#school starts literally tomorrow and I am So prepared. I have my shit together
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syncast-err0r · 3 months ago
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a surprising outcome of Not Being Chronically Online (anymore) is that i get so pissed when i see posts that imply I'm doomscrolling just bc I'm looking thru social media . like no the fuck I am not ? I was productive all day n even had time to do some of my hobbies. I talked to my friends n spent time w my family. I'm sure the whole "all I've been doing is doomscrolling" applies to so many other people, but I don't like seeing shit like that on my feed when I am simply taking a break from being busy irl !
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ramblingsfromthytruly · 3 months ago
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getting shit together~
day 1/50 productivity challenge
26/august/2024 - monday
no school today so yay! i don't really have anything urgent to "catch up" on but i've fallen severely behind on my own study plan. considering i don't go to any extra tuition/coaching, i need to be disciplined in my time management and hold myself accountable to the reasonable plans i made for myself. i'm not in too deep though so all i need to do now is get back on track.
🕒 10:00 a.m.
morning skincare
extended duolingo streak
cleaned out email + photo gallery
practiced playing keyboard
enough is enough with my procrastination towards studying. i mean i even watch study motivation videos on youtube instead of studying! so i just made a cup of coffee and dived straight into work.
studied psychology ch-1: what is psychology?
something to say: the ncert psychology textbook is actual nonsense. thank god for my teacher, he actually explains each concept mentioned in the textbook and so much more. if it wasn't for his classes, i don't think i would have understood literally anything in the textbook. the fact that he's most probably leaving next year is kinda making me anxious because what if the next teacher is absolute shit. this is a subject that involves lots of theory and long lectures. my current teacher is very animated in his discussions and he also involves us students too. it's never a boring class. but if the next teacher is boring i will literally start hating the class, and i don't want that to happen considering i love this subject and am actually planning on pursuing it in the future.
also akjsdfhkjashgdjkg sigmund freud, that man, istg, is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.
it really grates on my skin if my room is dusty. and that easy annoyance combined with being a maximalist who loves trinkets is not a good combination. the universe decided to make me a walking contradiction, in many areas of my life. i make it a thing to clean my room at least once every week.
cleaned my room
did a workout video (when the workout leaves you sore>>>)
i like to do the dusty and sweaty work before taking bath so that i feel clean for the rest of the day. also thank fuck my periods ended yesterday, i hate them so much ugh i never even want to be pregnant.
took bath
prepared for seminar for psychology
basically us students have to learn the 6th chapter and "teach" it to the teacher. since we're only 3 students, our teacher told us to divide the topics amongst ourselves. we're supposed to start tomorrow but my topic is probably not tomorrow since i'm doing the second part of three. i still want to start preparing. presentations always make me nervous but i know that if i'm prepared i don't do bad at all.
night skincare
🕒 12:30 a.m.
will probably get around 6 hours of sleep.
also, random warning/tip but don't trust the ai generated summary of answers that comes up first when you search anything on google. it just uses whatever phrases it can to make a coherent set of statements. but a lot of the time, it doesn't summarize correctly at all. click on the results of a legit website to at least quickly cross-check. do not take info solely from the ai tool.
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belethlegwen · 2 years ago
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What does Henry think about Human holiday traditions? 💜
I was LITERALLY just having a conversation with Zip about this re: Henry and Atticus hahahaha Ok, SO
Please let me apologize for not answering multiple asks about this
They are sittin' in my queue staring me down only because I'm a weirdo with some personal hangups (nothing major or whatever I just... have not put a ton of thought into this).
What I am about to write is very long, winding, and personal. There'll be a TL:DR at the end for the ACTUAL answer to this question, but for now, have a read more:
In the real world, I don't do like... Traditional Christmas for myself. Born and raised Christian/Catholic, of COURSE my family (all of it. So much of it. There is so much family I get two god damn turkey dinners tomorrow. One at lunch and one at dinner) does Christmas and always has. Back in about the mid 2010s I was working with a local non-profit/charity organization and all of my friends were like, 3-10 years younger than I am, all in school, all making ends meet barely kind of deal. I stopped doing Christmas gifts. It started slow and awkward; I got my family who were doing well for themselves and didn't need anything a bunch of those like, "Gifts of Hope" with the money I would've spent on gifts for them. My friends I got basically nothing save for one or two. My sisters' gift money bought a whole bunch of chickens or ducks for a family, my parents bought a goat I think? I can't remember, it was basically a billion years ago now in my brain so I don't fully recall what I got them.
Then I just... stopped getting gifts. Every now and then I'd really spring for something if it jumped out at me or seemed important for someone, but most of the time I would do like... alright cool, I will pay for lunch for everyone at work. I will take someone out for a nice drive. I want memories, I want to give you nice memories. I like giving gifts, but the pressure at Christmas time is UNREAL, and that was one of the real reasons I stopped doing presents. Friends who straight up did not have the money were getting me gifts because they were expecting some from me and I had to put my foot down and tell them No, do not buy me shit. I ain't gettin' you shit, please stop stressing and harming yourself emotionally or financially for me, I don't need anything. So I don't do gifts anymore. I have a little gay Christmas Tree with Bernie Sanders on top, it's out year-round because me and my cousin gay'd it the fuck UP for valentines in 2021 and it became a Pride Tree and so it's just there, always. For Christmas I move it from the corner to the middle of the livingroom window. That's all the decorating I do. In The Rescue, Melanie is still very much grieving the loss of her Father and Step-Mother, who were the people she celebrated a lot of the holidays with. She still does SOME holiday stuff with Laura and Dyna and Mark (sort of on Mark. More like he's around, and she does little things to keep him from feeling excluded) and chats with a few estranged friends rarely, BUT for the most part... holidays just glide by. She was, until Henry arrived, only going to care about Christmas and the lead-up to it in the sense that it would've opened up a bunch of Christmas markets and stuff for her to sell some of her driftwood art pieces at. I have not thought extremely hard on HOW it's going to come up initially in The Rescue, but yes. At some point Melanie will probably celebrate a real Christmas again with Henry and her close friends.
[TL:DR] As for how he FEELS about Christmas:
Henry loves it. They have similar gift-giving or family-get-together holidays near the solstices every year. The Winter Solstice is specifically a food-oriented holiday where the weeks and everything beforehand are people preparing to either host extremely LARGE meals for as many friends/family/neighbours as they can cram in, or if you aren't hosting, you're doing as much long-shelf-life food prep as you can. Henry and his Mom used to do a LOT of bottled chicken/meats, and jams/jellies for their neighbours. In rare years where the harvest wasn't strong enough for there to be a large surplus? Socks, mittens, hats, and so on. His Dad actually used to be phenomenal at mending boots, and apparently a lot of the neighbouring farmers/farm workers begrudged the years that the Lemuels had a great crop year because it meant that his Dad probably wasn't going to be doing his "Bring your boots to the house and I'll have them leak free before the holiday is done". As a boy, Henry hated the fact that he felt he knew all of his neighbours' footsmells individually. When his father passed, because neither he (nor his mother, for that matter) ever knew how he had done it, it was one of the things that made that holiday feel even more hollow in the loss. No smell of old, well-worn boots in the house. Henry thinks the trees and decorating them is "nice" but also "...Why?" and he could do without a good number of the Christmas songs that get played over and over again on the radio. Melanie introduces him to a number of Christmas movies that he enjoys as much as any other movies, but mostly he just loves the atmosphere of friends and loved ones coming together for gifts, joy, food and warmth. It's very nostalgic for him.
Thanks so much for the question, Ozzy! So so so sorry for the immense and possibly heavy answer. AND SO SORRY TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ASKED ABOUT MEL/HENRY AND HOLIDAYS WHO I HAVE JUST LEFT HANGING THERE, I AM A MONSTER.
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ibelieveinghost · 7 months ago
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4/15/24
woke up at 8:56 pm halfway expecting to see my parents beside me. dunno what got into me. i miss them. i literally saw them in February.
feeling like shit. headache+ horrible cramps are trying to kill me again. sitting up straight and typing like this is painful, so is everything else. i'd go for a walk when i'm in this mental state. but...this current physical condition makes almost every outdoor activity impossible. i need fresh air, i need a little music. i need to write it all out.
speaking of music:
youtube
(this is the sounds from my childhood. this is one of the CDs my dad had playing in his car and what we listened to on all those road trips and every morning he drove me to school. dad and i bought it together the year it came out, at some sketchy (definitely smuggling) underground CD/DVD store in my hometown, somewhere in China. the year was 2005. i can't believe this is their most hated album. every song is a literal banger. anyway. never failed to hug me in like a blanket. i need this)
when i'm in physical pain i turn silent. i stop talking to people. i wait for it to all pass. idk. it's a lot. it's a part of me that's still... lol i don't even know how to talk about it.
got no choice but to call in sick tomorrow, agh. i hate it.
on a separate note, got the mail saying my COMITIA application got approved...and i don't have anything prepared yet!!! okay, okay. it's 5 weeks away. no need to rush. start working on it as soon as you feel better. it'd only take couple of weeks. you can do it. you can you can you can. not today tho, not in this state. stop trying turning this day into anything productive(i know why you're typing this instead of lying down)
for someone who endured chronic pain for years now you'd think i should have grown sorta immune, or at least numb to it. but no. pain still enrages me. or... am i getting better at this?
writing it out is at least helping a bit, or maybe it's the music.
ok it's definitely the music lol
anyway. think i'll be calling mom, and do some (digital) chores before i lay down again. maybe i'll watch a movie. it's obviously not all good---but it'll be okay. it'll be over soon. and it's my birthday next week! already got so much planned haha
okay. off to face my demons again now!
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tarydarrington · 3 years ago
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"Alright, everyone," Veth says with authority, and everyone else quiets down. "Tomorrow is the big day."
Caleb sighs and ducks behind his drink. There is a speech coming. This is exactly the sort of ceremony he had hoped to avoid by having this get-together at his home rather than the bar Veth had suggested. It's only five of them, tonight; Beauregard and Yasha are always in town, and Veth had insisted on coming. And Essek, of course. He's not sure when the elf's presence at his side became an of course, but in a careful way, he likes it.
“As the person in this world who cares the most about Caleb--”
Essek silently quirks an eyebrow at that, and it doesn’t get past Veth.
“Alright, come on, just because you got him into bed and I didn’t doesn’t mean--”
Caleb clears his throat loudly, and Veth’s smile snaps back into place.
“As Caleb’s oldest, dearest, truest friend,” she says, and Essek manages to look dignified even while rolling his eyes, “it is my humble duty to tell you all how amazing he is on this momentous occasion.”
“You know, I am starting a new job, not getting married,” Caleb murmurs in her direction.
“And we’re all very proud of you!” Veth replies.
Caleb takes a long drink as the others chime in with agreement. Yasha shoots him a sympathetic look, and he returns a tight smile.
“Come on, man,” Beau says from where she leans against the table, “aren’t you excited, at all?”
He takes a long breath. Excited is a word for it. Ready to vomit at a moment’s notice is perhaps more accurate. The Soltryce Academy is tricky. He’s been back there a few times in recent weeks, for interviews and preparation, and each time, it’s felt like walking through a dream of a place the mind could not quite capture properly.
For whatever purpose, Trent has always wanted Caleb - Bren - to follow in his footsteps. Those footsteps feel a touch too literal in those hallways.
“Caleb?” Beau’s voice brings him out of his thoughts. “You still with us?”
He shakes his head. "Ja. Entschuldigung. There is a lot to think about."
Veth lowers her glass, frowning. "Nobody threatened you, did they? Because I'll have words with them."
"No, nothing like that." Not lately, anyway. He sets his own drink down on the table. "Just a bit worried, perhaps."
"Worried about what?" Beau asks flatly.
Caleb lets out a long breath, looking down at the floor. Where to begin? He’s worried that everything will go wrong. Worried that he’ll turn up with his clothes on backwards, or spill coffee down the front of his shirt, or trip over his words before the lesson even starts. Worried, most of all, about what comes after.
“I hope that I will not…” He searches for the right words. “I hope that I will be able to serve my students well enough,” he settles on. “The examples I have had were, ah….” Trent Ikithon is not one he wishes to emulate.
Essek frowns. “Carve your own path,” he says. “Someone as brilliant as you are needs no one to emulate.”
“Ja, well, that is fine for throwing together a spell or two, but I imagine the students will need a little more structure.” These are young minds. Any mistakes he makes will stick with them. He, of all people, knows just how much.
“Maybe you could ask them what they want from you,” Yasha pipes up. “You know, make sure you’re doing alright.”
Caleb lets out a long sigh. “Ja, maybe. That is a good idea.” Of course, it also requires that the students in question trust him enough to give him a straight answer.
They sit in relative silence for a moment, working away at their drinks. He hopes Veth doesn’t resent him for stepping on the atmosphere.
“Seriously, man, you’re gonna be great.” Beau knocks back the rest of her drink. “You’re already the best professor I’ve ever known.”
“I do not think the owl counts as a point of comparison,” Caleb deadpans. “Regardless, I will settle for not making a fool of myself for a first impression. That will be difficult enough.”
Beau shrugs, and reaches over to refill her glass. There’s a devious look in her eye that makes him nervous. "So why don't you practice?" she asks.
Caleb looks at her warily. "Practice?"
"Yeah, man." She gestures at the others. "Here's your class. Teach us something."
Before he can object, she’s already begun to pull an armchair toward the coffee table in the center of the room. Soon enough, three more seats have joined it, all on the same side. She throws her arms wide with a challenging grin.
“First day,” she says. “Don’t be late.” With that, she flops down onto the rightmost chair.
Transfixed in bemusement, Caleb watches as Yasha and Veth rush to occupy the next two seats in the makeshift classroom. The Expositor commands a room, it seems.
“Are you comfortable with this?” Essek murmurs as he brushes past as well. “I am willing to be the, ah... wet blanket, if need be.”
Caleb sighs, briefly twining their fingers together and squeezing once before letting him go. “Not comfortable, no, but it’s not a bad idea.”
Someone wolf whistles from the peanut gallery, and Caleb turns a fond glare on them all. All three of them are, of course, the picture of innocence. He shakes his head as Essek settles down primly in the last remaining chair. It’s not exactly the picture of an academic setting, with their glasses of half-finished booze still on the table in front of them and the lot of them draped over armchairs and ottomans.
“Alright,” says Beau, who has not even bothered to put her drink down. She makes a trilling sound that he thinks is probably meant to emulate a school bell. “Hit us.”
"We will be brutally honest," Veth promises. "Which means we will tell you honestly how perfect you are."
"Or if there's anything you could do better," Yasha adds.
Caleb stares back at them. It’s nothing he hasn’t gone over in his own head a hundred times. Even once or twice, to a captive audience of cats. It’s a short class. It will be over before he knows it.
The others look up at him expectantly. Watching him. Waiting. Caleb clears his throat.
"I, ah... feel a bit silly,” he admits.
Without a word, Essek waves a hand, and the familiar faces before him shift to those of strangers.
It’s almost embarrassing how much it helps. Caleb takes a deep breath and lets it out, running through the lesson plan in his head.
"Guten Morgen, class, I am, ah… Professor Widogast." It's the first time he's said that particular pair of words out loud.
"Whoo!" the student who is not Veth shouts.
"Yeah!" the student who is not Beau chimes in.
Caleb gives them a look and straightens his coat. "This is Introductory Transmutation, in room 142, so if you are all in the correct place--"
"Professor?" The student who is not Yasha raises her hand.
"Ah, ja, Miss…"
"Lionett."
Not-Beau slaps a hand over her own mouth and mutters, “Holy shit,” into it.
“Was that too much?” not-Yasha whispers.
“Babe, it was so hot,” not-Beau hisses back.
Caleb clears his throat. "Miss Lionett, do you have a question?"
Not-Yasha seems to suddenly remember her role, and she folds her hands in her lap. "No," she says, "I have to use the bathroom."
Caleb pinches the bridge of his nose as not-Beau bites back a giggle. “Ja, okay, go.”
“Don’t let her go!” not-Veth interjects. “She knew it was almost time for class; she should have gone earlier.”
“Dude, if she has to pee then she has to pee,” not-Beau protests.
Pointedly, not-Essek raises his hand.
Caleb lets himself sigh with relief. “Ja, Master…?”
“Gross, Professor, we don’t need to know about your weird sex dynamics,” not-Beau says.
Not-Essek’s face blooms red, and Caleb presses a hand to his face to hide the same. “You know very well, Beauregard, that it is an honorific.”
Not-Beau shrugs, looking very pleased with herself as she takes another sip of her drink. Not-Essek glares very polite daggers at her before clearing his throat.
“Thelyss,” he answers.
Beau cups both hands around her mouth and boos.
“No, it’s better that he’s honest,” Veth says. “We already know he’s a terrible actor.”
“Herr Thelyss,” Caleb says, raising his voice above the heckling. “Do you have a question?”
Essek leans forward, resting his elbows on the table in a gesture that’s much too endearing. “I wondered what you will be teaching us today, Professor Widogast.”
Caleb tries not to dwell on the way the title hits differently on Essek’s voice, instead straightening up and waving one hand behind him. An illusory chalkboard appears in the air behind him to polite applause from Veth and Yasha. Back on track.
“Well, this is your first day,” he says. “So I know that - Beauregard, please remove your feet from the table - I know that most of your other teachers will be spending time going over the material that you will be covering this semester, but, ah…” What is he meant to be doing with his hands? They feel limp if they’re at his sides, but too formal behind his back and too awkward in front of him. Perhaps he should have a lectern? Somewhere to rest them, or shuffle with papers?
His gaze drifts back to his “students,” who all blink back at him expectantly. Essek inclines his head as though to prompt him on. He clasps his hands in front of his chest, hoping it will do for now.
“Right,” he continues. “Ja, so I thought we would take a look at something more practical to start. We will leave the reading for tomorrow; you have enough of that today.”
He waves his hands again, and behind him, a set of runes and diagrams appears on the chalkboard. Above it is written the word Prestidigitation.
“So, ah, partner up,” he orders. “Introduce yourselves. If there is someone on their own, a group of three is perfectly acceptable.”
“I call Miss Lionett,” Beau shouts, grabbing Yasha’s hand.
“Can I go to the bathroom, first?” Yasha asks.
Caleb gives her an incredulous look.
“I really do need to go,” she says.
He gestures towards the hallway, and she shuffles off. In the meantime, Veth and Essek scoot their chairs closer together. Caleb’s gaze lingers questioningly on Beau, who shakes her head.
“She’s not learning anything tonight, man. Go ahead.”
“Ja, okay,” he says distantly.
It feels silly, explaining the spell to this motley crew. Beau has leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, eyes glassy, clearly not paying an ounce of attention. Essek has produced a piece of paper upon which Veth occasionally scribbles, though the way he periodically nods approval at Caleb’s points betrays his own prior knowledge of the subject. After a few minutes, Yasha returns and attempts to take down notes of her own.
“Is everyone following along?” he asks after a while, knowing it’s a futile question.
“Yep,” Beau lies.
“Hmm.” Yasha hums.
“Perfectly,” Essek says.
“You’re doing amazing, sweetie,” Veth confirms with a wink.
He continues, running them through the various applications one by one. Beau gives him an occasional “uh huh” that he believes not one bit. At one point, he catches Essek take a passing glance at Veth’s paper, widen his eyes, and lean forward to murmur something to her. He isn’t sure he wants to know what that’s about.
“Let’s keep focused, please, everyone,” he reminds them.
Essek waves a hand to signal him to continue. Nothing too scandalous, then. He goes through the final few points, then comes to stop in front of the chalkboard, hands awkwardly clasped again.
“Okay, that is it,” he says. “You have as much time as you require to finish the spell, and when you are finished, I would like one person from each group to demonstrate.”
He gives the others a questioning look. It’s one of the points he’s most worried about. A way to take pressure off some of the slower students could just as easily be a way to unintentionally foster competition and resentment. But none of them objects, so he gives them another nod.
“I suppose we should skip the demonstration portion,” he mumbles.
“I can do it,” Yasha chirps. Without warning, she swings the massive greatsword from her back and sinks the tip into the table, making the others jump. “I made a small mark.”
Caleb covers his eyes with one hand. “Ja, will it go away in one hour?”
Yasha silently places her drink down over the indentation. Caleb sighs. It isn’t as though he has very many guests, anyway.
“I can probably swing producing an odor, for you,” Beau offers. “But I figure you probably don’t want that.”
He ignores her, and instead gives Essek a tight smile.
“Well, would my second group care to demonstrate?”
Beau jerks a thumb in Essek’s direction and fake-coughs to Yasha, “Teacher’s pet.”
Essek ignores her and sits back, fingers working in those little patterns he draws when something has piqued his curiosity. “I believe so,” he says, and nods to Veth.
Caleb raises his eyebrows as all eyes turn to Veth. Though Essek had the courtesy to leave her a halfling, her features and coloring are entirely different - but that wide smile as she stands and rubs both hands together would give her away, no matter the face it was set in. And as Beau swears under her breath, Yasha and Caleb look on wide-eyed, and Essek watches with a smirk, she pulls her hands apart to let loose a shower of sparks.
“You… learned the spell,” Caleb says numbly. He hadn’t imagined any of them were actually paying attention.
“It was an excellent lesson!” Veth replies.
As she takes her seat again, Beau and Yasha give her a smattering of stunned applause. Essek clears his throat pointedly.
“And I guess, maybe, Essek gave me one pointer,” Veth amends with an eye-roll.
“Hey, so your partner system worked,” Yasha points out.
It had. The lesson had worked, the procedure had worked - his teaching had worked. There’s still a little voice in his head reminding him that Veth is brilliant, and an adult, and perfectly capable of learning things like this without even so much as his help - but he can’t deny that it’s his guidance that taught her this particular spell. ‘An excellent lesson,’ Veth had said. In this moment, he’s inclined to believe it might be half true. Caleb realizes very suddenly that he’s beaming.
With a snap of his fingers, Essek dispels the disguises. The soft smile on his face - his real face, and Caleb always misses it dearly when it’s hidden - says he hasn’t failed to notice Caleb’s relief.
“Danke, all of you,” he says sheepishly, waving a hand to vanish the chalkboard.
“Thank you!” Veth says. “For the shiny new spell and for the masterclass in professoring.”
“You were really good,” Yasha agrees. “I’m, uh... I’m sorry about the table.”
He dips his head to hide the way his face is flushing. They exaggerate, the lot of them. But there is something to be said for having friends who will say such things. “Ja, well,” he says, “I am not convinced it will translate to an actual class, but I will hope.”
Beau takes another swig of her drink, wiping her mouth afterwards. “Dude, we were the worst and you still managed to teach somebody something,” she says. “Those kids have nothing on us. You got this.”
He offers her a smile, retrieving his glass from the table as Yasha, Veth, and Essek do the same. He hopes it’s true. He hopes that, separate entirely from his ability to teach them the how of magic, he will be able to keep them safe. That he will be able to keep from passing on any damage he received in his own time in those halls.
He catches Essek’s eye, and the knowing look there puts some of the anxious buzzing to rest. He will be better. He will struggle, most likely. He will stumble, inevitably. But he will give better than he got. He’s been practicing that part for years.
“To Professor Widogast!” Veth shouts, breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Professor Widogast,” the others echo, and Caleb smiles.
“To my very good friends,” he replies.
“To the hottest professor the Soltryce Academy has ever seen,” Veth shouts in response, and Caleb nearly chokes on his drink when Essek casually clinks his glass against hers with a nod.
They drink together. Caleb thinks, just a little bit, he might be excited.
-
thanks @peregrintook for reading this over and telling me it wasn't the worst thing i had ever written (in much more generous words than that), and @saturdaysky for catching me red-handed last time i deleted it and being so kind about it 💜
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moldisgoodforyou · 3 years ago
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bahamas (v)
wordcount: 6.2k
warnings: hinting at sexual content
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Rafe found Colin the next morning, lanky limbs sprawled out on the couch with a blanket haphazardly tossed on top of him, his arm hanging off the edge of the couch as he slept. “Yo.”
“Mmph.” Colin grumbled in reply, stirring. He blinked a few times as he realized Rafe was standing in front of him, looking confused. “Hey.”
“Hey. You got kicked out?”
“James and Julia, they…” Colin trailed off, gesturing toward their rooms. “So I let Allie have my bed, and I’m out here.” A small scowl settled onto his face as a wide grin grew on Rafe’s. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say a thing.” Rafe laughed. “You are down bad, brother. Down bad.”
“Do not breathe a word of this to anyone, or I’ll tell Sophie you’ve been pining after her since high school.” Colin sat up, stretching. “I mean it.”
“Oh, she already knew that.” Rafe shook his head, grinning. “But don’t worry. Secret’s safe with me. You think Allie will remember? Did anything happen?”
“Nothing. Literally nothing.” Colin shrugged. “Does Sophie know about Julia and James?”
“What about us?” Julia asked, James and Allie trailing right behind her as they came down the hall for breakfast. “That we fucked?”
Rafe winced. “Can you not?”
“She doesn’t know?”
“No. And I’d like to keep it that way.” Rafe pointed at everyone, serious. “If any of you tell before we leave tomorrow, I’ll strangle you and leave your body here. I swear.”
“Dibs on telling her when we leave.” Colin said quickly, grinning.
“Be my guest.” James shrugged.
“Okay. Now. You two need to promise to not hook up again, I swear, you’re aging me by years. I’m tired of navigating your sex lives and you both know you’re not good together.” Rafe instructed, arms crossed.
“That’s fair.” Julia nodded, turning to shake hands with James. He nodded too, shaking her hand then kissed the back of her hand just to make her grin. She rolled her eyes, tugging her hand away.
“Thank you. Now. Breakfast?” Rafe gestured toward the kitchen.
“Where’s Sophie?” Allie yawned, stretching as she followed them all in.
“Definitely hungover and she was definitely drooling on the pillow.” He smiled fondly as Sophie came into the kitchen, hair in a messy bun and pillow marks still pressed into her cheek. “Morning, sleeping beauty!”
“You talkin shit on me?” She asked, leaning into his side as he looped his arm around her.
“He said you looked like shit.” James grinned. “He was right.”
“Shut the fuck up, James, I’m still mad at you -”
“Just because your boyfriend prefers my kisses -” He stepped around the kitchen counter, trying to avoid as she came closer.
“Oh my god! I forgot about that! I can’t believe you -”
“Look, he technically kissed me first -“ James gasped, looking way too delighted with himself. “Oh my god! Sophie! We’re spit sisters!”
As she grabbed the wooden spoon from off the counter, Rafe plucked it out of her hand from behind just as quickly. “Whoa! Hey. Can you two please be civil? James, stop antagonizing. Soph, quit arguing with someone that isn’t me.”
Colin wrinkled his nose. “Really? That makes you jealous?”
“It’s our thing.” He frowned, pulling Sophie into his arms again from behind, satisfied when she leaned back against him.
She tilted her head up to catch her lips on the underside of his jaw. “You’re too possessive.”
“Bold of you to talk.” Julia snorted.
“Whatever. What’d I miss?”
Everyone shared a look, Rafe glaring at everyone behind Sophie’s back, until Allie shook her head. “Nothing, we all just woke up too. I think we should go surfing today, it’s our last full day.”
“Only you three can surf.” Julia replied, pointing at Allie and Rafe and Sophie.
“We can teach you.” Rafe suggested, only for Sophie to snort.
“You can’t surf for shit, Rafe.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused. I haven’t gone in years, but yeah, we can try.” Sophie pulled out her phone, starting to google board rentals until Rafe poked her in the side.
“I know how to surf.”
“Okay, so your concussion sophomore year of high school wasn’t from a wipeout? Because I’m pretty sure I can still find the video on YouTube, actually, thanks to Wheezie uploading it -”
“Hey, Sophie, no -” He grabbed at her phone, scrambling to get it away, but she just tossed it to James who caught it easily with a grin and pulled up the Youtube app immediately.
“Is it saved? Under...oh, here.” He laughed as Rafe struggled against Sophie’s arms.
“Everyone knows Kooks can’t surf, baby.” She murmured to him, grinning when he scowled and bumped his forehead against hers.
“What’s a Kook?” Colin asked.
“The kind of people Rafe grew up with.” Sophie let him go, moving to his side.
“Didn’t you grow up with them too?”
She laughed, shaking her head right away. “Ha. No. I only went to school with them starting in eighth grade. I’m not...no. That’s not me.”
“It’s not a bad thing.” Rafe interjected, careful. He’d never directly told James and Colin about the environment he grew up in, but they picked up on a lot of things - they didn’t have to go through etiquette classes, or own mansions or attend literal balls every year. He also hadn’t told them about how Sophie wasn’t like that at all, figuring if she wanted to share more, then she could do so on her own terms.
“So you’re a pog?” James cocked his head and Rafe winced, hating the direction the conversation was going in.
“Um...it’s pogue, but no? Not quite?” Sophie answered with a shrug. She’d never found herself fitting in with the rest of the kids on the Cut, especially once she started going to the private academy, but then again, the kooks weren’t exactly her world either. She lived in a weird in-between, working side by side through high school with the pogues, serving all the kook kids, then partying with the kooks on the weekend. It was a strange balance. “I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.”
“I thought there were just two. Rafe, when we came to visit summer after freshman year, didn’t your dad say that we needed to stay away from that one side of the island with the pogues -”
“I don’t remember.” Rafe interrupted quickly, then spared a glance at Sophie and hated the way her face fell. “I don’t think he said that. Can we figure out what to do today?”
Oblivious as ever, Colin furrowed his brow. “No, I think I remember that too, he was joking a lot about it -”
“He wasn’t joking.” Sophie muttered, suddenly sullen as she felt a pit form in her stomach.
“It doesn’t matter.” Rafe replied, firm, and shot both the boys a pointed look.
Julia and Allie had been subjected to Sophie’s worries about money and fitting in with Rafe time and time again, and knew exactly how she felt at the moment. Allie took Sophie’s phone back from James, pulled up the browser, and cleared her throat. “Alright. Three board rentals for $30, I figure we can all pair off? Pick them up at eleven so we have time to eat breakfast?”
“Yeah, I’m starving.” Julia chimed in, slipping past Sophie and squeezed her shoulders in a reassuring gesture before opening the fridge. “James, can we do omelets again? Colin, you’re on toast duty?”
“But I -”
“Colin.” Julia sent him a glare and threw the loaf of bread toward him, narrowly missing his head. “Toast.”
“She gets one embroidered apron in a PR package and suddenly she’s queen of the kitchen.” James quipped, bumping Rafe out of the way with his hip and pulled out the pan, spatula, and whisk, prepared.
“Exactly, I’m glad you understand.” Julia grinned.
Rafe moved closer to Sophie’s side, leaning down to murmur in her ear. “You good?”
“M’ fine.”
He rolled his eyes and took her hand, pulling her out of the kitchen and down the hall to the foyer. “Soph. Talk to me.”
“I said, I’m fine -”
“And I know damn well that means you’re not actually fine -”
She huffed and caught a glimpse of the giant chandelier behind him as she looked up to meet his gaze, and was finding it harder and harder to conceptualize the place as his house rather than just a vacation home of a friend’s. “You haven’t told the boys about The Cut? Pogues, kooks, all that? That I’m not like you?”
“Of course not, Sophie, that doesn’t matter to me.” He frowned, taking both her hands in his. “Besides, I didn’t think it was my place to share.”
“Oh.” She sighed, stepping forward and dropping her head to his chest. “Sorry, I just - I’m trying to be chill.”
“You have been. We’ve been good.” He nudged her chin up, catching her eye. “Haven’t we?”
“Yeah, yeah, just - I took a wrong turn this morning, found myself down some hallway and in some office, and there was this giant painted portrait of your family behind the desk, and -” She forced herself to take a breath. “It’s a lot. You looked like fucking royalty.”
He nodded slowly in understanding. “Oh. Yeah. That’s my dad’s office, uh...there’s a reason I didn’t give everyone the full house tour.” He rubbed the back of his neck, giving her a sheepish smile. “The guys would give me so much shit for that.”
“You’re not, like...embarrassed of me, right? Like how I grew up?” She asked before she could think, uneasy as her stomach twisted in knots.
“Sophie.” He frowned, stroking his thumb over her cheekbone. “You really have to ask that?”
“No, sorry, no. I know you’re not. Just - agh.” She screwed up her face in concentration, frustrated. “It’s me. I’m sorry.”
“Just try not to stress so much about it, okay? You’re the only one worried about it.”
“Oh, that’s easy. Thanks, Rafe, I’m cured.”
He rolled his eyes and pushed at her shoulder gently, making her smile a little. “I want you to be comfortable with me, angel.”
“I am!” She flexed her hands, frustrated. “That’s the thing. I am, with you. Not...you.”
He furrowed his brow. “Now I’m confused.”
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
James rounded the corner, yelling out before he reached them. “Yo! You two done making out yet?”
Sophie sent Rafe an exasperated look before crossing her arms, turning to James. “We weren’t -”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t care. C’mon, your breakfast is ready and I know Rafe throws up if he has to eat cold eggs.”
“It was one time -”
“One time is enough.” James shuddered, thinking back to freshman year. Rafe had gotten a little too cocky with the pledge masters during their hazing and was forced to eat five cold scrambled eggs in front of the whole pledge class, after he’d already had his fair share of alcohol to drink, and it didn’t end well. He extended his hand to Sophie, grinning. “Sophie, doll, breakfast awaits.”
“I hate you.” She replied with a straight face, but took his hand anyway and let him pull her back to the kitchen.
He laughed, glancing back at Rafe following them and winked at him before kissing the top of Sophie’s head. “Love you too. I need a wingman tonight at the bars, you got me?”
“I thought that was Colin’s position.” She shoved him away, taking her plate and sitting at the bar with the rest of the group.
“Yeah, well, Allie’s the only one that’s been getting some this entire trip, so -”
“But -” Colin started, only for Julia to stomp on his foot under the table, hard. She forced a grin, thankful Sophie was oblivious.
Sophie furrowed her brow but nodded, pouring herself a glass of juice. “Yeah. I got you.”
“Excellent. You know what, everyone should get laid tonight. If they want to.” James declared, shooting a meaningful glance at Colin.
“If you lay a finger on Julia again, I’m cutting off your balls in the middle of the night.” Sophie replied calmly, staring James down over the top of her glass as she took a sip.
Julia pretended not to hear, keeping her eyes intently trained on her plate. She’d considered Sophie’s feelings for the briefest of seconds last night, but then James was kissing down her neck and his fingers were slipping under the waistband of her shorts and - yeah. It may have slipped her mind. She was a little preoccupied.
“Sophie.” Rafe reprimanded, affronted. “Be nice.”
“Yeah, be nice or you’ll be the only one not getting some tonight.” James teased, smirking when Sophie gave him the death glare across the table.
“Jesus Christ, you guys fight like siblings.” Allie mumbled, rolling her eyes. “Let it go already.”
“Thank you.” Rafe affirmed, shaking his head. “I need everyone to be packed tonight, we’ll need to be on the plane tomorrow by 9am.”
“I thought the beauty of having your own plane meant we didn’t have a schedule.” Colin asked.
“...No. You can’t just fly it whenever, you have to tell people. And my dad needs it later tonight, he’s going to New York.”
“I didn’t realize he went there that often. That’s kind of nice though, right? You’ll be able to see him more when you and Sophie move?” Julia asked unknowingly. Sophie had told both the girls that Ward was an asshole, but didn’t say much more, just that Rafe still worked for him a lot. (She figured anything more was Rafe’s business and he could tell them if he wanted.)
Everyone else stayed quiet and Sophie froze, halfway to shoveling a forkful of omelet into her mouth. Rafe was stiff and his smile was forced as he nodded, not daring to look in Sophie’s direction. “Yeah. He does business there sometimes, so. I’ll see him around.”
James pushed away from the table, making everyone wince as the chair squeaked against the floor. “Okay, I’ll dry if someone else washes the dishes. Then I vote we hang out at the beach, last chance before we get to go back to Ohio - and I’m pretty sure it’s only forty-five degrees today back home.”
Julia looked around, confused at the abrupt topic change, and mouthed to Allie - did I say something wrong? - only for Allie to shake her head surreptitiously, glancing toward Sophie.
“Beach sounds good.” Colin nodded, standing and taking everyone’s plates to the sink. “Allie, can you confirm those board rentals?”
“Yeah, I got them.” She stood too, getting up to help with the dishes.
Julia frowned, lowering her voice so only Rafe and Sophie could hear. “Rafe, I didn’t mean to -”
“No, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it.” Rafe shrugged it off easily. “Seriously.”
Sophie exhaled, nudging her knee against Rafe’s under the table before she got up and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, then ruffled his hair. “Love you.” She murmured as she grabbed his plate.
He smiled back, tugging gently at the hem of her (his) t-shirt before she busied herself in the kitchen with the rest of the group.
Julia watched the exchange with a furrowed brow. “Is she good?”
“Hm?” He replied absentmindedly, moving his gaze from Sophie to Julia.
“She’s okay? Earlier, with James and Colin asking…”
“Oh. Yeah, we’re good, I think. Probably just ready to go home to normalcy, you know?” He paused. “Are you gonna tell her about last night?”
“I probably have to...right?”
“Yeah. I think it’s better coming from you, rather than the boys.” He offered a teasing smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk her down from homicide.”
Julia groaned, covering her face with her hands. “She’s gonna hate me.”
“She won’t.” He promised. “You two are consenting adults, it’s maybe not the smartest decision you two have ever had, but. She can’t be that mad.”
“Have you met your girlfriend?” She raised her eyebrows back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her let go of a grudge.”
Rafe smiled, pointing to himself as he shook his head. “Ever?”
“You don’t count. None of those arguments were real.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m serious. You’d know.” She shook her head, smiling fondly. “Freshman year, this guy was being a little too touchy with me, hanging around a little too much at a frat party - she went and found his big brother and when he didn’t do anything, she threw a drink in the guy’s face.”
Rafe laughed, shaking his head. “She what?!”
“Yeah. I know way too many incriminating details about her.” Julia nodded with a grin.
Sophie came back to the table, curious. “What are you two gossiping about?”
“Nothing.” He dismissed, waving his hand and got up, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “C’mon, let’s go get ready.” He mumbled something in her ear, making her blush.
Julia raised her eyebrows, watching as Rafe tugged her down the hall, hand in hand. “Don’t be late, you two!”
“Never!” Sophie called back, giggling.
______
After an attempt at surfing and hours of lounging in the sun, the group finally made it to dinner. Rafe had insisted they go to the nicer restaurant for their last day, making everyone dress up just a little more, and was happy everyone complied with the dress code he suggested when they had all packed.
When his phone pinged, again, he huffed and fished it out of his pocket. His dad had texted him five times within the last hour, making sure he would remember to be on the runway at a certain time, and that the airport security needed to be paid in cash, like usual, and that he left enough of a tip for the maids before they left, and - yeah. It was a lot. He was surprised when he saw a text from his screenwriting professor from the previous semester instead, with three words - check your email.
“Your dad again?” Sophie murmured quietly, resting her hand on his knee.
“No…” He trailed off as he opened his email and found that his screenplay had been one of two chosen to be produced for their final semester. He had a meeting next week with his professor to start working out logistics, casting and choosing a production team. “Oh. Wow.”
“What is it?”
He smiled, hesitant, and tilted his phone toward Sophie. “Um, the screenplay thing. Mine got picked.” He shook his head, in disbelief as he smiled wider. “Holy shit, mine got picked.”
“Rafe!” She exclaimed, throwing her arms around him and smacking a kiss to his cheek.
James perked up, leaning next to Sophie to read the phone too. “You got it? For real?”
“I got it.” He confirmed, now grinning ear to ear. The phone was passed around the table so everyone could read the email and everyone congratulated him, making his cheeks turn red as he beamed. Julia ordered a round of shots almost immediately. He had made the boys read it over at least five times each, for proofreading before he submitted it, then once he gave a copy to Sophie, she’d made the girls read it too because she was so proud.
“This is the one where you confess your love to her like twelve times over?” Colin asked.
“Yeah, remember, Rafe, the characters hated each other in the first draft? And then you changed the girl’s name to Sloane one day, wherever the fuck that came from -” James added, oblivious to the growing smirk on Sophie’s face.
She leaned closer, raising her eyebrows. “When was that changed?”
Rafe’s blush spread to his ears now, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t remember. It’s not important, anyways -”
“I think it was barely September -“ James supplied helpfully, yelping when Rafe kicked him under the table. “Hey!”
Julia grinned. “You changed it to her middle name in only September? Weren’t you still fighting then?”
“I didn’t know -” He started to defend himself, only for Allie to roll her eyes.
“Oh, okay, you just happened to change it to that of all names. Sure, we believe that.”
Julia laughed once she caught Sophie’s eye and her extremely pleased expression. “She’s had a crush on you since high school, anyways -”
“I did not -” Sophie instantly retorted, ignoring the smug grin Rafe wore. “She’s lying.”
“I’m not. Jesus, Sophie, you two could have saved yourself all that arguing and just been together, you two are dumb.”
“Wait, you’ve liked me for that long?” Rafe cocked his head, oblivious.
“Oh my god, you two are blind.” Allie giggled, accepting the tray of shots from their waitress and passed them around. “Here, everyone - congrats, Rafe.” She lifted her shot and everyone else clinked theirs together, then took it at once.
The rest of the night was a blur for everyone, but especially Rafe. He kept taking other people’s shots on accident and sucked down any drink presented to him with a straw, but absolutely refused to hydrate normally (Sophie resorted to giving him vodka waters at the end of the night just so she could keep him upright). He kept an arm slung around her shoulders or waist the entire night, not letting her out of his sight for a single second.
“Baby, please stop leaning.” Sophie told him with an exasperated tone, pushing at his shoulder for the fifth time that night.
“I love you so much.” He replied, bright-eyed with a grin. “So damn much.”
“Okay. Stand up straight.”
“I am.”
James ambled back to the two of them and ducked in between them so Rafe’s arm was around his shoulders instead, taking the weight off of her for a moment. “Jesus, Cameron, lay off the drinks.”
“He’s fine, he’s celebrating.” Sophie smiled, patting Rafe’s cheek affectionately.
“Enabler.”
She shrugged. “So be it. Where have you been?”
“Trying to talk with some girls.” He supplied, nodding his head toward Colin with the same group. “Apparently they’re more into nerds.”
“The one time in your life you’ve failed to score.” She teased, batting his hand away as he went to flick her.
Rafe leaned into James, resting his head against his. He had a few inches on him, making it just comfortable enough. “James. Guess what.”
“What, bud.”
“I’m gonna marry Sophie.”
“Yeah, dude, we know.”
“No. Tonight.”
James snorted. “Yeah, okay. I feel like you’re gonna be out within the hour.”
Rafe ignored him, eyes scanning across the crowd. “Where are our girls?”
Sophie beamed, loving how he’d adopted her friends as his own. “I think Julia’s just getting guys to buy her drinks and Allie’s hovering around so she can benefit.”
“Julia definitely had some guy’s tongue down her throat earlier.” James confirmed. “I told him to fuck off.”
“Does she need help?” Rafe frowned, handing his drink to Sophie and straightening up like he was going to go hunt for her.
“No, she’s fine.” James nodded toward Colin, Julia and Allie all coming back toward them.
Sophie looped her arm back around Rafe’s waist, taking his weight again, and intercepted a drink that Allie offered to him. “No more. You guys having fun?”
“Yeah, a couple guys might be coming over to join us later.” Julia informed them casually. “Rafe, you good with that? I won’t show them any of your fancy shit.”
“Uh...yeah. That’s fine.” He cocked his head. “Wait, a couple? Just for you?”
“No, me and Al.” At Colin’s affronted look, she shook her head quickly. “Not at the same time!”
“Wait, no, we’re busy tonight.” Rafe shook his head and smacked a kiss to Sophie’s temple. “We’re getting married.”
Colin widened his eyes. “You’re what?”
“We’re not!” Sophie amended quickly, pinching Rafe’s side. “We’re not. He’s hammered.”
“She doesn’t wanna marry me ‘cause she’s scared of my dad.” Rafe informed them, his expression a little too serious for it to be a joke. “It’s true.”
“Okay. I think you need to go home.” She pursed her lips. “Are you guys staying, or…?”
“Family sticks together!” Rafe exclaimed, looping his arm around Colin. “We’re all going home. Did someone pack a white dress?”
“Rafe, we are not getting married.” Sophie sighed, exasperated. “Not tonight.”
“But I have the ring.” He protested, making the whole group stop in their tracks.
Julia nearly choked on her drink, mid-sip. “You what?!”
Rafe held up his hand and slid his pinky ring off his finger, the only one that barely fit Sophie’s thumb. “See? I have a ring.”
“Oh my god.” Allie breathed out, shaking her head. She stepped around him and strode forward out of the club, knowing he’d follow. “Hey! Come on. We’re going home.”
Sophie just stared at Rafe blankly, not following the rest of the group until James gave her a little shove from behind. “Chill out, Flint, I’m not gonna let him propose like that.”
She shook her head to get herself to snap out of it, laughing weakly. “Yeah. Yeah, of course.”
“No panicking.”
“I’m not - just. Jesus. Okay. He says that so easily.” She mumbled, walking out with James behind the group.
He laughed, nodding. “Of course he does. It’s Rafe. He loves hard.”
“Yeah.” She smiled to herself, twisting her ring on her finger. “He does.”
Once they all made it home, after some convincing on Allie’s part with the taxi driver and a little extra cash thrown in from Rafe, James and Colin helped wrestle Rafe into their bedroom. (They made the mistake of looking the other way once and he took off across multiple lanes of traffic, convinced he needed to go rescue the kitten that was on the other side of the road - it was actually a crumpled paper bag.)
“Okay. He’s your problem now.” Colin brushed off his hands for emphasis, swatting Rafe’s hand away as he went to tug on Colin’s shirt. “There’s no way he’s getting anything up, so sleep is probably your best option.”
Sophie blushed, running her hands over her face. “Great, I needed to hear that. Helpful.”
“Fuck you, Colin.” Rafe slurred, flipping him off.
“Mature.” James commented, kissing the top of Rafe’s head, then Sophie’s, before turning to leave. Any other time it would be weird, but she’d gotten used to his drunk affectionate state. “Night buddies!”
“Night! Love you!” Rafe called after him and Colin as they left and shut the door behind them. He turned his gaze to Sophie, smiling goofily at her. “Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi, baby.” She replied, glad he was compliant as she tugged off his shoes and socks, and shirt too. “Can you take off your shorts for me?”
“You can take ‘em off.” He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
She rolled her eyes, having to shove a little, but finally succeeded to strip him down to his boxers. “Okay. Will you come brush your teeth?”
Without a warning, he grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap, meeting her in a full-force kiss, hands roaming.
“Hey!” She squealed, shoving at his chest out of instinct. “Watch the hands, Rafe.”
He immediately dropped them to her sides, nudging his nose against hers. “I love you.”
“Love you too. I’d love you more if you would brush your teeth.”
“Dental hygiene is that important to you?” He skimmed his palm up her back, teasing his fingers along the zipper down the back of her crop top. “You should be naked right now.”
“Cameron.” She warned.
“Not my name.”
“Rafael.”
“Sophieeeee.” He whined, pouting. “Say my name for real.”
She rolled her eyes and kissed along his neck, resisting a laugh when he so easily melted to putty beneath her. “Rafe. Asher. Clifford. Cameron.”
“Sounds like I’m in trouble.” He mumbled, unzipping her crop top and hummed in satisfaction when she slipped her arms out of the skinny straps, letting him toss it aside. “I don’t like that.”
“Baby?” She murmured, sucking a small spot at the base of his neck before returning to kiss his lips.
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
“That’s not nice.” He frowned. “Be nice to me.”
“No.”
“You have to be nice to your boyfriend, angel, it’s the rules.”
“I’ve never heard these rules.” She countered, pushing him back against the bed. “I don’t think I got the rulebook when we started dating.”
“Because you hated me when we started dating.” He argued, flopping back against the mattress. “Are we gonna have sex?”
“Can you stay awake long enough?”
He nodded enthusiastically, reaching up to palm her breast. “Yeah. I got you. I’ll make you come, like, five times.”
She snorted, tugging off her skirt and pushed it aside. “I don’t think you’ve ever made me come five times. Maybe three, but that’s it.”
“What? No. That’s not right. You definitely have - like, in Nice or something -”
“Nope. I would remember.” She rolled off of him to pull off her underwear and toss it on the floor, then laughed as he rolled on top of her, frowning.
“I totally have, Sophie, come on. You’re lying. I can get you off.”
“Yeah, but not five times. That’s so long, Rafe.” She argued, grinning as he ran his hands down both her arms before pushing them above her head, one large hand encircling both her wrists.
“I’ll show you five times.” He argued, glancing around the room, unfocused. “Where’s some string?”
“You are not tying me up with string, Rafe, pay attention.” She arched her back a little, practically shoving her chest in his face to get him back on track. He nodded, dropping his hand down to her hip and skated his teeth across her nipple, loving the moan it elicited from her. She curled her fingers into his hair, sighing when he left open-mouthed kisses across her chest.
He hummed, his head bobbing a little and his eyelids fluttered as he felt her nails rake across his scalp. “More.” He mumbled.
“Yeah?” She replied, scratching his head a little more and had to bite back a laugh when he rested his head on her chest for a moment, then pressed lazy kisses against her skin. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me.”
“M’not, just...resting.” His breathing slowed and he reached one hand up to cup her breast, though the way he did it felt more like he was holding it for emotional support than to turn her on.
“Rafe.” She whispered, squirming underneath him. “Get off.”
“Shh.” He nuzzled a little closer, relaxing his full body weight into hers. “Nappin.’”
“Are you fucking -” She sighed, pushing him just enough so he rolled onto his back. “I’m gonna go brush my teeth.”
“No, no, I’m ready.” He mumbled without opening his eyes, gesturing loosely to his lap. “See.”
She rolled her eyes and tugged on a pair of underwear and a big shirt of his that she’d packed, then leaned over to kiss his cheek. “You’re not even close to hard.”
“No...what’sit you say?” He squinted one eye open to look at her. “Have at me?”
She just laughed, shaking her head. “I’ll be back.”
“Sophie, baby, Sophie.” Rafe repeated, grabbing at her arm. “You gotta stay.”
“I’m just getting you water, Cameron, I’ll be right back. Promise.” She slipped her arm out of his loose grip and pressed a kiss to his forehead, smiling at the way his lips turned up in a dopey smile back. “Stay here.”
“Okay. Be safe!” He called out.
She shook her head and went out to the kitchen, grabbed two water bottles and returned to the room not five minutes later to see him fast asleep, snoring softly with his phone in his hand, screen still shining bright. She rolled her eyes and pried his phone away, then paused as she saw the screen - he’d just donated $5,000 to the local animal shelter in Columbus. This wasn’t an entire unusual occurrence - she’d seen a couple emails in his inbox here and there thanking him for a donation, but never this much. “Holy shit. Rafe.” She nudged him, trying to wake him up. “Rafe.”
“Mm?” He grumbled, rolling back over.
“Did you mean to do this?” She showed him his phone screen. “Five thousand?”
“Uh huh.” He reached over and wrapped his arms around her waist, trying to pull her into bed. “Come sleep.”
“You’re sure? You didn’t mean, like, $50? Or even $500?”
He pouted, lip wobbling a little as his eyes began to water. “Baby, all those animals are in there on the cold floor, and they don’t have homes -”
“Oh, honey -”
“No, no, listen. They don’t have homes, and it’s not fair, but if they get more money they take away their adoption fee, and then they can have a home.” He stared her down seriously as a couple tears slipped down his cheeks. “They need homes, Sophie.”
She nodded, taking a seat at the edge of the bed and stroked her thumbs over his wet cheeks. “Yeah, sweet boy. They need homes.”
“I hope Josie’s okay.” He yawned, moving to rest his head on her lap.
“Josie?”
“She’s five, and she’s a very sweet yellow lab, and good with other dogs and people, and she’s been at the shelter since July,” he recited from memory. Rafe had checked the website at least every two weeks and had found himself attached to this one dog for reasons he couldn’t explain, even going as far as buying her toys from the shelter’s Amazon wishlist. He absolutely knew he couldn’t visit, because he’d be taking her home in an instant. When he’d been looking for apartments in New York for them, he found himself selecting pet friendly as a search option - just in case.
“Oh. Okay.” She murmured, a little confused as she stroked his hair. “I’m sure she’s alright, Rafe. Will you drink some water for me? Or at least take your contacts out?”
He blinked hard, rubbing his eyes until his contacts popped out, and set them on the nightstand. Sophie resisted a scowl. He slipped his hand under her shirt and held her tight, palm splayed flat against her ribcage. “G’night.”
“Night, baby. I love you.”
“Sophie.”
“Yeah, Rafe?” She settled in against him, pulling the covers over them both.
“Marry me.”
She laughed, rolling back over to nudge her nose against his. “No.”
He yawned, not bothering to open his eyes. “Please?”
“Later. Now we’re sleeping.” She kissed him softly, smiling as she whispered. “Sweet dreams, favorite boy.”
“Love you.” He mumbled back, barely coherent before falling asleep.
____
The next morning, he was all too smug as he woke Sophie up, blindly reaching for her in bed and pulled her close against his chest. “Baby.”
“No.” She grumbled, pulling the pillow over her head as she tried to wriggle away.
“Soph.” He tried again, holding her tight as he pressed kisses against her hair. “Sophieee.”
“I’m tired, Rafe, fuck off.” She sighed, frowning up at him as he grabbed the pillow and tossed it to the floor. “Hey.”
“Tired from last night, huh?” He smirked, trailing a finger down the center of her chest, down her stomach. “Sore?”
Sophie rolled over to look him in the eye, eyebrows raised. “Sore from what?”
“You know.”
“I don’t.”
“C’mon.”
She furrowed her brow at him, confused. “Rafe, you fell asleep holding my boob. You weren’t even hard.”
“Huh?” He cocked his head, sitting up a little. “But we...did I dream that? The navy lace?”
She laughed, loud. “I don’t own navy lace anything.”
“Well, shit, we gotta buy you something.” He ran his hand through his hair, still a little confused as Sophie smiled up at him and fixed his messy hair, sitting up to straddle him. “Really? We didn’t do a thing? I swore, you were, like, having the time of your life.”
Sophie shook her head, placing both hands on his chest as she shifted forward a little. “No. You left me high and dry. Glad dream-me could get something though.”
Rafe quickly picked up on her cues, his hands going to her hips to steady her. “I think I can help fix that.”
“I think you can too.”
Just as she leaned down to kiss him, James pounded on their door, thankfully being smart enough to not barge in. “Yo! We’re leaving in an hour! Do you want breakfast?”
“Fuck off!” Sophie yelled, rocking her hips against Rafe’s. “We’re busy!”
“Busy packing, I hope!” James called back.
“He’s packing!” She replied with a giggle, laughing harder when Rafe quickly clasped his hand over her mouth and shushed her.
“We’re not hungry!” Rafe yelled, pinching Sophie’s side. “Leave us alone!”
She squealed, batting his hand away and couldn’t help but laugh as James’s footsteps faded away. “What, I’m not allowed to brag about you?”
“We don’t have time for you to brag.” He replied, wrapping a strong hand around the back of her neck to pull her into a bruising kiss. “C’mere.”
“How much do you remember of last night?” She asked in between kisses, leaning back just enough to pull off her shirt.
“Not much.” He flipped them over, then leaned down to graze his teeth over her nipple.
“You asked me to marry you.” She breathed out, a little wary of his reaction. “Multiple times.”
“I did? I’m a smart man.” He replied with a smirk, trailing his fingers up her inner thighs.
“You are.” Sophie moaned quietly, then pressed her hips up. “Just get inside me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive, Rafe, please, I gotta shower and pack.”
He laughed, loud. “Sure we have time?”
“Rafe Cameron, I swear to fucking god -”
He laughed, cutting her off with a kiss. “I got you, baby. Always got you.”
taglist: @drewstarkey @lemur46 @jjmaybanksbaby @edgeofgr8 @quxxnxfhxll @obxtess @hoodpankow @vtgirl802 @outerbankies @messagesinthesky @nicolecarsley @svechnikolan @ilovejjmaybank @obxtess @abbyj1822 @oopsiedoopsie23 @g4bster @jjmaybankzz @freddymaybank @dontjinx-it @illbesafeforyou @moniamaybank @tovvaa @jailcalledlife @sunshineitsfine44 @randomficsandshit @outerbankspreferences @outerbanksbro @karsinner @kkmaybank @whoeveniskendall @lemur46 @outerbankies
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nasaty · 3 years ago
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Noctilucence
Student Aizawa x (she/her) student reader, so much angssssttt and grief and a bunch of fluff. (Do not bring any pedo shit into my presence or I will fucking destroy you
MANGA SPOILERS until episode 107 comes out. - also this requires context that I am not providing from MHA manga and the arc with Aizawa in Vigilantes. TW: death. 9 part series.
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Ch 1 here | Ch. 2 here | Ch. 4 here
Ch. 3 the Message
Your phone pinged on your dresser as you were fixing your hair after getting out of the shower.
It was a text from Hizashi. Your little lunch group recently produced a group chat, (in which Hizashi was obsessed with and never stopped spewing things into.) You used an app that reminded you of AOL instant messenger. You left your dinging phone on your vanity as you brushed through your tangled hair.
Cat Cafe Crew chat
(Hizashi) pr3sentmixtape - YOooO listeners did you hear about Lunch Rush?? 🥺
(Oboro) CUMulostratus - …no? Are they okay??
pr3sentmixtape - Yeah they’re fine, but the school thought they were overworking themself a bit so they’ve split lunches into two separate times starting tomorrow. 😓😭
(Nemuri) titsandass69 - what the fuk
CUMulostratus - Well I’m glad they’re okay, but do we know what lunches we have yet? What if we don’t have it together 😓
(Aizawa) Aizawa - we still have 2-A together.
CUMulostratus - 😭😭but not with Y/n!! 😭😭
Aizawa - .
pr3sentmixtape - GUYS the lunch designations haven’t even been given out yet, it’ll be okay.
titsandass69 - I will probably turn into a villain if I don’t have the same lunch as Y/n, I’m not going back to whatever the fuck we were doing before she was with us. lol
pr3sentmixtape - Apparently the lunches will get posted by 8pm tonight on our school website.
CUMulostratus - THAT’S IN 20 MINUTES
titsandass69 - no duh, airhead
pr3sentmixtape - HAH air head…. Like… air.. and clouds….cloud quirk.. I get it
titsandass69 - congratulations Hizashi 😂
CUMulostratus - •changed the name to ‘✨ CATfé chat ✨’•
✨ CATfé chat ✨
Y/u/n - 😭😭 can someone send me a picture once the lunches get posted? My internet hasn’t been working well at home.
pr3sentmixtape - I got chu, boo 😉
titsandass69- hey that’s my line 😡
You had been having trouble with the internet at home for weeks but didn’t want to bother your parents about it. They were hardly ever home, working their very important jobs in hero infrastructure. They were both born quirkless, which was surprisingly uncommon now a days, even more rare with your generation. You were old enough to fend for yourself, and even though you couldn’t drive and didn’t have a car, you were in walking distance of a grocery store and the school, so living *mostly* alone wasn’t so bad.
…but it did get kind of lonely and you wanted a cat. All the talk about making a cat cafe made you want one to snuggle up with in the evenings.
*PING* your phone went off with an image from Hizashi
✨ CATfé chat ✨
pr3sentmixtape - [pic]
We have separate lunches…. 😪😭
titsandass69- oh my GOD are you kidding meeee I’m literally about to graduate they cannot do this to me my last semester!
Y/u/n - hey can someone tell me what’s in the picture, I don’t think I can get pictures bc of my stupid internet
pr3sentmixtape- Lunch 1: 10:50-11:25
Hizashi, Oboro, Nemuri
Lunch 2: 12:30-1:10
Shouta and Y/n
Aizawa - •logged off at 8:06PM•
CUMulostratus - yikeeeees ^^^ 😬
titsandass69- this sucks
CUMulostratus - guys we’re just going to have to find time after school. Maybe we can train together and y/n can coach us 🥰
Y/u/n- I’m down with that!
pr3sentmixtape - but me and Aizawa and Oboro are in work studies….and Nemuri is….doing whatever the heck she does
titsandass69 - IM ALSO IN WORK STUDY YOU SHIT
CUMulostratus- we’ll make time for each other. we’ll figure it out. ❤️
You tried ignoring how awful it made you feel that Aizawa signed off, knowing he did that because he was angry he had lunch with you and no one else. You couldn’t ignore it.
Direct Message - CUMulostratus 🌥
Y/u/n - do you think Aizawa hates me?
CUMulostratus - nah he hates everyone
Y/u/n - …but he hates me more than everyone else
CUMulostratus- He does not! He’s just bad at emotions.
Y/u/n - yeah, bad at having anything other than negative emotions towards me
CUMulostratus - lol shit up
*shut
CUMulostratus - •changed the name to ‘sad bitches’•
Y/u/n - lol.
But seriously.
Did I do something to upset him?
CUMulostratus - okay. FINE you got it out of me.
ILL TELL YOU gosh. I can’t believe you pried it out of me
Y/u/n - ?? 🤔
CUMulostratus - I’ve known Shouta for a while, and I think I’m pretty good at reading him at this point. And I’ve noticed something.
Y/u/n - dude what are you even saying
CUMulostratus - so like essentially around everyone, he is mostly just a grumpy ass, but you’ve like… noticed that he acts a little bit different around our friends?
Y/u/n - sure
CUMulostratus - and I’ve seen him around our friends before you were hanging out with us?
Y/u/n - yeah
CUMulostratus - he acts different around you
Y/u/n - uhh yeah that’s why we’re having this convo
CUMulostratus - no I mean like, he looks at you differently than the others. he like watches you when we’re all hanging out but if anyone catches him he looks away
Y/u/n - he’s gonna kill me 😦😂
CUMulostratus - LOL nooo
ok, I asked him about it once
Y/u/n - ?
CUMulostratus - I asked how he felt about you and I’ve never seen him turn so red in my life. I almost started to tease him and he got straight up mad at me for a bit. Then he begged me to not tell anyone
Y/u/n - WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THEN
CUMulostratus - BECAUSE YOU GUYS WOULD BE CUTE TOGETHER
Y/u/n - IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN HE LOOKS LIKE HES GOING TO STAB ME AT ALL TIMES
CUMulostratus - are you saying you wouldn’t like to daaaaate him?
Y/u/n - .
CUMulostratus - ?????!!!!!?!!!??!???!!
Y/u/n - okay yeah but like it would never happen
CUMulostratus - JUST YOU WAIT
•logged off at 8:46PM•
Y/u/n - fuck
You set your phone face down knowing you wouldn’t be hearing from anyone soon. Starting to shiver you realized how much Aizawa meant to you and how you didn’t want to ruin your friendship, even if he looks like he’s torturing you in his head at all times. You knew you had feelings for him but kept pushing them down because ‘why would anyone pursue someone that hates them,’ that’s irrational.
Aizawa hated people that were irrational.
Aizawa hated you.
You decided to go to bed early, hoping that would help you be ready to face whatever these changes bring with your best friends. Maybe having a good nights sleep would help clear your head, you thought.
But nothing could’ve prepare you for tomorrow.
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blueskyheadleft010 · 2 years ago
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Warframe: The New War, is f*ing blowing my brain
Finally finally got enough cobbled together parts to build a Necramech + made sure I at least had rank 5 in all the Railjack upgrades, so I felt pretty confident starting the questline The New War tonight.
[Some spoilers ahead; yes, I know I'm late to the game. Also, sorry for sloppy image insertions.]
Dear god I was not prepared in the least.
I’ve already logged about 3 hours into the quest and i’m not even a quarter of the way done. 
Can I just say; HOW IS THIS FREE TO PLAY GAME THIS DAMN AMAZING?!?
Like holy shit, you guys. Like GUYS. THIS FUCKING GAME.
It just cranked up the difficulty by taking away your ‘warframe’, and giving you multiple quests as other npcs (that were oddly interesting to play as. I liked some more than others. Teshin was a welcome surprise, but his gameplay was aggravating, and I felt too enclosed in the maps despite how spread out they were), then popping in old questline characters like cheeky nostalgia bait, but 9,000 times more interesting than just being a cameo, and then topping it all off with some amazing interactive cutscenes.
I mean, I kinda consider myself a vet (gameplay wise I have 30 days total of logged playtime, which... Yeah, probably not getting back that time irl ._.’), but even by my standards the gameplay was pretty damn difficult. 
Also, god bless the game devs. This. Is. Epic. 
The amount of dialogue, maps, cutscenes, homages to gameplay styles, and all around really cool enemy designs is great!
I’m loosing my mind over how many themes, and art styles they’ve thrown in here and I'm not even done playing! 
Good lord, I thought to myself, ‘meh, that warning box about it taking several hours is just a suggestion. I’ll have this done in 3 hours tops.’
No. No way am I anywhere close. The devs literally placed a game within a game and I’m loosing my absolute marbles over this. 
I’m having to James Bond style sneak around and not die (or literally in one part, I kept getting my head blown off cuz I kept getting caught), use smoke grenades, stun batons, hack into systems guiding my cursor backwards in order to disable security, to just stay alive. 
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[These are the weird mirror hacking consoles I was talking about.]
I was literally screaming in panic at all the (as I’ve lovingly dubbed) ‘void spiders’ that kept killing Teshin before I could hit the energy beacons with his disc. 
This is Warframe on crack; but I fucking love how it never feels like I’m being overwhelmed. (except for the ‘sneak around and don’t get seen or you blow up’ quest. I cried a little.)
Also the art design?? Stellar!!
You’ve got kingdom hearts styled evil floating priest cloaks.
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Egyptian motifs, evil brainwashing helmets, bizarre angelic quotes;
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[Ballas thinks he’s freaking Pharaoh now I guess...]
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And then, the insane flashback to the Zamarian Ten-Zero that literally feels like it jumped out of Epcot’s Horizon’s ride.
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(WHAT IS THIS THING?! IT IS SO TERRIFYING!!)
I honestly did not expect the game to pull a ‘PowerPoint’ old-school presentation on me, and then quiz me on it. Not only is this Cephalon lady terrifying looking, but she made me answer multiple-choice questions about spacetime.
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[I hate you robot lady!! D:< ]
In conclusion; I am grateful that the game lets me pause in between big missions (since I have work tomorrow ;w;’) because this questline is so large my poor brain cannot deal with it all in one run.
(Also, people should just pull up a playthrough of all the interactive cutscenes and playthrough. It should at least be viewed as the beautiful art that it is. It literally felt like I was in a Star Wars movie (with all the cloak and dagger and space battles and cool shit), and I am living for this kind of content.)
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honey-dewey · 4 years ago
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Proposal Imagines
I’m back on my bullshit! This was supposed to be short, but then it took a week and a half to write and is almost twice as long as my longest one shot. Oops. These should all be gender neutral and I hope you enjoy! I got to explore two characters I don’t write for very often, so I’m super excited to present this. And there are like, three uses of (Y/N). 
Total Word Count: 8,096
Permanent Taglist: @phoenixhalliwell @star-wars-hell
Din Djarin:
Din fiddled with the jewelry, nerves pulling his stomach into complicated knots. He’d been doing research for months, ever since he’d finally felt like it was the right time to get married. Culturally, marriage was like a retirement sentence for Mandalorians, but he didn’t care. He could bend the rules for you. 
Finding what to propose with had been hell. In your culture, proposals were done with rings, but in his, you offered your partner your signet if they had none. He had consulted the Armorer, and she had forged him the necklace he was holding now. It was a good compromise between the two customs, they had both decided 
It was solid beskar, a loose collar of sorts, ornate and delicate so it didn’t look like you were a slave. Dangling in the center was his mudhorn signet, which would settle between your collarbones. 
Shifting in the grass, Din wondered if he’d chosen the wrong spot. But no, the picturesque fields of Sorgan felt right. It was where you’d met, and hopefully, it was where you’d be wed. 
“Cyar’ika?” Din said, seeing you come up the ridge. Grogu was with Omera, so this would be a purely uninterrupted moment. “Are you okay?” 
“Yeah!” You said happily, seeing the world glitter below you. “This is amazing Din. Thank you for bringing me.” 
Din took a breath. Your back was to him, and he decided to do this before his cowardice took over. “Cyar’ika,” he said. “Do you know how Mandalorians say I love you?” 
You turned, confused. “No?” 
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum.” Din was starting to feel nauseous. He really hoped you said yes. “It’s an indirect translation, but it literally means ‘I know you and hold you in my heart forever.’” 
“Din,” you said, putting a hand on his pauldron. “What are you saying?” 
Din wanted to cry. “I love you,” he said softly. “More than words in any language can describe. I want you here, safe and by my side forever.” He knelt down, pulling out the necklace and watching your eyes go wide. “I know we live dangerous lives. We could die tomorrow, for all we know. But will you honor my wishes today and become my riddur?” 
You nodded immediately, tears glittering in your eyes as Din stood and fastened the necklace around your neck. “Din,” you breathed. “Oh Din it’s beautiful.” 
“Indestructible too,” Din said, somehow even more nervous for what came next. “I’m unfamiliar with your marriage traditions, but a Mandalorian marriage is very simple.” 
You put a hand on the signet charm. “My wedding customs involve a party and a public exchange of vows.” 
“We can do it in town, if you want,” Din offered. “I have vows, words that make a marriage official in the eyes of the Maker. But there is a custom of mine that must be done here.” 
“What?” You asked, genuinely confused. 
Din put his hands on his helmet, but found that he couldn’t lift it. His arms wouldn’t do it. You, understanding, took a gentle step forward and put your hands overtop his. “Can I?” 
“Yes.” 
You lifted the helmet slowly, revealing his face inch by precious inch. When it was all exposed, you looked him in the eyes for the first time, taking him in. “Oh Maker,” you breathed. “You- I mean- Your-“ You were clearly at a loss for words. “Brown eyes,” you finally said. “Brown fucking eyes. Din Djarin, you and your eyes will be the death of me.” 
Din smiled, and he could’ve sworn he heard you swear under your breath. “I love you.” 
You nodded. “Ni- damn, I forget. How do I say it?” 
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum.” 
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum Din Djarin.” 
Marcus Moreno:
To say Marcus was worried about getting married again would’ve been a gross understatement. 
He was downright terrified. 
You and him had known each other since high school, and had been together for a few years now. You’d been there when his late wife passed, and now he was hoping to marry you. 
He just needed one thing first. 
“Missy?” 
Missy looked up as Marcus slid into her room, looking as nervous as he felt. “Wow Dad,” she said, turning from her desk. “You look horrible.” 
Marcus sat on the edge of Missy’s bed. “Come here. I want to talk to you about something important.” 
“Is it (Y/N)?” Missy asked as she sat next to Marcus. 
“Yeah,” Marcus said. “I love them very much, and I know nothing will ever replace your mother. But, if you’re comfortable with it, I want to ask (Y/N) to marry me.” 
Missy smiled. “Dad, they make you happy,” she said. “You don’t need my permission.” 
“I know,” Marcus said, pulling Missy into a hug. “But I want to make sure you’re comfortable with me marrying someone new.” 
“Well then,” Missy said. “You have my blessing. On one condition.” 
Marcus smiled. “What is it?” 
“I get to be a flower girl.” 
“I think we can arrange that.” 
That night, Marcus sent Missy down the street to a friend’s house for the evening. She wished him good luck before skipping out the door, following her friend to her house. 
When you came home from work, Marcus was there to pull you close and kiss you, smiling as you laughed. “Someone’s happy to see me,” you said. “You’re not usually home when I get home.” 
“I took off today,” Marcus said. “They kept nagging me to take a break, and Missy has off from school too.”
“Where is the little troublemaker?” You asked, shedding your coat and looking around. 
Marcus headed into the kitchen, you following him. “Lucy invited her over for the evening,” he said. “I figured we could finally have some adult time. I made dinner.” 
You gasped, seeing the food on the table. “Marcus! You didn’t have to!” 
“I don’t mind,” Marcus promised, pulling your chair out. “C’mon, don’t let it get cold.”
While you ate, you talked about all sorts of mundane things. Work was the first, and then you complained about the deer that were somehow getting into the garden. Marcus agreed that that was a problem, but promised he’d look into it. 
Finally, he was able to take your empty plate and set it in the sink. “Hey babe,” he said, still standing. “I was thinking earlier today.”
“Oh lord,” he heard you say. “Marcus, what’s going on?” 
Marcus fumbled with the ring box as he turned and got on one knee. Everything he’d planned on saying, the speech he’d been reciting in his head all day, it was all gone as soon as he saw your face. All he could muster was a small “please?” 
“Marcus,” you said softly. “Oh Marcus. Are you okay?” 
In truth, no he wasn’t. But he cleared his throat and finally found the ability to speak. “I know,” he said softly. “I know you said we would never need a ring, but I think the time is right, and I love you more than anything in the world.” 
You slid out of your chair and knelt in front of Marcus, so you were on his level. “Marcus,” you said, putting your hands on his face. “Are you ready for this?” 
Marcus nodded. “I am,” he promised. “And Missy is too.” 
“Then yes,” you said, smiling wide. “I can’t wait to marry you Marcus.” 
“And I can’t wait to marry you,” Marcus said, pulling you into a tight hug and cradling you close. “Thank you.” 
You laughed. “As if I could ever say no.” 
You and Marcus stayed on the floor until you heard a familiar voice say, “Did you ask yet?” 
“Missy!” Marcus looked up quickly, surprised. “When did you get home?” 
“Just now,” Missy said. “Was it a yes?” 
You opened your arms, tugging Missy into the hug pile on the floor. “It was a yes.” 
Max Phillips: 
You loved Max more than anything. He was kind to you, handsome, and an all around good boyfriend. Not to mention the fact that he was undead, which was a surprising perk. 
However, lately, he’d been acting really weird. 
It was an unsettling kind of weird. He would spend more time than usual away from you, he was definitely hiding something, and he was so damn jumpy and defensive when you asked about it. 
Finally, you couldn’t take it anymore. 
“Max!” You shouted through your townhouse. “Max! I want to talk to you! Now!” 
Max came up from the basement, which had been named his area for vampire shit, so you never entered. “What’s up babe?” 
“We’ve been dating for a while now,” you said. “So I know when you’re hiding something from me.” 
“Babe,” Max said, almost warningly. “Stop.” 
“No!” You said, finally putting your foot down. “What the hell are you doing? You’re in the basement all the damn time, I never see you, and you always act super guilty around me! What the hell?” 
Max’s face paled, and he sat at the kitchen table. “Babe. Please, I can’t-“ 
“Jesus,” you grumbled, already knowing where this was going. “Max! I love you! I love you a lot! But this again?” 
“I’m trying to find a way to propose to you!” Max snapped, standing quickly. 
You stopped, mouth open. “Propose?” 
Max nodded, and you were sure that if he could, he would be crying. “Yeah. Propose.” 
“Oh.” You felt oddly guilty for yelling now. “I’m sorry.” 
“It’s fine,” Max mumbled, sitting back down. “I should’ve been more open with you.” 
You shook your head, moving closer to Max so you were standing between his legs and he could rest his head on your chest. “Max, I’m sorry I yelled. But I don’t understand. Why were you spending so long in the basement to try and propose?” 
“When a vampire takes a human partner, a typical proposal includes a turning,” Max admitted, his words muffled by your shirt. “I was researching and preparing.”
You smiled. “Do I get a ring too?” 
Max chuckled a bit, and you were glad to hear it. “Yeah. I found a nice black one with rubies in it. It’s downstairs.” 
“You had all of this planned out,” you said, burying your hands in Max’s hair. “Right down to the ring.” 
“Right down to the ring,” Max agreed with a smile. “I was going to propose officially this weekend.” 
“This weekend,” you murmured. “I’ll clear my schedule.” 
On Friday evening, Max finally took you downstairs, clearly nervous. The basement was small, and Max had only made it more cramped by putting what you suspected was a tattoo chair in the room. It had thick leather straps that unnerved you, but from what Max had said last night when he explained turning, you would need them. 
“Max,” you said softly, sitting in the chair and watching your boyfriend shuffle around. “I’m scared.” 
“I know,” Max said softly, passing a ring box over and over in his hands. “Here.” 
The ring inside was beautiful. It was minimalistic, a simple band of black metal with a small ring of tiny rubies that glittered in the artificial lights. “Max,” you said, sliding the ring on. “I love it.” 
Max smiled, kissing you. “I’m glad. Ready?” 
“As I’ll ever be.” 
Max was very careful strapping you down, and when he was done, he kissed your forehead one last time, mumbling out an apology before sinking his fangs into your neck. 
It was like nothing you’d ever experienced. Max had fed from you before, but this, this burned like someone had injected you with lava. You were sure you were screaming, and then your vision went black. 
You woke Tuesday morning, a sharp metal taste on your tongue. Max was beside you, reading a book and blinking very slowly. Even for an undead vampire who needed no sleep, days on end without resting was hell, and it showed on Max. 
“Babe!” Max said, noticing you were awake and standing quickly, abandoning his book. “Are you hungry?” 
“Yes?” You said, confused. “My stomach hurts, but I don’t want food.” 
Max nodded, undoing the straps and helping you sit up. “You’re thirsty. Here, try this.” He handed you a bottle and you chugged half of it, feeling a warmth spread through your body. “Feeling better?” 
You nodded, putting the bottle down. “Yeah. Did it work?” 
“Yep,” Max said, kissing your forehead. “You’re a vampire, and we’re engaged.” 
That sent a giddy feeling through you. “We are going to have the weirdest wedding ever.” 
Max laughed. “I agree.” 
Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales: 
“Babe!” You shouted through the house, knowing Frankie was downstairs. “I’m taking a bath!” 
“Oh!” Frankie said, and you could hear him thudding up the stairs. “Use this! I found it off Instagram, well actually Benny found it, but he said you might like it!” 
You smiled, taking the black bath bomb. “This is very Game of Thrones-y,” you said, turning the bath bomb over in your hands. It was black, with a vibrant orange stripe around the middle. The entire thing was egg shaped, with small scales that made you fairly certain it was supposed to be a dragon egg. 
“Eh,” Frankie said with a shrug. “It wasn’t marketed as a Game of Thrones egg, but I guess it does look really Mother of Dragons-ish.” 
You laughed, kissing Frankie on the cheek. “Thank you. I’ll use it. But when I stain the tub, you’re cleaning it.” 
Frankie stuck his tongue out at you, and you scrunched your face at him as you closed yourself in the bathroom. 
Once the bath was filled, you’d lit a candle, set up a glass of water, and got into the tub, you began to slowly unwrap the bath bomb. The smell was familiar, in a weird way. It smelled like fruit and wood smoke, the same smell Frankie carried on his whenever he went camping and ate an entire pound of strawberries. You smiled, dipping the bath bomb under the water and relaxing as it hissed and bubbled, slowly turning the entire bath black. 
The bath bomb was mostly fizzed away when you saw something in the bath with you. 
Your immediate reaction was to freak out, but it clearly wasn’t a bug, nor was it anything disgusting. It was a clear plastic sphere with gold inside. 
Curious, you scooped the small sphere out and rolled it over in your hands. You’d heard of bath bombs having small surprises in them, and Frankie must’ve not realized. You popped the sphere open, fully expecting a small toy. 
You did not expect a ring. 
The ring was gorgeous. The metal was a darker grey, with an upside down teardrop shaped gem in the middle that shimmered in all sorts of oranges and pinks and reds. Circled around the round part of the gem was a tiny dragon, almost like it was defending its hoard. 
You smiled, setting the ring on the floor and turning back to the sphere. There was one more thing inside. A small slip of gold paper. Written on one side of the paper was care information, the size, the return policy, and on the other side...
“Francisco Morales I am going to kill you!” You screamed, standing and sending water sloshing everywhere. 
The other side of the paper read ‘Will you marry me?’ 
You could hear Frankie laughing on the other side of the door as you quickly wrapped yourself in a towel and yanked the door open. “Explain.” 
Frankie was sitting on the floor, a huge dorky grin on his face. “You said you didn’t want a traditional ring. And Benny actually did suggest the bath bomb. Really, if anyone should be in trouble, it should be him!” 
“Good god Frankie,” you mumbled, scoping the ring up and examining it. “It’s beautiful.” 
“Is it?” Frankie asked, standing to get a better look. “There were ten options. Oh, that one’s my favorite.” 
You sighed. “Are you also going to get a dragon ring?” 
“Yeah!” Frankie said eagerly, taking his phone out of his pocket. “Mine’s more masculine, but it has the scales, and the stone is the same.” 
“You know,” you said, fiddling with the ring. “You never actually asked me.” 
Frankie’s eyes went wide. “Do you want me to?” 
Smiling, you shrugged. “If you want to.” 
Frankie took the ring from you and got down on one knee. “Baby, will you marry me? Even if it is with a dumb dragon ring?” 
You laughed, nodding and kneeling down so you could kiss Frankie. “Absolutely Frankie. I will marry you. Dumb dragon ring and all.” 
Jack ‘Whiskey’ Daniels: 
You sighed, examining yourself in the mirror. You’d chosen one of your favorite formal outfits for tonight, as Jack had asked. He was coming directly from work to pick you up, and you couldn’t wait. 
You’d known Jack for a long time, and you’d been there for him through thick and thin. When you started dating, he was reluctant and hesitant. But now, five years later, your relationship was as natural as breathing. 
“I’m home!” Jack called through the house, and you rushed out to meet him, kissing his cheek and smiling. 
Jack slid a hand down your back as he kissed you properly. “Why hello,” he said smoothly. “Are we ready to go darlin’?” 
You nodded, bending down to put your shoes on before righting yourself and shifting a bit to get comfortable. “Yep! Ready to go. Still don’t know where we’re going though.” 
“I want to treat my baby on our anniversary,” Jack explained, keeping his hand low on your back as you walked to his car. “We’re going out to dinner.” 
It had been so long since Jack had taken you to dinner, and you were surprisingly eager when he helped you into the car. “Where are we going?” 
“Out,” Jack said, putting his hand on the center console and grinning as you automatically held it on your own. “It’s a surprise, baby.” 
You pouted playfully, smiling as Jack began to drive. Jack was the master of planned surprises, and you had no doubt that this night would be unforgettable. 
The restaurant was very nice, something you had assumed considering your current state of dress. Jack even left his hat in the car as he walked out. He had a reservation, and the waiter showed you two to your table with a friendly grin. 
“Jack,” you said happily, looking around. “This is lovely.” 
“Five years,” Jack replied, taking your hand. “It’s a big number. I wanted to do something special.” 
You laughed. “Jack, honey today would’ve been special no matter what.” 
The waiter came back, and you two ordered dinner, Jack reassuring you that you could get whatever you wanted. 
For a little over half an hour you two talked, ate, and laughed together. Jack told you about work, making you laugh when he told you about how Tequila, who you’d met exactly once, had tried to use Jack’s lasso to grab a chair and accidentally pulled said chair into his face, giving himself a black eye. 
Once the food had been eaten and you were considering dessert, you noticed Jack was starting to look nervous. “Jack? Is everything okay?” 
Jack nodded. “Yeah, baby. I’m fine. I actually have a question for you.” 
“Okay?” 
“I’ve loved you for a while,” Jack said, taking your hands. “You make my life so much better and you saved me from living alone and sad. I’ve called you mine in words for fine years now, but I want it to be official.” Jack moved, still holding your hands, and knelt down in front of you. “I know our relationship is rocky, but I love you so much. Will you marry me?” 
You swallowed down tears, trying not to cry your eyes out in public. “Jack,” you said softly. “Yes. I will.” 
Jack dropped one of your hands and pulled a ring out, sliding it onto your finger. 
There was dead silence, and then someone began to clap, starting a tidal wave of noise and congratulations. 
The rest of your night was spent in varying states of euphoria. Jack joked, as he led you back to the car, that you two could consummate the marriage in the back of his car.
“Okay casanova,” you said with a laugh as Jack undid his tie and top button of his shirt. “Can it wait until we get home, at least?” 
Jack smiled, draping his tie around your neck and pulling you close for a kiss. “No, I don’t think so,” he purred into your ear. “Shall we?” 
You pretended to consider. “Y’know what?” You said softly, leaning in so you were speaking directly into Jack’s ear. “I think we shall.” 
Ezra:
To say Ezra was a man of many words would’ve been an understatement. He was arguably a man of too many words, each one more elegant than the last. He could come up with elaborate poems basically on the spot, and writing was a piece of cake for him.
So why was he having such trouble trying to find the right words to propose to you? 
Ezra sighed, looking at the small ring box with the ring inside. He’d commissioned it custom, so that the stone was one he’d collected on your first prospecting trip together. You were completely unaware of his antics, he hoped. The only thing Ezra had left to do was find the words to propose. 
Which was proving to be harder than he’d originally anticipated. 
“Ezra?” You said from the other side of the pod. “Ezra? It’s dinner time.” 
Ezra sighed, putting the ring in his pocket and pulling aside the divider that separated the pod into rooms. At this point, he was bracing himself for just winging it and hoping he was just as poetic in the moment. 
“Hey Ez,” you said, turning when he walked into the kitchen area. “Long day?” 
“Is it that obvious starlight?” Ezra said with a laugh. “Today was a lot.” 
You smiled, putting a plate in front of Ezra. “Well, at least dinner is done.” 
Ezra nodded, tangling his feet with yours when you sat down with your plate. “Starlight, I was thinking today.” 
“Oh?” You said around a mouthful of food. “That mind of yours is truly never idle, is it?” 
“You know me so well starlight,” Ezra said. “I was thinking about our future.” 
You raised an eyebrow. “Our future? Ez, what do you mean?” 
Ezra shuffled his feet, still keeping his ankles tangled around yours. “I was filling out paperwork today for my solo job.”
Your face fell. Ezra had been offered a solo job that you were unable to do with him. He’d be away for months, and last time you and him had been apart, he’d been marooned on the Green and came back four years later with one arm missing. 
“Oh starlight,” Ezra murmured, taking your hand. “No, it’s not bad my dear. I was reading the papers again. In the fine print, I found something that intrigued me. There is a way for you to accompany me.” 
You perked up at that, and he could see the hope in your face. “Really?” 
“Yes,” Ezra confirmed. “My starlight, I am allowed to bring family members by blood and by law.” 
“By law?” He could see the confusion take over your face. “Ezra, what are you saying?” 
Ezra put his hand in his pocket, hoping this wouldn’t all backfire. “Starlight, I’m asking you to marry me.” 
You were quiet for a second as he pulled out the ring and held it out. “Ezra,” you breathed softly. “Are you serious?” 
“I have loved you for years, starlight,” Ezra said. “And marriage has always been something I wanted to discuss with you. But this job made me realize I want nothing if I can’t share it with you.” 
“Oh Ezra,” you said, taking the ring and looming closer at it. “Is this?” 
“The first stone we harvested together,” Ezra confirmed. “It is.” 
You swallowed hard and smiled. “Ezra. Of course I’ll marry you.” 
Ezra carefully put the ring on your finger and pulled you across the tiny table to kiss you deeply. “Thank you my dear. I think you have truly made me the happiest man in the universe.” 
“Anything for you, Ezra,” you murmured, already looking forward to a future by Ezra’s side.
Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey:
Shane was not a marriage guy. Not in the slightest. You’d asked him once about it, mostly for tax reasons, and he’d immediately told you he wasn’t going to do all that shit for a piece of paper and a ring. 
So you’d never brought it up again. 
However, you’d been dating Shane for almost seven years, and you’d only just noticed something peculiar about him. He never really wore his jewelry or any of that around your apartment, mostly because when he was home he wasn’t Dio the goth king of New York, he was Shane the weird but funny boyfriend. But you’d noticed when he was taking his rings off one day that he wore one or even two on all of his fingers except for his left ring finger. 
“Babe?” You said, sitting beside Shane on the couch while you two watched Jeopardy. “Why don’t you wear your rings in the house?” You’d been playing with Shane’s hand during the movie, and you’d finally managed to ask him. 
“I don’t want to bring Dio home,” Shane said, curling his fingers around your hand. “I’ve told you that before. Why?” 
You shrugged, still not looking at Shane. “Dunno. Curious.” You traced your index finger down Shane’s ring finger. “You don’t wear a ring here.” 
Shane was quiet for a minute before he sighed. “Baby, I don’t want to wear a ring there. Yet.” 
“Yet?” You asked, apprehensive. 
“One day,” Shane said slowly. “I’d like to get married. But I’m young, and I’m king, you know.” 
You smiled. “I can’t rule alongside you?” You asked. 
Shane laughed, kissing your head. “Maybe one day you can, my dove.” 
The next day, while you were out, you stopped by a small local business that you and Shane both loved. He got most of his Dio clothes at the shop, and you occasionally found something for yourself, like the patched leather jacket that matched Shane’s. 
“Hey! It’s the soon to be reigning monarch of New York City!” Marissa said happily upon seeing you come in. “How’s it hanging?” 
“Hey Ris,” you said, looking absently at a pair of vintage style pants. “I’m doing good, and so’s Shane.” 
Ris smiled. “Only you could have the guts to call the king of New York by his actual name.” 
You laughed, leaning on a jewelry case to talk to Ris. “He asked me to! I’ve told you before, he doesn’t bring Dio home with him. He’s a bad influence on my kind, law-abiding boyfriend.” 
Now it was Ris’s turn to laugh. “Oh honey,” she said. “Now I know you’ve lost it.” She paused, seeing you looking mesmerized into the case below you. “See something you like?” 
“Yeah, actually,” you murmured, pointing to a specific ring. “That.” 
Ris pulled the ring out. “It’s Dio’s size,” she said softly. 
“Oh Ris,” you mumbled. “Shane and I were talking about marriage yesterday. He said he wasn’t ready yet, but he had that look in his eyes. Y’know the one where he’s hiding something from me.” 
“Honey,” Ris said, cutting you off. “If you feel the time is right, go for it. Don’t wait for him to ask.” 
That afternoon, you went home with the ring in your pocket. It truly was a very Shane ring. You’d feared it would be overly simple and lost among the heavy and ornate rings Dio wore all day, but the small skull made from a gleaming pearl that was set into the band of dark metal was the perfect balance between Shane and Dio.
All you had to do now was ask. 
You planned to ask during dinner, but Shane wasn’t home for dinner. He’d left with his long leather coat, so you could only assume he was out doing Dio things. So, instead of eating dinner with Shane, you ate alone, the ring box growing heavier and heavier in your pocket with each passing minute. 
Finally, about halfway through Jeopardy, which you hated watching without Shane, he came home. He looked exhausted, falling onto the couch without taking his rings or coat off. His eyes blinked closed and he let out a long breath. 
“Shane?” You asked, scooting and pulling your boyfriend’s head into your lap. “Long day?” 
“Too fucking long,” Shane agreed, a smile pulling at his lips when you began to rub his temples, hoping to clear away his headache. “How’s Jeopardy?” 
You shrugged. “Boring tonight,” you said. “No good categories.” 
Shane yawned, and you carefully took his hands, beginning to take his rings off. “What did I ever do to deserve you?” He asked, opening his eyes so he could watch you as you lined each ring up on the coffee table. 
You smiled, putting a ring with a heavy bird skull on the table. “How do you wear these all day?” You mused, mostly to yourself. “These rings must weigh a few pounds, at least.” 
“You get used to it,” Shane promised, rolling so he could wrap his arms around your waist. “C’mon, I wanna snuggle.” 
“Alright,” you said, abandoning the rings. “We can snuggle.”  
The next morning, Shane had to leave again, but he was able to delay it so you and him left at the same time when you left for work. As he got dressed, you looked over his ring lineup. Slipping the one you’d bought yesterday into the line, you perked up as Shane came out of the bedroom. 
“Looking good,” you said happily, seeing Shane in your favorite, a tight pair of leather pants and a black tank top. “C’mere, I wanna see if I remember where all your rings go.” 
Shane sat on the couch, holding out his hands and grinning. You mirrored his grin, starting on his right pinky finger and working your way in. It was easy, considering you’d put them in order yesterday. When you reached his left hand, you started to get nervous. But there was no backing down now. 
“And one more,” you said, sliding the skull ring onto Shane’s left ring finger. 
He looked down at his hands, confused. “Babe, I’ve got an extra.” 
“I know.” 
Shane lifted his head, meeting your eyes. “Are you proposing?” 
You shook your head. “No!” You said, maybe a bit too quickly. “No, I just, I wanted you to have something to remind you of me while you were out, and-“ 
“Yes.” 
You stopped, voice failing at Shane’s single word. “Yes?” 
“Yes,” Shane repeated. “I’ll marry you if you want.” 
It took a minute of dead silence for you to understand what Shane was saying, but when you did, you couldn’t hold back the tears. “Shane.” 
Shane was equally as emotional as you, his tears running black and making you laugh. “Shane,” you giggled. “Your eyeliner.” 
“Oh.” Shane touched his cheek and began to laugh. “Dammit! I’m gonna have to fix that.” 
You smiled, pulling Shane in for a kiss. “What if we stayed home today? To celebrate?” 
Shane scooped you up, holding you tight against his body as he carried you to your bedroom. “Y’know what? I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
Javier Peña: 
Having Javier home was the greatest gift of all. He’d been in Columbia for so long that you’d almost forgotten him, the way he laughed and cried and spoke. And then, by some miracle, he came home and to you. 
Which was where you were now, home in Texas while Javier received phone call after phone call, and you occasionally caught snippets of the conversations, something about Cali and Columbia. You were scared to ask what that was about, but at the same time, not knowing was killing you. 
“Javi,” you said slowly one night, while you were making dinner. “What was that latest  call about?” 
“Work,” Javier grumbled, coming up behind you and pressing a kiss to the back of your neck. “I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, you’re not stupid, but they want me to go back.” 
The thought of that chilled your blood. “And they still won’t let me come with you?” You asked hesitantly. 
“Probably not,” Javier said. “Circumstances are, if you can believe this, worse than they were when I left.” 
You made a face, pulling a pan off the heat and sighing. “Javier,” you said. “What if we got married?” 
Dead silence. You almost regretted asking, but you needed an answer. 
“No,” Javier said finally, voice sounding strangled. “No. If we were married, you’d be able to come with me, but I won’t allow that.” 
“Why?” You were sure he could hear the heartbreak in your voice. 
Javier shook his head. “Because what I saw down there was enough to scar me for ten lifetimes!” He said loudly. “And I don’t want that to happen to you.” 
You trembled, nodding your understanding. Javier slowly got closer, wrapping you in a hug. “I’m sorry I raised my voice,” he said gently. “But you must understand. It’s not that I don’t love you or don’t want to marry you. But I can’t risk you getting hurt, okay?” 
“Okay,” you mumbled. 
Three weeks later, you waved goodbye to Javier, tears pouring down your face. He looked equally as torn, but he kissed you firmly and promised, just as last time, he would be home again. 
And home again he was. 
For months, you tended to your house, waiting for the day when you’d hear Javier’s car pulling up on the rough gravel driveway. You almost lost hope more times that you could count, but the promise of having Javier home kept you going. He called, of course, and he wrote letters you put on the fridge. But nothing was the same as having the real Javier beside you.
It was the dead of winter when he returned home. Of course, Texas weather meant that it was still nice and warm out when you heard the car in the driveway. Perking up, you tried to remember if you’d invited anyone to visit. 
Peering through the peephole in the door, you sighed, seeing Javier’s oldest sister coming up to the house. “Hey Maria,” you said as you opened the door. “How’re you?” 
Maria shrugged. “Good. Missing my little brother, but what else is new?” 
You smiled. “Yeah. Come on in. I didn’t know you were coming today.” 
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Maria admitted. “But I was in the area and figured I’d drop by to see how you were holding up.” 
“Yeah,” you said slowly. “I’m doing fine. Javi wrote last week, and I’m so sorry, but the AC is completely dead. Do you wanna go outside?” 
Maria nodded. “That works. Sucks about your AC.” 
You tugged open the sliding door, looking back at Maria. “Eh. It’s fine. Simple fix, I just can’t do it myself.” 
As you turned, you felt your stomach drop to your shoes. “Javier?” 
Your boyfriend smiled, standing nervously in the yard. “Surprise.” 
After a second of stillness, you launched yourself at Javier, laughing and wrapping him in a tight hug. “You’re home!” 
Javier hugged you back, burying his face in the crook of your neck. “I’m home,” he murmured into your skin. “And I have a surprise for you.” 
You pulled away, watching Javier take a small box out of his pocket and dropping to one knee. “I’m so sorry,” he said as you gasped softly. “I should’ve asked before I left, and I should’ve taken you with me. I was just scared you’d be hurt, and I didn’t want to risk that. But I see now, I don’t want to go anywhere unless I can have you beside me. So please, my love, will you marry me?” 
“Yes!” You said happily, falling to your knees and pulling Javier in close. “Yes. I will.” 
Javier smiled, kissing you gently. “I figured a late proposal was better than no proposal at all,” he said. 
You laughed. “I agree.”
Maxwell Lord:
Max took a breath, trying to calm his racing mind. He’d been doing this periodically for over three hours now, as the clock grew closer and closer to five PM. 
Five PM. When he was supposed to pick you up and take you out for the night on a simple Valentine’s Day date. He’d take you to dinner, and then you two would walk around the reflecting pool, taking in the sights of DC at night. Hopefully, Max would work up the courage to get down on one knee then, but with the way things were looking right now, that wasn’t going to happen. 
“I’m a coward,” Max groaned into his hands, looking at the clock again. Four thirty. 
“Daddy?” 
Max immediately sat up, smiling wide as Alistair walked into the room. “Hey!” 
Alistair looked at Max’s desk and the ring box sitting next to his lamp. “What’s that?” 
“This,” Max said, pulling Alistair into his lap. “Is a ring for (Y/N).” 
“Like a wedding ring?” 
“Exactly like a wedding ring,” Max said, throat growing tight. “I’m going to ask them to marry me today.” 
Alistair smiled. “Will they say yes?” 
“I don’t know,” Max admitted. “I hope so.” 
“They love you a lot,” Alistair said. “They told me so!” 
Max paused. “They did?” 
“Mhm!” Alistair nodded. “They told me last night that they love you a lot and they want to spend every day with you.” 
Suddenly, Max’s anxieties over proposing melted away a tiny bit. “Thanks for telling me,” he said, kissing Alistair’s cheek. “That made me feel much better.” 
At five, Alistair waved good luck to Max as he went to go pick you up, and Max waved back, the ring box heavy in his pocket. 
You were waiting on the couch when Max entered the house, still in your pyjamas. “Maxie?” 
Max immediately rushed to your side, seeing your lidded eyes and the green tint to your skin. “Babe? Are you okay?” 
You nodded, and then shook your head quickly, leaning over and dry heaving into a bucket by the couch. Max rubbed your back, suddenly worried. “Babe?” 
When you resurfaced, you looked incredibly guilty. “I’m so sorry Max,” you said softly. “I know you had a lovely date planned out, but y’know how I told you one of my coworkers brought us takeout yesterday? Well the chicken I ate wasn’t good, and me and the other person who ate it have food poisoning.”
Max made a noise of sympathy, shedding his coat and undoing his tie. “Don’t feel bad,” he said. “I’ll reschedule the reservation, and we can go out next weekend.” 
You smiled weakly. “Thank you Max.” 
Max left you on the couch while he went upstairs to put his pyjamas on. As he changed his pants, the ring box fell out, and Max’s breath hitched. Well there went his plans to propose. He could totally do it next weekend, when you felt better. 
“Max?” 
Max’s head snapped around, seeing you in the doorway, looking at him with confusion. “Babe!” He said quickly. “Why aren’t you on the couch?” 
“I had to use the bathroom,” you said, coming closer. “Is that a ring?” 
Max took a breath. No hiding it now. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “It is.” 
You winced, and Max helped you sit on the bed. “Were you going to propose tonight?” 
Hesitantly, Max nodded. 
He heard your breath hitch, and then you started to cry, big hiccuping sobs that broke his heart as he pulled you into a hug. “Shh,” he comforted, rubbing your back as you cried into his bare chest. “Shh, it’s okay.” 
“But it isn’t!” You sobbed. “I ruined your proposal!” 
Max shook his head. “You haven’t ruined a single thing, my love,” he promised, rocking back and forth the same way he did when Alistair was crying. “None of this was your fault, okay?” 
You still cried for another ten minutes, and when you were drained of tears, Max still held you close, allowing you to slump against his body. 
“Babe?” Max finally breaks the silence. “Are you okay?” 
“No,” you whimpered against his chest. “Feel bad.” 
Max sighed. “Physically?” 
You nodded. 
“How can I help?” Max asked, kissing your forehead. “Do you need water?” 
“No,” you said hesitantly. “Just wanna stay here.” 
Max smiled, smoothing a hand over your hair. “Okay. We can stay here.” 
Late that night, after the sun had set and midnight had come and gone, you were still awake, throwing up as Max held your hair off your face and rubbed your back. “Oh babe,” he said, seeing your face stained in tears. “Hey, I’m right here. I’m never leaving.” 
You breathed heavy as Max helped you lean against his chest, your shoulder blades pressing against him, but he wasn’t about to complain. “Max?” 
“Yes?” 
“Are we engaged now?” 
Max blinked a few times. “What?” 
You turned, so he could see your eyes. “You had a ring, and said you were going to propose. Can we skip all the fancy shit and just be engaged now?” 
“Oh,” Max said, smiling. “Of course. Engaged. I like the sound of that.” 
Taking a breath, you fell against Max’s body, limp and exhausted, but oh so very happy. “Engaged,” he heard you murmur. “Sounds good.”
Oberyn Martell: 
(We all know Oberyn isn’t about to ever marry anyone. So I present, the next best thing) 
You sighed, leaning back against the soft bed and even softer pillows. Ellaria was on your left and Oberyn on your right, both holding you as you breathed heavy, still shivering from the ecstasy they had both just put you through. 
Oberyn turned your wrist over and kissed it gently, likely feeling your pulse beneath his lips. “My sun,” he murmured, making your pulse jump. “I was hoping to ask you a question.” 
Ellaria smiled, running her fingers gently over the warm expanse of your bare chest. You let your eyes flutter closed, leaning into her touch. 
“Ellaria,” Oberyn chastised, a smile in his voice. “Let the little sun focus.” 
You hummed. “I can listen,” you promised. 
Oberyn nodded, tucking himself closer to you. “My sun, I was hoping you would accompany me and Ellaria to King’s Landing in a week’s time.” 
The destination confused you, and you opened your eyes. “I thought Doran was to go to King’s Landing.” 
“He has fallen ill,” Oberyn said, tracing the knuckle of his index finger over your temple and down your cheekbone. “I must go in his place.” 
Ellaria continued to work her fingers across your skin, her hands dipping low onto your belly and her face curling into a smile as she saw how you reacted to her touches. “The prince would not take you if he thought there would be danger, my sun,” she reassured. “And I’m attending as well.” 
A sigh released from your lungs, and you nodded. “I will go,” you decided. “Only if I can have this for as long as I live.” 
Oberyn grinned, cat-like and mischievous. “As long as you live?” He asked, sitting up and back on his legs. “Ellaria, do you think we can manage that?” 
Ellaria pulled you into her lap, so your back was flush with her stomach, understanding where Oberyn was going. “My prince,” she purred. “My sun. I do believe we can.” 
“What do you say, little sun?” Oberyn asked, tracing over the ornate golden collar with the sun charm that you wore. “Shall we worship you forever?” 
You nodded, glad Oberyn had given you a chance to say no, you were too tired for this right now. But you weren’t, so you just eagerly accepted his touches, keening when Ellaria’s expert hands joined in. 
Oberyn, glowing in the light of the sun that filtered through the curtains, leaned down next to your ear, biting at your earlobe and smiling. “Forever, my sun.” 
You gasped, feeling Ellaria’s fingers pinch at your chest. “Forever, my prince.”
Pero Tovar: 
Traveling with Tovar and William was nothing less than hellish. The days and nights spent sleeping on sand without any water to wash your throats or bodies, the constant attacks from enemies you didn’t even know you had, the way your stomach rolled when you ran out of food, it was all enough for you to want to stay at whatever town you stopped at and never travel again. 
And then you remembered why you’d started traveling with the boys. 
Tovar had been your deciding factor, his grumpy face and seemingly insatiable appetite drew you to him, and while it took a while, you were finally able to break through and find his softer side. 
You’d been exploring this unknown softness for years now, and although marriage wasn’t something either of you wanted, or in Tovar’s case even knew much about, you had considered asking once or twice. 
Now was one of those times. William was in town, bartering for supplies, while you and Tovar remained in the single inn room. It was something you did often, share a single room between the three of you. You and Tovar fought for space on the first small bed, and William took the second one. If there was only one bed, William usually took the floor. 
You sighed, carding through Tovar’s hair. He’d been complaining about the length, but you’d told him there was nothing you could do until you reached a town. Now that you were in a town, you were able to sit your grouchy Spaniard down and trim his admittedly overgrown hair. 
“Pero,” you said, tossing another mangled chunk of hair into the fireplace. “What do you want from life?” 
“You’re getting awfully philosophical,” Tovar noticed, wincing when you tugged on a particularly stubborn hair mat. “Why?” 
You shrugged. “Sit still,” you said firmly. “I was just thinking, you bastard.” 
Tovar grumbled a bit, squaring his shoulders and doing his best to stay still. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “What I want.” 
“A lover?” You asked cautiously, and Tovar jerked in surprise, causing you to nick his ear with your scissors. “Christ! Pero! I could’ve cut your ear off!” 
Tovar pressed a hand to his ear, stopping the flow of blood. “Well don’t surprise me like that!” He countered. 
“Oh I’m sorry that the notion of taking a permanent lover scares you!” You yelled back, standing and walking as far from Tovar as you could get in the small room. You wrapped your arms around yourself, feeling a dreadful emptiness in your stomach. 
“Hey,” Tovar said softly, stepping closer. “Are you okay?” 
You sniffled, trying to stop the tears. “Yeah.” 
Tovar put an arm around you. “Don’t lie,” he murmured, pulling you close. “What’s wrong?” 
“I just,” you said, voice wavering. “I don’t want us to be a mystery Pero. I want there to be a word for us.” 
“Like married?” 
Tovar’s words caught you off guard, and you couldn’t stop yourself from nodding. “Yeah. Like married.” 
“Amor,” Tovar said softly, running his hand down your spine. “I love you, you know. I love you a lot. But marriage, it’s hard for people like us. No priest worth his salt will bless us, and I cannot afford a ring.” The best I can offer you is me.” 
“Pero,” you breathed. “All I need is you.” 
You and Tovar remained in each other’s embrace for a while before you finally pulled away to treat his bleeding and finish his hair. You were working on a really knotted section on the back of Tovar’s neck when William returned, smiling at you two. “Look what I found!” 
He spilled the contents of a small leather coin purse onto his bed, revealing a few coins, two small blank rolls of parchment, and a glittering ring made of gold. 
Tovar picked up the ring and handed it to you. “You wanted a ring.” 
The ring didn’t fit your fingers by any means, but you laced it onto a strip of leather and put it around your neck, smiling. “Thank you Pero.” 
You turned Tovar to the fire once more, determined to finish your job. As you stood between his legs, working on his fringe, he leaned forward and kissed the ring where it rested on your sternum. “I suppose this means we’re married.” 
“I suppose it does,” you agreed, stepping back and tossing the last chunk of matted hair into the fire. “Looking good.” 
“Good enough to marry?” 
You laughed. “Yes Pero. Good enough to marry.”
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yoshkeii · 4 years ago
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Bokuto Confession hcs!
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࿐ character: Bokuto Koutarou
࿐ genre: fluff, soft, confessions!
࿐ requested by: GreenTheSimp on Ao3!
࿐ imagine/scenario: “some Bokuto headcannons on how he asks Khai out? Plus maybe him being a goof towards his s/o.”
A/N: fyi, most of these will be coming from my Ao3 since I started writing there first! it’s not much and i generally don’t proof read these so im sorry if there are small errors, this one is a bit longer since I made two chapters for it. im so bad at writing istg,,
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≫ ──── ≪ Confession Time ≫ ──── ≪
❀ First, Bokuto would be oblivious to his crush and his feelings for you till it was brought up multiple times by his team, and eventually at the volleyball camp from the other schools. Most likely Kuroo nagging him about the certain someone, Khai, Bokuto talks about so much.
❀ You and Bokuto were friends for quite some time, maybe at least a year or so. And being in the same class as him, you guys had time to interact with each other and even plan hangouts whenever you could.
❀ And yes, this man talks 24/7 about you without even noticing- this varies from your interactions during the school day, your conversations during classes and lunch, stupid dumb texts you guys have once in a while, the answers you give him from the many of many questions he asked you... the list goes on and on. This makes it easy for his friends to identify his fucking crush on you. him being so oblivious about it hurts their brains istg
❀ He's extremely bubbly around you, super friendly and kind but you usually brush it off as his normal personality. ibetyou'llbeoblivioustooaboutit.
❀ Once Bokuto awakened to his crush and feelings for you he found it extremely difficult to act like it was normal before. The slight blush on his cheeks was a much solid shade. His heart skipping beats every time he saw you walk in the room. Your laugh, your smile, anything about you made him so nervous around you now. When you directly smile at him, hearing your laughs at his jokes or actions will make this man just seize to exist.
❀ Bokuto can't stop thinking about you after that thought, always finding his mind wandering to the dorkiest, sappy shit thing he would do with you.
❀ Sometimes he found himself avoiding you at some points just so he can keep himself in check and not be an embarrassment around you-
❀ He still craves your attention but he gets a lingering fear he might mess something up so he has an internal fight with himself and it just- hurts him sm- poor owl,,
❀ Akaashi finds himself trying to motivate and support emo Bokuto at these moments, usually through texts or calls when they aren't near each other etc.
❀ You would generally think he would just confess to you as soon as he had the chance but actually took this on a slow thoughtful ride. To the point, it did affect his skill at practice, which notified his teammates about it fairly quickly. Bokuto was so deep in thought about it all he was unsure how to process his confession, when, where, what would make you happy, if you liked him back and such.
❀ This eventually leads to him asking Akaashi, the team, and friends (from the other teams' ofc-), on how he should confess to you. All of the answers didn't seem to fit Bokuto in a comfortable way either, which is hella surprising. Before he decided to do something pretty simple.
❀ Earlier today, Bokuto asked you to wait for him a few minutes after class. Knowing you two had different club activities after school, him having volleyball and you have [Khai's favorite activity]. It was the best option to get your attention since your clubs ended at different times made it difficult. And so you did, meeting him outside of your classroom, just you and him.
❀ Bokuto felt anxious about being alone with you, especially like this.
❀ "Hey, Khai..?"
❀ "What is it, Bo?"
❀ That little nickname you gave him, always and I mean always made his heart skip 10 beats. The blush on his cheeks grew a shade darker.
❀ "Wanna walk home.. t-together...?" Bokuto quickly mustered out the words, knowing his throat would dry up sooner or later.
❀ Both of you actually took a similar route home after school, which you guys figured out on a rainy day.
❀ "Oh, sure! Don't you have practice though?" You tilted your head innocently, your hair moving as well revealing the smallest of details that made Bokuto swoon.
❀ "Coach said we should rest for our game tomorrow"
❀ "Ah- that makes sense, I forgot about that-" You giggled lightly before you took the lead of heading out of the building.
❀ Bokuto froze at your giggle before you dragged him behind you. Your hand softly around his wrist. "C'mon slowpoke," you teased.
❀ He smiled slightly before he caught up to you. Walking aside from you at the same pace.
❀ It was an awkward walk. Bokuto was oddly quiet which made you slightly worried.
❀ "Bokuto? You alright..?" You finally broke the silence, looking up at the Ace to your right.
❀ "P-perfectly fine!"
❀ "You stuttered."
❀ "Did... I..?"
❀ "Yes, dummy- What's wrong?"
❀ "I-... Damn it. Khai."
❀ Before you knew it, he pulled you into a kiss. His large hands cupping your face as he planted his lips softly onto yours, pulling away from a little with only a few inches from your lips. Bokuto looked straight into your brown eyes, staring back with his golden eyes. The blush on his cheeks flushed with shades of red.
❀ "I like you. Wait- No.. I love you." Bokuto muttered softly, feeling his breath on your lips made you shiver.
❀ You just giggled, before it grew into genuine laughter. He widened his eyes removing his hands from your face.
❀ "H-hey..!! What's so funny!?"
❀ "It was so obvious Bo~"
❀ "Was.. was it!? I-"
❀ You cut him off, "I love you too Koutarou."
❀ Him hearing you use his first name WITH you saying ily to him, made his day. A bright smile plastered on his face, he hugged you lifting you up and kissing your face all over.
❀ "HEY HEY HEYYYY!! Khai likes me back!! Actually, Khai LOVES me!" Bokuto exclaimed happily
❀ After that, Bokuto was back to his normal, loud, excited self throughout the walk. You guys began to have your simple conversations again, him poking you with questions trying to get to know you even more. Having the lingering doubt he had from rejection and negativity was lifted-off from him. He even mentioned having your first date so soon-
❀ He couldn't wait to bring the news to his team and friends.
❀ He can't wait to see you by his side every day.
≫ ──── ≪ Confession Aftermath ≫ ──── ≪
❀ After the confession, Bokuto would rarely ever leave your side. So he does get clingy to you as he does with Akaashi. He's not much for PDA but he's also not against the thought, he unconsciously hugs you, wrapping his arms around your torso, waist, arms, and sometimes around your neck at least- Sometimes light kisses and pecks but those are generally rare unless he's really excited about something.
❀ He gets really flustered sometimes when you addressed him as your boyfriend the first few days and maybe weeks after starting the relationship. He's just not used to it- It gives this hunk of a man butterflies in his stomach a lot.
❀ Whenever you guys had to leave each other for your designated classes, you tend to find cute notes in your locker whenever you open them. Having cute phrases, flirts, compliments, and silly pick-up lines. You already knew it was from Bokuto because you... sometimes catch him lurking around your locker- just never brought up to him knowing it would genuinely make him sad.
❀ Bokuto just finds it cool that you don't know at first okay-
❀ You always tried to go to his practices and even games when you guys were just friends. Knowing that if Bokuto saw any of his friends out in the stands made his confidence skyrocket so much-
❀ But since you guys are now in a relationship, it makes Bokuto smile so much every time he spots you in the stands of the crowds. Cheering him on boosts his confidence so fucking much- like if this man is in emo mode please cheer for him, it helps a ton (Akaashi and the team might thank you also-)
❀ Long-lasting phone calls that continue till like 3-4 am. Sometimes facetime/video calls if you both have the ability to! He loves seeing your face, he finds it so fucking adorable with all your smallest features and details.
❀ Bokuto probably changed your contact name on his phone to something like "baby owl" with like emojis or something- or literally, just nick (pet) names he has for you- "baby, bae, cloud, cutie, feather, angel, king/queen, prince/princess" and so on. He looooves having names for you because it makes him smile every time he finds things that remind him of you (which generally is how he figures some of them out-)
❀ Whenever this man finds you sad, upset, stressed, or literally in any negative emotion. He will try his damn hardest to make you feel better even if its the slightest, and if it is the slightest he'll keep going to you are perfectly fine and dandy.
❀ He'll even go out of his way to skip practice if needed to comfort your sad butt- He'll give you cuddles, so many cuddles. He's practically a cuddle monster so better prepare for how long you'll stay in his arms afterward-
❀ Whenever you guys are just cuddling in general, he loves to nuzzle his face into your hair, your neck, and shoulder. Just craving the touch and comfort of his lover. Even if it's the slightest of motion, he'll take whatever he can get!
❀ Continuing on the cuddling situation, one of the secret things he loves about you is how you smell. The shampoo you use for your hair, the body wash, perfume or cologne.
❀ Since it's fall season (as of I'm writing this ofc-), Bokuto will drag you around for some walks in the cool weather through parks. Honestly hoping to find leaves to pile and fall into with you! I'd think one of Bo's love language would be quality time (and words of affirmation.) So hanging out with him makes this owl the happiest man to walk on this planet.
❀ Whenever you are cold on these walks, he won't hesitate to wrap his arms around you. If it's a specific part of your body that is cold, for example, your hands. He'll definitely hold his hands over yours. Maybe planting a kiss on them afterward (accidentally getting flustered seconds later-)
❀ Bokuto might also just stare at your hands clasped together, noticing the size difference for the 100000000000000th time
❀ Honestly, he likes to use Instagram and Snapchat filters with you. It's really cute af,, he's such a dork for couple things
❀ Body issues? Bokuto will love every part of you no matter what, comforting that every part of your body is perfect as it is. He'll softly plant kisses wherever you feel insecure. He'll cuddle you till you agree with him that you are a perfect human being.
❀ Don't try to sneak out of it. He's hella stubborn with topics like these- He ain't that dense and dumb guys,,
A/N: I love me some Bokuto huuuuu
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starryevermore · 4 years ago
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under the sea ✧ colby brock
pairing: college!colby brock x fem!reader
request: can you write one about scuba school 😍 - @xplrvibes
summary: you learn how to scuba dive with your friends, and find love under the sea. 
word count: 1,267
warnings?: discussion of fear/anxiety of diving in the ocean
note: inspired by this conversation. less college focused, but still is a college!colby. takes place in a world without a pandemic. if you want to request I write anything, you can do so: here.
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You weren’t entirely sure how Sam and Colby convinced you to do this. First, they convinced you to let them stay with you over the summer break. Which wasn’t an unreasonable request—Sam was taking a few summer classes to stay on track with his double major and had to remain in-state since a few of them were in-person classes, and Colby’s parents were in the process of moving and his go-to sleepover house was Sam’s and, well, you get the picture. So you, and your parents, welcomed them to your California home with open arms. And the arrangement was going fine enough until the crazy Kansas boys were struck with an ever so genius idea: learning to scuba dive. 
And, of course, no harebrained scheme was complete unless they were forcing you to join. That’s how you ended up going to as many parties as you did, exploring as many abandoned locations as you did, having as much as you did. So, while you had some reservations about diving into the oceanic abyss, when Colby pouted and blinked his pretty blue eyes at you, well, you couldn’t exactly say no, could you? 
So, you signed up for the classes and took the test. You all miraculously passed on the first try, which hurt your wallet since you’d bet it would take Sam a minimum of two tries to pass the knowledge section of licensing process. But, regardless, that put you onto the next step: diving in confined water. 
You practiced diving in the university pool. It went well, for the most part. It took Colby a while to get used to getting in and out of the water. Sam struggled with putting on his gear. You were shit at navigating underwater at the start. But you all helped each other, with the instructor’s oversight, until you all were eventually comfortable in all aspects. 
Then, it was time to move onto open water dives. You were expected to complete four dives with your instructor over a two day period. And, oh lord, was Colby excited. As soon as you passed the knowledge section, it was all he could talk about. Hell, it was all he could talk about until you succumbed to the pressure and agreed to get your license with him and Sam.
But, the night before the first day of diving, at the stroke of midnight, a meek little Colby stumbled into your room. You were in the midst of a Golden Girls marathon, which you begrudgingly paused until you saw how distressed he was. You ushered him over to your bed, wrapping your arms around him and stroking his hair.
“What’s wrong, buttercup?” you asked, pulling him close.
“I..it’s gonna sound stupid,” he mumbled.
“There’s no such thing as stupidity,” you gently argued. “You can tell me anything. This is a safe space.”
“I just...I’m a bit scared...For tomorrow.”
You furrowed your eyebrows together. “And why’s that? You were so excited before.”
“I still am, but...I don’t know. I’m scared of, like, being out there in the ocean. Of what could happen. Of throwing up in my suit.” 
You snorted at the last one, cupping his cheeks and forcing him to look up at you. “I promise, baby boy, that tomorrow’s going to be fine. New things are scary at first, but that’s just because we don’t have a reference for that thing and we don’t know how to file it away yet. But once you get out there and get used to being in the water, it won’t be as scary as you once thought it was. And, even if you’re still scared, Sam and I will right there with you, along with a trained professional who’s job is literally to be prepared for the worst, if the worst should occur. We’ll be okay, I promise you that.”
He sniffled, nodding. “...thank you.”
“It’s no problem,” you said kissing the top of his head. 
A part of you wondered if you were taking your affection too far. You and Colby had always been affectionate friends, cuddling and hugging each other when the other needed it. But was a forehead kiss too far?
“If it’s alright,” he began, his voice barely above a whisper, distracting you from your inner turmoil, “could I stay the night with you? I’m worried I’ll be too anxious to sleep and I...well, I’m comfortable with you.” 
You smiled, and agreed, because you could never say no to those pretty blue eyes, especially when they looked as sad and anxious as they did in that moment. And so, you laid side-by-side in your bed, your arms wrapped around the anxious boy as he slowly began to fall asleep in your embrace. And, as you stroked his hair, you, too, fell asleep. 
When it came time for the first dive, you could still see that Colby had some reservations about the whole thing as he got suited up beside you. So, you leaned over and said, “Remember what I promised?”
He slowly nodded, as though he didn’t trust that he could open his mouth without vomiting.
“Well, you should know I never break a promise,” you said, reaching over and giving his hand a gentle squeeze.
He squeezed your hand back one, two, three times, and gave you a shaky smile. 
But, God Almighty, nothing could’ve ever prepared you for how amazing diving in the open ocean was. You didn’t stray too far from the boat during the first dive, but it was still so amazing. Being able to swim with the fishes, to see the life that existed in the oceanic depths—it was something you could never get tired of. And you certainly would never tire of the way Colby swam up next to you and grabbed your hand and squeezed, one, two, three times before swimming away again.
It became a sort of game of tag with each dive. Whoever could get to the other and squeeze their hand was the determined “winner”. Colby, who gained an increase in confidence, won all but one time.
During the last dive, you managed to get to Colby before he got to you. He was busy showing off how good of a swimmer he was to Sam that you were able to sneak up unnoticed, and took his hands in yours and squeeze one, two, three times. And you couldn’t really tell because of the gear, but you were pretty sure he was smiling at you when you did it. 
When you emerged from the water and stripped off the gear on the boat, Colby flashed a grin at you and said so only you could hear, “Thank you for doing all of this.”
“It’s no problem—” you began.
He cut you off. “It means a lot, and I was thinking I should pay you back.”
“Really, there’s no need—”
“So, I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me tomorrow night?” And, oh lord, those baby blue eyes were your kryptonite. And after this whole experience? You knew you could never let the pretty boy who stole your heart under the sea go. 
“I would like that a lot.” 
“Great, get ready to have your socks knocked off, little mermaid.” 
“I expect nothing less, my prince,” you teased back.
And, before the moment could get any more sappy, you heard Sam ask the instructor, “Yo, can you just push me back into the ocean so I don’t have to listen to this the entire way home?”
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jiamour · 4 years ago
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love letters
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pairing: ravenclaw!renjun x hufflepuff!reader
genre: fluff
word count: 4.7k
summary:  in which renjun has the phattest crush but he’s too shy to say anything despite being their tutor so his friend convinces him to write anonymous love letters to get his feelings out
alternatively: renjun’s a cutie and you hate arithmancy
a/n: i wrote this two years ago so its not great and its bullet point again, also the pronouns in this are they/them i think?? this is the softest i’ve ever written renjun im sorry he’s not a bad bitch in this 
“GUESS WHAT,” you yelled as you walked into the hufflepuff common room knowing your friends would be there, “I FUCKING FAILED!”
cheers broke out
applause was given
you bowed
“thank you, thank you.”
“i told you not to take arithmancy,” your best friend jaemin’s voice spoke from one of the worn down couches, “why would you choose to do math when you’re a wizard?”
“i wanted a challenge jaemin.”
“bet you regret that type of thinking now idiot.”
“you’re a hufflepuff, you’re supposed to be nice,” you whined walking over to him and plopping by his side on the couch
“i’m just teasing hun,” he said, placing a hand on your shoulder in comfort “how bad did you do?”
“on the last assignment i got a dreadful.”
jaemin went to laugh but it caught in his throat when he saw how upset you looked
“i think she just gave me pity points for writing my name neatly”
“you were always good at that,” jaemin nodded thoughtfully and you elbowed his side with a glare
“if only there was a calligraphy class here for you” jaemin continued on completely ignoring your attack
“don’t act like i’m not beating you in every other class”
“well then don’t act like i was the one stupid enough to ‘predict the future with numbers’ what kind of shit? isn’t that was the crystal balls are for”
“you’re really bad at comforting me” you giggled at his stupid words
“then why are you laughing”
“i’m not”
you were
“i guess i’ll just have to tickle you to cheer you up then,” he said with a shrug, “i mean since there’s no other way”
“don’t you dare”
“don’t you fucking dare jaemin”
but it was too late
jaemin hands went straight to your sides
you toppled backwards in laughter squirming to get out of his tickling hold
“st- stop” you chocked out through tears and giggles
“only if you’re feeling better” he said “if i see a single trace of a frown when i stop you best be prepared”
“i’m better” you tried to say but it came out in a sputter with loud laughs in between
jaemin pulled away slowly and you caught your breath before sitting up
“never do that again”
“but yn”
“never”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“you’re smart right?” jaemin asked hand on his hip looking down at the kid sitting in front of him
“i mean i guess?” the kid awkwardly answered not completely understanding what was going on
“good then i need you to tutor my friend”
“umm what?” the boy raised his eyebrow and looked at jaemin completely lost
“my friend needs help in arithmancy, like serious, serious help, and you claim to be smart, so it only makes sense that you would tutor them” jaemin explained his nonsensical logic and the boy just agreed in shock too confused to know what else to do
“okay good, so when are you free-“ jaemin thought for a second “what’s your name again?”
“renjun”
“okay so when are you free renjun?”
renjun began to ramble “i um i don’t have many plans most of the time so i guess-“
“perfect” jaemin clapped his hands together not letting renjun finish “meet them in the library tomorrow at 7”
“i-okay” jaemin took that as the end of the conversation giving a soft smile before turning to go find you
“wait what’s their name?” renjun called his words coming out all at different volumes “who am i tutoring”
“yn” jaemin turned a little to face renjun “do you know them?”
fuck
this could not be happening
renjun was going to die
his face was already burning thinking about it
noticing renjun’s expression jaemin just laughed
“i’ll take that as a yes”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“GUESS WHO’S THE BESTEST FRIEND EVER”
you gasped “is hyuck here?”
“what? no? you asshole it’s me”
“oof don’t flatter yourself that much” you mumbled waving him off
“i guess you don’t need the tutor i got you then”
“OH MY GOD JAEMIN REALLY?! YOU'RE THE BESTEST FRIEND EVER”
you jumped up and hugged him squeezing both of his arms into his sides
“i knew you’d come around” he said in a cocky demeanor “how could you not? i mean look at this face”
“and you ruined it” you spoke breathily and sat back down where you were before
“who’s my tutor anyways?”
“renjun”
your whole body went stiff
“guess you know him then” jaemin shrugged
“fuck you jaemin”
“hey where’s your hufflepuff manners you should be thanking me”
you probably should have
but you weren’t
because out of all the people in the school for jaemin to pick from
he chose fucking huang renjun
the ravenclaw cutie from astronomy who always lent you his ink when you ran out
the genius who always mastered the spells in minutes no matter how complex
now you were going to look stupid in front of him
you really didn’t want to look stupid in front of him
anyone else would be fine
just not him
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
it was 7 and jaemin had instructed you to wait outside the library for renjun
it was really really awkward
anxiety filled your stomach and mind
7:01
he was late that was fine, only one minute, it’s whatever
7:04
he probably just got lost of the funky moving staircases
yeah
that’s it
7:08
you shifted on you feet
uncomfortable
people were watching you get stood up
for a tutoring session
god your life couldn’t be anymore of a mess
7:15
panic set in
you closed your eyes taking a deep breath before preparing yourself to leave
and probably go smack jaemin upside the head for doing this to you
that was until you were hit by the library door
you let out a loud groan
done with everything
but when you looked at who had hit you
renjun was standing there
holding his books to his chest looking discouraged
“hey?” you said a little confused that he hadn’t noticed he hit you with a fucking door
“oh” his eyes grew wide when he saw you “yn you were here the whole time?”
your hand when straight to your face
you were really fucking stupid
making a fool of yourself already
didn't even check inside the library
“were you inside?” you asked quietly knowing the answer anyways
“yeah i thought you weren’t coming”
“i’m so sorry, jaemin gives really bad instructions”
“yeah?”
“yeah.”
there was silence
this was awkward
“so umm” renjun started “should we go study?”
“that does seem like the best idea”
“okay”
you followed him into the library in awkward, awkward silence
you sat at the same table you assumed he was at before because it was littered with arithmancy books
“so what do you think you have most trouble with” he asked looking down at a book and flipping through the pages so he could have something to do
“um- all of it”
yay humiliation
he laughed
and you died
“why are you laughing? i’m serious”
he face instantly fell he cleared his throat looking at you shyly
“that can’t be true” he spoke soft trying not to offend you assuming he was already on thin ice
“oh it is hun”
“then i guess we have a lot of work to do”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“ugh i hate arithmancy it’s literally the worst”
“it’s my favorite subject”
you coughed
“i mean i love arithmancy it’s the best yay” you said weakly adding small jazz hands at the end
“you don’t have to lie” he laughed writing as he spoke “the numbers just remind me of home”
you hummed quietly
“so you’re muggle born?” you ask glaring down at the complicated numbers in front of you
“yeah” renjun sighed “you don’t have a problem with that right?”
you were slightly offended
okay very offended
you looked at him in angry disbelief your mouth open in the shape of an o “do i look like a pretentious twat to you?”
“well...”
“don’t answer that”
he laughed
he had a nice laugh
“how far did you make it into the equation” he curiously leaned over the table to look at your work
“i have the first three numbers” you groaned spotting his already half full page
“and 2 of them are wrong” he brought his quill over and circled the numbers
you laid your head in your hands
this sucked
you felt dumb
you didn’t want to be here
“hey no yn don��t give up okay” he said softly, lightly trying to move your arms away from your face
you just let out a frustrated hum
“i’m never going to get this”
“not with that attitude you won’t”
you moved your hands away from your face to glare at him but he only smiled
he did that purposely didn’t he
fucking ravenclaws
he began to scoot his chair from the opposite side of the table to right beside you, grabbing the quill off of the paper
“here let me help we’ll figure this out together okay?”
you looked at him as he began to write with wide eyes
“okay.”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“did you understand today’s assignment?” renjun asked you
you gave him a look raising an eyebrow knowing he already knew the answer
“okay no need for that sass” he huffed “you could’ve just said no”
“you don’t deserve a no for a stupid question like that”
you began taking your books and parchment out of your bag
“i’m ready to begin this torture”
“hey i’m not that bad”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“okay but chenle is totally into jisung did you see the way he was all over him at lunch and whenever jisung walks into the room chenle’s feet turn straight towards him and he ignores everyone else that love psych 101” you said to renjun half way through your 6th study session which had more or less deteriorated into a gossip session
“oh okay ms.sherlock holmes” renjun had an impressed smile
“who the fuck is sherlock holmes?”
renjun waved his hand at you
“ugh wizards”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
the more you got to know renjun the more references that you didn’t understand at all came
it was to say the least frustrating
but his eyes always lit up when he spoke about muggle books or movies so you just let it slide
“tell me more about this spider-man guy” you said one day your head resting on your hand and you gazed at him expectantly
“okay so he was like this super smart teenager but he got bit by a radioactive spider which changed-“ renjun stopped mid sentence glaring at you slightly “you’re trying to distract me aren’t you?”
you raised your hands in the air defensively “what no-“
“oh my god you are! i’m so easy to trick how dare you,” he rambled “we’re getting back to work”
this was met by a groan
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“this is a bad idea jeno”
“you say that every time”
“that’s because all of your ideas suck”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
owls flew through the dining hall dropping down in front of students around you, delivering mail
your owl was one of the last
he had always been quite slow
jaemin was riffling through a package of salt water taffy his grandparents had sent him when your owl finally arrived
he was carrying the usual newspaper and weekly letter from your parents
you thanked your owl petting his head softly
he nuzzled into your palm before flying off again
when you moved the newspaper out of the way of your food you were surprised to see another letter under it
the envelope was completely blank except for your name
you lifted it up glancing at it curiously
“who is that from?” jaemin said chewing a pink taffy in his mouth
“i-um i don’t know?”
“do you have a secret boyfriend that you aren’t telling me about?”
jaemin was an idiot
you rolled your eyes at him and began opening the envelope cautiously hoping it wasn’t a prank
there was a single folded parchment inside
when you saw what it said your cheeks heated up and a small smile grew on your face
“wait, oh my god! you do have a secret boyfriend!” he exclaimed loudly getting annoyed glares from the people around you
he reached out trying to grab the paper out of your hands and read it but you pulled it out of arms reach, folding it and sticking your tongue out at him
you opened the letter under the table glancing to read it over once again
“i’m too shy to say this in person but i think you’re really cute. i hope you’re eating and sleeping well.” there was a tiny heart drawn beside that “have a great day!!”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“did you start your number chart?”
“i spent all night working on it” you told him rubbing your eyes
he gave you a disapproving look
“yn if you don’t sleep then you can’t concentrate and if you can’t concentrate then you can’t listen and if you can’t listen then you fail”
“well wasn’t that an enlightening roller coaster of words”
he huffed
you leaned over resting on him as you gave him an awkward side hug “you know i’m joking”
he nodded
wow your heart was beating way too fast right now
“i just wanted to work on it so i could impress-“ you. i wanted to impress you “the professor”
“i know yn but just take care of yourself okay” he was blushing now which you thought was cute
very very cute
you pulled away from him with a large smile taking your work out of your bag to show to him
“wait this actually really good” he said in happy surprise “yn you’re getting better”
“well yeah i have a good tutor”
he nudged you slightly
“shut up” renjun lightheartedly laughed
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
this time jaemin was ready
he was going to read one of the letters from your secret boyfriend
there was no stopping him
well you stopped him the last 4 times
but this time
there was no stopping him
when your owl flew towards you he quickly grabbed your mail before you could and began to open the letter tossing your newspaper at you
“HEY” you yelled ready to jump the table to stop jaemin but it was too late
“i want to make a fragile human connection in the vast and unfeeling infinity of chaotic universe with you,” jaemin read the letter out loud proceeding to scrunch his face up when he finished
“what the fuck was that? is that what you and your secret boyfriend talk about? science shit?” he tossed the letter to you which you grabbed quickly and smiled at the tiny stars they had drawn along the page
“i think it’s cute” you spoke softly, adoration in your tone
“i can’t believe my best friend is a nerd”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“I DID IT” you said loudly as soon as you saw renjun in the library only to be shushed by at least 10 students at once
“you did! i’m so proud of you” his voice was a lot quieter probably trying to not get everyone to hate him
you sat down in the chair beside him which he already had pulled out and placed your essay down in front of him
“i mean it’s only an acceptable but it’s good for me y’know” you rambled on shyly his eyes shone bright at your accomplishments
“it’s great yn” he encouraged “we should um”
he looked away from you awkwardly
“hmm?”
“we should uh go to hogsmeade this weekend to celebrate?” renjun couldn’t look you in the eyes and he felt as if he was going to combust “i mean only if you want to if you don’t that’s fine too no pressure”
“you’re rambling” you giggled
“sorry i-“
“i’d love to go to hogsmeade with you”
his shoulders relaxed and he finally looked at you  smiling with his eyes
your heart was blessed that day
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“i can’t believe you have a date”
“shut up it’s not date”
“it totally is”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
it was quite cold the day you and renjun had planned to go to hogsmeade
okay really cold
and there was renjun standing outside leaning against a wall with his ravenclaw scarf pulled up just past the tip of his nose, hands in his coat pocket, shivering
you were late
and running through the halls
you yelled sorry’s as you pushed past slow moving students hoping you hadn’t kept renjun waiting long
you saw him standing in the cold somehow the small boy was looking even tinier than usual
“renjun” you yelled out waving a hand in the air so he could see you even though you were the only one around
his head lifted up from his scarf and you noticed his smile as he stopped leaning and walked towards you
“you haven’t been waiting long have you?”
“no don’t worry yn i just got here”
that was a lie
you could tell by the red tint on his cheek and the tip of his nose and also the occasional shiver
“liar” you said reaching towards his cheek to place your hands on them to see how cold they were “you’re freezing injunnie”
you couldn’t tell if he was blushing or if he had just gotten colder
“your hands are just warm” he protested moving your hands away from face and back in between the both of you
you both stood there for a second your hands in his until he realized what he was doing
he took a large step back
to your disappointment
“we should-um let’s get going?” he mumbled into his scarf
which by the way was very cute
“lets”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
renjun’s hands were waving around and he explained stories from the muggle world
and it seemed as though other wizards at tables beside yours had been listening as well
“okay so then get this,” renjun said dramatically and loudly “the sent him to england to be executed but he was abducted by pirates and brought back home”
the girl at the table to the right of you gasped
renjun shrunk back in his chair embarrassed realizing others were listening his hands quickly were placed down on the table
“don’t be shy” you encouraged him placing one of your hands on his “you get really excited when you talk and it makes people want to listen”
“oh” he looked down at your hands and then back up at you
“when he got back home there was a funeral for his kind of girlfriend but like not really cause he told her he didn’t love her...”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“today was nice”
“yeah it was”
“we should do it again some time”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
you opened the envelope the owl had brought you
“i hope these letters brighten your day even a little because you’re beautiful when you smile and when you don’t, you’re beautiful all the time..”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“i can’t do it i’m going to fail” you whined while trying to make a particularly hard chart, beginning to scribble down the page
renjun quickly snatched your quill out of your hands and placed it down beside him
“you’re getting better yn, you’re not going to fail” his hands moved to your shoulders as he tried to motivate you looking you straight in the eyes
“but this is so hard injunnie,” you reaching for your quill back but he took his hands off your shoulders and moved it farther away
“you’re not getting it back until you say something positive”
“i don’t have anything positive to say, i’m going to fail and my parents are going to disown me and i’ll have to live in a shack”
renjun laughed at how ridiculous you sounded
he pointed to a line of work on your paper “what do you do after that?”
you muttered an answer lacking any confidence
“that’s right yn” he clapped shocking you
“wait really!?”
“yeah really see you’re going to pass” he was hyping you up and it was working
“i’m going to pass!”
“you can do this!”
“i’m going to get an outstanding!”
“yes you are!”
“i’m going to do better than you!”
“you see now you’re going too far”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
mail day is what you looked forward to every week filled with joy at the thought of receiving a letter from the anonymous person
as soon as it arrived you basically ripped it open startling jaemin
leaving a long tear in the letter but it was still easy to see
“your determination is admirable”
your heart swelled when you read the words, carefully folding it and placing it back in the envelope to make sure it didn’t get hurt
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“what the fuck man step up your game”
“i thought it was good?”
“you told her that her determination was admirable what kind of weird ass flirting is that”
“okay okay fine now that you say it out loud...”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
full of anticipation for what today’s letter would say your leg bounced up and down
your owl dropped the letters in front of you and you opened it slowly learning from your mistake last time
“are you pikachu? because you’re shockingly beautiful” is all it said inside
what the fuck is a pikachu?
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“hey renjun”
“yeah?”
“do you know what a pikachu is?”
he chocked on air, coughing into his arm
“what? why- why um do you need to know?”
“i got a letter yesterday and it had the word but i couldn’t figure out what it was so i assumed it was a muggle thing, it is a muggle thing right?”
“yeah, a pikachu is a pokémon”
“wow very helpful thank you”
he laughed embarrassed “i forgot you didn’t know about any of that, pokémon are like tiny cartoon monsters”
oh so they were comparing you to a monster
yay
that made you feel so great
“pikachu is an electric type”
“oh” you mumbled sadly
renjun automatically noticed your mood drop and quickly tried to stumble to fix it “i um- i mean he’s- um- pikachu is one of the cute ones?”
you could tell he was trying to cheer you up so you smiled at him
“thank you renjun”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
you kept the letters by your bed there were about 15 now the recent ones reading
“you must be magical, because I've fallen under your spell.” (obviously you were magic they were magic too)
“are you the moon? because even when it’s dark you still seem to shine” (most letters had been space related which you found really cute)
“you must be in honeydukes, cause wow, you're really sweet” (okay this one was nice)
the most recent one “you’re an 11/0 because your beauty is undefined” would have been nice if it didn’t remind you of how awful numbers were
getting letters everyday really had made your life more interesting
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“i wonder who’s writing these, do you know who’s writing these jaemin?”
“why would i know who your secret boyfriend is?”
“because you know everything”
“i know it’s such a burden sometimes”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“are you even going to tell them it’s you?”
“i think i would probably die”
“there’s worse ways to go”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
with every session your grades were getting higher and the closer to owl’s it became
you sat with renjun in your usual spot in the library for one of your last tutoring sessions
this should have made you happy but it didn’t
you wanted more time with renjun
but the only way you knew how to talk to him was through studying and the occasion celebratory trips whenever your grade rose
“did you get number 7 on page 378?”
you watched his mouth move but you couldn’t process what he was saying too lost in your thoughts
“yn are you even paying attention?”
“most definitely”
“you liar”
you sighed
“i’m just going to miss you that’s it- miss this”
“yeah me too”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“are you a Snitch? because you're the finest catch here.” today’s letter read with a tiny broom and golden snitch drawn messily in the corner
you smiled
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
“you have to tell them man”
“i can’t it’ll be so embarrassing”
“come on, no it won’t they like them”
“you have no proof”
“i see them smile every time they open one”
“well what if they don’t like me”
“like that’s even possible don’t you guys meet up like everyday”
“it’s not everyday and it’s for tutoring”
“is that why i’ve seen you on a date”
“i’ve told you a million times it wasn’t a date”
“but you wanted it to be”
“well yeah”
“then tell them, it will work out and if it doesn’t you can dye my hair pink”
“but you’d look good with pink hair?”
“oh why thank you”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚*
it was the day before your arithmancy owl
you were panicked
because of renjun’s help you had been receiving straight e’s
you were both immensely proud
you paced back and forth in the hufflepuff common room frantic students panicking around you
you needed a walk
you opened the door to the common room
and there was renjun looking like he was about to knock a piece of paper in his hands
“hi?” you said slightly confused but very happy to see him nonetheless
“oh yn hi i was-“ he seemed very awkward in front of you his hand fidgeting slightly and his leg bouncing you assumed it was just nerves for exams “i was just coming to see you”
“i was going for a walk do you want to join?”
he nodded
“so are you ready for your owl’s?” you asked trying to make conversation as you walked
and also clear up the tense atmosphere that renjun was creating
“i think i’ll do well i’ve been studying a lot recently at dinner and in between classes but i’m still worried y’know”
“yeah i get it, i’m worried because i could actually fail” you laughed
“hey i thought we talked about this” his voice was finally light and joking
it was comfortable again
“i know my goal is still to beat you and mark my words it will happen”
“i’m sure it will” he agreed without even a hint of sarcasm
“finally i get the recognition for the genius i am”
he laughed fiddling with he paper in his fingers
“what’s that you have?” you asked gesturing to the paper and he froze going stiff
“it’s um-“ he stuttered out “its um nothing”
you stopped in front of him clearly not buying it
“okay it’s not nothing” he lifted up the letter as if he was making a decision and then held it out to you looking away
“just don’t hate me okay?”
this confused you
why would you ever hate him?
you cautiously took the paper from his hands giving him a curious look and opened it slowly while he looked at the ground
“are you using the confundas charm or are you just naturally mind blowing?”
no way
this couldn’t be happening
you knew you were dumb but not this dumb
of course he was the one writing the letters
holy shit renjun was writing the letters
“renjun i-“ you started and he looked at you shyly preparing for rejection
“i can’t believe you wasted your final note on that”
wait what?” his eyes widened as he took the paper back looking at it “but jeno helped me write it”
“didn’t you say jeno was an idiot?”
“well yeah, i guess his other idea wouldn’t work either”
you quirked an eyebrow
“what other idea?”
he pulled a second piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to you
you laughed a little as you opened this one
“will you go out with me?” it read
your smile grew at least 100x it’s size
“i dunno this one seems like a pretty good idea to me”
“really?”
“really.”
“i guess that means i don’t get to try idea three”
you giggled “what’s idea three?”
“this,” he leaned in to kiss you gently
he had meant for it to be just a peck but as soon as he moved away you tugged on his robes pulling him in again
“i think that one was my favorite idea” you said as your forehead rested against his
“mine too.” he breathed softly
“was that jeno’s idea as well?”
“no that one was completely mine”
━━ *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* *✭˚・゚✧*・゚*✭˚・゚✧*・゚* 
368 notes · View notes
misscorn · 4 years ago
Text
Day 5
Favorite Couple
Surprise, surprise my favorite couple is Ritsu and Masamune LMAO so let's keep the nostalgia going @sihjrweek (again if you haven't then read my previous entries for context ❤)
***
"I won't be able to hang out after school tomorrow." Ritsu said, currently dressing and desperately wishing that his Senpai would STOP staring at him. However, Saga was perfectly content to stay naked under his covers and watch Ritsu put on his clothes. Of course, the older teen would've preferred that Ritsu keep them off and spend the night, but it was a school night and Ritsu's mother wouldn't allow it.
"Why not?" Saga asked, sitting up. It had been almost two weeks since White Day, the jar of stars on Saga's nightstand, some of them obviously unfolded and refolded. Although Saga was still understandably irked about his boyfriend having a literal fiancée (even if Ritsu insisted she wasn't one) he spent as much time with Ritsu as he possibly could. That included hanging out in the library after class every day. Maybe Saga was becoming a little clingy or needy, but he didn't care.
"My parents want to spend the day with me tomorrow since it's my birthday." Ritsu shrugged. He had finished dressing and now he had moved on to trying to fix his hair.
"Tomorrow's your birthday? Why didn't you tell me it was coming up?!" Saga asked. He had no time to plan anything! He had no present, no cake, no way to celebrate!
"Honestly, I sort of forgot my birthday was coming up until my mom said something yesterday. It's not really something I ever think about." Ritsu said, not seeing what the big deal was.
Saga huffed. "Well, start thinking about it, moron. I want to do something with you for your birthday." He said. "Let's celebrate over the weekend."
Ritsu blushed, flattered by the unexpected offer. "W-We don't have to do something, Senpai. I'm happy just seeing you." He said.
Crap, why did he have to say such cute shit like that? It made Saga want to yank him right back into bed and kiss him breathless.
"You see me almost everyday. I wanna do something more special than that." Saga said. He didn't like that it wouldn't be on Ritsu's actual birthday, but at least it gave him a little more time to prepare. He watched as Ritsu opened his mouth to protest. "Please?" Saga spoke softly before the brunette even got the chance.
"O-O-Okay." Ritsu agreed, a little caught off guard by the gentle 'please'.
"Come over on Saturday. You can spend the night."
Ritsu nodded. "I'll see you Saturday then." He said, trying not to think too deeply about what 'spending the night' would hold, otherwise he'd become a flustered mess.
"Wait, c'mere." Saga said after Ritsu grabbed his bag, clearly ready to leave.
Ritsu shuffled closer to the bed and Saga grabbed his hand before pulling him down to give him one last kiss. "Love you."
Ritsu predictably turned cherry red. "Y-you can't just sneak attack me like that!"
"What about that was sneaky?"
"Y-You know what I mean!" Ritsu quickly tried to put distance between them, but Saga held his hand tightly.
"Say it back."
"S-S-Stop teasing me!" Ritsu was not at all used to hearing Saga say the L word yet. It also seemed like every day Saga was becoming more affectionate. Not that Ritsu disliked it! Quite the opposite in fact! His poor heart just couldn't take it.
"Not letting you go till you say it." Saga said, leaving a few kisses on Ritsu's hand. Maybe if he embarrassed Ritsu enough he'd get the response he was looking for.
Ritsu's knees almost gave out from such a simple, but intimate action. "I-I can b-barely talk at all when y-you do things like that!"
'Damn it. I really don't want him to leave.' Saga thought. "You're sure you can't spend the night tonight?" He asked.
"My mother would kill me for even thinking about it." Ritsu said.
Saga sighed and flopped on to his back, still holding Ritsu's hand. "Fiiiiine."
"So...you have to let me go..." Ritsu reminded him, half-trying to wiggle his way out of his grip.
"You have to say it back first." Saga said.
"I-I love you too."
Saga, although he didn't want to, released Ritsu's hand. "See you Saturday. Around 12 sound good? We can have lunch together."
Ritsu nodded in confirmation, deciding to be just a little bold and kiss Saga's cheek before running off quickly.
Shit, that brat! Doing something cute like that and running away before Saga could grab him.
'Saturday.' Saga reminded himself before groaning. 'Fuck, what am I even gonna do for Saturday?'
The next day Saga decided to skip the library at the end of classes since Ritsu wouldn't even be there. Plus, he needed to use his free time to try to find a present for him. He felt like a book was a safe bet, but that was also just way too obvious. Still, the bookstore wasn't a bad place to start.
Saga took his time looking through titles, eventually reaching for a book. His hand ended up meeting another and he pulled away, looking over to see who was trying to get the same novel.
Kohinata An.
Saga couldn't help but to frown. Why, why of all people did it have to be her? Ritsu had told Saga that An knew about them, which didn't bother the upperclassman, but he still didn't want to see her.
"Oh, hello, Saga Senpai." An said before giving a knowing smile. "You're here to shop for Richan too, aren't you?" She had been invited to by Youko Onodera to spend the day with them and Ritsu for his birthday, but she had politely declined. She knew it was just a way for Youko to try to set them up.
Saga tried not to look too terribly annoyed at the question. She was Ritsu's friend, of course she knew when his birthday was and of course she'd be getting him a present, but something about it still bothered him.
"Yeah." He answered.
"Richan's sooooo hard to shop for. Every year I try to keep an eye out for something he might like, but I always end up resorting to books." She laughed, but slowly lost her smile when Saga did not react. "Um, Saga Senpai, I..." She trailed off.
"What?" He asked, hoping she'd leave him alone soon.
An hesitated, wanting apologize for what happened on White Day, but instead she smiled and grabbed the book off the shelf. She held it out to him. "You should get Richan this book. He's been reading a lot more fantasy novels lately and I've heard a lot of good things about this one. He'll love it."
Saga slowly took the book out of her hands. "...thanks."
An nodded. "Oh and, one more thing." She said before making herself look as stern as she possibly could. "If you ever hurt Richan, you'll be sorry. So you better treat him right!"
Saga was a little dumbstruck by that, having expected some declaration of rivalry instead, so he only nodded.
Still, that was enough to satisfy An. "Good. Have a nice day, Senpai." She said before taking her leave.
Maybe this An girl wasn't too terrible...
Saga would still keep an eye on her, but he supposed she wasn't the conniving boyfriend stealing witch he suspected her of being.
He looked down at the book he was holding, deciding to get it along with a new horror novel release. Ritsu didn't seem like the type to like that kind of thing, but Saga had been proven wrong by Ritsu's extensive collection of horror books.
'He reads horror but not shoujo...make it make sense.' Saga shook his head at the thought, leaving the store after making his purchases. He stopped in a bakery, getting a small strawberry cake for the two of them to share before heading home to work on his last gift. He needed as much time as he could possibly get for that one.
Once Saturday came, Saga tried to hide how excited he was to celebrate with Ritsu. He felt like such an idiot being so happy over something like this. He hoped Ritsu was just as happy.
"You're sure this is where you wanna go for lunch? We can go anywhere you want, it'll be my treat." Saga said, the two of them entering Pandaway together.
"Y-You don't have to-"
"I want to." Saga interuppted, not letting Ritsu try to talk him out of here.
"I want to eat here." Ritsu assured him. "I like this place, it reminds me of our first d-date." He admitted before he looked at Saga nervously. "That...was a date, right?"
"What else would you call it?" Saga asked as the two of them got in line.
"I just wanted to make sure." Ritsu said, now embarrassed for asking.
Saga just hummed in response. Ritsu was always asking things like that, but Saga hoped he'd be able to quell these insecurities of his.
"Want me to order for you?" Saga asked.
"That's even more embarrassing than stumbling and stuttering over my order." Ritsu said. "Besides, I'm a little more prepared than I was the first time." He added, determined to redeem himself.
Saga held back a laugh and shrugged. "Alright, if you say so."
The two soon got to the front, Saga ordering first. Ritsu ordered afterward, only panicking one or two times when he hadn't heard the employee correctly, but he actually managed to get through the process without wanting to die. Saga paid for them both before Ritsu could even attempt to pay for himself.
The teens sat across from one another with their food, eating and talking casually.
"What did you end up doing with your parents for your birthday?" Saga asked before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Oh, it was actually really cool! My dad set up for me to meet the author Sumi Ryouichi. When I stopped completely panicking I got to talk to him about his books, including one that's in the works right now." Ritsu said with a bright smile. "After that we went to some fancy dinner, which was nice, but not really my thing." He added with a laugh.
"How the hell did your dad set that up?" Saga asked. He knew Ritsu's parents were wealthy, but what sort of connections did they have?
"My dad's company publishes Sumi Sensei's novels."
"Your dad's what?"
Ritsu frowned and furrowed his eyebrows a little bit. Had they not talked about this before? "My dad's company, Onodera Publishing."
"Onodera?"
"Yeah...like...my name?" Ritsu didn't understand what was confusing about this.
"Onodera...not Oda?"
Ritsu paled. No. Nonononono, this wasn't really happening! "Did I not ever properly introduce myself to you?" Ritsu squeaked out.
"No. I knew your name from the library cards. Are you telling me your name isn't Oda Ritsu?" Saga asked. Well, this was probably the most random and creative way to make Saga feel like the worst boyfriend ever. He hadn't even known Ritsu's actual name!
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Ritsu apologized quickly. "I-I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote down that name, I didn't want to seem like a stalker and write my real name, b-but now I realize that doesn't really make any sense." Ritsu put his face in his hands, wanting to hide forever.
"First a fiancée, now a fake name and you're suddenly an heir to a publishing company. You're not gonna tell me you're on the run from the cops next or anything like that, are you?"
"Of course not!" Ritsu hastily denied, not yet realizing that Saga was only teasing him. "I'm sorry, I swear I didn't hide this intentionally, I-"
"I know." Saga assured. He knew his boyfriend flip flopped between laser focused determination and totally scatterbrained, so he wasn't too mad about this. "But it would've been sort of funny if I still didn't know and found out after ten years or something." Saga said. That would've been quite a story.
"That would not be funny, that would be mortifying." Ritsu pouted.
Saga just chuckled and resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle his hair.
Once they finished eating and threw out their trash, Saga spoke up. "I was thinking we could go see the cherry blossom trees. If that's something you'd like."
Ritsu smiled. "I'd love to!" He said. "I love doing anything as long as it's with Senpai."
Saga held back the desire to frown. Why did Ritsu have to say cute things like that when he couldn't kiss him? He settled for reaching out and holding his hand.
"H-Hey!" Ritsu was quick to protest, but Saga held on.
"You can't just say something like that and not expect consequences." Saga said. "Come on, let's go." He walked, still holding Ritsu's hand.
Ritsu attempted to free himself a few more times, but to no avail, especially since him flailing his arm brought more attention than just the two of them holding hands.
Plus, not wanting to lose Ritsu among the other cherry blossom viewers was a good enough excuse to hold on to him. The crowd wasn't incredibly thick, but it was a pretty popular activity and it was a weekend as well, so there was a steady amount of visitors.
The flowers were in full bloom, painting the view a gentle shade of pink.
"I've never been cherry blossom viewing before." Saga admitted.
"Really?" Ritsu looked away from the flora, looking to his Senpai instead in surprise.
"Yeah. I'm glad I'm seeing them for the first time with you."
Ritsu turned as pinker than the petals around them. "W-Why do you always have to tease me?"
"I'm not teasing." Saga frowned a little. "I'm serious."
Ritsu looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes out of embarrassment. "Well...I-I'm glad you're with me too." He said softly, giving Saga's hand a slight squeeze.
Ba dump
Fuck, Saga didn't know if he'd ever be able to admit it out loud, but Ritsu was able to make his heart pound way too easily.
'I want to do this with him every year.' Saga thought. There was so much Saga wanted to do with Ritsu in general. He could only hope that he'd get the opportunity.
"Let's head back." Saga said after the two had been strolling together for a while. "I wanna kiss you and if I try to do that here you'll freak out."
Too late, Ritsu was already freaking out. "Y-Y-You can't just say something like that!"
Saga just shrugged. He was trying to be more open about his feelings, even if those feelings embarrassed the hell out of Ritsu.
"S-Seriously, it's like you're trying to kill me." Ritsu complained with a pout.
"Would love be such a bad way to die?"
Ack! The L word again!
"Yes!" Ritsu huffed.
Saga laughed.
Ritsu felt his entire body heat up. His Senpai...LAUGHED. He couldn't recall a time that he had heard his Senpai laugh before. He wanted to hear it more often, wanted to see him smile like that every day and be the reason for it.
"C-Come on, let's just go." Ritsu said quickly before he became overwhelmed with such thoughts.
Once they arrived back at the older teen's house, Saga took the opportunity to kiss Ritsu, just as he said he would.
"Sit. I'll get the cake and presents." Saga said after he pulled away.
Ritsu went to tell his Senpai that he shouldn't have gone through all that trouble, but he knew Saga would just insist that he had wanted to do this. So, instead Ritsu sat and said hello to Sorata, scratching under his chin. The cat curled up in his lap as Ritsu continued to give him attention.
Saga didn't take long, bringing the cake and presents into the living room. Sorata and Ritsu were definitely a cute sight together, making Saga smile a bit.
"Thank you so much for all this, Senpai." Ritsu said after they had cut the cake and he had opened his gifts. He was admittedly very exciting about his two new reads, even if that made him feel like a nerd. Plus, they were books that Senpai got for him, so that made them even more special.
"There's one more thing." Saga said. "It's in my room." He stood and left, heading up the stairs as Ritsu waited and distracted himself with keeping Sorata from eating the leftover cake.
Saga soon came back down, holding something behind his back. "So, I sort of stole your idea and I didn't have much time to get as good as you with the paper folding, but..." Saga brought a jar full of paper stars forward. They were pink like cherry blossom petals. He sat back down next to Ritsu as he spoke. "I noticed you still look so...shocked whenever I tell you I love you. Even now you're always saying stuff like 'we're dating right?' when I keep telling you how I feel. So, I thought that this might be a nice reminder. If you ever start doubting my feelings for you, you can read as many as it takes for you to stop doubting. This is real, Ritsu. What we have and what I feel for you is real and I don't want you to forget that." Saga said, handing the jar over. "These are only some of the reasons, though." He added, thinking there weren't nearly enough stars.
"Some?" Ritsu stared at the stars. This jar full was only some of the reasons Saga loved him? This couldn't be real.
"Well I couldn't fit all of them. I didn't have enough time." Saga said. "Because someone didn't tell me their birthday was coming up."
Ritsu just smiled. "Thank you." He said, excited to read all the little messages inside the stars, but he'd wait till he was alone so he didn't melt into a puddle right in front of Saga.
"Mm. Happy birthday. I love you."
"I love you too."
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horansqueen · 4 years ago
Text
Stuck With You - Chapter 3
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Chapter 3 : How Does It Feel?
🡪chapter 1  🡪chapter 2
College Enemies To Lovers AU
characters // masterlist // instagrams // mood board
I am small and the world is big All around me is fast moving
I'm not afraid of anything I just need to know that I can breathe
I'm young, and I am free But I get tired, and I get weak
How does it feel to be different from me? Are we the same? How does it feel to be different from me? Are we the same? How does it feel?
                    The art department was not as impressing as the one at my old uni, but amazing nonetheless. I walked slowly through the barely-started or almost-finished paintings in the empty room, my eyes moving on all the pieces of art. The room felt warm and I knew I'd be happy here. I started wondering if we could spend time here before and after classes but somehow, I felt like asking Louis would be useless. He probably didn't know much about the art department anyway. I glanced back at him and felt my lips curl slightly on the left when I realized he was staring at me from the door. He leaned against the frame, just waiting for me, and I pressed my lips together, feeling extremely thankful that I was not alone. I didn't know why we had bonded so easily but I didn't want to question it. It was the first time I trusted someone as much as I did since... that someone I used to love. But this time, it felt very different.
I ran two of my fingertips on an easel, moving my fingers on dried painting stuck on the wood, and lick my lips. I hadn't worked on my last painting in weeks. In fact, I had not created anything in way too long and I missed it. I wrote down the instructions to find my classes easily the next day and ended up at a small dinner with Louis.
"You really seemed mesmerized earlier." he said softly.
I looked up at him as he sent me a small smile and I bit my bottom lip, raising my eyebrows. Yea, maybe I was a bit fascinated by art, and perhaps it could be a bit weird if you didn't know what it felt like, but the way Louis was smiling at me told he didn't think anything bad of it : he just thought it was funny.
"I'm a bit stressed to get back into it, to be quite honest." I admitted, raising my nose up in a grimace. "I feel like I haven't painted in years."
"You have a painting class tomorrow?" he asked, tilting his head.
"Mmhm, and photography, too." I remembered, feeling my heart skip a beat at how stressed I was to start new, especially in the middle of a school year. "I think my day will end with Art History but that's no problem, I'm quite good at that."
"By the end of the year, I'll have let you bring me to a museum." he just said with a chuckle.
"And you can bring me to a football game."
Louis laughed just as we got our plates. We started eating in silence and even if it could be awkward, it really was not. I loved Louis. I didn't have many friends at my old university, and most of those I had didn't even care about me anymore. They had suddenly disappeared after the drama happened and even if I tried to tell myself I couldn't blame them, I still did anyway.
I was about to tell Louis that his friendship meant a lot to me but his phone beeped and I looked at him as he grabbed it, still chewing on the enormous bite he had taken from his pizza.
"Mm, I'm sorry Dev, did you plan on visiting more places this afternoon?" he asked before raising his eyes up and looking at me. "I sort of have an emergency."
I felt suddenly disappointed but I kept it to myself and sent Louis a smile. I knew I was not his only friend, and I know he didn't owe me all his time. Everything just felt easier and safer when he was around. Still, I was not a fragile and pathetic little girl anymore, I could definitely survive a few hours by myself.
"Hey, no worries." I just shrugged, taking a sip of soda. "I'll check a few more classes and go back to my room to prepare my stuff."
Louis stared at me for a few seconds and he seemed skeptical, which surprised me because I knew I was a good liar, and that I could hide my emotions very well. I raised my eyebrows at him and chuckled, shaking my head slightly.
"What?"
"You sure? I feel like shit for ditching you."
This time, I chuckled sincerely. "I'm fine, Louis. You're good. I mean, I know you have a life, can't expect you to spend 24/7 with me!"
"Trust me, I'd prefer to keep visiting with you." he pointed out, making me smile more as he swallowed the last bite of his pizza. "I'll text you yea?"
---
I had spent a few more hours wandering around but I hadn't talked to anyone. I sucked at making friends and I didn't trust easily, and maybe it didn't help. It was probably something about my aura, or simply something that emanated from me, who knew?
I had found the photography class and a few others that seemed to be more about theory but something caught my ears and I frowned slightly. I was not a music student and I knew I was probably super bad at it, but the piano notes made my heart jump in my chest. I've always wanted to learn, but I never had the guts to try. I followed the music who suddenly stopped only to start again from the beginning.
I walked to the door and peeked subtly inside. The first thing I noticed was the piano, placed against a wall. I knew the room was full of different instruments but I didn't have time to check : I was too surprised by who was sitting in front of the piano, his finger sliding skillfully on the keys. He was not too far but he was too focused on what he was doing to notice me. I honestly didn't expect Niall to be studying in music but with the way he played, it was not surprising. He grabbed a notebook and scribbled something quickly before scratching it and writing something else. He put the notebook away and cleared his throat before playing again and this time, I really heard his voice.
"We should twist the knife, put it all to bed, I.... need to understand what it takes to love again."
It's only when he stopped playing again to write some more that I realized I was holding my breath. He left one of his hands near the piano with his fingertips brushing in the keys as he wrote more in his notebook and finally put his pencil in his mouth to try a few more notes. I felt something stir in my stomach and realized tnat the notes he was playing did something to me inside, something I couldn't explain. I normally feel that in front of a special painting or photography that actually makes me feel something but this time, it was a song. A song that apparently, was not even finished. I felt extremely guilty to be there, like I was hearing something I didn't have the moral right to, and I thought about how i'd feel if someone watched me paint without me knowing. I held my breath as he started singing again, taking me out of my thoughts to focus on him singing.
"So come on, love me when the lights burn low Meet me underneath the sheets 'Cause you got a hold of me, baby Enough to pull me back in deep You used to love me when the lights burned low Now we're tearing at the seams We've both had enough of this, baby So promise me that when you leave You won’t say you'll come back to me."
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, feeling every word in my bones and deep in my stomach. I felt like he was singing about my own story and even if I didn't want to admit it, it hurt me more than I thought it would. Perhaps I was not completely healed from what had happened to me and even if deep down I knew it, it still hit me like a ton of bricks. That's why I was here anyway, right? To get back on my feet and get rid of the feelings for someone who literally broke me?  I came back to reality only when I heard him groan and my eyes fluttered open. He scribbled something again in his notebook and I started nibbling my bottom lip. It was incredible to feel connected to someone who always got on my last nerves. I had known him for only 24 hours and he had made me feel more emotions than most people in my life and that thought alone really bothered me. Of course, they were not all good ones but it still didn't change the fact that this guy easily got to me. At that exact moment though, the feelings inside me were good. Scary, but good.
I thought about everything I went through in the past 2 years of my life. The rumors, the comments, the judging... and also the way I had my heart broken into a million pieces by someone I thought was the love of my life.
Once again, I got out of my daydream and left. In fact, I started running. I sprinted through campus and stopped only when I closed the door of my room and leaned against it. I tried to catch my breath and let myself slide against the door until my ass hit the floor and closed my eyes. I knew heartbreaks take time to heal, but I wanted it to be over now. I wanted to stop thinking about him and what he did to me. I wanted to stop being so sad for someone I knew didn't deserve me. Hearing Niall's words brought everything back to the surface and it pissed me off that I still let these thoughts and feelings invade me like that.
I leaned my head against the door and thought about what had just happened, pushing the bad thoughts away, or at least trying. Niall was an artist and that was probably one of the reasons why he could so easily get to me... and also probably why I felt connected to him in a special way. The truth was, I didn't want to feel connected to an arrogant prick like him. Yes, his song had made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time but that didn't mean him, as a person, made me feel things, right? I groaned low, hating the fact that even his voice seemed to still resonate inside me and got up to take a shower.
I should have gone out to eat something but I was not hungry. This whole thing had left me confused and I tried to get rid of those thoughts but when I got out of the bathroom, Niall was sitting on his bed, typing something on his computer. I glanced at him, feeling my heart skip a beat, remembering that I had literally spied on him and to me, it felt worse than if I had looked at him naked without his consent. Somehow, having your soul exposed seemed way worse than having your body exposed. I was not a big fan of my body, but there were some things engraved in my soul that I didn't want to share, and after hearing Niall's song, I felt like it was the same thing for him.
"Hello Devon, a bit early for a shower?" he asked, his eyes still glued to the screen of his computer. "Did you do the dirty?"
I wanted to be a smartass and tell him I was too busy spying on his writing his new song, but I ended up thinking it could easily turn against me. I rubbed the towel on my dark and and he looked up to stare at me, probably waiting for an answer. The way his eyes softened made me think he could feel bad about teasing me all the time but I pushed that thought away. Niall didn't have weak moments, or at least, not around people. With the lyrics and feelings in his songs, he probably could be weak, sometimes, when he was by himself.
"If I say 'yes', will that bring images to your brain?"
"A shower won't cleanse your soul, I hope you know that." he just replied, ignoring my question.
"Who says my soul needs to be cleansed?"
He raised his eyebrows and a small smile appeared on his lips. I had no idea what he heard in my words, but once again, it felt like he knew something about me that he wasn't allowed to know.
"You got here in the middle of the year, you barely talk to anyone, didn't decorate your side of the room with anything. Everything is so generic with you." he explained, shaking his head slightly. "At first sight, I didn't pin you as a generic kind of girl but that's exactly what you are. It wouldn't surprise me if you told me you're studying to be an accountant or a lawyer."
"Yea, because people with these kinds of job are boring and drab." I let out with sarcasm and a frown.
"See? Once again, you're not telling me anything about you. You're just defending hypothetical people that don't give a shit."
My traits softened and I cleared my throat. Of course he was right, but at the same time, I found out painfully that letting out information about myself could just give weapons to people around me, and that these weapons could end up hurting me. I didn't trust many people, and I didn't trust Niall. Just because I heard him sing one song that made me drown in my own feelings didn't mean that I would now open up to him.
"What are you scared of?" he added in a lower tone after about a minute of silence.
I felt my heartbeats accelerate and swallowed hard. I wanted to let it all out. It was so hard to keep everything inside. I wanted to tell him everything, to express my biggest fears and tell him how much in pain I actually was. But it was Niall Horan, my new roommate and antagonist, and there was no way I would confide in him.
"Nothing."
----
My first class went well and even if it was early in the morning, I was pretty sure I took enough notes to keep up with everything. I hadn't talked to anyone, a bit scared that I would get asked why I actually switched school in the middle of a year, and therefore, haven't made any new friends. I thought about Louis but I knew he couldn't entertain me all the time and that I'd have to make friends with a few people on my classes. I thought about just blatantly lying about the reason I was now in this school and started thinking of a plausible answer during my second class. I was surprised when I was asked to actually paint but since it was not really the beginning of the school year, it was quite normal. I hadn't brought any of my paintings with me. I had decided to leave them all at my old university. I had no idea who had them now, and when I thought about it, I told myself they were probably just in the garbage, where they belonged. I normally keep everything or almost, but these creations didn't reflect who I was anymore, and looking at them only made me feel like shit.
I started my new painting with a lot of dark blue and grey and I was not sure why. Perhaps it just represented the colors of my soul or something cliché like that. It's only on my first class in the afternoon that everything changed.
Art History has always been fascinating to me and I knew that we would get to see a lot of art by many different artists and learn about them and how they changed the artistic world. I wanted to be able to interpret art, from an analytic point of you but also in an emotional way. It was always something that interested me and one of my favorite classes.
The bad thing when you get in a new school is that you know no one. The good thing is... no one knows you. In my case, I enjoyed both for the time being, and I'd try to make friends later... maybe. That's why I was so shocked when I entered the art history class and saw him. I had to put up with him almost every evening, night and morning. Why did I have to, again, in one of my classes?
His eyes met mine and I thought I would see a smirk draw itself on his mouth but instead, his lips opened slightly as if he was surprised to see me there. I took a seat and his eyes followed me, making me suddenly very nervous. He kept staring at me for a while before turning around again and I let my shoulders fall. Would he talk to me? Would he mention anything? Would he tease me?
I blinked a few times when the class started and decided to focus on learning instead of thinking non-stop about my roommate. I got suddenly excited when it was mentioned that we were going to visit a museum and make a paper about it but a bit less happy when I was told it would be in a team of four.
"Devon Eaton with... Daxia Lee, and Asher Johnson and finally, Niall Horan."
I realized I had stopped breathing only when Niall's eyes moved on me again. I thought It could be a great opportunity to meet people and potential new friends, but I hadn't expected this at all. Once again, I was stuck with him.
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crackheadgeminibby · 4 years ago
Note
So my birthday is tomorrow/today (its 2am july 19th) and i was wondering if i can request a Chris evans x black reader or henry cavill x black reader(im not too sure if you write stuff about him) and nothing angsty im too sensitive for angst thanks
birthday surprise
pairing: chris evans x black!reader
warnings: language, age gap, teeny tiny angst maybe?
word count: 1.5k
i do not consent to my work being copied in any way, shape or form or reposted on any other platform
not my picture
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You were freshly out of school when you were hired as an assistant to the head makeup artist on the set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Most of the time, you were tasked with making touch-ups on the main cast during filming. This had given you the opportunity to get to know Chris more than you ever thought it would.
After the wrap party, Chris had suggested he give you a ride home as you had been drinking and the night ended with you two kissing. After that, Chris and you had agreed to try and take a slow shot at a relationship together. As everything was going great, you had moved in with him in Los Angeles.
When the Coronavirus outbreak happened, you were working on the West Coast and Chris on the East Coast, so you had both decided that it would be better for both of you to quarantine separately as an effort to keep you both healthy, as much as you missed each other.
As you worked on different new makeup techniques at home, when Chris’ birthday passed, you had planned a whole day of Facetime celebration that had gone beautifully well as you both enjoyed yourselves.
Today is your birthday and as you know that Chris has his hands full with the launch and reception of A Starting Point, you had told him that you didn’t want to do anything big for your birthday: a simple Facetime dinner would be special enough for you.
You had decided to just relax all day and, later, get ready for your virtual dinner date with Chris. You left for the grocery store around 6pm as Chris and you had agreed to start cooking together at 7:30pm.
However, it was almost 7:30pm and you were stuck in the cash line of the grocery store. You were starting to get impatient as the man presently paying for his groceries was taking his sweet time to flirt with the cashier. You were about to ask him to hurry up when your phone signaled an incoming message.
baby🥰, 7:29pm:
Hey princess, are you ready?
You bite your bottom lip and answer.
you, 7:29pm:
baby i am so sorry i’m stuck at the grocery store and this idiot in front of me won’t hurry up
can we facetime at 8 instead?
You look at your screen closely as you see the 3 dots pop up and disappear at least 3 times until they disappear permanently.
Shit. He’s mad at me. On my fucking birthday. That’s just a fucking great-
You’re taken out of your anxiety rabbit hole by the cashier calling you over. You stuff your phone back in your pocket and hurriedly finish at the grocery store to make your way home.
As soon as you park your car, you hurry to get all the groceries inside the house. You throw the front door open and slam it shut as you drop your groceries on the floor of the kitchen and head to the office to get your computer and facetime Chris. As you’re about to pick your computer up, you stop in your tracks.
“What the fuck?”
You head back into the dining room in which you swear you just saw Dodger through the window. You stop at the door of the dining room when you see that the whole table is completely set up with ten plates each covered by a metal cover. You frown, turn around and are about to go in the backyard when you knock your head into a muscular chest. You look up and see Chris sporting the biggest smile you’ve ever seen while looking as handsome as ever in a black suit. Your eyes widen as a smile forms on your face and you immediately wrap your arms around him.
“Oh my God, Chris, what the hell are you doing here?”
He chuckles at your reaction and says, “Well, I certainly couldn’t leave my baby alone on her birthday now, could I?”
You smile and hug him even harder.
Dodger then comes barrelling through the house and starts jumping up to try and get your attention. You let Chris go and kneel next to Dodger, petting him.
“Hi there, bubba. How’s my best boy doing?”
You hear Chris whine and see him pout as Dodger starts to lick at your hands. You wink up at Chris and laugh as he crosses his arms across his chest. You get back up and turn to look at the table again.
“Chris… I can’t believe you did all of this for me. Really.” You turn around and look at him, smiling. “Thank you so much.”
He takes you back into his arms and whispers, “You’re welcome, princess.”
You give him a kiss on the cheek and look between the table and him, “Guess I should go get dressed up, huh?”
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After taking a quick shower, you look in the closet for a dress capable of matching the ambiance that Chris had set in the house: classy and elegant but relaxed. You decide on a dress that you had gotten for a red carpet that you had attended with Chris.
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You head to the dining room and find Chris already sitting at the table. When he hears you come down, he gets up and adjusts his suit.
“My God, Y/N… You look so beautiful.”
You feel the heat rush to your cheeks as butterflies swim in your stomach; Chris never failed to make you feel this way.
Chris comes to you, gives you a chaste kiss on the lips and pulls out your chair. You sit down and smile as he heads to the opposite side of the table and sits down.
Chris had prepared a five-course meal consisting of bruschetta, a French onion soup, a Mediterranean salad, Fettucine Alfredo and a chocolate mousse for dessert.
As you’re finishing your chocolate mousse, you can feel Chris’ eyes on you. You slowly look up at him and smile,
“You okay?”
He smiles back at you and scratches the nape of his neck before answering, “Yeah, I just like looking at you.”
You feel the heat fill your cheeks again as you contemplate his answer and tilt your head back to your dessert. He continues to look at you and smile as he says,
“Why don’t you go choose a movie for us to watch while I clean this up?”
You nod, get up and make your way to the living room. You turn on the TV and start browsing Netflix when you hear,
“Hey Y/N? Can you come to the kitchen for a second, please?”
“Yeah!”
You head to the kitchen and confusedly frown when Chris is nowhere to be found. You start to turn around and say,
“Chris? Where are-”
You stop in the middle of your sentence when you see Chris in front of you, on one knee with a black, velvet box in his hands. You choke on your breath and whisper, “Oh my God…”
“Y/N. Ever since the first day I met you, I knew that you would have an impact on my life. I didn’t know exactly when or how, but I could feel that you were going to completely change my life. You have been my better half for almost 6 years now and I couldn’t ask for anyone better. You have helped me understand the true meaning of happiness. There are a million reasons why I love you but the ones that, without a doubt, make me question why it took so long for our paths to cross are that you are smart, you are talented, you are literally so funny, you are loving, you are compassionate, you are the most beautiful woman on this planet and you make me a better person. The greatest gift that you could ever give me would be to allow me to wake up next to you, every day for the rest of my life.” He now opens the black box and reveals the prettiest diamond ring you have ever seen.
“Y/N Y/L/N, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
By now, you could only see Chris’ blurry silhouette as tears were pouring out of your eyes and down your face. You’re at a complete loss for words as you continue to cry your eyes out. Chris starts to breathe heavily and becomes anxious as you don’t say anything or move at all for the next minute,
“Y/N?”
Hearing him say your name again seems to reactive your brain as you rapidly nod your head and your voice cracks as you answer,
“Yes, Chris. Oh my God, yes!”
Chris’ smile returns as he removes the ring from the box and slides it on your finger. He gets up and immediately crashes his lips to yours. He passionately kisses you as he picks you up, bridal style. Chris looks down at you, smirks and asks,
“What do you say we consummate this proposal or, you know, whatever it’s called?”
You laugh and nod your head as you kiss him again.
Chris really had the best birthday surprises.
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princesskokichi · 4 years ago
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shuichi, keebo, fuyuhiko, kiyotaka, and izuru asking their crush to call them by their first name
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ahh, i had so much fun writing this ! 
yes, i know keebo doesn’t have a last name.
don’t judge me
he babie - mod kokichi
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[ S H U I C H I ]
- this !!! he was going to do this today !
- he talked to each one of his best friends individually to see what they would say
- and they all agreed with him that s / o was totally into him !!
- which is so good but,,
- how would he tell you ?
- would he write it out in a note and give it to you ? profess it loudly ? tell you in a quiet way ?
- he pondered this for the longest time
- in the end, he decided to do something subtle about the change in the relationship
- well, not really subtle, but it was the best choice that he could think of that almost couldn't end in failure.
- he got so excited that he could hardly wait !! so he decided that he was going to do his thing tomorrow !
- during the lunch break at school, you were sitting with him as usual
- kaede had been absent that day, and she usually helped you with your math homework
- maki and kaito decided they were going to pick up snacks from the vending machines, so it was just the two of you
- s / o : "saihara-kun, can you help me with my math homework today ? i don't exactly understand it,, "
- he fluctuated in his resolve for a moment, almost wanting to drop the subject all together and just help you with your math
- but he wouldn't allow himself to give up that easily, or else he had 03 friends who would personally seek the end of him
- shuichi : " hey, i can but, can you do me a favor ? "
- s / o : " i can do everything but help you with your math homework, saihara-kun. "
- shuichi : " can you, uh, can you,, canyoucallmebymyfirstname ? with, uhm,, without honorifics,"
- he spoke really fast, his words conjoined together and it went over your head for a moment
- s / o :  " h-huh ? why would i do that ? "
- shuichi : " well, we're close aren't we ? ah, nevermind, it's okay. forget i said anything. "
- you stayed silent for a little while, and shuichi was really starting to rethink his entire approach to this situation
- maki and kaito came back, munching on foods
- maki : " so ? how is everything. "
- s / o : " shuichi is going to teach me my math homework. "
- he visibly lost 05 years off his lifespan, but in a good way
- shuichi : " is it okay if i come visit you at your place today to tutor you, s / o ? "
[ K E E B O ]
( i changed it up a little for his, i hope that's okay ,, )
- he was always constantly learning about the world around him
- in school, he got really surprised to see the use of honorifics and last names
- in fact, he once called his teacher by their first name without honorifics and got detention for two days for that
- after that little mistake, he took it upon himself to learn what he didn't know about the japanese culture and their understanding of names
- while he believed the word of the internet and all of his sources, he felt like this kind of thing was better to consult a person who grew up in this society would be
- so he asked you, one of his best friends, about it
- you explained to him that first names were reserved for people you were close with
- and that honorifics showed respect for those of higher positions, age, or others
- he had asked a ton of questions that night, pretty amazed at how much knowledge you possessed on the subject and how well you presented it
- after that, he would come to you whenever he had a question about the japanese society that he didn't understand
- which was pretty often tbh he's an inquisitive boy
- after a few months of talking to you almost daily, he started to feel weird, like his circuits were heating up
- even though he knew it was irrational, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with you
- he wanted,, to be closer to you
- he consulted miu with this question, purely because she was the ult inventor after all
- she told him that he was catching feelings
-,,in miu's own way, but it was understandable
- he was a little surprised afterwords
- he was,, romantically attracted to you ? that's surprising
- he had to tell you, in a way he knew you would appreciate
- he texted you to meet him at the park immediately after his meeting with miu, and waited there for you to arrive
- when he saw you, he jumped out of the bench he was sitting at
- keebo : " s / o ! i have come to a startling conclusion, and i want you to listen to me for a moment. "
- you flushed up, telling yourself that he just forgot how last names work in japan.
- s / o : " ah, i'm listening senpai. "
- keebo : " i want to call you by your first name instead of l / n-san. if you,, if you want. "
- oh, he didn't just forget,,
- s / o : " that's pretty bold, senpai. and a little unexpected. "
- his gaze was unfaltering, watching you with expectation as he gathered his next sentence.
- keebo : " will you accept this change ? "
- s / o : " yeah. yeah, i do, keebo. "
[ F U Y U H I K O ]
- he really didn't give a shit about respect or anything like that
- of course, he never really used last names, either
- most of the times, he just called a person a curse word to refer to them
- well, that is most of the time
- and then you came by into his life, and he forgot all about that act of his
- he was never prim and proper, but he was respectful to you, which meant a lot coming from a guy who likes his persona of an asshole
- mainly, he followed your lead
- if you would call him a nickname, he had a nickname for you
- if you called him by his last name, he would call you by your last name
- but the thing is, you never went past the respectful way of referring to him
- so all of these nicknames and playful things he had prepared to call you were completely useless
- unless  you decided you wanted to be closer than just respectful friends
- if he did it, he felt like he was just going to sound like his usual asshole self and you wouldn't think much of it
- or worse
- you'd think less of him, and that's something he does not want
- so he waited
- and waited
- and waited
- until he literally could not wait anymore
- he paced back and forth in his bedroom, peko barely paying attention to him as she read her book
- fuyuhiko : " how do i show that bi-i, uh, l / n-san,, , that i want to be more than just typical friends with them ? "
- peko : " have you tried asking them ? "
- fuyuhiko : " asking them what ? "
- peko : " to call you by your first name and not your family name. have you tried that ? "
- fuyuhiko : " ,, peko, you are a genius ! "
- peko : " i know i am. "
- even though he was getting frustrated with the situation, it still took him nearly a week to get the courage to ask you
- and even then, it was only because it was the heat of the moment
- you'd been playing with him the entire day, poking his cheek or his shoulder and whispering " kuzuryu-kun, pay attention to meee "
- s / o, while poking his cheek : " kuzuryu-kun, kuzuryu-kun, kuzuryu-kun, kuzu- "
- fuyuhiko : " i'll pay attention to you if you call me by my name, geez ! it's annoying to hear you say " kuzuryu-kun " so often. "
- you stopped in your tracks for a moment, your face incredibly red and nervous.
- and then
- s / o : " fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhiko, fuyuhi- "
- ah, yes, true love
[ K I Y O T A K A ]
- he upheld standards really well
- okay, maybe not just " really well "
- he lives nearly every day of his life adhering to the rules, both of society and school
- so he took stuff like that very seriously
- in fact, you two knew each other for more than a year before he even started to get the idea of changing from just polite friends to closer than such
- the idea came to him while he was talking to you at the library
- taka : " ah, i think cereal is the most adequate food to eat for breakfast, what do you think s / - i mean ! l / n -san ! "
- you had flushed up red immediately, but not nearly as red as he was
- he could not believe that he almost screwed up like that, seriously
- both you and him pretended like that little slip up never happened for the entire time at the library
- and for the next week, it was back to normal
- well, as normal as it was going to get at hope's peak academy
- until one night, you finally texted him
- it was completely out of the blue at nearly nine pm, just barely an hour before he went to sleep
- s / o : " hey, remember that day at the library ? "
- he almost threw his phone, oh gosh darnit
- taka : " yeah, sure do. what's this about suddenly ? "
- s / o : " well, i just wanted to know,,, why did you almost call me by my given name ? "
- taka : " i was not thinking ! i apologize if i overstepped my boundaries, l / n-san ! "
- s / o : " no, just checking. well, its getting late, i should be going to sleep. goodnight kiyotaka. "
- after reading that text nearly a million times
- he finally came to the conclusion that yes, indeed, you did say that
-  and now he had to do something about it
- at school the next day, while walking to his locker, he saw you reading your textbook to get an early start for your language class
- taka : " hey, l / n-san !"
- s / o : " oh, ishimaru-kun ! hi ! "
- he sat down beside you on the bench, reading your book slightly
- taka : " i have a favor to ask of you ! please, refer to me as kiyotaka ! in the same context, i will refer to you as s / o ! ,,, if that is acceptable ? "
- s / o : " ah ! i can do that, kiyo ! "
- taka : " now, let's get to class, i don't want to be late. "
- s / o : " we have ten minutes before class starts. "
[ I Z U R U ]
- listen, i know the request said " shy boys " but izuru just got stuck in my head and wouldn't let me write this without writing him, so here he is
- first things first that he does not care about being proper
- literally, it mattered zero to him
- however, he still stuck to calling everyone [ last name ]-san, purely because he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about him or any of his friends that he talked to on a daily basis
- one time that happened with chiaki where a rumor was being spread that he was in a romantic relationship with her and she almost killed him on the spot upon learning of it
- he doesn't fear death, but he fears chiaki
- just a little bit tho
- so while it didn't matter to him, he still got used to saying it
- however, when you joined the group, he wanted to call you by simpler terms for a different reason
- he spent a long time trying to figure out what was wrong with him when he talked to you
- he would feel his face heat up, and it was significantly harder to think of words to say when you were around, even if he wasn't directly talking to you
- and dear god don't get near him or he felt like he was going to combust
- what the fuck were these feelings ?
- even though he was a mess inside, he kept it calm and rational to everyone else
- and by that, i mean he looked like he always did, uncaring about everything in the universe
- since he always seemed like he didn't care, you were known for messing around with him, or more specifically - his hair
- brushing his hair and braiding it seemed to be your favorite pastime
- during lunch, you would sit on the table while he sat down on the bench, and would just brush away with your soft pastel purple brush
- whenever you would, it took everything out of him not to curse at you for,,,
- he didn't know really why he felt like cursing at you
- there were just a lot of feelings in one body, something he wasn't used to
- one day was going very well
- you were idly talking between chiaki and nagito while brushing izuru's hair
- hajime was somewhere, probably retaking a test because he failed his exam last time
- you were humming, trying to pull all of his hair into a ponytail so you could make a few braids in it
- s / o : " kamukura-kun, can you push your hair from your face, i can't reach it - "
- izuru : " must you always play with my hair, s / o ? "
- s / o : " huh ? oh, yeah. yeah, it's kind of mandatory, kamukura-kun. "
- izuru : " my name is izuru. "
- wait, what was he saying ?
- s / o : " k-kamukura-kun,, , "
- izuru : " izuru. "
- you two went back and forth until you finally gave up, giving into his requests
- s / o : " geez, you're so,, ugh ! why do you have to have such nice hair izuru ? "
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