#so sorry.... lacked a bit while im on...here is some art for you guys since I never had the chance to do the HalBarry week prompts...

[flashdoesahundredyarddash]

ermmm..? whiteboard doodles but I finally drew Halbarry in awhile!!!! (drew this just now....shoutout?)

thinking about them guys... i missed halbarry so much im so glad they're actually married whattt (spreading misinformation online)

[ocshowandtell]

Hiii! Found your Tumblr yesterday and was so happy to see a Tumblr dedicated to OC sharing! We all know how hard it is to be an OC creator as people tend to overlook OCs a lot so having a space for them here was such an amazing idea!

I, myself, love to share my OCs around and see other's OCs so I would love to share these two cuties from my original story with you all!

This beautiful art was a commission I ordered from the sweet Calmomila, one of my favorite TLK artists.

If you don't mind I'd like to take advantage of this piece to explain a bit about these two girls (more of an info dump, I'M SO SORRY FSKJFKDJS) because I am totally crazy over them. *screams* The one standing is Thabisa, the leader of the Jabulani pride, which is a pride that consists only of females, they are seen as atypical and other prides don’t appreciate their ways, however, they are also feared because they are extremely capable lionesses and are known to drive away males trying to invade their territory, especially the ones who still follow the old ways as they do not approve these (my story happens during a period of change, prides are slowly appropriating the new ways, basically the old ways are just like how lions work in real life, while the new ways work kinda like the The Lion King world, but with a few differences). The Jabulani pride is a very unique pride, with their own culture and rules.

The one lying down is Matimba, she is a trans lioness that had a very rough past and wasn’t well accepted by her previous pride. She was kicked out of the pride after she finally got the courage to face them about their acts of prejudice towards her, especially towards her incomplete mane, for which she was bullied. Unfortunately for her, their territory wasn’t far away from the sandy lands where the Jabulani pride lives and she ends up getting lost into a totally different biome than what she was used to, not being able to thrive alone due to the lack of experience and adaptation. She was found by Thabisa and some of her lionesses weeks later, she was severely dehydrated and malnourished, could barely get up. Together the females were able to move Matimba to a safe place within their territory and took care of her for the next months.

Once Matimba gained some of her strength back, she finally started to introduce herself, she wasn’t sure if she could trust them yet so she still presented herself as Mavuto, her now dead name, quickly she started to realize there was no need to hide her true self, Thabisa knew the signs and to Matimba’s surprise, she was totally fine with her being trans. She was loved and cared for since the day she was found and it didn’t take too long for her to finally feel at home, a home where she could finally be herself. The name Matimba was suggested by Thabisa when she decided she wanted to get rid of her birth name, not only because it was a male name, but also because it gave her some sad memories that she wanted to let go, she didn’t feel right with it anymore. The name means “strength” and that was how Thabisa started to see her after finding out about her past: a representation of courage and strength. I am an avid shipper of these two, I don’t care if I am the creator and if people find it cringe for a creator to ship their own OCs, I'mma shipping them until the day I die, I love them so much.

Thank you so much for creating this blog and I hope you are having a great week! :D

i'm telling you guys there is no cringe only joy here!!! im glad you're loving this, this is the whole point!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: January 28th, 2021 (Part 2)

Here we’ve got asks that aren’t to ask a question but are just really nice messages. Thank you all for sending us such kind comments ;v;. It’s seriously heartwarming to see so many people having good experiences with the game. I don’t even know what to say to such sweet responses.

We’ll keep doing our best and thank you again to each and every one of you for giving Our Life a chance ❤!

Hello! I've been following this account and have been following the development of 'Our Life' for a few months now, and I just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work and dedication you have put into the game. It astonishes me how much choice you have during the sequence of Our Life and am excited to play the full version now, I am downloading it as I write this message. I've had a great time seeing the demo transition into to the full game and just wanted to write two words. Thank you.

Anhhhhffbgdfbhujk!!! Congratulations on the release, I’m playing the game right now! Thank you all for your hard work and I can’t wait for the Step 3 DLC to come out, I’ll probably wait for the Step 3 DLC to come out to experience everything, but until then, I still have a lot to play. Thank you once again!

finished my first playthrough just now. it just felt so wholesome ??? 100/10 would do it again. i laughed. i cried. i got angry. i felt second-hand embrassment— i got so into it i was left in literal tears after getting my first ending. the art, the storyline, the music, and COVE HOLDEN– UGH IT WAS LITERAL PERFECTION ❤ THE WAIT WAS WORTH IT. THANK YOU FOR MAKING SUCH AN AMAZING GAME 🥺😭 this made my 2020 better, i can't wait for step 4 in 2021 ❤❤

So I was following you guys on itchio for years and uhh did I stay up til 6 am on a school night to finish the game? Yes. Did I sob my eyes out during step 3 as a 20 year old having doubts about life and adulthood? Absolutely. I can't form proper sentences right now due to lack of sleep but just wanted to say thank you for making it. I honestly feel lighter and I feel like it changed my views on future to be more optimistic... I can't wait to replay it! Thanks again!

I love how Our Life turned out!! I keep replaying it and can't stop squeaking and giggling!! Thank You for creating it ♥

okay i have actually fallen in love with cove and cannot WAIT to marry him 😭

Hi! I played through 'Our Life' yesterday and  I just wanna say how refreshing it was to be able to have Cove be 'high initiative' and also have so many opportunities to initiate affection from the player character! As a pretty flirtatious/affectionate person myself, I notice that a lot of VNs don't give players that agency, and affection can be kinda 'carrot on a stick' if that makes sense. You guys did an awesome job! I look forward to seeing if there are more of those moments in Step 3 & 4 :)

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the option to choose Cove's level of initiative in step 3! As much I love the option to choose I personally enjoy have the romanced character take the lead without my input so when I got to step 3 and had to option to make it so that Cove initiated affection without as much input from me I was really happy! You guys seriously added so much freedom in terms of choices, it's almost baffling that the only thing you have to pay for is optional DLC!

I absolutely loved everything about the game and I really want congratulate the team for making the game such a satisfying experience.

I look forward to step 4

❤️❤️❤️❤️

* and sorry for my bad English

Just finished my first play through and I loved it! I've been looking forward to the game and it definitely was worth the wait. Thank you all for your hard work and can't wait for the extra dlc!

Till then, hope you guys gets some well deserved rest🤗

Love you guys, thank you so much for your hard work. :)

Ok, so I just finished Our Life and, wow. I have never cried at a video game before, ever. Thank you so, so much! Its one of my favorites.

this isn't a question, but i just wanted to say how much i enjoyed our life 🥺 i've been patiently looking forward to the full game for a few months now, and i couldn't be happier with it! i've only played through it once so far but the outcomes of the choices i made were all so soft and wholesome 💗 i can tell that everyone who was involved really worked hard and you all did an incredible job! i can't wait to see what else is in store 👍

i’d just like to say how addictive our life is!!! i constantly played it during quarantine and now playing the full release is so amazing to me!! i love that i’m still discovering dialogue bits with different personalities and actions!!! i have to admit that i’ve been wishing the day to pass faster all day during school so i could go home and play again. mentally i’m not the healthiest and our life being released has boosted it up so much, thank you for creating such an amazing game!!!!!

Hey, I just wanna say I played our life two times and it still give me the same feelings. I was really looking forward to this game before it came out and I kept on replaying the demo. This game is such an amazing experience and I feel so happy playing it. I am not really a person good with words unfortunately but I do honestly love this more than anything in the world. Thank you for making it and I hope that you will continue to make more games like our life. This game really makes me happy and I can't thank you enough

Just wanted to say that Our Life really made me feel seen as an 18 year old trans man who's been struggling with change as of late and I can't thank you guys enough for it. I just finished the main story and currently released DLC's and gosh, I can really only say... woah. Just, woah. The messages are somehow exactly what I needed to hear right now, and they brought me a lot of comfort in this really weird and confusing time in my life. Can't wait to see what comes next in this lovely story <3

I am honestly in love with Our Life. The graphics, the soundtrack its just *chef's kiss* It was so worth the wait for it. I can't wait for step 4. Keep up the good work GB Patch!

good people i have just finished Our Life and let me say, it was beautiful. rarely have such non-fantastical moments (and even some fantastical moments) brought me to tears like this game has, and i don't even have the dlc (yet). i don't know how you did it but it felt like i was playing a slice of life anime. i had waited with baited breath to play this since i played the demo and my expectations were not just met but surpassed. from the bottom of my heart thank you for this game

I found the game by chance and I am so so glad I did. It’s so inclusive and made me feel so incredibly seen. Seeing that my gender identity and sexuality were possible just meant the absolute world to me. I’ve never seen something like this and it just made me so incredibly happy. Thank you for the absolutely amazing game and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Hello! I downloaded Our life earlier this week and I'm only now getting the chance to play it (Very busy and stressful week) I'm so excited to play and I wanna say thank you for making this adorable game!

I just finished my first playthrough of Our Life and I can't even express how much I love it. Cove is absolutely precious and has killed me several times, and the art and soundtrack is beautiful. I love all the small different choices. I'm very interested in the Derek and Baxter DLCs and the rest, can't wait!!!!!!

thank you for "Our Life Beginnings & Always" it has to be one of the best visual novels i ever have played and i just dont want it to end (i know it will, but damn it! i want to have a wedding night, have children and die of old age with cole! XD) when i play it it always makes me tear up (in a good way) and i am most definetly going to buy all the dlc that you make! thank you for this lovely game and all the work that went into it! (ps: i also loved "lake of voices" )

You guys are incredibly talented and im very proud of you all! You've really outdone yourselves w/ OL and i cant wait to see whats next to come for you all :)

i really love that you can be trans in Our Life! not a lot of games do that so i just wanted to say thank you!

Guuyyss!! I just wanna say! Thank you sm for the headscarf option in the MC creator! I especially loved that little detail where MC quickly slips the headscarf on before greeting Cove, I've never felt so immersed :'D Not that the rest of the game wasn't immersive btw, but since I wear my hijab most of the time that little addition really felt like something I would do! So thank you for that <3

I've been watching "Our Life: Beginnings & Always" development for quite some time, and I gotta say its wild to see it finally release. Its so unique in the way relationships work- even character creation. I've cried multiple times over this game while playing. I can't thank y'all enough for a game with these kind of mechanics, and representation. its rare I get to feel im really playing as myself in games like these. Everyones outdone themselves. this'll certainly be one I keep coming back to.

I've been following the development of Our Life from way back when the first demo dropped and it still blows my mind how many choices and customizations there are (love that update for the MC's bedroom btw!) and the fact that the game remembers them - it really feels like your very own coming of age story! I was so immersed I cried at the end :') Can't believe I experienced this game for free lol. I can't wait for future DLCs and Step 4! Good luck with all your upcoming projects dev team!!

Just wanted to say I love Our Life and I'm thankful it exists. Thank you so much! I love the little world you created and all the people in it. Especially Cove! This game makes me so happy!

Just poping in to say hi and that ilu guys ^^, remember to take care of yourselves!

Hi!! I just wanna thank you for creating such an amazing game. Our Life is one of the few dating sims I’ve found that let’s me be a male mc, it’s really hard to find dating sims that let me be gay. Our Life is my new favorite dating sim to just sit down and playthrough whenever I’m having a bad day so I just wanted to let y’all know how much I appreciate all you’ve done. 🤍

Fan from australia here

Just wanted to reach out and let you know how important this game has been to me. I came across it at a really rough time ( that I’m still going through ) and it’s been one of the things that’s driven me to get up and out of bed sometimes.

This game and cove both hold a very special place in my heart and I can’t wait to see more of him in the DLC and Step 4

Much love ♥️

I know this isnt exactly the main focus of the game, but i really love how we can customise the mc personality wise! This is the first time i've played a game like this where the mc actually does and says exactly what I would do and say in certain situations and its such a breath of fresh air!! It's also so cool how the other characters can pick up on it!!

Cove Holden saved 2020 (my 2020 anyways) I would die for him

Sorry for this being out of the blue, but after playing through Our Life I wanted to thank you for the experience. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a game that has made me cry happy tears TWICE lol. It’s beautiful, scenic, inclusive, and absolutely amazing..have a great rest of 2020 and I honestly cannot wait for the rest of it :,) (ps. The ending song is stuck in my head)

I think you guys might've ruined visual novels for me forever. I'm not sure I'll be able to play another without comparing it to Our Life and I know if I do that I'll be disappointed every time because of how amazing it is. I bought the DLCs before playing the base game it's one of the best impulsive purchases I've ever made

Thank you so much for making our life! It's my favorite visual novel ever and I just can't articulate how much being able to just be honest with my responses instead of going for whatever would make the love interest happy means to me? I reccomended it to evry friend I have that plays visual novels because this is the best one I've ever played!

Just wanted to say that I absolutely adore this game! The childhood friends tropes is my favorite thing and this game delivers! Cove is the sweetest thing, infact all the boys are good boys. Super excited for all upcoming dlcs!

Hi, I just want to thank you for making such an amazing game like Our Life. Tbh, I was following the game’s development for a while, but me and my family moved away from my childhood town just a few days before release, so I really connected to this game. You all did amazing!

hey just wanted to know that i completely loved ol: b&a and it was so good and love cove more than i’ve liked any fictional character, it’s now my comfort media. thank you so much

hi i just wanna say i really enjoyed all of the representation in our life b&a! there were characters with a lot of different body shapes, pic characters, lgbtq+ characters, and you get to choose your own pronouns and sexuality!!! so tysm!!

This isn't a question, I just wanted to say that Our Life is incredible. Ever since I finished it, I've been looking for other visual novels to play so I don't play OL so often that I start memorizing the lines before all the DLC comes out, but I keep coming back to it. It's really one of a kind, I think you all ruined other visual novels for me because I haven't enjoyed another VN like I have this one since I read it ❤.

i think our life b&a is the first game where i felt like cove loved me, not the character i play as which is really nice for someone with kinda low self esteem so THANK YOU

I’ve been playing Our Life practically nonstop since yesterday. I just want everyone who worked on it to know how much the LGBTQ inclusivity means to me. As a closeted trans ace guy in an unsupportive household, I can’t emphasize how much of a comfort this game has been to me. Everything about it is so wholesome and heartfelt. I’m excited to see what other games you make in the future 💙

- A demibiromantic ace transgender man who may or may not have cried over the option to be myself in a game for the first time ever

Csn i just say i really appreciate how you handled MC deciding to use they/them at different stages. Mainly because alot of games don't pay much attention to the body the mc was assigned at birth if they player chooses nonbinary like it does with male/female. And it was just nice to be able to play an mc who just thought gender was kinda 'meh' for them but still felt good about the body they were born with (like myself). I guesd it boils down I'm really appreciative of the hard work it must've taken for you to make all those options possible & still have them matter.

I just wanted to thank you all for Our Life. My mental health hasn't been in a good place recently and it has become my favorite form of escapism/way to cheer up. It's idyllic setting and fantastic characters are such a good way to wind down, I love it. Also, I've been dreading 2021 due to classes starting and general stress, but the DLC and your next project have given me something to actually look forward to :). I'm so excited for them and now I actually have a reason to be happy that it's 2021. Sorry if this message is a bit weird, I just wanted to thank the team for their hard work and for creating something so incredible <3

I've gotta say this is one of the most repayable games I've ever played, if not the most. Usually after i do a playthrough or two of a game i have to wait awhile before playing again otherwise it feels stale. But i haven't had that problem with our life because of the sheer ammount of player agency. Everyone who works on tbe game should feel incredibly proud of themselves because you've created something amazing.

I just wanted to say thank you for Our Life. I'm sure you get this a lot, but it really pulled me out of a mentally tough spot in my life. So thank you.

who needs therapy when you have our life: beginnings and always? haha no but seriously this game is my comfort game, and even though i can’t join your patreon at the moment please know i am always supporting you and i am so excited to see everything you have in store! everyone who works on the games is so so talented

All DLCs have nice content. 😡😡

And I love them all!!💗💗💗💖💖💖💕💕💕

[fairynavi]

stronger than you | strong! fem! reader hcs

you are a 2nd year manager of karasuno and here are hcs on how noya, tanaka, and ennoshita react to you being physically stronger than you seem

☆ nishinoya yuu

you, along with yachi, were introduced by kiyoko as new managers for the club. you've been in the club for quite some time now and you're well acquainted with everyone now

especiall noya since the both of you are in the same year (and he's very excited about how they have a manager who's in the same year as him)

noya is just an energetic and spontaneous ball

he'll go to your classroom and shout your name so you could go to the clubroom together

you would find it very endearing if it weren't for the knowing looks your friends would give you whenever noya came by

OKAY SO

you joined in your 2nd year after leaving the martial arts club

why'd you leave? you weren't too keen on the suffocating competitive atmosphere in the club

the club president wasn't very good in keeping everyone organised

the club was overall just a mess and you didn't want to get involved in any more problems

while everyone's cleaning up, hinata and kageyama snuck to the court a bit a do extra spiking drills

you heard them bickering but you didn't actually expect they'd do anymore drills

but at this point, you weren't surprised anymore

this time, hinata went a bit all out and the ball came flying towards an unsuspecting noya who was drinking what's left of his water bottle

fortunately, you were nearby

you immediately drop whatever you were holding (which were brooms) and immediately go in front of noya, fixing your stance (like how you would during a hand to hand spar)

you use your arm and hover it steadily in front of your face where the ball was going towards

you successfully stop the ball, which you grab from the floor

you're unaware of the stares from the other people in the gym

"hinata! kageyama! be careful! you could have hurt someone!" you lecture the first years, to which they immediately apologize for (after they've completely processed what you just did)

you turn around and look at noya, who's just looking at you in awe

"noya-san? you okay there?" you wave your hand in front of him, where he finally responds by blinking

he finally processes everything, he's confused, he's blushing, he's staring at you in awe because a girl saved him?? a v v pretty girl saved him from a ball that could've hit his head??

he's just shocked, my dood

for the first time, he's at a loss for words

"earth to noya-san?"

he finally speaks

"[y/n]-san... that... that was so aWESOME! you're... i guess you were stronger than i had initially thought, y'know? thanks for saving my head there! you're so cool, [y/n]-san!"

you're blushing now too

sure, you've been called cool by other people, but it seems that when noya says it, it just feels so different

"thank you, noya-san..."

the next few days, he'll just bother you about where you got so strong and when he learns that you know martial arts, he just WANTS you to teach him some self-defense

he was already attracted to you when you joined the club as a manager

now he learns that you're actually physically stronger than you seem??

bro, he's infatuated

wait no, scratch that

he's head over heels for you

expect a lot of compliments from him

also expect a lot of, "[y/n], do you think you can carry me?"

"for the last time, noya, i am NOT carrying you"

☆ tanaka ryuunosuke

you already knew tanaka, during your 1st year, even before joining the karasuno volleyball club because of ennoshita

but you've only met with him once or twice on the rare occasions where you'd do a group project with ennoshita

you joined the volleyball club in your 2nd year as a manager for the boy's team when the club that you were previously in had disbanded due to lack of members

to everyone's surprise, tanaka recognizes you the moment you enter the gym

you quickly become well acquainted with everyone

it's been like 3 months since you've joined the club and you're comfortable with walking home with everyone

especially with tanaka since coincidentally, you live in the same neighborhood as him

this one particular day, tanaka says he'd forgotten his textbook in coach ukai's shop while you were already walking home with him

you guys weren't that far from his shop but you were already tired enough to go back with him

you let him go and retrieve his textbook, assuring that you'll be fine on your own

he runs back to the shop and you lean onto a pole nearby, waiting patiently for him

that's when two creepy men approach you and begin small talk, getting into your personal space too many times

they crossed the line when one of them tried to lift up your skirt, the other one pinning you onto the wall

before they could do anything else, you immediately go under his arm and out while it was still a bit loose and you immediately strike your hand on his nape, earning a pained groan from the man

the other one hesitated to attack you but he did, trying to punch you, but you immediately dodge, making him stumble and fall

using whatever strength you had left, with your adrenaline helping, you lift the other and drop him onto his companion, earning groans from the two of them

the moment tanaka comes back, he's immediately in front of you, in a very defensive stance, barking at the strangers

he doesn't look at you as he grabs your arms, pulling you close to him as you continue walking home

finally, he looks at you and notices the state that you are in

your blazer's unbuttoned, the blouse underneath lost the top button, your clothes are creased and your hair is just everywhere

you're sweating, still not recovering from the adrenaline rush from earlier

lowkey you look attractive rn

"[y/n]! are you okay?! are you hurt?! the hell happened back there?! did those guys try to touch you?!"

"tanaka, chill, i'm fine. just some random dudes trying to get touchy with me. nothing i can't handle"

he's relieved that you're okay and he makes sure you get home safely (ohoho what a gentleman) and once he gets everything in his head, he's in love

i mean, who wouldn't be attracted to a girl who just DESTROYED two men trying to touch her

the next day when you greet him, he's all blushy and scared because you might beat his ass if you felt like it

he later learns that you were taught self-defense at an early age and continued training up until now

tanaka will stare at you whenever you're talking with someone, hoping you wouldn't notice, but boy's just too obvious about his infatuation

the whole team probably knows his crush on you without him confirming it

☆ ennoshita chikara

you joined the volleyball club shortly after transferring to karasuno in your 2nd year

you're classmates with ennoshita, so you were relieved that you knew someone in the team

you quickly became friends with everyone on the team a few days later due to them being very friendly and kiyoko never leaving you confused during practice

once you're comfortable enough with them, you've shown your very playful side

leading you, along with noya and tanaka, to get some lectures from ennoshita

you were never one to actually do dumb things, but you always encouraged them to do the dumb thing

"im not a bad influence i swear" turns into "lmao yea, you should totally give that snake a pat"

even though you seem playful, you're still very reliable when the situation calls for it

you stopped a good amount of class fights and bickering to avoid it elevating to a physical fight

you've also stopped hinata and kageyama's bickering a few times

of course, ennoshita's noticed this and has developed an admiration to you

he didn't notice the thin line between admiration and infatuation

he finds himself staring at you a lot during practice now, always denying that he had a crush on you and just convinced himself that "i just respect her a lot"

it's currently the last day of the tokyo summer training camp, and you're helping out unloading a few more stuff that they bought

you're carrying two fairly heavy coolers, both of which are filled with refreshments

ennoshita sees you and sprints up to you, offering to help

"oh, there's no need ennoshita-kun, go ahead and eat, you should enjoy yourself"

there it is, that very sweet consideration that sends ennoshita's heart flying

"don't worry [y/n], i want to help you"

you smile and take up his offer, giving him one of the coolers

he almost droos the cooler from how heavy it was

he initially thought it wasn't at all heavy since you didn't at all look like you were having a hard time, he underestimated the weight of the cooler

you look at him in worry but then you burst into a fit of laughter, earning some attention your way

ennoshita was embarrassed as he tried to tell you to stop laughing at him

"sorry ennoshita-kun, but that was the reason i didn't want you to carry it, come on, give that back to me"

he stares at you for a bit, still not over the shock of learning how strong you actually are

you wave your hand in front of his face and he comes back to reality

"no, no, i can carry this, your shoulders might get sore, [y/n]"

AWWWW HE'S CONCERNEDD

while the both of you walk, you tell him about how you underwent some intense (somewhat unnecessary) training during middle school as you were part of the track & field club

once you deemed that the training was far too much and your body couldn't take it anymore so you quit when you went into high school

the reason you transferred was because your mom landed a job as a teacher for karasuno high

he's in awe about... just about everything about you

it's honestly not hard for him to fall for you at this point

he'll listen to you the rest of the day, wanting to get to know you more and more

when someone goes to help you carry something particularly heavy, he anticipates for their reaction over you being stronger than they are

he just loves you at this point, really

i hope i depicted them properly TwT

[illfoandillfie]

5 Simple Rules for a Successful Fake Relationship: One Small Hitch

READ PART 1

Pairing: Ben Hardy x Reader

summery: You and Ben have your first official date and settle into your "relationship". But, with filming coming to a close, you'll need to be more committed to the act than before, especially when Ben's keeping secrets.

Warnings: Again, nothing much. Some language. Drinking. Nothing else I can think of.

Words: 8355

AN: Chapter 2 is finally here! Sorry for the delay but hopefully the next part will be up faster. I'm really really enjoying writing this series and I am so very excited about what's coming! The song mentioned is Reckless Serenade by Arctic Monkeys. Sidenote: Can anyone work out the theme of the chapter titles?

Taglist:  @laedymoon​  @dtfrogertaylor​  @vee-ndetta​​ @atomic-watermelon​ @kellypenac​​ @labessieisallama​​ @deakyclicks​​ @jennyggggrrr​​ @drowseoftaylor​​  @hannafuckingsucks​​  @i-cant-hangout-im-drumming​​ @queenmylovely​​ @supersonicfreddie​

“I’ve got something for you,” you half shouted at Ben when you saw him walking towards you from across the field you were filming in. You shuffled your shitty takeaway coffee into your other hand so you could reach into your bag, pulling out a piece of paper folded in half. He took it and pulled you into a hug, pressing a kiss to the top of your head.  “Funny cause I have something for you too,” Ben said as he let you go, reaching into his backpack and handing you a magazine, “Oh, shit, it’s our rules. You want page 15 by the way.”  “Figured you’d want a record of them. What exactly am I looking f-” you let the word hang as you found the right page. It was decorated with a photo of you and Ben kissing on his doorstep, his hand around your back, the shirt you’d borrowed riding up just enough that it was clear you didn’t have shorts on underneath as you clutched at him. There was some text beside it, mentions of your most notable roles and his, a brief description of the movie you were in the process of making, and some speculatory remarks with a couple of innuendos thrown in. The usual gossip mag fare. On the other side of the paragraph was another photo, both of you leaving set the previous Friday, hand in hand and smiling.  “We look pretty good together,” you laughed, getting only a noncommittal grunt in return. He’d suddenly become very interested in the sheet you’d handed him, staring at it like he hadn’t been there when it was written. You reread the brief article, trying not to gawk at the photographs. It certainly looked believable.   “I’ve had about four people wish us well this morning,” Ben suddenly said, seemingly pulling himself together, folding up the rules and shoving them into his back pocket, “and I’ve not been here long. It’s kinda weird having everyone know we’re together. Or think we’re together,” he quickly corrected himself.  “Yeah, Mel kept asking me questions about it while she was doing my makeup this morning, so I hope she took my awkwardness as me wanting to keep things private and not me not knowing how to answer some of them.”  Ben chuckled, “yeah, Gail gave me a bit of a grilling too. I just told her we’d been sort of seeing each other for a few weeks and had only just like made it official or whatever and she seemed to buy it.”  “Good, I told Mel the same sort of thing. Hopefully that’s enough for them.”  “I’m more concerned with what my friends are going to say. I don’t think any of them read Heat though so hopefully it doesn’t come up any time soon,”  “Lucky. My friend Felicity has the dumb site bookmarked. Checks it religiously. Bloody miracle she hasn’t called yet.”  “Better turn of your phone then,”  “And come back to a full voicemail and about a hundred texts demanding to know why I’m ghosting her?”  “Tell her you were filming. I do it all the time,” he was grinning at you and you couldn’t help but grin back as you pulled your phone out and shut it off, “atta girl,” he pulled you into his side and gave you an affectionate squeeze that you leaned into , fully aware of how many people were around you, potentially watching. It was a feeling that didn’t really let up. You knew, rationally, that everyone there was focused on their jobs, but you couldn’t help feeling like you were constantly being scrutinised, and not just for your acting. It didn’t help when Seth had to stop recording to fix a problem with the boom mic and, good-humouredly, said, “don’t worry lovebirds, we’ll have her running in a second.” Or that one of the ADs delivered your call sheets for the next day with a, “I always thought you’d be cute together.” And it certainly didn’t help when you turned your phone on at the end of the day to find a series of texts from Felicity each with more exclamation points and capital letters than the last, and a missed call from Mary.   “Better call her back,” Ben said, following you towards the carpark.  You rolled your eyes, already holding the phone up to your ear listening to it ring.  “Y/N, I was just about to try you again,”  “Sorry, Mary, I had my phone off while we were recording, what’s the matter?”  “Are you free this weekend?”  “Um yeah, I think so, why?”  “We’d like for you and Ben to go on a date this weekend. Somewhere in London preferably but it’s up to you. You saw the article in Heat? It seems to be going well. The hits your names have got on google have increased and there have been a few tweets about it. Nothing huge, you’re not trending or anything but you’re still relatively unknown so we weren’t expecting that to happen, certainly not overnight. But we think if we get a date story out quickly it’ll really help get people interested.”  You rubbed your temple as you tried to process everything she’d just said, “Okay, I’ll talk to him and we’ll organise something. I’ll text you the details once I have them.”  “Okay, let me know as soon as you can though. And send Peter the info too.”  “Will do. See ya Mary.”  “Was that about me?” Ben asked, smiling as he leaned against your car.  “You up for a date this weekend? Apparently the first story went well and they want a follow up ASAP.”  “Sure, where are we going?”  “I don’t know, somewhere around London would apparently be best, but we get to choose. Any thoughts?”  He thought for a moment, “This isn’t our first date is it? Like, we’ve said we’ve been on others before, right?”  “Yeah, why?”  “Well normally for a first date I take girls out for dinner and then, depending on the girl and how the dinner went, either a quiet drink or like a romantic as fuck walk in the park or something.”  “That’s pretty standard stuff, Ben,”  “Yeah, but in the fiction of us as a couple, this isn’t our first date. This’d be, what?”  “Fifth maybe?”  “Fifth. So I’m still trying to impress you a bit, but it’s like, more relaxed. We’ve done the dinner date, we’ve done coffee and a movie, we’ve even done the Museum. Now we’re getting into the fun shit.”  “Museums don’t count as fun shit?” you chuckled, not sure where his train of thought was taking you.  “It’s a bit overdone is all.”  “What do you have in mind then?”  “There’s this place that runs art classes during the day, right? Life drawing or like painting for beginner's type stuff. But a couple of nights a week they run these art and wine nights. They’ll give you a canvas or a ceramic figure or something like that and some paints and you can have a few drinks and do something arty. I did it with some mates a while ago, had heaps of fun. Seemed like the sort of thing yo- a girl might like to do on a date.”  “That definitely sound fun.”  “Really? You’re into it?”  “Yeah, for sure.”  “Okay,” Ben pulled out his phone and began typing, “shall I book us in for the Saturday night ceramics session?”  “Go ahead. What time was that, so I can let Mary and Peter know.”  “Seven thirty. If we get a cab in a little earlier we can grab something to eat on our way.”  “Cool, okay I’ll text them. Is it BYO?”  “Yeah. They do sell some stuff but it’s a pretty small selection.”  “Okay, well that’s something to look forward to. Anyway, I should be going since I have about a million texts to sort through, I’ll see you tomorrow.”  “Wait, one thing,” Ben said before you could open your car door, “There’s a few people coming off set now so I’m going to kiss you, okay?”  “Thanks for the heads up,”  “No worries,” he stepped closer, his hand rising to cup your cheek as he kissed you softly. He took longer to break away than you’d expected, letting the kiss deepen instead, but you didn’t mind too much. It was a good kiss. And if it hadn’t been for Ben and the movie, you would have been severely lacking them recently. Which explained the vague feeling of disappointment that hit you when he did step back.  

On your way home your phone beeped with another text from Felicity but you ignored it until you were inside and changed into the comfiest clothes you could find, flopping down on your bed to scroll through what she’d written. They varied from, “omg why didn’t you tell me about this Ben guy?” to “Y/N!!! Answer my texts!!!” all the way up to, “BITCH!!! CALL ME!!!!”   She picked up on the first ring.   “Where the fuck have you been all day?”  “Some of us don’t have office jobs we hate,” you laughed, “I actually had to work, funnily enough, and because we were on location I had to keep my phone off while we recorded.”  “Well I’ve been going crazy over here. Imagine my shock when I boot up my computer and open Heat and see your fucking arse being grabbed by your co-star.”  “He was not grabbing my arse.”  “Close enough. You didn’t tell me how fucking gorgeous he is.”  “No, well, I don’t usually think about the people I work with like that, do I?”  “Which is why I was so surprised to see you’ve shacked up with one of them.”  “It’s not quite that serious.”  “One night stands aren’t your usual thing. Definitely not with guys you work with anyway.”  “I never said it was a one night stand, just that it wasn’t super serious!”  “How many times then?”  “We’ve been on like four dates.”  “You fuckhead! You mean to tell me you’re actually dating this guy, who by the way looks like he could be a fucking underwear model, and you didn’t think to tell me? No so much as a I got dicked down by a total babe aren’t you jealous message?”  “I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it if it wasn’t going to go anywhere.”  “But still, I’m your best friend, I tell you about every shag I have.”  “In graphic detail,”  “Exactly.”  “Look it’s just a bit weird still. Neither of us have really hooked up with a co-star before and we didn’t want to say anything until we worked out what was happening.”  “I guess that makes sense,” you could tell she didn’t mean it, “But, now that it’s out you owe me. I want to hear all about it.”  “There’s not much to tell. We became quite good friends during all the pre-production stuff when we were rehearsing and all that. Our director wanted to make sure we clicked and had the right chemistry and stuff, since it’s a romcom and our characters get engaged in the first scene, so we hung out a lot. And then just before filming started he asked me out. Took me to this nice Chinese restaurant. It was fun so we agreed to go out again and it’s sort of just kept going.”  “Those photos, was that the first time you’d stayed over at his?”  “Second. First time was a couple of weeks ago. The night that led to the photos was just a few drinks after work with some of the others and we ended up ducking out a bit early and wound up at his.”  “And?”   “And what?” You had a hard time not laughing when you heard her groan. Her eagerness to know every sordid detail made her easy to fuck with, and that made the whole business of being secretive a lot more fun.  “And, how was he?”  “I mean…y’know,”  “Y/N, I swear to god,”  “He was good, okay? Really good,” you remembered what Ben had told you to say, trying not to laugh too much while you repeated it, “like, three orgasms good.”  “Shit, really?”  “Uhuh. And then another in the morning.”  Felicity replied with a long whistle, “shit, girl, hold onto that one then. That’s definitely worth any trouble working together could cause."  “Believe me, I know. We’re going out again this weekend.” It was surprisingly easy to lie about dating Ben. Though, of course, you weren’t technically lying since you would be going on a date.   “Shit man, date five. That’s serious shit. You better tell me everything, in graphic detail.” 

When you told Ben about the conversation the next day, admitting you’d spent ages praising his sexual prowess, he laughed and then thanked you, pulling you into a tight bear hug. You thought it was a slight overreaction considering he’d been the one to tell you what to say but his happiness was infectious, and you found yourself smiling more than normal as you hung out between scenes. An attitude which could only help your performance, making people more ready to believe you were a couple. His easy laughter and bright smiles continued until the afternoon when you were telling him more about Felicity and what you’d talked about.   “She thinks you’re a keeper and kept telling me not to let you go.”  “Your friend knows what she’s talking about.”  “Lucky for you I can’t let you go since it’s all written up in a contract,”  Ben laughed but when you glanced at him his smile seemed to falter.   “You okay?”  “Brilliant. Just had a bit of a late night and it’s catching up on me. Think I might try to have a quick nap before we’re needed again.”  “I was thinking of grabbing another coffee if you want one?”  “Thanks Y/N but I think the nap will do me more good.”  “Probably better people don’t see us heading off to a trailer together anyway or they’ll suspect we’re getting up to mischief.”  “Very true. I’ll see you a bit later.”  “Sleep well!”  Ben turned to leave, his smile seeming more forced than earlier. You would have worried except he seemed to be back to normal when he was called for your next scene. And it continued on through the week, his happiness only getting more pronounced the closer it got to the weekend.  

You couldn’t quite match his energy on Friday, anxiety over your date getting stronger the closer you got to it. Hanging out at his place had been easy, even if it did include leaving half dressed. All you’d had to do was kiss him which you’d done enough times during filming that it was no longer too odd. But a proper date was something else. It was going to be the first real test you faced, the first time you’d really have to sell yourselves to the public as more than co-stars and more than a hook-up.  “Hey are you okay?”  “Huh?”  “Your jiggling your leg a lot which you only do when something’s worrying you, what is it?”  “Oh,” you forced your leg to stop moving, “nothing,”  “Is it about our date tonight?”  “What if it’s bad? What if we don’t look like we’re actually together and Mary and Pete have to cancel the whole thing?”  “I’d get a decent night sleep not thinking about us,” he muttered.  “What?”  “I’ve been worried about it too,” he said louder, “but I think we’ll be okay. It’s not like we’ll be starved for conversation and we’ll have the paint and the wine and we’ll be fine. Plus, weren’t you the one who said this would be easy?”  “Yeah I was,” you said sheepishly, “but -”  “No buts. It’ll be a piece of cake. We go and have a good time painting a couple of plates or bowls or whatever, and then hold hands while we head home. They’ll get whatever shots they get, and they’ll spin it so we look like a couple.”  “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry,”  “It’s okay,” he reached out to rub the back of your hand, smiling softly at you, “the nerves might actually help you look like you’re legit. And worst comes to worst we can always run lines. I’m honestly so much more nervous about shooting that scene tomorrow.”  “The one where we’re playing matchmaker?”  “Yes! Have you seen how many names are in there?”  “Theres like six, Ben,”  “Yeah but they’re all repeated, and I know I’m going to get the order wrong,”  You giggled and shook your head, “You’re unbelievable,”  “Oh whatever,” he pushed your shoulder almost making you overbalance, “Just cos you know the lines already.” 

Ben’s efforts to calm you down worked and you got through the rest of the workday without a hitch. Though your stomach was once again tight with nerves in the hours before the date. You spent a solid half hour standing in front of your wardrobe, freshly washed hair slowly dripping down the back of the towel you had wrapped around you, trying to settle on what to wear. When you were finally dressed you checked and rechecked the contents of your purse, and, in a moment of panic, you grabbed the heavily highlighted and notated script pages with the matchmaker scene and shoved them in beside your lipstick and bank card. By the time Ben arrived in an Uber to pick you up, ushering you into the backseat with a kiss on the cheek and a complement about how lovely you looked, you felt like you were on the verge of throwing up. But, once again, Ben’s natural charm eased your mind. The way he talked to you and smiled constantly had your heart rate slowing and your stomach settling within minutes. Even the way he squeezed your hand when he helped you out of the car, and the way he laced his fingers with yours as he led you towards your destination were welcome comforts.  “D’you wanna grab something to eat?” Ben asked, stopping on a corner and looking around, annoyed people passing by on both sides.  “Uhh, s’pose so.”  “Has anyone ever told you you’re indecisive?”  “I swear I’m not normally.”  “Oh? Do I make you nervous, snookum?” he asked, playfully.  “No, you git,” you laughed back, though you found it hard to meet his eyes, “I just don’t know I’m that hungry.”  “Well, keep in mind there’ll be wine drinking. Don’t want to do that on an empty stomach.”  “Valid argument. What’s nearby?”  After some wandering you ended up in a McDonalds, Ben wolfing down a burger while you picked at the fries, not quite certain you’d be able to keep your food down. It was when you were coming out of a bottle shop, Ben holding the wine you’d agreed on, that you spotted the photographer. It was the same one who’d been outside Ben’s house when you stayed over, camera aimed at the two of you. Quietly you nudged Ben. He just wrapped an arm around you, pulling you into his side as you walked. You struggled to not watch the photographer as he followed you towards the art studio, having to keep reminding yourself to pretend he wasn’t there.  “Relax,” Ben said softly in your ear, “He’s not important.”  You nodded, afraid if you said anything you’d lose the meagre dinner you’d had. Ben’s thumb rubbing over your own gave you something else to focus on, counting each soft, smooth stroke, until you reached the right place.  

You weren’t the only couple there, far from it. Most of the claimed tables were taken by pairs sitting close together, hands clasped or laying on thighs as they talked. A few tables held larger groups, double dates maybe or perhaps just friends. You felt a few eyes on you as you found a table close to the clear glass of the shopfront, but they turned away again quickly, more interested in their own little bubbles than yours. You glanced outside to check if the photographer was still there but couldn’t see much more than the reflection of you and Ben. His knee bumped yours under the table as he leaned toward you, pressing a finger to your jaw to turn your head towards him.  “Forget the photographer. Forget Mary and Peter. Forget our arrangement. We're just two friends having a fun night out, okay?”  “Okay,”   “Okay. So what are you thinking of painting then?” He unscrewed the bottle of wine and grabbed one of the glasses you’d been handed on arrival.   “Well what are my options?”  “Well there’s your classic teacup, mug or plate options. There’s a couple of different jewellery boxes, I think. And then there are the statues, ummm, fairy, dragon, alien. Maybe a princess one, I can’t remember.”  “More than I thought there’d be. What were you thinking?”  “I did a dragon last time I was here. But I think I’m going to do a mug this time. Need some extras if you’re gonna be staying over more often.”  “Maybe we should both do mugs, then? Something we can use at each other’s places.”  “Alright, deal. But we can’t look at what the other is painting until they’re done.”  “That’s going to be so hard!” you laughed, feeling properly relaxed for the first time all night.  “Yeah but it’ll be fun though. Wait here, I’ll go grab us the mugs.”  You took the opportunity to look around the room, trying to think of what Ben might like on a mug. There was art everywhere – paintings hanging on walls, examples of what the classes could teach you, decorated ceramics lining windowsills and shelves. Judging by the wildly differing levels of talent displayed, you assumed at least some of them were left behind and never claimed. There were plates decorated with fruit trees and ocean scenes, jugs covered in splatters of different colours, aliens in shimmery blue and princesses with green hair and orange dresses. But nothing that sparked your imagination. The noise of the room was steadily growing as everyone got stuck into their creations. Ben sat down, took a drink and got to work mixing colours.  “You know what you’re going to do then?”  “I have an idea. But I will warn you I’m not a particularly good artist so it might not look anything like what it’s meant to.”  You picked up your blank mug and put it down again, tapping the end of a paintbrush against the table as you tried to come up with an idea. What did Ben like? He liked coffee. And dogs. And his guitar. More than once he’d brought it to set, playing it in his downtime. He’d been embarrassed the first time you mentioned overhearing him as you passed by his trailer, but you’d assured him you’d liked listening to him. You’d had the song stuck in your head for a week afterwards.   “Made up your mind, have you?” Ben asked, glancing up from his handiwork as you mixed a pale peach colour.  “No peeking,”  “I wasn’t peeking. If I’d been peeking, I would have done this,” Ben craned his neck, leaning over to where your mug was.   You laughed and pulled the mug closer to you, pushing him away with your other hand.  He caught it in his own, taking the paintbrush from you, “Oi, careful with that.”  “Oops, sorry,”  Ben laughed and kissed your palm before letting you have your hand back, “No harm done. But y’know if you splattered me I’d have no choice but to get payback.”  There was no need to reach for the script you’d brought as you and Ben fell into conversation while you painted. He asked if you’d had any more awkward phone calls with your friends and told you about what had happened when his mates had found out. Nothing like the conversation you’d endured, though there’d been plenty of teasing. You had to admonish him for nearly getting paint on your work when he began using the largest brush he had to artistically spray drops of paint over his mug. And then he’d laughed when you paused, admitting out loud that you weren’t actually sure how to paint the thing you��d planned on painting. He’d promised not to peek while you whipped out your phone to look up a reference image, going to far as to cover his eyes just to make sure. Once you gave him the okay he went back to painting, switching to a thinner brush and shushing you so he could concentrate. It was ridiculous how cute he looked, tongue between his teeth, bent over the mug as he slowly outlined the design. You shook your head to clear the thought and went back to your own work. 

“Okay, I’m done. You wanna see now?”  “Yes, absolutely. Unless you think we should wait until after they’ve been glazed?”  “Fuck that, we can’t pick them up for a couple of days, I wanna show you now.”  “Alright, show me then,” you put down your brush, focusing all your attention onto the mug in Ben’s hands. The base coat was a light purple, with splatters of darker purple over top. Slowly he turned the mug to show you the design on the front. It bore a slightly wonky engagement ring, similar to the one his character gave yours in the movie. On either side of the ring, in thin, not quite straight lettering, was the words we’re really good at this dating thing.   You smiled as soon as you read the quote from the script, “I love it, Ben”  “Thought it was kind of fitting,” he chuckled, “plus it’ll be a nice little souvenir once the movie wraps.”  “That was a fun scene to shoot. Best proposal I’ve ever had.”  Ben smiled and carefully turned his mug back towards him, “Best proposal I’ve ever given,” He seemed to be about to say something but stopped himself, shaking his head.  You lowered your voice, “Promise I’ll get to keep it after we break up?”  “Promise,” Ben said, matching your level and leaning in close, “Until then maybe you can use it as a reminder whenever you feel anxious about this whole dating thing.”  “Thanks, I will.”   You were suddenly very aware of how softly you were speaking, how close you were sitting, leaning in to hear each other over the rest of the room, and for a split second you thought he was going to kiss you again. But then the moment passed, the noise of the room intruding as Ben leaned back in his seat, “So do I get to see mine?”  “Uh, it’s not quite done,” you said, picking up your brush again, the moment gone, “give me another couple of minutes.”  “Masterpieces take time, I get it,”  “This is by no stretch a masterpiece,”  “I’ll be the judge of that thanks very much,”  Ben turned to look out over the room while you tried to finish your painting without smudging anything, occasionally making comments about other people there or the art that decorated the room.  You took one last look at what you’d painted, the guitar with the words stun gun lullaby written in cursive beside it, “Alright, I’m done now, you can look. Careful, some of it’s still wet.”  Ben gently took hold of the handle and turned the mug so the design faced him. He broke out into a grin and you felt relieved that he liked it.   “It’s definitely a masterpiece. For someone who didn’t know how to draw a guitar you’ve done an incredible job. And how did you know that’s one of my favourite songs?”  “Is it? It's just the song I overheard you playing that one time. I thought that line was a good one for a mug. Nice and short so I didn’t have to paint too much.”  “This is definitely my new favourite mug.”  “Oh stop it.”  “And hey, they kind of match.”  You laughed when he pointed out the similarities, “Guess they do. Y’know that’d make a pretty cute Instagram post.”  “You going to tag me as my mug?”  “Of course. You could post a photo and tag me in it too,”  “I don’t know. I don’t really post much personal stuff online.”  “Well at least comment on mine,”  “I can do that.”  

After you’d taken a decent photo and posted it online you cleaned up, handed your mugs over to the woman running the night’s activity and stepped back out into the night. There was no sign of the photographer anywhere and you supposed he’d got what he needed and then left.   Still, Ben grabbed your hand as you walked back up the street, just in case you’d missed the photographer in the crowd.   “Guess that means we don’t have to worry about going home together,” you said, nudging Ben.  “Guess not,” his lips quirked down in a soft frown.”  “What is it?”  “Nothing, nothing, just...feels kind of weird to just end the date here, I guess,” he scratched the back of his head and laughed, “Normally I’d offer to give you a lift home. Or at least give you a good night kiss, but I guess that’s not really needed now.”  “Well, it’s like you said, we’re just friends having a fun night out. We could share a ride home though, if you wanted. You live near enough to mine it wouldn’t matter.”  “Nah, don’t worry about it. I actually might go grab something to eat, don’t think that burger was quite enough. See you on Monday?”  “Oh, yeah, okay, see you Monday.”   There was a pause, both of you hesitating and then Ben gave you a much too quick hug before he walked off, disappearing into the crowd. You sighed and hailed a passing cab, spending the whole ride home wondering what the hell had just happened. But you pushed it from your mind once you were home, going through your usual nightly routine and very deliberately thinking of anything other than Ben. It didn’t help much. You still dreamt about him. Dreamt about the goodnight kiss you’d missed out on.    

When you woke you had to laugh at yourself. You were sure that, had you binged a few episodes of a tv show or read something before you’d gone to bed you would have dreamt about it instead. Brains were suggestable like that. When you felt awake enough you rolled over and grabbed your phone finding a text from Ben and one from Felicity and an email from Mary. You opened Mary’s first, skimming over it and vowing to look at it properly once you had a coffee in your system. Ben’s was much easier to understand, a short message to say he had fun last night and that he’d pick the mugs up on his way to work on Monday. Felicity’s was just a series of question marks. You sent back a short response saying the date had been a lot of fun. It wasn’t enough and she was bound to come back at you asking for more details, but it would have to satisfy her. Slowly you got out of bed and made yourself a coffee, setting your laptop up next to you at the kitchen counter so you could try to read Mary’s email again. There was some information about some scripts she was going to send you, a couple of potential future roles, but the majority of the email was about you and Ben. She’d already seen the photos, apparently, and some of them would be run in the coming week’s magazine while others were being put online. She’d also seen the Instagram post and commended you for thinking of it. Another date would have to be organised, but it was better to wait until the next weekend or even the one after, so as not to fatigue the public.  

So you and Ben fell into the routine of it. An email from one or other of your agents sometimes as vague as just telling you to organise a date, sometimes much more specific in what they wanted you to be doing, then the date itself, and in between work where you played up the romance as much as possible. You got good at pretending to stay over at each other's places, often just hanging out watching TV or running lines until the photographer called it a night and you were free to leave. Once or twice you’d opted to sleep in your own bed but get up early and head over to Ben’s for the required morning after shots but that process got old very quickly so you ended up actually staying over more and more. There was one day when your period came unexpectedly while you were at Ben’s. You were halfway through asking him to take you home when he offered to run to the store for you instead.  “No, no, you don’t have to go out of your way like that, I’ve got plenty at home I just didn’t think I’d need any today.”  “Y/N, I promise, it’s no trouble. I feel bad I don’t have anything here for you already. Been a while since I’ve lived with a girl and it didn’t even cross my mind. Seriously, it’ll take me two minutes.” When you still weren’t convinced he continued, “Plus, if I go we won’t ruin Peter and Mary’s plan for today. And the Paps can get a shot of me staring at boxes of tampons like a good caring boyfriend. It’ll help our image.”  “Oh alright, as long as you don’t mind.”  He was out the door a second later and back within ten minutes, though you did get a call from him at the shop, asking what brand you preferred. Once he was home, he made you a cup of tea, gave you a painkiller and, after checking you didn’t mind, cuddled up with you on the couch, teasingly calling you his cuddle bunny as he pulled you back against his chest. You almost complained, almost cited Rule 5, but it wasn’t so bad. Some might even go so far as to call it cute. It was better than snookum at any rate.  

 The dates themselves got easier after the first. You knew what to expect now so it wasn’t as nerve wracking as before. And Ben was always fun to be around, your list of inside jokes steadily growing as he became the one person you spent the most time with. You let yourselves relax a bit. On your third date Ben’s arm stayed glued around your waist as you walked around the zoo, only losing contact when a lemur jumped on his shoulder and you stepped back to take a photo. It wasn’t low enough to violate the rules you’d put in place but his hand was dangerously close to falling below your belt, and it was definitely something you would have put a stop to when you first started the charade. The Instagram posts had got more frequent too, though Ben still refused to post anything to his own profile. But he commented on everything you posted whether it involved him or not. And people were buying it. You’d been moved from page 15 to page 13 and then to page 10 in the magazines. You both picked up more followers online as your photos were shared across Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr. There were some downsides like rude comments and nasty messages but mostly they were easy to ignore. Worse were the phone calls and messages from family members and friends asking when they’d get to meet Ben. He’d had to fend off his own family as well, but you both stuck to Rule 4, making up excuses and promising it would happen eventually, but it just wasn’t possible right now. But your biggest problem was the issue of intimacy. It wasn’t the lack of sex itself, that was easily managed. It was that Ben had started to intrude on your fantasies. You’d be there with your fingers or your toys and suddenly it was Ben’s voice you were thinking of, Ben’s hands, Ben’s teeth and tongue and chest. Ben’s name falling from your lips. And you knew it was just because you were pretending to date him, on and off set. It was the dumb suggestable brain thing again. The thoughts were only there because you were pretending to be in love with him and usually sex was tied up with love or at least relationships. And really, you hadn’t been attracted to anyone much lately because you hadn’t been looking because you’d been pretending to be attracted to Ben so it’s really no wonder you’re brain got all confused and mixed him into those other thoughts. The first time you saw him after it first happened you wondered if he could tell, a slightly flustered awkwardness hanging over you. But it wasn’t worth mentioning to anyone. You just vowed to push him out of your mind as much as you could.  

Nearly two months later you found yourselves back in the office where the idea of pretending to date was first floated. With filming drawing to a close Mary and Peter were keen to check in with you. The first thing either of them said when you and Ben turned up is how well the story was going.  “Projections have the sales for this movie increased by five percent, just because of your relationship and that number is expected to grow as we get closer to release,” Mary spoke fast though whether that was excitement at the boosted numbers or just a busy schedule rushing her along you weren’t sure.  “What happens now?” Ben asked, “I mean, since we won’t be filming together anymore after this week,”  “That’s exactly why we wanted to talk with you both today,” Peter opened a pocket notebook and thumbed through a couple of pages, “so not much will change but we may occasionally need to balance out the loss of on set photos with shots of you out and about together. Nothing stressful and all very easily staged. You probably wouldn’t even need to be out for more than an hour or so at a time. People have been loving the domestic sort of photos you’ve been putting online, Y/N, that one of you using the coffee mugs you painted was especially good. So we’d like a few more of those sorts of moments. The two of you grocery shopping or walking a dog, do either of you have a dog? No? Hmmm, we could hire a dog and write a story about you sitting for a friend. We’ll put a pin in that for now. But yes, just some candid shots of you walking around London and doing regular everyday things together.”  “We’ll also need to schedule the argument soon. We’re thinking somewhere within the first two weeks of filming being over. It means we can run speculation about whether the relationship is on the rocks now that you aren’t working together anymore. We’ll see how things go this week and make some decisions later, but we’ll give you plenty of warning before you have to perform it. Obviously, it has to be scheduled so we can guarantee someone will get photos but we need it to seem as natual as possible so we’ll leave the specifics of the argument up to you.”  You nodded along but Ben had more questions.  “What does this mean for any jobs we might be looking at taking after this movie wraps?”  “You can still take on whatever roles you want provided they’re filming here. It’s harder to keep you in the public eye if you’re separated and while the drama of a long-distance relationship might be interesting at first, it’s not sustainable.”  “If it was filming somewhere else in the UK we could maybe organise something. We’d have to look into it and see if it was possible to stick to our same plan but just shift the location. Maybe have a weekend visit angle to it, Y/N flies out to see Ben, Ben comes home to see Y/N, that kind of thing.”  “Leave it with us Ben and we’ll get back to you on the logistics of it all.”  “Oh, that’s okay, I don’t have anything set in stone, I was just curious.”  “Is there anything else you have questions about?”  “No, I don’t think so,” He looked towards you.  “No, I’m all good.”  “Okay, well, if you think of anything you can message us any time.”  “Really, though, this is going very well. It’s already paying off but we need to keep the momentum during the post-production phase, so we need you both to be committed to this.”  “We are.”  “Unbelievably committed,” Ben added. 

You and Ben left the meeting joking about potential arguments you could have and for the rest of the day, whenever you passed each other in the halls or had a moment alone you’d try to one up each other's suggestions. It was a good way to keep your spirits up even though the end of filming was fast approaching. One by one each cast member recorded their last scenes, saying an emotional thank you to the crew when the director called cut. You and Ben were the last to finish since you were the leads. A small pillow talk scene that you could do in your sleep. It was a nice way to end it, lying in bed with Ben’s arms around you, even with the heat of the studio lights. While you were waiting for the cameras to be positioned you and Ben joked around with the crew that were flitting around angling mics and adjusting set decorations.   “Hey, Seth,” Ben said suddenly, “can you pass me my phone. I think we need to document this moment. What d’you say, cuddle bunny?”  You laughed and poked him in the side but agreed. Ben stuck his arm straight up into the air, trying to angle the camera just right but he couldn’t quite get the photo to take without blurring. Seth took pity on you and offered to take the photo himself, allowing you and Ben to snuggle in close.  “If you post it on Insta you better credit me,” Set laughed, turning it round to show you.  “I’ll do that,” He said with a smile, “It’s pretty cute, I think I have to post it.”  “Really?” you asked, surprised he’d volunteer to do such a thing.  Ben didn’t have a chance to respond because everything was ready to go. Seth put the phone back away so you could film the scene, laughing in between takes until everyone was satisfied.   “That’s a wrap on Ben Hardy and Y/N Y/L/N everybody,”  A round of applause started as you pushed yourself to sit up, trying to stop yourself from welling up.  “And that’s a wrap on The Perfect Match.”  The applause continued and Ben pulled you into a tight hug, rubbing your back and pressing a kiss to the top of your head. You had to say a few words but you managed to get through it, and Ben’s little speech, without completely losing it. Afterwards, as people packed up the equipment and you headed back to your trailers to change, Ben pulled out his phone again.  “I guess I should post that photo now, how’s this caption,” he said each word slowly as he typed it out, “Thank you Y/N for being the perfect Edith to my Andy. And thank you @theperfectmatchmovie for finding me my perfect match.”   “Did you tag me?”  “Of course,”  “Did you tag Seth?”  “Uhhhh, camera emoji by @seththesoundman. Now I have,”  “Then it’s perfect. Little bit cheesy but I’ll let it slide.”  “I’ll post another lot of photos with everyone else later and write a longer thing about how much fun this movie was and all of that, but I think this’ll do for the minute. Mary and Peter better fucking appreciate it.” 

That evening most of the cast and crew headed out for drinks at the local pub. The official party would come later but everyone needed to get out and celebrate for an evening. You and Ben stayed for a few hours, Ben getting a little more clingy with each drink he finished. You limited yourself to only a couple. Ben wasn’t going to be able to drive so you decided to fall on that sword, switching to water quite early on. When he reached the point of intoxication that had him constantly complementing everyone you decided to call it a night, taking a final lap to say goodnight to everyone. There were a few wolf whistles and slurred comments about getting some as you left, Ben’s arm around your waist and his laugh in your ear, but you waved them off and led Ben out to your car.   “C’mon Benny boy, I’ll drop you home.”  “What about my car?”  “Well you’ll have to come get it in the morning, won’t you.”  He hummed and lay his head against the back of the seat, chatting animatedly as you made the trip to his. You wished him goodnight as he got out of the car and watched him make his way up to his front door. There he paused, patting his pockets.  “Everything alright? You called out to him.  “I don’t have any keys,” he laughed, turning around to come back to the car.  “You fucking goon, did you leave them at the pub?”  “Guess so,” he shrugged, “Can I crash at yours?”  “Get in,”  “Thanks cuddle bunny, you’re the best”  You rolled your eyes, “Guess this means I’ll be your taxi tomorrow, running you around to find your keys and your car,”  “That’s what girlfriends are for,”  “If you say so.”  

Once at yours you headed to the kitchen to make tea, Ben following to grab a glass of water and a snack. He knew where you kept everything by now, making himself a sandwich with whatever he found in your fridge, and then carrying it out to the couch. By the time the teas were made Ben already had Netflix queued up, ready to play the next episode of the series you’d started watching together. Nearly Twenty minutes into the episode Ben’s phone dinged.  “Ah shit,” he said as he glanced at it, “forgot I said I’d call Joe. Do you mind if we pause the ep? We’re trying to organise travel stuff for him and it’s easier if we talk it through rather than texting it all.”  “Sure,”  “I promise I won’t be long.”  “Take your time, it’s fine,” you were already reaching for your laptop.  Ben smiled at you before ducking out of the room. You head him walking down the hall, footsteps fading as he got further away. For a while you just enjoyed the quiet as you checked your emails and social media profiles but after commenting on the photo Ben had posted and replying to a few messages from people you knew there wasn’t really much left to do. You drummed your fingers on your keyboard trying to think of another website you could visit. There was still no sign of Ben and you didn’t want to continue the show without him so you stood up, stretched, and headed back to the kitchen to grab some chocolate from the stash you kept. You were just about to shut the fridge when you heard Ben’s voice coming from the other side of the wall. Your spare room where he’d clearly gone to make his phone call.   “Yeah, Joe, I fucking know. But I don’t have much choice.” He sounded more sober than he had when he’d got up. There was a pause as Joe spoke and then you heard Ben again.  “I don’t know what I was thinking getting into this mess…..Yeah maybe. Doesn’t really matter though now does it…. What’s that supposed to mean? I can’t just call it quits now, the story is doing too well and Peter has assured me that the numbers are promising or whatever I don’t really know how they measure it. All I know is that people are going to see the movie because of us.”  There was a long pause. You quietly shut the fridge and took a step back towards the doorway. This was not a conversation you should be listening in to. But then Ben spoke again, and curiosity got the better of you.  “It doesn’t matter Joe. It doesn’t matter how I feel.” He laughed but it was completely devoid of humour, “Of course it sucks. It’s fucking shit, man. I just keep waiting for her to tell me she feels the same but it’s not happening…... No, I know it’s completely one sided…..No, I don’t think she knows. She wouldn’t have wanted to do it in the first place if she knew…. I just wish things were different. I love being around her and being able to hold her and kiss her but it fucking sucks that it’s only in public….. I don’t know. Maybe not filming together will ma-”  You could feel your cheeks burning as you tiptoed back towards the lounge room, not quite sure what to do with yourself. You paced back and forth for a moment before deciding to go to the bathroom, at least then Ben couldn’t walk in on you as you tried to process it. You let the door shut loudly behind you, hoping that if Ben had heard movement he’d think you’d just got up to use the loo. He couldn’t know you’d overheard him. You leaned against the sink and tried to make sense of what you’d heard. Ben couldn’t have a crush on you, he just couldn’t. But it was the only thing he could have been talking about. What the fuck did that mean for your arrangement? What the fuck were you meant to do now?

[uwunamjoon]

NAMJOON FIC RECS

hello thought i’d drop some links because I forsure keep re-reading them and need a list anyway. 

I keep seeing lists and recs of fics that are classic or must read and i want to say these are some of the them I’ve read and are absolute solid masterpieces for the win. (i will keep adding on to these)

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hello authors/writers. I WANTED TO TELL YOU I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH? HOW ARE YOU GUYS DOING? 

when even breathing and existing feels like a chore your words made my life better, my day to day, minutes and seconds of existing better so no words can truly convey how thankful I am? I just wish the happiness I felt while reading will be reflected right back at you like twofold threefold? thank you for writing. thank you for being here enduring so many things and still writing these. The impact your words and ideas have are immeasurable. My limited words can truly never do justice to how amazing your work truly is, and english isn’t my first language so im sorry im a bit lacking here. 

AGAIN I LOVE YOU PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. I WISH YOU ALL THE HAPPINESS AND JOY IN THIS WORLD. MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE. YOU MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE!

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Fanfiction is provided for free, but it is not produced for free.  please click on that link and read. 

SHOW SOME LOVE IF YOU EVER READ THIS.

Forever Rain  by @ddaenggtan This fic is art. Reading this is an experience like nothing else. Life is transient, life is so so fragile. I love the characterisation of Namjoon. I loved every word written so carefully knit together. Thank you thank you for writing this. I will cherish the feelings and emotions I had while reading this fic. It’s like how people look at art in a museum and cry(which i have never felt like and this fic will be the closest ill come to that,,,)  djjdkd I WILL FOREVER REMEMBER AND REREAD THIS. 

There was a bug by @kimnjss i can’t even tell how many times i’ve reread this and i know ill keep going back for more. HQ CONTENT. It’s so well written. A CLASS APART. THANK YOU SO SO FREAKING MUCH FOR WRITING THIS.

Omertá by @lamourche I MEANNNN the dynamics, the characters, the constructs in this story, the plot, the way the chapters move? the pace at which things are set? TAKE MY HEART EVIE. I have followed this fic since it was only ch1 and WOW MY OH MY it was a rollercoaster and there was nothing more magical in this world for me when the final chapter was posted. This fic too was an experience itself. THANK YOU EVIE YOU HAVE MY HEART.

 00-Beginning-Shift by @dreamyjoons it’s one of those fics where everybody prolly bugged rae so much for the next chapter/updates but im just glad that i got to read this much. I mean a fic THIS GOOD I’ll take whatever is already here and make the most out if it. The banter and repartees between oc and namjoon are everything.  THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU QUENCH MY THIRST FOR GOOD FICS.

amaranthine by @koyamuses the most interesting plot I have come across. I love the characters. I love how everyone is portrayed here. I can’t wait to see what happens next. THIS FIC IS JUST SUCH A DELIGHT THANK YOU GI I CAN’T WAIT FOR WHAT YOU HAVE IN STORE. 

@namjoonchronicles ahhh i know this isn’t a fic link but everything that is written is just magical? sorry for my lack of vocabulary. I stumbled upon this blog when i was very new to tumblr so its one of the first few blogs i loved. I absolutely love all the namjoon AUs written I am obsessed? 

Bloom by @hobidreams easily a 11238237/10. THE PLOT AND STORYLINE is unquestionably brilliant. This is one of those fics I love the depiction of oc and THIS NAMJOON IS EVERYTHING. I was always on the edge and captivated reading this fic. It has all the elements trust me y’all. I never thought it's possible to portray namjoon like this but also still keep the realism. THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS.  

[snacc-noir]

The Idiot Effect

(Marinette the Flirt AU) 

AO3

Summary: 

It starts as a game about their mystery love interests.

“He’s really smart. I’m sure he’ll pick up on it one day.”

“Oh really?” Chat goads. “Then for them to realise, let’s see who can flirt better.”

Yeah... turns out there’s a lot more to realise.

(Or the fic where Marinette’s a ruthless flirt, Ladybug and Adrien are dense, and Plagg can’t stop laughing at everyone)

Notes: the fact that a few actually wanted this crack mess is concerning, and it seems some have brought “expectations” so i’ll kindly ask you to leave those at the door. thank you!! (and there’s more chapters coming im so sorry)

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Listen.

Marinette stuffs up but when she stuffs up it’s with class, alright? When there’s a problem, her own or not, she fixes it because that’s just what she does. She spews garbage and has the composure of a flailing eel trying to stand upright – but she’s a pillar source of entertainment for it. She’s a normal girl, with a normal life (except for the superhero thing), so excuse her for trying to be adventurous once and a while.

Adventurous, flirtatious; whatever.

She’s made it to school two minutes after waking up before and was recently (6th Grade Graduation) voted “Sweetest Classmate”, so yeah, she’s quite up there. And ever since (unwillingly) sprouting the wings of a brave superheroine she’s tried her hand at a bit of confidence, despite those continual dignity stuff ups she’s played off gracefully (the tripping happens no matter what, she can’t control that, okay?) The Guy may be the son of a famous fashion artist—that has, in fact, recognised Marinette’s talent and sent her self-esteem higher than Chat’s puns make her want to throw him—and is entirely out of her league,

But see, usually that would cease her pursuits, if not for, you know, the fact she’s an epic superhero and he’s the biggest snack she’s ever seen.  

Kindness? A literal angel? Most wholesome grace?  

A model?

As if she’s not flirting with that.  

She shivers remembering the ignorant days (half a school day) where she was under the idiocy that Adrien Agreste of all celestial beings had the tenacity to be an entitled jerk with an inheritance long enough to rival the list of times Dupain-Cheng had sliced from Chloé’s lips through the years.  

And yeah, that couldn’t have been further from the truth, but genuinely, genuinely, flaws and all, Adrien Agreste is the sweetest being she’s ever met.  

That she’s stuffed up her chances with, countless times.

But she’ll work on that.

Chat Noir knows how to flirt. He’s not too relevant – her miraculous partner in battle, black suit clad teenage girl idol, the best friend she’d kill herself and everyone she knows for – you know, the least of importance right now. But she’s got to admit, he has some good ones when she’s suited up. Only difference between him and her is that on Ladybug, it’s all fun and games with no meaning. But with Adrien,  

she’s serious.

(Most of the time. The lines are pretty eccentric.)

She loves him. It’s whatever. She doesn’t know if he loves her back but she’ll make it work. He can’t pick up a hint for his life — causing completely no progress— but the way her indications of affection propel over his halo is just a spanner in the mission to conquer his heart; a mere stain to the golden-hearted persona she adores so much; so much as a friend, too.

Because, you know,

“We’re friends,” Adrien tells his capped bro as though the suggestive nudges up the courtyard would lessen, an attempt that fails, because an arm is slung around him instead in such a buddy-buddy way he knows is saved for interrogating or persuading purposes.

“You didn’t hear what she said to you?”

How could he not.

He didn’t mind. If anything, he found it humorous. “Yeah, she’s just messing around like that.”  

“Mmmhmm… sure,” Nino says in a way that totally isn’t assuring. “I don’t even have Alya telling me we should share a locker to hide in during an akuma attack. And we’re dating.”

“That’s because Marinette’s joking around. Since we’re friends.”

“Since you’re soulmates. ”  

“Mmmhmm…” he mocks, cheek twitching, “sure.”

One-hundred percent sure, according to Marinette the next day.

It’s some chemistry lesson half the class doesn’t pay attention to because they’re overreacting (ha) to their assigned lab partners, and Adrien’s fine since he’s paired with Good Friend Marinette. And although he doesn’t like her like that – after all, Ladybug’s a thing – she seriously is lovely company without so much as an awkward fence (excluding the way she stumbles heading to the bench) to hinder their bonding (haha).  

Because, for those in the back, they’re just friends.

She’s funny and kind and all that, talented too – class rep, master of the arts, always doing things for others. Her confidence is mystifying but not unappreciated. In fact, having a crush on her would baffle him since she’s so out of his league (he says, dressing up as a cat and going after a superhero) , or at least impossible considering how much she’s definitely kidding with her flirtatious behaviour. No matter what Nino says.

The equipment clinks on the benches as his partner sets up. Distracted by Chloé whinging about Alya for a lab partner, he’s oblivious to the manner about how Marinette scoots next to him.  

“Look at us together. I bet we were paired because we have so much chemistry,” she says, out of nowhere, and yet completely expected at the same time as he turns back. “I guess we just work so well together.”

His lips tickle, but he sterns himself by moving an elbow dumbly, knocking a small beaker of water so the contents spill across a ripped page of discarded notes. Her old work fuses to the bench as the ink bleeds and they watch. “Apparently not.”

Marinette cracks a grin. “You suck.”

“You suck.”

“You—”

The lesson is a blast.

Marinette doesn’t know how someone can get any more dumb. Or is it dumber? Whatever. They’re tied for English, anyway (“The A + stands for Adrien plus Marin—” “Shut up.”). And she knows it’s not her who’s the dumb one because, you know, you need to have the supremacy of a genius to have the flirtatious skills she can dish out, possibly a degree of some kind.

Adrien’s smart, but he’s not—

He’s not there sometimes. It’s because of her absolute lack of progress (and she knows the lines are just Too Good for her to not be at fault here) that she often wonders if retreating to the long-abandoned pink-cheeked and shy character would’ve made things any more obvious.

Not that she thinks they can.  

“When we get married, I shots the left side of the bed.”

Seriously.

“You’re only getting the prime bed spot if you take the most dishwashing days,” he plays along, musing irresponsible blond tuffs with the towel Kim’s tossed him as he slinks from the locker room. “That includes Sunday morning. Saturday nights are major guest nights.”

His lacrosse game couldn’t have gone better, even if Nino and Alya were babysitting and didn’t attend. He scored most of the goals and the pride warming Marinette’s expression as she greets him is what tops the cake. He still hears Alix, Kim and Ivan chatting jubilantly of their win as the door swings behind him.

“You’ve obviously thought about this before.”

Adrien snaps the towel at her, purposefully missing, but water that’s been tipped on his head spurs from it and Marinette’s composure is quelled as the assumption of sweat drives her over.  

“You wish.”

Boy does she ever.

They break into step down the hall. Adrien pats down his arms and side-eyes her. Her blue pools of comfort are already beaming at him.

“I did that good for a marriage proposal, huh?”

“Yep!”

He does little to hinder the bashful chuckle.  

“And you touched my shoulder twice yesterday. That’s sixty-eight percent more than usual according to Max.“

“That doesn’t mean we’re married, Marinette.”  

Her lips quirk. “Totally does.”

tagged 💕:

@aplayfulplatypus @wegan97 @soap-lady @poisonouscephalopod @woodsbeyond1 @spartanxhunterx @laadychat @mochegato @gelana-12 @heldtogetherbysafetypins @galaxiesanddaisies @melicmusicmagic @legallyspawned @aarushi-03 @purple-people-eaters-productions @gothfoxx @glassesandcardguns @princess-of-fangirls @mewwitch @emeraldpuffguide @johnlockfeels @kittyynoirr @aryamanbose @paintedbirdsong @trubel43 @lulumatthews

[ngame989]

“Brew” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 6

Writing: @ngame989​

Art: @toxicpsychox​

Editing: @toxicpsychox​, @seddm​, an IRL friend

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: After close to a year on Earthni, Tom's been dragged back into the princely life, and it's a lot less exciting than he'd expected. With Star and Marco away on urgent business, can Janna help him turn a boring errand into a fun adventure?

Comic Page

Masterpost

This one’s a nice change of pace from the last two chapters, I think. TGG’s still a Starco-focused work, expect these to be the exception not the norm, but I think it’s important to strike a balance. See below for the text, hope you enjoy!

“No results.” Huh? Three eyes narrowed at the screen in frustration. Maybe a different search term? “No results.” Alright Tom, no big deal, man. Maybe you just spelled something wrong. Annnnnd… there. “No results.” How could there be nothing?

Tom leaned back in the chair and sighed, exercising restraint over the little anger demons inside him as he’d trained himself to do. In the past he’d needed a physical bunny to pet if he wanted even a hope of keeping his cool, but at this point suppressing the urge was such reflex that most would think he just had a regular Mewman quick temper and nothing more in all but the most extreme of conditions, but he was getting pretty close to that point now. Grandpa Relicor’s study had everything, or so he thought, but this was the first time he could ever remember being here where it come up short. He’d checked every shelf, everything he could think in the computer, had even fireblasted a few of the shelves just to see if there were any hidden switches or anything. Even Relicor had been at a loss and had been screeching in distress on the floor for long enough that Tom’s brain had graciously tuned it out. What could be so important about this book his mom needed? He hadn’t even had time to change his casual graphic tee from a cartoon he liked, simply tossing his maroon jacket over it before heading out at his mother’s behest. He wasn’t one to say no to her, but it had been hours since he’d shown up here and he was no closer to figuring this out than he had been this morning.

Suddenly his phone buzzed, displaying the familiar beaming face of his ex-girlfriend close up to the camera. A toothy grin erupted as he picked it up, holding the phone up for a video feed. “Heya, Starship.”

“Hey, Tom!” Star beamed into the camera. “How’s it hanging? Long time no see. So,” she rambled out in one breath, “I may have a teensie weensie wittle problem.” She backed up to reveal her hair in complete disarray, sans horns, and black marks all over her light blue dress. Before Tom could even ask the question, her other hand held up charred fragments of her headband. “Someone still hasn’t learned how to use an Earth oven properly!” she forced out through gritted teeth.

“Look, gurl, I said I was like, so sorry! All the Cloud Kingdom kitchens are powered by glitter and horn blasts, like that’s just how ovens are supposed to be, that is all I am saying here,” Ponyhead’s indignant voice chimed in from behind, punctuated by a snort.

“Anyway, we just finished putting out the fires and I need a new headband and their website says they’re almost out of stock and I’ve wanted to show Marco around the Underworld for a while and- wait, is that screeching in the background? Where are you?”

Tom shuffled away from the elder demon still writhing on the floor and cleared his throat. “Just in Grandpa’s study trying to find something for my mom, she really wants it today. I don’t know if I can go- but I can still send the carriage for you guys, if you want.”

“Do you need help with that?” Marco inquired as he peeked his head into the frame, casually wrapping an arm around Star.

“Naaaah, no big deal,” Tom shrugged. “You two should go, though! I can just fly over whenever I finish this.”

Star and Marco looked at each other hesitantly. “Alright,” she said. “Carriage to our house in maybe five minutes?” A fire alarm went off behind her followed by a scream from Ponyhead and an even girlier one from Marco. “Maybe ten,” Star sighed, burying her face in her free hand.

“You got it,” Tom chuckled.

“OK, bye!” Star said with relief before hanging up. He rolled his shoulders from inside his jacket and ran his hands through his hair before stepping into the main foyer, taking advantage of the space to summon the carriage and its horses, the incantations coming effortlessly to him. Demons had been fortunate enough to retain their powers on Earthni, but the location underground and the relative lack of portaling methods available left them even more isolated than previously. While most of the other kingdoms had dissolved or integrated into a loose coalition of government covering all of the Echo Creek area, the Underworld had been content to stay completely under the banner of Lord and Lady Lucitor, and Tom found himself pitching in more and more in his role as Prince. In truth, he would have appreciated the company his friends were offering, but he knew how much it had meant to Star to be able to give this life up, and he didn’t want to drag her - either of them, really, considering Marco had earned an official title on Mewni himself - back into the boring thick of regal errands. Was Prince Thomas Draconius Lucitor really going to let some stuffy old book collection get the best of him? Hah, as if.

With a flick of his wrist, the half-demon shuttled the carriage to the surface in a pillar of flame, barely looking and instead pulling out his new phone. He was still getting the hang of the new and improved Reflectacorp’s Earth tech integration, but he’d at least learned how to open yesterday’s text conversation thread from its new message notification.

Janna: anti-gravity potion attempt 4 failed. affected bottle glass itself and launched into sky. note to self: work under roof. star and marco’s suggestions didnt work either. not all bad though, it went towards cloud kingdom lol

Tom: careful, don’t hit pony’s ego and make it fly even higher ·;) btw pony + starco are going shopping in underworld soon. im stuck working for mom though.

Janna: stores r lame. even in underworld. and srsly dude u gotta stop using starfans dumb name for them. otoh it bugs them so actually nvm go 4 it

Tom: it was mine first >·:( it saves letters when they’re together!

Janna: which is always

Tom: exactly. speaking of which, they’re here ttyl

Star stepped out of the carriage in a nice white polka dotted green dress, quickly followed by Marco, the pair’s fingers remaining intertwined until they gave him a hello hug, and Tom honestly wasn’t sure they’d stopped holding hands even then. Ponyhead burst out a moment later with her phone floating in front of her pointed at herself, and she was in the middle of a monologue to no one in particular.

“-so yeah anyway as you all can see we have now arrived in the Underwoooorld. So yeah this is, like, basically the best place on all of Earthni to go shopping as I’ll be showing you today. Oh yeah, I guess some demon boys live here too. Oh my goodness, say hello you guuuys,” she rolled her eyes as she butted in between Star and Tom, side-eyeing him for a split second before grinning back into the camera. After all this time Pony still hadn’t dropped the passive aggression over his and Star’s messy history; Tom had to admit it was a bit understandable, but did she really have to keep it up in such an annoying way? He rolled his eyes - it was Ponyhead he was thinking about here. “OK, the Ponyhead Experience will be taking a short break. Tune back in soon! Love y’all, buhbye!” She snapped the phone shut and caught it with her tongue. “Ugh, why do all of my vlogs with you dorks get like ten times as many viewers? Tom, you were in the shot for like three seconds and do you know what happened? 2000 more people tuned in! What the heck! It’s like, just because I have one less horn and one less eye I’m not exciting to you? But I can’t stay mad at my adooooring fans.”

“Must be the Lucitor charm.” He flashed a toothy smile and a pair of finger guns at her, accidentally flinging his phone across the room in the process. “Totally planned,” he blurted out with a much less authentic grin. Marco chuckled and picked it up, handing it back and patting him mock-sympathetically on the shoulder while holding back a smirk.

Star giggled but tapped her foot impatiently, looking around the room nervously. “OK, great catching up, but on the way here I checked the website and the headband shop is almost out of stock! We have to go, now! Let’s move it, people! Tom, can we borrow the carriage for the day?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Fine by me.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you’re the best!”

“You sure you don’t need anything?” Marco inquired again.

“You heard the girl, Marco, my audience wants to see us get our shop on!”

Tom blew a raspberry, pushing them towards the carriage. “Relax, it’s nothing. I’m practically done already! Tooootally almost done!”

Marco finally relented, nodding his assent. Star was bouncing up and down so much that she looked ready to launch around the room. He giggled as she wrapped both her arms around his middle and kissed his cheek before hauling him the rest of the way into the carriage. “C’mon boo, mama needs a new pair of horns. Plus we can get whatever you need, too! I saw a few things in the catalog that would look preeeetty good on you,” she sing-songed, walking two fingers up his chest to boop his nose after they plopped down onto the seat together. Ponyhead mimed vomiting at Tom, who silently laughed in response; they were so engrossed with each other that Tom was fairly certain they wouldn’t have noticed even if he’d shouted his laughter, though. He blankly stared at the spot the carriage had been for a few seconds after it exited in a blaze.

“Pretty gross, right?” Tom started and launched a fireball in the direction of the voice, hovering away from the intruder. A split second after, his vision caught up with his instincts and saw Janna in her usual green shirt and beanie and yellow skirt, sans jacket, nonchalantly sidestep the flame. “You do the same thing every time, you really need to work on that,” she chided with her arms crossed and a devious smirk on her face.

He rubbed his temple and gestured at her in sullen disbelief. “How did you-”

“Roof of the carriage.”

“Huh.” An eyebrow up in surprise, studying her expression. “You never usually, you know, answer that.”

She shrugged, kicking a boot into the hard stone floor. “Whatever, guess I’m just bored. Besides, half the reason I do that is to get a rise out of Marco,” she slyly snickered, and Tom couldn’t help but join in. “Alright, demon boy, what adventure are we going on today?”

Tom crossed his arms apprehensively. “Just trying to find a book for my mom, not really much of an adventure.”

“Like I said, dude, I’m bored and shopping is dumb. I don’t mind hanging out here for a study session or whatever, your family’s got great taste in decor.” She picked a skull off the ground and tossed it back and forth between her hands. He grinned back at her, grateful for the company. “So what kind of creepy curses are in this book?”

The pair started walking back into the study as their conversation continued. “Don’t think there are any. It’s called ‘Historia Homewnum’, according to my mom, so it’s probably a history book but that’s all I know.”

“Darn. Demon history’s bound to be pretty cool, though.”

“You’d be surprised how little actually happens down here, it’s just a lot of maintenance. Last month the most important thing I did was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new boba cornshake shop, it’s really caught on here since the Cleaving. But man is it good! Marco was right, the little pearls are just so tasty, I like the creamed corn version best.”

“What is it with you and corn, seriously...” Janna shuddered.

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.” He knew he’d gotten distracted thinking about the delicious creamy beverage, but that didn’t seem like an adequate reason to look so horrified, especially coming from Janna. Not able to figure out any other reason she might be disgusted by his comments, he got his thoughts back on track. “Really don’t know why she wants this thing so much. Anyway, I already checked the entire study for it, and the search archives don’t have anything either. Oh well, what can you do, might as well just give up and-”

“Found something,” Janna piped up, somehow already in the computer chair with her feet on the desk.

“Really? How?” he asked incredulously, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis.

“OK, I didn’t actually find the book, but maybe we should check this place out.” He leaned into the screen to see a Mewgle search for ‘how to find weird book in underworld’ on the screen.

“I already tried that, Janna!”

“Yeah, but your antivirus was blocking this link to some place called the ‘Librarinth’.”

Tom slammed his palm into his forehead. “Of course, the Librarinth! How could I not think to look there, that’s where all the oldest books are. Why was it getting blocked?”

She clicked on the link and both recoiled at the sight: an abhorrent patterned background with almost unreadable randomly colored text and low quality cartoon images scattered all around the page. “Yeah, it’s awful,” she said in response to his obvious horror. “Seriously, whoever must made this website must be, like, a thousand years old.”

“Probably , yeah, but why does that have anything to do with-” His eyes widened in realization as he clapped his hands together in contemplation. “Right, humans and their lifespans. Go on.”

“Look.”

She scrolled past the despondent, blurry faces of demons of all shapes and sizes in the staff section until she arrived at the catalog, folding her arms triumphantly. Tom excitedly butted in, typing into the search box and being greeted with a loading wheel. “Uh, Janna? It’s not working.”

“Pfft, yeah, I might actually be dead by the time the search finishes. But that doesn’t matter because they have our book. It’s the header image for the whole catalog.” He squinted and brought his face closer to the monitor, and to his surprise the title was clear as day on the cover of the book, although all the other information was too difficult to make out. “Alright, let’s go. Main page says the Librarinth is on Floor 216.”

With a snap of his fingers, the demon elevator was summoned into a bookshelf much as it had been the day they had dealt with the Blood Moon. Relicor’s shrieking, which had slowed to a whimper since they’d left, resumed in full; fortunately they began descending, which quickly put them out of earshot. Tom awkwardly stretched his arms, unsure what exactly to say. She was his friend, yes, but he was never the best at small talk, and Janna being Janna didn’t make that any easier. After long, messy years of broken hearts and misguided feelings, he finally felt comfortable forging friendships, but even though they got along quite well there was something about Janna that made that vibe a lot less effortless than with Marco or even Star. Thoughts of his other friends reminded him of something. “Uh, by the way… how did you even know about the carriage earlier?”

“A girl’s gotta keep some secrets.”

“Pony was posting about it every 15 seconds,” he guessed, calling Janna’s bluff.

“Touché. Every 10, though,” she coolly responded. “Ha, now she’s just flipping out because Star and Marco have way more likes than her selfies.”

“Figured you’d have him bugged or something,” Tom chuckled as he scooted over to get a look at Janna’s screen, and sure enough there was a picture collage of Star sitting in Marco’s lap with tens of thousands of likes and comments already. They were laughing their butts off at themselves in a mirror in front of them with novelty sunglasses, fake mustaches, goofy props, and even a few absurd full-body costumes; Ponyhead joined the fun for a few but just as often butt in trying to take over the mirror by herself.

“Ew, no, I disabled it all months ago. Boyfriend Tom was already too cutesy for me, and you two just had a little flirty fling. Do you think I’d really want to see or hear whatever Star and Marco have going on? They’re, like, deeply in love, or whatever, and it’s gotten even worse in the last few weeks.”

He murmured in tacit agreement. Now that he thought about it, they had seemed even more affectionate than usual, but he wasn’t too keen on uncovering why that might be. The ding of the elevator saved him from any further speculation, and he and Janna stepped out of the elevator into the lobby, which was empty with cobwebs coating most of the weathered stone walls. Janna looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Anyway, so the Librarinth is basically a combination of a library and a labyrinth-”

“Right, I got that,” she curtly retorted.

“The legends say that some ancient librarian demons wanted to challenge any who sought knowledge, so they hid all the books in a giant maze that only the worthy could navigate. But everyone who made it still decided to organize it thoroughly for some reason, and you still had to check out the books and bring them back and all that.”

She ran a finger over the dust on the front counter, and the surface of the desk sizzled in response, causing her to pull her hand back before poking the bubbles that formed with a curious smile. “So why is it completely empty?”

Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “Weeeeeeell, after a few people went missing or insane, everyone realized it really wasn’t a great way to, you know, run a library. Grandpa actually started collecting books to try and get them away from this place. No one really knows what goes on in there, but as far as I know it’s still maintained even though no one uses it. The kingdom stopped staffing the lobby but they could never just shut it down because anyone who tried, well-”

“Went missing or insane. Sounds cool, I’m in.”

“You sure?”

“Dude, you brought me to a wicked hell maze filled with psychotic demon nerds. Maybe there’ll be bottomless pits or a wicked dungeon boss. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re flirting with me, Mr. Lucitor,” she purred, running a finger up his chest and flicking his nose.

“Haha, very funny. And it’s Prince Lucitor,” he sarcastically chided, poking her arm in response before crossing the room with her following, but he couldn’t help but hide that he was flustered. Seeing Star and Marco’s relationship in the past year had reinforced his already-firm convictions about romance: he wanted someone with whom he could be life partners in all ways, not just handholding and rooftop picnics. Otherwise, what would be the point? He’d made that mistake enough times, and even just a light jab at the notion of him casually flirting struck made him feel self-conscious about that past. Finally his reflection was halted when he found what he sought: a large wrought iron door furnished with ornate demonic symbols and various carvings of mythological creatures dwarfed them both. With a soft, steady flame for light, he brought his hand up and ran it over the rusty engravings. He jumped back with a gasp as the fire spread into the lines of the door, lighting up the patterns on it and causing it to creak as it slowly opened.

“Nice,” Janna muttered in awe before strolling inside, with Tom hesitantly following. She was the most eager of their little group to dive headfirst into the unknown, even more than Star most of the time, but he trusted her gut.

They started walking down the long, cramped hallways, hearing only the sound of their own footsteps on the cold floor. Janna peeked her head into a small doorway that appeared to their left, earning herself an explosive blast to the face and getting knocked onto her butt. Tom slammed the door shut and leaned in to read an inscription next to it. “Incinerator for any books too damaged or damaging for further use. Probably not the right place.”

Janna huffed, brushing herself off and finding scraps of paper among the char. “I can see that. Seriously, what kind of labyrinth labels its doors?”

“Maybe one run by book nerds,” Tom offered, gripping her hand to help her up.

“So it’s just as bad at being a labyrinth as it is a library. Neat. Great adventure.”

Tom pressed on, keeping his focus ahead of them. “Hey, I’m just here to help my mom. You’re the one that said you were fine with anything.”

“Fine, fine. Just saying, I could be working on my potions or something.” She pulled a glass bottle full of purple liquid from her skirt pocket and casually tossed it at a wall. Janna snickered at Tom’s yelp when it shattered, but found herself joining him in backing away when a chunk of stone quickly deteriorated and slammed into the ground at incredible speed. She went over and carefully kicked a pebble, finding it impossible to even budge. “See, this was just a stupid pro-gravity potion. Worthless.”

He leaned against the stable wall opposite the hole, sighing. “I’m sure there has to be something interesting here. What if we, I dunno, make it a competition or something?” His frustration with both the situation and Janna were there, yes, but he still wanted to try and get something fun out of the day.

“Go on,” Janna said, eyes flickering up from the bottle that she was tossing between her hands nonchalantly.

OK, maybe he should have thought further ahead. His arms flailed as he scrambled to come up with an idea. “OK, so, uh, whoever finds the weirdest thing in this place in the next hour wins. Just call them out if you think you found something. Or whoever finds the book, whichever comes first, yeah. Mom still needs it.”

“Momma’s boy. I respect that. You’re on, Tom.” Janna cocked an eyebrow, staring at him for a second before pushing off the wall into a sprint, opening the first door she could find. “Empty. Another empty. Three empties, dammit.”

Tom used his flight to travel more smoothly from door to door on his side of the corridor, but still found himself losing ground as he took the time to read the sign posted by each threshold. The ‘Demonic Studies’ room had a very ornately ghoulish aesthetic, with macabre skeletal models throughout. Definitely something to show Janna on the way out just for the aesthetic, and it’d have been weird for most humans, but it wasn’t any more abnormal than what the two of them were used to as a daily routine. Another room for astronomy had an exquisite planetarium dome, but it turned out to be rather useless as the Underworld did not, in fact, contain any stars since it was underground. There was, however, a plentiful selection of guides to stalactites stocked on the shelves. The next four whole sections were devoted to anger management self-help books, which only made him waste precious seconds cringing at old memories.

His pace picked up as he kept going from door to door finding nothing but normal library fare, although he had to admit it was certainly well-maintained. On any other day he might actually enjoy some of the things here, but today he was on a mission to get out of here so they could actually have fun elsewhere.

‘Bookworms’... now that had potential. What sorts of hybrid creatures could lurk behind the inches of wood? “I think I might have found something!” he shouted, throwing open the door only to receive a harsh shushing. Within were only elderly demons in cozy sweaters reading by candlelight, all now glaring at him with an intensity that reminded him of his mom’s own rare reprimands. “Never mind,” he loud-whispered back out into the hall as he gently closed the door and found Janna in a nearby corridor. “Ugh, why is there nothing interesting here?” Sparks trailed behind him from his mounting anger as he paced.

“Tell me about it, even ‘Wormbooks’ was just a bunch of regular novels, somehow,” she sighed. “I was hoping for a big long chain of open books slithering around on the ground, now there’s a party.” She slumped down against the wall next to the streak of flame he’d left on the ground, idly stamping it out with her boot until Tom sat down beside her.

“Wouldn’t a wormbook be the opposite? A big fat worm in the shape of a book?”

“Nah, it’d totally be a book made of a bunch of little flatworms all working together, duh. Still pretty lame.”

OK, now he knew something was up with her. “Janna, is- is something wrong?”

Her body slouched further down until she was almost horizontal on the cold floor, staring ahead of her like a zombie. “Being weird has just felt so pointless lately. Everything’s weird now, all the time! I’m wasting all my time trying to brew potions when there’s a shop that sells them on every corner. I got so bored that I even passed that same dumb test Marco did and now I’m done with high school, like, for real this time.”

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself, that’s pretty impressive.”

“It’s easy if you know who to blackmail.” Tom blinked a few times, not sure why he’d expected anything different. “Everyone else is moving on with their lives, but I’m still feeding the same old possums and picking up the same old tennis balls. The whole point of my routine is that it’s different, it’s me, it’s my Jannanigans or whatever Star calls it, but it’s just not the same. I’m still into all that stuff, and Earthni’s actually really cool, but… ugh.” With that, her head fully sunk to the ground.

Tom brought his palms together over her head, opening and shutting his hands while wiggling his fingers around. “It’s a wormbook,” he said hesitantly, not really sure what he was doing. It was silly amusement, but perhaps that was just what she needed right now. Janna frowned and rolled her eyes, so he snapped at her arm with his hand puppet wormbook a few times.

“Alright, I get it,” she barked out, but her sullen demeanor slowly cracked under the onslaught of frivolity as she sat back up with an unusually ponderous look at him.

“Remember that time you took me bootsledding?” She nodded. “You told me that I needed to find a life outside of Star, and- and it was really great advice. Didn’t mean I still couldn’t like spending time with Star or anything, heck, I still do! But I just needed to get out of that rut of depending on it. Maybe you just need to do that, too. If doing your weirdness by yourself is normal, then adding something normal might be kinda weird.”

“That’s it.” Janna leapt to her feet, looking very suddenly invigorated. “That’s it!”

“Well, uh, glad you liked it. It was nothing, really, just trying to be a good pal-”

“Yeah, yeah, that too,” she waved dismissively, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit scorned. “If weird is normal then normal is weird. We were looking for the craziest things we could find here, but everything that should have been weird was normal, so we should be looking for the most painfully boring room here!” All three of Tom’s eyes blinked a few times as her words sunk in. Could it be…? “Tom, over here!” He hustled over to a particularly plain wooden door. Janna pointed at the plaque on the wall, which was far more faded than the others had been. “Look. ‘Government Records’.”

A burst of energy coursed through Tom’s blood, sparking life in him once more, and he could see the same reflected in Janna’s determined brown eyes. “And the book Mom wanted has something to do with history. Maybe it’s political history! Janna, you might be a genius!”

“Pfft, ‘might’. Now we just gotta…” She grabbed his arm, aiming it at the door, and he looked at her incredulously. “C’mon, dude, who knows what’s behind there. We’re gonna bust in with a demon blast, duh. Pew-pew!”

He rolled his eyes, but the corner of his lip turning up in a begrudging smile gave away his agreement. The pair aimed at the door and blew it off its hinges before charging in through the smoke.

“I see you two have finally solved the grand riddle of the Librarinth!” A deep, booming voice greeted them from the smoke. “Janna Ordonia, Thomas Lucitor, you certainly took your time. I expected you to book it here much more quickly. No matter, for this room shall be your tome!”

“How do you know my-” Janna stammered.

“Uh, don’t you mean tomb-” Tom started at the same time before realizing the wordplay and groaning in misery. Wait a second… Epic threats, an obvious personality quirk…

“Dungeon boss!” the teens cheered together, glancing back and forth between each other and the remainder of the room in front of them obscured by shadow.

“It is I, the bookkeeper of this place. I guard the most sacred treasure of all… knowledge!” Paper rustled loudly, echoed throughout the cavernous space, far taller and wider than Tom had noticed when they first entered with a massive array of bookshelves many times taller than him in a single row near the back wall. The ground beneath them began to shake and Tom tossed a puff of light in front of him, exposing the wide chasm that had just opened up in the ground, swallowing all the shelving in the room. Neither were prepared for the sight that greeted them: a coiled mass unfurled from the abyss and slithering with purpose along the ground, finally raising itself up to stand at fifteen feet tall, swaying back and forth with enough force to create an artificial wind within the space. A closer look showed that the body was made of some peculiar segments of… books, of all shapes and sizes. The volume at the top of the chain was much larger and far more ornately embossed than the others, and on the blood red surface of the cover Tom could make out a set of eyes. As the picture became more and more clear, he could finally see what they were up against. Now THIS is a bookworm.

“Aren’t libraries supposed to be, like, public and free?” Janna blithely inquired.

“You are correct, child, but perhaps try reporting that to your friend there! The Lucitor family is the sworn enemy of this great Librarinth! That fiend Relicor pilfered our collection for his own use for millennia, and the rest tried to shut this place down for good. But worst of all, in the most egregious display of contempt I have witnessed since the dawn of writing itself… Prince Lucitor and his ilk have amassed twenty-six dollars in unpaid fees!”

The tension in the room nearly evaporated in a heartbeat as Tom and Janna paused momentarily before bursting out into raucous laughter.

“Seriously, dude? I could just, like, repay it.” He fumbled in his pockets for his wallet for a moment before being interrupted once more.

“Do not condescend to me, children! It is far too late to make up for these sins with mere currency. Revenge is my fee most overdue, now prepare to meet… Overdoom! I shall harness the power of the written word to spell your demise!”

Books were hurled from the depths of the crevice en masse. Tom stepped in front of Janna to blast them away, but they had taken on a life of their own and homed in on him, covers flapping in the air like wings. Behind Tom, Janna snatched one out of the air to thwart a flank attack. She grabbed his left arm and pointed it up, tapping his elbow frantically. He spared a glance and saw the paper tornado coalescing, and understood her intention. Demon flames surged out of both hands with Janna calling the shots for the left side and Tom focusing on his right. They used the opportunity to back up to a wall, letting them cover every attack vector but creating a stalemate they were sure to lose in time as the seemingly endless offense droned on. Overdoom for the time being simply floated out of the abyss, glaring harshly at them as more and more papers kept emerging.

“Wait, Tom, look…” Still using his hand, she pointed to a shelf that had fallen at an odd angle and hadn’t collapsed into the abyss. There was a large, torn-up poster on which he could barely make out the word “Historia”.

“That might be it,” he breathed out, starting to feel the burn from minutes of nonstop vigilant defensive demon blasts. Oddly, none of the books in that corner were joining the assault. Almost as if...

“It’s making them magical in the chasm.” Tom’s heart leapt up in his chest at the revelation, hope and adrenaline mixing in his veins to keep him fully alert. But charging in was a suicide mission and they clearly couldn’t win on raw firepower.

“Have you had enough? Are you children yet ready to come scrawling on your hands and knees to a-tome for the sins of your forefathers?” the imposing figure growled, bristling impatiently.

“Did it seriously just use the tome pun again?” Janna griped, running her hands past her eyes and down her cheeks in disgust. “For a word nerd, that’s just awful.”

“Yeah…” Tom absent-mindedly responded. He knew she was right, though. Book, tome, scrawl… even if the creature’s summoning powers were off the charts, and it wielded them with calculated ease, its cocky wordplay taunts left something to be desired. It struck him then: what if they’d been approaching this all wrong? If the battle couldn’t be won by blows, then they had to find another option, and Tom was ready to put his plan into action.

He quickly shook off Janna’s rather tight grip on his arm and stepped forward, mustering up a confident expression masking any fears he still had left. “Nice try, Overdoom. Your words aren’t scaring us. Learn to read the room!”

Its “body” immediately began wiggling violently in the air as it crawled a bit forward towards them. Tom paid careful attention to its back end, which had climbed a few feet out of the ground in the move. “How dare you! Petulant brats!” Literary fire and brimstone rained down upon them with more fury than ever, and the two backed up into a corner which was the best they could do in a room largely devoid of any cover.

“What the hell-” Janna whispered through gritted teeth. Tom wriggled his tail out and waved it in front of Janna’s face momentarily. “Now is not the time to-” She was cut off when a barrage of index cards launched at them with enough force to somehow chip the stone behind them on impact. Tom forcefully nodded his head towards the worm’s tail, waggling his own once again. Her eyes lit up much like his had and she nodded in understanding.

“Come on, is that the best you got? I’ve heard them all before, at least give us something novel!”

Janna stood beside him, and her grimace even managed to spook Tom a bit. “I’d alphabet you couldn’t do better even if you tried!” Not what he would’ve gone with, but hey, if it helped tick Overdoom off then who was he to say no?

“You can talk up a storm all you want, but no matter what volume of air you blow, all I feel is a not-so-rough draft!”

“ENOUGH!” Overdoom’s tail launched out of the chasm faster than either could follow, crossing the room in a heartbeat. Tom shoved Janna out of the way before it wrapped itself around him, dragging him much more slowly towards the abyss. His jacket and jeans mercifully protected the paper edges pressing into him, but it was still a painfully tight squeeze that left him gasping for air. His arms were uselessly pinned inside the embrace as he was dragged headfirst, but their hypothesis had been proven correct as all the books around them had dropped to the ground lifeless.

“Tom!” Janna called out. He strained his head to see she’d removed her beanie and had something purple in her hand that she lobbed at that moment. Through the haze of pain he recognized it as another of her potions. The arc was due to miss until he summoned his energy reserves and redirected it with a weak burst of flame from his boot. Though the glass was durable enough to not melt or shatter, the demonic heat changed the potion into a bubbling olive green milliseconds before it contacted a random segment of the behemoth they were fighting. All at once, its hold on Tom and the rest of its body went limp as it began floating lazily into the air before bouncing off the ceiling a few times like a balloon. Janna ran over and helped Tom up as Overdoom screamed inarticulately from many feet above. They traversed the chaotic mess towards the pile they’d spotted previous. After some digging around, he found ‘Historia Homewnum’ miraculously unscathed and protected by a large, sturdy slab of mahogany that had fallen flat on top of it. “I got it!”

“Cool, potion is wearing off. We need to go.” Janna calmly stated. Twin jets of fire erupted from his feet as he swiftly passed the book to Janna and scooped her up in his arms, carrying them across the room towards the door. After setting Janna down, he hesitated for a moment as she stood in the doorway.

“Do you think I should still pay the late fee? I feel kinda bad and-”

“TODAY MAY HAVE BEEN YOUR VICTORY, BUT TOME-ORROW WILL-”

Tom sighed in resignation with a very unimpressed expression. “OK, yeah, never mind.” And with a quick slam of the door, they were both out scot-free. They didn’t stop running until they arrived back at the elevator. Once inside, they slumped down onto the ground as they began the journey back up to the main surface of the Underworld.

“Woo!” Tom was caught off guard by Janna expressing visible joy, and it was immediately infectious. “Now that’s an adventure. Of course, demon fire is what makes the potions work. Makes a lot more sense. Stupid ink smudge, I burned all those lemons for nothing.” He belly laughed, falling over to the floor and clutching his gut as Janna kicked him in the arm.

“Sorry, sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Her foot backed off after one last good hit. “So now you just have to give that book to your mom?”

“Yeah, should only take a minute. Want to come with?”

“Dude, she’s half a story tall and cries lava. I’d be honored. Oh crud, Pony’s current stream title is ‘WHY Y’ALL CARE MORE ABOUT EARTH TURD AND B-FLY THAN ME?!?!’” Janna showed him the notification on her phone. “That can’t be good.”

Tom pulled out his phone and called to see what was up. Pony picked up after only one ring and didn’t even bother with a greeting as she screamed so loudly that he lost hearing for a moment in his right ear. Her voice carried through the elevator car even without being put on speakerphone. “Yo Tom, why do all my Pony Pals just want to watch those two idiots kiss and cuddle? What is up with that? I even gave my fanbase a stupid nickname, they eat that stuff up, so why won’t they looooove meeeeee?” Business as usual with Pony, it seemed. “An-y-way, this whole shopping spree was amaaaazing, I am all kinds of extra fabulous now. B-Fly and Earth Turd took over the stream cuz the viewers, like, wanted a Q&A sesh but I’m only giving them twenty minutes! Hmph!”

“Might as well just make a whole show about them,” Janna chimed in, rolling her eyes a few times for good measure.

“Wait, demon boy, is Janna there? What the heck have you two been getting up to? Don’t tell me you too are getting your freak on too, I could not handle that T.M.I.-”

Yeah, there was nothing more to gain from that conversation. Tom flipped his compact shut, disconnecting the call. Wait, ‘too’? Did she mean- he shuddered involuntarily. You know what, nope, just not going to think about that one.

“So glad I turned off the cameras,” Janna mumbled, curling up into a ball on the floor, clearly not wanting to touch that whole situation either.

He opted to make contact with the other group via Marco instead - why he hadn’t just done that in the first place, he’d never know - and sent a quick text. “Marco wants to get dinner at the Waterfolk Kingdom in, like, an hour and a half. Apparently Star found some earrings she wanted at the last minute, and Pony got arrested for shoplifting three seconds after I hung up.”

Janna cackled in response. “Let’s just meet them there. My jacket got ripped to shreds by the possums last week, might as well get a new one while I’m down here. Been thinking about changing it up. I kinda like that style.” She lifted up his arm and poked at a button on the sleeve of his own.

“Uh, yeah, sure, I can show you where I got it.” He stumbled over his words, still caught off guard by this new normal-person-Janna. The elevator dinged and the teens began their trek through the Lucitor castle in search of the queen. “So, the Librarinth... we’re definitely going back there at some point, right?”

“Totally, bet’s still not over. We should do this more often, you’re not so bad a friend.”

“You too, and yeah, we should.” Looking back on the day, it had honestly been one some of the most fun he’d had in a while, despite almost dying at least once. Tom still wasn’t sure what to make of this friendship brewing between them, but if it meant more days like this to look forward to? Maybe he could get used to that.

[ivyfair]

Ivy Fairchild (Aisha Dee), 26, Female, Bisexual  ━

( hi hi, I’m tasha! and this is my daughter ivy fairchild! it’s been a couple months since I rp’d her skdkdoa This is tech an alt. version of her since the og version does not necessarily fit with the rp. you can IM me here, on tumblr, or message me on my discord dumbass#9361 )

bare with me, this is gonna be a long mess akdkdka, I’m sorry 

ivy fairchild was raised by her grandparents 

her mother died when she was 2 years olds from a car accident and her father was deployed into the army

her mother, sophia, had a one night stand with a married man. she didn’t know at first until she saw his ring on his finger the next morning.

sophia was disgusted and left, wanting to forget that night but ended up finding out weeks later that she’s pregnant

she didn’t know what to do, she was was only 23 and she didn’t want to tell the guy she was pregnant. she didn’t want to ruin a marriage and she didn’t want to raise a child alone. so she went to her best friend and begged him to help her.

her best friend, luke, was heart eyes over her so he agreed to help her with the baby and telling everyone he was the father

so she did and here came along ivy woooo ( I’m a messsss )

after Ivy’s mother passed she moved in with her grandparents who then moved back to Australia to be with family. They came back to Frostford when Ivy was 8 years old

luke was deployed into the army. she only got to see him during the times he was allowed to have vacations visit

ivy grew up helping her grandfather with the family’s farm ( since she an only child and it was getting hard for him to do it alone )

ivy loved anything that had to do with flowers, painting/drawing, and animals

ivy would constantly asked stories about her mother whenever her grandfather wasn’t busy

when she was 12 luke came back home, he was on two years of inactive, which she didn’t fully understand what that meant but all she knew was that he was home, for what she thought, permanently.

there was a lot adjusting to do for everyone

it wasn’t until a year after luke has been home that when she found out the truth about her biological father

everyone was mourning the loss of ivy’s grandfather. it was a hard time for ivy, but she was trying to be strong for her grandmother

she helped packed her grandfather’s stuff away with luke a couple month after he passed.

her grandfather seemed to have a few boxes of things that belonged to sophia that ivy didn’t know he had

ivy found her mothers journal, keeping it hidden so she could take it with her to her room when she was done helping luke. she read every single page. including the one where she talks about how luke wasn’t her biological father ( dun dun dunnnnnn ) ( aejkgr;i ignore me )

ivy was angry and confronted luke, because a part of her was really hoping what her mother wrote was a lie

but alas it wasn’t and young ivy did not respond well to any of this. her emotions were everywhere. she basically gave him the silent treatment for a long time.

ivy’s grandma tried to talk some sense into her, but she was too stubborn to listen. it wasn’t until she heard that luke was going to be redeployed due to some conflicts that she regrets not talking to him.

that was the only day ivy ever skipped school. she went to luke’s apartment instead to apologize before he left town, very emo moment

Ivy left town in August after senior year for college Auburn University

Ivy and her best friend Lucinda decided to start their own business of using honey to make candy. She majored in business and minored in social work in Auburn University

Two years after graduating Ivy noticed that her grandmother’s health was starting to become questionable. She was living on her own but she decided to move back in with her grandmother until they figure things out

They found out that her grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer

Ivy has completely taken over the family’s small farm while helping around the house and taking care of her grandmother

Luci moved in to help out with the farm so that Ivy can have more time looking after her grandmother

Ivy refused to let her grandmother go into a nursing home, even when she started getting worse. She believed she can take care of her. But after having a long talk with Luci, she finally decided to place her in a nursing home ( she still thinks about this decision and a bit of a mess b/c of it )

luke, now working with Frostford’s fire department, does what he can to help ivy take care of things when he’s not on duty.

She’s someone who tells everyone she’s fine when she is clearly struggling. She’s a mess but she tries to come off as if she’s not

She a mix of the outgoing-fun friend and the grandma friend 

She has a southern and Australian accent 

She is a sweet girl, very caring and silly. She can come off as shy in a way. She’s an active person and up for an adventure ( sometimes argsfd ) but doing thing in from of people makes her want to kermit ( she’s working on that )

Wanted Connection:

 BEST FRIENDS [1/2] -NAME UTP & LUCINDA MAE BENNET — these three have been friends since they were kids. they weren't exactly the kind of people you would expect to be as close as they were. all three different as can be, but somehow together they worked. luci was reckless and always looking for an adventure, ivy was quiet but thoughtful and rather nurturing of the others, and [open] was the glue the held them together. they kept luci in check and made sure ivy never felt left out. no matter where life takes them, they know without a doubt that they have each other and always will.

HIGH SCHOOL SOMETHING? - This muse was someone that everyone thought had a crush on Ivy or had something going on with ivy. More so the latter when they both came to school with poison ivy. Ivy didn’t know there was a secret spot for kissing ( and where the poison ivy was ) in the riverbank. Why your muse had poison ivy is up to you. There was probably something between them but after those rumors started Ivy distanced herself. Especially when the rumors turned from something innocent to slut-shaming.

FIRST SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP - this muse met ivy when they were going to Auburn University. These were two pairs that no one would’ve thought would be together. The fact that they worked was a surprise to most, considering the fact they were the opposite of each other. However, they were the same for things that mattered. After graduating they moved in together. Things started to become complicated, with her trying to start her business with luci and with whatever your muse wanted to do with their career. They did find a way to work through it, but then her grandmother’s health started to change. Her focus was completely on her grandmother, which left your muse to feel neglected. Their relationship ended when ivy came back home and caught them cheating. Your muse could’ve stayed in the apartment or moved somewhere else but Ivy moved back into her grandma’s house

ONE NIGHT STAND - someone she could hook up with 

FWB/FLING - with everything that is going on, Ivy does not really want anything serious. But she would love to have a distraction. Would that opinion change? who knows. However, the other person can also just see it as a fling and nothing serious. If they were to gain feelings is up to you.

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS/ACQUAINTANCES - Ivy grew up in frostford, for the most part. and since this is a small town, she would most likely know who a lot of people are. She was not popular like Luci was in high school. She never really felt like she fit in this town, so she tends to keep to herself. She’s outgoing and she will get along with mostly everyone, but she never lets them in the way she lets Luci in. That can start to change.

NEIGHBORS - if anyone wanna live next to farm! kefsgasgdfs this person probably sees the embarrassing parts of ivy since she forgets other people can see her when she's working on the farm. she most likely dies inside from embarrassment every time she sees them.

ENEMIES - ig anyone that does not like ivy sadfja;gasdg or whoever ivy does not like

ART STUFF - ivy loves drawing/painting! most of her paintings/drawings vary but she does focus on drawing/painting people of color since there is such a lack of it. especially with growing in a not-so-diverse town, this was her way of drawing others that looked like her. and posting it online for others to see themselves as well. But she does/can help anyone who would like to learn to draw or paint. Also, if someone wanted their wall decorated a certain way or wanted some type of logo she wouldn’t mind helping out.

[dyxnamicart]

my stupid highschool oneshot thing

look im not a writer, (I used to be when I was fourteen, haven’t done it since then so ya know, you dont use it you lose it lmao)

Anyways this has been highly requested that I post it, im a bit mad because its not exactly how I wish their dynamic was, I’m not great at writing banter (or anything i’m an artist now plewse) but ya know Also DISCLAIMER: This is a piece of fiction, it in no way reflects real life Dan and Phil (In fact my au switches up their personalities a fair bit) and do not tag them okAY P E O P L E They dont wanna see it and I dont want them to see it (Even if this isnt a particularly shippy piece lmao people are getting very angsty as of late) I also don’t have an editor so sorry for any mistakes  Anyway here ya go heathens 

Dan didn’t notice the opposing teams jock barrelling towards him, not until his leg had swept under his own, causing him to fly through the air, ball no longer in his possession. 

In fact it all flew by in a matter of seconds. Dan didn’t really have time to process exactly what was happening until he felt the shock of pain that travelled up his wrist and down his arm as he landed heavily onto it, crying out as he rolled once or twice before coming to a stop… He couldn’t really tell. There was a whistle blow, but the bustling around him seemed dull in comparison to the loudness of the pain in his wrist. 

He hissed as he was righted, pulled up and put steadily on his feet, being ushered to the benches, it only felt like five minutes before the game was back on course, bar Dan to be left on the sides, a few claps on the back from his teammates as he let his head come down from the spinning it was doing. 

The nurse on staff did a pretty shoddy job of bandaging, but to her credit she did ask if he wanted an ambulance. If his dad knew an ambulance was called because he hurt his wrist... he didn’t even want to imagine the searing look of disappointment he would receive. 

So he just declined. 

The game was one of the final ones of the season, they were playing against the local private school, which had a surprisingly amount of suspiciously beefed up kids, though with private school money Dan wasn’t surprised they probably had some ins with the law and extra ‘help’. 

He really wanted to play in the final, in fact his coach had even been considering him for the team, not that Dan was amazing at football, but he wasn’t the worst. He was passable at best, probably why his parents weren’t here right now to witness the semi, something he supposes he should be counting his lucky stars for now he had an injury as mediocre as a sprained wrist, but now there was a nagging pull in his gut of his own disappointment. 

He waited out the game on the bench, figuring he should at least be there for his team for the results, even with a sprained wrist he didn’t want to run away without at least talking to a few of his mates afterwards. 

-

Phil didn’t see the tumble. 

He was perched up in the bleachers, trying to ignore the way the mild and darkening sky had began to stew whipping winds that tore right through the threads in his sweater, by sketching insurmountable things he could see. 

He didn’t usually go to games, not only was it not his scene, but he would either end up insanely bored or find his eyes following Dan Howell’s god damn limber body. But this was the semis, and he totally wasn’t here to occasionally glance at a certain panting number 91, he at least wanted to show his support for the school. It wasn’t his fault this game was boring and his sketchbook looked far more inviting. 

He only looked up when there was a big murmur and gasps coming from the crowd around him, and he couldn’t see who it was at first, but there was a boy sprawled on the ground. 

It didn’t take long to figure out it was Dan, and his eyebrows furrowed deeply, closing his sketchbook and shoving it into his bag. He ended up walking down a few rows in the bleachers, just trying to see if the daft idiot was okay, and he sat down again much closer. The nurse did an awful job at bandaging his hand, he could see that from here, and he would have to fix it after the game. Well.. he didn’t have to, of course, but he figured Howell was too much of an airhead to fix it properly and as much as the other grated on him he at least wanted him to be comfortable. 

When it came to the end of the game, Phil’s school lost, and there was a brief celebration for the other school as they paraded off the field, while Dan’s team just huddled around to talk to the coach and then walk to the locker rooms, obviously trying to act casual even if they had essentially just been eliminated from the finals. 

Looking around, a lot of the families and students were milling out, many of them disappointed by the outcome of the game.  

This was their star team, and there had been a surprisingly large turnout for the event, to have it all end this anticlimactically felt a bit wrong, if he was being honest, even if sports definitely weren’t his thing. 

Phil headed down towards the locker rooms, some of the boys were already heading out, chatting and bumping into each other as they walked. Boys were talking, over half of them shirtless. He tried to avoid looking at them, while Phil had come to terms with his sexuality internally, he wasn’t out to his school, despite the obvious digs lots of the jocks and ‘cool kids’ would make. He wasn’t exactly subtle. 

Dan hadn’t noticed him, he was sitting on a bench and chatting to a teammate, but some of the boys closer to the entrance had. 

“Ay! It’s Danny’s little bitch, what’s new Lester?” A boy Phil knew as Jason laughed, throwing an arm around his shoulders, leaning heavily on him. 

Phil grunted, and shoved him off. “I’m not anyone’s bitch. Especially not Howell’s.” 

There was an ‘oo’ that rippled through the boys, and it was safe to say that Dan had noticed him. He furrowed his eyebrows, and stood up. 

“A teacher told me to help Dan.. carry his stuff with his hand like that.” He faltered off, because that half baked excuse really did make him sound like someone’s bitch. But by this point people were beginning to lose interest and ended up either packing up to leave or going back to chatting amongst themselves about a hot girl or something Phil honestly couldn’t care less about. 

Phil walked towards Dan, throwing on a mastered look of indifference and annoyance.

“What are you doing back here?” The brunette sighed deeply, running his good hand through his hair. “As if I don’t already get clowned on enough from seeing you during actual school hours.” He said dryly. 

Phil rolled his eyes. “I saw that sad excuse for a nurse ‘wrap’ your hand. I’ve seen children under the age of 4 wrap toilet paper around themselves better.” 

Dan groaned as he fell back to his sitting position on the bench. “Good deed Lester huh? You aren’t a guardian angel you know.” 

“Are you going to turn down actual help with that wrist, Howell. Seriously.” He dropped his bag on the ground, and knelt down, ignoring the few whistles he got from the people still in the room. 

Dan rolled his eyes as he looked down at Phil, arched eyebrow and holding his injured wrist with his hand, like he didn’t trust him. “Fine.” He sighed, setting his hand down on his leg, looking down at Phil with a suspicious and unless he was imagining it, flushed face. 

Phil carefully lifted the brunettes injured hand, frowning at the small pang of guilt he felt when Dan hissed in a sharp breath, quiet, as if being a little louder would shatter his reputation in one fell swoop. 

By now the locker room had basically emptied out, Dan’s mates sauntered away, hefting their heavy gym bags over their shoulders as their voices echoed down the hallway and slowly faded into the cool night air. 

Dan and Phil sat in silence for a few moments as Phil examined the bandage. Dan seemed to relax a little, and he allowed the feeling of calm to wash over them now there was no eyes examining their every move. The indifference and hostility seemed to drain from the air.

He didn’t know if it was the late night game or the lack of people, but he felt as though he was back before highschool, back before their fall out. Before their life became a series of quips and tension seeping into the fond memories he once had for the boy in front of him. 

“Why do you play, when you end up hurting yourself like this?” His question was genuine, none of the concealed fire that was usually behind his voice when he talked to Dan. 

Phil used his other hand to unroll the bandage. He had seen the first aid kit it came from, the contents being the single bandage, two band aids and a single cotton swab. Not the most ideal for a sport like this, hands on and physical, but their school wasn’t really known for their state of the art resources. 

Dan looked unsure of whether or not he should give a witty response or answer seriously. In the end he seemed too exhausted to spit out a clever one liner. So he opted for the truth. 

“I don’t know..” Dan huffed a breath out of his nose, like he was out of practice with talking about his emotions. “The guys are cool.. people like a jock you know?” He pauses for a moment, like he was struggling with whether or not he wanted to continue. “And I kind of want my dad to be proud of me? You know my dad. I want him to think.. I’m one of the lads. One of the boys.. not a royal screw up son.” He snorted, good hand rubbing the back of his neck like he was trying to play off his words as ridiculous. 

But Phil didn’t laugh. 

“Proud of you?” He repeated, slightly quieter as he slowly started to wind the bandage around Dan’s stiff wrist. 

Dan shrugged, looking away and seemingly focusing on a spot far across the room, like he was trying to be anywhere but here, talking to a friend who had been distanced by time and change. 

But Phil remembers, he remembers his curly brown hair bouncing around when he was excited, when he was jumping around playing cops and robbers, he remembers his loud and boisterous laugh and the way his cheeks dimpled and filled with colour. He remembers a time when he knew the boy in front of him more then he knew anyone in the world. When he thought Dan was his forever friend and that nothing would ever change that. 

Guess something changed. 

“You know I’m proud of you,” He continued, not looking up from bandaging. He could feel Dan’s eyes on him now, he could feel the incredulous and doubtful eyes bore into his skin, see into his soul. He didn’t seem to have expected an actual answer in response. “I’m proud of you when I see you play piano. When I see your eyes light up and when you lose yourself in the keys. When you recite dumb Shakespearen poetry and when you are on stage commanding the spotlight, when the only person who matters is you. That’s what I’m proud of. That’s what makes me think, THIS is Dan Howell. THIS is who he is meant to be. Not a shallow jock with a sharp tongue and attitude. I’m proud of the real you.”

He clipped the bandage pin on the end of the roll, now safely locked on Dan’s wrist, and he went to pull his hand away but was stopped by a hand placed over his. 

Dan’s eyes were how he remembered, not in way they were for the past two years, glazed over as he tried to cram his way into a puzzle he didn’t fit into, but filled with an unfathomable tenderness and something he couldn’t quite put his finger on 

They didn’t need to exchange words, the soft smile Dan gave him spoke a thousand words, making up for time that felt lost before now. 

He stood up, finally dropping Phil’s hand and grabbing his jacket off the bench. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.” 

-

Their silence was welcoming as they walked down the hall towards the exit. The last few years had been full of quips and jabs, fast insults and banter that sometimes toed the line as not quite friendly. This silence, it was new, but it felt right. Dan couldn’t quite understand, but there was a shift that felt comfortable. 

Dan had known Phil a long time, longer then anyone in this god forsaken school. He was quiet and reserved and he enjoyed painting and drawing. He was creative, and he didn’t care what people thought of him. He was unapologetically himself, and that was something that he only wished he could be. 

For the longest time it was him and Phil. Dan and Phil against the world, playing Mario cart and watching shitty movies, always at each other’s houses like they belonged together. 

Then high school happened.

The desire to fit in hit Dan like a ton of bricks. While Phil was content to remain a Mario kart loving geek, Dan couldn’t stand being the butt of the joke. He couldn’t stand his dad being disappointed whenever he brought Phil home to do something nerdy. As the years went by it became a sort of crutch for him and Phil to make snide remarks at each other as they passed in the halls, glaring across the halls and that’s how it stayed. 

Don’t get him wrong, he loved to see Phil riled up. He loved to see his eyebrows furrow together and his eyes roll. His arms crossed and his posture unimpressed. If anything that was his favourite part, the way his voice flooded with heat and passion, as he stared at him with the intensity of a bonfire. He loved to tease him and play his surprisingly short temper like a fiddle.

But he wasn’t attracted to him. No way. Phil wasn’t a pretty girl. He did NOT find his eyes pretty and the way his hair sometimes fell into his eyes and his hands didn’t itch to run his hands through it. 

He was straight. He had to be. 

His heart dropped a little, and he couldn’t explain why, but he looked over at Phil, who was walking beside him. 

They were outside now, and it was raining, not too heavily but enough to get you fairly wet. Despite the fact Phil was wearing a sweater and long overalls, he could see him shiver, the fabric of the sweater probably allowed the biting wind to nip tight through it.

He shrugged off his jacket, and gently wrapped it around Phil’s shoulders, forcing them to stop momentarily. The street light cast a soft light over them, and his eyes met the other boys, and for a moment they stared at each other, Dan watching as raindrop followed the contours of Phil’s face, a drop following his cheekbone and the slope of his jaw. 

He coughed, rubbing the back of his neck again as he started walking. “Okay okay, lets get you home, Lester.” 

“Are you sure you aren’t cold?” Phil enquires inquisitively as he sped walked a bit to catch up with him. 

He shrugged. “Still running on adrenaline I guess.” It was a lie, he was slightly cold. But it felt right, and he continued to walk with him in silence. 

Phil was holding the jacket around himself as they approached his house, and they stopped just under the porch, the light flickering on to illuminate his face. 

Dan stuffed his good hand in his pocket, and he clicked his tongue as Phil went to shrug off the jacket to give back. “Nah, wash it first, don’t want your nerd germs on my clothes.” Despite the insult, he found himself smiling warmly, and Phil too just chuckled. 

“Alright, I’ll give it to you on Monday or something, Howell.” 

Dan saluted as he turned to walk away, and he could feel Phil staring through his back as he walked back into the rain. They were only a street apart, but he knew that was going to be one long walk. 

[lesgetittkookie]

wonderwall - jeon jeongukk (I)

this photo does not belong to me. credits go to whoever created this edit. 

⤖ genre: fluff, smut, angst

⤖ pairing:  tattooartist!jeongukk x reader

⤖ warnings: unprotective sex, oral sex (male & female receiving), fingering, dry humping

⤖ summary: a story in which you meet a boy who turns your boring world upside down

⤖ word count: 9.4 k

⤖ author’s note: this will be a small series with parts that i plan on updating for the next few weeks. would love for you to support me with some feedback bc im curious about what you guys think. thanks. 

update: any words that are underlined within the text will lead you to a visual. in this part, it would be the outfit in case you want to see how it looks!

Wonderwall 

won • der  • wall, adjective 

Someone you find yourself thinking about all the time; a person you are completely infatuated with. 

++

There was a harsh ray of sunlight hitting Jeongukk’s face that causes him to blink his eyes open from his deep sleep. He lets out a low groan as his face scrunches up in annoyance due to waking up so early with a pounding headache.

He leans up on his elbows, rubbing the corner of his eyes tiredly with one hand as he adjusts to his surroundings. He looks around the unfamiliar setting, wondering where he was but that cluelessness quickly dissipates when he notices a girl lying next to him in bed with the lack of clothing.

He hisses, cautiously and slowly getting up the bed without making any noise. He looks around for his pants and briefs, noticing that a sock is missing from his foot as well. He finds his briefs hanging from the doorknob somehow while his jeans were in the corner of the room.

He quietly pulls them both on, wincing when the floor creaks beneath him and the girl stirs in her sleep. He panics when he doesn’t find his shirt anywhere, looking around the room in a silent frantic. 

He gives up on finding the shirt, saying fuck it because he has nothing to lose. At least he found his pants because walking out in public with his dick hanging out is worse than no shirt.

Making sure he’s got everything else, he leaves the apartment in a haste without looking behind. As he walks out of the building, there are people around that give him odd looks most likely due to the lack of his shirt. The ink engraved onto his skin that almost covers up his entire upper body are on full display. However, Jeongukk does not feel embarrassed at all.

The boy takes pride in the tattoos on his body, loving the way it looks on his tan skin. He looks down at his watch, seeing that he’s probably going to be late for work and Yoongi is going to kick his ass because this is like the fifth time in a month.

It takes a moment to realize where he is before he scans the street signs and walks towards the one that leads him to the tattoo parlor he works at. He decides to skip on stopping by his flat since he’s already running late. He probably has a spare t-shirt at his little workstation.

He’s out of breathe once he reaches the parlor, sweat running down his muscular tatted back but he couldn’t care less. He’s two minutes late which is better than being twenty minutes late if he had decided to stop by his place earlier.

He sees an old lady walk by him with a white poodle on a leash and bows at her out of politeness while she gives him a disgusted look due to his lack of shirt and inked skin. He brushes it off, pulling the glass door open.  

“Well look who finally shows up,” Jeongukk’s co-worker slash best friend greets him at the front desk as he holds a pen in his hand. There’s an amused smirk on his face as his large eyes scan over Jeongukk’s appearance.

“Not in the mood, Tae,” Jeongukk grunts, going into the back room to find a spare t-shirt lying around.

“I could tell. Your shirt is missing and do you know you were walking around in public with hickies all over your neck?” He points out, zoning in onto the marks.

Jeongukk’s eyes go wide and he quickly looks into the mirror on the wall, fingers running over the bruises. He lets out a groan, unable to remember if he warned the girl about leaving marks. 

“She really did a number on you huh? It looks like a leech attacked you,” Taehyung says as he observes his neck beside him. He reaches up to touch the marks but Jeongukk quickly smacks his hand away.

Taehyung winces, let out a small ow! and he rubs his hand. “That wasn’t necessary.”

Before Jeongukk could speak, another deep voice interrupts the two that causes Jeongukk to freeze in place.

“I see you’ve had a busy night Jeongukk,” His boss, Yoongi says with a judgmental tone.  

“Hyung, I’m sorry,” Jeongukk apologizes, avoiding his narrowed eyes.

Yoongi lets out a sigh, “Whatever, Jeongukk. Your client is gonna be here in five so wash up and put on a shirt.” He doesn’t say anything else, turning around and going back into his small office.

Taehyung lightly smacks Jeongukk’s back, causing the younger to wince in pain.

“Also remember that we’re leaving early tonight for that job.” Taehyung reminds him as he goes to his station.  

Jeongukk furrows his eyebrows, confused as to what Taehyung is talking about. He pulls the black shirt on and runs his hands through his messy black hair.

“What job?” He asks him.

Taehyung lets out an exasperated sigh, “I told you it’s the one where we both have to be servers at this huge party. The man who owns Sapphire resorts is having it for his daughter who just came back from studying abroad in London. She’s suppose to take over the company soon so it’s like some celebration.”

Jeongukk only recalls some of what Taehyung had said the previous time he brought it up. It completely slipped his mind that it would be so soon and now he’s dreading it with his hangover.

“Do I have to go?” Jeongukk asks as he looks at the time on the clock.

“Of course you do. We’re getting paid a shit ton of money. Plus, we’ll get free booze and left overs. I heard the food is being cooked by the chefs of Jungsik Seoul. We can’t even afford an appetizer there with both of our checks combined!” Taehyung’s voice is filled with excitement as he explains to Jeongukk.

Jeongukk doesn’t think he could go near alcohol anytime soon after last night but free quaity food does sound quite tempting. He could also pay ahead for rent and have some extra money that he could send to his mother and little brother. He purses his lips in contemplation before letting out a defeated sigh, “Fine.”

Taehyung who was anticipating his answer now pumps his fist with a  loud, “Yesssss.”

“Remember to wear a black button down and some slacks,” Taehyung informs him as they both glance at the shop’s door that opens with their clients.

“Whatever,” Jeongukk grumbles before leading his client to the back.

++

“I don’t understand why he’s throwing me this party when it’s clearly about him showing off his wealth,” You complain to Jimin as you watch the nail technician apply a glittery nail polish to your freshly manicured nails.

“Maybe he just wants to celebrate that you’re finally home after two years of being away,” Jimin mumbles as a lady massages his face with various creams.

“Or maybe he doesn’t give a shit about that at all and wants to show people how he got what he wanted and his daughter is compliant to whatever he says.” Your voice seeps with bitterness as you speak.

Jimin lets out a sigh, not knowing what to say because he knows that it’s probably true. Your father has hardly ever cared for your wishes and he’s been telling you to do everything he has said your whole life.

You’ve only been back in Korea for a day and your father had informed you as soon as you stepped into the office to greet him that there was going to be a celebration for your arrival and graduating from business school. He hadn’t even came to your graduation yet he wants to celebrate for your accomplishments. His words, not yours.

You had no other choice but to listen without a word because you knew you couldn’t really argue with him. You never win in your arguments with him and it’s  not like you could’ve then too.

“Babe, you could sneak it a little bit after your dad has introduced you. I’m sure he won’t notice. Then we could hang out in your room and drink booze and watch movies. Like old times,” He tries to make you feel better with his suggestion and your mouth slightly lifts up at his words. It sounded like a good way to spend the night.

“Can we also critique art works while we’re drunk?” You plead, watching his face carefully.

Jimin peeks one eye open, turning his head to look at you with a miserable look on his face, “Fine. Only because it’s about you and I’ve missed you so we’ll do anything you want.”

You give him a bright happy smile before looking down at your nails, still dreading for the uneventful night to come.

++

“This is stupid as fuck,” Jeongukk says to Taehyung as he sits down in the older boy’s beat up car.

“Boohoo, it’s just for a night,” Taehyung tells him as he pulls away from the apartment building and starts driving on the road.

“A night of serving food to stuck up rich people who I could care less about,” Jeongukk grumbles while he plays piano tiles on his phone.

“Who knows, maybe you’ll find a hot rich girl to take home,” Taehyung says as he changes lanes.

“I don’t plan on hooking up with any girls tonight. I’m still pissed as fuck because of the girl from the previous night who left hickies all over my neck,” Jeongukk mutters, running his hand over his marked up neck.

“You were probably too drunk to even tell her something so specific,” Taehyung chuckles while Jeongukk keeps his mouth shut, knowing he can’t speak anything in his defense.

“Fuck off,” The younger grumbles, tapping his thumbs against the screen more aggressively.

“It’ll only be a couple of hours and then we can eat, get paid, and leave,” Taehyung tries to make the other feel a bit better.

“Whatever, the food better be good,” says Jeongukk and Taehyung nods rapidly.

“Oh don’t worry, it’ll be good. These people don’t play around. They’re rich as fuck so I doubt they would have food with shitty quality.” The car halts as they near a large hotel where there are fancy and expensive cars being taken over by valet parking.

Taehyung drives his car into the parking garage, turning off the beat up station wagon once they find a parking space. Jeongukk lets out a tired sigh as he unravels himself from the belt and exits the car, following the other boy in tow.

He just wants to get it over with and go home.

++

“Y/N, sit still!” Jimin scolds as he brushes the eye shadow over your lids.

You let out a sigh, gripping the arms of the chair as the boy continues to apply makeup to your face. Guests of the party are already arriving yet you haven’t even put on your dress yet. Jimin, on the other hand, is dressed in head to toe in his designer gucci suit that is embroidered with delicate flower designs and jewels.

“My face feels so heavy, Jimin,” You groan, opening your eyes once you no longer feel the brush tickling your skin.

“I’m almost done,” He promises, applying a berry lipstick to your plump lips. He picks up a brush and sweeps a golden highlight over the apple of your cheeks to make your skin glow.

“Okay,” He spins your chair around so you look into the mirror, “Ta-da, you look so beautiful.” Jimin compliments as he fixes the strands of hairs that fell loose from your little messy bun.

“You did a good job,” You praise, unable to recognize yourself in the mirror.

“Thank you,” He bows, “I’ve had a lot of practice while you were away.” He informs you, running his hand through his silver hair. “Now change into your dress before your dad complains.”

“It’s not like I give a shit about him,” You snort, picking up the satin silk dress that has a deep v dipping down the chest.

“I’m assuming I don’t wear a bra,” You ask him as you observe the outfit.

“Of course not! You’re gonna look hot as fuck in this outfit,” He says, turning away once he sees you unravel your silk robe.

“It’s not like I’m trying to impress anyone,” You say, pulling the dress over your head and fixing it around your chest area when you felt like your cleavage was spilling out. You were afraid to have a nip slip during the party.

“Jimin! Everyone might see my boobs if this slips.” You complain, trying to adjust the silk fabric.

“You look so good though, holy fuck!” He scans over your outfit with a satisfied grin. “Y/N, you need to get laid tonight. If I wasn’t gay, I’d totally bang you.”

“Shut up,” You lightly hit his arm, “Help me fix this,” You pout, letting the boy adjust the straps and cover your goods. He then puts on a thick diamond choker around your neck to complete the look.

“Wow,” Jimin steps back and puts his hands on his hips, “I really did that.” He says proudly.

You roll your eyes, picking up your phone and clutch. Once you grab all of your things, Jimin grabs the room key and leads you out of the suite. You wrap your arm around his, feeling anxious with all of the attention you’re about to receive from the people downstairs.

Jeongukk was tired as fuck and it’s only been fifteen minutes into his job as serving. He’s annoyed as fuck when someone asks him for a specific kind of drink and not the ones he holds on the tray. Just take the fucking rose is what he wants to say but he has to refrain himself from doing so.

Ever since he walked into the room, he’s felt the hungry eyes of many women dig into skin as they hung onto the arms of their rich husbands who were too busy discussing business deals to notice. 

He could care less about the women, just trying to get through the job. He is in no mood to deal sleep with a married woman considering his last experience didn’t end well when he had to walk out of the house with a bruised face when the woman’s husband came home to his wife moaning Jeongukk’s name while he was eating her out. 

He decided he was not going down that route again. Unless he was really in need of sex. 

He could also feel some people stare at him for the tattoos he has on both of his arms and neck. His button down doesn’t really do justice in covering them up as they rise up when he has to carry the tray of drinks. 

Jeongukk was just handing a group of people some wine when there is a deep voice that speaks through the microphone, halting everyone’s chatter. 

People stop to look up at the man who was the reason behind this whole party, holding their expensive glasses of wine and champagne as they watch him give out a small speech. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for those who have attended tonight’s event. This event is a celebration for my beautiful young daughter, Y/N, who as some of you know, just came back from studying abroad at the University of Oxford in London for business school. It was so hard for me when she was away but I’m happy to announce that she’s back and she’s ready to take over my position at the company.” The aged man speaks proudly though the microphone, holding a certain glint in his eyes. Jeongukk stops to watch as everyone holds up their drinks in a toast. “A toast to my daughter and her success!” Everyone cheers and drink from their glasses while Jeongukk just rolls his eyes. 

“Y/N, do you have anything you want to say?” He hears the man ask his daughter and Jeongukk’s eyes wander to the girl. 

He feels his breathe hitch in his throat at the sight of her, a tightness in his chest. It felt like the air just got knocked out of his lungs as soon as he lays his eyes on her. She’s beautiful, he thought. The way her satin silk dress clings to her curvy body, the deep plunge of the neckline revealing a bit of her breasts. There’s a diamond choker caged around her neck that sparkles more than anything else in the room as the lights of the chandeliers cause them to glitter. But what really catches Jeongukk’s attention was her face and the way she did not look as happy as she should. 

He watches as the girl gives her father a small, fake smile as she takes the mic from his hands and says in a soft voice, “Thank you to everyone who attended. I hope you enjoy the rest of your night.” And with that, she hands her father the mic back before looping her arm through the arm of a handsome man with silver hair who must be her boyfriend, Jeongukk thinks. 

He shakes his head, letting out a sigh before taking his empty tray back to the kitchen. There’s no way he would talk to her. She may be just like the rest of the snobby people in this room who are dressed in clothes that cost probably more than his entire rent. 

He gives an annoyed glare when he runs into another waiter that accidentally spills wine over his shirt. 

The scrawny man apologizes profusely, intimidated by the other’s tattoos and piercing eyes and Jeongukk just shakes his head before walking back into the kitchen.

“Y/N, are you really just going to eat throughout this whole party?” Jimin asks you as he watches you stuff your face with the small appetizers at the table. 

“No,” You speak through a mouth full of food, “I’m going to eat and drink for the whole party,” You correct, causing the silver haired boy to roll his eyes. 

“I just want you to be careful,” Jimin pouts while one of his hand reaches up to thumb away the sauce at the corner of your lips. 

“I am!” You tell him, grabbing a glass of wine off the server’s tray when they walk by. “Did you hear what my dad said up there?” Your voice slightly tremors. “I’m taking over his position. Isn’t that great?” There was no enthusiasm or excitement in your tone, just sadness and fear. 

Jimin watches as his best friend unhappily downs glass after glass of wine. “I know, baby. I’m so sorry,” His hand reaches up to rub your arm in a soothing way. He leans forward to wrap his arms around you, “I wish I could do more to help you.” He whispers. 

You shake your head, holding his torso tighter, “You being here is enough for me.” You tell him truthfully because without the support of your best friend, you would be so lost. 

Once you two pull back, you give him a pat on the shoulder. “Please go talk with other people. I know you had your eyes on a cute waiter earlier but you didn’t want to leave me,” You say in a knowing tone. 

Jimin pretends like he doesn’t know what you’re talking about as his eyes scan the room not so subtlety for the young man who he’s pretty sure had tattoos on his arms. 

“Jiminnnnn, I promise I’ll be fine! I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay with me the whole time,” You tell him. He doesn’t need to deal with your mopey mood, knowing that he’s the type of person that likes to socialize with others. 

“What if I’m just staying with you because I missed you?” Jimin pathetically makes the excuse. 

“I missed you too but I’m sure that’s not the case,” You grab his shoulders and turn him around so you could push him towards the crowd of people, “Now go find that man.” 

Jimin lets out a defeated sigh, “Fine but you keep your phone on you and let me know when you want to leave okay? Or if you need anything at all?” His voice is stern as he looks at you. 

“Yes mom, I promise. Now gooo,” You push him away, causing the boy to grumble and fix his suit as he disappears into the sea of people. 

You slightly smile before picking up your clutch from the table and looking around to see if there was anywhere you could sit. You take no interest in some of the people who hold a lingering gaze on your figure as you walk through the crowd. 

Your eyes narrow in on a bar where there is less people, pursing your lips before saying, “bingo.” 

Once you reach the bar and sit down at a stool, you ask the bar tender to give you a stronger drink. Your arms rest on the top as you wait for your drink, tapping your nails against the counter. 

You lightly jump in your seat when you feel someone sit on the stool beside you and they speak in deep honey-filled voice, “Water please.” 

You try not to turn your whole head to look at his face but your eyes scan over the intricate tattoo designs that are engraved into the skin of his arm, trying to make out what they are. 

The man clears his throat as he says a small thanks to the bartender who hands him his glass of water. You look at him confusedly, wondering why someone would want to order a water. 

You build up all of your courage and ask, “Not a fan of alcohol?” 

This immediately causes the man to stop in the process of drinking water and turn over to look at you. You feel his eyes on the side of your face but you don’t turn your head to look at him, your hand swirling the straw in your drink. 

He clears his throat again before looking down at his glass of water, “Nah, just hungover. Feel like I’ve had enough alcohol for the next few days.” 

This causes your lips to slightly tilt up at the sound of his voice as he speaks to you. 

“That much huh?” You say in a mused tone. 

“You have no idea. I came into work without a fucking shirt on,” He grumbles out. 

You snort at his words, turning your head to finally look at him. You feel slightly out of breathe when you scan over his appearance. He has raven black hair with bangs that cover his forehead. A large nose with a perfect slope and large doe eyes with brown irises that stare into yours. Silver hoops pierce his ears along with multiple small pieces of metal that pierce through his skin. He has tattoos that are inked into his neck and both arms, his figure built and lean. He is a beautiful man. 

“I’m sure some people weren’t complaining,” You say, not knowing where you suddenly got the confidence from. 

The boy bites down a smirk but is unable to control it as he feels it overtake his lips. “You think you would’ve been?” 

“Probably not,” Your eyes don’t waver from his face as you take a sip of your drink. 

You notice how his eyes zone in onto your plump lips that are wrapped around the straw. You hold back your own smile. 

“Good to know,” He slightly nods, “So why are you sitting at a bar all alone while there is a party being thrown for you?” He asks you. 

You let out a dreaded sigh, looking back at the ice melting in your drink. “I’d say this party is more for my dad, not me.” 

You don’t know why you’re telling this to a hot stranger but since he asked, you don’t know what else to say. You just feel like if you lie to him, he’ll know so there’s no point.

“Didn’t want to come back?” He asks you curiously. 

“Of course not. I knew the moment I’d be back, all of these responsibilities would be thrown on me,” You answer, mind drifting off to your father’s words about taking over the business. 

“I suppose you’re talking about taking up his position?” He clarifies and you look at him in interest. 

“I want to say yes but I’m worried you’re some undercover journalist who wants to get information from me,” You narrow your eyes at him, “Are you?” You knew that he was most likely not but you wanted to know who this man was. 

The boy snorts, looking down at his tatted arms, “Far from it actually,” He chuckles, “I’m a college drop out who works at a tattoo parlor with his two friends and I was able to be a server tonight to make some extra cash on the side,” He casually explains to her. 

You look at him in surprise, feeling more curious about the boy. “Tattoo parlor? Did you do those yourself?” Your eyes flit down to the tattoos on his arms. 

“Most of them. I designed them and had my friend do the ones I couldn’t reach,” He answers. “You’re not going to snitch on me for sitting on the job?” He asks in amusement. 

You snort, “I could care less. In fact, maybe I’d like it if you kept me some company since there’s nothing else to do at this party...” You trail off, wanting to know the boy’s name. 

He notices your questioning gaze and replies with, “Jeongukk. And I’m assuming your name is Y/N,” He says and you nod. “What about your boyfriend? Couldn’t he keep you company?” 

You look at him in ridiculously, “Boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend.” You don’t know where he got that idea from. 

“So the man who walked you down wasn’t your boyfriend?” Jeongukk asks her. 

Realization strikes upon your face and then you look at him with an amused smile, “That was my best friend, Park Jimin, who is very much gay. He saw a cute waiter so I told him he could run off to find him.” 

Jeonguk slightly smiles, nodding his head, “Good to know.” 

“Girlfriend?” You ask him in curiousness, noticing a bruise on his neck. 

“Nah,” he shakes his head, “No girlfriend.” 

You purse your lips before saying, “The hickey on your neck says otherwise.” You point out. 

Jeongukk’s hand immediately reaches up to his neck, rubbing over the mark as he curses under his breathe. “You see that’s from a recent hook up and I was too drunk to notice her making the mark.” 

You believe he’s being honest so you nod understandingly before asking, “You don’t like being marked?” 

Jeongukk looks at the counter top in thought before answering, “I prefer to be the one marking.” He speaks in a slightly seductive and deep whisper that causes a tingle in between your legs as your stomach flutters. 

You feel his warm breathe on your face as his head leans slightly down towards your own. Your own eyes nervously look into his, feeling as if he was looking into your soul. 

“Y/N!” Your hear the sound of your father’s voice calling your name which causes you to quickly pull away from Jeongukk. “Please come meet some of my business partners,” He calls and you let out a sigh, nodding your head but your eyes don’t look away from Jeongukk who stares at you with intrigued eyes. 

“I’m coming,” You call back out, standing up from the stool a little too fast that it almost causes you to tip over but Jeongukk quickly puts his hand on your hip to keep you steady. 

You feel your breathe hitch in your throat as your chest rises from breathing heavy. You look down at the veiny hand on your hip, gulping once he pulls away, touching lingering on your skin. 

“Guess it was nice meeting you?” Jeongukk says more like a question. 

You look down at him with pursed lips, glancing over at your father who was talking to his friends before you quickly whisper down into his ear, “Meet me near the restrooms in ten.” You then stand up straightly again and walk towards your father who smiles brightly, putting his arm around your shoulder as he introduces you to his colleagues. 

Jeongukk didn’t miss the way your hips swayed as when you walked and how your whole backside was on display as the dress had a low dip just above the dimples of your back. 

His knuckles turn white as he grips his glass tightly from the sexual tension he felt when he talked to you. The way your eyes would linger on his tattoos. How your plump berry lips wrapped around the straw when you knew he was watching. How your satin dress clung to your body while your skin glowed under the twinkling chandeliers. You took his breathe away. 

He had noticed you sitting at the bar and purposely decided to sit on the stool next to you, catching your floral scent when he casually asked the bartender for his glass of water. What he didn’t expect was for you to initiate a conversation with him. 

Your voice was soft and delicate when you spoke. He didn’t miss the sadness in your eyes when you spoke about your father. He didn’t expect you to be so open and honest considering he was just a stranger. He also didn’t fail to notice the fire that lit your eyes when spoke about his preference of leaving marks on her skin. 

Although he didn’t plan on hooking up with anyone tonight, that thought completely went into the trash once you started talking to him. 

He felt the excitement bubble in his stomach when he had heard you whisper in his ear that you wanted to see him again in a couple of minutes. Jeongukk decides that he just needs one drink because although he is a confident man when it comes to women, he felt slightly nervous about you. 

There was something about your beauty that he found so ethereal. How you were dressed in head to toe in expensive clothes but your personality quite different from what he expected. He was enamored by your presence around him. 

“Can I get a small glass of whiskey?” He asks the bartender who nods, pouring him a glass. 

He quickly downs the drink, feeling the liquid burn in his throat as he drinks it in one go. The glass slams against the counter, causing the person beside him to flinch but he pays no mind. He wipes his mouth, glancing over to see your eyes catching a glimpse of what he’s doing, a small smile on your lips that he knows is because of how he’s reacting and not because of what the person you’re speaking to is saying. 

He narrows his eyes at you before heading towards the restrooms outside of the hall and away from the people. He completely neglects the job he was suppose to be doing originally, more eager over what you two are about to do. 

Taehyung could get an explanation later.

“Fuck,” You moan against Jeongukk’s mouth as his tongue pushes past your lips to meet your tongue. His hands are running down your sides, brushing over your bare back while yours are tangled in his silky black hair. 

As soon as he had stepped in the hallways secluded from everyone else, not even five minutes later you had came to the area with your hand running down his back which had caused him to turn around only to be met with your lips pressing against his. 

He was taken by surprise when it happened but he quickly got over it and responded to your kiss which had then led you to where you are now: a storage closet where the two of your are making out with your hands all over each other. 

Jeongukk pulls his lips away from yours, grabbing ahold of the sides of your face before kissing his way down your neck. Your head tips back to rest against the wall behind you as you let the handsome man suck a bruise right above your breast. 

One of your hands trail down from his hair all the way across his built chest to the front of his slacks. You’re able to feel his large bulge pushing against the fabric as you rub against it. Jeongukk hisses into your skin but continues to create marks across your chest. 

You feel the strap of your dress slide of your shoulder, revealing your left breast and Jeongukk takes that moment to kiss around your areola before he wraps his lips around your perked nipple. You bite down on your lip to hold back a loud moan so that no one outside of the room hears you while your hand holds the back of his head, pushing him further into your chest. 

His tongue swirls around your nipple before he digs his teeth into your skin, causing the wetness between your legs to soak the fabric of your underwear. 

“Jeongukk,” You call out in pleasure as he kisses your nipple one last time before pulling back to look at you. The both of your eyes meet, appearance disheveled from touching each other. His shirt was halfway unbuttoned, revealing more of his tattooed chest and washboard abs. 

Without a second thought, your finger trails down from the top of his collarbone to his chest, feeling the muscle as it contracts beneath your touch. He leans down to kiss your lips again, addicted to the feeling of your lips on his. 

Your eyes shut as you breathe through your nose, loving the feeling of how his arms wrapped around your waist as he kisses you. After a few more lingering kisses, you pull back to catch your breathe as does he. 

“I want you to...” You start as your hand trails down his chest to his pants, “keep me company for the rest of the night.” You whisper, eyes taking in the designs on his chest. 

Jeongukk exhales through his nose, looking at you with his dark eyes as he allows you to touch his skin. He feels his heart slightly speed up at your suggestion and he wants nothing more than to take you right there. 

But he refrains himself from doing so and asks, “In here?” 

Your eyes meet his against but your hand doesn’t leave his chest. Your mouth lifts up in amusement at his question and you shake your head. 

“I have the key to a suite upstairs,” You inform him and he nods, feeling elated. 

“Well then, let’s go check it out,” He smiles and you lean in to kiss him again because his lips look so inviting. 

He helps you fix the strap of your dress by adjusting it on your shoulder again and you make sure the fabric of the dress is covering your breasts. Meanwhile Jeongukk buttons his shirt and runs his hands through his hair to make himself look somewhat decent when you two walk out. 

Once you grab the clutch your dropped onto floor when you two came in earlier, you open the door and look behind you before looking outside to make sure no one was around before you grab his hand and lead him out. 

The both of you walk towards the elevator in quick footsteps before anyone else catches you and the actions made you feel giddy. 

Once your inside, Jeongukk asks, “What floor?” to which you reply, “Thirteen.” And soon as the button is pressed, he pushes you against the wall, arms on either side of your head as your lips meet in another heated kiss. 

Your hands immediately reach up to grab the side of his neck, lips moving with his as the kiss is filled with lust. At this rate, the wetness between your leg trails down your inner thigh and you could both smell your arousal which only turns on the boy even more as his hips grind into yours. 

You gasp into his mouth, scrunching up his shirt in your hand as you let him grind against your crotch with his own hard bulge. One of his hands move down to your ass, giving it a small squeeze and you moan into his mouth, wanting more. 

“Baby, you’re so hot,” Jeongukk speaks against your mouth, “I couldn’t take my eyes off of you when I first saw you.” He tells her, unable to stop himself from speaking the truth. 

He starts to kiss down your neck again, causing you to tilt your head to the side eyes shutting in pleasure. When you hear the ding of the elevator, they immediately open and you pull back from his lips as you watch the doors open. 

Jeongukk can’t help but hook his hands beneath your thighs and pick you up into his strong arms so that your legs wrap around his waist. Your satin dress hikes up your thighs, revealing your whole left leg due to the slit on the side and you’re pretty sure you could feel your ass peeking out but in that moment you did not care. 

Your arms are wrapped around his neck, lips trailing kisses down his neck as he carries you down the hall. 

“Room 13E,” You mumble, lips sucking the skin of his neck into your mouth. You knew he was the one who likes to mark but you felt the urge to create a bruise so that others could see your work. 

Once he reaches right outside the door, you’re slammed against the door and you quickly reach into your clutch to grab the key card. He grabs it from your hand, sliding it through the lock in a haste and then he turns the knob to push it open. He holds you up against him by one arm, making the muscles in his arm flex as the other works on swinging open the door. 

When you get inside, he wraps both of his hands around your thighs again and kicks the door shut behind him with his foot. You drop your clutch onto the floor carelessly as he leads you to the large king sized bed that is sat in the middle of the room. 

His knees knocking against the edge of the mattress as he drops you onto the bed while he stands above you his lips red from kissing you, hair messy from the countless times you grabbed onto it. 

“I’m gonna eat you out. Do you want that, baby? Do you want my mouth on your pussy?” He asks you and you nod, legs involuntarily spreading open in an inviting manner. 

He unbuttons his hair, feeling the sweat trickle down his neck and you sit up on your elbow as you watch the shirt unravel from his torso to reveal his chest that is covered with tattoos. There is a beautiful large rose on his side with the veins that run across his stomach with thorns and petals. 

You watch as he unbuckles his belt, sliding it out of the loops and throwing it behind him. You don’t fail to miss his crotch area where his bulge is pushing against the fabric. You push yourself up from the bed, knees sinking into the mattress as you grab the waist of his pants. Your lips lick over the fabric of his blank pants, causing Jeongukk’s hand to immediately go into your hair. 

Your eyes don’t leave his as he watches you unbutton the pants with your hands and then pull the zipper down with your teeth. His breathe hitches in his throat as you kiss his cock through his black briefs while your hands completely push his pants down to his ankles. 

Jeongukk grips your wrists, taking you by surprise and he pushes you back against the mattress. 

“Let me taste you first,” He tells you, pushing your dress up your thighs to reveal your soaking thong. He notices your inner thigh glistening as it trails from your entrance and his first instinct is to bend down to lick over your underwear. 

You let out a moan of surprise, feeling the heat of his tongue through your underwear. You tangle your hands in his hair as he sucks on your clit. The heels of your shoes dig into his shoulder as he rub his finger over your underwear. 

His lips trail over your thighs and you feel his warm breathe on your inner thigh, his tongue licking up the wetness that was dripping through the fabric of your underwear. Your chest is heaving heavily as you feel his thumb hook around the side of your underwear and he tugs it down, sitting up so he could completely pull it off. 

He leans down to kiss you on the lips, his bulge touching your pussy and you’re able to feel it clearly through his boxers. You moan, nails dinging into his back as Jeongukk continues to grind against your entrance. 

“Fuck, Jeongukk please,” You moan into his mouth, letting him roam his tongue around your mouth. 

“Please what hm?” 

“Please fuck me, please,” You beg, causing him to smirk against your mouth. 

“Be patient,” He tells you before trailing kisses down your chest until he reaches your entrance. 

You finally feel his mouth wrap around your clit, sucking on it harshly and you thrash against the bed as your heels dig into his shoulders again. You shut your eyes in pleasure as you feel his tongue trail down from your clitoris to your slit, tongue spreading your folds to taste your wetness. 

“Oh fuck, Jeongukk please please please,” You beg, feeling his hand rub over your bundle of nerves as his tongue pushes into your entrance. You feel the warmth of his tongue pushing against your walls, making you cry out louder. One of his inked arms holds you down as it presses against your stomach while the other teases against your entrance. 

When he pulls his tongue away, his finger immediately slips inside of you and hooks around your entrance, causing you to moan even louder. Your eyes roll into the back of your head as you let him pleasure until you’ve reached your high. You pull the strap of your dress down, grabbing onto your breast and squeezing it. 

Jeongukk pulls away, lips glistening with your arousal. He notices your hand touching your breast and he adds another finger into you, feeling your walls clench around him. 

His heel smacks against your clit as he fucks into your pussy with his fingers at a harsher pace and you can’t stop moaning out loud. He adds more stimulation by spitting on your clit and then using the thumb of his other hand to rub it vigorously. 

“J-Jeongukk, please, fuck me, please,” You beg, eyes wet because you wanted his cock in you so bad. 

“You’ll get it soon,” He promises, leaning down to wrap his lips around your clit again and sucking on it while his fingers are still fucking into your entrance. 

“‘M gonna come,” Your voice is hoarse when you speak. 

Jeongukk picks up his pace with his fingers and you cry out when you feel yourself reaching your climax, stomach bursting at the sudden rush of electricity shooting down your spine. 

“Cum for me,” Jeongukk says, watching as you let out a loud gasp, throwing your head back. 

You release all over his fingers, feeling overwhelmed by the stimulation. 

Once Jeongukk pulls his fingers out, he drags them to his mouth, sucking on his cum covered fingers while he looks into your eyes. You let out a heavy breathe, eyes trailing down to his boxers that hold his length. You sit up and grab ahold of the waistband, tugging them down. 

Jeongukk watches you carefully as you wrap your hand around his length and rub your thumb across his slit that is dripping with pre-cum. The head of his cock was an angry red, blood rushed to the muscle. He lets out a groan when he feels your lips envelope the head. 

You look up at his face as you trail your mouth up his girth, sucking and tonguing at the head. Your plush lips suction onto the underside of his shaft, the tip of your tongue tracing the vein that bulges there. 

Jeongukk groans out loud, muttering a small fuck, when he feels your lips wrap around his throbbing tip and glide down his cock. He watches you with a heaving chest as your cheeks hollow, swallowing the entirety of his cock into your mouth until he hits the back of your throat. 

You feels your eyes water at the feeling but you don’t stop bobbing up and down, your wrist twisting and tightening around the rest of his cock. He pushes his hair back from your face and tucks it behind your ear as he continues to watch you suck him off. 

When he sees his vision start to turn white, he pulls out of your mouth with a loud pop and it causes a look of confusion to take over your face. 

“I wanna come inside of you,” He tells you, pushing the straps of your dress off of your arms so that it pools around your waist and then tugs it until he could throw it behind his shoulder. 

He was about to ask you if you had a condom but you beat him to it by telling him, “I’m on the pill.” He hesitates before nodding and then pushes you so your back meets the mattress. 

He then climbs over you, holding himself up by his elbows on either side of your head. He leans all of his weight on his left elbow while his right hand brushes across your cheek and he leans forward to press his lips to yours. His hand trails down your body, running over your breast and smoothing down to your stomach. 

His fingers brush of your clit covered in arousal, causing you to moan in his mouth and he takes that moment to slip his tongue to touch yours. He then grabs his cock, rubbing his tip over your clit in circular motions which makes you jerk immediately. You let out another moan, biting down on his lower lip as you push your hips forward into his touch. 

After teasing you for a few more seconds, he slides his cock down your slit, spreading your folds and you breathe heavily as you feel him near your entrance where you ache for him the most. You were waiting for him to slip inside of you and fill you to the brim. 

“Please,” You beg when you only feel his head slide into your entrance. 

“More?” He asks and you could hear the amusement in his voice. 

You nod vigorously, gripping onto his shoulders so hard that your nails dig into them. 

Jeongukk finally decides to slide into your pussy completely, being engulfed by your warm, wet walls. He lets out a groan in combination with a sigh while you whimper, adjusting his thick girth. He pulls back again until only the tip was left in your entrance making your whine which turns into a loud cry of pleasure when he slams back into your not even five second later. 

You pull him closer to you, turning your head to the side as he kisses down your neck while he continues to pound into you. The sound of his hips smacking against yours bounces across the walls and you can’t stop moaning his name as he hits a particular spot inside of you. 

“Fuck fuck fuck,” You cry and he watches your face as it lays against the pillow. Your eyes were slightly smeared with makeup and there was sweat trickling down your silk like skin but he was still entranced by your beauty. It encouraged to satisfy you even more, bringing his hand to your clit to rub it at a fast pace. 

You gasp at the added stimulation, shutting your eyes and chanting yes yes yes over and over again. The boy doesn’t stop thrusting into you, picking up his pace as you feel yourself reaching your high again. 

Jeongukk groans as he feels his stomach churning, blood rushing to his cock and doesn’t stop pulling and pushing back in. He watches the way your pussy swallows his entire cock, spilling out your juices.  

At this point, you’re both sure that the residents in the room beside you might be able to hear you but neither of you pay any mind to them. Your nails scratched against Jeongukk’s broad back and he hisses at the feeling but doesn’t stop you. 

“I’m gonna come,” You whimper, grabbing one of your breasts and squeezing it.  

“I’m almost there. I’m gonna come in your pussy. Is that what you want?” He asks your breathless and you just nod, words unable to escape your mouth. 

He leans down to kiss you again, tongue swiping across your plush lips and you open your mouth again so he could slide his tongue against yours. You could see your vision turn white as you release around his cock, moaning loudly. Jeongukk continues to thrust into you until he fills himself spurt into your entrance, filling your pussy with his load. 

He grabs the sides of your face, holding you closer so your lips move sync. The sound of your kissing lips is now the only thing you two could hear. Jeongukk stays inside of you for a few more seconds as he makes out with you but you both have to pull away to catch your breathe. 

You whimper as he slowly pulls out, watching your cum mixed with his, drip out of your entrance. He falls onto his back beside you on the mattress, running his hands through his hair that is soaked with sweat. The both of you are breathing heavily, eyes shut as you try to calm down. 

You felt him get up from the mattress but you didn’t have it in you to see why. Your hear the bathroom light turn on and the water running. 

With one eye blinking open, you watch him come back with a small wet towel in his hand. You’re fascinated with the way his body moves, muscles flexing beneath his skin and the ink all over his body telling stories that you couldn’t understand. You feel him wipe down between your legs and you sigh in content as he cleans you up. He then unstraps your heels, pulling them off your feet and throwing them onto the floor. 

You were feeling surprised at his actions, never have hooked up with a man who cleans you up as gently as him after sex. Usually you’d have to go to the bathroom on your own and then quietly sneak out. However, Jeongukk didn’t like he was leaving just yet. 

You give him a small appreciative smile as your eyes meet and you see the corner of his mouth lift just a little bit before he looks away. He then turns back around, displaying a huge tattooed dragon on his back that you never saw before. It ran down his entire toned back, details of the design causing your mouth to become ajar. Your eyes glance down at his toned, perky ass and you quickly look away, feeling your cheeks flush. 

Jeongukk walks out of the bathroom, picking up his black briefs from the floor and sliding them up his legs. You then notice him pick up his slacks and shirt, causing your heart to race in your chest. 

Without thinking you speak, “You could stay the night if you want.” 

He halts his actions, eyes meeting yours in surprise. You clear your throat, glancing down at your fingers while you say, “I mean until tomorrow morning. If you want.” 

“You sure?” He asks you, avoiding to look at you. 

“Mhm,” You hum, rolling to the left side of the bed and tugging the blanket over your body. “You could sleep on the bed. I don’t move around too much in my sleep.” 

You shut your eyes, feeling yourself drift off but you were still aware that Jeongukk hadn’t moved. You tried not to turn around yet your heart was racing in your chest when you heard the sound of his feet pad against the floor. 

Jeongukk pulls the blanket back, sliding in beside you with and keeps a little distance between the two of you. You try not the breathe too fast, trying to make it seem like you’ve fallen asleep. It’s hard to believe that not even ten minutes ago, this man balls deep inside of you while you were screaming his name and now you two are awkwardly laying beside each other like a bunch of shy strangers. 

You feel yourself slip into unconsciousness, body completely worn out. However, you fall asleep with a small smile on your face without even realizing it was because of the boy beside you. 

Jeongukk sees your chest rise slowly as you’re in a deep slumber. His mind drifts back to what you two had just done and he could still remember how your breathlessly called out his name while he pounded into you. The way you threw your head back against the pillow and let him take you over and over again. 

When you had asked him to stay, he was taken by surprise. He quite frankly didn’t feel like dealing with Taehyung downstairs anyways but he certainly didn’t think he could stay. He expected you to kick him out a few minutes later but instead you moved over and let him sleep in your bed beside you, clueless to how much you intrigued the boy as you slept soundly. 

He’s not the kind of man that pays too much attention to the women he sleeps with. He appreciates the women’s beauty and loves to show them how much he could pleasure them in so many different ways but he never went passed that extent. There was something about you that drew him in the moment he laid eyes on you and it wasn’t just your alluring presence. 

He couldn’t fight off the sleep that overtakes him and he lets himself be swept away into a world full of dreams. 

You blink your eyes open slowly, scrunching up your face when you feel a light hitting your face. You sigh in annoyance flipping your head to the other side of the pillow so you face away from the window that has the sunlight shining through. 

With your still half awake mind, you remember that there was a body beside yours the night before but is no longer there. You quickly open your eyes, seeing the left side of the bed devoid of a man with the tattooed body. You sit up and see that his clothes are gone from the floor too and the bathroom light is off. 

A cold draft causes you to shiver and you realize you’re still completely nude beneath the blanket. You let out a slightly disappointed sigh, feeling your heart ache because for some reason you hoped that Jeongukk would still be laying beside you when you wake up in the morning. 

He was so handsome. His entire aura drew you in with his skin that was covered in tattoos, brown eyes that would become a shade darker when they’re filled with lust. His raven black hair that brushed across his forehead. The smooth and strongly built muscles of his entire body. He was different from other men you slept with. He took care of you after you had sex, taking his time gently clean you up with his skilled hands. 

You pressed your legs together when you thought about the way he made you come with his tongue and fingers and then again with his cock. You had never felt so much pleasure from another man in your life. He was mysterious and charming. 

You think back to that small smirk he gave you when you flirted with him. You remember how it caused shivers to run down your spine and how you wanted to see more of it.

You drop against the mattress again, your hair splaying around the pillow and you’re mind unable to stop thinking about Jeongukk. 

You were probably never going to see him again. It seems like he didn’t really care to stay either, probably thinking of it as a one night stand. 

Forgetting about him just might be for the best when your two worlds are completely different. 

++

so how was it? 

please let me know what you think so i could continue to write future parts bc i have a lot planned :) 

love, m. 

[vogelmeister]

Content that no one asked for- My favourite Eurovision winners of the past decade (Note how I said favourite and not best, because lets be real, Euphoria will slap all these bitches.)

10. 2011

This I feel, is a common opinion. I recently was watching a rerun of 2011 with some ESC friends on discord and I kept on calling this song “Zero Chemistry” because,,,, well. The lack of chemistry the two singers have here make me straight up uncomfortable especially after the bridge (and my boyfriend agrees with me). Like, I can tell they’re not actually in love and they’re acting and when it’s that obvious, its just- egh. As for the song, well its cute (may have even been stuck in my head in my final art exam) but there were ten out of ten better songs that year (Lena) and while it defs is a qualifier, it ain’t a winner.

9. 2017

Thing is…. I can totally see why this won, unlike 2011, so that’s why it’s not last. But I didn’t like the guys attitude (the winner speech) and the song isn’t my jam. The winners reprise with the sister was sweet and tbh I cannot fault that as she really was half his journey. But thats all I have to say about is.

8. 2016

First, this has NOTHING to do with Dami Im. For political reasons,,, this is quite low but that doesn’t mean I hate it. It’s actually quite a good song and oh my gosh her voice. It’s just- *chefs kiss* But also, whenever I hear this song I have a specific embarrassing memory comes to my head (think, high note no earphones silent room) and that has turned me off the song a bit. And yes, I think this song was far too politically included to compete in Eurovision, but there are always those that slip through the cracks (Armenia am I right). And I am a history nerd so I cant fault the history behind it. Just that damn memory- 

7. 2018

Picture this. I am 17, freshly getting into my big europhase. And so I pay attention to the contest for the first time ever, pick my favourites and then this won. I was shocked. Yes it was quirky but I never thought it would win, and I think it’s victory might have been partly because of #MeToo. It’s a bop though, just still don’t think it was a winner. Sorry, Israel. (although i am a tiny bit happy that Salvador handed over to this oops)

6. 2015

Ahh, 2015 and your overwhelmingly strong top 3, what would we do without you. Let me preface that while Heroes is a bop and defs deserved to do as well as it did, I personally think Italy or Russia’s performances were more powerful and raw than this. That said, Sweden still earned this win, and I cannot fault that. However, since I am so undecided on whether I like it as a winner, it cannot be higher. Sorry Mans. (also we must humble Sweden)

5. 2019

I really wanted Australia to win in 2019, and  I was a little taken aback when they didn’t place as well as they should have. And I really think that that affected how I saw The Netherlands’ win, even though it was a rightful winner. Now looking back on it, I can see why it won. It is a beautiful song, almost haunting in a way, and I think it really takes you on a journey. It’s simplistically beautiful. Tired 5:30am me just slept on it in favour of her own country. 

4. 2012

Please do not shoot me… please. I know this song is the crowning glory of the ESC and I get that that and I see why. It is a masterpiece, a great song (and excellent for the shower). But I can get sick of songs and often I go through periods of straight up hating Euphoria, and not being able to listen to it. And that alone bumps it down a few rungs. 

3. 2014

This changed things, not just in Eurovision but this queen became an icon! How many winners can say that? Her winner’s speech, the fact that she wasn’t what people saw as the norm- I love everything about this win and believe it was so so important for the LGBT community and it calls for acceptance. Not only that, the song is so good too? Like, this song makes my straight ass feel like a drag queen ready to take on the world. And I can vibe with that. Also, the subtle lyric change in the finale,,,, mmmm yeah that’s what I am talking about. (also i will die in the golden dress)

2. 2013 

I really love this. It is so beautiful and just sounds so fresh and new, and I think that is thanks in part to the flute with really gives the song so much flavour. Like, this song makes me want to run through the Danish forests in a white dress. The lyrics also are pretty universal and you can relate them to nearly anything, something as intimate as a break up or it can be a call for peace. Emmelie is absolutely beautiful too, she seems like a super sweet person, which always helps in my books. I just,,,, really like this, go Denmark.

1. 2010

Remember how I said favourite and not best. This and Euphoria are what come into play. Anyone who knows me well enough can testament to how much I love this song. This song is a staple on my playlist, I never can get sick of it and it has nostalgic value as it’s one of the first ESC songs I listened to. Asides, Lena is straight up adorable and I love how she won it with charm and not a stage show or anything. Overall, I don’t really care what people say about this one, she earned this win hands down (it’s one of the biggest margins ever) and it will always hold a special place in my heart.  (i may or may not love germany but even then i still think i would love this song)

Please feel free to agree/disagree I know some placings will raise eyebrows

[nbapprentice]

there’s so, so, SO much nonsense surrounding this game that i’m gonna do my best to separate it into digestible bits, with its own categories. even then this is... wow. it’s big.

Warning tags will be added at the start of every section, but the general gist is: incest, pedophilia mentions, fetishization of rape and abuse, fetishization of mlm, fetishization of people of color, racism, ableism, nb erasure and transphobia. aside of the warnings, this post will also touch upon Scummy Business Practices

let’s get going

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber: #incest #pedophilia#rape and abuse fetishization #homophobia

tl;dr: dana loves incest porn, elle loves guy on guy rape, and the both of them are friends with at least one pedophile

dana rune has run, is still running an incest zine (please visit my faq on what i think about “thats not really incest” and “it’s just fictional!”). The Arcana, as a dev team, clearly does not care, as shown in their e-mail responses.

dana also very much doesn’t care and has reacted to any criticism on this by dismissing people and blocking actual incest victims who tried to contact her about it claiming it was for her “mental health”

in some tweets she claims she “interprets” the characters as not siblings, but she never really cared enough to cover her ass when it all began (she happily admits she’d “cross the incest line”)

dana has commissioned artists who also ship incest, draw near-pedophilic art that’s supposed to pass as acceptable because the character involved is supposedly not a minor despite looking like a child down to wearing pigtails (the character is also wearing a racist-ass belly dancer outfit), AND even made white-washed fanart of The Arcana.

dana follows twitter user kapymui who also produces incestuous Fire Emblem art

dana has retweeted omocat long after it came out that omocat is, at the very least, consuming pedophilic content (on “omocat didn’t know what shota meant!”: yes they did)

moving on, elle has a long, long, LONG history of fetishizing mlm and the rape and abuse that comes with yaoi and had a rich, RICH “yaoi” tag before they deleted their tumblr

they curiously deleted their tumblr right after i made this reblog

shortly after that, tumblr user thalassiq remade and started attacking and insulting any blogs criticizing them - even people providing support in IMs. Since this doesn’t match Dana and Elle’s normal pity parties I’m personally willing to believe they were just a person wanting to start shit - but it’s so telling how Elle used this chance to dismiss everyone who disagrees with them by calling them “children” and did not even bother to offer a kind word to people who were harassed and even had their trauma mocked by this person. It costs 0 dollars to say “that was not me but I’m sorry about people who were hurt.”

Dana and Elle are close with Ava’s Demon creator Michelle Czajkowski aka that one person who endorses child porn of her characters, and even had her draw a promo image for the game. Michelle has been creating highly sexualized content of her minor characters for a while now.

ok so elle and dana are gross freaks, how is that related to the game?

oh it’s very very related

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber that’s Actually Inside The Game or The Game’s Blog: now with more #racism #fetishization of poc and mlm #whitewashing #fat hate #pedophilia #nb erasure #transphobia

tl;dr: the arcana is filled to the brim with racism! so much of it! haha holy shit! and that’s not even where it ends!!!

their game is rated PG-13 but includes incredibly sexual situations such as Julian making this fucking face while getting off on pain. This isn’t the only time Dana and Elle use their videogame aimed at young teens to showcase their kinks and fetishes. I have no issue with NSFW or titillating content, as long as it’s rated accordingly. This content is NOT and it’s a blatant disregard for their audience just to have a larger, more pliable demographic and have more money sent their way.

if you start your argument with “well, teenagers look at porn” 1. shut up 2. theres a HUGE difference between teenagers going after adult content aimed at adults, and adults creating content they know will be seen by kids barely starting puberty

as pointed above, dana has 0 qualms literally commissioning people who make whitewashed fanart of her own fucking game that’s supposed to be all about the inclusivity and safe spaces

thearcanagame blog has a pattern of reblogging whitewashed fanart (before you come in swinging with the good ole “ITS THE LIGHTING”: 1. no it isnt 2. the artist should’ve picked better lightning then 3. i draw and post shit online too so dont come telling me i just dont understaaaand),

fanart of their fat characters showed skinnier than they are in their sprites (although to be real for a moment - Portia is curvy at most and them behaving she’s fat rep is HILARIOUS).

going back to NSFW content: nadia and asra are overwhemlingly sexualized in the game, and were the first to have sexualized CGs and sprites introduced.

CGs: Asra’s here, here aND HERE, Nadia’s here with a NSFW warning because she’s just got her whole fucking ass out. Sprites: Asra’s thank god for whoever compiled it all in one image, Nadia’s and once again, NSFW warning lmfao!

Julian’s sprites on the other hand are noticeably tamer, including the one where he’s fucking strapped in leather. His only sexual (NSFW warning because its literally softcore tentacle porn WHICH, ONCE AGAIN, SHOULDN’T BE PUT IN A GAME AIMED AT 13YOS) CGs were also included months after Nadia and Asra received any of theirs.

Through all of the updates, people have constantly requested that Asra and Nadia’s sexualization be toned down, and time after time The Arcana just churned out fetishistic, hypersexualized content at an absurd rate, especially when compared to the one white love interest.

Oh, speaking of the one white love interest: Julian is based off of Jeff Goldblum (this is not spectulation - they p much bring it up at any given time) but like. If Jeff Goldblum was white. They base their favorite love interest off their supposed favorite man in the world but casually leave his skin tone behind. Lmao.

they also play favorites very obviously - in the prologue, Nadia and Asra have a romance paid scene each. Julian has a scene... that requires no coins. Julian was also the first LI to receive three CGs, two of them requiring no coins, while both Asra’s and Nadia’s first CGs were behind a paywall

Dana and Elle have been notoriously skittish about confirming or denying their characters’ ethnicities. After hyping for weeks on thearcanagame that they would confirm the character’s races they basically made a post that amounted to “well they’re not white lol!”

they only relented after the perfectly understandable outrage... and posted a thread about it on Elle’s twitter. Nothing on the actual thearcanagame blog. Anyway, here’s the thread. Note how there’s mention of Julian being Jeff Goldblum... but nothing about him and Portia being Jewish (or “fantasy Jewish” as it were).

The one time they did confirm their jewishness dana then backpedaled and said she shouldn’t have done that lol.

another fun tidbit of how well The Arcana handles race and how much it cares about feedback from fans: an ask was sent about an anon begging for Nadia to step on them. The blog, with the finesse of a bunch of horny dumbasses, didn’t just publish the ask, but approved of it (even though the fans of color had long, long, LONG been telling everyone not to fetishize Nadia into a “step on me kween” wet dream). People were outraged, of course, and the blog ~apologized~ and said they were still learning.... then a new chapter included a scene of Nadia stepping on the Apprentice. 🙃

not to mention elle, on their twitter, made a passive aggressive “women can be doms?” tweet, trying to twist it into a “yr oppressing women” angle (when the issue is that women of color are always constantly portrayed as aggressive and domineering)

Now for a wombo combo of racism and Elle’s fetishization of mlm:

the devs have spoken at length of how Julian’s and Asra’s relationship was quite unhealthy. In a paid scene in Asra’s route, they’re depicted as Asra being disgusted w Julian touching him+Julian following Asra to his shop when Asra refused his offer to go with him (aka julian... stalked him lmfao).

.......... this scene is promptly followed by a highly sexual scenario where Julian’s pain fetish is played up. Remember how this game is rated PG-13? Me neither. Asra’s previous disgust with Julian is also forgotten, for some reason (and by some reason i mean Elle wants to make them fuck w/o buildup or logic).

Then Asra’s route has yet another paid scene dedicated to Asrian, even though he’s supposed to not even like Julian! And be head over heels with the Apprentice! But Elle just has to make these two be entangled despite insisting their relationship was not good for either of them!

Now here’s the kicker: Julian doesn’t have any paid scenes related to his romance with Asra. Note how it’s one of the brown LIs whose route is highjacked by the white LI, but not vice versa. Hmmmmm.

Now, on the topic of Asra: thearcanagame has said repeatedly that he’s nb and uses he/him pronouns, and promised (since last year) that there would be dialogue where he speaks about his gender

as of the making of this post such dialogue still does not exist

so basically asra is the nb to dumbledore’s gay: anyone who just plays the game w/o keeping up with the official blog has no idea of what asra’s gender is supposed to be.

aka he’s not nb. he’s just a cis guy. the arcana just doesn’t want to put its money where its mouth is, i dont care if elle is nb themself. the team made a promise which has not been fulfilled yet and i suspect will not be.

instead, our introduction to canon nb characters is... these two.

By “these two” i mean neither vulgora nor valdemar are even fucking human, and stick out like sore thumbs with their monstruousness.

so our nb rep is... non-human villains. a few books later one of Nadia’s sisters with they/them pronouns shows up, but that’s too little too late on top of the fact that we should’ve known Asra was nb from the first to begin with. It’s a fucking embarrassment and an insult.

at least two villains are visibly disabled (Lucio’s missing arm and Volta’s blind eye+intentionally asymmetrical face). Julian’s eye doesn’t count because, spoilers, he’s not lacking an eye and even if he was it’d still be hidden behind a dashing eyepatch instead of grotesquely displayed as a sign of his lacking morality.

BUT WAIT! IT DOESN’T EVEN END THERE!

The Arcana Exploits The App Business Model To Price Their Full Game at $500, $1000 if the three extra routes make it out, and they never delivered their Kickstarter rewards:

tl;dr: you heard me

the original price per route was planned on being $1.99

they took that “subject to change” really seriously, it seems, because now each route, once the game is fully out, is estimated to cost around $170 each.

both those screenshots are taken from this post which explains in detail just how truly scummy all of The Arcana’s business model and decisions are: https://mysticmicrotransactions.tumblr.com/post/174308723344/dishonesty-from-the-arcana

the tl;dr is basically what’s listed in the beginning of this section, but other highlights from that post are: the use of addictive gambling mechanics such the Wheel of Fortune, and the dazzling calls to action in the new mini-game.

something that The Arcana supporters forget (or choose to ignore) is the fact that for a long, long time the game did not have the mini-game or the log-in rewards for coins. Players depended only on the gambling of the WoF or paying absurd amounts of money for the new chapters.

the devs went from playing the victims who were unable of controlling prices to (as spoken of in the link from mysticmicrotransactions) saying the making of the game (a pathetic little app game backed by a studio and a kickstarter) justifies the prices

they also gave people false hope about maybe changing the prices in the future, all while bleeding money from loyal players in “micro” transactions

the arcana literally added a $99.99 coins option on their latest update

in case it hasn’t sunk in yet: you can pay a hundred dollars upfront to the arcana, and you still will not have access to the whole game

there is no defense to this

none

“it’s free stop whining” let me explain:

“spend months on end accumulating fake currency or pay hundreds of dollars up-front to be able to play” is a scummy business model no matter how you look at it

if i can spend $60 upfront to play an AAA game there’s no excuse to demand more than that for a game with much smaller and, honestly, inferior content

the combination of there being already far and few games featuring lgbt characters and characters of color AND the little cult of personality set up by Dana and Elle makes people feel that spending money to support them is an acceptable expense.

it’s not

manipulating people into spending ridiculous amounts of money and then claiming “it’s their choice” is just scummy business, baby, and thats all the arcana does

the devs are brats who instead of admitting $500 is absurd for a game instead write petty little caricatures into their game - like, lbr: dana, elle, if i could afford diamonds in my hair i wouldn’t have even bothered with your shitstain of a game

despite bragging that ppl would get the full story w/o needing to pay, the paid scenes are pretty much required - the first few books of julian’s route have no romance without accessing any of the paid options. you dont even get so much as a kiss in without handing coins over. many, many people were baffled when julian had a teary break-up scene when from their perspective they hadn’t even started building a relationship.

wow that’s more than i ever thought it’d be

and i’ve been aware of their bullshit for near a whole year now!

i don’t have much of a note to end this on, other than: the arcana just isn’t even that good. it suffers from weak writing, pathetic character development and above all actually harmful content. do not try to argue with me on any of these points unless you’ve read all of that, because whatever you have to say i’ve likely mentioned before. if you still are that determined to yell at a me on the internet, please preface your argument with the phrase “I’m a pee pee poo poo man” so I know you’ve read everything in here. thank you!

[blondecarfucker]

Ocean Eyes (Roger Taylor)

Roger Taylor x Reader

BoRhap!Roger Taylor x Reader

Fic Summary: You're new in town and a blue-eyed boy caught your attention. You grow up to be best friends, but the possibility of being more is always haunting the two of you. Reader is also an art student who draws Roger constantly.

Fic Note: So I wrote this for @yourealegendfred's 3k words song inspired challenge. I have been trying to write this for a while now, but the story was missing a middle part, and that's where @pigfish27 comes in with a beautiful request that was already very similar to my idea for the fic (with the reader being very artistic and such), and honestly, don't know how I'd write this without her idea, so thank you!! Thank you too for the challenge and song inspo, yourealegendfred. I chose this song because 1) I like Billie Eilish 2) Roger's eyes are very hypnotic. If it's your first time here, hi! I adore Roger Taylor and I write a lot about him, including a long ass, 17 parts at the moment, fanfic, so my masterlist is in my bio! Can't link it here or else Tumblr will avoid showing the post on the tags.

Words: Nearly 4000

Warnings: a bit of angst in the beggining, SMUT, unprotected sex (it's not the 70s anymore kids, you know you should wrap it before you tap it), recreational use of drugs (that's up to you, but like, we all know it's the right thing to say "kid's, don't do it", so i'm saying it now). that are probably some minor errors cause im super sleepy

Ocean Eyes - Billie Eilish

I've been watching you

For some time

You remember the first time you saw Roger. You just moved to a new city, your 15th city in your 14 years, and you just got to school. Your mom promised you'd stop moving, but you didn't really believe her. You had no reason to.

So you got there, your school uniform ill fitting, and as you said goodbye to your mom in the car, you saw him. His hair was longer than the rest of the boys, his uniform shirt was creased, the first buttons open, his tie undone.

You watched him step on a cigarette butt on the ground as he held another one between his fingers. You couldn't believe how blue his eyes were behind all the smoke around his face.

Not only in color. He was joking with his friends, and you could hear them laughing, but he looked sad, his eyes unable to hide how blue he really was.

You recognized those eyes. Eyes like that looked right back at you every time you looked in the mirror.

He looked back into your eyes, too.

Can't stop staring

At those oceans eyes

But you only spoke for the first time in detention. You didn't knew why was he there; you got caught sleeping in bio again. You were drawing, trying to make time go by faster, when a hand pressed against your table. It was big in comparison to yours, and you noticed how callous it looked. You looked up and was met with his eyes.

"Could you borrow me a pencil?", he said, a smirk on his lips.

"Sure", you told him, and gave him one.

"What are you doing?", he said, as he sat back into his chair, scribbling something in a piece of paper in front of him.

"I'm drawing", you said. You only realised you sketched his hand a few minutes later. You looked at him, watching as he wrote something in the piece of paper. The word "drowse" covered the paper.

"Are you really drawing? Or are you watching me?", he said, aggressive after realizing you read what he wrote, moving the paper away from you. His eyes stared into yours. Angry.

"I can do both. I'm drawing you", you snapped back, and he looked surprised that you weren't intimidated by him. He smirked. "Do you want me to pose?", he asked. "Just look at me", you told him, sketching his eyes.

Burning cities

And napalm skies

Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes

Your ocean eyes

You drew him a lot. He used to call himself your muse. You drew him drumming, his eyes narrowed at the effort. You drew him when he had his arms wrapped around some girl at a party.

You grew closer together, bonding over how you disliked that town. You couldn't believe this was the city that your mom settled on. Roger and you would complain about that as you shared a blunt on the side of the river behind your school, the sound of the running water muffling your complaints.

He liked how you never seemed uncomfortable around him, even when he was being cocky, and you liked how honest he was around you, never treating you like one of the girls he flirted with, just treating you as an equal to him.

No fair

You really know how to make me cry

When you gimme those ocean eyes

It wasn't until when you both moved to London for school that it happened for the first time. You both shared a flat, and you were sitting on the couch, drinking and smoking while listening to My Sweet Lord on repeat, and he was complaining, as usual. About the band he was in, about his classes, about the girls he was seeing.

You turned to him and said "God, Taylor. I don't think I can think of anyone else that complains as much as you do", and he scoffed. "Well, there's you. I can think of something else we could do", and you stared into his eyes, even more blue because of the redness around his pupils. And you knew what he was suggesting. You flirted sometimes, though you never really payed attention to it. But now, with the smoke clouding your brain, and his eyes staring deep into yours, you thought that he could do whatever he wanted with you.

And he did.

He moved his hand to your thigh, pulling you closer to him on the couch, as you kept looking into his eyes. He didn't break the contact, almost as if he was checking how far he could go before you stopped him.

But you never did.

I'm scared

I've never fallen from quite this high

Falling into your ocean eyes

Those ocean eyes

You were still friends with him, but you noticed a change in your relationship. Every time he'd come home with a girl after a gig, you felt an ache on your chest. You were used to that, emotional pain, but never before from him. You didn't realize how much influence he had over you. How much you could care about him.

And it was made worse by the fact that every few weeks, you would both fuck again - quick, messy, rough; you barely looked at each other. But you never really talked about it, not even joked about it to each other. "Don't overthink this", you told yourself in the mirror after a night with him, throwing water in your face, the bruises he made on your neck and cleavage staring back at you.

And even when those marks disappeared, you could still feel his touch on your skin. You forced yourself to go out with other people, but it was always him that ended up invading your mind.

He got further under your skin than anyone else; he wasn't just a good lay. He made you feel vulnerable, exposed, but also noticed. He saw everything that was wrong with you and was still there.

Cause the thing is, you knew his worst, too. His cheating on other girls - even with you, or when he'd call three girls in the same night just because he wasn't sure who would really come, and the three girls did, and he would then entertain two of them as the third waited on your living room, not in the mood for something groupal. The girls who waited on him to finish were usually pretty nice with you, since they visibly didn't care for sharing - one of them actually helped you pick an outfit to go out to a pub, one day.

And you were also used to his aggressive, drunk self that usually came before he started to vomit, and you'd always help him - holding his sweaty strands back, convincing him to take a cold shower, going out to the deli and getting him chips and a coke so he had something to eat before passing out. He'd done the same for you multiple times.

Or the first time you did molly together on a music festival - Roger bit his lips until they blead, and you kept dancing even after the sun went up again, burning your shoulders under the sun. The two of you took care of each other afterwards, and swore off molly.

You felt like a married couple, sometimes; only the two of you living in the same flat for nearly a year, occasionally fucking, knowing each other inside out. This thought only made it hurt more when you saw him with a girl that wasn't you.

And now, every time you fucked, you had to force yourself off the bed so you wouldn't sleep on his arms, no matter how much you wanted.

No fair

You really know how to make me cry

When you gimme those ocean eyes

I'm scared

I've never fallen from quite this high

Falling into your ocean eyes

Those ocean eyes

And then he brought a friend home one night - a guy that joined the band after the other guy, Tim, left. You know Brian, you even hang out with Brian when you go to Roger's shows and rehearsals, but you never really clicked.

Now this guy, Freddie, was almost a male version of you: very artistic, always scribbling something. Eventually, when Roger and you decided to move to a bigger flat, you invited Freddie to split the rent and live on the other room the flat had.

You felt close to Freddie, and you always helped each other out when drawing, borrowing pencils and brushes whenever necessary, and Roger just watched - he couldn't really participate in this new dynamic.

You even nearly stopped the casual fucking - the incidents, for the lack of a better word, would happen less often. It was almost like he felt Freddie was replacing him in every aspect of your life, but he wasn't - you and Freddie didn't see each other that way. But to admit it to Roger would be to admit you felt different with him, and you didn't want him to feel sorry for you as he rejected you.

Once you noticed that he feels replaced, though, you started to involve Roger in your drawings again - asking him to pose for you, drawing his car.

And that was good for you too, because you couldn't take him off your mind, now that you're getting less of him. He even started to show up in your school work, you knowing his face features so well that you drew him on everything.

One of your works was to remake pictures and cover art from pop culture with your own trace - and there was Roger's face in the same pose and with the same dim lights as Marlene Dietrich (one of Freddie's favourite pictures to the point where he has it framed in your living room), and there's Roger's face and body in the remake of the cover of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and there's Roger in the cover art for Aladdin Sane.

You didn't want to look creepy - and you know how creepy it was that you kept drawing your friend in each and every drawing and painting you did.

But you're used to drawing him - you started it when you were both 14. You knew the exact curve of his lips, the bridge of his nose, the format of his eyes.

I've been walking through

A world gone blind

Can't stop thinking of your diamond mind

And now you had to do oil paintings of the human physique - a nightmare for you, completely unaccustomed to oil paint. So you painted the body you knew best, and the one that you craved the most. It's been two months since the last time you had sex with Roger.

And one day, Roger came home and saw a painting on one of your easels in the living room - not an odd sight. But the painting itself caught his attention - a very detailed, realistic naked man. Once he got closer, he noticed how the man's skin tone was close to his, how he had the same haircut... the same face as Roger.

The realization hit him - you drew him naked.

He blushed.

Cause he always called himself your muse, but this was intimate - this was the way he'd lay in bed after you had sex. A part of your friendship that you never discussed.

He always thought of you as someone who's too cool for him - you never once looked intimidated by his jokes, flirting, whatever. You didn't really care. He thought you didn't give a fuck about the two of you - especially now that you had Freddie.

He tried to get mad at one of you two - but Freddie was too nice and a good frontman, so he couldn't fight him, and he could never get mad at you. All you had to do was say "Rog", in your husky voice and he'd be on his knees.

That was so unlike him. He was embarrassed, so he tried to play it cool. Pretend he wasn't hurt at the fact that you were probably fucking Freddie on his back.

But this drawing of him in a very vulnerable, intimate moment made him change his mind. Maybe you did care for him. Maybe those moments mattered to you almost as much as they mattered to him.

So he walked to your room, and knocked lightly on the door, getting in before you said "Come in". Because you never said it; you were listening to Purple Haze at maximum volume, only wearing a baggy white shirt with paint everywhere. He could see your black panties peeking from under it as you swayed your hips to the rhythm of the music.

He then looked to what you were drawing - he recognized his hair and body again. You were painting him nude, yet again. A devilish smirk appeared on his lips.

"Hey, Y/N", he screamed, and you jumped out of surprise, your eyes wide as you turned to face him. "Roger, what the fuck are you doing here?", you asked, trying to normalize your breathing.

"Oh, just checking out your paintings. It's a pretty hot guy you have as a model… I wonder who he is", he told you, ironic, walking closer to the painting.

You blushed for a moment, like a child getting caught. But you soon went back to your devil-may-care attitude - the one he was more familiar with. "Just painted the body I'm more familiar with", you shrugged, turning back to your painting so you didn't have to see his reaction. It's the first time one of you references the sex.

"It's fine. I'm honoured, really", he said, moving behind the easel so he could see your face as you worked. "My pleasure", you told him, dry. "I came here to offer my help, really", he told you, unbuttoning his shirt. "Thought you could use the real life model to make work easier", he grinned, and you looked at him. His voice sounded relaxed as usual, but his face looked tense. He was scared that you'd turn him down.

He looked so vulnerable, yet so beautiful - your bedroom had the best lighting in the house, and the sun on his skin made him look like Apollo himself, luminous.

"Sure. That'll definitely make the work flow faster", you shrugged again, but you felt a genuine smile forming as you saw him relax and start undressing.

Careful creature

Made friends with time

He left her lonely with a diamond mind

And those ocean eyes

And you painted him many times, for this project, for the ones that came after it, for your personal projects. It really made you bond again - but you didn't have sex anymore, which was confusing, cause you were seeing him naked more than ever, as he posed nude whenever you asked.

You were conscious that you were going out with even less guys, and that Roger was seeing less girls. Freddie was aware of your newfound chemistry, and always made jokes about how it felt to live third wheeling. You laughed, and Roger too, but you didn't knew what to do about it.

Then, one Sunday, Roger appeared in your doorframe, half dressed, a backpack open on his hands. "Do you wanna spend the day at the beach?", he asked, and you looked confused. "Roger, it's already autumn", you told him, and went back to scribbling. You were drawing his hands - now that he was wearing rings, they posed a new challenge to you.

"And what about it? It's better, actually. No one will be there to annoy us. You could paint me… C'mon, Y/N", he said, and you considered. It would be quite an impressive painting - the blue in his eyes and the blue of the ocean, the sand, his hair and skin mixing, too.

"Ok, Rog", you said, and started to pack your materials. "See you in my car in five minutes, then", he told you, and went back to dressing and packing at the same time.

The car ride there was a bit weird - you couldn't find a subject to talk to him, overthinking every idea he had. He wasn't starting any conversations, either.

Then once you got to the beach, you unpacked your materials, and he stood in front of you. "What should I do?", he asked, a bit insecure, and you let out a sigh. You didn't want to spend the afternoon in this uncomfortable feeling around him.

So you got up and said "Join me", as you started undressing, and wearing only your underwear, you jumped inside the cold water.

You screamed when the freezing sea touched your skin, and you soon heard Roger scream, too. "Y/N, why the fuck did you get me inside the water? It's freezing!", he screamed, and you laughed. "Thought you could handle some cold water, Taylor. But apparently I'm wrong", you told him, and splashed water on his face. "Oh, so you want war?" he asked, and started to tickle you.

You spent some time in the ocean, your bodies getting used to the temperature, joking and swimming. Once the sun got closer to the horizon, bathing everything in a golden light, you told Roger it was time to paint. You got off the water, and he followed you, watching your body as your underwear clinged to your wet skin.

But when you got to wear the beach towel was covering the sand - the perfect place for you to paint him - you were shaking, the cold wind taking away your body heat. "Hey, just a second", Roger told you before handing you a towel. After you dried yourself, he offered you one of his fur coats that was in his bag. You accepted it, the fur immediately conserving your body temperature, and you started to relax. Roger got another fur coat for himself, and also a bottle of tequila and a blunt from the bag.

"Cheers", he said, after drinking straight from the bottle and passing it to you. You drank, too, as he started to light up the blunt.

"How should I pose?", he asked, passing you the blunt.

"Just stay the way you are. It's perfect", you told him, and you started mixing the tones.

The painting was almost ready and the sun was setting as you got to Roger's eyes. He stopped posing for a moment so he could start a fire to warm the both of you.

"Thanks", you said, and he shrugged. "A way to apologize for barely passing you the blunt", he said, and you laughed. "It's okay, I barely passed you the tequila", you shrugged, too.

As you went back to painting, you were frustrated at his eyes. You just couldn't get their color right. He noticed you were stressed.

"Did I do anything wrong?", he asked, and you laughed. "No, Rog. I just can't get your eye colour right", you told him. "Why is that?" he asked again, and you shrugged again. "Don't know. They're usually pretty hard to get right, but I can do it most of the times", you said.

Maybe it was the reflex of the fire in his eyes. "I'll get a closer look at them, okay?", you asked, putting your work to the side and leaning into him, your weight on your hands and knees.

Roger looked at your body, warmly lit by the fire by your side, your black lingerie in contrast with the caramel fur. He knew how soft your skin was, and he craved feeling in on the tip of his fingers.

So he moved one of his hands so he could cup your jaw, and he saw as your breathing hitched. He hasn't touched you like this in months.

You moved one of your own hands to cup his face, and he felt the friction of the sand on your skin against him as you pulled him closer to a kiss.

None of you closed your eyes during the slow kiss.

You pushed him onto his back, and pressed his body against the sand with your own. You grinded against him as you kissed him again, and he closed his eyes as he groaned in response.

But you didn't want to hurry it - this was the first time you were fucking in months, yeah, but also the first time in felt so intimate - you were actually looking at each other during some of the kiss, and he caressed your waist under the coat, your thighs, with caring - he was not being rough for the first time. You could feel his bulge against your core, and you kept moving against it as you kissed him.

Until he had enough and started pulling your panties down, his index finger brushing against your skin under the elastic band.

You started pushing his underwear down, too, and his cock was already hard. You got on your knees, straddling him, so he could sit and take his boxers off. You then moved your bare core against the tip of his member. You both moaned.

"Just fuck me", he mumbled under his breath, his perfect lips parted. You leaned into him so you could kiss him as you pushed your body down his cock until he bottomed out inside of you.

You stayed there for a few moments, kissing him slowly, before you started riding him.

It was slow at first, and he kept his eyes on you, the electric blue driving you mad - everything around you seemed to pale in comparison. You only broke eye contact once one of you closed your eyes to moan or curse.

It was a different feeling - you could still feel the fabric of your bra against your breast as you kept riding him, moving faster and trying to keep a rhythm. You unclasped your bra, and Roger helped you off your coat and bra, and started kissing your breasts, but you could see he was having a hard time focusing on them, as you kept riding him. He was close.

But you needed to see more of him so you could come. "I need to see you", you told him, and he nodded, looking at you through his lashes and giving you a weak smirk as he took the coat off.

The cold wind was hard on your skin, but the temperature shock made you more turned on. Roger was even closer, and started to press sloppy kisses to your neck as leaned his head against your shoulder. You felt your legs burning of the effort of riding him, but you were now getting close, too, as you felt his skin against your hard nipples.

He moved his hand from your waist to your sensitive clit, and massaged it. You nearly screamed - the extra stimulation was what you needed to reach your climax, and he moved his hands to your hips to help you ride him through your high.

You felt tired and sleepy, but you kept riding him with his help, your head on his neck now, and he could feel your heavy breathing against his skin, and soon you could see the veins on his neck pop and his jaw clench as he reached his climax.

None of you moved for a few moments, until Roger felt you shiver in his arms, breaking up his embrace to get your coat.

You got off of him so he could get his own coat, but you didn't got up - you pushed him down again, covering your bodies with the coat as if it was a duvet. He chuckled as you put your head in his chest, and you look up only to see him facing you.

At that moment, the electric blue of his gaze made every other shade of blue around you even more intense - the sea and the sky. All because of his ocean eyes.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Seventy-One: Bewildering Experience ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

There’s certain social rules when it comes to high school. Navigating as many of them as you can means getting through those four years a little less scathed. While it’s tedious at best for most, there can still be moments that stand out positively for students. The typical dredgery of classes, homework, tests and exams have the occasional break in the monotony.

For Hinata, this is her final year. A senior at last, whittling at her schedule until graduation next Summer. A rather model student, her college is all picked out, major decided, and all that’s left is to get through this last batch of school days until...well, more schooling. But surely college won’t be nearly the task high school has been, right?

Well...so she hopes.

Hinata has always been a bit of a stereotype. The quiet, nerdy, shy girl...with a crush on the star of the basketball team. Fairly academic, she also branches into some of the more artsy institutions of her high school: choir, theater club, and the occasional art class. She even participates in volleyball and tennis. Her grades are top notch due to her diligence, and...lack of a social life, really. Her quietude means mostly being ignored by her classmates. A few like Sakura, maybe Ino, occasionally drag her along for something. But for the most part, she’s left to her own devices.

The only real talking she does is digitally. She texts, she IMs on Discord, lurks on social media...but she devotes most of her time and energy to her classes, clubs, and sports.

Most of the year passes fairly normally. The typical teenage drama, class difficulties, club activities...and then they enter the last quarter of the year. Hinata’s still in her clubs, and after Winter quarter off from sports, enters her last high school tennis season.

And that’s when things start to get...weird.

For the longest time, Hinata’s crushed on one Naruto Uzumaki: aforementioned basketball player, but also baseball. Alongside him is his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto, however, has long crushed on Sakura: a rather jock-like girl who plays sports all year round, ending with softball. The pair seem to be teetering on the edge of finally going out, and...quite obviously, that left Hinata in a bit of a funk.

...but then the unexpected happened.

Sasuke offered to come watch her play. Which, Hinata supposed, wasn’t that unthinkable. They’d been talking about it, Naruto excusing himself due to watching Sakura’s upcoming softball match after Hinata had admitted to planning to watch the boys’ baseball game. She had been rather disappointed until Sasuke spoke up.

...and then he went and confronted her about her dead-end crush once the others had gone.

Hinata was...a bit flabbergasted. But he had a point...Naruto was never going to see her the way she saw him. But it was the subtle hint beneath it that left her a bit bewildered.

...was he…?

A challenging quip resulting in his blush and stutter all but confirmed it: he, in turn, was crushing on her.

...it was completely unexpected. He was one of the most popular guys in their year…! And he...he liked...her…? Why? She’s quiet, uninteresting, unnoticed...not anyone someone like him would care about!

And yet...he did.

Disaster nearly struck when - on her way to the game - she’d gotten a flat tire on her bike. But lo and behold, none other than Sasuke’s mother - also headed to the field - offered to give her a ride. Sitting next to both Mikoto and Kushina, Hinata had watched as they achieved victory, needing only one more win to make it to state.

He’d been surprised to see her there. Made a bit of flustered small talk. And then they’d parted ways rather...awkwardly.

And it only got worse the next time she really got to see him. Nailed by a flyaway baseball bat, he’d been left with a sizeable split in his brow. Hinata, excused from a cancelled practice, offered to take him to the nurse.

Cue more careful dancing around each other, Mikoto even teasing him when he drove home (Hinata accompanying to make sure he was okay to drive).

By then, it wasn’t quite so shocking anymore. Sasuke, quite obviously, despite the breaks in social hierarchy, was very smitten with the class wallflower.

...and after all her considering it, Hinata has decided...maybe she could like him back. He’s a lot sweeter than his typical aloof persona shows. Maybe not quite the brash charm Naruto has that she originally fell for, but...it’s nice. She feels rather at ease talking to him.

So, Hinata decides to break some social rules of her own.

Waiting outside the locker rooms after an afternoon of practice, she ignores the curious looks the other boys give her, clearly suspecting she’s up to something. But Hinata just waits until the proper one emerges.

“Hi!”

Startling, Sasuke looks to her with wide eyes...and then promptly goes pink.

...she’s really starting to like when he does that. It’s just so funny compared to his typical composure. To think, she has that sort of power.

“...uh, hi?”

“I got out a little early, so I thought I’d see how your practice went,” Hinata then offers, still smiling at him.

...it’s his turn to look suspicious. “It was...fine? Why?”

“Just make sure you didn’t take any more b-bats to the face.”

His flustered expression gets all the worse, going from pink to bright red. “No! I’m fine, that was just...a freak accident. Besides, you’d probably find a way to hear about it if I did,” Sasuke then mutters, shoving hands into his pockets.

Hinata’s expression warms. “Sorry, I don’t m-mean to tease you. I really do hope you’re okay. How’s your forehead…?”

“It’s pretty much healed up. Really wasn’t that bad.”

“Good.”

After a moment of just...standing awkwardly, Sasuke tentatively starts walking, seeing her follow. “...so, did you...need anything else?”

“No. Not really.”

“...uh, okay. How, uh...how was your practice?”

“Fine! It was a bit of a light day since we have a game in two days, so...coach doesn’t want us too burnt out. That’s why I was able to catch you!”

“Oh...what team are you playing?”

“Iwa. They’re sort of our rivals in tennis. I’m r-really hoping we beat them. We’re already too low in the rankings to go to state, so...this is really our big push for the end of the year.”

Genuine concern bleeds through Sasuke’s expression. “Oh...sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay. I’m h-hoping it means I can make it to some of your state games!”

“Oh, well…” Sasuke itches his neck, looking a little sheepish. “We still have one more game against Suna...we’re not there yet.”

“But I bet you will be,” Hinata counters, smiling. “You guys have done r-really well! And it would be so neat if you made it there your last year…”

“Yeah...I hope so. My brother’s soccer team went all four years, and won his junior year. I’d like to at least brush up against that, honestly.”

Hinata glances over at the wistfulness in Sasuke’s tone. “...I see. Will he...will he be able to come watch?”

“Maybe...he’s just out of college and working pretty heavily, so he might not have time. But I think the games are live streamed, so...maybe he can catch it that way.”

“That’s true. But...I hope I can go. I think a group of seniors are planning to skip out and go if you make it to the finals!”

“Really?”

“Mhm! I’d go with them, even if my dad might get mad...I’ve never skipped school before.”

Sasuke considers her for a long moment. “...why do you want to go so bad?”

“Well, it’s been a while since any of our school’s teams made it to state! I want to support them.” Looking up, there’s a small sparkle in her eyes. “...and that means you, too.”

A hint of pink creeps back into his face. “...well, uh...thanks.”

“Sasuke…?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure. What’s up?”

“I know you’re awfully busy with baseball and stuff, but um…” She looks to the ground, tucking hair behind her ear as she walks. “But...I was wondering if you’d like to...g-go out with me sometime?”

Sasuke actually freezes in his tracks.

Ending up a few paces forward, Hinata turns back toward him, seeing his wide eyes. “Would...would that be okay?”

“You...you’d wanna…?”

Dropping her coy teasing, Hinata softens, smiling warmly at him. “...I know we started off a bit, um...a bit awkwardly. With the whole...Naruto thing. But...it’s been nice getting to know you a little. You’re a very sweet person, Sasuke. I guess...I never got to see that until recently. I was too busy looking at Naruto, and...well, you seem to like to keep that sort of thing h-hidden.”

Slowly, Sasuke’s posture loses its tense edge.

Hinata glances aside, expression a bit unreadable. “...I’m sorry if you...if you had to keep this to yourself for very long. I know how that feels, and...I’m sorry for never noticing.”

“...well, I wasn’t exactly open about it. I just thought...y’know...you couldn’t really be interested with Naruto around.”

“...well, you were right. He’s never going to see me that way, and...maybe I need to try looking elsewhere.” Shyly, she glances up to him. “...maybe at...someone who already sees me.”

Nerves showing through his expression again, Sasuke dusts pink across the bridge of his nose. “...I’d...I’d like to try that. I know the year’s almost over, and...maybe we’ll end up apart once college starts. But...I really do like you, Hinata,” Sasuke offers in a rare moment of openness. “So...yeah. I’ll let you know when I’ve got some time where we can...do something. Hopefully a day will line up, right?”

She nods, smile back in place. “Okay. Here, I’ll...give you my number. And we can...text about it later? When you’ve got a moment?”

“Yeah, sure.” With digits exchanged, the pair stand in silence for a moment. “...y’know, I...wasn’t expecting you to do that. You really caught me off-guard,” Sasuke admits with a huff of a laugh.

“I f-figured I would,” she agrees with a laugh of her own. “But...well, one of us had to say something, right?”

“Yeah...glad you did.”

“...me too. Anyway, I...better get home. Homework and all that,” Hinata sighs.

“Yeah, same. I’ll text you later.”

“Okay!” Giving a beaming wave, she takes off toward the bike rack as Sasuke makes his way to the parking lot. There’s a happy little flutter in her chest. It was a bit of a bewildering experience on both sides, but...for once, she’s glad she took a leap.

Now to see where it will take her…!

                                                     .oOo.

     (This is a sequel to days 149, 168, and 183!)      More sportsverse! And I'm slowly making up my behind days xD With this I'm just one behind now, though I'm not sure when I'll have time to be 100% caught up. October is gonna be busy both irl and in regards to writing, so...we'll see!      Anyway, we have Hinata leading the charge for once! Nervous, blushy Sasuke is best Sasuke. And I like Hinata having her bold moments...especially when it's something like this! We officially have a relationship going, woohoo! Maybe another prompt will let me write a date xD We'll have to see!      But yes, for now I've got some irl stuff to get done, but! Thanks, as always, for reading!

[kpopchangedme]

You agreed to meet Jinyoung for a coffee date, what could go wrong? Surely you are not going to run into Im Jaebum on the way there… Right?

Starboy-Masterlist || M A S T E R L I ST

Protagonists: Baseball player Im Jaebum / You / Dr. Park Jinyoung

Word Count: 2.2k

Genre: SFW | University | Baseball | Romance | *Socially offensive language* – Mini-Series

Lysandre’s note: Repost because I wanted this chapter on my main ;)

Staring at your reflexion, you barely have time to avoid the pair of rolled up socks Makayla throws at your head. She boos, sitting on the small bed of your dorm bedroom with her arms crossed, clearly disapproving your choice of outfit.

“At least show some cleavage. Let the poor shaman have hope!” Laughing, you pull your black sweater over your head to change into something more appealing under her expert gaze. “I thought you hated dating by the way…”

“He’s still a doctor, not a shaman! And I do hate dates... And I totally told him that...” Although, you didn’t exactly mention to Jinyoung about your last messy breakup. You choose a cute embroidered raspberry blouse, slipping it on and showing it off. “He said that if we met by ‘coincidence’ in a coffee shop it wouldn’t be what he’d call a date –” Makayla frowns, skeptical. “– but fate.”

“Ugh. Are you kidding me?” You laugh at her cringe, deciding her lack of comment meant she approved of the blouse. “Did he actually say it aloud or texted you that corny crap, what century are we–”

“Aloud.”

“Well, fuck me.” She finds her phone in the sheets of your unmade bed to tap at the screen, angrily. “And I can’t even get a text back!”

“Sungjin would text you back...” You pull your tongue at her, siding with your classmate for his desperate crush on that hopeless girl. “He’s a decent guy, it’d changed you from those football players.”

“Joke’s on you, my last victim is a golfer! I don’t know y/n… I kinda live for the thrill of being left on read.” At that, you can only shake your head in disbelief.

She might like to tease your dating phobic ways, but she’s as bad as you when it comes to commitment. While you usually avoid guys altogether, Makayla always seems to only get involved with the ones she knows will never be interested.

“You should wear that with your pale jeans, your ass looks fantastic in those!”

“Ooh, great idea, thanks!”

“Also, please put on lingerie!”

“Tst – This is a coffee non-date! I won’t jump him or any–”

“Hot guys can sense that shit.” You hesitate, pouting as Makayla wiggles her brow suggestively. “What if he drops his coffee on you and gets scared when he sees that horrible skin-coloured monstrosity through your soaked clothes?” Makayla rolls to the side to grab a lace bralette on your headboard and throws it at you. “Wear that, he’ll love it! That one screams ‘Please doctor, pour hot liquid on me!’.”

You study the pink floral lace between your fingers, feeling heat rush to your face as you remember the last time you wore it. You can still recall the feel of Jaebum’s hands; his fingers sliding the straps off your shoulders, his lips sucking your nipples through the thin lace...

“Yeah – Um, I think I’ll just go with the ‘monstrosity’ for today, it’s the only one that doesn’t show through the fabric.”

What’s with you, thinking of that stupid pitcher like that? You’re about to go on a date with a handsome med Resident. Somewhere on the floor, your phone dings from under a pile of rejected outfits. You hurry to fish it to look at the text, anxious.

Park Jinyoung: I’m going to be getting coffee at a very random coffee shop (the one on the corner of Wall & College) in about 15 minutes… [18:44PM]

You smile dumbly reading it just as another one comes in.

Park Jinyoung: (Not that I would ever expect to see you there... This isn’t a date or anything!) [18:44PM]

“Oh my god. You’re smiling at your damn phone y/n! Just leave already, before I kill myself!”

___

10 minutes later and you’re standing in front of the coffee shop, too nervous to move. It’s been a while since you dated – not that this could be considered a real date – almost two years. You run a hand on your blouse, smoothing imaginary wrinkles. Unfortunately, it’s when you finally decide to enter the coffee that he, exits it.

And Jaebum isn’t alone, he’s with another one of his teammates, one you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet. When he sees you, there’s a flicker of dread in his eyes, but in a second, he’s back to his usual composure. Which is horribly unfortunate, because now he’s walking straight at you and you have virtually nowhere to hide.

“Hey y/n”, he smiles sheepishly, disregarding the fact that you were evidently trying to walk by without greeting him.

“Hey.”

“Hi”, the player you don’t know nudges his friend with his elbow. He’s a bit shorter and very very handsome. Although, beautiful would probably be a more appropriate choice of word. “I’m Mark,” his smile is so white and wide it almost blinds you.  “And you are... Y/n...”

“Yes… That’s me…” You deadpan reddening, and Jaebum wiggles from one foot to the other. Now you’re unhealthily curious about what is said of you in their locker room, you bite your lips.

“Y/n”, Mark repeats as if you needed to be reminded. Does the baseball team have a secret black book with conquests names, or what? Clearly, that guy is in the known somehow. Tilting his head towards Jaebum, he adds: “The Creative Writing girl...” Mark giggles, the sound surprisingly irritating and you stare at him, shocked.

Creative Writing; a class you took to force yourself out of your comfort zone after your break up forever ago. You didn’t socialize, so it’d be surprising that guy remembered you at all – if you truly were in his class.

Mark turns to the pitcher, poking him with his elbow again. “I wasn’t aware you guys knew each oth–”

“I really wanted to tell you, about that night at the club,” Jaebum ignores him, keeping his baffling coolness despite the obvious teasing. “I’m so sorry, I was horrible. I’m a jerk and I wanted to apologize ever since, but I don’t have any way of contacting you or–”

“It’s okay Jaebum, it’s in the past – I don’t care – So don’t feel bad about it, these things happen. We were both drunk.” You clench your teeth, forcing a polite smile. If he truly felt like apologizing, he knew you worked at the clinic, he knew where to find you. It took you three weeks to digest his outburst, but you’ll stick by your not caring resolution. Even if in the end it truly makes you a bitch.

“The club…” Mark looks confused, gaze darting between you two until something seems to connect in his mind. “Oh, the club! Y/n!”

“Right, we’re fine then”, Jaebum’s sly smile falls and he brings his left hand up to scratch his neck, uncomfortable. Despite yourself, you note that he still seems able to move his arm and bend his elbow easily – not that you’d care. “Thank you... For forgiving me, it’s a relief.”  

“It’s nothing!” You take a step in the direction of the coffee shop, but Jaebum moves aside at the same time, blocking your way. “I a-actually need to go.”

“Yeah, sorry”, he avoids your gaze, inadvertently moving at the same time as you again.

“Our campus is so small”, his friend Mark makes the same high pitch giggle sound again, causing you to turn to stare. “The girl from Creative Class is… Y/n.”

“Are you sure?” You ask, surprised he seems so entertained by all this. “I took that class forever ago and I–”

“One year”, he grins, overly confident, “with Mr. Yachnin, you sat next to us for the whole trimester.”

“You were in that class too?” You frown at Jaebum with skepticism. You’re pretty sure you’d remember if a guy looking like him sat next to you.

“I… guess so...” He shrugs, exchanging a look with his friend. “Anyway, sorry again, have a great day!” Finally stepping away from your path with success, Jaebum pushes Mark forward, forcing him to walk.

“Bye, y/n the Creative Writing girl. I hope to see you around a lot more!” The other player laughs again, obeying his teammate reluctantly. “Come see us play Saturday!”

AH! As if.

You wave back at him, frowning. It’s so weird to think you shared a class with them without knowing. Of all the classes related to sports you took over the course of your studies, you had a random art class together. Surely that’s why Jaebum said he thought you were in the Art Dep the first time you met. It makes a lot more sense now, but he’d have to have recognized you. Again, he was right that night when he said you knew nothing about him. You don’t even know what he’s studying, you just assumed it had to do with sports since most athletes are in Physical Ed.

You’re almost pushing the door of the coffee shop when you decide to do something completely useless. Jaebum and Mark have stopped walking and are now absorbed in a heated discussion, several meters away.

“HEY, I almost forgot!”, they both twitch when you yell, although you only keep your eyes on the tallest one. “Im Jaebum!” He opens his mouth perplexed, and you laugh, entertained by his confusion.

“I do know your last name, Starboy!”

Without waiting any longer, you push the door of the coffee shop, leaving the two confused baseball players behind. Jinyoung instantly stands up and waves when you walk in, looking so handsome you stop in your tracks. Your wide smile, a remnant of your amusement freezes a bit, turning to an awkward grin. You can do this. This is just a coffee break and Jinyoung seems like an amazing guy.

You can totally nail this non-date.

“Hi y/n,” The young doctor tilts his head to the side, smirking as you walk up to him, “fancy running into you here.”

“Hi,” you giggle, sounding like the stupidest girl in the whole world, but he doesn’t seem to mind, gazing at you warmly. This time, you don’t feel as intimidated as he takes you in. Your makeup and hair are on point, clothes evidently carefully selected for this very moment. You are okay, you are in control of your variables, or so you repeat to yourself mentally like a mantra.

“Wow, you’re gorgeous.” Jinyoung sighs, slightly dazed, as though influenced by your thoughts.

“T-Thanks,” His eyes crinkle as he flashes his perfect teeth, watching you get shy, “you too.”

His compliment sounded sincere whilst yours is half-mumbled, unable to do him any justice. He’s even more handsome than the first time you met him. Today he ditched the dress shirt in favour of a casual white tee, dangerously tight on his chest, and pale jeans. He also came without his glasses and, although he still looked godlike with them, it seems to make his eyes pop-out even more. You struggle to hold eye contact, too flustered, hopefully, you won’t be awkward for the whole date. You want to feel less anxious, be more comfortable, but don’t know how. It’s been too long. Jinyoung doesn’t even seem to notice how out of it you are when he puts his hand in the middle of your shoulder blades. He barely touches you to guide you to the lineup in front of the register, but it still makes you mentally freak out.

“Since we’re both here at the same time, only by pure chance. I think we should grab a cup of coffee together, y/n. Surely it’s a sign.”

“Oh, a sign?” You laugh stiffly at his joke, nervousness perceivable. “Right, what were the odds of us meeting here, today, at 7pm? It’s not like we planned this.”

“Well, I like to make my own odds.” Jinyoung nods, eyes anchoring themselves in yours with all the confidence in the world. At the moment, you can tell he’s not the type to ever have been hurt or rejected by a girl. How could one say no to such a guy anyway? “My father always says we should never play the waiting game and should strike while the bat is hot.”

“The iron?” You snort, reassured a bit by his easygoing playfulness. It’s true that Jinyoung was nothing but smooth and funny on your first encounter. You have no valid reason to feel so stressed when he’s obviously trying to make light conversation. “Your father sure sounds like a wise man.”

“Not at all.” Jinyoung chuckles, shaking his head slightly. “I probably shouldn’t listen to what he says, he’s both awful at relationships and idioms.”

“I see.” His palm is warming your back, and you lean closer to his shoulder, unthinkingly.

“Either way, date or not,” Jinyoung talks softly this time, for only you to hear in the crowded coffee shop, “I’m glad you said yes, happy that you’re here with me now.”

Your heart skips a beat at his confession, but the doctor just smiles, turning to the lineup in front of you as if it was the most natural thing to say. Unbeknown to him, you stare at his profile in awe, finally allowing yourself to be happy you came too and starting to relax.

Starboy-Masterlist  ||  M A S T E R L I ST