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enjakey · 2 months ago

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Where Have You Been

Pairing: figure skater!Sunghoon x archaeologist!Fem!Reader

Hello! This fic (20k) was posted in my old account that I have since deleted a long time ago. This is a new account so I’m reporting this here. I thought I’d never bring any of my old shit back but I love this series too much. If you’re wondering why this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve read it a long time ago. Not because it’s plagiarized. None of my work is plagiarized, please understand that. My writing style is carefully curated from the many Japanese and Russian writers I engage with. This plot came to me after a horrible loss in my life- three years ago.

Please enjoy reading it. There’s a Jake version, too.

Summary: to the outside world, Sunghoon had it all- looks, friends, a successful career and a New York life. But he was lonely, brinking on the hope of never finding true love again. He’d come to the age of even giving up, watching some of his closest friends getting married and starting families. That is, until he met a curiously cautious archaeologist.

THERE WASN’T A MOMENT where he felt the prospects and depths of loneliness until Sunghoon realised how everyone around him was settling down and he was still calling the ice rink the love of his life.

His childhood wasn’t particularly rocky, excluding the handful of break-ups he went through. He always had people around him everywhere he looked; standing over his head were his loving and supportive parents that invariably extended a hand when he needed to be picked up in any crisis; his sister looked over his shoulder like a hawk, keeping him from harm’s way and taking on the duty of an older sibling instead of staying the naive little girl like she was supposed to; he had a few friends in school who he used to pass free time or confide in once in a blue moon; then, there were the friends he made in summer camp who practically become his extended siblings through a year’s course of writing letters to each other and sending postcards through the mail.

They were a group of seven in total. Heeseung was an academic and music prodigy, excelling in any professional field he dipped his foot in to test the waters. Jay was a product of nepotism, aspiring to take over his father’s travel company after graduating with a business degree. Jake started as an engineering geek but eventually shifted his foundation toward the world of modelling, fashion and fame and eventually starred as one of the most wanted models for many designers and brands. Sunoo dreamt of starting a skincare brand of his own and studied chemistry and cosmetics in college- he was known amongst them for dying his hair in wild and bold colours. Jungwon, though he was in high school, was the most mature and responsible out of all of them, a taekwondo successor who had the most intricately detailed schedules to follow. Lastly came Riki, the youngest of all of them, who was the dance prodigy often compared to Micheal Jackson or Fred Astaire.

Sunghoon was an ice skater, his life and career revolving around gliding on frozen water and getting coached by previous skating Gods so that someday, he would reach their level. His mother always said he was fond of the sport because he was born in the winter season. On a cold night, while a hail storm plagued his small town, his parents drove to the hospital regardless of the risk of hypothermia and he was born. His cries overshadowed the whistles and whispers of the storm and the snow outside morphed to look like sakura petals slowly transcending off the trees to rot on the ground. He was used to the cold since the day he was born and would continue to master the skill of figure skating, treating the ice rink like a second home. Hence, he was dubbed The Ice Prince by those he called friends and family.

Moving to New York for the sake of starting fresh with his summer camp friends was a thought wilder than the dreams he had of living in a mansion and lounging in hot tubs as a hobby. But he wouldn’t be training in The Concrete Jungle if it weren’t for Heeseung and his elaborate plan of bringing all seven of them so he could focus on New York University and the rest of them could have a better shot at building futures and making careers. This meant leaving behind his parents and his sister but he told them that it would be for a few years and he would eventually come back due to homesickness. He told his friends in high school that he would keep in touch with them but it was an empty promise. Once he settled into his apartment with Jay and Jake, he was burrowing himself into a new home, a new lifestyle.

When he turned twenty-two, Sunghoon had no plans of moving back to Korea like he had told his family. Homesickness washed away with the worries of juggling between college and figure skating. Learning a new language and suppressing his urges of using Korean slang was also something that took up his consciousness while he went about his days. He was more prone to stumble on his sentences while speaking to a girl he liked or would mix up the definitions of words that sounded similar while speaking to his professors or skating coach. He paid for tutors to teach him the ins and outs of the language and eventually, he got the hang of it.

In high school, Sunghoon shuffled through four failed relationships, all ending with burnt bridges, fire setting ablaze the wood of what was left of love and desire. His first relationship was with the eccentric girl in class. She was always cracking jokes and making people laugh, only to come home to loneliness and an empty phone where no one bothered to reach out to her. He wouldn’t say he regretted dating her but it was a struggle trying to get her to confide in him. His second relationship was in sophomore year, wooing the new girl in class with charm, humour and wit but her feelings towards him came as soon as they had left and Sunghoon was left with unfulfilled promises and hopes from her. She taught him a lesson- to never rush into a relationship with someone he barely knew so his third relationship was with a close friend of his whom he had known for around three years. But their rendezvous soared downwards like a plane crash and left both of them with one less friend. His fourth relationship ended because of his abrupt plans of moving to New York. It was very brief, lasting around one or two months before they agreed on a mutual separation instead of opting for long-distance because those never worked. He didn't speak to any of them again and would be embarrassed even to contact them.

His love life was in the same state of shambles in New York. He went on a myriad of dates and blew racks of money for girls that inevitably left him because they weren’t good for each other or his affection just wasn’t enough. His relationship with girls he believed was his soul mate or future wife, too, left him high and dry with tears streaming down his face every time he was broken up with. He couldn’t understand what he was lacking and he didn’t understand why no matter the sacrifices he made or how many times he settled, he was always fucked over, lied to, or even cheated on. His trust issues surfaced after a redhead, his girlfriend of six months at the time, kissed a random tattooed biker in a club, right in front of him.

Growing up in a small town, Sunghoon was never taught the sophistication of emotions. There were only happy, sad, or angry and emotions surpassing that radar were almost taboo to discuss. His parents, though not the orthodoxy type and were well educated, didn’t seem to speak about emotions such as heartbreak or jealousy, nor did they talk about traumas that lead to trust issues, insecurities or social isolation. The public school he attended didn’t have the budget to hire a counsellor, hence most of his classmates were also unaware that they were contributing to the world of teenage angst and dilemma. They just went along with it, some victimising or being the victim themselves of bullying and other forms of distractions towards the world of young psychology and hormones. Sunghoon knew that guys would beat up another guy if they found them flirting with their girl, but he assumed the action stemmed from jealousy rather than the feeling of emasculation and embarrassment. He watched students bully the weak and short ones and assumed it was because they thought they were weird-looking and not because they were threatened by their aptitude and adroitness. He only started becoming aware of the association between actions and emotions when he began to accept the fact that he was feeling heartbreak, rather than simply labelling the ache in his chest as sadness.

Out of the seven of them, Jake was the first to get married, which came as a shock to everyone as he was barely twenty-three. He got down on one knee and slipped a ring on Chiara’s finger in the middle of the café where they had their first date. In Sunghoon’s eyes, Jake and Chiara’s relationship was what he would consider ideal. They would fight, but always came up with a solution; they disrespected each other but quickly changed the habit to make sure acts like such would never repeat; they spent months learning about each other and being patient with one another to the point where they could not only finish each other’s sentences but could decipher what one was feeling about or during a particular situation with simply a raised brow. By the time they were married, they were like a couple out of a Disney Princess movie, riding into the sunset on a pristine white horse. They were both models, and they didn’t stop each other from achieving other goals in their life. For example, Chiara was ecstatic when Jake took up photography and Jake was overjoyed when Chiara went to college to study psychology because seeing each other succeed was what made each other happy.

Sunghoon was the best man at their wedding. He planned the best bachelor party Jake could ask for and detailedly organised their wedding alongside the maid of honour, Sheila. They even went tux-shopping together while Jake helped him put on a blazer when he said, “You should bring a date to the wedding, it would look weird if my best man had no date.” Sunghoon looked at his best friend like he hadn’t cried about his cursed love life and failed luck in relationships with him all these years. It was then that he realised how hopelessly lonely he was. Jake was getting married to the love of his life, Heeseung had a girlfriend of two years and Jay was only starting to go on dates and he was already gushing about how he thought he found the one. Sunoo refused to indulge in relationships until he became successful enough to raise a family, which everyone respected. Jungwon and Riki were still single, but everyone was playing cupid for them, trying to set them up with mutuals so they could at least venture into the world of committed relationships.

It was then that he realised that perhaps, after all the relationships he had been in and out of and after all the girls that told him that he wasn’t what they were looking for, perhaps he was fated to die with no hand to hold on his deathbed and no wife to share his love of figure skating with.

Like most people in his generation, Sunghoon took to Google to find answers to his fears during many eras in his life. He fell into a rabbit hole of Reddit threads, telling him that the wait was always worth it and Quora sites on people sharing their experiences of finding their one true love much later into their lives. He read about an elderly woman who only met who she believed to be her soul mate in her sixties after her husband died of leukaemia and when all the hairs on her head turned a rich shade of grey. He even learnt about the compatibility between zodiac signs and called his mother to ask about his horoscope but it turns out his family didn’t believe in the astronomical and spiritual. He researched the meaning of moles which led him to cry to Jay while drunk about how the mole on his left pinky toe held him back from the chance of having a marriage, let alone having a girlfriend. He even went to the booth of a shady palm reader who told him to just wait until she comes- he wasted his money on a sham.

Not long after meeting the swindling palm reader, Sunghoon found himself crying in Chiara’s lap as she was the closest person he had to a sister that he could contact. His tears stained her expensive leggings and her carved nails raked his scalp while she cooed and hushed him out of loneliness. His sobs echoed between the windows and walls of their million-dollar apartment and the television played a random movie, abandoned by those who were previously watching it.

“Am I ruining your clothes?” Sunghoon sniffled and Chiara chuckled, letting her knuckles smoothly glide past the corner of his eye to wipe away his tears.

“Not at all, ‘Hoon,” she hummed. “But you gotta tell me if you’re drunk before you say anything else.”

“I had a beer before coming here.”

“That makes sense.”

Since Chiara had met him, Sunghoon’s most prominent quality was his habit of drinking. On a normal night of a weekend or weekday, he’d drink with or without his friends and go bar-hopping alone if he had to. Beer was his favourite drink but there were times he had gotten drunk on wine as well. It wasn’t to say that his alcohol tolerance was low, it was just the quantity he consumed that made those around him fear for his liver and his life. She remembered finding herself in unthinkable, yet memorable, predicaments due to his habit- she once had to talk him out of jumping off her roof because he thought someone dared him to do so. After learning about his history of failed relationships, she assumed that was where the habit stemmed from but she wouldn’t say he was the modern-day drunk Romeo, nor could he be clinically diagnosed as an alcoholic. He was just deprived of what he truly craved for too many years.

“Do you want to talk now, at least?” She cooed again, patting his hair.

Sunghoon nodded, willing himself to gravitate off her lap and against the plush cushions of the pristine couch. His hair bounced as he shook his head, using the back of his hand to wipe his blotched face. His cheeks were puffy and his eyes struggled to stay open with the warm tears protruding past his lashes.

“At this point, I really don’t think I’m gonna find love, Chiara,” he frowned, slumping into his seat and pondering at the chandelier above him. If he tuned out the noises from the television, he could hear birds chirping, crickets singing and wind carrying wrinkled leaves across the building.

Chiara let out an exasperated sigh, pursing her lips and tilting her head towards the ceiling. “Did I ever tell you how lonely I was before meeting Jake?”

“What?” Sunghoon furrowed his brows. “Well, you did. But what does that have to do with this?”

“I’m saying that, before I met Jake, I barely had any friends and thought a guy that treated me toxically was the love of my life,” she explained. “But then I met Jake and suddenly, I wasn’t lonely anymore and he brought me good things. He gave me an opportunity to build a family, he loved me like no other, he cared for me, he respected me… and the list goes on,” she waved her hand, fingers frolicking amongst the air to signify glee.

“Yeah, and then you lived happily ever after,” he rolled his eyes, a scowl reaching his lips. “You met when you were teenagers. How old were you, eighteen? I’m in my twenties now. If I don’t meet the love of my life by thirty, I know I’m dying alone.”

“We met when we were teenagers because we just got lucky!” She defended. “Our love story was supposed to go a certain way and yours is supposed to go a different way. You can’t compare, you know? It’s just gonna make you feel worse. I mean, look at Sunoo. He hasn’t been on a proper date in years.”

“That’s because he doesn’t want to!”

“That’s not my point! My point is, you’ll meet her when the time is right-”

“Please don’t start with your destiny crap-”

“And you won’t die alone!”

When Chiara shook Sunghoon’s shoulder, Jake walked into the living room, a grin on his face as he looked between his wife and best friend. The sight wasn’t new to him; Sunghoon was moody over his teetering love life and Chiara was playing the therapist to install some faith and hope into him again. She was usually successful but on the occasions that she wasn’t, she’d let him camp on their couch and wallow over his emotions over a few drinks and lousy K-dramas. Jake would accompany him on most days and she would go to work or vice versa. Other times, they would call the rest of their friends and have a game night.

“Didn’t you say that you thought you were gonna marry a lot of the girls that you dated?” Jake’s grin didn’t leave his face. He leaned against the wall closest to the couch and crossed his arms across his chest. “Maybe the next one you meet might be the real love of your life.”

“You’re not funny.”

Sunghoon turned twenty-seven faster than he anticipated. He was still figure skating; he was one of the most well-known figure skating coaches in New York, in fact. He had dyed his hair silver now, a choice of fashion he had made a couple of years prior and it simply stuck to his personality. His love life was barren at that point, entertained with a few one night stands or hookups once in a while. But he was rich and successful and was even famous amongst figure skating enthusiasts.

His friends were exceptionally successful as well, though they didn’t change as much as he did. Heeseung was a rewarded music producer, perfecting the tunes of many well-known and upcoming artists. He had a house down in the suburbs, living a rather tranquil and amicable life with his wife, Karina, and a pair of twins who were just starting kindergarten. Sunghoon would see him and everyone else on most weekends during the dinners hosted at Jake and Chiara’s exorbitant apartment.

Jake was considered one of the top models in the industry, his name often showing up alongside that of Lucky Blue Smith and Bella Hadid. A little while after his fame in modelling expanded, his photography career bloomed as some were published in Vogue and Cosmopolitan magazines. Chiara’s modelling career was similar to his, collaborating with the Hadid sisters, Emily Ratajkowski and even Kendall Jenner. With a degree in psychology, she even dabbled as a therapist while being propelled into an aristocracy. The couple’s mutual success would explain their bougie possessions. They had a son, Kai, around three years old, who was already babbling about becoming a movie director when he grew up.

Jay had taken over his father’s travel company when he graduated college. There was no denying his power and authority in running the business better than his father. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and the spoon was getting bigger. His wife, Jade, was a childhood friend of his, the daughter of his father’s best friend and no one was surprised when their engagement was announced. Though, some speculated they were only getting married because he knocked her up. They now had a two-year-old daughter and everyone was hoping for her and Jake’s kid to grow up and get married.

It was funny, really.

Sunoo made regular trips between America and Korea, deeming them as business trips to check on how his cosmetics factories were doing. His brand was quite famous and a lot of Sunghoon’s past girlfriends- or flings- were regular customers of his. It was almost entertaining to watch when he told them that the owner of their favourite make-up brand was one of his best friends- some even tried leaving him for Sunoo but he was already engaged to none other than Chiara’s best friend, Sheila.

Jungwon, too, was engaged to a talented dancer to whom Riki had introduced him. Now, Jungwon, Riki and Ella own a dance studio, training kids who are passionate about the art. The three lived together as roommates in a cosy apartment that looked like it was out of a 90s sitcom; faint yellow paint, bathrooms with wallpaper and random wall decor that adorned every room. Riki was in a rather fresh relationship and refused to introduce his girlfriend to anyone until he was sure it was long-term- but Jay would always call him out saying, “Don’t even lie, you have terrible commitment issues. You’re gonna break up with her just like you did the last.”

Sunghoon loved his group of friends, he truly did. But the one thing that bothered him was that, at that moment, while he had the mall’s entire skating rink to himself and while he was gliding and the only sound was the sound of scraping ice, his friends were all involved with a girlfriend or life partner while he was still alone and his last rendezvous being a girl he met at a bar whose name he hadn’t even learnt because he kicked her out the next morning.

Usually, when he was skating alone, not busy tutoring boys who were overconfident about doing the pirouette or helping little girls who were scared to let go of the training handle and skate on their own, he would imagine himself in the stadium of a championship. His jeans and dusty shirt would transform into black pants and a red shirt adorned with rhinestones and loose sleeves tight at the cuffs. There would be a crowd cheering for him to perform his best figure skating tricks and throwing flowers at him and the ice would be cluttered with rose petals. His family would be sitting in the front row and his sister would have a poster larger than the size of her head with the words ‘WE LOVE YOU SUNGHOON’ written with cheap crayons-

That was his memory of when he was awarded the Novice Gold medal of the Asian Figure Skating Trophy.

Perhaps the sound of his blade shaving the ice as he figure-skated triggered such memories in him, furthering his homesickness. The frosty wind puffed up his hair and paled his skin more than he thought it could. All he heard was silence, along with what sounded like a whirring ice shaver.

The static in his ear lasted for about two more minutes as he let his thoughts wander into deeper corners of his brain, opening forgotten boxes of memories that either made him want to cry or laugh. But slicing through it all was the bleak sound of sneakers connecting with the marble tiles of the mall he was in. The Ice rink he was in was located on the ground floor of a rather small mall. Along with the ice rink, the ground floor housed shops of many fast food kiosks and beverage stalls. So, Sunghoon's feet tilted to stop his blades from moving any further and the sound of scraping ice was ignored when he faced the direction of the food stalls.

Jogging towards the boba tea café was a girl wearing old, musty sneakers and a stack of books between her arms. Her hair bounced as she finally stood in a long cue to give her order and her red-tinted lips pursed as she stood on the tips of her toes to see how long the cue was. She wore thin, silver glasses that complimented her eyes, and silver rings that matched the colour of her white nail polish. Her brown trench coat covered most of her outfit but she wore a white shirt and black trousers, a belt to top it all off. With furrowed brows, she checked the time on what looked like a vintage watch on her wrist, tapped her musty sneakers against the floor in haste and poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue.

Sunghoon didn't know how he noticed such details while standing at least a dozen metres away from this mystery woman. However, he could admit the clichés he was experiencing at that moment. The world around him stopped and everyone was moving in slow motion apart from him and the girl with silver glasses. He could hear his heart beating in his ears, his breath becoming more shallow with every passing second. A few feet away, a little boy's dollop of ice cream fell from his cone and his cries echoed across the floors of the mall. A few feet away from that was a woman who bumped her steaming coffee into another man and his curses could be heard from miles away. Just outside of the ice rink was a little girl holding onto the metal railings separating her from dry to ice and yelling to her parents about how she wanted to learn to skate. These were moments he usually noticed, but this time, it was all irrelevant because of the girl with silver glasses and red-tinted lips.

HE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT took over him but Sunghoon found himself footing towards her with subtle steps. Out of his friend group, he was known to be the one with the best pick-up lines, smooth-talking girls into his apartment as easily as batting an eye. His grin charmed hundreds and he didn’t even know when he attained such ability. Perhaps it was around the time he stopped looking for love and started looking for rendezvous or perhaps it was after the time the palm reader robbed him of his precious twelve bucks. But now, he was nervous and he hadn’t felt this way since the first time he met his last girlfriend and that was years ago.

I should be running away, he thought to himself when he deciphered what he was feeling. It was almost like meeting a new friend again, a profound familiarity in his heartbeat. He asked himself what he planned on saying to her; what it was that people usually said when wanting to acquaint themselves with someone new. It wouldn’t be as simple as introducing himself, it wasn’t a café that they were in. It was a mall- people were bustling around with their own problems, talking amongst themselves and creating a buzz of sound that soon became white noise to him and they were worried about moving further up the line to get a drink, as was the girl he was standing behind.

His intention wasn’t to be a stalker or a creep but he could easily look over her shoulder and read the spine of her books. All the books were bound hard-cover and looked like they were taken out of an abandoned bookshelf. With the number of times Sunghoon had explored the mall, he figured she had bought them from the antique store located somewhere on the top floor. The titles on the books were almost faded but he could figure them out as academic works- some were about wars he had never even heard of and some were about archaeology. He deemed himself lucky when he recognised a title. “The Battle of Yangxia”, it read in faded, golden cursive and he fought his conscience to remember where he remembered the name from.

A few months ago, Jay was hyper-fixated on Chinese history and spent an entire dinner ranting about the several wars they were never taught in high school history. Riki had pestered about how high school education was useless compared to what he learnt in college and that led to a whole conversation on its own. That night, Sunghoon remembered laying on Jake’s balcony hammock with a beer in one hand and phone in the other, sexting some girl he found on a dating app.

“I’ve heard about that before,” he meekly mumbled, leaning to reach the girl’s ear.

The breath of air he let out after finishing his sentence tickled her skin, travelling down her neck and running a shiver down her spine. She didn’t register his sentence but his voice and presence made her look past her shoulder, brows furrowing with confusion. She hugged her books tighter, intimidated by a stranger. It would be the first time any stranger took interest in her, the perplexed gape of her jaw was justified.

“The Battle of Yangxia?” Sunghoon cleared his throat when they made eye contact, offering her a toothy grin whilst clasping his hands behind his back. He rocked back and forth on his heels, tripping while failing to keep up with the line moving forward.

“Oh,” the girl looked at her books, re-reading the same title he was talking about. “Yeah,” she smiled back, expecting the interaction to end and looking away. She almost rolled her eyes when he spoke again.

“My friend had a phase where he geeked out about Chinese history,” he continued leaning towards her, hoping to elicit more of an interaction from her. “I’m Sunghoon, by the way.”

“Y/N,” she didn’t want to come off as rude or disrespectful so she introduced herself anyway. With another glance over her shoulder, she offered him a polite smile, ignoring the arm he had extended for a handshake.

Sunghoon cleared his throat and returned his hand to his back when he realised her rejection. He chewed on his lips, standing straight and continuing moving forward in the line while keeping his gaze on her hair, waves that flowed down her back that complimented her outfit. Then he stared at her sneakers which had worn-out laces and soles that looked like they had walked back and forth in the fires of hell. It almost made him chuckle but he figured she must have a reason for still keeping them.

“So, Y/N,” he mused. “Do you come around here often? First time I’ve seen you around.”

Y/N really rolled her eyes this time, clenching her jaw and poking her tongue into the flesh of her cheek. She wasn’t sure why she was getting annoyed. Normally, if someone tried making conversation with her or noticed her books, she would sheepishly respond with a plethora of nerves. But with this man, or Sunghoon, as he called himself, she wanted to move as far away as possible from him. But she thought she could humour him for some time, perhaps get rid of the pit- or butterflies- in her stomach. She couldn’t tell which it was but regardless, she took it negatively.

“You say that like you work here?” She looked over her shoulder with a scoff, lips almost pulling into a smile.

“I do, actually, work here,” Sunghoon chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m the ice-skating coach here.”

Y/N’s eyes almost widened, leaning to her side to glance at the huge ice-skating rink that was relatively familiar to her. For the time being, it was empty and if she squinted hard enough, she could see the fog of frost floating about the rink. “What’re you doing here instead of taking a class then?” she raised a brow.

“Even teachers need their breaks,” he defended with a pursed smile and shrugged. “And what do you do?” By the time he asked his question, Y/N had started ordering her drink. He interjected, asking for her to order the same for him but she looked at him with narrowed eyes, expression questioning his intentions. “I'll pay,” he offered enthusiastically.

“I’d rather pay for my own drink,” she tutted with a sarcastic smile and handed the cashier her money. “Thanks, though,” Sunghoon dug in his pockets to find change and he paid as well, rocking back and forth on his heels with crossed arms.

It was a moment of awkwardness as they waited for their drinks. Y/N stared at Sunghoon with eyes narrowed to slits, shifting her weight onto one leg and tapping her feet impatiently on the floor. Her shabby sneakers made thuds that were drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the mall, the rest of the world moving past them while Sunghoon looked everywhere but at her. For the first time in a long time, he felt dejected and incompetent in front of someone he intended to pursue. He wondered if she should take it as a sign to move on, simply walk away with his drink and never look back because he knew he would cringe and hit his head against his pillow. Yet another part of him wondered how it would feel to pry at this girl, Y/N, and find out whether attitude was the only thing she had to offer.

“I’m an archaeologist, by the way,” she told him while grabbing their drinks. She smiled at him before handing him his tiger milk boba, struggling to keep her books in her arms.

“That’s cool,” Sunghoon grinned, taking his drink from her. “You need help with those?”

“No,” she assured and stepped back, giving him a small wave before walking away.

He stared at her as she made her way to the exit and he could see the corners of her books peeking from her grin, jogging as she drank her traditional boba tea. “Can I get your number, by chance?” he called out and he was sure she heard him but chose to ignore him. Regardless, he walked away, too, with a smile on his face and a skip in his step as he caught hold of the straw in his mouth.

After that interaction, Sunghoon drove to Jake and Chiara’s house like there was no tomorrow; like his heart would stop if he didn’t tell his best friends about the girl he had just met. He wanted to tell them all about the girl who showed him attitude but attention at the same time and he wanted to tell them about how she was an archaeologist. He wanted to tell them about her battered shoes and he wanted to tell them about every single time she smiled at him because, God, did it feel like a breath of fresh air after talking to Y/N; like it was his first time tasting sugar; like his dreams had come to life.

When he burst through his friends’ door, he took no time rushing in and asking for everyone’s attention. The smile on his face lit up the room brighter than the chandelier ever could and Jake couldn’t remember the last time he saw his best friend that way. From the kitchen, he heard Jay asking what all the ruckus was about and Sunghoon skipped towards him, grabbing onto the chair beside him and slipping into the seat.

“I have to tell you guys something,” Sunghoon gushed but his brows raised when making eye contact with Jay. “What are you doing here anyways?”

“Having lunch?” He responded with his mouth stuffed with bok choy and egg, chopsticks held in the air as though he was asking how more obvious his predicament could be.

“What is it?” Chiara entered the kitchen with Kai in her arms, Jake following suit with widened eyes and an excited grin.

Sunghoon ushered everyone to sit and took Kai in his arms. He let there be a moment of curiosity while everyone begged him to tell them what he was excited about and why he was smiling like he had just seen a rainbow. The kettle whistled while Chiara guessed that he might have gotten selected for a figure skating show and the oven dinged when Jake guessed that he probably bought another dog. Sunghoon was known to adopt dogs- he had six in his home being cared for by a caretaker he had to hire.

“Well,” he started. “Guess what Kai? I met a girl,” he cooed with a toothy smile, kissing the kid’s dark hair who laughed in his lap and clapped. Kai looked at him with curious eyes, having no clue what it meant but was excited by the smile on his uncle's face.

Jay and Jake’s expressions dropped, sighing with the anti-climatic news. “Another girl,” the latter rolled his eyes but his wife slapped his bicep in disappointment.

“Don’t be that way,” Chiara tutted and turned to Sunghoon with glimmering eyes. She rested her chin on her palm, her elbow on the table. “Tell us about her.”

And so Sunghoon told them everything he could muster up while hugging Kai like he was his anchor to reality. His friends listened to him intently, wondering if this encounter would end like all the others. While he talked about her, Chiara and Jake were reminded of how they first met in a photoshoot that started awkwardly but ended in an unexpected friendship. When Sunghoon told them she was an archaeologist, Jay suggested they google her as Jake and Chiara left to sleep.

Jay and Sunghoon spent the rest of the night on Google with a couple of beers, going through any article with her name mentioned. They didn’t find any social media but they did stay up reading one of her papers that had been published on artefacts dug out in Cairo, devouring hours of their time carefully decoding the meaning of words they had never heard of or learning about people they’d never learnt of.

When they were done reading the paper, Sunghoon slouched deeper into the chair and threw his head back, taking a moment to stare at the ceiling and ask himself if he were crazy for Y/N or crazy for love. “Do you think I’ll ever see her again?” By that time, Jay was fast asleep, his face pressed onto the cold table. Sunghoon chuckled and shook his head, his hair falling over his forehead. He dragged his palms down his face, willing himself to stay awake. “Will I fuck this up?” he whispered.

That same night, Y/N had settled in the public library with her books and her students’ previous test papers. The glare of her laptop sored her eyes while she looked through mark scheme upon mark scheme. She must say, she would get quite disappointed with some of her students. Ones that had potential were the ones that flunked their exams and those that did well in school were the ones she saw no future for. In only her second year of teaching, she wondered if she would stay a professor and the esteemed New York University or if she would get another chance to go another dig like she did in Cairo a few years ago.

Her life was peaceful when she wasn’t travelling or going on year-long digs. It was filled with old artefacts, books that could fall apart if she held them the wrong way and cracking paintings that either hung on her walls or stacked behind her closet. The latest addition would be grading test papers and prolonged essays. Sometimes, she liked this life. It would get lonely but her golden retriever, Blue, would keep her company. Her apartment was void of emotion but she was rarely home anyway. Other times, she missed being around people she could converse with. She missed sitting under the sun with a straw hat on her head, brushing away at the sand to uncover an old statue with people that she could laugh with.

By the time she was finished grading papers, the library was empty and her head was swarming with thoughts about the man she met in the mall. Sunghoon, as she recalled his name, wasn’t hard to find online. There were videos of his younger self competing in figure skating tournaments, working in the mall with a pearly smile on his face and a glimmer in his eyes and though he didn’t post much on social media, he was all over model Jake Sim’s Instagram. He was best friends with him and even knew an upcoming producer, Heeseung Lee. She even found pictures of Sunghoon Park with his natural black hair.

On the way home, she watched all the videos she could find of him figure skating, the glow of her phone illuminating the back of her cab. When she found herself smiling, she put her phone away and gazed at the street lights, wondering if she would ever see him again. When she saw a few Chinese restaurants and convenience stores still open, she realised she should have gotten dinner before going home. There were no groceries in the fridge or her cupboards. Perhaps there was some milk left. Y/N’s ego was too big to even ask her parents for a loan.

She was reminded of how she had a roommate a few years ago- Anna. She used to be the one who restocked groceries and cooked dinner, sometimes even reminding her to take care of herself and sleep; the responsible one, essentially. It used to be fun back then when they would sometimes stay up late and binge dramedies or gossip about whatever their work lives had to offer. Now she was somewhere in London, working with Bellerby Globemakers as a cartographer and left Blue for her to take care of. They lived together because it was easier to pay rent and serve food on their plates. Now they were in better places in life, earning more money than they previously were yet Y/N still struggled to keep her schedules in check. Oh, how she missed having a roommate.

The coming weekend, she willed herself out of bed and into a grocery store. Y/N realised that some of her fondest childhood memories were amongst the isles of many stores similar to the ones she was in. She laughed the loudest when her father pushed her around in one of those bright and colourful trolleys kids could sit in and her eldest brother always let her buy whatever junk food she wanted, regardless of what their mother said. She remembered how she would shoplift stationery with her cousins until she turned nineteen and she still had some of the pictures she took with her high school friends in the breakfast cereal aisle.

She also noticed that it was during times like this, when she wasn’t preoccupied with work, that her thoughts would wander off to Sunghoon- the boy she dubbed a handsome stranger with pouty lips and starry eyes. Y/N couldn’t remember the last time she was approached by a stranger who wanted to strike up a conversation. These days, the only social interactions she had were with fellow professors from the university, her students, her family or the occasional text on social media that she never bothered responding to. Though she realised she was awfully mean to him, she had forgotten what it was like interacting with people.

Y/N forgot when she became so introverted. Or rather, she forgot why she became comfortable being an introvert. Back in high school, she remembered always wanting to go out with her friends on the weekend and she remembered unapologetically making acquaintances with any human that crossed her path. Now she was reserved, too shy to approach anyone and building up her walls every time someone had something to say to her. Maybe it was a phase she would never grow out of- her parents did always say that in your mid-twenties, your personality kind of just sticks.

Her cart was filled with frozen foods and bags of fruit by the time she stood in line to check out. Impatiently, she tapped her foot on the floor and checked her watch, wondering when she could go home and heat a pizza for lunch. From what she remembered, she still had her new books to finish reading for the updated syllabus in class and she committed to cleaning her apartment so that was what she was going to do for the rest of the day. Eat, read, clean and repeat.

While Y/N stood in line, Sunghoon and Riki were walking past the same grocery store. Sunghoon stopped in his tracks when he recognised her from the corner of his eyes, through the glare of the glass doors. She was wearing that trench coat again and her feet were clad with the same worn-out sneakers. Her fingers were adorned with vintage, silver rings, this time and he noticed how her shopping cart was basically a stack of frozen pizzas and a few green apples. He chuckled mindlessly to himself.

Riki continued walking for a good ten seconds before he realised his friend was peeping into some shop with the brightest smile he’d seen on him in days, eyes gleaming under the sunlight. He swore he saw his entire body glowing from some kind of happiness he didn’t understand.

“Hyung?” Riki called, raising his brows and slightly stretching his arms as though he was asking what made him stop walking. “What are you staring at?”

Sunghoon didn’t move his gaze or falter his expression but instead continued to wave Riki towards him, flailing his hand around in the air in a way that made him look stupid. “You remember that girl I told you about?” He asked when he approached him.

“The one from the mall?” Riki confirmed. “The one that acted like a bitch?”

“Hey, I never called her that,” Sunghoon stood straight again, furrowing his brows at the boy.

“Well, you described her that way,” Riki raised his hands in defence, pursing his lips and taking a step back. “What about her, though?”

“She’s in the store,” Sunghoon pointed a thumb towards where she stood and Riki traced his gaze in her direction. “The one in the trench coat?”

“Oh,” Riki cocked his head to the side. “She’s pretty. But I’m getting late for work and you promised you’d visit the studio today,” he argued, face falling into a frown.

It wasn’t that Riki was uninterested in his friend’s love life- he knew how much he craved a significant other; someone to love and to be loved by. Yet, this time, the boy was only pulling Sunghoon’s attention away because he was sceptical of how it was going to end. No, he didn’t have faith in the fact that Sunghoon and Y/N could end up happy, solely judging from past experience.

He’d seen how much he was hurt by all the girls in his past. He was there when Sunghoon would stumble into one of their houses drunk, whining over heartbreak for probably the hundredth time. Riki was there to take care of him on nights when he was supposed to be studying for his finals and he was there when Sunghoon would introduce yet another girl to the group- he would call out their flaws every single time and he was right about the girls every single time. Though he hoped his predictions would turn out wrong, he knew his judgement was usually right.

He still remembered meeting that one red-head ex-girlfriend of his from a couple of years ago. Sunghooon had brought her into Jake and Chiara’s kitchen and he just knew that she would cheat on him. He presumed it was something about the way she smiled or the way she shook his hand that gave him a negative first impression. She was the sultry type, and though he had no issue with that, it didn’t mean she could use it as an excuse to flirt with every other man in the room. Riki was right about her and it would only make sense if he assumed he would be right about Y/N- she wasn’t a good idea. But for Sunghoon’s sake, he decided to think positive thoughts- maybe they would work out and he would get married and finally allow Riki a chance to be the best man in someone's wedding.

“Riki, just wait for like, ten minutes,” he pleaded. “Yeah? I’ll just… say hi and come back.”

“My, God,” Riki rolled his eyes while Sunghoon slowly stepped towards the entry of the store with a lopsided grin. “Fine, go,” he shook his head in disappointment and stared at the rest of their interaction from the other side of the glass, gagging with a cringe.

Sunghoon walked into the store with a skip in his step, grabbing the nearest candy bar and beelining towards the check-out line. He didn’t know where he got his confidence from- when he saw her for the first time in that mall, he was a nervous bundle of a mess but now, he stood right behind Y/N and he smiled when he knew she didn’t realise. So, he leaned towards her ear and said, “We have got to stop meeting like this.”

Y/N recognised his voice immediately, swinging around with a gasp of surprise. She covered her gaping mouth with the back of her hand, her glasses reflecting the ray of sunlight when she made eye contact with him. When she comprehended his figure, she felt a wave of relief wash down her torso. “You scared me,” she moved her hand to her chest, gulping. “Didn’t think I’d see you again,” she breathed out a smile.

“That too, in the same predicament,” Sunghoon smiled back.

The pair moved to the front of the cue and he helped her stock her items onto the conveyer belt. “What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked. “Stalking me?”

“No,” he mused innocently. “But if that’s what makes you feel better…”

“Oh, please,” she brushed him off and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Hey, we’re meeting in a checkout line for the second time. Don’t you think it’s fate?”

“You’re stupid if you believe in fate,” she laughed at his pouting expression. “Seriously, you believe in that crap?”

“Don’t make me feel bad about it, I have a good reason,” he defended.

“Well, what’s the reason?” She paid the bill with her phone, waiting for an answer from the handsome stranger.

He smirked at her, digging one hand into the pocket of his trousers and the other bringing the candy bar to his chin. He looked her up and down, raising an eyebrow to question if she knew what response would come. When she repeated her question, he asked, “I’ll tell you about it on a date sometime?”

SEEING SUNGHOON SKATING ON the ice rink in jeans and a shirt that barely insulated his torso was like watching birds flying freely with their wings spread in freedom. Y/N supposed that after years of dedicating his time to the rink, one would most likely get used to the cold. He had the brightest smile on his face, the type that made his cheeks bulge and his eyes disappear into his eyelids. His teeth glimmered pearly white behind his pouty lips and she wasn’t sure she had the heart to join him and ruin his solitude.

Over the past few months that Y/N spent getting to know Sunghoon, she realised how much he enjoyed his own company. It was ironic really, how he was known as the womaniser amongst his friends but would separate hours in his schedule just to be alone in his apartment with a beer and an old movie, in solitary with his thoughts and his six dogs. She also learnt that he kept a diary, entries meticulously planned in a manner that allowed him to write the smallest details of his day. It would explain the locked drawers in his room- a precaution he consciously took part in because he knew his friends would snoop if they ever found them. He agreed he told them pretty much everything but every man needs a secret of his own, he would say.

Even with their busy schedules, both being teachers of some sort, they managed to squeeze in a few dates after class, for lunch, during the weekends or late-night walks in the park where the moon was waxing but the stars weren’t as prominent due to New York’s pollution. She was even a frequent visitor at his apartment after the first month of knowing him, often sleeping over because she was too lazy to catch a cab and refused to let him drive her home. The latter was mostly because she was scared to bring him to her apartment, the messy space between four walls she lived in that hadn’t been rearranged or properly cleaned in over a year. At least there were no bugs hiding in nooks and crevices.

On the nights she spent in his apartment, one that was only slightly bigger than her own, they’d find themselves lying on his couch, his chin on her head, as they watched a random black and white movie they couldn’t help laughing at. His dogs would be with them, some gathered on the floor and others burrowing themselves in the spaces on his couch. Some nights, they would doze asleep and other times they’d end up in conversations where Sunghoon would talk about his days in high school with a roll in his eyes or about his family with the same smile he would have while skating on the ice rink. He would tell her about his tight-knit group of friends and he would talk about his struggles with perfecting the English language. Y/N would tell him about her siblings- four brothers and three sisters- with whom she talked to every day but had no idea of how she struggled financially sometimes. She would tell him about her international escapades when she went on archaeology trips and to make him feel better, she would tell him that her high school experience wasn’t something she wanted to look back on either.

She still remembered the first conversation they had when he took her out for the first time. He brought her to an upper-class restaurant for dinner, the pair dressed in formal attire to fit the aesthetic. Y/N had panicked at first, rambling about how she wasn’t sure if she could afford it but he assured her that he got the tab and that their table was already reserved so she had no other choice but to accompany him. With a grin, he led her to their table and pulled her chair out for her like a gentleman from a family with old money. The restaurant had golden chandeliers and a menu that went on for an unlimited amount of pages. For the first few minutes, they sat awkwardly, having no idea how to start a conversation but then she told him how it had been years since she came to a fancy restaurant as such and the pair couldn’t shut up around each other since then.

Their other dates included trips to museums where Y/N would effortlessly describe every artefact or painting on display and Sunghoon would listen to the historical anecdotes she had to offer. They once spent hours at The MET- she knew the history and he knew the celebrity galas that would take place annually. He took her to a bookstore once and he realised that if she could, she would have bought half the books in the store. She told him that she could finish an average novel in one and a half days and he refused to believe her unless he witnessed it first-hand. It was a bet the pair had forgotten about but he brought it up during a random phone call but she never found the time to prove herself.

“Come join me, Y/N,” Sunghoon waved for her from the middle of the ice rink and she nervously shook her hair.

Surprisingly, it was the first time he took her ice skating. One would assume it would be the first date he’d take her on because it was all he could talk about sometimes. Meanwhile, Y/N had never been ice skating before. She wasn’t much of a sports enthusiast either so convincing her to play any form of sport would be taking her miles away from her comfort zone. Her biggest form of adrenaline would be riding a high-risk amusement park ride or teaching a class on Malta’s catacombs without previous preparation.

“Come on,” Sunghoon encouraged again, slowly making his way towards her with his hands stretched in front of him and an excited smile beaming on his snowy features. “Don’t be nervous, I’ll hold your hands until you get the hang of it.”

His bare hands hold her glove-clad pair and her gaze stays on the way he holds her and wistfully walks her into the ice. She almost trips at first but after a few rounds of stomping and digging her skating blades into the ice, she could skate on her own without trembling or shaking. Sunghoon made rounds around her and took pictures of her, commenting on how she looked cute with a helmet on her head and a puffer jacket on her shoulders. She giggled and tried covering up the camera of his phone but failed and focused on balancing herself instead.

When Sunghoon giggled, she found herself staring at him for longer than she usually would. When she agreed to go on a date with him all those months ago, she wasn’t expecting herself to enjoy his company. She expected them to come out in the end as friends but then she found herself texting him every morning before waking up and every night before falling asleep. She thought about him every moment she had to herself and waited for the next time she could potentially meet him. She found herself noticing and making note of his small habits and characteristics and she wondered if he prioritised her the same way.

The last time she remembered feeling this attached to someone was in high school. Her brothers had warned her about the boy she had been getting close to and even threatened to harm him if she was harmed. They had dated for a short period, their relationship questionable to her siblings but deemed perfect by her friends. When they broke up, she remembered spending weeks crying over loneliness and it was then that she realised how toxic it all had been. With that memory in her head, she approached Sunghoon with more caution, especially while knowing his history with women.

“It’s getting late, no?” He pulled her to the exit of the rink by her hands, softly whispering in her ear. “We should probably head home.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, pulling off her gloves and jacket while he helped rid her of the horrid helmet that messed with her hair.

“I’ll drive you home?” He offered but was met with a brief moment of silence.

He waited for her to respond, her smile slowly fading from her face, replaced by exhaustion and fatigue. Y/N thought about how she hadn't enjoyed herself in so long and the only reason she was ending her days with tiredness from activities was because of Sunghoon. If she was being honest, he was probably the only person she had been outside her house with since Sarah.

“I don’t wanna go home,” she admitted, a shy purse on her lips.

Sunghoon chuckled and kneeled to help her off her skating shoes. “I just realised you’ve never taken me to your place,” he mumbled. “Why not tonight?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I like your apartment better.” “Are you ever gonna let me in your apartment?”

“Well, not today,” she passed off her comment as a joke but realised how put off he was by this. His gaze lowered and his lips pressed into a straight line. She wasn’t sure if she was even saying the right things anymore. “Can we just spend the night at your place for now? Come over next week, I’ll introduce you to my sisters.”

With that, Sunghoon complied with a smile and the pair spent the night cuddled in his bed, falling into a deep slumber.

Y/N spent the next week cleaning her apartment to perfection, not like before when she’d just scrub her tables and collapse from laziness. No, she put her heart and soul into making her apartment look presentable. Her countertops showed her reflection and her tables were organised after what felt like decades. Paintings and piles of books sat on her bay window which she excused for aesthetic purposes and her carpet wasn’t lined with Blue’s shedding anymore. She didn’t just do this for her sisters, she realised it was mostly to give Sunghoon a good first impression. Her sisters knew she was messy but getting to know someone new and allowing them into a messy apartment was like being handed the death sentence in her books.

The day her sisters would visit rolled around in less time than she expected. They brought her huge bouquets of flowers and home-cooked meals to have together for dinner. God knows how long it’s been since you must have cooked, they said while pinching her cheeks and for the first time in a long time, she was reminded of how much she used to dread being the youngest sibling of eight. Willow and Rose, being the eldest compared to Laurel and Y/N, tended to baby them to the point of frustration. They were adults now, living independently with their individual families but the oldest siblings still had their way of annoying the youngest.

All her brothers, Willow and Rose were married and Laurel was very recently engaged. Using that excuse, they crashed at Y/N’s apartment when they weren’t out celebratory shopping. From the second they entered her house, it felt like all hell had broken loose; like a tsunami of opinions had been unleashed. Willow was tutting at her messy fridge and Rose was opening and closing her cupboards in hopes of finding cleanliness but there was no hope. With a pitiful smile, Laurel sat on the couch with her arms crossed and Y/N joined her.

Over the next few hours, she had an earful of how she should move to an apartment with paint that didn’t chip off her walls and how she should rid herself of some of her useless positions. They demanded to go grocery shopping later and insisted on cooking dinner because she looked like she hadn’t eaten in over a century. At the end of the day, Y/N was the youngest of them all and would be pampered the most.

She formed an image in her head where she was surrounded by her three sisters with forks, spoons and chopsticks piled with food being shoved down her throat. Her tiny table was filled with dishes from all sorts of cuisines and juices of all kinds of fruit. As the cherry on top, there was a giant chocolate cake placed right at the centre. She was trying her best not to choke on the food, her cheeks swollen red, while her sisters wore hearty smiles, oblivious to her suffering from their smothering care.

“Make something nice for dinner, then,” Y/N stopped herself from flinching at the image in her head, one that would surely haunt her in her dreams. “I’ll introduce you to someone.”

Sunghoon didn’t realise how nervous he was to meet Y/N’s sisters until a few hours before he had to meet them. It was a mix of excitement and dread; his lack of confidence in himself to impress a potential partner’s family. He had texted her relentlessly, asking the most mindless doubts about what colour clothes to wear, if he should bring them any gifts or if he should dye his hair back to black because his platinum blond felt unprofessional all of a sudden. He wondered if they would disapprove of his profession and chalk it up to the fact that he had wealthy parents but he had to remind himself that Y/N’s profession wasn’t providing her with much earnings either.

Y/N responded to his texts calmly, which brought him the same effect. He found himself taking deeper breaths and told him that this wouldn’t be the first time he’s met a girl’s family. It was just her sisters which meant he wouldn’t have to face the wrath of her brothers yet. From what she had told him, they could start a boxing match with him in the middle of the road if they thought he wasn’t good enough for their sister. He wondered how some of the sisters managed to get married with such protective brothers.

Y/N gave him simple advice: compliment Willow's hair, she’ll like you instantly; bring chocolates as a present and Rose will be the first to commend you; ask Laurel how she met her fiancé, she loves telling the story; and don’t make it obvious that I gave you this advice.

He repeated these points to himself as he stood in front of her door, a box of gourmet chocolates in his hands and a red scarf tied around his neck. Dramatically, for his own satisfaction, he breathed heavily and told himself that dinner would go perfectly as planned if he just stuck to the advice.

Compliment Willow's hair.

Give Rose the chocolates.

Ask Laurel about her fiancé.

Be natural.

Then, the door opened before he could knock thrice and Y/N stood in front of him on the verge of sweating, a faux and toothy smile on her face. Her widened eyes told him to hurry inside the apartment and he made a point to slip his shoes before he followed her into the living room.

Her apartment wasn’t what he expected. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure what he expected. When he would imagine her in her apartment, he would simply picture a space similar to his home; white walls, minimalistic furniture and large balconies. But her apartment was something he would expect out of Pinterest, the type that girls swooned over as dark academia but in reality was just messily decorated and cleaned. Her walls were ivory with chipping paint, her couch a mustard yellow and her shelves overflowing with books that she had to pile in corners of her room. There were a myriad of paintings, some framed and some not, some hung neatly on the wall and others leaning onto any flat surface. He also spotted random artefacts, ones he was sure she would give a backstory of when the dinner is over.

��Sunghoon,” Y/N whispered rather agitatedly.

“Sorry,” he mumbled with a shy smile. “Just checking out your apartment.”

Rolling her eyes, she led him to the kitchen, her sisters swallowed in a conversation at the dinner table. The three sisters ceased their exchange in silence with smiles as welcoming and warm as the dishes on the tables. To his relief, he didn’t have to introduce himself. He simply stood there, palms sweating, legs on the verge of folding and a toothy smile that he would not want to be photographed in, while Y/N introduced him to her sisters and rid him of his scarf.

“You’re just on time,” Rose cheered with her hands together, ushering Sunghoon to the empty seat beside her. “And you brought chocolate!” She cheered as he made himself comfortable in the wooden chair, an awkward chuckle slipping past his lips. He weaved his fingers together on the table while she took the box of chocolates in her hands and examined the brand in awe.

Ding! Sunghoon thought to himself as a moment of victory.

“It’s considered rude to visit someone’s house for the first time without gifts, in my family,” Sunghoon blabbered and shared an award glance with Y/N.

Willow and Laurel looked at him with questioning looks and he offered them another awkward smile. “Y/N told us you’re from Korea?” Willow asked.

“Yeah,” Sunghoon nodded. Then followed a moment of silence no one knew how to fill. The group of five simply looked at each other and Blue entered the kitchen from one of the bedrooms like a saving grace. “Oh, is this your dog?” he looked at Y/N with excitement and slipped off his seat to kneel in front of the Golden Retriever.

“Yeah, his name is Blue,” Y/N cooed with a proud smile.

“I know, you told me,” he hummed, ruffling Blue’s fur and touching his nose to the dog’s.

“You’re fond of dogs?” Laurel asked.

“I adore them,” he mused. “I’ve got six dogs myself.”

With that statement, the conversation somehow burst between the group. Though Y/N didn’t contribute much, she enjoyed the sight in front of her. Willow filled Sunghoon’s plate with food despite his objections and Laurel was gushing about her fiancé’s dog- which is when Sunghoon slipped in the question of how they met. Ding! She rambled about how they met in the airport at the ripe age of twenty-one and had been in each other’s lives since then- for eight years.

The story almost brought Sunghoon to tears, being a sucker for love himself. He felt jealous of people that had perfect and long-lasting relationships, the type where they would meet at young ages and grow old together and survive life through thick and thin. It was the type of love he always craved for. But then his gaze met Y/N and he forgot about the pang of loneliness in his chest. He continued asking Willow which salon she went to because her hair looked pristine. Ding!

As dinner came to an end, they told him anecdotes of their childhood and embarrassed Y/N to their full capacity. A story that stuck with him was of when they took a family trip to the beach, eight kids in the back of the car with their miserable parents in the front, fighting for just a moment of silence or peace. Y/N was described as a loud child, the one that was most spoiled because she was the youngest, showered with love from her older siblings and all her wishes granted by her parents. That day, she had spent all her time with her eldest brother because he was brooding from going through a recent breakup and played around him building terrible sand castles and collecting broken seashells until he laughed and played with her.

They even showed him her baby pictures.

He could imagine Y/N at that age, holding sand in her chubby palms and laughing while running away from the waves. He could imagine her in a pink-coloured bucket hat covering her tiny head, knitted onesies as her outfit for the beach. He could imagine her milk teeth peeking from behind her lips when she laughed and he could imagine just how happy she must have been when her brother accepted her seashells as a token of happiness.

“What are you laughing at?” Y/N asked, brushing her fingers over his chin.

The pair had winded up on her couch once her sisters were off to sleep. Sunghoon’s old figure skating videos were playing on the television because according to Y/N, if you get to see my childhood pictures, I get to see yours. They were long forgotten by both and the television reflected black while they kissed and cuddled, anything to use their time alone for their benefit. Eventually, they ended up naked under a thin blanket, his slender hands drawing circles on her shoulder and her arms wrapped around his neck, pecking his jaw anytime she felt like it.

“Nothing,” he chuckled, shaking his head and kissing her forehead. “I’m just thinking about you being all hyper and active as a baby,” he confessed, unable to stop the rest of his giggles.

“Hey,” she furrowed her brows, attempting to kick her leg at him but her movements were constricted as he held her tighter. “You just called me boring now.”

“No, don’t take it that way,” he grinned. “It’s just hard to imagine you now the way you were as a child. You know, because you’re all calm and collected now. The only times I’ve seen you laugh, like properly laugh and cackle-”

“I don’t cackle-”

“Is when we watch funny movies or when I make jokes,” he mused. “I mean even at dinner, your sisters made pretty good jokes but you didn’t laugh.”

“I normally would have. I’m quite open around my family,” she mumbled. “Just kinda felt overwhelmed today.”

“Because of me?”

She nodded against his chest.

“Why is that?”

“Because before you came, I was stressed thinking of whether they’d like you or not. I was praying that they’d like you,” she admitted. “And once you came and they started getting along with you, I was so relieved. I mean, even Willow seemed to get along with you so well. At that point, I had used up all my energy so I just took the time to relax and… observed, I guess.”

Sunghoon hummed, letting his fingers run lines up and down her spine. “What’d you observe, then?”

“Nothing in particular,” she said. “Just listening to them talk and you talk and bonding. It was nice to watch.”

“I’m glad it went well, then,” he nodded, chin moving to rest on her head. “I really thought they would hate me, you know? I was nervous before meeting them, too. Rose is the one that made it less awkward, it’s honestly all thanks to her that I managed with conversation.”

“Yeah, she’s always been like that,” Y/N agreed. “She has a way of making people around her feel comfortable. It’s not gonna be that way with my brothers, though.”

“Oh, dear God, I don’t even wanna think about that,” Sunghoon whined, hugging her closer as if it could change the inevitable.

“It’s fine, ‘Hoon,” she chuckled. “I’ll be there. My sisters will be there. I’ve told my parents somewhat about you and they seem to be fond of you. They even ask about you sometimes-”

“You talk to your parents about me?” Sunghoon’s grin widened into a smirk, moving his head so that he could peek at the flustered look on her face.

“Yeah?” She trailed, her cheeks turning a shade of crimson he couldn’t notice in the dark.

“I’ll be honest with you,” he started. “I told my parents about you, too.”

“Really?” Y/N’s eyes couldn’t stop blinking for a moment, her mouth hanging agape

“Yeah, why is that so surprising?”

With a shit-eating grin on his mouth, he lifted her by her waist and made her straddle his hips so that he could see her expressions as they talked. She yelped as she made herself comfortable, reaching towards the armrest to grab his shirt so she could cover herself. Her palms spanned across his chest while his fingers trailed to unbutton his shirt on her torso, playing with the skin on her stomach.

“Well, you know,” she responded with a grin reflecting his, unable to control the butterflies in her stomach. “You told me about your past relationships… and I didn’t think you’d tell them so early-”

“It’s been a while since we started seeing each other, no?”

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“It only seemed fair that I told them,” he shrugged, hands pulling her closer. “My sister’s quite excited to meet you, by the way.”

“How long has it been since you last told them about a girl you were seeing?”

“A couple of years… a long time, actually,” he pursed his lips in thought. “I haven’t been in a relationship lasting this long in years… it almost feels new.”

“Really?” She smiled even wider.

“That makes you feel good, huh?”

“Well, obviously,” she shrugged proudly. “Your parents like me.”

“Your parents like me, too,” he giggled.

“Yeah!” She exclaimed, leaning down so she could rest her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck once again.

“And you know my friends that I keep mentioning?”

She hummed.

“I want you to meet them, too.”

“Somehow, that’s more nerve-wracking than meeting your family.”

Sunghoon erupted into laughter, his arms wrapping around her torso. She could feel the rise and fall in his chest, his heart rate increasing by the second. “There’s no need for that,” he assured with a croon. “They’ll like you and you’ll like them.”

“But didn’t you say Riki didn’t really like me when you told him about me?”

“That was when I met you the first time,” he said. “To be fair, you were kind of bitchy-”

“Ok, fine, my bad,” she rolled her eyes. “But what if they don’t like me?”

“They’ll like you,” he repeated. “Especially Chiara.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. When I started telling her about you, she was swooning. I’m not joking. She was begging to meet you-”

“When was this?”

“Like a month ago,” he said. “She’s been asking about you for a while. She wants you to come for next week’s dinner.”

From the myriad of times Sunghoon had talked about Chiara and all his other friends, she learned that she was like the mother of the group. Her and Jake’s house was where everyone could stop by even without an invitation- everyone had a spare key to their apartment. Her pantry was always filled with snacks and drinks of all sorts and if anyone needed anything to be whipped up, she would oblige with no hesitation. She was the person that could accept anyone regardless of their needs or flaws, the one that knew how to make everyone around her safe. But regardless of knowing all that, Y/N was still insecure to meet her.

“But-”

“Y/N,” he pressed. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be sitting with you the whole time.”

She groaned, defeated and having no excuse to give him. “Fine,” she mumbled.

To be precise, Sunghoon took Y/N out on their first date precisely six months prior. In those five months, the pair spent a lot of energy learning how to communicate with one another. Y/N was the shy and quiet type, the kind of person that tended to use sarcasm as a defence mechanism instead of voicing her concerns and feelings. Sunghoon, though he was quite sarcastic himself, used the mechanism as his sole form of communication, completely ignoring the fact that he was capable of having feelings pertaining to benefiting himself.

It took more than a few attempts to learn how to be comfortable with one another. If it weren’t for her pestering him to tell him about his past failed relationships, he wouldn’t be freely speaking about his family now. If it wasn’t for him arguing with her about how he wanted her to be carefree around him with her guard down, she wouldn’t even be able to laugh around him. Forget laughter, she probably wouldn’t even know how to kiss him without feeling embarrassed of the effect he had on her. Learning how to openly communicate with one another turned into learning how to ask each other for advice and depend on each other emotionally instead of accepting their individual isolation.

When Sunghoon first started to open up about his past relationships, she wasn’t expecting to hear what she did. The more stories she heard, the more she understood where his cockiness and inferiority complex stemmed from. There was a point where she thought her new boyfriend had hooked up with the entire female population of New York City with the amount of relationships he’d mentioned. But the one thing she realised after every story of past relationships he told her was that all he wanted was to settle down the way his friends and most of the population did, to start a family and marry a girl he was proud to be loved by.

Y/N would be lying if she said she didn’t feel even the slightest amount of luck.

Over the span of their relationship, Sunghoon couldn’t spend her twenty-seventh birthday with her. Her parents had bought her a train ticket back home and she spent her birthday with her parents, siblings and their spouses sitting around their average sized dinner table singing the overrated birthday song while she blew out the candles on a very small chocolate cake that only she ate at the end of the night. Sunghoon had called her later in the night to wish her when she was finally not surrounded by her family and it was the very same night that she had told her parents about him. Her sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, all her siblings and her parents were bombarding her with questions and all she could tell them was that she was smitten by him with a toothy smile.

She couldn’t spend his twenty-eighth birthday with him either. He spent his birthday weekend at Jake and Chiara’s house- the house where all the parties, dinners and get-togethers were held- with the rest of his friends and all the kids were to stay the night with a very unlucky babysitter. He got drunk on beer, his favourite activity to indulge in, and was the model of most embarrassing pictures and videos. Jay, being the most sober out of everyone, was taking care of Sunghoon like his life depended on it while the rest of the party-attendees thrashed the house which left Jake and Chiara in a gruelling position to clean up the next morning.

That night, Sunghoon had called Y/N in a bout of slurs, his face too close to the phone camera which restricted her view on his face and the circus that was falling apart behind him. She could barely hear him through the excited screams of his friends and the loud music but she was able to hear fragments of what he was saying.

“I miss you so much, y/n,” he said. “I wish you were here… I always thought you looked so pretty, you know you’re really pretty, right?”

Y/N laughed at him through the entire call and offered suitable responses. “I miss you, too,” she said. “I think you look very handsome, ‘Hoon.”

However, it was during those two incidents that Y/N realised how much Sunghoon valued his friends, so much to the point that he considered them more his family than his actual family, and Sunghoon realised how close Y/N was to her family. A conversation wouldn’t end without him bringing up his friends and her day wouldn’t start without a text from anyone member of her family. It was then that they realised they couldn’t expect each other to continue their relationship without putting in the effort to meet each other’s families, their respective powerhouses for love and personality.

“WHY THE BEACH, THOUGH?” She asked with an open smile whilst being held in the air by Sunghoon. He held her up by her thighs, her bikini cover-up barely holding onto her frame as he spun her around. She wasn’t sure how he was able to hold his balance in loose sand, waves occasionally grazing his feet, but she was squealing in amusement, throat bubbling with laughter every time he craned his neck to kiss her. Her hair blew with the wind, ruining the effort she put into styling it that morning and his newly dyed black hair covered his forehead and enhanced the brown in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” he grinned. “I just wanted to see if you’d act like how your sisters described in that one story they told.”

Sunghoon let his arms slip around her waist now, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist as their lips met again for probably the hundredth time that day. He wouldn't stop kissing her while she got dressed in front of her mirror, his hands exploring her stomach and lips exploring her neck. He wouldn’t stop kissing her on the car ride there, leaning towards her every time the road seemed empty or when they stopped at the red light. And he couldn’t stop kissing her when they reached the beach, hands refusing to leave her touch and holding her frame as close as he could and bruising her lips with his as often as he was allowed.

“Why so suddenly?” She asked before being pulled into another kiss, his lips devouring hers like he hadn’t kissed her in an eternity, like he wasn’t doing the same thing for the past three hours. “And what’s up with you and making out today?” She asked again, pulling away from his lips with a smack.

“Just in the mood,” he responded, chasing for another kiss through hooded eyes. She wasn’t sure which question of hers he answered to but she could only smile giddily, submitting into his lips yet again.

“Well, are you stressed or something?” She mumbled against his lips.

“Y/N,” he sighed, pulling away from her and letting her stand on her own two feet again. She blinked profusely, head tilting in confusion, toes wiggling into the familiar damp sand. “Just shut up and let me kiss you, alright?” And without letting her reply, he cupped her jaw with his hands and connected their lips again.

He was kissing her like she was his source of oxygen. He relished in the feeling of her jaw moving against his palms while she followed the movement of his lips, head tilting accordingly when he slid his tongue through the little opening in her mouth. Only he was in control at that moment and he was pecking her mouth, sucking on her bottom lip when she was gasping for air. But the moment of intimacy passed before she could register the butterflies in her stomach and he was lifting her up, throwing her over his shoulder. She erupted in laughter, legs flailing in the air as he ran into the water with a smile she could hear from a mile away.

He smiled so wide that his eyes were squinting to slits, throwing himself and her into the salty waves and emerging back up in a gasp for air. Y/N pushed her soaked hair away from her face, eyes as wide as saucers and mouth opened in shock while Sunghoon waited for a reaction- and a reaction he got. The next few minutes were filled with water being splashed in each others’ faces, their laughter louder than the group of kids visiting the beach for the first time. While she was failing on wrestling his, their fingers intertwined, he realised that this was what bliss felt like, to his girlfriend, his lover, happy and smiling and laughing like she was living the best moment in her life.

Over the next hour, Sunghoon sat beside Y/N in the sand while she built sandcastles like she was a kindergartener. Her hands built a mountain out of sand and taller towers beside the melting mountain. She would pout and whine and curse at him in laughter whenever he’d mess up her artwork and he would kiss her again, slow pecks that would eventually burn into her memory. Then he collected seashells with her which were eventually returned back to the sand and waters. When they found a dried starfish, coloured a bright magenta, she started ranting about the significance of starfish to the Aztec culture and he listened with open ears, nodding along to her words as if he would write an exam on the topic. In that hour, he could see the little girl that her sisters described her as in her, except she was wearing a bikini instead of a bucket hat and jean-shorts.

“I like seeing you like this,” he said, holding her hand in a moment of serenity, walking across the beach with their shoes clutched in their empty hands.

“Like what?” She asked, unable to put aside her smile.

“Happy.”

“You say that like you’ve never seen me happy before, ‘Hoon,” she chuckled and shook her head. “You brought me here because of the story my sisters told you, right?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “You had this juvenile happiness about you. I love when you’re like this.”

Y/N squeezed his hand and made him turn towards her. He had a look of satisfaction in his eyes, bangs covering his brows. His lips twitched into a miniscule smile, one that she almost missed if she didn’t squint enough. The wind blew his shirt against his skin, an icky dampness he ignored suddenly made aware. “Thank you,” she said, pursing her lips to hide a thankful smile. “I loved today.”

Sunghoon kissed her forehead and led her to his car. He didn’t want to admit to her that the reason for his increased physical affection, constantly kissing her and touching her, was truly because he was stressed. He was stressed about introducing her to his friends during dinner in a few hours- he could only imagine the amount of anxiety she was dealing with and hoped that a day at the beach would perhaps help her into a positive mood. It wasn’t that he was questioning their relationship or personality all of a sudden, no that wasn’t it. It was the fact that he knew her well enough that her awkwardness around new people often led them to perceive her with a negative first impression. She wasn’t great at starting conversation and in all honesty, Sunghoon was no good at helping people involve themselves into conversation. That was Rose’s speciality, not his. Sunghoon was rather the type to laugh at jokes and comment on whatever stupid statement his friends made. The more he thought about it, the more he realised he couldn’t rely on himself to help Y/N ease herself into whatever conversation would take place during.

When he panicked to Chiara about his nerves, she assured him that she would be there to help her feel welcomed. She reminded him that his friends weren’t the type of people to isolate someone new, especially if it was someone Sunghoon said was special to him. “Even I wasn’t this nervous when I introduced Chiara to you guys,” Jake had said to him. “It’ll be fine. You know that.” So, he played out the scenarios in his head on how dinner would go; he imagined Jay bonding with Y/N over his random knowledge in history and he imagined Y/N sipping on wine with Chiara, Karina and Jade at the end of the night. He imagined Jake and Heeseung telling her about all his embarrassing stories and her laughing at them with no filter and he imagined her playing with all the kids- his nieces and nephews.

In his head, it was the perfect dinner, exactly the way he’d want his lover to fit into his found-family and as he looked at Y/N covering herself with a towel and drying her hair with her fingers raking her scalp, he knew that everything would go just the way he imagined.

“There’s a motel nearby, we can freshen up there,” he offered softly, stretching his arms to grab ahold of her hips and pull her closer towards him.

“What’ve you got planned for the day, hmm?” She teased. “I haven’t seen you this enthusiastic since you took me ice skating.”

He grinned, softly pecking her lips and digging his nails deeper into her hips. She chewed the inside of her cheek, smirking and nodding in understanding. Her fists rested on his chest, knees on the verge of buckling from his gaze alone. “After that, I thought maybe we could go to a bookstore or a movie. Anything you want, really.”

“That sounds really good,” she hummed. Her eyes hooded, scanning his face from his eyes, the mole on his nose and to his lips. “I think I prefer your natural hair better, by the way,” she smiled as she kissed him and he teased her with a hum, fingers drumming on her lower back.

The time leading up to dinner felt like floating through a dream. He remembered showering with her and helping her pick out a pretty dress to wear while she styled her hair in the shabby bathroom of the motel. He also remembered spending way too many hours in the nearest bookstore where he felt like a ghost following her around with shallow eyes. While she carried around a pile of non-fiction books and archives, softly explaining to him a snippet of history but nothing was registering in his head. He just remembered standing behind her with wide eyes and pursed lips, almost resembling a robot, imagining everything that could possibly go wrong at dinner; at dinner at his best friend’s house with the rest of the people he grew up around; at dinner with the people he called his family that saw him bring multiple other women to similar dinners.

He was just overthinking, right?

Yeah, he was. While driving, it was usually Sunghoon that had his free hand on her thigh but the roles were switched this time when Y/N saw his hands trembling. He looked like a lost puppy with those terrified eyes locked on the road in front of him.

“Sunghoon?” She called. “Park Sunghoon?”

He was so stressed, Sunghoon could feel the nerves in his jaw firing up before he opened his mouth to say, “yeah?”

“What’s on your mind?”

“What do you mean?” There was a laugh that escaped from his throat, hoarse and forced that almost made her flinch. “I’m fine,” his voice even went a few pitches higher.

“Honey, you’re not fine,” she insisted and moved to hold his hand that gripped the gear like his life depended on it. “It's dinner, isn’t it?”

The hesitation he showed before nodding his head was enough of an answer for her.

“Why’s it bothering you?”

He sucked in a breath and cautiously glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “Well, you see,” he started. “They’re my friends.”

“I… know that,” she blinked profusely, confused.

“And they’ve seen me with tons of other girls,” he tried clarifying.

“How about you tell me something you don’t know,” she suggested, giving up on understanding his worries.

The first time Y/N saw him so stressed and nervous was when he was meeting her sisters. This would be the second time. He was trembling at the thought of his two worlds meeting, terrified that perhaps, like Riki had said, this relationship could end up like all others. But he was never scared to introduce his past girlfriends to them, never questioning whether it would end badly. What made Y/N different? Or has it just been a long time?

“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I don’t know why I’m stressed. I think I’m just paranoid.”

“You and me both,” she gave his hand a few pats and pursed her lips to the side. “I’m meeting the people you call family which is a pretty big deal and from what you’ve told me, they’re all some sort of rich and famous. I mean, models, photographers, producers, writers, businessmen, dancers… It's intimidating.”

“We’re kind of all impressive aren’t we?” For the first time in hours, he cracked a smile; a smirk that made her chuckle. She nudged his arm and he chuckled with her, most of their worries draining away in that moment of glee.

“You’re feeling better, aren’t you?”

He nodded enthusiastically.

When Sunghoon parked the car in the parking lot of Jake and Chiara’s apartment, Y/N stayed stuck to the seat for exactly ten seconds. She was convinced that time had frozen for her to collect her thoughts and catch her breath. The nerves that left Sunghoon had somehow manifested in her. Suddenly, the clothes she wore felt too either too fancy or too simple and she was convinced her hair was a mess. Then, she realised she had forgotten how to conversate with new people, let alone a group of eleven adults and four children who barely had the ability to speak.

Perhaps she was too awkward for this. It’s not too late to bail, she thought.

Sunghoon had to shake her shoulders to snap her back to reality- the reality in which she wasn’t in her apartment eating cereal with her dog on the couch- and guided her to the elevator with his hand on the small of her back. She was the one acting like a robot now, her body a machine programmed to walk step by step, her eyes unmoving from whatever object was in front of her as though it would relieve the anxiousness that made her heart beat like it was about to jump out of her chest. She could hear her blood thumping against her ears, almost deafening her from Sunghoon’s voice calling out for her.

They were now standing in front of Jake and Chiara’s front door with a dozen pairs of shoes beside them.

They were all there.

“You ready?” He asked, lips curling into a hopeful smile. Her eyes followed the bead of sweat that rolled down the side of his face.

She shook her head. “We’re both scared,” she stated. “I will literally let you do whatever you want the next time we have sex if we bail from dinner.”

Sunghoon laughed at her statement, his hand reaching for her shoulder as he threw his head back. She looked at him as though she took her statement seriously and he shook his head. “Y/N,” he chuckled. “You’ll be fine. Being nervous is natural in such situations. It’ll really be fine.”

“You sound like you’re convincing yourself.”

Chuckling again, he shook his head and moved to hold her waist. “You know what’ll make both of us feel better?” He said and nodded his chin. Smiling, he kissed her like he kissed her on the beach, the dull lights that lit the apartment flickering above them as he pulled her closer. Y/N visibly loosened in his arms, the tense in her shoulders disappearing as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She focused on the fact that he was wearing her favourite shirt, a dark brown button down with black trousers- it was the outfit he wore on their first date, except his hair was dark now.

Then, she felt a little more confident.

He rang the doorbell after a few more brief pecks to her lips and moments later, Chiara opened the door. Y/N didn’t need for Sunghoon to introduce her- though he did anyway- because he had spent an hour showing her pictures of everyone so she could learn their names or she already knew them because they were famous.

The next few moments passed like a phantasm. Chiara was hugging her and dragging her through her richly furnished and exquisitely designed apartment and into the kitchen, where the dining table where ten other adults and four kids sat. Sunghoon followed them with slow footsteps, hands in his pockets as he watched his friends holler at the sight of Y/N and her awkwardly wave back with a messily stretched smile. When he saw Chiara pushing her towards Jake and Jay who were waving her towards them, Heeseung and Karina offering her drinks and Sunoo complimenting her outfit, he questioned why he wasted so much energy in worrying because the sight in front of him was perfect, like watching the happy ending of a cliché family movie.

“Why’s everyone so excited?” Sunghoon grinned while sauntering towards them. “All because of my girl, ay?” He could see Y/N blushing and Chiara teasing her by wrapping her arms around her shoulders.

“Sunghoon!” Jake yelled, lifting his glass of wine towards him. “How about you stop getting cocky and sit your ass down, ay?” Everyone laughed, offering their greetings to him.

“Behave tonight, don’t be the little shit you always are,” Heeseung pulled at Riki’s ear and he complained of being treated like a kid.

Y/N eventually ended up sitting between Sunghoon and Chiara- who had Kai with her- because at that point, they were the only people she felt remotely comfortable around. Chiara, though it was her first time meeting her, was already indulging her in pleasant conversation, pointing at each person on the table and giving her a brief description of their personality, oblivious to the fact that it was all known information already.

“Sunoo and Sheila are engaged,” Chiara said.

“Oh, yeah, when’s the wed-”

“Don’t ask them about it… they haven’t decided yet,” she slowly shook her head the way scared characters from horror movies did. “Jungwon and Eva are engaged, too.”

“Oh, the wedding’s probably in a month or two, by the way,” Jungwon lifted his head at the mention of his wedding and Heeseung dabbed him up with pride.

It felt like she was pulled into a whirlwind with the amount of conversations happening around her. Sunghoon and Chiara were keeping her company while Jade would chime in from time to time. Jungwon’s girlfriend, Eva, would start a conversation with her by offering her food and Riki had somehow wiggled his way into the conversation and offered brief phrases of acknowledgement as contribution. Then, Jay had called for her from the end of the table and started asking about her profession, claiming that he himself had an inclination towards history. For a little while, she had told him the brief of what she knew about Chinese history and offered to lend him some of her books pertaining to his interests.

Heeseung pointed to his daughters that sat between him and his wife, introducing them to Y/N as Luna and Sol and she recognised their names originating from Roman mythology. Karina encouraged her to elaborate and she went on a tangent about the stories behind the twins’ beautiful names. Eventually, the pair went on to tell her how they met, describing a romantic story between a music producer and a singer.

“Chiara, tell her how you and Jake met,” Heeseung nodded.

“Are we all gonna go around the table telling her our love stories?”

“Sounds about right,” Sunghoon clapped.

The story of Chiara and Jake was something out of a Netflix rom-com. She had heard it briefly from Sunghoon before and saw quite a few clips of them speaking about it on the internet, but to have them sitting with her on the dinner table, narrating their past with intricate detail, was something she didn’t know she needed. Watching the love between them thriving after so many years was what brought Sunghoon hope for his own love, the way they smiled at each other still seemed to bring some sort of warmth in everyone’s hearts.

Their love story was what made way for Sunoo and Sheila, who was Chiara’s best friend. They had met on a dinner similar to such, back when they were all mostly single and were still struggling to graduate or make a successful career. They claimed it was love at first sight, that Sheila had fallen in love with Sunoo’s smile and that he had fallen in love with the twinkle in her eyes. They started dating not long after they met, their personalities matching to the tea.

Though Jay and Jade started dating around the same time as Heeseung and Karina, they married much later. They were childhood friends and in fact, he was in the hospital the day she was born. They watched each other grow up because their families were close but the pair only became friends around the time Jay started taking over his father’s travel company. What started as a no-strings-attached relationship blossomed into family. However, Riki made fun of them and said they only got married because he knocked her up, to which Jay closed Evelyn’s ears with his hands and cursed at his youngest friend to never say such things around his daughter.

“What did I say about not acting like a little shit?” Heeseung warned with a finger pointing at the youngest amongst them.

Finally came Jungwon and Eva’s love story with Riki being a major reason for their engagement. The two didn’t even get along at first, always bickering when they were around each other and shooting each other death glares until Riki finally put them in a room together and forced them to put their differences aside. Turns out, they not only put their differences aside but also their clothes and now the three lived together and Riki was helping them plan their wedding. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the best man, but Jay was, because a few years prior, everyone had drawn chits to decide who would be the best man at whose wedding and Riki drew Sunghoon’s name. It was very unfortunate.

“Why didn’t you bring your girl, Riki?” Sunghoon asked.

“Oh, no,” the boy shook his head, moving his stare to the condiments left on his plate. “I broke up with her a week ago.”

There was no silence that followed his statement but a groan from Heeseung who slumped in his seat. “You owe me fifty bucks!” Jay yelled from across him. “I told you this would happen.”

Riki rolled his eyes and turned to Y/N with an unamused stare. “Don’t be alarmed, they do this a lot.”

“He’s known as the heartbreaker amongst us,” Jake firmly clapped Riki’s shoulder twice and turned to make fun of Heeseung.

“How about Y/N tells us how she felt when she first met Sunghoon, huh?” Heeseung attempted to shift the conversation and everyone was turning towards her, including her boyfriend, with grins and smirks she couldn’t escape from.

The night continued with such conversations.

Sunoo and Sheila left early like they always did and it was around that time that all the kids went to sleep and the hard liquor started coming out of the closets to be consumed. Chiara, Jungwon and Jade joined the kids to sleep as they weren’t huge fans of alcohol and everyone else had cleared the dinner table and filled it with cans of beer, bottles of vodka and glasses of whiskey, along with peanuts and kimchi. The golden lights that set the homely aura around the apartment were dimmed to blue lights, much like the lights that Sunghoon used to bring up everytime he talked about the many exclusive parties of New York he had attended.

Jake and Chiara’s apartment was one to ogle over. Their furniture came from the expensive catalogues Y/N had stashed in her drawers and their balconies reminded her of the ones she saw on romantic European contemporary films. They had books unlike the ones she had at home, the kind that literature geeks would drool over- they were Chiara’s collection, she supposed. They had rarely decorated hardcover copies of all the classics and a few crime novels scattered here and there. Y/N observed the pictures that hung around their television while sipping on wine on the couch while everyone else opted to chug beer.

“Y/N, come join us!” Jake bellowed from the kitchen with a can of beer raised in the hair. Karina followed his lead and raised a bottle of vodka.

Before she could answer, Sunghoon had answered for her and told them that she wasn’t much of a drinker. The crowd whined in defeat but soon went back to whatever they were doing- she wasn’t sure where the awful lot of loud sound was coming from but they were definitely yelling and hollering at each other.

She could hear something about daring Sunghoon to stay sober the whole night but that would be like expecting pharaohs to never leave curses before passing away.

The sane and sober minds that Y/N was so intimidated by just a few hours ago were either talking and stumbling across the apartment in incoherent babbles or were taking care of the people who were incoherently babbling. Y/N was laughing at whatever mumble that was sent her way and even entertained Jade who sat beside her and started complaining about her colleagues whose lives were boring because of the word load her father pushed on them. Jay eventually dragged her away and apologised to Y/N, telling her to enjoy the rest of the night and no not mind everyone else.

“We’re making a terrible first impression but we aren’t usually like this.”

Her wine bottle eventually became empty and she simply sat there on the couch, watching her boyfriend hang off Heeseung’s arm who was equally as drunk. Riki had pulled himself away from the group, throwing his empty can of beer in the trash before making his way to Y/N. He almost looked shy, tense shoulders pulling together the closer he got to her and he ended up standing in front of her, his gaze spaced out and lips opening and closing to contemplate what exactly he wanted to say. Y/N was only a little woozy from the wine and she cleared her throat as it got awkward with the silence between them.

“Do you smoke?” The boy eventually asked, pulling out a box of cigarettes from the pocket of his jeans.

“I do, actually,” she smiled softly, attempting to ease the boy’s nerves.

The pair moved to the balcony, arms leaning against the railings as freshly lit cigarettes hung from their lips, index and middle finger holding it in place. It was a habit Riki was embarrassed about after developing late into high school. The group of friends he made in school after moving to New York City could be labelled as the wrong crowd and of all the narcotics and alcohol he tried, cigarettes were the only thing that stuck. It wasn’t an addiction but if he didn’t smoke for a prolonged amount of time, he would face miniscule symptoms of withdrawal. Chiara, being their resident psychologist, had warned him of the physical and mental repercussions he could face and for some time, his friends had even forced him to use nicotine patches. Over time, he learned how to control his smoking. He was just grateful he didn’t end up a crack-addict like his cousin back in Osaka.

Y/N however, didn’t have much of a care of the stigma that surrounded tobacco and cigarettes. I, too, had started in high school when her best friend at the time introduced her to the cylindrical contraption. The practice would follow her into her adulthood and here she was, on a balcony with one of her boyfriend’s best friends. She didn’t smoke that often, just in social settings, much like this one.

“Sunghoon knows you smoke, right?” He perked up, turning his gaze towards her.

“Yeah, of course,” she grinned, shrugging her shoulders. “Why?”

“He has this thing against smoking,” Riki shook his head. “Everyone’s against it, but he loses it when someone smokes around him.”

“Yeah, I know,” Y/N mused. “On our third date or something, I told him I wanted to go out for a smoke and he freaked. Never brought it up around him again.”

When Riki laughed, Y/N felt a wave of validation. This was Nishimura Riki she was smoking with, the boy that disapproved of her being with Sunghoon not a few months ago. Despite the fact that everyone past the glass screen separating the balcony from the living room had given her their thumbs of approval, already making her feel a part of their group by offering her drinks, Riki standing there and laughing at her jokes was the biggest form of approval she could ask for. For the first time all night, she felt all relief from the stress she had harboured in her chest.

“When he found out I started smoking, he didn’t talk to me for three days straight,” Riki added. “I was like seventeen at the time, it came as quite a shock to everyone,” he shrugged.

“I was seventeen, too,” she mused. “I’m, like, twenty-seven now and my parents still don’t know.”

“If my parents found out, they would kill me,” he rolled his eyes. “You know, Jay still threatens to tell my parents about it if I annoy them?”

“They still treat you like a child, huh?”

“The price I have to pay for being the youngest.” “Yeah, I’m the youngest one out of all my siblings and they still think I’m in middle school.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“Seven.”

Riki gave her a look of surprise, his jaw dropping for his mouth and his fist reaching towards his mouth for him to bite. Y/N nodded knowingly, silently telling him that she knew the pain. The pair ashed their cigarettes off the balcony and revelled in the number of similarities they had.

Before either of them could start a new conversation or continue the previous, the glass doors to the balcony had slid open and Sunghoon stumbled open with probably his twelfth can of beer wrapped in his palm. His cheeks were a soft shade of pink and his eyes disappeared behind his eyelids due to the genial smile on his face. His arms stretched widely as he came closer to approaching them and eventually collapsed on their shoulders.

If there was anything Y/N knew about her boyfriend, it was that he loved being drunk. It was the first thing that would be listed if anyone was to ever write his biography. Sunghoon had a habit of denying this habit of his but there came a point of acceptance when literally everyone around him started pointing it out. During dinner, she was lucky to be serenaded with his most embarrassing drunk-anecdotes, as Chiara liked to call it. Her favourite was the one where he woke up beside Heeseung in a hotel all the way on the other side of town with a basket of brownies placed between them and a note that read thank you for being amazing people. To this day, nobody knew what happened- it was the biggest mystery amongst their friend group. They ended up eating all the brownies and spared none for the others.

“What are you two talking about?” Sunghoon giggled as he looked between Riki and Y/N. “You better not be nice to her, Riki. She’s technically your Noona.”

Riki snatched the can of beer away from Sunghoon and contorted his face into a look of disinterest. “Y/N and I are almost the same age,” he argued.

“You still call Jungwon Hyung, right?” Sunghoon let go of Y/N and moved to wrap his arms around Riki. Struggling, the boy brought the can of beer to his lips.

“Yeah, so?”

“Y/N is your Noona,” he jabbed a finger into his chest with a wide grin. “She may even be your Hyung-su soon.”

Riki let out a breathy chuckle, shaking his head and pushing Sunghoon off of his back. The boy then smirked at Y/N, chugging down the rest of the beer left in the can. “Calm down, big boy,” Riki slapped his back and he moved to wrap his arms around Y/N. “I’m gonna go.”

While the boy slid the glass door of the balcony close, Y/N hung her hand on the arm that wrapped around her shoulders. “What does all that mean?” She smiled, oblivious. “Nothing,” Sunghoon giggled, kissing her forehead. “You’ve seen me drunk so many times,” he pointed out.

“It’s kind of your favourite hobby, ‘Hoon,” she pointed out.

“But I’ve never seen you drunk.”

SUNGHOON WOULD SEE Y/N drunk exactly one and a half months later at Jungwon and Eva’s wedding reception.

The events leading up to the reception were all smooth- there was the plane ride to the avenue, the part where the bride and groom were getting ready and then the meticulously planned wedding ceremony. It was all beautiful and heartwarming and Jay’s toast was tear-jerking. However, Sunghoon saw no need in replaying those events in his head when his girlfriend was drunk and hanging off his arm.

It was the most comical sight he’d ever witnessed.

You see, of all the morals and rules of self-control Sunghoon had waived upon himself over the years, not drinking during weddings was one of them and he held himself proud to the condition. Everyone, including Chiara, who was famed for her distaste towards liquor, was drinking that day and it would explain the mess that the banquet halls ended up in shambles. The flower bouquets were crumpled to pulp, the pristine white curtains around them torn to shreds and the delicious wedding cake looked like it was devoured by a wolf.

In the midst of it all, Y/N had downed four too many glasses and champagne and she was bubblier than a school girl. At first, Sunghoon simply thought that she was giddy from catching the bouquet Eva had thrown over her head but boy did he have a hard time bringing her back to their hotel room. In many ways, she and him were the same type of drunk. Granted, Sunghoon had a habit of crying if he ever was sad before drinking, but apart from that, they were pretty much the same. Both of them stumbled on their feet while trying to walk in a straight line, both giggled like they were being tickled and both spewed absolute nonsense while drunk. It was like looking at himself in a mirror- except she was a girl, his girlfriend to be precise.

“You’re really pretty,” Y/N giggled at him, her index finger gliding down the side of cheek as though she was flirting with him.

Flattered, Sunghoon offered her a toothy grin and wrapped his arm tighter around her waist. Her arm hung around his shoulders, her heels clutched by her free hand. “Thank you, Jagi,” he said. “But we really need to get you back to the room. You need a change of clothes and some sleep.”

“But I don’t want to sleep,” she pouted, her brows pulling together and bottom lip jutting out. The sight made him want to laugh- if she were sober, she would shoot herself before making such a face voluntarily.

“But you have to,” Sunghoon’s grin widened as he eventually got to the door of their room.

He was carrying her at that point, one arm under her head and the other under her knees. Her arms secured around his neck, her heels poking his ear. While she brightly smiled at him, he laid her on the bed.

“Don’t move, I’ll get changed and be right there with you.”

“No, don’t change! You look so hot in a suit,” she whined and caught his tie in her hand. She tugged him towards her and chased him for a kiss.

Though he enjoyed the action, he found himself pushing her back onto the pillow. He brushed away the hair that framed her face and cupped her cheek “Jagi,” he crooned. “You’re really drunk and you need some rest.”

“No, I need you,” she continued to whine, pointing her finger at him. “Just stay with me.”

“I am with you,” he smiled at her.

He finally understood what it felt like to be Jay when he was taking care of him.

“Good,” she said and pulled him in for another kiss.

He surrendered, letting her drag him on top of her until the span of his chest lay against hers. His legs lounged on the bed, his leather shoes kicked into one of the corners of the room. His hand cupped the side of her face and she gripped his collor until she couldn’t physically hold him closer anymore- but the moment was as fleeting as most were and her lips parted from his with an epiphany.

“Where’s the bouquet I caught?” She asked in a frenzy, looking around the room.

“Jagi, it’ll be somewhere downstairs, don’t worry,” he reached for her hand and propped himself on his elbows. His eyes followed her every move but he was quick to keep her beside him, refusing to let her leave the bed. “You need sleep, Y/N.”

“Can we go get it?”

Sunghoon chuckled. “You didn’t even want to catch the bouquet, it literally hit you in the head,” he argued. “If you want, I’ll buy a hundred more bouquets later.”

Y/N blinked at him, her eyes glazing over from her lack of sleep. “But I caught it,” she mumbled.

“I know, Jagi, and I’m very glad you did.”

“Doesn’t it mean we might get married or something?” If she could hear herself while sober, Y/N would probably slap herself. With that thought in mind, Sunghoon shut her up from speaking anymore words with another kiss on her lips. “Can you please sleep for me, Jagi?” He hummed. “Please?”

“Why do you keep calling me Jagi?” She asked while he cupped her head, leading her to lay on the pillow again. The span of her hand stayed on his chest, keeping him in place.

“It just means I love you very much, Jagi,” he smiled and she smiled back, fluttering her eyes shut.

“Ok,” she nodded her cheek against the pillow. “I like it.”

“I know,” he said. “Why didn’t you come into my life sooner, Jagi? Where have you been?”

“What?” She asked, voice barely above a whisper as she drifted into slumber.

“Just sleep.”

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endless-ineffabilities · 9 months ago

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jealous ewan headcanon idea: how about matt and reader sitting down to have lunch together and ewan is fuming in the corner and then he tried to butt in by dragging his chair into the table and started trying to insert himself in the conversation? just a thought. 🥰

Love this! Got my mind racing, so read more below. A little something for my chem ov readers - I hope this finds you and I hope that Ewan drives you mad 😉💙

After the table read in part seven...

The cast and crew help themselves to catering after successfully accomplishing the table read. The adjacent meeting hall is decked out with various offerings, and everyone is scattered across several tables.

You've just gotten a plate of your food, Matt in tow, and the two of you settle down at one of the small circular corner tables that happened to have only two seats.

"Anything planned for the weekend?" you ask him.

"Why, love?" he asks, smirking. "Do you have something in mind?"

You have to bite the inside of your cheek to keep from smiling due to his blatant charm. You know you've been doing it too much.

"Well, I wanted to invite some of you over for drinks on Saturday night, and Emma and Liv will be busy going out of town, Phia has a date with her boyfriend, Bethany's got an audition, and I still have to ask the others really -

" - I'm in, why not?" he says.

"Oh!" you don't hold back your smile then. "That's great! I think Fabs might come, too, but only for a while since he promised Bella -

"What about Ewan?"

"What about me?" Ewan retorts suddenly, making his presence known. Unbeknownst to you and Matt, he had dragged another chair across the carpet, in order to join your table.

He twirls the chair in place in one hand, and plops down on it. He is positioned somewhat in the middle of yourself and Matt, but he is angled closer to you, laying a hand on the back of your seat. He sips his can of Coke for a second, then he repeats, "What's going on?"

"Oh, mate, just - " Matt starts to explain.

"It's nothing," you find yourself cutting him off, growing pissed off by the way Ewan just inserted himself in the conversation. His tone doesn't leave much to be desired, either. You add, "We were just talking about the script. You did well, and we're just happy for Aemond and where his story is going."

Matt is confused as to why you don't just invite Ewan as well, but he notices the tense air between the two of you and the way your shoulders stiffened at his proximity. He decides to let it go.

"Though of course, your scenes are just excellent this season, aren't they?" Matt points to you. "Especially the ones with Daemon."

Ewan has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from cursing, due to Matt's apparent audacity to flirt with his girl.

"Mhmm," you smile, "I do get some good ones. I must say I really liked - "

Ewan interjects, "Alyna did have two scenes with Aemond towards the end. And even in those, she's got a more charged dynamic than what she has with Daemon."

"Alyna and Aemond?" Matt scoffs. "Come on, mate. She wouldn't fraternise with the enemy!"

Ewan shakes his head, "I wouldn't say no, I mean, what she and Aemond have is something... chemical, you know? Riveting. The tension is electrifying, so to speak. Whereas with Daemon, it's more tame and... familial."

"Uhhh - " you open your mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. You mull his words over, and you know he's right.

But Matt counters with, "Is that so? Well, you know what they say about Targaryens. They like to keep it in the family. So there's nothing wrong with Daemon and Alyna acting familial, if you know what I mean." He laughs dryly, before throwing you a cheeky wink.

You respond in kind, snorting at his humour while shaking your head fondly.

"Mmm." Ewan simply hums, before taking a long, slow sip of his drink.

He thinks of The Battle Above The Gods Eye, and how it will be such an insane and challenging scene.

Daemon against Aemond?

He can't wait.

#ewan mitchell #chemical override #ewan mitchell x reader #ewan mitchell imagine #answered

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cassiocantdrink · 5 months ago

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so ah, mittens. at some point, i stumbled across a fantastic local project on instagram. a bunch of volunteers collect handmade knits and around new year's eve, distribute them among homeless people!

pros:

fidget stimming but you get a sock at the end. or something.

learn to knit mittens. or socks. those small things i have never attempted before

get rid of leftover yarn!

somebody gets warm knits!

no need to be fancy. any mitten is better than no mitten

no need to interact with anybody, neither the volunteers nor the homeless people (i honestly don't have the spoons for that rn)

the drop off point is not only a 20-min walk from where i live (which is already a miracle, given the size of the town), but a 20-min walk on the way to work!

cons: ????

so this is how it started (found a youtube video on magic loop). despite its slightly eldritch appearance, it was a Very Instructive Mitten! the magic loop itself, decreases, increases, the obvious need for the modified kitchener graft but the most important of all??

this lady straight up PICKS UP AND KNITS several stitches (she says 4, i say 5) from the body of the mitten so that there is absolutely NO HOLE between the thumb and the body! i hated that hole for my entire life. i never knew you could get rid of it that easily.

this is my cousin's hand, misha ended up pinching a pair. it was the day when i badly miscalculated the width and ended up with what looked to me like an effing oven mitt. see, size-wise, i'm a corgi at best who's under misapprehension that she's more of a german shepherd. so i knitted a mitten that was like, my size?? measured a postgrad's average man's hand, recalculated and.... and ended up with this. fortunately misha came for a short visit, he of Huge Hands and Feet (well he's like 6'1 so they're proportional, just, you know... big. the entire misha is big, especially when viewed from a 5'5 perspective). i approached him timidly, coz, would you do me a favor, try on a mitten?

misha went ecstatic. there's not much that can drive a seasoned hematologist to ecstasy but the mitten did the trick. IT FITS!!!! proclaimed misha, IT"S SOFT!!! IT"S BEAUTIFUL! holy shit. it's a basic mitten? it's orange? would you like me to knit you a pair of maybe grey? i also have dark brown? noooo, said misha, admiring his mittened hand, IT"S TERRACOTTA and i love the color!

i had to brake here, hard. a man who knows what terracotta color even is deserves a pair of terracotta mittens, no doubt. so later, i finished the other one and mailed it to him bc of course he was only here for a day. i whipped out my measuring tape again, and IT TURNED OUT that what i thought was my size, was actually that average mens' size i was after. the length was correct for my hand, yes, but the width, oh no. the width was exactly mens M. excellent. so now i had two variants, M and L/XL, and i went to work.

the loot: NO MORE orange terracotta yarn taking up half of my yarn bin! ran out of blue and grey as well, yippee! 11 pairs total but one went to misha and three i unraveled bc they were too thin and redid in double yarn, so seven. yep, dropped them off, went without a hitch. now, after this rather intensive warm-up, i feel like i can hatch more intricate plans, hehehe.

the ultimate goal: tashashu gordon's hypnosis mittens. not now, now i feel like another sweater or maybe two if i'm being bold. but someday, definitely. and before you think i'm delusional to go from my basic knits to this, i'll have you know that i've done her aurora borealis scarf, so i fell that i have all the knowledge i need. also, i had to re-calculate the entire scarf pattern for a different gauge, so yeah. i can do this.

overall: total success, would definitely do it again. mittens, socks and chest warmers, here i come!

#knitting #mittens #хурма московская #misha #ravelry #svetlana gordon

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daughterofcain-67 · 1 year ago

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𝙾𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 (𝚙𝚝.1)

(Soldier Boy / Ben x Female Reader)

(masterlist)

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 : Butcher, Hughie and their band of vigilantes are dead set on finding the weapon that killed Soldier Boy. With the help of Starlight they find you, a retired supe, and they seek your help although the help isn’t quite what they expected. And this was more than what you had anticipated for an ordinary afternoon on a weekday.

𝐰𝐚𝐫��𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 : Minor spoilers to The Boys season three. Nothing major.

Butcher, Hughie, M.M., Frenchie and Kimiko were all waiting on some sort of file that Annie was supposed to get.

They had a new plan after all. Now that they’ve figured that the weapon that killed off the legendary Soldier Boy is still out there, there has to be some way to find out how to obtain it to kill Homelander. One step closer, right?

“I still can’t believe we’re trustin’ ‘her. She’s just another supe. What if she gives us the wrong bloody file?” Butcher asked.

“Really? You’re still caught up on the fact that she’s a supe? She’s helped us through a hell of a lot last year. We couldn’t have done a lot of things without her.” Hughie defended his girlfriend, not much to anyone’s surprise.

“You know the kid’s right, Butcher. We do owe her a lot.” M. M. Stated.

“How do we know that she’ll find anything concrete? Especially since she’s practically in a den of wolves?”

“You’ll just have to trust her, alright?” Hughie reminded the man and that was when he started to hear his phone ringing from his pocket.

“Speaking of…. Hey, Annie.”

Butcher rolled his eyes and he leaned his back against the chair. He was so tired of doing everything by the book like he had been stuck doing for the past year. He was just glad Hughie was finally seeing things his way and realizing that he was right all along. Took him long enough to realize it.

He glanced up at the kid on the phone and he looked like he was in some sort of disbelief.

“Really? And you’ve got her address? H-Holy shit! That’s a lead! You’re coming with us, right?”

“I take it she found something?” Frenchie asked after he made some sort of sandwich.

“Oy! What’s the verdict, Mate?” Butcher said when Hughie finally picked up the phone.

“Well.. Annie said that there’s a file on someone named Y/N L/N. She has a limited history with Vought and evidently Soldier Boy himself even though she wasn’t on his team. Maybe she knows about the weapon that killed him, or at least she might know of some sort of way to weaken him.” The kid said.

“Excellent! Does she know where Y/N lives?” Frenchie asked.

“She’s sending the address as we speak.”

Butcher watched as Kimiko was using her sign language to communicate with Frenchie. She still hadn’t been able to speak but at least Frenchie was learning to communicate with her over this past year, so that made things a hell of a lot easier to figure out what she’s trying to say.

“Kimiko wants to know if Annie is coming with us this time.” Frenchie translated, but Hughie shook his head.

“Not this time. Annie said she has her hands full with some kind of television show to choose the next supe going in the Seven.” He explained and Kimiko nodded in understanding.

“You don’t think we’ll actually need to take any guns or anything like that, do you? She has to be an older supe now right? Retired.” M.M said and Butcher shrugged a little.

“With these guys, it’s hard to be sure of what they’re capable of when they’re older. Supes will keep you on your toes no matter how old they are, Mate.”

“Annie said based on the file she’s neger had a violent history. In fact she’s probably had the least amount of accidental casualties in her career even today.” Hugie explained.

“Yeah.. I guess that’s fair. But let’s be smart about this, yeah? We don’t want to go in guns-blazing or anything like that. At the same time we don’t want to go empty handed either.” M.M reminded and he grabbed whatever he needed. He was always the voice of reason.

And with that, the guys made their way out but Kimiko stayed behind for whatever her reasons were, Butcher didn’t pry when they had bigger matters to deal with.

Then, after several hours of drive time, they finally made it to some cabin in the woods.

“Not bad for a retired supe.” M.M said when he looked at the place and they got out of the van that they all travelled in.

“Do you think she’ll actually know much of anything?” Hughie asked.

“Honestly, who knows. If she does, then great. But if not, then I guess we’re at some kind of loss unless we dig somewhere else.”

The group all made it to the door and Butcher was the one that walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door. They waited a few moments before the door finally opened. What they expected to be a somewhat elderly woman was not what was on the other side of the door. Instead, they saw someone that was quite young for her age, a lot like the Stormfront situation.

It was like you hadn’t aged a day since you retired and you still looked as young as you did as most of your posters.

“Um… can I help you boys?” They heard you ask.

“Yes Ma’am. You see, we’re a part of the FBI and we’re on an investigation. If you don’t mind, we’d like to ask you a few questions.” Butcher said, which honestly surprised the rest of the group how calm he sounded.

“FBI, huh? Could I see your badges, please?” You asked, quite politely to Butcher’s surprise. He thought you’d be another cocky hero that he’d like to punch.

Still, he’s learned over the years never to trust a supe no matter how friendly they are. Starlight has probably come closest to that exception. But not quite.

When Butcher gave the group the ‘okay’ they all pulled out their badges and showed you what they had. You took a look and then you nodded a little before you opened your door wider and allowed them to come into your home.

Your day had started out quiet, peaceful.

You had your own, nice, little cabin in the woods where you got a beautiful view of the mountains and there was even a creek below you that you would visit once in a while. But then, much to your surprise, you had some unexpected company.

At your door there was a tall, burley man with a beard and an accent. With him, there was a lanky looking man that was clearly trying to prove himself worthy of something, an African American man that you could tell was on the side of good and he just wanted to get back to his family, and finally there was a French man that looked high off his ass but he had good intentions.

Now they were all in your house drinking your coffee, tea for the man with the accent, and they were all in your living room staring at you with some sort of bewilderment in their eyes.

“So… what brings you folks here? I don’t believe I actually got any actual introductions from you other than the fact that you’re FBI and have some questions for me.” You said.

“Actually, Miss, my name’s Billy Butcher. This ‘ere is Hugie, Frenchie, and Marvin - we call ‘im M.M.” Butcher said and you swore you’ve heard that name before. Then it hit you.

“Aren’t you the idiot that blew up Stillwell?” You asked, honestly kind of impressed that he wasn’t still in hiding or something.

“She was already dead when I lit up the joint.”

“Uh huh… Good for you though. She seemed like a bitch on television.” You admitted.

“Wouldn’t know much about that one, Love.” Butcher continued and you shrugged.

“Anyways, an we get on with business? We don’t have a lot of time.” M.M. reminded all of the guys there and you sat down in your recliner and set your coffee mug on the nightstand.

“Well you see, Miss L/N…” Hughie trailed off.

“Ah, don’t make me feel so ancient. Just call me Y/N. For the sake of my own sanity.” You said and Hughie grinned.

“Okay, Y/N. The truth is that we’ve come across your file. And we know of your brief history with Vought, Miss Quake.” The very name of the industry made you feel sick to your stomach because of what the place has become.

Yes, you were a retired supe. You went by the name Quake because of your ability to manipulate the earth, take chunks of the ground up and toss them around, you could cause buildings to fall and well… cause Earthquakes.

You didn’t associate yourself with Vought any longer and you were glad that your numbers weren’t high enough to have that much popularity amongst citizens. That’s all it boiled down to nowadays; popularity and money.

“Yes I have a history but that was literal decades ago. I’m retired now and I like the fact that no one’s found me or knew who I was up until this point. How did you find me?” You began to question.

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we know you had a history with Soldier Boy for a brief moment. We need to know about the weapon that killed him.” Butcher cut in and you looked down at your mug, still sitting on the stand.

“Do you even know what killed him?” You shook your head.

“I was never a part of Soldier Boy’s team. My numbers weren’t high enough to be on the team and they didn’t consider me an asset. Plus I didn’t even want to be on his team. You see what that kind of power does to people. Look at Homelander and the Seven.” You reminded.

“So what was your history with him?”

“A complicated one. He had his relationship with Crimson Countess, and he had his relationships with other girls, whether they were regulars or one-night-stands.” You sighed then you looked at Hughie.

“Never meet your heroes, kid. They’re likely just a bunch of money hungry womanizers with some kind of need of approval because they never got the attention they needed from a certain parent or set of parents.” You rolled your eyes.

“You want to know how he got killed? Ask one of his former team members. There’s Crimson Countess, obviously. Then there’s Black Noir, Mindstorm, Gunpowder, Swatto, and the TnT Twins. You never know, maybe the sidekick will be more than happy to let you know how he died. They never liked their team leader much. Hell, I bet you that lady that formed your little group knows. Oh what’s her name… Malice? Malicious? Oh that’s right, Mallory.”

“Grace? How the bloody Hell do you know her?” Butcher said, and you were finding out quickly that he was sort of the unhinged type of man.

“When I retired from Vought, I gave some information on the super to her. Things she needed before she founded your little group. She knows a Hell of a lot more than she lets on. I’m surprised she’s not dead yet just because of how much she knows and what she keeps tabs on. You admitted.

The group got up and you did as well, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be more help. I’m honestly glad that you’re doing something about Vought. I wish you all the luck on that because you’re going to need it.” You insisted.

“Why didn’t you want to be more involved with Vought? Didn’t you like the money that came with it and everything?” Frenchie asked and you shrugged.

“Kid, everyone likes money. But what would you do to get it? Are you really going to be so reckless and stupid, kill a few innocents here and there because you know some big corporation will cover your ass on it? It would weigh too much on my conscience. And I never thought a girl like Starlight would be wrapped up in that shit.”

“Well… we’re sorry to bother you, Ma’am. Thank you for talking with us.” Hughie said yet again.

“When you do talk to Grace… ask her about Nicaragua. She’ll know what happened there.” You insisted and you saw a certain look on Butcher’s face. You were shocked that Mallory hadn’t told them anything about this.

Then you looked over at M.M, who had been quiet almost the whole time. You carefully placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’m so, so sorry about your family.”

“How did you-“

“You and your little team haven’t exactly been discreet over the past couple of years. You’ve been on the news a couple of times and I got curious about your group. The internet is a really useful place.” You said and he gave a slight grin,

“I know what Soldier Boy did, and I hate that he did it. But I also know that once you jump into this rabbit hole of vengeance, it’s awful hard to climb out and get back to the people that are still alive who love you.”

“Thank you.. But I think I’ve come a little too far to turn around now.” The man said and he started to join his group.

You watched as the band of vigilantes made it to their van while you stood at the front door. As they drove off in the distance, you pulled out a necklace from your shirt and you looked down at. You stared at the pendant and remembered the very day that it was given to you.

1984…

“I’m really getting a bad feeling about this, Ben. Maybe you shouldn’t go.” You said as you looked up into his eyes.

Ben was dressed in his uniform, all but his helmet and shield which were both set beside the door. He caressed your cheek with his gloved hand and he looked down at you.

“Y/N, what kind of a man would I be if I didn’t serve my county. I have to do this, and you know it.”

“You’d be a man taking a stand against some company that’s just in the business for the money rather than actually serving the county. You know that.”

“They’re doing this to show the military that we can be useful in battle. We can give our own troops the advantage here if we get involved. That can change the future of our military, change it for the better. Our country needs us out there.” He said, trying his best to persuade you.

“And what happens if something goes wrong? You know your little team somehow always gets you into some kind of trouble with Edgar.” You said while you looked away from him, the feeling in your stomach clearly not going away anytime soon.

“Hun, I know how to whip my team into shape. They know not to double cross me or to get us in any kind of trouble.” He told you, using his hand to make you look up and face him so he could get a good look at you.

“Now, why don’t you and I have a little quickie before I hit the road, hmm?” He asked with a cheeky grin and you rolled your eyes.

“Ben, I’ve already told you. I’m not doing anything with you until you break things off with Countess. I have some standards, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah… You have to be some kind of goody two-shoes.” He joked.

“Well no, I just don’t want to be just a side hooker. You have plenty of those and you can call me selfish, but I don’t exactly want to share.” You said and placed your hands on your hips.

“Uh huh. I just think you’re playing hard to get.” He smiled down at you and you shrugged a little.

“But you know that I can’t just break things off publicly without Vought’s say so.” He reminded you, causing you to let out a sigh.

“I’m starting to get that picture a little too well.”

Ben frowned when you looked away from him yet again. He knew that if the two of you ever did have a relationship one day, you wanted it to be one where you had him all to yourself. And he wanted that too, more than anything. And he was planning to break things off with Crimson Countess after the trip out of the country. That way the two of you could finally be together the way that you want to be together.

He let go of your face before he reached into one of his pockets and he handed you a little box and placed it in the palm of your hand.

“Just promise me that you’ll wait for me until I come home. This will be that reminder that I’ll always come back to you.”

You looked in the palm of your hand and saw the little box but that was when there was a knocking at your door, it was his teammates calling Soldier Boy.

When you looked up at him, you spoke yet again, “I really don’t think you should do this.”

“I have to go. It’s my job. I’ll be okay and I’ll be back for you.” Ben promised before he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on your forehead. Then you turned around and watched him leave out of your front door.

That was the last time you had ever gotten to see Soldier Boy alive.

You fiddled with the pendant that was around your neck, admiring the fact that it looked exactly like Ben’s shield. You wore that necklace every day since he left and up until he was presumed dead, you held onto the hope that he really would come back to you one day.

You never knew exactly how he felt about you back then because in the public, he would always dote on Countess. He would say how much he loved her and how he’d do anything for you, and you wondered just how much of that was for show. You remembered how many other women that he had on the side as well and back then you wondered if he’d really give all of that up for you when you were just another low class supe.

Yet anytime you would have those doubts, you could still remember the way he would come and visit you after a tough job. There were nights where he would just sit there and hold you while the both of you would just talk. He would talk about the fact that he wanted kids one day, you would point out that he probably already did have a few kids scattered around the states. He would just laugh. But then he would say that if he were to have the family that he always wanted, you would always be in that picture. Not Countess.

Of course, you weren’t totally sure if he meant that. Especially since you saw less and less of him after you retired. But a girl could dream, right?

The day that Vought announced Ben’s death, that was the day your little world shattered. You should have tried harder to convince him to stay behind with you. His team could show the military they could be involved without him. You should have done more when you had those feelings that something would go wrong.

You tucked the necklace back into your shirt and walked away from the door, then you made your way into your little office room. There, you saw a little chest and you pulled it out from under your desk before setting it on the top of your desk. Inside of this chest were envelopes of letters you’ve written over the decades.

Each one of the letters were addressed to Ben. There must’ve been at least two hundred letters that you’ve sent over the years.

You didn’t know why you decided to write letters to a dead man. You knew how morbid it seemed but for some reason, it helped you cope. You would write on the holidays, his birthday, your birthday, and any other moment that you would think about him. You thought about him often over the years.

Since that group of men came to see you, you started thinking about Soldier Boy yet again. So you grabbed your sheets of paper, your ink pen, and an envelope before you set them on the flat surface and took your seat.

My Dearest Ben,

It started off as just another day for me. Then these men came by.

They seemed like an odd bunch of people, not necessarily men by your standards, though you are a bit of a traditionalist, aren’t you? Butcher would probably be the closest to your expectations of a man. But they were looking for the weapon that killed you. I have a hunch that they may want to use it on the hero Homelander. I told them that I wasn’t in Nicaragua. That whatever the weapon was must’ve been in Russia.

I told you that you shouldn’t have gone there. I wish you would have listened and stayed behind with me. We could have gone away and you could have retired from all of the mess Vought insisted you get into. You could have finally broken things off with Countess and you and I could have finally been together…

I miss you every day and I wish things could have been different. I wish that I could see your cocky-ass smile again, tell you to watch your mouth whenever you’d say something wildly inappropriate. I wish that I could hug you again and just be in your arms again.

Ben, sometimes I wonder if there’s any hope that you’re still out there. You’re the strongest man I’ve ever knwon and there’s no way that you could have been killed so easily. I know it’s ridiculous and there’s more than likely no way for you to be alive. Yet I still can’t help but have that hope.

You promised me that you’d always come home. I still wear the necklace you gave me every day. I’ll wear it until the day I die - if that day ever comes.

Always yours…

Y/N

After you folded the paper and put it in the envelope, you wrote the date on the front of the envelope beneath Ben’s name then put the letter in the chest amongst the others. Then you shut the chest and ran your fingers through your hair.

Whatever those men were looking for, you wondered if they would ever find it. You wondered if the weapon that killed Soldier Boy was even real or if those poor guys were just going on some wild, international goose chase if they would really end up going to Russia. You didn’t even know if Homelander would even be killable.

Whatever Butcher and his group of friends were trying to do, you hoped they would be successful. And hopefully they’d find whatever it was they’re looking for.

All you wanted was closure as to how exactly Ben died.

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of this story! I’m not sure how long it will be but this first part was definitely enjoyable to write and I hope that the rest of this story will turn out to be good! I’m glad to finally start writing about Soldier Boy 😁

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#soldier boy #soldier boy x reader #soldier boy jensen #jensen the boys #the boys #the boys amazon #jensen ackles soldier boy #jensen ackles #soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy x you #soldier boy x y/n

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were--ralph · 11 months ago

Note

Any suggestions on where to start with D20 seasons? Have a favorite?

It looks like maybe one or two reference older ones?

main seasons:

I think Fantasy High Season 1 is a great start, Fantasy High 2 and 3 are also excellent if you like that one.

Unsleeping City season 1 is also a good one to start on, season 2 is also pretty good if you like that one

Crown of Candy is a bit more crunchy and fantasy-politically driven if that's your thing but its alright. Neverafter is one of my favorite main seasons it's really good though a lil dark. extremely funny. Starstruck Odyssey is very funny but it's the season i vibed with the least though its still good. i just watched it twice and i dont remember anything from it.

overall my favorites are the fantasy high series but unsleeping city is very good as well.

Side seasons:

Tiny heist and Pirates of Leviathan are a skip for me. Tiny Heist just wasn't great at all and Pirates of Leviathan had some like. blatant cheating that was really like. blatant and not fun. Pirates of Leviathan leans on lore from Fantasy High season 2, so watch that first if you want but its an easy skip for me.

The Ravening War was one of my favorite side seasons, building off of lore and world from Crown of Candy so watch that one first, but Matt is phenomenal as a DM and its so good. it's a lot more serious but it's very well done.

Mice and Murder is a great standalone mystery and i might get yelled at for this, but had one of the weaker casts. Genuinely, Grant and Rehka had the best chemistry of almost any cast members and they did a fantastic job and genuinely carried it on their shoulders. everyone else is kind of not very funny. I recommend it since its pretty short and beginner friendly though.

Dungeons and Drag Queens is SO FUN its so fucking FUN its really fun. i'm not into drag culture (yet) but man it's so much fun and had some genuine moments in it that made me tear up but also laugh so hard.

i didn't watch/finish:

misfits and magic, shriek week, fey and flowers, the seven, mentopolis, and burrow's end, though ive heard good things about most of those.

so my recommendation:

personal recommendation Fantasy High 1 > 2 > 3

OR Unsleeping City 1 > 2

Or if you're in the mood for something shorter and beginner friendly, Dungeons and Drag Queens.

if you're into more serious stuff, Crown of Candy > The Ravening War.

just here for a good time: Starstruck Odyssey

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years ago

Text

IOTA Reviews: Revelation and Confrontation

Well, here we are. The final seven episodes of the season. For the most part, Season 5's episodes have been boring at worst and passable at best, with only about four episodes I'd consider to be outright bad. That pretty much disappears starting here. It's like the writers held back for most of the season, and just as the final arc was about to begin, right when most of the audience was led into a false sense of security, they were like:

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Let's get into the twentieth and twenty-first episodes of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Revelation and Confrontation

So, for an episode titled “Revelation”, you'd assume it would focus on Marinette and Adrien finally learning the other's secret after all these years, right? Nope, it's a Lila episode, as in Lila is the character we follow. How does it open? By revealing that Lila has different moms she's conning into believing she's their daughter.

I believe Linkara best captures my reaction to this.

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YEP. Right out of the gate, we get arguably one of the dumbest plot twists in TV history. For an episode that's supposed to help us learn more about Lila's life, it's only raising more questions than it's answering, and it feels like it was there just for the sake of shocking the audience.

First off, why is she doing this? What does she possibly have to gain living with three random women who, as far as I can tell, have no political, social, or financial power whatsoever? Her entire motivation is lying to make herself look good so she can kiss up to famous people and ride the coattails of their success. Who the hell are these three people and why did Lila chose to pretend to be their daughter? In fact, are any of them even her biological mother?

Second, how did she even pull this off? I can somewhat buy her tricking her peers into believing her lies, but three grown women all believe this person is their daughter? Did she fake a DNA test or something? Did she frame some other kids for murder? Is one of them the kid in Omelas? Did the other moms adopt Lila? They must have, because I'm pretty sure any of them would know they were pregnant, but how did she fake being an orphan? How has she not been caught? The scene establishing this shows her ending a call with one of her mothers right as another one enters her room. You're telling me nobody has ever walked in on Lila talking with one of her mothers?

Third, just how long has she been doing this for? Has she been doing this her entire life? Did she frame her real mother for tax fraud at the age of five so she could explore the world? When the hell did she start doing this, and how did she even get the resources to do it? Does she have more than three moms?

Finally, what the hell does any of this tell us about Lila? We already know she's a liar and a villain, but what does learning she lies about who her mother is accomplish for the narrative. Outside of a single line to Sabine later on that heavily implies she wants to make her her next mother, this scene is entirely pointless. Sure, it shows how effective of a liar she is, but that's what the episode is already setting out to show us! We already know she's manipulative, so what's the point of any of this?!

Jesus Christ, we're only on the first scene, and I'm already pissed off. You see what I mean about these last seven episodes?

After lying some more, Lila learns an update to the Alliance rings has Kagami replace her as the female avatar. When she goes to ask Gabriel why he's cutting off ties with her, we learn just why Gabriel is such a tactical genius.

Gabriel: You were only the face of my brand in exchange for a mission: to monitor my son's relationships and keep him away from bad company. You failed. My son got close to this Marinette Dupain-Cheng who's been nothing but a terrible influence on him. But you did give me one excellent idea: to create a new media-friendly pairing for my son, which is why Kagami Tsurugi will be the new female face of the Gabriel brand. Perfection itself! All that remains to do is perpetuate this facade until it becomes truth in everyone's eyes. And until jealousy eats away at Marinette Dupain-Cheng...

Lila: But... What's to become of me?

Gabriel: You just remain what you are. Nothing.

Because it's not like Lila is easily your most competent ally (at least, by comparison), and is the only one who doesn't hate your guts, right? Seriously, Lila's biggest motivation other than fame is to ruin Marinette's life, and for the most part, as bad as the writing has been, she has been mostly effective in damaging her reputation (Chameleon, Ladybug, Adoration). For God's sake, if it wasn't for her, you would have been exposed as Monarch earlier this season in “Illusion”! Say what you will about Lila as a character and how stupid everyone acts when she's on-screen, but at least she's good at her job.

Lila walks off fuming, and Gabriel considers akumatizing her, but doesn't want to risk it because of how much she hates him... even though multiple Akumas over the course of the show were people who hated Gabriel or wanted revenge on him (The Bubbler, Simon Says, Style Queen, Heart Hunter, Passion, Action). It also doesn't stop him from akumatizing Lila later on in the episode, because her hatred is now directed at Marinette. And as we all know, it's physically impossible to hate more than one person at a time.

After a quick scene showing Marinette and Adrien's relationship is now public knowledge, we cut to class, where Ms. Bustier is handing back tests.

Also, despite being in the second trimester of her pregnancy (which hasn't been mentioned since the New York Special, over two years before this episode premiered), Ms. Bustier is wearing no maternity clothes to speak of, just her usual outfit with a noticeable baby bump.

I'm obviously not an expert, but I don't think that's good for the baby. If anyone reading this has experience with being pregnant, feel free to correct me.

Ms. Bustier points out that Sabrina put her name on both hers and Chloe's. Ms. Bustier naturally wants to know what the hell is going on.

Ms. Bustier: How long has this been going on?

Chloe: Oh, since we learned to write-- I mean, since Sabrina did.

Yep, after almost five seasons, the writers are now officially resorting to making dumb blonde jokes, the only kind of humor rivaled by fart jokes and racist jokes in terms of being overused and unfunny.

Ms. Bustier lets Sabrina off with a warning and decides to help Chloe make up for the lost work and salvage her academic career. For some reason, even though this is a reasonable response to discovering one of your students has been cheating for years, Marintte has a problem with this.

Marinette: Everybody knows that Chloe been cheating, taking advantage of Sabrina and not making any efforts compared to the others... for years! And the only consequence is that she's going to get help?! Of course, we need to support students who have problems, but not when they're the problem!

If you had a problem with Chloe mistreating Sabrina, THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL MS. BUSTIER YOURSELF? Even Lila points out that Marinette should have pointed this out to the teachers as class representative (I'm not sure if that's a thing in French schools, but let's assume it is for this episode's sake), but Marinette herself says she chose not to.

Marinette: Why would I have? She doesn't have difficulties! Only privileges! And if you need proof to see how the teachers will let her get away with anything!

What was it Alya said in “Origins”? Something about evil triumphing if good people do nothing? Eh, I'll think about it later.

Also, who's to say this isn't a punishment? Chloe is still going to have to make up her work, she'll need more attention from the faculty as a result, summer school is most likely on the table now, and who's to say her dad won't have problems with this? Yeah, we know he's a spineless coward, but let's assume he'll actually act like a parent for once, for the sake of argument.

Despite outright saying that she neglected her duties as class representative, Marinette is shocked Lila takes the chance to suggest she replace her for the job. Later at lunch, like what's happened in every other Lila episode, Marinette tries to tell Alya that Lila is a liar, Alya doesn't believe her for a second, and nothing changes. Oh wait, I forgot to mention that this time, Adrien and Nino are there too! That makes it different!

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Seriously, why are we still doing this? It's almost the end of Season 5, and even though Alya is one of Marinette's trusted confidants, the show still needs to have this drama with her not believing her. It honestly feels like a lot of the Lila episodes this season were originally written before Season 4 aired, but something changed, so they just threw them here when it makes no sense for Alya to still doubt Marinette after all this time. It's also why they randomly threw this line in to remind us that Alya knows.

Alya: You know, even Ladybug accepts help from Scarabella every once in a while.

Yeah, mind telling me what happened the last time Alya transformed into Scarabella?

OH RIGHT.

It's during this little conversation where we get the first hint of the episode's moral, and believe me, I'll get to that. Alya tries to reason with Marinette that maybe it's possible for Lila to help Chloe change for the better, which Marinette vehemently refuses to believe. We're clearly supposed to see Alya as being too naive and is oblivious to Lila's true nature, but neither of them know just how bad she really is. We, the audience, know that Lila has worked with Gabriel and Monarch willingly in the past (Heroes' Day, Chameleon, Miraculer, Illusion, Adoration) and that she's living under several fake identities. Yeah, we know Lila hates Marinette and tried to get her expelled in “Ladybug”, but nobody else knows just how bad she is. It doesn't help that Marinette's reasons for Lila only amount to “She's a liar!”, and not “She tried to get me expelled!”, intentionally making her come across as petty so it's easier for Alya to doubt her.

Another thing that makes the whole “Alya thinks Lila can help Chloe change” deal is that we already know Marinette has done nothing to really stop her behavior as class representative or as Ladybug, so it's hard to really act like Marinette contributes a lot to the job, especially when, once again, she willingly admitted to not even trying to reach out to the other teachers about Chloe's grades or how she's using Sabrina to get by in class. Even though Alya doesn't know about Lila's true nature, she's not wrong when it comes to believing someone else could bring something new to the position of class representative.

And this only gets worse, as we see Lila's latest plan to win over the class.

Lila: My dear classmates, I am convinced that even the worst person can change if you reach out to them. And to prove it to you, Chloe, will you be my deputy?

(The whole class gasps in shock)

Chloe: (sighs and walks to the front, putting on a fake smile)

Nino: Wow, is Chloe actually going to be a mere deputy?

Alya: That is so not Chloe!

Rose: Does this mean it's already working?

Mylene: Can Lila actually get her to change?

Marinette: (slams her fists on her table) This is so crazy! It's all lies!

Lila: Poor Marinette... couldn't succeed because she was too busy with her love life, as well as being reminded of her disdain for Chloe. But you know me. You know all about my humanitarian work. I'm used to going into conflict zones. I can do this. There are two weeks left. What do you have to lose? Help me, help Chloe change. Vote for me!

OH, YOU NO GOOD MOTHERFU---

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Sorry, sorry. Had a little... episode there. Where were we?

Okay, first off, wow. Are you trying to seriously piss off your fanbase? The whole argument of being able to appeal to the humanity in the worst person is one of the biggest arguments people in favor of Chloe redemption make, so you know damn well this scene was targeted towards them. What was the original draft for this? A still image of Thomas Astruc flipping off the audience?

Second, once again, Lila isn't wrong. As far as we know, Marinette did nothing to really help or stop Chloe over the school year other than foiling the occasional scheme. While we know it's a lie, can you really blame the rest of the class for believing Lila will actually make things better for them by finding a way to stop Chloe from bullying them? It doesn't help that the case Marinette makes for her class representative campaign is that she's giving up on helping Chloe, saying she sucks, and that she's going to help the rest of the class instead. Because we all know showing blatant bias against one of your classmates is a surefire way to win the favor of your peers, right?

As for the speech itself? Well...

Marinette: My dear friends, of course, you should always do everything in your power to help people. And we all hoped that Chloe would become a better person. Ladybug reached out to her. Ms. Bustier reached out to her. So did Adrien and so did I. You all reached out to her. This proves how big your hearts are. And yet, Chloe remained the same. Why? Because as far as she's concerned, having a big heart is a weakness to be exploited. Chloe already believes she's better than all of us. So... don't be fooled. I, for one, am done wasting my energy in vain. As class representative, I'd much rather help all of you because you deserve it a thousand times more.

So here's the main moral of the episode, kids: If you ever decide to be the bigger person and show kindness to someone who is mean to you, it's going to bite you in the ass sooner or later, so never try helping other people change. I just... what the fuck, Astruc?

Yeah, the show tries to point out that being kind to others is still important, but the context of the episode itself doesn't show any examples. You could have used Kim as an example of someone who has changed his ways, but “Derision” retconned him into not being a bully, and Felix isn't even in this episode, so he can't be used as an example. The episode never really provides an argument showing the difference between people who can change their ways and people who choose not to, which is why the lesson doesn't work. How exactly is a child watching this supposed to tell when they're being taken advantage of for their kindness? For a show with an opening that has the lyrics, “The power of love always so strong”, this episode really isn't doing a lot to encourage its audience to show compassion to others.

And we're not done yet. Lila makes up a sob story relating to getting fired, and tearfully says there's no hope for Chloe. Once again, the writers think by having a villain say stuff certain fans believe in, it's meant to automatically invalidate the argument. What are you going to have Lila say next? “Felix should face consequences for his actions”? “Gabriel is far worse than Chloe will ever be”? “Somehow, Chloe is worse than either of her terrible parents”? I'm all ears here.

The entire story was a gambit by Lila so she'd have a cover story, as she plans to attract an Akuma with her sheer hatred for Marinette. Like I said earlier, Monarch assumes that since Lila hates Marinette at the moment, it's impossible for her to harbor any negative feelings towards his civilian identity, choosing to akumatize her into Hoaxer.

Ignoring the fact that the name sounds like it belongs to an antidepressant, Hoaxer is an okay recolor of Volpina. There's not much else to say visually. Her powers involve brainwashing anyone who hears her lies through the Alliance rings... even though she was already able to manipulate others through lying, so this seems like a redundant power to give her. Sure, she can also teleport through the Alliance rings, but that's just something Lady Wifi could already do. Monarch also gives her the Fox Miraculous' Mirage to use so she can create fake footage to back up her lies... even though she already has the power to make everyone believe her lies. Yeah, this upgrade is kind of pointless, isn't it?

Hoaxer's first lie is to say that Marinette is really Monarch. With the exception of Adrien, Ivan, and Mylene (who don't wear Alliance rings), the entire class is brainwashed into hunting Marinette, believing they'll save Paris if they stop her. After Adrien points out how it wouldn't make sense for Marinette to be Monarch if she wants Lila to expose her secrets, he ducks out to transform into Cat Noir, soon meeting up with Ladybug.

Ladybug and Cat Noir steal an Alliance ring from Officer Roger to learn how this power works, only to learn the brainwashing is only effective as long as the victim is wearing an Alliance ring. Hoaxer senses that one of her victims lost their ring, so she turns the rest of Paris against the two heroes by saying that they're from the planet Saturn and fart bubbles that destroy the ozone layer. Believe me, I wish I was able to come up with a line that stupid.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, and gets a sewing machine. She goes back to her house, only to be ambushed by Alya. Ladybug takes off the ring and detransforms, lending the Ladybug Miraculous to Alya so she can transform into Scarabella as part of her plan. Because even though Alya has already been exposed three times in the past two seasons, the animators paid for the Scarabella model, and goddamn it, they're going to get their money's worth out of it. While Cat Noir fends off some brainwashed civilians, Hoaxer uses her powers on Nathalie to get her to send all of Gabriel's private secrets to her. How Monarch doesn't sense this is anyone's guess. Marinette pretends to appeal to Lila's conscience as part of a plan involving her, Scarabella, and Cat Noir, but Lila then rejects the Akuma with ease.

The Akuma somehow de-evilizes itself, Scarabella makes her only contribution to the fight by using Miraculous Scarabella to fix the damage, Monarch still doesn't know Lila now has intel on his civilian identity when he should have a telepathic link with her, and instead blames Marinette for all of his problems.

Back at school, Adrien apologizes to Marinette for not telling her to act against Lila, something that should be huge. It's just that both of them make it about how bad he feels, not about Marinette.

Adrien: I'm sorry, Marinette. I was wrong. I shouldn't have told you to act against Lila. If you give the slightest opportunity to people like her, they'll grasp at it and cause disasters in no time. And now, you're the one who looks like a bad person.

Marinette: You thought you were doing the right thing. Just like with Chloe. That's another reason why I love you, Adrien. You always want to see the good in other people. But sometimes, the good we think we see in some people is just a reflection of our own, and we end up being fooled by our own kindness. But we'll find a way to expose Lila eventually.

Nevermind the fact that Lila's lies haven't done anything to negatively affect Adrien at school, only Marinette, so his little pity doesn't feel earned. There's a difference between feeling bad about something and making it all about you. Also, once again, the episode's moral still comes across less like “mean people can take advantage of your kindness” and more like “never trust anyone, as your attempts to show kindness can backfire horribly on you”.

Lila is elected class representative, and Alya still believes her over Marinette. How does Marinette respond?

Marinette: I decided to let her have her way so I can finally prove to you all who she really is.

Spoiler alert, next episode, someone other than Marinette does the heavy lifting to expose Lila, and I doubt it was ever part of Marinette's plan.

The episode ends with Lila learning all of Gabriel's secrets, which would have been a much better opportunity for her to learn he's Monarch instead of learning about it off-screen as far back as “Emotion”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... MARINETTE

Once again, Gabriel was very close to earning the Biggest Idiot Award for the third time for ditching Lila for no reason and later giving her the tools needed to learn his deepest and darkest secrets, but Marinette edged him out here. Not only did Marinette outright admit to neglecting her responsibilities as class representative, blamed Ms. Bustier for not doing anything about Chloe when she hasn't done anything to stop her either, and made a very poor argument for her reelection campaign by saying that being nice is bad. But hey, maybe her genius plan next episode will make up for it.

“Confrontation” starts off with Adrien struggling to fill out an orientation form for what kind of school he wants to go to next year and what he'll study. I'm not really an expert in French schools, but I'll assume this is how things are done there. Either way, Adrien isn't willing to fill out the form because as we saw in “Pretension”, Gabriel is planning on sending him to a private school in London next year. Why Adrien wasn't excused from this assignment is beyond me.

Adrien: If Marinette finds out that my father's decided to send me to a private school in London next year, it will break her heart and mine, too.

Again, it's really funny how a huge portion of his screentime in Season 4 involved being angry at Ladybug for keeping secrets from him, yet now, Adrien sees nothing wrong with keeping secrets from Marinette, even when it's inevitable that she'll find out. Then again, Plagg's response isn't any better.

Plagg: I know how I would feel if I had to be separated from you, Adrien, and there is nothing funny about that at all.

Then why did you force Adrien to give up his Miraculous in “The Kwamis' Choice”?! I'm pretty sure that was all your idea, as was what happened afterwards with Monarch almost winning.

As Marinette worries about the career stuff, but through some flashbacks showing just how selfish and one-dimensional Chloe and Lila are, she's not exactly confident they have her best interests in mind. Also, remember how Marinette said she supposedly let Lila win at the end of the last episode in order to make progress on finding a way to stop her?

Marinette: I feel like I'm betraying our friends by entrusting their forms to such awful girls.

As we'll later learn, while she does come up with a plan to expose Lila, it was after this scene that it happened, so this doesn't really make it look like Marinette has any ideas to stop Lila after she won at the end of the last episode. After the rest of the class fills out their forms, Lila destroys them all so Sabrina can forge their handwriting. Of course, not before we get another “funny” scene where Chloe struggles to understand their own plan.

Lila: After you destroy the forms, you'll fill out new ones using your talent for forging student's handwriting. I'll tell you what to write.

Chloe: Not so fast! You're using too many words to explain your plan!

GET IT? DO YOU GET IT?! SHE'S RICH AND BLONDE, SO THAT MEANS SHE'S STUPID! WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING AT THIS COMEDY GOLD?!

Meanwhile, Nino calls for another meeting of the totally useful and not at all irrelevant Resistance, citing an issue. Because they're all planning to go to different schools next year, they're not sure how they can help Ladybug and Cat Noir... other than, oh, I don't know, meeting outside of school? It doesn't matter, because everyone unanimously volunteers to go to the same high school next year. Well, everyone except Nathaniel, but that's not important.

After Marinette gets a call from someone, Mylene suggests that the class go on strike against being forced to decide their careers so early in life. This would have made a lot more sense if you chose to do this before submitting your forms, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Adrien finally figures out what he wants to do, so he hands his form over to Lila. What did he write down?

Lila: (reading the letter) “I've been thinking a lot, and still not know what I would like to do later in life. The only thing I know for sure is that I love Marinette Dupain-Cheng. But I guess that doesn't really help you. I'm sorry. Adrien Agreste.”

Minimum wage at Wendy's it is. Good choice, Adrien.

Yeah, I think now's as good a time as any to talk about how flat Adrien's character has been this season. Even though Adrien has gotten more character focus thanks to not being hampered by loads of other side characters and temp heroes, he hasn't really had a lot of strong moments overall. Scenes that should feel like a big deal, like him accidentally Cataclysming Monarch or realizing he has feelings for Marinette are usually downplayed or brushed off so we can see how those events affect other characters. We don't get any scenes with Adrien feeling guild for possibly condemning a man to death because more focus is given to Gabriel dealing with his impending demise. We don't get any scenes that show how Adrien has come to see Marinette in a romantic light because more focus is given to Marinette struggling to deal with his sudden confession. And here's this scene. Rather than showing Adrien developing an interest in something he wants to do for a career, a huge sign of his growing independence, what do we get? Adrien saying he loves Marinette and admitting he has no goddamn idea what he wants to do with his life. Such a defining moment for one of the two main characters in the show. I'm just saying, if the last season made a big deal about Adrien wanting to be treated more importantly, why is he still getting shafted by the narrative?

And for the umpteenth time this season, because Chloe is the one saying that Adrien's form is “pathetic”, we're supposed to not agree with her, even though this is supposed to be a serious form that your teachers will see. Just what is this show's obsession with using strawmen to try and invalidate criticism? I've seen more nuanced takes from political cartoons.

Lila and Chloe present the forged forms to the teachers, assigning all kinds of inaccurate assignments for careers that the students don't want. Lila manages to get one student in particular held back, Marin—Juleka. Yeah, Juleka, Lila's most hated enemy is being forced to repeat a year. Why didn't Lila try to keep Marinette held back?

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To be fair, Lila's plan is to slander Marinette specifically, but screwing over the entire class feels like a bit of a reach. I don't even know if part of Lila's plan was to attract an Akuma or not. Speaking of, Monarch senses Juleka's negative emotions and sends a Megakuma her way. Because it's a day that ends with a “Y”, the Magical Charm does nothing, so for the sixth time in the series (not counting her brief appearance in “Ladybug”), Juleka is akumatized into Reflekta. I swear, at this point you could make a drinking game for every time an old character model is reused this season.

Reflekta's design is pretty alright. I like the idea of the shy and quiet Juleka getting a brightly colored form that's impossible to ignore, and her power to make everyone else look like her fits her character. Unlike other returning Akumas this season, Reflekta gets a noticeable upgrade to her powers, as now she can essentially create a hive mind with all of her victims on top of getting the Tiger Miraculous' Clout to do some extra damage. Wow, it's almost like the Miraculous powers should actually serve as upgrades to established powers instead of being the only thing that gives the Akuma their powers.

Reflekta goes to town assimilating more victims, Marinette does nothing to get the still pregnant Ms. Bustier to safety so she can dart off and transform into Ladybug. By the time Ladybug and Cat Noir meet up, the city is crawling with Reflektas.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, getting a plastic tape dispenser. Using Cat Noir's staff and the tape, the two put up a fake brick wall poster in an alleyway. The two heroes split up and draw a Reflekta's attention respectively, pretending to be helpless once they reach a “dead end” at the fake brick wall. When the two Reflektas try to use Clout, Ladybug and Cat Noir duck out of the way, letting the two attacks collide.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Megakuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, and gives Juleka yet another useless Magical Charm.

And while you'd think this is where the episode ends, unfortunately, we're only halfway done. Id anything, this entire fight was pointless, and it's going to lead to a lot of problems with the pacing later on.

Back at school, Lila takes the opportunity to pin the blame on Marinette, though when Marinette points out how good Sabrina is at forging handwriting, Sabrina admits to helping them out. While the blame is still on Marinette, Chloe and Lila follow Sabrina when she runs out of the classroom. In the bathroom, Sabrina is still upset about what she had to do, and when Chloe and Lila confront her and try to keep her in line, only for Sabrina to reveal it was a trap for Chloe and Lila to confess their plan in front of the rest of the class, and one that had been set up a few days ago by Sabrina and Marinette.

So after an episode that went out of its way to show how apologetically irredeemable Chloe and Lila are, Sabrina is the one to ultimately turn a new leaf and is the key player in stopping Chloe and Lila's tyranny. Let's go into all the reasons as to why this failed to be a triumphant moment.

First off, why is Sabrina the key player who helps finally expose Lila? Why not Adrien, or Alya, or anyone else in Marinette's class? Rather than work together with her friends to show she wasn't lying, Marinette only works with Sabrina, and they act like they're the close friends working together. What, you thought Adrien or maybe Alya would help Marinette expose Lila like the end of the last episode hinted at? HA! Of course not.

Second, Sabrina's redemption is forced as hell. I'm not saying Sabrina turning a new leaf is entirely impossible, but the show just expects us to forget all the times she's gone along with Chloe's bullying antics (Origins, Mr. Pigeon, Lady Wifi, Dark Cupid, Horrificator, Darkblade, Reflekta, Zombizou, Stormy Weather 2, Lies, Sole Crusher, Gabriel Agreste, Derision, Adoration), and even in this episode, she still helped forge the new forms for Chloe and Lila. Remember how “Derision” said Chloe's actions couldn't be excused by how poorly she was treated by her mother? Funny how Sabrina's actions can be excused by how poorly she was treated by Chloe. The redemption honestly could have worked if it was Marinette who reached out to Sabrina and saw the good in her, teaching the lesson that while some people refuse to change, that doesn't mean other people can't change either. But instead, Sabrina's just a good guy because the plot said so, a deus ex Sabrina if you will.

Third, this was Marinette's plan to stop Lila? Like I said, while the previous episode made it seem like Marinette had an idea on how to expose Lila, this episode showed that Marinette had absolutely no plans prior Sabrina's call, and she handed over the sheets to Chloe and Lila earlier. What was Marinette even going to do if Sabrina didn't call? This only makes Sabrina's redemption feel even more forced, because that was what led to Chloe and Lila being exposed.

And finally, we don't even get a lot of resolution with Marinette's classmates believing Lila over her once she's exposed.

Yes, there was a deleted scene where Alya and the others apologize to Marinette instead of just Ms. Bustier which was supposedly cut for time constraints, but why would you leave that out when Marinette's friends believing Lila over her has always been a sore spot among viewers? If only there was another scene that could have been cut out of the episode that added nothing to the plot over an important character moment showing how guilty Marinette's friends feel.

Chloe and Lila are expelled by Mr. Damocles, but then he gets a call from Andre ordering him to keep them in and do nothing to change the forged forms. Normally, this would be something to make Andre out to be a bad guy, but like Sabrina, because he's being belittled and ordered around by someone else (in this case, Audrey), we're meant to sympathize with him. Trust me, it gets even worse next episode.

Mr. Damocles is upset enough to attract another Megakuma from Monarch. You would think Marinette would transform into Ladybug and save him,but the episode does something different. Somehow, because of the other students telling him to believe in himself, all of their Magical Charms resonate with Mr. Damocles' Magical Charm. And then, his Magical Charm transforms into a shield which de-evilizes the Akuma as soon as it touches it?

I'm sorry, WHAT!?

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Yeah... that just happened. I'm happy the Magical Charm actually did something for once, but I don't get why this was the climax of the episode. Why did this episode spend more time focusing on Juleka, Sabrina, and Mr. Damocles instead of Marinette's final battle of wits with Lila? Forget it, it's almost over anyway.

Mr. Damocles sends in the correct forms for the students before he resigns as principal, and we then cut to Ms. Bustier realizing that Chloe is pure evil and needs to face consequences for her actions. What does Chloe say that causes her to come to this revelation?

Ms. Bustier: Where's Lila?

Chloe: How should I know? I'm not the betrayer's mother.

Yep. A somewhat rude answer to a question Chloe doesn't even know the answer to is the last straw for Ms. Bustier. Maybe it's the hormones? Ms. Bustier decides to give extra attention to Chloe going forward, and somehow, that's different from Ms. Bustier wanting to help Chloe make up her schoolwork at the beginning of the last episode. But what happened to Lila, you may ask?

Oh my God, she's cosplaying as T'pol from Star Trek: Enterprise! The fiend!

Yep, Lila abandoned her old school and moved onto one of her other lives, now calling herself Cerise. Okay, a few questions.

First, was she wearing makeup as Lila or something? I'm not sure if it's the lighting in this one scene, but I swear, her skin looks lighter than Cerise here.

Second, how is Lila going to blend in under her new identity when for a while, she was the face of the Gabriel brand? What, is she going to claim that “Lila” is her twin sister or something?

Third, if Lila's trying to blend in as Cerise, why did she throw her old wig in the trash, in broad daylight?

Fourth, why wasn't this scene the one used to establish Lila has multiple lives? It actually feels plot-relevant, unlike the revelation of her having three different mothers last episode.

Finally, we're really going to brush over Lila facing any setback to her vague goals? She got expelled, and we don't even get to see her face consequences for her actions after all these years? What a load...

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS...MARINETTE

Yep, Marinette got the award twice in the same two-parter, and this is her third one at that. Adrien was sort of close to winning it with his stupid application form and not doing anything to stop Lila himself, and even though Marinette's plan to expose Lila worked, I still had to give it to her. She willingly gave her and her friends application forms to Chloe and Lila without any plans in case they tried something bad, had absolutely no plan to stop Lila in general until Sabrina came alone, and didn't think to simply de-evilize a Megakuma targeting her principal when Lila was able to sneak out with no problem.

Anyway, these episodes SUCK. I know it might not seem as noticeable compared to my reviews last season, as I've been trying to not get too angry, but I still couldn't stand these episodes.

As always, Lila's lies are incredibly stupid and don't work under the suspension of disbelief, especially with what we learn about her here. What I don't get is that we still don't know why Lila does what she does. I still don't know why she is so obsessed with getting the better of Marinette and Gabriel outside of being petty, and given what happens by the end of the season, it makes her unclear motivation even less excusable. In a pair of episodes meant to give more focus to Lila as she tries to ruin Marinette's reputation right before the school year ends, we really needed more depth for her character.

Marinette wasn't any better. What should have been a standout moment for her this season, she spent most of these two episodes complaining about Chloe and Lila when she did nothing to really stop them, and only made progress when Sabrina had a change of heart out of nowhere. Hell, even then, Chloe and Lila barely faced any setbacks for their actions. Marinette honestly felt very underutilized in what should have been an important set of episodes for the season.

Adrien didn't fare any better. He barely got to do anything and unlike Marinette, he wasn't even involved with the final plan, despite the ending of “Revelation” hinting that he and Marinette were going to work together to stop Lila. And then there's the form he filled out where he pretty much confirmed that he has no goals in life and that the writers just have no idea what the hell they want to do with him now that he's Marinette's boyfriend.

But let's talk about what I think really killed these two episodes, specifically “Confrontation”: The unnecessary focus on side characters. I can understand why Ms. Bustier needed more focus in these episodes, considering it was focused on the school environment, but I can't give that kind of lenience to “Confrontation”. That episode decided rather than focusing on Marinette finally outsmarting Lila, we needed more focus on Sabrina, Juleka, and Mr. Damocles. Why did we need to give Sabrina a change of heart over Marinette's friends working together to help her expose Lila? Why did we need Juleka to be targeted by Lila and subsequently akumatized by Monarch in a gambit to slander Marinette when all Lila had to do was have it look like Marinette tampered with Chloe's form? Why did we need an extended sequence of Mr. Damocles fending off an Akuma with the help of his class when he had no real presence in this arc, and if anything, took Chloe and Lila's side more often than not (Ladybug, Derision)? I don't get why the writers chose the tail end of the season to actually develop some of its side characters at the expense of major players like Marinette, Adrien, and Lila.

Look, these episodes were just awful, okay? And somehow, things manage to get worse as we get closer and closer to the end of the season.

243 notes · View notes

chimivx · 6 months ago

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home;run -> fem!reader x mlb!mingyu, mlb!vernon, mlb!dk

College didn't work out, so you're stuck with the next best thing. Living with your superstar brother, traveling with his championship winning team, haunted by your past and heavily influenced by your present.

wc; {part seven} 3.6k warnings; 18+, sexual content, alcohol consumption/abuse, bad influences around her, manipulation, her name gets taken advantage of in public media, if i missed anything please let me know!! notes; peese n lurv. <3

Cheers could be heard down every street in Iloa, the Lions stadium alive, living, breathing, exploding full of love and support, every voice showering down onto the field of ten or so men stretching, throwing around baseballs, or sprinting across the grass.

In the bullpen, the smack of DK’s hundred mile per hour baseball hitting the leather of Woozi’s glove echoed against the walls and carried up to the kids in their matching jerseys dangling their heads over the railings to watch them, calling down for them to throw a baseball up into the stands. Standing on the sidelines, coaches, other starting and backup pitchers, they’d grab whichever ball DK discarded and tossed it up to the boys and girls, watching their faces light up with joy.

A sweet smell lingered in the air, one mixing with that of the savoriness of the comfort foods the boys on the team indulged in after a victory, one they hoped would happen today. Pretzels, soft chewy cinnamon bites, ice cream stands around every turn, every corner of the stadium. Women and men wandered about with bright red shirts on, carrying bins of ice cold drinks, beers, and water bottles, their voices booming through and over the crowds eager to get their buzz on. Fans waiting in line at the stores, full of Lions merchandise, were calling them over, swiping their cards without checking the price, and chugging the can as best as they could before they were allowed to walk through the door. An excellent ploy, get them tipsy and they won’t care what they’re picking up off the shelves.

Bouncing in your black boots, skinny jeans on your legs and a silky custom Lions bomber jacket on top of a bodysuit, you held a water bottle in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. Grooving to the music radiating the walls of the stadium, a pop beat from a music group that prided themselves on being the biggest fans of your brother, the cutest group of seven talented boys the Lions were now partners with, you pulled on the elbow linked with yours, accidentally rocking them with you. Sunglasses low on your nose, you turned and smiled. Latched to you tight, elbows locked, Ryujin licked her ice cream and raised a brow.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” she said, letting you rock her to your heart's content as the two of you strolled through the first floor pavilion. “Is this that group DK likes?”

“The group that DK is friends with?” Correcting her, she smiled and rolled her eyes. “We had a few of them over in the off season while I was home with him, they’re cool.”

Ryujin dodged a man barreling toward the seats carrying one of his kids in his arms while the other ran behind him. “Jesus,” she muttered. “This place is crazier than last season.” Catching the drips of ice cream down the side of your cone with your tongue, you winked to a group of girls around your age staring at you and Ryujin and gave them a wave as you passed by them.

“They need them to win,” you said.

“They need to use manners,” she countered, giving you a look.

Shaking your head, waving to some other people who actually called out your name and greeted you properly, you said, “Then we need them to win. You don’t wanna see these people when they lose.”

Ryujin, having been on guard for your sake since she arrived three days ago, gave the people a stare, not caring what they thought of her. She overanalyzed them all. Back in February, a little over a month ago, when the Mingyu story broke the internet, your name was drug through the mud. You weren’t so innocent either, though you were, you knew what you did, what had happened, but to the media you were a drunken mess homie hopper.

The photos of Vernon safely placing you into his passenger seat couldn’t even compare to the photos of Mingyu and Daya, taken from far away, not up close like people would do to you when you were dating him. That thought alone disgusted you, that you weren’t worthy of certain boundaries like Daya apparently was, that you could have cameras shoved in your face while you were kissing your boyfriend in a public space, but there she was, on his lap, tongue in his cheek, and the photos and videos were grainy as fuck.

He couldn’t defend himself. It took about twenty four hours for you to be able to face him, even at the training games they had played the following day you ignored him, sat in the stands with your sunglasses on, arms folded, legs crossed, only cheering and clapping when ‘Now batting, first basemen, Chwe Hansol’ was announced through the stadium. Simply to piss him off, of course. Videos of that hit the internet to no one's surprise, everyone was way too involved in the scandal that almost took down Vernon’s name as well.

The two of you spoke that night, the day after the story nearly imploded your lives, with DK and Vernon on standby, the two waiting in the hallway outside of your hotel room to Mingyu’s demise. Your precious, golden hunk of a boyfriend couldn’t say two words to come back from what he’d done. With grace, somehow, he listened to your telling of how the night went, how he’d acted in front of your brother, and what he’d said to Vernon.

His only reasoning, that wasn’t an excuse to how he ended up with Daya on top of him, was that she came onto him. Loosely believing it, that he didn’t realize what she’d been doing, you let him go with a hug and his thousands of soft apologies for everything he’d been putting you through without realizing.

That was the Mingyu you used to know, before the money, before the fame got to his head, before he was one of the stars on the team, a huge name in baseball. The nice Mingyu, the one who’d catch onto the things your parents would say and give you a silly look with a roll of his eyes, the Mingyu who once upon time said he wanted to take care of you one day, wanted to give you a life you deserved.

But, he was all talk. A hug, whispers of I’m sorry, it was as simple as that.

All the mentions of realization seemed to withstand the pressure of the media cracking down on him in interviews, the way people would run into him on the street and bombard him with questions of you, of Vernon, of the scandal, of what he’d done. Every single time he would own up to it. Left within him, though you broke his heart, wouldn’t forgive him, told him that you two did not work together, was the care he held for you. The love he said he had, which out of everything, was the one thing you wholeheartedly believed in.

Protecting your name, defending you, speaking about you with a softness in his eyes only when asked, he at least kept one of his promises. Giving you a life you deserved, a safe one. He gave you your space, he didn’t try to come back, he didn’t fight to hold onto anything, he respected what you had to say, what you wanted, which would’ve driven you mad if Vernon weren’t standing in the hallway, if you didn’t have history clinging to him, love for him. A boy that podcasts and drama influencers alike were calling stupid for involving himself with you, for getting between you and Mingyu, that if you two were to get together after this it’d be a shorter relationship than the one you’ve just come out of.

All the more reason for Mingyu to come out and admit to what he’d done, which in turn, destroyed Daya and Hoshi’s marriage.

Desperately clinging to whatever she possibly could, sloppily throwing stories together, making absolute dogshit up about you, about Mingyu, about your brother, she scrambled miserably to hold onto her husband and the beautiful, wonderful life he’d given her.

You and Hoshi spent some time together in the days following the break up, bonding in a way you’d never expect. Across dinner tables after days of baseball, he’d sip his beer and tell you story after story about what a witch his soon-to-be ex-wife was. He never meant to marry her, which didn’t make him out to be partner of the year, but when they found out she was pregnant with their daughter he put a ring on her finger and owned up to the new life he was bound to live.

He wasn’t looking for an excuse to divorce her, to escape her, to get rid of her, but he wouldn’t say he wasn’t grateful that this ended up happening. As for his daughter, he wouldn’t give her up for the world, when he spoke on Daya their daughter never came up. It was all her, his now ex-wife, or in the process of becoming ex-wife. He’d always shower Tora with love, would show up for her, and give her the world whether he was with her mother or not. And that’s who Daya became to him, the mother of his daughter, nothing more.

She was the curse of last season after all, the fans had no problem discarding her after Hoshi made the one and only public post to announce his divorce.

In doing so, combined with Mingyu’s unspoken compliance, Hoshi aided in the repairing of your name, of Vernon’s name, and within weeks things started to turn around.

“I don’t like the way some of these people are looking at you,” Ryujin said, holding onto you a little tighter each time someone's eyes spent more than two seconds on you.

Tugging her out of the way of a family staring at their phones then pointing to the signs above their heads, confused as to where they were going, you yanked her toward the row of stairs leading to the first base line. “Most are fine,” you assured her, pausing at the top of the steps. The man working the row gave you a smile and a nod. “How are you?” Returning the smile, you watched his cheeks blush.

“Fine, Miss Isla, and you?” he asked with another nod of his head.

Looking at Ryujin, then back at him, you nodded as well. “Fantastic. There’s three more behind us, they should-”

“ISLA!”

The high pitched scratchy scream struck your heart. Eyes wide, head snapping to look down at your seats in the first row, you couldn’t help the obnoxious screech that came out of you involuntarily, simply triggered by a glimpse of their beautiful faces. Ryujin slipped her elbow out of yours, accepted the ice cream cone you slapped into her hand, and let you go, discarding the sweets before leisurely following you down the stairs, not running like you were.

“Oh my god,” you breathed, skipping a few steps at a time, “Oh my god!” Heads were turned from the seats slowly filling the sections, you and your sisters shrieks gathering attention like clockwork. Even if you weren’t actively causing a scene, when the five of you were together people paid attention.

Jumping off the last step into the row, you didn’t even have a second to look at any of them, to mess with the adorable outfits they’d thrown together, you were in their arms and their arms were around you, squeezing you, the four of you lost in whispers and Tori’s teary eyes. When Ryujin made it down the steps she wiggled herself into the middle, her hands grabbing onto three different parts of two different girls.

Aurora, Tori, Yuna, Ryujin, they were here. Once you found out they were coming to opening day you upgraded their tickets, you grouped them in with yourself and made sure they’d be down here on the field with you. It’d been months, and after the last few weeks, you needed your sisters. Partially the reason why Ryujin came days earlier after she’d gotten clearance from a few of her classes. Like DK promised, she stayed in his house with you, she hung out with your brother and actually got to know him for him and not the almighty baseball superstar he was made out to be.

She liked him as your brother more, and DK took to her in the same way. Within three days it felt like you were trapped with a big sister as well as a big brother with how they both ganged up on you, teaming together to tease you like big siblings should while whipping you into shape at the same time. The other three were set to come back to the house with you tonight, staying for the length of the three game series the Lions were opening their season with, and you couldn’t wait for them to spend time with the brother you spent so much time telling them about at Nasara.

“Tor,” you whined first as the group hug dispersed, reaching for her bronzed cheeks glowing in the March sun. Her glossy pout worsened, making you giggle, forcing your thumbs to her bottom lashes to keep her makeup in place. Tori came close to Ryujin in your heart, another trustworthy sister to share some secrets with, to open up to, she matched your try anything once energy, your party loving twin.

Grabbing your wrists, her red nails brushing your skin, she shook her head. “It is so good to see you, Isla,” she said, her voice quiet, half broken. “You have no idea what the hell we went through after you left, what we thought happened to you, it was so scary.”

A smile pricked your lips. “Ryujin throwing a sneaker at Yeji’s head?” Giggles sounded around you. “I heard all about it.” Wiping her eyes, you took her hands in yours and squeezed them, giving Aurora a glance. “I heard about everything.”

“How did you know?” Aurora asked, her observant eyes intriguing your own, the girl always on some mission to know. “You said something to me, do you remember?” Truthfully, no, you did not, and you weren’t at a point yet where you had the balls to admit it. Aurora seemed to catch on quick. “Before any of us knew anything… Caught onto anything, which, we didn’t, you knew.”

“And it cost you,” Yuna chimed in, laying a hand on your shoulder. Giving her and her chocolate curls a smile, you shrugged.

“I’ll be honest,” you whispered. “I thought it was obvious.” The laughter that broke out warmed your heart, thank god.

“Let’s not get stuck on this right now,” Ryujin pulled you out the girl's hands and moved you in front of a seat that looked straight out to first base. “We have a game to watch, we can talk about this later.”

Shuffling around the chairs, deciding who was going to sit where around you, an insane amount of questions were thrown your way, every single one involving Vernon.

“Are you guys dating?” Yuna asked from beside you on your right.

“Were you guys dating before? At Nasara?” Tori asked from your left.

Aurora poked her head forward. “Just so everyone knows, he told me about her first!”

“Shut up, let her speak,” Tori elbowed her leather jacket that so obviously belonged to Wooyoung.

Ryujin threw her hands up, her eyebrows furrowed, the crease in her forehead deep. “I knew the whole time?!”

“Shut up, let her speak,” Aurora said to her, the two breaking out into giggles, throwing playful hands at each other.

Tori rolled her eyes, her fluffy lashes fluttering as she looked between you and Yuna. “These two, I swear they’re on each other more than anything I’ve ever seen.”

Perking a brow, a smirk lighting up your lips, you leaned forward to witness them swatting at each other's hands, giggling like little kids. Yeah, you knew that one. “Ror,” you caught her attention, and Ryujin’s, “You and Wooyoung? Finally?”

She blinked, many times. Tori took her bottom lip between her teeth, her face going blank. “I mean,” she started, shrugging, gaze flickering out onto the empty field. “Something like that.” Confusion filled your face and she smiled, a breathy laugh escaping her. “We’re not putting pressure on anything,” she clarified. “So many big things have happened this year, we just want to… Be.”

You knew that one.

Letting her know you understood her with a smile, you shifted to Tori who just finished taking a deep breath, her eyes fixed forward. “What about you?” you asked her, letting the other two go back to giggling with one another. Yuna listened in to them, paying no mind to the quiet way Tori spoke back to you.

“What do you mean?” she questioned within a whisper.

“You know what I mean,” you laughed, “How’s Mingi? Mr Loverman? I miss seeing you guys be you,” you nudged her arm, “Your relationship is my favorite, I yearn to have what you two have.”

“Yearn?” She smirked.

“I know words, Tor,” you said, sitting up straight. Gesturing to yourself, you said, “Haven’t drank in two weeks, I’m remembering words I used to know when I was good at school, I’m tryna use them all, one word a day.”

Her eyes began to shine. “Two weeks,” she whispered. You nodded, feeling proud, keeping your anxiety locked away for the time being. “Isla, that’s great.”

“Thanks,” you sighed, accepting her hand she offered you. “It’s hard.”

“But you’re doing it,” she smiled.

“Longest streak yet,” you whispered, and she squeezed your fingers. “This doesn’t get you out of the Mingi question.”

Her face fell. “Damn it.”

“Don’t tell me you guys broke up?” you asked, and she turned toward you, flustered, her cheeks flushing of color.

“No, no, no,” she whispered as fast as humanly possible, “Not that, we didn’t break up, it’s just…”

“Soul said that!” Aurora’s cackle cut her off, Ryujin and Yuna laughing with her.

Closing her eyes, Tori took a breath before looking at you. “I don’t know how to describe it. It sounds horrible in my head, I don’t think I can say it out loud, if I try I either look like a jealous bitch or a shitty girlfriend.”

Placing your other hand on top of the one you were already holding, you smiled something soft. “It’s okay,” you said. “Thoughts are one thing, actions are another.”

Tori frowned. “I love him, you know I do.”

“Tor, we all know that.”

She glanced away, collecting her thoughts. The booming voice of the sportscaster sounded over the speakers and the now full stands erupted into cheers. “We’ll talk later,” she said, forcing a smile onto her face as the Lions were called out onto the field, every person in the stadium leaping to their feet.

Adrenaline shot down your spine, your anxiety pushed aside by the excitement that buzzed within your heart. DK, the first to run out onto the field, shot a hand in the air, waving as the music blasted for their arrival, guiding them to their places on the field. Player after player, they ran out, hands in the air, greeting their fans, searching for their family in the stands, saying hello to cameras pointed their way. The field flooded with love from both players and fans.

Number seven hit the field, cleats in the grass, and your heart skipped a beat. This was it, the first game of the rest of his life. Brown curls popped out beneath his hat, curls you had your fingers in last night from the passenger seat of his car after Ryujin slammed her door shut and hurried up to your brother's house, Vernon dropping the two of you off after a shared dinner amongst friends. He took a second, pausing as the crowd went wild for him and his teammates. Tipping his chin backward, chocolate eyes wide, an absolute look of awe, he turned in a slow circle, attempting to look at every single person, until he found you.

The world went quiet around you, though everyone and your sisters still cheered with every ounce of power within them. A smile lit up his face, one he wouldn’t normally wear so publicly, too much emotion for people who didn’t know him. Watching him wear it now, taking in all the love the fans threw his way, you swore you could cry.

He was meant to go to first base, everyone was taking their places on the field, the other team was on their way out, but once he found you he was stuck. Glued to you. Drawn to you. He couldn’t even say hi to your friends, his friends, he hurried over and grabbed onto the net separating the two of you, beckoning you closer. Stepping up to the ledge, grabbing onto his fingers that poked through the net, you smiled.

“Girlfriend,” he whispered, pressing his nose to the scratchy yarn.

Leaning into him, doing the same, your noses brushing, you whispered, “Boyfriend,” with a giggle.

“This is fucking crazy,” he said. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

“I’m so happy you’re here,” you said. “You made it.”

“Fuck,” he gasped.

“Remember to breathe,” you whispered. “You can do this.”

Sucking down a breath, he released it all too fast, whispering, “I love you,” before pressing his lips to yours, unafraid to let everyone in the stadium in on the secret you two have been keeping for two weeks now. A secret that you’d try to keep, that both of you wanted to keep, for yourselves, and yourselves only.

Though you knew, after this, #visla would be trending faster than anything.

home;run masterlist | talk to me | ao3

you do not have permission to copy or translate my works without my consent.

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couldawouldashoulda50 · 5 months ago

Text

From Completely Different Worlds - The Sweden Chapter - Part Seven

Previous parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 In continuation of @misshoneyimhome's birthday celebration, here is Part 7 of The Sweden Chapter. This chapter had to be split in two, so I have entitled it "The Beginning of the End". The second part will be posted soon, and will be aptly titled "The End". Thank you, Sophia. You have been such an excellent co-creator and audience for this fic - which started out as just this random idea where I thought William and Loren would meet, he would be attracted to her and then the smut would delicious and fun and that would be it. I have so much appreciation for the engagement and notes on this fic and I have learned a great deal about the whole writing process with this story. Thanks to all who have taken the time to read these long-ass chapters.

Word count on this one - about 9k (sorry)

No real warnings except for some profanity.

The gravel crunched softly under the tires as William eased the car into the driveway of the Nylanders’ lake house. The rays from the late morning sun illuminated the deep red siding of the house, warming the south-western deck and the vibrant flower containers perched atop each support post.

In the backseat, Pablo was already on his hind legs, his tail wagging furiously, unable to contain his excitement. Banksy, always mimicking his dog sibling, had leapt into Loren’s lap the moment the car turned into the driveway, his wet nose streaking the window as he panted excitedly.

“Okay, boys—give me a sec! Jesus, you were just here not that long ago,” William said with a laugh, shifting the car into park.

Loren kissed Banksy’s head before opening the passenger door and stepping out to let Pablo free. The two dogs bolted from the car, zooming across the yard before finding a tree to lift a leg to. Their energy never failed to entertain Loren as she giggled to herself.

She stood for a moment, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. The light from the sun danced atop each peak of the tiny waves that formed on the lake, making the water shimmer like diamonds. This place - where William spent much of his off-season - a place that exuded fun-filled family gatherings and long-standing traditions. Loren had now been a small part of William’s off-season plans, and had fallen in love with this place, his family and friends, and dare she even think about the depths of her feelings for William. But the reality was Loren had no idea what the future might bring. Her chest heavy with emotion as the thought hit her: this might be the last time she’d ever see this view.

William rounded the car and paused when he saw her. Loren was clearly lost in thought, her gaze fixed on the lake, the sun catching her long, light brown hair and the bronze of her exposed skin. He didn’t say anything right away, just watched her quietly.

William startled her as he approached her from behind. “You ok?”

Loren could feel the pin prick of tears threatening, so she bit the inside of her lip and nodded.

William wasn’t buying it. He soothingly rubbed her shoulders and pulled her back into his chest. “What is it - what’s going on?”

Loren placed her hands over his. “Please don’t take this like I’m hinting at anything…but I’ve loved every single second that I’ve been here, and it’s just - I know I’m really going to miss it,” she said softly. “I have had the most amazing and incredible time everywhere we've gone….but I think here has been my favourite.”

William knew in his heart that he wanted Loren to come back next off-season. And the one after that, and every one beyond that stretching long into the future. Somehow though, he and Loren had ended up in this situationship. Looking back, he could see how they had evolved into it, but William knew the time had come for them to communicate what they wanted from one another. A pang of anxiousness rippled through his stomach—a rare feeling for him, and a sign that he wasn’t entirely sure of their outcome. That uncertainty alone went against everything in William’s nature.

Before William could say anything, Loren first kissed his hand, then turned towards him and kissed him lightly on the mouth. And without saying a word, she grabbed the bags of groceries from the trunk for the French versus Swedish sandwich showdown that Michael and Loren had planned.

William followed with the rest of the bags, smiling to himself as he heard Camilla’s joy-filled greeting when Loren walked through the front door.

The plan for the next handful of days before Loren’s departure was simple: they would stay put at the lake house, letting family and friends come to them to catch up and visit. That day’s social agenda would begin with lunch for four - Michael, Camilla, Loren and William. The afternoon would be free to relax and then just before dinnertime, a rather large gathering had been planned with all the siblings, extended family, and friends from far and wide.

In William’s room, Loren began to unpack a few things while William chatted with his parents. He entered the room and quietly closed the door behind him.

Gazing at her with the air of a slightly cocky smirk, he leaned against his door.

A crooked grin formed on her mouth. “Are you allowed to be alone with girls in your bedroom?”

William failed miserably at looking innocent “It’s happened once or twice….my parents haven’t said anything yet.”

Loren slowly slid her teeth along her bottom lip. “And these what - one or two girls that you were left alone with, were they well behaved or a little naughty?”

William raised an eyebrow, his smirk deepening into a grin as he pushed off the door. He stopped just short of her, his hands sliding casually into his pockets as his gaze lingered on hers. “Depends on your definition of naughty - I mean, which one are you?” he asked, his voice dropping to the low gravelly tone that always sent a shiver down her spine.

Loren slipped out of her clothing, dawning a light pink mesh bra with matching panties. William’s cock twitched and his mouth fell open. Earlier that morning, Loren was fully dressed when he returned from walking the dogs - it never occurred to him that she might be wearing something that tantalizing underneath her jeans and light sweater.

She turned to him, her fingers grazing the waistband of his jeans. “I’ll be whatever you make me in the moment - nice or naughty - whatever you want,” she purred before breaking out into a teasing smile.

William chuckled followed by a low moan. He wet his lips and swallowed as he looked down at her beautiful breasts, sliding his hands from his pockets to her waist. His hands continued to move upward along her ribcage before they landed on both mounds. “You’re making it hard - “ William paused sheepishly for effect “to decide what I want, that is.”

Loren ran her hands up under William’s shirt, her nails grazing his skin trailing a path back down over the ridges of his muscles.

“Fuck it - I want both. You can be - do - whatever you want,” William murmured against her lips before lifting her up, kissing her in the process.

William gently set her back down, adjusting the crotch of his jeans as she casually went about changing into older clothes to do some cooking in.

As she dressed, Loren’s eyes trailed down to the outline of his hardness showing by his zipper and huffed out a small laugh.

William looked down at his aroused member and looked back at Loren. “This is all on you…..”

Pulling her hair into a loose bun, Loren did her best “Poor baby” expression as she pulled on her leggings and then her sneakers. “I might’ve helped you with that but a) I’m half in charge for lunch; b) i wouldn’t want your parents to regret not putting us in separate rooms; and c) you know as well as I do that I like to take my time with…him…” Loren nodded towards William’s member.

William grinned but his heart twisted a little. He loved the banter; it was always good-natured and he loved how their humour always seemed to mesh well. But watching her move effortlessly around the room - it felt like she had always been there with him. There was something about the way she fit into his life so naturally that made him reel a little.

Loren approached him suggestively . Trying to keep the moment light, William joked “I know what you’re gonna say. You gonna tell me how gorgeous I am.”

Loren stepped closer, kissed him lightly, and let her lips linger just long enough to make him wish she hadn’t stopped. “You’re annoyingly perfect, William Nylander,” doing her best Swedish accent on his last name. “Are you coming out now?”

He chuckled at her enunciation of his last name. “Be there in a sec.”

When Loren left the room, her soft laugh blending with his dad’s voice from the kitchen, William stayed where he was for a moment.

If inviting Loren to Sweden acted as some kind of litmus test in their relationship, Loren passed it with flying colors. She hadn’t just fit into his world—she’d thrived in it.

William discovered a boundless happiness when in her presence. He was so proud to have her on his arm. It wasn’t just her classic beauty that caught people’s attention—she carried herself with an incredible grace. She was genuine, unassuming, and utterly captivating in a way that made her stand out from anyone he’d ever known.

He was intensely attracted to her—not just physically, though that part was undeniable. She matched his energy with her own kind of fire, one that burned bright and steady. She was as sexually charged as he was but with an extra layer of something that left him breathless.

The list of things he saw in her only seemed to grow the more he got to know her.

But all of those feelings were tangled up in the ache he felt whenever he thought about her leaving. It was a weight that had settled on his chest since the moment he realized how much he wanted her to stay. He hated the idea of saying goodbye—of spending the last weeks of his off-season without her here.

He knew she couldn’t stay. Loren had commitments back home, a life that was just as important to her as hockey was to him. But knowing that didn’t make it any easier.

William sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to process the whirlwind of emotions she stirred in him. Shaking it off, he pushed himself off the wall and headed toward the kitchen, the sound of her infection giggle making his heart swell once more.

The kitchen boasted clean lines of typical Scandinavian design with sleek white cabinetry and subtle wood accents. The large windows overlooking the lake provided the perfect amount of natural light and gave the space a calm, inviting feel. A long island with a butcher block countertop stood at the center, flanked by bar stools and lined with an assortment of ingredients for lunch.

Loren and Michael stood at the counter having a quick sip of wine as he regaled her with stories of his family and their extensive travels. They began to arrange the ingredients for their respective dishes - Michael’s signature räksmörgås—shrimp sandwiches that William had grown up loving and Loren with the Croque Monsieur that she made William during her brief stay with him at the start of the playoffs.

William leaned against the island beside Camilla, sipping a glass of wine as he watched the easy flow of conversation between Loren and his dad. The space felt alive with laughter and the clatter of utensils. This was the kind of moment William had longed for in his dating life. The object of all of his affection and desires beside the patriarch of their close knit family.

“Loren and your father get along so well,” Camilla remarked with a gentle smile, nodding toward the counter.

William huffed a soft laugh. “Yeah, they’re both in their element—it’s really awesome to see, eh?”

Camilla glanced at him, her expression thoughtful. “It is. She’s really quite something, William.”

Her tone was light, but hearing those words coming from his mother carried weight, which settled somewhere deep in his chest. He swirled the wine in his glass, the familiar ache creeping back as he thought about how temporary this moment felt.

Loren caught his eye from across the room and smiled, a soft, knowing look that made his chest both tighten and relax at the same time.

[In Swedish] “I’m going to step outside for a bit,” William quietly said, topping up the wine in his glass.

Camilla knew not to press him while he tried to work out whatever was in his head. She watched him in silence as he walked toward the deck.

William leaned against the railing, looking out over the lake as the breeze made intricate designs atop the water’s surface.

He looked around at the Edison and fairy lights that hung loosely around the branches and tree trunks throughout the property. Once dusk hits, they’re going to look fantastic he mused to himself. It seemed the family had been rather busy while William and Loren were away decorating, prepping buffet tables and the large fire pit with dry brush for the large get together that evening with friends and family.

After tossing back the remnants of wine into his mouth, he absentmindedly rolled the empty wine glass lightly between his hands as his thoughts swirled. He’d never been one to dwell on the “what ifs” in life, but with Loren, it felt impossible not to.

The soft creak of the screen door behind him broke his train of thought. He didn’t need to turn around to know it was his mom.

“Please don’t break my wine glass, William,” Camilla said teasingly. She knew William was smiling at her quip. “You’ve been a little quiet,” Camilla continued softly, stepping onto the deck with her own glass of wine. She slid onto one of the lounge chairs near him and shielded her eyes from the sun as she at William, patiently awaiting his response.

William smiled faintly, setting his empty glass down on the railing. “Just... thinking.”

Camilla nodded, her expression warm. “About?”

Glancing down at the deck boards, he repeatedly stepped on the loose board before meeting her gaze. “About Loren.”

Camilla took a sip of her wine, waiting for him to continue.

“I’m not used to this feeling - like how strong these feelings are, and how quickly it’s all happened. Even asking her to come here - when I asked her if she could come to visit... it had told her it was because I missed her,” William admitted after a moment. “And I did - but it was weird, because it felt like I had to have her come here. I was so anxious to see what it would feel like having her here with me—if she would get along with everyone…..if everyone would like her. I mean, how shitty would it be to start seeing her at the start of next season, only to bring her here next summer and she hates it here? Or worse yet, what if there were issues between you guys and her…I don’t know if I could handle that. Especially not after the last one.”

Camilla nodded as she listened to William rhyme off his thoughts.

She took a sip of wine. “And? What do you think now?” Camilla asked, her tone gentle.

William sighed as he lowered himself into an adjacent chair. “She fits in better than I ever could’ve imagined.”

Camilla nodded once again.

William continued. “But it’s more than that—it’s her. It’s like getting to spend this time with her has sort of confirmed all the good things that I thought I saw when I first met her - even more actually. At the beginning - she was pretty shy and just so…” William gestured that Loren was a bit wide-eyed when she first met him. “But God, Mom - I feel like I can relax around her. We can talk or not talk or laugh about stupid shit. She’s just—she’s so easy to be with. The only thing is that it just feels like a lot... a lot because it happened pretty quickly. I wasn’t expecting any of this, and neither was she.”

Camilla smiled knowingly, setting her glass down beside her. “I think it’s good that neither of you were expecting it. William, you’ve found someone that you genuinely enjoy being around. - that is a good thing.”

William glanced out at the lake, his voice softer now. “It feels weird to think this, let alone say it but - I don’t want her to leave. ”

Camilla’s smile faded slightly, her expression shifting to one of understanding. “It’s not a bad thing that she has her own life, William. You’ll both have to find a way to balance that as time goes on.”

“I know,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “I'm a bit worried too that my life - it’s a lot for her to have to deal with. It’s not like we started dating when we were younger so she could ease into what my life is like now. It freaks me out sometimes - I don’t want anything to screw this up.”

Camilla reached over, placing a hand on his arm. “Loren strikes me as a woman that can weather the highs and lows of being in a relationship with you, and everything in between. She sees who you are - and what you are - and I feel that is such an important thing, as the two sometimes can be very different. I’m not telling you what to do or how to feel. If you are honest with yourself of what you truly want, that’s half the battle. The other half is talking to her about how you feel….to find out if she’s wanting the same thing. But I see the way you two look at each other - the way you are around each other - I think you've found something really special.”

William glanced at her, the weight in his chest easing just slightly at her reassurance.

“Thanks, Mom,” he said quietly, a small appreciative smile spanned his face.

Camilla squeezed his arm gently before picking up her glass. “Of course, älskling.” She stood, pausing briefly before heading back inside.

William stayed on the deck a little longer, letting the lake view calm his insides, and he grinned to himself as the sounds of laughter and delicious smells wafted from inside.

As it went, the sandwich showdown was a success as it was no longer about choosing a “winner” between the two options. Michael’s shrimp sandwiches had quickly become Loren’s favorite, though Michael and Camilla couldn’t stop praising the Croque Monsieur she’d prepared, calling it a decadent, once-in-a-while treat. William indulged in it all and had to change into some looser track pants to feel a little more comfortable afterwards.

—

Cleaning up from lunch, William and Loren moved effortlessly around the kitchen, their movements in a natural rhythm as if they’d done this a hundred times before. Michael scrolled through messages on his phone at the counter, and Loren smiled to herself, thinking, like father, like son.

While sipping wine and exchanging family stories, the three of them had formed an assembly line: Loren washing, William drying, and Camilla putting away the larger pots and pans that couldn’t go into the dishwasher.

The rich aroma from the three slow cookers, each filled with Swedish meatballs, wafted through the space, making Loren’s mouth water despite still being full from lunch. There was enough to feed half of Sweden—or at least the Nylander and Altelius families, which felt just as large.

The conversation during lunch, which incidentally revolved around food, delved into Loren’s French-centric upbringing and the cuisine which went along with it. The Nylanders could understand and appreciate this element well, being very Swedish-centric themselves. Michael wanted to know more about the decadent dishes that Loren had learned to make since she was young, which incorporated an interesting fusion between traditional Quebec and Parisian cuisine. With the mere mention of a recipe for a popular side-dish that Loren often made for large gatherings in the past, dauphinoise potatoes, Camilla was convinced that it would be a wonderful addition to the buffet scheduled that evening. Loren was soon making a list of ingredients, and with the promise of making them that evening (which pleased Loren to no end to do), Camilla and Michael ventured off to run the last minute errands.

Once Michael’s car was out of sight, William turned to Loren, opening his arms for a hug. Loren stepped into his embrace and with her arms wrapping around him, her hands trailed up his muscular back. She closed her eyes, enjoyed the peace of the moment and just breathed him in.

William kissed the top of her head. “I think it’s time for a nap. Are you tired? There’s a hammock we can both squeeze into…we can watch the lake and doze.”

“Mmm….I can always sleep….and I’ll never give up a chance to nap with you.” Loren replied affectionately, tilting her head up to kiss him sweetly.

Loren meandered out to the hammock with both dogs in tow, while William fetched a blanket. Despite the warmth of the afternoon sun, there was a crispness to the breeze which implied autumn was not far off.

Although she was skeptical at first with how comfortable the hammock would be for one person, let alone two adults and two dogs, the four were soon cocooned all together under the blanket with relative ease. Loren lay on her side, her head resting on a small pliable pillow in the crook of William’s underarm. William had strategically, yet comfortably, wrapped his arms around Loren. With the lake as a serene backdrop, she felt William’s chest rise and fall with every steady breathe as sleep found him first.

As Loren lay in William’s arms, her thoughts wandered to the future. The Sweden fairytale would end tomorrow, and the uncertainty of what came next weighed heavy. She’d ignored asking all the “uncomfortable” questions with her ex, and look where that had gotten her.

Perhaps a new one would begin for her and William in Toronto, but deep down, she couldn’t bet on any of it.

Maybe he’d ghost her.

Maybe he’ll keep playing the field after she leaves.

Maybe she is just one woman out of many that he spends time with.

Maybe it’s all of the above. Maybe it’s none of it.

She knew she was too far gone with her feelings for William to ignore the questions that rattled in her head. She had ignored similar questions with her ex, suppressing every single one until it was too late. And look where that had gotten her.

William shifted, his hand which rested on her hip squeezed her playfully and then slid up her backside. She felt him pause, tilt his head downward, and pressed a long kiss against her forehead. “Are you awake?” William whispered.

Loren nodded and smiled against the warmth of his shirt, running her hand along his torso.

She asked if he was comfortable. William responded with a low chuckle “I’m so comfortable that I might consider not moving for the rest of the day.”

William lay in silence, breathing in the fresh air and Loren’s light fragrance of her hair.

Before talking herself out of it, and with a lot of hesitation and trepidation, she began asking William questions, starting off with the ones that had been circling in her mind that afternoon.

Unsure of how the Q & A would go, or where it would lead, Loren jumped in feet first with asking William about the plethora of women for pro-athletes.

She would just have to work her way back from that.

—

The next morning, Loren woke with a dry mouth and a faint headache pounding in the background, though it hadn’t fully committed yet. Squinting against the bright morning light streaming through the curtains, she turned her head just enough to spot William sprawled on his stomach, the blanket wadded up by his arm, and one leg partially hanging off the bed. His hair stuck up in every direction, and his face was smushed against the pillow in a way that made her smile.

Stretching slowly, Loren let her eyes wander over the room as the memories of the previous night came flooding back. The dancing, the singing, the laughter—it had been one of the most joy-filled evenings she could remember.

Her gaze drifted back to William, who stirred slightly as if sensing her attention. His eyes opened just a crack, dark and bleary from the night before. “Mmm... morning,” he croaked through his dry throat.

“Morning,” Loren replied, her voice raspy. She reached for the glass of water on her nightstand, only to find it empty. “Ugh. I need water.”

William’s lips curved into a sleepy grin. “Hungover? Pretty sure I saw you and Mom clearing out the wine supply last night. You two are a bad influence on each other.”

Loren laughed softly then winced, her headache starting to win the battle. She found a stray bottle of water in her bag and climbed back into bed, draping an arm across his bare back. “It’s your mom - I couldn’t keep up with her and your aunts if I tried. Did you see us? I’m shocked I even have a voice left after belting out the words to every ABBA song on the playlist.”

“Of course I saw you.” William rolled onto his side, propping his head up on one hand as his other hand rested lightly on Loren’s waist. “Dad and I were watching you guys - I think he got some footage of you and Mom, too. Fucking total maniacs.”

Loren grinned, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “She’s amazing. Honestly, the whole night was amazing. I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun.”

William chuckled, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Well, I think the champagne punch might’ve helped. Not that it did me any favors—you passed out before you could make good on all the promises you whispered to me and Cowboy Bill.”

Loren cocked her head to the side and rolled her eyes. “It was you and your dad that kept topping up our glasses - so you sabotaged yourself.”

“It was sort of worth it, though - you get all mushy and sentimental when you’re hammered,” William teased as he buried his face in her neck. “You’re so perfect William, you could line up every man on the planet and there would none as perfect as you, perfect body, perfect mind - Cowboy Bill - perfect,” William mimicked Loren’s voice as he rhymed off her drunken musings.

Loren pretended to pout, pushing him lightly on the chest. “You’re making fun of me on my last day here? Maybe I overestimated you and your perfection. A perfect man would lay me back and tell me how good those words made him feel. No, wait - he would show me how good those words made him feel - ”

“Ohhhhhh - come here, don’t be like that,” William said, his shit-eating grin widening as he rolled her onto her back and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You telling me how perfect you think I am, took me out.” His eyes scanned her face. “And coming from you, phew…that’s really something.”

Loren rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress her smile. “I’m sorry I let Cowboy Bill down last night.”

William groaned, pulling her closer. “If we didn’t have my parents expecting us downstairs, you could be making it up to him right now…”

—

As noon faded into mid-afternoon, the activity around the lake house began to quiet. One by one, cars were packed, and heartfelt “until next times” were exchanged.

Many of William’s extended family gathered around Loren, each embracing her warmly as they wished her well.

One of Camilla’s sisters squeezed Loren’s hand gently. “Safe travels back to Canada, Loren. I hope we can all keep in touch and that we’ll see you again next summer. So, no goodbyes—just ‘see you soon.’”

Loren’s throat tightened as she tried to steady her voice. “I hope so too. It’s been so wonderful to meet you all.”

Even William’s youngest cousins, who Loren had spent hours playing with to give their parents a much-needed reprieve, came bounding up, forming a little line as they waited their turn to hug her.

William stood behind Loren as they watched another wave of cars disappear down the driveway. His hands rested lightly on her hips, squeezing gently - both playfully to lighten the mood, and reassuringly. He could see Loren holding back her emotions as the thoughts of her own impending departure weighed on her shoulders. His hands didn’t stray far from her as they joined his friends out on the wrap-around deck.

The mood was light despite most of the group nursing varying levels of hangovers. The previous night had been one of the last big blowouts before the end of summer, with William’s loved ones leading the charge until most had passed out in one way or another. Alex and Lisa were nowhere to be seen, seemingly sleeping off the effects of drunkenly seeing the sunrise that morning.

William and Loren shared a lounge chair, with him leaning back comfortably between her legs. Loren did her best to soak in every moment, appreciating not just the view of the lake but the warmth of William’s hands resting on her thighs and the solid weight of his body against hers. She focused on memorizing every detail—the tone of his voice as he and Rasmus discussed the upcoming hockey season, the occasional laughter that lit up his face, and the feeling of being right there with him in this fleeting moment.

As the men’s conversation deepened into offseason trades and team strategies, Malin took it upon herself to slip into the chair next to Loren and William. With a wave of her hand, she shooed William away. “Go sit with the boys so we can have some girl time.”

William chuckled, giving Loren’s thigh one last squeeze before moving to take Lisa’s spot beside Rasmus, while Loren and the women settled into their own conversations.

Lisa smiled at Loren as she made herself comfortable at the end of the lounge chair. “So, are you looking forward to going back home?”

“Hmmm,” Loren said thoughtfully. “In some ways, yes—I miss my house, and I’m excited to see my parents and friends. But honestly, you’ve all made it really hard not to want to stay. You ladies are amazing, and I’m so thankful I’ve met you.”

Malin’s bottom lip turned downward in an exaggerated pout as she leaned over and rested her head on Loren’s shoulder. “You’re making me cry,” she said with a chuckle. “So, what this all means is that you have to come back. Stay longer next time. I mean, everything I’ve seen points to you and William coming back together, but if it doesn’t work out, you can always stay with me.”

“Or me! Oh my gosh, I’d love for you to come back,” Ingrid added enthusiastically.

The women cooed and leaned in for a group hug, earning a round of mocking jeers from the men across the deck.

“I’m gonna miss you, man,” Emil declared loudly, pulling William into an exaggerated hug and pretending to shed a tear. Rasmus joined in, dabbing at his eyes dramatically as he patted William on the back.

“You guys are such assholes, honestly,” Ingrid said, rolling her eyes at their clowning.

The group traded good-natured jabs until the laughter finally died down. Emil stood and stretched, announcing he was heading home. Loren approached him with a wide grin to say goodbye, and William clapped him on the back for a quick hug.

“Thanks for coming,” William said, smiling warmly. “Let’s hit the rink later this week—then grab some lunch after.”

“Sounds good,” Emil replied before turning his attention to Loren. His feelings for her had started to fade, but he still couldn’t help admiring everything about her. As he hugged her tightly—mindful of William’s presence—he couldn’t help but think of how rare it was to meet someone like her.

“It was such a pleasure to meet you, Emil,” Loren said, her grin lighting up her face.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you—I listened to that Canadian blues guy you mentioned. Incredible guitar. Loved his voice.”

Loren’s eyes lit up with excitement. “I’m so glad you liked him! He’s not super well-known, even in Canada, but I think he’s ridiculously talented.”

“Get William to give you my number,” Emil said. “If you think of anyone else you think I might like, send me a message, okay?”

William, standing behind Loren with his hand resting at the small of her back, nodded. “Yeah, for sure…I’ll pass it along.”

Emil flashed one last warm smile at Loren before saying goodbye to the rest of the group and heading out.

Before long, the group had dwindled down to just Rasmus and Lisa. As wonderful as it was to have all of William’s closest friends and their girlfriends around, there was something comforting about the particular closeness shared between William and Rasmus, and Loren and Lisa.

As the four of them relaxed on the deck, William casually offered for Rasmus and Lisa to stay a little longer. [In Swedish] “Pasta and Rebecca are coming for dinner tonight with little Freya,” he said, referring to current NHL star David Pastrnak, affectionately known league-wide as “Pasta” and one of his closest friends, and his wife. “You’re more than welcome to stay for dinner - catch up a bit from their wedding.” William quickly translated for Loren after the fact.

[In English] “Would love to but my brother’s coming with his girlfriend for a barbeque tonight at our place. Shit - seeing Pasta would be awesome.”

“Oh - I have seen pictures of Freya,” Lisa turned to Loren “she’s so sweet, an absolute doll. So is Rebecca, she’s really nice - you’ll like her.”

Camilla stepped onto the deck from the sliding door. [In Swedish] “Sorry for interrupting. William, can you help your Dad and I carry that bookcase you asked for out to the car? We’re going to drop it off at your place and then take the girls out for dinner.”

Rasmus stood up before William and offered to help as well. Soon the four friends were hauling out a very unique and beautiful vintage Scandinavian bookcase which William had discovered tucked away in storage at the beginning of the summer.

Michael and Camilla approached Loren for a hug. “We’ll see you tomorrow for brunch, and this time, I just want you to sit and relax. You’ve got a long day ahead of you,” Michael smiled.

Loren and Camilla exchanged a knowing smile. After drinking far more than either of them was accustomed to the night before, their brief meeting earlier that morning had included a silent acknowledgment—a shared camaraderie between two women who partied hard and were now paying the price.

With the remaining family splitting up between two vehicles—including Alex and Lisa, who still looked groggy and in desperate need of more sleep—the last of the hugs were exchanged, and soon they were on their way.

Lisa approached Loren for one final hug, holding her tightly. “We’ll absolutely figure out a way to get together,” she said confidently. “After all, D.C. isn’t that far from Toronto - oooh - if William’s away, you can come down….we can keep you company.

Rasmus opened his arms for Loren as well. His embrace was sincere and full of warmth.

“If he misbehaves, you make sure you tell me. He thinks he can make my life miserable during the game, but I know a million ways to get under his skin too.” He pulled back slightly “It was awesome to meet you, Loren. And Lisa’s serious - she would love the company when I’m on the road, so maybe you ladies can figure out plans to get together.”

Loren beamed with the thought of all the newfound friendships she had made in the past two weeks. “I would absolutely love that. Honestly, you all have been so incredible. Thank you for making my time here so special.” Loren fought against the tightness in her throat. This is just getting harder and harder she thought.

After Rasmus drove off, their hands still waving out of the window as they disappeared from sight, it was just Loren, William and his furry four-legged boys.

Each of them took a deep breath as their eyes locked for a brief moment. William snaked his arm around Loren’s waist as they walked toward the house. Loren slid her hand over one of his firm ass cheeks, tapping it affectionately, and smiled when William’s grip on her hip tightened in response.

The reality that time was slipping away faster than grains of sand in an hourglass was palpable. In less than 24 hours, Loren would be awaiting the call to board at the departure gate at Arlanda Airport.

William silently resolved to make the most of Loren’s remaining hours in Sweden. Their future didn’t have to be figured out in one night, but he knew one thing for certain—he needed to make his intentions clear. It was time to find out how Loren truly felt about being in his life, not just as “romantic Interest”, but as his girlfriend.

—

“Awh—look at Pablo,” Loren said, nodding toward the dog bed. “He lays just like you when you’re passed out on your back. Legs wide open.”

William chuckled, not missing a beat. “Nothing like having a nap and airing out the boys. It’s multitasking.”

Loren nearly spit her wine out, choking on a laugh as the glass clinked against the counter. Pablo, startled by the sudden sound, perked up briefly before settling back into his sprawled position.

“Sorry, buddy,” Loren said, walking over to the makeshift perch she’d set up for the dogs to allow them a clear view of all the kitchen activities. She stood beside Pablo, scratching his belly in apology before kissing Banksy’s head for good measure. Returning to the island, she resumed chopping carrots for the evening’s dish—a Swedish beef stew called Kalops.

Loren chuckled to herself. “I can just picture it now—on a low-key day, you three, and now Alex, lounging around on the couch at your place... a bunch of furry balls being air-dried. Nice.”

“Mine aren’t furry,” William countered without hesitation. “I took care of them in the shower yesterday... but you wouldn’t know since you fed Cowboy Bill a bunch of false promises last night. He’s still upset about it too.”

Loren lifted her head, staring straight ahead as if she was deeply unimpressed with William’s teasing. “I already apologized to Cowboy Bill—face to mmm... you know—but it’s you who owes my mmm-mmm down there an apology for getting me so hammered she missed out on a wild ride.”

The kitchen settled into an easy silence, broken only by the rhythmic sound of Loren chopping vegetables and the sizzle of beef cubes browning in the skillet.

“So... how do you say ‘furry balls’ in Swedish?” Loren asked, deadpan.

William’s inner voice howled in amusement, his lips twitching as he tried to suppress a laugh. “Luddiga bollar,” he replied, his tone mock-serious, though his shoulders shook with silent amusement.

Loren’s laughter spilled out, thankfully avoiding startling the dogs once more. “I can’t tell if that’s legit or if you’re just trying to make me sound ridiculous.”

William smirked, still focused on the pan. “You’ll have to say it to my dad tomorrow at brunch to find out.”

Loren’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped as she flung a carrot top towards him.

William turned the burner off and removed the pan from the heat. Approaching Loren, he reached out, lightly pinning her hips against the counter. She set the knife down, her expression softening as his presence enveloped her.

“Furry balls aside, there’s some more important things you should learn to say in Swedish,” he murmured, brushing his lips against hers. “Like how to answer some questions I’ll probably be asking you regularly once I'm back in Toronto—but I will be asking them in Swedish.”

Her hands slid under his shirt, grazing the toned muscles along his sides as she smiled, her voice full of both curiosity and desire. “For example?”

William’s gaze locked on hers, his tone low and sincere. “Well, I know your schedule’s crazy, so I’d probably ask when I can see you, how long I can see you for, if you can stay the night—or the whole day. Maybe if I can crash at your place instead. And then there’s ‘Can you come to any games that week?’ or ‘Can you stay a few days?’...” He paused before leaning in for a slow, lingering kiss. Breaking away just to speak softly against her lips, he added, “And, of course, ‘Do you like it when I do this to you?’” His tongue lightly grazed the tip of hers - and with that one moves, she knew he wanted to use his tongue on a spot a little lower on her body.

Loren’s cheeks flushed and her pulse quickened, her fingers pressed against his sides. She wasn’t one to jump to conclusions, but something about William’s words felt less like a list of ‘What If’s’ and more like a promise.

“But I already know the word for ‘Yes’ in Swedish,” she said softly.

William tilted his head, his mouth brushing her jawline before finding her ear. “You’re just going to answer ‘Yes’ to everything?”

“Ja,” she whispered, her lips curling into a smile as her fingers tightened around his shirt. “Most of those questions just need ‘Ja’ or ‘Nej,’ but in my case... ‘Ja, ja, ja... hmmm... Ja.’”

In the background, the opening lyrics of Post Malone’s 'Stay' filled the room, a reminder of the long make-out sessions that had marked the beginning of her and William’s connection.

For William, it encapsulated such significant meaning in that moment because it’s exactly what he wanted her to do.

Loren rested her forehead against William’s collarbone as they began to sway. William’s one hand traveled up her spine, eventually finding its way to the back of her hair, while the other pulled her in closer around her waist.

Nearing the end of the song, a car horn beeped repetitively and William and Loren quickly snapped back to reality. Sharing one more tender kiss, they washed their hands and hurriedly followed the dogs to the door to greet the Pastrnak’s.

—

“So - you finished up with all of your interviews now?” William asked, sitting across from his long-time friend, David Pastrnak, at the dining table.

The two right-wing forwards, who have been friends for almost 15 years but play for rival NHL teams, were being featured together in the first episode of a upcoming documentary series.

“All done - you did yours too, right?” David asked, as he poured more wine into his wife’s glass and subsequently Loren’s.

“Yeah, right after your wedding. Fuck dude, your wedding - that was one of the best nights man - ah Loren, I wish you could have seen it,” William said, a touch ruefully.

Loren turned to Rebecca. “I saw pictures and reels on Instagram - Croatia looks incredible. I keep on thinking of the scenery…it looked magical…like a place out of a fairy tale.”

Rebecca pulled out her phone to show her some additional pictures as Loren openly and enthusiastically admired how stunning Rebecca looked, the colour scheme, the flowers - everything.

Loren began talking to Freya. “Did you see your momma and daddy? Absolutely beautiful - just like you.” Loren walked her fingers along the tray on Freya’s high chair, punctuating “just like you” on each button of her onesie.

Freya’s face lit up with a smile and a hearty giggle, and Loren’s did the same. Soon, they were copying each other, their fits of belly laughs growing louder with each motion. No one at the table could withstand the contagious sound of their joy, and before long, everyone was joining in.

Once the laughter had died down, Rebecca rather impressively instructed the two men to clean up the table while the ladies retreated to the living room with Freya and their wine. William and David looked at each other with slight resignation.

“Yes, Boss Lady,” David said with a mix of sarcasm and defiance as they slowly rose from the table and began gathering plates and cutlery.

They were fairly efficient for about a minute before William grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge, handed one to David, and waved dismissively at the rest of the mess. “We’ll get to it later,” he stated, and with that, the two strutted out onto the deck.

Having settled on the living room sofa with Freya and their wine, Loren and Rebecca exchanged a certain look before their gaze fell on their respective men’s muscular rear-ends. In silence, they toasted each other with a knowing grin and took a long sip of their wine.

—

David motioned toward the empty chair across from him as William handed over a fresh beer. “So, she leaves tomorrow?” David asked, twisting off the cap.

William settled into the chair and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Yeah—flight’s at five in the afternoon. She had this insane thirty-hour return trip booked because it was the cheapest, but I rebooked her on a direct flight. Took some convincing, though. She’s stubborn as hell about letting me pay for anything.”

David leaned back, resting his bottle on the deck. “Okay, so she’s got pride and is stubborn. Anything else you figure out over the past weeks?”

William grinned, swiping condensation from his beer bottle. “Well, I think I figured out….I love hanging out with her. She’s got this - I don’t know, it’s like she’s a mix of every kind of goodness rolled into one person. It’s crazy.” David raised an eyebrow, smirking at his friend’s almost bashful admittance. “And now, seeing her with my family, with you guys - the rest of my friends—it’s just easy, you know? Like I don’t have to worry about entertaining her or think ‘oh fuck - keep her away from this person or that or else shit’s gonna happen’ - know what I mean? She wants to make a good impression but she’s so…genuine? Does that make sense?” William looked over his shoulder through the sliding glass doors. Loren was on the floor playing with Freya while Rebecca took the opportunity and enjoyed a glass of wine.

David nodded. He had only just met Loren but he could already see exactly what William was talking about. “Okay, but what’s the not-so-great stuff? She’s gotta have... what are these things... flaws? Y’know, like, she’s not gonna be perfect 24/7.” His tone was teasing—he hadn’t seen William this moony over a woman in a long time—but there was a hint of seriousness beneath it. Playing devil’s advocate, David wanted to keep his friend’s thoughts grounded.

William leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he stretched his back. “I don’t know if I’d call them flaws—she’s just... different. In a good way, if that makes sense?”

David motioned for William to keep going. “Gimme an example,” David said, reaching for another beer from the cooler that sat between them, grabbing another for William in the process.

“Okay - like she’s had some really shitty stuff go on in the past with this guy…he was pretty awful to her - like pretty fucking bad but could be worse type of guy. She got past it - she works hard - like tons of hours to pay the bills. She’s made a really nice home for herself and she keeps things simple. But sometimes she is really in her head, or she was a lot when I first met her. She worries a lot about things that I probably wouldn’t give a shit about. But, that’s what makes her, her. Sometimes simple things really stress her out, and yet other times, she’s super chill.” William took a long swig of beer and then glanced at David as he considered the traits William rhymed off about Loren.

David cocked an eyebrow. “Okay, so can you see something happening with her when you get back to Toronto? Our lives - are not easy to deal with. Especially yours - for me, people just wave and say hi, like they know me but they just go on with their day. You, my friend, have always had women that will do anything to be near you. Whatever Rebecca has seen being my girlfriend, it’s going to be much harder for Loren. Have you talked to her about that?”

William rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. “That’s kind of what I’m worried the most about. Not whether she can handle it, but whether she even wants to. Like - I know how she feels about me, as a person. But yeah, she’s already had a taste of the hockey player side of things - I still can’t believe I made her feel like she was the distraction when my game sort of went to shit back in April.” William silently cringed at the memory. “But I know she’s thinking about what it will mean for her being in a relationship with me. Fuck, yesterday, we were in the hammock all afternoon, just talking and hanging out, and she came right out with it. Asked me how it worked with athletes and women.”

David raised his eyebrows, wondering what direction the conversation in the hammock went in.

“She asked - and I’m not joking - ‘Is it you guys just wanting to get your dick wet just because there’s like never-ending pussy that are accessible to you?”

David choked on his beer, laughing. “She said that?”

“Yup,” William said, shaking his head. “And not even like she was accusing me of anything—more like she was trying to understand how it all works.”

David looked over William’s shoulder at Loren, trying to connect the dots between Loren’s sweet disposition and her apparent potty mouth. “So, what did you say?”

“I told her the truth,” William replied. “That there’s a lot of factors—pressures from inside the locker room, the lifestyle, the fans... but yeah, mostly, it’s just constantly being offered.”

David made a cringe expression. “How did she answer?”

“She didn’t say anything for the longest time,” William said. “And then finally, she asked ‘But is fucking random women that amazing that you guys just want to sleep around all the time? Like, I get it - it’s sex with beautiful women - and some women will do anything you want just to get with you - but is the sex really that good?’”

David and William exchanged knowing glances. “I just said ‘Fuck - not always…I’ve regretted some for sure’” William said, a smirk tugging on his lips. Silence hung in the air for a moment until both men burst out laughing. They had exchanged a number of ‘war stories’ of their female conquests over the years.

“But fuck, as she's asking these questions, I'm getting nervous, right? Like I used to fool around and stuff years ago…I wasn't sure if she was going to ask me how many girls I've been with or if I ever cheated or what. So I just sort of asked her - does she think if we're together that I'm going to fuck around on her? Then she hit me with something and I’m still thinking about it now.”

David's eyes widened with a mix of amusement and anticipation.

“She just said she doesn’t have this “magic pussy” that would keep me from cheating - if I wanted to cheat that is. And then she said—‘You’re going to do whatever you want to do….none of it is in my control.’”

David’s brow furrowed, his grin fading. “That’s...hmmm - wow. What did you say to that?”

William hesitated, taking another sip of his beer. “I didn’t know what to say at first. But she wasn’t done. She said she doesn’t get the appeal of having a roster of women. She said instead of having a thousand women, wouldn’t it be better to have one woman a thousand ways? And then she just kissed me and said, ‘I guess that’s just me.’”

David sat back, processing William’s words. After a moment, he smiled faintly, despite being a bit taken aback by Loren’s “You’re going to do whatever you want regardless” attitude. Nevertheless, David agreed with Loren. “Well, she’s definitely got a point.”

William nodded, his voice soft. “Yeah. And I can’t stop thinking about it. A thousand women? That’s not what I want. I was dating here and there before I met her, and yeah, they’re all stacked and say all the things that they think I want to hear - whatever. But fuck, Pasta—it’s scary when you meet someone that just blows you away, you know?”

David studied him for a moment, then leaned in. “So... is it possible? A thousand ways with Loren?”

William’s grin returned, a hint of boyishness. “A thousand ways might be tame for her.”

David threw his head back, laughing. “Lucky guy.”

“Trust me, I know,” William said, his voice sounding more serious. “I’ve never met anyone like her - like I can see things going pretty far down the road with her.”

“It’s not complicated, Willy. So you take the leap and probably end up happy but if you let her leave and don’t let her know how you feel about her, you might lose out on something big.”

David suddenly shivered, rubbing his hands together. “Fucking cold man - what are we even doing out here? Going in to sit with our hot boss ladies.”

William and David eased out of their chairs and into the warmth of the house. David rounded the love seat to find his beautiful daughter sleeping on Loren’s midriff. A little stream of drool seeped from Freya’s pink lips that were smooshed against Loren’s upper chest.

David smiled and whispered to Loren and Rebecca “Ohhh - she’s out…must be tired.”

Rebecca smiled and winked at her husband. “She passed right out when Loren offered to hold her - so I took the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine.”

William slowly lowered himself next to Loren, careful not to disturb the baby. He gazed at Freya’s face, noticing the drool and chuckled. The image before him of Loren holding a baby was yet another moment that was surprisingly exciting to William. They were nowhere near discussing babies in their future, but the momentary glimpse of one of the many possibilities did not frighten him either.

—

Life for William after Loren returned to Toronto wasn’t all that different on the surface. His days were still filled with the familiar routines of off-season life—rounds of golf and tennis with friends, grueling training sessions both at the rink and the gym, and leisurely evenings spent hopping between Stockholm’s best restaurants or lounging in with his friends for a movie or a big game.

But beneath the surface, everything felt different. Her absence weighed on him in ways he hadn’t anticipated. It wasn’t just the standard longing for someone you miss; it was much deeper. Loren wasn’t just in his thoughts—everywhere he turned, he could see her there.

The memory of her shivering from the chill of the lake while helping to fix the water line came rushing back every time he went down to the water’s edge with his dogs.

In the shower, he could almost hear her laughter and feel her body press against him by merely opening the shampoo she left for him and smelling it's familiar fragrance.

He longed for her to be beside him for meals with the family, especially when Michael made his own variation of Croque Monsieur for lunch, which he now deemed “Croque Michel”

With Loren hitting the ground running almost as soon as she landed, William made it a point to reach out regularly, given he had the time—whether through a text, a voice call, or FaceTime. He was lucky to catch her during quiet moments at home, a break at work, or even during her drive. Their conversations never disappointed; they were always filled with affection and humor, leaving him wishing they didn’t have to end—no matter if they lasted a quick minute or stretched to thirty.

One evening, during one of their FaceTime calls, Loren’s phone was mounted to her dashboard as she drove through the city. She glanced between him and the street signs outside, explaining that Chelsea, the unstoppable marketing machine, had asked her to meet with a local designer downtown. Chelsea had shown photos of Loren to the designer, and was eager to have her model pieces from a new collection being featured on a Toronto talk show. William listened, his smile fixed, but something about these new opportunities—even though she brushed it off and seemed opposed to the idea—tightened his chest. She looked so effortlessly stunning even then - her hair tousled, her still tanned complexion and deep brown eyes darting between focusing on him and navigating the streets. The thought of others noticing the same thing, of someone else being drawn in by her charm, sat heavy in his chest long after their call ended.

The busier Loren seemed, the more William found himself wanting to get back to her. He admired how hard she worked and how determined she was—it was one of the first things he’d noticed about her. But every now and then, he’d feel this strange, unexpected tug of possessiveness, like he was afraid one of the many things keeping her busy might pull her away from him. Now that he’d found her, the idea of losing her to something—or someone—else was a thought he couldn’t shake, no matter how much he tried.

Soon, September rolled around, and it was only a matter of days before William would be landing back in Toronto.

Loren, knowing how chaotic the start of the school year could be, decided to give herself some breathing room by scheduling her tutoring sessions to begin in the third week of September. It allowed her students time to settle into their routines and gave her the chance to spend time with William as soon as he got back. She knew once his season started, his schedule would take over—not just his life, but hers as well, in its own way.

As she sat on her porch one sunny afternoon, armed with a cold beer and her laptop, her phone pinged with an incoming FaceTime from William.

She smiled, setting the laptop aside and picking up her phone. Accepting the call, her screen filled with his face—and her breath caught for a moment.

William was in a tuxedo.

His blond hair was perfectly styled, slightly shorter than she remembered and a touch more polished than usual. The crisp white shirt, black bow tie, and tailored blazer fit his broad frame impeccably. He looked magnificent—beyond what she’d imagined when he first mentioned attending the event with his family.

Loren’s eyes widened, full of admiration. “William—I… wow. I’m speechless,” she gasped, her face flushed and not from the beer.

“You like?” he asked, a small, satisfied smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

She nodded, unapologetically gazing at him with wide, adoring eyes.

The rest of the Nylanders, equally as elegant, leaned into the screen and greeted Loren affectionately. She returned their greetings warmly, laughing at their playful comments about the evening ahead.

“Has anyone figured out the over/under on how many women will swoon the minute William walks in?” Loren teased, though she half meant it.

They shared a laugh, but when the moment faded, his expression softened. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Loren let herself take him in, marveling at how effortlessly handsome he looked, while William seemed content just to look back at her through the screen.

Eventually, after their goodbyes, William sent Loren a message:

Wish you were here.

Her response was almost immediate:

Me too. Although I’d probably trip over my dress and embarrass you in front of all those people.

The three bouncing dots appeared as William typed his reply:

Doubtful. Can’t wait to see you—be there soon.

Loren stared at his message, her heart skipping a beat. She was sure she had never felt so giddy or full of life, and she could hardly wait to see what the future might hold for the two of them.

—

A few days later, Loren sat curled up on her couch, her laptop balanced on the armrest as she worked on her tutoring schedule for the upcoming week. The day had been productive but long, and she welcomed the stillness of the evening. Her phone was close by, and every few minutes, her gaze drifted toward it.

William had messaged earlier, letting her know he and Alex were about to board their flight to Toronto. He’d promised to text again once they landed and he was settled. She smiled at the thought of seeing him soon, even if the past few days had left her with an unsettling feeling she couldn’t quite shake.

A notification at the top of her screen caught her attention: an Instagram DM. The account wasn’t immediately familiar, but Loren saw that Isla followed the account. A single word, “Hi.”—was simple enough to pique her curiosity. Loren tapped on it, opening a thread of several messages.

Her heart dropped as she scrolled.

“Hey Loren, I’m Margot. I know we were never introduced while you were here, but I think there are some things you need to know.”

“It’s about William.”

“You deserve to know the truth before you get hurt like I did.”

Her heart thudded, staring at the screen and debating whether to respond. A second later, another message appeared.

“William and I had a thing. I heard he told you about it. But what you don’t know is he told me I was special, but it turns out I wasn’t the only one he was with this summer before you came. Trust me, he’s really good at making women feel like they’re the only ones he sees.”

Loren’s pulse quickened, her thumb hovering over the keyboard. She quickly closed the app instead, setting her phone down on the couch beside her—screen facedown. Determined not to let her mind spiral, she tried to focus on her laptop, on the neat columns of names and times that required her attention.

But her vision was blurred and she could feel her heartbeat pounding in her throat. Her phone buzzed again, the muffled vibration against the fabric sent another blinding wave of pressure behind her eyes.

Don’t look, she told herself. Just leave it.

A minute passed. Then another. Her resolve cracked as her phone continued to vibrate. She picked it up.

More messages.

“He has a pattern, Loren. I know it because I was part of it.”

“He told me we might have something real. Then I found out about the others.”

“One of lives in Stockholm and he saw her this summer. I know because she’s in our friend group. He sees her when he needs ‘something’, understand?”

Loren’s stomach churned. Her fingers felt cold as she scrolled up, rereading Margot’s earlier messages - they were so specific, so calculated that they sliced through her trust she had developed with William.

Then came another message with a link:

“I thought this might help you understand.”

Loren hesitated before tapping the link, which opened to an article from Hänt, accompanied by a clip of William’s interview at the Grand Hotel’s 150th anniversary celebration. She pressed play, her stomach twisting as she watched.

He looked as flawless as she remembered, polished in his tuxedo, as the reporter—a very pretty brunette with wide-eyes and a bubbly personality—asked him about his personal life. His answers were in some cases vague but polite, but his other responses seemed so specific and unrehearsed, like how the truth rolls off someone’s tongue before they can stop it. But it wasn’t just his words that made Loren’s chest tighten—it was the way he looked at the reporter.

The camera caught moments where his gaze lingered on her face. Loren could see it, recognize it because he looked at her like that.

She flung the phone down and hunched over, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes as her scattered mind tried to connect the dots.

Her phone vibrated again with another message from Margot:

“He does this with everyone. It’s part of his act. Don’t think you’re the exception, Loren.”

The final blow came with another round of photos.

One showed William at a bar, a woman leaning into him, her hand resting on his arm. The next was of him hugging another woman, his face buried near her neck. A third, blurry but unmistakably him, appeared to show a kiss on the cheek—or maybe something more. Loren couldn’t tell.

Margot’s final message landed like a punch to the gut.

“You seem like a nice girl. I just don’t want you to end up like me—thinking you’re special, only to realize you’re just one of many.”

Loren’s hands trembled as she placed her phone face down on the couch again, staring blankly at her laptop. The words burned in her mind, replaying on a loop. Just one of many.

Minutes passed, and still, she couldn’t stop herself from picking up the phone again. She scrolled through the messages once more, then opened the photos again, looking for any detail that might poke holes in Margot’s story.

The blood had drained from her face, leaving a dull ache behind. Despite how careful she tried to be this time, she had been blindsided once again by someone that she cared deeply for. Someone who had convinced her that they had a bright and loving future together.

The idea that there could be even a shred of truth in what Margot was saying was unbearable. Loren could not see how William could ever explain any of this to her and make any of it seem okay.

#william x loren #william nylander #willy styles #willy nylander #nylander #hockey fanfic #hockey romance #hockey rpf #rpf fanfiction #nhl fanfiction #nhl fic #william nylander imagine #william nylander fanfic #william nylander fic

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kayharrisons · 7 months ago

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It's a goddamn blaze in the dark, and you started it [Bjorn x afab! Reader] [Part 1 of ??]

Your best friend takes you and your friends home with him for spring break, his homeland is idyllic... and things are not what they seem.

A/N: may or may not have been inspired by the excellent lil server I'm in ehehehe this is a crossover with the movie Midsommar! So, warning, things are going to get VERY fucked up as this story progresses!! Happy spooky season gang :) title from Ivy by Taylor Swift! This is a p short chapter, mostly set up tbh!!

Warnings: manipulation, cults, obsession, murder, violence, pregnancy mentions, incest, sex, coercion, basically everything that happens in Midsommar my dudes

"Promise, it'll be fun," Tyler reassures you, grinning that charming grin of his. "A little break away from all of this is exactly what you need."

"I know," you sigh, from your pile of blankets. Your boyfriend had been messaging other girls. Tyler had sheepishly come to you one day, explaining the situation to you, feeling that as your best friend he couldn't keep such a thing from you. You both loved and hated him for it, and then hated yourself for hating a sweet guy like Tyler, all because he'd exposed your shitty boyfriend and taken off your rose tinted glasses. "I just- with rent and my loans and my car- I don't know how I could afford it, Ty-"

He gives you an impish grin. You stare at him.

"You didn't."

"Well-"

"Oh my GOD, Tyler!"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Tyler hails from a small town in Sweden, though he had gone back and forth between there and England until he was around 9. He has a little sister, a bunch of cousins, and his parents died not too long before he came to the States for college. He'd been head of the family since the age of sixteen, which while he acknowledged was a burden, he did seem prideful of.

"Kay's great," he explains to you one evening, Chinese food on your coffee table and Friends marathoning in the background. "Honestly my pride and joy, y'know? She just told me she's pregnant, actually, I'd like to see her during spring break- baby should be born by then, I think."

He seems so thrilled at the unclehood before him, and it makes sense, you suppose. From what he'd said of his town, it was very "takes a village" when it comes to raising children.

He has a girlfriend, too, Rain. Well, technically Marie, but she'd been called Rain ever since she was seven. You admire his devotion to the girl, even from across the world.

"We're raised to be devoted to our lovers," he explains to you another night, sipping from a beer. "Respectful. It's something I've found... well, a little lackin' over here. I don't get it, personally. How can any man look upon the woman he claims to love and not feel the upmost devotion to her?"

You remember laughing, bitterly, at that. Remember joking about going with him and finding one of his townspeople to spend your life with.

Tyler's eyes had lit up at that, his smile almost catlike as he studied you. "You seem like my cousin Bjorn's type." he'd teased (or so you'd thought), and you had giggled and shoved his arm. If your picture happens to be taken when you're fast asleep on your couch, if it happens to be sent in a text to the cousin in question...

Well, it's not as though you're any wiser about it.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Tyler manages to get a handful of his other friends to join you both on the trip.

Your ex boyfriend is one of them.

"I'm so sorry," Tyler whispers to you, guilt radiating off of him. "I tried to get him not to go but- I asked before the breakup and he's just-"

"It's fine," you say, stonily. "These things happen, Ty. I'm a big girl, I can take it."

He nods, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. "I was worried you wouldn't come, if I told you."

"Probably wouldn't have." You agree, watching him rub the back of his neck, watching him scan your friends faces.

"Truth be told," he murmurs, nudging you lightly. "I would've preferred it be just you and me. But... well, the more the merrier, right? My people practically live that motto."

You snort, nudging him back. He grins, teeth glinting in the fluorescent light of the airport waiting room.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Tyler's home is gorgeous.

Luscious green grass, crystal clear blue skies, bright wildflowers, sweet homes, animals everywhere.

It's so peaceful. Beneath the chatter of townsfolk, there's the rustle of the wind through the trees, the crystalline babbling of a brook nearby, birds singing.

Christ, it's as though you've stepped into a Disney movie or something with how picturesque it is.

"Tyler!" comes the shrieking of a petite, curly haired brunette. She flings herself at the taller boy, and he laughs, dropping his bags to hug her back tight.

"Hey, hey-" he leans back, looking down at the sizeable bump to her middle. "-should be taking it easy in your condition, y'know!"

She laughs, shoving him lightly, just as three more show up. A girl with a shaved head who hangs back, another petite girl with her hair cut to her chin that Tyler is pulling into a frantic kiss, and...

He's a lot handsomer in person, Tyler's cousin.

Not that he hadn't been handsome in those pictures Tyler had shown you, but in person... his pale cheeks held a soft rosy glow, his hair hung thick into his eyes. Oh, his eyes. As blue as the very skies above you, framed with long lashes that swept his cheeks.

His plush lips turn up at the corners, fully aware of your ogling. "Fucks sake, cuz," he laughs, as he claps Tyler's shoulder when he brings him in for a brief hug, having had to pull him away from Rain. "Keeping a gorgeous girl like that all to yourself, fuckin' wanker."

You duck your head down, unable to hide your smile as your cheeks warm. Your ex grumbles something behind you.

Bjorn's eyes snap to him, his head cocking as his smile turns sharp at the edges, as his eyes turn to steel. He gives the man a once over, assessing, before snorting at whatever conclusion it is he's come to.

"Bjorn, right?" you ask, once you raise your head again. He looks at you, warmth in his smile once more. "Tyler's told me a lot about you."

"I'd say all good or summit, but knowing my twatty cousin..." he tuts playfully, adjusting his t-shirt. "But likewise, love," he grins, stepping closer to you, eyes dancing over the features of your face. "Somethin' tells me we're going to get along fuckin' spectacularly."

#alien romulus #alien #bjorn alien romulus #bjorn alien romulus x reader #bjorn x reader #spike fearn

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thestupidhelmet · 1 year ago

Note

AU T7S Where Kelso Doesn't Exist on the Show

This turned into an outline/first-draft hybrid of a fanfic I would call One Difference: Michael Kelso Doesn't Exist.

Quite a few twists. Lots of Zen. Plenty for the other characters, too.

Season 1

Jackie joins the basement gang because of Fez. Jackie enjoys his flattery and attention, but she hasn't promised him anything romantic or sexual. She also keeps her time in Eric's basement secret, acting like she doesn't know Fez, Donna, Eric, or Hyde while in school.

Hyde influences Eric to be more delinquent than he otherwise would be. Without Kelso as his partner in crime, Eric fills that role.

Eric gets into more trouble with both his parents because of his shenanigans with Hyde. Donna also finds Eric slightly hotter for his rebelliousness. In canon season seven, she tells Eric she thinks it's hot when he does naughty stuff.

Unfortunately for Eric, his parents don't agree. He doesn't get the Vista Cruiser, as he does in "That '70s Pilot" (1x01). They tell him that unless and until he acts responsible enough to have a car, he's not getting one from them.

Red's opinion about Hyde is also different. Instead of seeing Hyde as a good kid who's rough around the edges, he thinks Hyde's a danger to his son and tells Eric Hyde's no longer allowed in the house. He also tells Eric to let Hyde find another dumbass to get into trouble with.

Jackie wants to go to the junior prom so badly that she accepts Fez's invitation. Problem is that she's finding herself attracted to Hyde in spite of herself. Before Red banned him from the basement, regardless of how annoyed he is by Jackie, she's drawn to him.

Hyde is the only one who fights the guy (and his friends) who punched Eric unconscious in "Grandma's Dead" (1x23). Without Kelso there, Fez tries to help but is tossed aside and passes out.

Hyde gets more than a fat lip from that bar fight. He's bruised all over. He's allowed to go to Grandma Forman's funeral to support Eric (because of Kitty).

When Red sees Hyde, he assumes the worst about why Hyde's bruised and swollen. Eric tells Red what Hyde did for him, and that significantly changes Red's mind about Hyde.

Fez is confused as to why Jackie runs hot and cold with him. Hyde and Eric both answer that she's a nutbag and he should look for a girlfriend elsewhere. Donna, though, defends Jackie. They're friends now, and Jackie's helped Donna transition her friendship with Eric into a romance.

Fez decides to fight even harder for Jackie's love, and Hyde and Eric groan.

After Edna abandons Hyde, Red (without knowing yet what happened) lets Hyde join his for dinner three nights in one week. During these dinners, Red starts to understand that Hyde is a good boy who's rough around the edges. Kitty, who always liked Hyde, is grateful for how he stood up for her son.

Once Red and Kitty learn that Hyde's mom abandoned him, he allows Hyde to live with them on probationary status. Hyde has to cut out the nonsense and stop cutting classes.

Hyde excels at following Red's conditions, so much so that Eric becomes jealous. With Hyde no longer doing senseless stupid stunts, Eric decides to do a stunt of his own. He's got way more experience in it since Hyde essentially trained him in the art for eleven years.

Eric, who's earned the Vista Cruiser a third through the season, decides to take his mom's keys to the Toyota and find out how fast and far it can go on one tank of gas. Donna, Hyde, and Fez try to convince him not to.

Jackie is present for this moment, and she encourages Eric to go with his plan. This pisses off Donna and Hyde, but Fez finds it hot (despite not wanting Eric to do it).

Hyde tells Eric if he's gonna do something so stupid, Hyde better go with him.

Eric ends up swerving to avoid another car, but the Toyota's bumper falls off and the left taillight is busted. A good measure of paint has been scraped off.

When Red discovers what happened to his car, Hyde takes responsibility for it. Eric objects and says it's his fault. They fight over it, and Red fights internally with himself whether to blame Hyde and kick him out.

But, unlike Donna and Fez who have run off, Jackie steps in and says it was Eric's idea and that Hyde tried to stop him. She's a witness. She knows Hyde will be homeless if Hyde doesn't let Eric take responsibility, and then she'll lose access to him.

Red is relieved and disappointed. He makes Eric and Hyde work to pay off the car repairs. Rather than being upset by this punishment, Hyde feels more like part of the family.

Season 2

Fez tricks Jackie into a kiss during the movies. Once she realizes what he's doing, she stops him. With no Kelso to slug Fez, Jackie runs out of the theater.

Jackie tells Donna what happened and admits she liked the kiss. She's considering dating Fez in secret.Donna has two problems with this idea: one, Fez tricked her into a kiss, which doesn't set a good precedent for the start of a relationship; and two, Jackie shouldn't date Fez in secret. If Jackie has romantic feelings for him, she should be proud to date him and not let xenophobia -- or fear of others' xenophobia -- dictate how she lives her life.

Jackie says in this conversation that she's never had a boyfriend before and she's getting long in the tooth. It's time for her to start dating already. Fez is a terrible choice. "He worships me. He's great dancer, but ..."

Donna says, "He's foreign."

Jackie says, "No. I mean yes, but you're right that I shouldn't treat him like a dirty little secret. The problem is ... I love kissing, and Fez is good at it, but I'm not sure Fez is the one I want to kiss."

Donna, shocked and intrigued, says, "Is there someone else you want to kiss?"

Jackie becomes cagey, an obvious tell, and Donna calls her out on it: "There is someone you want to kiss! Who is it? Do I know him?"

Jackie, very uncomfortable, escapes the question by escaping the conversation (and Donna).

In the circle with Eric, Hyde, and Fez, Donna does her best to keep her mouth shut about Jackie. But Fez brings up how he kissed Jackie at the movies and that Jackie ran away afterward.

Eric and Hyde rag on Fez (and Jackie): "Why Jackie? I mean ... why Jackie?" "You found the Holy Grail, man -- the secret to gettin' Jackie to disappear."

Donna, unhappy about their burns, says, "Jackie liked the kiss, you jackasses -- " which makes Fez brighten -- "but she wants someone else to kiss her that way."

Fez, Hyde, and Eric: "Who?"

Donna: "I don't know. She wouldn't tell me."

Eric: "Oh, God -- that must mean it's one of us!"

Hyde: "Donna's hot. Wouldn't blame her."

Eric: "Not Donna. Us! You and me!"

Hyde: "No way, Forman. You make her sick, and she makes me sick. She wouldn't go after her best friend's boyfriend anyway."

Donna, Eric, and Fez: "How do you know that?"

Hyde: "Uh ... "

Donna (teasing, singing): "Hyde and Jackie sitting in ... in ... have you two ever sat in anything together?"

Fez (sad): "Only the remains of my heart."

Hyde: "Look, last winter at her ski cabin, she whined to me about wanting this guy Jake Bradley -- "

Eric: "The Jake Bradley? The Vikings quarterback?"

Hyde: "Yeah. But he's dating Kat Peterson, so that's never gonna happen."

Donna (remembering): "Right! And you tried to 'comfort' her by saying Jake wouldn't cheat on Kat with Pam Macy either, so Jackie's in good company.

Hyde (chuckling to himself): "That was a pretty good burn."

Donna: "You were a total jerk that weekend -- and not just to her."

Hyde: "Yup. I was. [Sincerely to Donna] Sorry, man. For all of it. No excuses. Just a reason: head was screwed up from my ma. Wouldn't want anyone to do to me what I did to you, and I'm glad we're still cool though I don't deserve it."

Donna's about to accept his apology, but Eric says, "What did you do to her?"

Fez (morose): "What I did to Jackie."

Eric (pissed and confused, to Hyde): "You kissed her in a movie theater in Alpine Valley?"

Donna and Hyde: "The ski cabin."

Hyde: "And she slapped me good. Too bad it didn't knock sense into my skull."

After this circle, Eric is uneasy about Hyde.

Laurie, bored, finds a sad Fez moping around the Forman driveway. She gets him to open up about Jackie's latest but as-yet unspoken romantic rejection of him. Laurie sees an opportunity to amuse herself.

Laurie: "You're a virgin, right?"

Fez: "Yes -- no! I have done it with many women. Like a stallion."

Laurie: "Mm-hmm. Care to prove it?"

Fez glances around. "Where?"

Laurie holds up the keys to her parents' Toyota and nods her head toward the car.

"B-b-but we could get caught!" Fez says.

"It'll be more fun that way," Laurie says and pulls Fez to the car.

A little later, Hyde goes to the driveway. The garage door is open. The Toyota is rocking. At first Hyde thinks the Formans are having sex, and he back away. Then Laurie screams, "Fez!" in passion (and in an attempt to get caught).

Hyde is more repulsed by the idea of Fez and Laurie screwing than the Formans and flees to The Hub.

At The Hub, Jackie is eating at a table alone. Hyde brings his tray of fries, a hot dog, and a soda to her table.

Jackie (suspicious and intrigued): "What do you want?"

Hyde: "You don't have to worry about Fez anymore."

Jackie: "Huh?"

Hyde: "Look, we all know he's been after you for months, but someone caught him in her web today. He's probably gonna stay there willingly, even if the spider sucks out his insides ... leavin' him a dried husk."

Jackie (annoyed): What are you talking about, Hyde?"

Hyde: "Spotted Laurie and Fez doing the backseat bossa nova."

Jackie: "Is that some kind of dance?"

Hyde (smirking): "Some kind. Doesn't require clothes. [To himself] Hope he's wearin' a condom."

Jackie (understanding): "HE'S HAVING SEX WITH LAURIE?"

Hyde winces at her shout. "You should be happy, man. Now that she's got Fez on his back, he'll get off yours."

Jackie: "I -- well -- who's gonna ... "

Hyde: "What?"

Jackie: "You'll just burn me if I tell you."

Hyde: "Likely. [Gently] You can still tell me."

Jackie: "It's just that ... I don't get a lot of attention at home, okay? And I have no boyfriend to lavish me with the adoration I totally deserve, so now that Fez'll be all over Laurie, I'm gonna be alone."

Hyde: "Not alone. Lonely."

Jackie: "What's the difference?"

Hyde: "Trust me; there's a difference."

Jackie stares at Hyde a moment. Then she says, "I do. I do trust you."

Hyde, realizing he made a big mistake, says, "I'm gonna take the rest of my lunch to-go." He stands up with his tray of food and leaves The Hub while Frank (the manager and cashier) yells at him about it. Hyde says, "I'll bring it back!" and hurries away outside.

Fez, exhilarated and a little scared by what happened between himself and Laurie, looks for someone to confide in. He wants someone who will react helpfully, so Eric's out. Hyde's at The Hub with Jackie, so Fez can't find him. Next door, however, is Donna.

Nervously, Fez relates to Donna that he just lost his virginity to Laurie. Donna's first reaction is disgust and shock, but she recovers and asks if he's okay. "And please tell me you used a condom."

Fez: "I don't know if I'm okay -- but yes, Pépé wore a coat. Laurie said I was all right, which is a synonym for *okay,* but did she really mean it? And the first-first time lasted five seconds. The second first time was eight minutes and -- "

Donna: "Spare me the second-by-second breakdown. Please. I want to know how you feel -- emotionally. Because, y'know, it's Laurie! And how did this even happen?"

Fez (laughing): "Oh, you silly virgins and you're silly questions. Sex-education in this country is very lacking. You see, women have -- "

Donna: "I know how sex works! I mean how did you and Laurie ... *why* did you and Laurie?"

Fez: "Oh. She was bored. I was heartbroken over Jackie, and now Fez is no longer a virgin. But what if Laurie just used me to burn Eric? Or if she'll never have sex with me again? Or if that will be my *only* time having sex? Because I liked it ... about four minutes into the second first time."

Donna wishes Hyde were the one Fez was talking to. She's very uncomfortable. She's also worried about how this situation will affect Fez and Eric. She says, "Laurie is always up to something. Whatever you do, even if it's having sex with her again, don't trust her. And don't mistake sex for love. They're totally not the same thing. And I think you should tell Eric right away. Like now."

Fez: "Wow. This is a lot to think about."

Donna: "I just don't want you or Eric to get hurt."

Donna supports Fez by being present in the basement when Fez tells Eric about Laurie. Eric has a negative reaction, and Donna tries to calm him down. Hyde enters the basement amid this bit of chaos.

Hyde: "So Forman knows Fez and Laurie did it, huh?"

Fez, Donna and Eric: "How do you know about that?"

Hyde: "I was there, man. In the driveway. Saw the Formans' Toyota rattling around. Once I spotted the cause, I was outta there."

Eric, hoping to find an ally, says to Hyde, "So what now? Laurie's not hanging out with us just 'cause she and Fez committed that abominable act."

Hyde (to Fez): "Whatever you do, whoever you do, is your business, man. Just don't make it ours, all right?"

Donna: "I already warned him not to fall in love with her."

Fez grows annoyed at his friends' controlling, unsupportive attitudes. He decides that if Laurie's interested in him, he'll have fun with her as long as it lasts.

Throughout the rest of the season, Fez and Laurie's strange relationship continues. Jackie's disgusted and thankful she'd realized she doesn't have romantic feelings for him early. Red is oblivious, but eagle-eyed Kitty recognizes that Laurie is "playing" with Fez (please excuse the unavoidable double entendre).

Kitty sits Laurie down and has a serious talk with her. Kitty knows Laurie is in no way faithful to Fez and doesn't want her to break Fez's heart. Laurie tries to reassure Kitty, albeit dismissively, that the heart isn't the organ Fez is concerned about.

Dissatisfied, Kitty goes to Red. Big mistake. Red puts the onus on Fez and tries to scare him off Laurie. Fez tells Laurie about this development, which makes her want Fez more.

Jackie tries to befriend Hyde, much to his annoyance. She likes how real he is, especially compared to the guys who are part of her social circle at school. She finds in his personality and demeanor aspects she feels she lacks within herself and is attracted (platonically) by that.

Hyde shows no interest in reciprocating any friendship until he witnesses at school a nasty encounter Jackie has with a very competitive cheer squad teammate, Julie. Julie is gunning for cheer captain for the varsity team next year. She sees Jackie as a threat and uses Jackie's lack of boyfriend as a way to spread rumors about her.

Hyde teaches Jackie his version of Zen so she can protect herself. He also introduces her to the circle in between lessons. Unfortunately, being Zen goes only so far when Jackie Burkhart is a lesbian (remember, 1970s) and other untrue statements about her are written on blackboards and whispered by students whenever Jackie walks into a classroom or a school hallway.

To mitigate these rumors, Jackie starts dating Chip. Hyde is wary of this development and keeps an eye on it.

Before Jackie and Chip's third date, at school Hyde questions Chip -- whom Hyde knows is a year older than Jackie and has bragged about previous sexual "conquests". Chip says what he and Jackie have is quid quo pro. Chip goes on a few dates with her, tolerates the yapping, and on the last date he gets to nail her.

Hyde: "Is tonight gonna be the last date?"

Chip: "Hell yeah. She's a bitch."

Pow!

Hyde lays out Chip with one punch. It's witnessed by a lot of students, including Jackie. Jackie wants to know what happened. Hyde manages to get out, "He said bitch. Last date. Nail you -- "

Unlike the Jackie of T7S Prime, this one is a virgin at this time on the show. She's sexually inexperienced, and she pieces together what Chip intended and why Hyde punched him.

Unfortunately, the school principal arrives. As he hauls Hyde to his office, Jackie shouts that she loves Hyde. Many students witness this moment, too.

The principal suspends Hyde from school for the rest of the year, which only has two weeks left, but it means he can't take his finals. He'll have to attend summer school and anger management classes.

Eric and Donna's stories in season 2 are relatively unaffected by Kelso's absence except as described above.

Season 3

Jackie happy-brags to Donna about what went down and why Hyde has to go to summer school. Donna thinks what Hyde did is noble but that Jackie needs to tell her dad about it since the principal doesn't know.

Jackie thinks Donna's idea is great. She does tell her father, who uses his influence to get Hyde out of anger management and a commendation on his transcript for community spirit-- despite the principal condemning the use of violence to solve issues. Chip is expelled because of Jack's influence (and fury that someone thought to hurt his daughter in such a way).

Hyde remains suspended for one week but is allowed to return to school to take his finals.

Jackie is flustered that Hyde doesn't thank her for her intervention on his behalf. He protected her, and she protected him, so -- to her mind -- they should be really close now.

When Jackie confronts Hyde about his lack of gratitude, he tells her he never would've had to punch the guy (Chip) if Jackie didn't give into social pressure. Although this statement is victim-blaming, Jackie does think hard about how toxic her social circle is and tells Hyde he's right. She'll choose her friends better. In fact, he'll be seeing a lot more of her from now on.

Hyde complains to Eric and Donna about this latest situation. Donna's pissed at Hyde for blaming Jackie for Chip nearly taking advantage of her.

Eric, meanwhile, is still focused on Fez and Laurie's relationship and says he bets Laurie took advantage of Laurie, but no one was around to punch her before she could get to him -- not that a man should punch a lady. But if Donna had been there ...

Donna slaps Eric's shoulder and tells him to pay attention to the matter at hand.

Hyde takes to heart Donna's point about victim-blaming Jackie and wants to make it right. He apologizes to Jackie, in his own way. He says, "I get feelin' pressured, and sometimes it puts us in situations we don't know are dangerous. Chip is a sneaky bastard, and you're not used to sneaky bastards. I am, but you couldn't have seen what he had planned for ya. Even if you could -- "

Jackie: "You're rambling, Steven."

Hyde: "I don't ... yeah, okay, I do. I am. Anyway, I'm sorry for acting like a dillhole after I punched Chip. I kinda punched you, too, with my words."

Jackie: "Yeah, you did. It really hurt ... and not only because I really like you."

Hyde: "You shouldn't -- like me, I mean. I'm no good. But under your abrasive, bossy exterior is someone I can stand to be around."

Jackie (touched): "Aw! Does this mean we're friends?"

Hyde: "I knocked a guy's teeth in 'cause he called you a bitch and planned to do a lot worse, and you had your dad bail me out of goin' to summer school and more. People who hate each other generally don't do things like that, so ... "

Jackie (excitedly, hugging Hyde): "We're friends! Hey, why don't we go to the Sizzler for dinner and celebrate?"

Hyde (uncomfortable): "I'm not sure we -- "

Jackie: "I'll pay."

Hyde (now agreeable): "You've had a rough couple of weeks. Let's go, kid."

Jackie and Hyde's arc in season three is their growing friendship that they manage to conceal from everyone but Mrs. Forman. She keeps it mostly to herself but talks to Red about it. Red approves because of his experience with her in "Career Day" (1x18).

Fez and Laurie's relationship ends when Fez discovers that Laurie's cheating on him. His friends say they all warned him but still display various levels of sympathy.

Donna says, "Why did you like her so much anyway? She was mean to you most of the time."

Fez: *She had sex with me, Donna. Regularly! How could I not love a woman like that?"

Hyde: "Dude, you didn't love her."

Fez: "I loved that she had sex with me. Regularly! And sometimes strangely, which I also enjoyed very much."

To help Fez get over Laurie, Hyde takes Fez "cruising for chicks". It cheers Fez up a little, but he's relatively down the rest of the season.

Eric never gets the idea of getting Donna a promise ring because Kelso doesn't exist to give it to him. Still, Ric and Donna's relationship goes downhill because of h increasing independence and his increasing insecurity.

At the end of the season, Eric has an important conversation with Donna. He says, "When do you think we'll get married? Before college or after college?"

Donna (laughing, thinking he's joking): "Why not tomorrow? We could drive to Vegas, and an Elvis impersonator can officiate."

Eric: "I'm serious. Donna, I can't imagine my life without you."

Donna (stunned): "Are you, like, proposing?"

Eric: "Hypothetically if I were, what would you say?"

Donna: "I'd say, 'We're seventeen and have no idea where our lives will take us.'"

Eric: "But wherever they take us, you see us together ... don't you?"

This question leads to the rest of their breakup scene in "Promise Ring" -- minus the actual ring.

Season 4

Eric's depression proceeds as it does on the show. For the first half of the season, he dates random girls. Donna doesn't date.

The heartbroken Eric and Fez set up the get-Hyde-a-girlfriend party. Jackie invites Rhonda -- not because Jackie's insecure about not being the prettiest girl at the party but doesn't want to find Hyde a potential girlfriend. Fez and Rhonda hit it off.

With no Kelso and no vanity-driven insecurity, Jackie stays at the party and watches Hyde closely but sneakily. She's relieved when he doesn't seem seriously interested in any of the girls.

After a short absence, Hyde returns to the party with Melissa. Jackie recognizes how disrespectful and manipulatively Melissa treats Hyde. Once Melissa leaves, Jackie pulls Hyde aside.

Jackie: "Melissa's really pretty."

Hyde (still dazed by his attraction to Melissa): "Uh-huh ... "

Jackie: "She's also everything you hate about me."

Hyde: "What?"

Jackie: "You clearly didn't pay attention to how she acted. She was bossy, mean, and -- and -- what's that word you taught me, when you described how your mom used to give you the silent treatment whenever you pissed her off by blinking too loud?"

Hyde: "Withholding."

Jackie: "That's it! She's emotionally withholding, and she's gonna use that as a weapon against you if you date her. I can see it already."

Hyde (annoyed): "Jackie, I spent an hour with her. You can't tell all that."

Jackie: "You had one conversation with Chip, and you knew exactly what he had planned for me."

Hyde: "Because he told me!"

Jackie: "And Melissa told me. I might not have your sexual experience or whatever, but I'm an expert in manipulation. ... Just think about what happened between you two tonight before you call her, okay?"

Hyde (mostly because he wants to end the conversation): "... Okay."

But Hyde does as Jackie asks. He flashes back to how his mom treated his dad (Bud) and eventually himself. Melissa did seem to resent him already, and he'd end up resenting her. She might be a great girl -- but not for him. She clearly doesn't think he's enough for her as he is now. Not a great way to start a relationship.

At The Hub a few days later, Donna tells Hyde that Melissa told her he never called. Donna asks why.

Hyde: "You called me whipped after she left the party. That was enough."

Donna: "Oh, come on, Hyde. I was teasing. Melissa's really cool. You're cool. I don't think you should miss out on each other."

Hyde: "And I don't think you and Forman should've broken up. You obviously miss each other, but what can I do about it?"

Hyde hit the target he was aiming for. Donna, emotional and pissed, leaves The Hub.

Jackie arrives at The Hub and passes Donna, who says, "Hyde's being a jackass today. I wouldn't sit with him."

Jackie does sit with Hyde, however, and she gets him to spill about not calling Melissa and his interaction with Donna.

"Thanks, by the way, for lookin' out for me," he says.

Jackie: "That's what friends do even when it might piss their friend off like you did Donna."

Hyde: "She'll get over it. Don't know how she and Forman'll get over each other, though."

"Tornado Prom" (4x15) happens a few episodes earlier in this AU. Jackie really wants to win Snow Queen, but she laments to Hyde that she has no date. Hyde shrugs. Jackie says, "You could take me."

Hyde: "I could, but I won't. Plan on partying in the principal's office."

Jackie: "You can still do that. But if you're my date, the teacher-chaperones won't be as watchful of you."

Hyde: "Huh. ... All right. I owe you for Melissa -- and I hate owing anyone -- but no dancing."

Jackie: "Five dances, and you wear a tuxedo."

Hyde: "No dances, and I wear a shirt and pants."

Jackie: "Steven!"

Hyde: "Whatever. One dance."

Jackie: "Four and a tux. I'll rent it."

Hyde: "Two dances, and I wear the suit Bud left me after he -- well, left me the first time."

Jackie: "That mustard thing? Ew! ... Three dances, a nice suit jacket, pants, dress shirt, and tie I'll buy you, and I distract any teachers who might be eyeing you."

Hyde: "Deal."

During his dances with Jackie at Snow Prom, Hyde begins to realize his romantic, aesthetic, and sexual attraction to Jackie. It scares him. After their third dance, he definitely wants to have his circle in the principal's office. Jackie joins him with Fez and Rhonda.

Jackie falls asleep. Hyde draws a unibrow on her forehead. She wins Snow Queen, and Jake Bradley wins Snow King. Jackie is elated but can't understand why everyone in the gym is laughing at her. Then she sees her face in a mirror and knows Hyde is the culprit.

Jackie is furious, but instead of letting humiliation get the best of her, she goes Zen. Everyone is impressed, including Hyde -- and he knows now he's in big trouble.

After "Tornado Prom," Eric realizes he'll never get over Donna if he doesn't actually try. Without Jackie setting Donna up with Casey Kelso, Eric's able to focus on his own date life. He asks out Shelly ("Eric's Panties" [3x06], who is happy to go out with him.

Donna's emotional spiraling begins again. She doesn't want to date anyone, but she's afraid Eric and Shelly might actually have a chance at a relationship (unlike his previous dates).

Jackie (to Donna): "Oh, my God, you still love him!"

Donna: "Of course I do, but that doesn't mean I can be with him. He tried to control my life."

Jackie: "No, he confessed his undying commitment to you, and you rejected it."

Donna: "Because the second I carved out a little piece of my life just for myself, he freaked!"

Jackie: "Someone who loves you as much as Eric does would be willing to work through that."

Donna: "How do you know? You've never even had a boyfriend."

Jackie: "No, but I understand love and that it takes compromises and work ... and trust."

Donna: "Then I guess I don't trust Eric to work on compromising with me."

Jackie: "He compromised with you all the time!"

Donna: "I compromised with him. Until I was sick of him refusing to respect me enough to do the same."

Jackie: "Have you ever told him that?"

Donna: "I told him to trust me."

Jackie: "That's not the same thing."

Donna: "It should've been enough."

Jackie: "Obviously, it wasn't."

Donna: "Well, that's not my problem."

Jackie (mockingly): "'That's not my problem.'" [She pinches Donna's arm, and Donna cries out in pain and anger.] "Who's problem is it, then? Eric's, someone who Shelly or another girl might give a chance to let him learn from his mistakes and be happy? Or the person so stubborn she'll end up alone and miserable because she's in love with someone who needs more time to understand what he's doing wrong?"

Donna can't absorb Jackie's insight all at once, but the seed is planted.

Jackie's parents find out that Hyde took Jackie to Snow Prom. They think she's dating him, despite her protestations to the contrary: "We're just friends! He'll tell you the same thing!"

Jackie's parents want her to stop hanging out in the Formans' basement. She can go to Donna's house, but if she keeps going to the Formans', her father will cut her off financially.

Jackie has more than Hyde to lose. Despite that Donna doesn't go to the basement as often, especially now that Eric's dating Shelly, Jackie will miss all her friends there.

In the basement, Jackie announces her conundrum without saying that Hyde's the reason for it. She says her dad wants her to spend more of her spare time with her "real" friends from the cheer squad and in her own grade. She's decided, though, to get a job because she knows everyone here will miss her too much.

Eric, Donna, Fez, Rhonda, and Hyde's reactions are unenthusiastic. But in private, Hyde asks Jackie what the actual deal is.

Jackie, to her surprise, admits the truth. Hyde laughs and says, "That's ridiculous. Your folks are ... "

Jackie: "Ridiculous! I know! You'd never like me that way."

Hyde: "Right. Never. And you wouldn't date a poor, lowerclass burnout dirtbag."

Jackie: "Exactly! Not that you're a dirtbag ... or poor in the non-money sense. You're richer in every other way that counts compared to the sons of my parents' upperclass friends."

Hyde (sensing the awkwardness between them): "So you're getting a job, huh?"

Jackie: "I'm going to the mall. Maybe Halverson's is look for someone pretty to model its clothes."

Jackie ends up at the Cheese Palace, hired to hand out cheese samples to potential patrons. She has to take the bus to the mall and back because her dad took away her keys to the Lincoln.

Hyde feels partially responsible for Jackie's situation, so he drives her home from work when his own work schedule allows.

Eric catches Todd "the Cheese Guy" kissing Jackie (Todd had tricked her when she was down about her parents' lack of trust in her and low opinion of Hyde).

Jackie doesn't want Eric telling anyone because she's humiliated that her second real kiss was due to being tricked by another boy. Moved by compassion, Eric keeps her secret.

Except that Jackie feels like she cheated on Hyde in some way.

By the end of the season, Fez doesn't get terrible advice from Casey Kelso, and his relationship with Rhonda is intact.

Donna has grown completely depressed. She refuses to try to break up Eric and Shelly by telling Eric she loves him. She had her chance to work through the toughest part of her relationship with Eric, and they both blew it. She needs to get away for the summer, and she heads to the bus station -- and California -- to stay with her mom.

What Donna doesn't know is that Eric has broken up with Shelly. He's still in love with Donna, and he can accept living in the now with her and leave the future unwritten.

Jackie tells Hyde about what happened with Todd. Hyde says she doesn't need to confess to him. He's no priest.

Jackie: "I do. I feel terrible about it, Steven. He tricked me!"

Hyde (growing protective): "What do you mean by tricked?"

Jackie: "He offered to give !e a sympathetic hug because of my parents, you know? But he turned his face, and his lips pushed against mine, and we were kissing. I was so confused, but I kissed him back! Just like I was confused when Fez tricked me at the movies and kissed me -- and I kissed him back."

Jackie (tearing up): "My teammates are right about me: I'm a naive loser. God, I've never been kissed by a boy I've chosen to kiss. Who I've wanted to kiss. And -- and if you hadn't looked out for me another boy, Chip, might've done a lot worse."

Hyde (consoling): "Hey ... hey, that sucks. But it's not your fault, all right? I didn't get to choose most things about my life, either, but I got to choose my friends. Like you."

Jackie feels a little better, but her first tear falls.

Hyde: "Listen, any guy you choose to kiss someday will be lucky."

Jackie: "Any guy?"

Hyde: "Well, someone who wants to kiss you back."

Jackie: "Would you want to?"

Hyde (flushing a little): "If you kissed me ... it would be cool."

Jackie: "That can mean anything!"

Hyde: "I wouldn't hate it. ... Hell, I'd probably like it."

Jackie places her hand on Hyde's cheek. She kisses him gently. He responds gently -- at first -- then they're making out with each other heavily. Fade to black.

Eric goes to the Pinciottis' house to tell Donna about his breakup and what he's learned about trusting the moment. Unfortunately, Donna's not there. Bob and Joanne don't know where she is. They let Eric wait for her in her room. He waits a long time.

Season 5

Jackie and Hyde's romantic relationship develops over the summer. They keep it a secret because Eric is sad and mopey about Donna. They also want the relationship to be just theirs while in its beginning stages, without their friends' opinions.

Hyde gets Eric the plane ticket (using Eric's Candy Land stash) to go to Donna in California. Hyde and Fez cover for his absence.

Eric and Donna reconcile in California. Without Casey being an issue, and Eric explaining that he dumped Shelly and never had sex with her because he never stopped loving Donna, they actually deal with what broke them up.

When Fez and Rhonda catch Hyde and Jackie in the basement post-kissing -- unlike Fez -- Rhonda recognizes what they walked in on. Hyde decides to act Zen about it. Jackie follows his lead.

Rhonda: "That doesn't work on me. I know love when I see it."

Hyde (laughing nervously): "Love? I don't love, man. I tolerate."

Jackie: "No, no, no. I tolerate. You're so overwhelmed by my beauty that I tolerate making out with you."

Fez (to Rhonda): What are they doing?

Rhonda: "Acting like two in love dorks. Want to see if Mrs. Forman has any peach cobbler left over?"

Fez: "I suppose I could tolerate that."

With Rhonda and Fez gone, Jackie says, "Steven, are we dorks?"

Hyde: "Nope."

Jackie: "Are we ... in love?"

Hyde: "How's about we quit talking and get back to what we were doin'?"

Jackie and Hyde continue to make out but wonder about Jackie's question.

Donna and Eric return from California.

Without Kelso, Jackie and Hyde's arc consists of figuring out just how they feel about each other, supporting each other through life issues (e.g., Jackie's dad going to prison) and not always getting it right the first or second time.

Eric and Donna don't get engaged this season. They're too busy finding the balance between their fears, individual desires, and how all that affects their relationship.

During the senior prank, Eric, Fez, and Hyde are present. Eric tried to get artistic and paint a tribute to Donna. He miscalculated his reach and fell off the water tower. Hyde leaves Fez to check on Eric. Fez is arrested.

Jackie is afraid to admit to Hyde she loves him. Hyde is afraid he's unlovable, but Kitty reassures him and says, "Maybe Jackie has to hear it first."

Hyde: "And if she laughs in my face?"

Kitty: "Steven, you've loved that girl for years. You can deny it all you like, but a mother knows. And if you've chosen someone worthy of your love, which I believe you have, you'll hear the right thing."

Jackie, meanwhile, has gone to Red -- who doesn't want to get involved but does. Jackie says, "When did you first tell Mrs. Forman you love her?"

Red: "Between when I fought in World War II and the Korean War."

Jackie, despite knowing Hyde would never join the military and dislikes conflict of any kind, decides she'll have to take drastic action.

Jackie finds Hyde in the Formans' basement. She says she's declaring war on him.

Hyde, confused since he and Jackie haven't had any serious fights in a while, says, "Before you do that -- whatever that means -- I've got somethin' to tell you."

Jackie wants to speak first, but she's learned that she has a tiny window when Hyde is open and vulnerable enough to say important things to her. She doesn't want him to shut down, so she gestures her assent.

Hyde: "I love you. ... Okay, go declare war."

Jackie, taken a back says, "I -- I ... I admit defeat. I love you, too!"

Hyde (unsure): "You what?"

Jackie: "Mr. Forman went through one war and was about to fight in another when he told Mrs. Forman he loves her. So I thought if I declared war by telling you I love you that either we'd both win or both lose. I just needed a definitive answer."

Hyde (laughing): "You are one freaky, freaky chick. Glad we both won. Medical care for vets in this country, 'specially mental care, sucks. Have you seen that guy on Sherman? He -- "

Jackie quiets him with a kiss. "Another time, Steven. This war is over."

Hyde kisses her back.

Rhonda marries Fez so he can stay in the country. Red doesn't have a heart attack.

Eric, inspired by Fez and Rhonda, proposes to Donna at the end of the season. We don't get her answer.

Season 6

Kitty is devastated that Eric and Hyde are leaving for college. Eric says, "It's in Kenosha. We'll be less than forty-five minutes away."

As in The Middle, we get the characters' college experiences, but they're in Point Place for the majority of episodes.

We learn that Donna said yes to Eric's proposal by seeing the engagement ring on her finger. Their arcs revolve around keeping their engagement secret, accidentally revealing it, and their parents' reactions on top of dealing with college life and sharing a house with Hyde, Fez, and Rhonda off-campus.

With Donna out of the house, Bob spends his fatherly attention on Jackie. It's helpful and annoying, and then her mom returns to town. The conflict this arrival creates is handled more seriously than it is on the show with Kelso.

Hyde struggles in college. He's smart but not academically inclined. His temperament is much better suited to an apprenticeship, learning a craft by doing the craft. He's scared.

During one weekend, Hyde learns Hyde bought Wilson & Son's Muffler Shop. He asks Red if he can work there on the weekends. Red hears the uncertainty in Hyde's voice and gets the truth out of him.

Hyde says he doesn't want to disappoint him or Mrs. Forman after all they've done for him.

Red says part of being an adult is making one's own path. Red will hire Hyde full-time if that's what Hyde wants. Hyde agrees.

Hyde then has to go through the process of telling everyone else. Mrs. Forman is worried but trusts Red to teach Hyde well -- and is happy he'll be moving back into the house.

Jackie is shocked, but she ultimately supports Hyde in his decision. She's also happy he'll be next door instead of forty minutes away.

Eric, Donna, and Fez are not happy, especially Eric. He's afraid Hyde will end up like one of his cousins. But Donna says Red owns a muffler and car repair business, not a gas station. If Hyde's happier, then he needs to make this change for himself.

Once Red and Kitty learn of Donna's engagement, they try to stop it. Shenanigans enue for a few episodes until Eric and Donna finally get the chance to tell them that the marriage won't take place until after college, which they're in.

Rhonda learns she's pregnant at the end of the season.

Hyde receives a letter in the mail from someone who claims to be his sister.

Season 7

Part of Hyde's arc is learning about his biological father and that side of the family. He's been working for Red for eight months, but W.B. works in music, and that's Hyde's true calling. Red lets Hyde go from the muffler shop.

Fez and Rhonda deal with Rhonda's pregnancy while going to college.

Donna gets the opportunity to study abroad in Paris for her junior year. Eric wants to go with her, and he applies for the same opportunity. Odds are against him, but he studies hard, inadvertently distancing himself from Donna she doesn't know why.

Near the end of the season, Eric learns he's accepted. Donna finally understands and wishes he'd told her. He didn't because he didn't want to get either of their hopes up.

Jackie is accepted togoing to NYU in New York City. She's torn because Hyde manages Grooves in Point Place. W.B., though, just happens to be expanding his business into the Northeast. Hyde will run the giant, new flagship store with Angie's help.

Rhonda has the baby. It's a girl, ten pounds, eight ounces. Fez is a proud papa.

Red and Kitty face the fact they'll truly be empty nesters. "Until Eric's senior year," Red says, "when he and Donna will be back in Wisconsin."

The show ends with the Vista Cruiser driving away. We see the license plate, and Hyde shouts (unseen): "Goodbye, Wisconsin!"

Jukebox Ask Game

#that 70s show #that '70s show #jackie x hyde #eric x donna #jackie burkhart #ask game #jukebox ask game #ficlet #michael kelso #steven hyde #fez #donna pinciotti #eric forman #kitty forman #red forman

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