#so i sat there for a few more minutes and the subway had not moved at all

[burningembers91]

Help Wanted - Seong Gi-Hun x Fem!Reader

Follow up piece to:

Back Alley Bar

Synopsis: When Seong Gi-Hun sees you struggling, he decides to step in

A/N: this storyline is becoming more angsty than I originally thought it would! A lot of my MC’s are happy go lucky people though, so it’s fun creating someone’s who’s just as flawed as the other characters.

You were late, so incredibly late. Between your full time day job, shifts at the bar, and your online university classes, you were burning the candle at both ends. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d had more than 4 hours of sleep, and it was starting to catch up to you. Your shirt was inside out, a problem you’d only realised as you left the subway. You’d have to quickly change it in the bathroom before class, and hope your students and fellow teachers didn’t notice your absence.

You glanced down at your watch: only 6 minutes to make a 10 minute journey. You’d have to run to the school, which meant you’d turn up to work both sweaty and dressed incorrectly. Groaning internally, you picked up the pace, setting out into a steady jog. You hated running, it made you feel like your lungs were about to burst out of your chest. You were so busy mentally timing your journey that you didn’t notice the figure in front of you. Not until you collided full force with them, knocking you and the contents of your bag onto the pavement.

“Oh, fuck!” You hissed, your hands going straight to your throbbing nose. You looked up, ready to curse whoever it was that hadn’t moved out of your way, only to see Seong Gi-Hun standing over you.

“Are you alright?” He asked, bending forward to help you up. You nodded, checking there was no blood before scrambling to pick up your papers that were blowing lazily down the road.

Gi-Hun had always thought you’d been beautiful, but even he had to admit that you looked exhausted beyond measure. There was deep bags under your eyes, toothpaste in the corner of your mouth, and was your shirt inside out?

“Your shirt-“ he began, before you cut him off, your tone harsh.

“Yes,” you snapped, “my shirt is inside out.”You took the remaining papers from his hands, sighing as you rubbed your tired eyes.

“I’m sorry,” you said, “I’m just really tired and really, really late for work.”

Gi-Hun held his hands up, stepping aside to let you rush past him. “I hope you have a good day!” He called after you, smiling as he watched your incorrectly worn shirt billow in the warm spring breeze.

He hadn’t been to the bar for a few weeks. Your words had really gotten to him, had made him stop and think. Did he really want to spend the rest of his life wallowing in his own pity? Drinking himself to death wouldn’t change what he’d done, nothing would take back the mistakes he’d made, nothing would bring back the people he’d lost. But if he didn’t do something soon, he’d waste away into nothingness. The morning after the conversation in your car, Gi-Hun threw away the bottle of whiskey he usually kept by his bed. He went out and looked for places advertising employment, willing to take on whatever work he could get. He missed seeing you though, missed listening to you talk when you thought he wasn’t listening. He’d never seen you in the daylight before, and you looked even more beautiful than you did in the dimly lit bar. But you looked so tired, so stressed. You’d done so much for Gi-Hun over the last few months; now it was time for him to return the favour.

That night, Gi-Hun returned to the bar. He didn’t drink, though he desperately wanted to. He just sat with you, keeping you company as you had done for him so many times. You looked exhausted, your eyes red rimmed and puffy. You didn’t talk much that night, too tired to form words. But Gi-Hun didn’t mind; he knew better than anyone that sometimes all you needed was a persons presence to stop you from going completely insane.

“Let me drive you home,” he said to you at the end of your shift.

“I’m fine, honestly,” you mumbled, fumbling with the keys as you locked the bar down for the night.

“Please,” he insisted. “It’s not safe for you to drive.”

You looked at him, closing your eyes as they burned with tiredness, before sighing.

“Fine.” Tossing him the keys, you slumped into the passenger side, secretly grateful for the help. If you’d had to drive home, you weren’t sure you’d have made it back in one piece.

You were both silent as the car wound through the city streets, lost in your own thoughts. Gi-Hun helped you upstairs with your bags, ladened down with student essays you needed to mark, and your own uni work that you hadn’t had time to complete. He wasn’t sure if he should stay for a while, to make sure you got in ok.

“Have you eaten?” He asked, desperate to prolong his time with you, even for a brief moment. Your stomach growled loudly in response, and you clutched at it.

“I guess I forgot to,” you mumbled, throwing yourself down on the couch which was littered with yet more paperwork.

“You need to eat,” he said, “let me make you something.” He dug around in the cupboards, finding a couple of packs of instant ramen to make while you got changed out of your work clothes. You returned a few moments later, makeup free and wearing a tiny pair of pyjama shorts. They accentuated the curves of your thighs and hips so perfectly, and Gi-Hun found himself unable to tear his eyes away. You looked so beautiful, but so fragile and broken.

Handing you the bowl of food, he turned to go. He didn’t want to overstay his welcome, didn’t want to encroach on you when you clearly needed rest.

“Please don’t go.” Your voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear you. You looked so small sitting on your sofa, the bowl of steaming ramen in your hands. “Please, can you just stay a while?”

You were so lonely at the minute, so utterly drained and exhausted. You just needed some company, needed someone to sit with you. And so Gi-Hun stayed. He sat with you while you ate, neither of you talking, but both of you having so much you wanted to say.

“Why do you do all this?” He asked eventually, looking at the mountains of paperwork all over your tiny living room.

“I made some bad choices when I was younger,” you sighed. “I met someone when I was really young. I thought he was a nice guy; he wasn’t. I took a job as a teacher because it was easy and brought money in. But as soon as I put money in the account, he would spend it.”

Your ex sounded like Gi-Hun, and it filled him with shame.

“Did he gamble?” He asked, wondering just alike the two of them were.

You shook your head. “Drugs and prostitutes, mostly,” you laughed bitterly. “It took me years to get the courage up to leave. And when I finally did I realised I’d wasted my life being with a man I hated, in a job I can’t stand. I thought by going back to university I could make myself better somehow. But I’m just really tired and I have nothing to show for it.”

A single, fat tear dropped down your cheek, and you quickly wiped it away. You talked long into the night, fighting sleep so you could spend more time with the man who had shown you such kindness. When your eyes could no longer stay open, you crashed hard on the sofa, your head slumped on Gi-Hun’s shoulder.

He didn’t dare move, didn’t dare wake you from the sleep you desperately needed. So he stayed there all night, watching the slow rise and fall of your chest. His hand tentatively stroked your back, soothing the troubled mumbles you uttered every now and again.

You’d been there for him when he needed someone, and now he’d be there for you. Life was tough for both of you, but you could help each other. Maybe together you could come out the other side. Maybe together you’d be ok.

[typewritingyip]

The Arcturus Missions

Part Eight - Reunion Discoveries

Part Seven

———

Lightweight transportation craft of Cybertron were designed to hold the weight of well over twenty cybertronian’s. Sometimes more depending on the need for military uses, they ranged from the utilitarian to the down right plush. Typically had a few seats and hand rails where you could magnetize with ease, for the humans, they were reminiscent of subway cars.

There were the usual express lines that traveled from local cities to others, the direct lines which could take you to neighboring city states, and the free standing ones which did not travel along a select route and could be programmed with specific location. Typically those transports were reserved well in advance of use or for those selected by the Prime, as free to access for emergencies. 

A well functioning public transportation system was not only greatly appreciated by the populace, but a practical use of public funds. 

—

There was an awkwardness hanging in the air, the humans sitting together on one side of the transport with the cybertronians on the other. Sideswipe was lightly picking at the dried pink on his armor, frowning as it flecked off, across the transport Mirage winced. 

Hound shifted and sat up a bit once it got moving, he cleared his throat lightly and turned on his comm, looking to Prowl, “Our ship was around 93 miles away from the warehouse and we will need to have access to it over the coming days.” Sunstreaker snorted, “No kidding.” It took a moment for Prowl to answer, clearly trying to translate what was said, “We will send a crew out to salvage it. I understand why it would be important to you.” He slowly looked back to the strange pad he was holding, frown only deepening. Hound nodded slowly and turned to the others, motioning briefly to change their comms channel before speaking, “For now, we go along with them and find Jazz.” Sideswipe nodded lightly, holding a fleck of the pink gore in between his fingers, “You think you can ask them what this stuff is?” Hound sighed and shook his head, rolling his eyes behind the visor, “We’ll find out later, I’m sure.” “It’s toxic, whatever it is.” Sunstreaker spoke up, rubbing his hands together to get the worst of it off, the flecks falling to the floor.

”Toxic?” Leaning forward, Hound ran a brief scan on it and grabbed one of the flakes lightly, grinding it between his fingers, “Yeah, so don’t get it near your vents, even if we are still using the tanks, that is a risk not worth taking.” Nodding slowly, even Breakdown took a piece lightly and stared intently at it, “It’s congealed and dried, like blood.” Sunstreaker froze and made a noise that was painful on the ears, starting to rub at his arms quickly to get the rest of it off.

While Sunstreaker panicked, Hound sat back and glanced out the windows of the transport, staring with wide eyes at the surface of this strange planet. Now away from the haze and the damp ground, he could see effectively what they’d been walking through. A sea, a sea of rust at least in appearance. Glancing over to the other mechs in the shuttle, to Prowl and his companion, he watched them talk together. Their voices were quiet, but he was still calibrating his translator. The tech was experimental at best and had been limited to a handful of languages on Earth, but Hound had a lot of faith in Preceptor, the man was smart enough to make some of the most advanced mech tech in the world, what was a translator to a genius?

They were rocketing across the planet and after a few minutes, the blue and white mech stood, saying something to Prowl before going towards the entrance. With a nod, Prowl looks to them all, “Mirage is going to bail out above the battle, do any of you wish to join him?” Immediately, Sideswipe’s hand shot up, “Oh, me! I want to fall to the surface of this weird planet too.” Prowl stared in confusion before Hound stood, resting a hand on Sideswipe’s shoulder, “A long story, I’ll go with them though.” Nodding slowly, Prowl seemed deeply confused as the two shuffled towards the doorway.

Breakdown sighed deeply and stood, stretching lightly as Sunstreaker did the same, “Out of one fight and into the next.” Sunstreaker’s voice was almost enthusiastic, “Haven’t kicked alien butt since before they prepped my mech for space.” He hops up and down at the same time as Sideswipe, Mirage’s eyes sliding over them slowly, letting out a slow breath. 

The transport is rocked with an explosion and the doors open, pulling the pressure with it. Hound took a deep breath before leaping out after Mirage, Sideswipe falling backwards out of the transport, his sword expended from its spot in his arm plating as he fell. Hound brought his gun up, eyes widening as he saw the same bastards he’d spent the last several years fight on a moral familiar surface. Mirage hit one hard and effectively took it to the ground, using it to break his landing, seeing that Hound did the same and Sideswipe followed his lead.

It was easy to spot Jazz in the fight, though there were other mechs with visors on the field, he was the only one with numbers across his chest. Hound’s breath caught lightly in his throat even as the shot from his gun hit the so-called Quint just behind Jazz. Their eyes met, for a moment before Hound had an additional face on his visual feel, the bright smile was one he didn’t think he’d ever see again. Other than maybe on a skull, “You sure know how to make an entrance Hound,” He grinned as he turned and fired on the tentacled aliens, “I was just following that guys lead,” Jazz glanced over and laughed, “Oh, Mirage is a hoot. You’ll come to really love the guy.” “If you say so.” Hound continued firing.

—

In the distance, two large figures were fighting back to back, cleaving through the enemy with a certain amount of struggle. One of them, tall and grey, saw the red and green visored mechs fall from the sky and watched for a click as they each killed several Quintessons with limited hassle. His break caught, “Optimus, there truly are more like Jazz.” “What do you mean Megatron?” Optimus grunted with effort, throwing one off himself, before his face was forcefully turned towards Hound and Sideswipe, “Ah. That would explain Prowl’s message.” Megatron growled for a moment before blasting another encroacher. 

—

Breakdown and Sunstreaker landed with Prowl in the now disabled transport, less of a landing and more of a crash, they both bailed out with ease and took off onto the battlefield, Breakdown taking up position as his cannon hummed to life and Sunstreaker took off in the direction of Sideswipe. Several mechs were staring at them, mostly at the energon covered Sunstreaker, as he almost collided with his brother to cover his back. 

“Stay on comms people, stay focused.” Hound was calm, as he had been in every fight and would continue to be, “God, have you been like that this whole time?” Jazz’s voice was truly music to all their ears, bringing smiles and relief to their faces, “Welcome back, Commander. Ha! You’ve got more seniority than Hound!” Sideswipe slides past the pair, cleaving a Quintessons drone in half with ease. There was a moment of pause, Jazz clearly thinking before clearing his throat, “I’ll follow whatever Hound orders, he’s primary for, uh, whatever your mission is called.” “Thank you.” Hound shoots the head off a Quintessons nearest to Jazz with a light smile.

Most of the cybertronians that were there had fallen back to a more defensive position as the humans went after the Quintessons, not noticing the slight retreat of their counterparts. Even as their plating got torn and gouged, lines splitting open and getting concussed with covering fire. It was clear, they were more built for this fight than the average citizen of Cybertron. 

The twins were moving together in near synch, bracers moving through the air and Sideswipe’s sword coming through the enemy by its near perfect design. 

Breakdown was blowing up the land between the line and the enemy, blasting apart the drones with ease, his cannon locking onto the familiar enemy and eliminating it.

Hound was near Jazz, gun up and firing rapidly, focused on the scope of his visual feed and unable to speak.

Together they made a near perfect team, the twins were bickering across the comms and moving as if they’d always fought together, Hound was covering the angles they couldn’t see and Breakdown was covering them all. Maybe that’s why they’d been paired together, because they all were adaptable and capable. Jazz was just the missing piece of this puzzle as he was able to provide information from the other side of the field, listening into the cybertronian comms with five years of practiced ease. Hound glances towards his old friend, still not entirely convinced that this was all real. 

Prowl slid up near Jazz and Hound, flanked by Mirage towards the end of the fight, his servo resting lightly on Jazz’s back. They moved almost as one, even better paired than the twins in a way that shocked Hound. Jazz had been loved back home, there was no doubt about that but this, this was something else and unexpected. They clearly were speaking quietly to each other, still in a language that Hound couldn’t understand though the translator was still clicking away.

— 

When there was nothing left but broken armor, spilt energon, and gore from the Quintessons, Jazz took Hound’s elbow lightly, “Breath Hound, it’s over for now.” It was so different from back home, one or two of these things would attack entire cities, not a battle field of them. Hound at that moment wasn’t sure how long they’d been fighting for, whether it was the same day or even the same week, being in his suit and filled with adrenaline kept him in focus. Kept them all in focus. It was evident in the stance of the others as well, from potentially that morning leaving to Odyssey till now, who knew how long it had been and when you were in a suit you could stretch things a lot further than without it. 

With a nod, Hound takes a break and rests his hand on Jazz’s shoulder, “I still can’t believe it’s actually you.” Jazz’s smile was evident even without the visual feed, “It’s been a long five years. I hope you brought some good food from home.” Sunstreaker sighed dramatically, “If you think protein bars are good, then yes, he did.” Sideswipe, draped over his brother, snorted and covered his face. Hound rolled his eyes lightly, “There is more than that on the Odyssey.” “The Odyssey, like Apollo 13?” Breakdown was the next to speak up, “Ironic, yes?” They moved together, away from the main area that seemed to be a camp, only one following for the moment was Prowl. Silently listening to them talk, “You could say that, except they never stepped on the moon. You guys are standing on an entirely different planet.” “Don’t remind me.” Sunstreaker nearly whined, grabbing at the sides of his head to more laughter from his brother.

Jazz brought them over to some sort of heater, standing near it to keep warm after the fight, when their heart rates would slow and cool them off to an uncomfortable point, “You know you two, you’ll uh, want to hose off with some solvent. It makes some mechs uncomfortable to see others covered in dried blood.” Sunstreaker almost howled as Breakdown pointed at him, “I knew it! I said it.” Prowl gives Jazz a very long and hard look, at which Jazz just shrugs, “They’ll be a lot like me when I first got here Prowler.” 

Someone cleared their throat behind the six of them, Prowl stood stock straight and turned, if a mech could go pale that is what Hound would have described it as, suddenly there was a quiet click in Hound’s ear and the next words said in their strange language flowed through the transmitter and adjusted to fit the tones before spreading out into well understandable English, “Well Jazz, are you going to introduced us to your friends?” A big red and blue mech stood with another equally large grey bot, shoulder to shoulder, covered in soot and the same pink stuff Sunstreaker had been splattered with, “Uh, yes sir, well, these are other pilots from Earth.” His voice almost got timid, that’s when Hound knew that these were likely who was really in charge, especially considering how few other mechs were now around them.

Having been around a few other mechs in the battle have given Hound a bit of perspective, it made their suits feel huge, especially when they often felt small in Vortex’s, now First Aid’s, shadow. These mecha though, they were big just for the sake of being big. Hound didn’t have to stare too far up, but still his head was tilted back to meet this one’s eye line. He stood still for a long moment before standing at parade rest, clearing his throat, “Sir, uh. We apologize for the, uh, heh, invasion.” Hound paused as the translator quickly worked its magic. Thank god for Preceptor and his bizarre ideas. Jazz’s head whipped to him, as did the others, all staring at the strange translation that came from his external speakers. 

“Where in the hell did you learn that?” Sideswipe leaned forward slightly, whispering as if those around them wouldn’t be able to hear, “Turn on the translator Preceptor installed, I’ve been running it all day so it could learn.” Hound whispered back, but seemingly kept eye contact with the two large mechs. One shifted and crossed his arms before speaking, “What brought you all here? Your comrade, or something else?” Hound tilted his head ever so slightly and glanced at Jazz, who had slunk to almost hide behind Prowl, he looked back to the grey mech and shook his head, “It’s complicated.” “Then uncomplicated it.” He opened his mouth again but the blue and red mech rested his hand on the others shoulder, “Let’s give them time to reacquaint with Jazz, you forget that five solar cycles seems much longer for them then for us.” The other grunted before turning and walking towards a group of mechs, all ranging in shades of purple, blue, and green. The one left smiled with his eyes, if a mech could do that, “He means no harm, he’s just, curious is all. Go refuel, take a moment to rest, then we can discuss how you arrive here.” Nodding, Hound turned to the crew, and motioned for them to go back.

Jazz was the first to speak up, “Come on, we’ve got a place to sit and fuel over here.” He points and slowly, they make their way off the decimated battlefield. 

———

A/N

Wow, alright. I had an entirely different ending written for this part, but in all actuality that is now the ending of part nine I guess.

I was going to give myself 30 minutes to write today, and 2 and a half hours later I finished part eight. Of course, it never fails. 

At least I’ll have about half of part 9 done when I go to post this, so there is that. Also, I wrote this part from 8 till 10:30 at night so if there are major errors or any errors that you see, please let me know. 

Tags!

@lunarlei68 @whirlywhirlygig @loop-hole-319 @pixillandjester @alek-the-witch @not-a-moose-in-disguise @goddessofwind8water @neurologicalglitch @dersereblogger @pixel-transformers @mrcrayonofdoom @wireplaces @twilightfreefaller @original-blog-name-2 @devilangel657 @robbin-u

And once again thank you to @keferon for this amazing AU.

[cherriemi]

Trivia Night

pairing: spencer reid x fem!reader

in: reid has always noticed every tiny detail about you, the slight change in your hair or attitude. so when you throw a birthday party and include a trivia game for your unit to learn more about you, spencer gets every question right.

tw: improper capitalization, fluff, non-consensual kiss (let me know if there is anything else!)

a/n: this is my FIRST ff writing in years, so yes it’s bad and yes i’m rusty. please be nice to me :,(

wc: 2.3k

you walked into the office… and he could instantly tell something was off. it didn’t take long until he remembered that your hair was now shorter. you had gotten a haircut and he would be first to comment.

“did you get a haircut y/n?” he asked as you placed your bag on your desk. you nodded, “is it that short??” messing with your hair and seeing if the ends are shorter than you had remembered. “no, i like it.” a smile formed on his face. “thank you.” you looked away, flustered. 

he always noticed changes first. they were compliments, questions of concern. it never weirded you out as he admitted to having an eidetic memory. it just frustrated you that he always knew what was different. 

“i haven’t seen you in red… it compliments your undertones a lot.” 

“your makeup looks different, did you put on eyeliner? i quite like it.” 

“what happened to your finger? be careful next time okay?” 

“let’s get started for our case review.” hotchner poked his head out from the conference room. you grabbed what you needed and head up the steps with reid just behind you.

it was your birthday! you had invited your co-workers as they were the only people you really knew. joining the team only half a year ago, you moved away from your dream location but moved into a better job. 

you anxiously waited for someone to show up. your apartment was decorated, food cooked and the vinyl record playing smooth jazz. one of your favorite records, it was a compilation of a few popular artists and songs. you had found it selling for $2.99 at an estate sale back from your old job. 

you heard a couple voices from outside the door and then a knock. you rushed to the door, checking the peephole. it was hotchner and prentiss. 

the door door swung open, “happy birthday!!” emily prentiss cheerily pulled you in for a hug. hotchner smiled, repeating back what emily said with a back pat. “gifts can go over there.” your hand gestured towards the kitchen island. 

soon enough derek morgan and penelope garcia showed up, then jennifer and rossi. the party already seemed to be starting but you knew someone was missing. spencer reid appeared, exactly 25 minutes later than you had told the group chat. 

“come on reid!” derek and jennifer teased the boy. he was red on the face, a card in one hand and the other holding onto the strap of his messenger bag. he was dressed as he usually was: dress shoes, trousers, and a button up with a vest over. “sorry, i had to take the subway.” he responded. 

you grabbed the card from his hands, “it’s okay reid, go ahead and help yourself.” you set the card on the island as he walked over towards the pots and pans. he helped himself to some chicken and pasta. 

after the eating and cake cutting, it was gift giving time. you opened all the gifts in the kitchen while everyone watched. most of your co-workers gifted you a card with money but penelope had gifted wrapped a gift for you. you torn it open and found a bow ribbon set. you smiled and hugged her. 

you called everyone to the living room. emily, jennifer, penelope and derek had crushed themselves on the loveseat while rossi claimed the single seater you had. you grabbed your two only other chairs and placed them next to where rossi was. hotchner and reid sat in the new present chairs. 

you grabbed your phone which was connected to the tv and opened a slideshow, “y/n’s trivia night.” read rossi.

penelope sat up, “oh i am so good at these!” 

you reached behind the tv and checked for the gift card. “i thought that since i was the newest addition to the team… i would have a trivia game so you could learn more about me!” you pulled out a $50 visa gift card, “i prepared a prize for the 1st place winner… a $50 visa gift card!” everyone cooed at the possibility for a prize. “free money? now i’m in!” rossi joked. 

the first round was a multiple choice section, and each correct answer was worth 1 point. you explained the rules to your co-workers. the first question appeared on the slide. what is y/n’s favorite color? 

C. B. A. A. D. E. B. “the correct answer is B, one point to penelope and reid!” penelope nudged derek as he groaned. you assumed they had argued about your favorite color. 

another question, when is y/n’s birthday?

A. A. A. A. B. D. C. “the correct answer is… C! point to reid!” everyone groaned, especially those at the loveseat. they all answered your trick question, which had the incorrect year. 

you finished out the round 1 questions until everyone noticed a pattern. reid had gotten every single question correct. penelope would be a close second if 6 and 4 were neighbors. then emily and jennifer were tied, hotchner at 5th, rossi at 6th and derek dead last. penelope teased derek after the rankings were called out. 

you introduced round two, a free response round where each question was worth two. you admitted this round had more leeway as you could get 1 point for getting part of the answer but it had to be specific enough to warrant the 2 points. 

this round went by slower. without the help of given answers they had to use their brain power to create an answer. the first question was rough for many. hotchner got the single point for guessing your favorite childhood tv show but reid ultimately got the 2 points for getting the entire title. 

round two was so horrible, you ended up having to provide one hint per person to get points. you would have regretted making it a free response section if reid hadn’t gotten all the questions right again. 

you read the rankings, reid, penelope, hotchner, jennifer, emily, rossi and derek. 

you announced the third and final round. “it’s a single question.” everyone relaxed. “this question is worth double all your points.” everyone sat up. everyone but derek, rossi and emily had a chance to overcome reid, but it all came down to if reid missed the question. 

you read the question. gave them a few minutes as you served more champagne. after the minutes were up you counted down from 3 and had everyone revealed their answers. to everyone’s surprise reid had gotten the answer correct. almost exact to how you worded it on the tv. 

you read the final results. “last place is tied with derek and rossi at 5 points… emily with 8, hotchner with 10, jennifer with 11, penelope with 14 and reid with… 36.” 

derek stood up, “cheaters don’t win!” reid was red at the attention. you pulled the visa gift card and handed it to reid with a smile. penelope clapped for reid and joined jennifer, hotchner and rossi. derek was pouting. “excuse derek, he’s being a jerk.” peneople elbowed derek. 

the party went on for another hour until derek and peneople noted the time. “we have to go y/n, sorryyy.” peneople apologized. you bid them farewell. soon enough emily and jennifer wanted to leave as well. with emily and jennifer leaving, rossi and hotchner left after wishing you happy birthday for the third time. 

you were wrapping the food when reid entered after his bathroom break. “did everyone leave?” he asked. 

“yup, you can leave too… it won’t bug me.” you reassured reid in case he was waiting to leave. 

he approached you in the kitchen. “do you need help?” you looked at him, “if you could wrap the left over pasta, i would appreciate that.” 

he grabbed a sheet a tinfoil and sealed the ends. “could i actually take some of the pasta home?” he asked. you nodded, “of course! take however much you’d like.” you handed him a container. 

he spooned the pasta into the container. “you’re a wonderful cook y/n.” another compliment. 

“thank you,” escaped a smile while you felt your cheeks get warm. you pushed your lower back against the island. reid was taking more pasta. “are you a cheater?” you asked. 

he shut the container before turning around. “i’ve never dated so-“ 

“no i mean the game.” you cut through. he turned red. “how would i cheat?” it was a question of interest. he didn’t know the answer which was out of the norm for him. “i’m just surprised you got a perfect 100 on my trivia game.” 

reid’s mouth turned upwards, “eidetic memory y/n.” the eye contact was too much. “you say that, but can’t tell hotchner when his birthday is.” you rebutted. it was a question that hotchner blurted out during the game. emily prentiss, rossi and even derek knew his birthday but spencer had failed to come up with the correct answer. 

reid was chewing the inside of his mouth. “hotchner is old and uninteresting.” he jabbed at his boss. “and i am?” he nodded. “new people are always more interesting.” 

you had looked away. reid’s eye contact was too much for you. it was odd, he almost never could hold eye contact with anyone on the team but you? come to think of it, this was the first time since being transferred to the BAU that you and reid were alone. whenever the team split, reid was somehow in your group by chance but when it was one on one, you were paired with jennifer or hotchner.

in the beginning hotchner just wanted to get to see your working style and see how you handled people. after the first months, you had built a relationship with jennifer and she always pulled you away. she loved to hear what you thought about the other members, but you never told her the truth about reid. as a new member, it would leave a sour taste in their mouths if you immediately had issues with one member.

it wasn’t an issue though, it was more of an observation. 

he knew when you were born, he knew where you had transferred from, he knew your favorite genre of music and books, and now he knew where you lived. “is everything okay y/n?” reid cut through the silence. 

you realized it had been a couple minutes of silence. you avoided his eye contact and were zoning out. “yes…” you replied. reid stepped closer. “are you sure?” here he was asking you questions. he can sense the change in you. “yes, reid.” you replied. 

reid paused. “i got you a gift,” he dug into his bag, “but i was worried you wouldn’t like it.” he pulled out a small box. one that looked like it would house a necklace. he moved closer to you and reached his arm out. 

you took the box and opened it. inside was a necklace. gold, heart shaped with a beautiful gem in the middle that shined with the kitchen lights. “oh, it’s so pretty reid.” you lifted the necklace out of the box, unclasped it and slipped it on. 

reid analyzed. you could hear his breathing. in and out. in and out. once the necklace was on, reid asked, “does it fit well?” you knew it took a lot of effort, “perfectly.” you mumbled in response. 

reid hadn’t stepped back. you two were closer than ever. his hand brushed against clothing and reached for your chin. he lifted your face to look him in the eye. your cheeks were warming up faster than ever.

you both stayed silent. his hand wrapped around, sitting politely on your cheek. then before you could react, he leaned forward, his lips touching yours. 

at first, you were surprised at the sudden gestures of reid. he was quite germaphobic, refusing to even shake hands. that was your first lesson in the fbi, reid didn’t like being touched. he took the largest step back when you went in for a hand shake and hotchner behind you, “he doesn’t like hand shakes, i should’ve told you that.”

you could not resist. his lips were soft, his hand warmed your cheek and his free arm found it’s way around your waist. your body spoke that he wasn’t being rejected, and he pulled you in closer. 

it felt like the kiss had lasted minutes when he finally pulled back. “sorry,” he apologized, stepping back.

before he could go any further, you grabbed his collar and pulled him into another kiss. now he was surprised but that didn’t last longer than a split second. he cupped your face and kissed you. you opened your mouth slightly and he slipped his tongue inside, feeling around you. he pulled back taking the messenger bag he had donned all night off. returning, he held onto your waist while you reached for the back of his neck. 

everything clicked for you. he remembered all the small and obscure details about you because he was interested in you. when you told reid your favorite color because he noticed the different tops you had of that one color, when you told reid that your birthday was the reason for your favorite season. everytime reid asked you if you had changed your hair or makeup, it was because he had remembered that you keep your hair down and your makeup minimal. 

you pulled back, “you remembered everything about me because you were interested didn’t you.” reid was blushed, you weren’t sure if it was due to the kissing or the comment or maybe he was just hot. “i’m guilty…” he nodded, avoiding eye contact.

you begged reid to tell you the when and why. he was so embarrassed. admitting that he had never had a crush, and he asked hotchner what it meant to have an anxious feeling around a woman. “hotchner laughed at me and said that i was too smart to not know what attraction was.” reid told you. it was safe to say, that reid did not leave your apartment that night– in fact… he stayed the night at your apartment quite often. 

[yourwosogirly]

Opposites do attract - Katie McCabe

Hope you like this @veteranwerewolf95

Word count : 1k

“Really, Katey bear, still asleep?”I sighed, as I walked back into my and Katie’s bedroom after having breakfast she was still fast asleep, snores escaping her.

She had been sleeping in a lot more than necessary for the Ireland captain after having jet lag from coming back from Australia so I had let her sleep in but I had to start getting ready and she still wasn’t awake.

I got back into bed, pulling the covers over us and I turned over to face her, it was kind of creepy as I was staring at her, but I was just admiring my girlfriend.

I cupped her face in my hands as she grumbled in her sleep her hand resting on the side of her face as she slept while I smiled, watching in cuteness.

It didn’t look like she would be able to awake from her slumber anytime soon so I would have to be the one to do it.

“Babycakes, wake up for me” I graced with a smile, lying on my side as I looked at her, brushing the hair out of her eyes.

I kissed her softly for a few minutes before I felt her kiss me back. I pulled away in shock giving her the chance to yawn her head off.

“Good morning” I smiled at her, stroking her jaw as she mumbled things I couldn’t quite catch onto.

“Babycakes?, really” she quirked an eyebrow at me for the weird names as I shrugged, it was silent got a moment before we both laughed, leaning against each other's bodies.

Clearly someone who wasn’t too happy to have been woken up on a Saturday morning . She turned away from me, flipping her phone over to see what the time read before moving to face me again.

“Ugh it’s so early” she complained, sitting up on the bed and laying her back against the headboard.

“Baby, it's 10:35” I reminded her as I sat on her lap and she pulled me closer and let her hands rest on my ass.

“So, what are we doing today?” I ask, smiling nuzzling my head into the crook of her tanned neck.

She wrapped her left arm around my shoulder, resting her chin on top of mine, giving my hairline a kiss.

“Sleep, hopefully” she mumbled into my hair and closed her eyes making me roll my eyes.

“Baby, we can’t sleep all day” I pulled away from her chest making her whine with a pout on her lips.

“Why not?”she groaned, dropping her head on my shoulder as I stroked her hair with a smile.

“Can we go shopping today?”I ask, moving her hair as I began to kiss her neck.

“No” she disagreed straight away, feeling tired and wanting to spend the day in bed, together.

But it was hard to disagree as she had to hide a moan while I kept sucking on her neck.

“Baby please” I looked up from where I was sucking on her collarbone with doe eyes which she tried to look away from.

“No” she forced out, struggling against me as I grabbed her chin, holding her in place.

“For me?”I gave her a sly smile knowing she couldn’t resist me.

“Fine” she gave in making me smile. I jumped up, peppering kisses all over her face as she giggled trying to push me away.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you” I grinned at her, I had meant to go for a shopping trip for a while now and getting to spend the day with Katie made it even better.

I jumped off the bed, running towards the wardrobe to find an outfit for me to wear leaving Katie in the comfort of our bed, alone.

“Wait, come back!”

A couple hours later

“Why did I agree to this?”Katie groans rubbing at her eyes as I dragged her through the shopping centre.

“Cause you love me” I turned round, giving her a cheeky smile and pulling her into a kiss.

“Damn right” she mumbled against my lips before I pulled away to walk to the next beauty shop ahead making Katie whine in displeasure.

“Cmon Kate, just a couple more shops and then we can go for some lunch yeah? How about subway?”I suggested, making her smile that I could only grace on her dashing face.

“Okay,” she sighed as I leaned up to kiss her cheek causing a blush to spread on her face and up her before we entered the shop.

Katie managed to survive the last shop, and by that I mean she stood in the corner, my shopping bags in her hands, complained about standing up but secretly undressed me with her eyes as she watched me try on clothes.

“Katie, what’s up?”I looked up at her, seeing her wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Can we go home now?”She asked, nibbling on my neck.

“Baby, we’re almost done”i told her, patting her right arm to let me go hearing a small whine making me chuckle .

“But Y/N, darling, baby, the love of my life, I’m tired, I hate shopping, everyone’s up my arse, I just wanna go home and be with you, and I’m hungry”she complained with a huff.

“Kate, this is the last shop okay? Then we can get some food and cuddle all you want but let me go”i said with a giggle, trying to push her away from me .

“Fine”she grumbled, letting me go as i headed over the lady who was helping me out .

“Sorry, she’s allergic to smiling”I told her apologetically as me and her, who’s name was Lucy, giggled .

“I heard that!”

“Okay, thank you, bye”i said to the lady’s working as me and Katie headed on of the shop . I turned to Katie as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder. or

“Ok I’m done now, we can go get some food” I smiled heading round the corner to the subway as I could practically see the hunger in her eyes.

“Finally” she mumbled as I hit her shoulder.

“Shut up, I know you secretly enjoyed it your just tired” I told her as she rolled her eyes with a smirk.

“Anything to make you happy” she hummed kissing the side of my head.

Once me and Katie sat down and got our food, she grabbed my hand across the table as I looked up at her.

“Hey babe?” she asked me.

“Yes my love?”I asked kissing her knuckles, knowing she was about to tell me something.

“You're the only girl that can make me smile” she mumbled as she looked down at the ground all flustered, suddenly gone shy.

“Aww, Katie bear, come here” I smiled in appreciation, I knew this was the way of showing that she loved me.

“I love you too” I hummed, breathing in her scent.

This was therapy to me for the Katie and ruesha news 😭😭

[indyanapolis898]

A Tale of Two Tombstones

bruce wayne x f!reader

Synopsis: Batman needs a break after endless nights of work. He decides to visit his parent's grave as Bruce Wayne, where he's able to open up to his parents and someone else.

The roaring of his motorcycle halted as it pulled into its intended parking spot. The rider slid off the bike, falling heavily onto the dusty ground of the cave in which his headquarters resided. 

A few grunts escaped his lips as he lay idly in the dim lighting of the cavern. Batman moved his gloved hands to his face to remove his dirty cowl, bloodying his gloves in the process. His messy, damp hair covered his forehead; the sweat combined with the blood on his face and head. 

He took a few unsteady breaths, trying to gain his composure. He'd finished another late night of work at the cost of his physical health. His body armor would need serious work and repatching. He blinked a few times, shutting his eyes to sleep for a few minutes.

***

Bruce Wayne opened his eyes, shifting his body, which resulted in a painful shout.

"Hey, easy there," said a concerned Alfred, rushing to the operating table in the surgery room- located in the south wing of Wayne Manor. 

"Where- what-," Bruce breathily mumbled. 

"I found you in the cave after the computer alerted me of your presence. You took a heavy beating. I stitched up most of your wounds, but you've earned some rest, Master Bruce." 

"No. I-" Bruce cut himself off with ragged coughs. Alfred sat the bed up and raised an eyebrow with an I told you so, look. 

"Fine," Bruce finally accepted his fate and lay back on the pillow to rest more.

*** 

Bruce garnered a total of eighteen hours in and out of sleep, healing very slowly from the brutal fight he'd gotten into in a gang-filled subway station. They had tech and brute weapons that Batman hadn't seen before. They were strong enough to plaster him and his suit. The gang was still on the loose. It was plaguing Bruce's weary mind, but he knew he was in no state to get back into crimefighting. 

Sometimes, while laying in bed with his eyes open because his mind wouldn't stop running, Bruce wondered if his thoughts would ever quiet down. The only thing that could help was getting things off his chest. It was a temporary high; however, his ego and insecurity kept him from sharing with Alfred. That's why, with Alfred's permission, Bruce found himself limping to the mansion's garage in a simple gray sweater, black trench coat, and jeans. His hair was messy and unkempt, only kept out of his face with the pair of sunglasses that rested on his forehead.

Bruce entered one of his vehicles, a black SUV with tinted windows, and let his driver take him to the Gotham Graveyard. 

***

After a morning of light showers, the sky had cleared up into a baby blue. Bruce struggled out of the car, leaving the driver to wait on the curb outside the cemetery. It was an empty scene. Rows and rows of headstones sat under a canopy of trees with no people to visit. The graveyard resided in a more rural area of the city, so the memorial area was quiet besides the occasional squawking of birds and the wind rustling the autumn-kissed leaves.

Bruce stepped onto the damp, all-too-familiar grassy path leading to the headstones of his late parents. 

Their monuments were big and overly fancy. The cleaner Alfred hired twenty-six years ago still came every month to polish and clean the headstones. In honor of the Wayne's, a bench sat on the side of the stones, so Bruce sat there, idly taking in the silence. 

Breathe in, breathe out.

Speaking in a tranquil but emotional voice, Bruce began to talk to the air, confessing how he missed them, his beloved mother and father. 

"...and that's why I came. I just needed to talk. I needed to be in your presence again. I believe Alfred still cries over you, Father. He acts strong, as you taught, but deep down, he's like me: broken."

"I wish I could be fully capable of feeling, but all I think about is the injustice and monstrous side of the city. The city that took you two away."

Bruce stared at the ground, trying to focus on the words he was saying when a leaf crunching from behind alerted him to whip around. 

A woman, maybe five foot, stood behind him, wide-eyed and embarrassed. 

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you..." she caught her breath, most likely at the realization of who she was talking to, but regained her train of thought. "My mother... her grave is just behind them," she explained, gesturing to a headstone behind the Wayne's. 

Heather Lycona. 

Bruce resorted to nodding in reply. The woman approached closer to the headstone but stopped, clearly wanting to say something the way her mouth opened and closed. Bruce cocked a brow. He decided to attempt to be conversive. "How?" he nodded his head at her mother's gravestone.

"What?"

"How did she pass?" he tilted his head. She clutched the ends of the scarf she was wearing, a shade of black to contrast the white dress under her jet puffer coat. 

"Oh, um, gang violence. Three months ago, Mom was out at night just trying to get groceries, and, she um..."

Bruce nodded in indication he understood. "Mine as well."

"I know- I mean, I know the story, of course," she awkwardly laughed as a buffer. She looked around and then back at Bruce sitting on the bench. "I'm sorry for intruding on your moment. I-I can come back later."

Bruce shook his head wordlessly. "No, that won't be necessary. I did what I came here to do," he answered raspily. 

"May I sit?" 

Bruce didn't expect the woman to want to be in his presence any longer, yet he wasn't against her sitting with him. Her eyes could tell a story, one that he wanted to hear. His eyes traveled to the open space beside him, barely nodding at it. 

She sat down on the wooden bench, breathing in the mossy air. "There's something about the cemetery that's so peaceful. Everyone says it's scary because it's the resting place for hundreds of people, but I believe it's just a reminder of all the lives that came before us. Everyone is just asleep here, and we sit with them."

Usually, Bruce wouldn't be a fan of the conversation, yet he decided that she was intriguing, a type of thoughtfulness he appreciated. 

He hummed at her words. "Bruce Wayne," he introduced even though she knew very well who he was, leaning back into the bench. 

"Y/N Lycona." 

"Why did you visit today?"

"Sometimes I just enjoy being around her. It's peaceful here."

"I understand."

"What about you? Why did you visit, Mr. Wayne?"

He glanced at her before looking back to the swaying tree branches. "Same as you," he breathed out. He wasn't sure why she was asking him. Not that Bruce believed he was too good to answer questions, but because he'd assume she wouldn't be interested in him. Usually, people were interested in his position. 

"Do you ever feel they were the only people who understood you? I feel like that with Mom."

Bruce nodded, barely moved his gaze to her, then studied her with his signature deadpan expression. Bruce picked up once again on what he'd thought earlier. Y/N seemed warm, like in the right situation, she'd open up. She probably thought a lot. The woman stared off at the trees like he'd been earlier, looking deep in thought. 

"Your mind... is it always running?" 

She quietly sniffled in the chilled air. "Yes. I got approved for the investigative division of the GCPD. I want to help find and eliminate the gangs of Gotham. I don't know what my mother would've wanted me to do for her case, but I know she wanted me to help bring justice to the city. She got me through school for criminal justice. It's what I wanted to do from the start, but it was for the sake of others. Now, it's all for her- for her justice."

"You seem very driven, detective. I hope you do what you set out to do," Bruce stated. 

"If I can contribute to bringing criminals and killers to prison, I'll do what I must. I can't just watch someone turn into the next Heather. Gotham needs change." 

For the first time in a while, Bruce's lips slightly twisted up. "Then we are very alike." 

The two sat in comfortable silence for ten minutes, occasionally making small comments. 

Bruce decided he'd stayed his welcome, opting to stand up suddenly. He nodded down at Y/N. "I give you my best wishes on your assignment. I'll be using my resources to continue assisting the work," he said, his tone void of emotion, but they could both tell he meant it. 

"Good to talk to you, Mr. Wayne."

"Bruce is fine," he mumbled audibly, turning to leave. 

"Thank you for understanding. You don't say much," Y/N chuckled, "but I could tell you understood me."

Bruce gave a close-mouthed smirk, walked out the gates, and got in his car. 

"Thank you for your patience, Gerald."

The driver nodded and drove the pair back to the manor. 

Bruce came out of his visit knowing two things: 

First, he'd have to visit the cemetery more often. 

And second, as soon as he could get back his vigilante work, he would thwart every gang he could get his hands on. If it would help fulfill Y/N's goal, he'd devote all his energy to it. 

[bluesylveon2]

omg, can I request number 13 with sebek please?????

I did it anon! I wrote this! The ending could be better but I think this turned out good. This prompt really fit Sebek too lol

Prompt: 13. We make contact before trying to steal the last seat on the subway/bus/train and I end up in your lap and fuck you, I’m going to stay here because I’ve had a really long day and this seat was mine

Note: Modern au and aged up characters

Word Count: 1691

Warnings: not beta read, possible OOC characters (Sebek is an asshole at first), and an attempt at writing subways (I based it off NYC)

500 Follower Event

Yuu was having a not-so-good, horrible, very bad day.

It had all started when she had slept past her alarm and woke up to Grim, the recent cat she adopted, making her sofa a scratching post. Then, after running out of her house with a white blouse, a skirt, heels, and a cup of coffee in her hand, she magically ran into someone, spilling coffee on her clothes. 

The person apologized, but Yuu wanted to scream. She only had 5 minutes left until her shift at the office started, and she did not want her boss or coworkers to get on her about it. 

(There was a redhead in the IT department who was strict and infamous for lecturing a coworker who was late by two seconds). 

It was a stroke of luck that Yuu made it on time. Everyone was too busy to notice her arrival except for Vil, who gasped at Yuu's current state. Luckily for her, he had a blouse and a skirt that he lent her (but not before giving her a lecture about her appearance). 

The rest of her shift was boring after that. Yuu quietly sat in her cubicle while the chaos happened around her. It was a typical day, to say the least, until her boss, Dire Crowley, showed up with a mountain of paperwork and wanted it done by the end of the day because he was oh-so kind. It reminded her of the infamous trio in Accounting and Finance, who she was 100% certain were in the mafia. And so, Yuu left her job with a massive headache, a plastic bag with the company label of her soiled clothes, and a list of how to get revenge on her boss. The poor girl was working like Cinderella, and she only wanted to sleep while cuddling Grim.

Yuu made her way toward the train station and mindlessly went to her stop. Yuu could not hold back her yawn as the subway appeared. She tiredly followed behind the crowd into the train, letting her feet guide her inside. It was partially full, and luckily, only a few people entered with her. Her eyes landed on the spot near the door, perfect for her to sit and decompress. 

Yuu only took two steps towards the seat when suddenly, a man with slicked back light green hair, yellow-green eyes, and the strangest green and black outfit she had seen sat down in HER seat. Now slightly awake but more annoyed, Yuu marched toward him. 

"Excuse me, sir. That is my seat."

The man looked her up and down at her appearance, and his lips curled up in disgust like she offended him. "It is clear that I saw this seat and sat down first. Therefore, it is my seat."

Yuu huffed and wanted to say some not-so-nice words to him, but some children were around her. She chose to look down at his stupid-colored eyes with determination. "Look, mister. Don't you know the saying 'ladies first?'"

The man scoffed, "Of course I do. Do you think I was raised like a barbarian?" He said and eyed the plastic bag in her hands. "Unlike some people. Besides, I must be in top shape after spending all day protecting my Master."

Yuu stared at him like he was a crazy person. "You- jjsndgondvisjdf" She could not form words and chose to say sounds instead. One parent covered her child's ears. 

"Do you not know who I am?"

Yuu stopped her rambling and looked at him. "I don't know and I don't care. If you don't move, then I have no choice."

The man's eyebrows furrowed, "What are you? HEY!" He yelled, causing some people nearby to silence him. Meanwhile, the girl on his lap made herself comfortable. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting," She said like it was obvious. She turned her head to look into his eyes; a frown etched on her face. "Look, I had a tiring day today too, but I need to sit down after a long day at work."

The man blushed at the close proximity and looked away. His face was slightly red, and a pang of guilt filled his chest. "I'm sorry for being rude to you. I was unaware."

Yuu waved him off, "It's alright. You didn't know." She suddenly yawned and rested her head against his chest. She could feel how fast his heartbeat was going but was too exhausted to ask why. She felt like she was covered in a blanket. "You can just chill until it’s your stop. I'll get up when it is my stop."

The man looked at her curiously, "Where is your stop?"

Yuu yawned again. Her eyes felt heavy. "Ramshackle Street," she replied, her eyes getting starting to close. "You are so warm and comfortable," she said absentmindedly, wrapping her arms around his torso. 

"Hey! What are you?" Sebek stopped talking and stared at Yuu's sleeping face. He moved his arm to shake her awake but stopped. He could see how exhausted she was by looking at the eye bags under her eyes and how she managed to sleep so quickly. It reminded him of Silver, but slower by two seconds.

Speaking of, Sebek's suddenly rang, and his friend's name was on the caller ID. 

"Hello?"

"Ah! Sebek! There you are! We were looking for you. Where are you right now?" His other Master and Silver's adoptive father, Lilia's voice, replied. "My phone died, so I must use Silver's khee hee."

"Father, that's because you misplaced your charger." Silver's voice called out. 

Lilia laughed. “Silly me!”

Sebek rolled his eyes, “Is the Young Master safe?” 

Lilia huffed. “Malleus is next to me, eating some ice cream. You know how he is, but we have a more important matter to discuss. Where are you now? The city must be so big for you to accidentally wander off."

Sebek sighed. He should have been more diligent and kept sight of Malleus (the tallest person he knew) or Lilia, but he didn’t. And now he was stuck on a train with a random girl sleeping on his lap. 

It was like the girl knew he was thinking about her because she mumbled something about 'that damn Crowley' and was loud enough to be heard by Lilia.

"What was that?"

Sebek scrambled to say something, "I apologize, Master Lilia! I am taking a train that will stop in the Diasomnia area, but I might be delayed. You see, there is this girl-"

"A GIRL?!?" Lilia exclaimed, "Why didn't you say that earlier? Is she your girlfriend? Did you meet online and finally get to meet in person? Am I finally getting grandchildren???"

Sebek could tell that Silver was rolling his eyes at the last part. "No, Master Lilia. She was exhausted from her work and ran into me on the subway. She is taking a nap right now."

"Oh, crumbs," Lilia sighed dramatically. "I thought I would finally experience what it is like being a grandpa. You know I am not getting any younger."

"We know." Silver and Sebek said at the same time. 

"Well, make sure that the girl gets home safely, Sebek. Do you know where her stop is?"

"Ramshackle Street."

"Perfect!" Lilia exclaimed. "It is actually nearby Diasomnia, so we can meet you there. Malleus has always wanted to explore it anyways. It is known for its historic mansions, you know. Make sure to send your location or call Silver so we can find you."

Sebek nodded and adjusted Yuu by securely wrapping an arm around her so she did not fall off his lap. "Understood. It should be one of the upcoming stops, so I should be there soon."

"Good. See you soon, Sebek!" Lilia said and hung up. Sebek pocketed his phone and looked down at the sleeping Yuu. She looked peaceful, and she was breathing quietly. However, she did look cold, and her thin long sleeve did not look like it was enough. Sebek took off his coat, leaving him in his white shirt and tie (it surprised him just how he did it, given the complex design), and wrapped it around Yuu's body. He wrapped his arms protectively around her again and sighed. 

"Next stop is Ramshackle Station. Stand clear of the closed doors, please," the intercom's voice called out. 

Sebek gently shook Yuu's shoulder. "Hey, you need to wake up. Your stop is coming up."

Yuu slowly opened her eyes and looked around her surroundings. "Huh?" Her eyes landed on Sebek's face. "Oh, right. I took a nap on you. Let me get out of your way." She moved to stand up but was stopped by Sebek holding onto her hand. 

"You have a few minutes until the train stops. You can stay until then..." His voice trailed off. 

Yuu chuckled, her laugh sounding like music to Sebek. "Where are my manners? I'm Yuu." she smiled, causing Sebek's heart to skip a beat. 

"I'm Sebek Zigvolt." Yuu's smile grew even wider as she clung to Sebek's coat. Realizing the unfamiliar fabric, she looked down in shock.

"Is this yours? Here, let me return it-" She began to take it off only to stop when Sebek shook his head. 

"Keep it. Besides, you can wear it even longer if you allow me to walk you home."

Sebek expected her to say yes, not jump on him, and wrap her arms around his neck. "Yes! Thank you, Sebek!" She grinned. Maybe her day was finally getting better after all.

Bonus: Sometime during the walk back to Yuu's house. 

"You know, this fabric seems pretty fancy. Are you a bodyguard or something?" Yuu asked while rubbing Sebek’s coat between her fingers. 

Sebek nodded and smiled proudly. "Yes, I am. In fact, you might meet my masters when I drop you off."

Yuu's eyes widen. "Really? They must be important people for you to call them that."

"Of course! It is none other than the great Malleus Draconia! He is so great and powerful-"

Yuu sweatdropped as Sebek went on a rant about Malleus when all she wanted to do was to go home. 

Disclaimer: I do not own Twisted Wonderland and its characters. Those belong to Aniplex, Walt Disney Japan, and Yana Toboso.

©: This story belongs to bluesylveon2 2020-23. DO NOT modify, republish, or plagiarize my work.

[alaydabug2]

Tag list: @sparklenarniawizard @imobsessed123 @thoughtlescat @ilikebookssomuch

Broken heart/Broken mind

Chapter Sixty-two

(Human AU)

Sophie and Keefe met in the children's hospital when they were little. Because of how long they were confined to the four walls of the hospital, they became very close during their stay.

As the years pass, they wind up being in the same classroom together due to their physical conditions. This makes their bond deepen.

But are they able to handle when life gets tough, throwing problems and complications their way?

Sophie collapsed into the waiting room chair. She pulled out her blanket she brought and started to get herself comfortable.

Ro took the seat next to her with a sigh. She rubbed the center of her forehead.

"I'm taking a nap," she decided. "I've been up for too long."

Sophie decided that was a good idea. She curled her knees into her chest, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make herself get drowsy. It was still dark out, but her anxiety kept her awake.

If she couldn't fall asleep, she took the next best thing. She pulled the covers up over her head and pretended that nothing else existed.

She wasn't sure how long she had stayed like that for, but when she didn't come back to the rest of the world until Ro's voice said, "I'm getting a coffee from the Starbucks down the street, Blondie. Wanna come with me?"

Sophie wiggled out of the covers, taking in a breath of fresh air. "Yeah, I'll go."

The drive there was painfully silent. They ended up stuck behind a car for ten minutes.

With the wait, Sophie asked, "How long will the surgery take?"

Ro pondered it for a moment. "Usually takes about eight hours without complications or anything unexpected."

"And if there are?"

"Could be a good while longer. I'm thinking it'll probably take nine hours, but it should go fairly smooth."

She glanced at the clock. It was eight am. Surgery had only been in for around an hour. It was going to be an extremely long day.

They made it back to the waiting room. Sophie decided to pull out her book and start reading. When lunch came around, her and Ro went downstairs to the Subway.

"Think he'll want a cookie when he wakes up?" Ro mused, staring at the baked goods.

Sophie shrugged. "Can always save it for later if he doesn't."

"Good point."

They sat down at one of the tables with their sandwiches. After a few minutes of eating in silence, Ro said, "I'm planning on moving back home."

That took Sophie by surprise. "Really? How come?"

She shrugged. "I just... wanna keep a better eye on Keefe. Especially while he's recovering. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to him and I could've been there to prevent it. Already talked to Bo about it. He figured it's a good enough excuse for his parents to accept it."

"How long do you plan to stay for?"

"Not quite sure yet. At least a few months."

Eventually, Sophie wasn't able to force any more of her food down. Her stomach was sloshy with her unspoken worries.

The two of them went back upstairs soon after. Sophie decided to give another attempt at sleeping.

It wasn't long after when a nurse had come into the room. Sophie was puzzled. It was only twelve thirty.

"Family of Keefe Sencen?" She said.

Ro raised her hand. "Yes? We're here."

The nurse turned in their direction, crossing the patterned carpet.

"Hello, my name is Livvy." She held a hand out. Ro shook it. "I wanted to inform you on your... son?"

"Brother," Ro corrected. "Fourteen years apart."

"Ah, sorry about that. Anyway, I wanted to give you an update on how surgery has been going so far. It's been more complicated than we were expecting." Sophie's heart dropped. "He's been bleeding more than anticipated. Needed a blood transfusion. He also flat lined on us for a moment a couple of times. Don't worry, we were able to get him back, but be prepared for waiting longer than originally anticipated."

The nurse turned to leave. Sophie tugged at her eyelashes. The thought of Keefe flat lining, made her lunch want to come back up. Tears burned her eyes.

Ro grabbed her hand. "Hey. He's alright now. They're taking care of him."

"I know," Sophie whispered.

"I heard what you told him before he went back earlier." Sophie froze. She hadn't meant for anyone else to hear that. "And I know you're worried, I am too. But he's made it this far. He won't go that easily."

She nodded.

Not much was spoken the next several hours. When Livvy came back to say they could come see Keefe, the surgery had taken close to twelve hours.

Keefe was still extremely drowsy when they were let back into his room. Sophie cringed when she saw the tube down his throat. The good news, however, was that he was awake and responsive.

Sophie hung back while Ro went to go see her brother. The nurses were working on him. When they were about to remove the tube, she came next to the bed. They started taking out a few of the IVs he had, one being in his neck.

One of the nurses loomed over him. "Can you tell me your name?"

He swallowed. "Keefe... Sencen," his voice was just above a rasp.

"Good job!"

A time later, the nurses finally dissipated, only checking in periodically. Sophie sat by his beside, massaging his scalp and holding his hand. Ro was running her hand up and down his arm.

Keefe reached out, trying to grab something. He whimpered a bit. Ro followed to where he was looking at.

"Water?" She guessed.

He nodded. She took the water and brought it down to his level. He drank it through the straw for a few moments before letting Ro take it back.

"I got a cookie for you earlier," she told him. "You want it yet?"

He shook his head.

After a while, he fell back asleep. Sophie curled up on the chair, trying her best to get comfortable.

"Do you want the pull out couch?" Ro offered. "I can sleep in the chair if you don't want to."

"I'm good," she assured.

Sophie pulled out Ella the elephant. She gazed down at her boyfriend. Her pulse felt like it was finally calming down now that she knew he made it through. The beeps of the heart monitor eventually lulled her to sleep.

[aleksa-sims]

RL Story

N. & I have moved. Actually, we still had 6 weeks before we had to leave his apartment, but moving so shortly before delivery, would have been too stressful. That’s why we're already here, at his Mom's new place. Now we have at least a few weeks to settle in, before our Baby comes.

While N. was busy bringing our things into the house and set up our bed, I was not allowed to help him. So I went for a walk with N.’s dog, to take a closer look at the area. It was beautiful here, a quiet place. I felt like I was somewhere far away. In RL there was a lake, not far from the house. I was wondering how N’s Mom and her partner could afford a house in such a nice area? Just around the corner there was a bus stop. This bus goes directly to subway. And once you are at the subway, you can get anywhere within minutes. This was very important to me.

For almost two hours N.'s dog & I were wandering around. Our dog didn’t seem to be doing well? He was tired and sometimes just stopped, which was very unusual. I sat down with him somewhere at a bench. As soon as we took a break, he was fine again. Nevertheless, something was wrong with our dog....

Back in the house, N.’s dog went right to his food bowl. I was relieved, he was just hungry, I thought. Anyway, I went up to N., to see how far he was done with our bedroom.

Up in the hallway, I looked around a little... These old oil paintings on the walls, reminded me of my grandparents' house. Somehow creepy, yk? I hope it's gonna look more cozy here, once everything's done. If not, Nico won’t have it easy with me here at night. I can get pretty jumpy in such old houses like this one. But tonight we have dinner together with N.’s Mom and her partner. I have some questions about the house. Why did N.’s Mom even want to move here? She was planning to buy an apartment, but now she's back in a house. An, old house with an... old man. 😬 Her new partner's 56. (10 years older than her.) I didn’t really know him that well, but Nico said he was nice. And my parents knew him too. Two years ago, when Nico and I were (still) together, my parents celebrated New Year’s Eve with Philip's parents and N's Mom and her new boyfriend. My Mom & Dad got along well with him. Well, let’s see...

Previous/Next

[zprites]

April TMNT All 4-1!

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING! I WROTE ABOUT BLUE OMGOMGOMG lol - Honestly had such a hard time with writing this month's prompt, hence why it didn't come out sooner... I kept losing concentration while writing buuuttt I think that's my mental illness talking. Plus the new Dragon Age playthrough I started, shhhh lol.

Apologizes in advance if it's kinda lacking 😭

The Lovely Hosts - @thelaundrybitch, @post-apocalyptic-daydream, @leosgirl82, and @turtle-babe83!

Prompt - “What are you doing in my bed?”

Rise! Leo x GN! Reader and SFW -- Characters are in their 20s! Enjoy!!

Taglist: @turtle-babe83, @manduse, @morning-sun-brah, @crazysarah-98, @pacoholin, @iamdefinitelytheratking

Close Your Eyes, I Got You Now

Close your eyes I got you now Fall into me, and I'll catch you darlin'... Fall Into Me - Forest Blakk

It started off like any other day for you - your alarm blaring after you hit snooze several times too many, tripping over that damned rug in your bathroom you always swore you’d replace if it happened again (which it always did), speeding out the door after hastily pulling yourself together with nothing in your stomach besides a few sips of coffee you’d managed before you cursed at the time. You moved seamlessly through the crowd of New Yorkers as each one made their way to their destinations. The nearby subway station was packed as usual yet you were able to squeeze your way onto the last train that would allow you to make it to your job just in time for your shift. 

After five stops you stepped out of the car and briskly walked toward the stairs leading up to the streets above, taking two at a time. A quick glance at your phone showed that you would make it on time with only seconds to spare. 

However you ended up misjudging the amount of steps left until you reached the landing causing your feet to blunder beneath you. Your hand clamped around the metal railing that was thankfully beside you, allowing you to catch yourself before you got a mouthful of concrete. Unfortunately at the same time the person behind you bumped into your body, their coffee (iced, thankfully) spilling over your form. Instead of apologizing for their lack of attention to the world around them, they shouted obscenities at you for a moment before rushing past you, nose going back into their phone within seconds as they blended into the sea of people.

You arrived at work five minutes late. Your boss took one look at the liquid dripping from your hair and work uniform and ushered you into the bathroom for you to clean yourself up. Thankfully your uniform was dark colored though your hair remained sticky and grimy, the scent of coffee lingering on you throughout the entirety of your shift. Your coworkers did little to help your evergrowing foul mood, one of them being particularly inept for one reason or another, leaving you to deal with the brunt of customer scrutiny. To top it all off, a particular encounter with an elderly woman who wanted to return merchandise they purchased over a year ago with no receipt had you at your absolute limit. 

And it wasn’t even noon.

You were so fucking done with the day…

After clocking out you made the trek back to your apartment, wanting nothing more than to take a nice long shower and enjoy the comfort of your home in solitude. You had nothing planned and you were so, so ready to veg out in your bed with nothing but a glass of wine and the cast of The Office for company. 

You let out a sigh of relief once you stepped through your front door, kicking off your shoes with dramatic flair as you locked the door behind you. A yawn escaped you as your sock-clad feet padded lightly against the wooden flooring as you moseyed over to your bedroom. 

“Sweetie! You’re finally home!”

You stopped dead in your tracks and groaned a bit on the inside when you took in the scene before you. Your boyfriend, who you noticed was wearing only a pair of joggers, was laying on your bed though upon seeing you he instantly sat up, beaming at you as his dark eyes shone with glee. 

While this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and normally a welcome one at that, today was different. When you didn’t want to deal with anyone for the remainder of the day, you meant it. This included your loving, handsome turtle mutant boyfriend. 

You blinked a few times at him as the frustration that had been building up inside you threatened to boil over. A moment passed as you struggled to say something that wouldn’t come across as completely rude - you didn’t want to take your foul mood out on him. 

“What are you doing in my bed?”

As soon as the words left your mouth you cringed inwardly, slapping a palm to your forehead in your mind at your choice in words. The way you said them wasn’t any better if you were to be honest. Your voice asked the question with a tautness you had hoped wouldn’t upset him. 

It didn’t. Leonardo kept his smile plastered on his face as he began speaking.

“Well after you texted me during your lunch break, I thought it would be nice to surprise you.”

You frowned a bit. Did you text him? You couldn’t remember…

Which only frustrated you further. On top of your evergrowing irritation, you didn’t even realize you had texted your boyfriend to complain about the world that seemingly had it out for you from the moment you woke up.

“- wanted to cheer you up! I just placed an order for take-out from that chinese place you love a few minutes ago and…”

And here he was. 

The overwhelming feeling that you didn’t deserve him hit you like a ton of bricks in that moment.

“- watch whatever you want while I rub your feet… Hey, why are you crying?”

You were crying?

You brought a hand to cheek and felt the saltwater trail from where a single tear had escaped from the moisture that had accumulated in your eyes. A dam broke and you began sobbing in earnest, letting out all of the stress and annoyance that had built up over the day in a matter of seconds. 

“Hey now… C'mere." Leo soothed as he took your hands in his, gently pulling you closer to him. You let him, allowing him to maneuver you so that you were sitting on his lap sideways, head tucked into his neck as your shoulders shook. 

The two of you stayed that way for several minutes until you felt yourself eventually calm down, your eyes no longer producing tears as your crying had seemed to run its course. Leo held you firmly against his plastron, rubbing circles across your back to comfort you. 

“I’m sorry…” You got out past a sniffle. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” He spoke barely above a whisper. 

You let out a shaky sigh. “It’s just - today sucked. I was so happy to be home and have some much needed alone time, to decompress and forget about all the bullshit I had to deal with. I guess when I saw you here, I got even more upset, which is silly because I know you only want to help… I don’t know…” You trailed off. It was true, you felt extremely silly for the way you had reacted. 

“It’s okay, I understand. If I had known you wanted to be alone I wouldn’t have shown up unannounced like this.” 

You felt bad. Now that he was here, the idea of spending your evening with him sounded more favorable than spending it by yourself. You just wish you hadn’t broken down to the extent that you did. 

“I can go, if you still want to be left alone…” Leo offered with a hint of dejection laced in his words that would have been missed by most people. But not to you.

“No no no.” You lifted your head up to meet his gaze. “Stay, please.”

He smiled down at you, bringing a hand to wipe away the streaks on your cheeks. “Alright.”

The evening passed by slowly. Leo catered to your every need, insisting that you relaxed as he drew you a bath after the two of you had eaten. Once in bed he held good on his promise to massage your feet as the two of you laughed over several episodes of The Office. Eventually you started dozing off, your head rested on his shoulder as it became increasingly difficult for your eyes to stay open. You felt his lips press a kiss to your forehead as one final thought passed through your mind before sleep overtook you.

You knew that you could always count on him to turn even your shittiest of days into a good one. 

[freyanistics]

Fiery flames 🔥 (part 1)

Wally (human) x dragon!reader

Part two here

Thousands of years ago dragons ruled the skies. With their terrible fiery breaths and intelligence they were seen as the biggest threat to mankind. But as the years pass and the world changed dragons started to disappear one by one from the war between them and humans. Nowadays they are simply deemed a fantasy in storybooks. But you are still alive. Sure you might have to stick to your human form and adapt to modern life but the large scaly beast was still active inside of you, waiting to break free.

You lived in an apartment complex in the lesser side of the city, where crime was a bit more prominent, your typical robbers and car jackers. No one dared to bother you so you were never worried of waking up with your stuff stolen or getting mugged off the street. The reason you moved here was because it was much more interesting than surrounding yourself around pompous idiots in the white collar district. You also had made a couple of friends in the complex including a young mother with two young children that you babysit every Friday night and an widow who always told nice stories.

It took awhile to adjust to your new mundane life. You missed the times when you were a large liege seizing havoc upon knights and hoarding your prized possessions but that didn’t mean you couldn’t entertain yourself. At night you would fly through the dark skies over the city looking down at the light up buildings just like the old times.

This particular morning you woke up around six am getting up and ready for work at your new job. You was a camera person for this live set children’s show called ‘Welcome Home’. If you had to pick it reminded you a bit of Mister Rogers and Sesame Street. There were live actors that would dress up as these characters and do your typical lessons like being kind to one another and how to count to ten. You didn’t have no opinion on it since you wasn’t the targeted audience. After getting dress and shoving a toast in your mouth you rush out of the building to the train station taking the D train to the uptown area. While riding the train you looked down at your phone scrolling through your feed not paying anyone no mind, even when someone was singing loudly drunk.

After getting to the studio and clocking in you immediately got to work setting up the cameras. The other workers rushed around preparing to record a few episodes while the actors got ready. You’ve met all of them finding them kinda quirky but friendly folks, but your least favorite of them all was Wally. He was a weirdo to say the least. The ‘star’ of the show most would say and for good reason; he was funny, charming, and pretty outgoing to everyone who met him. A lot of the people around here and his fanbase found him attractive as well with his cocoa brown skin and dark blue dyed hair that was always put up in a pompodor. You however didn’t see the hype but then again humans didn’t really get you going, you only dated a handful in the past. On top of all of this he just had a weird vibe that you couldn’t exactly place, maybe because he had a bit of a staring problem that people overlooked.

After thirty minutes everything was put in place as you started to record. You sat there with the other camera people as the actors performed on the set. This particular episode featured Wally, Barnaby, and Howdy teaching kids about counting and adding. Wally was explaining how adding works while looking straight at your camera, but it felt like he was staring at you. There goes that weird feeling again but you quickly shook it off. Afterwards the break bell rings and you all stepped away to eat lunch. You pick up your subway sandwich sitting down between Poppy and Frank diving in hungrily, scarfing it down in less than ten minutes.

“Geez Y/N, you sure can eat!” Barnaby says teasingly from across the table. “That wasn’t even five minutes!”

“What can I say? I’m a growing person.” You respond patting your stomach causing the others to laugh.

“How about about an eating contest?” He challenge raising an eyebrow.

“You’re on big guy.” You smirk as Julie jumps up clapping her hands. “Me and Frank can be the judge!” Frank cuts his eyes over at the rest of you while holding up a book. “Why me? They’re going to just get themselves sick.” He shakes his head.

“Come on Frank, it’ll be fun.” Julie pleads as he sighs putting a bookmark in his book before closing it.

“Can I also judge?” A voice calls as all of you turn to the star of the show himself, Wally. While everyone lights up you couldn’t help a frown appearing. Great. Mister big shot was here.

“Sure Wally!” Julie was saying excitedly as she starts listing stuff they would need. You could feel his eyes boring into the side of your face as you tried not to look over at the blue haired man. Don’t make eye contact to give him any ideas. The bell rings signaling that lunch was over. As everyone disperse to go back to their places you felt a hand on your shoulder looking over to see it was Wally. He was staring at you so intensely that it felt like he was looking into your soul.

“Hello Y/N, how have you been?” He asks in that sickly sweet voice you loathed.

“I’ve been alright Wally.” You said putting your hands on your pockets. You both stared at one another in some type of staring contest. He was shorter than you, probably just above 5’1, so he was looking up at you. You wasn’t intimidated by this kid, in fact you was more annoyed by him than ever. What did he want? You couldn’t help but feel like he was hiding something.

“So did you needed something or did you just wanted to stare at my pretty face?” You said chuckling trying to break the tension. At your comment Wally grins flashing all of his teeth and you could have sworn his pupils got larger.

“I don’t mind either.” He said in a flirtatious tone causing you to double take. Was he…flirting with you? Just as you was about to say something he turns and strolls off casually, hands behind his back as he hummed the Welcome Home theme song.

God he was weird.

(This is a test to see if I can write Wally well! I know it says part one but I’m not sure if I’ll continue, if y’all like it and want more let me know!)

[biscuitblinkeu]

Cards and the Sony Handcam [3]

Park Chaeyoung x Fem!reader

Word count: 4111

A/n: The slow build up is killing me, and it’s probably killing you readers more since I didn’t even give y’all a summary… Why does the word count get bigger every chapter 🗿

Chapter not proofread yet

……………………………………………………………………

“You really like coffee, don’t you,” you muse, having watched Roseanne the moment she got her drink inhale the aroma like it was a lifeline; your lips quirked into a fond smile.

In fact, she had made a beeline towards the café table closest to the entrance where she sat and promptly fell into the cushioned chair with a heavy sigh, as though all the energy was draining from her body in that instant. She gave you her exact order as you offered to get it for her, and stayed slumped there while you got the drinks.

She takes a sip of her coffee, sighing contentedly. “Yes, but I like it even more when I actually need it.”

“Tiring day?”

She nods, “And it’s not even over yet. I might need an iced coffee to-go.”

“Or, you could take a nap. I don’t think that much coffee is healthy.” 

Roseanne gives you a look, as to say, ‘caffeine is what every college student functions on.’ She sighs, “I wish I could be able to, naps don’t exist for me.” 

“You can’t sleep?” You ask, and Roseanne confirms with a nod. “Have you tried melatonin? That usually helps me.”

“Yes I have, it doesn’t work.”

“You're an insomniac?”

“Afraid so,” she says. You talk a little more. And despite being insomniac, she still gets that iced coffee. (And as she’s walking out of the café with it, she thinks everyone makes poor choices every once in a while. In hindsight, she shouldn’t be drinking another cup.)

You and Roseanne went your separate ways for now, as you would see eachother again in a few hours when you were moving in. Lisa had committed to the task of helping you move your things from your current room to Roseanne’s, along with the help of some of the Dance majors. 

“I’ll be out of your hair in less than an hour, so stop the whining, please.” You say, irritated. Your roommate has been nagging in your ear about all the garbage bags with your clothes, shoes, and other things all in front of the door. Krystal huffs in response, rolling her eyes and smacking her gum as she plugs her AirPod back into her ears. You wish it stayed in her ear and she would stop taking the thing out just to bitch about something else.

It's not long before a pattern of knocks sound at your door; a familiar series of taps and you open your door to Lisa, Hyunjin, and Yeji. 

“Hey!” Lisa greets, hugging you briefly before sliding past you as she whispers, “Ready to get out of this hellhole?” You make a dramatic roll of your eyes before looking at the man and woman in front of you, smiling mischievously. “How are my favorite twins?” Simultaneously, they groan and start a rant about how they only look similar and have the same last name but aren’t related in any way.

You laugh, letting them in and they make quick work of taking the bags and items you had lined by the doorway and putting them into a cart provided by the University. All your stuff is in the cart in fourty or so minutes, and you’re given a half-assed goodbye from Krystal as the door shuts behind you with a click.

“Thank you all for helping,” you say, trailing behind the Hwangs who push the cart, Lisa at your side.

“It’s no problem,” the Hwangs voiced at the same time. 

“Why do you keep copying me?” Yeji, whined. 

“I’m not!” Hyunjin shouted, irritated that they’re not really fighting the stereotype of twins. You and Lisa laughed, watching them babble on.

Lisa nudged you in the side, “Roseanne’s dorm is near the English Arts building, and it’s on one of the higher floors so we have to take the elevator.” Lisa tells you as you turn another hallway.

“That’s pretty convenient for her then, being next to the building most of her classes are all in. I usually have to take a short subway trip or walk across campus.”

“I know right? But if you think about it, after you move in, you won’t have to go out of your way for transportation since the Arts buildings are close together.” You hum.

After wheeling the cart through multiple hallways, walking across parking lots, and through a few doors you were in Roseanne’s residence hall. Like Lisa informed, you did have to take an elevator to the higher floors. When you got out on the fourth floor, you all walked along the numerous doors till you reached the end of the hallway.

It was one door, with no others adjacent to it, confirming that Roseanne had one of the bigger dorms. The bigger dorms were available for the top students who got in with their academics or accomplishments, the university even held raffles for the nicer dorms whenever a spot opened to the general population of students. (In short, if you were smart you had a higher chance of getting a bigger dorm.)

You and the two Hwangs jumped when Lisa started knocking very aggressively on Roseanne’s door. It was a succession of sharp blows, slaps, and thunks. The door was thrown open a few moments later by an agitated Roseanne. A few hairs were out of place and she looked very humorless, staring at Lisa with narrowed eyes and a tight smile. 

“You totally ran all the way here,” Lisa stated, pointing a finger at Roseanne as a sly smile painted her lips. The blonde huffed, eyes drifting to the cart behind Lisa, to you, and then back to Lisa lazily. 

“Yes, I ran. But do you have to do that every time?” She grumbled. Lisa grinned widely, nodding her head. She turned around and gestured to you. “Ready to have a new roomie?” 

Roseanne smiled before nodding her head in the direction of the room and said, “I am. Come on then.”

Upon walking in, you observed, if anything, that your university definitely had a large portion of its budget go into the dorms. Roseanne’s dorm was very nice, almost the size of a small apartment or studio. And that’s not to say your previous dorm wasn’t nice, because it was, but right off the bat there were significant differences between yours and Roseanne’s.

Her dorm was like a suite, it was very clean and minimal. She had enough space for a small living room, and across from that there was a small kitchen, which she had extra appliances and things. There was a hallway, with a room on each side and at the beginning of it, a bathroom. 

Roseanne led you to what would be your bedroom. “Here it is, there’s a closet over there, and then you can decide if you want to move that dresser or not…” she informed. “Let me know if you need any help, but I’ll be in my room doing assignments.” 

“Thanks, Roseanne.” You tell her as she disappears into her room and you enter your own room, taking in its appearance. It was smaller than your shared dorm room with Krystal obviously; it had a bed (no sheets or anything), the dresser Roseanne spoke about before she left, and a closet. it was perfect, though, because you had your own space.

(Little did you know that that “own space” of yours would be almost nonexistent in the untold future.)

It was a team effort taking your stuff out the cart, out the bags and into its respective spot. You decided to use the dresser still in the room as you had a lot of clothes. You helped with the lightweight things and planned to help with your heavy items like your I-Mac and clothing bags, but got shooed away. Now you’ve just been observing. (Observing the rippling arm muscles and hard earned bodies of the dancers, that is.)

“Are you okay?” Lisa approaches with a laugh, eyeing you. She’s detected your perverse notions, you thought, that’s the reason she came over here. You pull your bottom lip from where it was caught between your teeth and look away from the dancers, smiling at Lisa innocently. “Just fine, but I can’t get over how attractive they are, like, it should be a sin.”

Lisa gasps, “Am I included? You know I’m the hottest, right?”

(I’m the hottest, okay?)

“Yes, you too,” you roll your eyes playfully, poking her in the rib. Half an hour later, they finished up and you were walking them out the door. You smiled at them. “Thank you guys so much, I appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

“Of course.”

“See you soon,” Lisa said last, walking with the twins down the hallway. You closed the door with a sigh. What to do now?

…

Roseanne has left you to your devices for a few hours, and you’ve been somewhat quiet, so she flinches when she hears a knock on her door.

On the other hand, you, having reached the point of borderline boredom, caved in and decided to bother your new roommate. You had shuffled down the hallway to her open door and stood in her door frame, dressed similar to earlier except now wearing a baggy tee. “Hey, wanna watch a movie?”

Roseanne looks at the mess of papers in front of her, then back to you. “Sure, I could use a break.” 

It’s funny that you fell asleep during the movie despite being the one that asked to watch it. Roseanne can’t even watch it though because your snores are snatching her attention from the movie every few seconds.

She bites the inside of her cheek, deciding to lightly tap on your shoulder. “(Y/n), hey, you’re snoring and I can’t hear the movie.” 

You turn your head slightly, eyes still closed. “Then turn it up…” you murmur, pulling the cover over your shoulder.

“So you can yell at me for waking you because of the volume?”

You huff, dragging yourself upwards and throwing her an unamused look. “You woke me up anyway, so I don’t think that matters.”

Roseanne hums to herself, looking to the clock on the wall before turning her gaze to you again. “You look tired, why don’t we call it a night? You can take a shower.”

“Yeah, sure, that’d be great.” You agreed tiredly, hoping that when you’re under the shower water you don’t fall asleep. You take a quick shower, change, and brush your teeth before waking down the hallway to your room. Roseanne’s door was open so you yelled goodnight before shutting your own. Once in your room, you plop onto your bed face first, burying your nose deep in the pillow. Sleep comes quickly.

…

beep! beep! beep!

beep! beep! beep!

Roseanne’s eyes snap open in alarm at the screeching sound. Her body stilled, and she waited maybe seven seconds before she allowed herself to calm down. She remembered now; she had a roommate; someone living with her, and just in the room a little ways down and across the hallway. 

beep! beep! beep!

She assumed that horrid noise was just your alarm going off— really loudly, at seven in the morning on a Sunday. Roseanne tossed around to lay on her stomach, pressing her pillow to her head. She screwed her eyes shut, planning to fall asleep again, knowing you’re probably awake now to turn it off.

“…”

beep! beep! beep!

Any second now, she tells herself, you’re going to turn it off.

beep! beep! beep!

“Are you serious…” Roseanne murmurs, sliding out of bed groggily. The beep!..beep!..beep! was harsh on her ears, as was the sunlight seeping through her half-open curtains. She runs a hand through her tangled hair, knowing if she were to come across a mirror it’d resemble a lion’s mane. Bedhead wasn’t kind to her, she liked to toss and turn in her sleep.

Roseanne shivered as she stepped into the hallway, the draft of the air conditioner creeping across her skin. She padded to your door, her pajama pants which were pooling at her feet slid against the carpet with each step. She knocked thrice, and when you didn’t answer she knocked twice before coming in, and just as she thought, you were still asleep, oblivious to your alarm going off and still dead to the world.

You weren’t even all the way on your bed, she noticed, you had one leg hanging over the side with one fuzzy sock on the foot outside of the covers, the other leg bent, and your arms sprawled out in different directions. 

She has to feel around your bed for your phone, and the task was harder than she’d like to admit. You would roll over and toss and turn, shifting your phone’s position multiple times or burying it underneath your back or covers. 

How can someone sleep like this? 

Finally, Roseanne managed to find the damn phone and turned off the annoying alarm. You mumbled something incoherently  before turning over in your bed. She put your cover back on you before leaving the room, deciding to “fake sleep” for a few more hours since she didn’t want to face the responsibilities of the day yet.

Unsurprisingly, you woke up half an hour later, completely aware you didn’t wake up with your timer. You yawned, stretching pleasurably before leaving the bedroom. It was quiet as a mouse, the only sounds coming from outside the dorm and the air conditioning. You tiptoed to the bathroom, failing miserably at washing your face and brushing your teeth quietly. 

You hung out in the living room after eating a few pieces of toast and fruit because you can’t cook. If you really think about it, you’ve been surviving off of simple meals, microwave food, takeout, and Lisa’s cooking. (That’s embarrassing.)

Roseanne enters the kitchen three hours later, toothbrush in mouth as she pulls out a carton of orange juice. She entered so silently you were startled when you finally noticed that she was awake. “Jesus!”

“Good morning?…” She says with confusion, voice muffled by her toothbrush.

“Good afternoon,” you say back. It was twelve-something past morning. She slept till the early afternoon. 

Later in the day, after lounging around the dorm with Roseanne you were called by Lisa, who said her, Jennie, and Jisoo were coming over. 

Due to this, you and Roseanne had to go grocery shopping for snacks and other things low in her fridge. You got the essentials: milk, bottled water, bread, cheeses, more fruits, etc. (You would both pay for the total by splitting it as it was more convenient.) Then it was time to conquer the snack aisle, and bicker you did; over Oreo flavors. 

“The original is the best kind, it’s a staple, it’s what everyone gets. Therefore—” 

“Therefore you should try new flavors. Look,” she pulled a few boxes off the shelves, “they have some new flavors, there’s swedish fish, mint, s’mores, rice crispy, red velvet, birthday cake. What about mint?”

You physically recoil and Roseanne gives you a weird look. “Out of all the flavors you just listed, you picked that one?”

“What’s wrong with this one?” With a frown she holds up the Mint Oreo box, genuinely confused.

“What’s wrong with it is that—”

“Ladies,” a man interrupts. The smile on his face looked so incredibly strained, almost like a stretched rubber band. It’s then you realize he’s been standing behind the two of you to get a Oreo box himself since you’ve taken up this section of the aisle. He wrings his hands together, eyeing the number of Oreo boxes you both hold, and through his teeth he says, “Why don’t you just get both?” 

“Oh.” Roseanne said dumly, heat creeping up her neck. She turns to you, “Well, let’s get both then.” You agree wordlessly, feeling mortified as well. 

After that experience, shopping for snacks was smooth sailing and you were out of the store in record time. You went back to your dorm and put everything in its respective places and Roseanne took care of the snack platters. 

And as she took care of the snacks— putting them in organized bowls and arrangements, you watched her with difficulty. She was color coding the candies; lining up the Oreos in rows; making sure no kernels fell in the bowl. When she shifted the charcuterie board’s position for the nth time, you flopped back onto the couch and let out a whine. “Roseanne, that’s the 6th time you’ve arranged it! I swear it looks fine.”

She gives you a withering look, not quite believing you, and her hands fidget at her sides for a moment more before she gives up, plopping into a chair. She only gets like this when she needs something to do. Never does she not have something to occupy her, and when she does it’s so incredibly difficult to relax.

You affirm that the board looks fine once more before unpausing the tv, though a shiver induced by the AC passes through you and you instinctively reach for the cover laying folded across the couch next to you. 

“That’s not a blanket,” Roseanne speaks up, making you pause and pull your hand back and look her way. “It’s not?” you question, staring at the soft checkered pattern.

“I mean, it is. But it’s not supposed to be used.”

You blink. “What’s the point of the blanket being on the couch if it can’t be used?”

“It’s for decoration, of course.”

You throw your arms back, amused but slightly exasperated. You’re cold!

“I’m joking,” she says. (She’s not. Its only real purpose was to sit there and look nice.) “You can use it.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

An obnoxious pattern of knocks sound at the door and you flinch. You’ve come to know that it was Lisa becuase of what you heard earlier. Roseanne gets up to answer the door.

You hear the voices of Lisa and Jennie along with a new voice and sit up, smiling as they walk in. “Hey guys,” you greet and they return. You tilt your head at the brunette. “Jisoo, I presume?”

“Yeah, it’s nice to finally meet you, (Y/n).” You just about say the same before falling into conversation with them.

“You won’t believe what we saw in the hallways on the way here— some guy was running around butt naked in desperate need of something to cover up. I bet he got locked out by some friends or something.” Lisa says, plopping down next to you. 

You grimace. “I would be mortified. I wouldn’t show my face ever again.” Roseanne scrunches her nose up, agreeing with you. “Well, now that we’re all here let’s eat snacks and play some games. And by games I mean Poker and whatever else I have.”

You’re all seated around the glass coffee table in front of the couches, snack bowls at one end of the table up for grabs anytime and cards laid in front of you. You’ve dragged a beanbag chair into the room and occupied it. Lisa and Rosé sit adjacent to you on opposite sides of each other and Jennie and Jisoo sit with their legs criss-crossed on the other end.

Uno turns out to be a disaster. Everyone was making up their own rules and confusing the reverse and skip cards. Charades was the funniest thing you’ve ever witnessed. And Poker, it turns out, was fun. 

It turns out to be much easier to understand than you anticipated. Three cards are face up on the table, followed by another and the following, as explained by Roseanne. Jisoo and Lisa chime in with some pertinent facts and other oddball observations. A stack of plastic chips is placed in front of you when you demonstrate that you have a reasonable grasp and pledge to ask for assistance if necessary. They all promise you that betting is far more enjoyable. Lisa appears delighted that she won't run out of chips first. Lisa is quickly running out of chips and Jisoo and Roseanne have exhausted all of their chips, you all turn to look at the large stack in front of Jennie.

"Shark! She's a shark!" Lisa gripes, folding her arms and throwing her cards down on the table as she loses another hand.

"I haven't played before!" Jennie protests. "It's not exactly hard!"

"How are you winning then?" You whine, being in the same position as Jennie as a newbie. She’s a much better poker-newbie than you.

"How the hell do you do that?" Lisa asks exasperated.

"Math," Jennie says simply.

"Math?" Jisoo wonders aloud and Jennie turns to her.

"Yes, math. It's all a matter of probability. Isn't that how you do it?"

Your jaw has fallen to the floor, much like Lisa’s and Roseanne’s.

Jisoo looks at her with drawn brows. "Poker...and math?"

“Hah— you voluntarily do math outside of anything school related? I’m not surprised, smartass,” you say exasperated. Jennie is a law student after all, she was probably the smartest person in the room. Jennie laughs at your comment, quieting down when she feels a brush against her knee.

“That’s actually amazing to me Jen,” Jisoo says, smiling at the cat-eyed woman. “I really admire that about you, you know.” 

“It’s really nothing,” she replies, grinning sheepishly. At their prolonged eye contact, Jennie blushes, and just knowing the rosey color was blooming on her cheeks, she looked down, letting her hair fall like a curtain over her face. That grin of hers transformed into a wide and gummy smile.

“Another game?” Roseanne says, eying Jennie with mischief. Jennie looks up and meets her eyes and the mortified expression she made was comical to Roseanne. She wasn’t subtle at all, that was something Jennie knew— something everyone knew…except Jisoo.

 …

“Bye guys! This was fun, let’s do it again sometime.” You say sending off everyone.

After everyone leaves, you and Roseanne have the unanimous decision to clean up. It was a comfortable silence, you and her shuffling about with the low hum of her speaker’s music. You took the liberty of packing up the poker chips and cards into its box and clearing the table of any dishes. Roseanne was in the kitchen wiping down the counters and throwing away empty soda liters and takeout containers. 

After you fixed up the pillows and dragged the beanbag chairs back into the closet you met Roseanne in the kitchen. 

“Need some help?” You asked, eyeing the amount of dishes sitting in the bubbly water. You make a mental note to buy paper plates and cups.

“That would be nice. I could wash and rinse them and you could dry? Or vice-versa.”

“I’m cool with drying,” you say, moving around her to the other side. You leave out the part that you’re terrified of soggy food underneath your fingernails. It doesn’t look like she has any gloves either. You both begin the tasks then, and after she washed you dried the dishes she handed to you. Occasionally, your arms and elbows brushed together. 

You finished drying while Roseanne hopped in the shower. You were startled awake, having fallen asleep on the couch, by a tap on your shoulder. Your roommate gave you an apologetic smile. “You can get in now.”

You nod, dragging yourself up. This was why you weren’t a night owl. The drowsiness you felt at night was a crazy difference from how you were at the crack of dawn.

You get out of the shower, towel hanging around your neck, and Roseanne slides past you. “Goodnight,” you say, stifling a yawn as you stumble to your room. You lean on the doorframe as you wait for Roseanne to finish brushing her teeth. She comes out and heads to her own room, pausing in the doorway much like you. “Good night, (Y/n).” 

Your doors shut with a click and you plop down ungracefully on your bed, lazily kicking your sweats off. You're out like a light in five minutes. On the other side of the hallway, Roseanne is at her desk, where she pulls out her ragged camcorder. Sleep doesn’t come easily to her and when it does it isn’t the peaceful kind, hence why she stays up as long as she can. That is because she is afraid of her dreams.

She sets the camcorder on the surface in front of her and simply stares at it: the gray, nineteen-eighties camera her stepdad gave her for her twelfth birthday that still works till this day. It was the camera that saved her once, and in the end it will be what kills her.

Would you like to continue?

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

spirit as sickie (you can choose caretaker), with migraine and emeto, maybe some angst too? curious to see what you come up with!!

Oliver {lil bro}: Hey, Spirit.

Oliver {lil bro}: I hope you’re doing okay today!😉✊

Oliver {lil bro}: I’m coming over to bring you some food from Subway. Keiko said you left campus before noon, and I just wanted to be sure that you ate something. I know that you usually forget to eat on this day.

Oliver {lil bro}: Hey? You there?? I’ll be at your place in five minutes.

Spirit could hear her phone buzzing. She wanted to throw it against the wall, but she couldn’t move to grab it from her bed. Even lifting her head up just a bit was painful. Besides, she had a feeling that all the notifications were from her mother. Spirit was fed up with that woman.

The headache had been slowly building throughout the day, and Spirit finally couldn’t take it anymore when she wound up in a screaming match with her mom and she just hung up, cutting the woman off. After that, Spirit just sat on the floor, curled up with a hand pulling at her hair, silently cursing at the jerk who was playing metal music somewhere in the building. Her phone kept ringing and ringing, and now Spirit was getting text notifications, but she just wanted to ignore it until it stopped. She just wanted everything to stop!

The thing is, Spirit knew she had to get going soon. She had to stop at the bakery, and she needed to find her guitar picks. Not to mention she needed gas if she was gonna drive all the way to—

The pain seemed to triple as Spirit went through the list of tasks in her head. She groaned, pulling harder at her hair. It had been about a month since her last migraine. She felt dizzy and off balance, and her stomach was queasy and churning uncontrollably. And all because Spirit had made the stupid decision of calling her mom, despite having a strong feeling that they’d wind up in an argument no matter what. As usual.

The pounding continued to worsen. The dim lights in Spirit’s room seemed too bright. And saliva was pooling in Spirit’s mouth as the feeling of needing to puke worsened.

Then, suddenly, someone knocked at Spirit’s door. She lifted her head slowly and opened her eyes, wincing from the pain of just doing that. Everything looked like it was swaying, and tears blurred in the corners of her eyes. A few more knocks, and even though they were relatively soft, the sound of each one reverberated painfully in Spirit’s head, making her bite back a whimper.

It was probably just her neighbor at the door anyway, probably wanting to ask her for some spare cash or something, or to try and sell her drugs again. Spirit hated that girl.

More knocking, and Spirit closed her eyes and hid her face in her arms, one hand going back to tugging at her hair. Spirit wanted to yell at the person outside the door to go away, but all that came out was a whine that was barely audible.

“Hello? Spirit?” That was Oliver. The person outside Spirit’s door was Oliver. “You in there?”

Spirit heard the doorknob jiggle and open. She had been on the phone with her mom when she got home and was too frustrated to remember to lock it.

She heard the door open, she heard Oliver’s gasp, and she heard him place something on the floor. Then he shut the door again and shut off the lights in the room. He crouched in front of Spirit and placed his hand on the one she was tugging at her hair with, whispering, “Hey hey, stop that. You paid a lot to get these red highlights, so it’d be a shame if you ruined them.”

The humorous comment missed its target and Spirit didn’t chuckle or even look up. Oliver, who understood how to help with Spirit’s migraines and knew how bad they got, went over to Spirit’s mini fridge and grabbed a cold water bottle. He sat beside her and pushed her hair off her neck so he could press the cold bottle to her nape. She groaned at the contact, but knew that the discomfort would soon turn to relief.

“When did this hit?” Oliver whispered, holding the bottle with one hand and using his other to hold her hands to keep her from tugging at her hair anymore.

Her only response was an unhelpful whine.

Oliver just sat with her silently, occasionally running a hand through her hair. The silence stretched for a while, and then it was broken by a sob.

Oliver’s eyes widened with surprise when Spirit’s shoulders began to shake. She whimpered with each sob, and Oliver set the bottle aside with a sigh. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered, slowly and gently wrapping his arms around her. “You’re okay.”

She allowed herself to uncurl a bit so Oliver could pull her to him. When he saw her face, he saw the tears streaming down her cheeks and the pain all over her expression, both physical and emotional. He held her against his side, and she broke, the pain of her migraine and the stress of the day making her break down at this moment. She began to sob against his shoulder while he held her, whispering soothing words and petting her hair.

When a sob suddenly turned into a heave, Oliver was thankful that they were on the floor because he could grab her bin without moving. He held it under her mouth, and after a few more heaves, one of them proved productive and a dribble of puke came up.

“F-fuck,” Spirit mumbled with tears still actively falling down her face. She gagged, a larger stream came up, leaving her gasping between more heaves and soft sobs.

Oliver continued to hug her to his side and comfort her until she was entirely empty. He set the bucket aside, and was about to ask her something when her phone began ringing and Spirit cursed.

“Oh my God, just stop,” Spirit whined, tilting her head back against the wall with her eyes squeezed shut.

With a frown, Oliver reached to her bed to grab her phone so he could shut it off, only to scoff with understanding when he saw the word ‘Mom’ on the screen. He hung up without answering, and then saw that among the unanswered texts he sent—he had to refrain from chuckling at his name on Spirit’s phone—there were voicemails and missed calls and angry messages from Spirit’s mom.

“She said she’d actually come this time,” Spirit said when Oliver scrolled through the many notifications.

“What?” he asked, wondering if he heard her wrong.

Spirit was wiping tears from her eyes, still squinting in pain from the migraine. “A few weeks ago. She promised she’d be in town, and said she’d go with me to celebrate his birthday. When I called to ask when she wanted to meet up, she said she’s at a luxury resort in Alaska. Apparently, enjoying a spa and seeing the Northern Lights is more important than my dead dad’s birthday. She literally said that it’s absurd that I’m not over him yet, and she wanted to enjoy herself than have to deal with my ‘gloomy vibe’,” she said with finger quotes. Then her face suddenly twisted and she looked like she was fighting back a new round of fresh tears. She cursed and clutched her head in her hands, her fingers once again tugging at her hair as the pain worsened.

Oliver quickly cleared all the notifications before crouching in front of her again. “Your mom’s a total bitch, and I know your head hurts, but you should still get to celebrate if you want to. I’ll spend his birthday with you, if you want. Or I could call Birdie?”

It was out of character for Oliver to just call someone a bitch, and Spirit chuckled a bit. She was silent for a second before her face softened and she smiled gratefully. “Thank you. It’d be nice if you stayed,” she said. But then she frowned again. “I can’t go to the spot like this, though. My head hurts too much. I’d throw up in the car.” She looked like she might cry again. “Fuck. . . I-I don’t think I could even manage to play the song. I’m too dizzy.”

This was an important day for her, Oliver knew. Every year, in the afternoon on this day, she’d drive to a spot in the mountains that her dad used to take her to as a kid, and she’d play his favorite song there with a slice of birthday cake. It was the day she honored her father. And Oliver knew she was right, there was no way she could leave in the condition she was in.

Spirit curled up again, knees to her chest and crying softly. It was so unusual for Spirit to cry, which told Oliver just how horrible she was feeling. Plus, he could tell that the strong emotions were just making her migraine worse.

He sighed. “Here, let me help you up. You should be lying down, Spirit.”

Spirit, while still crying, allowed Oliver to pull her up and she sat on her bed, lying down and curling up there while Oliver pulled out his phone.

Spirit suddenly froze when the first few fun chords of ‘Chicken Fried’ by the Zac Brown Band began to play. She looked at Oliver, who smiled down at her. “This is the song, right?” he asked. “I’ve only heard you play it twice, so I’m not sure.”

Slowly, Spirit nodded. Then, she slowly smiled a little bit. “Thank you, Oliver,” she whispered, her voice shot from crying.

“You’re welcome.”

Despite the funny name, the song was a really good country song. Spirit’s dad played it for her when she was little, and it was the first song she ever learned to play. Oliver left his phone with Spirit while he went to find some meds. He found her ibuprofen and brought it to her with the discarded water bottle.

She took the meds without arguing, too focused on the song to do so, and thanked Oliver again. Then she laid back down with her eyes closed while continuing to listen to the song.

By the time the song ended, Spirit was half-asleep. She opened her eyes slightly and saw Oliver in her bathroom, wringing out a handcloth in her sink. He came back over to her and wrapped the cold cloth around her neck, helping to soothe the remaining pain in her head.

She sighed, pressing half of her face to her pillow.

But then, Oliver was aware that he hadn’t silenced Spirit’s phone, because it began to ring again, and Spirit wanted to scream, her face twisting with pain and annoyance. Oliver was about to decline the call when Spirit sat up and said, “Lemme talk with her.”

Oliver frowned, brows creasing. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Spirit. Maybe you should talk to her tomorrow if anything.”

Spirit shook her head, holding her hand out. Reluctantly, Oliver handed the phone to her.

Spirit answered, holding the phone to her ear. “Why can’t you leave me alone, mom?” she asked, calmly and softly.

There was yelling so loud that even Oliver heard it. Spirit winced and held the phone away from her ear a bit, massaging her temple with one hand.

Back and forth, Oliver listened to Spirit calmly try and tell her to leave her alone, and he heard the woman yelling and heard words like ‘failure’ and ‘ungrateful’ and ‘overly-sensitive’. Spirit wound up once again just hanging up, cutting the woman off, and she shut off the phone completely so she couldn’t get any more calls. Then her eyes brimmed with tears. “Oliver—?”

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” he said, sitting beside her on the bed and hugging her. He didn’t feel the rise and fall of her chest, and she wasn’t making a sound, and when Oliver pulled away, he saw she was staring straight ahead at nothing and wasn’t breathing. Her whole body was tense, and she was cold to the touch.

Oliver hugged her tightly, rubbing her back and coaxing her to breathe since she forgot how to in her silent panic. She took one difficult breath, and then she choked on the second one.

“Breathe,” Oliver coached, speaking quietly. Spirit was a strong person, but she got so powerless and down whenever it came to her mother. “Everything’s alright. Your mom is a jerk, and she is in the wrong for everything she’s done to you. Just breathe, please. You need to take a breath. You’re alright.”

Spirit eventually hugged him back once she was breathing again and crying normally. Like her migraines, Oliver was also very used to her silent panic attacks. Almost as much as Birdie was.

“You okay?” Oliver asked when Spirit finally pulled away.

She nodded, sniffing. She’d gone three shades paler than normal, and Oliver knew that her head must’ve been killing her by now.

“You need to sleep,” he stated, gently pushing her back to get her to lay down.

She did, immediately closing her eyes. She squeezed them tightly, as if the room was illuminated. It was very dark, actually.

Oliver stroked hair away from her face while waiting for her breathing to even out. She was nearly asleep when she quietly whispered a sentence under her breath.

“Hmm?”

She didn’t repeat herself, but Oliver had a feeling that what she had said was one last “Thank you, Oliver.”

He smiled at this girl who was the closest person he had to a sister and whispered back, “Your dad was lucky to have a daughter like you.”

[exiledinparadise]

[WP] Chaos Magic is the hardest to learn

but the easiest to master. All it requires

is the abject belief that your ritual will

have an effect, despite all evidence to

the contrary, and then it will.

Somewhere at the corner of Mayhem and Pandemonium--and in less abstract terms, 34th Street and 7th Avenue:

"Are you popping pills right now?"

"Mmf, yeah. Libido enhancers. I couldn't find any legit sildenafil without a script."

"Sildena-what?"

"Viagra."

"Artie, if we're doing this, I am not standing next to you while you're pitching a tent."

"Dont roll your eyes at me, Sasha. Considering how we look at the moment, it wouldn't be any weirder if I was sporting wood."

"Tch. Nobody ever wins around you, Artie. Not even you."

"We shall see," he said and closed his eyes, legs folded underneath him. He rubbed the bookmark that he carried with him, an icon of the fabled Ibn Talib employing Chaos Magic in the form of a golden woman. "You're free to assist me," he said.

"With what? A handy?" Sasha scoffed.

"I mean, maybe later, but I meant join me in meditation. Think of something sexual. It's easier to attach belief to something when you're in a state of arousal."

"Attach belief to what, Arthur?" she said, dropping her forehead in her palm.

"To Chaos magic. You know what--never mind. I've pestered you enough. Just give me a minute."

Sasha sat on the sidewalk, observing slacks, chinos, denim, and every sort of synthetic or organic fabric that clothed the legs that galloped across the sidewalk. Every gait, cadence, and sway told a story of urgency, of personality, of distraction in the endless maze of noise. Occasionally, a forearm would emerge from the stampede and almost defiantly drop a dollar in the overturned hat by Sasha, usually from a civilian who was dressed the least expensive and the most casual. It was strange for her to be on the receiving end, so much so that she nearly forgot to say thank you the first few times. She frequently twisted left and right to check her surroundings. Rats had overtaken the city, and the thought of even one climbing on her while she was sitting there made her stomach bubble. Feeling that the longer they stayed there, the less it was a possibilty and more an inevitability that one would jump her, she began to nudge Arthur. "Do we have an ETA on your performance, Houdini?"

"I'm trying. I'm feeling it the same way as last time, but it's just not--"

"Coming?"

Artie opened his eyes. "You're not helping."

"Y'know, I'd like to get a move on before it starts raining again. I'm not swimming through the subways if we have another deluge in this godforsaken city. It'd be a miracle if we get away with just a Staph infection."

"I'm trying. It's there, I can feel it. But I can't draw it out into space-time.

"You know, now that I think about it, the whole concept of Chaos Magic seems a little weird to me." Sasha mused. "Like, all the roots of the word magic go back to priests and sorcerors and wise men--you know, folks who were very educated and the like."

"Right."

"Right. So magic is basically an art, a skill. It's something that operates on rules and laws and order and all that. Chaos is the complete antithesis of that."

Artie's eyes narrowed. "You have a point."

"So, my theory is this: you don't really master Chaos magic. You master a medium through which you control chaos magic. The reason you were able to pull it off the first time was because you had zero expectations, so you let yourself go completely. Hell, the fact that you weren't torn apart by it was probably because as long as you retained some control of your wits, there's a limit as to how much power you can manifest. I mean, it does explain why every ancient icon and manuscript illumination always depicts Chaos Magic in human form, being controlled by a mage."

"I don't see how that explains it." Artie said, looking at his bookmark. "What does the human form of Chaos Magic signify?"

"It doesn't signify anything. It's an actual human. I think in order to wield Chaos Magic reliably, two people have to be present: one to relinquish control and be a medium, and the other to harness the Chaos that flows through them."

Artie straightened up. "Then it's not going to work. You don't know how to summon Chaos from the Aether. And even if you did, I'm not--"

"Yes I do know how to, Artie. I was able to sense it the first time you did it and I can sense it now. You just have to harness it--"

"And what if I can't? I'm not putting you at risk."

"Artie, our way of life is at risk. Our ability to survive is at risk. Our freakin' world is at risk! We have a chance at making a difference for everybody and you're worried about one per-"

Artie stormed off.

"Artie! Dammit...wait Artie! Would...you...stop running away and listen to me! I said stop!"

"Get off me."

"Artie, look at me. Look at me! I trust you. If I didn't believe you could pull it off, I wouldn't have said anything. But for this to work, you have to believe in yourself!"

Artie averted his eyes, turning his face every which way except towards Sasha. "Dammit, woman. Why d'ya gotta put me in these positions?"

Sasha smiled. "Because I know what you're capable of."

Artie sighed. "Yeah well you're expectations might be a lil' too high."

"We shall see." Sasha said.

Artie sat alongside Sasha on the sidewalk, legs folded, taking deep breaths with her synchronously. Instead of relaxing, however, he began to get tense. The overcoat and sweatshirt he bought at the thrift store made him sweat despite the chilly afternoon breeze. His damp feet writhed in his tattered tennis sneakers. He resisted the urge to remove his beanie so as to not disturb Sasha, who was deep in concentration. The disguise felt stifling. His saliva began to taste like copper.

"Artie."

"Yeah."

"Give me a safe word."

"Wha--" Artie could sense the swelling of power rising from within her. "Oh. Oh! J-Juniper! When I say Juniper, get back in control!"

"Okay."

Sasha became resplendent. A fountain of light emerged from her, and all the passersby gasped and covered their eyes.

She did it. She really did it.

Arthur stretched his hands toward her and directed the luminous stream into a bow in the sky. Sasha's form became more transparent, and was taken up into the stream of light. Arthur jumped onto it, and was swept into the current, emerging atop the bow in the sky, like some cosmic rancher riding a luminescent glow worm. He could see the cars on the street below frozen, and the drivers coming out of the cars to get a better look. Others were recording on their smartphones what appeared to be a hobo peforming a light show.

Artie looked up at the buildings that obscured the sky. There were many corporate suites and boardrooms that had wreaked chaos on his world. It was time that he returned the favor.

[linn-94]

Chapter 1: Meeting new people

It was just a normal spring day. This morning when I got up I took a shower, got dressed and took off for another day of enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I took the subway to Columbus Circle got coffee at Starbucks and walked through Central Park. When I found the perfect spot (aka the bench that I always sat on) I sat down and opened my book.

Reading was one of the things that I loved to do and nothing was better than reading on a spring day in Central Park on my favorite bench. When I was not reading it was the perfect place to watch people and listen to the birds.

Since I moved to NYC a few months ago, Central Park was the place where I spend most of my time. And so today was also another day in the park.

I read for 20 minutes when something hit me on the back. I looked down and behind me to see what it was. At that moment a dog came running to my bench and stared at me. On the ground was the dogtoy that had hit me.

"Hey buddy, I think I have your toy over here" I said to the dog.

The dog wiggled his tail.

"I hope you are not alone out here, where is your owner?" Just when I said that I heard a voice.

"Miles, come here buddy" and a man came walking to my bench.

"Here you are buddy, I was looking all over for you." I heard the man say.

Then he looked at me and said: "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to throw it this far.. are you hurt?" I looked at the man and saw that he was the most handsome guy I had ever seen. He had the most beautiful blue eyes en light brown/blondish hair, his smile was to die for. "Uhmm no I.. I'm fine" I anwserd not very sure of myself.

"Oh that's great" the man said. "I was worried it had hit you too hard". He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm Aaron by the way" he reached out to shake my hand.

"I'm Sophie" I said and I shook his hand.

"You look very comfortable on this bench, are you here often?" He asked trying to make conversation.

"I try to be here at least twice a week." I responded. "It's just a nice place to relax and enjoy everything outside". I knew it wasn't just twice a week but more, but I didn't want him to think I had noting to do with my life.

"I couldn't agree more, I come here at least three times a week with Miles." Aaron said.

"Well Miles is a very handsome dog." I said.

"Thanks, he is also very kind." Aaron responded.

"So Sophie, it was very nice to meet you. I have to get going because I have a show tonight, but I hope to see you some other time around."

"If you're looking for me, you know where to find me." I said pointing to the bench I was sitting on.

Aaron waved goodbye and walked away with Miles.

When Aaron was gone a lot of thoughts got into my mind. How can I be so dumb in saying things like this. Who says you know where to find me to a guy she just met. He was a very attractive guy so if he wanted to look for me it was fine by me. But a guy like that would never fall for a girl like me. And what was it about a show he said? Was he on Broadway or something? That couldn't be the case because I loved Broadway and I wouldv'e known who he was. He looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Aarons pov

Omg Aaron why did you have to say that stuff to that girl you just met. Aaron said to himself. She was pretty that for sure. She had blue eyes and dark long hair. Her voice was one he could listen to all day long. And the way she spoke to Miles. But why did he had to mention the show. She clearly didn't recognize him, so why did he gave her a hint.

[margotquinsel]

Modern Encanto Au

Chapter 3 The airport.

"Alright your parking spot is P9, enjoy your holiday!" The conductor told Julieta.

"Thank you!" she replied.

As she drove away from the conductor she realised that she didnt know her way around the parking lot.

"Hermosa?"

"mm?" "Do you know where the parking spot is?"

"Yes, I do, I can just look at the signs, see, we are currently at, eh, why is the lettering small? We are at C7.. No..U7. Actually we are at A7."

"Hmm, keep going forward."

" I know where to go!" "Really?" questioned Isabela,

"YES! See its just up there, See?"

"Its not up there..- "

"It is up there..Okay? I know my way around here, I did lots of research."

"Research on a parking lot?"

"And the airport,"

"Thats stupid mama."

"Its not stupid.Your Mama needs to know where to go, Mirabel.."

After what seemed like hours Julieta finally found the parking spot.

"Alright, everyone out the car, get your bags."

A COUPLE MINUTES LATER

"What now?" questioned Agustin,

" I guess we just try to find the bus stop." Julieta answered,

"Theres a bus stop?" Uttered Isabella,

"Yeah, since the airport is a few minutes away and quite a long walk, theres a bus that helps you get there in a minute and theres some bag departments so you dont have to hold onto them."

"What."

"Did that make sense?"

"Kinda."

"I'll take that as a yes."

After about 5 minutes of walking they finally found the bus stop and just sat there in silence, until the bus came, however the bus was full so they had to wait for another bus, waiting for the other bus took around 20 minutes.So they sat there for more than 20 minutes in silence and Mirabel hated it, she is a very talkative person and always has something to talk about.

"Oh look! Its the bus and this time it's not empty." announced Luisa. "Good lets get on this one" Agustin answered.

When everyone got on the bus it started moving, after a minute they had arrived at the airport, Julieta gulped, sure she did lots of research but she knew that they were going to get lost. She didnt expect it to be this big. She thought it was going to be a nice local airport. Which was a stupid thought since airports are massive.

HALF AN HOUR LATER

"Wheres the passports?"

"In my bag." "Then get them out,"

"Why?"

"Cause we need them right now?" "For what?"

"We need to check in," "but we dont do that right now, its the bag check thing." "I know that but we need the passports, they need to check it."

"C'mon"

The Rojas family walked up to the counter and placed their bags onto the platform and got their passports checked.

"What time does the plane leave?" Questioned Mirabel,

"Around 1:30pm" Julieta answered,

"I'm hungry"

" same"

"Same"

"What do you guys want then?"

"subway"

"Yeah, Subway"

"Where's the subway?"

"Over there." Luisa pointed to subway behind her mother.

"Alright then, c'mon"

1 MINUTE LATER

" Hi, could I please have --------- "

6 MINUTES LATER

"What did you get Mira?"

" Chicken sub Mama, do you want my cookie? I dont like them." "How could you not like them? I'll take it."

[fattestwriting]

What does 500 pounds of an incredibly gassy Dr. Takemi look like?

Tae's belly surged with sound and motion as she sat on the Shibuya line, the ever present motion of the train wobbling her 500 lb. orb like a snow globe. Consequently, it sloshed like one too. At first, the rumbling was soft, easily hidden by the subways own sound, but after only a single stop had it risen into it's usual cacophonous rattle.

Dr. Takemi was no stranger to receiving unusual stares, sometimes due to her reputation, often due to her dyed hair and dead-eyed appearance, but mostly for the 500 lbs. ball of fat that she calls a stomach. It was these very stares that made her so hesitant to leave her office much nowadays, but she had run out of things to keep in her clinic's mini fridge (if you could call the room she was supposed to be using as cold storage a 'mini fridge', which of course she did), so off she went grocery shopping. Although, as she inched closer to her destination stop by stop, she was becoming less sure she could make it. Every minute she sat on the train, her stomach got louder. Decibel after decibel. It got to the point that the train was just as loud stopped as it was moving, with the very obvious culprit being Takemi's monsterous gut. The louder it got and the more pressure built up inside the poor doctor, the firmer she grasped her stomach in a vein attempt to kneed it into submission.

Finally, she got passed the second to last stop. She just had to make it another few minutes, she thought, till she could safely exit into a bathroom at the station. All was going well, until the train hit a bump that was just a little to hard, which made Tae squeeze a little bit harder on her orb of flesh then she had intended, then she could handle. And before she could begin panicking about what had just happened, she heard it.

*PPPPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTT*

Takemi was mortified. Her foul blast of retched stink permiated the entire car she was in in an instant, pushing any air out in record time. Before she could even reconcile what was happening, everyone around her who hadn't passed out was doubled over, wheezing and crying, struggling to breathe through the retched smell. Takemi felt her stomach, to realize it was still just as taught, just as loud. So as the announcer came over the intercoms, coughing and wheezing just the same, Tae figured she had nothing to lose. She stood up, walked over to the hard metal wall of the train car, pressed her firm, hard belly against it, and pushed.

*PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT*

She let loose everything she had at once. When she was finally done, she turned around. The train had stopped at her destination, so she picked up her bag and walked out the newly formed melted hole in the train side. As she walked through the station, and even into the city square, she saw people passed out and doubled over everywhere, none the wiser of her involvement.

Maybe I should pick some healthier foods this time, she thinks.