mark raises his eyebrows while letting out a gasp. “You brutes! Your home country sounds like a weird place, no offence”, he jokes.

“None taken.”

“But, how are you nineteen and already in your graduation year of college?”

I lick my lips and inhale deeply. “Are you ready for a long and complex explanation of the school system?”, I ask while looking him deeply in the eye, leaning towards him.

Mark does the same and nods.

“Okay, so. Children start primary school when their four. They continue it for eight years and then they go to high school. But here’s the catch; we get divided into different levels depending on how smart you are.”

Mark nods slowly, processing the information he just received. “So, you’re like twelve years old when you enter high school.”

I nod while taking a big gulp of my frapé. “Indeed. The lowest level ─ let’s call it pre-vocational for now ─ is four years. You’re sixteen when you graduate. The next level is called ─ and I kid you not ─ higher pre-vocational. That is five years and you will be seventeen while graduating.”

“Every level higher is a year more?”, he asks unsure and I nod.

“Yup. There is another level that is six years but that’s for the really smart people. They’re eighteen when done.”

Mark exclaims in wonder while nodding slowly. “Let me guess, you did the highest?”

I laugh loudly. “As if. I did pre-vocational and then got to do a study graphic design at vocational level. But there’s a catch.”

“There’s always a catch. What did you do? Murder someone?”

“I wish”, I laugh, “but no. I was actually three and a half when I started primary school so I actually need to be a year lower. The kindergarten group at my school what chock full so they said children born between September 27th until October 27th can go to first grade.”

Mark’s mouth falls open as he looks at me shocked. “So you shouldn’t even be here?”

I exclaim and give him a shove against his shoulder. “I so do!”

“You so totally murdered someone. This is too wild to be true. You can’t be smarter than me.”

I roll my eyes. “Now, tell about yourself! We’ve only talked about me and it gets boring.”

“Thank God you finally noticed”, he jokes and I kick him under the table, making him choke on his coffee.

“Well... I just graduated high school and just started college. I major in music.”

“Oooh, that sounds like so much fun! What instruments can you play? Can you also sing?”

My bombardment of questions makes him blush and he looks away. “I mean, I think I am pretty solid at singing. If you want to hear, you can check my Soundcloud, I post there some of my own works. My friends also join me sometimes.”

I hum. “I saw the link on your Insta. I’ve yet to check it out. I promise though.”

“Yo-you do?”

I nod and hold up my pinky. “Once you pinky promise, you can’t back out.”

We link your pinkies and I swear, I never saw a happier smile on anyone’s face than Mark’s at that moment.

[sasspiria]

Guiltless - Chapter One

Fandom: Borderlands / Tales From The Borderlands

Ship: Rhys/Handsome Jack (Rhack)

Summary: In which, Jack is a transient serial killer who believes himself to be a hero. While he's on the road he runs into his emotionally damaged and fragile soul mate, Rhys. Jack is surprised that someone like him would have a soul mate, even someone trapped in such a shady situation as Rhys is. Rhys is surprised that someone like Jack could be so kind to someone like him.

Tags/Warnings: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-Con, Human Trafficking, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Murder

Read it below the cut or on Ao3 Here!

For nearly all of his life, Rhys had been made to suffer. He couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t spending his nights, crying himself to sleep and chewing on Xanax just to get through the day. He was nearly twenty now and at this point he was convinced that there had never been a time where this wasn’t “normal” for him. It had been so long since he had had a life that could even be considered somewhat ordinary.

When he was six years old, his mother had taken him to a dilapidated house in a neighborhood that he had never been before and told him that he would be living here from then out. He didn’t understand why, and she never explained why. She just screamed in his face like she always did – told him that he was terrible and stupid and too much trouble.

He hadn’t known how to not be too much trouble, she had never told him how. Then there was a group of men, big and intimidating looking men that gave him, even at an age where he was so young and naive, a terrible feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. His mother had urged him towards them, promising Rhys that they would take care of him from now on.

He couldn’t bring himself to believe her. Before they could pull him all the way into the house, he had broken away from the men and tried to run back towards his mother. Rhys had screamed and screamed for her, begged her to come back, offered to do anything – he would be the best son ever, he would never cry or complain or ask for anything, if she would only turn around and take him back home. She never did. She didn’t look at him as the men pulled him back, throwing him on the ground, hard enough that he was left disoriented, with spotty vision and bruising all over his face.

Once he was in their care, Rhys had been put to work nearly immediately. Some of it wasn’t so bad; cooking and cleaning, simple stuff. Then there was the other work, work that involved him going into a dark room and having his clothing torn from him, having pictures taken of him, being hurt in ways that he had been too young to understand just how wrong it was.

As he grew older, he had been moved from place to place, being forced to kneel on dirty floors and lay on his back or stomach as countless men did whatever they wanted with him every single day. He never got used to how degraded he felt by all of the things that he was made to do.

Every morning, when he woke up – when the bleariness of sleep and the euphoria of his dreams had him confused, he would be convinced that the life he had in his dreams was the real one. It only made it all that much more miserable when he realized which world was the dream and which was reality.

He sat up in the motel bed and let himself come to terms with the reality of his situation. Who he was and what he was. He tried not to lurch and curl up in despair and he had to put forth an incredible amount of effort to pull himself to his feet, mentally preparing himself to get ready for another day.

Once he was in the shower, with the water running loud enough to blot out any sounds he made, Rhys let out a muffled sound of frustration and rested his forehead against the aluminum tiled wall and let himself cry – ugly, reeling sobs tore from his throat in a primal sort of way. He had learned a long time ago, that he would need to let his emotions out at the right time or he would be punished.

No one liked a cry baby. He had been told that time and time again, had it beat into him until he finally understood.

He washed himself in between each sudden out pour of emotion as he prepared himself for the day. Once he decided that he looked the part and he was dressed and pretty enough, he walked out into the hall. Usually someone would be there at the front, with a card for him filled out with his daily clients and information. It was all very professional, he thought with some humor.

As soon as he walked down into the hall, he was stopped by – of all the people – Hugo Vasquez. Ever since he had known Vasquez, the man had had it out for him. Rhys had no idea why. Maybe it was because he had denied his advances, but he could never really be sure.

The first words out of Rhys’ mouth were, “Where’s Henderson?” And he had regretted them almost immediately. Vasquez curled his lips in distaste, looking down at Rhys like he was something disgusting and diseased. Strangely, it mirrored how Rhys felt about himself.

“Hello to you too, Rhys.” Vasquez replied smugly, “Henderson’s gone.” And Rhys opened his mouth, nearly asked what Vasquez did to him – he did something terrible, Rhys just knew it – but he managed to stop himself, just barely. Vasquez smiled at him, “You’re gonna be answering to me now.” He explained, voice easy and smooth.

“Okay…”

“No card tonight.” Vasquez explained, putting a hand up to Rhys from speaking. “I’ve booked you with a group of businessmen. Maliwan guys. They want to spend the weekend with you. And they’ve paid extra to film you. So you’re free until they come for you.”

Rhys shook his head just a little, “I don’t think I should be doing something like that.” He had no idea why he kept on speaking out, but he didn’t stop himself. He wasn’t really sure if he even could. “That sounds-” He was about to say, “Dangerous” but he didn’t get to finish his sentence because Vasquez grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the wall. Rhys cried out in pain as his head hit the wall,  his vision spotted a bit and he became disoriented.

“Just do what I say Rhys.” Vasquez sneered down at him as he cowered against the banister. His demeanor softened a bit, like he didn’t want to come off as the bad guy here. “I’ll come back for you in a few hours. Think of it as a half-day.” Rhys felt sick at the implication. Having to whore himself out to multiple men in one night was one thing, but having to be filmed while he did them all felt even worse.

He didn’t say anything more to Vasquez, though, he kept his mouth tight shut because he didn’t want to be hit again. Vasquez walked off, leaving him be finally. Rhys sighed, knowing he was sure to be bruised. He walked back in to his room and looked around for some makeup to cover them up suitably.

No one would want to spend any time with him if he looked like he had already been roughed up. It took ten minutes of smearing and smearing foundation and cover up all over his face and down his neck until he was satisfied that he didn’t look like garbage.

Rhys walked out and decided to go into the motels restaurant and bar. He needed a stiff drink, or seven, and something hearty to eat. He figured that he probably wouldn’t be able to eat the entire time that he was with those businessmen that were gonna gang bang him, so he might as well eat while he could.

There wasn’t anyone in the restaurant, not even the usual bartender. The only one there was a man that he had never seen before. The man looked out of place. That was the first thing that Rhys had noticed about him, that he looked like he should be literally anywhere else but in the restaurant of this shoddy little motel. But here he was, in the flesh. He was tall and athletic looking, well dressed, with well coiffed brown hair and lightly tanned skin. As soon as the two of them locked eyes, Rhys felt like it was all over for him. His heart dropped into the pit of his stomach, a fluttery feeling came over him that had him feeling weak and dizzy.

He ushered Rhys over with a wave of his hand and Rhys barely noticed that he was walking over to him without a word of complaint until he was right near the bar. “Hi.” Rhys said awkwardly, waving his hand lazily in greeting. “I guess the bar’s closed.” He grumbled. That was a shame. He was hungry.

The other man just grinned at him with a starry expression on his face, like he thought that Rhys was being cute. Like he thought that Rhys was cute in general. He didn’t know how he should feel about that. “Sit down.” He ordered and Rhys quickly obeyed, “What’s your name, kitten?” He asked and, before he could speak, decided to give Rhys his own. “I’m Jack.” He said, offering Rhys his hand.

“Rhys.” He replied, never looking him in the eye. He shook Jack’s hand, hoping that it came off as polite instead of awkward as he felt. He felt something like a spark when they touched. It was pleasant and a little thrilling. He never got attention like this. He got a lot of sexual attention. He got more than enough of that, but he was never flirted with, never looked at like he was beautiful and special.

He kept his hand on the other man’s, not wanting to stop the innocent contact they were having with each other. But he didn’t notice his skin being marked. Jack was the first to notice it.

He let out a soft, nearly breathless laugh as he saw it. The mark began to warp and wrap around Rhys’ wrist, and his own – tying them together with a red string etched across both of their skins. Jack never believed that he would have a soulmate. He had a lot of reasons to believe that he wasn’t the type and honestly, he hadn’t ever seen the appeal before. In his mind, he had a higher purpose.

But looking at Rhys now, with his pleading and expressive eyes, with his pretty face, with his slim frame and those long legs – Well, he could definitely see the appeal now. Jack let out a low whistle, “Well, would you look at that…” He purred in a low, dulcet tone.

Rhys looked at Jack with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. He wasn’t sure what to make of him. The whole time that he’d been in here, he had been pea-cocking his way around the space they were in, the energy about him big and bombastic. Usually that sort of attitude set Rhys on edge, because he’d come to realize in his years trapped on this strip of concrete and pavement that people like that were likely to be erratic and unpredictable, especially in the bedroom. Sometimes, they were nice decent people but other times… it didn’t end well for him.

For some reason, he didn’t mind that sort of attitude with Jack though. It suited him, came across as charming, charismatic and lovely. Rhys supposed that it didn’t hurt that Jack was nice to look at. Handsome. He didn’t realize why he was so at ease though, until he looked down at the mans finger, drumming gently against his bare thigh, that he understood it. Jack was… he was – Rhys opened his mouth to speak, but found himself at a complete and utter loss for words. He would have never thought that someone like him would be permitted that sort of happiness. “You- you’re my…” He stuttered.

Jack’s smile grew into a grin, “It’s okay baby,” He soothed, taking one of Rhys’ hands in his own. The action was more intimate than anything that had ever been done to Rhys in his life. There was more tenderness and affection in that one simple touch than anything that he could ever remember his parents or anyone touching him. He still didn’t understand it. “Take your time.”

“Soulmate? Soulmate…” He blurted out, voice still quiet and broken. He sounded less like someone who had the innocent ripped from him and more like a church mouse. He was surprised, even with their proximity, that Jack had been able to hear him. “You’re my soulmate.” He repeated, firmer this time. “I didn’t think that something like that was possible for me.” But those last words were spoken with a deathly quiet to them. He was surprised to find out that Jack heard him, loud and clear.

“You?” Jack exclaimed, looking bemusedly over Rhys like he was inspecting him for any sort of defects or reasons why he wouldn’t be entitled to a happy life with a soulmate. “Why wouldn’t you have a soulmate?” He asked, genuinely curious about why he would think such a thing about himself.

Rhys went quiet for a moment, trying to find the way to explain himself. It was much easier having a conversation when he pretended to be someone else, when he was himself he just floundered. “I’m too dirty.” He finally explained, after a few moments of looking at his hands, a hopeless expression on his face. He thought that he was filthy and disgusting, rotting from the inside out – like his soul had been corrupted by everything that he’d been made to do. Everything that he had done. He hated himself.

Jack made a chiding noise, putting Rhys’ face in his hands and pulling him towards him. He stroked over Rhys’ cheekbones and let his fingers trail down the line of his long neck, until they were tracing absentmindedly over his collarbones. Rhys felt heat rising to his cheeks, giddy at the attention in a way that he never had been before. “Aw, kitten, you could never be too dirty for me.” He teased.

Rhys was about to say something back to that, but he quickly noticed that the middle aged woman at the front desk. Her name was Emily Goode and she was a long faced, unpleasant person that he had more than a few run ins with – was giving him and Jack a pointed look that said, “Get him to take you to a room and make us some money or send him away already.”

She was nearly as bad as Vasquez with how much she hated him for the crime of existing too loudly. At least she never got physical with him, which couldn’t be said for Vasquez. Rhys just hoped that she hadn’t heard any of his and Jack’s conversation. Things could only end badly for them, if she had. People would be called, and Jack could be hurt. He would be… removed. Taken to a new motel. Or killed. Probably both.

So, Rhys needed to rectify this quickly and he did his best. “Hey,” He said, in a voice that he hoped came across as sultry and secretive. Jack was moved to full attention, interested in whatever his soulmate might have to say. “Why don’t we take this somewhere… private? I have a room.” He urged, with pleading eyes that he hoped conveyed the desperation that he was feeling.

Luckily, Jack was smart enough that he noticed the change in Rhys’ tone and got the message right quick.  Rhys grabbed the older mans’ hand and led him up some stairs and down a few hallways, until they were in his room.

Rhys kept his hold on Jack’s hand, a firm grip that belied how much his palms were sweating and his fingers were trembling against Jacks’ own, until they were sitting on the crisply pressed sheets of one of the motels beds. “They’re keeping me here, the uh, people who run this motel I guess?” Rhys said, doing his best to keep his voice low as he spoke, “I’m not- this isn’t- I was supposed to-” He sighed, not wanting to say it out loud. It was stupid, he thought, but the shame kept him tongue tied. “They make me work here. In the bedrooms. On my back, or on my knees.”

He was sure that Jack understood what he meant. The hints were clear enough. Rhys kept on going, he had never been permitted to speak so long without interruption. “I want to leave with you though, wherever you’re going I want to go too, if it’s possible.” Rhys said, looking at him with something like hope in his eyes. “I’m sorry it’s like this, I wish it wasn’t. But I don’t know what I can do about any of it.”

He tried not to cry, tried with all his might – because he barely knew Jack, whether they were soulmates or not and he didn’t know how he might react if Rhys just burst into tears like he wanted to – but it got harder and harder with every second that he sat there next to his soul mate, so close to freedom yet still trapped and rooted like he had always been.

There was something dangerous in Jack’s eyes, “They’re keeping you here, huh?” He muttered, less speaking to Rhys than he was to himself. “Okay…” He said, “I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry you’re pretty little head Pumpkin, I’ll have ya out of here by tonight.” His tone was somewhere in the middle between gentle and deadly. Then he grinned, all perfect teeth and intentions that couldn’t be good. “Matter of fact, I’m sure that I can get you out of here by the end of the hour.”

Rhys wanted that so badly, Jack had no idea how much he wanted that, but soulmate or no, he couldn’t expect Jack to put himself into danger on his behalf. They barely knew each other. “What are you going to do?” He asked, suddenly afraid for Jack. “Jack, these people, they’re dangerous. You don’t know what will happen.” He said. Secretly, Rhys didn’t believe that he was worth the trouble that Jack was going to for him – he was worthless and Jack would be better off forgetting about him entirely. He was just about to open his mouth and say that when his soulmate began to speak.

“Aw, Rhysie, are you worried about me?” Jack replied, grinning like a kid in a candy shop. “That’s cute. Real cute, but- uh, I can take care of myself.” He scoffed, like the idea that he wouldn’t be able to handle any situation was just ridiculous to him, “I mean, come on, look at me.”

“Jack, I’m serious!” Rhys snapped back, aghast. He didn’t know what he could say to make Jack understand – preferably without humiliating himself. “They took me when I was a child, I’ve seen what they can do.” Some of it, he thought, but what little he was enough to scare him into submission.

“So. Am. I.” There was something hard in Jack’s gaze, but it was quickly masked with tenderness. “I’ll take care of it.” Jack promised again, speaking in a low and soothing tone of voice. Rhys almost believed him. He pulled Rhys in for a quick and gentle kiss before he got up, “Stay here.” He ordered in a tone of voice that brook no arguments from the younger man. “I won’t be gone long.” And then he was out the door, leaving Rhys with a lot more questions than answers.

***************************************************************************

Jack walked out of the room and took a breath, preparing himself for the inevitable. It hadn’t been too long since his last kill. A few weeks. But he was always in the mood for a kill – so long as his victims deserved it, because then they weren’t really victims. They would be villains and it was a heroes job to get rid of them. And Jack Lawrence was nothing, if not a hero.

From what little that Rhys had told him before he’d left, these people were definitely villains. They deserved whatever they got coming to them, whatever Jack was willing to dish out as punishment for their crimes. They had hurt so many people, caused so much pain and ruined the lives of so many children. And, if all that wasn’t bad enough on its face, they had the audacity to hurt his soulmate. His.  Nobody could just hurt what was his and get away with it. No. These people needed to suffer.

Jack went back into his car and took out some tools; a bowie knife, a nail gun and a pistol, loaded with ammo and modified with a silencer and last but not least, his clean-up supplies. He looked around the parking lot, the place was desolate with only a few cars in sight that night. That was a good thing. It meant that there wouldn’t be any chance at witnesses. He walked back into the motel with a pep in his step.

He looked around the front room and smiled as he realized it was just him and the woman who manned the front desk. She was complicit in whatever they were doing here, he thought, the look that she gave Rhys told him so. Still, she put on a nice display of ignorance and pretended to be friendly.

She smiled at him, grinning with at teeth. He noticed a bit of lipstick on one of them. “Are you having a good time, sir?” She asked, “Is there anything you need?” Jack chuckled to himself, amused by the misplaced display of kindness from her. Then an amusing thought crossed his mind.

She was trying to flirt. It was funny, pathetic, but funny. And it worked for his purposes. Jack took purposeful steps as he walked closer to her, close enough that she was nearly pressed right up against his chest. She didn’t try to push him away and it made him grin. Too easy. “Actually,” He said, wrapping one arm around her. “You know what? There is something you can do for me.”

“O-oh?” She replied, utterly charmed. “What’s that, then?”

He pulled the knife out from his back pocket, still she didn’t notice it. “You can die.” He said, in a nonchalant sort of way – the same tone that someone might use to speak about the weather.

All that she got out was, “What-” before he impaled the back of her neck with the bowie knife, twisting it inside of her. She collapsed against him and he held her tight while she weakly struggled. There was no use to it. She was gonna choke on her own blood in a matter of seconds. He doubted that it was even a conscious decision that she was making.

“Thaaaaaaaat’s it.” He cooed to her as she gurgled and cried out in pain. Blood poured from her mouth. He grimaced at that, he would have to do a lot of cleaning once this was over. Hopefully, he could get his Rhys out of the motel before he saw all of the bloodshed. “Go easy, pumpkin. Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be.”

And then she was gone. He dropped her like she was a piece of trash, used a long, thick coat that was hanging on the wall behind her – it was probably hers, he realized with a bit of humor – to cover her up, but not before he took the managers keys out of her pockets. He’d need those for later.

He looked through the books at the table, until he found an “Employee’s Roster” hidden underneath a lot of documents. There weren’t many people employed at the motel. There was this Emily Goode woman – but he had already taken care of her. Then there was Hugo Vasquez and Saul Henderson.

Then he decided to go through to the back rooms – there had to be some enforcer there – and sure enough, there was a man there, a tall and stocky looking man. Hugo Vasquez, he realized quickly. Vasquez spoke with an incredibly deep voice. “Sir, are you lost?” He asked, “This is… it’s an employees only area.”

He was obviously trying to be polite, but it looked like that facade was wearing down by the second. He was scared. Angry too. But the fear was more potent, he could practically smell it on the man. Jack tried not to crack a smile, or say something that would give the game away. “You work here?” He asked, even though he knew the answer. Jack put his hands in his pockets, both so he could dig out the nail gun and to make himself appear meek and unassuming. And as soon as the man gave a slight nod he pulled the nail gun out and shot him in the forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Then he set to work on taking care of the bodies. He dragged the two of them into a bathroom. He kept his clean-up supplies in a satchel. It was all very standard fair.

Jack wiped the sweat from his brow, then he looked up and noticed Rhys… standing there with a frightened expression marring his pretty face. That couldn’t be good. He expected him to scream or start running, maybe even for him to shout at him and call him a monster.

But instead of any of the expected reactions, Rhys just watched him work on the bodies, making them tiny and disposable. There was a ghost of a smile on his lips, but other than that his aura was incredibly muted and he was completely motionless and wordless. Jack found that incredibly interesting, but he didn’t have the time just then to ask him questions about it. He would later, he promised himself, he needed to know just what his soulmate was all about.

Rhys watched with a placid expression as he watched the bloodbath in front of him, he knew in an objective sense that it was horrifying but he couldn’t bring himself to be horrified by the sight of some of the people that had abused and manipulated him for years finally gone. No, it felt… freeing and that was what really had him feeling horrified. What kind of person was he, what kind of monster was he, if he felt so damn relieved at the sight of such gore and destruction?

Jack moved so casually, it was damn near graceful. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that he was enjoying himself. He didn’t acknowledge Rhys’ existence for a few minutes as he worked, but it was obvious to Rhys that Jack knew he was there. It wasn’t until both Vasquez and Emily were hacked up into tiny bits and stuffed into bags that Jack locked eyes with Rhys again.

Jack looked at Rhys with an indescribable expression, “Rhys.” He said, his voice coming out as barely more than a breath. As he got up, moving to walk towards him, but stopped as he noticed his soulmate backing up a few steps. Rhys didn’t run though, he didn’t even leave the room, he just kept his distance from the older man. A few steps between them, to ensure that he had some control here.

“Is it over?” Rhys asked, having a distant thought that he might be in shock. He could barely formulate a coherent thought in his head, let alone putting all his disjointed feelings into words. “Are you- are they all gone?” He asked, looking at Jack with wide, questioning eyes. “They’re all…they’re dead?”

“Almost.” Jack replied, “There’s one more. Henderson. You know him?”

Rhys nodded minutely. “Henderson’s dead.” He blurted out, “Vasquez killed him… I don’t know why.” Probably to get a leg up in this trafficking business. He’d always been disgustingly opportunistic, even for a man in this sort of business. He crossed his arms over his chest and closed in on himself.

“Are you scared?” Jack asked. ‘Of me.’ was left unsaid, but they could both feel it hanging in the air heavy and tense. He would understand, even if he hated it, if Rhys wanted nothing more than to be away from him. He thought that what he was doing was right – he was taking out the bad guys, being a hero without so much as a thank you – but he knew that no one else would see it that way.

That was something that he was willing to accept. That he would never get the recognition and praise that he deserved, for getting rid of all of the criminals and monsters that he could get his hands on. Still, that didn’t mean that he had to like it.

Rhys nodded minutely, “A little.” he admitted, he let out a shaky sigh. “N-no matter how scared I am right now, it’s nothing compared to how much I was afraid being…” his face screwed up into a disgusted, pained expression. “In this fucking place.” He gestured vaguely around the space.

Jack walked towards Rhys purposefully, until they were so close that they were nearly touching hip to hip. Rhys practically stumbled into the older mans’ chest and Jack ran his fingers through his hair, soothing down the auburn locks with love and adoration in his touch. “What did they do to you?”

Rhys didn’t answer, he just pressed tighter against Jack and took comfort in his chest. He didn’t want to talk about that – not right now. No, he couldn’t do this right now. He decided to change the subject to something more comfortable. “Do you do this a lot?” He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to.

“Define a lot.” Jack countered, with a smile as he took a baby step towards Rhys. He didn’t want to scare the younger man any more than he already had. He wanted Rhys to feel safe with him always, even now, as crazy as that might be.

Rhys let out a quiet huff, “Okay…” He replied suspiciously, his morbid curiosity taking over for him in moments. “Why do you do it, then?” He asked.

“There’s so much scum out there.” Jack explained in a wistful sort of way. “Bandits, rapists, people who hurt people. Someone’s gotta take care of ‘em, right? That’s where I come in.” The way that Jack framed it made him come off as some kind of hero. Despite knowing that it was wrong, that what he had just done was wrong, Rhys couldn’t help but be drawn in by his words.

Rhys didn’t say anything for a moment, too floored to speak. “I guess that makes sense.” He admitted. Then a strange thought crossed his mind,“Did you know about what they’re doing here? Before I told you about what they’ve done to me?” He asked, wondering if he had been coming for them the whole time.

Jack laughed at that, “Ah, cupcake, you are overestimatin’ me.” He replied, his tone good humored and pleasant. “Not that I don’t love it! it’s cute. But, uh, no, I was just-” He kept laughing, but it petered down a bit until it was quieter. “I’m on the road a lot. I end up in places like this a lot. Usually, it’s a lot more boring than this.”

“Sorry.” Rhys mumbled so quietly that Jack could barely hear him. He looked down at the ground, in shame. He felt like he had done something terribly wrong – just by existing and inconveniencing everyone with his dirtiness. His wrongness.

Jack couldn’t understand what he meant. “What do you have to be sorry for?” He asked. Rhys didn’t reply, he just trembled in his arms. He felt rage deep in his bones, at what had been done to his soulmate. They would get what was coming to them. But for now, they needed to get out of here and onto the road. “Come on,” He said, finally, with a gentle smile on his face. “Let’s get out of here. You’re too good for this place, Rhysie. You always were.” Rhys shook his head. There was no way that he’d believe that if he knew him better, he thought.

“Wait… I need to do something first.” Rhys explained. “Give me, like, five minutes.” He added quickly, before he was running down the hall. There were others here, but they wouldn’t be able to here everything that went on – the walls were soundproofed, when they were in those rooms they couldn’t hear a thing that was going on outside their doors.

Rhys walked into each and every one of the rooms that he knew were filled with the girls and boys he had worked with for years – he told each and every one of them, personally that they were free to go now, but they had to leave before anyone more important than Vasquez came to check on them. He knew that none of them would miss the chance to ransack the place and run as soon as possible.

Then they were on their way out. The next thing that Rhys knew, he was laying on a bed in an incredibly luxurious caravan as Jack drove him away from everything that he ever knew. He fell asleep faster than he ever had before. For the first time in his life, Rhys slept well without the aid of anything but the feeling of strong arms wrapped around his waist. For the first time in his life, he felt well and truly safe. For the first time in his life, he felt loved and protected.

There had been a lot of firsts that day. There were bound to be a lot more for them, in their future.

[babybirdgyeom]

you, me and bertha (3) | park jinyoung

⇴ neighbor!au, farmer!au, jinyoung x reader.

⇴ summary: moving from the big city to your uncle’s farm in the small village you used to visit as a child was a big and scary step. luckily, you found many reasons to stay. reasons like your cousin bambam, your best friend jaebum or park jinyoung, your neighbor who maybe was more than just a guy you like to nag around with.

⇴ this chapter: it’s your birthday, jinyoung walks you home late at night and you have a quite interesting conversation with jaebum and bambam.

⇴ word count: this part:  5.5k   full story: ~30k

⇴ all the other parts can be found in my masterlist, linked in my bio! ♥

Waking up, you immediately had a smile on your face - it’s not like anyone besides Bambam and Minwoo, maybe also Jaebum, would know it’s your birthday today but you still loved your special day. How could you not?

The first thing you did that morning was looking at your phone, happy to see that your friends from home - or more like what used to be home to you - all thought of you and send you very nice birthday greetings full of love. In no time you got up and dressed to go over to the main house.

“So, what do you want to do today?”, Bambam asked you as you, for a change, had breakfast with him and your uncle. They were really cute, they made you some scrambled eggs and cut a lot of vegetables from the Park’s farm, Bambam even managed to go to the heart of the city to buy some buns for all of you.

Stretching yourself while yawning, you thought about  Bam’s question. “I actually don’t know, didn’t plan anything yet.”, you said shrugging before eating a piece of pepper, “Any ideas?”

“Why don’t you invite your friends over, (y/n)?”, your uncle suggested but you’d rather not. The problem with inviting people over is you can’t leave early since they are literally at your own place. 

“No way, I don’t even think most people know about my birthday. I’ll stay lowkey about it.”, you said, just wanting to have a nice night on the couch after you took a long bath - an ideal night for you, “I’ll get comfortable at home and watch something, do you wanna join and have a movie night?”, you asked your two family members but they didn’t seem to show much support to your idea.

Uncle Minwoo immediately interrupted you, “I’m not letting you stay at home with your old uncle and cousin on your birthday.”

“I’d love that though. We hadn’t had a movie night in a long time.”, you pouted towards your uncle despite knowing you had no chance against him.

“Bambam, take her to the pub, alright?”, he looked at his son who was currently not listening to the ongoing conversation and instead was texting someone.

“Mhh.”, he agreed with his father before looking up from his phone, “I’ll take you to the pub later, (y/n). No discussion.”, he said.

So a few hours later you found yourself in your small, but very lovely looking, bathroom - putting on a real full face make-up for the first time since you arrived. Bam said to make sure that you looked nice since a lot of other people would be there, including the girl he ‘sometimes takes out’, as he likes to call it. Even though you were not really in the mood and would have really preferred a relaxed movie night with your family you thought that looking good and getting ready every now and then wouldn’t hurt - and maybe, just maybe, Jinyoung would be there too.

Bam picked you up from your little house at around eight in the evening, “Hey little one.”, he said lovingly, “You look good! Want to impress Park Jinyoung, right?”

By now you really regretted that you told him about your attraction for the boy next door, he wouldn’t stop mentioning it. You prayed he didn’t tell Jinyoung about it, his ego was big enough and you didn’t know if you could survive if he’d become even cockier. Jinyoung knew how good he looked and that he could probably get just any girl if he wanted so you weren’t going to give him this satisfaction.

“I’ll kill you if you don’t shut your mouth, Bambam.”, you threatened him, not wanting to talk to your cousin about him.

Arriving at the Pub you couldn’t help but smile - all of your friends were waiting inside, a whole booth waiting just for you. Jaebum was the first to welcome you, hugging you tightly, “Happy Birthday, princess.”, he almost whispered into your ear before the other people were waiting for their turn to congratulate you. Jackson and Mark were there, including Mark’s girlfriend, that you hadn’t met before. Yugyeom, of course, was there and even gifted you some sunflowers, “Those are my favorite!”, you told him excited, to which he replied that he knew. Bam introduced you to his almost-girlfriend and she seemed to be a nice girl, almost as tall as him, with cute glasses, short blue hair and a nose ring that she pulled off amazingly. Jaebum was sitting next to a girl and you made a mental note to ask him about her later on. And last but not least Park Jinyoung was standing in front of you, trying to look annoyed like always, but you saw that he was hiding his smile.

“You’re here!”, you said, genuinely excited, “I feel honored.”

He shook his head joyful, “Don’t let it get to your head. Happy birthday, farmer girl.”, for the first time ever Jinyoung hugged you, and you hated to admit that it felt quite comforting - the hug didn’t feel awkward or forced at all, he even had his one hand on your head, right in your hair.

Jaebum and Bambam, who were standing behind Jinyoung, were inspecting the hug exactly, teasing you secretly, drawing hearts with their fingers as you turned almost as red as the Park’s tomatoes.

“(Y/n), we got a present for you! Come on, sit down.”, Jackson screamed from the table and Jinyoung let you go, way too early for your liking, but you weren’t complaining. As you sat down beside Jaebum, Jinyoung sat right next to you, pretty close since you were sitting on a small bank with five people. The booth was decorated with a paper chain that spelled “Happy Birthday”, a few presents were waiting for you on the table, next to many glasses and several bottles of alcohol.

“This one is from me, Jackson and Youngjae.”, Mark said excited, handing you a present - it had the prettiest wrapping paper and looked very cute. As you opened it you couldn’t help but pout, they gifted you a frame of the four of you when you were little, you were maybe around three to four years old. “That’s literally very lovely, guys. Thank you!”

Jackson let out a laugh, “There’s a little wheel on the side that you have to move.”, he said and so you did - as you turned the little wheel more pictures of all of you showed, all of them from different years. “I love it.”, you said smiling, “It’ll get a special place in my hut, I promise.”

“Open our’s next.”, Jaebum said, a smirk on his face. “It’s from me and Bam.”, you didn’t trust them at all.

“I bet it’ll get also a very, very special place in your hut.”, Bam assured you and you just knew at that point they probably got you something very stupid.

And they did - you let out a deep breath, being completely done with them. “Thanks, I really needed that.”, you said sarcastically as you hold the box of the vibrator they gifted you in your hand.

“We know the nights get lonely here.”, Jaebum said, laughing, “Much fun with it. Just call Jinyoung if you need any help with it.”

“Yeah, no, thanks, I think I can handle that on my own.”, you said, rolling your eyes, but still chuckling a bit, “I really need a shot now.”

Jaebum immediately poured a round of shots for everyone, “To our little (y/n).”

All of your friends clinked glasses and downed the shot. Within a few hours, one shot became quite a few. Bambam and his girl were making out heavily in the corner of the pub, Jaebum, you, Youngjae, Mark and Jinyoung were currently playing a card drinking game that you not only never heard of before but was also killing you slowly.

“(Y/n), your turn.”, Jinyoung looked at you, raising his eyebrow, “Red or black?”, that was the whole point of the game. You had to say a color and if the card didn’t have the color you had to take a shot. Youngjae said it was the best game to get really drunk really fast, and boy, he was right. “Red”, you said or to be exact, mumbled, since you couldn’t talk normally anymore.

And, of course, luck wasn’t on your side - as Jinyoung turned around the card it showed black. “Jinyoung-”, you let out a whine as he laughed, “I literally cannot drink that or else I’ll throw up.”

Your head was turning and your stomach felt warm and tingly, you suddenly felt playful and giggly, which was very unusual for you. Looking at Jinyoung you felt something deep down in your tummy - hoping it was the alcohol.

He looked at you with a soft pout on his lip, “You’re no fun.”, he said before taking the shot, “I’ll take it for you since it’s your birthday.”

“Oh, what a gentleman you are.”, you nudged him.

“Just trying to get drunk.”, he said laughing before downing the shot.

You looked at Yugyeom, who was already very drunk, his eyes slowly closing. “Yugyeom!”, you said to him, not sure if you should laugh or be concerned, “Are you passing out?”

“Hmm?”, he said, trying to open his eyes but failing, “Oh no. I’m just taking a nap.”

You looked to Jinyoung beside you, questioning him what to do. “Are you going to babysit him?”

He scoffed, “That isn’t my problem to deal with.”

About two hours later you decided that it was time to go home, you actually enjoyed the evening despite you not wanting to go originally. You thanked everyone and started to grab your stuff.

“What about you?”, you asked Jinyoung who was sitting on his phone, “You’re staying?”

He looked up from his phone, “No, I’m walking you home. Give me a second.”

You decided to wait outside, needing some fresh air. You immediately felt more sober than inside of the pub, the cold air working its wonders.

Slowly, you started to walk towards your home, knowing Jinyoung would catch up in no time. And he did, of course.

“Oh!”, Jinyoung looked at you with wide eyes as he was next to you, before opening his bag, looking for something, “It’s your birthday!”

“No shit, Sherlock.”, you said unimpressed at his sudden realization, walking through the little city at night, still not used to how beautiful the stars were here.

“No, wait. I actually got you something.”, he mumbled and you thought you heard wrong for a second. At least until Jinyoung, who now managed to catch up with you, handed you a box, a rather big one.

“Are you serious?”, you asked, suddenly feeling shy. This morning you still were convinced he didn’t even know it was your birthday but now he was standing in front of you, with a present that was neatly wrapped in yellow wrapping paper.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it, please.”, he said rolling his eyes as you two walked through the dark night, only a few lanterns on your way home, “Just open it. It felt wrong not to get you anything. I mean, we’re neighbors now, and also co-workers.”

You smirked up at him, playfully asking, “Maybe even friends?”

His laugh seemed to be even louder and happier when he’s drunk, “Says who? You wish!” before immediately adding, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Maybe even that. Now open it. Let’s sit down.”, your neighbor at the bank on the side of the way, a few steps away.

He took out his phone to turn on the flashlight so you could see, sitting dangerously close to you. “Why didn’t you give it to me earlier?”, you asked him curiously.

“You know, I gotta keep my cool reputation in front of them.”, he joked.

“Ah, can’t let them know that you have a crush on me?”, you blurted out, trying to flirt, knowing you would never say those things if it wasn’t for all the shots you drank earlier.

“You’re a pain in the ass.”, he chuckled, mocking you a bit, “Will you please just open it now? There are a few smaller things.”

As you ripped open the wrapping paper and opened the box your presents were in you immediately smiled, impressed by his first present, “A raincoat? I could’ve seen that coming.”

“I still can’t believe you don’t own one. Look underneath, there’s also a shirt you can use for work so you won’t ruin your good clothes.”, he said, almost proud.

The shirt was grey and oversized - and also, there was a picture printed onto it. Jinyoung let out another laugh before you could see what was on it. As he shined his flashlight on the picture you were not only extremely amused but also very amazed that he did that for you, even though he obviously was trying to be funny, you genuinely liked it - the picture was a selfie of Jinyoung, giving a thumbs up, right next to his favorite being on this earth, Bertha. Underneath the picture the sentence ‘(y/n), you can do it, maybe.’ was written in big letters.

“You’re seriously the worst.”, you laughed, wondering how in the hell he got this idea. Maybe, after all, Jinyoung was actually a quite nice man. Not that you didn’t like him before, you just thought that he didn’t like you back.

“I think you’ll look quite good in it, (y/n).”, he almost giggled.

“You’re such a flirt.”, you said sarcastically.

The last gift in the box really got to you though - it immediately brought back a lot of memories, cherished ones, of your childhood. You felt like you were not able to breathe for a second. How did he even get this?

“Jinyoung, I- I-”, was all you could say, “is it what I think it is?”, you asked amazed, not believing your eyes.

“If you think it’s your old music box that played Somewhere Over The Rainbow over and over again, then it is, yes.”

You totally forgot about it until now, back in the day you always used to play it before going to bed, falling asleep immediately to the soothing sound of it.

“Where did you even get this?”, you asked him, trying to hold back your tears, knowing he’d make fun of you.

“Oh, Minwoo gave it to me to calm the cows on thunder days.”, he said amused.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Do you like it?”, he asked, turning towards you, “I know how obsessed you were with it as a child so I thought you’d like to have it back. The cows didn’t like it anyway.”

You looked at him, not knowing what to say. He was so cool about it when to you, this might be one of the most meaningful presents you’ve ever gotten. The fact that he even remembered how in love you were with this music box and how thoughtful of him it was to give it back to you. Slowly you put the box down, a bit overwhelmed. It was probably stupid, for him it was just a simple present and you were probably overreacting, right? But still, it was so much more than you would’ve expected.

“I love it, Jinyoung.”, you were now looking at him, the wrinkles around his eyes, that came out whenever he was smiling, deeper than you’ve ever seen them before. “Thank you so much.”

Before he could say something to ruin the moment you wrapped your arms around his neck and buried your face in his neck. It took him a few moments to realize what was happening, a hug was something he didn’t expect at all, but it did feel nice. His arms carefully found your waist and hugged you back.

You could see how red his cheeks were as your hug ended but for once you decided to not tease him, not wanting to ruin a genuinely nice moment. The two of you didn’t have those very often.

“Shall we go home?”, Jinyoung asked softly as he stood up, waiting for you to join him.

The two of you were walking for a while, way slower than usual. It might be the alcohol in your veins or simply the secret desire to spend some more time together, alone and outside of the farm.

“Be honest.”, you said happily, it almost sounded like you were singing it, “You think I’m cute.”, you said looking up to Jinyoung who was smiling and didn’t seem to care about your teasing anymore.

“I do think you’re cute. That doesn’t make you less any annoying though.”, he said shaking his head amused, as you were walking and your shoulders were lightly touching every now and then, a rush of excitement going through your body every single time. “Now you be honest.. You were totally checking me out when you saw me again.”

You let out a small scoff, “I maybe would have if I hadn’t been to busy trying to free myself from your grip since you thought I was stealing some chicken or something.”, Jinyoung let out a laugh at that memory. Even though it wasn’t long ago it felt like years, considering on how much your relationship developed since then. “Your turn. You would’ve gone home sooner but you were waiting to walk me home.”, the vibe Jinyoung gave you told you it was okay to dig a bit deeper.

“Now you’re just being overconfident, (y/n).”, he laughed and you thought about how his laugh is so different than his mum’s. His mum’s laugh was light and charming while his laugh was deep and full of joy.

“If you say I’m wrong you’re lying.”, you insisted while looking up to the beautiful night sky. You felt slightly cold but you didn’t really care, you could walk and talk for a few more hours without complaining.

“I never said you’re wrong.”, he said, now more soft and serious, “But don’t let it get to your head, I know my mum would kill me if she heard that you had to walk home alone.”

“You’re so in love with me dude, that’s gross.”, you said laughing, not able to stop nagging. By now it seemed like that was Jinyoung’s and your’s thing somehow.

“I really don’t know if I wanna shove you off this bridge or kiss you, (y/n).”, he said shamelessly, trying to sound annoyed but his mood was just as good as yours and the playful flirting was something he missed over the last years. It’s been too long since he met someone he liked so much that he didn’t have to care about what he said. Spending time with you made him feel careless. The night air and the sky that was full of stars just loosened up the mood even more.

Even though your heart was beating faster at his comment you tried to remain cool – he said it so casually as if the topic of kissing you was something completely normal to him, making you realize that maybe Jinyoung and you were indeed becoming something more than friends. “Oh, can I pick?”, you said playfully as you lightly swayed your hip into his.

“No.”, he said easily while pushing you towards the edge of the bridge you were currently walking on, making you gasp a bit, while trying to balance yourself so you wouldn’t fall over the low wooden railing. What was he doing? Just in the right moment, he held you, his arm around your waist, being a bit too close to you which was just once again showing you that the two of you were actually going into the direction you wanted to. As you looked at him your eyes were opened wide, the shock written all over your face.

Jinyoung still was holding you close, giving you the brightest smile ever, his expression full of joy, “Did you really think that I’d let you fall?”

“Yes!”, you said, a hundred percent sure that he’d actually do something like that, “If anyone in this town would then it would be you.”

He acted a bit offended, as he pulled your body a bit closer to his again, your intestines feeling all over the place. Half of your body was still bent over the bridge as Jinyoung’s hold was the only support that stopped you from falling right into the water. His face came near yours and at this moment you wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on yours.

“Well, if you think that lowly from me-”, he said before pausing his sentence, you could feel his breath tingling on your lips and see his eyes wandering down to look at your them - but then you started losing balance as Jinyoung let go of your body, making you fall right into the lake behind you. Of course, he’d do something like that.

As you came up again you were drenched. The water was at least still warm enough to not make you shiver while climbing up to the bridge again. Jinyoung was laughing wholeheartedly while holding a hand out for you so he could help you out. You immediately took his offer, taking a tight grip on his hand before getting your revenge – within seconds Jinyoung forcefully joined you in the water, still laughing and shaking his head.

“I should’ve seen that coming.”, he admitted, now also completely wet, shaking his head amused, “I deserved that.”

You now joined his laughter, no one of you seemed to want to get out of the water for now. “Remember the one time we were having a contest here about who can stay underwater the longest when we were children?”, you asked him amused, thinking back to older days, one of the few memories you had with him.

He immediately nodded while walking towards you, leaning against the bridge. His body was close to yours, his face facing yours, the wrinkles around his eyes still there while smiling. “I remember you and Bambam being afraid, thinking I fainted because I let my body swim on the surface with my head under the water still.”

You let out a laugh while playfully hitting his chest, “You were the worst, seriously! Why would you do this to me?”

His arm found your hip, resting lazily on it - you wondered if he’d also do that if he was completely sober. “To make good memories.”, he said, scrunching his nose a bit to look cute.

“Well, that’s also about our only memory because you always avoided me when we were younger.”, you stated, a bit salty.

His laughter sounded different this time, if you didn’t know better you’d almost say there was some kind of admiration in it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”, he said, still laughing before looking at you once again - it’s like you completely forgot about being in the water now in the middle of the night. “Wanna know a secret?”, he asked, maybe even a bit shy.

“Always.”, you said as your eyes widened in excitement since you loved secrets.

“I avoided you because I had the biggest crush on you and Jaebum always said girls suck and if anyone of us kissed a girl they’d be kicked out of the gang.”, he said, laughing at the memory.

“Okay, but Jaebum was literally my first kiss.”, you answered, “I think he knew exactly why he told you that.”

Now it was Jinyoung who was in shock, not you. “You’re kidding me.”, he sounded offended, “I can’t believe he’d play me like this because of some chick.”

“Hello? I’m right here.”, you said, shaking your head amused.

“Oh, I bet you’d rather be where Jaebum is, huh?”, he spotted before breaking character and starting to laugh, “But seriously, he never even told me. He knew I’d fight him about it.”

“It must be hard to always be as dramatic as you are.”, you said laughing, as you got out of the water again, starting to shiver a bit, “Let’s go home, I’m cold.”

He got out of the water too and you tried hard not to stare at his chest that was completely showing through his white shirt. “You should have put on a jacket.”, he said, laughing.

“Oh, you asshole.”, you countered, “I’m only cold because you pushed me into the lake.”

He shrugged as the two of you were walking towards the entrance of the farm.

“I had fun tonight.”, you admitted to him as you were standing in front of your door once again, “You’re not awful.”

He let out a laugh, “Thank you?”, not sure how to understand that he continued, “You’re also not awful, (y/n).”

“I mean, you were not the nicest in the beginning, I thought you hated me. But now, I think you tolerate me.”

“Believe it or not, I think you’re pretty cool.”

You grinned, “I’ll let my diary know about that.”

He just stood there for a second, looking at you. Both of you didn’t want to part, enjoying time with each other but you didn’t want things to get awkward.

“I’m sorry I pushed you into the water.”, he said, laughing while apologizing.

You rolled your eyes at his half-assed apology, “Yeah sure. You better make up for that.”

He nodded, “I will. Good night, (y/n).”, suddenly you felt him hugging you, not expecting it once again. Three hugs in one day were something you didn’t expect at all.

“Sleep well.”, you said to him as you closed the door behind you, removing your make up, changing into comfortable clothes and letting yourself fall into your bed, falling asleep with a smile on your lips. You were definitely making progress.

A few days after It was about time to talk to someone about your confusing feelings. And of course, Jaebum was the first person that came to your mind. As the two of you were sitting outside on your porch, drinking a beer and enjoying the sunset slowly going down, you decided to tell him about what happened after you and Jinyoung left on your birthday.

“He gifted you your old music box?”, he asked confused, almost shocked, “That’s so much better than the vibrator we gifted you, dammit.”

You let out a laugh, “Anything is better than that, Jaebum.”

“Well, apparently you won’t be needing it any time soon if you and Jinyoung continue to fall in love at that pace.”

“Jaebum.”, you let out a pout, “I really don’t know what I should do. He was about to kiss me by the lake but instead, he let me fall into the water.”

Your best friend was trying his hardest to contain his laughter as you told the story but he couldn’t help it, “You really think he’s the one you want? I bet not even Yugyeom would behave that awkward.”

Chuckling, you shrugged, “I guess I just like a challenge.”

Jaebum nodded, “He definitely is one. Bare with him, it’s been some time. His last girlfriend and him broke up quite some time ago.”

Suddenly, you felt curiosity awakening inside of you, “How was she?”

Taking a sip of his beer, he looked at you, a bit pitiful, “Are you sure you wanna do this to yourself?”

“I’m just curious.”, you assured him.

Before Jaebum could start telling you about her you were disturbed by your cousin, who just finished his work, a beer in his hand, sitting down on the free chair on your garden table. “What are you talking about?”

“My hopeless crush.”, you said, laughing.

“What else.”, he said unimpressed, “You could still date Yugyeom, you know.”

You shook your head before turning back to Jaebum, “So, tell me about her, I can’t imagine him with a girl at all.”

“Are we talking about Elly?”, Bambam asked confused, trying to catch up.

“Yes.”, Jaebum said, trying to start once again before getting interrupted by Bambam, also once again. “She wasn’t shit, (y/n). Don’t worry about her. I never liked her. They weren’t even really a couple.”

Jaebum rolled his eyes, “She wasn’t all bad, Bam. She was actually quite nice at the beginning. She’s from the town next to ours, the granddaughter of the owner of the library - we were friends with her back then when she still visited every weekend. She was into Jinyoung from the first second and he was, well, frustrated. So they became friends with benefits. Nothing too serious at first.”

“(Y/n), I really don’t get why you’d wanna know. You’ll just hurt yourself.”, your cousin said, clearly disagreeing with your curiosity.

“They broke up so I won’t be hurt, I just can’t imagine him in a relationship at all. I need some information.”, you argued.

“He was a good boyfriend, I guess.”, Bambam said, taking a big gulp of his beer, “Like he visited her often and made sure to bring her to every event or birthday. But one of them would always start a fight and it got so annoying over time. Every time he brought her I was afraid to say anything to him because if I only said one wrong word she’d start to discuss with him.”

Jaebum now interrupted him, “Well, it wasn’t only her to start a fight, to be fair. Jinyoung often enough started one too, whenever he was in a bad mood he’d always find a reason to fight.”

A scoff came out of your mouth, “I already thought he’d be one to pick fights, to be honest.”

“Speaking of the devil.”, Jaebum nodded towards the house of the Park’s and as you turned around you saw Jinyoung jogging over to you. He looked happy, a smile on his lips, something rather unusual.

“Why are you having a nice evening and no one cared to call me?”, he asked as he arrived in front of you, holding up a big plate with many different pieces of cakes on it, “I brought cake.”

Bambam immediately took the plate and set it in front of him as Jinyoung sat down on the free seat on the bench beside you.

“We were just talking shit about you.”, Bambam said, getting up to get some forks from inside.

“Why? What did I do?”, he asked, already sounding offended, ready to defend himself without knowing what even seemed to be the problem.

“I just told them about how you let me fall into the lake.”, you said, salty, playing a bit hard to get like so often.

“Why would you do that?”, he asked in a whiny tone, “Aren’t they teasing us enough already?”

You scoffed, “I don’t care about that. I still can’t believe you’ve done that. I could’ve caught a cold.”

He now started to act offended, “You didn’t though, right? I brought you cake as an apology, just to find you hanging out with our friends, without me?”

Jaebum let out a laugh at your constant bickering, “Young love must be so nice.”

“Shut up.”, you looked over to Jaebum, giving him a warning glance before you turned back to the real enemy here, “You think cake can just fix the trust I lost in you?”

He let out a laugh, “You’re being overdramatic.”

You knew you were and you weren’t even serious about the whole discussion, you couldn’t care less that he let you fall into the lake. It was just fun to annoy the living shit out of him, “You’re being an asshole.”

He scoffed before continuing your discussion in a mocking voice, “Wanted me to kiss you so bad that you can’t get over the fact that I didn’t?”

You let out a small gasp, not expecting his comeback. Jaebum and Bambam were both giggling like little boys, watching the two of you fight.

“If you think that, you’re truly delusional.”, you said, scoffing, even though everyone here knew he was right, “The only reason I didn’t kill you right then was that I was so relieved you didn’t kiss me.”

He snorted, not ready to give up yet, “Sure, just keep on telling it to yourself until you start to believe it.”

And this is how you spent the rest of the evening. Three of your closest friends, cake, one or two or maybe even more beers, a beautiful pink sunset and most important - in the place you loved to call your home.

[useless-blog-dont-bother]

NYGMOBBLEPOT THE MUSICAL - THE SCRIPT

Disclaimer: I swear I’m not on crack. It’s just that I write this when I desperately want and need to sleep but just can’t. And of course I don’t own any of the songs, nor the characters. And no it’s not the regular writing style, it’s written like a script.

PART 1

SCENE 1 – STREETS OF GOTHAM

The streets of Gotham are busy as usual. Some say the hectic streets of this city are a literal madhouse. But those people obviously never set foot in a real madhouse and especially not in the hell reserved for the criminally insane: ‘Arkham Asylum’. And yet they’re complaining.

GOTHAMITES: There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit,

And the vermin of the world inhabit it,

And its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit,

And it goes by the name of Gotham…

At the top of the hole sit a privileged few,

Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo,

Turning beauty into filth and greed…

And if you’ve sailed the world and seen its wonders,

You’ll know the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru,

But there’s no place like Gotham!

A kid, her backpack on one shoulder, is on her way home after a long day at Gotham High. A grown man pushes her and snatches her backpack.

KID (on the ground): Ugh, not again!

That kid is actually lucky, being robbed isn’t the worst thing that could have happened there. But it is the third time this month that she loses her bag. Only in Gotham.

SCENE 2 – OUTSIDE THE ICEBERG LOUNGE

Two men are getting out of a club called the Iceberg Lounge. A limousine is waiting for them.

EDWARD (about to open the limousine door): I’ll get the door!

OSWALD (going in the limousine): Oh, you’ll get much more!

BOTH: Either way we can’t go wrong…

With how shamelessly and how famously we’re both just getting along…

The smallest of the pair takes his partner’s hand and eagerly pulls him inside the limousine.

BOTH: We’re get, get, getting, get, get, getting, getting along!

OSWALD: So, what have you planned? I’m confident you didn’t make me close the lounge and got us the limo for nothing.

EDWARD (talking fast): We haven’t had date night in a while so I thought we, you know, we might as well make it a bit fancier than usual since it hasn’t happened in days, in weeks actually because of the lounge and the occasional robberies and the meetings and –

OSWALD (amused): Slow down, Ed.

EDWARD (blushing as he adjusts his glasses): I – Sorry, I –

OSWALD: No need to apologize, nor explain. I know how that brain of yours can be sometimes.

EDWARD: Hey!

OSWALD: You know I didn’t mean that in an offensive way. And you know I love everything about you. From your schemes to escape the GCPD to your way of fidgeting with your glasses when you’re nervous.

EDWARD: Everything? Even the riddles?

OSWALD: Especially the riddles.

EDWARD (chuckling): Now you’re just lying to make me feel better, Oswald.

OSWALD (smiling): What? No, I’d never do that.

SCENE 3 - RESTAURANT

Oswald and Ed are sitting at the best table of an expensive restaurant.

OSWALD: You really weren’t kidding when you said ‘fancier’.

EDWARD: Only the best for you.

OSWALD (resting a hand on Ed’s hand): For us, dear.

EDWARD: He’s touching my hand…

OSWALD: He’s looking kind of funny…

EDWARD: Wait, he knows I’m gonna propose?

OSWALD: Is this because I touched his hand?

EDWARD: Well, I guess…

OSWALD: Well, I guess…

BOTH: I’ll just go with it…

EDWARD: The very first time I saw you,

A very long time ago,

I have to admit,

I liked you a bit,

But I didn’t want you to know.

OSWALD: When we were roommates,

All I could do was stare,

And I can’t refute,

You looked pretty cute,

Tying that guy to a chair.

BOTH: I guess we’re doing this,

See that look in your eyes,

How could I resist?

It’s meant to be because we’re allies,

Time to move in for a kiss,

Just go with it and don’t ask why,

I guess we’re doing this…

WAITER: Are you, sirs, ready to order? Oh, I’m awfully sorry. It seems I’ve forgotten to give you the wine card earlier. I’ll be back in a second with it.

OSWALD: Well he couldn’t have had a worst timing. Where were we?

EDWARD (standing): I – I have to go to the restroom.

OSWALD (winking): Want me to accompany you?

EDWARD (laughing as he turns red): N – No, I’ll be back in a second.

SCENE 4 – MEN’S RESTROOM

Edward is muttering to himself while frantically washing his hands. As he looks up at his reflection in the mirror, Edward gasps.

THE RIDDLER: Long time no see, right?

ED: I thought I was done with you.

THE RIDDLER: If you really wanted to be done with me, you shouldn’t have taken those pills earlier.

ED: It was to help me with –

THE RIDDLER: Yes, I already know. Too nervous to propose to Pengy. We share a brain, you know?

ED: No, we don’t share a brain. You’re a figment of my imagination, an hallucination due to pills I should definitely throw away.

THE RIDDLER (resting a hand on Ed’s shoulder): Oh please, I’ve been in your head way before you started taking those pills. And I’m much more than a mere hallucination. I’m you and I want to help you, to help us.

ED (adjusting his glasses): Do you think he knows?

THE RIDDLER: Well, you did force him to close the lounge for the night and dragged him to Gotham’s fanciest restaurant. And I’m sure he’s aware that it’s been exactly a year since he’s been released from Blackgate.

ED: Oh crud…

THE RIDDLER: Also, another dead giveaway. Just look at us.

ED (dabbing his forehead with his handkerchief): Yes, I know.

THE RIDDLER (mockingly): We look like we just ran a marathon! I’ve never seen us sweat that much. And, Christ, quit blushing each time he looks at you.

ED: You’re really not helping.

THE RIDDLER (with a sly smile): You’re right. But maybe -

ED: Don’t even think about it.

THE RIDDLER: You really think the stuttering mess that you are is gonna be able to pop the question?

Ed briefly stares in the mirror before looking down. The Riddler’s smile grows bigger.

THE RIDDLER: I thought so.

ED: It’s such a bad idea…

THE RIDDLER: It’s a brilliant idea. Let me help you, Ed. We want the same thing, we’re the same. I’m just, well, stronger.

All your nerdiness is ugly,

All your stammering’s a chore,

Your tics and fidgets are persistent,

And your charm is non-existent,

Fix your vibe then fix some more.

ED: But -

THE RIDDLER: Oh, everything about you is so terrible,

Oh, everything about you makes me wanna die.

ED: Jesus Christ…

THE RIDDLER: So, don’t freak out,

And don’t resist,

And have no doubt,

If I assist,

You will be more chill.

ED: Alright. But you better not mess this up. I -

THE RIDDLER: Don’t worry, Eddie. Penguin’s wrapped around our finger anyway. He would never say no.

Ed sighs as his doppelgänger disappears. He is about to walk up to the door but he decides to glance one last time at his reflection. He smirks. The Riddler has taken over.

EDWARD: Let’s get to work.

[spideyy-girl]

Lipstick Stains ~ Stefan Butler

Request: omg omg could you write the cutest little drabble involving stefan and the reader is just kissing his face all over and he’s a flustered mess i would literally DIE PLEASE

okay so the kissing all over the face drabble? well, i thought of something BETTER! let’s say stefan is going off to tuckersoft for work and the reader is being all cute and leaves kisses all over his face right? unbeknownst that’s she’s wearing lipstick! stefan doesn’t realize and leaves, flustered of course. omfg can you imagine him walking into to tuckersoft and the LOOK on colin’s and thakur’s face enough said (bonus points colin has a shit eating grin ok i’m done) this is so fluffy ahhhhfjd

Summary: reader gives Stefan a few kisses before he leaves for work, but he completely forgets about her bright red lipstick, which now covers his face.

Fandom: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Warnings: Stefan is a lil bit older (early 20s), SO FUCKING FLUFFY AH!!

Word Count: 2956 (8.6 pages) whooie sorry ahaha

Date: January 31, 2019

A/N: So this was supposed to be short,,, but here we are. Also sorry if it took long, hopefully, you know why this bitch is a whole fucking book lmao. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, is like one of my favourite imagines ever probably, it’s so cute!!!

Relax, don’t do it.

“Stefan, please turn that bloody song off before I throw that radio across the goddamn room,” Y/N says, hitting her boyfriend without opening her eyes. Stefan groaned, letting off a chuckle, before reaching over to his bedside table to hit the snooze button before wrapping his arms around his girlfriend of over a year.

“Someone’s a little bit grumpy this morning,” he jokes, placing a kiss on her forehead. She smiles, hitting him again lightly on the chest. He traced her face with his long fingers until her eyes opened, revealing beautiful Y/E/C orbs to him, making him smile even more. “Good morning beautiful,” he says softly, yet his groggy morning voice is still very much heard.

“Morning, Stefan,” she replied, softly pecking his lips before getting up, dragging him out of bed with her, disregarding his begging her not to do so.

“Why don’t we just stay in bed all day, huh?” He suggests, pulling you back to the bed, sitting beside him. “We can put on a film, make popcorn... make out?” Y/N laughed, throwing her head back and shaking her head.

“That sounds lovely, darling, but you’ve got work in an hour,” she says, checking the clock. Stefan groaned again, his head going to her shoulder, leaving light kisses on her neck.

“Fuck work, I can do that later,” he said, kissing up my neck and eventually meeting my lips. I smile into the kiss, leaning into it before breaking apart. I nudged his nose with mine.

“That’s very sweet, darling, but I rather like this house and as much as I love spending time with you, I also love having a roof over our heads,” she says, giving him another kiss on the cheek before standing up again, bringing him with her through the small house they recently bought. “Now, what would you like for breakfast. Eggs?”

After eating their eggs and bacon, which was delicious, the couple went to get ready for their day, as always. Stefan put on a plain jumper and some jeans, a usual outfit that he wore what seemed like every day. Y/N dressed in a cute black dress, with a fitted top and flared out a bit from the waist down, adorned with little white polka dots. She went into the shared washroom attached to their bedroom and started on her everyday makeup. She didn’t wear too much, usually just a bit of concealer, some mascara, and of course, her signature red lipstick.

Stefan was getting ready to head out for work, he picked up his briefcase his walkman, headphones already around his neck. He put on his shoes and coat before calling out to Y/N that he had to leave now. As he was opening the door, he heard the patter of her small heeled shoes coming down the hallway.

“Wait! Stefan!” she called behind him. He turned around, seeing her jogging towards him with a paper bag. “I thought you might want some lunch,” she said, holding up the bag. He smiles gently and took the bag from her outstretched hand before placing it on a nearby table. Then he grabbed her waist.

“You’re not going to let me leave without a goodbye kiss, now are you?” He said, a joking smile on his lips as he looked at her. She truly was the most beautiful person he’s ever laid eyes on, and he didn’t know how on earth he deserved her, but it’s not like he’s complaining or anything. She smiled, looking down and shaking her head before looking back at him.

“How could I forget?” She said quietly, returning his giant smile with one of her own before grabbing his face in her smaller hands and started to kiss him all over her face. 

She started on his left cheek, her lips pecking his soft skin every half inch as she made her way up and around his forehead, before going down to the right cheek and across his nose, then going down to his chin and jaw, leaving even more kisses. She could feel Stefan’s laugh vibrating against her mouth, and it gave her even more encouragement to leave more. She made her way to the corner of his mouth, her pecks starting to become longer and softer, her lips met with his. They were slightly chapped, but she didn’t mind, she never did. Her hands ran through his slightly tangled dark curls, brushing through them before placing them on the back of his neck as his hands wandered to her waist. Soon they pulled apart, foreheads pressed together, both smiling like idiots in love.

“You never cease to amaze me, love,” he says, kissing her lips again before pulling apart. He completely forgot about how before she started kissing him, she had the brightest red lipstick ion but now it seemed to be gone. Y/N didn’t take notice either, that is until now, stepping back to see Stefan’s face covered in lipstick stains, the same shade that was just on her own lips a few minutes prior. But she didn’t want to bother him with such information. She held back her laugh, before reaching up to smooth his hair, which was slightly tousled due to her digits carding through them before. He blushed before pulling down his sweater.

“I look ok?” He asked, making sure that his appearance was office worthy. She giggles, her hand covering her mouth, before nodding.

“You look lovely, darling. Just like always,” she said before picking up the briefcase he had dropped on the ground and pushing it against his chest, leaning in and giving him another quick kiss. “Now hurry along, we don’t want you being late for work, now do we?” She said. Stefan shrugged.

“I think it’s a bit too late to be saying that now,” he said, laughing. She scoffed and pushed him out of the door, waiting at the entrance to watch him get into their car and drive out of the driveway and down the street until she couldn’t see the shadow of it anymore. She walked inside before laughing hysterically. She really was quite evil sometimes.

Now down the road, Stefan was driving, a carefree smile on his face thinking back to the events from earlier and how much he loved his amazing girlfriend. He didn’t even realize the little present(s) she had left for him on his grinning face. He didn’t even realize the bright rouge colour scattered all over his face when he checked his mirror, his head too busy being stuck in the clouds. The other people on the road driving beside him sure did though, and not one person that passed by him didn’t give their own weirded or confused look. But he paid no mind.

He walked into the building, taking the elevator up to the floor where Tuckersoft was located, his mood still very bright. As the elevator doors opened, he walked out, saying hi to the secretary just outside the doors, not recognizing the look of complete shock on her face, and let’s just say it’s not because Stefan said hi to her, as he does that pretty much every day. 

“Good morning, Colin,” Stefan says, plopping himself down beside his deskmate, catching the blonde’s attention. He turned his attention from his new game to Stefan, almost choking on a sip of water he took seconds before when he saw his friends face.

“Holy shit, Stefan!” he says, a shit-eating grin spreading against his face, grabbing his hand and bro-hugging him. “Well fucking done, mate!” Stefan had to say, he was a little bit confused from the enthusiasm but accepted it none the less.

“Umm, thanks, Colin! Well done to you too,” he replied, assuming he was talking about game development. Colin furrowed his eyebrows but still kept up his overly-large grin. It wasn’t often you saw Colin smile like this. But Stefan didn’t realize the mischevious look to it. Soon Mr. Thakur walks in to do the daily morning checkup meeting He walked out of his office and immediately paused when he saw the young boy with curly hair.

“Hello, Mr. Thakur. How’s your morning?” He says, walking to the usual meeting place, but Mr. Thakur stayed in place, his face getting red.

“What the bloody hell is this?” He says, gesturing to Stefan with a straight hand. “Is this a fucking joke, mate?” Stefan’s permanent smile faltered a bit, a look of confusion coming onto his face as he tilted his head a little bit.

“I-I’m sorry, sir? I don’t think I understand,” Stefan says, looking in between him and Colin, who was trying so hard to hold back his laughter that he started to tear up a bit. 

“C’mon, mate. I know you love your girlfriend a lot and whatever, but shit man this is some shit even I wouldn’t do,” Colin said, shaking his head, letting a bit of his laugh escape his lips. This comment took the smile off Stefan’s face completely.

“What does Y/N have to do with all of this?” He says cluelessly, making all of his coworkers groan and look away in annoyance. Colin just laughed more and Thakur out his head in his hand, shaking it slightly. Stefan looked around the office confused.

“God, don’t you ever look in a goddamn mirror,” Mr. Thakur said, aggressively pointing over to the mirror at the front of the office. Stefan looked at it, but the from the far distance he couldn’t see his reflection. He looked back to Thakur, shaking his head no.

“Not usually, sir. It makes me uncomfortable,” he replies quietly, looking at his shoes which were now tapping against the ground. Thakur, once again, shows him towards the mirror, inviting him to see his reflection.

He walked over, his boss and Colin behind him. He didn’t look up until he reached his destination, and to say he was surprised with his reflection was a complete understatement. He stood in front of the long glass, eyes so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, his mouth hung open. And the worst part was, he was shocked into standing still, he couldn’t move a muscle. Colin stepped up behind him, clapping a hand on his back before chuckling again.

“Dude, you look like you just got laid like five minutes before running in here,” Colin said, leaning back and bursting into laughter again. Stefan snapped out of it at that comment, pushing Colin, his face clearly expressing a ‘really? was that necessary?’ look. But he couldn’t say that he was wrong.

His hair was a complete mess, his face flushed a vibrant shade of pink, he wondered if it had been like that the whole time. But what stood out were the lipstick stains.

The goddamn lipstick stains. At least 20 of them. All over his face. In bright red.

 He flashed back to earlier that morning, to the moment where he knew this had happened. She said he looked great. The fucking bastard, Stefan thought, she knew that he looked like this. She knew that he was going to the office today. He couldn’t help the grin peeking through, thinking about his crazy girlfriend.

“Stop daydreaming, Butler!” Mr. Thakur said, clapping in front of the boy, pulling him out of his daze. “Get this fucking monstrosity off your fucking face!”

“Calm down, Thakur. You’re just jealous you don’t get any action," Colin said, smiling mischievously before walking with Stean to the washroom so he could wash it off. They could hear Thakur yelling profanities at them in the background, and laughing.

Stefan sighed, looking at himself through the bathroom mirror, shaking his head. "I don't even know how this happened. She told me I looked fine before I left!" He said, shaking his head. Colin smiled and patted his friend's shoulder. Looking at him through the reflection.

"She just wants everyone to know that you're hers, ya know, you're taken, and all that," he says, trying to reason for her. "It's a girl thing, Kitty does it too. She makes me wear this damn ring all the time," he says, showing the boy the band on his left hand. Stefan narrowed his eyes.

"That-that's your wedding ring. You're supposed to wear it all the time," Stefan said, looking back up to face Colin. He looked at him and then to his ring, and just shrugged. 

"Besides the point," Colin said. "It's just their weird girly way of saying 'I love you'," Colin explains. For some reason, the thought of Y/N doing that made his heart throb. Just the thought of Y/N, in general, made it skip a beat. He nods, looking at Colin.

"Well, she definitely doesn't have to worry about me going anywhere," he says softly, looking at his hands, playing with them. Colin nods and gave him an encouraging smile. A rare sight. Stefan went up to the sink to finally wash off the brightly coloured lipstick, only to be greeted with yet another surprise.

It wouldn't come off.

The fucking lipstick just refused to wash off his face. Stefan's eyes widened, picking up some soap on the damp paper towel and rubbing aggressively at his face. Only to be left with the stains slightly smudged. He threw the towel in the sink.

"Shit!" He said, hands running through his hair. Turning around to look at Colin, who was looking at him, questioning his outburst. "It won't fucking wash off! It's stuck!" He said with a look of true fear on his face. Colin's mouth opened a little before he burst into laughter once again. 

"Oh, you poor lad," he said between heaving breaths. "Thakur's gonna kill you now." And if you thought Stefan's eyes couldn't go bigger, oh they did. He started pacing the bathroom, trying, again and again, to rid of the red prints. But nothing prevailed. So he decided to face the wrath and just get back to work.

As he walked out of the bathroom, hood over his head in a hope that people wouldn't recognize the slight difference on his face, he walked into a smaller person. His hood falls, and he's met with a pair of Y/E/C eyes. They stood chest to chest, breathing in sync. She giggled, tucking a strand of Y/H/C hair behind her ear, looking up at Stefan.

"Hiya there, handsome," she says, a wide grin spreading across her face, seeing that his face was still covered. "You forgot your lunch, again." He shook his head, a smile unwillingly peeking through. He closed his eyes, head tilting back to the ceiling, letting out a sigh.

"I should be mad at you," he said, opening his eyes and lowering his head to look at the beautiful girl in front of him. She giggled, causing him to chuckle too. She tilted her head, a smirk growing on her reapplied red lips. How on earth did he not realize that before the incident? He's always looking at them anyway.

"You can't ever stay mad at me," she says playfully, putting a hand on his jaw. And just like that, it was like she put him under a spell, just like before. He forgot about his coworkers, some of which who were looking at the couple with disgusted looks on their faces. He shakes his head, grabbing her face and pressing his lips against hers, catching her by surprise. She dropped the paper bag and placed her hands on the back of his neck, playing with his hair.

"WHAT THE BLOODY-" a booming voice interrupts them. They pull apart, a bit shocked. Down the hall storms a giant and raging Mr.Thakur, walking with a purpose towards them. "What do you think this is?! Love Island?!" He shouts.

"Run," Stefan whispers to her ear, grabbing her hand. "Y/N, run!" They bolt down the hallway and through the office doors, laughing at the big boss trying to catch up with them. The elevator doors opened, a classy-looking businessman walking out. They pushed past him and into the shaft, pressing the lobby button multiple times. Mr. Thakur came through the Tuckersoft doors, looking around before making eye contact with them down the corridor. As he starts running towards them, the elevator doors started to close, almost closing on the man. They heard him banging and screaming at them through the metal. They stood there, mouths slightly agape, before slowly turning their heads to look at each other. The eye contact instantly making them crack up, holding themselves up with how much they were giggling. 

The elevator doors opened and Y/N grabbed Stefan's hand before taking them to his car, her hopping into the passenger seat and Stefan in the driver side. He quickly started the car, the radio starting to play on the radio. They quickly made their way outside the parking garage, Y/N kissing Stefan passionately as they drove off.

“So, what are you gonna do about Thakur?” Y/N asked as they got home. She led him up to the washroom before getting her makeup wipes and grabbed his chin, starting to wipe off the lipstick stains on her boyfriend's face. The said boy shook his head.

“I honestly have no idea,” he said, his head turning once she let go, throwing out the makeup wipe, all covered in crimson. He stood up and smiled at her, picking her up and her legs wrapped around his waist like a second instinct. “But I do know what I’m doing with you.”

[pr1ncessjasm1ne]

Love Sick

Summary: Y/N reminisces on memories that have led to the confessions of her best friend, [college!]Grayson, admitting his feelings. Word Count: ~ 5,600 Warnings: Cursing, mentions of smoking and drinking, but mostly fluff. A/N: Yikes, this is my first time posting for this fandom and NOT on my side blog, this is also the first time I write with a concept that I really like and needed for myself.  I grew to love it and I might make a part 2, so PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE FEEDBACK AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU WOULD WANT A SECOND PART!!! <3

tags: @cutesydolan @joeyskinnyleg @hmmmethan @ohmydolantwins

My days at university have been exceptionally beautiful during many moments. I was getting to date my best friend, whom I met here. It was an occurrence that I never really expected. It all started my freshman year. It was move-in day, to be exact.

“Mom, it’s to the left,” I instruct her on the other end of the large, blue plastic moving cart that we had unloaded my stuff into from our car. It was move in day for my first year of college, and I was ecstatic to be settled in and meeting new people to make friends immediately. I was also super excited to finally be away from home where I had never been allowed out of the house.

“Okay, number 205, right?” she asks as she slows down in front of the room. I nod in confirmation and move around to unlock the door. I guess I beat my roommate, since it was empty.

“Sweet, I want the bottom bunk!” I smiled at my mom as I started to walk in and she followed with the cart.

“Yay! If you fall off when you’re sleeping, you’re only a couple of feet off the ground!” She teased. She likes to think I’m a huge clutz in avoiding the reality that she’s oblivious to, which is that she’s the huge clutz. But whatever. I rolled my eyes in response and asked her to start putting the sheets on my bed while I go get the second cart with my dad.

The second I stepped out my door, I bumped in to a taller, larger man holding a huge box that hit my face. “Oh shit- I’m so, so sorry!” I heard as I clenched my eyes shut and held my hands to my temple. I open my eyes to find a pair of beautiful, deep green orbs decorated with some thick and sharp eyebrows currently furrowed with concern. 

“Uh… it’s ‘kay,” I giggled. I felt like I forgot the entire English language in that moment. I continued my hold on my temple before he gently removed my hands by the wrists, making me shiver a bit.

“Oh no, did the corner of the box hit you? It looks like you have a little cut.. oh my god, I’m so-“

“Hey, it’s fine! Nothing a little Neosporin can’t fix,” I reassure, “just be a little more careful, please. I’m asking for everyone.” He sports a small smirk and I caught his cute little dimple. The little dimple I didn’t know I would ever come to love so much.

“Okay, you got it. But still, I’m so sorry. Can I do anything?” He asks, without realizing someone was behind him trying to push another cart. It was my dad, bringing in the second cart I was supposed to help him with.

“Y/N, who’s this?” My dad blatantly asks. Grayson drops his hold on my hands and looks up. Dad has never been fond of any boys in my life, saying they were clearly only after one thing. It was no different with any stranger who looked between 17 and 20 years old. He’s a little overprotective, I guess.

“Good question, what’s your name, boy-who-hit-me-with-his-box?” I cross my arms and cock an eyebrow. He shifts his eyes between my dad and I, growing a little red in the face.

“I promise it was an accident- I’m Grayson…” he smiles a bit awkwardly. I couldn’t help but giggle at his reaction to my dad’s glare after I mentioned the incident that brought our meet, to begin with.

My dad completely dismissed Grayson’s existence and asked me to move out of the doorway to bring the first cart in and replace it with the second one. I did as I was told and moved over to let my parents handle the moving for a second.

“Do you need any help with that box, by the way?” I asked, pointing down at the box he had dropped when he grabbed my wrists. He quickly bent down to pick it up and let out a small chuckle.

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind a spotter to make sure I don’t hit anyone else,” he smiled in my direction. How am I supposed to resist that smile? I moved to be in front of him and led him down to the boy’s hall of the residence.

“What number?” I asked, slowing down my pace as we made our way down.

“220, right there,” he pointed me to the door just a few feet away. I helped him steer clear of a couple of parents he couldn’t see, and probably would have hit with his obscenely large moving box. I noticed the door was prompted open, so I let myself in. I let curiosity get the best of me and decided to watch him for a bit.

“Bottom or top bunk?” I asked. He set the box down behind me and dropped to his knees to start unpacking it.

“I want the bottom bunk, but I know my brother is going to use the ‘I was born first’ card to claim it once he gets here,” he sighs. I take the liberty to sit down on the bottom bunk to test it out.

“Hmm. Unless you want to hit your head constantly on the top bunk, I think you dodged a bullet there,” I stated while holding the metal bars above me.

“Same difference, I’ll hit my head up on the ceiling, too. I just don’t wanna climb,” he smiles. He shifts his focus from the box over to me, and I notice he caught a glance of my exposed thighs in my shorts. I immediately felt a bit insecure and I covered them with my hands before standing up.

“True. Well, good luck to you, Grayson. I have to go help my parents before they complain and say I’m avoiding them,” I say while peeping into his box. It looked like a bunch of tech stuff and lost interest for the moment, making a mental note to ask about it later. “I’ll see you around,” I sport my biggest smile as I leave the room.

“Bye, Y/N!”

 I saw Grayson very frequently that year. We bumped into each other nearly every day first semester; I saw him after sociology as I was making my way into the building and he was making his way to class. During midterms season in early October, I would get annoyed of my roommate talking to her boyfriend from back home every single night while I was trying to study. I decided to go in the common room of the residence hall one night and found Grayson taking up an entire table with his laptop, books, and notes spread out as he was studying. That night, he was wearing a white hoodie and gray sweats, looking real cute and cozy. He had his hood up and fidgeted with the strings, which I later found out he did often. He was alone in the common room, which indicated that it was pretty late at night considering that was a popular study space. Even though there was plenty of space, I still sat at the table he occupied because I didn’t want him to feel lonely, even if we were both going to be silently working on our own things. That quickly turned out to be the opposite of what we intended. Every time we started studying, he would ask me random questions about myself and got me rambling for hours. Eventually, this became a problem because we would never really get work done. I found out his twin brother, Ethan, was always playing video games late at night while he tried to study. I didn’t mind that I would hardly get my work done with him. I enjoyed getting to know him every few nights at 3 in the morning until the sun rose and we called it a night and went on with our lives.

Second semester, I found him in my statistics class. Our late-night study sessions, therefore, started to become intentional as well as more frequent. The fact that we both actually needed to study and had each other for support didn’t stop us from getting distracted and talking about literally anything else. I also started hanging out with him in our rooms which eventually led to hanging out outside of the residence hall. We started going to the dining halls together along with his brother, Ethan, and my new friend Alena. Alena quickly made a move on Ethan one night while we were all taking a walk around the lake nearby to stargaze. I was very happy for them when they shared their first kiss together, but it made me a bit sad when I had no one to share an experience like that with. Grayson suggested I should get on tinder, but I didn’t cave then. I was always hoping something would spark between us and bring us together and I don’t think I would have wanted there to be a chance for it to happen with someone else. Not at that time.

Over summer, Grayson and Ethan went back to New Jersey, while Alena went back to her hometown of San Angelo, Texas. I made my way back to my small town in California, which was only a few hours away from our university. I was happy to be back home, but I missed Grayson more than anyone. We started sending one another consistent snapchats of random things that happened throughout our day. Or random selfies with “bored” somewhere on the caption. It always depended on the day, really. But there was never a day I didn’t see his gorgeous face on my screen. At some point in the summer, we started to facetime at night, continuing our late-night chats from the study room. Most times, he would be sending me things to watch on youtube and watch my reaction. It was something we liked to do at our distracted study nights as well. Other times, we would just keep each other company while we played video games or one of us was trying to sleep. It became habitual to fall asleep to the sound of Grayson Dolan’s soft snores even though he had never physically slept next to me. I almost couldn’t sleep the night I moved back up for the second year of college.

“This apartment is sick, [Y/N]! You could throw parties here!” Grayson exclaimed, sitting on my new bed. I let out a small giggle as I sat next to him. “I’m not really a party girl, Gray,” I tilted my head at him. He averted his gaze and stared at his lap.

“You’re right, but I’ll be coming over a lot. This is way better than the small studio Ethan got us stuck with,” he said shifting his eyes back to mine. I felt a slight rush of heat and decided to lay down and stare at the ceiling to shake off the effect Grayson’s eyes had on me. I hadn’t looked into them since the last day before summer, and I forgot how intimidating they were. I always felt like Grayson could see into my soul and take it to keep whenever he laid eyes on me.

“You’re welcome to stay whenever Ethan won’t stop geeking out,” I offered. “But you’re also welcome whenever, and you know that”. I was trying so hard to suppress the smile that threatened to stretch out my cheeks. I felt him lay back next to me, and I shifted my attention to his face.

“Thanks, beautiful,” he almost whispered. I swear if it had been any lower, I wouldn’t have heard him. I almost pretended not to hear it, but my smile and blushing cheeks made it evident. I quickly sat up again, shaking off this feeling.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want Grayson to know how I felt, nor was it that I was afraid of rejection. I genuinely just wanted to keep Grayson around as platonic as I could for as long as I could. I also did not think he was anywhere in my league, but I wouldn’t let that flood my mind. I enjoyed Grayson and his company. His actions and words never crossed any boundaries of mine and I couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not. Regardless, he was my best friend and Alena would kill me if she heard me say it. I tried to tell myself I was just lusting over my best friend because I was horny, and he was the closest guy I had around. Besides him and Ethan, I didn’t have many guy friends who were straight in my life at the moment. And I definitely did not want to pursue Ethan after him and Alena had hooked up one night and she caught feelings for him- BAD. And I can’t blame her. Ethan was amazing, sweet, hilarious, and the tinge bit of annoying was actually endearing on him. However, he was no Grayson to me. Sure, Ethan checked up on me and sent me random memes every now and then. But my second year showed me just how close Grayson and I were going to get.

 It was a cold night during finals week of first semester when I was studying at the library and I got my period out of nowhere. No, it wasn’t just that I was far from my apartment and couldn’t get a pad that made me lose it. It was also that I was so close to failing the class I was studying for, and it was that I had spent 14 hours studying the material that day alone, and that I hadn’t had a proper sleep for 4 days also studying for this exam.

While I was sitting in the bathroom stall, crying my eyes out at 1 am, I tried to call Alena to see if she could bring me a pad or tampon from home. To my dismay, her phone was off and I kept getting sent to voicemail. Just a few minutes later, I got a text from Grayson, who had also been studying with me at the library:

gray<3: hey u good?

I knew he was no stranger to periods and wasn’t one of those boys to get freaked out by it, so I decided to call him.

“Hey, what’s up? You’ve been in the bathroom for a while. I got worried,” he said. I tried to muffle my sobs and get myself together.

“I got my period and I don’t have anything with me, Alena won’t pick u-“

“HEY does anyone have a pad or tampon?” I heard Grayson say away from the speaker. “My friend is in the bathroom, she doesn’t have anyth- oh thanks! Yeah I think she’s in the bathroom on this floor,” he said to someone else. I started laughing at his shameless behavior. He was never hesitant to make sure I was taken care of but this was just amusing to me. “Okay a blonde girl is gonna come in there any minute now, she had something useful,” he giggles. I reciprocate the laughter as my heart jumps a little bit.

“Thanks, Grayson,” I say before hanging up.

While small, the gesture stuck with me that night. He also went to the campus convince store located across from the library and bought me some snacks to cheer me up while we studied a bit longer. When we were done, he walked me back to my apartment and stayed the night. When I asked him why he wanted to spend the night during the most stressful time of our semester when he could be bundled up and cozy in his own bed, he said he would rather make sure I’m extra warm and getting cuddled when I was on my period and stressing over exams. This was new territory in our friendship and we had yet to test the waters. We had cuddled before, but it was always for a short period of time and while others were present. Most times, it was when we were watching movies or playing games with a group of people and we were stuck sitting on the floor. I would lean my back against his chest as he leaned against a couch or cabinet. That night, he held me in the same position but laying down, with one arm gently around my waist and the other tucked around my head as he stroked my hair every now and then. It was the first time since summer that I had fallen asleep to the sound of his soft snores. I found myself drifting off easily to the gentle, warm feeling of them against my hair. To say I caught myself falling in love with him that night is an understatement. I finally admitted it but didn’t know where to go from there. It was different from how I had seen him before.

Winter break separated us again, and the facetime calls became more frequent than they had been over summer. It got to a point where I started introducing him to my family over facetime, and he did the same. Nonetheless, I was surprised on Christmas Eve when he facetimed me asking to open the package that he sent me through the mail as a Christmas gift for a reaction. I was in the living room where my family had been gathered to watch a Christmas movie when he texted me to check the mail. I didn’t expect to see a small box and a separate envelope from him in there. Immediately, I ran up the stairs to my room with my family asking what I was doing. I didn’t pay attention to them and bolted straight to my bed as he called. I answered and sat down before opening the envelope first, as he requested.

The first thing I found in there was a hand-written note reading:

“Y/N,

First of all, you don’t understand how much I miss you. Seeing you through a screen literally does you no justice. I’d rather be giving you this in person. Second, you’re so special to me. You’re my best friend. And my best friend deserves the best. I really hope you like it. I chose it myself and Ethan said it was nice… I kinda trust him. I just thought of you instantly when I saw it. Lastly, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

- Gray”

I think he knew exactly how to pull at my heartstrings by this time, and he knew handwritten notes were one of my favorite things. I kept all the random sticky notes with jokes and doodles he put in my notebooks when I wasn’t looking while we studied at the library all those nights. He didn’t know I kept them all in the back of my planner, sticking them an inch apart to create a collection.

I pulled the next thing out of the envelope, which was three Polaroid pictures we had taken at three different times. The first picture was an attempted selfie that was mostly Grayson’s smile and my eye featuring one of the ears of my cat ear headband. On the bottom, written in sharpie was: “10/31/17 – one of my favorite nights”.

“So we’re dressing up just to hang out and eat candy?” I asked Grayson from my bed, as he sat against it with his laptop open searching for last minute DIY Halloween costumes.

“No, we’re dressing up because it’s Halloween. It’s tradition,” he states sternly.

I didn’t dare question Grayson and his love for holidays. He ended up asking me to do some skull makeup on him, which I did… poorly. And I just stuck on my cat ears that I had laying around for when I wanted to push my hair back while doing my makeup. I went full out with him and drew some whiskers on with eyeliner and drew a pink heart on my nose with lipstick. He insisted we should take a polaroid and the one that came out was the one he sent in the mail. We burst out into laughter after we saw the developed photo because Grayson swore that he had the perfect angle for us to be in frame, and he was totally wrong. But at the time, it was the last of the film he had, and we decided the photo would suffice for memories and we took a few selfies on his phone for better measure. That night ended in us watching Rick and Morty until I passed out in the bed where we were sitting against the wall, and Grayson went home. I didn’t know why it was one of his favorite nights, so I asked him while we were on facetime.

“It was the first night I saw you fall asleep in front of me,” he said with a bit of hesitation in his voice, “all the other times were over facetime.” My lips betrayed me when I tried to hide my smile. I didn’t think Grayson had such fond memories of small things like this as I did. I thought I was the only one.

The second photo was one of Grayson holding a joint in his mouth and I held a lighter against the joint and smiled at the camera. Again, written in sharpie: “11/11/17- baby’s first weed”. I laughed hysterically at this one. This was from the first time Grayson and I smoked weed together, and his first time ever smoking.

“Okay, remember to hold it in your mouth and then when you pull it away, inhale it,” I instructed Grayson. My housemate Kiara had brought home several joints and left them out on the living room coffee table for anyone who wanted them. I was curious to see what Grayson would be like while he was high. Alena was with us, and she had never smoked before either.

“Wait, let me take a picture with Grayson’s polaroid!” Alena exclaimed. We posed somewhat silly, and then I lit the joint for Grayson.

Grayson took a puff of the joint and breathed as I had taught him. His eyes were getting a little bloodshot as he kept taking hits, and they were also a bit hooded and seemed sleepy. I knew he was high when the three of us were sitting in comfortable silence while lightly playing The 1975 from my phone. I heard a slight snort escape him. It took me a little bit to react, looking over to him and giggling inexplicably.

“What?” I asked through a smile.

“I don’t know,” he replied, still giggling. “I just wanna laugh!!”

“It’s the weed, Gray!” Alena cackled out. I couldn’t believe the lightweights that sat on each side of me on the couch. I was also high, but I obviously forgot what it was like when you smoked for the first time.

After a while, Alena felt the sleepiness hit her and she knocked out in her bed, leaving me alone with high Grayson. We sat in the same silence with the light sounds of the music for a while before Grayson admitted he was feeling the munchies hit him. We made our way to the kitchen when I remembered I had some left-over, pre-made cookie dough from baking cookies for Alena’s birthday last month. Right as I put the cookies in the oven, Grayson wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and lifted me up.

“Gray!! STOP!” I squealed and laughed. I would have normally begged him to stop for a bit longer, but he turned me around and sat me up on the counter next to the stove. I choked on my breath a little bit as he spread my legs apart slightly to allow himself in between. I didn’t know what was going on because he had never done this before, but I wasn’t going to complain. His face was close to mine, and I noticed his eyes fixed to my lips, then my eyes, and then my lips again. I couldn’t handle the intensity in this interaction, so I grabbed the cookie dough wrapper and started picking at the bits of lingering dough to stick in my mouth. “Want some?” I asked with a slight shake in my voice, holding out my dough covered finger. He smiled and accepted the cookie dough I held up, licking up the dough and going for more from the wrapper. I didn’t want things to get awkward with Grayson if I had made a move and kissed him when maybe he was just super high and admiring me for no reason.

The last photo was just of me, asleep on his chest with his hand through my hair. This was from the morning after he had spent the night during finals and I didn’t even know he took this. This time, the sharpie just read “12/13/17 – nervous x nbhd”. My heart escaped my entire body and I felt my head start to spin. I knew this meant he wanted me to know that I made him nervous, as The Neighborhood had so perfectly titled their song. I couldn’t breathe, but before I could ask Grayson anything, my mom barged into my room.

“Y/N, come back down please. We’re doing family stuff,” she said eagerly, “don’t be rude by staying up here.”

“Okay, give me just a second mom, Grayson sent me this-“

“Y/N! Now!” she whisper-yelled. I put the polaroids away in my desk just in case my mom wanted to punish me for smoking weed or being asleep on top of a boy.

“Hey, Grayson I’m sorry. I gotta go, but I’ll open the package later?” I bit my finger nervously.

“That’s fine, go do family stuff. I’ll be awake,” he reassures me. I felt butterflies in my stomach knowing I’ll be talking to him later.

While watching yet another boring Christmas movie with my family, I couldn’t help but think about Grayson deciding to put that song title on the picture of me sleeping. What did this mean? Was there any meaning to it at all? I was stepping in more uncharted territory with Grayson, and with anyone. I hadn’t had a boyfriend since the beginning of high school, so I forgot how to interact with boys I liked. I also didn’t get much practice since I was too busy swooning over Grayson to pay attention to any other guys who might have been potential interests. Grayson didn’t make it very clear if there were any other girls in his life, but the more I thought about it, the less I could think of a single time he talked about being interested in a girl. I grabbed my phone and texted Ethan.

Y/N: Hey I need to talk to you        Don’t tell Grayson!!! PLEASE!

Eetee: What’s up??

Y/N: Okay I need you to be completely honest with me right now

Eetee: Ok…? I always am but ok

Y/N: Yes. So does Grayson like me??

       Read at 9:47pm

I got nervous as he left me hanging for a good 15 minutes.

Y/N: ETHAN PLEASE DON’T SAY ANYTHING TO GRAYSON

Eetee: I can’t tell you anything either

Y/N: What do you mean?

Eetee: You’re asking someone who was sworn to secrecy on this subject. Shouldn’t that give it away?

Eetee: Btw that should be a totally obvious answer, but I can’t insinuate anything. Just talk to him

Ethan knew Grayson was in love with me. Grayson had told him about every single time he got me to smile so much that my faint dimples started showing. Grayson told him about every snapchat I sent him while he held up his phone and said “Isn’t she so cute?!” Ethan was there every time Grayson came home from hanging out with me, feeling sad that he couldn’t find the courage to confess how he felt. Ethan was also there the night Grayson got high and came home giggling hysterically. He knew he had smoked, but what he didn’t expect was to hear Grayson tell him how he almost kissed me. He almost found the courage to act on his feelings, but I made cookie dough our “cock-blocker”.  Ethan wanted to tell me all of this right then, but Grayson made him swear he wouldn’t spill a word to me because he wanted to do it himself. He needed to find the right words and the right time.

I decided to leave my family once again, claiming that I was tired and promised to come back down if I couldn’t sleep. It was a cheap excuse, but my family finally let me go and I immediately facetimed Gray as I locked the door to my room.

“Hey again,” he smiled through his barely open hoodie. He was snuggled up in his bed and looked so perfectly cute. I could never get enough of him.

“Hi, sorry about earlier. I’ve been so eager to keep talking to you.”

“It’s okay. Go open your present,” he flashed his toothy smile as he commanded me to open what he sent.

“You know you didn’t have to get me anything, right? The pictures are amazing, and I was so close to crying before my mom came in,” I admitted.

“Cool, then it worked. Now open what I WANTED to get you because I know I don’t have to get you anything,” he chuckled. He knew I was stubborn about gifts and I hated being materialistic.

But when I opened the package, I didn’t expect to see what he had gifted me. It made my heart stop for the second time tonight, but also start racing faster than it was already going. I stopped fighting my smiles at this point. “Gray….. what the…?” I whispered.

“Just wanted you to know how much you mean to me.” He said sweetly. It was a beautiful, dainty gold necklace with a small crescent moon adorning that I had seen in a jewelry store we checked out when Ethan wanted a new chain and we tagged along. It was very pretty but I couldn’t afford it and I had honestly, completely forgotten about it. I’m surprised Grayson remembered how much I loved it when I saw it.

“Why did you- when did you- what?!” I was out of words. This was the most attention someone had ever put into a gift for me. Even though I didn’t wear jewelry often, I knew I was going to be rocking this necklace every single day just because Grayson had gifted it to me.

“I know you love the moon, and you loved that necklace so much. I saw it in your eyes when we were at that store. I went back like a month later by myself and got it. Saved it for Christmas.” Grayson sounded really proud of himself, and honestly, I was too. This was such a sweet gift and it truly made me want to be the first to confess how I felt and get it over with.

“Grayson, I love it. Thank you so much,” I gushed, “god, I love you…” I said quietly. I felt an awkward silence fall on us, and I was unsure as to if he heard me or not. I kept my focus on the necklace to avoid seeing his face if he had heard me.

“Y/N… I need to tell you something….” He said quietly, losing his short-lived confidence. I looked at my phone screen to see him tucked behind his hoodie that he had pulled the strings on, only his nose and some of his forehead visible. “I’ve had a major crush on you since we met, and my feelings just keep getting more intense. I wanted to tell you in person, I swear-“

“It’s okay, you have told me in person,” I cut him off reminiscing in all the memories where I left myself wondering if he liked me or if it was just a delusion of mine. The pictures and his confession of said “crush” was enough confirmation that I had been waiting for.

“What do you… oh, the pictures?” He chuckled, opening his hoodie a little more, to peek through. “Yeah, I was hoping you caught on eventually… I just- I’m not sure how to tell someone I like them, so…”

“It’s fine, I love the pictures. I love the necklace. I’m so, so happy right now, Gray.”

We spent that night on facetime until 5 in the morning in my time zone, but he was up until 8 in the morning, where he had to go open presents with his family. We talked about our different memories where it was obvious that we had feelings for one another and we both felt like the other was not into them. I laughed at how he thought the time I changed in front of him was because I thought of him as a brother. But I was very drunk, and he walked me home that night to make sure I was okay. And I needed help getting out of the dress I had worn because the back zipper got caught on something and fell off completely. Everyone else in my apartment was still out partying and Grayson was the only person around, which was fine by me. I pranced around in my underwear after he helped me out, hoping it would be a bit amusing or maybe spark a bit of innocent, drunk fun between us. He admitted he was also drunk that night, being overly tempted to finally kiss my lips as well, and touching my bare skin made him too nervous to make a move. He didn’t want to send the wrong message, so he avoided contact with me until I needed to be tucked into bed when he kissed my head through my hair. I hardly remembered that, as I was pretty wasted. But, he told me how nervous he was I’d get weirded out by it.

This is where it really started.