#so i have to start paying back my loans pretty much right away

[srjlvr]

[ LET’S GET MARRIED ! ] — lhs <3

PAIRING. lee heeseung!student X femreader!student !

SYN. the uni is giving away free dorms! under one condition, in order to save your desperate broke ass student’s life, you’d have to get married. and who’d be the lucky person to marry you if not your childhood friend? no feelings involved of course!…..right?

GENRE. he fell first but she fell harder, basically being in denial for feelings at first, childhood friends to a married couple, fluff fluff fluff !

WARNINGS. mentions of getting married(obv), rest of enha and lesserafim’s yunjin & chaewon are in it too, mentions on having kids(no, there will be no kids here its nothing serious!!), mentions of food, being broke because of uni student life. (pls do lmk if i missed something!) || NOT PROOFREAD AND VERY POORLY WRITTEN!!

WORD-COUNT. 5.1k+ (damn!)

NOTE. this is me being extremely sorry for not continuing my heeseung smau by releasing a heeseung oneshot yay!! i actually got the inspiration from HAPPINESS (one of my fav kdramas!) please leave some feedbacks!! i really wanna know what you thought about it<3

when you were younger, you’ve made a wishing list to you in the future, as soon as you turn an adult.

three important wishes were ;

first, never go broke while being a uni student.

second, never get married before the age of 25.

third, never ever fall in love with your best friend since childhood, aka lee heeseung.

first one is already being a huge failure. younger you would be definitely disappointed in uni student you, not that you care that much, but being a broke student sucks.

“my parents are literally about to kick me out, i get that, i’m a 22 years old uni student who’s still living up their asses, they probably want some peaceful and quiet life” you smacked your head over the lunch table, both of your friends looking at you concerned.

“maybe it’s time for you to pay for the dor-“

“never! yunjin, tell her how broke i am”

“she has like 1 dollar in her bank account, she’s still taking loans from her parents” yunjin nodded and you rolled your eyes.

“you didn’t have to go that far”

“oh i did”

“oh i know! what if you just start working?” chaewon raised her voice a bit.

“i have no time!”

“excuses excuses blah blah blah” she mocked you.

“look at heeseung for example, he works in a part time job at the convenience store right next to uni” yunjin pointed out.

you searched through the lunch hall and found the one person you’ve been looking for, lee heeseung.

you’ve been stuck to him ever since childhood, with your mothers being the biggest best friends you’ve ever seen, it was pretty hard to not see him every day in your young days.

both of your mothers even got pregnant at the same time, and gave birth around the same time, you’re two days younger than him.

your photo album is full with pictures of you and him, and so are the hanged photos on your house wall.

your mother and his mother were your biggest shippers, forcing you both to hug each other and even wear matching clothes.

your elementary school memories are filled with heeseung next to you and the whole class shipping you two.

highschool days weren’t better either, guys who wanted to try a move on you were always so scared of heeseung, they were so sure you and him are dating, with the amount of glares they got from him it was really hard to think otherwise.

your highschool crushes rejected you, always giving the excuse of not wanting to be in a relationship, hiding the fact that heeseung warned them that if they’ll say yes he’ll make sure they never see a daylight again.

he was joking, really. he’s not the violent type, and he couldn’t really explain why was he feeling so jealous whenever he saw you confessing to a guy who isn’t him.

heeseung got used to watching you from afar and protecting you, and you got used to search him everywhere you go even in crowded places and having his company ever since childhood.

“hee!” you called and waved at him, he waved at you back with a smile on his face.

“i swear if i didn’t know both of you were childhood friends i would’ve think you’re a married couple or something” chaewon rolled her eyes and you scoffed.

heeseung continued his way to his usual table with his friends.

“thinking about ways to confess your love to her?” jake smirked and heeseung shook away his thoughts.

“hm? who?” he asked.

“it’s obvious who! don’t play dumb come on!” sunghoon playfully pushed the older one.

“we’re talking about Y/N! everyone in uni are talking about you, even those who know nothing about the two of you” jay remarked.

“there’s nothing between us, we’re just friends” heeseung shrugged.

“and i’m queen elizabeth” sunoo tsked.

heeseung rolled his eyes and began to eat, “you know, even if i did have a crush on her, why would she even accept my confession?”

“ohhhh~” his friends teased.

“it’s kind of obvious she likes you, we’ve watched her ever since we became friends with you, and the way she looks at you is just different” jungwon shrugged and ni-ki nodded.

“she’s always searching you in a crowded room, as if you’re her guardian angel and she only needs you in her life in order for it to be perfect” ni-ki then stole a few bites of heeseung’s meal.

“hey! not cool” heeseung scoffed and ni-ki giggled.

“it’s not bad to have a crush on your childhood friend, you know?” jake smiled, “sometimes all you need is a miracle” jay added.

“hey, let’s go on a work search for yo-“

“no no no yunjin not you too!!” you sobbed, “i have no time to work and i need to search for the cheapest dorm, a one i can actually afford as soon as possible”

“why don’t you just go and ask heeseung for help” chaewon shrugged.

“it’s not that easy, i don’t want him to worry about it too much, he works hard for his money too” you pout and they nodded.

“by the way! how’s the money for the uni dorms is going?” jake asked heeseung who was busy fighting with ni-ki over his food.

“i’m just a few shifts away from getting enough money, i’ll ask y/n to become my roommate as soon as— what?” he noticed his friends looking at him.

“y/n and you? being roommates?” sunoo teased.

“hey, me and y/n spent all our childhood together, my house is her house and her house is mine, it has been like that for a while” heeseung sighed and they all nodded hesitatly.

“still, you said y/n’s parents told you about her not being able to pay for the uni dorms, are you really willing to pay it all?” jungwon asked.

heeseung shrugged and took a bite from his food again, “it’s either that or she’ll get kicked out by her parents”

“you really are her guardian angel” ni-ki whispered.

“good morning! you have afternoon classes today right?” your mother woke you up with a smile smeared all over her face.

“mhhm” you hummed, still trying to adjust the bright sunlight that hit your face.

“i need you to bring some medicine for ms lee! she’s been sick and i bought her some things” your mother helped you to get up and shoved you a bag, “here”

“can you please just let me get—“

“you can get ready at theirs! quickly quickly go!” she pushed you outside of your house. damn, she really does hope you’d get out as soon as possible.

she was right though, heeseung’s house is your house, and your house is his. you have a few clothes and even a toothbrush at his house and he has the same at yours, getting ready there was never a problem to you.

a walk to their house is even less than 5 minutes so you weren’t worried about someone from your neighborhood getting a jumpscare and thinking you’re some kind of a zombie.

you took out the keys and opened the door, heeseung was sitting in the kitchen and eating his breakfast.

“don’t ask, been a rough morning, where’s mom by the way?” you asked him and he pointed at her room. you got used to call his mom your mom too.

you saw her sleeping so you left the bag and the medicine next to her, leaving a note saying good morning and instructions of how to take the medicine, as if she doesn’t know all of that.

“you have afternoon classes too?” you asked heeseung while getting ready. he was in his room, lying on his bed while playing some games on his phone.

“not really, i don’t have any class today” he chuckled.

“since when don’t you have any classes today?”

“ever since i decided that im too tired to go to uni”

you rolled your eyes and threw one of the pillows at him, “don’t be stupid! get up and get ready to go!”

he giggled and shook his head, “i’m joking, i took evening classes for today”

you pressed your lips together and nodded, you don’t know why but hearing him giggling always made your heart skip a beat, but you don’t have any feelings for him, like, at all. right?

afternoon classes started and before you knew it, it was already lunch time.

“y/n! you won’t believe it!!” chaewon shout.

“what is it?” you shout at her back even though you were sitting right in front of her.

“i found you a solution! you can get a free dorm!” she shout back.

“what!” you shout.

“can you stop shouting! for god’s sake you’re literally a 1 cm away from each other” yunjin, who was covering her ears yelled.

you and chaewon shared an eye contact and froze. yunjin is so scary when she’s angry.

“continue please” she coughed and let chaewon continue what she had to say.

“it might seem crazy what i’m about to say,” chaewon sighed, “the uni is giving away free dorms—“

“no way omg omg omg please tell me i’m dreaming this is not happening right now right this is not real righ—“

“under one condition!” she cut you off and took her phone out of her pocket to read the terms.

“in order to get a free dorm, you have to have at least one option applied ;

one, you’re younger than 18. two, you’ve been scoring A+ on ALL of your exams and three, you’re between the ages 18-25 and got married, or engaged” she finished reading and turned off her phone.

“but chaewon, i’m not younger than eighteen” you complained and rest your head on your arm who was lying on the table.

“nor scoring A+ on ALL of your exams” yunjin added.

“thanks yunjin, i needed that”

“always here to help”

“then you know what’s left” chaewon smirked and you sat up, looking at her with innocent eyes.

“no” you let out.

“oh yes”

“i have no one to marry to” you argued.

“yes you do!” yunjin replied.

“i do not!”

chaewon and yunjin raised a brow and crossed their arms, “you don’t?”

as heeseung entered the uni entrance, you ran towards his direction and stopped in front of him.

“y/n why are you still here—“

“let’s get married” you said it out loud in front of everyone who was around.

your surroundings suddenly became quiet and everyone was staring at you two, starting to whisper and waiting for heeseung’s answer.

instead of answering he grabbed your wrist and dragged you out of the entrance into a place in the garden next to the uni.

the walk there was making you so nervous and anxious, what if you were a bit too much? asking your childhood friend to marry you just to get a free dorm? are you that desperate?

when he finally stopped, he let go of your wrist and cupped your cheeks, looking straight into your eyes.

“what did you say?” he asked, his eyes looking for any sign or answer from you.

“i said, let’s get married”

heeseung could’ve swore his heart skipped a beat because he for real felt like he died at that spot.

“let me explain!” you said before he could respond.

“the uni are giving out free dorms to anyone who’s between the ages of 18-25 and is married or engaged” you sighed.

heeseung let go of his hold and sighed, looking down and closing his eyes.

you really didn’t mean that genuinely, did you? something in him really hoped you did.

“hee?” you asked, biting your lower lips, suddenly feeling more anxious than before

“sure, let’s get married” he chuckled.

you broke your second main wish on your list.

heeseung was just a few shifts away from getting enough money to get the both of you a place to live in, he could have told you that too, but he chose not to.

only crazy people would agree to this idea, you were so desperate that you actually just asked him to marry you, and he guessed he was one of those crazy people, because he had no idea why he said yes.

he had other way, without marrying you, but something about the idea of marrying you made him feel excited.

“i knew it i knew it! only crazy people would agr— wait what” you blinked a few times after you realized his answer.

“i said sure, let’s get married” he smiled softly and you were about to faint.

“no feelings are involved….right?” you hesitantly asked him, hoping he wouldn’t agree with you.

instead, he nodded slowly and hesitantly, “no feelings involved”

you regretted that sentence so bad because the day after, when he kneeled on one knee and held a ring out for you in front of everyone and proposed to you, your couldn’t lie to yourself anymore, you actually broke your third wish on your list a few years ago, you were in love with lee heeseung for years.

“y/l/n y/n, i have loved you ever since i can remember, i watched you grow up and grew up with you as well, i got used to being with you 24/7, i can’t see the rest of my life without you in it, will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to marry me?”

even though it was an act(according to you), it felt so real to the point where you cried and sobbed so badly, while putting on the ring he bought for you less than 24 hours ago.

it wasnt planned. the proposal wasn’t planned at all.

the plan was that you and heeseung will go to the uni secretariat and request an application for the free dorm since both of you are engaged now.

heeseung had no reason to put on this whole show and show everyone that you’re now engaged. you have no idea why he did it, and instead of getting angry at him, you fell in love with him even more.

it felt wrong, it felt not right.

but you didn’t care, you always knew your feelings for heeseung were somewhere deep inside your heart. you tried to push them away all the time, because there was no way your childhood friend, the popular boy in your highschool, the kid who grew up with you, had feelings for you.

you tried to deny your feelings but now you realized thrre was no use anymore, so you let yourself love him as much as you can.

it wasn’t the desperation that lead you to ask him to marry you, because then you’d ask literally any other guy, it was your pure love to him, to the guy who was always there for you when you needed him.

“heeseung! explain what was that!” his six other friends gathered in a circle, surrounding him and not letting him go.

“what was wha—“

“you and y/n? married?” jungwon shout.

“have you gone crazy?” jake added.

“and she said yes! something is not right” jay joined.

“yesterday you told us you have no feelings for her!” sunoo remarked.

“you didn’t even believe us when we told you she’s obviously in love with you” sunghoon tsked.

“something isn’t sitting right to me” ni-ki gasped.

“explain now!” they all said at the same time.

“calm down!” heeseung coughed, “i’ll explain to you everything later”

by later he meant after classes, at his house, together with you and your friends yunjin and chaewon.

“yunjin, chaewon” heeseung nodded at your friends.

“lee heeseung” they glared at him.

“come on! both of you knew about it even before” you pleaded.

“doesn’t change the fact that he’ll be stealing you from us now” they rolled their eyes.

“i’m still so confused” ni-ki tried to quicken everyone and get to the point.

“me and y/n are getting married—“

“yeah no shit sherlock” sunghoon cute him off and heeseung glared at him.

“anyway, y/n would you like the explain why?” he turned to you and smiled.

“the uni is giving away free dorms to married couples between 18-25 so—“

“you decided to get married to get a free dorm” jay finished your sentence.

“have you gone mad? heeseung worked his ass to get enough money to get the dorms for the bo— mhhhhmmm!!!” sunoo roamed but jake covered his mouth before he could continue.

“sunoo!!” jake coughed and turned to you with a smile, “don’t mind him he’s been stressed from work and uni lately”

the rest of you giggled awkwardly and tried to ease the atmosphere.

after you yunjin and chaewon left, the boys stayed with heeseung, looking at him with concern.

“what?” heeseung looked at them back with his bambi eyes.

“i don’t know hee, it feels like….she’s kind of using you” sunghoon spoke, jay slapped his arm and he whined.

“he’s right though, marrying you only to get a dorm is quite crazy” jungwon nodded.

“he’s even crazier for actually agreeing to all of this” ni-ki said and jake shushed him.

“ni-ki is right, i am crazy, i have no idea why i said yes but she wasn’t forcing anything on me” heeseung shrugged, “besides, i’ve liked her for so many years so—“

“ah ha!! we knew it!” they all said at the same time and heeseung sighed. what have he got himself into?

after everyone left, heeseung texted you, asking you to meet him in your usual spot.

you got ready and for the first time, you took a while to do so.

you stared at yourself in the mirror a few times and even checked different outfits. this has never happened to you ever before, especially not when you knew that you’re going to see heeseung.

heeseung saw you at your worst, why are you dressing up for him now then?

“i must be crazy, crazy crazy!” you shook away your thoughts and got out to meet your soon-to-be-husband.

“hee!” you saw his back facing you and as soon as he turned around you froze.

did he dress up for you too? why does he look so breathtaking suddenly? his bambi eyes match the rest of his beautiful features on his face so much, you’ve seen this man grow up, you know every detail about his face and you couldn’t explain why it was so sudden that you got caught by surprise because of his beauties.

shaking away your thoughts, you walked closer to him and smiled.

“hey hubby” you grinned.

“hubby?” he asked.

“a new nickname for my soon-to-be-husband” you chuckled and he nodded.

“i actually thought about something,” he turned to you, “our parents will figure it out sooner or later, should we tell them the truth or—“

“no, let them believe we’re getting married without any reason other than being in love”

you have no idea why you just said that. but you hid your face as soon as you realized what just came out of your mouth.

heeseung felt too flattered and suddenly didn’t know what to say. you keep on making him speechless.

“ahem,” he cleared his throat, “you do know that they’ll probably rush out things and even take the wedding plan to their own hands“

i don’t care, i’d like to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you as soon as i can. is what you wanted to say, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do so.

“y/n?” he asked. he noticed you were too deep in thoughts and waited for you to come back to sense.

“i’m aware” you nodded, “i’ve also got a text from the uni, we’ll be getting our dorm in the next week, so we should start preparing”

heeseung nodded and looked at you. you were suddenly feeling so nervous and shy to share an eye contact with him, so you broke it as he just kept staring at you and taking in your beauty.

“hey y/n” he said, “hm?”

“i don’t mind marrying you and spending the rest of my life being married to you”

you looked over him and he had the genuinest smile you’ve ever seen.

it felt like the world had froze, and the snow that was falling suddenly stopped, it felt like it was just the two of you in this whole world.

“YOU’RE GETTING WHAT?” your mother yelled.

you and heeseung planned a dinner with both of your parents, to announce the big news.

things became quite awkward between the two of you, ever since your last encounter with him you could barely face him.

his sudden confession freaked you out and the only thing that came out of your mouth was “oh, okay” in the most dry way ever.

you wanted to tell him you feel the same, you wanted to tell him that you’ve been in love with him ever since forever. but one moment that caught you off guard ruined your chance.

you were stupid, stupid and idiot. heeseung probably thinks you hate his guts now.

heeseung in the meantime felt like he was breaking apart slowly. oh, okay?? that’s all you had to answer?

he felt dumb, he felt hopeless. the confession was completely out of the blue and unplanned, your beauty hypnotized him and he was so mesmerized by you that the words just came out of his mouth naturally.

what if you hate his guts now? what if he made you uncomfortable? what if you’ll regret it the last minute because you weren’t feeling the same about him?

all of those questions were eating him alive, and you didn’t help either. each time he came up to you, you were suddenly in rush and told him you have to go, it was breaking him inside slowly.

the dinner was one chance to finally talk with you again.

“married, mom. we’re getting married” you repeat what you already said a few seconds ago.

“when? where? how?” heeseung’s mother asked.

heeseung looked at you and smiled warmly, “it just happened, we’ve been together ever since childhood, it already felt like being in a relationship for so long, so we decided to marry each other” he chuckled and held your hand tightly, “to belong to each other until the day we die”

your parents looked at the both of you. you were sharing eye contact for so long, with heeseung smiling at you, looking deep into your eyes, and with you looking at him with nothing but pure love in your eyes that was making everyone in the room feel so jealous of you two.

“now kiss!” your mother said.

you and heeseung broke the eye contact and blinked a few times.

“what?” you asked.

“kiss then! i want to picture it and keep it in my photo gallery forever!” his mother added.

you were about to speak up until heeseung held your cheek to turn you to face him and it was only a matter of seconds until you felt his lips on yours.

it was your first kiss ever, your first time kissing someone, and it was his as well, but he lead you on so good that it made it look less awkward.

you were his first kiss. you, his childhood friend, stole his first kiss.

“we knew that it’ll happen one day!!” your mothers cheered, “we even have a whole wedding plan ready!!”

you and heeseung broke the kiss and shared an eye contact again.

you didn’t need to hear him say to know how much love he holds for you, and how he cherishes you so much.

and your eyes told him everything, they held the answers to all of the questions that bothered him. you love him as much as he loves you.

“i can’t believe you’re getting married, my little angels” your parents cried altogether which made heeseung let go of his hold on you and grab some tissues to wipe their tears.

“i love that ring by the way! heeseung you did a great job” your mother gave him thumbs up and he chuckled.

if only she knew that it was a ring he bought you in less than 24 hours and even rushed your friends to come with him and help him pick it only because he wanted his whole life to properly propose you.

it was a moving day already and your parents helped you pack every last thing, they even cried through the way, how could their princess leave them so fast?

“you can visit our house anytime!” you tried to comfort them.

“we’ll update you before that, we don’t want to catch you while doing the thing you know” your mother winked and you rolled your eyes, “mom!”

“i see you’re all packed and ready” heeseung came in to check on you.

“she is! take her away already!” your mother complained.

“not before you take this with you!” she went away for a few seconds and came back with a huge wrapped photo frame.

“don’t open it yet!! only when you get into your new house and get everything in place!!” she excitedly hugged the both of you and you nodded.

moving in was quite rough, you had a lot of boxes to unpack and organized, and you and heeseung never felt more awkward after the first kiss you shared.

you’ve barely spoke with each other and your friends were starting to get concerned.

“he told me he doesn’t mind marrying me and spending the rest of his life with me” you pout.

yunjin and chaewon shout and giggled, “girl! he’s more than in love with you!! he’s lovesick!!” they both said.

“what did you answer then?” yunjin asked.

“i told him okay” you smacked your head on the table.

“no way” chaewon gasped.

“yes way” you whined.

“you’re stupid!!” they both smacked you.

“then!!” you shout, “we had our first kiss on dinner in front of our parents” you whispered that part.

“what did you say? couldn’t hear you” chaewon said.

“oh she said that they shared their first kiss on dinner with their— YOU HAD YOUR FIRST KISS WITH HEESEUNG??” yunjin’s eyes widened.

“what happened after that?” chaewon asked curiously.

“we just finished dinner, and now we barely even talk” you sighed, “each time i see him i’m just blushing and running away, i can’t face him!”

“you have to!! you’re moving in soon!!” yunjin argued and chaewon nodded.

“it’ll be the death of me” you sobbed and they chuckled.

you were right at first, but slowly and surely heeseung made a joke and both of you got back to normal in no time, as if nothing happened between you two.

you even helped him organizing his closet and his room, and he did the same.

after a long day you and heeseung finally laid down on your now shared sofa.

“it’s been a rough day” you sighed.

“should we order something?” he suggested and you nodded immediately. you ended up ordering your favorite food.

“let’s open up the picture!!” you said and grabbed the picture your mom gave you earlier today.

you and heeseung both unwrapped it together and revealed an old picture of you and heeseung hugging each other with a huge smile on your faces.

“look at us then and look at us now” he giggled.

both of you hanged the picture right above your sofa and kept staring at it for a while.

“hey hee,” you spoke, “yeah?”

“i wouldn’t mind marrying you and spending the rest of my days with you too” you turned to him, “until the day i die”

“is that your way of telling me you love me too?” heeseung froze for a second. you caught him off guard for the countless time already.

although he understood very clearly your feelings after you shared your first kiss, hearing your words made his heart beat fast.

it was a confirmation for him that all of his feelings for you were actually mutual all this time.

instead of answering his questions you grabbed his shirt and kissed him.

he put his hands around your waist and pushed you closer to him, holding you tightly as if he’s too scared to let you go.

breaking off the kiss was hard, but the lack of oxygen was kicking in, you pressed your foreheads together, still with your eyes closed.

“does that answer your question?” you giggled and you felt him smiling.

“i don’t think so, i need a bit more of it to feel certain” he teased and you tsked.

“i don’t need to be in a relationship with you to feel certain about my feelings and my willingness to marry you, i want to spend my life with you, i love you” you said and pecked his lips.

“i love you too, y/n” he pecked your lips again and it suddenly got into a fight between you two about who pecks the other more, until it ended up in a long, deep kiss.

“so let me get this straight. you and heeseung had been in denial for many many years and manipulated yourself into thinking that you don’t like each other at all at all, then when y/n’s desperate and broke ass heard of a chance to get a free dorm by getting married, she went up to you, heeseung, and asked her to marry you, you agreed to the proposal because at one point you stopped lying to yourself and realized you’re actually lovesick, and the rest is history” ni-ki finally breathed out after almost rapping this whole story.

“by history i mean y/n waking up from her denial and realizing her feelings to you” he added.

“yes, exactly” heeseung nodded and you chuckled.

you were sitting together with your friends on one table, yunjin and chaewon who were already aware of the story added a few notes here and there as ni-ki summarized your whole story.

“this is a story to tell your children” jay smiled and the rest nodded.

“we’re not planning to get pregnant anytime soon, we didn’t even have a wedding yet” you sighed.

“you never know y/n, you never know!” sunoo slowly nodded.

“why did you say that as if you went through something familiar” jungwon teased.

“you never know y/n, you never know!” sunghoon mocked sunoo.

“that was a good one!” jake laughed with him.

“children, literal children who found themselves in uni somehow” you sighed.

“at this point we won’t even need to have any children when we have them” heeseung agreed with you.

“it doesn’t matter, as long as i’m with you” you smiled and pecked his lips.

“get a room you two will you!”

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[am-i-interrupting]

do you mind if i ask for a bimbo gn!reader who thinks they have an unrequited crush on vox all the while being oblivious of vox's own attempt at flirting, please?

Daft Dolls

All that training with Velvette about how not to just pace but run in high heels really did pay off. Not only was it a valuable tool to have in Hell of all places, it was also just pretty damn useful to know in general.

You weren’t running from loan sharks. No, you were running towards a specific hotel. You weren’t in trouble. Far from it. You were excited. You could not wait to see the look on his face.

The doors were slammed open as you barged in. You looked across the lobby of the hotel.

Vaguely you registered other people (a man dressed in red who just appeared out of thin air) but your eyes zoned in on the pink clad spider at the bar.

“The fuck you doing here, toots?”

“I got you out of work!”

Your voices overlapped. Angel Dust looked at you with a raised brow. “What?”

“I got you out of work,” you repeated as you walked towards him, the door closing behind you. “Well, not work but work work. You know, Valentino work. I know it’s not what you wanted but being on set with me is better than being on set with Valentino, right? At least, that’s what I was thinking ‘cause when I went to talk to him about it he was mad. Like mad mad. He threw bottle of rosé at me.”

“Are you okay?” Angel asked.

You batted his hands away from you. “I’m fine. It’s no big deal. He has shit aim anyway. He missed but with the help of Vox I was able to get you off of Val’s set and onto mine!”

Angel Dust just stared at you, absolutely silent.

As he processed what you said, a blonde woman came up beside you. “Um, hi, I’m Charlie. You’re one of Angel’s friends, I guess? It’s so nice to meet you.”

You took her outstretched hand (it was really soft) and shook it. “Nice to meet you too! Angel’s told me about you. I’m—“

“Vox helped you?” Angel asked, coming out of his stupor. “Like TV head Vox? Overlord Vox? That Vox? He helped you get me out of work?”

“Yeah,” you said shaking your head. “He was already up there with Val. I kind of just barged in. I wasn’t thinking. That was probably a stupid thing to do but you were on the news and then you were messaging me all freaked out about what Val was gonna do because you were on the news so I just kind of went up there to talk about it and anyway. Yeah, why?”

He downed the glass that was on the bar beside him. “You’re so oblivious sometimes,” he said.

“What?!”

He pointed a finger at you. “You call me at least once every two weeks and moan and groan about how—“

You clasped your hands over his mouth. “Can we not ta— Ew! Angel!” You yanked your hands back, now covered in his saliva. “Gross!”

He smirked at you and leaned in close, “Just making sure you’re prepared for that hand job he’s gonna get.”

You pushed his shoulder and he pushed you back. This led to you both lightly hitting each other with no real intent to harm one another.

That was until a different woman’s voice sounded through the room, “What the fuck is going on?”

The both of you stopped and turned towards her. Grey skin, white hair, orange eyes, she was gorgeous. You couldn’t help but say as much.

She looked completely thrown off by your blatant statement meanwhile Angel threw his head back with a laugh and Charlie looked over at her with a huge smile.

“Vaggie,” Charlie said in a sing-song voice.

“No,” the woman (Vaggie) immediately responded with. “Absolutely not.”

She turned around and started walking away. “Sorry,” Charlie said before moving to follow her. “But they’d be perfect for the Hotel!”

“No, we’re not having two Angel Dusts,” Vaggie said.

“But, Vaggie,” Charlie’s voice then grew too distant to hear.

Angel waited a moment but then he turned to you again. “You really got me out of work?” he asked, voice so close to sounding fragile.

“Course I did,” you told him. You grabbed his hand. “Your my friend, Angie.” You let go. “I need to go back though. I’m on my lunch break and it’s probably almost over. I just got so excited, I had to come tell you in person.”

Angel pulled you in for a hug and squeezed you with all six arms. “You’re the best, toots.”

“I know, I know,” you said. “Anyway, I gotta go. See ya!”

You blew Angle kissed as you walked backwards to the door. You spun around, prepared to open it when you saw the red clad man from before holding the door open for you.

“Oh, thanks.”

“Of course, my dear,” he said, a radio filter on his voice. “Please, allow me to walk you back. I’d love to thank our mutual friend in person for helping our other mutual friend.”

“You know Vox?”

“Yes, indeed I do, very well, in fact. I’m Alastor. Pleasure to meet you, my dear, quite a pleasure,” he said.

You gave him your name in turn.

The two of you walked together in silence. You did notice as the two of you walked, many people sprinted away which was odd, especially for you.

You were normally approached by people when you were out. They didn’t run away.

See, several years ago youd made a deal with Velvette. You were one of her models and she’d provide you with protection from Hell’s many dangers along with the occasional free clothes as a bonus. Time passed and you and Velvette actually ended up getting along fairly well. She’d put you in her streams, in her posts, she’d hang out with you outside of work. That’s when one day she heard you singing when she invited herself over. A couple days later, you were basically told you were going to make an album. The rest was history.

So, people running from instead of approaching you was different, weird, even strange.

You looked over at your company but he simply wore a smile. You could hear him humming actually, something upbeat and jazzy. You supposed if he wasn’t deterred you shouldn’t be either. Maybe it was just one of those off days in Hell, especially since it was so soon after the extermination.

Eventually you got to the three Vs’ tower. What you didn’t expect was for Vox to immediately teleport to the entryway.

His posture was straight which was normal but it seemed tense. If that wasn’t enough to tip you off the fact that he was still sparking was and his eye strobing definitely was. You followed his gaze to Alastor and found yourself suddenly very cautious of the man.

While Alastor didn’t seem that bad on the surface you’d known Vox longer. You trusted Vox. You more than trusted Vox actually but the point was you took a very lengthy step away from Alastor and toward’s Vox even if he was sparking.

“What marvelous company this one makes,” Alastor said, gesturing to you. “Wouldn’t you say, old friend?”

Vox took a step in front of you. “Get the FUCK out of my territory!” he said.

Alastor’s smile turned into something devious, something knowing, and something very unnerving. He gave a bow and then vanished into the shadows.

Vox placed a hand on your back and guided you inside. “Do not ever go around him again, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” you said. Not once in your half a decade in Hell had you ever seen Vox like this.

He sighed. His sparking calmed down and his eyes stopped strobing. “Sorry, just, um, I— he’s— it’s complicated. Just don’t associate with him.”

“Sorry, I was just going to that hotel Angie’s staying at. He insisted on walking me back, that’s all,” you explained.

“It’s— Wait, what? What hotel?”

“The Happy Hotel that Charlie Morningstar started. There was an ad for it on 666 today before Angel’s fight.”

Vox stopped. “Alastor’s back and he’s staying at a hotel run by Lucifer’s daughter?”

Prior to all of the things that happened two days after the extermination, Vox had already said (as what you assumed was a way to placate Valentino) that he would be personally in charge of directing your music video but it seemed like since Alastor he wasn’t letting you out of his sight. That was silly though.

He did come into your apartment in the tower though and just sat on your couch. That was normal though. Vox did that when he was stressed. He said your apartment was less noisy than staying with the other Vs. Whatever the case, you made him dinner last night.

Now it was the next day and Velvette was dolling you up as she was prone to do. She blended out your lipstick with her finger. Then she put a thick layer of lip gloss on top.

“Pout for me. Perfect. You look pretty, innocent, and fuckable,” she said.

She pulled you out of your chair and to the nearest full length mirror. She was right, as always. She’d given you a very soft blue makeup look for the most part with sharp eyeliner and bold pink and black lips. She had dressed you in a pastel pink cropped sweater, a matching miniskirt with a high pastel blue g-string, and tall white boots. She’d outdone herself but she always did.

She ushered you out of the dressing room after you both got done gawking at yourself and to the set. There you found Angel in a very similar get up but with the pinks and blues reversed.

“You ready to blow this shoot?” Angel asked,

“Wrong kind of shoot for a blow,” you told him.

He rolled his eyes with a smile. One hand of his went around your shoulders. The other went around the waist.

You both went to set and chatted while you waited for Vox to arrive.

It was only a few minutes before he was walking through the doors, a tray of three cups in his hands. He set it down on a nearby table. Velvette went to grab one but he cut her off, taking it instead. You caught sight of her offended expression before it morphed into a done but knowing look. One hand on her hip while the other plucked a different cup off the tray,

Vox turned, now two cup in hand. He caught sight of you and raised an eyebrow. Velvette doubled over laughing. You couldn’t help but wander why. It was too loud to hear what they were saying but it didn’t look like either of them had moved their lips.

Maybe one of Vox’s soundboard noises went off. That was known to happen occasionally but you couldn’t think of why.

You didn’t really get the chance to think of any reasons though as seconds later Vox was in front of you. He extended the hand holding the cup he’d taken from Velvette.

“You look nice,” he said.

“Thanks, Velvette’s work,” you explained, taking the cup from him. You hummed to yourself when you were met with your favorite drink.

“I’m sure that’s not all true,” he said.

You were too busy to notice how his eyes lingered on your face but Angel did. Throughout the next few weeks Angel noticed a lot.

He’d never really seen you and Vox interact before. He would just hear stories from you afterwards and holy fuck. You had to be dense to think this man wasn’t absolutely obsessed with you.

Vox brought you your favorite drink every single day. He complimented you every single day. He would correct and critique everyone else in a very detached way at best and frustrated way more often than not. But with you, he was calm, gentle almost. He took your ideas and incorporated them. He would go out of his way to physically correct your poses or guide you through specific motions. Once you mentioned off handedly that your feet were hurting and there was an early lunch break where he didn’t even eat, he massaged your feet for you.

When Angel brought this up, however, he was brushed off.

“He brought Velvette a drink too.” Yeah, one she complained tasted like piss.

“He does that all the time. It doesn’t mean anything.” Angel had never heard Vox compliment anyone in his nearly seventy years in Hell.

“He just knows me better, that’s all.” Not once had Angel ever seen Vox being even half as kind to Velvette or Valentino.

“I’m sure he does that with other people’s ideas.” Angel remembered being told multiple iterations of the same story with different people, all because they did something as small as suggest different shoes for someone to walk in because it was too loud.

“It’s probably just easier to do that than explain. He knows I’m used to being puppeted around by Vel.” He spent five minutes explaining to Angel what to do instead of just moving his four arms into position.

“Do you want me to give you a foot massage, Angie? All you have to do is ask.” Well, yes, but that wasn’t the point!

Angel watched as Vox laughed at something you said. “Fucking dumbass,” he muttered to himself as he grabbed a yogurt off the snack bar.

“I know, right?” Velvette said, scaring the shit out of him in the process. “You think this is bad? Ugh, imagine being surrounded by it all the time and Voxy’s just as bad and there’s no escaping him. I have to put up with his bitch ass whining all the time. It’s exhausting.”

Angel relaxed enough to lean against the wall. “Kind of makes you want to press them together like dolls and make them kiss, don’t it?” he asked.

“Yeah. . . Wait a minute! That’s it!” Velvette slapped Angel’s shoulder.

She whipped out her phone and started typing frantically. Her legs started kicking from where they dangled over the edge of the snack bar.

Angel peeled open the yogurt and tried to lean to have a look at what she was typing. She was too fast though and shut off her phone with a satisfied smirk.

Her eyes were glued to the pair of you. You pulled out your phone and saw a message from her. You looked over at her with furrowed brows. She just smiled at you manically. You shook your head but gave her a thumbs up.

When lunch break was supposed to be over, Velvette clapped her hands together loud enough it echoed through the room. “Listen up, sluts!” she said, taking control over the room.

You watched as she and Vox had a back and forth which ended with Vox confused on the set couch in a new outfit Velvette poofed on him. It wasn’t anything too far out of his usual style but it was a change. It was simple black slacks and a white button up shirt but the sleeves were rolled past his forearms and several of the buttons were undone. He looked. . . You were staring that’s for sure.

The music came on and you began lip singing. You put your hands on either side of his head. You threw your leg on the other side of his lap and straddled him. You moved your body up and down, not grinding on him due to not sitting on him but it was a close thing. Your face was right in front of his. You tried to hold eye contact with him but for some reason his eyes kept darting down.

“Fuck it,” he said under his breath.

Then an arm was wrapped around your hips forcing you down and a hand was in your hair guiding your head closer to his. Your lips met his and static filled your entire body. His tongue was caressing your mouth, making you feel like you had a mouth full of pop rocks.

You moaned when he flipped you so your back was pressed against the couch. He rolled his hips against yours and you could feel him through his pants.

“Fuck the music video,” he said against your lips. “How would you feel about filming a porno instead?”

“Mmm, kinky,” Angel said.

“I am so sending this to ‘Tino,” Velvette said.

[sugawarassoulmate]

rich!bf sakusa is SUCH a brat tamer prove me wrong

he's so fine 🥴

words: 369 cw: gn!reader, spanking, punishments, fingering, manipulation, minors dni

sakusa throwing you over his lap after you two got into the dumbest argument. "you know it's impolite to refuse a gift," he grunts, leaving hand-shaped marks on the meat of your ass.

you two got into another argument about his spending habits—or more specifically how he keeps buying you the most expensive gifts when he knows that it bothers you.

"i hate it when you waste that kind of money on me, omi," between every slap, sakusa plunges two of his fingers into your wet heat. it's part of his sick game to get you to submit, giving you just enough pleasure before he takes away with a smack.

he sighs, knowing that this punishment is gonna take longer than he planned. “it’s not a waste if it’s you,” slap. “so be good and just take it.” slap.

"kiyo, i can't accept—" you sigh, feeling his thick fingers enter you once more. "it's always too much, i feel bad."

your resolve is breaking, slowly but surely. if he keeps at it, he might be able to convince you to accept the necklace that started this whole thing. sometimes he wants to see how far he can go—maybe he could finally convince you to let him pay off the student loans that have been hanging over your head for years.

"don't think about it too much. just be good for me, okay?" he says, fucking you with his fingers until you're right at the edge. right when you're about to cum, sakusa pulls his fingers out and slaps your ass again, laughing when you cry out.

"no, you'll only get to cum if you accept my gift. it's just one necklace, baby," he says.

it's more than just one gift. he'll always have to top it. nothing is ever good enough for you if sakusa can help it. your brain is telling you to refuse, there's no way you can pay him back for his kindness but you're desperate to get off. is it so bad to be pampered once in a while.

"okay, okay i'm sorry, omi...thank you for the gift," you whine.

"was that so hard? why don't you sit on my cock now, pretty?"

©sugawarassoulmate 2022 all rights reserved - please do not repost/translate my work on other platforms!

[aheathen-conceivably]

Now that we know a little more, clearly Gio is pretty ticked off with the situation - considering the feelings that he has about his and Jo’s relationship already, combined with the guilt and likely irritation of her finding out about his lying, now also combined with her demanding part ownership of the ranch - he doesn’t have a lot of leg to stand on. He has to just, deal with it, because it IS all their lives’ on the line, and nothing he’s tried to do has worked. I voted for Zelda to be most pissed, but I think she and Antoine are really just sad for now, so Gio might run away with the title after all 😭

Oh HELLO my friend! I love that we’re still playing the game of “Who Will Snap First!” (Game show pending). You’re hella right about one thing, as things shift and move, everybody’s numbers start to kind of adjust don’t they? Cause ahem, yeah, Gio is ~not pleased~ at the moment, and like you said, he doesn’t even feel like he has the “right” to be angry (which is its own sort of compounding factor, isn’t it?).

Is it time for a Gio deep dive? Welp. Gather one gather round my darlings because you know I can never resist….

Ted Talk with a Heathen! (Obviously under the cut because I’m a madlad)

First and foremost let me say that for whatever else Jo may do or how she demanded it, she is damn right not to pay off a loan without some legal backing in return. Now does she know this? For sure. But does she also know that she did it to get under Gio’s skin in a way that nothing else could? Absolutely. I’ve talked about it a little here, but Gio’s entire mindset is wrapped up in this farmhouse. It is his American dream. We also need to remember that he did what he said he never would in order to get the money to buy it, which is involve himself in his family bootlegging back in the 1920s. He even admitted to Antoine that after their one deal he tried to get out, but “once they get their teeth into you, once they know where you are, they don’t let you stop.” So Gio saved up this money by going against his own moral code and then ran from it to a place he thought he could establish himself as a “legitimate” American.

And I know yall like to rag on him about “making bad choices,” and while that’s partially true, Gio is just horribly, horribly unlucky. Buying land in the American West was incredibly fortuitous at one point in history, and it’s these stories that prompted Gio to do this at all. He’s an example of how not only can we buy into propaganda with our money and our dreams, but how they intersect with historical circumstances in ways far beyond our control or predictions.

Now to add to this, Gio knows what Jo has just done. She’s essentially taken part of what’s incredibly personal and precious to him as “payment” for what he did to her: which was trying to control her into fitting neatly into his dream when she had told him no multiple times before. In doing so he took away what was most precious to her: control and autonomy over her own life. It’s why he’s not really fighting her, and that deep seated Catholic guilt is simply telling him that this is retribution. But you can only write off someone else’s actions as righteous for so long, can’t you? And to make matters worse, let’s not forget….

Gio is not stupid. He knows something is going on between Jo and Val. How much of him thinks it’s just flirtation? How much of it is genuine or is just Jo once again trying to “get back at him”? But he’s staying quiet about it for a reason, most likely the same reason he’s willing to roll over and let Jo take 1/4th ownership of his dream. He’s motivated by guilt and ideas of righteous payback, yes, but he’s also taking a gamble that Jo is working through his betrayal in a way that he has to let her get through, and he’s attempting to let go of control to show her that he won’t do it again.

Essentially, he’s overcompensating for his actions and using his own compliance as a sort of “play” in their game to keep the other person where they want them. Is this potentially more motivated by love and less problematic than him directly lying to her to get her to stay? Y’all can make the call on that, but now at the very least, he’s the one suffering for it rather than her.

Now with all that going on, how far is this man willing to bend? How intuitive is Jo to when she’s pushed him too far and how much of her even gives a damn? Welp. There’s your questions on today’s episode of 1930s: Arc Two! Who Will Snap First? with more info coming at you tomorrow! 🫡

[yutafrita]

AN ANGEL, MY ANGEL, AND ME- PT. 1

*ੈ♡⸝⸝🪐༘⋆❀*ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩♡ ੈ♡⸝⸝🪐༘⋆❀*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Fallen Angel!Sungchan x Reader (she/her) Teaser // Preview // 1 // 2 // 3

[Feat.] Soyeon from (G)i-dle, Shotaro from Riize, and BoA

Chp. Word Count 5.7k Synopsis Finding out your best friend is a guardian angel is pretty mind numbing. It only gets worse when you find out a Fallen Angel has been hiding in your apartment for two years. You think your life can’t get any weirder, until you start lying about being married to keep your new job. Genre Low Fantasy, Romantic Comedy, Ridiculously Fluffy, some angst, fake dating Chapter Warnings Swearing, Food/ Eating, cops/ fictional police force, Catholic Religious imagery, HR interview violation

CHAPTER ONE- THE BLACK CAT CONSPIRACY

ੈ♡⸝⸝🪐༘⋆❀*ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩♡ ੈ♡⸝⸝🪐༘⋆❀*ੈ✩‧₊˚

You uncomfortably picked at your cuticles, anxious by the lack of activity in your email. It had only been a week since you started applying for jobs, and yet already you had begun feeling discouraged. The candle you lit in your room a few hours ago filled your lungs with eucalypts, and you still had not been able to calm down. You knew the candle couldn’t exactly work miracles, but still! Your cat sat on your lap, and you quietly dusted off the cuticles that blemished his black fur.

“Sorry, Eerie,” you muttered. You scratched his ear delicately, and he leaned against your hand to show his forgiveness.

“Hey! I’m gonna order a pizza, do you want to split it?” your roommate walked in through your open door, plopping herself on your bed with her eyes on her phone. Your cat turned its head as if to glare at her before placing himself back down.

“Sure,” you responded dryly, still tugging at the loose cuticle. Soyeon looked up from her phone to see your bright computer screen.

“Not this again,” she grumbled. She stood up from your bed and kicked your chair away. Your cat leapt out from your lap and scampered to the corner of your room, hissing at your roommate.

“Hey! You scared Eerie!” you sat up to move her away but she was quick to close all of your computer tabs.

“You need to chill the fuck out. We still have a month left before graduation,” Soyeon reminded before snatching your hand to hold in front of your face, “you are out of cuticles,” she then tossed your hand down and turned her gaze to the cat that hissed at her, “and that cat is always scared.”

You sighed in defeat, “my brain knows objectively that you’re right, but can’t help it. I have to start paying back these student loans soon..”

“I’m ordering the pizza, and we’re watching something.”

You and Soyeon sat on the couch eating your pizza as Ouran High School Host Club played on your living room screen. Eerie sat next to you on the couch, cuddled up against your side as he seemingly watched the screen.

“How many times have we seen this show?” Soyeon asked. The pizza had long been finished, and the empty box sat in front of you on the coffee table, covering the extensive bridal and wedding magazines you had been taking notes on.

“I lost count after the seventh rewatch,” you shrugged, “I think Eerie’s seen it like four times at this point.”

“That cat is fucking weird,” she muttered this sentiment for the one millionth time since you brought the cat home.

“He’s just a little eccentric,” you defended. You scratched the cat behind the ears, and you felt him lean closely into your hand.

“He’s like… I swear he’s like a person,” Soyeon hissed.

“If he was, then he would have to pay his own pet rent.”

_____

“Remember your final exam will be cumulative,” your professor reminded your class the following morning. You rubbed your temples, hoping the motion would stifle the headache you were nursing to no avail. 

You were stuffing your backpack as the rest of the lecture hall emptied. You had another lecture in about two hours, so you weren’t in much of a rush all things considered. Running up through your mental to-do list, you figured you’d get some extra studying done before lecture, and afterwards you’d grab some more kitty litter. Leaving the hall, your pace was followed by someone you had only seen in class and never spoke to outside of that.

“Hey, do you get anything the professor has been going on about?” 

“Oh… yeah it’s a bit complicated.”

“My name’s Shotaro,��� he smiled brightly despite his seeming distress. “I noticed you’re the only one the prof doesn’t call on, and I figure it’s because they know you know your stuff.”

He did have a point. In your undergrad years, you were a pretty intense student and always visited all of your professors' office hours. While you weren’t as obsessive as a graduate student, you still submitted all of your coursework on time with excellent grades.

“I’m y/n,” you nodded. There was an awkward pause before Shotaro asked the question you were dreading- if he could pick your brain before the next lecture.

Sitting next to him in the library, you sat for about an hour, the young man scooched a little closer to you than you would have liked.

“So, these two would be contrasting then, yeah?” he asked, pointing between two choices.

“Yep!” you nodded before glancing back at the time. “Ah, I’ve gotta go.”

You turned towards your backpack that sat between the two of you before glancing back up. In an attempt to help, Shotaro had shut your notebook and held it in his hand, extending it towards you. Maybe he was a bit strange, but he didn’t seem harmful, at least.

You returned home later that day, exhausted, the kitty litter bag heavy on your arm as you entered. 

You shut the door behind you, Eerie immediately wrapping himself around your ankles. You smiled, crouching down to pet the cat behind his ears. He seemed unbothered, continuing to rub his scent between your now outstretched hand and ankles.

“I didn’t see any animals today, buddy,” you chuckled. Eerie scrunched up his face as if to respond to you. You stood up, and made your way to your room with Eerie following closely behind you. You began the process of taking your laptop out so you could start up on more job applications when something slipped out of your backpack onto the floor of your room.

“Huh?” you frowned, bending down to pick it up only to hear Eerie hiss and scramble out of your room. “What the fuck?” you shook your head, picking up the small black string bag that you had no recollection of ever owning. Carefully undoing the string, you dropped its contents into your hand- a small, smooth, green and silver gemstone. You heard the front door open, but instead of greeting Soyeon you stayed in your room, holding the gemstone high above your head and towards the light to try and see if you could figure out what it was.

“Hey, why is that stupid cat cowering behind the couch?” Soyeon asked.

“I have no idea, this rock fell out of my bag and he-,” you looked over at Soyeon and froze. Your eyes widened, and your grip on the rock tightened in fear as you tried to make sense of the image of your best friend of several years before you.

“Hey, is everything okay?” she took a step towards you, and you hesitantly took a step back. Her white wings were protruding from her back and were massive- how could you have never seen something like this? No- was this even real?

You squeezed your eyes tightly shut before opening them. Nothing changed besides the worry on Soyeon’s face.

“Soyeon, what the fuck is that on your back?” you cried. You watched the wings expand slightly as if you had ruffled them with your words.

She glanced back, ignoring the wings before looking back at you. 

“What are you talking about?”

“Dude, you have fucking wings!” you yelled, waving the stone in your hand as if to gesture to the giant wings she had. Her eyes widened before she stepped forward as if to speak to you in a more hushed tone. You panicked, and rushed past her and out of your room and into the living room, hoping to put some distance between the two of you.

“How long have you had those things!? What the fuck is going on? Oh god I’m losing it,” you shut your eyes again, massaging your temples with an aggressive pressure as you tried to sift through your memories. You met Soyeon over ten years ago, and while she was more outgoing than you, and was always there for you, she had never had wings or seemed abnormal in any way. You had met her family for heaven’s sake! 

You opened your eyes again, now with your back to your couch as you sood your ground. Soyeon entered the space slowly, hands extended to show that she was no danger to you.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” her voice was soft, her head hanging low.

“I know that! I know you won’t hurt me, Soyeon! But what the fuck is going on?” you were a little insulted that she thought you were scared of her. You weren’t! You  were more shocked than anything else!

“Can… can I see that rock?” she squinted, and extended an open palm. Nervously, you took a small step forward. You heard Eerie hiss angrily behind the couch, so once you placed the gemstone in your roommates hand, you moved to dig the cat out from his hiding spot, the area between the wall and the couch.

“Seraphinite…” Soyeon muttered as you looked over the back of the couch. Eerie was shaking, his brown eyes staring up in fear as you went to reach out towards him before Soyeon sprung out next to you, grabbing the cat by his scruff and yanking him out of his crevice.

“Soyeon!” you shouted, going to take the cat out of her grasp before you watched in horror as she solved the gemstone between the cat's bared teeth. 

That was when, the cat you adopted over two years ago, transformed from a black cat into a man that was a foot taller than Soyeon and with dark, black wings.

“I knew it! I knew you weren’t a normal fucking cat!” Soyeon cheered, yanking the stone out of the mouth of the man that suddenly stood in your living room.

“I… I’m gonna be sick,” you muttered, leaning on the couch for support. 

“See? Now you spooked her,” the man spoke. You heard a thud before a set of small arms wrapped around you to help you sit down on the couch. Your stomach turned as you looked before the two beings now standing before you- Soyeon’s bright white wings absorbing most of the light in the room, and the being formerly known as Eerie the cat’s wings were pure black.

“Fuck off! I should have the troops called on your ass so I can collect the bounty,” she hissed. 

“Who the fuck are you?” you asked, trying to rack your brain for anytime Eerie seemed to, y’know, not be a cat.

“Well,” he sat down on the floor in front of you, as if he had been waiting to be asked, “I have a lot of names-.”

“Asshole,” Soyeon cut him off, earning a glare before he continued.

“But, you can call me Sungchan. I’m a fallen angel.”

“An-angel,” you repeated this word to test it out, still reeling. He nodded, reaching back to scratch a spot on his wings.

“He’s had a bounty on his head for three years… I never imagined you would have accidentally adopted a fallen angel disguising himself as a shelter cat.”

“She didn’t exactly adopt me from a shelter,” Sungchan spoke, and your eyes widened.

“Shut up! Don’t change the subject!” you jumped in. You had sort of found the black cat wandering on your college campus, and the cat had taken to following you around so much- and you were so lonely at the time. You told Soyeon you adopted Eerie from the shelter, but it was more like you adopted him directly off the streets. “Soyeon, are you an angel too?”

She nodded, “yes- but I’m not a fallen angel, I’m actually a guardian.”

“Oh, so original. Posing as a normal best friend,” Sungchan teased, earning a punch in the arm from Soyeon. 

You blinked, “you're my guardian angel?”

“Duh,” she chuckled.

You were reeling, placing a hand on your forehead as you tried to understand the goddamn nightmare occuring before your eyes.

“Oh my god, you’ve seen me change! And- and get out of the shower!” you shouted, leaping up from the couch. 

“Hey! Hey! I always looked away!” he defended, raising his hands in defense. 

“Why would you pretend to be my cat for so long? You ate cat food and pissed in a litter box,” you argued, now just irritated by the amount you’ve spent on cat litter for seemingly no reason.

“Listen, I don’t know why, but being around you has prevented people from catching me! Plus, I got free room and board,” he shrugged.

“Soyeon, you can’t sense other angels?” you asked, waving your hands wildly. For her being your guardian angel, you couldn’t fathom her not knowing about the fallen angel living as a cat with you this whole time.

“I normally can, I also can typically sense charms… I don’t know why I couldn’t sense him,” she seemed upset before adding, “I’m sorry I let you down.”

“Typical guardian,” Sungchan scoffed. You sent him a glare before softening your gaze to Soyeon.

“You didn’t let me down… maybe that charm was just stronger than usual.”

“It’s not, but like I said, being around you has made it so I don’t get noticed,” Sungchan jumped in. “You’re a bit of a freak for a human.”

“I am not a freak. I’m a grad student in a large amount of debt with apparently two angels for roommates.”

“That is pretty abnormal, though,” Soyeon frowned, “I’m gonna need to do some research.”

“At the library of Alexandria, right?” Sungchan stood up, and maneuvered to the kitchen as if he owned the space. “It was always too packed for my taste.”

“We’re kicking him out, right?” Soyeon asked the obvious question as Sungchan rifled through your pantry and took out your chips.

“Oh my god I thought Soyeon was the one eating all of my chips,” you groaned. While, on the one hand, it would make sense to kick the mooch to the curb, you couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the guy. “Who are you running from?”

“The troops are the cops for angels basically. I may have… tried to sell some ancient artifacts to humans,” Sungchan scratched the back of his neck before adding, “but I wouldn’t steal from you! I swear!” He continued munching on your chips then with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’m highly considering it,” you looked back at your roommate with a frown. The former cat jumped, leaving the chips in the kitchen before rushing back in front of you.

“Please let me stay! I can transform back into a cat and we can pretend like nothing ever happened!”

You and Soyeon both scoffed, crossing your arms.

“Please! I’ll… I’ll do the dishes! Neither of you two like doing those.”

“Hey, we’re both busy,” you defended.

“Plus, I don’t even need a new bed or anything! I can stay where I always sleep!”

“Which is on my bed, you perv!” You snapped, throwing the couch pillow at his head.

He caught it easily before continuing, “then I’ll sleep on the floor. Please! I’ve taken care of all the rodents and bugs that keep trying to come into this apartment!”

“I can’t knowingly harbor a fugitive,” Soyeon insisted, running her fingers through her hair. 

Sungchan looked at you with big, pleading eyes, his hands folded together in a prayer pose. You shut your eyes tightly, frustrated beyond belief. These past two years though, having a cat around really has made things less painful. Those late study nights where he would sit on your lap, the multiple failed first dates where he tried to never leave you alone. 

You already had to deal with the change of realizing Soyeon was not organically your best friend, you weren’t sure if you could handle job hunting on top of not having a third being around.

“Oh my god you’re gonna keep him.”

“What- does being my guardian angel mean you can read my mind?”

“No dumb ass it means I can read your face like a book,” she stood up and shoved a finger against Sungchan’s chest, “if you hurt her, I will call the troops on you so fast-.”

“Why would I want to hurt the only reason I’m not currently locked up?” he countered, furrowing his brows.

Soyeon loudly groaned before turning back to face you, “I… I’m sure you have a lot of other questions.”

“How come I can… see you both now?”

Soyeon extended her hand and placed the rock on your lap. “Seraphinite. It’s a rock that’s used to identify Angels… how did you even get this?”

“I bet it was that dude you were with earlier,” Sungchan muttered, his face downturned. 

“Dude… oh my god is that why you were trying to scent my legs when I got home?”

Soyeon slapped her forehead, muttering her frustrations before taking a deep breath. “Now, you’re going to see… all of the angels that co-exist on this plane of existence… unless…”

“Unless?”

“I… could wipe this from your brain,” she offered. You were frozen for a moment before you stood up, your eyes never wavering from Soyeon’s.

“You’ve done that before?”

“No! Oh my god, no never!” she stood up, grabbing your shoulders, “I swear, I never have. I just-.”

“I’m going to bed,” you broke from her grip, your feet padding on the floor quietly as Sungchan began laughing loudly at Soyeon.

You didn’t sleep much. Between the realization that Angels were real, that your best friend was not really the person you thought she was, and the fact that your cat was actually also an angel, you weren’t wired to sleep well if at all.

In the morning, you were greeted by a snoring Sungchan on the couch, and a note from Soyeon on the dining room counter.

“Giving you space. Love you bestie, and I am always there for you. Getting info, will be back asap,” you read aloud as your coffee heated up. You sighed, leaving the note on your counter as you continued mixing your coffee before starting your day.

“What are you doing today?” Sungchan’s voice made you jump, nearly dropping your mug.

“Ah! Fuck, I’m used to your bell so you don’t sneak up on me,” you defended, placing a hand on your chest to calm yourself down. “I’m going to class.”

“Take me with you!”

“Are you crazy?” you responded, taking a sip of your coffee in hopes that you’d regain some energy to deal with this.

“Please? The only time I’ve left this apartment is whenever you would take me to the vet! I promise I won’t draw any attention! Plus… your actual guardian angel isn’t here!” “I don’t need a guardian angel,” you spat.

“Fine, your best friend isn’t here. I’ll be the person you can talk to after class during lunch!” his eyes were wide and his wings were tucked closely to his body, as if he was trying to keep his energy and nerves bottled up. You didn’t understand the logistics, but it seemed that staying at your apartment was just as safe as being out and about with you. He was likely desperate to move around somehow.

“Fine… but I have a job interview after class, so I’m gonna have to bring you back here before that.”

He nodded excitedly, the restrictions seeming to have no weight on him at all. So, now you sat in the back of the full lecture hall with Sungchan, who wore a smile the whole time despite not knowing a single thing the professor said. You, however, were glaring at the several apparent guardian angels in the class. 

You learned that most Angels were blocked from human observation due to a charm that settled onto the world. Whenever anything atypical occurred (like, an angel knocking something over with their wings), the charm would make it so it appeared it was something normal. So, to the humans, the Angels appeared like any other average person. Sungchan explained that despite him being hunted down by several Angels, that being near you strengthened the charm enough that other Angels saw him as a normal human if they didn’t look too hard.

Convenient for him. Weird for you.

You were surprised to see that Shotaro was not one of the guardian angels in your class. Considering he was the only person physically close enough to you to drop the seraphinite in your bag, you expected him to also have those large, white, Angel wings. Instead, he seemed perfectly normal.

Lecture ended, and you sat still as everyone piled out of the class, all except for Shotaro who stared back at you two expectantly.

“So, you can see him now,” he had a bright grin, and you frowned.

“What the hell are you?” You asked, standing tall from your seat.

“Same thing as you,” was his reply before bounding out of the classroom.

“God dammit,” you muttered. You didn’t have time to chase after the weirdo- you needed to go back to your place to drop off Sungchan and change for your interview.

On your walk back, you decided to air some more of your questions.

“So, how come fallen angels are also just allowed to wander around?” you had noticed that while there were definitely a few more guardian angels around, there was still a substantial amount of fallen angels with their darkened wings wandering around without a second thought.

“Fallen Angels are all former Guardian Angels. They could at some point be forgiven and become Guardians again, but the only difference is that they don’t have a task directly from the man upstairs. Troops are technically Fallen Angels too, since they aren’t directly God’s task force, but rather are led by Saint George.”

“So, do most guardians assume Fallen Angels they see are Troops?”

“Yeah. Most Fallen Angels that choose to wander the surface are Troops, anyways,” he nodded. You were approaching your apartment complex now, mulling over this new found information.

“What kind of charm lets you turn into a cat, anyways?”

“What? You can believe in angels but not in witches and warlocks?”

You forced a groan, “of course.”

“Thanks again for taking me with you!” Sungchan chirped once you returned to your apartment. “And y’know… thanks for letting me stay with you.”

You stopped your path to your bedroom to glance back to Sungchan who was now perched on your couch.

“Don’t mention it.”

-----

You shifted uncomfortably in your seat. The slacks you wore had a wrinkle that you missed when ironing, and there was a small chip on your nails. You cleared your throat awkwardly, looking over your clean resume to hand to the interviewer. Your rings sat on your right hand, glistening in the overly bright office lights. The secretary was tapping away at his keyboard, and had hardly paid you any mind when you checked in fifteen minutes early for your interview. 

The secretary’s office line rang and he swiftly picked it up. You straightened your back when he glanced your way before he hung up the phone.

“Director Kwon will see you now,” he gestured to the large oak door behind him before returning to his work.

“Thanks,” your voice was soft as you passed his desk before entering the Editor-in-Chief of the largest bridal magazines office. The office walls were a soft pastel pink, all lined with different covers the magazine had printed during its one hundred years in existence. The fresh peonies scent was attributed to the several vases of the flowers in different colors and arrangements all organized throughout the space. Director Kwon’s desk, though, was a mess. It was filled with papers, magazines, and framed photos of what looked like her family.

“Welcome! Please, sit,” Director Kwon gestured to the emerald chairs directly in front of her glass desk. She turned her swivel chair to face you, and smiled. 

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” you returned the smile, doing your best to keep calm before you stretched your hand, handing over your resume.

The interview went surprisingly well. Director Kwon was energetic, humorous, and was incredibly responsive to your answers and questions. Everything was perfect- until…

“Now, I know HR says I can’t ask this anymore,” her voice lowered, and you felt like you were being let in on a secret, “but, you don’t have the best wedding source from people who aren’t at least engaged,” she rolled her eyes before looking back. “So, honey, are you married?”

You panicked. You really wanted this job. Plus, they always say to fake it ‘til you make it, right? Without missing a beat you seamlessly moved a ring from your right hand onto your left ring finger.

“Is it obvious?” you giggled, lifting your hand to show Director Kwon the ring. She slapped the desk excitedly, writing down a note on your resume. You could pretend to be married- easy enough.

“What’s their name? Pretty gal like you needs to be with someone just as beautiful- I bet the wedding was gorgeous.”

Their name? You panicked. Fuck. You were backed into a corner of HR violations already- you couldn’t not reply. 

“S-Sungchan. My husband’s name is Sungchan,” you forced your smile, and in the silence you could not stop talking, “we met on a blind date two years ago and just decided on a whim to get married a few months back!”

The train ride back home after the interview was full of shame and regret. Why did you even respond? Director Kwon should not have ask you that, but fuck, you really wanted this job. Your feelings only festered when you got back home and smelled something burning in the kitchen. You threw your bag down, walking in to see Sungchan spraying the fire extinguisher at the inflamed pan on the stovetop. You stood in shock as he ran through the living room to open the windows to the night sky in an attempt to help the smoke dissipate after the flame died, then proceeded to rush in front you to explain everything.

“I left the tortillas on the stovetop just for a second… I was going to make you dinner… I’m so sorry!” he seemed like he was crying, and he was wailing in sorrow about his slight error. 

You sighed, “it’s okay, Sungchan.”

He wrapped you in a giant hug, his wings enveloping you too in the process. How was someone so soft and excitable a fallen Angel? Especially one that was on the run from people that wanted him locked up.

The following week was when you got the call that you got the job. You were so excited, and Sungchan seemed to be in incredibly high spirits for you. Sure, in the office you would have to pretend that a Fallen Angel/ your Former Cat/ your Current Roommate was your husband, but a little lie can't hurt, right?

______

You were finishing your breakfast as you texted Soyeon. Your messages weren’t going through as normal, and you were unsure at this point if she was even getting them. Defeated, you set your phone down and stared aimlessly ahead at the kitchen before a thud called your attention.

“Damn,” Sungchan muttered, now on the floor. He didn’t fit well on the couch, something you had been noticing as of late. He was tall already, and his large wings weren’t helping. While he could transform into a cat, you had learned that it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. Begrudgingly, you got up from the counter and slightly nudged the angel with your foot.

“Go sleep on my bed. I’m about to leave for work,” you offered. It wasn’t like Sungchan had never slept on your bed before. In fact, when he was just Eerie to you, he usually slept either on the foot of your bed or under the sheets with you.

“Are you sure?” his voice was groggy, and he sat up with his eyes still shut.

“Of course,” you affirmed before checking the time on your phone. “I’ve gotta go, I’ll see you later. Are you gonna come with me to do groceries?”

“Of course,” he nodded before standing up and hobbling into your bedroom. 

Sungchan and you had formed a healthy routine. In the mornings, when you were still in school, you would quietly step out for class having already grabbed the lunch the man had put together for you. When you got back, you would either fully engage in questions with Sungchan, or run errands with him. He enjoyed sitting quietly in the same room as you, but since he hadn’t been able to speak to anyone for quite a while, he was elated to have your ear when you gave him the time.

Your job, however, was more convoluted than you had initially planned. As it turned out, your boss had disseminated the information that you were married to everyone- and the concept of marriage was the only thing your coworkers would speak about beyond actual job duties.

“Do you and Sungchan want to renew your vows?”

“Does Sungchan snore? My wife snores.”

“Do you and Sungchan want kids? Or lots of pets?”

Fuck! Doing your job would be a cinch if not for the constant lies and avoiding you had to do to get by. 

Sure- Sungchan was otherworldly attractive, but he was also an angel. Sungchan was also very sweet- but he was also likely terrified of being kicked to the curb and fed to the troops. 

You groaned to yourself, burying your face in your hands as you took the short train ride back home.You had been in this spiral since Soyeon left and since you started this job. You could really use your best friend- even if she was only your friend because she was your guardian angel.

“Do you think the character someone plays as in super smash brothers indicates what kind of person they are?” Sungchan asked as you both made your way through the grocery store isles together. He had taken to playing on your nintendo switch as well as leafing through your old psychology textbooks in his downtime and it was really showing.

“Um… I guess it depends on the smash game,” you mulled over, grabbing the bag of chips off the shelf. Sungchan was wrapped in an obnoxiously large coat despite the gross summer heat. It helps keep his wings more tightly pressed to his body and less likely to accidentally bump into something.

“They’re not all the same?” he was leaning against the cart, his head tilting as if this information never occurred to him.

“Yeah. Meta Knight was almost banned from competitive play for Super Smash Bros Brawl because he was way too overpowered.”

“... interesting,” he muttered, his gaze focused now on the ground beneath him as if he was mapping out a plan of action. You chuckled to yourself, moving ahead with the cart as Sungchan began asking you several questions about the differences in the smash franchise.

“... honey?” this voice made you freeze, although Sungchan continued speaking until he saw the fear in your eyes.

“Gr-Grandma,” you tried to keep your voice still, but your stutter gave you away.

“Honey, you look lovely,” she stated as if she did not just see you last week at your Mother’s place. Much to your dismay, she made eye contact with Sungchan and smiled sweetly, “and who is this… very tall young man?”

“Oh, it is you!” This new voice nearly brought you to your knees. No way. This had to be a sick joke- you were sure of it. There was no way this was both your grandma’s and boss’s grocery store of choice. This had to be an act of God themselves you felt- how else could this even happen?

“Boa, what are you doing here?” your grandmother spoke to your boss as if… as if they knew each other. 

“Are you okay?” Sungchan’s whisper unfroze you, and you met his gaze in terror, sending a look of puzzlement across his own face.

“D-Director Kwon,” you spat out, forcing a smile, “how do you know my grandmother?”

Director Kwon looked between you and your grandmother, and then chuckled to herself. “You two do look alike! Although, I don’t know why, but I thought you changed your last name.”

“Why would she do that? And how do you know my very sweet neighbor?” your grandma asked.

Neighbor. Fuck. Your Director was neighbors with your grandmother- good ones at that, it seemed. You were going to be sick at this revelation.

“I’m Sungchan!” his voice cutting through the wild tension made you nearly faint on the spot.

“Because of her husband here, of course!” Director Kwon stated. She said it. She said it. She said it to your grandma and now it was gonna get back to your Mom unless you denied and potentially risked your work. God- the labor violations kept adding up and there was nothing you could do about it.

“My sweet granddaughter isn’t married,” your grandma was raising her eyebrow at you, waiting for an answer. Director Kwon crossed her arms, staring at you for a response of any kind.

“Ah… did she not mention that there was no ceremony?” Sungchan scratched the back of his neck, feigning sheepishness. 

“Sweetheart… you weren’t even planning on telling your family?” your grandma interjected, and you immediately wanted to throw up.

“I’m so sorry ma’am, I wanted to be able to sing it from the rooftops, but we didn’t think it would be wise to announce such a thing so close to her cousin’s engagement. We wouldn’t want to steal the spotlight from her since she’s been trying to get married for sooo long,” Sungchan spoke so smoothly, that for a second even you believed it. You would talk on the phone pretty often with your mother, and oftentimes you did so with Eerie nearby- so of course he heard you gossiping about your cousin and her absolute hunt to be married.

“Y-yeah. You know how they can be,” you joked, hoping your grandma would buy it. 

“Oh my… I can’t wait until you do have your ceremony, I’ll get you in contact with my wedding planner,” Director Kwon interjected, leafing through her handbag before handing you a business card. “I’ll get going- I’ll see you Friday for the Barbeque!” she waved at your grandma before disappearing down the aisle.

“I hope you plan to tell your mother soon,” your grandma sighed before reaching forward and dusting off Sungchan’s shoulders, “I can’t wait to have you over young man. Welcome to the family.”

Continue? —> WHY DID I GET (fake) MARRIED?

Tag list!

@nini0620 @enhazen @cherriruto @deonuism @90s-belladonna @lesserahyuck

[ivory-lamps]

[SSR] Nagi - The Taste of Happiness (Part 1 / 2)

SSR Card: downpour light Proofreader: Shay

Momiji / Kaede: (I’m glad the afternoon meeting is at the Flower Laundry that’s nearby. It should be pretty easy to get this little coffee stain removed.)

(I have to help out Yachiyo-kun tomorrow. He lowered his head to the ground and apologised so many times I think he made a hole in it…)

*Momiji / Kaede walk into Flower Laundry*

Momiji / Kaede: Hey, Nagi-ku–

*Nagi is stuck on the ceiling, legs dangling*

Nagi: Welcome.

Momiji / Kaede: What the–!?

Hey, you’re definitely not fine, right!? What happened!?

Nagi: I’m just working.

I was thinking about taking a break since a customer brought some snacks as thanks, but out of nowhere, a hamster… I think it was Machiko from the nearby kindergarten. Probably.

I saw Machiko running towards me so I wanted to avoid her, but then I noticed the trampoline Akuta and the others had left here in the corner of my eye…

So I fell onto it to save myself, but the moment that happened, I ended up flying through the air as if someone had hit a home run.

Momiji / Kaede: O–Okay, I get the picture. I’ll help you out so hold on!

Nagi: …Phew. Thanks. You’re my lifesaver, Manager.

Sonia: You’re also the ceiling’s lifesaver. Thanks for fixing it!

Momiji / Kaede: No worries. Thanks for removing the coffee stain, too.

Nagi: Glad to be of help.

But I don’t think I can continue helping out at the office. Sorry, Manager.

I’m falling behind on deliveries. I need to reschedule right away…

Momiji / Kaede: Do you want some help…? I came in the company car.

My work’s all done for the day, so I’m sure it’ll be fine if I send Kafka a message.

Nagi: Are you sure?

Oh, but there’s a bomb cyclone happening today. There might be some trouble heading my way.

Momiji / Kaede: Ahaha, it’s totally fine! Besides, I could use the experience as troubleshooting practice, so it’ll be perfect.

Nagi: …Thank you. Then I’ll take you up on that offer.

I guess I’ll get you to help me with the deliveries first…

A scary-looking person: Hey, you! You better hurry up and pay me that debt you owe!

Nagi: My apologies. I’ll pay back the interest first. How much do I owe?

Momiji / Kaede: Wait, wait! Put your wallet away!

*Some time passes*

Momiji / Kaede: (...We finished the deliveries, but it’s amazing how much of a trouble magnet Nagi is.)

(I can’t believe a loan shark got the wrong address and started storming in…)

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ📍 Flashback

Momiji / Kaede: I’m done loading it up. Where should I deliver them to?

Nagi: First, the shopping mall.

There are a few new stores opening, so they’re deliveries for those places. We’ll split up once we get there.

Construction worker: Sorry, we’re currently in the middle of construction work. Please take another road.

Momiji / Kaede: But I could pass through just fine earlier!

Momiji / Kaede: (Construction started out of the blue and we had to take a detour…)

(Then kids, who were passing by, challenged us to a cornering battle, and some tossed pizza dough flew at us. There was so much stuff happening we barely had any time to catch our breath.)

(This is going to be tough if stuff like this happens every time there’s a bomb cyclone…)

Nagi: …………

…Manager, we’ll go stock up on flowers next.

The app said the atmospheric pressure will be stabilised in the afternoon. There shouldn’t be any more trouble coming our way, so mobility will be important. Let’s head out on my motorcycle.

Here, your helmet. Put it on tight.

Sonia: Nagi-san, Manager-san, be careful on your way out.

I’ve packed the usual stuff for you! Take it with you, okay?

Nagi: Thanks, Sonia. …See you later.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ Index ≡ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤNext →

[gabessquishytum]

I was just tidying up my google docs when I came across an old AU I thought up for Dreamling, it was partially inspired by your Sugar Daddy Dream fic (one of my absolute favorites, still praying every day for a dark sequel). It's supposed to be dubcon/noncon cause I love the idea of Dream taking advantage of a vulnerable Hob, vulnerable and innocent. Basically Dark Dream XD It is a bit cringy, but I’m hoping the horny will override that feeling lol.

The premise is your run of the mill cliché, Hob is the owner the New Inn, and it’s fallen on pretty hard times. He has an increasingly high loan to pay back by the end of the month, otherwise the bank is gonna come and repossess everything (this is how loans work right?) And due to the stress and anxiety, Hob decides to go and drink his sorrows away, at least for the night. He’s absolutely sloshed by the end of his bender, and proceeds to cry about woes and troubles to anyone and everyone in the bar, just stumbling from one table to another and talking to people. It is then he accidentally falls onto the lap of one Morpheus “Dream” Endless, infamous filthy rich mob boss known for his cruelty and cold demeanor.

Dream was just there at the bar talking business with an associate when out of nowhere this chestnut-haired man falls onto his lap, and just starts babbling away about his problems. Dream is so taken aback, he forgets for a moment that he’s supposed to be offended and should be ordering his men to beat up this random guy for even daring to come close, but this teary man’s eyes are so big and doe-eyed, looking so lost…. Dream ends up waving away his associate in favor of listening to Hob. And Hob is so adorable, trying to wipe away his tears and all the while hiccupping through his 15th rendition of his sob story, it also helps his heaving breaths are pushing his sizable chest to the forefront of Dream’s gaze. It’s pretty much love at first sight. By the end, Dream is so smitten with this man that he decides right then and there that Hob is going to be his, his precious pet who he’s going to spoil rotten with gifts and pleasure.

Dream takes Hob home for the night, holding back the urge to take his baby girl right then and there, he wants Hob to remember their first time. Before he leaves, he makes sure to note down everything there is to know about Hob, full name, birthday, bank details etc.

Hob, many hours later, wakes up with the world’s worst hangover and also to a few dozen messages from the bank and his staff, informing him his debts have been paid, and that apparently, the New Inn is getting renovated, already paid for, workers have already begun. He is so confused, he has no idea what the hell is going on, then he notices a new message coming in from an unknown number. It’s a request for him to go to an address at a specific time, it tells him not to be late, and that everything will be explained in due time. Welp. That’s not ominous at all, but Hob is mature enough to admit he’s brave (dumb) enough to actually follow through with the instructions. Hopefully, he won’t be losing any essential body parts….. (He’ll be losing his virginity and innocence instead huehuehueheuheuheu)

I actually have an excerpt, I hope you guys enjoy hahaha

“I need- nee- hiccup!- help. I just don’t know what to do.” Hob was desperately clutching onto the front of Dream’s shirt now, looking at him with teary eyes and trembling lips, and he looked absolutely… delicious. “What should I do, shtranger? Please tell me what to doo.”

Looking at the man straddling his lap, begging him so sweetly for his help, Dream licked his lips at the thought of what he could do to this man.

Dream gently framed his new precious toy’s face with both hands, carefully thumbing away the tears running down in rivulets. Kissing him tenderly on the forehead, Dream whispered, “Don’t you worry kitten, daddy will take good care of you.” 

Hob was still incredibly tipsy from his binge, evidenced by his bleary eyes and slurred speech, so it took awhile for him to process Dream’s words but when he did, he looked up at Dream with such hope and innocence in his rich brown doe eyes, “You- you will?” 

"Oh yes, baby girl. You won't have to worry about anything but me ever again."

-Love Yan Anon <3

Ajshdhdhfdj I'm OBSESSED. This hits some of my absolute favourite kinks!!! Intox!! Daddy kink!! Power play!!! No pressure on you my beloved, but I would sooo love to read more of this. I need to see Hob pushing his lovely plump boytits into Dream’s face, pouting about difficult everything is... I REALLY need more of Dream calling Hob baby girl because Holy Shit that's perfect.

And innocent Hob being manipulated and turned into a perfect slut by Dream’s powerful, forceful personality... Hob is so vulnerable and doesn't have anyone to protect him, so he'd better be a good girl and do as Dream tells him... After all, Dream owns him now, and if he puts even a toe out of line, there will be consequences...

[lunalemony]

What is COSAH?

Okay so I got 2 asks regarding COSAH which made me realize I’ve never posted anything about it to this account which is nuts to me. Then again I don’t really share my OCs too much (oops). So I’m sharing a few comics pages I made last year (mind you they’re pretty old and I was in crunch mode for school so they’re a little ugly.)

COSAH is abbreviated for The Circus of Stars and Hearts! The comics revolve around Clara Campbell and Octavius Starblazer. Clara is a 25 year old clown school dropout, who has been working kids parties to help pay off her student loans and earn enough to go back to college for something else. She has a strained relationship with her overbearing parents who shamed her for even wanting to be a clown. Although she wants to pursue a different career path, Clara has a deep love for clownery and circusry, and takes the ‘clowns code of ethics’ very seriously. Octavius is a 27 year old ringleader who started his own circus after running away from his family (who also ran a circus). Octavius was broke and had to squat in an abandoned grocery store, which he eventually makes into his Circus. The Circus of Stars and Hearts is Octavius’ chance to prove himself to everyone that he has good ideas and that he doesn’t need his family’s help to succeed. His cousin Stella joins the circus as an aerial performer, and the squatter who was living in the grocery store before Octavius, Benny, joins as a clown/stage hand.

That’s all I’m going to reveal about it because I’m rewriting a lot of it right now (even though I haven’t touched my comic pages since this summer) I made this comic as a project for school last year, but I really like the characters and world I managed to create out of it. Sadly I haven’t had a ton of time or motivation to work on it with school starting. During school I’m making a ton of comics for assignments and it burns me out pretty fast. I have a class next semester where I may be able to explore these characters more and I hope that I am able to!

Sorry for the lore dump. Here is the comic below!

[restforthe-burdenedsoul]

I talked to the school today and it sounds like it wouldn’t be an issue to take a break and rejoin a new cohort in January 2024 (so that I’m still doing a summer internship).

I said I did not want to rush into a decision. She said as long as I tell her on Monday, it will still be considered week 3 of my classes. I would be refunded 75% of the classes. She told me how much that would be on my loans and while that’s a substantial chunk of change, in the grand scheme of student loans, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

I’d need to start paying the loans back right away or try to defer them. I think it would depend on how much I’d need to pay back. I’d rather start paying on them now than defer.

She’s checking into if it would affect my advanced standing since I was accepted under an agreement with my old school when their program shut down.

I’m still pretty conflicted. I KNOW I am capable of finishing this year. I don’t struggle with the material. I’m struggling with my mental health. That was a big barrier in under grad too.

I feel like I was getting on the right track for a bit and then things just exploded again.

I feel like I have more motivation this time around to really make changes in my mental health tho. And maybe in a year, I’ll have a better grasp on that and I won’t fall apart as quickly when faced with challenges.

I don’t know. This is a hard decision for so many reasons.

[dreamingsushi]

See You in my 19th Life - Episode 7

For now, there are still two episodes that I can watch and I will have to wait a little bit for the next ones to come out after that. I’m displeased with a few things so far, but it’s always like this when you watch the live version of something you read. Most of the time, you are bound to be at least a little disappointed.

I thought I missed a part of last episode when this one started, it got me so confused. Doyun wakes up with a bad hangover and seems to remember things about Chowon. But that definitely wasn’t shown during last episode and it was the right next one because the beginning was the same as the previous one’s ending, with Ji-eum hugging Seoha. But then we are granted a flashback of Chowon going to pick up a very drunk Doyun. A Doyun that even kisses her. Well, that’s what is implied. He himself doesn’t remember.

Chowon pays a visit to Ji-eum and they end up eating and drinking with Aegyeong. Mingi (who’s an archeological professor it seems) seems uneasy about it. And Ji-eum is definitely uneasy about him. I don’t know about this. It’s... weird. Anyways. They have a good time.

Doyun is doing some meal prep. And he left veggies on the cutting board. You can’t leave anything behind, put everything in the tupperware! This is food waste. It kind of triggers me. Then he receives a call from Chowon.

Seoha has to attend a family dinner but he doesn’t seem to blend in very well. He excuses himself, even though his father is unhappy with him. On his way out, he receives a call from the loan shark, expecting a hefty payment for info he’ll provide him about the accident which was organized by someone close to MI group. Then he throws himself in the pool, like he’s trying to commit suicide. I don’t like that part of the drama either. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Seoha is a complicated and tormented character, but he was endearing. In this live action... he’s not. He’s pitiful. I didn’t see that character the way they picture him so far and it bothers me so much. He calls Doyun, but he’s already at Ji-eum’s place to pick up a very drunk Chowon, so Ji-eum ends going to pick him up. When he sees her, he leans in to kiss her. Well lip bump her. Then she kisses him properly and takes him home. She cooks a beef stew for him, she already did as Juwon.

Chowon is pretty drunk on the way home and she leans in to kiss Doyun but actually falls on his shoulder. And they didn’t kiss. He did the same. She twists her ankle on her way back home but she won’t let him help her, probably because she’s ashamed. No one wants to look like a fool in front of the one they like.

Jieum asks Seoha out for a second time. He tells her he likes her but needs time first. He’ll confess to her for the third time. When they’re about to kiss again, Ji-eum’s brother gives a call to Seoha. She rushes over to her brother’s place and tells him to stay away from her. And Seoha. She’s mad that he told him about the murder attempt.

Seoha reveals to Doyun that he suspects that the hit and run wasn’t just that. It seems to bring some tension between them.

Ji-eum finally confronts Mingki. He reveals to her that he also can remember his past lives. He tells her that she needs to reconnect to people from her first life to understand why she can remember all of her past lives. She can use the shaman bells to help her remember, since her memories of her first life are blurry. She’s very shaken from seeing those memories.

Doyun gets yelled at by Seoha’s father because Seoha is investigating the accident.

Doyun admits to Chowon that he likes her, but he still won’t date her. Then he tells Ji-eum that if she doesn’t tell Seoha anytime soon about her secret, she should never tell him.

And then... WTF? Hanna is actually Seoha’s mom? Just a hug? No explanations? I really don’t like this. It’s as bad as a love triangle. That is not part of the original story either. And it shouldn’t be added. What a mess.

Seoha rushes out when he receives a text from the loan sharks and Ji-eum follows him. Then they head out to a meeting point. When it’s time to go, Seoha asks her to stat behind, he’ll find her no matter what. As he leaves, she has a vision of her past life, so she ends up following him. but... WHY IS SEOHA IN HER PAST LIFE? Why did they change her first life’s background? Seoha was never part of it. That is ruining everything for me. I don’t like this. Bad change to the original story. Seriously...

[thepowerisyouth]

This started as a simple rant about gift cards but is probably turning into my master post on the lost story of the corporate gift card valuation crisis.

Starts as the simple rant but gets more technical in economics and accounting as it goes on- so fair warning.

-----

Gift cards are often thought of as a boring, low effort gift, although more polite than cash. Plenty of good reasons why they are a bad gift from a thoughtfulness standpoint, but I'm going to focus on the financial value.

Adult humans that live under capitalism are generally, learnedly able to understand the time value of money, even if they cant physically execute the calculations on paper. If you dont believe me, just trust me-- its how all of economics works. We are generally able to value things very well according to our own subconscious estimations.

This is not to say people who receive a gift card are just focused on the dollar figure, however I think the financial frustration lies with the fact that, inherently a $25 gift card is worth less than $25 cash. Probably a lot less

-------

As a present, gift cards remind me, actually, of the stereotype of a grandparent buying their descendents, "war bonds", but somehow gift cards are even worse.

Sorry this is going to be a long explanation of why gift cards suck--

A war bond, which is now simply called a US Treasury bill or bond, is a 'redeemable certificate', which allows the current owner to be sure that the dollar amount (face value) shown on the certificate will be granted, plus interest accumulated from the point of issue until the present date, and the note is redeemable early in most common cases, and is redeemable at most banks or financial institutions around the world. Well... they might not now but they are supposed to

Section 1. Bond overviews

These Treasury bonds are just debt that the US government, i.e. the taxpayers, have to pay back to whoever purchased this bond.

Economics is intended to be confusing to understand, an example of this being how they love to make it hard to understand that every time you hear about bonds and interest rates they are talking about gambling with our public taxpayer debt. Calling it "buying bonds" makes it seem more normal investy stuff

Anyway-- so this is debt right? Well like all debt, it requires a good credit score, and collateral. The official term is "backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government"

In summary of this section using numbers:

If you get a treasury bond that says $100 & 5% annual interest, the Treasury department guarentees you can receive $100 amount in the future (maturity date), as well as $5 per year for your troubles, unless the US government is toast at any point.

If the holder sells the bond prematurely on the 'secondary market'--which is the clever term for the stock market for bonds-- they might get more or less than the "face value" depending on current interest rates, if those current rates differ from the interest rate set on the bond at hand.

---

Section 2: Basic Bond Valuation

So using previous example, the face value of $100, and that only comes back from the treasury department on maturity day (up to 30 years away now for long term bonds)

So in the meantime, people "trade" (gamble most of the time) those bonds on the market. Cause why the fuck not?

---

Most of the time, in a non inflationary environment, bonds with expiration dates of less than 5 years do not change price much at all in this 'secondary market'.

Why? Well--

In an inflationary environment (only recent examples are 1970s & 2020s) most bonds are decreasing in value, with the lowest interest rate bonds decreasing the most. Every other period has bond prices generally flat (so you still get the 5% interest) or trending up

The economic mechanics behind what lowers bond prices in high interest rate environments is pretty simple-- if I have a 30 year loan the government owes me, with 5% annual interest, and the guy who bought the same 30 year bond back in 2017 only got 2% interest, then I have an inherently more valuable loan or bond.

Going to start circling back to gift cards-- A 0% bond is only worth more than a negative interest bond.

(looking at you japan they were briefly paying banks 0.5% interest to borrow money from the government. As in a -0.5% interest loan)

Okay gift cards time

$25 Gift card = corporate bond of face value $25, with 0% interest, and is only redeemable in person at the companies restaurant with immediate purchase of their product

A gift card is identical then to the boring "war bond" gift, except that:

1) it can only be redeemed at their limited locations in person, and only with immediate purchase of their product or service

2) this certificate does not accrue any interest, which means that from a value standpoint its guarenteed to lose value over time unless interest rates are below 0% like japan had

------

Again, most people are very capable of understanding that the value of a 0% corporate bond which cannot be easily sold is worth less than the face value-- much less. Just most people probably dont have the experience in finance to put to words why exactly that situation is so frustrating from a financial standpoint

What a stupid gift, cash is way better.

Especially in an inflationary environment like the 2020s. my god the valuation loss of all the gift cards recently is incalculablely enormous

It would be a very snarky, not nice response to being gifted a gift card if the receiver replies back that the technical market value of this $25 gift card is actually $14.75 due to the current globally high interest rate environment in addition to the company having a BBB Moody's credit rating rather than a perfect AAA

I'm very, very tempted to do a sample valuation of a random hypothetical gift card to reinforce this point, but valuations arent quick and I already know it would take me half the day just researching the numbers to put together for it

----

I had no idea I was going to have this much to say but we're on edit #4 to this post Im gonna keep going:

The inflation of the 2020s has led to the largest (by dollar value and probably other metrics) corporate bond valuation crash of the.. ever

But corporate bonds are mostly held by the upper middle class & higher, as well as other corporations. So of course we hear them crying about their loss of wealth. Easiest example can be found by looking for the annual returns on an ETF which trades only corporate bonds. They got fucked in 2021 and arent back yet

What I'm getting at is that most poor people do not own individual bonds-- its just not really something that makes sense as a poor person.

Back to poor people's wealth--

Someone who has a retirement funds might invest in corporate bonds through that fund. But dont get me started on how complicated those funds investment strategies are to mitigate the risk (but yes they arent good at risk mitigation lose value a lot from dumb preventable mistakes).

And also looking at 5 yr price charts for many retirement funds, the ones with more corporate bond holdings have done way worse than their peers in the retirement fund game who put more money in stocks over that period

Poor people do, however, give each other gift cards... a lot. Weve kind of been told for a long time that its a more appropriate gift than cash. I wonder whod want us to think that. Maybe the corporations who are getting away with selling hard-to-redeem junk bonds as "gift cards"?

Likewise with all corporate bonds lately, the total balance of gift cards issued & held by the general public is larger than it has ever been in prior decades like the 1970s. There was issues with gift cards then, just the total amount was much, much less

Except probably not anymore-- only the face value being reported on their financial statements is that high, as accounting standards do not require companies to regularly value their gift card balances at market value. They are allowed to report it at face value, until it is removed from their balance sheet and resolved as pure income. Not 100% sure the GAAP guidance for it, but I know they dont HAVE to specifically mark down gift cards as they dont have expiration dates. I know that if a company did need to mark down that debt balance for whatever reason, the only way to lower that balance is by calling it "other income".

So poor people have felt a multi-billion dollar loss of wealth from gift card values, which is obviously not ever going to be studied or talked about cause who the fuck cares about poor people

And when that loss does get "realized" from an accountant standpoint-- it would be considered income for the fucking corporations.

Actually reminds me of Starbucks class action about the gift card balance. Lot to dig into there but thats more because of their extra predatory practices around redeeming it

[quill-of-thoth]

In the game, thankfully! (He was twelve. Or thirteen - middle school, anyway.) So the problem with this specific cousin is that on my mom's side we had mostly girls for a full generation. Mom's oldest brother? Four kids. Three girls, and the youngest was the only boy in the entire grandkid lineup until my brother came along at what we thought was the tail end of the generation until my youngest aunt got married and produced the two Gen Z first cousins. The grandkids are spread out, however, because my uncles were born at the start of the baby boom and my mom and her sister are a full decade plus younger than them. And my uncle headed west at like 18 to work on the railroad and got married right away, so mom was an aunt by the time she was a teen. This means that being the exact middle of the grandkid pack and the only boy who was up to actually do anything for most of his childhood made my cousin a little shit. Competitive too, because his sisters are all significantly older than him. He got pretty invested in beating the rest of us at games, out of the sheer novelty that it was possible. Anyway, this being around 2000, my brother was far too young to have any kind of chance at winning monopoly, or even playing well, so Ben got the idea to run loans. If I recall right, we used the board of an antique game called Payday to track them - essentially, we had X number of turns to pay back the loan or we owed another 10% of it. And needing $300 to land on a square pretty much guaranteed that you would not have $300 in the next four or five turns. So pretty soon you owed $300, $330, $360... but you were still playing the game instead of trying and failing to change the channel on my grandparent's ancient tube-based TV. He wasn't sneaky about the embezzlement either. He'd just slip himself one of whatever change he was making when someone had to break a large bill. He only got away with it because for a few thanksgivings he was the only one who wanted to do math.

Fuck zodiac signs, what piece you picking?

[casspurrjoybell-27]

Claimed by the Beast - Chapter 13b

*Warning Adult Content*

Possession - Part 2

After they head back to Knox's bedroom and shower, separately, they get dressed in fresh clothes, grab a bite to eat in the kitchen and then Knox finally takes Everett outside to show him his favorite spot by the river.

They walk and talk about everything and nothing, time passing by quickly as they get lost in one another.

Something that's been happening frequently.

"Wow. It's crazy beautiful out here during this time of the evening," Everett remarks. "I bet it's terrifying at night, though. All these big freaking trees everywhere. Hell no. I'm glad I never tried to run away because my dumbass would've immediately gotten lost out here."

Knox chuckles, glancing out at the river coming into view.

"I know this place like the back of my hand. I'd have found you and dragged you back to where you belong."

"And where might that be?" Everett asks, teasingly.

"Wherever I'm at, obviously," Knox smirks.

"Come on. We aren't that far away now."

The clubhouse sits at the front of the fifty-acre property owned by Gavin.

Massive trees cover most of it, including the perimeter and near the south end is where the river passes through.

The path that Everett and Knox walk hasn't always been around but Knox has since kept maintenance up on the area to prevent it from being taken over by weeds and other debris.

Contrary to what Everett believes, Knox finds that it's most peaceful out here at night.

"This is it."

Knox leads them into a small, secluded section where the grass fades into dirt and rocks.

A perfect spot to settle into if one enjoyed fishing.

"This is where I come to clear my head when the demons start to get too loud," he speaks quietly, so low that Everett almost misses it. "It ain't much but it's mine. Brings me peace, if only temporarily."

"I love it. I think it's absolutely gorgeous."

Everett sits next to Knox on the ground, his eyes scanning and memorizing the area.

Across the river are more trees, presumably the ending of somebody else's property.

"The sound of the river and all the insects chirping around us..."

Everett closes his eyes for a few seconds, soaking up the sun's warmth.

"God, I bet I could take a killer nap out here."

Knox laughs.

"I have once or twice before. Wouldn't recommend it unless you bring along a can of bug spray."

"Yikes. I can imagine how bad the mosquitoes get all the way out here. No fucking thanks," Everett says, opening his eyes.

He glances at Knox's profile, secretly admiring him.

All sharp features until you get to his stormy grey eyes.

Right now, they're the softest they've ever looked.

"Do you ever wish that all this could be yours? The clubhouse, the property..."

"No," Knox says without even thinking about it. "Can I afford to purchase something like this for myself? Yes. Do I want to have it all right now? No. There's still too much work left to be done."

"What do you mean by that?" Everett asks.

"When you join a MC, you're in that shit for life. At least I am," Knox says. "Something drastic will have to happen to me before I willingly step down from my position and leave the club and my brothers behind. I'm not ready to settle down. It ain't my time yet."

Everett nods in understanding.

"You said you could afford all this, which is honestly blowing my mind because you definitely don't look or act..."

"Like I have money?" Knox questions, smirking.

Everett nods again, blushing.

"Yeah, well, you should know by now that I'm not exactly the flashy type. I don't wear my wealth to prove that I have it. I think that shit is corny. I don't give a damn about what people think of me. If I did, I'd never get any sleep at night."

"I feel that," Everett says.

"Let me know when a job opens up around here because I have student loans to pay off and your Pres seems to give out pretty generous salaries," he jokes.

"You have options. Strip club, motel or funeral home?" Knox asks.

"We dabble in a little bit of everything, but there's always an opening at the strip club. We don't discriminate when it comes to hiring dancers."

Everett gasps, confused.

"You're serious?"

"Hell no. I'm just fucking with you." Knox laughs, shaking his head.

"I mean, yes, we do own a strip club, motel and a funeral home because they're extremely profitable businesses but someone like you wouldn't last a day at either of our establishments. No offense."

"None taken," Everett mutters. "I remember you told me once that MCs primarily make money through illegal means. Is that what you guys use the businesses for? A cover for whatever illegal activity you've got going on?"

Knox meets Everett's gaze, briefly flashing a smile filled with sadness and something else the latter can't quite decipher.

"I talk too much around you."

"So what? I like you better when you're talking versus being all broody and mute," Everett replies.

He scoots closer to Knox and grabs his hand like it's something they do all the time, carefully interlocking their fingers together.

Anything to get rid of that wounded look in Knox's eyes.

"Don't worry. All your little incriminating club secrets are perfectly safe with me."

Knox laughs again.

"I know they are."

As they watch the river, silence falls upon them but it isn't loud or awkward.

Quite the opposite.

And that's precisely why Everett ignores the alarm bells ringing in the distance, trying to warn him that what he's doing right now isn't right.

Getting closer to Knox on a deeper level, having easy conversations with him, kissing and touching him when what he should be doing is doubling the distance between them and closing off his heart completely.

Fuck.

The bastard's already done it, hasn't he?

Knox has somehow managed to climb over the walls that have kept Everett's heart intact.

He's practically moved in and made himself at home.

One he'll eventually have to be evicted from because none of what they have going on right now will ever become a permanent thing.

The Fallen Angels' war with The Jackals will end one day.

Everett will have to go back to his mundane way of living, return to school, get his degree and then step into the next chapter of his life.

One where Knox doesn't exist.

"I'm curious," Knox says moments later. "What does your future look like? Where do you see yourself in the next five years?"

Somewhere, anywhere, with you…

"I don't know," Everett mumbles instead, resting his head on Knox's shoulder.

"What about you?"

"I guess you better start living each one to the fullest, then."

Everett produces a half smile, squeezing Knox's hand.

"I'll help you."

Until it's time for me to go.

"I'd like that."

Knox squeezes his hand back, the rational part of him knowing he can't take any of this to heart.

"You've got yourself a deal, kitten."

[fae-nightray]

Sirens Song

Aranel sat at the bar waiting, bedazzled pink clutch in her hands. She wore a flared white dress with lace trimming, the hem line brushing softly just below her knees. Tikling gold bracelets on her wrists and a simple pink lace choker. Her shoes, while a soft pink leather to match everything else, were killing her feet and she could feel a blister starting to form on her heel. As she waited, Aranel looked towards the stage where the piano was being played. Every Thursday, without fail, he was up there. Silver hair slicked back just so, sleeves pulled up to his elbows and gloved hands gliding smoothly over the piano keys. She loved to watch him play, it was one of the only pleasures she could take out of these evenings.

As time wore on, she looked at the clock on the wall. It was getting late, much later than she’d like to be out. Aranel was so focused on that clock, she failed to notice the music stop. As she went to look back over, she was surprised to see the man standing in front of her. “O-oh, hello.” She breathed, cheeks beginning to blush pink.

“Hello there.” The man smiled softly, eyes crinkling gently at the edges, Aranel noting a faint scar going over his left eye. “Couldn’t help but notice your date hasn’t shown up yet.”

“My date?” She breathed, brushing a soft, platinum blonde lock of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah, that nasty ginger haired fellow you always leave with.” He was leaning on the counter now, looking hard at her. “That is who you’re expecting, right?”

“Well yes, but he’s not exactly my date.” Aranel mumbled, her cheeks now flushing in shame.

“If he’s not your date, then who is he? Cause you sure are dressed nice every time I see you.”

“That’s because I’m an escort.” She whispered softly, eyes downcast. “He’s my handler.”

The man gave a low whistle before gently lifting the girl's chin. “Now what did a pretty thing like you do, to wind up in a shady business like that?”

“How does anyone end up in any shady situation, money. I borrowed money because the insurance wouldn’t pay for my son's surgery. They said because he wasn't immediately dying, it was voluntary.”

“Let me guess, the people you borrowed from suddenly said you had to pay it all, or not at all; but they’ll be gracious and even find a job for you to do.”

“Exactly that, almost word for word.” Aranel looked at him in slight shock and awe.

“Let me tell you something darlin’, it is always better to be in debt to the bank, than to loan sharks.” He pulled out a cigarette, lighting it up and taking a huff. “Sure, the bank may take the house or the car, but loan sharks? They’ll take your dignity and pride, chew it up and then spit it right back into your face. You know you should be back home with your son, watching movies, tucking him into bed.”

Tears started to brim in Aranels eyes, the girl quickly trying to blink them away so as to not ruin her makeup. “I would love nothing more than to do that, but I have no choice.”

“There is always a choice, so I’m going to give you one right now. Stay in debt to the loan sharks who will continue to sell your body and soul, or marry me.”

“Marry you? I don’t even know you.” Aranel could feel herself growing lightheaded, looking towards the door in worry that the man would appear.

The man put out his cigarette on the bar counter before gently taking Aranel’s hand into his own, bringing it up to his lips to lightly kiss. “River, River Siren.”

His piercing gray eyes met her own icy blue. Aranel felt her breath catch in her throat at the name. Everybody in town knew his name. “But you’re-”

“So you do know me.” He chuckled. “Darlin’, I can promise you a life of safety and ease. I would never let any harm come to you or your son.” He slid an arm around the girl’s waist, pulling her close. “No sex, you can be your own person and if in a few years, after the steam with the loan sharks has blown over, if you wanted an annulment, I’d give it to you.”

Aranel chewed the inside of her lip. It sounded wonderful, too wonderful to be true. “But if there’s no sex, what do you even get out of it? What’s the catch?”

“No catch.” River replied “I just can’t stand to see a pretty young lady sad every night.”

She stood there in his arms a moment longer, mind racing as she thought it over. Finally she put a hand on his shoulder, lifting up on her toes to whisper her reply softly into his ear.

[staygoldsquatchling02]

advice

so, this is going to be a long post and pretty venty, if you have advice its appreciated but i just need to get this of my chest. To make a long story short really quick before I get into it, i think I'm close to cutting off my best friend of two years. If you want to know more keep reading.

In July of 2021 my parents and I decided to move away from our family in Oregon to live with my mom's best friend at the time in Nevada. For the most part it was because we needed a change of scenery and have always gravitated towards the desert having spent a few years in Arizona. The only people we knew at the time here were my mom's best friend, his 24-year-old son, and his mom. we moved in with them so we could get settled and then start looking for a place.

Living with them was hell, my mom's ex best friend was a drunk who treated everyone like trap and didn't have a job, his mom had like twenty cats and the house smelled like cat piss. The drunk spent all his money on booze instead of paying rent including money my family had given him for rent. I had even taken out a payday loan so we wouldn't get kicked out right before Christmas 2021. He was also a narcist and tried to assault my mother multiple times when my father was at work. It sucked to live with them, but I'll come back to it later.

back to friend problem. From the time we got to Nevada, I was looking for work, I finally got a job at the beginning of Augst, and I started working quickly glad to be away from the drunk. Shortly after starting work I met a new employee who was the first person i have met here my age. I introduced myself and started a friendship. We would talk all the time at work, and she was the first person at the job to know I was trans and accept me. (I was out before I just was scared to come out at new job because I didn't know how people would react)

For a while she was just a work friend and then I invited her to go see the Jujutsu Kaisen movie because I had seen it once loved it and thought she would like it. She loved it and started to really get into anime. We also started to hang out outside of work. Going to movies and the mall, just being normal 19-year-olds.

Fast forward to June of 2022, and the drunk I mentioned before had gotten evicted from the house we were staying in. I had to leave work an hour into my shift to help get my important things out of the house right away. My parents, the drunk and I spent the whole day trying to find a hotel to stay in with five dogs, and two cats. When we finally found one, I had to take out another payday loan to pay for it. After two days in the hotel, we had to condense from two rooms to just one. We had to surrender two of our dogs because they didn't get along with the drunks two dogs and that hurt a lot. But me not liking the drunk at all asked my friend if I could stay with her for a bit while we got back on our feet.

She agreed and so I moved into her spare bedroom. Now i wasn't staying there and just leaching off of her I was helping as much as I could. I was buying gas and sending her money every payday to help pay for things. I even door dashed food most nights because with our work schedule it was hard to make food at home. But she wasn't the only one I was helping, I had my own car payment and phone bill to pay so I was paying every month, and I was also giving my parents money for gas and food, because my dad had lost his job and was struggling picking up work.

When I was living with her, she had made multiple comments about how i shouldn't be supporting my parents and how they just needed to suck it up and find jobs. Mind you my mom had just broken her back, not bad enough to paralyze her but still broke her back, she also has preexisting medical conditions that make so she can't work and was in the middle of filling for social security disability. and my dad was helping her and was trying to find work.

there were other things she did that pissed me off, like if she had decided to order food for dinner, she expected me to pay her for my part even though i never made her pay me for buying her food. she would get upset with me if i forgot to close a door in the apartment, not the front door just any door, like to a bedroom or the bathroom.

eventually the things at the hotel with the drunk got really bad. My dad had accepted a job from one of his friends to drive them to Mexico and unfortunately my mom couldn't go because she lost her social security card and so she wouldn't have been able to cross back to the u.s so she stayed at the hotel with the drunk. On the second day my dad was gone I got a call from my mom at like 10pm saying that the drunk had tried to sa her and she was now spending the night sitting outside. she had called my dad and unfortunately, he was in Mexico and couldn't leave till his friends got paid and so he had to spend the night worrying for her. My uncle back in Oregon sent my mom the money for a hotel room so she was safe for the night but that was the final straw for them. When my dad got back the next day having driven straight through not stopping except for gas and food, my parents decided that they were going to drive to Oklahoma because my dad's family has land out there. They asked if I wanted to go but at the time, I just wanted to stay in Nevada where i had a job and was safe being me, knowing that my family in Oklahoma was not friendly towards the lgbtq.

My parents left like two days later and i had a mental break down. It hurt a lot for my parents to be so far away from me. I was raised as family is number one and by not going with them in my head i was abandoning them and vice versa. I was alone, none of my family was even in the same state as me, sure i had my roommate and coworkers to talk to but you have a different connection to family.

About a week after my parents left for Oklahoma, they called to tell me that Oklahoma wasn't going to work because there was no house on the land it was just a field, and they would have to get a mobile home to live there. With the realization it wasn't going to work the decided to go back to Oregon and live with my mom's mom and brother. They asked if I wanted them to come back through Nevada and pick me up on the way there but again, I thought I was better staying with my friend. I told them no and they went back to Oregon without me. This all happened around the middle of August, and I thought i was making the right choices.

When the end of September, the separation anxiety from my parents was becoming too much to deal with and I was struggling in every sense of the word. My job had gone to shit, my managers where fired and they had been like an extra pair of parents to me, one of my coworkers who I also as like a parent or weird uncle was treating me like trash, and money stress was coming up more often with the friend I was staying with because I was still helping my parents with money. So when my parents called again asking if I wanted to go back to Oregon I actually thought about it.

I had told them i had to think about it and talk to my friend about it because I didn't want to just leave her hanging like that, we had been talking about maybe getting a cheaper apartment together. When i told my friend about it she told that i was going to do what i thought was best, but she thought it was dumb. she told me I was only thinking about it because it's my family. She was right in the fact i was thinking about making my family happy, but I was also trying to make a choice that would make her happy.

Eventually I decided it was best for me to go home. I would have my family, and I would be able to see some of my friends from high school as opposed to only having the one friend. the only thing is I had told my parents not to come get me until the end of October. I did this because back in august I purchased tickets to see Panic at the disco with my friend, because they were one of our favorite bands and it would be a once in a lifetime thing. I didn't want to cancel that; it was her first concert and I wanted to experience it with her. I had them wait until the week after the concert to come get me. In the month between my choice and me going home, me and my friend did so much together. We went to rein fair, we went to a Japanese steak house, hell we even went to the only 18+ strip club in Nevada just to say we went. we had fun but we still had tension because i was leaving.

When i left she made me promise to call all the time and text all the time which I did. I tried to make it so at least once a week we spent the whole day on discord playing video games or watching anime. I tried to make it like nothing changed even if we were 800 miles apart. I didn't even realize at the time that I was making all the first moves, i was the one sending the first text I was the one asking if she wanted to do something. looking back at this situation now I'm realizing it wasn't a healthy time but more on that later.

Around a week before Christmas, i had gone out with my friends from high school and had a great time, we had lunch and i bought them each a present for having been good friends through a lot of shit i dealt with in high school. I thought we had a great time, only to find out when i got home they had blocked me on everything. my closest friends from the last six years had cut me off like i meant nothing to them. looking for support and comfort i told my only other friend, the one in Nevada. she acted like she cared that i was broken from it, but she also made comments about how if i had just stayed with her it wouldn't have hurt as bad when they blocked me, that i wouldn't have cared if i was still in Nevada. I agreed with her, but looking back now she was gaslighting me.

Fast forward to the end of January and my grandmother's health is dropping and the apartment we are all staying in is trying to find any reason to kick us out. We talked as a family and decided that it would be best for my grandmother to move to Nevada where there is a better healthcare network, and it would also benefit my mom's health. I was excited to tell, my friend i was coming back and how we could do all the things we talked about doing before, like going to pride, and going to movies again. But when I did finally call and tell her I didn't receive quite the response I was hoping for. here's a brief summary of how it went from her. "Cool I'm glad you're coming back but, what's your plan, are you getting place before you get here, are you looking for work, are you going to live with your family or are you going to live with me. if you live with me know that you can't change your mind in a month." And just a constant stream of questions. I understand that it was valid to ask but then she followed up saying it was dumb to have moved back to Oregon if i was just going to go back in a few months. She was discrediting every response i gave with "well what if your family messes up again, i can't have you move back in with me if you guys do get kicked out." it was like she is expecting my family to fail.

It only got worse when I finally got back. We got a house here in Nevada in March and packed all our stuff and came down. After about a week of being back I had fallen back to old routines of going to hang out with her all the time. I was spending every weekend at her place because I was stressed out at home. My grandma had gotten into town and was immediately taken to the hospital and even now five months later she has spent more time in the hospital than time at home, but that's beside the point. Everyone in my family was stressed the first two months because it was taking a bit of time for me to find work. Spending all my time with my friend had resulted in us coming up with the plan of getting an apartment together because my mental health was crashing living with my family.

We decided that we wanted to find a place by the end of July because that was when my friends current lease would be up. I had found a part time job at the beginning of June and was naive enough to think that it would be enough. so throughout the month of June we looked at places, I thought it was going to work out. I was wrong. As it got closer to July, I realized I wasn't going to have any money to put towards a place, the housing market is shit and a part time job was not enough to even think about getting a place. I had also started taking my adhd medication again that i had been off of for about six months. With my mental state evening out I figured out that moving out was impulsive and not the right choice at the time. Even though I figured it out I was to scared to tell my friend this.

Until one day after we had gone to look at an apartment and she came over to my house to have dinner and talk more about our plans. We spent a few hours in my room, and the whole time I couldn't help but listen to what she was saying and think damn I can't move in with this person. She wasn't talking about us getting a place she was telling me I needed to cut my family off. She told me multiple time in an hour that I needed to get a new phone plan with just me on it and stop paying for my parents phones, mind you i wasn't forced to pay for their phones I offered to get a phone plan with them because it was the easiest thing to do and they were helping me pay for it. She was also telling me that i have to force them to teach me how to drive so she won't be the only one able to drive when we get a place. (I never learned to drive because i had priorities like school and helping raise my niece and nephew.) she then started talking shit about how we use or garage for storage and not for parking our cars, and how my parents need to stop smoking so that then maybe we would have more money for food. Like i will be the first to say yes, my parents need to stop smoking, and yes it would take some stress off of getting money for food but that's not her place.

After she realized I was getting irritated with the conversation she left, and we didn't speak for a week. When we did finally speak again, she called me crying because she didn't want to lose our friendship. I believed her. I thought it was just a call to iron out our feelings. I told her how I felt that I wasn't ready to move out because of my financial situation and my mental health. I told her that i didn't want to move in with her and put her through what she went through with her last roommate. (She had moved out with a friend and two months later the friend just up and left leaving her to deal with the apartment alone.) It sounded like she understood and was grateful for me telling the truth and backing out before we got too deep. or at least i thought she was for a while.

We started talking more and watching anime again. hell, we even joined a discord server about one of our animes and have made some awesome friends online. We talk nearly every day again and I thought things were great until two weeks ago.

One of her friends that she had introduced me to that i get along with invited the both of us to go swimming and of course i agreed, i love swimming and it would be nice to get out of the house. So, we went. While at the pool I had gotten out to go to the bathroom and left them to talk. When i got back to the pool they were talking about my friend's life. they were talking about how my friend is struggling with paying her rent and how she wishes she could find a cheaper place.

The friend we were at the pool with said that her and her fiancé were thinking of moving out of her mom's house because it to crowded and offered to plan to get a place with her. But my friend said no because she has ptsd from roommates bailing on her in the past. I knew she was talking about me but her friend thought she was talking about her first roommate, because we never directly said we were roommates because it was never official. My friend then said it's that and the fact that (op) did the same thing, they left for Oregon and they recently canceled our plans to get a place together. I understand that she may feel like i wronged her in some way but to phrase it that way hurt. she can feel upset but i thought we had moved past it.

Later that same day she told me that i don't talk to her when i have problems, which is true to an extant, i used to talk to her when i had problems with stuff she did but recently I've stopped because if i bring something up she does wrong she throws back at me saying it's my fault in some way. for example we watch anime through discord because it's easier than figuring out how to get to her house with her car broke down and me not driving. As of recently something has been going wrong where audio from her end is patchy and it gets hard to hear her. I've checked everything on my end, I have uninstalled and reinstalled discord, i have checked my headset but everything is fine when I'm not talking to her, audio is fine nothing cuts out. I have told her all of this, but of course she says she has done the same thing and therefore it has to be something on my end, it's my fault that it sounds like she is talking to me from a different room than where her mic and computer are because her headset is full charged and working fine corroding to her computer.

It feels like everything i do is wrong. I even feel that way about my taste in anime at this point. You see I like a very specific type of anime, the ones where the main character is an underdog who either can't do what everyone else can or just hasn't been introduced to the lore of the world yet, who eventually find their place and become strong, but not in a boom you are now the best of the best way but in a here's how to become the best, you have to work for it kinda way. for example, My hero academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen. these are my two favorites; my friend will watch them with me but has to point out every time that all my shows have very similar plots. She has taken it upon herself to have me watch animes that don't fit this profile, for example we just started watching banana fish and don't get me wrong i like to try new things and I'm enjoying it but what i don't like is in the first nine episodes she has made multiple comments about how it's nice to watch something without an underdog main character who has the same energy as a puppy. I understand having separate opinions is normal but constantly point out how she doesn't like the exact same stuff as me is bit much.

I've just been rethinking everything. I realized that i have stopped doing a lot of things i used to because of her. I stopped watching anime on my own, if i want to watch something i always text her and see if she wants to watch it. I stopped talking to one of my other ex-coworkers that i got along with because she doesn't really like her. I've also begun to realize that this is a lot of the same stuff my mom was going through with her Ex best friend. he constantly made her feel bad about things she liked, made her feel bad because she uses weed as pain relief (it's legal here), he hated on her family all the time. I can't help but feel like it's happening to me. She judges what i watch, she judges the fact that i vape (again i know not healthy but my bod my choice), she judges my family (even the ones she has never met) and if i did any of this in return i would be the bad guy. If i told her that i don't like how her dad talks to her, or how i don't like that she pushes me to my breaking point at the gym(not just past my limits but i have nearly passed out at the gym because she thinks that at 300 pounds and never having been to the gym before I can keep up with her 150 pound gym rat self.) she would tell me that I'm being mean and that i hurt her feelings.

My parents have told me multiple time i need to tell her that i feel this way and need to cut contact or at least limit it by a lot, but i don't know how. I don't expect anyone to actually read all of this as it took me almost two hours to right but I just needed to get it off my chest. if she sees it then she will know who she is and probably have a problem but im tired of bottling things up. If you do end up reading this and have advice, please share but for now I'm going to hope I can find a therapist soon to help me with coping mechanisms and get past this.

[hlilje]

2022 Year in Review

2021 Year in Review

It's that time again.

Last year I wrote:

To wrap things up, this will be the year of Embark for me, as my main focus will be to integrate into my new workplace, learn as much as possible, and bring improvements where I can. The rest will more-or-less continue as usual, with some extra focus on making better use of my time. That means spending less time procrastinating and more time making music, reading and working out (though I feel like I’ve written this exact thing before). Here’s to a hopefully less pandemic-ridden 2022!

As prophesied, much of my focus was put on my new job as a game programmer at Embark. I'm now in my third team constellation since starting, going from working on metagame features at ARC Raiders, to working with shared online tech in general, to now being part of the UI and retention team of THE FINALS. Overall I feel quite comfortable in my role at the company (perhaps a bit too comfortable), and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. This year is going to be an exciting one for Embark as well, so I'm looking forward to that.

I said I wanted to make better use of my time in 2022, and while I might have made some minor improvements, I don't feel like I succeeded in that regard. Therefore I'm going into 2023 with an even bigger focus on how I'm spending my time when it comes to both productivity and my sleep schedule.

During the year I again only released two tracks, but this at least puts me one track away from completing my next EP, which I'm planning to release in 2023. Continuing the tradition of picking up new instruments, I also purchased an acoustic guitar and have been making some decent progress learning fingerstyle on it.

I read 8 books last year, which is similar to the year before. Since I've prioritised sleeping over reading at night, I've mostly been reading during my weekday commutes, but I haven't decided whether that was a good trade-off or not.

My workout routine did improve in 2022 as I got back to the gym, and I've started to take training a bit more seriously outside just working out. I feel like I'm on a good track at the moment and will carry that into 2023.

I really got back into concerts during 2022, but towards the end of the year I was pretty burnt out on the whole concert experience, resulting in months of abstinence. In 2023 I will be more mindful about what artists I go to see live, and I already have some tickets for upcoming shows that I look forward to.

Some years ago I made the financially unsound decision to start paying off my student loan faster than required, and at the end of 2022 I was finally debt free. I've previously mentioned that I want to buy a flat at some point in the future, so in order to acquire some new debt, I'm intending to do just that in 2023.

I also went to Amsterdam right in the middle of the heatwave. It was hot.

Finally, this might be my last public year review, as I don't see the same benefit in publishing them online anymore. Rest assured that I will keep making them privately for the foreseeable future.