#so now im once again out of bananas

[kentoxo]

friction | reader (f) x crush!nanami pt.7

pairing: reader (f) x crush!nanami

synopsis: [AU] you have always had a crush on nanami. since the day you were hired as his personal assistant, you've been right at his side combating numbers and making money within the finance department for the company you two worked for. but, things take a turn when nanami catches wind of your feelings, and rejects you. little did he know the weight of his mistake.

warnings: angst, heartbreak, sexual tension, jealousy (future smut)

a/n: im back!!! with part 7!!!! (i hope i tagged everyone who asked to be in the taglist). thank you all for your patience, and for your kind words from the last part! it brought up my mood entirely :) im sorry im so repetitive, but truly i am grateful. i hope this is well written (looked over it like 8 times)

all parts: pt.1, pt.2, pt.3, pt.4, pt.5, pt.6,

December | Tokyo, Japan | Wednesday 

It was around 2 A.M. when Haibara grudgingly entered the small speakeasy. 

It was a small, cozy bar inside the facade of a greasy burger joint, which Haibara gladly ordered from. He peeled the wrapping of his hot smash burger like a banana while making his way towards the back of the restaurant. The bar was separated with a curtain, and it was immensely dim. The only goers were a few guys in the corner, and Nanami at the bar itself. Haibara squinted through exhausted eyes about 4 empty cups near Nanami’s folded hands. 

Drunk, are we? He thought. 

Haibara casually laps at his greasy fingers, crumpling the wrapping paper with his other hand as he strolled over to Nanami. With a now somewhat clean hand, Haibara pats on Nanami’s shoulder. “You look like a loser, and I’m tired. Why don���t we call it a night right now and do this some other time?” 

“I can’t sleep,” Nanami begins quietly, wagging his finger in the air to beckon the bartender. “Please, two on the rocks.” 

“Whiskey? Tequila?” 

“Anejo, dark rum, please,” Nanami requests, bringing his hands up to his chin to rest on. He was pensive, but somewhat lost, as Haibara noticed the distance in his hazel orbs. It was unfamiliar, this version of Nanami. 

Haibara grimaces, already unenthused by the selection of drink, “we work in a few hours, you know. Are you sure we want to drink this much? Because I’m not.” He passes the crumpled burger paper to the waitress that came over.

“I’ve seen you come into work after getting black out drunk, and run on an hour's sleep. Sit.” Nanami grabs the seat next to him and pulls it out for Haibara. His close friend stares at him skeptically, but takes a seat. 

Haibara begins to take off his coat, the warmth of the bar melting him completely. Draping it over the back of his seat, he rubs his hands together, preparing himself for the night. “I’m never a responsible drunk, I can admit that. But you… this isn’t like you at all. What’s going on?”

Nanami emits a shaky sigh, trying his best to keep himself relaxed. But even slightly drunk, nothing to waive his nerves and the weight of his sporadic thoughts. “I feel like… I’m going crazy,” Nanami begins quietly, his eyes not daring to leave the bar. The two requested drinks make its presence known as they sat before the two men. “I just don’t understand why.” 

“Let’s start with what happened,” Haibara begins. You called Haibara, once again in tears while you explained what happened just a few hours ago at the steakhouse. You fall asleep with that same woe, allowing Haibara to nap for a few hours until Nanami calls him up. “Did something happen between you and Y/N?” 

Nanami raises his eyebrow, “how do you know?” 

Haibara’s tongue was too slick, “Y/N came back down by herself, and returned to the office because you gave her ‘extra work.’” 

“I could have, for all you knew,” Nanami huffs before taking his glass. 

“You came back down and didn’t say a single word,” Haibara grabs his own glass. “Whenever you were spoken to, you’d shake your head and say ‘repeat that.’” 

“All of a sudden you want to be meticulous,” Nanami murmurs before taking a sip of the dark brown booze. He looks up to meet Haibara’s eyes, which were stern and looking straight through Nanami. The blonde gives in, and carefully puts his cup down. “Y/N and I had a talk.” 

“Clearly.” Haibara downs his drink immediately. Might as well get drunk while Nanami was paying. He waves at the bartender and silently asks for another round. “Give me the rundown.” 

Nanami adjusts the collar of his crewneck, clearly becoming a bit shy, “No need for all of the details. Y/N, she um��- she confirmed the rumors regarding her feelings for me. They… aren’t just rumors.” 

Haibara had to bite his lip to keep a smile from forming, “is that right?” Nanami’s eyes narrowed down at his glass, staring at the large ice cube slowly melting. The struggle to keep from smiling disappears when he realizes that this wasn’t Nanami. “I assume you rejected her? Like you always do.” 

Nanami grimaces, looking away as if trying to shield his expression from Haibara. It was almost like… he was lamenting all his decisions that led him to this point. “...I did.” 

“So, what’s wrong?” Haibara starts, his words emitted slowly as he wants to carefully tread this new side of his friend. “You aren’t interested in relationships, Kento. Was there something else that happened?” 

“N-no, it's… exactly that, actually,” Nanami hums, his tone ornate with perplexity. “I rejected her… and it has made me unsettled since.” 

“What makes you unsettled?” Haibara asks, curious over this new side of Nanami. “You can’t reciprocate her feelings, so you rejected her. She can’t blame you for being honest.” 

“A-and, that’s the thing, right?” Nanami runs a hand through his hair, closing his eyes a bit. He’s drunk, Haibara noted. “I was honest, and told her… not really politely, but I told her I did not feel the way she does. But now, I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Alright, let’s make this easier for the both of us,” Haibara sharply interrupts. He slightly slams his glass down, gaining the eye contact of his dear friend. Guilty hazel eyes meet his own, but they don’t flicker away. “Just tell me what’s bothering you. Let it all out.” 

Nanami stares at him for a moment, fixing his eyes on each of Haibara’s. He could feel the pit in his stomach, working with the feeling of his drunkenness. His body felt hot, but goosebumps danced along his skin as though he was freezing. He could feel his cheeks warm, not just from the ethanol, but from his unaddressed feelings. Feelings that he’s not even aware of. Feelings he didn't even know he had. 

“I…” Nanami begins hesitantly. He downs another glass of liquor, a growl-like sigh leaving his dry lips. He was working up the courage to admit what was bothering him, but the conflict of why was keeping him silent. Haibara noticed this and quickly tapped his friend's shoulder. “Hm?” 

“Bartender,” Haibara calls, “two cups of absinthe, please.” 

Nanami lets out a chuckle, despite his feelings, “what do you know about absinthe?” 

“A lot, actually,” Haibara amuses him, “you’re not gonna get me fucked up without having at least one sweet thing.” 

“Absinthe is gonna fuck us completely,” Nanami replies, genuine laughter leaving him. A rare curse coming from Nanami. The two cups arrive, which both gentlemen take one. “You know it’s not that sweet… and it’s diluted.” 

“Just drink,” Haibara hisses, the two lifting their cups and downing the alcohol. They immediately cough, leaning against one another to suffer the coughing and the laughter that follows. “Shit, I always forget how strong it is.” 

Nanami covers his lips with a closed fist, laughter running around it, “it’s watered down for a reason.” 

After the sea of laughter calms, Haibara nudges Nanami. He could tell they were both tipsy, Nanami more so as he was here for an unknown amount of time before his arrival. “Please, tell me everything that’s bothering you. Better to get it out of your chest than keeping it in and suffering that.” 

Nanami gulps, but finds comfort in his friend's words. Haibara was right. He called him out here to do exactly that. And Nanami would feel worse if he dragged Haibara outside just to not confide in him. Carefully putting down his cup, he straightens his back and clears his throat. The liquid courage must not go to waste. 

“I mean… what am I bothered by?” Nanami whispers. The tip of his index rubbed along the rim of his glass. “We’ve grown up together, Yu. You’ve never seen me with a woman, nor was I ever really interested.” 

“But?” Haibara’s curiosity saunters with the alcohol in his system.

“I guess what really bothers me,” Nanami hums quietly, “is that of all the women I’ve met. From our school days, from outings, from work– it’s her. Why… is it her?” 

“Is it bad that it’s her?” 

“It’s not bad– not at all,” Nanami quickly says, “but how come I’ve become so taken by her? Without even realizing it? Am I that out of touch with my feelings?” 

Haibara chuckles at Nanami’s small panic, “it’s not that you’re out of touch with your feelings, Kento. You’ve never had these exact feelings to begin with, so this is foreign for you.” 

“But… as people, we aren’t that acquainted,” Nanami’s eyes lowered to his hands. “I don’t know anything about what she likes, her family, her hobbies. How can I like someone I know nothing about?” 

“Let me put it in a different perspective then,” Haibara suggests. “What are things that you like whenever you two work together?” 

Nanami looks up at Haibara and pauses for a moment. Then, his lips part, “I like that she always does things exactly as I request, even before I ask.” 

“She’s quite the assistant,” Haibara agrees. 

Nanami nods, “she is detailed in her work, extremely meticulous and doesn’t let any detail get past her.” He doesn’t pause at all this time, and keeps going. “She always knows what I like to have. I come into work knowing she has my cup of coffee, and wait for her to tell me what I want for lunch because I need not tell her.” 

Haibara fights off a smile. It was extremely relieving to see his friend finally like someone. It was almost destiny that life had kept his heart dormant until now. Until you. 

“I like that she’s honest without being rude,” Nanami says slowly, the ends of his lips forming a soft smile. "She has a sweet tooth, but she wanted to try my coffee after I confided its context to her.” 

“She has a good head on her shoulders,” Haibara concurs, encouraging him to keep talking about you. 

"I like the way she pushes back her hair whenever she has to deal with a more tedious task. And the way she smiles whenever she finishes all of her work for the day."

Haibara was cheering for you in his mind.

"I like..." Nanami begins hesitantly. "...that she's my assistant, and nobody else's." Haibara felt his own feels warm from his admittance.

Nanami finally feels his body go completely hot, his chest taking on the most warmth. He could feel his smile tickle his own cheeks, insistently forcing him to cup his mouth. It was overwhelming– realizing that he was wrong this whole time. He lied to you when he rejected you, albeit his newly discovered feelings. His free hand cups his chest, feeling his heart pumping at a speed alien to him. 

“Yu,” Nanami begins quietly. He looks over at him, face suddenly pale, “I think I’m having a heart attack.” 

Haibara finally breaks, and starts laughing. He quickly wraps his arm around the blonde man. Haibara leans his forehead against Nanami’s, soothing his nerves from the simple gesture. “You’re not having a heart attack, Kento. You’re drunk and feeling things we both didn’t think you had.” 

Nanami nudges him off, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t like I’d never like somebody,” Nanami huffs, bringing his cup to his lips to sip at the watered-down remaining alcohol. 

“I can’t even count in 20 hands how many women you’ve rejected in the many years that I’ve known you,” Haibara scoffs. “You are sculpted like a Greek god, and yet somehow you’ve managed to waste it until now.” 

Nanami shoves Haibara a bit, but chuckles escape his lips. Haibara joins him. It felt like to have such a heart-to-heart, especially with someone like Haibara. Nanami raises his hand to the bartender, pretending to sign a check in the air. “I’m so sorry for keeping us so late for my foolishness. But, thank you very much for being my friend, Yu. I know it hasn’t been easy, but I really appreciate it.” 

Haibara rolls his eyes, “you’re right; it has not been easy, and I deserve to be compensated.” He then laughs through already soft words. “But honestly, it’s no biggie. I’m glad that you actually feel comfortable enough to talk about this with me. You’re usually one to keep to yourself.” 

Nanami’s drunk smile remains, “that’s fair. But please feel free to call out if you don’t feel well rested. I can absolutely vouch that you had a family emergency.” 

Haibara held his chest, his eyes full of surprise, “the work-obsessed and policy-abiding Nanami is willing to lie for me? You really do love me.” 

The bartender comes with the check, and Nanami reaches into his pocket for his wallet. Although under the influence, Nanami couldn’t get rid of the smile on his face. “Yeah, well. I asked you to come out, so this is the least I could do.” 

Haibara watches as Nanami tosses his credit card onto the bill. “But I have no plans of leaving you on your own tomorrow. We gotta really seal the deal, and finally be finished with our clients.” 

Nanami nods in agreement, watching as the bartender returns and collects the closed bill. “You just reminded me that I should send an email to both Marketing and Sales to warn them about our new clients.” 

Haibara nods, “yeah, they’re a bit much, aren’t they? Especially with how they stared at Y/N at the restaurant. Weird pervs.” 

Nanami, without meeting Haibara’s eyes, says simply, “it was why I didn’t let Y/N assist me during this time. A bird informed me about their crude manner with women.”

Haibara chuckles, but immediately stops and looks over at Haibara. All the dots were connecting like the stars in the Big Dipper. “No wonder you kept mentioning that Takada shacho assigned you his assistants. I thought you kept saying it to boost your rep!” 

Nanami shows a cocky grin, “that’s a given. But, I didn’t want Y/N to be a victim of that. Especially now that I understand what I’m feeling– I don’t think I would have acted decent.” 

Through slurred words, Haibara chuckles, “you’re so whipped, Kent.” 

“Whipped?” Nanami looks over at his friend, innocently tilting his head in confusion like a pup. “What does that mean?” 

Haibara gets off from his seat, his body warm and stomach satisfied. He lifts off his coat from the seat, and begins to pull on the sleeves. “Come, I’ll tell you outside.” Nanami signs the check, and retrieves his credit card. 

Walking slowly behind Haibara, Nanami couldn’t help but feel something. It felt like the cross between relief and anticipation. Suddenly, he felt at ease about the future, almost as if his unrecognized worry was now washed away. He felt hopeful that he could remedy his mistake, and start something new… with you. 

Of course, that won’t be easy, as you were currently sleeping with a hollow, broken heart. 

Taglist: [Now Closed]

@blossomedfloweroflove @numblytemporary @everyoneandtheirmothers @animechick555 @inthedarkshadows000

@m-arj-1 @julk4e @hadassery @swoozleee @angxlsatvrn

@v1x3n @s-witch-bitch @furgusonn @watyousayin @thechaoticarchivist

@simp-manhwa @5sos-wdw @ffyona1214 @phantombaby @evangel44xxcds

@ukiyodestiny @jasminelee324 @eurydxceorphxus @moonlightazriel @s3rp3ntsssc0ve

@dusty-dweller @wifenanami @bokuatsubro @ayesayman @starry-eyed--dreamer

[the-moon-files]

I’m not sure if I’ve said this one already or not, but I wanted to tell you anyways! It’s about the humans-are-not-hylians AU!

You know the uncanny valley evolution? That thing where when you look at something that resembles a living being too closely and some part of your mind is screaming that it’s not whatever it looks like and to get away from it? Imagine that with the reader! They can spot shapeshifters easily because of this, but it instills the same extreme primal fear we’d experience, so it might be hard for the reader to confront them at first and they’ll instead just tell the Chain for a while.

This might be a double edged sword, though, because when Twilight is in his wolf form, the reader still gets that same feeling when “Wolfie” is looking at them, whether or not they know it’s Twilight. In this case, the first time the reader spots Wolfie approaching the camp, they probably freak out and try to avoid him, even if the Links are okay with him or if he seems familiar to them.

The bottom line is that wolf isn’t a wolf, so what is he?

“It’s okay, he’s a really friendly wolf!”

“...That’s not a wolf...”

Sorry i took forever to respond!! im slow as always, life is too busy for even my hobbies lately sobs 😭

bro this is especially true bc someone looked back at TP games and how he looks in his “wolf” form, and apparently he is actually a dog lol - like at most a wolf-hybrid, i added this in to support this Hyrule-is-hella-Uncanny AU lol

Moon: Guide! - Gender Neutral/Masc!Reader (”you”/he/him)

Orbit: Short headcanons

Stars: mentions of most of our Links <3

Comets & Meteors: CWs: typical LU/Loz violence, mild swearing, etc & TWs: mild possible derealization trigger, talk of Link’s Awakening and Koholint.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

The Yiga clan members have never fooled you, not Once in person, unlike back when hyrule was still a video game

it was the constant smell of bananas, the way their eyes were always a little unfocused or they moved their head to move around their eyes, rather than their actual pupils moving, the facial muscles all stiff, usually stuck in an uncomfortable smile-

it makes more sense once u realize that they technically have a mask under that glamour hylian face, but its never not hilarious to see Wild look over his shoulder at you before approaching a lone traveler on the roads and watch him get increasingly frantic to get ur attention to see if theyre yiga lmao

u bet ur ass every link was relying on you on their adventures to know shapeshifters/illusions/glamours/etc. on sight and tell them to better prep them/warn them

tbh they all got at least a little better at being able to tell the difference the longer they heard you point out stuff/talk abt exactly why it was off-putting

(that said some of ur heroes are better at it than others, both in general, and certain aspects of it: like Twilight isn’t able to pick up illusions/glamours for the life of him, literally, sometimes, but he is more likely to figure out shapeshifters by scent after you Guided him)

(no, your heart didnt crack a little after learning that the boys had a harder time with deceit after you stopped playing the game = “were forced to leave after their adventure” bc while they were better at detecting it, they werent on ur human level yet..)

(…the only deception you ever really fell for was Koholint. It was so painful too, because Legend quietly disclosed to you one late night that you would constantly get strange feelings/uncanny disturbances, but were never able to put a name to it for him, which both made you jumpy/paranoid on the island, but made him regret ever letting his guard down all the more or feel guilty for what felt like dismissing ur instincts the more he relaxed… Legend never doubted your sense for the uncanny ever again. He takes it seriously every time now.

When you feel as if you should apologize, he tells u not to, that these days he takes comfort in it actually, it makes him feel safer. Legend looks to your face for confirmation that something isn’t a dream, and if you look at ease, so is he.)

its the way you casually laugh at Twi being called “Wolfie” when he’s obviously a wolf-dog hybrid or just a big dog

and when everyones confused u just explain smth smth, wolf heads are larger in comparison to their body, their legs are narrow, their paws are big, dogs are like the oppposite, or way more proportional like “Wolfie” is, dogs bob around when they run like “wolfie”, and have shorter legs,

smth smth wolves cant have eye colors like blue, only dogs/wolf-dog hybrids can silly-

and Wolfie is just like, 😐 😑 😐

turning around and walking away, bc hylias knotted fucking braid- he really cant escape the dog accusations now, you literally used ur freaky truth-seeing instinct and read his shapeshifter ass from head to literal toe/paw-

Wild/Hyrule look fascinated, Wind and Legend cant breath theyre laughing so hard, Time is coughing suspiciously into his fist and pops back up smirking, Four is laughing but also encouraging you to keep going, Sky is desperately trying to keep it together while also trying to get Twi to come back lmao, Wars is literally pointing and laughing ashkljdl-

ok but Twi gets his revenge later by tricking you into yapping abt how Hyrule/Four/Time all kind of look “off” sometimes too

like how u swear Rulie is glowing subtly when the moon is full, or how the world distorts behind his back sometimes,

or how Four’s eyes change colors all the time, his fighting style looks like its rotating between 4 diff ppl’s techniques,

or how Time’s face wrinkles like smile lines/crows feet at the corner of his eyes will randomly appear and disappear, how he’ll have some stubble one day then 3 days later despite having not shaven (u literally saw him wake up and do his morning routine) it’ll disappear like it was never there in the first place-

and when Twi has stopped asking you abt the others as they all reel over the knowledge of what all u can tell abt them,

(ur quietly relieved no one asked abt Wild.

You resolve urself to just lie if anyone asks, even to Wild himself.)

☆

hey im alive!! im slow yknow how it is,

ive been doing too much, and i cant wait to be done with this class so i can have free time guilt free again 🥲

god thats one good thing abt getting out of academia i dont miss and would only wish on my worst enemy,

the anxiety of doing smth, even necessary stuff like eating/sleeping/showering, and feeling liek you should be doing homework instead, god its so awful

cant wait to feel like an adult with my own life again lmao

that certification better work and get me a white collar job goddamit 🤞

anyway, hope ur all having a good weekend,

and just to let u know, im so happy acc that im alive to see the first zelda game that actually follows what i originally thought the plot of zelda games was when i was a kid lmao

(zelda as the protag, saving link!!)

Peace out,

🌙

[lit3rallyll0yd]

Hey I just wanted to say I love your writing so much it's just 😼😍 if Ykyk and feel free to ignore this request but if you want to could you do ninjago character is basically a rich aunt and grew up with the ninja go character (plus harumi up to you) sorry if I'm not that detailed

have a good day 😼🐮

ninjago x reader: them with a reader who is their rich aunt. ft. ninjas<3 (≧ᗜ≦)

characters: lloyd, kai & nya, jay, cole, and zane

synopsis: basically the reader is the ninjas rich aunts, who they haven't seen in a while.

a/n: tbh i was struggling to understand this request, nothing against you anon, im just bad at reading n understanding, lol. so we ended up with this idea<3

i would add harumi, however my poor fingers hurt so much😞

short, headcanon format, female reader

artist cr: min-play

☆ LLOYD.

. you are misako's sister. she knew the second lloyd was born you were going to spoil this kid like crazy.

. before he was even born you already bought him things. new sets of clothing, baby toys, even some baby food you might know if he'll even like.

. when lloyd was born you swore to protect him no matter what. that was until you found out from your sister he was the green ninja?

. the kid is now at least 11 and his own mother enrolls him in the Darkly School for Bad Boys?

. she told you she left him for a good reason, and it will all make sense in the future.

. you decided to take her word for it, and years passed. you haven't seen your sister nor your nephew since.

. large timeskip, lloyd has aged, he has found his true family in the ninja. sure he reconnected with his mother but he still doesnt trust her much...until he heard her side of this whole story.

. lloyd and her have gotten closer once more, and misako decided to bring you up.

. lloyd had no idea how to react. he barely remembers you, however you remember him. he kinda feels guilty.

. you squish his cheeks together when finally seeing him again, "Oh, look at you!! you've grown up so much~ i remember when you were just a little babyyy! i can see where you got the looks from~"

. it takes a while, just like how lloyd was with his mother, but he glad to have met you once again.

. he asks you both about his father, and you have alot to say about that man.

. even at his age, you still spoil him much to his mothers liking. but who listens to their siblings anyways?

☆ KAI & NYA

. you were ray's sister, and maya loved you. she the first to tell you she was pregnant with the two, and you. went. bananas.

. when both kai and nya were born, you fell in love with them immediately.

. while they were kids you would come visit them, kai was extra excited for your visits because you always had a present for the two.

. ray and Maya just enjoyed your company, although nya was really shy around you first.

. she was a mama's baby, qnd loved to be in her mother's arms so everytime you come over she's in her mama's arms, hiding her face in her chest.

. the more you visit, the more she starts to trust you. ray and maya were surprised when nya started to cry when you had to go home one evening

. seeing them again after many years was very emotional for you, not them, though.

. "im sorry, who are you?" kai asked, seeing a random lady hug his little sister.

. "silly, im your auntie. your father's sister, to be specific, i never did really like labels!"

. "our...huh?"

. it's mostly like the relationship misako and lloyd have, but just you and the smith siblings.

. nya tries to be as kind as possible toward you, kai of course as well, however you and nya seem to have more of a bond.

☆ COLE

. your lou's sister. you never had a passion for singing like your brother, but you were pretty successful in the arts department.

. you were a pretty famous artist, almost everyone in ninjago knows your name.

. your art is seen from lou's dining room, to the ninjagos art museum.

. lou was the one who told you lily, his wife was pregnant. you asked many questions, but the big question was the gender.

. when finding out, because lily wanted to know the gender before birth, you started buying anything "baby boy" related.

. blue. that's what you first think of when a baby boy is coming, right?

. timeskip, yahoo, cole is born and sadly you've had to move away for a business emergency.

. you had a feeling cole wouldn't remember who you were, he was only just born when you had to move.

. before his mothers passing, lily tried to best to keep memory of you around the house, hopefully so little cole could remember some fragments of you.

. he..he didn't, lmao.

. you visit lou one day, and surprisingly, his son, cole, who is now a teenager, also seems to be visiting his father with you, who assumed his friends.

. you pinch his cheeks after hugging him and kissing him all over. cole was beyond uncomfortable and confused.

. "y/n, please, take it easy-"

. "you try not seeing your nephew for years and suddenly seeing him randomly out of no where, lou!"

. "...i...i did, however in this case he is my son."

. you, lou, and cole have had some time to discuss about who you are and coles eyes lit up.

. "you were my mother's best friend? could you maybe, tell me more about her?"

. you smiled, "let's start off with, your mother was the kindest and sweetest soul in the world."

☆ JAY

. let's make this simple. your edna's long time best friend. so you pretty much the same age as her.

. obviously ed and edna are jay's adopted parents, you found out by visiting the junkyard one day and seeing...baby...in Edna's arms.

. she was feeding him a bottle. he was so small, he hits perfectly in your sister's arms.

. "now i may be old, but i ain't stupid, sista'. why didn't you tell me you adopted?"

. edna laughed, "oh dear, no, this little one showed up on our doorstep last night. we couldn't just leave the poor thing there, we had to take him in. and we don't have the guts to let him go just yet so...ed is figuring out the adoption papers..."

. ever since that day, you have been coming around more often to help the elders take care of jay.

. jay was homeschooled, of course when he was old enough; ed taught him the abc's and 123's.

. you would help of course. you would spoil this boy to your full extent.

. he wanted this toy? it's his. wants mcdonalds? one happy meal please. is upset? two tickets to the mega monster amusement park!

. of course, you had a life of your own. you've barely had time to see ed, edna and jay anymore because of your work.

. so one day, ed and edna mailed you a letter, saying they will visit iay and invited you to come. maybe jay will remember you?

. timeskip to them pulling up to the bounty and jay's confused face.

. "ma, who is that?" jay asked looking at you with a confused look.

. yall had the talk about who you are and jay felt terrible for not remembering you. he always assumed his "dad" was taking him to all the amusement parks.

. he tried to catch up with you, wanting to know more of your life and your work placement.

. little does he know, ed and edna have been telling you mall the embarrassing stories he's gone through as a kid; your favorite being his kissing pillow?

. didn't you buy him that pillow?

☆ ZANE

. your dr. juliens younger sister.

. you were astonished at his latest "creation", zane. you were there when zane came fully online, and was "alive".

. he was almost like a human, he had human emotions of course he didn't know that yet. he was basically just born.

. upon hearing of your brothers death, you were deeply affected. you left ninjago for a little while, forgetting the world but never forgetting zane.

. you regret leaving him alone. but you weren't in the condition to be taking care if someone. you have to take care of yourself first.

. timeskip, years passed and you have received a letter from an old friend, inviting you to come back to ninjago and visit you.

. he mentioned zane, so you of course agreed.

. the address lead you to a monestary. you were a bit confused buy you knocked on the large doors.

. moments later, the doors open wide to revel a figure dressed in a white ninja gi, who looked back at you twice as confused as you.

. "good morning, stranger. what brings you to the monestary?" he asked and you felt your heart drop.

. "zane?"

. he tilt his head to the side, "yes...that is my name...how do you know my name?"

. other male voice cuts you off, "yo, zane- who's there?"

. eventually, your old friend who invited you here in the first place appeared beside zane and with a smile invited inside their home.

. insert the other three boys, jay, cole, and kai confused and asking each other questions while zane, master wu, and you spoke in a separate room.

. "so...your my father sister?"

. you smiled and nodded, "i never thought i would see you again!" you hugged the boy who froze at your touch, but politely hugged you back.

. you are family after all.

. you feel so bad for leaving zane all alone, possibly confused and lost until he found sensei wu and the other ninja, but that doesn't stol you from spoiling the heck out of the four boys.

. "but...y/n, i have already forgiven you. we do not need your-"

. jay covered zane's mouth, laughing sheepishly as kai spoke up, holding a bunch of video games you have given to them..

. "oh nono- please, we are more then happy to receive these gifts. your more then kind."

. cole nods in agreement.

. you smile and leave their gaming room, only to have master wu smack each of the boys, beside zane, on the heads

☆ i think i went a bit overbored 😭

[gyuswhore]

How to Win Hearts for Dummies (the answer is lattes and banana bread)

Idol!mingyu x makeup-artist!reader

genre: fluff, angst, one sided pining

warnings: slow burn, swearing, shitty bosses, some descriptions of anxiety and breakdowns, one sided pining, reader has issues opening up (lmk if there's anything else)

13.4k words (im sorry)

plot: This apprenticeship was taking a toll on your self control in the worst possible way. Walking in 8 months ago, a resignation from your corporate job and a dream in your pocket, you made an oath to stay focused on the goal at hand and to enjoy what you did for a living for once; makeup. Except, your still stuck as an apprentice with a mentor that has no inclination for your growth.

And you’re a little bit in love with your client.

masterlist

(A/N): repost bc Tumblr wouldn’t show it in the tags!!! Thank you for clicking on this clonking my pants as I hit post ! I started working on this at the beginning of exam season and I’m posting it the night before my last exam 🥲 what a full circle moment. Also pls excuse any inconsistencies or grammatical errors, my beta reader, unlike me, actually cares ab her grades and is in the beginning of exam season and therefore will not be able to read through this monstrosity for a while lmao. Enjoy hehe

Edit: I’ve just realised how many mistakes and grammatical errors I’ve made throughout the fic, serves me right for proofreading at 3 AM after a stats exam. I’ll try to fix them all asap!!! 

The camera goes off again with a distinct click. And again. And again. And again.

The camera had gone off innumerable times since Mingyu walked out in another themed ensemble, and you were there, watching, through all of it.

You watched as he kept switching positions, rotating his body and his head. Morphing his features into more variations of dazed and serious than you thought could ever exist.

Standing there, at the portable table behind the main setup, attempting to clean a lip brush that would be needed soon when the inevitable call for-

“Makeup over here! We’re taking 5”

You note your sluggish pace as you snap out of your daze and scrubbing harder with the removal cloth. Snapping your head down, hoping nobody noticed your incessant heart eyes, you realize you were in trouble now.

‘Y/n, you’ve been cleaning that brush since I left 10 minutes ago!’ The senior makeup artist snapped.

You finish up the brush in hand and quickly hand her what she needs, not before rummaging for the tiny pot of lip product you absent-mindedly packed away.

‘Sorry, really sorry’ you choke out before she leaves in her badly concealed irritated expression. You see her make a beeline for a waiting Mingyu, who adorably squats for the woman so she has better access.

This apprenticeship was taking a toll on your self control in the worst possible way. Walking in 8 months ago, a resignation from your corporate job and a dream in your pocket, you made an oath to stay focused on the goal at hand and to enjoy what you did for a living for once; makeup. Except, your still stuck as an apprentice with a mentor that has no inclination for your growth.

And you’re a little bit in love with your client.

It's not that you were overage (your mother begs to differ), but considering you were on your second big girl job and still no sign of a potential lover, the prospect was starting to weigh on your head. The first rattling experience was when one of your closest friends announced her engagement, your thoughts still stuck in a 19 year old you considered she was too young. She was not, in fact, 19, or too young, but a perfectly acceptable age to consider marriage with someone she loved, you had soon realized. You were never one for the dating scene, but you were always one to don your Dr. Love labcoat whenever an emotionally bruised friend would come seeking help. You were good at advice, but awfully bad at applying it yourself.

Coming into this job, surrounded by a plethora of beautiful people, your heart would be of stone if it weren’t to waver.

The gong of unattainability had struck the second you laid eyes on Mingyu, laughing at something Hoshi had shown him on the phone. There he was, hair and makeup-less, looking like he had just rolled out of bed (which he had), and beautiful as ever. Beginning this new chapter with a bang, only problem was that it turned into an 8 month shoot out. Having encountered a number of gorgeous people, you’d learned to appreciate their genetic lottery pull and move on. But never had a single look left you as breathless and unbeared as that one, fateful look at Mingyu. One of the team members was busy assuring you not to worry too much about the pandemonium in the dressing room, that everyone would handle it and you were only asked to observe and help with smaller things as instructed; for now. You weren’t listening too hard though.

You were now adjusted to the chaos that comeback season and 13 men plus staff in a microscopic dressing room brought about. But you will never forget how in the midst of your first rain of hell, Mingyu had asked you to pass his phone.

‘Please?’ He had said, and you slammed your hand with a force of a woman infatuated on the table behind you and (literally) breathed out the first thing you had ever said to him.

‘Here’

He smiled and gave you a quick ‘thanks’.

There was no coming back after he flashed you those irresistible canines, and to this day, you wonder what nation you saved in a previous life to be able to have him know your name, hear it roll off his tongue in his pretty voice as he asks you to fix his smudged eyeliner.

You sigh defeatedly before your mentor slash irritated makeup artist shoves her load back in your hands and instructs you to come inside to pack up. It’s become routine for you now, as you begin to pack up the bigger palettes and tools, handing a ready-to-go-home Junhui the pack of makeup wipes he asked for, zipping up bags and closing tubs of outfits. It's an organized chaos but one everybody has grown to work around.

Mingyu is done before you, as he removes his jewelry and begins to shrug off his jacket. You scramble to find the clothes he came in and his coat, pointedly ignoring the familiar scent of wood. He thanks you and shucks off the remainder of his clothing, he might be used to stripping in front of professional staff, but you look away regardless for your own sanity.

Helping the last stylists hang the final jacket, you grab your bag and get ready to leave in your own car. Mingyu has left, not before throwing a “you did well, thank you!” over his shoulder at the remaining people in the room and leaving for the honking car outside.

***

Your mashing bananas in a bowl at 12 AM when you start thinking. Impulsive baking sessions had become a norm since you started working with Seventeen, needing to keep yourself occupied to stop spiraling. Mingyu was a recurring topic (surprise surprise), but one that quickly faded when you begin to think about what the future holds for you. You start mashing the banana harder. You consider the idea that you can’t complain, being in a position some of the most well seasoned pros had difficulty reaching. Being a single young woman and being allowed so close to some of the most unattainable men was seen as near impossible. You’d like to think it was your skill that got you here but can never seem to fully rule out a processing error.

It’s hard, being stuck in the same place. Your apprenticeship should have ended 2 months ago, but even if it had, you’d still be doing the same thing. The senior artist trusts no-one but a select few to work on the boys for photoshoots, events, music videos. People like you are left to sanitize sponges and clean the fallout.

You crack an egg on the counter and it splits open entirely, falling on the floor, yolk and all. Your inability to grow stays within the idea that you can’t really do your artistry like you want.

And how you never learn to crack your eggs on the bowl.

***

Showing up on the Going Seventeen set, you rush to the dressing room way earlier than you should. Being completely honest, you’re really only rushing because you want to maneuvere yourself to do Mingyu’s makeup before somebody else snags him. This was one of the very few engagements where you were occasionally allowed to take charge on makeup. Not that it was required for the show much at all; intensity and occasion wise. Your rare (possible) moment to (maybe) come into Mingyu’s organic notice was an opportunity never to be dropped by you.

You help setting up everything on the counters as the boys begin to (loudly) file in the rooms. You see Mingyu walk in and move to ask him to sit down once he’s done discarding his coat. He was first in line and you ‘happened’ to be the first one ready to begin working.

‘Is the eye makeup heavy? I just got a sty removed and I don’t know if I should be putting anything on at all.’ He asks as he sits down and you ready your damp sponge.

‘Not really, just smoothing things out. It should be fine.’ you say as you begin to press the compact on his cheek.

Your not really sure why, because you’ve never been able to muster anything above brief replies when in contact with him, but something in you pushes you to keep talking.

‘I’m surprised they even asked for us, they rarely ever do’ you continue, heart pounding so hard you’re afraid he might hear it.

He breathes out a laugh ‘Yeah. They even started advertising the show on youtube and subway stations and stuff, I didn’t know until I saw someone talk about it online’

You smile at his response ‘Well, all of you work so hard, it's about time they pull this to a high scale production’

‘It's never really work if your having fun, we try to be ourselves on here’ He replies, still smiling slightly.

You’re damn near close to collapsing on the floor at this point. This is the longest conversation you’ve ever had with him. You opt to smile in response as you start to concentrate on his eyebrows. The rest of his face is done far too soon as you zone out and do what you do best.

‘All done’ you announce as you pull away from his lips, trying not to have yoour gaze linger.

“Y/n! Can you start on Vernon if you're done?’, another artist calls from behind.

‘Yeah, he can come up!’ you reply as Mingyu (regretfully) walks towards hair.

Just because you sew your mouth shut with Mingyu doesn’t mean it applies for the rest of them, you’re quite friendly with all of them and Vernon does well to remind you as he sits down and quips a ‘hey bestieee’ in an elongated greeting.

You audibly laugh ‘That’s another word I’ll be hearing for the next month’

‘Regretfully so’ He feigns sympathy.

‘Be quiet and look up’ you say with a fond smile before you get started on him.

***

You sit on the floor in front of your television, trail mix on the coffee table as the movie plays as background noise for your thoughts - again.

There’s a smile on your face, but you dont notice as you think about the small talk you made with Mingyu today, wondering if it could become a regular occurrence if you learned to keep your heart and mind in check.  

You were never one to stand up and take effort to do what was right for you, which is why you were talked into choosing Business Administration by your friend in highschool, who you never speak to now because she decided to ditch you for another group who were more inclined to shuttle themselves to liver failure by partying every last weekend in your entire college career. You were talked into applying to corporate jobs by your counsellors as you started looking for make-up courses, needing to abandon your dream for the second time when you landed a decent entry level desk job. It took years before you decided to choose yourself for once and made the big leap after multiple courses you had took on the side. Life was starting to look bright after getting hired here, but you’re not sure if you overrode a high or if you went back to your old zipped mouth state after you settled in. Never sure if you expected too much or if things really were as stagnant as they felt.

***

Overmanifestation can be a thing. You're not really sure how it works but you’re reaping what you’ve sowed right about now.

You’re currently standing in an offside corridor in a hotel lobby, clad in a pretty white floral dress, and a nervous, fidgety Mingyu standing in front of you.

'I know I'm asking you to do something difficult and I know it seems pointless because I'm not doing anything wrong either that you have to lie about it'

This was supposed to be a staycation with your friends for you to relax and get your mind off things. Your ticket to relaxation has become a nightmare.

'And I understand I'm being super unreasonable but I'm really trying to keep it on the down-low as we get to know each other'

You were waiting with your friends on the couches positively stuffing your faces with the complimentary chocolate bowl placed on the coffee table as a couple other friends checked you guys into your rooms. You were laughing and talking with your group, carefree and ready to have a week of well deserved rest.

That was the plan anyway. Until you see someone across the lobby, also in line at check in. He had an unmistakable toothy smile,and was hand in hand with a concealed brunette.

Your smile abruptly falls in disbelief as you feel your world halt around you.

The same hands come up to brush the hair out of the woman's face to place a kiss on her temple, smiling wide.

The nauseating feeling of ice going down your spine is becoming more and more apparent. You attempt to swallow the lump in your throat but it's like trying to swallow a brick. You lick your lips and attempt to look away but your eyes keep feeding on the picture you painted yourself in your worst nightmares. Realizing you're on the brink of possible hyperventilation, your friend drops her head and asks you if you're okay. You look up at her, not knowing what to say as you realize that nodding furiously will convince her.

Mingyu has a girlfriend.

Of course he would. What were you thinking? This man is one of the most eligible bachelors in the country, why on earth would he be single? You’re unhinged, you decide, for thinking you may have a chance, when the woman turns around and you see her in full. She’s gorgeous.

A part of you still wants to believe that you're officially past the point of sanity and that you've begun to see Mingyu in every tall man. The universe, however, is cruel. He pushes his head up and in your general direction, and locks eyes with you in unmistakable recognition.

He stops smiling.

So here you are listening to Mingyu asking you to keep this a secret from the company, to forget the woman waiting for him in the lobby.

You can only nod in slight motions as he goes on his rant to justify his oath to secrecy, managing a tight lipped smile as you miraculously find your voice, hoarse as it may be.

'Don't worry about it, I understand' - ouch - 'it's none of my business anyway. I'll keep my lips sealed, I promise'

'Thank you, thank you, thank you I appreciate it so much, you don't even know. I'll repay you soon I promise'

'No, please, it's not-'

'No, Y/n I will. You're being really good to me right now and I'm so grateful. I'm sorry for putting you through this while you're off from work and with friends. It's worth to me that your listening and understanding'

You're tired. You want nothing but for him to stop talking. So you smile again and shake your head.

'I'm sure your friends are waiting, I won't keep you. I'll see you soon though!'

And with that he leaves. Back to the lobby where you see him take the woman by hand once again. You watch again as they walk to the elevators, stepping in and disappearing when the doors close. You watch the floor number rise.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

You walk back to your laughing friends before you can see where they got off.

***

Retiring to your shared hotel room with Chaeyoung, you fall back first into the crisp sheets and mattress.

'Why're you so depressed dude, did Mingyu say something to you?' She asks, a slight line forming between her brows.

'I'm fine, I've been up since 5 today it's just fatigue hitting me right now' you reassure, like always. 'I might not go to dinner with you guys, might end up with my face in the soup at some point'

Chaeyoung hums. ‘Take the night off so you can gear up for the rest of the week. I'm letting you off for now but I expect full attendance for eveything else we do', finishing with a mocking stern look.

'Yes ma'am' you feign salute from the bed, mimicking her stern tone.

You've known Chaeyoung for quite a while now, meeting her in your last year of uni. Trusting her as you do, you were never fully able to fess up about your feelings for Mingyu. Fear of judgment wasn't the problem, but more so the strange feeling of shame that overcomes you when you think about talking about it with other people. It's quite beyond you, why you act this way. You loved your friends and you knew they would support you with everything, they'd proved it when you'd made one of the most difficult decisions of your life while leaving your job. But the idea of having the audacity to love someone who could never do the same seemed like a feat of embarrassment.

Who are you, y/n? Who are you to have foolish dreams of a girl in love? With someone clearly fit for all things greater than you?

Maybe this was a good thing, you thought, the weird feeling in your stomach returning. Maybe this was the universe telling you to give up and move on, a kind of rejection that keeps your dignity. This was nothing but a reality check, a sign from whatever wants best for you, to bring your attention back to what brought you to Mingyu in the first place.

***

You didn’t see Mingyu for the rest of the trip, which you were grateful for not knowing how you’d react if you had to see him so soon after, that.

Back massaged and head clearer than it had been for weeks, you feel more in control of your feelings and thoughts regarding your life. You hope the conversation with Mingyu was the last stressful thing you’d encounter for a while.

It’s almost comeback season, you realise as you see the new concept photos while scrolling on your couch at home. This meant insanely early mornings for weeks on end, but you had to push through for your own sake. You’d come out of multiple comebacks needing a brace for a month but you wouldn’t trade it for the world. Never realising the true meaning of learning through experience, you were enlightened as you entered this new, very hands on field. The concept looked interesting, hoping the scraps of makeup you’d be allowed to do would be fun for you.

That ended up being true when you were, for the first time, asked to do Hoshi’s full makeup for their first comeback broadcast.

Your stumped silence was short lived as you hastily oblige and get the chair ready for him. You’d looked at the demo sheets and face charts too much for someone who wasn’t actually going to be asked to do much, but you see it pay off as you finish his eyes and get started on the rest of his face. It was easy for you to zone out as Soonyoung had passed out not even 5 minutes in, having someone hold his face as you worked.

You felt your chest swell with an indesipherable feeling as you watched him get up with your mastery on his face; pride, was it? You were getting emotional for no reason. Your attention, however, is moved sharply when you hear someone tell Mingyu it was his turn, finding him plopped on your chair staring straight into nothingness as he’d just been rudely awoken from his nap. He doesn’t realise it’s you for a solid minute as he tried to remember his own name.

‘Oh, hello’ he says, sort of confused. ‘Sorry, just give me minute’, he mumbles as he rubs his eyes.

He stretches back onto his seat signalling he’s ready for you to get started. You trying not to feel too much in your stomach as you begin.

You’re powdering his forehead when he says “I know I already said this but I really appreciate what you’re doing”

You know he’s talking about the conversation at the hotel, you were hoping you could avoid it.

“I told you not to worry about it, honest.” You reply, and somehow manage to choke out “It makes me happy that you’re happy”

You can see him trying to fight a smile, “Thank you for saying that”.

You wanted to stab someone. But you opt for gently brushing a base colour across his eyes.

“Do any of us know her, by any chance?” You ask cautiously.

“I dont think so. We met through mutual friends at a Christmas dinner, we didn’t start talking till she had to bring me a bunch of papers I’d left at my mom’s that day.” his face depicts someone reminiscing a fond memory.

It was cute, how it seemed like fate was trying to bring them together. It would've been cuter if you weren’t in a one sided pining with one of the two lovers.

“Well, I hope it works out for the both of you”

No you don’t.

“I hope so too”

You don’t hope that at all.

You felt guilty, feeling all of this. Hated that this was your first response to him wanting to be happy. Never would you have imagined stooping this low, hoping his happiness doesn’t work out for your sake. You’d like to owe it this being your first real infatuation, but you can’t help but wonder if this was really what you thought.

You decided to focus on the good news for today, that you’re finally allowed to do your actual job. You can only hope this wasn’t a temporary advancement, allowing time to tell.

Things remained the same the following day, much to your absolute elation. You were done doing 4 people’s makeup and was just winding down to take a break, quite satisfied with yourself. You observed as the rest of the boys got their hair done and run around, half in their outfits. You stifle a snort as you watch Jeonghan hide Minghao’s socks in his pockets as the boy tried to find them to put his shoes on, the former continuing to sip on his coffee seemingly unaware.

“Y/n, have you seen my socks? The green ones with the leaves on it?” Hao inevitable asks you.

You’re forced to feign confusion when Jeonghan pokes his head behind him signalling you to keep up the charade. He continues to look and you’re just about to have mercy on the poor boy before a to-go cup of coffee is shoved in front of your face.

You look up at the person and it’s Mingyu extending his arm at you expectantly.

“Oh, I didn’t order anything” you start, thinking you’re clearing up a confusion.

“I know you didn’t, got one for you anyway.”

There’s a record screech in your brain as you absorb his words.

“Think of it as me trying to repay the favour”

Oh. I see.

You’re a little embarrassed thinking he’d get one for you in that way, not when he had someone waiting on him. You accept the cup and mumble a thank you as he unexpectedly plants himself on the couch next to you.

“I saw you drinking lattes a lot of the times, so I just got you that. Hope that’s okay”.

Your silent for a moment before replying “Yes!” a little bit too loudly, eyes widening a little realisng your lack of volume control.

He knows your coffee order.

“Yes,” you say again in a normal tone and a slight laugh to cover up your inability to read the room, “They’re my favourite actually”

Kim Mingyu knows you like latte’s. This wasn’t good for your delusional brain.

Your conversation is cut short when the boys are called for roll call before they can prepare for the actual stage. You watch him get up and leave to file into the overstuffed elevators, not before he throws you the most adorable wave you’ve ever seen. You can’t hold back your smile as you wave back and look down at the drink he got you before taking a sip.

***

As it turns out, you did makeup for the rest of their comeback season, and Mingyu, without fail, got you an iced latte every single day before leaving to go on stage.

You tried to get him to stop, but he was rooted in his position and you didn’t have it in you to say no to his pleading eyes. It was a re-charge for you, when you’d seen him break into a happy smile, prominent canines that you’d grown to adore. He’d done more than enough to ‘repay’ you for swearing to secrecy, and you felt like you too, should  should repay him the balance.

So here you were, making banana bread in your kitchen again, careful to remember to crack your eggs on the rim of your mixing bowl instead of slamming them on the counter. You’re stirring the flour in when a classified devious thought occurs to you.

These past two weeks were pivotal for both you and Mingyu, daily coffee’s meant daily conversations, which meant getting to know one another more. You’d exchanged phone numbers in the midst of all of this, to which ensued the agenda of staying up till midnight talking to each other about the meaning of life.

Setting down the whisk, you pick up your phone and sent the text before you chickened out.

[You]: I have a surprise for you.

[You]: You wanna come over? It’s better enjoyed fresh lol

[Mingyu]: Ma’am? 👁👁

[Mingyu]: That sounds a whole lot like a booty call

[You]: *attachment*

[Mingyu]: IS THAT CAKE??

[Mingyu]: omw 😮‍💨

You send the location and set your phone down, a jittery feeling going through your entire body. There’s a spring in your step as you slide the loaf into the oven and set a timer. You turn around your kitchen island and register the pigsty that is your apartment. The girls were over the night before and you had done nothing to enlighten the aftermath, pillows strewn across the entire living room and snack wrappers in places you’re not sure how they landed.

By the time you’re done and spritzed the place with some of your nicer perfumes, your taking the loaf out of the oven and on a rack to cool.

Ever the punctual man, you hear the doorbell ring just as your taking your oven mitts off.

Hoping you’ve done enough to your apartment to save yourself from embarrassment, you collect yourself and open the door for him through your ringcam. He’s barely through when your rushing towards your doorway.

“Hi!”

“Hey,” he grunts as he tries to slip off his shoes.

“‘aight, where’s my cake?” he demands once he’s done giving you a quick hug.

You roll your eyes and usher him to the kitchen, “First of all, appreciate how excited you are to see me, and second, its banana bread not cake, sorry to burst your bubble”

He responds to your grumbling with an “Oh come on, you can't put freshly baked goods on the agenda and expect me to pay particular attention to anything else”.

He has his trademarked grin and cheesy stare out on display like its nobody’s business, you want to slap it off of him in the most loving way possible, but you settle with a tiny “shut up”.

“I brought warm coffee this time, thought it’d go better” He sets the to-go carrier on the kitchen counter, following you to where you were attempting to slice the still hot banana bread on a tray.

“Oh, that was a good idea” you say.

“Where’re your plates and forks?” he asks, pulling out the drawers and cabinets you signal to.

It all felt too domestic for your weak heart to handle. Not to say it didn’t warm you to the core how comfortable he felt in your space, you did, more than you’d care to admit. But he needed to tone it down before you required an organ transplant.

You were seated on the floor, butts parked on floor cushions, backs against the couch. The coffee table held all of your goods while you both argued on which movie to watch.

“I can’t believe you haven’t watched any of the Harry Potter movies! No, we’re watching philosopher’s stone, I don’t care!” You shout in disbelief, already typing it into the search bar on the TV.

“Philly-philo- bro I can’t even pronounce it why would I watch that?!” He yells back, snatching the remote from you.

You’re both a giggling, screaming mess on the floor as you keep trying to steal the remote from each other, not stopping until one of you bumps into the table and you almost spill hot coffee all over yourselves.

You decide to call a truce and pick another movie entirely.

Just as you’re pressing play, Mingyu takes a bite of the still (surprisingly) warm banana bread and you watch as his eyes roll to the back of his head.

“This is so good” He says, his faced furrowed as he goes in for another bite. “Did you lace this with something, why is this so good?”

You’re biting back a snarky remark but you let it rip anyway; “It’s cuz these pretty hands made it”

You splay your hands out in front of your face, like your showing him your rings, fingers wiggling and a cheeky smile on your face.

He looks unimpressed as he scoffs. He swallows before saying: “At least you didn’t call the secret ingredient love or something”

“Excuse you, I’m pretty sure I heard you say that in some Gose episode” You remark.

He turns to you, all smug: “So your saying you watch Gose? Like, regularly?”

You immediately turn away from his taunting smirk, “Sometimes, if it shows up on my home page”

You take a sip of your latte before he asks you another sweat producing question.

“Oh, but you pay attention to me the most don’t you? Don’t you?”

He’s poking fun at you, you know that. But a paranoid part of you can’t help but think he’s onto you and your feelings.

So you say something maybe a little bit below the belt.

“You sure have a knack for seeking validation from the world when you have a partner already giving that to you”

The words tumble out of your mouth before you know it. In your defence, you're doing this for a greater cause, but it's still a relief when you see him comically gasp, hand to his diaphragm.

“Just because your alone in life, doesn’t mean you need to be salty about other people receiving actual love” He spits back.

Your sputtering trying to think of a response. Deserved.

He grabs a slice of the bread and shoves into your mouth to shut you up once and for all. You’re left chewing the mouthful and staring at him in shock.

He giggles and takes a sip of coffee, satisfied with himself. When he sets it down he opens his mouth to speak. Closes it again, like he re-evaluating, and finally decides to say something. He’s serious now.

“Ji Eun and I, decided it wasn’t gonna work out between us”.

Oh.

“Oh.”

He blows a raspberry and lets out a meek laugh.

“Yeah, oh. It’s whatever, it wasn’t meant to work out. Better sooner than later.”

You’re trying to find the words to reply or comfort him.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” You ask him, being careful to not lace your voice with pity, but more neutral and open. “You don’t have to, obviously, but it might be better to talk about what’s bothering you”

He pauses for a moment before starting.

“She wasn’t sitting very well with the idea that she had to share me. Like at all. She wouldn’t say it but she’d get mildly infuriated when I’d blow the fans a kiss or something, or interacted with the staff too much. I was getting home quite late certain days during comeback season and I’d find her outside the dorm at like 11 PM. It was embarrassing when all of the other members would see her there, obviously upset and basically yelling at me for, for - for literally just doing my job.I guess all the smaller things just started piling and she couldn’t take it. I tried so hard to make sure she felt wanted and secure in the relationship but nothing felt like it was ever enough. She was evasive or confrontational all at the wrong times and it came to a point- its a horrible thought to have in a relationship - but I was terrified she’d do something rash and I’d wake up to my face on articles for some reason - again”

You recollected the past couple years when Mingyu was thrown around in the media for a new accusation seemingly everyday. You weren’t involved with anything regarding the industry back then, but you’d heard enough news to be aware of what was happening.

Your heart swelled with sadness as you heard him talk, he sounded like he was trying- trying hard to be good enough. All for a person who seemed to have their priorities set somewhere else.

“She was amazing; kind and happy and confident. She treated my parents with respect, she was best friends with my sister. I know we only lasted like 3 months but at some point I really considered that she could be the one. But then the problems started and I realized she was only becoming an added factor to stress and anxiety for me more than anything else.

“I liked her because she was so family oriented, and I thought that was what would fit me because I’m like that too. But, I guess I’m just a different kind of oriented? I don’t know. I have a job that’s both interpersonal and unpredictable. There’s days where I don’t wanna get up and do work but I still love it nonetheless. I guess she just expected me to have a predictable, stable 9 to 5. Home in time for dinner, not requiring interaction with too many people; basically everything I can’t be.”

He’s silent for a moment.

You start talking after a couple beats.

“I really hope you aren’t taking this like it’s your fault. She made a choice to put up with your work, knowing how it would be for the both you. You tried your best but she made you feel like your best wasn’t good enough. I dunno about you, but that sounds like a really problematic conclusion. If she truly cared for you and what you love, she would never have been this unsupportive or not understanding”.

He’s listening to you, his expression is blank but you can tell he’s absorbing your words.

“I’d like to think I had realized that. But being completely honest, I’m not really sure when my thoughts go back to me thinking I’m the problem all the time.”

He manages a smile, a wide one, as he looks up to make eye contact with you; “But I know it’ll take me some time to really start believing that it’s not entirely my fault. We just weren’t compatible, and that’s fine. We left on good terms, and I’m happy about that.”

You smile with him as he finishes, but your a little confused when he starts sliding closer and down the cushions.

He sets his head on your shoulder.

You may have shortcircuited right then and there.

“Is this okay?” he asks you quietly, attention finally diverted to the half played movie.

You realise he asked you a question and you have to answer.

“Yeah, this is fine” You breathe out, somehow, by the graces of God himself.

No, you weren’t fine at all. You felt like the universe had flipped a faulty switch, mixed up the scripts, lost the plot, something. But as you get used to the weight of Mingyu’s head on your shoulder, you pray it won’t come back to haunt you in another chapter.

***

Your routine became inverted in the sense that, what you once had to plan out so intricately, is unfolding with no effort from you at all.

You find that Mingyu waits for you to be done with somebody else so you can do his makeup, instead of sitting on another free chair. He’d come to you specifically to touch up his makeup instead of going to an artist he saw closer to him. He never forgot to get you a coffee whenever it was that he saw you.

Mingyu hadn’t slept over that night, instead leaving in his car despite the 1 AM drizzle and your insistence for him to stay until the pour recedes.

Maybe it was better for you that he hadn’t stayed that night. Something about how you grew so close ‘organically’ made you feel like this wasn’t all in your head, that he’s choosing to be your friend.

You’re handing him his clothes as he begins to change, using the excuse to whisper to him;

“I was gonna try a new brownie recipe tonight, if you’re free you can come over?”

“I think I have somewhere to be after this but I’m free after, How’s 6?”

So there you are, back in your kitchen folding chocolate chunks into your brownie batter while waiting for Mingyu to get here.

Your phone dings from the island and you check to see a message from Mingyu sending you what looked like a grocery list; pasta, oregano, garlic…

[Mingyu]: Tell me what you don’t have from this

[Mingyu]: I’m at the store rn hurry up

You send him a list of what you don’t have, realising he intended to have dinner with you too.

[Mingyu]: k thanks

[Mingyu]: be there in like an hour

There’s a warm feeling that’s swelling in your chest, that makes you wanna punch a wall because your so happy. You choose self control, mostly because this apartment is on a lease but also you’d probably break your knuckles trying to punch anything harder than a foam mat.

By the time Mingyu’s here, the brownies are in the oven and you’re almost done with the icing. He unpacks the groceries (and the warm lattes) he bought while you finish up, confirming that he was trying a new pasta recipe tonight. Setting the brownies and coffee down on your usual coffee table, you decide wait a couple hours before starting on making dinner, instead choosing to hear him ramble about an idol he met at an award show.

“So, we start talking before we’re ready to go up- you weren’t there you were working on wonwoo’s makeup- and he starts complimenting me and so obviously I start complimenting him back”

He’s waving his arms around, and setting positions with coasters on the table trying to explain the setting.

“He asks me if I have a sister and I’m like… yes? Which I should’ve realised where this was going because he then” - he pauses to take a deep breath - “this absolute asshat decides it’d be funny to ask me for her number because apparently ‘if you’re this hot, I’m sure any sibling you have is too’ BRO, WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU SAY THAT - how are laughing at this?!”

You calm yourself down for a second to clarify, “NO! It’s just hilarious how he thought that was okay to say”

You’re still still giggling in shock when Mingyu calms down, now also laughing incredulously.

“But actually though, please tell me you smacked him” you manage.

“I would have,” he grumbles “I got called to fix my hair cuz I ruined it or something”.

“Oh well, now you know who to avoid next time,” you say as you guide a bite of brownie into his mouth, “Forget about it now, eat sugar, it’ll help”

He chews a bit before swallowing, all while you’re watching him with an endeared smile on your face.

“Y’know, I really thought you didn’t like me when you first joined the team”

You pause mid sip of your coffee, brows furrowed, “What do you mean?”

“You never really talked me, did you? You were friendly with the rest of them but it just seemed like you never wanted to enter a room if you saw me there”

You’re looking at him in utter shock, this man was mistaking your avoidant (yet also pushy) teenage crush behaviour for dislike.

He’s looking at you expectantly, a little pout on his face.

“I never disliked you, why would you think that? I promise everything was a coincidence, it was nothing like that”

“Don’t get so defensive, kinda obvious you like me now if not before” He laughs at your panicked expression.

He meant platonic like.

“I’m sorry I made you feel like that though, I’ve been told I have a pretty serious resting bitch face, it’s gotten me in trouble before” she smile sheepishly.

“It’s fine, you made up for it with that first banana bread” He says before taking another bite of brownie, “Could use more chocolate chunks”

You snort before pushing him with a sock clad foot, “Appreciate me even giving them to you” 

You fall back to the adjacent sofa.

It’s quiet for a moment. But you feel like something’s shifted in the air.

You watch as he brings his hand to the same foot, holding onto your ankles. He’s caressing the exposed skin with his fingers, moving them back and forth. His eyes are glued to yours, looking like he’s in a trance. You’re not sure how to register this new change in mood, suddenly feeling like you need to turn the aircon on during the bleak Seoul winter. Just as you're hoping you don’t start sweating, you feel his vice grip on your ankle pull your leg over with a sharp tug. You scream as you lose support of the sofa and fall back.

You sit up in shock to find him leaning with his elbows on the floor, cackling like madman.

“Mingyu, what the fuck?”

“You-” He stops to laugh again, “You should’ve seen your face, PLEASE, it was hilarious”.

You huff before getting up shoving his shoulder with your foot again, “You’ve been playing guest a little too long, maybe it’s time you get started on that pasta”

“Will I be blessed enough to be receiving her highness’s help?” He asks.

He looks like a dream, clad in his T-shirt because he claims he doesn’t get cold. Hands behind him on the floor to give him support as he stares up at you, smiling wide. He’s looking at you with eyes full of stars and glitter.

You muster up the courage to give him a nasty glare, to which he huffs at and gets up, “Such a meanie”.

It’s hard to conceal your smile as his back his turned, sachaying towards the kitchen. You want to slap him and kiss him at the same time.

Your washing veggies in the sink when you turn around catch sight of his back as he stood at the kitchen island, sorting the rest of the ingredients. You get the same overwhelming feeling in your chest again, assuming you’re deluding yourself into thinking this is what life could be like with him. In less than 3 seconds, you’ve conjured a timeline of domestic routines, to wind down with him like this every evening.

You’re still lost in thought, still incessantly staring when he turns around and catches you in the act. He does the rude thing and snaps his fingers in front of your face to pull you out of your thoughts, “You okay?”

“Yeah” You say trying to gloss it over while busying yourself trying to find your cutting board.

“Are you sure? Do you wanna sit down at the island and watch me instead. You don’t have to help -”

“Pick a knife, and shut up dingus, it’s fine”

Once your both done eating and cleaning up, Mingyu hugs you goodbye, not before asking if you’d be free for lunch next week before he got busy the following month. You quickly agree, setting a date and time, bidding your (reluctant) farewells.

***

Once back in your apartment you realize how you can’t clean up to distract yourself because Mingyu took it upon himself to clear the space with you before he left. You sigh loudly and retire into your bedroom where you don’t have to think about how empty your living room is.

Changing into your pajamas and putting a headband on, you don’t even feel like turning your music on to do your night routine. You double cleanse, tone, serum, acid and moisturise your face with added purposefulness, taking note of the crevices of your nose and the neglected bottom of your chin. Taking extra time to make sure all of the foam is out of your skin before drying your face with a tissue.

You look at your fed skin in the mirror, and feel a weird surge of tears well in your eyes. Before they can fall you slam your bathroom cabinet to busy yourself to find your melatonin gummies, shoving them in your mouth before switching off the bathroom light and retiring to your bedroom.

Slipping the headband off and sliding into bed, you’re still chewing your gummies to a paste in your mouth. Trying not to notice how heavy you’re breathing you try to find your white noise machine, the one you found advertised for infants, and turn it on before grabbing your book to read for a few extra minutes.

Your staring at the pages like you found them to be blank. You’re phone dings next to you, signalling a notification.

Picking it up you find your mental health app sending you a daily reminder.

You’re allowed to feel your emotions.

***

Winter had run its course as you find yourself in April. You never really liked the cold, having been more sensitive to a gust of wind than the average joe, you were better suited to sitting with an aircon instead of being unable to move in the middle of Korea’s January cold rush. But alas, the cherries are blossoming and your fingers have defrosted.

That isn’t what’s on your mind right now though, as you’re standing in a Sephora, arms crossed and shoulders tense. You loved shopping for makeup, but you mostly chose to do it online unless you really had to otherwise. Parking yourself in the perfume section with the scents mixing together a cocktail of nosehair doom, you really wish you’d worn a face mask. Not to mention the migraine inducing coloured lights and mainstream pop playing in the background (you swear they’ve been playing Side to Side by Ariana Grande on loop since you got here).

These were all, however, peripheral observations for you, as you stare in absolute pneumonic shock at the number written on the price tag of the perfume you’re looking at.

Now, Mingyu is a man of class, high maintenance if you will. You’re well aware he likes to spoil himself, because he has a bank account to back it up.

Your bank account is definitely full and secure, but not enough for you to justify dropping what seems like half of its contents to something only one of the five senses can experience.

Mingyu mentioned in passing how he wanted this perfume a while ago, and knowing that he hadn’t ordered it for himself just yet, you decide to be the amazing friend that you are and surprise him for his birthday.

You may be regretting that right now, but you tentatively pick up the blue, crystalline bottle and spritz a bit on a paper strip before taking a whiff. It smelled good, that’s for sure, and it suited him too. So when the saleslady came to offer assistance, after you excused the last three, you decide you’re going to do this for him.

“Yes, could I have this in the box please?”

Walking back to your car you feel a bount of jitter run through you,

Oh, he’s gonna freak out when he sees this.

He did, in fact, freak when he saw it, and his reaction made you want to give him all of the good things in the world if you could see him like this all the time.

He’s smiling ear to ear and speaking in that high pitched voice that he gets when he’s excited. He’s thanking you over and over again, smoothing the box over in his hands repeatedly, looking at the ‘from: y/n :p’ with hearts in his eyes.

“I’m gonna save this for the rest of my life” he says, with determination and a goofy grin.

You snort at the declaration, “Sure, bud”

“I’m serious. What, you wanna bet?” he replies, taking a sip of his, latte, which you proudly credit yourself for swerving him over from Americano’s.

He insisted on going out to eat at this fancy French place a day before his actual birthday as he’d be busy on the day of, but it was risky for him to be seen eating out alone with a young woman at such a fancy place. You settled for a nicer traditional Korean restaurant, that allowed you to book a room away from possible prying eyes and one that you were both comfortable with. You decided to wait till you were back in the car with your post dinner coffee’s to give him his present.

“I’m giving you 3 months before that bottle’s dry to the dregs” You affirmed, “You smell like you empty half a bottle of something off your dresser everyday anyways”

You said it as an insult, but jokes on you because you loved the way he smelled.

“Fine, I’m gonna use this so carefully I’m not replacing it for at least a year”

“A year? What happened to the rest of your life?” you refute.

“I have you for that, don’t I”

What the fuckity fuck.

He’d turned to you, leaning on the headrest, that signature cheesy look; like he was in love or something. Voice dropping a couple octaves as he said it, laced with something defined and strong - enough for it to feel like the weight of an elephant had dropped on your chest.

You gather yourself after looking at him for a couple seconds, jaw unhinged and forgotten on the floor of his car. You chose to grab your cardigan that was neatly folded on the dash, and astral project it to his face across the seat. He’s laughing so hard there’s tears glistening in the corner of his eyes. He falls forward and you see strands of his hair fall to his face, he’d been growing them out.

“Shut up” you grumble in your seat, annoyed at how easy it was for him to send your heart through and beyond your chest.

He’s still giggling like a school girl, and you cave and give him a hint of a smile.

“There it iiiis” He announces, grabbing your face and smushing your cheeks together.

For a moment, he stops to look at you like this, like he’s contemplating. For one, brain rattling, organ exploding, microsecond, you think he might even kiss you.

Instead, he headbutts you slightly rubbing his head swiftly before letting go.

“I might need to wash my hands, I think I got your makeup on me” He mumbles, looking at his hands like a child with mud soaked palms.

“Serves you right, you buffoon,” You remark as you pull out your trusty travel pack of makeup wipes.

Yanking one out of the tab, you pull his hand over and try to wipe the remnants of foundation off, starting from the heel up to each individual finger. It’s silent as you concentrate on getting it all off both hands, he was wearing black tonight and knowing him he’d rub his hand over his pants and get beige foundation all over. You knew because you’d seen him do it one too many times.

“All done” you quip, looking up and catching his stare. He’s smooth to slowly look away and retract his open hands from your lap about 5 seconds after it became noticeable.

You busy yourself by attempting to stash away the wipes to throw out later, closing the pack of wipes and shoving them back into your bag.

He’s watching you do all of this, his stare is burning holes into the side of your head. He’s desperate to say something, but you’re not sure if you want to hear.

“Let’s go back to my place. We’ll stick a candle into a sheet brownie and call it your birthday cake. Oh, we can pick up ice cream too!”, You say, costuming your voice to sound unaffected by his vibe.

And so you did stick a candle in the fresh batch of brownies you both made at 11PM, two hours before his actual birthday. Sitting across from each other on the counter, Mingyu has his eyes closed shut, hands clasped, wearing a ridiculously coloured ‘BIRTHDAY BOY’ headband you found somewhere deep in your drawers.

“You’re gonna get wax on the brownies and they're gonna be inedible, hurry up” You groan, after everytime it seems like he’s done, he clenches his eyes shut again as he remembers another thing he has to wish for.

You’re not actually annoyed, he looks the cutest he’s ever looked, but you would appreciate non waxed brownies.

When he’s finally done, he blows out the singular candle and you clap lightly, “yay!”

You’re pulling out the candle and grabbing forks, dumping a couple scoops of ice cream on before you two start eating straight out of the pan.

Its a collection of groans as you both collapse on your couch, regretting eating all that so soon after dinner. He changed out of his dinner outfit to a T-shirt and pajama pants, he’d started keeping a set of clothes in his car when it started to become routine for him to spend regular  evenings after work at your place.

You’re in your own unicorn pajama’s, slumped over on the arm rest slightly. You feel Mingyu scooch over to put his head in your lap, claiming he was “closing his eyes for a minute”.

You knew how lightning fast he passes out, so not even 5 minutes later you start to hear his light snores. As much as you want to wake him up to move him to the bed, you know he can’t stay the night. His birthday meant he had to be with the boys, and needing to head out early tomorrow.

So you give him 10 more minutes, fingers tracing the shape of his features, in his soft hair massaging his head with your nails slightly. He had a little pout on his face as he slept. Things had been hectic for him lately, having a comeback later in the month and the plethora of music and variety shows to follow.

Mingyu had been writing lyrics on the kitchen island one day, sputtering random words as you quipped in rhymes of your own without context, stirring the pot of soup on the hob at the same time.  

One particular rhyme you spew out catches him off guard and he barks out a laugh at the ridiculous combination.

“I should put you on song credits for this”

“What do you think my producer name could be?”

He thinks for a second, “Banana bread sounds stupid, um, how’s brownie?”

“Cute, and serious enough” you agree, “I’ll be expecting to see my name on that album, sir”

Snapping out of your thoughts, you turn your attention back to the sleeping man curled up in your lap. You wonder if you could fall asleep on the couch too, keep him here with you for the night. Be a little selfish. It’d be nice, making waffles for breakfast when morning comes. But he needed to be at the dorm in the morning, the boys knew where he was but managers that’d come pouring in at 7 AM sharp, did not. And it was best kept that way. The last thing Mingyu wanted, you knew, was people getting the wrong idea. The thought stung a little bit, but you knew not to mix your hopes with what reality was giving you.

So you gather the courage to slowly reign him back from dreamland.

***

Your sitting with Mingyu and Seungkwan on the couches outside the dressing rooms, a little bit before they have to go to perform. You were done with your agenda and was waiting for them to start filing out before beginning to pack up.

“No, because why does he get to eat all the good stuff right out the oven and we don’t, that’s not fair” Seungkwan complained loudy to you, a mildly offended look on his face.

“Stop being such a complain bot, you’re never happy if I have nice things” Mingyu retorts, increasingly nasty looks being exchanged for an argument about freshly baked goods.

“Oh, I’m the hater?! Let me jog your memory, who was the one sulking and shoving me around when Y/n wouldn’t let you-”

Mingyu had jumped up and pulled Seungkwan into a headlock, his poor Americano half flying across the hall as he yells out in disarray.

“YAH!” cued with more noises of struggle and muffled threats.

You chose to embrace the violence by sitting in your seat and laughing as Vernon recorded their antics from the doorway inside eventually circing them for his supposed cinematic effect, catered for the inevitable weverse post that was to come.

Cut to them apologizing and cleaning up the mess of coffee and disregard.

You decide to be nice and attempt to make peace by reassuring Seungkwan, “Come over after you’re done promoting this week, I’ll make up for all the bread and cookies you missed out on”

“If you've finished with your escort duties Y/n, could you please come in and do your day job?”

The voice came from the doorway of the dressing room, your senior makeup artist standing there with her usual mildly inconvenienced expression. It took you a minute to fully understand what she meant by that sentence, your body completely still.

“Offended? What, like I’m wrong?”

You were no stranger to insulting behaviour in work places, but they’d always been revolving around your actual job description. People who didn’t like you knew they had to be smart on how they treated you regardles.

This was different. This felt like you were projected back in time to your solemn middle school days to mean girls taunting you about your spongebob socks, except multiply that by about a thousand.

You feel your stomach begin to churn as that nauseous feeling of shame began to settle itself into your veins.

You’re not sure how long you’ve been sitting there but when she slightly raises her voice; “Are you getting up or not?” your hands actively begin to tremble the slightest amount.

You’re making moves to get up by puting your coffee cup down, not knowing what to do except follow commands.

Your interrupted by a voice from behind; “She’s coming in, give us a minute”

Mingyu’s standing there, his expression stoic as Seungkwan and Vernon looked as stunned as you felt. You don’t register it in the moment, but the people in the hall, venue staff and those for other artists have also silenced, watching the scene unfold.

Her lips are in a tight line, her expression remaining irritated as she steps back inside the room.

You realise you need to do something to diffuse the escalated situation. Letting out a breathy laugh, you get up and tell them that you’ll be going inside, trying to keep your expression pleasant and unaffected, not waiting before turning around to spare them the burden of a response. People get yelled at everyday, and this is no different. You aren’t gonna be the one to make a scene out of a regular occurrence.

You know what's coming when you get inside, she’s waiting as she pulls you aside.

“Your behavior has been quite concerning recently, let me remind you of your place here and what you were hired to do. You've been dilly dallying with people who aren't even your friends, and its quite funny that you’d think they are. It's time to wake up from wasting your time making heart eyes at men who are way out of your league. I won't tolerate any more nonsense from you, and trust I won’t be this nice or forgiving the next time this happens”

You choose to nod your head.

“That’s another thing, use your own words. Don’t think other people are gonna be there all the time to speak for you” She spits out, her professional front slowly eroding the more she spoke.

“Yes, ma’am” You say, hoarse voice.

“Louder, next time”, she stalks out as majority of the people in the room also begin to leave for the filming downstairs.

You’re left standing awkwardly in front of the racks of clothes, trying to digest what just happened to you. Looking around the room, you try to figure out what your supposed to do.

Clothes on the couches, eyeshadow brushes on the floor. There’s a torn sponge resting underneath one of the chairs, a couple styrofoam boxes left on the tables from lunch.

There’s so much for you to do, you arent sure how you thought you had time to sit down and chat. But you’re not sure where to begin either. The room is a mess of smells and colours even without the buzzing noise of people getting ready. Tears begin to form as you try to navigate what you’re supposed to do, realising you can’t possibly find a starting point for any of this mess. Before you have time to think of anything else, a hand is holding onto your wrist, small and soft.

It’s Yoona, another one of the makeup artists.

“Y/n, I think it’s best if you go home, it’s been tiring.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle her. Just trust me. Go home you’ll feel alot better”

She notices you hesitate for a second, and goes in to give you a hug.

It felt nice, to be hugged by a friend. For some reason, it didn’t feel like she was pitying you, her expression and aura reassuring you that you didn’t have to stand here alone.

“Whatever happened today shouldn't have happened, but you don’t need to think about that right now. Go home and do nice things for yourself, we’ll figure it out later. You have my number, give me a text once you get home. We can go out later if you want, when I get off work, to get your mind off things”

You’re not sure how you’re holding back the waterpark that has become of your tearducts as you hear those words from an unsuspecting friend, you nod with a smile. You feel a little more calm.

You can’t tell if you care enough to consider the consequences of your senior finding out how you’re doubling or nothing on your already posed humiliation. But the only thing you can think of right now is your bed and the ceiling you’d stare burn holes into.

So you, for the first time in a while, chose to choose yourself by picking up your satchel and leaving the chaos behind you as you walk to your car.

***

Just because you were brave where it mattered most doesn’t mean you weren’t allowed to cry.

You had come home, shot Yoona a brief text, and promptly began to sob the absolute Nile into your sheets.

You had never cried like this before, loud wracked sobs coming from a place in your chest you had locked away during a time you couldn’t even remember. You’re breathing after every choked cry is a sputtered intake of life, only to spit it back out as you let out another sob of what sounds like agony. There’s nothing in your head, nothing but the words that were spoken to you as echoes of your own mind. Hypocritical of you to hate them when the same words circled in your head like a mantra every cursed, unfortunate day. She had done you a favour, by spitting out the truth you’d stewed, chewed and kept in your mouth ever since you got here. This was a you problem, to believe that you were capable of things beyond your bracket. You were told by the universe, screamed at by the world, that this was never meant for you, and you chose to ignore it. You chose to be stubborn. You brought this misery upon yourself.

Once you’ve disposed your body weight of tears and snot and burden, you’re left to stare at your innocent sheets now stained with mascara and your sorrows. You crawl into your covers and rest your muscles for a few seconds, head empty. You aren’t sure when you drift off, but you're glad that you do.

You don’t dream for once.

***

You wake up feeling like you drank a gallon of water and went to sleep. Your eyes, nose and throat feel like they’ve been over watered yet dry at the same time. You don’t realise what’s really arising pangs of irritancy in your brain once you figure out the consistent sound is a door bell. You’re doorbell, of the house that you live in.

You’re slow to push yourself up, realising your slept in your day clothes. It’s dark out but you're not sure what time it is, and quite frankly, you can’t say you care enough to check. You need to silence your doorbell first, which can only be done by silencing whatever hell sent individual was playing drums on the button outside.

It’s a record screech in your brain as you peer through your peephole and realise who the aforementioned hell sent individual was.

Mingyu was outside your door.

You don’t realise you look like you crawled out of a sewer till it’s too late and you’ve already opened the door through muscle memory. Mingyu was always welcome in your space.

He was in casual clothes, his hair pushed back from the guessed hands that ran through it, but he was still in stage his stage makeup.  

“Oh, were you sleeping?” He asks, eyes a little wide, expression cautious.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll go then, you weren’t answering your phone for anyone and you told Yoona you were home but you weren’t opening the door, i was worried. Sorry I ringed it so much I probably should’ve assumed-”

He stops to look at you, and it’s like realizes something before he finally says; “Just wanted to make sure you were okay, I’ll see you around. I’ll leave you alone”

“Wait,” you croak out, licking your lips, conscious of your morning voice, “Can you stay? Please? If you can.”

He stops to look at you, expression changing from sheepish to defensive.

“No! I mean, yes. Yes. I’ll stay. I’ll stay for as long as you want”

You let him in as he slips off his shoes and you lead him to the living room. His presence in the familiar place seems like it last happened eras ago, when he was only here maybe a week prior.  

“You know where everything is, I’ll be back gimme like 5 minutes”

You’re scared to look at yourself in your bathroom mirror, so you don’t, and choose to scrub your face looking down at your sink. You change into a sweatshirt and trouser loungewear set, deciding to save your dignity a little bit further as you brush your hair and clip it back with a claw clip.

You take a breath before entering the living room again.

He’s sitting on the floor in your usual place, two steaming mugs on the coffee table, the tabs hanging out of the cup. He made you tea.

You sit down next to him, not really prepared for what you should be saying.

“How long has she been speaking to you like that?” He asks you quietly.

“She was always kinda itchy and uptight and stuff but, it was never like this” You say.

“Regardless, whatever that was, it was, wrong, uncalled for, all of those things” He says, sputtering a little bit.

He stops and sighs. It’s silect for a minute before he turns in his seat to face you, grabbing your folded legs and pulling you to face him too.

“Yoona heard everything she said to you after you went in, she heard it all. And she knows about some other stuff too. If you think, even for a second, that I’m not your friend, I might actually think there’s something wrong with you.

“If everything we’ve been through this past, almost a year, doesn’t amount to us at least being friends then I don’t know what it means to have one at all. You’re the first person in a while I’ve been able to be this open with. You know me better than most people, you’ve seen me at my worst and at my best. I’ve let you read me all you want, because I know I can be an open book if it’s you. I trust you more than I can trust myself sometimes, and I really wish you would trust me too.”

You’re watching him as he says all of this, you look up to make eye contact a couple times, and he’s looking at you everytime you lift your head.

“I do trust you. Probably more than anyone else. It’s myself I don’t trust. It’s hard for me to open up, I’m scared I’m gonna say something that’ll scare you away. And, I just thought maybe she was right today, that I need to realise that it can’t be that way between us, I have a job to do”

“What can’t be between us?”

“I like you, Mingyu. Like, I’m basically in love with you and have been since I fucking met you. I couldn’t believe that you could possibly be friends with someone like me, a confused, all over the place airhead who can’t tell right from left sometimes, forget you ever liking me. All that happened is that we became friends and I thought that this was as far as fate was gonna push us. All today told me was that … that was an overextension too. It was a wake up call that I can’t have everything in life. Things were going too well for us and I was letting myself think it could stay that way forever. I’m sorry for being this way, I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable and out of place. This is the last thing you’d want to hear from a friend and I’m sorry I’m putting you in this situation right now and that you had to go through that today-”

You don’t finish what your saying because you're interrupted. Interrupted by arms pulling you forward and into Mingyu in front of you.

Your both sitting in your living room at 3 AM, on the floor in front of your sofa like you both have so many times. Except now, Mingyu is holding you in his arms, and kissing you so delicately it hurts.

It’s warm, like getting into bed after a long day, the scent of home and security engulfing you as you begin to forget about the qualms of life.

He’s moving his lips slowly, with care and a feeling so overflowing you can’t describe.

He lets go slowly and rests his forehead against yours, his arms are around you tight, legs wrapped around your entire body so you can't escape - physically or mentally.

“You dumbass” You hear him say.

“I love you,Y/n. More than anything. And I need you to know that you don’t have to hide. If you think your thoughts are a burden then I want to carry it for you. I want you to realise you’re not alone. I want you to stop pushing me away. Everytime I want to do something nice for you, you try to push the effort to something else, everytime I try to take care of you, you have this look that makes me think you feel guilty for taking up my time or something. Everytime I think you’re about to ask me to stay the night, you remind me I have priorities and I should go, even though I know you want me to stay with you. I want you to stop caring so much for how other people feel and realise you can demand the same from the universe too. You deserve love and to be treated with care. You need to let people do that for you, love.”

Your looking at him now, your turn to have stars in your eyes.

He loves you.

And you feel it. You feel it in his words, in his eyes, in the kisses he’s leaving on your face, in his arms that are wrapped around you, ready to shield you from the world.

You don’t say anything as you fall into his chest, head on shoulder, relaxed body in the cage he’s made for you. You close your eyes as the tears are burning down your face. Except, this time they’re because your relieved.

You both got up from the uncomfortable floor and moved to your bed, still tangled within each other as you clarified everything else.

You found out that majority of the people who heard it were very upset at the situation, but didn’t know how to approach or confront her.

Seungkwan almost bust a blood vessel after he had digested what had happened, disbelief and threats on his tongue as he refused to get touched up by her during filming, apparently making a point to walk to somebody else. Seungcheol was thinking of trying to bring up the problem to management, considering how Mingyu too was distracted all the way home.

“The rest of them have gotten quite protective of you too, I think. It’s not like I shut up about you”

Apparently the only reason you were asked to start taking charge on makeup was because some of the other senior artists pressured your mentor to stop restricting you. It made you feel a little more secure that it wasn’t just you that felt pushed down.

She didn’t like that you were doing so well, considering it meant she was wrong about you and your abilities. It hurt her ego a little bit that people stopped preferring her to do their makeup or their touchups, how they wouldn’t interact with her the same way.

“Alot coming from a middle aged, married woman, attention seeking like a child” Mingyu added, scoffing with a sour face as he nuzzled into the crown of your head.

“The boys really like you by the way, they’ve been rooting for us since forever” He says, and your heart swells unimaginably so; you felt loved, so so loved.

You scooch up to plant a kiss on the underside of his chin and then one on his lips.

“That makes me happy”

“I’m happy that you’re happy. You deserve to be happy, everyday” He smooches you on the face again. “Oh, and don’t worry about that stinky face I’ll take care of her”

You laugh at the determination in his voice, but you wanted to clarify something.

“Please, let me handle her myself. I’ll ask for help if she’s stubborn but I wanna try by myself first”

“That was hot”

You push his chest away as you bark out a laugh at the random comment, hiding you face, by turning the other way.

He battles that by pull you back into his chest and continuing his atics

“What I can’t call my girlfriend hot. You’re hot. Your the sexiest motherfucker I’ve ever seen” smooch “You’re beautiful” and again  “amazing” and again “gorgeous spectacular-”

You don’t fall asleep until the sun has well made its way up the sky, taking the executive decision to sleep in till way past lunch and maybe even take a nap afterwards.

You don’t care how it goes, because your happy just being with him.

***

You met with Yoona a couple days later at a cafe.

“Seungcheol asked us if we were facing the same kind of behaviour from her too. And everyone told him she was stuck up and rude and stuff. He said he wanted to bring it up to management but it didn’t really concern him directly so they wouldn’t listen. He told us to do so ourselves and we thought about it, but we’re gonna need to tell them about that too”

You nod your head as you listen to her speak, it was making sense.

“I dont mind going up to management at all and talking about it. I get that the rest of the stuff is a little too tame to be considered, which sucks because she shouldn’t be talking to us like that at all”

“Mhm, and I was thinking we could vouch for you on how she was restraining you for almost a year. Basically not letting you do your job. That’d be a another thing for them to think about”

“Yeah. Let’s do it asap, how’s this Monday?”

“Perfect, I’ll add everyone to a group chat and let them know”

And go up to management you did, who were surprisingly understanding. Apparently having received multiple reports and even videos of the most recent incident to act as proof. It was working out for all of you, and it proved to stay that way as they responded with a promise to shift her to a different department.

You had gone home that day feeling fulfilled and relieved. Mingyu, a man with spectacular timing had also proceeded to send you a text as a distraction,

[Mingyu]: Kwan wants to come over

[Mingyu]: something about croissants

[Mingyu]: Should he text you ab it?

[You]: yeah ofc

[You]: I’ll order the butter

[You]: you tell him to text me lol

Two nights ago felt like it happened last year with all the unimaginable advances deciding to happen within the past 48 hours. Right now you were more excited for the company you were about to recieve, more concerned with making sure you made the best batch of croissants Seungkwan ever did see.

***

You were in the car with Mingyu outside the company building, waiting until the clock struck 9 to go inside.

Today was the last day you’d think about this, being called up for a face to face meeting with the staff member, so she could formally apologise. The team had planned a dinner tonight, to celebrate the end of her ‘wicked reign’ as Yoona described it.

You were finding friends everywhere, ones that were always there, pulling through for each other as you yourself navigated a new direction of thinking for yourself. You were learning to walk past your anxiety ridden desire to draw lines with everyone, as you took the first step with the dinner tonight. It would be fun for you, and a bond you’d begin to build.

You learned that you weren’t delusional anymore, and that Mingyu did love you the same. It had only been a week or so, but one of the happiest weeks of your life, despite everything. He was teaching you more lessons than he thought he was.

Mingyu squeezes your hand from the driver’s side as it was past 9, “Let’s go?”

“Lets go”

***

Mingyu’s way too enthusiastic as soon as he wakes up, indulging you in a morning (afternoon) makeout session, claiming he doesn’t care for you morning breath.

“Well I do!” you exclaim, pushing him off with a giggle “About your morning breath, stinky”

He clutches his chest in dramatic offense, “How could you? I thought you loved me”

You respond my projecting a cushion to his face.

“Do you want pancakes or eggs for breakfast?” You ask, legs hanging over the bed.

Mingyu looks up, a wicked glint in his eye, and you immediately know he’s going to say something of no help.

“I want you for breakfast” He says, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you back in bed.

“MINGYU!”

Needless to say, all was well.

[satoruxx]

okay if you want something done you have to do it yourself. RHEYAAAA

help i’m imagining the first time you scratch wolf toji’s ears. I think it’d take some time to get there, easing gently into being in each other’s personal space and then even more time to be comfortable with being comfortable with casual, constant physical touch, like sitting next one another on the couch.

but somehow, some day, your hand is resting near or on his head during a movie or show. and almost instinctually, without realizing it, you’re gently drawing your fingers back and forth, lazily playing with the furry lil ears atop his head. would he freeze? melt? the internal confusion and conflicting feelings of being touched in a place that’s vulnerable to him, but wanting more— he’s just going nuts beneath your petting and you don’t even have a clue bc you’re so comfortable in is presence!!

sigh. please talk to me about this im going bananas

SAGEEEE ARE YOU INSANE??????? YOUR BRAIN MWAH MWAH !! i have a few scenes with ears scratches written out in future chapters too hehe :33

BUT YES YOU'RE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CORRECT???????

wolf!toji is very reserved already. like i said in the other ask, i don't think he enjoys physical touch as much, and it takes a lot of time for him to get used to the idea that you don't have any bad intentions. even though he trusts you completely, letting you touch him in places that are so vulnerable is difficult. but casually, slowly, he starts opening up to it.

he also finds it very easy to let himself touch you??? like the very simple hand on your back as he squeezes behind you to reach the fridge. or the occasional ruffle of your hair in between his claws. as he starts becoming more comfortable with that i think he'll simultaneously open up to you touching him too.

he realizes how much he enjoys the feeling, but refuses to comment on it. even just the simple act of you almost dozing off against his shoulder has his head spinning.

so the day your fingers do accidentally wander, he swears he feels his brain short-circuit. it's so casual too—he doubts you even know you're doing it. he has gotten used to your hands in his hair by now, but this is new. you're so deeply engrossed in the movie you're watching, fingers absentmindedly tracing over the softer fur lining his ears.

your touch is so gentle, so caring—it takes him a second to realize that it feels good.

he just sits there, claws digging into the rug as he stares straight ahead with his teeth grit. the movie is playing but he doesn't know what's happening in it, too busy practically preening under your light touches.

his shoulders relax, his eyes feel heavier. it feels so natural it scares him a little bit.

he wants you to stop.

(he never wants you to stop.)

he hates the feeling.

(he has never felt something so pleasant in his life.)

he briefly wonders why you're touching him in the first place. he who is so dangerous, so scary, so utterly animalistic. but when he glances at you from the corner of his eyes, you look like you've never been more content.

(as usual, you are disgustingly sweet.)

normally the idea of being pet is gross to him, almost demeaning in a way. but this is different. this is so inherently innocent, such a blatant display of comfort and affection.

(he feels stupid as he leans into the touch, but makes no effort to stop himself.)

you brush over a particularly sensitive spot, and he cannot control the twitch of the muscle, ears flicking uncontrollably. as soon as the movement occurs, you're broken out of your focus, turning to look down at him.

"oh! sorry!" you flash him a sheepish smile and retract your hand, before your eyes settle back on the screen.

(and once again all he can do is internally curse his stupid instincts for getting in the way.)

[amsznn]

FOOLISH - c. sturniolo

part 2 — part 1 here part 3 here

warnings: slight cursing, toxic relationship

-

chris 🚫

hey

your phone illuminated with a text sent by the one person part of you unfortunately still loved and part of you actually despised.

you didn’t bother to answer, even though you really wanted to. you couldn’t be pulled back into the same cycle once again. it’s happened one too many times so you knew his scheme all too well.

this was the thing with chris. you’d catch him cheating, you put on a strong act for a while, then he texts, and you get roped in once again. he knew you too well. he knew how to get you back. but maybe not this time.

you laid flat on your stomach, attempting to get some sleep, before you heard a knock on your door. you groaned while laying there for a moment, hoping whoever it was would go away.

the knocks only got louder and more obnoxious. you swung your legs off the side of your bed and made your way to the front door. you unlocked it to reveal your other best friend.

nick.

“what are you doing here?”

“well hello to you too.” nick said while making his way inside. you watched as he kicked his shoes off, then your eyes traveled to the huge duffel bag he was carrying. slightly amused you crossed your arms against your chest.

“nick what are you doing here?”

nick huffed before dropping his duffel bag on the floor. “my two brothers are being fucking idiots as always,” he started before making his way to the kitchen, you followed to hear the rest of his rant. “so me, being the smart person that i am, thought ‘why not just have a sleepover with my best friend?’”

he opened one of your cabinets and pulled out a bag of chips. “hence, why ive graced you with my presence.” you could only laugh at nick, knowing full and well his brothers had to be really pissing him off for him to uber all the way here.

“better for me, i couldn’t sleep anyways.” you said while making your way towards him, to also stuff your face with sole chips.

“great, ‘cus i wanna watch a dance moms marathon.”

-

you and nick spent the whole night watching shows, making tiktoks, and eating a lot of snacks. in the end you both ended up crashing on your bed, completely exhausted.

now the sun was shining through your curtains. causing you to awake from your slumber. nick on the other hand was still knocked out so you decided not to disturb him.

you were busy doing your skin care when you heard what sounded like nick waking up from his sleep.

“y/n, i think im gonna make matt pick me up,” nick paused for a moment before yelling again. “we have a video to film.”

“okay, ill be out in a sec!” you yelled back. quickly washing your cleanser off. you made your way out of your bathroom and went to the kitchen where you found nick.

“want me to make breakfast?” you asked while looking through your fridge, looking for something to make.

“sure, but im gonna go shower.” nick rose from his seat on the kitchen island then treaded towards the bathroom.

you decided on just making acai bowls for the both of you. while chopping up some bananas you heard a knock on the door, you figured it was matt so you wiped your hands and made your way to the entrance.

cracking the door open slightly you could see matt’s figure. “hey, matt.” you smiled upon seeing your other friend. “hey y/n, is nick ready?”

you shook your head as you could hear the shower still running. “nope, he’s still in the shower.” matt sighed while checking his phone for the time.

“why don’t you come in though , i could make you breakfast too.” matt smiled at your offer and walked inside.

suddenly your eyes landed on another figure you did not know was standing there the whole time.

‘you have got to be kidding me.’ you thought. there stood chris, hands fidgeting with his phone. he was the first to speak up.

“hey, what’s up?”

you scoffed, he always did this. pretending like nothing ever happened. “are you fucking kidding me, chris?” you whisper-shouted so matt wouldn’t hear your dispute. you weren’t sure if they knew what was going on, heck you didn’t know if chris even told them you used to date. probably not since chris wanted to keep your situation ‘private.’

chris sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “lets not do this here, y/n”

“do what here?” you and chris’s attention shifted to nick who was standing in front of you two, wondering what all the whispering was about.

“nothing, are you coming in?” you quickly shifted the topic and your attention back to chris, inviting him inside. chris nodded and stepped inside.

the three of you made your way to matt who seated at the kitchen island, eating one of the acai bowls you made. you didn’t mind though, since your appetite was basically gone.

you sat on the opposite end of nick, leaving chris to sit beside matt. you caught up with 2/3 of the boys. chris was in his own world, but his eyes lingered on you whenever you spoke, which made it somewhat difficult for you to remember your train of thought as your eyes met his.

once the boys were finished, nick grabbed his duffle bag and gave you a hug as goodbye. “i’ll see you this weekend?” he asked while making sure to thank you as well. you nodded and waved goodbye to both him and matt.

“i’ll be out in a sec.” chris called out to his brothers, to which they both nodded. this only made you roll your eyes in irritation, seeing as he wasnt letting up.

chris moved forward to where you were standing, wrapping his arms around your waist. you stood there frozen, knowing if you reciprocated his action, you’d be back to being wrapped around his finger.

chris frowned at this and moved back to meet his eyes with yours. “are you really gonna stay mad at me, baby?” his voice just above a whisper as his hand caressed your face.

“i saw you chris. i saw you with that girl, i saw everything.” you said trying to keep your tears at bay, not wanting to crumble in front of him.

chris gently wrapped one arm around you, while bringing one hand to softly push your head down on his shoulder. you couldn’t help it anymore, tears started streaming down your eyes in frustration with both him, and yourself. chris listened to your sniffles and occasionally hiccups as he swayed you side to side.

“m’ sorry, baby.”

“it was a mistake.”

he pressed a kiss on the top of your head, while resting his own there. “i’ll be better for you, okay?” he pushed you back and cupped both sides of your face with his hands.

“i promise.”

you knew this was all bullshit. you knew in a matter of time he would just be with another girl, in another bed. forgetting about you. if you knew all this, then why? why was it hard for you to push him away?

chris smiled as you nodded your head, accepting his apology. he closed the gap between you two, gently planting his lips onto yours, bringing you closer with each movement of his lips.

that was when you knew,

how foolish you were.

-

A/N: sorry guys, i thought i’d be done with this earlier today but i was super busy today. hope you enjoyed this part. part 3 soon, not a set date yet tho!

[irisintheafterglow]

ENEMY FRAT!GETO PT 2 WHEN IM OBSESSED

RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW BABY

cw: swearing, mentions of eating

"i can't believe you're sneaking me out of my window like a fucking damsel."

"with all due respect, i can't exactly just knock on your front door," he chuckles quietly under his breath. his hand hovers respectfully beside your waist as you hop down from your window, the other hand unwaveringly steady in yours. you both wince at the crunch of your shoes on the crisp autumn leaves, as if the foliage wanted to rat you out and reveal you were sneaking around with the sorority's worst enemy. "very elegant landing," he teases and you stick your tongue out in response.

"next time, let's just use the main entrance," you mutter, keeping your fingers laced in his and dragging him to the side gate. "you don't even have to step on the porch; i'll just say i'm getting picked up by someone."

"your sisters would tear me like a banana peel as soon as they saw my car," he reminds you, pulling his hand away to open the passenger's side door. "and i won't say i don't like the thrill of this whole debacle." he carefully closes the door as quietly as humanly possible and creeps around the front like a cartoon burglar. you shake your head in light-hearted exasperation and his mouth becomes a smirk as he slides into the driver's seat. you suddenly curse under your breath, moving to reopen the car door. "what're you doing?"

"i forgot a jacket and we're gonna be outside, so-" you're barely finished with your thought before he's tugging off his crewneck and tossing it in your lap, just as he did during the halloween party. when you pull it over your head, it's warm like a space heater and rich with his cologne. he's left in an equally enticing black tee and you stare out the window to fight the fire on your face. "thank you."

"mhmm," he hums absentmindedly, as if giving you his clothes was as natural as blinking. he starts the car with a jerk of the key and pulls out into the neighborhood, keeping one hand on the wheel and the other floating just above your thigh. you gently push it onto your leg and his thumb rubs circles against your skin. "any thoughts on where to go tonight?"

"i'm a little hungry; i've been working on a midterm for hours," you suggest and he nods in agreement. as if on cue, a soft but persistent rumbling sounds through the car and you can't help smiling. "seems like you need some food, too."

"my beautiful date was taking a little long to get ready, unfortunately," he remarks with a sly sparkle in his eye and you roll your eyes.

"you're the one who showed up twenty minutes early," you argue, giggling at the panic that coursed through your body when you saw his car pull into the driveway. his eyes met yours through your bedroom window (you were grateful for having a room facing the street, for once) and you played a minute-long game of charades to tell him to leave. in the end, your hand practically slapped the call button, urgently whispering to park around the corner until your sisters left for a party. "i was so scared they were going to come out with sledgehammers and wreck your car."

"suddenly, it's a crime to be punctual," he laments melodramatically. "you gonna put on music or are we gonna sit here in silence? i don't mind either." the sarcasm in his tone doesn't escape you and you wonder again why, exactly, you kept letting him sneak you around like a secret royal lover.

"you are so indirect, geto suguru." he snorts out a laugh while you plug your phone into the aux cable of his car.

"last time i was direct, a guy ended up on the floor."

"true. any requests?"

"you know i like anything you play," he replies so tenderly that your brain short-circuits momentarily. "except for that musical shit. i'll only do that when we're at karaoke."

"speaking of, am i still invited to that karaoke thing tomorrow night?"

"of course, you are." the car pulls into a fast-food drive-thru and he rolls down the window. you're grateful that he gave you his sweater when the chilly air blows through the car. "and, before you ask, no. they're none the wiser."

"alright, that's good. is your roommate gonna be there, too?"

"satoru'll be there, yeah, along with a few guys a year younger than us. they're cool so you don't need to worry about them," he reassures you before leaning out the window and ordering all of your favorite items off of the menu. after dragging you out of the sorority house so many times, he'd memorized your favorite things and could read you instantly to know what you were in the mood for. he was nothing like your sisters insinuated his frat to be. "i'm excited that you wanna go," he says while you're eating in the parking lot. you have french fries scattered across your lap, but he thinks you'd never looked more beautiful.

"i'm just nervous that someone's gonna recognize me," you admit and he shakes his head.

"they won't give you shit if i'm there," he states with absolute certainty. "i'm the strongest, remember?"

"why is it that, whenever we're together publicly, you're somehow fighting for my honor?"

"you act as if i don't enjoy it," he replies with an arrogant smile. "i'll be your hero anytime, sweetheart."

"i can't believe you have such a large ego for such an unassuming demeanor." he scoffs and shoots you a mischievous look.

"you know what else is large-"

"alright," you stammer, shoving a chicken strip into his mouth to shut him up. "that's enough from you."

"hey, you're happy to be out with me, right?" your eyebrows draw together at the seriousness of his voice. it makes your heart race and your palms become clammier.

"of course, i am. i've never been happier."

"good, because i wanna keep doing this."

"doing what?"

"being with you."

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[satoruhour]

hii, i love your writing!! maybe can i get a fluffy megumi and his girlfriend on their first kiss please? S2

a/n: ty 4 the kind words anon!! also guys i love ur smut ideas but also send in some fluff like this one 💟 im becoming desensitised to the smut im writing i need some cute falling-to-my-knees fluff / all characters aged to 18 / 1k... (i go sorta insane when i write fluff)

“did you really have to drag me out now?” megumi always says one thing, and means it. that was the case most of the time — like how yuji had given him a ginger flavoured jelly bean because he mentioned one time he likes things with ginger, flaring up immediately with a temptation to summon his shikigami. or even the other time where maki had eaten the last cup of his banana pudding so he muttered under his breath that she was never going to get playful cloud back ever again.

it was stoicism upon stoicism until you were involved.

now he finds that he says one thing and means another, especially when you’re involved. you’re always there now — joining tokyo jujutsu high from a remote district in the south — offering some compromise or patting a gentle hand on his shoulder even when he claims he hates people touching him.

the small touches never halted, he only sinks into the contact bit by bit, until eventually he doesn’t know how he has his head under yours months later, legs entangled in the rustic jujutsu high dorm room. megumi’s unclear on how he craves your touch when your fingers accidentally brush against his, bridging the gap by taking your hand in his. the sorcerer wants to know why whenever your hands trace his features, they instantly relax and soften, letting a smile, that’s only for you to see, slip through.

and because you’ve only ever known his contradictory words, you knew he was fine with letting you bring him out onto the running track at almost midnight, lugging his body while still keeping your hand clutched in his.

“i’m sorry, babe! gojo-sensei pointed out methods that would improve my technique and cursed energy output. you’re the only one i can trust with training at this timing.”

the other opens his mouth to protest, but you’re not wrong. yuji almost always exerts himself to the maximum everyday, so he usually knocks out early and nobara frequents the second years’ part of the dorms to hang with them, but really, she goes there to talk to maki, and everyone but them knows. so megumi simply lets out a sigh and nods, blinking away the sleepiness to focus on you.

now, sparring with you is always a thrill as you’ve mastered a martial art specific to where you came from, and while megumi hates losing, he always gets a rush of adrenaline whenever you manage to one-up him; you do it with ease. the wind is knocked out of him when you tackle him for the second time that night, giggling as you hold down his stronger points: arms from all that summoning since young, torso from the training gojo puts him through. 

megumi stifles a smile at your victory and laughter, placing a cautionary hand on your waist, “you’re getting better at managing your cursed energy.” he compliments you softly and you beam before realising that you’re sort of cutting off his air supply. with a quick sorry! you’re standing and helping him up, the familiar rush of heat to your palms and faces.

“but my combat skills are still better, right?” you grin.

megumi who nods in defeat, is ready to go again, taking two paces back. but even though he makes mental notes about the new moves he’s seen, he’s not exactly on the offensive once you land one, two, three hits, simply dodging and moving out the way. you continue to give it your all, without the knowledge that your enthusiasm and passion is driving megumi insane.

it’s how the corners of your lips curl at a strong punch, how you wipe the sweat from your brow, how the fire in your eyes look just like how it did when you were defending megumi from todo. unparalleled, unwavering, paired with the soft, melancholy shifting of Luna on your face, going through all eight phases on your face alone like a sundial telling the time — and you look good in every hour.

so it’s no surprise when megumi gets thrown onto the floor for a third, final time, dazed as your cheers echo throughout the empty field. you’re more conscious of your weight, now, removing yourself from him before laughing again at your win, but when you turn back to have your lover welcome your elation, you’re stunned to see him smiling unchastened at you, encasing your hand in his palm.

megumi wordlessly places your hand on his chest and you suck in a breath when you hear the heartbeat there increasing in speed, meeting his eyes that are already fixed on you. it feels like the field is far below you, and you’re seeing your reflection in the beautiful dark blues of his eyes. the exorcising of curses takes you high but fushiguro megumi takes you higher until the altitude gets to you and you can’t breathe.

but you love it.

the dark-haired sorcerer strokes your cheek lovingly, breath stopping when he feels the warmth of your skin and he has to do it now or he’ll never have the courage to do it again.

“can i kiss you?” he asks, albeit a little timidly, but you don’t blame him with how you nod quietly as well, arms racing round his shoulder before his lips capture yours. it’s inexperienced and soft, testing the waters as your heads meet oddly and your teeth are bumping into each other.

“sorry, megumi.” you mumble. you don’t know what’s right or wrong, whether you should mess up the baby hairs on his nape.

“don’t be.” it’s barely above a whisper, and maybe you don’t have to know what’s right or wrong straightaway. “we’ll try again, okay, my love?”

“yeah.” is all you say, but you want to say millions more when you kiss for the second time that night. the tips of your fingers curl around his raven hair, his hands are shaky against your waist but the connection between your lips makes you drunk on your affection for him.

right or wrong doesn’t matter anymore, because whatever you’re doing, you’re sure your answer is megumi.

idk how to feel bout this one lads... i hope it’s okay

[nilolol30]

Hey can you do scenarios of Wukong and Macaque comforting reader of they forgot their birthday?

(I didn't know if you'd want them together or separate sorry if it was together)

Wukong

Everyone is aware of how easily something's slip over the great sages head but after awhile you two got together he promised he'd always remember every special moment and occasion with you including birthdays.

He had many close calls but never forgetting he went so far to put the date of your birthday on his kitchen fridge, bedroom wall and even a small note on the bathroom mirror it was really sweet but he was bound to forget once.

You received a few birthday calls and texts in the morning from the gang they asked if you could come down to Piggy's Noodles so they could treat you out.

Starring at the text you look over to Wukong who was laying on the couch watching a movie with the little monkeys "Hey you wouldn't mind if I go to Pigsy's for a bit right?" Wukong looked over to you "Uh yeah I don't mind you don't need my permission peaches" he let out a small laugh.

"You want to come with me?" You slightly hoped he'd say yes at least you'd celebrate together "Nah I'm good" he smiled and went back to watch the TV again it's then you realized he forgot but it's okay you didn't want to bother him and it was just another birthday nothing special.

"Okay see you tonight then..." but you gotta admit it still stung a bit.

After you left one of the little monkeys stared at Wukong unimpressed the sage could feel it he looked at the monkey next to him "What?" The monkey only sighed and jumped off the couch and made it's way to the kitchen.

"Well someone's in a bad mood" rolling his eyes Wukong went back to watching the movie after a minute the little monkey jumps back on the couch and shoved a piece of paper in their kings face.

"Hey hey! What's going on with you today what's this?" Wukong takes the paper a read it...it had your birthday written on it and his face immediately fell into disbelief "CRAP" he jumped up from the couch and immediately ran out of the hut and summoned his cloud and speed down the mountain.

He managed to catch up to you halfway down and hugged you "Im so sorry! Im such a jerk peaches I promised not to forget and I did I love you so much happy birthday I'm so-" you hushed him before he continued to apologize again and again you hugged him back.

"It's okay honey! It's not that important-" "Yes it is! You being born should be celebrated! Even all over the world!!" He chipped in and giving you kisses on the cheek "Okay okay but still it's okay!"

After that Wukong went with you to Pigsy's and insisted on treating you and pampered you the entire day while still slipping in some apologys.

Macaque

Macaque rarely forgets things he always tries to keep even the smallest details in his mind but everyone gets forgetful especially after a extremely busy few days you left earlier today even inviting Macaque to come with but he declined.

He thought he saw a flash of disappointment on your face but you smiled and said okay and left now he's laying in bed eating a banana he grabbed through a portal.

Halfway through the banana he decided to listen in on you he swears he only does it to check up on you so he was surprised to hear a friend of yours tell you happy birthday he immediately paused mid bite when he connected the dots.

"Oh sh*t..." He threw the half eaten fruit out the open window and immediately went to work.

You walked to your front door unlocking it your other hand holding a bag with some presents your friend/family gave you when you heard the click you pushed the door with your foot but let out a small gasp at the sight in front of you.

The living room was decorated with streamers and balloons themed with your favorite colors and Infront of you was Macaque himself kneeling holding out a cake with frosting that said 'Im sorry happy birthday!!' You smiled closing the door and putting down the bag.

"Macaque...thank you and it's okay" he smiled and stood up setting the cake on the table "Still though sorry about this morning should have realized sooner" you gently put your hand on his cheek and gave him a kiss on the nose.

"It's fine but you didn't have to do this" you laugh looking at the decorations "Uh yes I did! What kind of boyfriend would I be hm?" Macaque took your hands and lead you to the couch "Now how bout we light some candles so you can have your birthday wish!"

[luv4kyle]

Alpha wolf!fem!reader x beta!kenny mccormick [pt.3]

notes ; enjoy the music guys it adds to the story trust me fr 😁😁😁 part 3 of kenny x alpha sigma W rizzler reader im on that grind 😝😝😝 because i dont publish this yesterday im gonna make it up by writing part 4 today later at night and making this part longer so yw 🗣🔥

tag list 🐺

@itzjustcami

@marshslovedone

@silliysblog

Y/n gasped, she hadn't expected the beta to know that she lost aura by failing to rizz up the level ten gyatts in ohio, not only that, but she lost more than 1,000 aura since she even failed to rizz up livvey dunne and ice spice..... it was a devastating moment for her.

" wait... what the sigma did you just say- "

" dont play dumb sigma, youre... acting like a beta right now,i know you lost aura, its writen all over your gyatt... " kenny said coldy, looking directly into y/ns beautiful sigma eyes that he could glaze her for hours with no hesitation.

before the alpha could say anything back, kenny suddenly reached out to grab her hand, yanking her over towards him. his grip on her hand tightened as he suddenly spoke up once again

" alpha y/n, please,tell me what happened, no capping " kenny whispered in her ear, squeezing her hand lightly, looking back at her with pleading blue orbs.....

y/n let out a deep sigh, looking down at the ground then back at the blonde, "... i lost aura points by failing to rizz up livvey dunne, and ice spice " she said surprisingly nonchalantly.

kenny looked at her in disbelief, the alpha wolf y/n ? failed to rizz up ice spice and livvey dunne? could that even be possible? he thought anyone could easily be rizzed up by someone as sigma alpha as y/n!

" w-wait, you failed to rizz up the top gyatts in ohio?! " he questioned, still surprised and in disbelief that someone like you could fail rizzing someone up, you literally mogged everyone else!

" yeah, i flipping failed.... i feel like a beta now.. "

" no, dont say that sigma! you're the best alpha there could ever be, no cap! on skibidi! you even griddied with blue tie kid in the tiktok rizz party! how could anyone ever not like someone sigma like yourself?! i mean, you probably even have a bigger gyatt than anyone else! " kenny glazed, you thought he was just yapping but honestly, he sounded like he was telling the truth, he even said on skibidi, how could anyone lie on skibidi?

" beta, are you just trying to glaze me to make me feel better? plus, you're a beta, i told you i cant be seen with a lower class like you kenny. you dont even know who gedagadegedagedaoh chicken nugget is, you dont even watch CaseOhs streams! " you growled, letting go of his hand, which instantly made his aura go down from rejection

kenny sighed before staring into your eyes once more and speaking in a somehow really... rizzy, he could easily rizz you up with it.. no, you couldnt think like that, he was a beta, a lower class; youre an alpha , sigma, the leader and the one to trust, you couldnt be being glazed and rizzed up by someone like him, right?

" please sigma, give me a chance, i skibidi promise, no cap, on skibidi toilet and on caseoh, ill be your best gyatt ever... i know im not very sigma enough for you, but ill griddy for you, glaze you, rizz you up, goon and looksmaxx with you, eat skibidi slicers with you, ill even watch CaseOh with you , ill do all that for you alpha y/n "

[biscuitsngravie]

gangsta fairtytale part 3

part 1 -- part 2

tags in part 1

Stuff stuff happens, blah blah blah, yall get bold, yeah? So now he’s glaring daggers at the people sitting across from him, red in the face as they try to ignore the very obvious sucking sounds underneath the table

And when he demands that they focus, it’s kind of unfair when they’re supposed to describe the plan while keeping their eyes up, and not on the way your ass jiggles while you ride his fat cock

To focus on what he’s saying, and not the way you’re moaning about how big he is and how much you want his cum, begging him to let you have his babies. 

Nope. focus on him, not his hands that start slamming you on his dick with you letting out choked sounds once your knees’ engine lights come on 

It’s almost cruel.

The way he says in a very audible whisper “come on Daddy’s cock, buttercup” causing you to cry his name when he bottoms out for the last time, pumping you full until it starts leaking down you two’s thighs — only for him to glance around the table and go “what the fuck are you looking at?”

Time skip, yall have a great relationship or whatever, blah blah. He asks if you wanna be his partner in crime for as long as both of you walk the earth and sail the seas and you say yeah cause it’s shanks 

Okay but when yall are fucking on the wedding night that shi go crazyyyyyy

Cause like

After he makes you come on his tongue for the third time, you stop wanting to hear “one more” and beg him for it. Your throat is already becoming hoarse as you push him away from your sensitive clit like if you he doesn’t fuck you with his dick right now you will literally perish

Can you tell im getting tired?

When he starts slowly pushing past your tight ring, you reach your hand out to his chest (you can’t reach his chest cause he’s tall lol) and ask him to fuck you. He’s confused cause is that not… what he’s about to do?

“No it’s just… you don’t have to be so gentle with me, you know?”

He has a small chuckle and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay buttercup.”

“No i’m serious! Wasn’t it anything for me…Daddy?” 

Your “innocent” face is the most sinister thing he’s come across. He laughs incredulously until your silence proves that you’re really serious. “Oh yeah?” you nod. So he leans in real close and growls in your ear “what’s the safe word?”

You swear you can feel and hear his heart beating with a newfound adrenaline rush, or maybe it’s the warmth of his dick against your skin. You swallow thickly and barely push out “b-bananas.”

“‘B-bananas’ is not the safe word. Try again.”

“Bananas,” you say as your legs are becoming jello.

“Good. cause im not stopping unless i hear that.”

He start tearin yo shit up. Im talking possibly pressing a permanent indent in the bed. Im talking your throat feeling thick  because you can feel his dick pushing up from your pussy. Eyes? Rolled back. Pussy? Drooling. Hotel? 

He pulls out and lets you whine for him not to stop like the pocket pussy you are for a minute before flipping you over on all fours and slamming it right back into you. 

That greedy lil pussy takes him like it’s supposed to, but the unexpected stretch has you crying out. “Safe word?”

“B…bana…” you start sobbing as he rolls his hips a bit, hiccuping as you try to gather your thoughts, feeling yourself become dizzy. “Bananas.”

“Attagirl.” he’s fucking you to the point where you’re sure you’re tearing holes into the blanket below you. You head feels light, and it doesnt help when he lifts your hips up and angles himself on top to make sure he’s slamming into that g-spot every… damn… time…

“Fuck pretty girl… gonna make me…” your body is almost limp, dangling in the air pathetically while he treats you like you were $21.89 

He takes you and puts your back to his chest and bounces your now limp form up and down his dick. You swear he’s tearing a hole in you, the head of his dick teasing your cervix every time he slams you back down. He sits you down for a moment so he can put your hand over the bulge on your lower abdomen

That dick put you to sleep and he’s buying a new bed frame in the morning but watching the loads of you two’s combined cum oozing out of your swollen cunt is satisfaction enough

[visionthefox]

I wonder if all this arc with Moon being the bad guy- and being off is maybe a way davis wants to share a messge? maybe a critic? maybe as to point out a detail or a thing in the fans?

this is not the first time Moon as a character did a horrible thing- do I need to bring back the Bunker scene? when Moon punched him and talked down to him?

"that all you are good for, cleaning up my mistakes" was something he said on his near madness state

after that, sure he said sorry but it never felt like he trully felt bad, if anything he felt like he now had to put himself in more stress and hide it better- when KC happened never fully explained it to Sun..why he wasnt all right- why Sun needed to stay away from his stuffs (like ok. Sun often had this moment were he could get too curious and mess up, that was somethiing we all knew, despite it all it wasnt in malice, just ignorance),he nearly Killed him once more in a mad state due to the Kill Code activated again..

but ya know what? fans eventually loved him back. sure we had a close eye on him- but I do recall ppl often baby Sun and critic Moon but soon they learned to love him again.. so did Sun..

his death made sure ppl cried for him, people worried for him and wanted him back..

now step into this arc- same idea- Moon does bananas, and does bad stuffs at those who loved him, fans are sure eating him alive in the comments im sure, many are trying to find a reason why, is this a new KillCode variant? mind control? virus?

whatever is the case, is a tale old as the show itself- Moons be bad guys, fans get angry, but then is given a reason, people pity Moon, his family justify him ((coffcoffLunarcoffcoff)) or simply accepts him and move on

tho sure is different now, as Sun can finally see he was abused and Earth may have hard time to forgive him- I can only imagine thats the goal for this arc.. maybe simply point out a fact? maybe is not so deep

maybe is a "copy the old homework but change it a bit so no one will see is the same" - is not a bad thing, they cant simply come up with arcs out of the blue, and so far seems like this one is giving them views, so works

yet I see many wonder "why would they do this?" is simple, it worked once!

[misfittoy15]

"Im glad we booked this room. We both needed a shower not in a dank theater basement." Dan says as he picks up his phone after toweling off his hair. "Dan? Did we ever post that video for the seriously imagine it thing?" Phil asks, checking his Twitter notifications and being swarmed with mentions. "Oh shit, you're right. Those nerds are going to go feral over this." As he gets the posts ready to go. Phil also gets everything ready for his own profiles, smiling as he says, "Do you mean... Pheral?" Dan rolls his eyes so hard he has to put his phone down for a second as he tries and fails not to laugh. "Shut up, you. Let's post at the same time. Which platform are you doing first?"

As everything gets posted they both put their phones down in anticipation for the flood of notifications and queue up a new Mario kart match. Part way into the second race of the grand prix, Phil glances at dan and decides to say something. "Are you seriously imagining it?" Dan's focus breaks and he runs into a banana peel on the track. "God damn it, phil! I was winning!" They both laugh as phil pulls ahead and dan gets his bearings back on the track. "Yeah, you WERE." They clutch their way through the rest of the grand prix with plenty of jabs and remarks that leave them both with smiles as the trophy scene plays.

"Okay, but are you?" Phil dramatically side eyes dan as he's scrolling furiously on his phone. Dan is silent for a moment while he continues looking for whatever it is that's got him for focused on his screen. Phil sighs and decides to let it go, and starts checking his own phone, skimming the insane amount of replies to their video. Their fans are being absolutely unhinged just as they expected.

Dan finally says a whispered "yes!" Right before some tinny fall out boy starts playing from his phone speakers. Phil looks at him quizzically and then realizes dan has found someone who is live streaming from When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas. The two make eye contact and dan remains silent for a beat, before Phil raises an eyebrow.

"Phil.. do i seriously /need/ to imagine it?" He's surprised for a moment forgetting about the comment he made earlier and then he breaks into a laugh. "I mean, that's entirely up to you, isn't it, daniel?" Dan turns his phone a bit to show Phil the screen. "Okay but look, they're playing through the album and this is the last song before MCR comes out." The two watch the set together despite the terrible quality. "Recpetion must be terrible there." Phil remarks. "Gotta be. There's so many people in one spot. I'm kinda glad we didn't go." Phil casts as glance at dan, "you would be. Mister "don't talk to me" cross body bag. " "you and I both know we would get SO SWARMED. I'd rather just relax on our day off of tour." Fall out Boys performance finishes and it's the break before MCR.

Dan looks up and meets Phil's eye, lowering the volume on his phone and setting the device down. "You know Phil, earlier I asked if I had to imagine it. But I know I don't need to, now do i?" The intensity of his gaze makes Phil stammer a bit and struggle to form a response. "I, i , well, I um, suppose not, huh? We didn't end up going." Dan tilts his chin down and his gaze deepens, "you know that's not what I'm talking about, Philip." Dan leans closer to the man next to him and tugs on his shirt collar where it dips beneath his chin, "I've got you all to myself tonight. Let them imagine it all they want." The first note of My Chemical Romance's set plays as their lips touch. Once, then twice.

"Now, let's watch the rest of this stream until the signal fails." Dan nestles into the seat and picks up his phone, facing it toward Phil and increasing the volume again. Phil adjusts too and smirks when he notices the pride flag they filmed with tossed over the back of the couch they just kissed on.

[maespri]

my thoughts on the your turn to die percentage sheets

i keep thinking about how strange the percentage sheets are in your turn to die. so. here’s my thought dump. everything under the cut.

spoiler warning for the whole game, just in case…

so. from my understanding, they’re based off of the AI test runs of the death game, or off of the characters personalities prior to being put in the death game. but how exactly would either of those things work?

for starters, if they’re based off the AI runs, then the percentages instantly become unreliable the moment any uncontrolled variable enters the death game. in this case, that would be joe and (if im remembering correctly) nao. joe and nao presumably were not part of the test runs, considering the fact that neither character had an AI made for them in chapter 2 (besides joe, technically, but he wasn’t part of the main panel, so… he’s up in the air). therefore, the fact that they are in the death game instantly makes the percentages null. it’s like throwing a slice of banana into a smoothie full of vegetables- it may seem small, but now the entire composition of the smoothie is totally different.

literally every characters percentage could be different based on the sole fact that joe and nao are in the death game. you might assume it would only really affect sara or mishima, but this isn’t true at all- from big questions, such as who would’ve picked up the sacrifice cards in chapter 1 and 2?- to small questions, like… in chapter 1, would sara have ever even opened that door under the bar that shin couldn’t get open if joe hadn’t done it?

we’ve heard that sara’s percentage was only so high because in every run, she would do terrible things to win, becoming increasingly violent with sole interest in self preservation. so joe was put in to be a handicap for her. but, once again, this makes her percentage- you guessed it- inaccurate! it would presumably be considerably lower with joe there.

if the percentages are based on the characters personalities prior to the death game test runs, based on what asunaro has gathered from watching these people for forever, i think that actually only makes them even more inaccurate. that means the percentages are entirely based on assumption. just because sara can be an intense person, does not mean she would have the highest chance of winning. similarly, just because shin is weaker than a newborn baby, doesn’t necessarily mean he would have a 0% chance of winning.

so, here’s my thing with the percentages. i think either way, it fails to consider one of the games overarching themes, and a topic i could go into extreme detail on in another post: humans are inherently good. and inherently very unpredictable. and AI can never replicate that, no matter how accurate asunaro’s data may be on these people. they can run the AI death game a million times, but the robot versions of each person cannot perfectly simulate how a real human would genuinely act in such a situation. this is also because AI can imitate fear and desperation, but it cannot actually feel it, and i’d argue feeling is the driving force behind every decision characters make in this game.

another thing i want to note is the concept of zero probability and impossibility, which basically just means the chance of something happening can never be 0%. anything can happen. and that means that in at least one simulation of the AI death games, each character won, even if it was only 1 time out of 1 billion runs. which means that shin’s percentage absolutely could not be 0%.

it does the beg the question of why asunaro made the AI’s at all, because if they put that much effort into them, i don’t think they would A) make their data totally unreliable by throwing in unknown variables during the real thing, or B) run all those death games tests and collect the data. i honestly think the AI’s were solely to impede the characters.

this isn’t to fault the game at all, however- in fact, i think the percentage sheet is incredibly genius if only for the amount of chaos it causes. it’s a completely unreliable piece of information, and yet shin sees it and thinks, “15% versus my 0%… ok, this seventeen year old girl is my WORST enemy now…”

another thing that i’m too lazy to figure out for myself rn but is a question i had- do the percentages even add up to 100? because i don’t think they do. which begs the question of what they’re actually out of. sara has a 15% chance of winning, out of… 100? out of 20? out of 50? out of 1000? i know percentages don’t have to add up to 100, but it just adds to the unreliableness. technically, we don’t know what these percentages are measured out of.

i guess my overarching point here is just that the percentages sheet is really interesting, and simultaneously really useless and unreliable. but that’s what makes it so interesting. i think it instills a feeling of dread and uncertainty in the player seeing how low certain percentages for other characters are, or maybe it instills confidence and superiority seeing how high sara’s is. either way, it definitely helps you understand why shin acts the way he does once you figure out he’s known about the sheet from the beginning.

anyway. that’s it. i’m sure someone else has talked about this or everyone knew about it blah blah blah but. whatever i had fun writing it out. Peace and love

[tickling-giggles]

Can you do a lee!Mr compress with a ler!toga and twice?

Good vibes only

Summary: toga and twice invite Compress to play super smash bros with them, but everyone in the LOV knows that you should and will be in a good mood around toga. One way or another it’s good vibes only around toga, plus twice also wants his friends to be happy (I adore twice he so sweet 🤭)

A/N: YOU GUYS IM FINALLY OUT OF SCHOOLLLLLLL until August 10🥲…. BUT I HAVE SOOOOOI MUCH FREE TIME ON MY HANDS UNTIL THEN SO YK WHAT THAT MEANSSSSSSS MORE FICS/HCS WILL GET PUBLISHEDDDDD

Also the bold bits in twices line are you know his “other half” speaking.

Lee: Compress

Ler: Toga and Twice

———————————————————————-

Compress had uh…well… not so good day. Actually it maybe one of the shittiest days of his life. He’s had numerous unlucky bad days but none of the compare to today. It just started awful from when he burnt it breakfast and everything after that was just terrible. All he wanted to do now was just relax to take his mind off of all of the horrible stuff that occurred.

“Aww thats so rude I was just about to be 1st, I’m the winner” Twice whined. “That’s the same person who hit me with a squid” Toga agreed complaining aswell.

“Oh hey press what’s wrong? Did something happen? Let me beat them to a pulp”Twice greeted him questioning him as he cracked his knuckles. “Yeah press what’s wrong?” Toga turned around seeing how upset he looked.

“It was not a…good day is all” compress sighed trying not to think of it. “Do you wanna play Mario kart with us?” Toga asked as she picked up an extra controller handing it to him. “You’ll probably feel better, I’m getting 1st place again” Twice chimed in. “Y-yeah thanks you two” Compress half-heartily smiled grabbing the controller.

“I call dibs on princess peach” Toga smiled claiming her character. “I call dibs on Waluigi” Twice followed up also claiming his character. “Hmmmmmm I’ll take Kamek” He also claimed his character. “Which one should we play on?” Toga asked. “How about 150cc” compress suggested, plus that was his go to anyways. “Sure you guys are gonna lose anyways, I’ll kick both of your asses blindfolded” twice teased.

“Didn’t you lose last time according to my memory?” Toga smirked. “Um NO I was in 1st place and you know it!” twice folded his arms, looking away from her. Compress couldn’t help but chuckle at there antics.

Just as the race started, compress was in 1st with toga in 3rd and twice in 9th. “Woah press didn’t know you were good at Mario Kart”

“Well I have been playing with shiggy”compress half heartedly giggled. “What shiggy plays games other than animal crossing?!” Toga laughed. “Yeah I know I was surprised when we asked me to play Mario kart” Compress scoffed.

“I WAS SOOO close” twice whined. “ 2nd is the best aka me how’d you get in 8th place ” toga giggled. “You really are good press” toga smiled before she quickly stopped interrogating him “compress? is that a frown?”

“No nope it’s and upside down smile” he lied badly. But was toga or twice gonna point it out? Nope she has an plan in mind. “D-do you wanna play another round we can play 200cc this time” compress stuttered as he insisted another round not wanting toga nor twice to be upset.

“Hmm fine 1 more round” she squinted her eyes at him. When compress looked away sighing in relief he hadn’t payed attention to the code she’d given twice. (Yes they got this little code thing that only the two of them can understand😭😭).

Once again compress taking the lead in first place with Toga in 2nd and Twice in 3rd they were all neck and neck before he felt a jab to the side.

“Hn!!” Compress yelped, jerking away from the ticklish touch. He looked a twice to see him with both of his hands occupied by his controller. He just ignored it and glued his eyes back into the screen.

I got a banana pEEL” Compress squeaked, clenching his controller he looked over at toga who totally didn’t pinch his hip. Once again compress suspected nothing yet before looking right back at the screen.

This trend kept on happening. Were twice and toga take turns poking compress in the side, swiping a finger across his foot, or a light scratch on the back of his neck. All until “guhuys knock it ohoff this is chehEating” He giggled.

“What are you talking about and why are you so giggly” toga smirked full aware of the situation. “I wonder what’s so funny, He’s giggling his life away” Twice added on.

Both Twice and Toga looked at eachother as they clawed Compress sides. Compress immediately clamped his arms down to his side trying to escape the tickly grip “guhuhuys nohohot funnehehehe”. “Nobody’s laughing but you press— Duhhhh” Twice teased.

“Stohohohohop ihihihit”

“Stop what” toga asked.

“Tihihickling mhehehehe”Compress answered not realizing that he just fell into a trap by saying that. Twice then pins his arms above his head “You got it dude!! tickles coming your way”Twice teased as he used one hand to hold his wrists in place, while he raked his fingers down his armpits.

“Nononohoho thahahat’s not whahahat I meAAAHAHANT AHAHA” Press shrieked as he squirmed around trying to escape.

“Stop squirming Press im trying to make sure you have all of you’re ribs” Toga rolled her eyes. “Now I have to start over 1….2….3…” each rib she counted, she used her nail to lightly scratch between it.

“TOHOHOOHGAHAHAHA IT TICKLEHEHEHEHEES”

“I mean I hope it does after all you did ask for tickles” she reminded. “Press you made me lose track again hmmmm let’s see how many did I count” she acted clueless as she rapidly pinched his sides and hips.

“THAHAHAHTS SO BAHAHAHAD HAAHAHAHAHA” he thrashed around.

“Oh it is what about here?” Twice smirked, as he was near his feet. Compress hadn’t noticed that twice had use his quirk one was keeping him pin down while he was near his feet.

“Waitwaitwahahahait twice twice buddy cohome on let’s tahahalk about thihis” press lifted up his head as much as he could so he could look at twice and try to reason with him.

“Sorry man you broke toga’s rule” twice shrugged his shoulders. “Whahahat rule?” “Her ‘good vibes only’ rule— you’re obviously sad we’re not blind” he explained.

“Ihi’m nohot sad though” press giggled, becoming more and more giggly as he started to anticipate the tickles, since he could barely lift up his head.

“Too late dude—much love” Twice smiled as he scribbled up and down the soles of his feet.

“TWIHIHICE NAHAHAHAHA”

“Hey I’m here too y’know” she playfully pouted as she squeezed his thighs rapidly.

“NOHOHO TOGAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA”

“Will you stop being sad and tell us what’s wrong?” Toga asked.

“OHOHOHOHKAHAAHAY OHOHOKAHAHAY I WON’T BE SAD ANEHEHEHEHEMORE AAHHAHA IHIHLL TELL YOUAHAHAHAHA”

“You promise?” They both asked.

“YES YEHEHEHEES I PROMISE AHAHHAHAA”

“Good” Toga sighed in relief.

“Well what happened why’d you come in looking so gloomy?” Twice asked. “Ihi just had a shitty dahay from start to finishehe from when I burnt my breakfast, all the way to when I came back here, it just messed with my emotions and of course got to me. I was just ready to come back and relax but after that torture you two goofs out me through I feel a lot better” he smiled.

“We didn’t take it too far did we?” Twice asked also. “Of course not it’s was just playful banter” press giggled.

“I’m glad you told us, also we don’t ever want to cross and boundaries we just really care about you and don’t like seeing you so sad and gloomy” Toga spoke her mind and twice of course.

“If anything ever makes you sad again promise to tell us” Twice looked at him in his eyes. “Ihi promise” press couldn’t help but giggle. “You guys are so sappy” Dabi rolled his eyes as he sat on the couch.

“Looks like some one else need to be tickle tooooo” twice sang as he wiggled his fingers at Dabi. “I swear on Endeavor if you tickle me you’ll have a 6th degree burn” Dabi playfully threatened. “6th degree? That’s not even a thing!!” Toga looked at him lost.

“Exactly that’s how severe it is” Dabi smirked.

———————————————————————-

AAAAAAAH I hope you all like it it wasn’t intended to get all mushy like that at the end but idk what came over me but yeah 😭😭

[thatblackravenclaw]

Pen Pals

a/n: you guys know how Andrew Garfield’s parents are British but he was born in L.A. but he still has a British accent that’s not extremely British with a little bit of an American twinge? that’s what the reader sounds like. also, i go by the grades of everyone in the books so Cho and the reader are a year older than the golden trio and a year younger than the twins. 

Blog Details | Let’s take a trip

Fred Weasley x Black!fem!reader (Ravenclaw)

warning(s): british slander bc im a raging american (RED WHITE AND BLUE MF THESE COLORS DON’T RUN BITCH lmfao please believe me when i say im joking), cursing, mention of drugs and alcohol use, tooth rotting fluff

word count: 3.3k

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“Are you writing to that British boy again?” I hear from over my shoulder.

“Yes, and have you heard of personal space?” We erupt in giggles as I push her away.

I close my notebook and move from my desk to my bed. The foot of my mattress is barricaded with boxes. I look around and see my childhood home become empty and filled with boxes and buckets. The walls that were once painted with polaroids of my friends and family from over the years is now back to its basic color of brown that was painted when I was born. My desk is no longer covered with knick-knacks and clutter. The room is just empty. I’m happy that my mom got promoted so my dad gets to go back to his hometown, but it’s going to be hard leaving a place I’ve spent ¾ of my life in.

My mom is a Magizoologist. She came to the United States 20 years ago for a business trip. My dad is a Dragonologist. Their paths crossed when she came to help take a look at a sick Dragon. He showed him how their sanction work and over time I guess they became close because 3 years later I was born.

We used to go back and forth between Illinois and England for about 4 and ½ years before mom decided to just move here. I guess the distance was just a little too much for them, so she decided to move here and now we’re moving back.

I lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling. It’s scattered with glow in the dark stars that I begged for when I was 7 and ten years later, here they still stick. I’ve been asking dad for four years to take them down. He always said he’d get around to it.

The air feels dry, and my throat is scratchy. I’m trying my best to hold my tears at bay. I love England. It’s a second home to me. Whenever I’m out for summer break I go to my grandparents’ house in Norwich. This is different though. I’m going to be living there now. The British accent I had when I was younger has faded overtime to an American-British hybrid. I’ll surely be made fun of for it.

Maya lays down next to me. We’ve been best friends since the 3rd grade. Just the two of us against the world. Now I have to go through the rest of university without her.

“Maybe it won’t be bad. The worst part is going to be eating their food.” Her jab pulls a smile to the corner of my lips.

“I’ve heard the food at Hogwarts is actually pretty good.”

“Not possibly better than Ilvermony.”

“Never!” I dramatize the word with a gasp. Really selling it as if saying Hogwarts food is better than Ilvermony is a federal offense.

The dust settles and a silence washes over us. It’s a comfortable silence. Soaking in our last moments together. I know it’s not forever. I get to come back here on holiday, and she can use the floo network to visit me, but it won’t be the same. This is the person who has a key to my house because she’s considered family. The same person who that brings me an extra banana nut muffin every day before school just because she knows it’ll bring a smile to my face. I won’t get that anymore.

“What time are you guys leaving tomorrow?” Her head turns towards me, but I keep my eyes trained on the popcorn ceiling in fear that the tears I’ve been holding back will give me away.

“Early. I think 6. We’re meeting the realtor with the keys at 7, so we need to make sure that all of our stuff gets transported this in one fell swoop since we’re apperating there and apparently mom came up with a spell to have our stuff apperate to the new house.”

“Hm. Have you told British boy that you’re got accepted into Hogwarts?”

“Fred doesn’t even know what I look like. Let alone that I got accepted to the same school as him.”

“HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE?” I slap my hand over her mouth and shush her.

“Bitch, shut the fuck up. My parents are right down the hall and don’t know I have a pen pal. They said it was dangerous because people pretend to be someone they’re not, but what the hell?”

She pushes my hand off of her mouth and sits up. Her back meets my headboard and she straight ahead at the door.

“Do you know what he looks like?”

I nod my head yes before rolling off of the bed. I feel to the last page of my journal and find and find a polaroid of him and his brother George from when they went to something called The Quidditch World Cup. I do a quick look over before making my way back to the bed and offering my hand to Maya. She looks at the picture and you can almost see her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“He has a twin brother?”

“No it’s just someone he met at school.” I resist the temptation to roll my eyes at her comment, but the attitude goes completely over her head.

“Is he single?”

“Maya!” I exclaim with my jaw dropped. “What? You can have a twin and I can’t?”

“Oh hush. You said yourself that you don’t even date white boys.”

“That was before I saw this one. Besides, he’s a ginger so he’s exempt from that statement.”

“I’m really going to miss you Maya.” We make eye contact for the first time in a while and her eyes soften.

“I’m gonna miss you too Angel.”

She looks down at her watch and tells me that it’s fifteen minutes to ten meaning it’s almost curfew. We share one last tearful goodbye as she walks out of my bedroom door for the last time.

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Sure enough, at 5:45 my dad woke me up and told me it was time to get ready to leave. I had taken one last look around my room and made my way downstairs to meet my mother so we could all leave. Right as the clock struck 6, my parents let me grab the powder and be the first to see our new home.

I stood in the foyer and tried to convince myself that it isn’t the best house I’ve ever seen. It’s got a cottage core vibe going on, on the outside. It’s cozy, but big enough for all of us. I wanted so badly not to like it. We went to the backyard and there’s a small river filled with a family of ducks. To the right there’s something that looks like a shack, but bigger. My parents then explained to me it’s my own apartment. That’s when the smile broke across my face. I was finally getting my own space.

The house tour didn’t last long due to the tight schedule we are on. I ended up just waving my wand and letting the magic unpack my stuff as we were right back in the fireplace. Why? Because tomorrow is the first day of school and I have not done any school shopping. The stuff on the list differs a little bit from the shopping list we had for Ilvermony so dad thought it best to wait until we got here. We had to go to Diagon Alley anyway for everyone to open up a bank account.

Now, I’m standing in Madam Malkin’s getting measured for everything. Once I’ve been basically poked and prodded all over my body with clothes pins, I stare out the window and watch everything and everyone pass by. As if someone had played a slow potion button, I see a whole family of red heads walk down the cobblestone and sure enough one of them is Fred. I snap my head down and try to cover my face with my hair. I don’t know why I did that. Once again, he has no idea what I look like.

“All done. You can step down now.” I look over to Madam Malkin and grab my uniform and robe out of her hands. I thank her and rush out the door. Thankfully my parents are done with their list too so we decide to go home.

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The next 18 hours go by quick. I didn’t get a chance to really enjoy my apartment or decorate it due to packing up my trunk since we once again left early in the morning for transportation.

The train ride was painfully boring. No one told me how long it is from England to Scotland. I sat with some mundane people whose names I don’t remember. They were also half asleep and exchanged pleasantries only out of politeness. We bought some stuff off of the trolley and then went back to our own worlds.

At one point it became a little suffocating and I needed to pee so I got up and started walking through the cars when I heard a “Have you heard from her yet, Fred,”. I had stopped before becoming visible to their compartment. He told them no and that he was a little worried. That’s when I remembered that Maya distracted me so I never got to finish the letter.

At the moment, I’m standing at the front of the line of 1st years because I’m new as well but I’m older so I get to get sorted first. My hood is up and I’m looking at the ground, suddenly interested in my shoes. Professor McGonagall informs everyone that I’m a new student from the American wizarding school and I feel my face heat up, knowing the amount of comments I’m about to get from everyone.

She calls my name and I carefully walk up the stairs. At this point my hood is still up so no one has gotten a clear view of my face. I want to do a big reveal of sorts. I sit down and let the hood slide from off of my head. There’s gasps from all across the hall. Some whistles from a few guys. Whispers from a few girls. A handful of people conveyed nonchalant expressions which I greatly appreciate over being fawned over. My eyes gravitate toward the Gryffindor table and I catch Fred already looking at me. His friends are nudging him with an elbow while also looking at me. I guess that answers the question of if he told his friends about me or not. I can’t decipher how he feels, but the adoration on his face calms my nerves enough.

I break our eye contact to look back down at the floor as not to fall off of the stool. I make haste to the Ravenclaw table. I greet everybody and they instantly start asking questions. I laugh as I can’t understand them all at once, but it’s funny hearing them squabble like seagulls. A hand is placed over mine and I look in the direction of where it came from. A beautiful Asian girl gives me a small smile.

“Hi y/n, my name is Cho.” I return the smile and tell her that it’s nice to meet her. A silence washes over the table. I become befuddled and look around to distinguish if I did or said something wrong.

“I thought you were American?” Someone says from the other side of the table. I don’t catch sight of who said it, but respond, nonetheless.

“I am. Well, I’m half. My mom is American and my dad is British. I was born in Manchester but was raised in America.”

An understanding nod is shared amongst the table in hearing vicinity and the conversation ceases as someone else is sorted into Ravenclaw.

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After dinner the prefects give the first years a quick tour of the castle and show them to their houses. Cho snuck me with the other 5th years. I’m thankful as I far from want to be touring the castle with a bunch of children. Besides, I have a map of the school and I’ve created a spell that can bewitch the map to help me find my classes.

We make our way up the many staircases and are faced with a large door with an Eagle head as the knocker.

“The only way to enter the common room is by answering a riddle. If you get it wrong, then you have to stand here until someone else comes and says the correct answer or until someone from the inside opens the door.” She says to me. I nod my head in understanding.

“Wanna try it?” Another Ravenclaw asks me. A male. I believe his name is Talbott. I nod my head again and step closer to the door.

“When young, I am sweet in the sun. When middle-aged, I make you gay. When old, I am valued more than ever. What am I?” The voice bellows as the Eagle moves its beak. It shakes my core a little bit.

I look around at the other Ravenclaws. Some with quizzical brows. Some with a knowing look. Others just looking and awaiting my answer. The answer would have caught me up if it weren’t for the last clue; “When old, I am more valued than ever.”

“Wine.” There’s a click sound as if unlocking a lock, and the door slowly opens. Smalls cheers are shared as we walk in.

I’m stuck at the entrance of the threshold inside by the sight in front of me. It’s probably the most gorgeous room I’ve ever seen. The ceiling is coved and gives the illusion of a clear night sky. Stars litter the ceiling and give off the effect of actual twinkling. A blue velvet couch sits in front of a fire, with matching chairs on either side. What really catches my attention is the enormous statue of Rowena Ravenclaw in front of a bookcase. We never had anything like this at Ilvermony. Our emblem was a serpent and we would just have those displayed in various parts of the common room. I watch as everyone goes to various parts of the room while some go behind the bookcase. Cho grabs my hand and also brings me behind the staircase. She shows me that behind this staircase is where the dorms and bathrooms are. I follow her up the staircase and to a dorm. The rooms inferior to the common room but not any less gorgeous. The beds align with the wall as each dorm is in the shape of a tower.

“I see you got the middle bed. Seems fitting as you’re new.” No malice in her tone, though I can see in some way it might have seemed like it.

I sit on the bed and exhale. Truly exhale. This whole journey has been happening too fast. Now that I’m sorted into a house, everything else seems easy. I went over my schedule with Cho and we have all the same classes except Defense Against The Dark Arts. I guess I’ll survive one class without her.

“Well come on lazy bones.” A different girls says to me. Anastasia I believe.

“What?” I sit back up and ask with pure curiosity.

“It’s time to get ready for the party.”

“What party?”

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The beginning of the year party. The party where everybody gets blacked out and regrets it in the morning since we start classes at 8 am.

I believe I heard someone earlier yell about flower. A Hufflepuff I believe. I had put on the sluttiest thing I owned and made my way down to the party with everyone else. None of us wear heels, as not to be caught by the caretaker.

The party is in full swing when we open the door the ballroom. The lights are dimmed, but the strobes of light are pungent. We barely make it to the drink table without bumping into everyone on the way. At the drink table is a tall red head with another tall read head which I can only assume is me about to be dealing with the consequences of my own actions.

“Excuse us,” Cho exclaims at the two while trying to push our way to the punch bowl. They look our way and go to move but freeze when they set their eyes on me.

“Y/n?” Fred asks/yells.

“In the flesh,” I yell back.

His smile reaches his eyes as he pulls me in a hug. My face in brought into an awkward place where it’s not quite his chest but not quite his stomach either. I wrap my arms around his middle and hug him back. He smells like cinnamon. I welcome in the scent as we hug for a few more seconds. I can only imagine what Cho is thinking right now.

We pull back at the same time and he begins to speak again. I can’t really hear him over the noise of the ballroom. I look in the direction of the entrance of the room and point to it. He nods his head and we walk towards it, hand in hand.

The door closes behind us but we still stood with our hands intwined.

“Pen pals for 4 years and you didn’t tell me you were transferring.” He exclaims while keeping his voice down.

“I wanted to surprise you.” I say sheepishly.

“Considered me surprised.” He smiled no longer reaches his cheeks but its more somber.

We hear footsteps coming from the far end of the corridor. He pulls me and we start running. I don’t know where we’re going but I trust him. A giggle threatens to out my mouth as we are going up the maze of stairs.

After what feel like forever, we make it to the floor that the Ravenclaw tower is on. I see that Gryffindor is also on this floor. In the middle of both is a spiral staircase. Great. More stairs. He leads us up to a room that looks like a classroom with multiple astronomy tools and an openness to the outside.

“Welcome to the Astronomy classroom.” I unknowingly let go of his hand as I look around in amazement. There’s a celestial sphere with all the constellations on it. A fancy telescope by the balcony. It’s quite literally the Ravenclaw common room in classroom form.

“Gods, this place is gorgeous.” I walk onto the balcony and stare up at the sky. All the stars twinkle and the moon is full.

“As are you.” I turn my body around and face him. He walks up next to me without breaking eye contact.

“Not a disappointment, am I?”

“Only a little. I expect more of an American accent.” I laugh at this before looking down at my shoes.

“You and everyone else. It’s there a little bit with certain words and phrases.”

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I sit on the ledge and we talk for a bit. Not much to tell considering I know almost everything about him and vice versa. We talk about school and the people here which eventually leads to the topic of dating.

“Anyone here you fancy yet?”

“You could say that.” I look into his eyes and see if he’s able to read in between the lines.

He leans in and I hear my breath hitch. My fingers grip the railing. His eyes jump to my lips and back to my eyes.

“Who is it?” We both know.

“He’s in Gryffindor. Tall red head with freckles. His brothers are also in Gryffindor.” We inch closer.

“I might know him. What’s his name?” 3 inches apart.

“Ron.” He rolls his eyes at the answer with a chuckle.

“Shut up,” and then he kissed me.

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Fred Masterlist | United Kingdom