#so now im stuck with: do i buy jeans that fit and last but are less ethical+sustainable?

[rocket-candy-heart]

The frustration of going to a website that rates clothing brands on how ethical they are and clicking on their "plus size" category only to see that almost none of these brands are actually making plus sizes

[lady-of-the-lotus]

It’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault that A-Yuan thinks he’s a rabbit, or Jiang Cheng’s fault that toddler Jin Ling used to Zidian to short out the city’s power grid, or Xue Yang’s fault that little A-Qing was strapped to his chest during a motorcycle joyride down the highway, but they are stuck going to family counseling, along with a bored Lan Wangji, a giggly Xiao Xingchen, an out-to-lunch Lan Xichen, and an indignant Jin Guangyao. A lonely Nie Huaisang gets in on the action by joining all twenty group chats and sending way too many gifs.

And, all the while, a rebellion is brewing on Wangxian’s block, their neighbors driven mad by the incessant midnight duets.

Poor Dr. Wen Qing, child psychologist and therapist extraordinaire. What has she done to deserve this?

Read On AO3!

Or read below if the spirit so moves you:

There’s a letter nailed to the door when they arrive home.

Wei Wuxian rips the letter from the nail and reads it aloud.

“ ‘We, the undersigned, do hereby declare Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji to be persona non grata on Cultivator Court for the following reasons: One: Wild animals leaving unspeakable ‘presents’ on our lawns—’ ”

Wei Wuxian looks up. “That would be Lil’ Apple. Do they sell donkey diapers?”

Lan Wangji unlocks the door. “What else?”

“ ‘Two: Gangs of feral rabbits rampaging through our flower beds!’ –They do have a point here. How they keep getting loose I’ll never know. ‘Number Three: Loud duets at midnight. We get it! You’re in love! Get a soundproof basement or shut the hell up!’ ” Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose. “Who spit in their bean curd?”

“Where do these people meet, and can I join?” asks Jiang Cheng.

* *  * *

One month earlier:

It's all the daycare’s fault, really. And also the gang’s mutual pediatrician for getting involved and setting them up with a family therapist.

And they all know they should be grateful that the authorities are letting them off easy. But—

Weekly family therapy sessions that double as parenting classes? They all already know how to change diapers and hide the matches and make airplane noises.

And none of it’s not any of their faults. More of a…

“Series of misunderstandings,” explains Wei Wuxian to Dr. Wen Qing. “I’m sure when you hear the full story, you’ll laugh too. Right, Lan Zhan?”

“I don’t think she ever laughs,” whispers Xue Yang to Xiao Xingchen, who can’t see Dr. Wen’s impassive face but dissolves into a fit of giggles anyway.

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes at the two of them and turns to Dr. Wen. “How long is this going to take? My new fashion line launches next week! I don’t have time for this—ow!” He jerks around at A-Yuan, who's gazing up at him innocently. He glares at Wei Wuxian. “Your carrot-brained little son bit me!”

Wei Wuxian scoops his son up onto his lap. “Don’t worry, A- Yuan, Uncle Cheng didn’t mean it—”

“Thumper!” A-Yuan corrects him.

“I’m sorry. Don’t worry, Thumper , Uncle Cheng didn’t mean it.”

“That’s normal,” says Xue Yang. “ ‘Thumper’?”

Xiao Xingchen hushes him.

“I just meant I’d go for a better name,” Xue Yang goes on. “Like Iago or Mushu if we’re picking from annoying cartoon animals. Doesn’t Thumper get shot?”

“You’re thinking of Bambi,” says Meng Yao irritably. He doesn’t look up from his phone as his finger moves in a blur over the screen. He’s missing several important meetings to be here. “He's the one who gets shot.”

A- Yuan’s eyes are huge. “Bambi gets shot?”

“No, Bambi’s mother gets shot,” Xue Yang explains.

A- Yuan bursts into tears.

Lan Wangji shoots Xue Yang a look that’s pure poison.

Dr. Wen clears her throat. “This is perhaps a good example of the dysfunction that—"

“Don’t worry, Thumper’s parents are just fine!” Wei Wuxian tells A- Yuan, squeezing the boy tighter. “Jiang Cheng, show him their pictures on your phone!”

“Do you think I have cartoon rodents as my wallpaper?”

“Google it!”

“Kid’s got to learn about death sometime.” Xue Yang places a lollipop in A-Yuan’s plump little hand. A-Yuan grins at him through his tears. Xue Yang is the kids’ favorite, to the jealousy of everyone but Xiao Xingchen, who is just as beloved. “See? Now he’ll always remember it as something sweet.”

The entire group gives him a Look, save Xiao Xingchen, who’s smiling and nodding.

Sometimes I think he’s deaf as well as blind , Meng Yao texts the others. There are an endless number of group chats, with most created just to complain about the people not on that specific group chat.

WWX : That’s cruel, but...

Jiang Cheng makes an impatient sound. Jin Ling is perched on his knee, slobbering on his custom lotus-patterned purple leather cell phone case. He takes his phone out of the toddler’s mouth and sets him down on the floor. “Can we move this along? Some of us have better things to do.”

“Yes. Thank you, Mr. Jiang.” Dr. Wen glances around the circle of folding chairs. “Now, do we all know why we’re here? Mr. Xue? Would you like to go first?”

Xue Yang stops picking at his chipped black nail polish. “What?”

“Do you know why you’re here, Mr. Xue?”

“I told A-Qing to stop biting people unless they really deserve it, and besides, she’s fully vaccinated, so I don’t see the problem there—”

“Mr. Xiao? Any ideas?”

Xiao Xingchen clears his throat and shuffles his sandaled feet, nervously smoothing the fringe on his oversized tie-dye poncho. “I’m not exactly sure why we’ve been included in a Jiang family therapy session, to be quite honest.”

“Your husband and daughter have been…implicated in some of the group’s…let’s call them mishaps, and as your daughter has adopted A- Yuan’s rabbit fixa—wait a minute, where is your daughter?”

“Xingchen’s got her,” shrugs Xue Yang.

JC - JGY - WWX - Jin Ling’ Uncles

JGY : *That’s* reassuring...

JGY : They make baby leashes for a reason

WWX : Lan Zhan threatened to buy me one the last time we went to the mall. I was lost for a half hour

JC : Are you sure he wasn’t just trying to lose you in the crowd?

WWX : Actually, I think Lan Zhan *did* buy the leash in the end…

*Jiang Cheng has left the chat*

Dr. Wen inclines her head. “Your husband is beside you, Mr. Xue. Your daughter is not.”

Xue Yang cranes his neck around the room. “I’m sure she’s fine, wherever she is. Unrelated question, are all of the valuables around here locked up, or—?”

“Mr. Xue—”

“We’ll know soon enough anyway. Is there an alarm system? No, don’t tell me. I’d rather be surprised. Be right back.” He tucks his phone inside his ripped black jeans and leaves the room, whistling. The clomp of his heavy combat boots disappears down the hall.

“Don’t worry,” says Xiao Xingchen, who seems to have missed a good half of what his husband has said, as usual. “This happens all the time. A-Qing has an excellent sense of direction.”

WWX - JGY - XY - JC - LWJ - Cabbage Patch Kids

JC : What the hell does that mean? The kid’s like 5

WWX : 3, tops

JC : No way she’s 3. She stole my watch last time she played w Jin Ling

LWJ : Are you certain that wasn’t her father?

NHS : XXC would never hahaha 😭 😭 😭

WWX : Huaisang! Whassup!

NHS:

WWX: You change the chat name again? I like it.

JC: Can he take my place here? This whole thing is inane

WWX : "Inane"! So you *have* been using the Word of the Day calendar Lan Zhan bought you!

JC : Shut up

JGY : Like a 5-year-old stealing a watch makes any more sense than a 3-year-old?

WWX : Oh we’re back on that?

NHS : Who stole who’s what now?

LWJ : *whose

JGY : Jiang Cheng was robbed by a toddler.

JC : Don’t you have some corporate espionage to go do or someone’s job to steal or something?

NHS:

JC: Send one more gif and I reach through your phone and strangle you

NHS:

WWX: Did you watch Shrek again without us? That’s A- Yuan’s fav movie

NHS: ur always so busy w lwj n the baby n playing w ur corpses lately!

Dr. Wen sighs. “All right, then. Who would like to go next? Mr. Jiang? How about you? Phones away, everyone, please.”

Jiang Cheng makes a show of being annoyed at having to look up from his phone. “I shouldn’t even be here. This is idiotic.”

WWX - NHS

WWX: Or “inane”

NHS:

“That’s not what the power company report says, Mr. Jiang. Now, I don’t mean to accuse you of anything, but there are concerns—”

“I swear Zidian was depowered when I gave it to Jin Ling to play with,” Jiang Cheng says irritably. “He teethed on that thing for months as a baby. It’s fine.”

WWX -XY - LWJ - JGY - 🧟 🍬 🐇 🤠

JGY: Did Jiang Cheng just tell a mandated reporter that he let Jin Ling teethe on his magic lightning whip?

XY: dammit Im missing all the good stuff!

LWJ: *I’m

NHS:

JGY: You’re wasting my phone’s memory with these ridiculous gifs.

NHS: *inane gifs

XY: Jiggy why don’t you just have your 🍬 🍭 👦👨 buy you a fancy new phone with more memory?

NHS:

WWX: XY did you find A-Qing?

NHS: He lost A-Qing again?

LWJ: …Again?

XY: NHS do you like your tongue where it is or

NHS:

JGY: ?

XY: fingers. whatever.

WWX: I'm lost too

XY: nvm

JGY: That was edifying.

“Now, Mr. Jiang, I don’t mean to insinuate that you let your three-year-old nephew play unsupervised with a dangerous weapon that mistakenly activated and went on to fry the power grid and knock out all power within a five-mile radius for two weeks—”

JGY: Despicable inefficiency

“—or that you took him to a weapons expo, because, I quote ‘He’s going to have to learn to fight eventually anyway’—”

“It was an archery range.”

WWX - LWJ - NHS - Wen Chao Sucks!

WWX: Start ‘em young

NHS: i think it's inane

NHS: WWX? did LWJ smile at that one?

LWJ: No

WWX: He’s laughing on the inside

NHS: how….inane

“Mr. Jiang? Have you any response?”

Jiang Cheng crosses his arms over his chest. Jin Ling is hopping around on the floor with A- Yuan. Obviously not electrocuted, Jiang Cheng thinks, so what’s the problem? “So when my brother blows out the entire neighborhood’s power doing illegal experiments in his garage it’s okay, but I plug a space heater into the same outlet as a toaster and I’m suddenly the devil incarnate?”

NHS - WWX - JGY - Two Bros & A Guy

NHS : Why would you need a space heater in the kitchen? what I do is turn the oven on and that gets the room all hot

WWX : I think you need a new oven

NHS : Are ovens not supposed to do that??

WWX : Do fridges radiate cold?

NHS : I never thought about it that way 🤔

JGY : In the history of the world, nobody ever has.

WWX : Also, all of my illegal experiments are electricity-free.

JGY : …Jin Ling is never spending the night at your house again.

WWX : I said electricity-FREE!

JGY : Because a fridge full of corpses that you and that psychotic hooligan are trying to raise from the dead is so much better.

WWX : A) it’s a top-of-the-line industrial freezer, not a fridge, and B) those corpses were ethically-sourced—locally-sourced, anyway—

NHS : free-range & organic

WWX : zip it Huaisang

NHS : 🐓

Dr. Wen taps her clipboard with her pen. “Mr. Jiang, nobody's accusing you of anything. This is simply—”

“Whatever. What about him?” Jiang Cheng jerks a thumb at Meng Yao. “At least I didn’t set fire to anything.”

Meng Yao straightens up indignantly. “That was an accident!”

Dr. Wen looks like she wants to go home. “According to the fire marshal’s report, it—”

“I’m so terribly sorry I’m late!” A slightly disheveled Lan Xichen appears in the doorway, Xue Yang behind him. “I locked my keys in the car, and was going to call AAA, but then I remembered that we aren’t members—did you know you have to be a member?—plus my phone—”

Xue Yang slaps him on the back. His other hand, gloved as always, is holding A-Qing by the hand. Her oversized pockets clink suspiciously as she runs to go play with A-Yuan and Jin Ling. Today Xue Yang has dressed her in a pink poodle skirt, black boots with frilly socks, and a black T-shirt with the words “Daddy’s Little Delinquent” in pink script, pulling her hair into spiky little pigtails.

“—and the look the bus driver gave me when I tried paying with the $50 I luckily had in my pocket!”

“He’s telling the truth,” Xue Yang says. Over the years, an odd friendship has sprung up between him and Lan Xichen. “He has a stamped bus pass and everything. Look at the poor man. Had to squash in with the hoi poloi. He won’t be over this for weeks.”

Lan Xichen is blinking too much. “And someone on the bus stole my wallet, though I could have sworn I left the bus with it—”

Xue Yang winks at A-Qing, who grins at him and pats the bulging pocket on her frilly pink skirt.

JC - WWX

JC : Why is my lead fashion designer wearing CROCS??

WWX : His house keys must have been on the same keychain. Lan Zhan said he took today off from work

JC : Okay but why are they orange?

WWX : Not everything he owns has to be blue, you know

JC : His contract clearly states at least three out of every four articles of clothing have to be blue!

WWX : Relax, lil bro

JC : He’s the face of our Overly Elaborate Yet Elegantly Simple Eveningwear division!

NHS : Who is?

JC : GET BIRD BRAIN OFF THIS CHAT OR I SWEAR TO ZIDIAN—

NHS : 😿 who just showed up? Xichen?

WWX : Yup he just arrived after a harrowing bus experience

NHS : https://cutt.ly/Mks2dgu ?

JC : Does anyone actually like when people send them links??

NHS : https://cutt.ly/hks21H8

Meng Yao is wearing what Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang call his "customer service smile," a holdover from his dark days in retail. It's the closest he ever gets to showing irritation towards his fiancé. “Why didn’t you Uber over, Xichen?”

“I locked my phone in the car with the keys—”

“It’s fine, Mr. Lan," says Dr. Wen. "Please have a seat. You’re just in time. After all, you were mentioned by name in the fire marshal’s report, along with the somewhat contradictory descriptions of ‘dazed’ and ‘hysterically sobbing,’ which naturally piqued my interest—”

Lan Xichen seats himself beside Meng Yao. He's still looking somewhat frazzled Then again, his main two facial expressions are “gentle smile” and “mild anxious look.” “That was an accident. The fire, I mean. A little mishap.”

“Gentlemen, all of these incidents cannot be mere ‘accidents’—”

“I was meditating and A-Ling wandered in and knocked over the incense burner,” Lan Xichen explains hurriedly. Meng Yao, well-practiced as he is at hiding his emotions, winces slightly. “The window was open, and there was a breeze, and A-Yao just bought these new gauzy curtains that tend to flap about quite a bit—”

XY - JGY - LWJ - JC - NHS - Crossing Us Is A *Great* Idea

XY : And burn quickly

NHS : What am I missing???

XY : Insurance fraud

NHS:

XY : Yes. We’re all complicit now

JGY : Xue Yang, have you heard of a little something called libel?

XY : 🖕 We should go back to building with asbestos like they did in the good old days

JC : We’re all so glad you’re here, Xue Yang

NHS : I need to adopt a kid so I can join your group or something, this sucks, you get to go this secret club every week, jc I see wwx even less than you do

JC : stop talking

XY : What color baby you want, NHS?

JC : What the hell??

XY : That was a joke

NHS: ....

“…and I was so deep in meditation I didn’t notice the flames until the fire department arrived, but A-Ling was fine, just fine, and all the fire fighters were so very nice…”

WWX : Can confirm. Xichen was more traumatized than the kid. The firefighters had to wrap him in like fifty foil blankets

XY : XXC tells me Himbo stayed with you a full week, was that why? my boy didn't tell me

LWJ : “Himbo”? He got 1600 on his SAT.

XY: Term of endearment he knows he’s my boy plus the guy locked his keys and phone in the car for the second time this month

JC : At least he feels remorse over his child endangerment, unlike certain other people I could mention

LWJ : "Child endangerment"?

XY : Tell us again about how Jin Ling used to teethe on Zidian, JC?

NHS:

“Dr. Wen will be pleased to know that my apartment is now fully equipped with a top-of-the-line sprinkler system,” says Meng Yao smoothly. “No more incense, either. This unfortunate incident will never be repeated again.”

XY - WWX - JC - Odd Man Out

XY : At least not until the insurance money runs out

WWX : 😒

XY : Not that he needs it, after landing Himbo

NHS:

WWX: Those jokes really aren't funny

NHS: 😔

JC: Dammit NHS are you in every chat?? Did you change the chat names? Why aren't you showing up on half the participant lists?? Did you hack our phones or what??

NHS: Don’t be so *inane*

Wei Wuxian titters.

“Mr. Wei? Since you seem so eager to speak, perhaps we should move onto your issues, then.”

Wei Wuxian straightens up and points to his chest, the picture of innocence. “Me?”

Dr. Wen smiles thinly. “You, Mr. Wei. Perhaps you can tell us your side of what the school is referring to as ‘The Radish Incident.’ ”

“Well….” Wei Wuxian darts a glance over at Lan Wangji, who is as impassive as ever. “I was just burying him for fun, you know. We like to pretend he’s a radish—“

“A radish?”

“It’s a…you know. A game. I personally like potatoes better, but—”

“Mr. Wei, several parents complained to the school.”

“Because we were hogging the sandbox.”

“Because your son was running around screaming ‘I’m a chubby little radish boy!’ Which in itself would not be cause for concern. But coupled with his troubling behavior the following week—"

XY - JC - JGY - Two Men & A Half

XY : Where did she get these records? Who does she work for, the NSA?

NHS : She’s an astronaut?

JGY : How did you sneak into this chat? And did you rename it?

NHS : 😉

JGY: You're what, an inch taller than me?

XY: someone struck a nerve

JGY: It's just derivative of the other group chat, that's all.

NHS : u said no to "gettin' jiggy w it" i had no other choice. anyway what's happening over there?

JC : I’ll give Dr. W this, that kid is weird.

NHS : who a-yuan?

JC : I’ll give Dr. W this, that kid is weird.

JC : I mean, he’s my nephew, he’s a great kid, that’s not what I’m meant—

XY : *delete delete*

JC : How does your hippie husband put up with you??

JGY : We suspect brainwashing or blackmail.

“—when he decided he was a rabbit or," Dr. Wen continues, "or, as he put it, ‘Daddy’s Huggy Little Bunny Boy.”

“He is Daddy’s Huggy Little Bunn—"

“And only responds to the name ‘Thumper,’ refuses to eat anything other than carrots or food containing carrots, insists on wearing bunny ears—"

XY - NHS

XY : If it’s good enough for Louis Belcher, it’s good enough for Freaky Little Bunny Boy

NHS:

you watch the show too?? I call mingjue “bob” - u know - grumpy mustache guy

XY : I’m sure that’s gone over well

NHS: he’ll learn to love it

XY : A-Qing loves Louis

NHS:

“—hops around instead of walking, and has convinced others of the same…fantasy.”

Everyone glances over at the three children, who are hopping in a circle. A-Yuan has a fluffy little tail on the seat of his pants, carefully sewn on by Lan Wangji. Jin Ling has a handful of cotton balls that had been badly superglued on by an annoyed Jiang Cheng. And A-Qing has a wad of blue cotton candy taped to her frilly pink skirt with a strip of duct tape. As they watch, Jin Ling rips the cotton candy off and stuffs it in his mouth. A-Qing shoves him onto his cottony rear end.

“That’s my girl!” Xue Yang calls.

“Daddy’s proud of you!” Xiao Xingchen adds, though he’s not quite sure what’s going on.

Dr. Wen sighs. “I’m still unclear about how this started. Was it the rabbit incident? Mr. Lan—" She nods her head at Lan Wangji to differentiate between the brothers. Lan Xichen has fallen asleep in his chair, exhausted by his first-ever bus ride. “—I mean, I beg your pardon, Dr. Lan. Perhaps you can fill us in on that? He told his teacher he was attacked by a rabbit monster."

“So he was bitten by one rabbit!” Wei Wuxian says when Lan Wangji just eyes her coldly. “It wasn’t Lan Zhan’s fault. That rabbit was bad news. It had this gleam in its eye—lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes—"

Xiao Xingchen emits a muffled little squeak. Xue Yang looks annoyed. He hates when other people make Xiao Xingchen laugh.

NHS - JC

NHS:

JC: yes yes we all get the Jaws reference

NHS: the last movie we all watched together : /

JC: yes I just said that

NHS: like three months ago

JC: and?

NHS: just saying...

“He was scared of the rabbits after that, and so Lan Zhan told him that rabbits only bite their own, and, well…I mean, we have a hundred rabbits in our backyard. It was either rehoming them and making the news like those crazy cat people, or making A-Yuan feel better.”

A-Yuan hops past, wiggling his cotton tail.

Jiang Cheng rubs his temples.

“All right, Mr. Wei. Thank you. That’s…elucidating. We’ll delve into that in future sessions. Now, perhaps we can discuss the June 7th incident involving you and Mr. Xue?”

Xiao Xingchen starts to laugh again. Xue Yang grins to himself.

LWJ - JC

LWJ : What happened on the 7th?

JC : Am I my brother’s keeper??

“Now, the seventh? I was…hard to remember, all that time ago…” Wei Wuxian taps his chin. "The mists of time and all that."

“It was three weeks ago, Mr. Wei.”

“The seventh….the seventh…was that a Tuesday—?”

“Wen Chao had it coming,” said Xue Yang. Smirking, he twirls his ponytail around a finger. His ponytail is long and sleek and sprouts from the top of his head like an 80s schoolgirl's. “Amiright, ‘Mr. Wei’?”

Wei Wuxian coughs. “You mean the Wen Chao who lives on Qishan Road? That Wen Chao?”

“That spoiled rich kid?” Jiang Cheng asks. (“As if you’re one to talk,” says Xue Yang.) “With the oversized Humvee and tractor-sized tires with spinning rims? Zipping down the street at all hours and blasting his music? I went to college with him. He used to leave double-deckers in the bathroom at frat parties.”

Dr. Wen swallows a long-suffering sigh. “Thank you, Mr. Jiang. I’m sure that information will prove most helpful in evaluating your brother’s case. Mr. Wei, your arrest, combined with the Huggy Little Bunny Boy Incident, does not fill me with confidence.”

“Not arrested—"

“Taken for questioning,” Xue Yang agrees. “By the neighborhood watch. Golf dads and wine moms. Very different from 'arrested.' "

"And you should know," says Meng Yao.

JC - JGY

NHS : What’s going on? What am I missing????

JGY: Did you just make a new group chat? Your name isn't showing up. This is disconcerting.

NHS: don’t worry about it

JC : We’re talking about Wen Chao

NHS : overcompensating humvee ex-frat boy with the hair gel? vomit in the jacuzzi and streak across the field at the big game wen chao? ur babysitter's cousin?

JC : The very idiot

NHS : He has nice sunglasses

JC : For a Russian mobster

NHS : Says the guy who owns a purple zebra striped jacket

JC : Says the guy with more bird-themed shirts than Winston Bishop

JGY : Touche.

NHS : i didn’t know u watch New Girl 2! we must talk l8tr shorturl.at/vDI26

JGY : Your abbreviations are marginally shorter than the actual words.

NHS :

JC : Cleaning bird cages does take up most of one’s afternoon

NHS : see, u get it

JC : Dr. Wen isn’t buying whatever WWX is selling here.

JGY : Wen Chao is related to Dr. Wen. If WWX had any more sense than a chipmunk, he’d realize that. No matter how much you hate someone, family is family...

“Wen Chao was a public menace,” says Wei Wuxian self-righteously. “He deserved what he got. Speeding down the street all the time. Think of the children!”

LWJ - WWX

LWJ: Why is this my first time hearing about this?

WWX: You’ve heard me complain about WC a million times. I even named a group chat after him!

LWJ: Wei Ying.

WWX: You were off visiting your uncle with A-Yuan ! You left me unsupervised! I am not to be blamed!!!

LWJ: We’ll discuss this later

WWX: 😓

“Perhaps the better question is where you got all those fish,” says Dr. Wen.

Everyone turns to look at Xue Yang.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” he grins.

Xiao Xingchen chuckles.

“Five hundred dollars in damages, Mr. Xue. Raw fish juice is difficult to get out of faux tiger fur upholstery, I understand.”

Xue Yang flaps his hand. “His father can afford it.”

“That is not the—" Dr. Wen stops, perhaps realizing that an argument with Xue Yang means forfeiting a chunk of her sanity. “Moving on, Mr. Xue, can you explain this picture you posted on social media?”

“That picture’s an old one. A-Qing’s just a baby.”

“Mr. Xue, given the recent threats you made towards A-Qing’s daycare teacher for putting her in a time-out for stealing her classmate’s graham crackers and apple juice, this is relevant.”

“Posting that to the public account was a mistake, if that’s your concern. My Insta for A-Qing is private, but I was in a candy store and got kind of distracted by the new sugar-frosted fruity explosion jaw-busting mega bombs—"

“You fail to understand the issue, Mr. Xue. What’s that in her mouth?”

“Fingers. Or is that a toe?”

Xiao Xingchen laughs.

“They weren't real,” says Xue Yang.

WWX - JC

WWX:

JC: Great more gifs

“I think I have one with the Halloween store tags still on—" Xue Yang scrolls through the hundreds of photos of A-Qing filling his phone. “Should be one in here somewhere—oh, look, Xingchen, these are from your birthday party; I tell you, Amazo the Magnificent had no sense of humor at all; you’d think nobody had ever replaced his rabbit with a porcupine before-"

Jin Ling hops by. “Rabbit!” he cheers.

Jiang Cheng groans.

“There is blood on the fingers, Mr. Xue.”

Xue Yang gives a breezy laugh. “Paint. The springy plastic is perfect for teething. You just put it in the freezer for a few hours—real fingers wouldn’t work; they’d freeze solid, which makes good ice packs for those hard-to-reach places, sure, but as far as teething goes—”

Dr. Wen holds up a hand. “Thank you, Mr. Xue. That’s enough. My next question is about this speeding ticket, which you received while your daughter was strapped to your chest.”

“She was wearing a helmet!”

“You were driving a motorcycle down the highway, Mr. Xue.”

Xue Yang glances hurriedly at Xiao Xingchen, who’s frowning. “These were two separate incidents—"

“Mr. Xue, I don’t think that that makes it much better—"

“Ouch!” Meng Yao shoots to his feet. “He bit me! Your son bit me!”

Wei Wuxian scoops up A- Yuan, who's looking very satisfied with himself. “You shouldn’t have worn a carrot-orange shirt, then.”

“It’s not orange, it’s beige—"

“Maybe he was aiming for Xichen’s crocs and missed,” Xue Yang suggests.

Meng Yao pats his pockets. “Where’s my phone?”

Xue Yang winks at A-Qing, whose already-stuffed pocket is bulging further. Xue Yang likes dressing her in disarmingly cute dresses and skirts with huge pockets, the better to hide her loot. She grins and twirls a pigtail like Xue Yang twirls his ponytail and skips off with Jin Ling and A- Yuan.

Meng Yao is wearing the fixed smile of a Starbucks barista whose customer just asked to speak to the manager. Never a good sign. “Could somebody be so kind as to call my phone?”

Wei Wuxian makes a show of dialing. No one else moves. Lan Xichen mumbles something to himself in his sleep, chin sunk deep in his chest.

“Sorry, Jiggy,” says Wei Wuxian. “Maybe you left your phone at home?”

“You all saw me using it not a minute ago, and kindly stop calling me Jiggy—"

“A-Yao?”

Meng Yao’s customer service smile slips. “Just stop talking for five seconds, that’s all I ask—"

Dr. Wen shakes her head. At this point she seems more bored than anything else. “Moving along, Mr. Xiao, this is perhaps inconsequential when held up beside your husband’s joyrides with A-Qing—"

“Not a joyride,” Xue Yang interrupts. “That motorcycle is registered in my name. Well, a name—"

“—but A-Qing’s teacher has told me that she witnessed you allowing A-Qing to take candy from strangers.”

“The lady seemed nice,” says Xiao Xingchen, folding his hands placidly in his lap. “She had peppermints.”

Xue Yang sighs fondly.

JC - WWX

NHS: thnx for calling me WWX. reception could be better but this is better than anything on tv. literally candy from strangers?

JC: Dear heaven HE’S back. Just text a chat you're actually on!

NHS: ‘Dear heaven’?

JC: This is inane!

WWX: …not bad

Xiao Xingchen smiles. “She smelled like snickerdoodles and lavender.”

Dr. Wen sighs. “Mr. Xiao—"

“I’ll talk to him later, doctor,” says Xue Yang, patting Xiao Xingchen’s arm reassuringly. “Anything else? What did Mr. Beige do?” He grins at Meng Yao, who’s still looking for his phone.

“Mr. Meng, aside for the fire, which we’ve established is not your fault—though, fiance or not, you should be a bit more judicious in your choice of babysitters—"

Lan Wangji shoots Dr. Wen a look that almost melts the metal clip on her clipboard.

She absorbs it without so much as an eyebrow twitch. “—there is the Treehouse Incident, though I don’t believe the collapse of your nephew’s treehouse was your fault.”

JC - WWX - LWJ - We’re All Cool Here We Promise

NHS : i hear he bought the biggest fanciest one he could then set it up himself and then it fell down at the first storm. if that’s not a metaphor for his life I don’t know what is

JC : That wasn’t funny, someone could have gotten hurt

WWX : it was kind of funny

NHS : it was very funny

LWJ : "Hurt" like a baby at a weapons expo?

NHS : LWJ IN DA HOUSE!

JC : It was an ARCHERY RANGE

LWJ:

NHS: LWJ USED A GIF IM DEAD LMAO—

LWJ: *I’m

“We are suing the playhouse company,” says Meng Yao. “Right, Xichen?”

“Hm?” Lan Xichen sits up with a jerk. “I beg your pardon?”

Meng Yao gives him a patient smile and turns back to Dr. Wen. “As you can see, we have the situation well in hand.”

Lan Xichen has no idea what he’s talking about but nods along anyway. “Of course we do. In fact—" He whips out a recorder and starts playing “Wonderwall.”

“That was…lovely,” says Dr. Wen once he finishes. “Don’t do it again. Now, moving on to the County Fair Incident—"

“Which was an accident!”

“One more interruption, Mr. Wei, and you will be asked to return for solo counseling."

JC - LWJ - XY - NHS - Lan Wangji Pls Stop Vetoing All My Best Chat Names Thnx

NHS : Make him stand in the corner! LWJ, does that ever work at home?

XY : I think he uses *stronger* methods 😏

*Lan Wangji has left the chat*

JC : Xue Yang shut up I will end you that’s my brother

XY : End me with your sparkly little whip? 👀

JC : Your husband’s sitting right next to you you little freak. Allo people are so fricking annoying!

NHS : hey!

JC: I call it as I see it

NHS: your one to talk 😒

*Lan Wangji has joined the chat*

LWJ : *You're

*Lan Wangji has left the chat*

XY : How old were you when you lost your sense of humor, Grape Boy?

JC : “Grape Boy” is that the best you can do?

XY : there are children present

NHS : 🤭 🤭 🤭

JC : Same way there are children present while barreling down the highway at 80 mph on a motorcycle?

NHS:

XY : The state troopers blew that way out of proportion

Dr. Wen taps her clipboard. “Stealing livestock violates Section 2 of the Farm and Livestock Act—”

“No harm no foul,” shrugs Xue Yang. “And Xiao Xingchen gave all the trampled people candy afterward, so we’re all square. Well, snacks, anyway."

“Good snacks,” Xiao Xingchen adds. “Carob-covered rice cakes and trail mix.”

NHS: 🤢

“You can’t just hand out nuts children who might have an allergy—"

“There were also boxes of raisins. Full-size.”

Dr. Wen struggles to keep from rolling her eyes. Jiang Cheng rolls his hard enough for the both of them.

JC - NHS

NHS:

JC: wtf is that get that off my screen

“According to the police report, all three of your children broke into the paddock, released the donkey, and rode him down the main promenade, scattering fairgoers in their wake. I have the video.” Dr. Wen holds up her phone. Loud screams and merry-go-round music blast from her phone. “Mr. Xue? Anything to say?”

“That guy was barely trampled,” says Xue Yang. “Also, I had nothing to do with opening the paddock, whose latch sticks (just by the way), or helping the kids up onto the donkey, so—"

“This was found at the scene.” She holds up black leather necklace with a single red bead. "Look familiar, Mr. Xue?”

Xue Yang touches his bare throat. “I’ve been framed.”

“And this.” She holds up a flute and glances over at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian darts a quick glance over at Lan Wangji, who does not look amused. Then again, he never does. “Since when was I even a suspect—?"

“Since you left your flute there like an idiot,” says Jiang Cheng.

“Lil’ Apple’s paddock was too small! I had to do something."

“Gentlemen—"

The cuckoo clock on the wall goes off, waking up Lan Xichen, who’s drifted off again. He whips out his recorder again but Meng Yao lays a gently restraining hand on his wrist.

Dr. Wen rises. “We will continue this next week. In the meantime, I have some worksheets—"

JC - NHS

JC : Kill me now

NHS : i wouldnt tempt LWJ if i were u…

JC : not like I take up any of WWX’s precious time anyway anymore. LWJ goes out of town and WWX teams up with that nutcase ex-juvenile delinquent of all people to vandalize WC’s car?? In college we stole WC's team's stupid tortoise mascot together

NHS : …..i'll call u later

JC : Please don’t

NHS :

NHS: u can come over on ur own to watch a movie or smthing u know

NHS: ur new line launched already so ur not so busy now right?

NHS: u can bring jin ling along as a chaperone if u want

NHS: hello?

NHS: that was a joke…

JC: okay but no more romcoms

NHS: u brought mama mia over last time not me

JC: I grabbed the wrong dvd

NHS: …..🤐

JC: 🖕

NHS: 😏 see u soon

* * * *

One month later:

“Best session yet!” says Wei Wuxian as they pull up to his house in Jiang Cheng's sleek purple Jaguar. “I mean, Dr. Wen wasn’t thrilled about the whole ‘our kids visited Nie Huaisang’s bird sanctuary and now think they’re skvaders’ thing, but all in all—"

“Just get out of the car.” Jiang Cheng gives him a little shove. They’d all been busy this past month, and had only seen Nie Huaisang once, but that had been enough to convince the kids that they’re hybrid bunny-birds. “I’ll wait outside while you go and get Jin Ling—" He stops. A letter is nailed to the front door.

“Is someone starting another Protestant reformation?” Wei Wuxian jokes. He grins at Lan Wangji, who raises his eyebrow slightly. Excellent. So he found the joke as funny as he did, though going by the way he eyes the nail he’s not thrilled about what just happened to the door’s glossy blue paint.

Wei Wuxian rips the letter from the nail and starts to read aloud. “ ‘We, the undersigned, do hereby declare Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji to be persona non grata on Cultivator Court for the following reasons: One: Wild animals leaving unspeakable “presents” on our lawns—’ ”

Wei Wuxian looks up. “That would be Lil’ Apple. Do they sell donkey diapers?”

LWJ unlocks the door. “What else?”

“ ‘Two: Gangs of feral rabbits rampaging through our flower beds!’ –They do have a point here. How they keep getting loose I’ll never know. ‘Number Three: Loud duets at midnight. We get it! You’re in love! Get a soundproof basement or shut the hell up!’ ” Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose. “Who spit in their bean curd?”

“Where do these people meet, and can I join?” asks Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian slings an arm around his shoulders, the first time in weeks. Jiang Cheng hasn’t seen much of his brother outside of the counseling sessions. “Dr. Wen says that kind of negativity is toxic.”

Jiang Cheng grunts, but lets Wei Wuxian keep his arm on his shoulder. “I’ll show you toxic—”

The babysitter is sitting under the table with Jin Ling and A-Yuan when they enter the house, building a miniature cenotaph made out of blocks.

“The kids okay, Wen Ning?” Wei Wuxian asks him.

Wen Ning peers out from between two chairs. “We were under siege for a couple of hours. Pitchforks and torches, same old thing. But we turned out the lights and stayed away from the windows and made s’mores.”

“So that’s what happened to all the plastic lawn flamingos. Trampled by angry villagers."

Jiang Cheng pinches his temples. “I told you adopting an incontinent donkey was a bad idea. At least keep his paddock locked.”

“We don’t have to tell your sister about this, do we, Wen Ning? …Good. What did the mob look like? Did you catch any names?”

“They were led by a fat man with a goatee and a skinny old guy with beady eyes and a moustache like two long droopy rat tails." Wen Ning crawls out from under the table. “The skinny guy was wearing bright red and blue and purple clothes and the fat guy had a bullhorn. And my cousin Wen Chao was in back yelling something about the rising cost of dry cleaning in this day and age, I think?”

“Yao and Ouyang.” Wei Wuxian makes a face. “Power couple from hell, and I should know. I’ve been there.”

“Are they those nosy neighbors you’re always complaining about?” asks Jiang Cheng.

“They’ve been after us from day one!”

“Well, having that fierce corpse of yours key their car didn’t help.”

“That was an accident.”

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“You know, Nie Huaisang has been texting me about this house for sale next door to him,” says Wei Wuxian thoughtfully. “Lan Zhan, maybe we should check it out?”

Jiang Cheng picks up Jin Ling and pats him gently on the back. “You’re just going to have the same problem with the angry villagers, just across town.”

“No, it’s a big corner lot. I’ve seen it. Looks like the Addams Family lives there. Comes with its own little graveyard and everything. Huaisang’s family owns it, and they’ve been trying to unload it for months, but everyone thinks it’s haunted just because of that time I brought those fierce corpses with me on a visit and they got loose—but that’s neither here nor there. It’s perfect!”

Lan Wangji nods.

“Whatever.” Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. “Let’s get going, A-Ling.”

Once he’s strapped Jin Ling into his car seat, he takes out his phone.

JC - NHS

JC : Your plan worked

Nie Huaisang:

???

Jiang Cheng: yeah. Thanks for riling them up behind my brother’s back all month. Class move. Direct and straightforward

NHS:

NHS: not that they needed much inciting. wwx blowing up the garage was the last straw

JC : was still weirdly convoluted for no reason

JC : Not sure why you had to get me involved either

NHS: says the guy who lives 20 blocks away but still volunteered to file the noise complaint because, i quote, “the duets *R* annoying”

JC : well you can’t file a complaint about them stopping mid-conversation with you to gaze soulfully into each others’ eyes for ten minutes

NHS : *snort*

JC : If you miss WWX so much 🙄 why didn’t you just tell him straight out instead of pulling this shtick?

NHS:

NHS : there’s another house available down the street just fyi…

NHS: my big fat greek wedding sat night? u bring the dvd n i’ll get the pizza

Shaking his head, but smiling to himself, Jiang Cheng starts the car.

[elentiyawhitethorn]

Sneaking Around | Chapter Six

Aelin clicked on Rowan’s contact. want to get out of here? She made sure to keep her phone angled away from Manon, who was smirking next to her.

A moment later, he responded. I thought you’d never ask.

you’re not still pissy about me judo flipping you?

I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ll just have to get you back for it. Aelin blushed at the implications.

“What, is your sweet boyfriend sexting you?” Aelin had almost forgotten Manon was there.

“Shut up.” we’ll see about that

I’ll leave now. You come in a few minutes.

alright

You sure you remember where I live?

yeah, i think so

Aelin heard Rowan’s voice distantly saying he was off. Not wanting Manon to put it together, she started speaking. “So, you don’t mind if I ditch you?”

“And have you spend the night lusting after some dude? No thanks.”

“You’re one to talk. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve gone to gay bars as your wingwoman.”

“That was only a few times and I am grateful, but I still get to tease you. It’s my job. Shouldn’t you be leaving now?”

“So anxious to lose my delightful presence?” Manon rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m off now.”

They walked into the living room to find Rowan already gone and Vaughan on his way out. Good, that would be a little less suspicious if several people were leaving. Aedion and Lysandra had rejoined the group. Manon said, “Aelin’s headed out to her secret boyfriend’s place, so looks like I’m stuck with you losers.” Yes, Manon was very genteel.

Everyone tried to get her to spill, but Aelin just said, “See you Monday.” Then she flipped them off as she walked out the door.

The drive was short, but Aelin was jittery, desperate to get her hands on Rowan. And she had unintentionally memorized his address.

She walked up the stairs to the second floor quickly. Aelin lacked the patience for an elevator ride right now.

Upon reaching the landing, she caught sight of Rowan leaning against the wall next to his open door. “You certainly got here quickly. So eager to-”

Aelin cut him off with a hungry kiss. His lips began to move against hers and he grabbed her, pulling her into his apartment. Rowan kicked the door closed, then pinned her to it. He used one hand to lock the door and the other to unzip her jeans. She grinded against his hand, bucking her hips forward.

Rowan pulled down her jeans, waited for Aelin to step out of them, then picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Aelin shrieked as he carried her to his bedroom.

“That’s what you get for judo flipping me.” The damned bastard was chuckling.

He tossed her on the bed, then swiftly unclothed himself. Rowan looked up to find Aelin had done the same, and was now lying seductively on his bed. She let her legs spread.

Rowan, panting now, climbed on top of her. She moaned as his hips pressed against hers. Neither one of them could get enough of the other. Both of their hands were roving accross the other’s body. Aelin’s tongue parted his lips.

Her hand drifted down to caress him, and Rowan groaned. He let Aelin push him off of her then move down to take him in her mouth. Rowan moaned Aelin’s name. Yes, she could get used to this.

-

Light was streaming through the curtained window. Aelin awoke to find Rowan’s arm around her. She was pressed into his side, fitting like a glove.

Aelin gently slid out of his grasp, then put on his shirt from the night before. It was so large, she nearly drowned in it.

Then she walked out to the kitchen. If he was going to carry her around like a sack of meat, she would feel no qualms about raiding his fridge.

Rowan walked out ten minutes later in another pair of sweatpants to find Aelin dressed in his t-shirt, devouring a bowl of cereal. “Make yourself at home, why don’t you,” he said sarcastically.

“Thank you, I will,” replied Aelin. “Though I’m rather disappointed to find all this health junk. You need to buy some Fruit Loops.”

Rowan smirked. “Planning on eating breakfast here often?”

Aelin blushed. “Just in case.”

Rowan poured himself a bowl of the “health junk.” “Well, I wouldn’t mind if you did.”

Aelin blinked, then smiled.

“Did you ladies really sign up for mixed martial arts?” he asked.

Aelin laughed. “Yes. Lys and I had been taking it for a while, and we convinced the others to join. And I still can’t believe you bet against me!”

“How was I supposed to know you’re a fucking ninja?”

Aelin laughed again, louder this time. “I like that almost as much as fire-breathing bitch-queen.”

“That was meant to be an insult when I came up with it.”

“That makes it even better.”

Aelin hadn’t felt so happy in a long while. They finished breakfast, then Aelin said she should leave.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Aelin asked.

“You should stay. It’s still the weekend.”

Aelin’s heart raced. “And if I were to stay, what would we be doing?”

Rowan’s sultry smile was answer enough.

-

Aelin pulled up at her apartment just past six o’clock. She had totally lost track of time, though she didn’t regret it. Rowan had spent the better part of the afternoon coaxing noises from her she didn’t even know she could make.

Upon entering, Aelin found Ansel at the table eating Chinese takeout. “I wasn’t sure you were coming back,” she said with a raised brow. “I got extra in case you did.” Ansel gestured to the other container of Chinese.

Aelin replied, “Thanks. I need to change first.” She was still wearing last night’s outfit. Again. This was becoming a habit.

When Aelin came back out in a t-shirt and yoga pants and sat at the table, Ansel just looked at her. Stared, like she was seeing deep into her soul.

“Okay, you’re going to have to stop that. It’s freaky,” Aelin stated.

Ansel sighed. “I’m working on my tell-me-all-of-your-secrets stare. Ugh, just fess up, will you?”

Aelin tried not to laugh. “No. Stop prying.”

“I know I blab a lot, but if I swear not to tell a soul, will you at least answer, like, some minor questions? I have nothing else to do with my life.”

Ansel looked so pathetic that Aelin hesitated. “If you won’t tell anyone, you may ask some things. I might not answer, though.”

Ansel immediately brightened. “Great. Okay, I’m assuming his name is a no. Mm, do you like like him?”

Aelin could only imagine if Ansel went and told the others, including Rowan, that she liked the dude. That would be humiliating. Ansel wouldn’t break her word, though. “Yes,” she answered firmly, surprising herself. She realized she did like Rowan a lot, though.

Ansel smiled. “Interesting. I can only assume he works at the office because of your secrecy, not to mention hooking up with him at an office party. Do I know him?”

Most everyone from the office went to the bar; this wasn’t a revealing question. “Probably.” Okay, definitely, but whatever.

“Is he good in bed?”

“Gods, Manon asked the same question. You perverts. Yes, he is very good in bed.” Aelin was tiring of the interrogation and also started to get nervous she might reveal something. “I’m done with the probing now. Want to watch Grease?” The two of them lived for old movies. They had seen Grease about a dozen times already. She knew the offer would be enough to get Ansel off her back.

“Sure. I’m not done with you, though.”

Aelin rolled her eyes. Then they spent the evening watching movies and gossiping about their friends. Luckily, Ansel seemed to have dropped the subject of the secret boyfriend for the night.

Yes, it could be troublesome to deal with her friends’ inclination to snoop, but she and Rowan would tell them if it got serious. Was it heading in that direction? At first Aelin had thought the attraction was purely sexual, but then they talked and laughed he made her heart flutter and Aelin wasn’t so sure anymore. The only question was whether Rowan felt the same about her.

Out of pure desperation, Aelin pulled out her phone. help im bored.

If Rowan was the type to use emojis, he surely would have sent an eye roll. He wasn’t though, and he annoyingly wouldn’t stop using correct grammar and punctuation. Prick. Only a minute after Aelin texted him, Rowan replied, What’s Ansel doing? Is she still at Fenrys’?

she’s currently laying on my lap sound asleep. not before finishing the fried rice though

Poor thing. Aelin could feel the sarcasm oozing out of that text. What do you want me to do about it?

be entertaining. tell a joke or something. im lonely

You’re a very needy person.

i am not

You certainly were today. Aelin blushed at that.

tell me rowan whitethorn is not sending me dirty texts! i should block you or something

Needy and overdramatic. No surprise there.

you need to work on your flattery skills

Fine, then, Your Majesty. You are the most genteel, sensitive, kind, and respectful person I have ever met. Please accept my sincerest apologies. Aelin snorted at this.

*sigh* you could at least try to say something accurate like awesome or fascinating or something. we all know im not nice

How true.

stop bullying me. ask me on a date

Is that an order?

yes

Would you like to go on a date with me?

hmm... i’ll have to think about it

Why do I even bother?

because im irresistible

I’m going to sleep now. Work tomorrow. You should too.

night

Goodnight.

Rowan was right; she should get some sleep. Even if she wanted to text him all night.

“Ansel, up.” Aelin poked her on the forehead. “I can’t get up with you snoring on my lap.”

Ansel was nearly impossible to rouse. Aelin settled the matter by shoving her off onto the floor, which earned her a severe scolding.

In bed, Aelin couldn’t stop thinking about Rowan. It got to the point where she couldn’t help but shove her hand under the waistband of her yoga pants, getting off with the help of the thought of his capable fingers.

Great. Now Aelin was just praying she wasn’t going to start blushing and batting her eyelashes at him. She wondered if he was thinking about her as he touched himself. Probably not. He was probably asleep, untroubled by thoughts of her.

Rowan Whitethorn was distracting Aelin from... well... everything. Maybe if she tried thinking about when they hated each other. Or when she judo flipped him. Yes, think of beating him up.

How was Aelin going to handle work tomorrow, being able to see him but not touch him? Rowan Whitethorn. Damn him.

[killiansprincss]

We Found Wonderland

Summary: Trapped in the past after the S3 finale, Killian and Emma are forced to fade into the background as a newly married couple in a village while Rumplestilskin works on the portal to send them back to the future. (No Marian)

What challenges will they face, after all it’s only pretending to be married after all right?

Inspired by Taylor Swift ‘Wonderland’

Read on AO3

Huge thanks to @captain-emmajones for reading this over for me as I was going insane after editing it for weeks

Happy New Year to all! They say to start the year off as you mean to go on, and my goal for 2021 is to write more so I really hope you enjoy it!

Set just after the CS movie, no Marian.

We found Wonderland

You and I got lost in it

And we pretended it could last forever 

________

Emma had realised on this trip that Storybrooke was her home. Not Boston or New York. Yes things were messy and dangerous in Storybrooke. But it was home. It was where her family was.

She had longed for a family for 28 years especially after the foster system failed her and after Neal abandoned her. But when the boy she gave up for adoption asked her to come home with her, it changed her life. Even if she didn’t believe in the curse at first, she knew it was a place she could eventually call home.

She wasn’t scared anymore. For once, she was excited about the future and what it would bring. And Hook.

This trip had shown a side to him she hadn’t seen before. She knew he had feelings for her, and as much as she tried to suppress her own feelings for him, he was different this trip. He wasn’t pining for her or making his usual stupid flirty jokes. It was clear he cared about her family, he wasn’t selfish.

Kissing Other Hook was an adventure. But seeing her Hook get jealous and punch the other him was even better. She could see in his eyes it was killing him that she was flirting with the other him, way more than she had with him. And she wasn’t going to deny that she enjoyed it.

“You alright love?” Hook's voice pulled her away from her thoughts.

She smiles at him as they walk into Rumple’s Castle, “Yeah. Just excited to get home.”

“Well dearie it’s gonna be awhile before you can do that.” Rumples voice cuts through as they walk into the great hall.

“What the bloody hell does that mean Crocodile?” Hook asks, anger in his voice.

Rumple just laughs, “well it’s not just a portal that I could do easily for you. Time travel has never been done before, except for you two. It’ll take me around a year to create that portal for you two.”

“IM SORRY-A YEAR?”

“A YEAR?”

Both Emma and Hook's voices respond to this sudden realisation.

“You’re telling me, it’s gonna be a year, until we can go home to the future?” Emma asks, hoping she heard wrong.

“Were you not listening?” Rumple asks.

“So we have to stay here for a year while you figure out the stupid portal?” Hook looks angry, like he could use the dagger on Rumple so quickly.

“W-what about preserving the future?” Emma asks, she can’t stay here for a year. She can’t.

“Well you’ve already messed up your parents timeline and they’re still on track. I have no use for you in my castle, so I’ll place you two under a glamour spell in a small little village where hopefully you’ll make little impact. After you’re gone, I can erase the minds of the villagers.” Rumple explains while Emma is still trying to wrap her head around staying here for a whole year.

“My parents just met and are on track to get married and have me. It’s around 2 years before I’m born and the curse strikes. The portal will be ready by then right?”

Rumple just rolls his eyes at Emma. “I’m not an idiot. I say it’ll be a year, it’ll be a year.”

“Then what the bloody hell do we do?” Hook slams his hand down on the table.

Rumple looks as though he could kill him, but he just laughs. “Well I considered keeping you here in my dungeon. But alas I already have my help. You two will be a newly married couple that just moved to this part of the land. You can work at the tavern or something, I don’t really care. I’ll be in touch when the portal is ready.”

“Married?” The two exclaim at the same time.

“Are you two having trouble hearing?” Rumple asks, rolling his eyes.

—————

After probably an hour quarrelling with the Dark One about their arrangement, they’re transported to a small village and a hut that they guess they would have to call home for the next year. It had one large room, with one bed in the corner, a fireplace and what seemed like a stove to the left of the door and a few chairs by the table. It was small alright, and she had no clue how they were going to last a year in this place.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Emma says as she looks around.

Rumple laughs, “I'll be in touch when your portal is ready.” And vanishes a second later.

The pair look around at their home. Seeing the one bed Killian quickly offers, “You take the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor or somewhere it’s fine.”

Emma shakes her head, “no way, you take the bed. I have slept in my car and much worse places before. You take it.”

Hook just laughs, “you really are a stubborn lass. Look, it’s big enough for the both of us. It’ll be fine as long as we stay on our respective sides, no use arguing. We’re going to be here a while, no use one of us being uncomfortable.”

Emma reluctantly agrees.

The first night is the hardest, knowing she won’t see her family, Henry, for a whole year was a lot to wrap her head around. She had really enjoyed this trip when she wasn’t scared for her life, she had seen her parents fall in love and it made her finally understand what that meant, to be born of true love, the true love they had just witnessed.

And Hook. Or rather Killian, she should get used to saying his real name. She couldn’t quite admit to herself that she was falling for him before this trip. It would be a lot simpler if they were going back to Storybrooke, she probably would’ve given him a chance, a date perhaps, and see where it ends up. But this wasn’t Storybrooke. It wasn't even her time. She couldn’t risk whatever they had, not when they had to rely on each other to get home.

The next morning, Emma wakes to find they hadn’t exactly stuck to their respective sides. Killian’s arm was around her waist and she had tucked her head into his chest. It looked very cosy, and to an outsider it would seem they were truly a happy couple. But they weren’t.

Killian luckily wakes around the same time and, noticing the situation they’ve found themselves in, removes his arm and the two don’t say anything about the situation.

Except it keeps happening.

Every. Single. Night.

____

The next few days were spent discussing what their story would be. They had decided that Killian had been discharged from the Royal Navy because of the accident where lost his hand, and they were used to travelling but now had to find somewhere to settle down as a newly married couple.

They found jobs, Emma as the barmaid in the local tavern, similar to the one where she flirted with Other Hook. Killian found a job working by the docks so that he was still close to the water, it was mainly cleaning and anchoring the boats, very different to his pirate days. But it allowed them to slip into the background, not being noticed by anybody and not making any drastic changes to the future.

“How was your day, love?” Killian asks as Emma comes through the door after a long day working in the bar.

Untying her corset, trying to get out of the horrible clothes she tells him,“Horrible. I hate it here.”

Killian looks up at his ‘wife’, “that bad?”

Emma sits down on the chair. “I had 3 separate men try to buy me a drink whilst I was working. I told them I was working, and that I was married and they still tried to touch me up.”

Killian chuckles, “I’m guessing they aren’t going to do that again.”

Emma smiles, “of course not. I hope they won’t be needing their fingers for a while. How was your day?”

“It wasn’t bad. Can’t say I don’t love being by the water but it’s not the same. Although Cassian said he and his wife want to invite us over for dinner one night this week. Said that he wants to see the wife I don’t talk about enough.” He explains, he knows how Emma feels about getting too close with the other villagers, but if they avoid them for too long it could end up much worse.

“You mean you don't talk about your incredible and very hot wife, all day every day? Why did I marry you?” Emma teases. Their relationship has been like this ever since they got stuck, flirting and teasing but never going any further. “I know we can’t avoid other people forever, it’ll only cause more suspicion, so I guess we can meet them for dinner this time.”

“If this dinner goes well, I will start to talk about my incredible wife some more.” Killian teases back, “about how she’s messy and violent and she snores loudly when she sleeps.”

This earns a laugh from Emma, but also a pillow thrown at his head as she changes out of her corset. She’s never complaining about fitting into jeans again.

~~~

A week passes, more shifts at the tavern and more sleazy drunk men who probably have wives and children at their homes.

Emma earns 10 silvers and 15 bronze a week, Killain, 1 gold 9 silver and 12 bronze a week, which Killian told her is decent money, it allows them to feed themselves with food bought from the market, and buy more clothes which are not comfortable in the slightest. She hates the corsets. Luckily. She only has to wear them at work, the clothes she wears outside of work, whilst ugly and plain, are much more comfortable.

Emma wonders if she’s ever seen any of these villagers in Storybrooke, maybe they’re teachers or shop workers. Did they currently have a horrible life, and even though they’re cursed for 28 years, does it get better for them once they’re in Storybrooke?

The day finally arrived that the two of them have to go to dinner with one of the guys Killian works with. And Emma is petrified, it was fine just the two of them going about their days and telling their story to those around, separately. But telling their story together, they’d never done this. Would they know something was up? Would they know they were lying?

Killian can tell she’s tense, so he takes her hand in his and brushes his thumb over hers over and over. He knows her, he can tell when she’s stressed and knows that this calms her.

“It’s gonna be fine,” he whispers to her as they approach their friends home.

“Killian! So good to see you!” A blonde man opens the door, Cassian, Emma assumes. “Welcome, please come on in.”

Killain smiles and takes Emma’s hand in his as they walk through the door.

“May I introduce my beautiful wife, Emma.” Killian says gesturing to Emma who holds out her hand to shake, assured by Killian this was still the proper greeting in the Enchanted Forest.

“Emma. You are as beautiful as Killian has described. May I introduce my wife, Maeve.” Cassian smiles gesturing to a heavily pregnant woman beside him.

“It’s so kind of you to invite us into your lovely home.” Emma smiles, trying to keep her cool composure.

——

The night is pretty simple, they go over the story of how long they’ve been here, Killians time in the Navy, mostly true stories of his actual time, just a fabricated truth to fit the time and their fake timeline. The food was pretty good for the Enchanted Forest, some type of meat, pork or beef maybe, with rice, beans and vegetables. It was okay, but Emma was really missing grilled cheese.

Cassian and Maeve are really lovely people. They discover Maeve normally works at the market, but picks up extra shifts at the Tavern that Emma works at to make extra money, but is taking time off due to her pregnancy. Emma wouldn’t call it Maternity Leave as she was pretty sure it wasn’t a thing in the Enchanted Forest. Maeve said she was convinced it was a boy, but Cassian was sure it was a girl.

“Have you two thought about children yet?” Maeve asks.

Emma almost spits out her water. “Um great question. Um.” She decides to tell a fabricated truth, make it more believable. “I had a son, when I was younger, before I met Killian. I lost him, and I don’t know if I will ever see him again.” Truthfully, she didn’t want to make up a lie about her and Killian, they were not married, they were not together.

“It's a cruel fate to fall pregnant when young and unmarried. I’m sorry to hear that. I wish you the best for the future.” Cassian tells her. She smiles, thanking that they didn’t ask any more questions on the subject.

But there was one story, one question that really fucked Emma up. It was asked by Maeve when she wanted to know more about their marriage.

“So how did you decide you wanted to marry Emma, Killian? I can tell you two married for love, did you plan a romantic proposal or was it a spur of the moment type thing? Cassian proposed to me with his mother’s ring, he took me to the market stall where we first met. I was selling grain and he kept coming back every day for more grain. After weeks of coming to the stall he admitted the truth. A few months later, he took me back to the spot we first met and said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Of course I said yes!”

Emma looks over at Killian, hoping he has something to say. “You tell it so well Killian! He’s such a romantic my Killian!”

Killain looks at Emma and smiles. “So I lost my brother at sea years ago, and the only thing I have left of him is his ring. It’s kept me safe all these years, and when I met Emma I knew she was special. She didn’t like me very much at first, but I wore her down. She’s stubborn like my brother, so I knew I had to give her his ring. I took her down to the water, it’s not where we first met but it's where we both come when the world feels on top of us. Not much in my life has felt right since losing my brother, but Emma came into my life and she filled that void. So I took her to the water, got down on one knee and told her I couldn’t imagine my life without her. We don’t have much in terms of money, but we have each other and I think that’s enough.”

Was he serious right now? Emma thought he would maybe change up the story of how he wanted to marry Milah or something, but that was far too descriptive and emotional for it to be a lie or a fabrication. He had clearly thought about it, a little too much, Emma thinks.

Maeve was practically crying. “That is a beautiful story. You two are lucky to have found one another.”

She was going to murder him.

I’m sorry this is all that the Tumblr limit will let me post, check out part 2 here

[mbakuetshurisprincess]

Destiny Series

AN: Yall... I’m soo shocked how quickly yall are fucking with that mood board like actually soo shocked. I was going to do Egyptian gods cause when I was younger I read the Kane Chronicles and I fell in love with Egyptian mythology and their gods BUT I feel like more people know Greek gods and it’s easier to like deal with Greek gods family tree vs Egyptian because whew chileeee that would of been a mess. BIG BIG BIG ups to @chaneajoyyy​ for a. proofreading and catching the little errors and for supporting me. 

Summary: On May 14th a god or goddess picks someone to take their place in the following years, when T’challa invites everyone in your graduating class to his house for a Chaining day party chaos ensues and relationships get tested.

Pairing: Erik x reader

Warnings: cussing, light smut like literally  I don’t wanna call it smut because it’s so light. 

Word count: 2,111

It was May 14th and the eve of arguably the most important day of your life, chaining day. Chaining day was a right of passage that had been happening since before you or any other Wakandan had been alive, chaining day was the day in which the gods and goddesses came down to earth and selected who was going to fill their position as that specific next god in the next years. Chaining day only occurred once every three generations and it happened that it fell upon you and your peers. You laid on your bedroom floor while your two best friends Makyla and Aaron sat across from you in bean bag chairs.

“I just don’t get why you're not excited Y/N” Makyla said nonchalantly, “I can’t wait to figure out which god chose me! I hope it someone like Hera or Aphrodite. They would suit me don’t you think?” 

“Your annoying ass deserves Hestia” Aaron mumbled under his breath earning him a firm slap on his arm.

You sat up from your floor and took a slow breath in and exhaled. “I just don’t get why it falls onto US, like why can’t the gods choose someone who wants to be a god not a normal person who just wants to live and die and get this shit over with.”

Aaron rolled his eyes “You're just worried that you and Erik’s gods won’t be together and some other girl will have him”

“HA” you laughed out sarcastically “That punk ass nigga can get whatever trick ass whore wants him, we are over and I dont give a flying fuck who gets him”

The room got silent because that lie and everyone in the room knew it, you and Erik never went into full relationship territory just comments under each others posts and his constant flirting with you. But it all ended when he posted a photo with a girls arms wrapped around his shoulders and a blunt in his hand and the caption “all the bitches fuckin with me, its like im the god of pussy or sum..” That was the last straw, and you hadn’t actually spoken to him since you’d seen that post go up.

“Can we go now y'all?” Makyla asked “I want to get to T’challa’s party early and get a good spot for chaining time”

“Are you sure we have to go? We could just stay in and watch a movie until chaining time” you lay your head back down onto your plush carpet and squeezed your eyes shut. You heard movement above you and opened to see Aaron and Makyla standing over you an annoyed look on their faces.

“Fine, fine!” you grumbled outstretching one of your hands out signalling for one of them to help you up, Aaron groaned and grabbed your hand pulling you off the ground. You walked over to your closet, you pulled out a pair of light wash ripped jeans, a white cropped t-shirt and a multi colored nike windbreaker. To emphasize the fact that you didn’t want to go you groaned and moaned while putting on your clothes.

“Keep playing Erik’s gonna give you something to moan about” Makyla said under her breath causing Aaron and her to bust out into a fit of laughter, you turned your head to them and gave them a look that shot daggers.

By the time you got to T’challa’s house you were reminded of why you didn't want to go to his chaining day party and your reason was sitting right at the front door like some self righteous bouncer. You thought if you ducked and hid in between Makyla and Aaron he wouldn’t spot you, but of course he did.

“Woah woah woah lil mama where do you think you're going” Erik’s arm had snaked in between your friends and grabbed you out from in between them. You looked up at your friends with pleading eyes practically begging them to help you out which caused Erik to laugh. “Nah nah ma, your friends can’t help you now, you've been ignoring me and I wanna know why.”

You looked around and noticed a few familiar faces, he wanted to embarrass you in front of your friends? And make a lesson out of you for his other bitches, not today.

You looked down at your arm and back up at him “Nigga I don’t owe you shit.” you snateched your arm from his hand and folded them across your exposed midriff.

A chorus of “Ooo’s” erupted from the small crowd that had developed.

Erik smiled and licked his lips “I asked you a question Y/N and I’m telling you to answer it right fucking now before it gets bad for you.”

You cocked your eyebrow up at him, oh so he thought you were playing?

“Nigga I gave you my answer, you don’t need anything else from me. Now excuse me I’ve got a party to attend” You smirked up at him and waved your finger signaling for him to move out of your way. You had him beat, you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.

“Last chance Y/N before I embarrass you in front of all of these fucking people and I swear to god I will”

You batted your eyes up at Erik innocently and your hands found the collar of his shirt. “Oh no baby boy” you wiped some dust off of his shoulder “I think I just embarrassed you”

You tried to walk away, you had won that fight fair and square and everyone in T’challa’s yard knew it or so you thought. Until you felt strong arms wrap around you calf's and felt you world flip upside down.

“ERIK!” You screamed out hitting his back with an array of punches in varying strengths.

The yard erupted into laughter as Erik walked you through the front door, you caught Makyla’s eye as Erik walked you up the stairs still slung over his shoulder. When he got up to one of the guest bedrooms he plopped you on the bed and locked the door behind himself, when he walked back over to you, you shot him a deathly stare.

“What the fuck was that Y/N?”

“What the hell is posting other bitches Erik? Hmm?” 

You dug your phone out of you pocket and pulled out his instagram, instantly finding the photo you were looking for “all the bitches fuckin with me, its like im the god of pussy or sum.” you mocked his tone.

Erik plopped down on the bed next to you “man this why you been ignorning me for the past two weeks” Erik paused “I thought you had found another nigga ma”

You laid your head back onto the bed and laughed lightly “No Erik I haven’t found another nigga, its just been me sitting around looking stuck waiting for you when you obviously hadn’t been doing the same.”

“It’s not even like that ma, that’s Vannah, you know her and M’baku were going through something and she asked me to take the picture with her and post it to get him mad. They got back together tonight and I was taking it down tomorrow. I can show you the texts to prove it” Erik pulled out his phone and showed you the texts between him and Vannah and her begging and him finally agreeing after she agreed to buy his alcohol for a month.

“Fine I GUESS I’m done being mad at you.” you poked your bottom lip out at him in a mock pout.

“You better stop poking that lip out before I bite it baby girl” Erik rolled you over on top of him forcing you to straddle him,with his hands resting on your ass. “Fuck I can’t wait to tear this shit up ma” his hand smacked your ass roughly “I’ma give you back shots so hard you're gonna feel that shit all week I’m gonna have you-”

Erik was interrupted by counting below you.

“Fuck” you said getting of of his lap “It’s almost time”

 10

“Turn off the lights ma”

9

“Who do you think your gonna get Erik”

8

“I dunno but if I get stuck with some bitch ass mother fucker I’m killing whoever got Zeus”

7

“I want someone calm, someone who does their job and stays out of any drama”

6

“Give me your hands Erik”

5

“I got love for you baby girl, you know that?” Even in the darkness you could see his brown eyes pierce your soul.

4

“Promise to stay friends no matter what happens”

3

“We will stay friends no matter what happens Y/N” he squeezed your hands lightly

2

“I love you Erik Stevens”

1

That was the last thing you remember hearing before a bright white light flashed in front of you, so bright you let go of Erik’s hands to shield your eyes. In a few moments it dimmed.

“My child” a voice called at you

You looked around for the source of the voice and found a strong willow tree waving in the wind, you walked towards it and felt the plush green grass beneath your feet, it felt softer than anything you had ever felt. 

“Sit” the tree told you softly you could make out eyes, nose and mouth in its brown bark.

“Persphone” the words fell out of your mouth without you even knowing they were coming.

She smiled at you transforming before your eyes from a tree into a beautiful black woman, her curves filled out her chiton you noticed her outfit matched yours but she wore it much better.

“Come here” she opened her arm to you and stood up and ran into them burying your face in her chest tears flowing down your face. It didn't hit you until now of her story and what happened, she fell for Hades, a forbidden love and then for the rest of her life spent half of her life with the people she loved and the other half of the year with the man that she hated how much she loved him.

She stroked you curly hair and spoke soothing words to you “I know this is not the outcome you were expecting by I have gifted you a ability”

 You pulled your head off of her and looked up at Persephone tears still threatening to spill out of your eyes. 

“Open your arm”

You obliged her and held your left arm out for her, you noticed a small tattoo outline of a plant.

“Touch it”

You followed her instructions and out of thin air a small plant was in your hand, you immediately recognized it as a venus fly trap similar to the one that grew on your window sill. 

“Anywhere that you walk plants will grow underneath you as long as your on the floor of a building it doesn't matter how many layers on concretes are in between you. Plants will grow” She caressed your cheek in her hand. A gong rang out and you looked up at Persephone, your eyes pleading for some kind of answers or help.

“What am I supposed to do? You have to help me please!” you felt a pulling on your waist as if you were attached to a rope and the other end was pulling you back in.

“Do not fight it Y/N destiny is destiny and you are destined to be with Hades” and with those last words the bright white light flashed again and you covered your eyes. You felt like you were falling but quickly you realized you were back at T'challa's house in the same room that you had been in before with Erik, however he wasn't here now. But when you speak of the devil he shall appear and like clockwork blue flames were produced around a body, you could hear what sounded like a large dog barking and then it all went away, you squeeze your eyes shut not sure what to expect. You heard a familiar chuckle in front of you and you immediately opened your eyes and started at the bottom up. Black tims paired with black jeans and no shirt you studied the person's chest in front of you which now held thousands of tiny scars, a fur coat draped his bare chest his left hand holding a ball of what looked like fire. You finally met his eyes, dark but with a hint of fire in them.

“Wh-who” you barely managed to get it out before a smirk formed across Erik’s face.

“Hades, god of the underworld”

Tag List: @chaneajoyyy @chasingsunlight @writerbee-ffs @dessianna1

[taexual]

HOLIC - 18 | jb x reader

pairing: Im Jaebum x Reader

genre: enemies to lovers au | roommate au

warnings: some angst + bits of strong language

words: 4.3k

disclaimer: i do not own the gif, please let me know if it belongs to you, so i can give proper credit

               prev / next

Once Friday came, you could not decide what to wear to Jiho’s show. You’ve had nearly a whole week to prepare for it and yet you’d chosen to spend your time worrying about all of the things you’d have to say to him once you got there instead. Obviously, you’d have to address the issue of him using your photograph without your permission – although, you had a feeling that the severity of your reaction depended a lot on how you thought the picture looked; despite it being unfair to you, you didn’t want to tell him off if you ended up loving his exhibition, after all – but you also debated if you should have confessed the truth about your feelings—or, the lack thereof—for Jiho.

You and Jiho have known each other for a short while and—as you couldn’t get the conversation you’ve had with Jaebum out of your head—you were starting to realize that the romantic feelings that you should have felt towards him just weren’t there and, at this point, it wasn’t likely that they’d come at all. You did think Jiho was attractive and you admired him greatly – well, aside from the few slips he’d made as a professional – but you didn’t think your admiration for him was ever going to grow into anything more. Now, it was possible that you only felt this way because Jiho was rather slow—or non-existent—with his own affection, never giving your heart a chance to properly flutter, but, perhaps, there was also something—or, well, someone— else that your attention was focused on.

In the end, you decided you weren’t going to talk about your feelings tonight – that conversation might have ended up being far too loaded for a setting like this and, besides, you’ve already had enough confrontations for one week – and instead, you chose to concentrate on something that was less emotionally-draining. Fashion.

In the few other private photography shows that you’ve gone to, people usually dressed in a laid-back, casual chic way – jeans with blazers, dresses with sneakers, et cetera. The shows were also dark most of the time, with all the lights dimmed or completely turned off – since the pictures were usually projected onto the wall – but you didn’t know if Jiho was going to do the same. Perhaps the restaurant he’d rented was light. Perhaps it was a five-star one. Or perhaps it was traditional.

You didn’t think you had clothes that fit each of the different scenarios you came up with in your head, so you figured you’d call Hyojin – who’d graduated with a degree in fashion design – and ask for her help.

Right as you prepared to dial her number, though, you heard the door of Jaebum’s room open.

“I’m going out with my friend!” he called out to you from the hallway. “I’ll probably be back late.”

You approached your door and stuck your head out. “Cool. Have fun.”

“You, too,” Jaebum nodded. “Text me how your... thing went and let me know if the loser finally dared to kiss you.”

“Fuck off.”

“Gladly!” he replied, laughing, as he unlocked the door of the apartment and – after giving you another smile – left.

Shaking your head, you retreated back into your room. You and Jaebum had managed to reach the middle ground – it only took a new bed, a solved problem with a problematic ex, and fixed hot water – and you haven’t had a proper argument in three days now, which had to be a record since you moved in together. Sure, you argued about whose turn it was to buy the groceries or why one of you–Jaebum–had left the milk on the cupboard the whole night, but all of this was child’s play in comparison to what you two had argued about before.

It was nice like this. You were finally getting used to each other’s routines, and even creating a routine of your own – you’d eaten breakfast together every morning since you made up, and you’ve even cooked food together, which was something you’d never imagined doing with Jaebum.

You couldn’t help but smile as you sat down on your bed. When you’d first moved in, you’d thought you’d only manage to live together if you avoided each other as much as possible. But you’ve seen Jaebum every day since you moved in and, – since both of you were still alive, – you had to admit, you weren’t doing as bad as you might have initially thought.

A part of you knew that a serious fight was inevitable – that was who you were – and the two of you might even go back to all the words you haven’t said to each other because your last fight was relatively anti-climactic in comparison to what you’d expected. But you were alright now – genuinely and truly – and your mind chose to stay in the present for as long as possible.

The future would come eventually, you didn’t want to bother about it now.

Hyojin had found you an outfit to wear – that girl probably had your entire closet memorized – and you arrived at Jiho’s show, feeling more excited than nervous. That was the power of clothes that you felt good in. If you didn’t end up having a good time here tonight or if you had to physically throw the projector out of the restaurant’s window because Jiho wouldn’t remove your picture from his exhibition if you’d asked, then at least you would look nice while doing it.

You were positive that tonight was going to go well, though, and you couldn’t help but smile as you entered the restaurant and noticed Jiho greeting guests. He looked good—really good—and, for a moment, you forgot all about your conflicted feelings.

“You came,” Jiho smiled, noticing you, his voice thankful. He took your hand in his as a way to say hello – you weren’t really expecting him to hug you since you’ve come to learn that Jiho obviously wasn’t overly affectionate – and nodded his head towards the restaurant. “Come in. Almost everyone is here already, we can start soon.”

You nodded, entering the cozy place he’d chosen for tonight. The first thing you noticed was the brightness – clearly, Jiho wasn’t going to use a projector to showcase his photographs. Then, you took a moment to acknowledge the number of females in the restaurant – as well as how beautiful all of them were – and the actual photographs themselves, hanging in frames on the walls of the restaurant.

That was when reality hit, completely ridding you of every hopeful thought you might have had about tonight.

The place looked like an exhibition already, even if it was supposed to be just a rehearsal for it, and, while it somehow felt much cozier when you could actually see the copies of the pictures and not just the reflections of them from a computer screen somewhere, you couldn’t help but freeze as soon as you started to walk down the restaurant.

Every single photograph hanging on the wall had a girl in it.

As you turned around the restaurant, you felt your stomach sink. Your picture – the one that Jiho had taken on the night the two of you met – wasn’t anything special. It was black and white just like the rest of them, and you looked caught off guard in it just like every other girl in the rest of the pictures. There was absolutely nothing different about yours.

You thought you were going to get sick. Demanding to get your picture taken down seemed so unexplainably stupid now because not one other girl in this room seemed as shocked about this as you felt. They all seemed to know what Jiho was doing and, even if he hadn’t warned them he’d use their pictures, they obviously did not mind.

As you glanced back at Jiho, who was greeting another girl that had just come by taking her hand into his – just like he’d done with you, – you realized that perhaps you and him have had a huge misunderstanding. You tried not to jump to conclusions just yet, though. Perhaps Jiho just found a whole bunch of models to pose for him and you were really different. Perhaps he’d used a picture of you without asking you simply because he couldn’t help not featuring you in his exhibition of so many other girls and he did actually consider you special.

But even your naïve mind couldn’t really believe that after having seen how similar the photographs looked to each other. All of them were obviously pre-planned, they were all a part of a sequence and not one photograph was more special than another one.

It was starting to look as though you’d end up not achieving anything tonight: you couldn’t talk to Jiho about your scary lack of feelings for him – because, apparently, he never even had the intention of catching feelings for you, so you spent all of this time worrying about your heart being elsewhere while you could have just confronted him earlier – and you couldn’t demand to get your picture taken down because of how obvious your expectations for this non-existent relationship would end up being.

You didn’t want to lose what little dignity you had left. No matter how great you felt in the outfit Hyojin had chosen, you knew all of your confidence would escape you if you’d cause a scene in the middle of a restaurant full of beautiful women – models, by the looks of it – who were all—probably—aware of Jiho’s real intentions. And if they weren’t aware, then, at least, they seemed to be completely fine with his decision to create a photography exhibition, completely made out of pictures of surprised girls, accentuating what you could imagine was supposed to be their natural beauty.

You may have thought you could use a great outfit to your advantage as you caused a huge dramatic scene, but you could not utter a single word without your voice shaking in shame.

“Hey,” Jiho’s voice was suddenly by your ear. After getting over the initial surprise of him appearing next to you, you decided you had to clear up the possibility of another misunderstanding and then get out of here.

“The pictures are looking great,” you said, starting off slow. Your voice sounded surprisingly steady. “Do you know every girl in them?”

“Yeah, more or less,” Jiho shrugged his shoulders, his hand moving to your waist. “They’re all wonderful. Have you talked to anyone? Let me introduce you.”

“Actually,” you stopped him, taking a step away so he wouldn’t be touching you anymore. Jiho seemed confused by your move so you tried to give him a polite smile. You were feeling far too embarrassed to explain yourself but you went ahead anyway, “I’m going to get a glass of water, okay? I took a taxi here and I got a bit carsick.”

“Oh, sure, sure,” he nodded, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. “A waiter will greet you there. Would you like me to come with—”

“No, it’s fine,” you cut him off, already walking away. Your entire body was starting to burn up the longer you stared at the photographs around you. “Thanks.”

You weren’t sure if you really needed a glass of water or a whole bottle of any type of alcohol you could find. You’ve been here for five whole minutes and you realized that you, not developing feelings for Jiho fast enough, wasn’t the biggest problem in your life.

You’d assumed you and Jiho were dating. Meanwhile, he must have been using you as a temporary muse of sorts so he could complete his exhibition. The only reason why he’d called you beautiful in that bar where you’d met him wasn’t because he was genuinely attracted to you – and that’s what Jaebum and your friends have been hinting at since the very beginning – it was because he was already looking at you from behind a camera.

You stopped by the exit of the restaurant – you were certainly not sticking around for longer, this was far too embarrassing – and glanced back to look inside again. There was this small, stupid little part of your brain nagging at you for overreacting and insisting that perhaps this wasn’t that bad. Jiho had every right to talk to other girls. You lived with another guy yourself, after all. Maybe Jiho would even understand if you told him to get your picture taken down and he wouldn’t consider it weird or ask you for an explanation – although, certainly, “you’ve used this photograph without my permission” would have been a good enough explanation had you not waited this long to say it.

But then, as you watched Jiho go around, chatting with the other guests, you saw him interact with every girl in the same way he’d interacted with you and the essence of your “relationship” with him was suddenly even more clear to you. You weren’t dating. You had a strictly bussiness-related relationship.

No wonder he’d never kissed you. No wonder he’d never specifically reffered to what you’d assumed were dates as “dates.” He always asked you out for a bite of food, never specifying the occassion. It was just you making conclusions about everything he did, really. Jiho was never dating you. At least, not in the usual sense of that word.

It didn’t hurt as much as it probably should have and, in a way, you felt almost relieved about not having to tell him that you didn’t see him in a romantic light, but, at the same time, you couldn’t help the embarrassment. You’d gotten so excited about finally getting a chance to date someone – and to rub it into Jaebum’s face, of course – that you couldn’t even differentiate an actual date from whatever this with Jiho was.

You were sure Jiho wasn’t going to notice if you’d left the restaurant. There was not much else that you could have done here without letting Jiho know of the delusional ideas you’ve gotten about him and you after you two had met.

Jaebum had told you it took people less than five days to display their feelings for each other. Well, your and Jiho’s five days were up and it was clear as day now – there were no feelings between the two of you whatsoever. Perhaps you were the one who went too far – you really needed to go on a date to prove a point to yourself and, partially, to Jaebum – and misunderstood Jiho’s intentions but, in your defense, he was never clear about what he wanted from you, either.

You still didn’t want Jiho exhibiting that picture of you at your gallery, but you couldn’t deal with it tonight. There were far too many people to witness your shameful confession here. You could already hear their spiteful words, calling you stupid for even considering the possibility of Jiho being interested in you romantically.

You were leaving now – you weren’t sure if Jiho would notice your absence so you didn’t bother with goodbyes – but you knew you’d have to come find Jiho later so you could talk to him before the actual exhibition. Perhaps, by that time, you would manage to convince yourself that Jiho was the one to blame for the false expectations you’ve been given, and you shouldn’t have felt embarrassed—or guilty—about anything.

Another five minutes later, you were already in a cab, feeling glum and disappointed in yourself. You gave the driver the address of Mark’s bar, since Jaebum had told you he was going out with a friend and you’d assumed you’d find him there. Aside from some familiar company, you also really needed a drink or two. Or five.

As you sat down by the bar and immediately ordered “one of everything,” – genuinely surprising the bartender, – you began to scan the place for Jaebum and Mark. You caught sight of Mark first – he gave you a nod and a sign, indicating that he was going to serve you tonight instead since the other bartender was still confused about your order – and then proceeded to look for your roommate.

Jaebum wasn’t by the bar so that meant he was either in a booth at the very back, or on the dancefloor. You’d have paid good money to see Jaebum’s drunken dance but you didn’t think he was there. There weren’t enough people dancing to form an actual crowd and Jaebum didn’t strike you as the type of person who’d love being the center of attention in a place full of people who were relatively sober.

“You look like you stepped into something not particularly pleasant,” Mark spoke, suddenly appearing in front of you.

You snorted, turning around to face him. “You could say that. I think your bartender friend must have thought I was joking when I ordered everything. But I mean it.”

“What happened?” Mark asked then, ignoring your order and instead getting a wine bottle off of the shelf behind him.

“Oh, nothing serious. I’m just overreacting because I’m dumb,” you replied, waving your hand dismissively. “The guy I thought I was dating turned out to be—what do I call this?—fifteen-timing me.”

“Fifteen—that’s a lot of people,” Mark raised his eyebrows, pouring you a glass and filling it to the brim. “Was he seriously seeing that many people at the same time?”

“He wasn’t seeing them per se,” you explained, sighing. “And he wasn’t seeing me, either. I just thought he was. He’s a photographer so he went out with all of these different girls so he could take pictures of them or something. It was all platonic, I guess. I don’t know why I’m acting like this, though. I was almost considering breaking up with him tonight and now I don’t have to do that because—surprise!—we were never even together.”

Mark pushed the wine glass towards you, leaning against the bar top on his elbows. “Wait, so is he the guy I introduced you to the other night?”

“Oh. Yeah. That’s the guy,” you nodded, remembering how Jaebum refused to be your wingman. Clearly, he had a better time recognizing people’s true intentions than you did, even though you weren’t sure if even Jaebum could have guessed that the reason why Jiho valued you was simply because he needed a picture of you.

“He never told you he was seeing other people?” Mark asked. “Because Jaebum mentioned that you’ve gone on a few dates with that guy.”

You didn’t know Jaebum talked to his friend about you and realizing that finally allowed some warmth into your chest after the endless streams of cold ever since you saw Jiho tonight.

“He never told me he was seeing me,” you replied. “I just assumed he was because, in my mind, the only reason why a guy would ask a girl out for dinner was because it was a date.”

“That’s usually the way it is.”

“Oh, not with photographers, apparently,” you said bitterly as you finally raised the wine glass to your lips and finished nearly half of it in one gulp. “Anyway. Is Jaebum here somewhere?”

“I don’t think so,” Mark shrugged. “He didn’t tell me he was coming.”

“Oh,” you voice deflated. “He said he was going out with a friend and I assumed he meant you. Nevermind then.”

“No, actually, I haven’t seen him since you two came to my bar together,” he said, noticing a customer staring at him aggressively from across the bar. “Hold on for a moment, will you?”

You nodded, letting him go off to work as you did calculations in your mind. Jaebum had told you he was going to stay over at a friend’s place after he found out you met up with Suji, and then he said he was out with a friend again tonight – all of those times you’d assumed it was Mark he was talking about.

You didn’t know why you felt so upset that it wasn’t. Knowing where Jaebum was specifically was somehow calming – you knew where to find him if you ever needed him for whatever reason and you’d thought the two of you have gotten into a habit of always letting the other person know where you were. But now you came to learn that Jaebum obviously had friends you didn’t know about.

God, there were so many things you learned tonight. Most important of which was that you needed to stop making assumptions about everything. Clearly, there was a lot you had no clue about. Like the way guys’ minds worked, for example.

“Alright,” Mark announced, coming back to stop in front of you behind the bar again. “Sorry, that guy insisted he’s been waiting for his whiskey for thirty minutes now, even though there’s no way because I saw him come in five minutes ago—anyway. What do you need Jaebum for?”

You looked down at the reflection of the ceiling lights on your wine glass.

Your mind had returned to the night you’d gotten back from seeing Suji and accidentally climbed into Jaebum’s bed with him. You were upset about making Suji cry with your words – however honest they were –  and Jaebum managed to make you feel better by barely doing anything. He didn’t even know the reason why so many different emotions had been brewing inside of you that night, but he didn’t ask. He just threw his arm over you and forced you to go to sleep.

Maybe he had a feeling that you just needed comfort and he was so tired that he was actually willing to provide it for you. Or maybe he just wanted you to shut up and let him go back to sleep. Either way, sleeping next to him did wonders for your exhausted mind.

Maybe you were looking for that kind of comfort again.

Sighing, you looked up at Mark again, finally answering him, “I don’t know.”

But Mark was smiling at you as if he knew the answer even though you said you didn’t.

“I could call him,” he suggested. “He might be with Jackson but I don’t think either of them turns their phone off.”

“Thanks, but there’s no need,” you replied, finishing the rest of your wine and putting the glass down as you replayed Mark’s last sentence in your mind again. “Who’s Jackson, though?”

“One of Jaebum’s friends,” Mark explained, “he’s from the sort of family that has the money and the intelligence to be into all different kinds of art, so, naturally, Jaebum and him are friends. I think Jackson does something with photography,” he had to pause because you groaned, already having had enough of photographers for one day, despite being one yourself. Mark chuckled at that, continuing, “I won’t elaborate on that then. His family also owns a recording studio. I know Jackson lets Jaebum record there for free.”

This made the wine you’ve consumed fizzle and die down as you raised your eyebrows in surprise, not getting a chance to get drunk because this news seemed to sober you right up.

“He’s recorded songs before?” you asked.

You had thought Jaebum was just dreaming of making it as a singer, not actually actively pursuing that dream. When he’s told you he’s written a couple of songs back in the day, you’ve assumed that this was where it ended. You didn’t realize he actually recorded those songs in a professional studio.

“Yeah,” Mark confirmed. “I never really asked to listen to his songs and he never really offered. He only talked about them because I brought it up. He’s kind of weird about his music like that.”

“He is,” you nodded, already knowing that Jaebum never gloated about his songs, always feeling almost shy whenever the topic turned to them. “I never knew he had recorded actual music, though. Wow. That’s good. I’m proud of him.”

A smile appeared on Mark’s face. “Tell him that and maybe he’ll let you listen to them.”

“Oh, I intend to bother him about it until he plays me something,” you promised, making Mark laugh. You felt yourself smile as well, the excitement of hearing about Jaebum’s music making you postpone your worrying about all that had happened tonight. “Maybe that’s exactly the reason why he never told me about it.”

Another few wine glasses later, you were almost ready to share your entire life story with Mark, so you figured it was finally time to get home. You didn’t feel too drunk to walk – you never really did – but Mark insisted on calling you a cab, telling you that Jaebum would kill him if he let you walk home in a state like this although you didn’t see why Jaebum would care about something like that. You were sure he’d get a good laugh if he found out how you crawled home on all fours.

Your mind cleared a little in the cab ride back to your apartment and by the time you climbed up the stairs to your floor, the only after-effect of alcohol that was left was the giddiness. You couldn’t help the smile on your face as you unlocked the door, excited to tell Jaebum how proud of him you were. Maybe you’d even hug him while you begged him to let you hear his music.

The apartment was completely dark and you were starting to worry Jaebum was sleeping already. You didn’t think you were drunk enough to claim to accidentally get into his bed again.

Carefully stumbling into the kitchen, you turned the light on there, deciding to get yourself a water bottle while you came up with your plan of action. You might have to wait until the morning to tell Jaebum how happy you were that he was doing something with his passion because the longer you stayed in the apartment, the more you got convinced that he wasn’t asleep, but, actually, hadn’t even gotten home yet.

When you checked your phone – and noticed that it was just minutes before midnight – you found one text from Jaebum, letting you know that he was going to stay out for longer than he’d planned and telling you that you shouldn’t wait up for him.

And then, as you stood there, all alone in your kitchen, a water bottle in your hand, the excitement you’d felt slowly started to morph into anxiety. It was like the worries you’ve neglected after Mark had mentioned Jaebum’s music all poured down on you again. It was almost unfair how, as soon as you allowed yourself to get comfortable in the false sense of security, the real world always smacked you right in the face like heavy rain did after you’ve spent hours walking under a protective bridge.

You knew you couldn’t have expected Jaebum to always be there for you, he had plenty of problems of his own – none of which you were going to be dealing with, by the way; you were truly done with intervening -- even if he didn’t tell you about them. However, now you were starting to wonder – basing your assumptions completely on the tone of his voice despite knowing how wrong it was to judge someone’s feelings based on written text – if you’ve made Jaebum feel responsible for you. Perhaps he felt as though you’ve trapped him and now he was forced to listen to your issues and help you deal with them and, clearly, he didn’t want to do that hence why he told you not to wait up for him.

You didn’t want to depend on him that badly and you didn’t want him to think that you constantly needed his reassurances and comforting words to survive whenever something seemed to crush your very soul. You wanted your friendship with him to come naturally. You didn’t want to force him to talk to you, you wanted him to want to talk to you.

But perhaps this was just you and your inherent assumption-making accompanied by an alcohol-induced paranoia. Perhaps, after getting so scared you’d lose the connection you’ve had with Jaebum after you met up with Suji, you never got over that even after the two of you had made up and now your fear was starting to manifest itself everywhere. Perhaps your analysis of his message was just another form of overthinking – maybe Jaebum just had other plans tonight and that was it. He wasn’t trying to stay away from home on purpose. He really had no way of knowing about how wrong your meeting with Jiho went, after all.

But, perhaps, just like you’ve been wrong about Jiho’s real intentions and had convinced yourself that he was dating you, now you were convincing yourself that all was fine between you and Jaebum when that just wasn’t likely. Was Jaebum really the kind of person who forgave easily after all that he’d experienced with his ex-girlfriend? Would he really just forget and move past something that was, more or less, a betrayal of his trust?

You didn’t know anything anymore.

Sighing, you put the water bottle down and allowed yourself a moment of pointless staring into the darkness outside of your window, listening to the last few beats of your heart before you headed to bed, ready to forget everything about today.

Worrying about the future was too exhausting so you didn’t want to think about what you’d have to say to Jiho when you saw him again. Similarly, staying in the past was too unhealthy so you didn’t want to keep on replaying your last conversation with Jaebum to see if you’d catch glints of doubt and suspicion in his words.

But living in the present was not much better and -- with Jaebum not here -- you did not know where to go.

    chapter directory

[ketchacabra]

stand by me

pairing: sam winchester x reader

word count: 1570

warnings: fluff, drinking

written for: @princessofthefandomrealm‘s non-dominant challenge (3hours 23minutes, no editing just posting.)

a/n: this is the first work i’m posting here and im both terrified and excited. i love writing and this fic was so much fun to write. the version of stand by me that inspired this was by the wonderful Jason Manns. 

Pouring the last drops of wine from the bottle, I smiled and leaned against the table. The bunker is silent except for the usual soft hum of the generators that are hidden deep in the bunker. Deciding that its too quiet, I open my phone and turn on my favourite playlist. As the music plays I dance around the library, wine glass still in hand.

I lose track of time as I dance around, my dress sweeping the floor and the wine warming my soul. Soon enough my glass is empty and I wander through the bunker to find the kitchen and an unopened bottle of wine.

The music follows me through the otherwise silent passages of the bunker. As I reach the library, empty glass in one hand and new bottle in the other. With a now full glass of wine I check my phone and find a string of messages from Sam letting me know they’ll be home soon and how much he misses me. I let myself get lost in the music again as I wait for them to get home. The song fades out and my favourite begins. I sing as I refill my glass, my thoughts wandering to a certain tall hunter who stole my heart.

The bunker door is the least subtle door ever invented and creaks loudly as the boys arrive home. They make their way into the bunker, finding me still singing and dancing with my wine, with Dean trailing behind an eager Sam. I twirl around, carefree and loving the swish of my dress as I turn. Without realising Sam had come closer I collide into him, his arms the only thing stopping me from tumbling over.

I find myself lost in his eyes when I look up to him. He smiles, dimples showing and hair falling around his face, ‘Hi beautiful.’

‘Hi Sam.’ I can’t stop the blush creeping onto my cheeks as he stares at me. He pulls me into a bear hug, and I sink into him, awkwardly holding my wine out so I don’t spill it over us as he pulls me impossibly close.

Dean clears his throat, ‘Its good to see you sweetheart, but I’m not hanging around you two lovebirds.’

I pull away from Sam and he reluctantly lets me go, ‘Dean, I missed you too.’ I set my wine down on the closest table, which earns me a pointed look from Dean. I respond with puppy dog eyes and a pout, ‘Don’t be like that.’

‘Sweetheart, I’ve been stuck in a car with him for hours. All he’s done is talk about seeing you again, I don’t want to keep him from you.’

Sam laughs at Dean and I can’t help but join in, ‘Okay, fine. But I want you up for breakfast, we’re eating as a family. Its been too long since I’ve seen you boys. I stocked up on bacon and I’ll even make pancakes.’

Dean pulls me in for a quick hug, ‘Sure sweetheart.’ Eyeing the two bottles of wine on the table he adds a cheeky, ‘we’ll see if you’re still up for it in the morning.’

Throwing a light punch at Dean’s shoulder I laugh, ‘shut up Dean.’

‘Yeah Dean, shut up.’ Sam echoes.

The three of us laugh and Dean turns and walks off to his room for the night. Just as he’s about to turn down the hall to the bedrooms he calls out, ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do you crazy kids!’

‘Go to bed old man.’ I yell back.

I turn and look at Sam, who’s still smiling. His smile makes me feel like a deer in headlights. He takes a step away from the table he is leaning on, ‘I missed you baby.’

‘I missed you too Sam.’

‘C’mere,’ Sam opens his arms up and I step into them. His arms wrap around me tight and he presses a kiss to the top of my head. ‘What’d you get up to while we we’re gone?’

‘Not much, just cleaned up a bit and went for a couple supply runs. I did some of our laundry too, I had to get rid of my favourite jeans because they were covered in vamp.’ I exaggerate with a shudder and I can feel Sam chuckle. ‘I went and bought some more, I picked you and Dean up a couple things too. I restocked the beer, Dean’s whiskey and treated myself to some wine. What about you guys, how was the hunt?’

‘I see that,’ Sam replies. ‘It was easy, just a salt and burn. That didn’t stop me from missing you though. I’m just glad to be home now. Dean even agreed to take a couple days before we head out again. You tagging along next time?’

‘That’s not too bad. I miss the easy jobs, sometimes fighting angels and demons and gods messes with me. Like give me a vamp any day.’ Sam hums in agreement, his arms still tight around me. ‘I’m glad, I love just being here with you, no monsters just us. Yeah, I will. I don’t like being here alone too long, I just wanted to take a couple days to get this place liveable again.’

Sam doesn’t respond, he just holds me close. Its quiet moments like these that make every bad part of this life (and there are a lot) worth it. I never feel safer than when I’m in Sam’s arms, it’s like nothing can touch me. Neither of us speak, I start to hum along with the music that is still playing in the background.

Sam starts swaying us to the music, a sappy love song is now playing. ‘Y/N?’ He asks, snapping me out of my daze.

‘Yeah?’ I respond dreamily.

‘I asked what song was playing when we got home?’

‘Oh, Stand By Me.’ I say.

‘Turn it back on?’ he asks.

‘Sure.’ I pull away from him to get to my phone. ‘Why, do you know it’s my favourite?’

‘It is?’ He asks, cute confusion in his smile.

‘Yeah, this version anyway. You didn’t know?’ I laugh.

He shook his head, ‘I thought maybe Zepplin like Dean, you’ve always listened to his music.’

‘Oh, I do. It’s not my favourite, although Dean does have a great taste in music.’ Sam shaking his head makes me laugh even more, ‘Seriously, not that I’m complaining but why do you want me to put it on?’

‘When we walked in and I saw you dancing you seemed so carefree and happy,’ He says, a sheepish grin spreading across his features. ‘Y/N, will you dance with me?’

‘Sam Winchester, I’d love to.’

Picking up my phone to turn on the song, I take another sip of my wine. I press play and as the soft sounds of guitar echo through the library Sam takes me back in his arms.

We slowly move with the music, neither of us saying a word, both just content in each other’s embrace. The fuzzy feeling from the wine is slowly ebbing away and being replaced with the butterflies and warmth that being with Sam brings. There’s no feeling like it on this earth and not enough words to describe it, every adjective doesn’t quite fit.

The song is so fitting for this moment with Sam. It’s peaceful, there are no monsters here but even if there were I’d make it through anything with that man by my side. Thanks to the whirlpool of emotions, a single tear slides down my cheek.

I sing the second verse softly against Sam, feeling every word deep in my soul. ‘If the sky we look upon Should tumble and fall Or the mountains should crumble to the sea I won’t cry, I wont cry No, I won’t shed a tear Just as long as you stand by me’

As the final chorus plays and the songs fades away Sam and I remain silent, there’s no need for words.

Sam pulls away from the hug, leaning in for a kiss when he see’s the unshed tears in my eyes. ‘Baby, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ I whisper, unconvincingly. He doesn’t seem to buy it but before he can ask anything else I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him back closer to me. My lips are on his in a second, in that moment I have no words for him and this is the best I can do. He pulls me closer, his arms snaking around my waist. The world falls away, in this moment we’re the only things in the world. There are no sparks or fireworks like it’s told in cliché romance novels, instead a blaze of wild fire set aflame in my soul.

We pull apart, a muddle of laboured breathing and dreamily staring into each other’s eyes. Sam stares at me adoringly and my heart feels like it could burst. That was like no kiss we’d ever shared, and we’ve kissed plenty. From stolen kisses in Baby when Dean was paying for gas, lazy kisses in bed, surprise PDA to divert attention to the passionate kisses when we can’t get enough of each other.

‘I love you so much Sam.’ The words all but fall out of my mouth as I stare into his eyes.

His smile grows, dimples deepening and his eyes doing that adorable little crinkly thing. ‘I love you too Y/N.’

let me know what you think. i love and appreciate any feedback. 

[captaindaddykru]

The 100 Ask Game

i was tagged by @foreverandalwayscrysis even though i accidentally end up ignoring her for weeks bc i’ve migrated towards twitter. major dumb b*tch energy.

1. What Station on the Ark would you be from? probably argo station bc im from the south and im surrounded by farmers. theyre everywhere. get me out.

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark? yelling at someone in command for being a basic bitch? fighting for equality? stealing meds for the poor?

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground? if bellamy asked me to? y-yeah.

4. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..) i’d love a turtle

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be? ok if we dont count miles ezekiel shaw bc he was in more than two eps, definitely wells.

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they? bellamy, clarke, raven, shaw & harper. 

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to? there is only one kru<3<3 anyway, floukru if it was my own decision.

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? sumn like maksim? or just maks? idk the whole language is confusing to me

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious. did everyone try the chicken? i thought the chicken was lovely. nah, all jokes aside -- what he did to raven was absolutely disgusting, but i kind of liked his storyline. how he went from being holier-than-thou to absolutely losing his damn mind over clarke to point he shoots up an entire village of innocent people? it was interesting. but he died when he shouldve.

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does? im not gonna take shit. grass is always greener on the other side.

11. What character do you relate to most? definitely clarke. thats why i’m so hard on her.

12. What character do you like the least? echo. groan every time i see her face.

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical) oh i love this one! uhm. probably like jeans, but ripped. black ankle boots. a shirt -- something with cleavage definitely, i think a regular tanktop. a dark jacket. idk. i would always have a gun/knife holster on my thigh i think. (ok i wanna look like lara croft). and i would enjoy if i could wear any shade of lipstick. i would want that to be my trademark. i find berries or sumn in the first ep.

14. Favorite type of mutant animal? that monster spying on lincoln and octavia in the woods. wonder what happened to that one.

15. What would your job be on the Ark? something medical for sure.

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked? yeah no biggie im (almost) a nurse. ive resucitated ppl before.

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive, then who would have made the best commander? dont kill me, but definitely luna. i know she didnt want it, but she wouldve been the best fit.

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty? probably cry all night or get super giggly. either or.

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach? i dont believe in the dead penalty in modern times, but like she was old enough to know killing people aint right. especially not for revenge on an innocent person. so i say the murphy method.

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone? they shouldnt have one person in charge, but if they have to, i’d say clarke. fuck them old ppl tbh.

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis? i think bellamy went through some personal stuff that made him side with pike. if i were in the situation myself i think i would be digusted by pike’s xenophobia, but if they said there was an army outside waiting to kill us. maybe i would buy it? idk. depends on if i have all the info i guess.

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s iPod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there? MUSIC PLAYER

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint? war paint on my lips!!! and i’d wing the shit out of my eyes too. as for a hairstyle probably like a lob, sides braided back. i dont like my hair up so mostly just keep it down. tattoos? idk if we’re all dying anyway, i’d say fuck it and do a whole sleeve of flowers.

24. Favorite quote? can i be a soft bellarke bitch for a sec and present clarke’s entire speech in 4x13 or ‘if i’m on that list, you’re on that list’. that or “who we are, and who we need to be to survive are very different things”

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning? clarke or murphy. team cockroach bitch. is this the time i plug my own thg fics? 

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non-canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

if i cant say bellarke its gonna be a short list. canon? zaven and memori. non-canon: sea mechanic, wellven, murphamy. 

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo? BIG DREAM would be taylor swift but i dont think her current era fits with the show (plus its the cw....like they gonna give up half of their yearly budget for a three sec cameo?). i think aly & aj’s new music slaps and they’d fit in the whole new earth aesthetic. 

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time? write blarke fanfic with him probably. 

29. You’re an extra that gets killed off. How do you die? i’d wanna die protecting bellamy lmao. just a full on beheading or something.

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of? literally no one. they’re a season too late. ok. maybe shaw. but thats over now i guess :/

31. A character you’d bang? bellamy, clarke, raven, shaw, emori, harper, monty, wells, diyoza. its a cw show. come on.

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?  if i was on the show i’d go up in space to prevent becho. if you have me the choice now, i’d stay in eden.

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?  i’d definitely not eat human meat. death it is i think.

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits? tryna murder blodreina for making me eat humans.

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with? i’d bond with monty over biology i think. i would have a hard time getting a long with murphy or echo. i love the first as a character but irl i’d kick his ass. 

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself? if i have eden? as long as i have until the next apocalypse.

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do? try and blow them up while they sleep or sumn? or idk. if i was alone, maybe just better to make friends.

38. Favorite Eligius character? Least favorite? diyoza+, mccreary-.

39. Would you Spacewalk? i would probably? i’d be terrified but what a way to go?

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat? ive accidentally gotten bugs in my mouth before and like i said im not eating humans, so -- space algae.

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it? war didn’t help anyone. in the end, no one got to live on earth. i’d try and compromise i guess. or once they trust me, try and kill the eligius ppl in their sleep anyway.

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes? stick the thumb drives into bullet holes. i have fear of ‘alive’ things being in or on the human body. 

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia? for clarke? yeah. if she was as loco as octavia, definitely. or i’d kidnap her and say she killed me.

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like Marper? sleep, definitely.

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet? bellamy, clarke, raven, emori, shaw, murphy, jordan and since somebody usually dies on these explorations, i’d allow echo to come.

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Captured

Ooooh, I like this AU.  Very interesting to think about and write for!  Thanks for the fun request, I hope it lives up to your expectations and was (at least some what) what you were looking for!! <3 I also didn’t know if I wanted to make this a multiple chapter thing, but in the end I just made it one long one-shot.  It’s lengthy, but do enjoy the long request!  I’m actually pretty happy with it turned out so I hope you are too!! 

P.S. I can’t name stories for shit. It may change, it may not, who knows. 

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GOT7 ft. Monsta X

Jaebum/Reader AU

Genre: Drama, Lil Angst, Fluff and, Uh-oh, some cursing too (just saying)

Words: 8.4k (dear lord)

Kidnapped [captured]: verb: to take (someone) away illegally by force, typically to obtain a ransom.

“I’ve already told you Changkyun, I work today.”  You spoke into the your small cell phone as you pressed it to your cheek with your shoulder as your hands worked on gathering the rest of your things to put into your small plaid purse.

“That is no excuse.  You could always call in and actually come out with us today.  Nothing wrong with playing a little hookie you know.”  You rolled your eyes as your young friend spoke back into the other end of the cellular conversation.  

“No means no, Im Changkyun.”  You chuckled at the childish whine that you receive as a response.  See, today Changkyun wanted to take you out with the rest of his friends, whom you were also close to because today was a special day.  Today was your birthday.  You were turning 23 today and you were stuck working.  Where you may ask? Well, none other than a boring old bank.  

Honestly, you didn’t mind the work, but doing it day after day, just like with most jobs, it gets boring pretty fast.  Accounting and working with numbers was something you had a skill for, which is how you landed this job in the first place and you couldn’t really complain about the pay, but in all honesty you wish you could get out of work today.

You had finished stuffing your purse with your wallet, some over the counter pain medication for your inevitable headache later, a small bag of bobby pins and hair ties in case the bank decided that in the dead of summer A/C wasn’t a thing that was going to happen and finally a small package of hand tissues and bandages of both large, medium and small variety.  You never know when you might need them and you’d rather be safe than sorry later.  

“Listen,” you set your purse on your small table by your apartment door and walked back to your room to change into your work clothes. “I’m off tomorrow, so all that’s happening is us pushing off plans by a measly day.”  

“That doesn’t change the fact I wanted to do it today.”  

“Yeah?  Well if memory serves, you wanted to go out to a movie and then probably go all out at a buffet didn't you?  It’s always busy in both of those places on a Saturday.  Going tomorrow would be better, it’s most people’s lazy days before a new week.  It’ll work out.”  

“No. No, see, that’s just it.  Sunday is the lazy day.  It’s hard enough getting Hyungwon out of bed on a normal day.  You don’t realize how the chore drastically increases in difficulty on Sunday’s that when we have literally nothing to do.” 

“Oh, it can’t be that bad.”  

“Y/N, we draw straws to decide who’s going to wake him up.”  You suck in a breath between your teeth as you slip on a pair of black slacks that buckle around your waist and tuck your white, collared, button up shirt into them.

“Wow, that bad huh?”  

“Don’t leave us hanging Y/N!!!!”  You scoffed at his whine again.  You pushed your bangs out of your eyes and grabbed your black cropped blazer before you left your room, not yet putting it on.  You set it in a heep next to your purse as you pull you hair back and loop a hair tie around it, pulling it into a bun to keep the hair off your neck.

“I’m sorry, but I need to go.  I’ll listen to you complain later.  I’m going to be late if I keep talking to you.”  You heard him dramatically feign a wounded noise as he wept into the phone, as he tends to do when he finally realizes what he wants to do, isn’t going to happen.  

“Uugghhh, fine.  You’re so buying me food to make up for this later.”  You grabbed your phone with one of your hands and swapped ears for a moment, straightening your neck and relaxing your shoulder finally.  

“Yeah yeah, send your orders in later.  I’ll pick something up after work.  Ask the boys what they want to and I’ll buy for them too.”  You rolled your eyes as you heard your friend cheer.  Funny how you were buying people food on your birthday.  

“Thanks Y/N, you’re the best old person I know!”

“YAH!”  He laughed at your sound of annoyance.  You weren’t that much older than him.  He wasn’t so young compared to you anyways.  

“See you later then. Happy birthday.”  You smiled as you huffed out a breath through your nose.  

“Thanks Kyun.  Later.”  You pulled the phone away as you ended the call and dropped your phone in your purse. Grabbing it, your keys to your car and throwing your blazer over your arm, not going to put it on, you left your apartment, locked the door and sped down the halls to the elevator of the 3rd floor to the parking lot before you plopped in your car.  Tossing everything into the passenger seat, you inserted your keys and the car revived to life with the turn of your wrist and before you knew it you were on your way.  

As you drove, you heard on one of the new stations about another recent convenience store robbery.  This is the third one this week.  Either multiple groups are striking at once to confuse the authorities, or someone is just clever enough to do all three and not get caught with so much activity going on.  Honestly, you didn’t really find it too concerning or interesting.  

Robberies are pretty common, unfortunately, and so long as there were no injuries or deaths, you wouldn’t find the time to really worry.  Sure, it’d suck pretty hard for the people who have to deal with broken windows and doors and have to figure out how to replace what was stolen, not to mention the cash that was left in the register, but none of that was really your business.  Call yourself cold-hearted, but if you had nothing to do with it, you wouldn’t dwell to long on the problem.

So, when you pulled into the large, over cramped parking lot of your bank, into the space that is reserved for employees, specifically you, you never expected to have anything other than another boring day tick on by.  

You entered the building, now slipping on your blazer, politely greeting coworkers you met eye contact with as you glanced at the watch on the inside of your wrist.

9:56 AM.  Just barely made it before your 10 AM shift, but even barely is making it.  You’ll just blame it on the, probably still sulking, Changkyun as he sat bored at home.  You slid into your window as you hung your purse on the hook you had placed on the inside of your window, just out of sight.  You turned your computer on as you pulled your keyboard out and opened all your documents and programs before officially opening your window to help those in need of managing their money.

By the time 10:47 AM hit, you had only dealt with a whining middle aged woman who was acting like switching money from checking to savings was the end of the world, an elderly man who was wanted to withdraw money for his niece’s graduation and a mother with her teenage son who wanted to open an account of his own.  It wasn’t too much, but it already made you feel tired.  Your shift lasted until closing today, since you had to cram for the day off tomorrow, so for the next nearly 8 hours, you’d be stuck in this chair unless you had the chance to get up and pee.  

It was almost a quarter past 11 when you decided leave your window for a moment, placing a ‘Be right with you’ sign on the desktop so you could go grab a mug of coffee.  You had brought in one of your mugs when you found out there was a coffee pot in the back lounge and whether you were a coffee drinker or not, anyone would grit through the taste of it to make it through this dreadful shift.

On your way back to your window, you spotted someone in the lobby, a man to be precise.  He had a baseball cap on his head, black with no logo or anything, just plain with an long tail on the back of it to adjust the fit as it bumped against his back with each turn of his head and a black mask covering his nose and mouth.  It wasn’t uncommon for them after all, it was summer and the cap would shield their eyes and the mask would keep out dust and pollen; well to some extent.  He wore a grey tank top that hung loosely from his body under a gray cardigan and his black skinny jeans had the knees torn out.  His sense of fashion was pretty good, whoever he was, you had to admit, but he seemed off.  He just kept fiddling with his phone, looking at it every so often as if he was lost.

So, with coffee still in hand, your slightly heeled shoes stepped against the hard floors over to him to see if he needed any help with anything.  You walked up beside him and looked under the bill of his cap to try and make sure he knew you were going to address him.

“Excuse me, sir?”  He jumped a bit.  Now closer, you noticed the hair that peeked out from under his cap and down his sideburns were bleached.  His eyes appeared to be brown, but it was tough to make out under the shade of the cap’s bill, even in the lit up bank lobby, along with all the large windows around.  “Do you need help with anything?”

He shook his head and cleared his throat.  

“No, uh, I’m just waiting on a couple friends.”  You opened your mouth as you understood.  Maybe a friend of his is going to take out money to have a night out, or maybe they’d just chosen this spot as a meeting place.  Whatever, the reason, you obviously weren’t needed here.  

“Ah, I understand.  Sorry to disturb you.”  It was when you were ready to leave the man, that the wooden doors to the bank slammed open and multiple rounds of gunfire were shot off, leading the entire vicinity into a panic. You also felt panic well in your chest as you turned to see where the fires came from, but before you could get anywhere your legs were kicked out from under you, and you were forced to the grown.

You mug was dropped and shattered as the hot contents of caffeine was spilled next to you and the man you had just spoken to held your arms behind your back as your chest was pushed painfully onto the hard floors.  You felt your blazer being ripped off your form as the man above and behind you pried it off and placed it over the glass of the shattered mug to avoid him stepping on it and then to into the liquid were he would leave liquefied shoe prints that could dry and be used to track him later.  

Lifting your head, the best you could from your pinned state, you saw the visitors and innocent civilians on the ground as two different men went and bound their wrists with zip ties, just in case someone wanted to try and play hero and do something stupid.  Looking around more, there were 5 men in the room, with the man on your back in the mix, there were 6.  All dressed in seemingly normal clothes, but all shielded faces and caps hiding their hair.

Their guns didn’t seem to be anything too extreme like what you would see in a dramatic bank robbery movie.  There were no M-16s, no semi-automatic rifles, no machine guns, just simple pistols and a couple with shotguns.  However, you weren’t going to judge them, if it shot and the bullet hit the intended target, pretty much any gun will do the trick. You were pulled out of your though process as one of the other men shouted at the man on you back.

“What!”  He shouted back as you turned your head.  The man was standing by your window that was vacant, before moving inside and rummaging around on your computer. Luckily all the important information was locked via passwords that changed on a daily, but just as you were thinking it, you felt yourself being pulled backwards onto your knees then lifted harshly to your feet.  

With the man holding your arms behind you, he shoved you towards your window, then behind it and finally down into your chair before he gestured towards the screen.  You knew what he was implying, ‘get into the accounts and get the information we want.’  You caught the glint of the pistol of the man in the corner of your eye as he pulled it from his waistband at his back and you’d really not push your luck.  

Honestly, if you could, you’d deny any order given to you like a trouper if you were alone, but here there were too many people and you couldn’t make yourself the culprit as to why one or multiple of them could get hurt or even killed if you didn't listen.  So, with quaking fingers, you followed the orders of the second man who stood behind you, pointing out everything he wanted to see.  

Codes to safes, information to the accounts of the more fruitful names that were well known, the amount of money stored in the bank’s safe in the back of the store and surprisingly enough a map of the area.  You figured the map would be so they could completely finalize their escape route, what with the authorities on their way from someone cleverly acting on that panic button under their desk before being pried away from it when this all began.  

When all the information and codes you knew were out in the open to the criminals, the one who had you previously pinned on the floor, zip tied your hands together and also put another zip tie through the belt loop of your high-waist slacks and your hand zip tie and kept your hands in place in your lap.  Again, you could try your chances and run since you weren’t actually tied down to anything and no one was holding you, but you’d rather not chance a bullet to the back of your head acting like a panic stricken fawn.

While you sat put with the second man from before watching over you, he noticed a wire running behind your ear and down into your shirt.  What he was looking at was a communication wire used for your bank, since the building was large.  Not, wanting to chance the idea of someone hacking into it to try and give you a way out, he began working on removing it.  The sudden touch of him around your ear and then suddenly gripping your shirt only to unbutton it and remove the wire, startled you to the point, you jumped.  

Everything happened in one go.  Your body reacted to it being exposed to this strange criminal and in shock, your body jolted.  As it did so, the back of your head collided with the face of the man, and was enough of an impact to make his mask slip.  His back was to the mass of people, so your eyes were the only pair of eyes that saw how his mask fell from one of his ears and revealed his face.  You two stared at each other before he hurried, fixed his mask and got a call from the back that they were ready to bolt.

You let out a silent huff, ready for this all to be over, but oh no, the universe wasn’t done fucking over your day.  As the man’s face was covered back up and his cue to skedaddle was clear, you felt him harshly yank up on your bicep and drag you with him.  Next thing you knew, you were listening to 6 voices all shouting in your direction, or rather the strange man’s direction, and you were thrown into a van that was in a hidden alley away from the press and media covering the robbery.  

“The hell?!  Who’s this?!”  A deep voice asked as the one who had thrown you in, slammed the doors and the van began to move.  Your, still restrained, body rolled and moved to the sudden driving and moving as you looked back and forth.  The man whose face you saw, removed his mask again, now in a safer environment.  

“The damn woman saw my face.  I can’t just let that go!”  As two of them bickered, one looked at you as he reached to pull you forward a bit and just as he saw the fear and panic in your eyes, it all blanked out as your consciousness faded with a harsh force on the back of your neck.  Now, with your reality distorting and the sounds of tires screeching and men bickering you let a final thought cross your mind.

What a shitty birthday.

When your mind started to fuzzily return to normal, you couldn’t bring yourself to pry your eyes open, and the ringing in your ears finally cleared out for you to hear arguing.  Much like the arguing from before you lost track of everything.

“You stole a fucking woman!”  This voice didn’t sound like any of the ones you heard echoing in the bank before hand.  It sounded new, and almost like it held a sort of superiority, it was like the harsh voice of a leader.  “I stay behind to cover our tracks, so that you don’t get your asses caught, but now you decide to grab a fucking person and bring them back with you?!”  

“It was Bam who did it!  He just grabbed her and threw her in with us!”  That was the voice of the man who had you pinned in the very beginning of this shitty story.  

“Shut up Jackson, no one asked for your imput.  You would’ve done the same thing if she saw your face you know!”

“I wouldn’t have fucked up enough to let her see my face, so this wouldn’t even be happening!  You know, the whole purpose of a mask is to hide your face so it doesn’t get seen.”

“Both of you shut the hell up!  I don’t care who did what or why it happened, now I have to deal with this problem along side the issue of throwing the cops for another goose chase, so you goons don’t get us located.”  The voice of the assumed leader of your group of kidnappers sighed as there was silence.  Then he spoke up again.  

“Youngjae, work on the computers.  Track where the cops are and make sure they don't find a trail.  As the computer wizz, I’ll expect you not to screw up.”  

“Right on.”  You heard a pair of feet fade off as it was silent a bit longer and soon your body involuntarily twitched, and it didn’t go unnoticed.  Feeling someone come closer to your body, you decided it was now or never, as you slowly cracked your eyes open to come face to face to a man who was kneeled down to your level.  

“Oh, hey, she’s awake now.”  He didn’t look away from you, or really speak loud to really announce it, but it was heard anyway as the remaining sets of eyes were now on you and your groggy state.  The man staring at you looked over his shoulder for a moment before he stood and moved away from you.  He was taller than you expected, but that thought was short lived as a new face was now in your view.

A man that seemed to be no older than yourself was staring at you.  Hair cut short, but moved out of his eyes enough to revealed two moles over his left eye that one could almost mistake for a piercing on his eyelid.  His face was slim as it was emotionless, looking you over just as you were him.  Even in this situation, as much as you hated to admit it, he was handsome.  If your mind wasn’t so dazed, you probably would have sneered at the man, but all you could do is just stare at him.  

He grabbed your arms and pushed you from you lying position to one where you back was rested up against the back of the presumed couch you were on and your legs hung over the edge of the cushions, you hands still bound to your waist.  Your hair, that still remained tied just barely in the bun from, whenever it was since you hadn’t known how long you had been out, had strands of all sizes and lengths falling from it.  Strands fell over your forehead, the sides of your face, and around the nape of your neck.  Given any other situation than the one you found yourself in currently, it probably would have seemed fairly attractive.

The man hooked his finger under your chin, using his thumb just below your lips, to move your head around, looking at you.  You slightly smeared eyeliner combined with the heavy stress filled bags under your eyes did nothing to your appearance and your lips had become dry from the lack of running your tongue around them on occasion. You found a bit of strength in you to jerk your head away from his grasp, chin slipping from his fingers as you glared at him.  He looked at you, surprised for a moment before dropping his hand and smirking at you.

“Ah, I see you’re finally coming around then darling?” His voice was slick, but beneath the dark undertone it held, it was almost as attractive as he was.  

“What’s it to you?” You had sneered back through your teeth and furrowed brows.  You took the time the man in front of you took to stand up and then place himself next to you on the couch, to look around.  You found yourself in wide open, nearly empty concrete building.  Looking up, there appeared to be a second floor that was divided visible from the second, only a railing running around the rectangular perimeter of the second story floor to make sure no one walked right off.  It was like an abandoned warehouse, or old state penitentiary that you’d see online for ghost tours.

The windows, or rather lack-thereof, were very few, you could count only a few on one hand all on the top story.  You deemed that perhaps most of the building was underground.  Of course there were individual rooms on both floors, small trinkets scattered around here and there, a space used as a kitchen and a decent television. You wouldn’t call it a 5-star stay, but it’s enough for someone to definitely live there, and undetected to boot.  

“Well sweetheart,” you were brought back with the man next to you started speaking to you.  You turned to look at him as he spoke, but he just kept his head down as he rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes.  He was clearly still annoyed.  “Looks like you have two options.”  He held out the hand closest to you and held up two of his fingers.  

“One, you run and try to rat us out, meaning you get to be pressed under social media scrutiny after being ‘kidnapped’, questioned non-stop, have all attention on you and help get us arrested, by the time you show up we’ll be gone and you’ll be known as the woman who cried wolf.”  He lowered one finger, leaving you silently dreading knowing what the other option will be.  

“Or, you could stick around and pitch in.”  You’d be crazy to stick around, especially with this lunatic, but the first option didn’t sound any better.  You watched as he lowered his hand all together and gave you a moment to think it over.  One might thing a life of living as someone who claimed something true, but to the rest of the world it’s a giant lie would be better than dealing with a gang of thieves, but your mind was thinking the opposite.  

Call you crazy, but as shitty as this situation was, and how stressful it had been, a part of you wanted to keep living the life he may or may not seriously be offering you.  You’re day of working boring power shifts behind a window would disappear, but a new life of constant hiding and a hushed life would be at your fingertips.  However, you’d also lose your friends, you’d lose your best friend, Changkyun.  

There wasn’t an easy answer to this, but you were leaning towards the option of staying around, but…

“I’ll make my decision, under one condition.”  You spoke to the man next to you, making him open his eyes and glance at you.  “If I can make a call and call just one person, just to let them know I’m okay, I’ll stay.”  The man raised his brow.  That could be risky for someone in his position, so you added on to your condition.  “I’ll let you listen in, you’ll be right next to me as I talk so I won’t try anything funny.  Just one call, please.” You couldn’t live with yourself if you went the rest of your, perhaps shortened, life without at least talking to Kyun one more time.  

The man waiting a moment before he sighed and reached into pocket of his dark jeans and lazily pulled his phone from it.  

“Cut her ties,” he simply ordered on of the men around.  Not arguing with him, one man came and cut your zip tied hands as well as the zip on your slacks.  Looking at the eyes, it was the same man who had you pinned to the ground at the bank. You clicked your tongue and without thinking slammed the toes of your heels into his shin.  He hissed as he dropped his knife and glared are you.  

“That’s for pinning me down before.  Asshole.”  The man next to you laughed.

“Forgive Jackson, he was doing his job.”  You rubbed your, now free, wrists.    

“Yeah, well he’s heavy.  Not to mention just laying on your chest as a woman hurts like hell, not to mention having my boobs pushed on the hard floor with a man on my back.  Criminal or not, have some tact.”  You hissed.  Jackson opened his mouth to protest, but just sighed and shook his head.  He wasn’t even going to go there as you silently applauded his choice to just shut up.

“I think she’ll fit in just fine with that attitude.”  The man the ground on the opposite side of you looked up at you spoke with a smirk.  

“And you are?”  You rose your brow.  You’d might as well learn names at this point.  You’re too deep in now.  

“Yugyeom.” The man next to you who fiddled with his phone answered for him.  “The guy on the ground is Yugyeom.  Jackson your familiar with.  Bambam was the one whose mask you managed to screw up; and also the one who decided to bring you here.  Youngjae is up on the second floor in our tech room handling some business. Mark’s not here right now, you’ll have your introductions later.  Jinyoung is handling repairs for our firearms, so you’ll get acquainted with him later as well.”  

“Alright, and now who are you?”  He smirked as he held his phone by one of the corners and slung his wrist to offer the phone to you.  

“Jaebum.  JB is just fine.”  You rose your brow before you took the phone.  You sighed as you started the process of just accepting anything and everything from this point on.  “Now it’s your turn for your name, or if you want we can just continue with the pet names darling.”  You rolled your eyes in annoyance.  Were all criminals this way, or just this particular group?

“Y/N, a pleasure.”  You spoke with a huff.  

“I’m sure.”  You rolled your eyes again looked at his phone then up at your audience.  

“Alright, I know I agreed for someone to sit in on my conversation with one one call, but I don’t need the happy hungry bunch as an audience.”  JB chuckled as he rose from his place on the couch and grabbed your bicep, pulling you up.  

“Well go to the roof, better signal and no audience.  Happy?”  You just scoffed as he pulled you along with him, leaving the rest of the group to do their own thing and probably discuss your sudden membership.

On the roof, it was just turning dusk you had opened JB’s dial pad, noticing the date was the same as your birthday still on his lock screen, and entered in Changkyun’s number, happy that you took the time to memorize it.  As it rang and you placed it to your ear, you hoped he’d pick up an unknown number. Thankfully, he did.  

“Hello?”  

“Changkyun?”  You head the sound of scuffling on his end as you assumed he was lying down previously before bolting up.

“Holy shit, Y/N!  Where are you?  What happened?  Are you okay?!”  You chuckled lightly as his concern.  You’d be a bit frightened if he wasn’t a bit worried for you.  

“I’m okay, I promise.  A lot has happened since the incident at work.”  You sighed.  

“No shit Sherlock, I texted you and you never answered, next thing I know Hoseok is shoving a news article of a bank robbery at your work and you’re the one employee who went missing!  I’ve been going crazy here!”

“I’m sorry Kyun, I am.” You sighed again.  “I can’t tell you much, but I don’t think we’ll be able to celebrate my birthday today, or tomorrow, or really again.”  JB behind you picked up on your conversation a bit.

“The hell does that mean?”  

“Kyun, I’m not coming back home.  I can’t anymore.”

“You’re not making sense Y/N.”

“I know, I know I’m not..just,” you ran you hand over your face, “something happened and I can’t go back.  I don’t even know if I’ll get to talk to you again.” You felt yourself start to choke up slightly.  Telling your best friend goodbye hurt like hell.  

“No, what?  You can’t just decide that by yourself!”  

“You think I wanted to do this?  I have no choice Kyun!”  He sighed as he heard the slight crack in your voice.  

“Are you really going?”  You could only nod, but he could hear the movement of your head against the phone speaker.  “Is someone there with you?” You looked slightly behind you at JB who stood with his hands tucked into his pants pockets. 

“..Yeah.”  You spoke softly.  

“Alright, can I talk to them?”  You blinked confused at his request as you turned to JB and brought the phone away from your ear slightly.

“He.. he asked if he could talk to you?” He raised his brow slightly and dug out on of his hands, walking to you and slowly grabbing the phone from you.  He took a few steps away from you before he started speaking.

“You wanted me?”  JB’s voice was monotone as he heard Changkyun on the other side.

“I don’t know what you did to make her stay, but if she chose this on her own, you better make sure I don’t ever see her on the news being arrested or worse her body being carried away by a god damn stretcher, you hear me?” JB looked back to you, seeing how your arms crossed over your chest and you held your arms, shifting in your stance, clearly try to distract yourself from letting go of your best friend.  

“Of course.  I’ll keep her under my constant watch.”

“Oh, and you so owe her.  You and your friends happened to kidnap her on her birthday, jerks.”  JB scoffed lightly.  

“I’ll think of something.”  He looked at our briefly again as you were now fiddling with removing your shoes, sick and tired of the aching in your feet.  He whispered into the phone, while you were distracted.  “I’ll have her contact you in the future.  I’d feel pretty bad if I took everything from her away.  Just don’t give her, or us away, understood?”  

“Wow, that’s pretty sympathetic coming from the bad guy.”  

“We have a good points to.”  With that JB walked back to you as you had kicked off your second shoe and handed the phone back to you.  “Finish up quickly.  It’s getting dark.” You nodded as you took the phone back and continued with a short conversation with Kyun.  

“Just, promise me you’ll stay safe. I’ll really miss you Y/N.”  You smiled at his words.  

“I know, I will.  I’ll miss you too.  Don’t cause any trouble for the guys either.”

“I’m the youngest, I live to cause trouble.”  You chuckled at him.  “Hey Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Happy birthday.”  You felt your eyes sting as this would be the last time you would hear him say this to you.  You took a breath and looked at the darkening sky, keeping your tears in your eyes.

“Thank you Kyun. I guess, goodbye then.”  He cleared his throat on the other end of the phone as you started to hear the voices of the other guys.  

“Yeah. Later girl.”  The last thing you heard of him was someone asking who he was talking you, and him replying that it was ‘nothing important’ before the line went dead.  You pulled the phone from your ear and watched as the screen of the phone called showed the duration of the call before it returned to the standard keypad.  

Just like that, Changkyun was gone.  Your chest felt heavy as you felt something messing with your head.  You went to turn to see what it was, but were stopped when a pair of hands held it in place.

“Don’t move your head around.” JB then moved to mess with your hair.  “I’m taking your hair out.”  You stood there in silence as his hands wove through your messy hair and untangled it from the hair tie in the least painful way possible.  You felt your hair fall back, now loose, against your neck as you turned and handed him his phone back.  He took it, tucking it in his pocket.

He looked at the sadness in your eyes.  Clearing his throat he placed a hand on your head and ran his fingers through the thin strands of hair, snagging just a bit on the small tangles.  

“It’s late.  You need rest.” He moved his hands from your head to grip your hand and pull you inside after him.  You briefly ran into, and met with, Mark and Jinyoung the two who weren’t present earlier and watched as JB stopped by the tech room where Youngjae was sat with headphones on his head and computer monitors on every side of a large desk.  He offered you a friendly smile, still clearly busy where you just bowed politely back.  

After that, taking your hand again, JB lead you to a fairly decent sized room on the second floor before he shut the door behind him, dropped your hand and dug around in a closet for some clothes.  A large king bed sat against the rooms backwall in the center with a dresser under a window with a dark curtain covering it.  The room was void of anything really, just a standard room to sleep in.  

“Change into those.  We’ll focus on getting you actual woman’s clothes later.”  He had tossed an over large t-shirt to you with a loose pair of shorts to wear.  “I’ll offer you a hoodie if you want since you don’t have a change of bras to put a comfortable one on and I’m pegging you don’t want to go bra-less in this situation.” You were surprised he even thought about the annoyance that is the female chest, but took him up on the offer of a hoodie.  

“Grab your clothes and follow me.  You’ll probably want a shower too.”  You did as you were told and he led you to the bathroom down the walkway of the second story. “Just take your time. Since this place is basically off the map, we don’t pay any bills, but we still have connections to have working water and what not.”  He was setting up the shower for you as you stood there behind him.  He was awfully kind for someone who is supposedly the leader of a bunch of criminals.  

“Thank you.”  You thanked him as he looked over his shoulder.  

“It’s the least I can do.  We did ruin your birthday after all.”  You blinked at him them remembered Kyun had talked to him.  

“He told you, didn’t he?”  

“Of course he did.  He seemed like a good friend.”  You smiled sadly.

“He was the best.”  The past tense of your sentence almost made you flinch.  JB put his hand on your shoulder, ready to leave.  

“When your done, just head back to the room from before.  You can sleep there tonight.” You nodded at him.  

“Goodnight then.”  He nodded at you as he left.  You locked the door behind him, out of fear someone might just come bursting in and finally let yourself relax a bit.  It wasn’t until you were in the shoulder, you finally let yourself cry.  Unknowingly to you, JB stood at the door of the bathroom, arms crossed as he listened to your cries mix with the shower and soon walked off.  

Just like that, you started your life as a fellow second hand criminal, you called yourself.  You never really did any crimes, but you helped when Youngjae needed support with his tech, or when you could use your intelligence to help them in random things, you would.  You were almost acting as their moral support.  

Over the course of time you began close to every member there.  Jackson, whom you despised at first, soon became your best friend after one particularly large fight you two had that seemed to help you bond in a weird reversed kind of way. But, there was something you wanted to deny at first when you felt it in your chest, but the way your felt towards JB made your heart palpitate.

You first felt it when he surprised you with a phone that had been modified, courtesy of Youngjae, to be unable to be tracked. He gave it to you 2 months after you were brought by Bambam, and he deemed it a ‘late birthday present.”  You saw he added Changkyun’s number to it, under the name of ‘Kyun’, since JB didn’t actually know his name.  That’s just what he remembered you call him.  With that phone, you were able to text and call Kyun when you wanted, but of course you had to be careful with what you said at times, but it was like angels singing when you called him and heard him through the phone again.  

From then, it just started growing.  The feeling in your chest.  Part of you thought that maybe you could just be experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, and maybe that wasn’t too far off from home base, but you didn’t care if you were or not.  You weren’t trying to stay on their good side to stay alive, because you knew they wouldn't hurt you.  Sure you might have arguments, but the boys always leave or make sure you aren’t in arms length of them if they’re feeling angry enough to do anything.

The one time someone had accidentally cut your arm with a shard of a glass that he threw against, and smashed, on a wall near you, JB wanted to cut his arm by breaking a different glass directly on his arm, right on the same place you got cut. JB was a frightening leader, but more than that, he was honestly a good person.  He cared about things and people just like others did.  He even brought back a dog one day to give to Youngjae, who had been wanting a pet to liven things up a bit, as a surprise for his hard working tech expert.  

When you started sharing a bed with JB as well, since it was his room you were hogging the first week of your arrival, it wasn’t anything more than that.  Sharing a bed with a comrade, if you could call him that.  But soon, you wanted to be facing him when you slept.  You wanted to be pressed against his back or his chest and you’d flush when you caught yourself wanting to be held by him.  

So, for some reason, you decided to go to Bambam for help.  Why Bambam, you didn’t know, but you thought that if you went to Jackson for help, he’d just scream everything and make sure the whole world knew how you felt.  At least Bam could be a bit more dependable when asked.  It had been 8 months since you came to the base of the 7 boys, so if Bam wouldn’t be of help, there were always 5 move, with Jackson as dead last.  

As the two of you lounged on the room for privacy, Bam held a sucker in his mouth listening to you.  

“So,” he started, “in conclusion, you have the hots for JB?” You wanted to bash your face into the concrete floor as many times as possible until you passed out.

“Well, if you want to be blunt.”  You rolled your eyes as he gave you a smirk.  “Am I going to get an advice, or am I just going to get teased?  Because I will so leave and tell Jinyoung that you’d the one who wasted 4 magazines of perfectly good bullets just to shoot at a squirrel that was annoying you by throwing acorns at your window.” The Thai boy seemed to choke as he took the sucker out of his mouth and looked at you.

“You wouldn’t dare.”  You rose your brow in attack towards him.

“Try me.”  He ran his hand through his hair.  

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk, but I get to tease a bit, deal?”  

“I’d expect no less.”  

“Alright, just let me think…” He closed his eyes and cupped his chin as he cross his legs and though.  His sucker moved from one cheek to the other as he tried to think of the best way to give you advice and not risk his neck at the thought of an angry Jinyoung wasting even more bullets trying to shoot him.  

“Well, I guess when it comes to JB, it’s best to be blunt?”  He was questioning himself, but he was trying.  “He’s blunt himself, and he’s also the most obvious person on the face of the planet, so he probably doesn’t even know.”  You nodded at that.  “He does seem to favor you over us, so I don’t think you confessing would go bad.  I think he’d be pretty glad actually.”  Now he lost you. 

“You think?  Honestly?  The leader JB accepting me, a backseat criminal, as a potential lover?”

“You wouldn’t think it, but you’ve help us a lot thanks to your brain.  Backseat or not.”  You shoved his shoulder a bit as he smiled.  “Seriously though, just tell him.  I’d go for tonight when everyone’s sleeping so no one interrupts you though.”  You nodded.  

“Yeah, I guess it’s worth a shot.”  You two stayed up there for a while longer just chatting as friends, and you teasing him about how you managed to make his mask slip that first day of everything. He still gives you shit for it, back then you were mad about it, but now you almost wanted to thank him that it happened because it lead you to meet all of them. But, that would just inflate his ego and we don’t need that.  

So, as the day continued and eventually started to dwindle, you found yourself changing into a large t-shirt of JB’s again with your shorts.  That hadn’t changed since day one, you always took more to the shirts of ones of the guys. Yugyeom’s were the most fun to wear, as he was a giant and walking around in his shirt was like a toddler wearing their dad’s shirt.  Not to mention if it was long sleeves sneaking up on someone and slapping them with the sleeves that went well past your hand was pretty entertaining.

You had just slipped the shirt over your body as the door creaked open and in stepped JB.  You hadn’t yet put your shorts on, but you were well past the point of being embarrassed around him, or anyone for that matter. You could probably comfortably walk around in shorts and a bra and not bat an eye at this point.

He strolled up beside where you stood, next to the closet, and began to grab his own change of clothes.  Or rather, a comfortable pair of sweats, as sleeping with a shirt wasn’t really necessary for him.  While the both of you changed in a comfortable silence, he started up a conversation.

“You were gone for a while this afternoon.  What were you up to?” He pull his shirt over his back and then freed his head, having the shirt rest on his biceps before letting it fall off his arms.  

“I was with Bam on the roof for a bit.  I wanted to talk to him about something.  He was surprisingly helpful.”

“Talk to him?  Something bugging you?”

“Eh, you could say that.”  There was a pause for a moment as he reached to grab a pair of sweats from the hanging cubbies in the closet.

“You could always come to me you know.”  You nodded.

“I know that, but I needed someone else’s opinion.”  You wouldn’t tell by the never changing look on his face, but that comment seemed to urk JB.

“I see.”  His comment let you know that he was curious as to what you needed help with, and you mind went back to Bam’s advice: be blunt.  You signed as you grabbed your shorts, stepped into them and slid them up our legs, letting them rest on your hips.  You casually tossed your clothes from the day into a bin separate from the one that help the clothes JB had yet to wash.

“Bam was helping me figure out the best way to tell I like you, is all it was.”  You head JB start coughing behind you and you just shrugged.  “He told me I should just be blunt, but I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”  You strolled over to the bed, sitting on the side of it as you grabbed your phone from your night stand on your side of the bed.  “I guess I could have just texted Kyun about it.  He’s surprisingly smart when it comes to things like this.”  

You lifted your eyes from your phone to see him pull the sweats over his hips and mess with the strings in the front of them, his back to you.  As always, you couldn’t read exactly how he felt in this particular situation. Thinking about anyone else in his situation ou just forced on him, you grabbed your phone and stood, stretching before turning towards the direction of the door.  

“Sorry for springing this on you.  I know your pretty busy running the rest of the boys and what not, so I’ll go bunk with Jackson tonight to give you a little space.”  With phone in hand, you strolled to the door and turned the knob, just barely opening the door before it was slammed shut.  From behind you, JB had pushed his palm against the door, shutting it before you would even peek out of it. Looking over your shoulder and following his arm to his shoulder and up his neck to his face, he just stared at you.  

“Jaebum?” You turned your body around to face him, as you back was pressed to your door and his free hand came to capture your chin in his fingers. He kept silent as he moved his fingers to rest on your neck.  It wasn’t at all threatening, he just let his fingers light hover around your neck, almost in an action of endearment. 

“Next time, come to me.”  He whispered a his breath, strongly scented of mint from his recent toothpaste, fanned over your face and he leaned closer to press his lips against yours. It took a moment for you to fully comprehend the situation at hand, but once your brain caught up, you found yourself relaxing into him.  The kiss didn’t last nearly as long as you had first hoped, but when he pulled away, he grabbed your wrist only to drag you back to the bed and have you climb in.

Placing your phone, you were surprised you hadn't dropped due to shock a moment again, back on your nightstand, you felt JB climb into the bed next to you as he did every night.  The new thing was him snaking his arms around your waist and extending the arm he lay on for you to use as a substitute for a pillow as you were now tucked into his bare chest.

“Uh, JB?”  He hushed you.  

“Go to sleep.  I’m tired.”  You chuckled at him.  He cracked open one of his eyes to stare at you.  

“What’s so funny?”  You shook your head.

“Nothing.  I’m just happy.”  You smiled up to him as he smiled back and placed a kiss on the crown of your head.  

“Good.  Now sleep.”  Like magic, the moment you closed your eyes, your consciousness faded and JB was able to admire your sleeping face. He hand the back of his hand over your cheek and brushed under your eyes with his fingers as you slept.  You face was so relaxed when sleeping, it seemed almost impossible for someone to seem so ethereal to him.  Soon after, he pulled you tighter to his chest, entangling your legs and drifting to sleep with you in his arms.  

The same way he had been wanting to hold you since your birthday.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I spent all day working on this piece, so I’m going to post reactions tomorrow guys!  I have a few ready to go, so until tomorrow I hope you enjoyed reading this long ass story!  ^^”

[deeeelightfuldee]

surveyss 005.

When’s the last time you ran?  Last week. blegh. Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? some of them do, some of them don’t... just depends on my mood. What are you dreading right now? this grad school drama.. it makes me physically ill to think about. Do you celebrate 420? Nope. Definitely not anything im interested in.

Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep at night?  Consecutively? no. Sporadically? No.

If anyone came to your house on your “lazy day” what would ya’ll do? probably order food, watch bobs burgers, do surveys, play board games, etc. Who last grabbed your ass? Oof... either a former coworker or my last boyfriend. Eerrr, actually I think it might have been a guy I was dating briefly. Have you ever been on your school’s track team? Uh, sure. I was homeschooled so I guess if I was running in highschool then I was the track team. Do you own a pair of converse? I don’t have any, no. Do you eat raw cookie dough? oh heck yea. Have you ever kicked a vending machine?  I don’t think I kicked it, but I definitely shook and smacked the one at work. It would always get stuck. Don’t you hate it when radios ruin good songs by playing them over and over? Nah, I don’t listen to the radio a lot, so it doesn’t bother me much. Do you watch Trading Spaces? Back in the day I used to. Is it still on? Man that show used to make me so angry how people could do their neighbors so dirty. How do you eat oreos? Either dunk in milk or eat as many of the chocolate bits first and then save an enormous amount of the creamy goodness to eat at one time. Have you ever stayed online for a long time waiting for someone? AHHHHHHHH yes. Then it turned into staying awake to see if someone would message me. No more of that. Are you cocky? Nope. I can be confident about things, but not cocky. Could you live without a computer? Not at the moment, that wouldn’t be feasible with school. Do you wear your shoes in the house? Sometimes, yeah Who or what sleeps with you? Pillows. Occasionally benny. At what age did you find out that Santa wasn’t real? So, I never stood a chance because my siblings are all older than I am and definitely ruined that for me. Which is so sad because my neighbor used to dress up as Santa and his son would be an elf and they’d come over with gifts and I was like 5 years old and said “you know my siblings ruined this for me, right?” How many phones are in your house, that includes cell phones? Oooof.. umm three. I forgot we got rid of our landline. What do you do when you’re sad? I either stay in my room or I go for a really long drive to places I’ve never been and I don’t bother to keep a map up. Do you know anyone born in the year 1985? Yes Who would you call first if you won the lottery? My mom. I don’t know who else hahah Last time you saw your best friend?  I saw my besties today. Are you in high school? I am not What jewelry are you wearing? I have a necklace on still. Is anyone on your bad side now? Yes. It doesn’t happen often that I get this way, but I’m just so tired of being treated as garbage  When did reality become tv? Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows  What’s the first thing you do when you get online? usually check emails or open up something fun. When I’m in school it is all business. Do you watch Grey’s Anatomy? I used to love watching it. How do you most people spell your name? Some people spell it correctly, though some people add two n’s or swap an A for an E. I think some people do it on purpose. Would you wear a boy/girlfriends clothes? If it fit, yah. But historically the guys I have dated are muscular but slim.  What are you doing tomorrow? Putting together the pool and patio, sorting out retirement info for mom, planning 4th of july plans, planning birthday plans, meal planning. 

Where do you draw the line? Depends on what the situation is. I typically have pretty high self-respect, so if I am encountering a situation that is disrespectful towards myself, then I am normally out. The exception to that rule has been for someone I genuinely love and care about. Finding that line has been unclear. I think I found the line now that it’s becoming a safety concern. Favorite name for a girl? Violet, Eleanor, Faye.  Favorite boy name? I love soooo many. Jack Montgomery, Theodore (Theo) Graham, etc. Will you keep your last name when you get married? Doubt it. I am okay with letting this one go.  When was the last time you left your house?  I left the house today.  Do you return your cart? HECK YES.  Do you have a dishwasher? I do. Thank gooooooooooodness.  What noise do you hear? Well, I have four separate fans running, so that’s a large amount of the noise. I also have Bob’s Burgers playing in the background because that’s my happy place. Also, my phone is going off like crazy. Would you survive in prison? Probably not. Guilt would get to me for whatever got me there in the first place. I’m not an aggressive person and I know you have to be in order to make it. Who is the youngest in the family? you’re talkin’ to her Road trip! Who would most likely overpack? Most likely me. Do you know anyone with the same name as you? I used to work with a lady who had my name. She was notttttt my cup of tea.  What’s the last thing you purchased?  food.  Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you? Yeah, my sister notoriously tries to pay for me. My brothers not AS frequently, but my older brother will occasionally offer to buy food for me. My other brother is pretty skint. What brand are your pants right now? No pants. But my bottoms are black What brand is your digital camera? I wish I remembered.... kind of.  Do you own expensive perfume/cologne? One or two.  Do you watch movies with your parents? never my dad. Occasionally mom.  Ever been to Georgia (the state)? Yup! Planning to go again soon.  What irritates you the most? either being taken for granted, or lack of concern for safety.  Are you taking college classes right now? Graduated! I am ready to re-enroll haha.  Do you like sushi? I really, really, really do not.  Do you get your hair cut every month? Ok, sadly I have not gotten my hair cut in probably... 7 years?  Do you go online everyday? yes.

[whatsonforperth]

THE DEVON DRESS FROM REALISATION PAR

Trying out a new dress style from my favourites at Realisation Par. Sizing and review of The Devon Dress in Flower Power.

Its been a while since I last shared a Realisation Par review with you guys and they are always one of the things that keep bringing people back to Inspiring Wit. You can find my other reviews below, with the famed Naomi Wild Things skirt and a bunch of the wrap dresses and more. This time around I am reviewing the Devon dress in Flower Power, which I ordered for my birthday in September last year. Its taken me a while to review! But the good thing is, Ive worn it a few times now so I can fully go into how I feel about the cut and what it is like to wear. Way back in September I created a poll for which Realisation Par dress to order next over on Instagram stories. Throughout the entire 24 hours the results came up 50/50 between two styles. Needless to say, the poll proved to be fairly un-useful. Hundreds of votes, but the split resulted exactly at a 50/50 split between the two dress choices. The only natural conclusion? To order both! Haha! So thanks to the poll, for my birthday last year, I was given one dress from Mario and gifted myself the other.

SIZING AND LENGTH When it came to the sizing I was a little apprehensive about how it would look on me. I ordered it in a size XS. The Devon is short, fully lined, fitted through the waist and bust with adjustable tie up spaghetti straps. I am usually a size AU6, 24/25 inch waist in jeans, but my bust size is much smaller. Looking at the pictures on Instagram and on models wearing this dress I knew there was no way I would fill out the bust area as much. But the pleated detail around the bust is flattering and creates an optical illusion of a fuller bust. On me, there will never be any cleavage, but it fits nicely without gaping. There is also a tie at the front, which you could loosen to fit a fuller bust, for me I just need it tied in all the way. I am about 163cm tall and find this hem length to be borderline too short, particularly when I sit down. Though, I dont often wear A-line skirts this short, so maybe I am just not used to it. If I were much taller I think Id have found it too short on me and would have needed to size up for a longer length. The waist is a perfect fit but I wouldnt probably plan on eating a big lunch wearing it since the waistband is so fitted. STYLE In terms of the style, I think it is very pretty and I love the pleated detail and print. The silk is beautiful. If anything I will say that I feel kind of bare in this dress, I am not as used to wearing short and sleeveless. Usually, I like to balance out a short dress with a sleeve or opt for a longer hem length in a sleeveless slip style dress. This is probably just me being conscious of my body showing a lot of skin and feeling the need to be on top of my fitness so I feel toned and confident. Particularly in my arms and upper thigh area. Thats definitely me being extra critical of my own body and how comfortable I feel. Generally,I am more confident when I have been working out regularly. I did want to try one of these dresses out though, particularly for hotter weather. Ive been wearing it in summer but tend to pick locations where Im not going to feel uncomfortably bare. This probably wouldnt have been an issue in my younger days. It may even just look better on me if I am also a bit more tanned. I only seldom use a faux tan, so Ive not actually tested this theory out yet! Have you found a faux tanner brand that doesnt smell like faux tan? Let me know! I HATE that smell!

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? Would I buy the same dress in a different print? Hmm, only if it had a slightly longer hem. Im looking forward to wearing it with a knit over the top heading into the cooler months. This pleated bust style also comes in a top version The Ana, which I think would be beautiful with jeans for a night out or a midi silk slip skirt. To be honest, I have never bought one of the Realisation Par tops purely because the cost of some is the same as the cost of a dress. Id personally rather spend that money on a dress and buy a cheaper top. Thats just me though. Id love to get a couple of the tops one day, but so far I have just stuck to the dresses. Need any advice with the sizing of the Realisation Par pieces? Check out the other review posts below or drop me a DM on Instagram @inspiringwit people do this every single week! If you want to check out some of my other Realisation Par reviews find the links below:

Turn on your JavaScript to view content WEARING: SCADA AUSTRALIA JEWELLERY REALISATION PAR THE DEVON DRESS IN FLOWER POWERFollow FOLLOW VIA BLOGLOVIN PHOTOGRAPHED BY:MARIO RECCHIA JOIN MEIN MY PINTEREST OBSESSIONHERE http://www.inspiringwit.com/devon-dress-realisation-par/

[wordlesspoet]

6, 11, 18, 24, 33, 37, 39, 46, 55, 56, 60, 65, 79, 85, 95, 96, and 104 pls and thank you! no rush take ur time ily

hey i love you too!! youre so wonderful fluffy

6. Have you ever wanted to have someone but you messed it up?    I think, at the time of the issue, yes. But now, looking back on it, I truly think that it’s better off this way. 11. What do you drink in the morning?    Coffee. Sometimes I’ll have a bit of water if I wake up with a sticky throat, or if I’m sick I’ll make tea. I always make coffee and take it in my thermos to school. (I also take a water bottle with me but the last time I finished that thing at school was probably last year)18. Are you wearing jeans,sweatpants,or pajama pants?    I’m wearing jeans right now, because I just got home from working. 24. Have you ever considered getting a tattoo?    Yes. I want a galaxy under my right collarbone (yeah i know it’s gonna hurt like a bitch, I’ll live.) I also really want a sternum piece, a big one on both of my thighs, and raven wings on my back. I’ll also eventually get the moon phases on my ribcage somewhere. Eventually.33. Do you prefer warm or cold weather?    Cold weather. It’s easier to sleep, nicer to cuddle, and I don’t work so much when it’s cold. I mean, you can put on as many layers as you please but when it gets too hot, what do you do? Peel your skin away??37. What song are you listening to?    I’m not listening to any song, but I’ve had Today I Saw the Whole World by ptv stuck in my head all day. It reminds me of someone I love dearly. 39. Is there a girl that knows everything or almost everything about you?   Yeah. But she got tired of it, and I understand. I don’t really blame her. Besides, I know there’s someone I can trust much more. 46. Are you in a good mood right now?   I’m not sure, my head hurts and I can’t really walk and I don’t want to work tomorrow but I just got told smth that made me really happy. Im just really loenly I guess, I feel like tonight’s going to be like every other night this week..55. Have you ever liked somebody and never told them?   Oh, I’ve had a passing crush, to be sure- I’ve wanted to get to know someone more closely than a compliment fitted on a breeze. But I don’t think I’ve every had a real crush on someone and haven’t told them. 56. Do you like to cuddle?   Yes. Pure and simple, yes. I love hugs, I love to be held. The problem is I’m tall and aggressive and not many people wanna cuddle me,,60. What do you carry with you at all times?   My phone. If I’m scared I roll it over in my hands and I like knowing I’m ony a few buttons away from talking to people that love me. 65. Did anything “cute” happen in the last week?   Oh man this bitch is just pissing me off,, she just keeps tryin tae start shit and it’s?? I’m done with it. If she steps to me I’ll flay her, and she knows it. That, and there was the guy that offered to buy me off my father at the hog barn. (not really, he just asked how much my father was payin me for and bet he could pay me more. didn’t realize i was his daughter)79. Did you ever have braces?        No, but I kind of want them for purely cosmetic reasons but I don’t know if it’s worth all that money and time and effort. 85. What’s the last movie you saw in theaters?       Rogue One i think,,, i really don’t know. I just know my big sister and I wanted to see Krampus but the theater cancelled the showings they said they’d have of it so we had to see the movie my brother wanted to watch so..95. What were you doing last night at midnight?       I was crying,, hah I cried for three hours last night I swear,,, pls love me,96. When’s the last time you saw fireworks?       Would’ve been the Illuminations show at Epcot in Disney World over spring break. And I cried, because I’m so lucky to have been able to go with the people I love and I’m so lucky to know the people that I do. And to have shared that experience with them? It was just overwhelming. And I cried for the people that weren’t there, but I was mostly happy. I was ready to go home, though. Slept most of the way home, too.104. Would you ever wear cowboy boots with shorts?       I think that I would,, but I don’t wear shorts enough to look cute with cowboy boots. but i think i’d look cute idk judge me how you want i live in ohio damn it i’d look cute w. that pinkish flannel i have and light colored shorts and dark cowboy boots…….. tell me i wouldnt……………… i dare u(actually no dont i feel rly gross abt myself rn) 

[mochitaiia]

Four O’Clock

apheeweek day seven: Midnight + Flower shop AU + Sveest

“They’re called Four O’Clocks ‘cause they only bloom at night. D’ya wanna see ‘em?”

(also on ao3)

Aaaaaaand final day of apheeweek! I get to complete my goal of writing all the Nordic/Estonia ships. :’)

The image of Berwald having a personal garden inside his flower shop is too cute to pass up, and I found some exclusively night-blooming flowers and I feel like they fit him, specifically Four O’Clocks

-

I’m not a wedding planner, thinks Eduard. He thinks this thought several dozen times on his way to the flower shop. He isn’t a wedding planner, but he is planning a wedding. Toris’ wedding specifically. How he landed a partner is beyond Eduard; between the two of them, he always considered Toris the one that lagged behind.

Then again, Toris has a fiance. And a house. And a better paying job. And now, with these realizations, he also has Eduard’s playful contempt.

Latin stares back at him on his phone screen as he pushes open the glass door to the shop. It’s quaint, aromatic (It’s a damn flower shop, of course it is.), and comfortable, like home.

Eduard never gets out in nature much. Most of his job allows him to stay at home, programming websites for small local businesses. He only leaves to buy groceries, or see Toris or Raivis or Tino. And he never needs to see any of them, so he doesn’t leave. It’s a bit lonely he supposes, but he doesn’t mind.

He opens his mouth to call a greeting, get the attention of somebody, but nobody is around. He checks the time. It’s just after seventeen, so somebody should be around. The shop closes at eighteen. He waits for another minute, staring at the Latin on his phone, trying to identify what Toris wants for the wedding in the shop based solely off name, but he has little success staying in one spot. When nobody comes to help him five minutes later, he makes himself comfortable and begins browsing alone.

Among the flowers, his fumbling to find whatever Toris asked of him leads him to a closed-off room. The lights are off, but the sunroof lets in the last bit of sunset the approaching fall allows before winter takes over. Eduard raises his hand like a visor over his eyes and rests it against the glass to peek in. His eyes dart between his phone and the flowers he can make out before he decides nothing in there is what he’s looking for. He rolls his eyes at the futility, turning around.

He all but jumps out of his skin when over six feet of blonde intimidation stares down at him.

Dropping his phone is the least of his worries. The stranger in front of him is big, extremely big, and his arms are as big around as Eduard’s head. The man’s glasses sit precariously on the very tip of his nose. An apron, presumably the shop uniform, is tied over his tight black shirt and dusty jeans. His hands are stuck in his pockets, and with his back straight he stands so tall Eduard has to crane up to look at him from his semi-crouched, surprised position.

The man mutters something, but Eduard can’t hear him. His eyes fall to the apron where a name is stitched into the blue fabric. Berwald. He blinks.

“Can I help ya?”

Eduard snaps out of his thoughts when the tall man, Berwald based off the stitching, speaks. His voice is gruff, raspy, as if he doesn’t use it much. Based on how quiet the shop is, he probably doesn’t. Weakly, he replies, “Uh... my friend, he’s got a wedding, and he wants me to find him some flowers. I don’t know what they are-”

In the middle of him speaking, Berwald kneels down and retrieves Eduard’s fallen phone from the floor. He pulls of the corner of his apron and wipes the screen. Once he drops the apron, he adjusts his glasses and looks at the screen. Silently, he walks away with the phone. Eduard presumes he’s to follow Berwald, so he does.

Not three minutes pass before Berwald locates every flower Toris had listed. He plucks one from every vase and offers the makeshift bouquet to Eduard. “These’r’em.” His voice rumbles so low in his throat, and if he weren’t so intimidated he’d admit it’s kind of attractive how deep Berwald’s voice is. He always did have a thing for people stronger than him. “Y’can get whichever ya like, or ya can call yer friend an’ ask him which he’d prefer. Whatever works fer ya.”

“He-” Eduard swallows the lump in his throat. “Toris is at a fitting today until half past eighteen. He won’t be done until after you close...” Berwald doesn’t respond, and as is his nervous habit, he fills in the silence. “Well, I could call him and ask him! Let me just have my phone and I can-”

“’s fine,” dismisses Berwald. He offers the phone. “I don’t have any other customers, an’ no plans tonight. Y’can call ‘im when he’s done. Unless,” his eyes turn away, and curiously he seems embarrassed, “y’got other plans. Which if ya do, don’t need t’stay. Come back tomorrow.” The makeshift bouquet, which Eduard hasn’t taken yet, raises up and hides his face. Even with the blockade, he can clearly spot a blush upon Berwald’s cheeks.

Instead of answering him directly, Eduard gestures to the side room door where Berwald initially surprised him. “What’s in there?”

If he’s not mistaken, Berwald’s eyes widen a fraction in surprise. It’s like the guy expected Eduard to be bolting out the door instead of asking him a conversational question. His expression softens and a small smile peeks through the gaps in the bouquet. “My garden.”

“What kinda flowers do you have planted?” Eduard’s not sure why he’s asking questions and not leaving. It’s probably the way Berwald seems to relax, and the way a bit of light glitters in the back of his eyes. It’s cute. Even on such a large, intimidating, scary man, the glimmer of happiness at being engaged in a conversation is cute and it makes Eduard want to talk to him more.

“Mostly this one kind. They’re called Four O’Clocks ‘cause they only bloom at night. D’ya wanna see ‘em?” Without hesitation, Eduard nods. Berwald sets the bouquet of Toris’ flowers on the front desk and on the way to the personal garden, he stops and flips the sign at the front of the store to indicate the shop is closed. It makes a bit of nervousness pool in Eduard’s gut, but he ignores it. Berwald doesn’t seen the type to... do something like that.

Berwald digs a key out of his pants pocket and unlocks the door. He slides through and holds the door open until Eduard’s inside. He shuts it and makes his way along the edge of the garden, kneeling halfway. Eduard follows carefully, not wanting to lose his balance and crush what appears to be a loving project by Berwald.

“These.” Extending a finger towards the center, Berwald indicates a vibrant mix of yellow, white and pink flowers. Eduard leans forward, hands on his knees as he gets a better view. The flowers are in pristine condition, and it’s evident gentle care and consideration went into their upkeep.

Eduard breaths out, “They’re so pretty,” and he hears a proud rumble come from Berwald. He glances out of the corner of his eye and the blush is back on his face. His hand is raised in an attempt to hide it, but Eduard can still see tinges of red. He tries not to grin, but he can’t help it. “I can tell you really put forth effort to make these the best they can be. Tell me about them.”

Berwald catches his eye, and his blush increases. “If I did that, we’d here here ‘til midnight.”

“Well,” Eduard squats to be less than eye-level (even down here Berwald is so much larger, and it makes his pulse skip a little), “you said you don’t have any plans.” He raises his phone and shuts it off right in front of Berwald’s eyes. “Now I don’t either. You have any tea?”

Getting lip from Toris’ partner for not getting the flowers ordered will be well worth it. Eduard has more important things to do, like stay up until well past midnight chatting with a handsome, surprisingly shy stranger about his garden. Even when his eyes grow heavy, he can’t bring himself to point out it’s nearly one in the morning.

Eduard falls asleep around four o’clock on Berwald’s couch, and he wakes up with an apron smelling of flowers and an earthy scent covering his body along with a blanket. The pillow his head rests on smells so nice, so much like Berwald that he figures he can sleep another few minutes. He shuts his blurry eyes and hums peacefully.

What Eduard doesn’t notice is the pillow he cuddles is, in fact, Berwald’s chest, and the owner of said chest is a flustered mess when he smiles and presses closer. As he drifts off again, he barely feels a hand rest on his shoulder comfortingly, protectively.

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[isaacathom]

why the fuck all these sorcerers old maes of rothbarts, huh. and whythe fuck do they always turn her into a swan. like, ok, clavius or w/e the fuck from the second movie gets a pass because it was odettes idea (and, again, i love odette, so im all for it. and it was a good plan). zelda has no excuse. did she not know about this. why would you turn her into a BIRD. WHO CAN /FLY/. why not like... a fucking turtle or smth. slow as fuck. stck in a cave in a mountain. she cant do shit. or is it that odettes just got that swan magic shit stuck on her from rothbart so its just swans all the way down. since i GUESS zelda and clavius are both weaker than rothbart, which makes them weird villains actually. like why would i give a shit about rothbarts apprentice if the one time derek met rothbart he killed him after like, idk, a 5 minute fight? yea derek nearly died but thats an average sunday for him. thats how it is. shot him once he died. this isnt complex.

also on the revive thing. that was why i didnt like the third movie. if we say the first one is ‘good’ (certainly not a bad childrens film, obvs). the second movie does enough new that its not just a retread. odette turning into a swan by her own choice, despite the risks, and her saving derek, and her not dying (tho jean bob did, which i did not remember happening, but ok). and it showed a development in the relationship. and encouraged ol dere-boy to appreciate his wife and mother sometimes. thats good. happy for the guy.

then you cut to movie three and dereks just lying to his wife despite the fact she has VERY REASONABLE objections to keeping dark magic shit lying around, given that she straight up died because of it once. she’s in the right here. derek is noble, perhaps, but an absolute idiot. then odette gets captured again, fuck me, then she gets rescued, again, and then instantly gets fucking killed by a fireball. well i mean fuck i guess. then she comes back even though she defintiely straight up died. in movie 1 you can wiggle the timing of it, held her last breath outta the power of love or whatever, but swan!odette got struck by a fireball and woulda crashed into the ground below, fucking her Right up. she straight up dead. so what the fuck gives. how the fuck is she back? which bitch is magic here. did derek fucking call upon dark magic to revive his wife? i have questions. also its just boring.

ok whats movie 4. christmas? THEIR FIRST CHRISTMAS???? youre telling me that the first three movies take place over the span of less than a year??? and season wise, probably like.. 6 months, tops? what the fuck? jesus. that paints derek in a bad fucking light, i tell ya. fucks him right up. god dammit derek. ‘chest with an r on it’ where did it come from? who put it there? ubertas castle isnt the same castle as the one derek has, since derek’s used to be rothbarts. that was a plot point. if i was gonna find some soul box of rothbarts, itd be in rothbarts old castle. so... why is it in ubertas? is my question? ok.

rothbart did you learn NOTHING from the first movie. stop turning her into a fucking swan. you fucking idiot what the fuck. god dammit. oh, so finally derek dies? took em 4 movies and 20 years. there we go. and is revived by the sprit of chr- oh my god. ok lets not worry about the christmas movie. whats the next one.

ok so i guess the reason she keeps going swan is because shes the Swan Princess. as like, an entity. she didnt become it because of rothbart, she was always it, like, spiritually? prophetically? ok. fine. shouldnt a stopped rothbart clipping her wings or whatever. and she is straight up magic? alright. fair. i buy that. it explains a lot. and the dark arts just straight up try to set her on fire? hardcore. but then you kill some random peasants instead. thats awkward.

ok honestly i think i just flat out dont understand what the 5th movie is about beyond like, prophecies, scullions (the fuck is a scullion? squirrels? ok. also the surname of an australian senator, how bout that) and like.... some shit. dunno what the fucks up with that but ok. we’ll just uh. leave that one. at least i didnt have to imagine odette and derek fucking because given how old i was when i watched the first movie im not sure i ever want to think about that (naturally now i have to. oh boy)

‘scully in ghost form’ ok we’ve gone off the rails here, i think. more fucking ghosts. but like, ghost animals. one who everyone can see? which sort of renders his death in the last film a bit moot, if he sticks around anyway. at least in the original three, people got REVIVED by like, Love or something. poor scully doesnt even get that. just has to be a ghost instead. far out.

oh piss off lads theyre like 12. no romance for the 12 year olds please.

‘uberta, still in love’ didnt uberta and rodgers confess in movie 4 or something. or did we all just sort of not deal with that. its not like they died or anything to wipe their memories. so why wouldnt they still be in love, is what im saying. im confused by this statement. oh my bad i skimmed, she fell in love with some other idiot. alright uberta. go for it i Guess. he’s probably some dark mage but alright dont worry about it.

‘count antonios submarine’ his what? his What? no straight up, his what? they have SUBMARINES????? but??? what?????? ? someone more up to date on swan princess lore, how does he have a submarine????? the tech level has been like, solid pre-victorian before this, right. like medieval english shit. where the fuck did he get a SUBMARINE. A SUBMARINE. what the fuck. ? like i know that the ‘reboot’ or 3d movies are kinda weird for the canon just in general but ? a submarine??? lads.

‘now called prince lucas’ it has not been adequately explained to me why this is. are these wikipedia pages written by children? im very confused. why would he be a prince. alise i get, she was adopted, but lucas still has parents. yea he was given up for adoption at some point, but he’s fine now. so. yknow. ? pardon. wouldnt just giving him a title like Lord or smth make more sense, narratively. like the whole thing earlier was that he felt about his status difference with alise (despite alise being an ex-peasant too? but thats fair) so wouldnt like, giving him a lord title or smth fit that without making No fucking sense. is there some other kingdom now? that he a prince of? wikipedia i need answers.

ok i saw the cover for the 8th movie and what the Fuck did they do to derek. no. my man. what the fuck.

something about that face is viscerally distressing to me. they havent put him on a over since movie 5, probably matching his uh. completely fucking irrelevance. but Oof. keep him off the cover, maybe. what the fuck. im wounded. also the fact yuri lowenthal voices reboot derek still fucks me up even though i have never heard him in the role. as you can tell. by me reading the wikipedia descriptions of all movies post original trilogy. oof.

so, Z’s huh. is that right. Z’s. ok so, first, Zorro. second, there is literally a character whose name starts with Z already part of the canon, that being Zelda from the third movie. she’s dead as fuck, but the track record here prevents nothing.

‘ghost rope’ mhm. ‘glass is the only thing that can hold a ghost’ i cant tell if this contradicts the ghost box from movie 4 or not but i feel like it does. i feel like everything i was just told about ghost mechanics contradicts the 4th movie in some way. then again the fucking rothbart box is just a ??? where did that come from. who put that there. did the fucking forbidden arts manifest it. lads? the box confuses me, still, and its been like 15 minutes since i read that page anyway, at LEAST.

so, ghost rope. and the Z’s are N’s. oh ok. cool.

ok again, the submarine. why is there a submarine. i cant handle that.

ok so what ive learnt is that the first two movies are probably the most cohesive, and at the stretch the first four are probably a decent set. basically, the first movie is fine, and you can watch any up until 4 with it still basically making sense (bar the FUcking Ghost Box???? what the fuck). decently cohesive on plot alone. the 3d jump for movie 4 is good reason to cut it out, but if you dont give a shit then thats fine, right.

everything after 4 is just a ??? ok.

a fucking submarine, REALLY