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writingsbychlo · 4 years

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let it snow | joel dawson

word count; 20,746

summary; the night is made for doing things you probably shouldn’t do, and the mornings are for running away from them. except, for when you’re snowed in, and trapped with your problems for who knows how long.

notes; this is based vaguely on the movie ‘two night stand’, but very loosely, it does not follow much of the idea at all, just the basic outline. you absolutely do not have to have seen the movie to read this.

warnings; smut, reference to unprotected sex, very light (accidental) slut shaming, that’s about it.

It took you a moment to realise that you weren’t in your own bed when you woke up, startling a little as you came to the realisation. Your walls were not painted blue, and you definitely didn’t have a desk that messy pressed up underneath the window. In fact, your bedroom didn’t have a view like that at all, your bedroom window looked straight out into New York city, and the alleyways behind some dodgy fast-food restaurants.

This was a nice view, calmer roads and little houses, fields sprinkled with snow became visible the more you sat up, and you hadn't remembered it snowing this heavily last night. Sure, you’d been rather preoccupied, and okay, maybe it had been snowing a little bit, but this looked excessive. Although, it would explain the deep chill in the air right now.

You were still a little foggy, jumping slightly as hot breath washed over you from behind the bedding pulling as another body shuffled, and you were stiff all over. Then, it hit you. Reckless, a few drinks in with your happily loved up roommate and her boyfriend, who made you feel more and more painfully single every time you saw them, before you’d retreated to your bedroom, tipsy and secretly bitter, and checked some dating websites. A cute guy, some witty jokes, a funny conversation, and then him.

Everywhere, all at once, a quick train ride and some frantic kisses, your clothes being stripped from your body as that same mouth moved lower and lower, sweaty and hot and barely stopping to ask questions before you were waking up now, a little bit panicked and filled with ridiculous regret. Rubbing a hand over your eyes, you forced yourself to roll over, as calmly as you possibly could, to try and take in the sleeping man beside you.

Messy brown hair, the same shade as dark chocolate, your tongue tingling at the thought of the sweet treat as you liked your lips, resisting the urge to reach out and see if the stands were as soft as they looked. His face was half-hidden within the pillow, slumped down into it, but pale skin reflected little brown moles, his hair beginning to speckle with a light tracing of stubble, the tingle of which was now beginning to make itself known again between your thighs. Long eyelashes on closed lids hid his eyes from you, but you had a distinct memory of them, burned into your mind.

Warm pools of amber and gold, swirling browns that glittered in the low light that had taken over, like flickering candles and pools of caramel, a shade of whiskey that you wanted to be drunk on, beautiful and bright from all the times he’d looked at you. He was handsome, you couldn’t deny that, an odd surge of pride rushing through you as you congratulated yourself on at least being able to pick out somebody physically perfect to have a one-night stand with in your self-pitying loath.

The blankets were sitting around his middle, one hand stretched out a little towards your side of the bed, long and veiny fingers, and you remembered a little just why he’d driven you so wild now, those same veins making tracks up his forearms, disappearing just before his biceps. He was toned, but not overly so, the muscles along his chest standing out, a smattering of dark hair between them, and you could finally remember tracing the slight definition of abs with your tongue, before you’d been tracing something else, and your face flushed with heat as you remembered just how much of the man before you you’d seen.

It felt scandalous now, to be sharing abed with a stranger whom you could barely remember, and to know exactly what he looked like naked, or how he sounded while moaning as he came, but to not even know his last name, or to fully remember the address that you were even at. It was dirty, it was filthy, it was wrong. Oh, but it had been so fun, an experience that everybody should have at least once in their life, a naughty little secret, the one night stand you picked up at a bar, or through a friend, someone you’d look back on fondly once you were ten years older, married and settling down, and as you thought about it more, your lips were still flicking up in a smile.

You’d laugh about it one day.

Slipping from the covers, you tried to find your clothes, not wanting to linger any longer, not wanting the awkwardness of having to deal with stunted small-talk and forced politeness as you tried to adjust to the morning alongside him, someone who was still a little fuzzy in your mind, and your clothes were scattered around the room within easy access, a fortunate happening that made you thank whichever god or deity might be watching you right now.

Sipping your jeans back on, you wiggled a little, trying not to make the flooring creak underneath you, and only pausing long rough to put on your socks, shoes held in hand as you adjust your jumper on your body, a hand running through messy hair to tame it. The man shuffled, and you froze, watching as he paused for only a moment, before flipping over and away from the side you’d been sleeping on, a sleepy huff sounding from him, but he was still snoozing heavily, and you let out a little sigh. Your coat was hanging on the rack, and you grabbed that too, anticipating ho grateful you’d be to have it as you battled against the freezing cold that was surrounding you, toes chilling more and more against the concrete, but you didn’t want to wait much longer to leave.

A scrap of paper, a post-it note from the pad in the hall and a pen that barely had any ink left in, but you scribbled down a few quick words, pinning it up to the corkboard beside the door, and nodding to yourself as you deemed it good enough.

‘had a great time last night, thx.’

With a smiley face and a sign on your name to finish it off, you were undoing the catch across the door, the chain rattling slightly as it fell loose, and you winced, waiting to see if you’d woken him again, the studio apartment he resided within offering little in the way of walls and doors to muffle the muted noises of your escape. When you deemed it clear, your hand sealed around the door handle, clicking it open carefully, and pulling the door towards yourself.

So close, the corridor in sight, but the alarm beeped loudly, and you jumped, the computerised voice startling you so violently that your whole body jerked a little, and you went wide-eyed. You closed the door, hoping it would stop, but the beeping only intensified, and your heart raced in your chest.

“Shit!” Your voice was hissed out in a whisper, and you panicked, hearing the man in bed begin to stir a little, and in a last-minute bid to try and reclaim what little dignity you had left, not wanting to be caught sneaking out, you tore the note back down from the pin-board crinkling it slightly and tiptoeing back to the bedroom. Placing your shoes and coat down quietly as the man began to surface, and you tucked yourself back under the covers on the opposite side, pulling them up to your neck and faking a yawn as he pushed himself up with a groan, sleep broken.

He wandered away from you, your eyes diverting from his body a little bit as the covers fell away, and you were grateful to find that at some point he’d pulled his boxers back on, because you weren’t sure you could handle any more embarrassment this morning. The beeping came to a stop, a mechanic voice informing you that the alarm had been rest, and he was rubbing at his face and yawning as he wandered back through.

“False alarm.” His voice was still raspy, filled with sleep and cracking a little.

“That’s so weird.” He only hummed in acknowledgement of your words, before he was shaking himself down, settling back into the bed and rolling onto his side, away from you as he fell right back into his slumber, and you sat up. “Bummer that it woke us up. I should probably get going anyway. I had fun, though!”

“Thanks, I think.” He was still half-asleep, barely processing your words, you picked at the sheets a little, trying to decide whether or not you were sufficiently polite enough to be able to leave yet.

“It was perfect for.. y’know.. what I needed. So, thanks, Joe.”

“Joel.” He mumbled, your brows furrowing as your legs swung over the edge of the bed, feet hitting the floor, and a loud creak sounded out under your sudden weight on the floorboards.

“What?” He huffed, deciding that sleep clearly wasn’t a luxury he was going to reclaim, and he pushed himself to sit up, pillows popped behind him.

“My name, it’s Joel.”

“What did I say?” Your fingers were doing up your laces, ignoring the burning heat of his gaze on you.

“Joe. My name has a little ‘L’ at the end. Joel.”

“Right, yeah, my bad.” You cringed a little, picking up your coat from the floor, and pulling it up your arms, an amused look on his face as he watched you.

“Did you sleep fully dressed?”

You looked down, shrugging a little and swallowing thickly as this got more and more awkward, and this wasn’t exactly how you’d pictured the morning after your first one night stand going. “I, uh, got cold.”

“Uh-huh.” You patted your hand at your sides, not sure what else to do, and he stretched his arms out, rolling his head from side to side, before looking at you again. “So, do you want to get some breakfast? Or do you normally just take off?”

“Normally?” He paused his stretching, looking up at you, a confused expression flicking across handsome features, and he made a vaguely confused noise, as though he didn’t know what he’d just spoken. “You said ‘normally’. Like, as if I do this so often that I’d have a normal and abnormal version of it.”

“That’s not what I meant. I have no idea how often you do this, I just thou-”

“I told you last night that this was my first time doing this, or even anything remotely like this!” You remembered that part clearly, because you choked a little on your words when telling him, and then he’d laughed breathlessly and kissed you, while pushing you back into his bed, and your face flushed as you remembered the exact moment, graphic detail almost disturbing.

“Yeah, but, c’mon.” You raised your brows at him, hands sitting on your hips as you stared at him, hoping your face portrayed the fact that you absolutely did not know. “(Y/N), c’mon. Do you really expect me to believe that this is your first one night stand, ever?”

“Yes! Because it is!” He stared at you blankly, before shrugging a little, seeming to accept it, but you were still feeling distinctly judged. “The only reason I’m even here is that my roommate and best friend had her boyfriend over, and I was feeling particularly lonely in the holidays, and they were, y’know, about to.. so, I had to do something, an-”

“No, yeah, you were sexiled, or whatever. I remember that. It’s just, surely this isn’t the first time your roommate has wanted to sleep with her boyfriend while you were home, so this can’t be the first time you’ve.. yeah.” He waved his hands, motioning between the two of you, and your arms crossed over your chest, glaring at him.

“I am sensing some distinctly judgy vibes coming from your side of the bed - which is odd, considering what we did took teamwork - and I haven’t even done anything worth judging!”

“There’s no judgy vibes coming from this side of the bed!” He laughed a little, shaking his head incredulously at you, and had your anger not been reaching its peak, you probably would have been a little more embarrassed. “Honestly, I really admire what you did. I wish more girls were that forward.”

“Forward?” You seethed, rolling your eyes at him. “There we go with that ‘slut’ thing again!”

“Wha- what ‘slut thing’? I’m not calling you a slut!” He moved now, standing up himself from the bed and you averted your eyes, letting him scoop up his shirt from the floor and tug it on over his head. “I’m calling you a girl, who went over to a stranger’s house at midnight. If only there was a word for that.”

“You know what, screw you!”

“That was a joke.” You stormed past him, hearing him chase after you with his own laughs as he tried to suppress them. “That was a joke! I’m sorry, bad timing.”

“You invited me here, just remember that!”

“That’s not quite how it happened, but it doesn’t matter.” He was biting at the inside of his cheek to contain his smile, fixing you with an amused gaze. “Look, why don’t we just have some breakfast? I make really good oatmeal, with a little smiley face made out of jam.” He almost had you, your resolve breaking just a little, before he was snickering to himself again. “And it’s not slutty at all.”

“Save your stupid oatmeal, I think I’m just going to take off.” You swung the door open, a bitter smile on your face as you looked back at him. “Thanks for having me, it was just awesome getting to know you. Have a great life, Joe.”

“Okay, cool, well, I’m just going to assume you did it on purpose that time, because I already told you a bunch of times that it’s Joel with an ‘L’.”

“It wasn’t, but don’t worry, you just have a stupid name!”

“Great.” He huffed, no amusement left in him as he stared at you with frustration. “Well, ‘bye! Lovely having sex with you!”

“Wish I could say the same!” You hissed, his jaw dropping a little, before his eyes were narrowing.

“Sounded like you had a pretty good time last night.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear.” You were prideful and mean, and you’d probably feel bad about it later but right now it was the only way you were getting through this disaster of a morning. “Especially when it’s something like ‘Hey, Joel - cool name.’ Like, what is that? Sounds like the first draft of a name!”

“Okay. Fuck you, (Y/N).”

“Fuck you, back!”

It was a weak ending to the argument, but you didn’t care, the door slamming behind you as you stormed away, quick to hold your coat closer to your body as the temperature between the apartment on the halls was radically different, your breath clouding in the air even from within the building, and you located the staircase.

It was only four floors up, the building being rather oddly constructed, only two apartments per floor, and it was unusually quiet behind all of the doors. When you finally reached the main entrance, remembering him coming downstairs to let you in last night, you undid the catch, your shoulder pushing against the fogged up glass as you made to leave, and a confused and slightly pained cry sounded from you as the door refused to budge even an inch.

You tried again, before you were wiping at the glass, to clear the condensation and try and see what the blockage was, but you quickly discovered it wasn’t fog but ice. Moving over to the window beside a door labelled ‘laundry’, you were met with the sight of snow piled up high, almost three feet up to reach the base of the window, and the roads weren’t even visible. You hadn't realised just how heavy the snow had gotten, and how bad the extent of it all was, until now, where you could see the

“Oh, no, no, no.” Panic flooded through your system as you realised just how screwed you were, trapped in a building with no way out, and your phone was dying, and you weren’t even sure whether your roommate would be up in time to come and find you and clear the snow before the battery died. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

Pulling up google, you were quick to check the news reports in the area, finding that the snow had increased and come down heavily overnight, it was a city-wide issue, and there was no way that they’d be getting anywhere near where you were for hours, if that. It was still snowing, albeit not as heavily, but they were prioritising inner-city roads and train lines, not little apartment blocks on the edges of cute fields and open space.

Of all the people you could choose to hook up with, you had to pick the person who was living in the most inconvenient location for a snowstorm.

Glancing around, you realised this was it, you were just going to have to hunker down for a few hours, and in all fairness, it could be worse. At least it was clean and smelled pleasant. Settling yourself down against the cool concrete flooring in the edge of the room, you stretched your legs out before yourself, daring to tap the ‘call’ button on your phone, and bringing it to your ear.

You waited, listening to it ring all the way until it went to voicemail, and then again, and again. After three times, and a whole 5% of what little battery life you had left remaining, you gave up on your roommate, knowing that if it were you at home, you’d be snuggled up cosy in your bed and still fast-asleep too. Switching the device off to conserve power, your head fell back, resting on the wall. Most wonderful time of the year, my ass.

“No, it was super fuckin’ weird. Totally fine, and then suddenly everything is a screaming match an-”

You cursed under your breath, the one voice you had wished you wouldn't have to hear again, followed by rhythmic bouncing of footsteps coming down the stairs, and you glanced up, offering a small wave to the person whom you’d hoped never to have to see again, and his brows furrowed, pausing where he was stood.

“I’m gonna’ have to call you back.” Tucking his phone into his pocket, he took the final few stairs slowly, coming to stand before you, and you pushed yourself up from the floor, brushing the dust from your pants. “What are you still doing here?”

“Blizzard. A whole bunch of snow piled up and now the door won’t open.”

He turned back to look at it, adjusting the basket in his arm before placing it down on the floor, and moving over to the door. Your arms crossed over your chest as he did, watching as he pushed the barred handle down, shoulder ramming into the door, and a grunt left him as it refused to move. He tried it again, before rubbing at his arm lightly, and moving away to peer out of the window just like you did, a little shocked at just how much it was, and you rolled your eyes at him. “I told you.”

“I was just trying to help, there was no need to be rude.” He muttered, and you scoffed once again, turning away from him as he picked the basket back up. He wandered away from you, into the laundry room, disappearing from sight, and you sat back down on the floor.

You heard him test the taps, water still coming through them miraculously, the metal and water within not having completely frozen over, and you brought your legs up to your chest, arms crossing over your knees and chin balancing atop them, preparing yourself for a long while of being bored. It was after many clicks and dials, the soft beeping of the machines as they rumbled to life, that you heard him appear once again, dirty Adidas scraping against the floor, before he came to a stop in front of you.

He looked at you for a minute, seeming to analyse whatever thoughts were going through his head, and you raised a single brow at him, prompting him to speak sooner rather than later. “You can come back upstairs, if you want.” You stared at him for a further minute, jaw dropping a little, and he tucked the laundry stock under his arm. “It’s going to be hours until those roads are cleared, even if they do unblock the doorway. You’ll freeze down here, and you haven’t eaten anything. I’ll make you some breakfast.”

He offered his hand, and sliding your palm against his, he pulled you up from your position on the floor, dropping your hand and spinning on his heel to guide you back up to his apartment. It was awkward, to say the least, and you rubbed your hands together to try and warm them back up, the chill in the air beginning to seep into your clothing and cool you to the core.

When the door opened back up, you let out a little groan, wishing you’d suppressed it better but being caught off guard, and you heard the man before you huff a laugh as your eyes scanned over the small space heater that was set up in the corner, warmth radiating from it and spreading across the apartment. Hanging your coat back up on the hooks by the door, you shuffled through the apartment, not too sure what you should be doing now that you’d returned to the scene of the crime from which you’d fled.

You chose to simply follow what Joel was doing, repeating his name like a mantra in your head so that you didn’t mess it up again, and taking a seat at the round table with a few mismatching chairs around it within his kitchen, watching as he clattered about with pots and pans at the stove. You busied yourself with your phone, finding that you at least had a signal, and could access your social media.

Instagram and snapchat were filled with videos and photographs of the snow, taken aesthetically from the windows, roofs and balconies of people who were lucky enough to be in their own homes, curled up with steaming mugs of tea and the loves of their lives to take pictures from behind frosted glass of the winter wonderland that was more like the bane of your existence.

You replied to a few texts, and messaged your friend again to update her, leaving it there for her to read whenever she came back around to consciousness, to tell her that she didn’t need to rush, and that you’d at least found yourself somewhere to keep warm and safe. Your head snapped up when a steaming bowl of oatmeal was paced down before you, smelling delicious with maple syrup and fruit, a spoon clattering down beside it before the scraping of the chair opposite you was ringing in your ears.

Poking at it, you couldn't help but notice the smiley face sitting on top, the syrup beginning to sink in as the blueberries scattered over the top were almost half-submerged, looking a little wonky but still adorable, and you looked up at the man who was already tucking into his own, finding him staring at his own meal in silence.

“Smiley face.”

Your voice cracked a little with your whispered words, but his eyes met yours, pausing only a second before the edges of his lips were flicking up in a gesture of a smile, and one shoulder rose and fell in a weak shrug. “Told you I would.”

You only nodded, spoon stirring at the contents of the dish, mixing it all together and the face on the porridge disappeared as you blended the flavours, before lifting a heaped spoonful to your mouth. Blowing on it carefully, you took the mouthful between your lips, this time successful in holding in your little sounds of appreciation as the food hit your tongue. It was delicious, you couldn't deny that, warm and satisfying as you tried to fight off the cold that was still threatening to creep in.

It wasn’t that you hadn't worn suitable clothing, but you’d only worn a camisole and jumper with a pair of leggings that were undoubtedly on the thinner side, because warm clothing hadn't been your main concern the night before when they were only going to be peeled from your body an hour or so later, discarded to the floor. Now, you were deeply regretting that decision.

You also hadn't realised how hungry you’d been, because the headache that had been forming, throbbing behind your eyes with a dull ache, was beginning to recede, the anger that had been dwelling within your system was fading, and you were allowing your mind to replace it with guilt instead. You’d been a little crass this morning, yelling and lashing out at Joel when it had been your fault that you felt like shit, succumbing to the sensual temptations of nightfall and your loneliness, and blaming your decisions on everyone else when the sun had risen.

“Look, we’re going to be here a while.” You jumped, spoon clanging against the edge of your dish, and Joel tried - and failed - to bite back his smirk at the amusement of having scared you out of your thoughts. “Why don’t we just pretend like last night never happened? Start over again? You can stay on one side of the apartment, I’ll stay on mine, we don’t even really have to interact. We’ll just coexist until the snow is cleared, and then we can part ways and never meet again. Sound cool?”

You let out a breathy sound of amusement, nodding your head as relief flooded your system. “Works for me. Clean slate?”

“Great.” He nodded, that flickering look of amusement passing over his face again, and he reached a hand out across the table. “Hey, I’m Joel. Your roommate for the next couple of hours.”

You paused, letting out a sigh as he arched his eyebrows in a silent question as to whether you were going to leave him hanging, before you accepted the outstretched hand and shook it. Giving him your name in return, he nodded his head, before he was standing up, and taking both of your bowls away to the sink, dumping them into the soapy water that he’d already prepared so that they could begin to soak.

Crossing your legs under the table, and your nails tapped for a second, silence filling the room for a few minutes, and you desperately searched for something to say that you could use to fill the silence. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

His voice sounded almost as strained as your own, but you let out a little sigh at the fact that at least he’d broken the tense silence between you both, and you hummed. “Yeah, that's good with me. Do you have a phone charger I can use?”

He turned to look at you over his shoulder, hands still submerged within the sink, but you waved the device at him as he took it in. “Yeah, I’ll grab it. You can go and pick a film; remote is around there somewhere. Pick something good.”

You were more than eager to get away from sitting idly at the table in awkward quiet and waiting for the hours to pass, each tortuous minute making you wish you’d just remained downstairs alone, slowly freezing into a statue. The couch was large and plush, slightly worn seats but it only made it look more inviting, a plethora of cushions and pillows laid out for you to settle into, and just as he’d said, the controls were already out on the coffee table, a few coasters and random pieces of stationary covering the surface too.

Switching the television on, you waited for it to boot up, finding that he had netflix downloaded, and there was a list of films in the back of your mind that you’d been waiting to watch, and you flickered through them all as you stared at the screen. Narrowing it down, you felt like a comedy might be a good choice, lighten the air with something easy going and funny, nothing too intense, and the couch dipped at the very opposite end as your company sat as far away as he could, leaning against the other arm of the couch but dropping his phone charger down onto the space between, an olive branch extended in the form of a tangled phone wire.

“How about ‘Jumanji’?”

“Good film.” He mumbled, and you nibble don your lower lip, before he was letting out the breath he was holding and turning towards you. “Second one is on here too, we could watch them both. I haven’t seen that one, just the first.”

“It’s a plan.” You confirmed, clicking play on the movie and crossing your legs, leaning over the side of the couch to try and locate a socket, pushing the plug into the wall, and hooking your phone up the power, the device buzzing in your hand as it began to charge up.

Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart were an entertaining pair on screen, and as the group began to navigate through the jungle, you let yourself become immersed in what you were seeing on screen. It wasn’t all that hard, because Jack black was hilarious. The occasional echo of a laugh from one or both of you would crack the silence when something happened, and the picking of loose threads on your jumper had begun to stop as you settled a little more into the situation, your anxiety settling and not needing to be quite so stiff.

When there were only twenty minutes or so until the end of the first movie, your phone buzzed, and then again, a series of rapidly incoming texts, and flipping over the device, it was revealed to you as your friend. Swiping it open, you pulled up the texts, chuckling to yourself at the frantic collection of broken messages that she had sent to you.

[soph 🌹] only just woke up, so sorry!!

[soph 🌹] just checked news, no way to get to u!!

[soph 🌹] roads all blocked, wtf, when did this snow come down??

[soph 🌹] kinda funny tho.

[soph 🌹] only u would go for a hookup and get snowed in there.

[soph 🌹] is he at least hot? tap that again. fill the day with hot sex??

You scoffed, but your lips were forming a smile, and you could feel the glances that were being cast your way every couple of seconds, choosing to glance up and return the look as he turned to face you once again.

“My friend just woke up, she’s finally learning about the snow.”

“Did she know you were still, um..” He scratched at the back of his neck, other hand casting around the apartment. “-out?”

Heat flushed your own cheeks, before you were nodding your head, and he seemed or accept that, silence forming between you both once again as he turned to look back at the TV screen, but stretching out with a little more comfort, long legs crossing at the ankles from where they were extended before him, and he lounged back a little more.

> that’s definitely not going to happen.

You were only given a moment of reprieve, before your phone was chiming again.

[soph 🌹] why not!! not like you’ve got anything else to do

> probably bc we're not exactly getting along. civil at best.

She didn’t respond after that, leaving your message on read, and you assumed that she’d become preoccupied with the man you guessed would have spent the night there with her, and once again, you were envious of her for being at home and comfortable in her own space, when instead, you felt like you were walking on eggshells.

The majority of the second movie was spent more on taking in the details of the apartment around you, instead of the plot line and characters. Posters hung up on the walls, and you wondered how he could afford to live here, the place was nice, but there was nothing here that suggested another person lived in the apartment, but there was no way a college student could afford a place like this alone, unless his parents were paying for it. It was a nice area, the kind of place you could live with if you had kids or were elderly, and you were pretty sure on your way over here the night before that you’d seen someone walking a dog, making it the picture-perfect neighbourhood.

College textbooks and stationery were around, a stack of notebooks and text printouts sitting on the little table before you, and it was almost fifteen minutes before you built up the confidence to lean forward and take them all in with a little more detail. He watched as you went, your eyes moving to meet his as you waited for permission, but he never stopped you, so you picked up the first book that was on top.

‘Art within Literature: The Importance of Illustrations’

“Didn’t have you pegged for an art kinda’ guy.” You mumbled, and you heard him chuckle, before he was sitting up a little straighter, moving across the couch closer to you just slightly, to see which one you had picked up.

“Not the first time I’ve been told that, actually.” He grabbed at the controls, your eyes flickering up to the screen as the sound of the movie cut off, replaced by the boring drone of the local news station, but right now, it may as well have been the most important thing in the world as the two of you perked up to listen. Placing the book back down, your legs folded underneath yourself, and you secretly had your hopes up that they were going to be getting around to this end of the city soon.

It took a while, the list of places that were being cleared was working out from the inner city in circles, your hopes falling more and more and you listened, getting an update on the weather about how it was expected to be even colder tonight than it had been last night, and the snowfall wasn’t expected to stop anytime soon, but instead, you would be here even longer than expected. The earliest that there were any plans for the road to be cleared in this area was tomorrow morning, and sadness was once again spiking within your system, feeling the man beside you sag with just as much disappointment.

“Guess I’ll set the couch up for you, later.”

“Thanks.” You hoped your lack of enthusiasm didn’t show in your voice, because you truly were grateful, and he stood up, wandering away to his bedroom and grabbing the plastic woven basket he’d been using earlier as he went, presumably to start up another load of laundry. When the door to the apartment closed behind him, you were left in silence once again, and you turned down the volume and picked up the next book that had been on his pile.

This one was a sketchbook, that much was clear as soon as you opened the book, and his full name was written across the front page, information on how to return it if it came up lost followed it, smudged fingerprints from graphite and coloured chalks were also along the corners. Flipping the first page, you were caught a little off-guard by the image you saw, yet not entirely surprised.

Clearly, his passions lay with fiction and fantasy, the name of what you assumed to be some kind of ancient Greek novel, much like ‘Iliad’ or ‘The Odyssey’, because a range of different creatures and monsters were scattered across the pages beautiful drawings, incredible details and shading, and you’d never seen anything quite like them. You wanted to trace your fingers over them, but resisted in fear of ruining the delicate art, and flicked through the pages instead.

At the top of some pages the book titles changed, inspirations from different famous works, some you knew and some you didn’t, but the drawings were always perfect. When you reached the final page, you placed it down, guilt once again running through your veins as you remembered the way you’d snapped at him this morning, because the more you learned about him, the more you realised he wasn’t all that bad, and he was probably a pretty decent guy, if you’d just given him the chance to be.

Getting up from the couch, an idea was forming in your mind, a way to at least try to pay him back or make your appreciation known, and you found yourself again in his kitchen, hands on the cupboard doors as you began to look through them.

They were mostly empty, not much in place but enough to make it work, you were sure of it, you could whip up something out of all of it, and you moved across to have a look at the contents of the tall refrigerator hidden in the corner.

“Need help finding something?”

You startled, turning to look at him and closing the fridge, and his hands were on his hips as he stared at you, your arms wrapping around yourself gently as you shrugged. You couldn’t blame him for being a little putt-off, you were just a stranger after all, but you wanted to at least try and make proper amends with him, and so you let yourself be unbothered by the frustration flashing over his features.

“What are you looking for?”

“I was just seeing what you had in.” You waved a hand behind yourself, swallowing thickly and taking a small step around the dining table towards him. “I was just seeing what you had, because I was hoping to cook dinner for you, maybe? Y’know, as a thank you for letting me stay with you, and keeping me warm and all, even though I was rude this morning.”

“Oh.” The tightness in his shoulders loosened, his body slumping a little, tension melting away, and a bashful look flickered over the anger, taking its place as he tried to muster a smile for you. “That would, uh, be nice. Thanks. I don’t have a lot in, though.”

“You really don’t. Do you just survive on junk food and pasta?”

He laughed, a genuine laugh at that, before he was standing before you and reaching over to the cupboards, pulling out a packet of pasta, and holding it out to you. “What’s wrong with junk food and pasta?”

“Nothing! But it’s all you have!”

He only grinned, opening the fridge and standing to the side, double-checking what he had in. “Well, I’ll have you know that I make a great minestrone, and that’s what I was planning to have for my dinner tonight. You can join me.”

“I don’t know how to make that.”

“Well, I’ll teach you, and it’ll change your life. I swear it.” He closed the fridge, leaning back against it with a questioning look on his face, and you shrugged, but you felt a lot more comfortable already, the simple banter between you both mending a broken bridge.

“I was supposed to be cooking you dinner though.”

“You can be my sous-chef, how about that?” Now that was a deal you could work with, and you shook his hand, this time it was filled with giggles and wide smiles, as opposed to the last time you’d come to an agreement over breakfast only a few hours ago, the beginning of the day bringing much brighter prospects than the early morning had. “Now, what do you want to do until then?”

That was a good question, and it took you a minute to think about it, eyes glancing around his apartment for inspiration, pausing on the television stand with boxes of games stacked up underneath, and you lit up a little. “How about board games?”

He groaned, loudly, and you found amusement in it once again, being that this was his apartment, and he was finding issues with his own methods of entertainment and possessions. “Nobody plays board games while sober.”

“It's midday! We’re not getting drunk at midday!”

It was scandalous, and you didn’t have much more space to give over to scandals within the next twenty-four hours, pretty much having reached your quota already, and a cheeky look flickered over his features. “Well, we don’t necessarily have to drink..”

“What are you suggesting?”

Your eyes narrowed on him, and he spun on his heel, not saying a thing but letting you follow him. He cleared the books from the coffee table, stacking them all away on the floor in the corner, before lifting up the fold in the middle. He reached inside, and you waited patiently, your jaw dropping as he revealed the item to you, looking more than proud of himself.

A bong, tall with green glass, and it was decorated and bejewelled along the bottom, stickers and actions figures stuck to it, the whole collections making you snort a laugh as you looked at him, before your hands were landing on your hips and a look that you hoped read as ‘seriously?’ written on your face.

“What, you don’t want to?” He waited a moment longer, nibbling on his lower lip, before sitting on the opposite side of the coffee table and finding his lighter. He also reached for the first box on the top of the file, producing a box with one word across the front, brightly coloured and you recognised it. “Suit yourself, but I am. I need something to get through the whole afternoon with you.”

The comment would have stung a lot more had it not been for the cheeky wink that he added onto the end to tell you he was joking, and you sat cross-legged opposite him, picking up the box labelled ‘UNO’ and tipping the deck out into your hands. He clicked at the lighter, waiting for it to spark up, before his mouth was meeting one end of the glass, the contents inside bubbling and gurgling a little as he inhaled, and you dealt out the cards.

He hummed, head tipping back, eyes closed as he settled into the feeling of his eye, and as though he could feel you watching him, his head fell forwards, eyes opening to look at you. “Sure you don’t want any?”

You waited only a moment longer, before huffing out, holding your hand out for them both. “Fine, hand it over.” He placed both pieces on the table, sliding them across the polished wood to you, and you picked them up. Clicking on the flame, you adjusted it in your hand, lips pressing to the cool rim of glass, swilling it a little for good measure, before you were lighting up the end.

Steamy smoke curled up into your lungs as you inhaled deeply, warmth racing through your body as a tingling kind of feeling ran through your throat, tickling and making you grin, in a way that you were familiar with and yet hadn't been accustomed to in a long time. The buzzing feeling raced through your body, already kick-starting nerves and reactions that had felt dormant for a long time.

You hadn't been to a party, a real and exciting college party, since your break up. You’d locked in and sealed yourself away ever since your heart had been broken, and it felt good to adventure back out into the world like this, even if you were locked away with a guy from halfway across town whom you’d known for about twelve hours. “Okay, you were right.”

“Feel better?” He grinned, holding his hand out for the device, and for a little while, the two of you simply shared it between you, letting that initial tingle grow into a proper buzz the world around you beginning to slip away into a haze. Your vision was soft around the edges, slightly out of focus, and the world felt a little more comfortable. Spreading your legs out underneath the coffee table, your back leaned against the couch, feet in his lap as he sat with his legs crossed and folded under him.

When you’d decided your high was enough, you’d started with the games. ‘UNO’ had brought on rivalry and chaos, the two of you raising your voices to the point that you’d been yelling at one another, throats going a little sore as you cursed and laughed, not quite sentient enough now to make the best calls at the game, and so it had felt like it had dragged on for hours, before you had finally been the champion.

He had challenged you to a rematch in the form of a board game called ‘Frustration’, and the two of you had been so busy playing that the time was slipping away around you, the board being flipped by you as he began to win, counters scattering across the floor, and he looked completely and utterly insulted at it, before cracking up laughing with you once again.

After that, you had sprawled all of the games out over the floor, some of them being team games that you were unable to play together, and you’d refused to play a drawing game with him, because you’d peeked at his designs, and were scared to showcase your own drawing in front of him, worried that he’d completely put you to shame and leave you embarrassed.

Poker had been too much of a challenge, half of the pieces for the monopoly board were missing, and you’d done every round of Mario Kart at least once by the time it had come to turning off the console under the TV. Joining you by your side, the two of you were slumped lazily into the couch cushions, shoulders pressed together as the bong sat between you, fresh hits racing through your systems to keep everything exciting, but the thrill of the act itself was beginning to die off, and you were once again out of things to do for entertainment.

At some point, the light outside of the windows had faded, the clumps of snow that had been left along the windowsill were still rising, flakes still falling in flurries from the clouds, except what had once been visible in the day was now dark, the low light of the lamps in the room spilling golden light out across the walls and carpet. Rolling your head to the side, you took in the man sitting before you, watching as he tapped his feet repetitively on the coffee table to the beat of a song you didn’t recognise.

“I looked at your drawings.”

“What?” He paused, twisting to look at you, and he sat up a little further.

“I was being nosey. Earlier, I looked at the drawings in your sketchbook.” His gaze flickered to the leather-bound book in the corner, stacked up with the rest of his belongings, before getting up and putting the bong away, folding the edge of the table back down, and wiping a hand over his face, cheeks tinted pink, and you weren’t sure if it was from the warmth of the room or out of embarrassment. “They’re incredible. Some of the best illustrations I’ve ever seen, actually.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. I could never draw like that. I can’t even draw stick men without them being wobbly, sometimes.” He smiled again at that, and you found an odd feeling running through you at the idea that you were able to make him smile, your stomach clenching and twisting as he looked at you fondly, shaking his head a little, eyes dropping to the floor.

“I don’t get a lot of practice with it, I can’t get any apprenticeships yet because nobody wants to hire someone who’s only experience is in one element. Mine being fantasy-sorts, I suppose.”

“Will you draw me?”

“What?” He looked a little startled, eyes wide, and you shuffled forwards on the couch, hand twitching to reach out and take his as you tried to reassure him, watching uncertainty flick over his face. “I don’t really have experience with drawing people. More the imaginary things, described but never seen, less to fuck up if there’s nothing to compare it to.”

“I don’t think you’ll fuck it up.” He swallowed thickly, moving to kneel on the other side of the table, his sketchbook in hands as he fidgeted with it.

“If I mess it up, don’t make me show you, okay?” You only nodded, and he hesitated a moment longer, before getting himself into a more comfortable position, searching through the drawers around him to find his pencils and equipment, laying them out and taking an extra amount of time to line them all up perfectly, and you were sure it was because he wanted to give himself a spare few seconds to hype himself up to it.

You waited patiently, just now beginning to process what was about to happen, and that you’d have to sit still for a long time, while he stared at you, drawing every highlight and flaw of you, while you remained steady under his gaze for as long as it took. When he was ready, you moved yourself a little more, sinking down onto the floor after rounding the coffee table, sitting at the side of it as he positioned you.

“Can you, um-” He tugged two fingers on his own t-shirt, and you looked down at your hoodie, the hood of it crowding around your shoulders, and you nodded, tugging it up from the bottom and over your head. A cool breeze swept over your skin, exposed with only the thin satin camisole hanging on your body to keep you warm, but you felt yourself light up on fire with the way his eyes swept over you. “However you’re comfortable. I’m just going to draw your head and shoulders, so, do whatever you want.”

You pressed your elbows to the wood, hand forming a loose fist and your cheek pressed to it, leaning like that, a slight ankle, and he nodded his head to himself, seeming to approve of the pose. Picking up a pencil, he studied you for a second, the nib hovering over the paper as he held it at an angle that couldn't see, perfect for him to work on though, before stopping.

Placing the pencil between his lips, he held it there, reaching forwards to pull a few strands of your hair free on either side, framing your face and letting them dangle there, curling one around his finger a little to make it twisted, before he was pulling back. “You’re so pretty.”

After that, he was working. Quick strokes of his pencil over the paper as he created the first outline of you, your head, where and how your hair would fall, your hand holding up your head and down to the spaghetti straps on your shoulders, quick movements, a lot of erasing, and very light brushes of the graphite over the paper. Once he was sure he had the form right, only a few minutes in, he started on the details.

His eyes, lingering on your face, licking at his lips to keep them wet as he worked, parted for short breaths, unaware of what he was doing and you resisted biting down on your own as you looked at him, trying to hold your position. It was hard, the look of concentration on his face while staring at your mouth, or the determination in his eyes as he held your gaze and yet was so far away, taking in every little detail, until he was rubbing his finger over certain spots to create shading, and create the minute detailed with finally sharped tips.

Your arm was sore and neck aching when he finally told you that you could sit up, and you rolled your head from side to side, loosening the muscles and tendons that had begun to lock up from the prolonged length of time motionless. He was clutching the pad to his chest, fingers tapping at the back, some slightly smudged with grey graphite, and you inched closer to him.

“Can I see?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” He tried to laugh at his own comment, but was nervous, and you placed a hand over his gently, pulling it toward you slowly, and he gave no reluctance, but wasn’t moving of his own accord. “Okay, you can look, but you have to remember that I’m not good at drawing people, and I’m still high as fuck.”

You’d almost forgotten about that, and it was just now clicking with you why you’d been bold enough to do something like model for a sketch, your inhibitions lower, the boldness of nightfall giving you yet another boost in something that you’d never have done earlier in the day. Taking it from him, you turned it around, seeing the nervous look on his face before you were looking down at the sketch. His own worries had prepared you for the worst, but as you looked at it, you decided it wasn’t all that bad.

There was certainly work to be done, but he had the basic forms down, even you could tell that. It was clear that his skill lay elsewhere, the detailing of things like fins and scales was nothing like drawing the subtle imperfections of skin and the dips and dimples of a face, the creases where a fist held a head up nothing like the folds along the back of a monster, but he certainly had a grounding to work from, and you loved what you were seeing despite it all.

“I love it.”

“You’re totally lying to me.” He mumbled, and you shook your head, placing the notepad down, and fixing your attention on him. “It fuckin’ sucks.”

“It does not! I think it's really good. Especially since you said you had no practice, I was expecting something bad. This is so much better than you made it out to be.”

His lips flicked up at the sides, his head raising, bringing him a little closer to you as he straightened out, feeling better about it all now. “You should’ve seen some of the things I drew in high school. My portraits were awful back then, but I was drawing people while in the car, so it wasn't the smoothest of working places.”

“Yeah, well, I think you’ve come a long way since high school, and I think you’re really talented.”

He hummed, eyes flicking down to your lips again, and this time, as he licked at his own, there was no excuse of artwork, or anything else, your heart jumping slightly in your chest. There was a moment, a second’s hesitation as you questioned whether this was what you wanted. There was time to stop, to pull back, his nose bumping yours lightly, warm breath washing over your mouth, and you were a second away from closing the gap, before loud knocking was sounding at the door, and making the decision for you.

Pulling back, his gaze went over your head, brows furrowing as he stared at the door. “Hello?”

You winced at the loud shout, and he mumbled an apology upon realising it, slight disappointment surging through you, but not as much as relief. You were growing more and more attached to this man, but at the end of the snowstorm, you’d still have to leave, and he was still a stranger. You were high, and the romanticism of the situation was morphing things to look rose-tinted and alluring, and you wanted to be of a rational mind to make a decision like that. “Hey, Joel! It’s Mandy, I was wondering if you would grab your stuff from the laundry room, so I can put a couple of loads through?”

His eyes went wide, gaze dropping to your own for a second. “Shit, I totally forgot about the laundry!”

His hand slipped down to yours, fingers lacing together as he tugged you up from the floor, handing you the basket that had been discarded hours ago, and he opened the door, an older woman who looked positively exhausted, arms full of boy’s clothing, and you pitied her knowing that she must be trapped in a shoebox apartment with a son who would be bouncing off of the walls and unable to burn off that energy.

“Sorry, Mandy, I forgot about it. We’ll grab it now.”

“We?” You muttered, the woman’s eyes flickering over you in amusement, and you were tugged out of the apartment and towards the stairs quickly, hearing the door close behind you, and the much slower steps of the tired mother as she trailed you.

The concrete was cold underfoot, especially the lower you got, and you hissed as your sock-covered feet hit the icy stone, never having had a chance to put on your shoes. Putting the container down, he opened it up, steam curling out into the air, even though the dryer had been finished for hours.

‘You couldn't have let me put my jumper on before we came down here? It’s literally freezing over right outside that window.” You mumbled, Joel turning to you, and he cringed a little, as though he had only just remembered the scrap of fabric you were wearing as a top. Pulling an armful of the warm clothing, he sorted through them, pulling a cosy looking jacket from within, and wrapping it over your shoulders. Heat seeped back into your body, warmed from the machine, and you barely noticed the mother entering the room, waiting for Joel to clear his clothes out, watching as you ripped the hoodie up along the front of your body, hood pulled up and hands made into paws by the long sleeves.

“You look cute.”

“I look cold.” You retorted, and he only rolled his eyes, but Mandy laughed, and that was enough recognition for you.

“Yeah, well, we can make some hot food when we get upstairs and you’ll be fine, how about that?” He sat the collection under one arm, offering his other hand to you, and you pushed up the sleeve of the borrowed hoodie, weaving your fingers with his as he guided you from the room.

“I’ve been waiting for this minestrone you’ve been boasting about. I need to see if it lives up to the hype.

“Hey, everyone loves my minestrone!” He backed his way into the home, dropping your hand in order to place down the basket that wouldn’t be looked at for hours now, you were sure. He ushered you into the kitchen, hurting you along until his hands were tickling at your sides and you were squirming under his touch, laugh loudly as he pushed you into the little room.

You worked alongside him, trying to take in the information he was giving to you but it was hard, because the little things he was doing were distracting you. The way in which his hands moved as he chopped the vegetables or prepare the meat, the passionate easy his voice sounded as he told you all about it, his eyes sparkling a little while instructing you, and the little jokes he’d make while bumping you out of the way with his hip, or guiding you around with nudges of his elbow or shoulders.

While cooking, he opened up a little, a story that you’d never have expected to learn from him, but he told you anyway. His parents had died in a car accident when he was young, too young to really remember them, but he’s been allowed to take several boxes of things with him to his foster home as he waited for adoption, and he’d taken his mother’s recipe book as one of those items.

When he’d been adopted, a man whose family had died and he’d become a foster parent, had helped him experiment with his cooking and drawing, instead of forcing him into typical paths for men to take, making him become a football player or a lawyer like he’d expected he’d end up after leaving the system.

A younger sister, also adopted from another family called Minnow, and a dog adopted from a shelter called ‘Boy’, and suddenly, in the space of time that it had taken to make the meal, delicious smell floating around you, he’d spilled to you his history, and you’d listened quietly as he got it off his chest, figuring out somewhere along the way that you were probably one of the only people to ever know this story.

You weren’t sure if that brought you comfort or not, whether he was telling you out of trust and connection, or whether he was telling you because he knew that you’d never see one another again after today, and so he didn’t mind sharing his deepest protected truths. During the heavy discussion, the nibbling of food and the time passing you by, the high you’d once claimed was beginning to fizzle out, everything coming back to sharpness once again, and yet somehow, just by being in his presence, you still felt that same freedom.

When you were sitting back at the table, he was staring at you with excitement now, watching as you lifted a spoonful of the concoction to your lips to try it, seemingly leaving behind the heavy conversation that had taken place as he simply moved on. You took a longer than needed time to assess it, humming contemplatively just to put him through his paces, before finally giving in.

“Okay, this is really good, I’ll give you that.”

“I told you so!” He cheered loudly, arms thrown up in the air, and you laughed a little, tucking into your meal, and wiping up one of the bread rolls that he'd placed into the middle of the table for you both.

You were tempted to ask him for the recipe, knowing that one day you’d be craving it again, and yet, you weren’t sure if you could, whether it would be appropriate or whether that would be crossing a line, to ask to take away a piece of something that he shared with his late mother.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.” You spoke, tearing off a mouthful of bread roll after dipping it into the soup mix, and chewing slowly as you waited for him to reply.

“Did you mean it?” You paused your chewing, confusion making itself known on your face as you silently questioned what he meant, stirring your dinner with your spoon as you waited for him to elaborate, and he swallowed his mouthful to do so. “When you said my name sounded like a first draft of a name.”

For the umpteenth time today, embarrassment and regret was flooding through you, and you took your time to finish the food you were eating, his gaze lingering on you as he waited. When you couldn't stall any longer, you sipped at your water, before giving in. “Yes, I did.” His mouth pursed into a thin line, and you reached a hand out across the table, trying to contain your amusement. “Like, a really good first draft, though, almost there!”

“Nice save.”

Silence fell between you both once again, eating food in a comfortable quiet, and once again the direct parallel to this morning’s porridge struck through you, only twelve hours having passed and yet absolutely everything was different between you both. You couldn't put your finger on what it was about him, something that had caught your attention the first time around had now got you captive again, and there was just something adorably charming about everything he did.

Handsome but bashful, shy but cocky, always making jokes but somehow being able to jump right into something deep and meaningful too, and you’d closed yourself off for so long that it was a little scary for everything you were feeling to come rushing back all at once.

You hadn't had a crush since high school, and you weren’t sure if you liked the idea of one forming now.

“What about the other thing, did you mean that, too?” You searched your mind, reliving that argument as you tried to work out what he was referring to, and you almost dropped your spoon as it all came crashing down, remembering the harsh words that you’d spat in the eat of the moment, and yet it didn’t make them any less true. You only nodded your head, and he let out a loud groan, pouting a little. “Well, that fucking sucks.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s really hard to do! Women are just better at doing that themselves, y’know? We don’t have to talk about it.”

“That doesn't help! You can’t just, like, drop a bomb on me like that; ‘hey, maybe you've never made a girl come in your entire freakin’ life’ and then say you don’t want to talk about it!” He pushed his empty dish away from himself, and your brows raised, arms crossing over atop the table, staring at him critically, and deciding you were finished with your food. “I want to talk!”

“No way! Guys can't handle constructive criticism like that! We’ll end up just like we were this morning, and then we’ll be back to square one! I like how we are now!”

“No! I promise you, I can take it. Just, help me out, here?” He reached out, pushing the dishes out of the way so that nothing was in the way, putting on his best puppy dog eyes. “You help me, I’ll help you.”

“What do you mean help me? You think you got pointers for me?”

“This isn’t a one-way street! Last night was awesome, but you could improve on a few things too. Guess you’ll never know, now, though.” He sighed, glancing off over your head, and you knew it was bait, some very obvious bait at that, and you hated to fall for it, but your own insecurities were getting the best of you, and you huffed loudly.

“Fine!” He turned back to you, a wicked smile on his lips as he realised that clearly, he had won. “I bite, you got me. Go!”

“Okay, this isn't just you, I just wanna’ make that clear to start with.” You raised a brow, leaning back in your chair, arm still crossed and listening intently. “What is with the whole lights off, thing? The fuck is that? If the lights are off, like you requested and I so gentlemanly obliged, I could be having sex with anything! I don’t want to be having sex with anything, I want to be having sex with you.” He paused, eyes darting away from you for only a second, and he wet his lips. “Or, y’know, whoever it is I’m with.”

“Lights on? Wow, and all guys feel this way?” He opened his mouth to reply, before you were letting out a loud ‘booing’ sound. “Duh! Girls hear that more than ‘hello’. That’s all you got?”

“Okay, okay, alright.” He smirked slightly, leaning forwards and resting his forearms on the table. “You, and by you, I mean women in general, do this thing where you stand up, and kinda’ turn away, and then get undressed, like, super-fast. Like you’re at the doctors or something, getting a physical!”

“I’ve never had any complaints about how fast I undress before. Most guys like naked me.”

“I love naked you.” He dropped his gaze, scanning along your body, and you threw a bread roll at him as you realised he was remembering you without your clothes on from the night before, the soft accompaniment bouncing from his head and rolling over the table. “Hey! I’m just saying! Naked you is awesome to look at, and touch, but what I mean is that you could make the getting to being naked part a little more exciting.”

“Exciting?”

“Yeah! You know, do that whole slow bra thing, take it off to the side. Drop it in that sexy way. Do that little ass thing with your panties, y’know, where you just-” He wiggled in his seat, demonstrating the little as movement that all girls did with their panties when they wanted to feel a little sexy. “All I’m saying is that guys like the undressing part too, make it more of a.. thing.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, actually. One more thing.” He paused, this seemingly the one he was most nervous about, and you leaned forward on your elbows, watching him lean in a little too, rolling his lips before speaking. “When I was inside of you, you did this thing. You started helping yourself a little bit, it kind of made me feel like I was being benched. Second-string, forgotten.”

“Duly noted.” You mumbled, and he shrugged a little, the space between you both going void of sound but crackling with electricity. “Is it my turn now?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t know who taught guys to do that alphabet thing with their tongue, but it kind of makes me feel like I’m Helen Keller being fucked by her teacher.”

“That’s not a fantasy of yours?” He faked shock, and you tried to cover up your laugh to keep the conversation as serious as you could, and he tried to still himself, nodding for you to continue.

“There was this one moment, during foreplay, where I was close to coming, and I’m pretty sure I subtly pointed it out. Do you remember what I said?”

“Uh, ‘I’m close to coming’?”

“Yes, that’s it!” He scowled falsely, unsure where you were going with this, and it was your turn to smirk a little. “Right after I said that, you totally switched up what you were doing. What was the thought process there? If you had me right there at third, home base in sight, why would you start running in a different direction?”

“Okay, got it. That’s actually helpful.”

“All my tips are helpful! Like, also, you waited for me to undress you. Which was awkward, and a little weird, don’t do that.” You were almost out of advice, pausing for a second to think. “When a girl helps out, that's a good thing! This is sex, not a competition, my ex was weird about that too, just embrace the team spirit, it makes it better for everyone.” He nodded, and you felt a little out of breath, but a weight lifted off your shoulders. “Oh! Yeah, you went too fast. I felt like I was being drilled for oil. Girls want fast, but also slow. Kinda’ felt like you were in a rush, had somewhere better to be.”

“Trust me, I didn’t.”

“Obviously.” You teased, and he grinned, taking in all the information you were giving him. “Lastly, I guess it’s just after. Like, as soon as we finished, you retreated to the other side of the bed like you’d planted a bomb down there. Stick around, hold a girl, count to ten or something. That one will get you a long way, trust me.”

“Cuddling. Noted.”

“Other than that, you were a perfectly adequate lover.” He gaped at you a little, and his whole body sagged.

“Adequate? What a way to boost a guy’s ego.”

“See, I knew this would happen, you’re-”

“Fine! I’m fine!” He reached out, placing a hand over one of yours, and squeezing comfortingly. “Seriously, now I know. I can make use of that advice next time.” He offered you a smile, and you tried to return it, nervous butterflies making you feel a little nauseous as you tried to settle yourself, no indication that he was angry or upset with you. “You said something about your ex in there, y’know. Is that why you broke up, crappy sex?”

You knew it was meant as a joke, something to lighten the mood, but your stomach dropped. “Uh, no.” You cleared your throat, hands pulling from his to clasp them in your lap as you looked away. “That would’ve been because I found him in our bed with one of my friends.”

The air went dead, silence encased you, and you heard the legs of his chair scrape on the floor as he pushed it back. Kneeling in front of you, he took your hands in his, forcing you to meet his eye. “I’m really sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up.”

“It’s okay. At least I know she isn't getting much.”

He chuckled, but it was dry and empty, and he reached up, brushing a thumb over your cheek. “For the record, I think he’s a dipshit. You’re an amazing girl, anybody who would cheat on you isn’t worth you.”

“Thanks, Joel.”

He stood up, pulling you with him, until you were standing up once again. “Go find another film. I’ll get us all sorted here. Anything you want, it’ll cheer you up.” You waited a moment longer, ready to do as he’d said, before a set of lips were brushing against your forehead, and your breath hitched in your throat. Pressing into the touch just a little, it was almost embarrassing how you reacted, how much you’d missed simple affections, how it felt to be excited around someone instead of just bored or dreading having to see them, the excitement of once again experiencing the thrill of something invigorating and new. “I’m honestly sorry for bringing it up.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Kinda’ is.” He mumbled, fingers playing with yours lightly where your hands were still hanging connected, and the whole experience was a little different. This wasn’t a near-miss kiss while high after the intimacy of drawing one another, nor was it holding hands in the rush to get to the laundry room while hopped up on adrenaline and a little embarrassment. “He’s a moron, and he didn’t deserve you. Neither did your friend, if she’d do something like that to you.”

“They deserve each other.”

“Atta’ girl.” He teased, squeezing your hand once more, before letting you go, and as you settled down onto the couch cushions, you had to try hard just to steady your racing heart as you scroll through movies on Netflix, perched happily along the couch, but it was a little chilly, the space heater was barely holding its own against the chill of the outside.

“You got any blankets?” You didn’t even bother turning your head as you shouted the words, still exploring the film choices, and this time, you went for something a little more exciting. A ‘Mission Impossible’ movie was always a hit, right? Everybody loves Tom Cruise.

“Yes, I do.” You jumped, never having heard him moving around, and he stood before you, a fluffy looking blanket bundled in his arms, and you made grabby-hands for it with a grin. He shook his head, slumping down beside you on the ouch, and you bounced a little with the movements he made. “What, you think I read your mind? This blanket is for me, but I might just share it with you.”

“Yeah, what’s the catch?”

“You have to smile, so I know you’re really okay.” You couldn’t help it, trying to bite back the grin on your face as you flushed with shy heat, and he whooped loudly upon seeing the expression. Spreading the blanket out across you both, his fingers brushed across your skin, tucking it around your thighs and over your waist as he and sure you were covered, before his arm was stretching out along the back of the couch behind you.

“You’re too smooth for your own good.”

“Don’t get used to it, I’m incredibly awkward and not nearly as brave, usually.” You rolled your eyes, nudging your shoulder against his but not bothering to say anything, and starting up the movie.

Tucking your legs underneath yourself, you adjusted the blanket, your feet cold as you lifted them up from the cooled flooring, and directing your attention over to your phone. It had been hours since you’d check it, since you'd even felt the need to know whether anyone else had been in touch with you, and even as that realisation came to mind, you still didn’t budge to collect it.

Earlier in the day, you had been bitter and wishing to be home, where you’d inevitably only be locked up tight in your own bedroom and watching movies to pass the time away, listening to Sophie and her boyfriend move around the apartment, trapped in permanently third-wheeling until the snow melted. Now, you were happy, knowing that you’d made a new friend, and that you were at least venturing back out into the world for the first time since having your heart broken.

A hand came down, fingers playing with the edges of your hair lightly, twirling a light strand between his fingers, and as you swept your gaze over the man a foot or so away from you on the couch, his eyes were still fixed on the screen of the television. His fingers brushed against your neck occasionally, and each time, you had to suppress the urge to shiver. It was an invitation, the changing for day to night once again shifting everything between you both, unspoken words to invite you closer, easy for you to choose to take, or not to take, and nothing would be said about it at all.

Your entire body ran over with goosebumps, and your fingers picked lightly at the blanket, unsure of which move you wanted to make. On the one hand, you could definitely take that step, move a little closer and risk falling into that again, or you could stay where you were, play it safe and not risk a thing. Fold your cards and wait for the next round.

“I’ll just be a minute, okay?”

You stood up, his hand falling away from yourself and the blanket laying down on the couch, and he nodded his head, a barely present smile on his face as he nodded his head, and you slipped away, giving yourself just a moment to think as you disappeared to the bathroom. Closing the door behind yourself, you leaned back against it, letting out a deep breath and trying to clear your mind, weighing the pros and cons of where this night might go.

Shaking yourself down a little, you felt the tension flee from your body, and you placed your hands onto the sink, staring at yourself in the mirror hanging over it. You were always playing it safe, always had, and maybe that’s why your ex had adventured and found excitement somewhere else, needing the thrill of it, because you never took risks.

If you hadn't taken a risk last night, you wouldn't be here now, and after all, you’d had a great day. Maybe it would blow up and backfire, maybe when the snow melted you’d never see him again, maybe it wouldn't work out, but you’d never know if you didn’t at least try.

“Oh, woman up. For once in your life.” You muttered, running the water and splashing a little of the cool liquid over your face, refreshing yourself with just how icy cold it was, a little hiss leaving you. Shaking your hands off and patting your face dry, you ran a hand through your hair, deciding you were ready. Uncapping the toothpaste, you took a small chunk from it on your finger, placing the blob onto your tongue and licking it around your mouth for freshness, doing the best you could to clean your teeth a little, before using your hands as a cup and rinsing with some water.

At least you felt a little fresher and more alluring now. A good confidence booster, because fuck it, you were all in.

Stepping back out into the main room, you undid the zipper on the hoodie of his that you’d borrowed, letting it hang open along the front, the thin satin of your camisole on display, the material falling away from one shoulder as it hung baggy on your body now that it was open. Upon your return, he turned to look at you, lips parting a little as his eyes flickered along your body, gaze lingering on the exposed skin of your shoulder, your arms, the midriff shown between the edge of your top and the hem of your leggings, before his jaw was snapping shut, and he met your eyes again, only for a split second, before looking back to the movie.

Lifting the edge of the blanket, you sat a little closer to him than you had been before, your arm brushing against his side as you got comfy, and you heard him let out a slightly shaky breath, fingers tapping against the back of the couch, behind where your head had once been, now further down the couch as you sat close enough to smell the lingering aftershave on his skin.

Five long minutes passed, and you almost thought you’d overstepped, that he didn’t want this as much as you thought he would, that the connection was one-sided, but then his hand slipped down, fingers brushing over the bare skin of your shoulder on the side where the jacket had dipped down, nails scraping slightly, before the rest of his arm followed. Slipping it around your shoulders, his hand hung over you, playing lightly with the spaghetti strap of your top, running along the silky material, under it, playing with it in slow and absentminded patterns, and you contained yourself from celebrating out loud, or doing something that wouldn't be considered as ‘playing it cool’.

You paused, giving it just enough time, the feeling of roughened fingertips rubbing along your skin, and after a moment, you realised it was being inched a little further over. As the strap fell away, falling over your arm again, his movements paused, everything going still for just a second, before his fingertips were pressing to bare skin again. Twisting towards him a little more, you pressed up to his side, lifting a leg until the lower half of your legs were tangled together as they sat ahead of you, propped up on the coffee table.

He hummed a little under his breath, your head adjusting to rest on his shoulder, and he dared to reach his fingers a little lower than just along your shoulder, brushing as far as the undersides of your collarbones, and you cuddled in a little closer to him still.

“I can’t stop thinking about what you said.” His words were gruff, voice low and gravelling as he kept his tone to just above a whisper, and you rolled your lips together for a second, trying to settle on your words.

“And what would that be?”

“Well, y’know, all the improvements I could make. I’ve been thinking about it.” You only hummed, fingers smoothing over his stomach and across towards his side until you were holding onto him, and the muscles underneath tensed and rippled under the soft cotton tee he was wearing. “But, I’d never really know if I was getting it right until I put it into practice.”

“Well, that does make sense.”

“Yeah, and I mean, I’d need someone who could tell me, give me real talk.” He was continuing on with the rouse, the playful energy between you both sparkling, and the movie was long-forgotten, simply becoming background noise.

“Makes sense. Someone to guide you as you go.”

“Exactly.” He mumbled, turning himself enough to drag the tip of his nose over your cheek, and you tipped your head back a little, making it easier for him as his lips brushed your cheek. “Know anyone up for the task?”

“I think I might know someone.” You whispered, hand coming up to lace into his hair, and he rumbled happily at the scrape of your nails over his scalp.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” You promised, and he grinned, shifting enough to let his mouth slant across yours, a kiss that was more than overdue. Lifting a hand to sit on his jaw, he pressed into you a little further, one hand still behind the couch, while the other was sliding down to find your waist, the blanket falling away and the movie becoming nothing but background noise as his lips worked softly with your own.

You’d expected hot and sloppy, but he was taking it slower this time, sweet and passionate, not nearly as desperate as you’d been anticipating, and your heart was racing in your chest with the tenderness in which he kissed you. Once the blanket was kicked from your legs, his hand dipped a little lower, smoothing around your lower back, and pulling you in towards him until you could drape a leg over his thighs. Settling into his lap, both of hands were sitting low on your hips, teeth grazing along your lower lip as the what between you both seemed to double, and you pressed a little closer into him.

“Put your hands, just-” You took a hold of his wrists, lowering his hands a little, your forehead pressed to his as you pushed them around until he could hold fistfuls of your ass through your leggings, squeezing tightly, and you keened into his touch. Rocking your hips down into his own, you gasped, his grunt at the feeling being silenced as your lips closed back over his, and he hummed happily when your tongue dragged slowly against his.

For each rock you made down into him, his hips were jumping, small thrust upwards to meet you, and it became more frantic with every little movement. He was growing underneath you, the material of his sweats doing little to hide the hardening cock that seemed to twitch and jump each time you dragged your core along his length, even through the layers of material, and you could feel yourself growing wetter and weather, uncomfortably so the longer your went, but the pressure was perfect, an orgasm already beginning to grow within you.

When the burn for oxygen became too much, he pulled back, lips worked along your jaw slowly, soft sucks that weren’t hard enough to leave bruises but sent sparks of electricity and excitement flooding through you each time, nips at your skin as he worked his way down your neck, until he was biting teasingly at the shoulder with the strap of your top still hanging over your arm, bare skin exposed to him. “You know, not a criticism, just a compliment, but you really got kissing down to an art.”

He chuckled against your skin, a little breathless, but still enough to make you tremble at the feeling, before he was making his way back up to you, nose dragging over your skin until his mouth could brush against yours. “Is that so?”

“Totally.” You mumbled, your hand slipping into his hair to hold onto a fistful as his mouth crashed back into your own, and he put those skills to good use. He all but knocked the oxygen from your lungs with the intensity of it, leaving your head spinning and lungs burning but you were unable to pull away, the addictive way that his mouth worked with your own, so sensual and intimate that you were flaring up with heat, and you finally knew what it felt like when people said there were fireworks in a kiss, because you felt as though the fourth of July was exploding around you.

“Bedroom?”

“Absolutely.” You mumbled, having to tear yourself away from his kisses, diving back in a few times, before finally, you managed to pull yourself away. You took his hands in your own, pulling him up with you as the two of you moved, and his hands found your hips, guiding you in your backwards walking steps as he followed behind you; foreheads pressed together, occasionally pressing sweet kisses to one another, giggles shared into the air between you until you came to a stop in the doorway.

Turning around, you paused, more of a laugh erupting from you.

“First criticism, messy sheets is a turn off.” He sounded confused for a second, mouth leaving where he had been kissing along your neck, his head coming up to take a look, and he huffed a little.

“Right, yeah, forgot about that. Let me just-” He moved away, on side of the bed to straighten the blankets out, pushing the pillows back up to the top end of the bed, and you helped out, smoothing over them until the job was done haphazardly, but at least it least it was no longer messy, and he stood on the opposite side from you, hands on his hips for a second. “Better?”

“Much.” He nodded his head, licking over his lips, and taking the lower one prisoner as his gaze swept over you, His hair was a little messy, cheeks flushed and lips swollen, and you were certain that you looked exactly the same, the tension between the two of you sizzling. You couldn't handle it, the two of you meeting halfway as you knelt on the bed, his body colliding with yours and lips meeting in frenzied kisses as you connected again.

He reached a hand behind his head, tugging his shirt up and away from his body, a delicious display of flexing muscles and veiny forearms as he discarded of it, shaking the hair that flopped down into his face free.

“That was hot.”

“All I did was take off my shirt?” He whispered, pulling back when you tried to kiss him so that he could raise his brows in silent questioning.

“We like that. When you do that whole ‘taking your shirt off with one hand behind your head’ thing. Plus, you just looked good while doing it.” He looked down at himself, before back up to you, hands cupping your face to bring you in closer to him, and he pressed a series of pecks to your lips, until you were laughing lightly and pushing him back with hands spread over his chest.

He followed you as you stood, and you undid the rest of the zip on the hoodie, letting it fall open, and down your arms slowly, and he watched it go, until the material was crumpled in a pile around your feet. Placing your hands on his chest, you pushed him backwards, until his knees were buckling against the mattress and he was sitting down, staring up at you with wide eyes and parted lips, waiting for your next move. With a finger under his chin, you tipped his face upwards, enough to be able to peck his lips, before you were stepping away from him.

Turning away, you heard him shuffling, the ruffling of material and the slight creaking of the bed, before it was silent, and you took a steadying breath. Crossing your arms over your middle, you tugged the satin top up slowly, brushing your own fingers over your skin, and you heard him groan behind you as it hit the floor, hair falling back down your back upon being freed from the material. Hooking your fingers into the edge of your leggings, you peeled them down your legs, bending at the waist, and removing them from your feet, slowly, before turning back to face him, clad only in your panties.

His eyes were half-lidded, and jaw hanging slack, only clad in his boxers now, but he was palming himself through the material as he sat propped up in the pillows, and you rounded to his side of the bed, one of his hands reaching out for you, and you took it, a gentle hold as his fingers weaved with yours.

“How was that?”

“So fucking hot.” He mumbled, the hand that he had been using to rub at his hard cock through his boxers came free, a wet patch left across the front of the pale checkered fabric, precum soaking into them and your thighs clenched at the idea of having that effect on him. Running the tip of one finger under the waistband of your panties, he tugged you a little closer to him still, before snapping the elastic against your skin. “What about these?”

“Figured you might want to do that.”

Your eyes dropped to his mouth, before meeting his gaze again, only a split second slip, but he was smirking, clearly having seen it. Before you could even process what he was doing, his arms had wrapped around your middle, twisting you around and lifting you to lay in the bed beside where he had been, your head in the pillows and his arms holding him up on either side of you, and you panted a little, the yelp that had left you making you breathless.

“Holy shit.”

“Couldn’t help it. You say dirty things and it makes me feel a little wild.” His legs were caging you in, moving lower and lower as he kissed his way over your collarbones, lips and tongue leaving wet trails between your breasts as he lowered himself further and further.

“Wild is good. I like wild.”

“Hm, I hope so.” He whispered the words, tongue grazing along the sensitive skin above your panties, before he was tapping at your hips with his fingers, and you were lifting them for him to shimmy your panties down. Once you were bare before him, you grew a little shy once again, legs snapping shut, and he chuckled, a hand landing on each knee, and he pressed kisses along the tops of your thighs. “Please don’t be shy, gorgeous. You’re so damn beautiful, you have nothing to be shy about.”

Squeezing his hands at your knees, you twitched a little, pushing yourself up onto your elbows to peer down at him, and he grinned, pressing a kiss to your stomach, before leaning up and pressing an equally quick but sweet kiss to your lips.

“Open up your pretty legs for me, yeah?”

You couldn't hold back, the way he was talking to you and touching you, loving caresses that soothed your nerves, and he groaned under his breath as your slick core was revealed to him. Legs bending at the knees, you planted your feet flat on the bedding, and he was able to settle on his stomach between them, hot breath fanning over your core.

His arms wrapped around your thighs, fingertips digging into them roughly, and he rubbed a hand up and down them slowly, the twitching in your gut coming to a still as he still managed to find time and sentience to ease your nerves as he pressed his mouth in sweet kisses along the insides of your thighs, biting a little at the top and chuckling as he felt you jerk in surprised shock. Lacing a hand into his hair just as his mouth moved to close over your core, you tugged lightly, his eyes flickering up to find yours. “What’s wrong, gorgeous? Did I mess something up?”

“No, no, you’re perfect.” Your words were panted out, and you were trembling while holding yourself up, but you shook your mind clear, trying to focus enough to break through the haze. “Just wanted to say thank you. You’re being such a sweetheart, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this confident before, so before my mind completely clears, I wanted to say that.”

He paused, a look flicking over his features to expose that he clearly didn’t expect that, and there was a much more adoring smile on his face as he processed your words. “It’s my pleasure, you’re worth it, and you deserve a guy to treat you like the special and incredible woman that you are.”

You choked a little on your breath, unsure of how to reply, so you swallowed the lump in your throat, nodding your head, before pushing his back down a little. “Okay, enough heart-to-heart crap. You can continue now.”

“As you wish, princess.”

He dragged his tongue once along your core slowly, and you took a sharp inhale of breath, the feeling of a hot and wet mouth working over you was something that you’d sorely missed, and while Joel had gone down on you yesterday too, this would be so much better and you already knew it. Instead of rushed and nervous, it was erotic and confident, sure in your movements, and sure that he could be the best you’d ever had, you could tell just from the way this night was going so far, that these memories would be burned in your mind for the rest of your life.

Rubbing a thumb over your clit, he chuckled at the way your thighs trembled slightly, before he was pulling away, diving in to replace his finger with his mouth. Lips sucking at the little bud, your fingers tightened in his hair, back arching at the feeling, and he licked over the bud, before repeating the process. Again, and again, and then, he was replacing his movements. Tongue flicking out, rapid kitten licks over the bud, and you squealed a little, thighs clamping around his head as you did, and you whined a little.

“Wait, Joel!” He paused after a moment, your entire body still tingling with the feeling of his mouth, but your legs loosened as he pulled them open, brows raising at you, and slick was already glistening on his chin. “Good, but can be better. Start slow, don’t go right in, tease me a little. Speed up when I’m closer, okay?”

“I thought girls hated being teased?”

“We can love it, if you do it right. You’ll know when to speed up, okay? Start slow, add a finger, then another, speed up when I’m getting close.” He nodded his head, a lopsided smile on his face, and he was taking your advice. He started slow, a long and torturous drag of his tongue over your core, and then again, before his tongue circled your entrance for a moment, barely dipping inside long enough to matter, but then he lapped at your core again. Lips sealing around your clit, he sucked harshly, your back arching up from the bed, your free hand finding purchase tangling in the bedding, and you moaned, loudly. “Fuck, yes, Joel. Just like that.”

He groaned into your body, the feeling reverberating along your skin, and one hand moved from your thigh, slipping along and disappearing from your skin until the tip of one nimble digit was circling your entrance, rubbing lightly across your weeping hole. Filthy sounds were already filling the room, and your mind was going completely blank, the only thing you could process right now was the movements of his mouth against you, tongue and lips working in tandem to drive you crazy as you bucked up into him, holding his face against your core as he slurped and sucked at every drop you had to release.

Slipping that finger into you, he had clearly taken our tip on teasing, because he only sunk it within you to the first knuckle, barely present at all, and yet your walls were clamping around him greedily, desperately trying to draw him deeper in as you felt him twist it a little, circling the finger and beginning to stretch you out, crooking it at the knuckle and tugging a little in your entrance as he began to pump it. A cry of his name left you as he bit down on your swollen clit lightly, the bud throbbing in response, and your entire body jumped at the sensation, loving the way he was taking control with it now.

Each time his finger dipped back into you, he sank a little further, his finger and tongue working in harmony, the same pace with their movements, and your entire body was layered in a thin sheen of shining sweat as he took you apart piece by piece. His hips were grinding down into the covers as he worked, the rustling of the covers giving it away, and he was grunting and growling against your every so often, his eyes closed as he enjoyed his motions just as much as you did, and you forced your hand free from him hair as you realised just how tight your fist had gotten. Just when you thought you might be getting used to this feeling, that you might be able to clear the fog in your mind enough to think straight, he sensed it, upping his ministrations.

“Fuck, Joel!” The coil in your stomach wound up ten times tighter in a matter of seconds as that dull tingling at your entrance made itself known, a second finger taking you by surprise as it plunged inside of you, and your back arched up so high your hips followed, borderline screaming as he picked up his pace. “I-I’m going to-”

“Come? Do it, come on, gorgeous. Give me all you got.” Faster movements, the tandem between his fingers and his mouth going to shit, as he continued to work his fingers in and out of you slowly, but his tongue was picking up his pace again. Switching between sucking and licking, you could barely process what was happening each time, and tears lined your eyes as you felt fire beginning to consume you.

Heat flooded your body, bliss filling every cell in your body and coursing through you until it was all-consuming, and you unravelled against him in a fit of squirming screams, his hands holding you to his mouth as he rode you through the pleasure, two fingers stretching you wide and scissoring you open each time, never giving up on his movements until you couldn't take it anymore.

You pushed him away, panting and gasping for breath, and his eyes were blown with lust as he pulled away, cheeks and chin shining with your arousal, your hand falling over your chest, feeling the erratic beating of your heart under your palm as your eyes closed, trying to contain the way you were feeling. Your throat was already scratchy, growing rough from the calls and cries of his name that you’d released.

“Good?”

“Is that even a question?” You teased, and he collapsed down into the bed beside you, wiping the back of his hand over his jaw, before you leaned in to kiss him, taking his lips with your own, and he let out a needy sound into your mouth as you did. He was rubbing at his jaw, pressing his lips lazily with your own as you kissed him, and he pressed you back down into the bed, leaning over you and letting his body press into yours.

One hand moved to his boxers, pushing them down, kicking them away until they were removed from his body. Leaning over you, a dripping cock brushed along your thigh, your leg raising up a little to rub against him, and he grunted into your mouth, biting down on your lower lip in warning, as he rooted through the nightstand to find a condom. Upon retrieving the package, he sat back on his heels, tearing it with his teeth and throwing the wrapper to the ground, a problem to be dealt with later, and he rolled the rubber along his length.

Long and flushed red, his cock was standing tall and proud, and you rubbed your thighs together a little, watching as he pumped himself slowly, eyes dragging over your body. You could see the cogs working in his mind, before he backed away from you entirely. Moving to the switch on the wall, he turned down the lights, leaving them on a little, but lowering them to a more comfortable level.

“Compromise?”

“I can work with that.” You offered, holding your hands out to him, and the bed bounced a little as he came to laying over the top of you. One leg was pressed between yours, and you shuffled, pressing yourself down against the muscle of his thigh, and a deep sound bubbled up from within him as you rode yourself against his thigh, kissing along his neck, and his head tipped back.

“For the record, I like hickies.”

You paused, a beat passing, before your mouth was sealing over the patch where his neck joined his shoulders, and he groaned loudly as you sucked at the skin harshly. Tipping his head back, his arms trembled a little dipping down until your chests were pressed together, and with every rolled of your core against his leg, your chest dragged over his, the friction making your nipples grown perky, and you whimpered into his neck, lapping at the spot you were abusing.

When you were finished, you pressed a sweet kiss over it, purple already beginning to blossom beneath the splotchy red on his pale skin, and he let out a shaky breath. Brushing your thumb over it, you smirked at the mark you’d made, before finally looking back up to him. Reaching a hand between your bodies, you took his cock in your hand, pumping slowly and watching as his jaw dropped slightly, before you were shifting your legs to accommodate his body and lining his length up at your core.

He rocked forwards, sinking into you slowly, and just like that, everything went fuzzy around you once again. It was like he was your only focus, everything was falling away until it was only him that remained, and your hands found his cheeks, pulling him down to kiss you. You were drowning in his touch, his hips nestled against your own as he gave you a moment to adjust to his size with you, that same twinge of an ache you’d felt this morning coming back in full force, but overpowered by the racing lust that was taking over.

When you felt ready, you clenched around him, curling your hips and feeling his cock shift within you, a gasp falling from you as the head of his cock brushed over your g-spot, and he took that chance to slip his tongue into your mouth. Hot and wet, everything felt like it was in overdrive as you lit up, and his hands were pressed into the mattress on either side of your head as he began to shift, hips drawing out of you, before sinking back in, and he took his time, moving slowly and waiting for you to tell him when he could speed up.

Lifting a leg up and onto his hip, he sank even deeper within you, your walls fluttering around him as you let out joint sounds of pure ecstasy, and his movements stuttered for only a moment at the feeling. One hand came down, fingertips digging into the muscle of your thighs so tightly that you’d be speckled with little polka dot bruises come morning, a sinful thought that made you head spin. You felt carefree, for the first time in your life, there was no doubts or anxiety, just the way it felt to be touched and cared for by him, the way his gaze swept so delicately over your face, or the way his lips puckered a little, curling up at the sides in a smile when your mouth pressed to his.

Hooking your hands under his arms, you encouraged him on, nails digging into his skin and dragging tracks into the flesh, his back arching up to push into your touch, and his pace began to pick up. He took his time, building the pace, and you’d never felt like this before. A high you’d never experienced was beginning to set in, your hips moving in time to match his thrusts.

He was panting into your mouth, hot and erotic as your foreheads remained pressed together, his lashes tickling against your cheeks, and every soft moan of your name that he let out made you want to scream out with pure bliss, because the way his voice cracked around your name made everything within you crumble. He made you weak, he made you completely fall apart, and you weren’t sure how or why, yet you found yourself loving it.

It was raw and exposed, your heart and soul open to him, and instead of crushing it like you’d grown to expect from everyone around you, he was taking care of it. You pushed up into him, pleasure surging through you, broken stutters of his name as he fucked into you, hard and fast, driving deep, and the tip of his cock was pressing to your g-spot each time, pinpoint accuracy as you weren't sure if he even knew that he was making stars flash behind your eyes.

“Joel, don’t stop! I’m so close!”

You moved, licking over two fingers, and making to slip them between your bodies to find your clit, to spur your orgasm on as best you could, but as you moved, he lifted a hand, snatching yours in his own and pinning it to the bed, and a loud moan rippled through you from the dominance he asserted. He seemed almost surprised, for only as second, before his brows were raising. “You liked that, huh? Shoulda’ told me.”

“That’s not general advice, you wanted general advice.”

He shook his head, leaning back down to brush the tip of his nose over your own. “Maybe I’d prefer it if you tailored the advice to yourself specifically. Tell me how to drive you wild.”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing, I like it when you take control of me a little bit.” He nodded his head, seeming to catch on, and he sat back leaving you laying in the bed as the angle changed. Two fingers prodded at your lips, and he raised his brows, waiting for you to draw them into your mouth, wetting the digits thoroughly for him. When he deemed them sufficiently slick, he pulled them back, trailing them down along your body, before pressing down roughly onto the neglected bud between your thighs, crying out for attention to push you over the edge.

As you tumbled into that bliss, he continued going, until your body was jerking and quivering underneath him, and you were crying out his name, clenching so hard around his cock that his head fell back as he gripped at your thigh with his other hand, kneeling between your parted legs and tucked snugly between your spasming walls. “Jeez, you’re so fucking tight.”

He collapsed down over you, sweaty and warm, covering your body with his entirety as he tried to catch his breath, and your eyes were still rolled back in your head, coming back to focus as you slipped back down to earth from the heaven he'd taken you to. “That was incredible.”

“You bet your cute little ass it was.”

You chuckled, feeling him shuffle, pressing a kiss to your shoulder. Locking your knees on either side of his hips, you flipped him over, his eyes wide as he found himself on his back, your hand finding his cock as you sank back down, shivering at the feeling as the aftermath of your last orgasm was still racing through you, and he let out a long and deep sound that vaguely resembled your name, hands finding your waist and pulling you the rest of the way down as he fucked up into you.

“You don’t have to, really-”

“You know, you’re pretty much the first guy I’ve ever been with who didn’t come first, and who genuinely cared about my pleasure.” Your nails scratched over his chest a little, making him shudder at your touch, before you were leaning down, hair drawing around you both, and he stared up at you in awe. “I want to make you feel good, too.”

He nodded, a hand tangling toughly in your hair, and he pulled you backwards, sitting up with you in his lap so that your legs could wrap around his waist more fully, your arms looping his neck, holding you as close as he possibly could. You whined at the feeling of your stinging scalp, loving the way he was manhandling you now, and he knew it too, his lips descending to your throat as he used his other hand to guide the movements of your hips.

“Tell me what to do, I don’t go on top a lot. Tell me what’s good, that’s what you’re supposed to do.” You were pleading with him, desperate to know how you could make him feel as good as you’d made him.

“What you’re doing right now is good.” He mumbled, but as you rolled your hips back down into his with what little space there was, his lips moving over your body until he could lean you back, taking a nipple between his lips and sucking one perky bud into his mouth. You cried out his name, his fist tangled into your hair to hold you still, and you tried to form thoughts, your first attempts at speaking coming out as broken stutters.

“Please, Joel..”

“Please what, gorgeous? Tell me what you need.” He cooed the words out, and you let out a desperate sound, your hips slamming down into his, and your hands found his chest, pushing him back into the bed, hearing the rush of breath he let out.

“Tell me what you want.”

He stared at you, blinking those beautiful brown eyes for a second, before giving in. “Honestly, I just want you to ride me like a pornstar. Go fucking wild, it’s so fucking sexy. When your tits bounce, and you slam yourself onto my cock, hair messy and a little sweaty, that's what I want.”

You nodded, swallowing thickly and bracing yourself on his chest, before you moved more solidly onto your knees, beginning to bounce against him. His jaw dropped, watching the movements of your chest, watching as you leaned back to show off the bouncing of your breasts before him as you built your confidence, and after getting past your anxieties, you were faced with the raging build of confidence that came with being on top.

He was staring at you like you��d put the lights in the sky, and you were, for once, glad that there were lights on to see him and for him to see you, to watch every movement you were making, because pure thrill was written on his face, adoration and lust as he stared, before you were taking one of his hands. Dragging it over your body, you sealed his fingers around one of your tits, pushing into his hands when he took control, fingers tweaking with your nipples, and he raised the other to do that same.

You were close, and you could tell he was too, the breathless way that he was beginning to chant your name on repeat, the way you were sure that the feeling of his cock tapping against every spot within you was going to be burned into your mind for the rest of your life, and the look on his face as he finally neared that peak.

“You look so fucking good. Taking what you want, riding me, absolutely perfect up there.”

“Only because that's how you want to see me, right now.” You whispered, and he shook his head, his hands finding your hips, waiting for you to lift yourself up, and as you did, he slammed you back down onto him, meeting you as he fucked up into you, and your body fell forwards in shock, barely catching yourself before your forehead hit his own, breath shared between you once again. His feet adjusted on the bed, bending at the knee to sit flat and he set a brutal pace, driving the both of you towards your final peak and he drilled into you.

Your eyes crossed, vision spotting, and a scream of his name was torn from you with force as you crashed into yet another earth-shattering orgasm at his touch, the sound of his cries of complete joy seeming muffled as he chased after you over the cliff, falling into orgasmic bliss. He rode the pair of you out, strained and weakening movements as your bodies trembled together, until finally, he stopped, completely sent off all energy, and you collapsed against his chest.

His heart was thudding against his chest under your cheek, your nails scratching lightly at the patch of dark hairs between lightly defined pecs, and he wrapped his arms around you. Rolling you to the side, he was reluctant to leave the bed, letting out a loud sound of distaste ta having to do so, but didn’t travel far, simply far enough to undo the rubber on his cock and tie it up, wrapping it in some tissues and dropping the crumpled heap into the bin.

When he came back over, he lay down beside you on his back, one hand under his head and the other stretched out towards you. As you lay on your stomach, shuffling closer to him, you lifted yourself onto your elbows, peering down at him with a small smile. “So, that was, like, the best sex ever. Right?”

You grinned, head ducking to hide the bashful expression you wore, but you were laughing nonetheless. “Ever.”

“I wish all girls were as cool as you. Like, sex would just be so much better if everyone just had that kind of communication, because, holy shit, that was mindblowing.” His hand came up beside his head, making an exploding noise as his fingers made the motion, as though his head really had exploded, and you grinned, feeling his fingers brush over your skin as he lowered it back down.

Quiet fell between you both, but it was comfortable, nice and easy-going, and you weren’t sure how to break the silence now, but neither was he, though it didn’t matter. When the temperatures that had risen in your body during your sinful act began to come back down, you found yourself cold once again, tucking yourself under the blankets and curling in a little closer to him, fingers brushing through his hair to distract yourself as he lay, staring up at you.

“Y’know, you said something, during it all..”

“You told me to give you advice! Don’t get pissy about it now.” Your joke was taken in good spirits, a loud laugh leaving him, and the burning gaze he’d mixed you with was broken for a few moments as his eyes closed to revel in his amusement, but when the laughter died down, he was looking at you again, with just as much intensity.

“Not that. You said you only thought you only looked good because I wanted you to look good.” His hand found your cheek, forcing you to find his gaze as he spoke. “That wasn’t true. You’re so fucking beautiful, and just because one dumbass broke your heart, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think of yourself as not being worthy. It only leads to more heartbreak. Don’t let his stupid actions take away from your value.”

“You know, you’re real wise on all this stuff.” His thumb brushed over your lips, and you puckered your lips to press a kiss to the pad of the finger. “Who broke your heart, Joel?”

“What makes you think I’ve had my heart broken?”

“Takes one to know one.” You whispered, and he let out a little sigh, gaze trailing off to stare at the ceiling.

“Her name was Aimee. We were together in high-school. We got into different colleges, and I was so sure we could make a long-distance thing work.” You cringed a little, keeping it internal, already guessing where this was going, but letting him talk. “We did phone calls and video chats, and I went to see her so often, every chance I could, in first year. But then second year came, and everything got busy, and I didn’t get to see her as often as I would’ve liked. I was waiting for the summer break to go and see her. When I got there, things were different, she told me it had changed, that she’d fallen for someone else and just didn’t know how to tell me. She figured we’d just fizzle out, that we had been fading. We broke up officially, but, it didn’t hurt her as much as it hurt me.”

“I’m so sorry, Joel.”

“That’s alright.” He murmured, fingers tracing up and down your arm, and you settled into a comfortable quiet once again.

You were hesitant to admit it to yourself, but you were growing rather fond of the man, your hookup having become so much more. The snow, the cold weather, two broken hearts and a stupid hook up site, and suddenly, you’d found someone who had managed to change your life in a lot of little ways, all in just twenty-four hours.

You turned, finding the man already watching you, lips curled up in a sweet smile and eyes lazily drooped, simply watching you as the thoughts and feelings raced through your mind, and yet, under his gaze, they all seemed to go silent. The worries, the constant surge of ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ all faded away, and you reached out a finger, tapping at the tip of his nose.

His expression somehow managed to morph into something even sweeter, practically giving you a toothache as his nose scrunched up adorably, before he was folding both hands under his head, moving to tangle his legs with yours, and simply sighing a little.

Golden and low lighting made his features seemed a little sharper, shadows on his face highlighting his jaw, cheekbones standing prominent and hair darker, and you knew just how soft it was, strands pushed back out of his face by you. The dark mark on his neck was making itself known now, and you were sure your own body would soon be littered in them, and you would check them all out with pride in the morning.

You turned to look at him again, drawing yourself back out of the spiral in your mind you’d once again fallen victim to, and meeting his gaze with a heatless huff. “What are you staring at?”

“Just.. you.” His brows pulled together a little, eyes sweeping across your face again in a way that made you feel raw and on the edge of your emotions. He lifted a hand, pushing your hair away behind your ears, before settling a hand over your jaw, and stroking his thumb across your skin slowly and soothingly.

“Yeah, well, don’t.” You whispered, voice cracking, and your gaze left his, but his touch never fell away, even when you tried to duck your head. “Don’t look at me like that, not unless you plan to act on it.”

“Oh, I would love to act on it. When this snow melts, I’d like to act on it properly.”

“Like.. a date?” You questioned, eyes flicking up to his for only a moment, and he was beaming what you did, toothy smile showing off his joy for only you to see.

“Exactly like a date, if you’ll have me?”

“Depends.” You murmured, shuffling in closer to him for warmth. “Can I share the bed with you tonight, or are you kicking me back out to the couch?”

He wrapped you up in his arms, pulling you down into his chest as the pair of you laughed, cocooning yourselves in the blankets with a series of rolls and twists, until you pressed up tightly together and locked in such a way. “There, now you’re not going anywhere.” He dipped down, pressing a kiss to your lips, one that you were eager to reciprocate. “Me and the bed are all yours, gorgeous.”

“I like the sound of that.”

#joel dawson #joel dawson x reader #joel dawson x reader smut #joel dawson/reader #joel dawson/reader smut #joel dawson love and monsters #dylan obrien joel dawson #dylan obrien love and monsters #dylan o'brien #dylan obrien #dylan obrien x reader #dylan obrien/reader #dylan obrien x reader smut #dylan obrien/reader smut #12 Days of AUmas

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littlemessyjessi · 3 years

Text

You’re a Hippie/Flower Child: BTS Reactions/Headcanons/Imagines: Plus Size Reader

Seokjin: Trade Fair

"Baby, how much is this?" Jin asked turning the tiny figurine over his his hand. "I think Namjoon-ah would like it."

"It doesn't cost anything, babe. It's a trade fair. You trade for it." you explained.

"But why not just pay for it?" he asked, eyes flitting to the booth owner. "How much do you want for it."

"That's not the point, babe. It's not about money. It's about trading good for good." you said.

"But I didn't bring anything to trade." Jin shrugged.

You laughed, "I got you, babe. That's why all the boxes. So look, lemme show you."

Jin watched as you pulled a box off the little wagon you were pulling along behind the two of you and set it on the table.

The vendor rummaged around for a bit before coming up with a keychain.

"I'll take this for the figurine." she said.

"It's a deal." you smiled and happily handed the figurine to Jin. "Pleasure doing business with you!"

You bid the vendor farewell and pulled Jin along to the next one.

"I love this, jagi!" he suddenly exclaimed. "What's next?"

You giggled at his excitement, "Well, we've got plenty to trade. We can get something for everyone AND the have a food section."

His face was priceless and he snatched the handle from you.

"What are we waiting for?!"

"Jin."

"What, what, jagi? We're wasting time!"

"Food section is in that direction, babe."

"Oh." -

Yoongi: Farmer's Market

"These tomatoes are fantastic." Yoongi said turning the produce over in his hands.

"Hmm?" you asked, peering at the plums.

"The tomatoes." he said. "They're fantastic. You want some italian food tonight, sweetheart?"

You finally looked away from the fruit to look at your boyfriend of many years.

He was still sleepy because it was early but the best time to come to the market was early.

His hair was pushed back out of his face, covered by the black cap and he had his glasses on.

You smiled and tucked yourself into his side.

He was surprised but a smile pulled at his mouth and he pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

"You ok, jagi?" he asked.

"I'm good. I just love you." you said snuggling into him.

“I love you too.” He chuckled, "So italian tonight?"

"Perfect." -

Hoseok: Thrift Store

You weren't in the least bit surprised by Hoseok's ability put together atleast ten outfits in the twenty minutes you'd been there.

Whether it was high end designer shops or the box you found in the basement... his sense of style was unmatched.

"I forgot how much I loved thrift store." he said, admiring the vintage oversized tee in the mirror as he tucked the front into his jeans.

"Tis truly a wonderland, kind sir." you teased. "You look amazing, babe."

"Thank you, jagi." he said before turning to look at you.

You'd managed to find a sparkly blue prom dress, white gloves, a purple feather boa and a tiara that sat a little crooked on top of your head.

"We're getting this." he said looking you up and down.

"Hobi!" you giggled. "I'm just messing around!"

"At least let me take a picture." he said and you nodded before striking a pose for him.

"New backgroooouuuuund!" he sang. -

Namjoon: Dumpster Diving

"Are you really checking me out right now?"

Namjoon tried to hide his laughter behind his hand.

"Well, you are hanging half way out of a dumpster right now, babe." he said reaching out and lightly slapping your butt. "And your ass is kind of in my face."

"Well, you refused to get in here and get this speaker." you said, brows furrowing when you could feel two large hands squishing the back of your thighs. "Joon are you actually feeling me up right now?"

"Well, again. It's right in my face." he said. "Besides, I'm keeping you from falling in."

"I'm not gonna fall in." you said. "I've done this plenty of times before. Here, take this. Half a box of beads. Hobi will like this."

"Cute." he commented looking at the little smiley face beads in the box. "Hobi-hyung will love this."

"As long as we don't tell him they came out of the dumpster or he'll whine about germs." you said before tossing a pink faux fur blanket over your head at Joon. "Here, for Jin."

"All of this stuff is still in the plastic!" Joon exclaimed. "This is so wasteful."

"You're preaching to the choir." you said. "And I am taking that blanket out of the bag right before I give it to Jin and TELLING him it came the from the dumpster."

"You're evil, babygirl."

"I just want to watch him freak out." -

Jimin: Van Trip

"Babe, I'm so excited. This is awesome. We can eat out every night and pick cool places and see the sights and be cuddled up at night." Jimin said excitedly as he helped you load the van for the month long adventure the two of you were planning to take during his MUCH deserved time off.

"Yes to everything except eating out every night." you said.

"Ah, jagi." he whined. "Why?"

"Because you'll learn fairly quickly that that gets old quickly. Best to do some light grocery shopping. Besides, I have a full cooking set up. It's stored under the bed. All we have to do is open the back doors and I can make you whatever you want. " you said as you rechecked the list.

"Ok but sometimes we can eat at a restaurant." he said.

"Of course we can." you shrugged. "But I think you'll like us grabbing a few things. You like when we cook together and if we do it this way, then we can go further out to some of the really scenic places without having to worry about driving an hour into town just for food."

"You have a point." he said, coming up to wind his arms around you and nuzzle his nose into your neck. "I'm just excited, baby. You and me, nobody else. Just enjoying some alone time."

"I know where your going with this and that is exactly why I made sure that there's a good mattress." you teased.

He gasped, "Babe! I was trying to be sweet and you make me out to be some kind of sexual deviant!"

You laughed in his face, "Jimin, you and I both know that you are a pervert."

He pouted childishly before smirking, "But you love it."

"I do." you laughed before winking at him. "You know I'm actually kind of surprised at how excited you are over this."

"Why?" he asked.

"I mean, this isn't new to you. Perhaps, roughing it more than you're typically used to but you're a musician, Jimin. You've been on tour buses and you've done the camper van thing before."

He shrugged, "It's a different story when it's six other guys and staff and management."

"I guess that's true." you said.

"This time, I don't have anyone else but my beautiful girlfriend who will be trapped in a small enclosed space with me." he whispered.

"Way to sound predatory, Chim." you smirked.

"You ruin everything." he said glaring at you before eventually cracked. "But I can definitely feed into this primal kink if you want. I'm open to trying new things."

"Oh my god, Jimin."

"Go ahead. Keep saying it. Nice warm up for later."

"What have I done to deserve this?"

Taehyung: Animal Sanctuary

You couldn't help but smile as you looked over at your boyfriend in the passenger sleep.

It was early.

Painfully early.

He was barely awake.

You came to a stop and gently ran a hand through his hair.

"Wake up, baby." you said gently.

"Oh, jagi. I'm so tired."

"Oh, I know you are but I promise it'll be worth it. This will heal you like nothing else."

"You're gonna let me go back to bed and hold you?" he asked, eyes still closed.

"I got something you might find better." you teased, poking his tummy.

"Not possible." He said before stretching. "But I'm listening."

You grinned and pointed out the window.

You watched as realization kicked in and the giant smile that spread across his face.

The local animal shelter.

"A sibling for Yeontan?" he asked excitedly.

You laughed, "Well, if you really want one we can but I also just thought it would be good for us to go in and see all the animals. Everyone needs some love and I thought we could spend some time petting some pups."

Taehyung was absolutely glowing.

"I knew you'd like it." -

Jungkook: Tie Dye

"What color for Jimin?" you asked, plunging the hoodie into the water to soak it.

"He'll like anything." said Jungkook as he looked at different hues of green for Hoseok. "But he does like blue and black."

"Cool." you said, snatching blue bottle of dye up and going to town.

"Did you do one for Jin hyung?" he asked.

"Yes!" you said happily. "My concept was 'galaxy prince who fishes under the stars'"

Jungkook lifted an eyebrow at you but he smiled none the less.

"Oh?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?" you countered.

"Never, babe. What's your concept for Jimin?" he asked.

"Sassy angel who uses his cuteness against me to get what he wants and then has the nerve to be a brat right in my face." you said, angrily squeezing the blue into the fabric.

"Triggered?" he laughed.

"He wouldn't give me what I wanted this morning." you admitted.

"Aw, poor baby." he teased. "What did Chim Chim do to you?"

"He ate my chicken nuggies." you pouted. "And then he acted cute and I couldn't even do anything about it. And then he gloated."

"You want me to beat him up?" he asked.

"Ooooh, yes please!" you replied, absolutely giddy.

Jungkook laughed and leaned over to press a kiss against your temple.

"I'll take care of it, baby."

"He he he." you said evilly. "Take that Jiminie."

Hey loves!

I love you and I would love to know your thoughts, my loves!If you’re interested in any of my other BTS works you can find the masterlist HERELove,Mama Kennysaurus=

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-@thickemadame@frankie2902@pleasantdreamqueen @becrazy–beyou@littledeadrottinghood @blackirisposts@therealmrshale @woodworthti666@thegreatirene@fanfictionandjunk@angelus320@alanlizzingtonshore@buriednurbckyrd@disneymarina@tubbypeachwriting@sullybot @georgiagrl1990 @whenallsaidanddone@mischiefnevermanaged94 @inumorph@congurl@centerhabit@bubblymusiclover13@qtmeryr@thisismysecrethappyplace@tnupsweetpie@alisoncdariel@hannahloveslife@wormyboi@blackirisposts@maggyme13@amethyst09@ibenkastberg@fanfics1717 @mrscasnovak@thickemadame @babygirl-barnes@theladyofmasks @aengsty@kalliravenne@witchygagirl@gruffle1@writtenbywolfie@kribbydahhufflepuff@leah-halliwell92@thelastwildangel@silent-browser@simplymagical@simplymagicalwritings@lilacflicker@malulucifer@minxyvixen@moncheriemoony@queenlexusloverofbts@criminalyetminimal@plus-size-reader@owenniasstars @adventuresofnight@tuutifruuti@ tb-ctn@halobaby@tacobacoyeet@thickemadame@glassesandthunderthighs@accioxtina@sunnyoongles@valiantobservationkitty@poopypantsmc@memissbee@teenagesublimefan@lyn-g@milkshakelol@rubyroscoe1@abbyvonschweetz@1975weasley@lanoreeblake@rosaline-black@abbott27@aldu-p@sxturn-stars@oliviashea05@emilianamason@reallykosborne@dracosbabymama@ main-feetoffthetablefloatyflowersbumpinbillowinboobieskyralupinfloatyflowersselfhatedmika@thickemadame hermione-grangers-wifezievyimas@gigit712101killerokaylovirbutterfly-o-liesclementines-x@streets-in-paradisestitchattacksofmiceandnita03dreadwolfxoxo pottahishotasfglassesandthunderthighspotter-head-phanatic@sunnysidesblogsunshinexweasley——- Also, just a reminder that I am open for commissions! Additionally, the only tag list I have is my permanent tag list but if you ever want to be added all you have to do is just go to the ask box and request to be added! It’s that simple and you’re in! I love you all!

#bts #bts reactions #bts imagines #bts headcanons #bts scenarios #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #min yoongi #jung hoseok #kim taehyung #park jimin #jeon jungkook #ps reader #plus size reader #bts x ps reader #bts x plus size reader

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clairenatural · 4 years

Text

destiel, 1k, more fluff :) for the anon who asked for "im a barista and you just ordered the most complicated and hideous drink and I wanna judge you but you're kinda cute"

Dean hates working the morning shift.

It’s something he does, both because he loves his employees too much to do that to them and because he has a very specific morning setup he doesn’t trust anyone else with, but he doesn’t enjoy it. The morning shift starts with a rush of grumpy people in business suits, the kind to just snap “coffee” at him while already checking their emails, and sleepy students in pajamas who stare at him like he’s speaking gibberish when he asks what size they want.

The initial rush fades into the mid-morning, when he gets more people in suits, this time awake enough to be polite, and interns, who always seem half-panicked but at least remember to say “thank you.” This is the easy time, when most baristas would relax and take a deep breath as their shift dwindles to an end.

Not Dean, though. Dean stays on high alert all the way until 10:30 when, like clockwork, he walks into the doors of the café. And he might be the reason why Dean is refusing to give up his morning shift, even though he complains constantly, even though he knows Kevin is good enough to open all by himself.

His name is Castiel, but Dean shortened it to Cas on the coffee cup two weeks ago and he hasn’t complained yet. A large cup, that he fills with the medium amount of coffee, adds an unhealthy amount of half-and-half, and fills the gap with whipped cream.

The concoction has two pumps of vanilla syrup, one of hazelnut, and three of caramel. They got pumpkin spice in last week, and he’s been adding two scoops of that in ever since. It’s the same amount of liquid as a drip coffee but entirely espresso shots—although Castiel asks for so much milk in it that Dean’s not sure if the caffeine matters. He finishes it off with a hefty drizzle of strawberry syrup, of all things—and then Castiel coats the top in cinnamon before he heads back out.

It’s a monstrosity. It’s more sugar than coffee. It offends Dean to even call it coffee. And Castiel has ordered it every work day, at 10:30am, like clockwork. For the past month.

He’d hate to be this guy’s dentist.

The first time he’d ordered it had gone badly from the start. Dean had choked a bit as soon as he heard the guy start ordering, in the deepest voice he’d ever heard say the word caramel. He planned to recover, deliver his standard “do you want some coffee with that sugar,” line (because nobody orders something like that at an artisan coffee shop unless they’re prepared to be shamed), but he looked up into eyes so wide and blue and earnest that the snark died in his throat. “Sure, okay,” he’d said instead, and then made the monstrosity to the letter. Castiel had given him a lopsided smile when he handed him the coffee, and tipped it towards him in a ‘cheers’ motion before turning away, and that...that was it for him.

Really, he tells himself, he’s just trying to figure this guy out. He’s not put together enough to be a professional, but he’s too sure of himself to be an intern. He delivers the order, the whole thing in its entirety, in a deep tone that ranges from monotonous, to frazzled, to deeply exhausted. He watches Dean make the drink like the whipped cream is going to jump across the counter and bite him, but he takes the order every time with that same easy smile.

They exchange a total of 73 words a morning, 54 of those being the order itself. And yet, Dean waits, every day. And he’s never been more careful with a strawberry drizzle—because, he tells himself, if he’s attaching his name to it it’s gonna be perfect, even if it’s hideous.

There’s just something about this guy that Dean can’t put his finger on—something buzzing just under his skin, urging him to get to know him better. It doesn’t help that he’s really cute, or that his eyes are blue enough Dean thinks he’d let them see into his soul, or that he’s pretty sure that smile has branded itself into his brain. There’s just something else. Strong enough that, and he’s loathe to admit it, even to himself, Dean is willing to overlook the coffee order.

He has a special cup this morning—he’s already prepared it, put it at the top of the stack so it won’t be suspicious when he pulls it off.

I’ll forgive you for your awful taste in coffee if you call me, it says, a hasty number scribbled underneath and his name below that.

If it works, he’ll learn more about this guy. If it doesn’t, well—Dean figures there’s plenty of places more suited to make the coffee disaster than his shop, anyway. They specialize in artisan beans best served black. The syrup is really for whiney teens, Instagram photos, and, apparently, Castiel.

They do their morning coffee ritual, Dean hands off the customized coffee cup to Cas, and the rest of his shift passes in a hazy blur. He doesn’t get a text back until he’s back in his apartment, already having reconciled never seeing the mystery man again.

He still lunges for his phone the moment it buzzes.

While my brother was flattered by your phone number, he thought it was probably meant for me. -Cas

Dean’s still staring at the first message, trying to decipher it, when another one comes in.

I appreciate you overlooking his awful taste in coffee. For the record, I take mine black.

He grins as it clicks into place, only feeling a little guilty at the flood of relief that accompanies it. He types back a message immediately.

Oh, thank God. Do you want to get some actually decent coffee sometime?

He gets an I’d like that :) back a few minutes later, complete with the smiley face, and he grins down at his phone for several long minutes.

Making the coffee catastrophe every morning might be just be worth it.

#destiel fluff #deancas fluff #destiel one-shot #deancas one-shot #destiel fic #ok no more writing at 2 am for meeeee but i hope u like it nonetheless anon :)#dr. sexy anon!!! i love it!!! im writing urs in the morning!!!#my words #over 1k words

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iisuya-simps · 3 years

Text

Coffee shop au (Doppo x Reader)

A/N: decided to do a little scenario for the birthday boy Doppo! Hope yall enjoy :)

Word count: 1798

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

You were a literature student at university. Every morning you see this man come into the coffee shop around 8 o clock. 'Poor thing, always looks so tired and rundown.'

One morning was particularly busy. You overheard his order from one of his many visits and decided to pay for it. He comes in an hour later frantically looking around, wondering if he should leave the line. One of the employees waves him down and gives him his order. That lady over there paid for your coffee. He looks completely baffled and turns to see you waving. He thanks the barista and walks to your table.

"Hi um, thanks for paying for my coffee miss." He scratches the back of his head nervously. "No problem. My name is Y/N by the way." You extend your hand to shake his. "Oh! I'm Doppo." "It was busy today and I figured you always look so busy." His eyes widened. "You can tell from just that huh?" You nod. "Well, it's true I don't have much time to myself outside of work..."

"What do you do? Oh, I'm a salaryman." "Ah, I see. Must be pretty tiresome work." "It would be alright if my boss didn't give me so much to do." His fists clenched. "Oh, I'm sorry for rambling." "It's alright." "I actually have to get going. I can already feel my work piling up." He shoots you a bemused grin.

"It was nice talking to you." "Would you have time to chat over coffee on the weekend? Seems like you have a lot more to say." "Maybe! Uh, I'll be back tomorrow." "Alright, see you." He waves and scurries out of the cafe. "What an odd guy. I hope he's not overdoing himself too hard..." You continue your writing.

The next day Doppo joins you for coffee. "So Mr. salaryman, how goes life?" You sit down at the same table you were at yesterday. "Oh uh, I'm kind of always on the go." "Do you have any hobbies?" "Well, I do have a few houseplants. I keep a bunch of cute little succulents around my place like a salad bowl, giant velvet rose, it's actually just a small one, and a tiny cactus-" He stops there because he feels the conversation dragging.

"What about friends?" "Hifumi has been my friend since elementary school. Despite everything, I'm glad he's still around." "That's nice to hear." You smile. "Oh! I've been so busy talking about myself I never asked about you." " Well, there's not much to know." "Nonsense, what do you do? I saw you with your laptop yesterday." "I'm a literature student at ___ University." "So you're a writer? That's pretty interesting."

Over the next few months, you became fast friends. Doppo would join you in the morning for coffee and a small chat then dash to work.

(Insert clever transition here)

"Doppooo." You call out to him and wave your hand in front of his face. "Doppo?" He snaps back into reality. "Hmm? What is it y/n?" "Are you alright?" "I'm f-fine. Why do you ask?" You shake your head. "It's ok to have a break every now and then y'know. You've been spacing out all day." "Yeah, sorry y/n. I guess I just have a lot on my mind." "Why don't we do something?"

"Would you like to go out? Hang out I mean! Somewhere else! Anywhere! You can choose!" "Hmm, I think a walk would do us both some good." "Uh yeah s-sure." Doppo sweats a little.

"Hey uh y/n, I'm not a very athletic person as you can probably tell..." "That's alright, It doesn't have to be a long one. Why don't we just walk down to the park at our own pace?" "Oh, o-ok sure."

Leaving the cafe you walk about 15 minutes to the nearest park and sit down on a nearby bench. You turn to face him. "I'm worried about you Doppo. Are you taking care of yourself?" "I'm just hanging on like I always do..." He gives a nervous chuckle. "You didn't answer my question." He hangs his head and sighs. "What's the point?" "The point is your wellbeing Doppo. Here." You pat your lap. "Just take a little rest. "N-no I shouldn't-" "I don't mind." Hesitantly he lays down on the bench and rests his head on your lap, blushing.

It didn't take long for him to immediately fall asleep on your lap. You laugh to yourself. 'He looks so peaceful like this, just like a cute little man child.' You carefully stroke his hair making sure not to wake him up. A small blush forming on your cheeks.

After a while, he awakes and rolls over. His sleepy teal-blue eyes meeting yours.

"Y-y/n!" He sits up abruptly, a bright red blush flooding his cheeks. "I-I'm so sorry! How long was I asleep?" "Not long, you could have napped longer if you wanted to. It looks like you needed the sleep." "Erm, yeah. thank you." His cheeks still burning red. "You can lay back down if you want. You still have a few hours before you have to go to work right?" He considers, thinking how comfortable your thighs were cradling his head. "I-I don't want to be a bother..." "Just lay on my shoulder then. We can both take a nap." "Okay."

Doppo leans on your shoulder and closes his eyes hoping that you didn't notice his quickening heartbeat. Resting your head on his crimson locks you close your eyes and fall asleep into a short slumber together.

t-t-t-transition---------

"What would you like to eat?" "Anything, I'm starving." You giggle. "I was going to make some omurice~" He visibly perks up. "I'd like that very much." "Omurice it is! Topped with some cilantro." You lick your lips. "U-um. No cilantro for me thank you..." he winced trying not to gag.

"Oh no, you have the cilantro hating gene, don't you?" "Yeah, it kinda tastes like soap." You dramatically toss your hand to your forehead. "That's so tragic. I wish your taste buds could appreciate the fresh springy sprigs that are cilantro. But alas! I'll just top it off with chives."

"Y-you can have cilantro! It's not a problem if you want to!" "I don't want to make you sick with the aroma." "I'll be fine as long as I don't eat it! Really!!" "Ok ok. I'll do both." "Do you want some help? Omurice is one of the only things I can make..." his head hangs a little. "Sure! I could always use some help chopping some veggies."

You were coming over to Doppos place every weekend now to make sure he was eating well and getting enough sleep.

After prepping the vegetables and cooking the rice, you dice up some chicken and mix in the vegetables and spices, also adding some ketchup. Then whisking an egg with a little milk you cook the omelette and add the chicken, veggies and rice. Folding the egg over you make a little ketchup smiley face with dimples on the side of his plate and top it off with some chives. Then do the same with yours.

"Here you go!" Doppo's eyes light up when you hand him the plate. "Waaaah, it looks so professional! Let's dig in!" You watch as he smiles while eating, savouring every bite. "Oh y/n this is so good." "Thank yourself, you helped make it too." You smile. "Yes but mine never tastes this good. It must be something you did!" "You'd be surprised what difference a little salt and pepper can make."

You both watched a show while eating, Doppo went back for seconds.

"Thank you for the delicious meal y/n. You've been doing a lot for me, I appreciate it." "Of course! I'll always try and be there for you when you need me." "Would you really?" Doppo's palms get sweaty as he turns to you with his head down. "Would it be so wrong to think that there's something between us? I-I know I'm a pessimist and an overall mess. You basically take care of me like I'm your kid- Oh, who am I kidding you don't want me... I'm a ball of anxiety and-" you put a finger to his lips and he blushes immediately.

"I like you too, Doppo." You smile. "Y-you do?" He sighs visibly relaxing. "I thought I really blew it there... but I'm glad you feel the same." You place your hand over his. "I care about you Doppo."

After a few more shows and an awkward silent stroll, Doppo walks you back over to your place and says goodnight.

"Thanks for everything y/n." Knowing he wouldn't be the one to make the first move (in this case anyway) you lean over and kiss him on the cheek. He looked so cute with his flustered expression and blushed cheeks. "Night Doppo."

When you lay down on your bed for the night your heart races and butterflies dance in your stomach. Then your phone pings from your nightstand.

"I had a really great time today! Not like I don't any other time! But today was special! The texts came flooding in one after the other. You beam and reply "Yes today was fun. Now please get some sleep. You need it." "I'll try!"

Epilogue I guess---------

Even though you move in with Doppo quite quickly it turns out to be the best thing for the both of you. He does his best to look out for you and you look out for him.

In the morning you both wake up, he boils water for coffee and you make breakfast. You'll still visit the coffee shop every now and then, but there's nothing quite like having breakfast in bed with your partner.

You always call him during lunch and inbetween to make sure he doesn't forget to eat. When he comes home he'll help you with meal prep if he's not too exhausted. Then you'll eat dinner in front of the tv and watch a show.

After dinner, you both wash and dry the dishes then sit down on the couch and cuddle. On a good day, you watch a few episodes of your favorite show together. But on an exhausting day, Doppo falls asleep within the first 10 minutes. But you don't mind. You simply flip the station and admire his sweet peaceful face as he lays his head on your shoulder.

If it's late you wake him up with head pats and guide him to bed in a half-asleep stupor joining him soon. When you're in bed he always has one arm around you. Usually, your back to his front or the both of you facing each other in an embrace until you wake and the cycle begins anew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading!

#hypmic #hypnosis mic #doppo kannonzaka #doppo x reader #matenrou #happy birthday doppo #sweet sleepy child #i love cilantro #do yall read tags at all?#am I talking to no one?#just wondering

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hongnanglen-arina · 4 years

Text

“No, tea it is.” | Choi Seungcheol/S.Coups

Genre: Fluff

Pairing: barista!Seungcheol x fem reader

Warnings: none

Words: 1.710

A/N: Hi there! Here’s something for our leader. He needs all the love, yes yes! As always, English isn’t my first language so excuse my grammar ♡

—

[6:41 am]

The look on your watch told you that you had to wait at least 70 more minutes until your family would finally land. As always, you were early but because it was a sunday, you had to take an even earlier connection to get to the airport, not wanting to be too late that it would get stressful or that your family had to wait for you. But seeing the time on your watch, it was still a little too early for your taste.

Yawning loudly, your gaze wandered to the two stores that offered coffee. "That one.... or that one??" You asked yourself while your feet took you to one of them absentmindedly. Maybe your feet decided for themselves because of... the cashier? Your steps slowed down a bit while you studied the boy from outside the store. He was handsome, his hair ash blonde and he was dressed in a very oversized rose cardigan which was halfway covered with a black apron. When you stepped inside, you could hear calming christmas songs through the speakers and you were immediately surrounded by the delicious smell of coffee beans. Sighing happily, you couldn't suppress the smile on your face. You haven't had your coffee yet but you already felt so much better. And again, you were surprised what effect coffee had on you aka how addicted you were to it.

Not noticing how the boy was watching you from behind the counter, you looked around a little, trying to find the perfect spot to relax for an hour until the plane with your family would be landing. It wasn't crowded at all. Maybe thanks to the day and time.

"Welcome! May I help you?"

A warm and friendly voice pulled you back to reality and your head snapped to the said direction, now facing the cashier from before. He was smiling at you, hands folded neatly in front of his apron as he was waiting for your response.

His expression was warm and friendly but the closer you got to him, the more you noticed the soft dark circles under his eyes, telling you that you might not were the only sleepy one here. But it didn’t make him less attractive to your surprise.

Now standing right in front of the counter and in front of this very handsome boy, your gaze wandered up to the menu. With pretty strokes, a wide range of drinks were written with white chalk on a black board, some other colors were used for green tea leaves or brown coffee beans combined with blue ice cubes and of course, christmas decorations. You wondered if he was the one who wrote it.

“Uhm… it’s hard to decide.” It really was. Everything with coffee literally screamed your name. It’s been a while since you had a lavender latte or mint latte. Also pumpkin spice wasn’t on your christmas agenda yet. But even the regular drinks like caramel latte seemed nice at the moment. “Can you recommend something nice and warm?”

When your gaze met his again, the boy made a thinking sound. "No offense but you seem like a coffee type of girl."

"How does a coffee type of person look like?"

"Uhm, I don't know..” He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “You just give me the feeling you are? Maybe I have that special sense because of my job? So, coffee it is?"

The corner of your lips twitched and he wiggled his eye brows in a cocky way, very sure about his opinion of you. “No, tea it is. I love tea.”

His eyes widen at your reply. As if his inner triumph just crashed just by a single word. He’s never been wrong with it before. When he noticed, he quickly cleared his throat and pointed to the selection of tea his work place offered. Grinning to yourself, you listened to him and were very amused about the fact that you caught him off guard so easily. While he was explaining the different tea styles and leaves, you looked at his name tag. Seungcheol. You spoke his name several times in your head, finding it kind of fitting to the boy in front of you. You noticed how soft his cardigan was and how good it suited him. It made his features so much softer. And even with the delicious smell of coffee, your nose met his own perfume that you really liked.

“So I would recommend our special homemade green tea. What do you think?”

Smiling at him, you nodded. “Sounds good.”

You payed your drink and took a seat in the back after Seungcheol told you he would bring your drink over once it’s done. A look at your watch told you, that 14 minutes passed by. Checking the flight schedule again, you decided to walk to the arrival hall in about an hour since it wasn’t too far away from the spot you were right now.

It didn’t took too long for Seungcheol that he stood in front of your table, carefully setting the tea down with a donut. Before you could say anything, he waved his hand okay. “It’s a little apology for me assuming you are a coffee type of girl. Sorry about that. Anyways, it suits perfectly with the tea so I hope you like it.”

You blinked at the powdered sugar donut and then up to the boy. “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

With an exaggerated bow, he walked away again, making you giggle. He was cute. You waited a bit before the tea was ready to drink but once it was, you hummed agreeingly. The tea was really good and Seungcheol was right, the donut was perfect with it. He surely had a good taste.

The hour was slow. Just a few customers made their way to the store and they were all greeted by a cheerful Seungcheol. You couldn't help but to watch him work, also you didn’t have anything else to do anyways. Talk to the customers, smile at them and even ask them if they are a tea or coffee type of person just as he did with you. At first you rolled your eyes, finding his trademark start of a conversation stupid but he got it right every time, shooting you a wink as he caught you looking and you started to find it amusing. It quickly became some kind of silent competition in which you two locked eyes, exchanged smiles or shook your head at the other with a grin.

It made you thought he was more than cute. And so did he.

When your hour was nearly coming to an end, you stood up and put the little tray with your order away before walking over to Seungcheol again who was cleaning the counter, looking up at you.

"Leaving already?”

"Yeah, I need to pick up family. Mind if I order a coffee before I leave?"

"I don't mind making coffee for you but I do mind you leaving me. It was fun."

You smiled at him with pink cheeks, the same color he wore on his own. "Yeah, it was. But we might meet again… somewhen, someday."

He cocked his head to the side. "Is that so, miss tea-lover?"

"Oh, according to your reaction, you are a coffee-lover, right? Beep. Sadly no match."

His laughter filled your ears and you suddenly wished you could hear it more often as you joined. "So I guess this coffee is for the person you are going to pick up. Which one can I prepare for you?"

"Y/n." Your eyes widen after realizing what you just said out loud, instantly covering your mouth. "Uhhh I mean.. uhm... one lavender latte please.. and.. with an extra shot espresso please.."

Seungcheol chuckled at your shy mumbling and gave you a nod. "Alright, lavender latte, extra shot for your family it is. It will be ready in a bit... y/n.”

You pressed your lips in a thin line to hide your happy grin as best as you could and after you shortly thanked him, you waited at the side, eyes falling down to the napkins in front of you. Biting your lower lip, you watched Seungcheol prepare your drink while humming to the christmas carol in the background. His soft hair fell lightly over his eyes, his big cardigan was rolled up so his hands were free to work with. Admiring his features from the side, you decided something you’ve never done before.

Just in time when you shoved your pen back into your backpack, your coffee was ready. Seungcheol had decorated it with a smiley on top, making you giggle. “Thank you… Seungcheol.”

His smile faded a bit as his mouth fell open in a surprised manner, just to change to an even wider smile. “My pleasure, y/n.”

With your credit card, you payed the drink and stopped moving, sheepishly looking at the boy in front of you, who nervously kneaded the wet cloth on the counter. “So…. see you around I guess?” There was something in his voice that caused goosebumps to form on your skin.

Exhaling deeply, you quickly put - what was in your hand - down on the counter in front of you and turned around, waving at him before almost rushing out of the store in embarrassment.

Seungcheol watched you half in confusion, half with a chuckle but then his attention fell onto the little folded napkin in front of him. After a short and curious peek in your direction, he took and opened it.

//You were right. I’m a coffee type of girl and this drink is for myself. I wonder what else you would get right about me so if you want, you can… text me and we can get to know each other more? :)//

His eyes read over the numbers you wrote down on the little napkin as a smile crept onto his lips. This was the first time a cute girl gave her number to him. Today had already been a day with a couple of first times. He wondered how many more he would experience with you and he couldn’t wait to find out.

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tenacityreturns · 4 years

Note

five times kissed with aokaga

i. new to their relationship, but eager, this kiss is exactly as you’d expect it to be. aomine is an annoying little shit, which is a surprise to no one. and kagami loves it.

ii. kagami’s dad calls him at 2am and leaves him feeling bad. if he’d been by himself, he would’ve let it worry him and probably wouldn’t have been able to get back to sleep. good thing he isn’t alone.

iii. aomine’s really good at ghosting him. he had done it before, but now they’re in a relationship, kagami tries his best to help make him feel better. he feels like an idiot but momoi’s there to help. this is the longest because depression, big mood

iv. the vorpal swords reunite, but things are not as kagami would like them to be. this is my fav one because i love kise so much and he’s HERE so that’s all i care about. also you can tell i care about him more than the others bc he has speaking lines.

v. they’ve graduated, and kagami has been in the states for six months. aomine comes to visit.

i) it’s not their first kiss, but it’s still new. instincts tell kagami to push aomine away when he comes close because it’s dangerous to let someone else hold your heart. and his hands are rough, his eyes are cold, and his temper is short, but kagami trusts him. in this moment, they’re both sitting on the edge of their emotional barriers, waiting for the signal that it was safe to fall. he believes that one of them will go first. their personal insecurities are too great to just rush into it wholeheartedly.

this kiss has a slower build-up than their first. they’re sitting on aomine’s bed, which is dangerous enough territory in itself because kagami is both completely inexperienced and eager to try. as if he could keep his hands off the hottest guy he knows! they inch closer. does aomine know the effect he has? does he feel the same? kagami understands that they both like each other, and want to make out right in this moment, but could he ever affect someone’s pulse like aomine does his? could kagami ever make him speechless? be the only thing he’d want to look at in a room? aomine’s eyes dance across kagami’s face. what’s he looking at? they make eye contact and it sparks a smirk.

“ah, you’re looking at me with the intensity of a game,” but before kagami can get embarrassed and tell him to fuck off, aomine ducks in close. in a whisper, he continues: “you should loosen up.”

“you should shut up,” kagami puts his hand on aomine’s chest and pushes him backwards. he climbs on top to straddle him, and it’s the look in widened blue eyes that’s telling him this was the right thing to do. in an instant, the wit returns and he’s smirking again.

“make me.”

maybe he would growl, say something like you’re a smartass who always wants to have the last laugh, you know that, right? but kagami is preoccupied. his tense jaw relaxes, and the anger evaporates. the judgement calls between calling out and making out with aomine daiki are often very close. maybe next time, kagami will pretend to be annoyed. ( hint: it won’t be the next time. )

♥

ii) kagami’s ringtone shatters the dark peace of his bedroom. his groggy, half-asleep arm drops heavily to his right, where, usually, it would connect with the bed-side table ( painfully ) and he’d find his phone. this time, he isn’t sleeping alone, and he accidentally hits his barely sleeping boyfriend.

“hey,” aomine complains as he pushes himself up, “what is it? your phone?”

kagami doesn’t give a linguistically clear response, but it’s enough of a grunt that aomine gets it. he holds his hand out, and aomine passes it over. it’s dad. it’s 2am. “shit,” kagami presses answer and holds it to his ear. when he speaks, it’s in english. “dad, it’s so early.”

“good! can we talk?”

“no, i mean it’s late. can you call me tomorrow?”

“i’m on a business trip tomorrow, but i won’t be long! it’s friday night, taiga, don’t young people normally stay up ‘til the early hours anyway?”

“how should i know?” kagami reaches over to squeeze aomine’s arm. it’s a sorry i woke you gesture, which gets a don’t worry about it shrug. as kagami’s father tells him not to be so snappy, he’s just checking in, his son is whispering away from the phone that he’ll be back in a minute. then he’s swinging his legs over the bed and going into the living room.

“anyway,” asao continues distractedly, and kagami can tell that he’s multi-tasking. “do you want to go to europe with me this winter?”

“huh?”

“my business trip! it’s in france, but i was thinking we could take a tour.”

kagami thought of the winter cup, of getting to have rematches against the generation of miracles. he thought of school ( last, of course ). “what? no, i can’t. i’ve got stuff going on here.”

“they’ll survive without you for a month! or two weeks, i don’t know, whatever school break is. and you know what they say about french girls?”

kagami groans. “i don’t care about french girls. i have a boyfriend, remember?”

silence.

“go by yourself. or why don’t you grab someone random off the street and tell them to ditch all their plans last minute like this?”

silence.

“sorry,” it’s instinctual, second-nature to apologise like this. he isn’t sorry, but he’ll say it anyway for some paternal approval. “people are counting on me and i can’t let them down. --- are you not coming here for christmas?”

“business trip. alright, taiga. i’ll let you get back to sleep.”

“bye, dad.”

dial tone. ah, fuck, he’d hurt his dad’s feelings. he texts thanks anyway, and waits for a reply. it��s a smiley face almost instantly, but that doesn’t put him at ease. it’s not passive aggressive, but at least they weren’t arguing again like last time. when kagami returns to his room, aomine is sitting up on the bed with his arm draped over his legs.

“everything... okay?” aomine asks quietly. kagami shrugs and plugs in his phone. tentatively as characteristically possible, he continues: “was your dad being a dick again?”

“he called me in the middle of the night,” kagami climbs across the bed to get back to his side. “what do you think?”

silence. the urge to apologise bubbles to the surface immediately, leftover from his phone call, but aomine moves and interrupts it. he lowers to one elbow, but it’s the other hand that provides distraction: tenderly brushing kagami’s persistent fringe from his forehead. he never knows what to say in the face of aomine being gentle like this. it’s not uncommon, just surprising, and kagami isn’t particularly good at returning the favour.

“he asked me to go to europe with him,” kagami says instead, shuffling in a little closer so that his head on aomine’s pillow. his boyfriend is silent again, which is fair, because what the fuck? kagami knows, he gets it. “i’m not going, obviously.”

“rich people are so fucked,” aomine watches his fingers glide across kagami’s hairline. “he knows you can’t just up and leave, and offers anyway. shit.”

“right? i have basketball and school.”

“sounds like it could have been nice, though.”

“he wants to hook me up with french girls.”

“never mind. you shouldn’t go.”

kagami smiles, closing his eyes. “maybe i’ll go.”

“man, shut up,” aomine pushes kagami’s head into the pillow.

“hey!” kagami shoves his hand against aomine’s face. they let go.

“tch,” as if the last few seconds never happened, aomine tucks himself in close. his head fits just right nestled beneath kagami’s chin. “why couldn’t he call you back in the morning, anyway?”

“he’s leaving then, or something.”

“hm. go back to sleep.”

kagami sighs. usually he can, but sometimes the call disturbs him too much and he’ll lie awake for hours. this is one of those times, he can already tell. ugh. his eyes are open again, blankly surveying the other side of the room. after a few minutes, he can feel aomine’s breathing start to level out and the arm around his body goes limp. red eyes close. please go back to sleep. who cares if his dad disregards all of kagami’s hobbies and relationships in one simple they’ll survive without you for a month? not him! kagami doesn’t care.

“are you still awake?” aomine makes him jump, which makes a very sleepy sounding aomine jump too. “oiiiii.”

“sorry! i thought you were asleep.”

“no, you’re too tense, it’s not relaxing.”

“daiki,”

“shhhh,” aomine lifts his head enough to kiss kagami’s jaw. ahhhh!!!! that’s really cute!!!! it gets WORSE. aomine rolls forward, pushing kagami onto his back and lying half on top of him. he holds a hot, red face in his hands and plants three kisses on chin, nose, then forehead. “do you feel a little better?”

“d--daiki, that’s so cute...”

“answer the question.”

“yes?”

“okay.” he makes kagami’s muscular chest his new pillow. “if you’d have said no, i might have done that again.”

“huh!!! don’t say that! do it anyway!”

“shhhh, i’m sleeping.”

kagami hugs him, but also gives aomine a good shake. a blue head raises with a stern look. “you think you’re getting kissed for that?”

but kagami’s smiling widely, unable to hold it in. “i wish you were here every time my dad called me.”

such a statement softens whatever faux grudge had been starting to root itself into the conversation. suffice to say, kagami gets his kisses. brief though they are, because aomine’s half-asleep as it is, it means the world. and it means kagami’s sufficiently distracted to fall asleep again.

♥

iii) aomine hadn’t gone to school that day. of course, kagami wasn’t to know that until after practise when kuroko gets a phone call from momoi asking if he was with them. no, he’s not. they’d been supposed to meet up, but aomine cancelled at lunch time without much explanation. he does that sometimes. at first, it used to annoy kagami, but aomine told him that sometimes he has days when he can’t bring himself to talk to anyone. he’s fine, he doesn’t want pity or anything, just space on days when it happens. i don’t like who i am when i get like that, he’d said. kagami had come to the conversation ill-prepared and hadn’t said anything in reply. he regrets that. so he assumes that this is what today had turned into, one of those days.

the thing is, momoi also knows when he’s not feeling well. kagami had asked her once if there was anything they could do to make him feel better, somehow, and she said that there wasn’t. she usually takes a box of nice things around to his house for when he comes home. those sexy magazines he likes, a couple of cartons of banana milk, some snacks. kagami thinks of this suddenly as kuroko is ending the call. the words form on his tongue at the same rate as forming in his mind.

“momoi,” he pulls kuroko’s phone to his ear, holding onto his friend’s wrist. “have you been ‘round to his house yet?”

“hi kagamin,” she coos, then sighs, “no, i haven’t.”

“let me do it,” his eyes cannot lift from the floor in his embarrassment ( there are so many of his teammates around, and kuroko’s right there! ). “i can be there in an hour. --------please.”

“o-okay! i think dai-chan would like that.”

“i hope so.”

“i’m in town anyway, why don’t you meet me? bring tetsu-kun and we’ll call it a double date!”

“how does that work if daiki’s not there? and ain’t the point of this to look out for him, anyway?”

“ah. yes, i suppose. is tetsu-kun still there?”

“yes, momoi-san.”

“ah, tetsu-kun! were you listening? i’m sorry if we left you out! may i steal kagamin for a little while?”

“i don’t need his permission!” kagami defends hotly, but evens out immediately, letting go of kuroko’s wrist. “i’ll go get changed and see you at that grocery store you mentioned.”

“grocery... store?”

“yeah, the one with the, uh,” kagami presses his finger and thumb together and rotates his wrist. like a... key? “the, uh-- popsicle stick? with kuroko, back in middle school?”

she all but screams a huh down the phone. “why do you remember that!”

“i don’t know!” because aomine and the others used their basketball ability to take down a bag snatcher, obviously! how fucking cool is that? aomine chasing after a guy on a moped and catching up? kagami’s blushing at the thought.

momoi sounds like she’s blushing too, and she tumbles into the steep slope of gushing over kuroko and her own, self-described shyness. kagami grimaces. kuroko stares at him. yes, alright, this one is absolutely kagami’s fault for starting. he’ll take responsibility for that one. kuroko finds a nice, polite way to hang up without making her feel bad. damn, if only kagami had an ounce of the tact this guy has!

but he’ll make do with what he has, and excuses himself from hanging out after practise to attend to something. everyone must have heard that phone-call, but he’s blocking those thoughts from his mind as he speed walks to that fateful store. walking isn’t fast enough. he types out five different texts to aomine that express that he hopes he’s alright, but all of them feel wrong. it’s almost a private joke with himself but as he’s sliding into a taxi to get him there faster, he finds the tiger emoji and the heart emoji. then clicks send by accident. oops. that was... kind of stupid. really stupid. fuck.

momoi is standing outside with her phone to her ear as he arrives in the car. he pays the fare and gets out. is she on the phone to him? but she doesn’t say goodbye before pushing her phone into her purse, nor does it look like she hung up, so the image is a mystery lost on him. they’re quick inside the store. momoi chooses everything first, starting with the magazine he likes ( ah, thank goodness, mai-chan features a lot in this issue. yes, i’m sure he’ll be fine. but isn’t this strange for you, kagamin? // no, i don’t care. he can like what he likes. // huh! dreamy... ), but then kagami will pick up two others beside it and put it in the basket. she’ll pick up a three-pack of banana milks, and he’ll pick up another. she finds his favourite sweet snack of the week and he grabs five. same with the savoury option. kagami insists on paying, since it had been his idea to quadruple the purchases. on their way over to aomine’s house, they pass a toy shop. kagami only half-glanced, but a little, cuddly crayfish catches his eye.

“do you think he’d like that?” kagami stops, and presses his index finger against the glass.

“you want to buy him a toy lobster?” she repeats like it’s insane. he sighs. he has no idea what a good boyfriend would--- “he used to keep crayfish as pets sometimes. you knew that?”

kagami nods. he doesn’t know how, but he does know that.

she squeaks. her twinkling eyes and fingers held delicately against her face are making this into way more of an embarrassing ordeal than he’d wanted it to be, so he’s grumbling as he leaves her outside to go and buy it. the little creature is red like a lobster, and speckled, with big plastic eyes and a smiley face. maybe it’s a lobster. what’s the difference? it goes into the little gift bag and momoi has recovered by the time he’s back. she’s all smiles herself, but at least she isn’t saying anything.

he’s glad she decides to walk him all the way there. kagami couldn’t remember the way. there’s no way of knowing if he’s in, she tells him as they walk up the path. his mother says he’s out, but he could have faked leaving and gone back to bed. he does that sometimes, apparently. it’s cold and wet today, kagami hopes aomine’s in bed. and it’s aomine’s mother who answers the door. she’s working from home today, about to enter a meeting, so she can’t stay and chat, but it’s lovely to see them both. momoi decides to leave kagami to go upstairs by himself. makes sense. she’ll wait in the living room. he takes a deep breath and carries the big bag of nice things up a dark set of stairs. into a dark hallway ( where is the light switch? ).

despite the darkness, he knows where aomine’s room is. and there’s a little window near it to bring in the light of a grey day. it’s like the sky sympathises. there cannot be sun when it is not warm inside aomine’s own chest. kagami knocks on the door but there’s no answer. he’s silent as he walks inside. the curtains are drawn, no lights are on. the bed looks empty. damn. he’s not in, after all. something buzzes on the desk and-- it’s his phone. why the hell wouldn’t he take that, what if something happened? kagami sighs. worry gnaws away at his heart. has something happened?

the decision is made after some deliberation that the best place for the bag is by the desk. the little lobster toy, however, should go on the bed. it’s such a stupid little gift, isn’t it? maybe he should say that momoi chose it. throw her under the bus now, and then when she denies it later, kagami will be long gone and far from the reaches of embarrassment. he snaps the tags off and shoves them into his pocket, carrying it in both hands like a scared offering to a shrine.

aomine must have kicked off the duvet in a sulk, because it’s bunched up on one side of the double bed in a long pile. he must be imagining things when he sits and it shifts. the toy looks out of place on the dark pillow-case of a brooding teenaged boy. maybe that’s not fair, but the longer it sits there, the more out of character it feels and he snatches it away. into his hoodie pocket it goes! the blanket shifts again. shit. is--- is someone under there? an apprehensive hand reaches out to where the shoulder would be, connects with something hard. a shoulder.

“go away, satsuki,” the duvet grumbles.

kagami doesn’t know what to say. why has he frozen! the hand stays put. is aomine really saying he thinks that kagami’s hands are the same size as the petite girl’s? why is that so offensive all of a sudden... he exhales. the best thing to say is nothing, or so he decides, and instead he pulls the top of the cover down. aomine is facing the other way. kagami runs his fingertips gently through blue hair and still receives no reaction. does momoi do this? he feels as though he should feel jealous, but can’t find it in himself to. aomine should be loved, touched gently and often by those who adore him. whether that’s platonically or otherwise, it’s good if she does stroke his hair gently, and if aomine doesn’t mind, then who is kagami to interrupt?

“i blew off tetsu and taiga today,” it sounds like a guilty confession. kagami feels like he shouldn’t have heard it, feels like he’s trespassing. “i’m such a fuck up, man.”

“no, you’re not,” of course kagami knew that once he spoke in his deep voice, and not momoi’s high pitched one, that aomine would roll onto his back and stare in shock. he does, and the heavy gaze makes kagami feel even more like he shouldn’t be here. but he wants to help, if he can. kagami pulls his hand back and reaches into his hoodie pocket for the hidden lobster toy. he produces it. aomine stares at that instead. then back at kagami.

“what are you doing here?”

“i got you a crayfish-- thing. ‘cuz you said you liked them, but not to eat.”

silence.

“it’s stupid, i know,” kagami’s smile is weak, guilty, and he sets it atop the pillow like before. why he thought this would help is lost on him. “i hope you’re not mad that i came over, uninvited and all. i won’t do it again if you don’t like it.”

silence. aomine cranes his neck to find the toy, and lifts his arm out of the cover to pick it up. he’s looking at it like he can’t believe it’s right there in his hand. he’s frowning. ah! but there are other things! kagami leaves the bed and grabs the bag from the desk. it’s the magazines he’s after. he pulls out all three of them at once.

“momoi helped choose, ‘cuz you know i’d be useless.” the magazines are spread where kagami had been sitting.

aomine still isn’t saying anything, which is fine, and he can’t expect him to if he’s feeling like shit! but he doesn’t know what to say to fill the silence, and he doesn’t know if he should just leave! maybe that would be best! however, in his panic, he’s disregarding the point of a gift bag and taking everything out instead. snacks of all sorts crinkle in their packaging. to get a better picture of kagami derailing, aomine has shifted up to sit with his back against the headboard. watching. he opens up one of the packets of banana milk cartons to give to him in an act of that panic.

“well, that’s it,” kagami says in defeat as he meets the end of the bag. “sorry for making a mess. i can go now, if you like. momoi’s just downstairs so i can get her if you wanna talk to her about anything.”

he shook his head. but... to which part?

“you-- you don’t need to worry about cancelling on us, you know. we can always meet another day.”

“or you could come to my house.”

“yeah, sorry. i wanted to help, but i hadn’t thought about what i was gonna say, i guess.”

“come here,” he gestures with his head, but kagami looks instead at the pile of dumb gifts on the mattress where he would have sat. so he starts putting things back in the bag. aomine huffs ( but it sounds almost like it could have been a chuckle had the circumstances been different ), and pushes everything, including the magazines, off the side of the bed.

“careful! what about mai-chan?”

“come here,” aomine demands, reaching over and tugging his sleeve closer. is this good? kagami has no idea. he just does what he’s told and climbs over to sit beside his boyfriend. “you didn’t have to do all of this.”

“yeah, i know that. i hoped it might help.”

“were you mad at me when i cancelled earlier?”

“no, i understood you weren’t doing great today. i-- i dunno, i just wanna say i don’t, like, expect anything from you when we meet up. we don’t have to do anything. if you wanna be alone, i get it, but i just-- i wanted to say you don’t have to be alone either. ‘cuz i wanna be there for you, if you’re okay with that too. i’m not trying to------”

kagami’s sincere, if lengthy, statement is interrupted by a kiss to his moving lips. it’s short, but shuts him up nonetheless. aomine stays close afterwards, leaning on the hand resting just behind kagami’s folded legs.

“do you wanna do nothing with me?”

a little dazed, kagami can only nod. aomine piles the two pillows together and sorts the blanket out. he pushes kagami’s chest to lie down against the pillows, and aomine slides himself under his arm, head on chest. they lie like this quite comfortably. it’s warm-- no, it’s cosy. this feels just right. after a few minutes of steady breathing, with kagami smoothing blue hair ever so gently, aomine is asleep. kagami texts momoi a quick update, and she tells him that she’ll let herself out.

maybe doing nothing isn’t half bad.

♥

iv) they’re at a vorpal swords reunion. it’s more of a meet-up than practise, because the hall they were going to use to practise had flooded and they weren’t able to go inside, and it’s too cold outside to play. so they’re standing with hot drinks in the park. ( kagami isn’t, he’d finished his and aomine’s ages ago. aomine will just have to turn up first. ) akashi managed to get a reservation at this nice, not too pricey restaurant, so they’re waiting a few minutes for noon when they can head over. it takes a little more planning than usual to seat, what? a dozen or so people?

kagami’s talking with kise and kuroko, waiting for his cocoa. to be clear, he’s standing with them, and kise is going off about something. then kuroko says something to shut him down and it makes kagami laugh. he’s so abrupt! and people say kagami’s blunt! kise pulls a tragic face, asks why kagami’s laughing, and kagami calls him lame. it’s fun everyone hanging out together!

“taiga,” it’s a half-assed shout from a little way off, but he knows who it is without looking.

kise’s saying something to him, but kagami’s attention is immediately drawn to the boy in the big puffer jacket, followed inevitably by his pink-haired friend. kagami glares at him. “you’re so late! what’s up with that?”

“i was sleepy,” still shouting.

“don’t say sleepy like you’re cute!” kagami is, unsurprisingly, still shouting.

aomine stops walking and breathes a deep sigh into the air, dissipating in a cloud. “come here then.”

the redhead turns, balling his hands into fists. his cheeks are heating up already, because he accidentally yelled that aomine sounded kind of cute just now... and in his stupid fucking beanie, he looks it too. they have a silent stand off, but aomine wins. kagami can’t resist going over to see what the hell he wants. can’t resist being near.

“come here.”

so he does, and he stalks over like it’s a great effort, or he’s about to end a fight. he’s not, of course, and the balled fists show discomfort and not aggression. he’s still embarrassed. it’s about to get worse. as soon as he’s near, aomine reaches forward with gloved hands and grabs onto the fluffy hood of kagami’s red parka.

“what the hell do you mean looking so cute today?” he said like it’s an insult, kagami yelps and grabs his wrists. “you dress up just for me?”

“it’s cold, how else am i gonna dress!”

“what are you wearing under it?”

“like, three layers,” he grunts, “get off my hood, asshole!”

“aw, your face looks cold, though,” aomine is completely ignoring kagami, except that he decided, probably separately, to put his hands on kagami’s face. that’s actually super nice, and if there weren’t, what, a dozen or so people around that he wanted to look cool for, he’d have just stood still.

“daiki!” he is shouting, once again. their best and only method of communication is to make as much noise as possible. kagami gnashes his teeth, threatening to bite. maybe he just will and teach aomine to: “quit being a pain!”

“quit making it fun, then.”

and quit looking like that so close! kagami isn’t about to kiss him, but he really would if they were in private. it’s the twinkling playfulness in those blue eyes that show kagami that he’s really the only thing on aomine’s mind right now. ugh, shut up, stupid idiot! aomine knows what he’s doing, too. you can tell by the shit-eating smile on his stupid, beautiful face. red eyes, as they often do, roll. he wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and squeezes. it’s not a hug, it’s an attack.

aomine’s turn to yelp. his hands move so that he’s hugging around kagami’s head, which is obviously enough to get him to loosen his grip.

“careful, my hat!” kagami exclaims, as if that’s more important than the structural integrity of his skull. they’re still hugging, and nothing else exists, and god is aomine warm. so warm. “hi, anyway. how come you’re late?”

“satsuki slept in,” aomine nestles his cold nose into kagami’s bare neck. it’s fine if he does this, he doesn’t mind sharing body heat either. and who’s to see if aomine kissed him in that moment? nobody. but everyone will see the wide grin on kagami’s face, worlds away from the irritation he’d displayed seconds ago.

“sure,”

their embrace ended, but aomine still kept an arm slung around kagami’s shoulders. he glances around for aforementioned girl, but she’s already fawning over kuroko. aomine sends his own form of greeting to his other friends and all but drags kagami over to see kuroko and kise. nods over to akashi who stands with midorima, probably talking about how much space there is in the universe, or some other brainy thing nerds discuss.

“i wanna play ball,” kagami groans now they’re standing together. “it’s not that cold, right?”

“kagamicchi, it’s icy! i’m not risking my neck for a one-on-one.”

“i’m getting food then i’m going home.” (kagami’s home, mind you.)

“yes, it is, kagami-kun.”

somehow, being turned down by all three of them at once was less fun than he could possibly have dreaded. kagami deadpans and takes to sulking.

“you’re all just chicken i’d beat you.”

“big words for the guy who lost our last game.”

“winter’s a hard season for you, isn’t it?” kuroko! traitor!

kise puts his hand on his hip, looking at kagami like there’s something WRONG with wanting to play his favourite sport! “he’s really a guy with a one track mind, huh?”

“shut the hell up! don’t gang up against me! we all met to play ball, didn’t we? i got excited about it, alright! winter sucks for everyone, that’s normal!”

poor kagami. if the others have any sympathy for his plight, they’re pretty good at hiding it.

♥

v) six months, is it? kagami spends perhaps too long trying to figure it out. he came over to the states after graduation in march, and it’s september now... but then, daiki came over to visit in may, only staying for a fortnight because that’s all his job would allow. so really it’s only been four months. but those have been hard. lots of facetime, and phone calls at awkward times. but kagami always thinks to check what time it was in tokyo before he called, and it seemed that aomine has been similarly considerate. all the same, kagami has missed his boyfriend more than anything. it’s only after high school is behind him that he’s really appreciating that his youth ( as he thought of it ) is now over. he’s in the nba now. well, it’s kind of complicated, but he’s on his way!

basketball is at the back of his mind now, though. aomine’s plane was due to land at 2am, but was delayed by half an hour on both ends. then there was an issue with the bags which aomine called and raged about. they’re so close. in the same building, even! but despite this, and kagami’s irrepressible nerves bouncing his legs and tearing at his heart, the fatigue gets to him and he falls asleep on an uncomfortable chair opposite the waiting area for arrivals. an unopened can of iced coffee sits loosely in his hands. to make an excuse, kagami hadn’t slept a wink the night before in all of his excitement. he’s fully and completely asleep.

he won’t hear his phone as it rings several times through. he won’t hear the suitcase roll and come to a stop beside his leg. he doesn’t feel the can get plucked from his fingers. the vague sensation of someone touching his hair doesn’t even bother him, but in the depths of his dreamless sleep, he hears a voice:

“taaaiiigaaa,”

and it’s enough. crimson lashes flutter open sleepily, slowly. eyes focus on the dark face before him with the delay that only the deepest slumbers could provide. his head spins. is he still asleep? before he can question it any longer, he jerks forwards and wraps his arms around aomine in the tightest hug. kagami buries his face into his boyfriend’s warm neck, feeling the embrace returned.

it’s a desperate cling. the kind of hug that says more than words could. i missed you so much, i love you so much, please do not let go - i’ve been thinking about this since you got on the plane to fly back to japan. just in case this is a dream and he’s about to wake up. kagami inhales deeply. aomine. right here. in his arms.

“don’t do that,” he says, “i smell bad.”

“no, you don’t,” it’s mumbled, inaudible.

“what was that?”

“i said,” kagami pulls his head back so that he can see his boyfriend’s beautiful, gorgeous, perfect face. it mirrors his own. both hold the teary, tender expressions of lovers parted for too long. his words are long lost. he couldn’t remember what he’d said, what aomine had asked, what day it is. all he has to ground him in reality is a pair of blue eyes staring deep into his, and the arms wrapped tightly around his body.

they move in unison. the kiss is soft, and sweet, and everything he could have hoped it would be. one of kagami’s hands leaves its place on aomine’s back to hold his face. is--- is that stubble he can feel under gentle fingertips? in six months? man! that’s so cool. and hot. god! his boyfriend is so beautiful! the kiss ends as kagami breaks into a wide grin. aomine chuckles. they press their foreheads together.

“tell me what you were thinkin’ about just now,”

“you, daiki,” he holds aomine’s face in both hands, now, smiling so much that it hurts, “i’ve been thinking about you ever since you left.”

#aonon.#aokaga #drabbles.#aokaga.#answered.#some of these i did at 1am and you can tell but i just wrote 3 and now i cant wait for u to read them!!!!!!!!!!#i worked SO HARD ON THESE #for the few months i've been back i've been writing them #i hope u like them................#writing kagami being soft when aomine's in a bad place is my special fav thing.......................#number 3 is my favourite PLEASE humour me and say which scenario u like best #also number 2 #i dont care about number 1 i just wanted to write that aspect of their relationship too JSHDJSHDJSHD #kagami about aomine when aomine does something cool: thats my BOYFRIEND :)#kagami about aomine when aomine is being a giant pain to literally everyone on purpose: thats my BOYFRIEND :)

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giggly-squiggily · 3 years

Note

Since I’ve decided I need more Ler! Hop in my life, do you think you could do a (platonic) story where he just body slams and wrecks the reader caus they’re upset and such?

Heyo anon! I gotcha covered!

You couldn’t exactly say what was wrong today-you were just feeling really blue. It felt like the tiny rain cloud above your head had a personal vengeance against you that day, dragging your mood down and making everything much harder.

Hop watched you from his spot a few feet away, taking in each soft sigh and blinked back tears. You tried your best not to break down in front of your friend, knowing it would worry him. Whenever you two met eyes, you forced a smile, even though it was ridiculously wobbly.

“Okay- that’s enough, (Y/N).” Hop stood up, a determined look in his eyes as he faced you. “I don’t know what’s making you sad, and I’m not gonna make you talk if you’re not willing.” He walked closer, a devious smile touching his lips as he approached. “What I am gonna do is see that wonderful smile of yours! Prepare yourself, (Y/N)!” With that, he pounced, wrapping his arms around your waist in a hug-tackle as he gently brought you to the ground.

“Eek! Hahahahhahaop!” You immediately burst into giggles when Hop targeted your sides, prodding and wiggling his fingers along your ribs and waist. “Hehe! There it is! There’s that smile I’ve missed! Say, where have you been all this time? (Y/N) has been missing you!”

You laughed helplessly as Hop’s fingers gently pressed into your tickle spots, a warm happy smile on his lips as he drew out the sweetest squeaks and giggles. Finally, once he deemed you smiley enough, he withdrew his hands, still lying on top of you as you caught your breath. “Feeling better, (Y/N)?” He asked softly, reaching up and wiping the tears of mirth off your flushed cheeks. Giggling, you nodded, leaning into his touch. “I am...heh, thanks Hop. I didn’t realize how much I needed that.”

The shepherd boy smiled before lying his head against your chest, closing his eyes to settle into an impromptu nap. “Of course, (Y/N). You just say the word, and I’ll be right here to cheer you up. I’m always gonna be there for you.” You smiled down at him, carding your fingers through his soft purple mane as sleepiness took you over as well. “Thanks Hop...you’re the best.” You whispered before falling asleep also.

I hope this was good! This was really cute to write! X3

#Pokemon #Sword and Shield #Hop #Reader #Hop x Reader #Can be read platonic or romantic #tickle

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pines-troz · 4 years

Text

Weekend With The Warners Chapter Four - Animaniacs & Pinky and The Brain

Summary: When the CEO assigns Pinky and The Brain with the important task of watching over the Warners for the weekend, Brain is prepared for any antics that the children have in store. What he didn’t take into account was forming a familial bond with the kids.

TW: This chapter features a brief scene of vomiting near the second half. It doesn't go into great detail, but I would rather highlight this now in case anyone is squeamish or uncomfortable with that.

Word Count: 9,664

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27849962/chapters/70318416

The golden rays of the morning sun seeped through the curtains of the hotel room. The Warner siblings slept peacefully in the queen bed near the door. On the other bed, Pinky stirred in his sleep. Crinkling his nose, the tall mouse awoke from his peaceful slumber. As Pinky batted away the sleepiness from his eyes, his gaze focused on the one thing he loved most in this world: Brain, still fast asleep making that cute whistling sound while he snored. The smaller mouse nestled his chubby head close to Pinky, clinging onto his chest with a fistful of fur on his right hand. Pinky watched as Brain’s body moved with each breath he took, utterly mesmerized by his peacefulness. The lanky mouse’s blue eyes trailed to the small river of drool pooled on his purple robe. Another trait of Brain he found to be absolutely endearing.

Pinky smiled at his sleeping partner. Brain was usually grumpy and grouchy when he was awake, but all of that melted away when he slept. Instead of a scowl, Brain snoozed with a contented smile. There was a serenity to the eloquent mouse’s face that revealed his soft and vulnerable side, the part of him he always tried to conceal. It was that softness combined with Brain’s desire to anchor himself onto his partner that captivated the taller mouse’s heart.

“Poit! Brain looks so adorable when he’s asleep!” Pinky thought to himself as he gazed at his partner with adoring eyes.

The lanky mouse was so enamored with his slumbering partner that he was compelled to shower him with love. Pinky quickly planted a kiss on Brain’s forehead, hoping this small gesture wouldn’t disturb him in the slightest. But the smaller mouse’s nose twitched upon feeling the tender kiss and his eyes fluttered. As Brain slowly awoke from his rest to find Pinky smiling at him.

“Good morning, Pinky.” Brain mumbled sleepily.

“Good morning Brain!” Pinky lovingly replied as he leaned in and nuzzled his nose into Brain’s. The smaller mouse chuckled contentedly at the affectionate gesture.

Brain’s eyes darted downwards to his hand, still gripped onto his partner’s chest. He noticed the pool of saliva on Pinky’s robe and blushed. Using the sleeve from his blue robe, he wiped away the excess drool from the corner of his mouth. After cleaning himself, Brain let out a huge yawn as he stretched out his arms. He slowly got up from his sleeping position and started to scratch his back, but stopped when he felt a warm hand caress his forearm.

“Oh Brain, don’t get up just yet. Can’t we spend five more minutes in bed together?” Pinky pleaded softly. Brain looked at his partner’s sparkling blue eyes. He would surely be a cad to refuse such an enticing request. Entranced by Pinky’s soft sapphire stare, Brain gave him a tired smile. Pinky received his answer when he felt his partner pull him close, resting his large cranium against his chest. Pinky’s cheeks warmed when Brain snuggled up to him.

“Ten more minutes, Pinky.” Brain responded with a blissful sigh. The pudgy mouse contentedly closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around his partner. Pinky smiled at Brain and closed his eyes, cherishing the loving gesture. Pinky gently wrapped his arms around Brain. The bed felt so much warmer now.

The two mice held each other close. Brain wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he returned to his partner’s warm and loving embrace. Ten minutes, twenty minutes perhaps. But he didn’t care.

“You know Pinky, I could stay like this forever…” Brain sighed as he tightened his hold around Pinky, snuggling up to his partner. The taller mouse hummed in agreement. But Pinky soon thought of something that would go against his partner’s proclamation.

“But Brain, what about taking over the world?” Pinky asked softly with a worried expression.

There was a moment of silence before Brain came up with a compelling response. Liberating his right hand from underneath his partner’s back, Brain gently cupped Pinky’s left cheek and stared into his beautiful blue eyes. “How foolish of you to assume that I haven’t done so already.” He said with a sly smile.

Pinky’s brows shifted to a bemused expression while he took his left hand and placed it over Brain’s hand. “What do you mean?”

Brain hoisted himself over Pinky, pulling himself closer to his partner until foreheads touched. “To put it simply, you are my world Pinky...” He admitted right before he leaned in for a kiss.

Pinky was stunned to hear such a proclamation from Brain. He was aware of how important his dream of world domination was for the ambitious mouse. But for Brain to hold Pinky in such high regard made him feel all soft and gooshy. Once their lips broke away, the lanky mouse gazed into his partner’s rose-pink eyes.

“Naaarf.” Pinky purred as he felt Brain tuck himself underneath his chin once more. Both mice closed their eyes again and resumed their peaceful embrace, resting for ten minutes more.

But the intimate moment between the murine beaus was shattered when a big pillow fell on top of them with a quiet thud. Their screams were muffled as they were engulfed by the surprisingly soft darkness. The mice tried to escape, but the pillow was quickly lifted off of them. Pinky and Brain looked up to see Wakko, still in their blue footie pajamas, swiftly holding the pillow behind their back. Dot stood by holding her smartphone.

“Oops, sorry dads.” Wakko sheepishly apologized. “I was actually aiming at Dot because she was acting like a creep!” He explained while pointing at their little sister.

“I wasn’t acting like a creep!” Dot growled at the middle child, flashing her fangs. “I just happened to notice how cute they looked and wanted to capture the magical moment.”

“Ooh, could I see?” Pinky asked eagerly, clapping his hands. The Warner sister’s anger melted away upon hearing the mouse’s cockney accent. She turned to face the mice with a bubbly smile and sparkling eyes.

“Well, of course, Pinky!” Dot happily replied with a charming smile. She showed the mice a series of photos of them entangled in their embrace as they snoozed together. As she swiped her finger across the phone, each picture proved to be more endearing than the last.

Pinky’s blue eyes glistened as he gazed at the pictures. “Aww Brain, we look so cute together!” He gushed as he patted his partner on the shoulder.

Brain while secretly thought that Dot had a good eye for detail and captured their beautiful moments of intimacy, merely rolled his eyes and turned his attention towards the Warner sister. “Promise me that you won’t post those photographs on social media?” He begged with pleading eyes.

“You have my word!” Dot affirmed. “I already posted your lovely duet from last night on most social media platforms, which is trending last I checked.”

“You what?!?” Brain screeched with bulging eyes as color flooded his cheeks.

“Here, let me show you.” Dot explained as she pulled up the Insta-Gratification app on her phone. Brain and Pinky watched themselves sing passionately on Yakko’s palms while he zoomed around the room. Brain’s anger simmered down as he relived the magical moment from a third-person perspective. Even Wakko took a seat next to their rodent guardians as they watched the duet play out. Once the video ended, Pinky stood up and clapped. “Encore! Encore!” He chirped.

“And just look at these accolades.” Dot added as she scrolled down the comment section, which was flooded with colorful heart emojis, thumbs-ups, mice, stars, and various smiley faces.

Pinky’s eyes lit up as he gazed at the parade of positive emojis. The lanky mouse was thrilled that the world loved Brain’s singing as much as he did. Perhaps he should repurpose his social media account from teaching the world how to wrap their toes with various foods to one where he and Brain could sing along to Top 40 hits! Brain simply nodded at the praise. Despite his insecurity over his own singing, he preferred to be trending over a lovely duet with his partner rather than being assaulted by the various elevated mountain ranges on the globe.

“Okay, I’ll let this one slide.” The eloquent mouse firmly declared. “But from now on, all videos and photographs you capture of me must receive my consent before you showcase them to the world.”

“You got it!” Dot comprehended with a thumbs up.

The bathroom door swung open and Yakko emerged, still in his green pajamas. He had a toothbrush in his mouth and some specks of toothpaste on the sides of his lips. “What’s all the commotion?” He mumbled through the toothbrush.

“Dot was creeping on Pinky and The Brain while they were having a romantic moment!” Wakko shouted, pointing at their sister.

“Wakko assaulted Pinky and The Brain with a pillow and destroyed their moment of intimacy!” Dot cried out simultaneously, pointing at her sibling.

Before Yakko could act as a mediator between his younger siblings, Brain stepped forward and interceded. “Now now, Pinky and I understand that you two had no malicious intentions for startling us from our slumber. So please cease your quarreling and get dressed already.” Brain addressed the siblings in a slightly stern tone. “We have a long day ahead of us, and I’m certain that we’re all eager to have some continental breakfast downstairs.”

Yakko took out his toothbrush and pointed it at Wakko and Dot. “Alright sibs, you heard Casanova. Let’s get goin’!” Yakko advised in his ‘responsible-big-brother’ tone. He quickly turned his attention over to the mice and flashed a playful smile and pointing finger guns at them. Brain frowned at the realization that the oldest Warner most definitely peeked in on his romantic moment with his partner. Pinky eagerly returned the gesture by pointing his finger guns while making beeping sounds.

The mere mention of breakfast excited Wakko, who hopped over the bed and right into his suitcase to get dressed. Seconds later, he leaped out of the suitcase, dressed in his regular attire. Yakko ran back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Dot noticed this and barged over to the door, angrily banging for her brother to open up. The doorknob jiggled and Yakko exited the bathroom dressed in his brown slacks.

“Patience, dearest sister,” Yakko playfully quipped as he walked past Dot. The Warner sister let out a humph as she strode into the bathroom. About a minute later, Dot emerged from the bathroom wearing her pink skirt. The girl smiled as she adjusted her yellow flower hair tie.

Pinky and Brain simply took off their robes and tossed them onto the bed. Brain climbed up the robotic suit and hopped into the pilot seat. After their run-in with those pesky punks from the previous night, the mouse knew that it was wise to take precautions and arm himself with his technologically advanced suit in case they were to run in any trouble. He guided the suit over to the nightstand to retrieve the hotel key, placing it safely into his pocket.

Pinky bounced over to the Warner siblings, where Wakko picked him up and placed him on top of their red hat. Soon everyone exited the room, with Brain closing the door behind him.

As they walked down the hall, Wakko and Dot skipped merrily down the hall while Yakko took Brain aside. “I know who you li-ike!” He sang to the tune schoolyard chant children use to tease others.

Brain looked over at Yakko and gave a feigned shocked reaction. “Well shoot, you discovered my deepest, darkest secret.” He drawled sarcastically. “I’m romantically enamored with the mouse I’ve been dating for the past few months.”

Yakko chuckled and back slapped Brain’s robotic suit. “For all the years that I’ve known you, I never assumed you’d be the romantic type.” He remarked.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me Yakko.” Brain retorted.

“Now you sound like you’re hiding some actual deep dark secrets there, Brain.” Yakko bantered. “Have you made any powerful enemies? Murder a man? Plague your internet history by visiting some saucy websites?”

The eloquent mouse released an exasperated sigh but decided that it was better to humor the boy by satiating his curiosity. “To answer your inquiries: The Yakuza are still on my trail, no, and yes, but I’ll have you know that I only visited those websites for research purposes.” Brain answered dryly.

“Uh-huh, sure. ‘Research purposes’.” Yakko replied with a sly smile and waggling eyebrows. He quickly retrieved a pen and notebook from his pocket. “Now before I forget, wherein that big old head of yours did you come up with those swoon-worthy pickup lines, and can you give this hopeless romantic some pointers?”

Brain let out another exhausted sigh. “I hate to rain on your parade, Yakko, but I’m not in the mood to instruct you on the art of wooing potential romantic partners.” He gently declined. “Perhaps some other time when we’re not mozying about in public.”

“Right, you don’t wanna freely give away your valuable advice to any curious onlookers.” Yakko understood as he put away his pen and notebook.

The elevator opened and Wakko, Dot, and Pinky filed in. Wakko held their foot out by the door while Yakko and Brain entered the elevator. Once everyone was inside, the elevator doors closed and they made their descent.

The mice and the Warners enjoyed a contented continental breakfast together. Yakko had a stack of pancakes covered in syrup. Wakko had three plates full of waffles, eggs, french toast, and bacon. Dot enjoyed a nice plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and buttered toast. Pinky and Brain both had a plate of eggs and onion bagels smothered with cream cheese.

After they finished their meals, they made their way through the lobby and exited the hotel.

Once they hit the streets, Wakko and Dot immediately grabbed onto Brain’s robotic hands while Yakko placed Pinky on his shoulder. He bounced in front of Brain and started to walk backward, casually placing his hands behind his head.

“So Brain, what’s on the docket for today?” Yakko asked with a playful smile.

“Well, I’ve already planned out an extensive schedule of engaging activities, with some input from Pinky.” Brain took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over to Yakko. The eldest Warner opened up the paper and read the schedule the older mouse created whilst Wakko and Dot sprinted over towards their older brother and looked over his shoulders.

10:00 AM - Visit the Library

12:00 PM - Lunch at Denny’s

1:30 PM - Go to the Movies

4:00 PM - Stroll through the Mall

6:30 PM - Dinner at The Puce Fedora

8:30 PM - Return to the Hotel

“Taking you kids out to Denny’s was my idea! Troz!” Pinky chirped while looking at Yakko.

“Well sibs, looks like we have a busy day ahead of us,” Yakko commented as he glanced at Wakko and Dot. “Then lead the way, my good man.” The oldest Warner addressed Brain with a dramatic bow, gesturing his arm towards their path.

Wakko and Dot then perched themselves on the right and left shoulders of the robotic suit, with Brain settled between the siblings. “Onwards!” Dot commanded, pointing out to the horizon. Wakko flashed an eager grin with their tongue bouncing out.

Brain looked over at the cheerful siblings on his robotic shoulders. “As you wish,” The eloquent mouse replied with an amused grin.

The group walked through the city streets, with Brain shifting the controls to keep up with Yakko’s pace. The mouse noticed the fascinated glances from the other pedestrians and onlookers that passed by. The mouse ignored their curious stares and kept his attention on Yakko, who was showing off his parkour skills to an easily-impressed Pinky. The taller mouse carefully held on tight as the eldest Warner demonstrated his great athleticism. Yakko swung on the lamppost and flung himself onto the mailbox and did a backflip, landing gracefully on his feet near the edge of the sidewalk. Wakko and Dot clapped at their brother’s performance. Yakko turned to his audience and bowed. Brain gave the eldest Warner an impressed smile.

“Egad Yakko, that was amazing!” Pinky praised. “Hey, I should give this parker thing a try!” The lanky mouse hopped off of Yakko’s shoulder.

“Actually, it’s pronounced Parkour, Pinky.” Yakko gently corrected the enthusiastic mouse.

Brain looked over at his partner with a skeptical expression on his face. “I don’t think that’s a particularly wise idea Pinky.” He warned. “You already pulled the muscle in your head, and the last thing I need is for you to injure yourself further.”

“Oh fiddleyposh,” Pinky dismissed with a wave of his hand. “I’m in great shape for someone my age!”

The tall mouse eagerly hopped from the sidewalk’s edge shouting “Parkour!” before landing flat on the street with a hard thud. The Warners and Brain winced at Pinky’s rough landing. The mouse tried to pick himself back upon his feet but felt hissed at the painful bruises from his fall. “I’m fine!” He assured the others.

Brain shook his head. Using the controls in his suit, he gently picked Pinky up with his metallic hand and carefully placed him in his coat pocket. The mouse steered the controls and continued to walk down the sidewalk, with Wakko and Dot perched on his shoulders. Yakko followed suit and kept up with the robotic suit at a casual pace.

Ten minutes later, the group approached the main grounds in front of the Central Library. The Warners oohed and ahhed as they walked through the Maguire Gardens, observing the trees and the shallow pools that lined the small stairwells. Their eyes scanned upwards beyond the trees that filled the park and to the building, whose grand tower was crowned with a mosaic pyramid.

“Ah, the public library.” Brain sighed blissfully as he gestured towards the building. “The beacon of literacy, accessibility, and community. A place where people of all backgrounds can easily access books and other materials for free use as well as utilizing other programs and services.”

“So in other words, they’re socialist book lenders.” Yakko quipped with a smug smile.

Brain’s brows furrowed at the smart aleck’s comment until he realized that the teen had a valid point. “More or less.” He answered while waving his robotic hand.

When they approached the doors, Wakko and Dot hopped off of Brain’s robotic shoulders and landed both feet on the ground. The siblings then held onto Brain’s hands, with Wakko holding the right hand and Dot holding the left hand. Yakko opened up the door and allowed Brain and his siblings to enter first.

Once the group entered the library, they were in awe of the beauty and grand scale of the interior. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot bounced along the black and white checkered tile floor as they marveled at the magnificent interior design of the library. Brain already took into account what kinds of shenanigans the Warners, and by extension Pinky, would partake in without his supervision. Bouncing around the quiet areas and potentially plotting revenge against anyone who would dare be rude to them. After careful consideration of the varying scenarios, he concluded that it would be best if they stayed in the children’s section, where the rules concerning indoor voices and energetic movement were not as strict.

The mouse guided the siblings away from the more austere sections of the library and towards the vibrant and inviting aura of the children’s section. They ventured over to the children’s section, which was more colorful and inviting. The Warners gazed at the various soft sofas, colorful posters promoting various library programs appealing to different age demographics, and gorgeous displays promoting new books. They learned from various TV shows and movies that libraries were mostly authoritarian places where silence was always enforced upon patrons by stuck-up librarians. But they saw many young children talking and giggling to their friends and parents at a reasonable volume and decided that libraries could be fun and weren’t as bad as the media made it out to be.

Brain noticed how entranced the siblings were and allowed a smile to escape. “Enchanting, is it not?” He humored. “Now that we’re here, I’m sure we’ll make the most of our time at the library. And the first order of business is to obtain some library cards.”

“Yay! More snacks!” Wakko exclaimed.

“No, Wakko, they’re not meant for consumption.” Brain told the middle child. “Library cards are used to check out books, movies, CDs, and other materials so you could bring them home for a reasonable period of time before returning them.”

“Oh,” Wakko noted, nodding their head in understanding. “I think I get it. So I use the library card to take out the library books, and then I get to eat the books!”

Brain simply shook his head, causing the middle child to let out a disappointed sigh.

The group approached the front desk and were greeted by a young librarian who had wavy brown hair in a loose ponytail, wore pink round glasses, a rainbow-striped long-sleeve shirt, a long magenta skirt and glittering star earrings. The Warners were immediately captivated by the librarian’s vibrant appearance. Perhaps not all librarians were uptight middle-aged snobs. Another library stereotype had been shattered.

The librarian noticed the mice and the Warner siblings walk up towards the desk and she immediately greeted them with a friendly smile. “Good morning!”

“Good morning Miss Librarian!” The Warners and Pinky chorused.

Pinky climbed out of the suit’s front pocket and hopped on the table. He approached the librarian with a friendly smile. “Yes, I would like to order a number four meal with extra cheese and no onions, and-” But Brain squeezed Pinky into his fist (a little harder than he intended) to shut him up.

“Forgive my partner’s inane ramblings,” Brain apologized as he placed Pinky into his coat pocket, giving him a gentle pat on the head to compensate for his earlier transgression. “My children here are eager to have their very own library cards.” The mouse said as he gestured towards the siblings. The mouse took another glance at the rambunctious kids clamored by the desk. The jubilant faces were evidence enough that they took no offense to his statement.

“Yes,” The small mouse pondered, “they are my children…”

“Alrighty, let me get you the registration forms and you kids will be all set!” The Librarian replied as she opened up the drawer in her desk and retrieved the necessary papers.

The Warners accepted the forms and quickly filled out their information. They handed their papers over to the librarian who typed in the information into the computer. After a couple of minutes of waiting, she authorized three library cards and gave them to the siblings. The Warners eagerly took their library cards, and Brain courteously thanked the librarian for her service.

Yakko played around with his library card in his hands, smiling at the prospect of taking out new books to read. Wakko licked his library card before giving an ambivalent shrug, placing the card underneath their red cap.

Dot eagerly grabbed her own library card and inspected it. The realization dawned on her that she could borrow any book she would like for free as well as picking out any book she desired from the library’s vast catalog. “So this is what true power feels like...” She said to herself with a devilish grin.

Brain noticed the Warner sister’s excitement and flashed his own manic grin. “Yes! Let the power of book borrowing privileges seep into your very soul!” The small mouse encouraged. He let out an evil laugh and was surprised to find Dot joining in with her own dark chuckling.

Pinky watched the two chuckle and an astounding realization came to him. “So that’s what King Arthur meant when he said ‘having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card’! Narf!” The lanky mouse exclaimed.

Brain ceased his laughter upon hearing Pinky’s misquote. “Pinky, King Arthur never said that, and there was certainly no mention of library cards in any variation of the Arthurian Legend!” He berated. “That quote was from that Arthur cartoon you’re so fond of!”

The lanky mouse took a moment to register that information. “Oh, I guess it is...poit!”

Yakko tapped his sister’s shoulder, who immediately turned to face her older brother. She joined him and Wakko as they started to explore the children’s section. Pinky hopped out of Brain’s pocket as he journeyed over to the picture book section.

Yakko and Dot excitedly explored the shelves, eager to pick up some books for leisure reading. Wakko trailed behind as he did not share the same enthusiasm for reading as their siblings. As the middle child darted their eyes around the many shelves, he spotted a few circular tables near the reference desk, all of which had scrap paper and a box filled with colored pencils and crayons.

Wakko immediately went over to the coloring table. He decided that he would spend their visit drawing. The middle child took a blue colored pencil and tapped their red hat, thinking of a perfect picture. After a moment of pondering, he became inspired. Taking a sheet of paper, Wakko grabbed a handful of colored pencils and went straight to work. He was determined to make an artistic masterpiece worthy enough to be displayed on the refrigerator door. The middle child was so focused on their work that he failed to listen to the pattering footsteps encroaching the table.

“Aren’t you gonna look for a book?” Yakko asked his younger sibling.

“Maybe later,” Wakko answered with a twinge of worry in their voice. Truth be told, he didn’t want to go through the stress of picking out a book he knew he wasn’t going to enjoy or take the time to finish. Instead, Wakko turned their attention back to the drawing. The middle child settled down at the table. “I’ve got some drawing to do!”

“Okie-Dokie,” Yakko replied, holding his hands behind his back as he strolled through the children’s section.

Over in the teen section, Dot perused through the shelves to find any popular YA novels but found the process to be quite arduous. Teen romances were either hit or miss, dystopian novels weren’t her cup of tea, and she greatly disliked any books told from the first-person perspective. However, the Warner sister managed to spot a few poetry books that seemed promising and a couple of mystery novels with intriguing set-ups. Dot sauntered over to one of the leather chairs and made herself comfortable. She opened up one of the poetry books and began to read.

Unbeknownst to her, Brain took a quick glance over the shoulder of his suit to see her silently reading. The mouse was impressed to learn Dot’s bookish nature and her willingness to engage in more challenging reading material.

The mouse then walked towards the nonfiction section to find Yakko browsing through the 900s books. The Warner brother picked up a book and inspected it, but ultimately decided that it didn’t catch his interest and returned it to its original spot.

“Find anything of interest?” Brain addressed, trying to act as casual as possible by leaning on the shelf but figured that he looked like a complete goober.

“Not yet,” Yakko answered. “but hopefully I’ll find some books on a specific person or time period to write some catchy educational songs about them.”

“Good to know,” Brain nodded. He swerved the controls of the suit and continued to explore the shelves, allowing Yakko to resume his search for decent books.

The mouse ventured into the fiction section in search of a particular novel in mind. Using the signs indicating the first letter of the last names, Brain moved towards the shelves where all the authors with last names starting with the letter S. With a pointed finger, he guided the metallic hand over to find a particular novel from a particular author.

“Come on, come on…” He muttered as he trailed through the So’s over to the Sp’s until he landed on the book by Johanna Spyri. “Aha!” Brain cheered as he retrieved the book from the shelf and laid eyes on one of the greatest pieces of literature. He gazed at the illustrated little girl with curly brown hair in a red dress playing with two white goats on the grassy mountains of the Swiss Alps. “Heidi!”

Gripping the book close to the robot’s chest, Brain decided to check to see how Pinky was faring. He hoped by Odin’s beard that his eccentric partner wasn’t causing too much trouble on his own.

When Brain emerged from the fiction section, he was pleasantly surprised to find Pinky running up to him while lifting two books above his head. “Oh Brain, can I please get these beautiful books!” He asked as he dropped the books to show his partner. One had a picture of a family of bunnies wearing sweaters while the other book featured a parade of colorful elephants holding their tails together as they marched across a grassy plain.

“Of course you can, Pinky,” Brain answered. “And need I remind you that despite your child-like mannerisms, you’re a grown adult with agency.”

“That’s odd, I don’t recall having an agent.” Pinky mused aloud. “Brain, do you think James Bond would be interested in being my agent? Or maybe one of the Spy Kids could be up for the job!”

“No Pinky,” Brain groaned as he massaged his forehead. “what I mean is that you are an independent individual who is capable of making decisions of your own free will. In other words, you don’t need my permission to take out whatever books you want.”

“Oh, okay!” Pinky chirped with some comprehension of what Brain told him.

With a shrug, Brain walked over to the table where Wakko was hunched over as he worked on his illustration. When the middle child spotted the mice approaching, he quickly turned their picture over flat on the table.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Wakko?” Brain pleasantly asked. Pinky sprinted to catch up with his partner while carrying his books. Brain noticed his partner doing his best to lift up the books and quickly confiscated them from his tiny paws, placing them underneath his library book.

“Yep!” Wakko eagerly nodded with their tongue out. “I’ve been working on my magnum opus! It’s still a work in progress, but I’ll show you once it’s finished.”

“Ah, I see,” Brian noted with a smile. “Well, aren’t you going to find a book or two while we’re still here?” The pudgy mouse inquired.

“Nah,” Wakko answered with uncertainty. He tucked their hands into the sleeves of their sweater and kneaded their fingers through the soft cotton.

“What’s wrong?” Brain asked.

Wakko nervously wrung his hands through his sweater sleeves and looked up at the big-headed mouse. “If I tell you, can you promise not to tell anyone else about this?”

“You have my word.” Brain solemnly replied.

“Books can be kinda intimidating, you know?” Wakko blurted out. “There are too many words, and they don’t grab my attention.”

Brain looked at the child with concern, raising his bushy brow upwards. “Well, I’m certain that there has to be at least one book that’s tailored to your interests.” He insisted. “What types of genres do you enjoy most?”

Wakko rubbed their chin as they pondered. “Well, I did try to read some sci-fi and fantasy books, but they were too wordy and I couldn’t understand what was going on. And Yakko tried to give me a couple of easy-reader books, but they were too boring!” The middle child let out a dejected groan. “I don’t get it. Dot’s younger than me and she can read all these heavy young adult books and I can’t even bring myself to read a lousy chapter book!” Feeling overwhelmed, Wakko buried their head into their sweater sleeves.

Pinky was saddened by Wakko’s plight and decided to help them as best as he could. After a moment of thinking, the mouse thought of an idea. He looked up at the middle child with an optimistic grin as he showcased his library books. “Oh Wakko, you should try reading these wonderful board books. There aren’t a lot of words and you can look at the pretty pictures! Zort!”

“But those are baby books!” Wakko complained. “I don’t think there are any books that are made for me!” He then buried their face in the crook of their elbow and let out a hopeless sigh.

Brain gazed at the downtrodden Warner sibling and pondered. He needed to figure out a way to alleviate the middle child’s dilemma. The eloquent mouse scanned the library shelves and found a section dedicated to graphic novels. Perhaps those books should suit Wakko’s needs and capture their attention.

“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?” Brain whispered to his partner.

“Sure Brain, but did they ever show us how to get to Sesame Street?” Pinky mused aloud.

“While that’s an admittedly fascinating rumination dear Pinky, we have more pressing matters to attend to.” Brain stated as he gestured his head towards Wakko.

The smaller mouse approached the middle child and gently placed his robotic hand on their shoulder. “I think I found some books that you might be interested in.” Brain gently prodded. Wakko hesitantly followed the mouse over to the bookshelves full of graphic novels.

Brain glided the metallic finger across the various book titles until he found one that would interest Wakko. Hilda and the Troll. The mouse took out the graphic novel from the shelf and handed it over to the middle child.

Wakko’s eyes shone brightly as he stared at the book’s cover, which featured a young girl with blue hair wearing a black beret standing in front of the snowy mountains with her cute animal companion. He gingerly opened up the book and was immediately captivated by the artwork.

“What is this?” Wakko asked with wonder.

“Why, dear Wakko, what you are holding is a graphic novel.” Brain answered with an encouraging smile. “A literary phenomenon that utilizes comics content to tell cohesive stories similar to typical novels.”

The middle child carefully read the page, following the text and admiring the illustrations “Woah, this has easy to follow words and pictures!” Wakko exclaimed. “And they’re real books?”

“Graphic novels are novels, Wakko.” Brain reassured the child, patting their head with his robotic hand.

“Great! I’m gonna take ten!” Wakko cheered. He perused through the shelves and picked out a handful of books that piqued his curiosity. After taking out the rest of the Hilda series from the shelf, he picked out Roller Girl, Ghosts, and three books from the Dog Man series. Wakko wore a jubilant grin as he gathered their graphic novels while Brain and Pinky smiled at the middle child’s revived enthusiasm for reading.

Meanwhile, in the teen section, Dot was invested in her book. Yakko saw his sister and decided to sneak up on her. He tip-toed over to the teen section and carefully approached the couch. He had his arms out, ready to scare his little sister-

“Hey Yakko,” Dot said as she looked over at her older brother. Yakko brought his arms down and snapped his fingers in defeat.

“So I see you have your books,” Yakko mentioned, trying to change the subject.

“Yep!” Dot chirped as she hopped off the couch. “How about you?”

“I picked out a few books,” Yakko explained as he held them up. “One on European architecture, another on the Renaissance, and a book on the Sixties.” The oldest Warner also held up two paperback books from his stack. “I also picked out a couple of those Captain Underpants books for Wakko just in case.”

Dot nodded in approval. “Speaking of which, we should probably find them.” As the brother and sister walked back together, they were pleasantly surprised to see Wakko carrying a pile of books.

“Since when did you become an eager reader?” Dot asked playfully.

“Ever since Brain showed me the magical world of graphic novels! They’re like comic books, but formatted like a novel.” Wakko explained with the confidence of a college professor.

“Nice!” Yakko replied, elated by his sibling’s excitement. “I also got you a couple of books that you might like.”

Wakko looked at the Captain Underpants books and smiled. “Oh cool! I can read those too.”

Pinky and Brain quickly joined the Warner siblings. “So is everyone all set?” Brain asked.

“Uh-huh.” The Warners chorused while nodding their heads.

“Excellent! At this rate, we’ll be able to check out our books and arrive at Denny’s at a much earlier time than I had planned.” The big-headed mouse mentioned as he started to leave. The siblings eagerly bounced behind.

- - - - -

The group arrived at Denny’s at around 11:45 AM and were quickly seated in one of the booths. As they waited for their meals, the Warners and the mousey couple decided to pass the time by swapping stories.

Yakko divulged some unusual anecdotes, from a wild goose-chase over who stole Wakko’s donuts from the designer donut shop to the crazy hunter who turned out to be Chicken Boo in disguise.

The mice listened carefully to the ‘whodonut’ story. While Brain was not the least bit surprised to find out that Wakko was the one who consumed the box of donuts, Pinky thought it was a plot twist for the ages. However, Brain was shocked to learn that the hunter bent on capturing all of the Animaniacs cast members was none other than Chicken Boo. He and Pinky admittedly didn’t spend as much time with the giant chicken during the show’s original run, but Brain must have suspected the twinge of jealousy in the poultry’s eyes when the mice and the Warner children received carts full of fan mail on a weekly basis while he only received a few letters during the five years the show was on the air. The latter story prompted Brain and Pinky to explain their run-in with their weirdly deranged former co-worker. They were heading back to the lab from a candle-lit dinner date, holding hands when they were spotted by a peculiar man with a mustache. The mice were able to evade capture by using decoys. Brain put a nice paint job on his spare Noodle Noggin doll and retrieved old Pinky plushie made in the nineties to trick the hunter into thinking that he caught them.

Dot engaged the mice in one of her other anecdotes where she consumed a kawaii cupcake that turned everyone and everything into an adorably cute version of themselves. Pinky and Brain also remembered that fateful month and told the Warners about how their reactions to their cuteness.

When the mice first took a glance at their kawaii forms, Pinky was overwhelmed with excitement at how cute Brain was and wanted to show the world how cute he was. Brain was inspired by Pinky’s proclamation and tried to use his and Pinky’s cuteness to take over the world. But the mouse was dismayed when he learned that it had no effect in an already cute world. Brain spent the rest of the month thinking about his new form was reminiscent of the disgustingly saccharine artwork from the ‘Pinky-Winky and Brainy-Wainy’ pitch he heard from a pair of aspiring TV writers during a failed scheme from the nineties. It didn’t help that Pinky remembered the theme song and kept singing it.

“They’re Pinky and Brainy! They’re Winky and Wainy!” Pinky gleefully belted out.

Brain placed his hand on Pinky’s cheek, ceasing his singing. “Quiet Pinky or I shall have to hug you.” He commanded, which elicited some chuckles from the Warners.

As they shared their stories, Wakko eagerly read one of his graphic novels. Brain was pleased to see the middle child so invested in their library books.

By the time they got their food, everyone was mostly content with their food. As they ate, Brain noticed how Dot grimaced as she consumed her lunch. When Yakko asked her if she was okay, the Warner sister shrugged it off. But the big-headed mouse could see the pain she concealed with her adorable face.

Once Pinky finished his meal, he excused himself to use the restroom. A few minutes later, Pinky was skipping towards the booth when a middle-aged man and woman were appalled by the fact that a mouse was in the restaurant. The woman shrieked while the man violently kicked the poor mouse into the drywall.

Brain and the Warners were horrified by the assault. The smaller mouse quickly approached his partner, gently plucking him from the wall and cradling him in his robotic hands. Brain exited from the driver’s seat, scurried down the right arm, and carefully draped Pinky over his lap as he inspected his injuries.

“Pinky, please speak to me!” Brain cried out.

“Naaarf…” Pinky uttered. He looked over to his partner and cupped his chubby cheeks. Brain was relieved that Pinky was okay.

The Warners sadly gazed at the mice with sympathetic eyes. They then turned their attention towards the perpetrators and snarled. The careless couple exited the restaurant with no remorse for what they’ve done. The siblings retrieved their weapons; Yakko took out his pen, Wakko retrieved his wooden mallet, and Dot flashed her flamethrower.

Pinky and Brain watched in astonishment as the children busted through the doors and followed the couple. The mice heard two frantic screams followed by childish giggling from the siblings. After five minutes, the Warners returned to the table as if nothing happened.

“How are you feeling, Pinky?” Wakko asked.

“A lot better, actually! Troz!” The lanky mouse answered with an optimistic grin.

“What happened back there?” Brain inquired.

“You don’t want to know,” Yakko replied.

“Let’s just say that those bozos won’t be bothering Pinky anymore.” Dot mentioned cryptically. With a gentle hand, she carefully caressed Pinky’s head. The mouse smiled as he accepted her loving touch.

Brain gave a warm smile at the siblings. “Thank you for standing up for Pinky.”

“Of course!” Yakko assured. “After seeing you stick up for us last night, it’s only fair that we return the favor!”

The rest of their meal went off without any further issue. Brain rewarded the Warners for their solidarity by allowing them to pick out as many deserts as they so desired. Wakko had one of each, while Yakko picked out brownie cake. Dot graciously declined the offer, instead of ordering another glass of water. As Yakko and Wakko contentedly enjoyed their desserts, Dot continued to look a little uneasy as she sipped her water.

After Brain paid for lunch, the group was on their way to the movie theaters to see an animated movie featuring the Furbies which was most certainly attempting to ride off the coattails of The Lego Movie. Yakko and Wakko were excited to go to the movies when Brain informed them that the theater will have assigned seats and comfy reclining leather chairs. Yakko was especially elated by this. They’ll have fewer chances of coming across a man spreader and have a more comfortable movie-going experience.

While Yakko and Wakko excitedly bounced around on their way to the movies, Dot was unusually quiet compared to her older siblings. The Warner sister walked at a slower pace, clutching her stomach and looking down at the sidewalk.

Yakko knew that something was up with his sister and decided to intervene once more. “Hey, you doin’ okay sis?” He asked concernedly.

“I don’t think I’m feeling too good…” Dot admitted. She then felt something rise up from her stomach and started to panic. The girl spotted a trash receptacle and sprinted towards it. Gripping the sides of the can, she threw up straight into the trash.

Yakko, Wakko, and the mice winced as they watched the poor girl spew out her lunch.

Once she finished, she felt woozy. Brain took out the folded handkerchief from his suit pocket and offered it to Dot, who graciously accepted it and wiped her mouth.

Overwhelmed with guilt, tears began to stream down Pinky’s face. “Poit! I’m so sorry Dot, this is all my fault!” The tall mouse cried. “This wouldn’t have happened if we went to The Cheesecake Factory instead!”

“It’s okay, Pinky.” Dot assured, trying her hardest to sound confident. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

Brain tied his best not to give in to stress and remain in control over the situation. “Okay, new plan: we need to return to the hotel right away so you could rest.” He addressed Dot and the rest of the group.

The mouse consulted the map app on his smartphone and was thankful that it was only a ten-minute walk to the hotel from their current position. He looked over at Dot and realized that she needed some ginger ale after what happened. Fortunately, the group just so happened to be standing right next to a convenience store. Brain picked up Pinky from his shoulder and placed him next to the Warner siblings.

“Pinky, you watch the kids while I go inside the store to fetch some ginger ale and crackers for Dot.” Brain explained as he dashed through the front doors.

“You can count on my Brain! Troz!” Pinky responded, giving his partner a serious salute. Once the smaller mouse entered the store, he shifted his attention over to the Warners.

Yakko and Wakko comforted their sister as they waited outside. Dot just stared down at the sidewalk, propping her head in her gloved hands.

“Why did this have to happen?” She thought to herself.

The girl felt Yakko’s hand ruffle through her hair while Wakko’s hand stroked up and down her back. Pinky, despite his short stature, went over to her knee and hugged it with all his might. Dot looked over at the lanky white mouse, giving him a grateful smile. She released her right hand from under her head and gently patted Pinky.

The group was alerted when Brain exited the convenience store with a brown paper bag filled with a liter bottle of ginger ale, a box of salted crackers, and plastic cups. Additionally, he held a cold can of ginger ale in the robot’s right hand. Steering the controls, Brain knelt the suit on one knee and offered the ginger ale to the Warner sister, who wordlessly accepted it. She opened up the soda and took a generous sip. With the necessary goods purchased, the group started to make their way back to the hotel.

“Do you need any help, sis?” Yakko asked.

“No, I’m good.” Dot assured him. She was tough. After all, she was the one who marched to grant toons the right to vote and managed to sing an impressive song about the First Ladies of the United States in under two minutes. Dot was also strong enough to open up any jar lids for Wakko. Heck, she even saved Yakko’s life on Halloween night for crying out loud! A far cry from the sickly waif she played in Wakko’s Wish. While Dot knew how supportive and loving her older siblings were and she greatly respected the mice, the last thing she wanted was to be pitied by them.

But the girl stumbled. She almost tripped, but managed to catch her footing and placed her hand on Brain’s robotic leg for support.

Brain noticed this and immediately used the man-suit to pick her up, cradling her in his arms, an act that surprised Yakko. Brain gently adjusted his arm to properly carry her. Dot was too exhausted to put up a fight. Pressing the cold soda can to her forehead, she closed her eyes and surrendered to his concerned affection. Pinky made his way down the robotic arm and gently stroked Dot’s hair. The Warner sister gave a small smile, cherishing the care she received from the mice.

Brain gazed at the Warner sister with worried eyes as he continued to walk back over to the hotel. Yakko and Wakko shared worried glances before catching up with the mouse.

The group made it back to the hotel without further incident. But the somber mood from Dot’s sudden illness had rendered everyone, even the talkative Yakko, speechless. Brain couldn’t help but think of how strange it was to see normally energetic and loud Yakko and Wakko this quiet. It was an unnerving sight.

When they arrived in front of their room, Yakko retrieved his hotel key and opened up the door. He allowed Brain, who carefully held Dot with the metal arms, to walk in first. The oldest Warner watched as the mouse brought his sister over to the bed. Brain moved the covers with one arm and gently lowered Dot with the other. Once she was in bed, she placed her magenta robe on. As she laid down on the bed, Brain placed the covers over her and adjusted them to her comfort.

Yakko was still standing by the doorway, feeling surprisingly out of place. Normally he was the responsible one. Always taking care of his younger sibs when they were sick, making them breakfast, or enchanting them with bedtime stories. While he didn’t ask to play the part of the parent, he adapted to the role to the best of his ability. And for someone who had to watch over Wakko and Dot for over sixty years, Yakko thought he did a pretty good job.

So why was he feeling weird about having an adult he knew to do his job for him?

Brain placed the groceries on the nightstand, taking out the ginger ale, plastic cups, and box of salted crackers. Once the mouse emptied out the paper bag, he placed the library book bag on his bed and rode the suit over to the other side. After he parked the robotic suit, he got out of the driver’s seat and hopped onto the mattress.

“Pinky, you’re in charge of supervising Yakko and Wakko.” Brain ordered. “Why don’t you take them to the movies while I’ll stay here and keep a vigilant eye over Dot.”

“Sure thing, Brain!” Pinky said confidently, giving him a thumbs up.

“Uh Brain, I can stay and help too,” Yakko interjected, trying his best to mask his worry.

Brain noticed the boy’s willingness to help out. He tried to come up with a gentle way to assure him that his sister would be fine under his care.

But before he could speak, Dot spoke up. “It’s gonna be okay, Yakko. I don’t want you to feel bad because I’m feeling under the weather. Now go on and have a fun time with Wakko and Pinky.”

“You sure?” Yakko asked. “Cause I don’t mind staying here.”

“Yakko, I understand how concerned you are of your sister’s well-being, but I promise you that she will be cared for under my vigilance.” Brain consoled.

“But-” Yakko tried to make an argument but was quickly cut off by his little sister.

“Brain’s got it under control.” Dot said a little more firmly. After seeing the worry in her brother’s eyes, she knew that he meant well. “Please Yakko, have a fun time, for me?” She softly told him whilst batting her eyelashes.

Yakko realized that Dot was weaponizing her cuteness to her advantage and that even he was not immune to her adorable charms. The last thing he wanted was to upset Dot while she was still ill. While the Warner brother didn’t want to leave her, he had to respect her wishes. “I will, sis.” He sighed. “But just call me if anything happens, okay?” He proceeded to playfully ruffle her hair.

“I will,” Dot replied, giving her brother a small smile as she gently shoved her brother’s hand away.

Wakko approached her and carefully squeezed her hand. “Feel better, dearest sister.” Wakko consoled before letting go. He then took Yakko’s hand, tugging him towards the door. On the way, he picked up Pinky and placed him on their red hat.

“Take care, Dot!” Pinky happily called out.

Dot giggled at the taller mouse’s enthusiasm. “Thank you, Pinky!”

“And don’t worry Brain, I won’t let you down! Narf!” Pinky addressed with a wave.

“I know you won’t, Pinky.” Brain confidently replied as he waved back. Pinky smiled at his partner as Wakko carried him out of the hotel room. The smaller mouse gave his partner a soft smile.

Once the door was closed, Brain turned his attention towards the Warner sister.

“Now, is there anything I can do for you?” Brain asked softly.

“I’m all set for now.” Dot answered. “On second thought, could you turn on the TV?”

With a click of the remote, Brain turned on the television set and the image of reddish stars decorating the darkness of space accompanied by soothing piano and synth music. The title of the program slowly appeared on the screen: Cosmos.

“Wait, don’t change the channel!” Dot cried out. “I love this mini-series!”

Brain was surprised. “You’re an admirer of Carl Sagan’s work?”

“Of course! Where else would I get my scientific knowledge from? Mr. United States-Canada-Mexico-Panama?” Dot quipped.

The small mouse couldn’t help but chuckle at the Warner sister’s snide remark.

“And besides, I’m the witty one.” She playfully added.

Brain smiled. “Well, I’m glad to have found someone who appreciates the sciences as much as I.”

The smaller mouse and the girl turned their attention over towards the flat-screen television as they watched Carl Sagan discuss the hundred billion galaxies within the universe. Twenty minutes into the show, Brain heard the soft snores. He turned to find Dot fast asleep in her bed.

The mouse sighed in relief, happy that she was resting, and used the remote to lower the volume.

Brain then walked over to the book bag and retrieved Heidi from the pile of library books. Walking over towards the other side of the bed, the chubby mouse plopped next to the pillow and began to read. After a few minutes, Brain was becoming invested in the story when he heard his phone vibrate. He placed a bookmark in between the pages and trotted over to his smartphone. The moment he turned on the device, a text message from Yakko appeared on the screen.

Is Dot okay?

Brain understood the boy’s concern. As he reread the message he pondered over how Yakko had single-handedly raised his younger sibling for decades in the confines of the water tower without adult supervision or any assistance from the outside world. Brain could not imagine the emotionally harrowing task of having to tend to the needs of his siblings at such a tender age. After years of being the sole caretaker of Wakko and Dot, it would make logical sense for Yakko to be incredibly concerned over his sister’s well-being.

But Brain wanted to assure Yakko that he no longer had to worry about carrying the burden of responsibility on his own. The eloquent mouse opened up the text message app and thought of an appropriate response to send. After coming up with words of comfort, he decides to type out his message.

I commend your concern for your younger sister. Dot is taking a much-needed nap at the moment and she will be okay.

Brain stared at the message with critical eyes. After a moment of musing, he concluded that it sounded too serious. He decided to spruce it up a bit with a smiley face, just as he always does with his usual emails and text messages.

I commend your concern for your younger sister. Dot is taking a much-needed nap at the moment and she will be okay. : )

The mouse nodded at the message and pressed his paw on the send button. In seconds he saw the text message turn blue, indicating its arrival on Yakko’s phone.

Putting aside his smartphone, Brain took another glance at the sleeping Warner sister and smiled at the peaceful sight. With everything under control, he opened up his novel and picked up where he left off.

AN: This chapter was also originally supposed to be longer, but I decided to divide it because it was too long.

More fun shenanigans in this chapter. I wanted to explore Brain and Pinky slowly going dad mode in certain scenarios, with Brain being the more responsible dad while Pinky is the more doting parent. The library scene mainly started because I was curious as to what kind of books the Warners like to read.

I also wanted to explore more of the siblings in this chapter, especially their vulnerabilities while keeping true to their reboot characterizations. With Wakko, I wanted to touch on their insecurities a bit when compared to their siblings. With a capable and confident character like Dot, I wanted to put her in a situation where she allows herself to be cared for while acknowledging her strengths and intelligence. Then we have Yakko starting to question his own abilities as a parental figure to his siblings when he sees Brain taking care of Dot. This issue will be further explored in the following chapter, but I hope I’m doing my best to expand on these otherwise comedic characters.

Thanks for reading!

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #patb #brain #pinky #yakko warner #wakko warner #dot warner #fanfic

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pretzcl · 5 years

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tag yourself: we boom songs

𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒎 — an attention seeker, unfinished projects, very flirty, new passion every month, has a perfume collection, messy but organised, knows how to play many instruments, make their friends go out on adventures at 3am, find themselves rambling, perfect winged eyeliner

𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 — chasing their dreams, 239 unread notifications, parties hard but studies harder, had a glo up, wants to live in the city, plays the devil’s advocate, secretly artistic and creative, middle child syndrome, platonic love > romantic love, coffee addict, the Motivational Speaker Friend™️

𝟏𝟏𝟗 — has games on their phone, horror movie enthusiast, has like 18 different shades of red lipstick, want to learn a new language, cherry coke, your average e-girl/boy looking for love on e-harmony, gets teased a lot by friends, has a secret tik tok account, always making vine and movie references

𝒃𝒚𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕... — blow kisses, keeps their emotions bottled up, gives plenty of compliments but can’t take them back, photo storage on their phone keeps maxing out, falls in love with strangers, wears heart on their sleeve, says ‘um’ and ‘like’ a lot, dots their i’s with love hearts, owns a polaroid camera

𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 — sends good morning/night texts, says they just ‘threw on their clothes’ but their outfit was planned weeks prior, a sleepy baby, heart emojis are their most-used emojis, loves baking (but not v good at it), constantly texting in class, always has a song stuck in their head, favourite trope is best friend2lovers

𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒓𝒖𝒏 —sparkly eye makeup, reads children’s book, d a y d r e a m e r, has a Disney soundtrack playlist on their phone, blue gingham dresses, writes in a diary, resting smiley face, maybe too idealistic for their own good, wishes they were a kid again, saved friends with cute contact names, believes in true love

#nct #nct dream #types of girls #tag yourself #tag yourself nct

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shibereshu · 4 years

Text

come over — Lee Seungjoon [J-US]

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this is the second part of my lil j-us scenario ! there will be a third and last part, but to be honest, every single part can be read individually because they’re each very... i don’t know, special(?) so they can totally be read on their own. this part is inspired by my little plant that has withered recently so i was feeling a little blue fjdsfkkjdsf i hope you guys enjoy it !! and i’m sorry if it’s so cheesy but i feel like... seungjoon would be a pretty cheesy guy, i don’t know why njdknsfk

You opened your eyes. First thing you did was roll to the edge of the bed next to where your night stand was and on which you had a little alarm clock that marked a little past nine o’clock. You groaned thinking that there was no need to hurry to get up anymore now that you didn’t have to study and tried to find a comfortable position in bed again. But somehow not even the position you were in before you woke up and in which you had been sleeping so deeply just a minute ago let you fall asleep again. You didn’t even really feel sleepy anymore, just physically tired. Perhaps you had gotten too used to waking up earlier to prepare for exams and now your body kept doing it on instinct.

You finally decided to get up from the bed, hoping that said thought was nothing more than that and that hopefully the next time you would be able to sleep for a little longer and get back the hours of sleep that you had sacrificed for your exams lately. You rolled up the blinds to let the light in but squinted your eyes a little as you did it to make sure you would slowly get used to the new brightness in the room before fully opening them again.

Once you did that, you grabbed your phone that you had left on your desk and turned it on. The first thing you saw was a notification of a text from Seungjoon. You wiped your eyes with your hands and blinked the blur away before re-reading the notification.

“Good morning! Do you have any plans for today? If not… Wanna go somewhere together?” The text read, and you took a deep breath that you held in as you processed it. Was he asking you out? Just the two of you? Could you say it was… a date? Your heart started beating faster and faster as you typed a reply, and you wanted to quickly find Kee and tell her about it, but before that you quickly looked through your other notifications; the one right after Seungjoon’s text being a reminder you had set for yourself to check if your cactus -that Kee and you would often jokingly refer to as ‘your child’- needed to be watered.

You walked out of your room and saw that the door to Kee’s bedroom was open. Taking a quick peek inside, you saw she wasn’t there. As you made your way to the living room to check on your little plant, you passed by the closed door of the bathroom, from which you could hear the sound of the shower running. Now that you knew where she was, you decided to make time to wait for her while watering your plant. With a smile on your face that didn’t do justice to the joy that you truly felt inside, you walked into the living room but froze in your spot when you looked at your plant.

Deep inside, you knew the truth, but still you slowly got closer and checked what had happened, thinking maybe it was just your imagination, that you saw something that wasn’t actually there, or that something was wrong but it wasn’t anything too bad. But none of those were actually the case. Just at that moment, you heard the door to the bathroom open and soon Kee walked into the room, drying her hair with a towel.

—”Good morning!” —She said, but quickly became concerned when noticing your saddened expression and before she could ask what was wrong, she looked at the plant the two of you had done your best to take care of and that was… To put it simply but not very aggressively, in no need to be watered today or ever again.

The two of you made eye contact again, this time the sadness in her eyes mimicking yours as you sat on the couch and let out a long sigh. She took a seat right next to you and she rested her head that had the towel wrapped around her hair on your shoulder.

—”We tried, I guess…” —You whispered, and you felt Kee nod.

—”Next time, we’ll do better! We won’t make the same mistake and we’ll take care of the plant better.” —She said, trying to see some kind of positivity in the situation, this time by taking this as another experience you two could learn for the next time you decided to buy a little plant friend. But you sighed again.

—”I don’t even know what we did wrong, how are we going to make sure we won’t do it again?” —

—”We’ll be more careful, and it won’t happen.” —She kept trying to assure you, and you ended up just nodding in agreement. To be honest, you didn’t really feel like buying another plant any time soon, but you’d learn the lesson for whenever you decided to do it.

Just then, your phone vibrated in your hand with a new notification and you looked down to see what it was, Kee doing the same thing out of curiosity. Seeing it was a text from Seungjoon, Kee squealed and took a more comfortable position on the couch, asking you to open the text. Deciding to think about how nicely your day had started with Seungjoon’s previous text instead of the little bad news you just faced, you smiled and tapped on the notification to open your chat with Seungjoon. While letting her read the first message he had sent, you just read the last one. She squealed again and grabbing your arm, she softly shook you a little with excitement.

“Great! Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll go pick you up hehe” You could almost see his smiling face just from the little smiley emoji he had added after the message, which made you smile too.

—”You two are going on a date!?” — You giggled shily, which made you even more embarrassed because you were aware of just how much you sounded like a lovesick girl and not like the composed adult you were supposed to become one day, but you just decided to enjoy the good feeling and not think about that at least for the time being.

—”Yeah.” —Kee clapped her hands a few times, still full of excitement before she got up from the couch and grabbed your free hand, pulling you up as well and dragging you back to your room.

—”I can help you choose what to wear!” —She offered, and you felt good about seeing her being so genuinely happy for you. Just like you had been with her when she announced that her and Joochan had officially started dating the morning after you had to sleep over at Seungjoon’s dorm.

Still smiling but not yet feeling the pain on the corners of your mouth from doing it too much, you opened your closed and looked for some of your favorite clothes, taking them out and carefully placing them on top of the bed. Kee looked at them and sometimes made comments on some of your clothes that you took out that she especially liked. Then you took out one shirt you had bought recently because you found the summer colors of it very nice and the shirt itself very cute overall.

—”You haven’t worn this one yet, right?” —Kee asked, pointing to your new shirt, and you nodded.— “Why don’t you wear it today?” —You looked at her, then back at the shirt and then nodded, picking back the other shirts you had taken out and putting them back in their place.

Faster than you had anticipated, you were done selecting what you wanted to wear and grabbed everything you needed to take a shower and get ready before texting Seungjoon to let him know. Shortly after sending it, the application showed that he had read your message and he answered that he was ready too and so he would go out and pick you up at your door.

The walk from his dorm to yours was, obviously, less than a minute, probably even less than half a minute, yet it still felt like an eternity of suffering from the anticipation, from wondering if he would compliment you when he saw you, from the worries of how it would go, if mayhaps you were getting ahead of yourself by considering this a date instead of something purely platonic. Before you could find more things to panic about and more reasons to do so, the doorbell rang and you waited a few seconds even though you had been standing near the door before opening up, all to try and pretend that you hadn’t been impatiently waiting for that moment.

You two shared a big and yet somewhat timid smile when you made eye contact, and Seungjoon took a quick look at you before making your heart flutter with the sweet words you should be used to from someone as kind as him.

—”You look really pretty.” —You threw the compliment back at him since he also looked really nice himself, but that was the usual with him, at least in your eyes. Before you two could leave, you told Kee goodbye and she told the two of you to have fun with clear excitement in her voice before you closed the door and walked out of the building with Seungjoon. You kept trying not to look overly excited, but then there was your roommate being quite obvious with that feeling. It made you think that perhaps it wasn’t as bad to let Seungjoon see that you were actually really happy that he had asked you out, so you turned to him and asked if he had any plans for the day.

—”So? Do you have any plans of where to go?” —Seungjoon hummed as he thought about it, but from his answer you suspected that maybe he hadn’t just come up with the idea and instead had decided on it beforehand.

—”What about going to the aquarium? I’ve actually never been to the one in this city.” —

—”Me neither! Usually I was too busy with uni to even have a chance to go.” —He felt the same way and you two shared your feelings of both being stressed from having so much to do for class but so little time for it, and kept talking about how now that finals had just ended your minds were still getting used to the abundance of free time and sometimes even instinctively told yourselves that ‘you should be studying’ when actually, you didn’t anymore. After laughing about it, you admitted; — “I’m excited.” —

Seungjoon smiled at you and then you felt his hand softly brush yours as you walked beside each other. You didn’t look down but instead kept the eye contact, your gaze showing your surprise as he interpreted the fact that you didn’t pull your hand away as a green light to first grasp your hand in his before lacing his fingers with yours. It was the first time you two had held hands, yet it felt so comfortable, and… so natural. And at the same time, so dreamy, that you couldn’t stop yourself from wishing with no words that this wouldn’t be a one-time thing and already looking forward to the next time you two could do something like this again and you could hold his hand.

Neither of you said anything about why you were doing that, about why you weren’t pulling away, about the unspoken giddy feeling bubbling inside both of your hearts. Instead, you kept casually talking about whatever topic that came to mind, like Seungjoon’s first experience at a cat café that he was reminded of and shared when the two of you walked past one. You said you had never been to one, to which he suggested that you should go if you ever had the chance.

—”Maybe one day we could go together.” —You gathered your courage to say, and Seungjoon excitedly agreed and said he was already looking forward to it.

The aquarium was a little far from where the two of you were staying, so he checked to make sure of which bus you’d have to take to get there and coincidentally enough turned the corner to the street where the closest bus stop was to see the one you needed stopping at it. There was only one person getting on so, afraid of the driver leaving the two of you behind, Seungjoon tightened the grip on your hand slightly and the two of you ran to get on before it could close the doors and drive away.

—”We’re here!” —Seungjoon exclaimed and you laughed at his excitement, at the same internally laughing at yourself for ever thinking of trying to look composed and not too excited when Seungjoon was opening his heart to you and showing that he was happy to be there with you.

You looked down at your hands still linked together. You had to let go to pay for the bus ticket, but he had quickly and casually reached for your hand again as soon as you two had put your wallets back to where you had them before. Once he started walking towards the counter next to the entrance to buy your tickets you looked back up. When you paid for them, Seungjoon grabbed them and you grabbed one of the fliers with information about what they had, some schedules of certain acts as well as a map of the place that looked kind of confusing but once you walked inside the building, you saw they also had indications to get to different spots there so that should probably be enough to guide you.

Seungjoon’s little gasp made you follow his gaze and your eyes landed on the glass walls behind which many colorful fish of different sizes swimmed around. You two walked closer to the crystal and looked up to the fish swimming nearer the top of the tank, and then down to see a manta ray resting on the surface of the sand. When you turned your head to look at Seungjoon, you found that he was already looking at you and couldn’t help but wonder if he thought you looked as beautiful as you thought he did right then, with the dim blue-ish lights of the room shining on him and his gentle smile making the atmosphere feel just so right.

Neither of you said anything and just let out a short chuckle before he turned his head again to read some of the indications on the walls, focusing on the one that had an arrow pointing to the door closest to the two of you along with a small white silhouette of a penguin. He looked back at you and asked if you wanted to go there, to which you nodded.

You had so much fun, you didn’t even know if you would remember the details of everything to tell Kee about them later, as she made you promise she would after receiving a text from her while you and Seungjoon were eating lunch at the restaurant right next to the aquarium but that was part of it. He had asked you what you were laughing at as you tried not to giggle at all the texts she kept sending, one after the other, saying how she hoped the date was going well, that you two were having fun and holding hands a lot to compensate all the time you hadn’t done that before. As much as you tried not to laugh, the smile was showing on your face. If you had told her that you two did indeed hold hands pretty much most of the time, you didn’t think you could take the amount of excited messages you would receive, you settled for a short reply telling her you’d text her later, and that was when she asked you to promise that you’d tell her how it went once you got home.

You didn’t tell Seungjoon what the messages said but told him it was just Kee sending you quite a lot of messages, and he laughed, mentioning how Joochan hadn’t even read his text where he told him that he was going to go on a date with you so that he didn’t wonder where he was when he got home from visiting his parents. You almost missed the last part of what he said after hearing him refer to this as a date. Just when you thought the day was already good enough getting asked out by Seungjoon, it got better, now you could be sure that you were completely right to think of this as something more special than just a hangout between two good friends.

When he asked if he could try the food you had ordered, it reminded you of the day he had picked you up after your last exam with drinks from your favorite coffee shop and you had tried each other’s drinks. You said yes and waited for him to take a bite of it, but instead of doing that, he playfully leaned forward a little, resting his elbow on the edge of the table and then his chin on his hand, opening his mouth a little but closing his eyes.

You were glad he closed his eyes and couldn’t see the way your face got all red, which you guessed had happened in less than a second judging from how suddenly you could feel the heat rising to your face. However, he didn’t have his eyes closed long enough not to notice, opening them once you took a piece of your food with your chopsticks and carefully placed it in his mouth. Although you could see his small smirk, he didn’t say anything about your blushing face and started chewing once you pulled your chopsticks away and back on your plate and you heard him hum excitedly at the taste. He then asked if you wanted to try his, which you did, yet you felt too embarrassed thinking of doing the same thing he had done. You grabbed your chopsticks but before you could do anything with it, Seungjoon got some food with his and slowly extended them a little closer to your face. You pressed your lips together tightly for a second and before finally letting out a shy giggle, opening your mouth and taking the bite of his food.

He laughed at your reaction, and a little more when you whispered how cheesy he was.

—”Do you hate it?” —He asked, but from the way he said it, it was clear he already knew the answer was a no. So you didn’t say anything and just laughed again, shaking your head a little before going back to eating your food, looking forward to what the rest of the day would bring.

Luckily for your heart, nothing much happened afterwards. You two kept walking around the aquarium hand in hand, visiting quite a few rooms more than once and laughing every time you’d pass by the room with the sharks while talking and, Seungjoon, way too distracted with what he was saying, would fail to remember that a few steps into the room a realistic-looking video would be projected on the wall in front of the two of you and showed a shark crashing onto the fake glass wall as if to break it and attack the person in front, with the sound of the crystal shattering playing with the video too. He’d let out a scream and get startled every single time no matter how many times he had sworn not to fall for it again before. The first time you had been quite startled too, but at this point it was just funny and if it wasn’t by the faces he made and his high pitched scream you’d think he was doing it in purpose. Your stomach hurt from laughing so much and Seungjoon whined, embarrassed and asking you not to laugh at him anymore. You apologised even though you knew he didn’t really mind that you laughed but still took a few more seconds to fully calm down.

Your phone vibrated and when you took it out of your pocket with your free hand to check what the new notification was, you realised it was once again the reminder to check if your plant needed water. You had set it so that you would have to tap the notification and confirm you had checked just so that you wouldn’t forget about it later, except that because of what you had seen when you went to check that morning, you had completely neglected the reminder.

Seeing it immediately brought your mood down, and you hated it for affecting you enough to so abruptly ruin your happiness after a great date with the person you had liked so much for who knows how long. Seungjoon seemed to notice the sudden shift in your expression, but didn’t say anything because you spoke before he could.

—”It’s so late already… Maybe we should go home?” —He stood silent a few seconds before nodding and walking with you towards the exit of the building. You were aware of how your sudden behaviour was bringing down Seungjoon’s joy too. You felt bad and tried to just act normally, but Seungjoon didn’t take it.— “I’m glad we got to see everything, it was a lot of fun.” —

—”Are you okay?” —He just asked and stopped walking to look at you properly. Your eyes met his and you instinctively looked away before responding, too embarrassing to even admit the nature of your sadness. Because he could perfectly think it was dumb and childish, and you wouldn’t blame him for it. But still, you couldn’t stop it from affecting you.

You remembered how excited you had been the day Kee got home holding a little pot with the small cactus in her hands, although also a little surprised that she bought it considering the two of you had said you didn’t really feel like taking care of a plant ever again after the last one you had. Of course, it was nothing like a person, or even like a pet, but still, it was a living being and you couldn’t help but feel terrible at how you weren’t able to take proper care of it and therefore caused it to wither.

You shily admitted to Seungjoon what the problem was, your voice almost a whisper, and told him that the reminder on your phone had definitely met its purpose and made you remember the whole thing. At the silence, you forced out a short laugh and tried to lighten up the atmosphere, instead just sounding like you were trying to convince yourself of your words instead of him.

—”I know it’s nothing, I’ll be over it in no time, it’s just a plant after all…” —

Seungjoon started walking again, this time to one of the resting rooms in the aquarium where people could sit on any of the couches and just look at the fish behind the glass walls and over the crystal ceiling while taking a little break. He sat the two of you down on one of the couches and then reached towards your free hand with his so he could grasp both your hands in his.

—”You don’t need to say it’s nothing.” —He finally responded, his thumbs slowly caressing the back of your hands. Still not able to meet his gentle eyes thinking you would end up tearing up if you did, you looked down at your lap and your hands, taking a deep breath.— “I’m sure you did your best, so I hope you don’t think that it was your fault that it withered.” —You nodded. It would probably take you a little to fully accept that, but you were thankful to him for saying it.— “You know what? Recently, I heard that apparently plants like it when they hear people talking.” —

You finally looked up and gave him a little smile that didn’t manage to fully hide that you were still a bit sad, even so you felt better since he listened to you and instead of thinking it was a childish thing to be so sad about, he was trying to cheer you up.

—”Where did you hear that?” —You asked, and Seungjoon chuckled when he remembered the answer.

—”Actually, I don’t know if you remember my friend Changyoon, but I caught him talking to his plants once.” —You laughed a little and so did Seungjoon.— “He got super embarrassed when he saw I was there and kept saying that plants like it when you talk to them, and I thought it was really funny, but maybe it’s true.” —

—”Maybe I will have to try it.” —You joked, although you would maybe actually try it the next time you felt ready to get a new plant. Seungjoon agreed to your idea before suggesting another one himself.

—”Actually, I was thinking of buying a plant for my room at my dorm. When I do, I will tell it about today!” —You laughed again thinking he was saying it more as a joke than seriously and you got almost a little embarrassed from feeling touched by what he said. You were still afraid of tearing up in front of him but you looked up and finally made eye contact with him, who smiled at you as sweetly as he usually would and whose eyes cutely crinkled slightly from his smile pushing his cheeks up.

—”Thank you for today.” —You admitted, and paused for a second before continuing.— “This really cheered me up. I had a lot of fun, and I hope we can do it again sometime.” —You looked around the room that was completely empty except for Seungjoon, you, and the colorful fish that swam around the two of you behind the glass. Everything started to feel more peaceful again, and you really owed it all to Seungjoon.— “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have probably spent most of my day sulking in my-” —

In what felt like less than a second, Seungjoon let go of your hands to softly cup your cheeks. Making you face him again, he leaned forward and your lips met his. Your eyes widened for an instant as you tried to acknowledge what was happening, and then closed your eyes. There was no sadness, no feeling other than that of Seungjoon’s lips softly caressing your own and your heart beating as lively as his.

#onf #lee seungjoon #j-us #onf scenarios #onf imagines #onf j-us #onf fluff #Admin Berry

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hermankopusortizorsumshite · 4 years

Text

Warning: violence, thief, drinking (legal), and SMUT. Because good lord look at him)

Fiorella Aceveda, a twenty-three years old sister to a police captain of a bad part of town. David Aceveda, her brother, was running the Barn; a police station in Farmington district of Los Angeles. He found himself in a lot of trouble after the assault, and with the two hooligans on the loose her brother felt the need to cover his sister a little closer.

“Fiorella, this is Curtis Lemansky, he’s as a favor to me. I know it isn’t ideal, but he’s here to keep you safe. His team, this is the leader, Vic Mackey, Shane Vendrell, and Ronnie Gardocki. These guys will be taking turns, but it’ll mainly be Officer Lemansky. Let me talk to Fiorella alone for a moment?” He asks, seeing the steam rolling from his younger sister’s ears as her face flushed.

“David, I don’t need any kind of protection detail. I’m fine, Mano.” She smiles, patting his tense shoulder with a soft hand.

“Listen, until they’re caught, Lemansky will be here. The whole team will, but mostly Lem. He’s the most relaxed when it comes to rules. No friends, no boyfriends, no clubs—“ She snorts, wandering back to the living room to greet her new best friend. Stepping up to the big blonde, she sticks out a hand.

“I’m Fi. You have to be Lem.” She smiles, praying she was right. He was extremely easy on the eyes and his relaxed stance gave him away. He also looked like the poster child for Ron Jon Surf Shop.

“Yeah, that’s me. Curtis if you like. Or Lemonhead, Lem, hey you, whatever makes this easier.” He chuckles, gripping her hand in his for a second before giving her a gentle nod. “This is Vic, Shane, Ronnie. We’ll take turns but it’ll mainly be me here. They all have families and lives.” He rolls his eyes, the both of them laughing. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. He was cute, tall and blonde, slightly sunburnt shoulders and nose, and playful blue eyes.

“That’s alright.” She smiles, disappearing into the kitchen. David was there, eyes expecting her to say something smart. “I really don’t think this is necessary but—“ she stops him with her raised brows. “I’ll go with it for a few days. If it’ll make you and your wife happy.” She groans, grabbing a beer.

“Okay great, thanks Fio, listen. You have rules to follow, okay? Like the shower thing, you might have to leave the door open or shut off the music. You’ll have a schedule to keep. I brought a few things, they’re in the car.” He heads out the front door with the rest of the team, only leaving Lem to scope out the house. He heads first to check all the windows, locking what isn’t locked. One window’s lock was broken, he grabbed a chuck of wood sitting near bar and stuffed it into the pane to keep the window closed, and shuts all the curtains.

“Boy, thanks. I’ll turn on the kitchen light at three in the afternoon.” She rolls her eyes, letting Lem hear her complaint. Realizing maybe he overdid it, he sheepishly pulls open a few curtains.

“Sorry, I just gotta do this right. I was a bodyguard before I worked with the Strike team.” He smiles, his cheeks flushed, though she wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or sunburn. Whatever the case, it was absolutely adorable. David joined them in the kitchen, putting up a small whiteboard on the fridge with the times Lem and the others would be there. Of course, Lem had all night shifts, he was ten in the morning until two in the morning, Shane would switch him at one forty-five in the morning. Shane would be there from two in the morning until ten in the morning, when Lem would come back.

“Listen, this is great; but I have a few of my own requests. The bathroom door isn’t shut, but the music plays when I shower. I take hour and a half-long showers, so don’t be concerned. When I go grocery shopping, or go out, I don’t want a big scene, which I’m sure you don’t want either. You’ll be fine when I leave the house, just pretend you’re a friend or something.”

“Right. Any other demands?” Lem digs, giving her a twinkling grin.

“Ya know? Yeah, you keep smiling like that. See if it gets you in trouble.” She nips, pointing a cute little finger at him. Vic groans, rolling his eyes at their little smiling.

“Listen, we’re not here to flirt. We’re here to keep you safe, so let’s not go crazy with demands just yet.” He waves a hand in the air signaling a stop.

“Boy, you sound about as fun as a dead mosquito.” Lem snorts, a hand coming up to cover his face.

“I’m not here for fun. If I was, I’d have arranged a play date. This is cop business, if you have any threats, you know to call-“

“Oh I’ll call. It’s Dick Mackey, right?” Shane coughs, Lem gives another snort.

“Fio, this is a favor of mine. Don’t make me regret it.” David warns, pointing a stern finger at her. With a shrug, she disappears to her room. Lem is quick to follow, standing post at her door, ears alert waiting for her to finish. As she opened the door, she sucked in a breath and grabbed her chest.

“Christ, maybe that’s too close.” She breathes, grabbing his shoulder to steady herself. His hands rests on her elbow for a moment before she heads down the hall back to the group, Lem right behind her.

An hour passes, everyone leaving her and the tall blonde together. “So Lem, tell me about yourself. You from Farmington? You look like a surfer boy.” She ruffles his hair as she walks by, getting ready to make dinner. It was about six and her stomach was yelling at her. Cooking a couple chicken breasts and asparagus, she offers him a plate.

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that.” He smiles as he sits at the table. She sits the plate in front of him as she sits next to him, digging into the asparagus. He shrugs, following suit. After dinner, she drags him to the couch and pops in a movie. Cuddling against his warm arm, he glances down at her for a moment as confused as could be. He barely even knew this girl and she was cuddled against him like she knew him. Mentally, he supposed he knew what she was doing. Her brother told her it would at least be seven days so she was getting comfortable quickly. Plus, if he was honest, he didn’t mind the cuddling. He looks back down to find he looking at him.

“What’s up?” She asks softly, hooking an arm through his and cuddling closer under his arm.

“Not much, what are ya up to down there?” He chuckles, patting her knee.

“Getting comfy, you? Why can’t you just sleep here? That Shane guy doesn’t seem great, and you and I know how Dick Mackey goes down.” She and Lem laugh together, falling into a happy silence. “I’m gonna head to bed, if you need anything let me know.” She nods to him before heading to her room. He stands, following.

“I need to sweep the house really quick. All the windows are locked, let me check your window locks and curtains.” She happily swings her door open for him, letting him go straight for the window. Pulling shut the thin curtains, he does a once over of the room to make sure it was the way it was supposed to be. Vic would be there around midnight for the first night watch, as they didn’t expect much to happen.

Awaking early, around six o’clock, she gets up and finds her way to the coffee pot, making herself a cup of coffee and remembering she was supposed to do some grocery shopping this morning. Met by a half-crabby Shane, eyes slits of sleepiness. Finding her clothes, she gets ready and grabs her keys.

“Where are you going?” He barks, grabbing her keys. With an angry frown, she tries to swipe her keys back.

“To the store, I just need a couple things for breakfast.” She assures, only to find Shane grumbling as he opens the door, escorting her to his car and getting in, driving her to the nearest grocery store.

“Gee, thanks so much.” She rolls her eyes as she heads into the store, Shane by her side. Finding the eggs, almond milk, coffee creamer, and sugar, she heads to the checkout. Stopping in the meat aisle for a package of bacon and sausage links. “I’m sure you’d prefer the sausage.” She snorts as they check out.

“I’m straight, asshole.”

“I’m sure you like asshole.” She pats his shoulder with a sarcastic grin.

By ten she had breakfast cooked and ready when Lem got there, a grin on his cute face as he greeted her with a hug.

“Thank christ you’re here. Stick-in-the-mud was a real treat this morning.” She rolls her eyes as she hands him a plate of food, and handing Shane a plate with one egg and bunch of sausage links on it. She snorts as she fills her own plate, plucking a sausage link for Shane’s. “You don’t mind, right? Asshole.” She grins darkly, laughing as Shane gets fired up. Dropping the plate on the counter, he pats Lem on the shoulder and mumbles something in his ear before disappearing.

“You two don’t get along well, huh?” He asks, stuffing a bite of eggs into his mouth and chomping on it.

“We get along fine!” She cheers with her mouth full, making Lem laugh. “Hey, I wanna do some more shopping. I didn’t want to keep Prince Ass-pian waiting. Think we could go at like one or two? I promise to make dinner. Might even let you choose what we have.” She wiggles her brows, enticing him. The only thing he wanted was to get to know her better. He loved her cute goofiness. They found a comfortable silence as she pulled out a few different supplies from a cupboard and some white clothes from a plastic tub. Laying out heavy duty, stained cardboard, she twists the white clothes into different patterns.

“What are you doing?” He asks, peeking over her shoulder.

“I’m getting ready to tie-dye these. I sell them on Etsy. Here.” She hands him a tee shirt, size extra large, and some rubber bands. She rubber bands one into a smiley face. “They’re so easy. Rubber band it how you want the pattern. So like, there’s stripes, bulls-eye, smile, heart-shaped, you can do almost anything.” She babbles as she mixes her colors, a spoon dyed almost black she used to measure into squeeze bottles and spray bottles alike; each bottle it’s own concoction of colors.

“So like, if I wanted to do that smiley face like you, how do I do that?” He asks, stretching a rubberband between his thumb and first finger, smiling at her.

“Here. So put one here,” her finger hits the shirt, “here” hits again, “and then accordion fold this part.” She draws the smile with his finger, holding his big hand with two of hers to point him in the right direction.

“Cool.” He sets to work, brows furrowed and tongue ever-so-slightly hanging from his mouth as he wrapped the spots where she pointed. “Alright. I think I did it.” He smiles, holding up the rubber banded shirt, confused. “You sure you know what you’re doing?” He asks, trying to see the image. She laughs, placing the shirt on the table and grabbing her basket of color choices.

“Pick a few, like two at least.” She waves to the basket. Lem finds a yellow, a blue, and an orange. “Now, put the color you want on the face and then fill in the background.” She instructs, guiding his hand with hers as he applied the colors. She finished her own project as he finished up with his. She smiled at him, taking in his sweet curiosity as his eyes swept over her for a second before rising to his feet and stretching back. Her eyes caught a glimpse of a sliver of tan skin peeking from under the hem of his tee shirt, her tongue swiping across her bottom lip before jolting to life, finding a sure footing as she whisked away to her room. Lem’s day would be short today, Shane would cover his last part of his shift so Lem could help Vic beat on some doors.

“Hey, Vic asked Shane to cover part of my shift tonight so I can help him at the clubhouse.” He states as he helps her into her car, falling into the passenger side.

“Bobo. I don’t like him. He’s a puto.” She hisses, grabbing her purse as they pull into the grocery store. This was the first time he’d ever heard her Spanish, and it was cute. He found himself chuckling, not even sure what she was saying.

“Listen, puto is pretty harsh girlie. I heard you on the phone yesterday, talking to a friend. I’ll let your friend come over if it’ll make it up to you.” He smiles as he walks by her side through the store.

“Fine, I’ll call Tigre, tell her it’s cool.” His eyes blown wide, mouth half-hung open.

“Wait wait wait-“

“What?” She nips, a hand on her hips.

“Tigre?” He asks, eyes flicking between the cellphone and her face nervously.

“Yeah, why?” He shrugs, waving it off. He’d be able to be civil. Maybe he’d have Ronnie take his shift.

“No reason. Yeah, have your friend come over tomorrow night. I’ll be your bartender and waiter. Get you what you want.” He chuckles, but the look in her eyes doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Que pasa si te quiero.” She hushes, zooming away, cheeks flushing. He picks up his step, rushing her with a low growl and scooping her up, nuzzling her cheek with his nose.

“Pretty girl, don’t run away.” He whispers in her ear. She giggles, pushing her cheek into his nose. He kisses her cheek, finding himself almost reeling in the warmest. They finished the shopping hand in hand, she found him warm and safe.

“So, tell me, what do you know about Tigre?” She asks as he loads her groceries into her car.

“Listen, it’s kind of personal stuff, Chiquita.” He smiles as he gets into the car. She frowns for a second.

“You two—ya know?” She asks, watching Lem shift uncomfortably next to her, eyes looking anywhere but her.

“Uh—it’s personal. Okay? Can we just leave it at that?” He asks, eyes pleading her to let it go. They had, she could tell by the way he shifted and avoided eye contact. It hurt, knowing he slept with her best friend.

“Okay, sorry.” She shuts down. He watches it like slow motion. She avoids contact as she puts away the groceries and shoves things where they don’t belong. He frowned as he heard Shane’s car pull into the drive. He was here early.

“Hey, pretty girl. I’m sorry, okay?” He mutters, grabbing her hand. With a gentle, hurt smile, she pulls him to the sink to rinse the shirt that dyed out.

“Tada!” She cheers, holding it out. “I’ll run it through the dryer when you get here tomorrow.” With that, she whisks away from him. He found himself upset. He really liked her, and because of his past with Tigre he probably wouldn’t get a chance. Though, if he were honest he wouldn’t blame her one bit. It was almost the same scenario.

Shane comes in, pats Lem on the shoulder and feels the tension in the room. The tall blonde heads for the door, when she calls to him. “Lem!” She skips over to hug him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, his around her shoulders.

“I’ll be back around six.” He murmurs into her ear as he pats her shoulder.

“I’ll be here.” She laughs, shutting the door and listening as his bike roars to life.

“So what’s with the tension?” Shane asks.

“What tension?”

“The tension between you two.” He nods towards the door.

“There isn’t any.” She barks. He eggs her on the rest of the night until two in the morning when she finds him sleeping on the couch. Sneaking out, she gets in the car and turns the music on. Heaving a deep, calming breath, she wondered where she’d even go. Shane was too pissy, always picking on her. Backing out of the driveway, she drove herself straight to the Barn. Getting to the door, she asks for Lem.

“Just a minute. I’ll get him.” The dirty blonde woman cop disappeared down a hall to a door. Lem’s head juts out the door, eyes meeting yours. He takes off on a dead sprint, shouting to ‘buzz her through!’. She steps through the door, only to be met by Lem’s body crashing into hers.

“Are you okay? Is Shane okay? Does he know you’re here?” He asks, hands worrying around her face and shoulders.

“He’s sleeping on the couch. Jesus, Lemonhead. I just got the chance to leave the house, I figured you’d be pissed if something happened, so I came here.” She informs.

“You just decided to leave the house? Without protection? Just meander around? Do you understand why we’re staying at your house? You think this is a joke?” He shouts, eyes dark and shoulders tensed.

“No, I just—“

“Just what? Decided to galavant? Do you understand how much danger you put yourself in?” He fires, gripping your shoulders.

“Well, no. I just thought—“

“Thought what? It was fine? Safe? Jesus, at least Tigre knew to stay in the house.” He hisses, hands finding his hair.

“Yeah? I bet you were good at distracting her!” She shouts, shoving him away from her as she turns on her heel. Lem grabs her arm.

“No! You’re not leaving without an escort!” He orders. She grabs his hand, shoving it from her arm.

“No. I’m leaving.” She dares him to say another word. She sees a light on in David’s office and storms up the stairs, straight into his office. “I want the protect detail over!” She fires, slamming the office door shut. David jumps from his desk.

“What? I thought it was going well? Lemansky just came up here a couple hours ago and said it was going great!”

“Well it’s not! I want them out! I hate that redneck and I hate the blonde stupid Vato.” She hisses, teeth bared. Lem stood at the bottom of the stairs, contemplating if he should go up or not. As he starts up the stairs, Shane comes flying into the office half-awake and scared.

“Lem! Lem I lost her!” Lem’s eyes go wide. He found himself playing along.

“What?” He asks. Shane starts to pace the floor.

“I lost her man! I checked the whole house! I checked the grocery store! I checked the fuckin’ gas station! I even called Tigre! The girl you—“

“Yeah, yeah! You lost here. She’s here.” He shuts him up, heading to the clubhouse.

“What?”

“She’s in Aceveda’s office.” He waves a hand up towards the office.

“I want them gone. I’m done. I’ll protect myself if I have too. I’m done David. You tried. Thank you, but I’m okay.” She starts towards the door, but David calls to her.

“You have to at least let me catch these bastards. Baby sister, they made me—do things. Things that if they forced you, I’d kill them. Without a second thought. Okay? Let Lem keep you safe, I’ll pull the others off, but at least let Lem stay. He really likes you. Maybe if, you know, you like him too-“

“No.” She barks. “Fine. He can stay. But the Shane guy has to go. I hate him. He’s such an asshole. Too controlling.” She shoves out of her brother’s office, grabbing her keys from her pocket as she heads for the door.

“Hey!” Lem shouts, jogging to catch up with her. “I’m heading out, I’ll trail you.”

“Lovely.” She huffs, slamming through the door and heading out to her car. A man in a hooded jacket grabs her arms and pulls her away from her, covering her mouth. “Lem!” She shrieks, biting the man’s hand. With grunt, he shoves her away from him, grabbing his hand. “Lem! Lemonhead!” She cries, hearing his feet pound the pavement.

“Jesus christ!” He barks, kicking the man, cuffing him and dragging him into the station. “You’re a special kind of stupid.” He chuckles dryly, arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. He leaves her by the door, his eyes never leaving her quaking frame as he drags the man into the cage, pulling off the ski mask. Grabbing his cell, he calls Aceveda as he grabs her tightly, his cheek pressed to her hair to calm his own frayed nerves. “Come down here. I need you to look at something.” He ruffs into the phone. Dropping the cell into his pocket, he leads her to an empty desk chair at Dutch’s desk. Pulling up another empty chair, he sits down next to her.

“Lem.” She whispers, climbing into his lap, letting his big warm arms wrap around her and hug her tightly to his chest. She could hear his heart beating heavily still.

“It’s okay, pretty girl. It’s okay. You understand now. I’d do anything to keep you safe. We all would. You can’t go galavanting every time you have the chance.” He coos into her ear as he gently smoothes circles into her shoulder. Aceveda comes down the stairs to find a scene before him that made him smile a little. If his sister deserved anyone, it was the big goofy guy from Strike. He was funny and a gentle giant. He saw his sister cuddled tightly against his chest. As Lem looks up to see Aceveda, he stands and drops her into the chair. Only she doesn’t stay, she hugs tightly to him as he walks towards the cage waving to Aceveda to follow him. Aceveda watches the way Lem walks, keeping the woman tucked protectively under his arm.

“Him. He just tried to snag her outside of a police department. Dude’s got balls.” He growls, slamming his hand into he cage fence in the man’s face and making him jump.

“He’s not one of the two originally. Who knows who these assholes have paid. Lem. Stick with her twenty-four seven. She doesn’t want Shane or anyone else there. I had to fight her to let you stay. Keep her safe until I find these assholes.” He growls, heading back up to his office with a purpose. Lem nods, swallowing hard as he turns to her. Walking her to her car, he inspects the car to find one tire slashed and her wipers zip tied together.

“We’ll take my bike. I’ll come up and fix your car tomorrow.” He assures, offering her to get on. As she gets on he hands her his helmet, his hands covering hers for a moment. Looking up into his eyes, she finds worry there.

“I’m fine, Lem.” She whispers, looking back to the seat to keep her eyes away from him.

“You almost weren’t though.” He hushes. She pulls away from the fingers reaching for her chin. With a huff, he climbs on and the bike roars to life heading down the street for her house. When they arrive, Tigre is sitting on the front porch a hand on her hip as she saw her best friend get off the back of Lem’s bike. Storming towards the two, Lem’s eyes meet hers and she stops mid step. “Tigre.” He nods curtly, ushering the shaken woman into the house.

“What is he doing here? Are you two banging?” She fires, her accent thick as she got madder. Standing on quaking legs, Fi grabs the woman by the hand and drags her to the kitchen.

“No, Tigre. He’s just here as a favor to David. Wine?” She asks, pulling the bottle down from the freezer. “And why are you here? You were supposed to come tomorrow.”

“I know, but I was worried. You skipped Chola night, chica. You okay?” She asks, taking the glass of wine from her friend and taking a sip.

“No, not really. David-“

“Don’t say anything about it.” Lem booms from the doorway. She shrieks, dropping her own glass and bottle, shattering on the floor. Tears fill her eyes, but Tigre stomps into his face.

“We may not have worked out, puto, but you don’t get to scare her like that.” She snarls, jabbing a perfectly manicured finger nail into his chest.

“I didn’t mean to scare her. But she can’t talk about the case yet, not when we can’t trust the people she’s telling.” He digs, heading past the small woman to help clean up. “I’m sorry, pretty girl. I didn’t mean to scare y—“

“Don’t say anything else. Okay? You’ve done enough.” She bites, sweeping the broken glass into a dustpan and finding a towel to clean up the wine. “And I trust her with my life.”

“I wouldn’t trust her with my lunch money.” He nips, storming into the living room.

“You two didn’t end things well, then. Hmm?” She gives a tired little laugh, sitting on the kitchen floor with her best friend sharing a glass of wine and a package of cookies from the counter.

“No, he didn’t like when I went back to Hector.”

“You and Hector okay though?” She asks, eyes dropping to the corner of her shirt above her hip. Hector had carved an ‘H’ into her skin.

“He goes to church now. He’s a better person.” She assures, resting a hand on her knee.

“You can go to church and still be a terrible person.” She offers, taking another drink from the glass. Lem stands at the kitchen’s entry with a blanket and a half-smile.

“Want this?” He asks, holding out the blanket. Tigre stands and grabs it from him, grimacing at him before returning to the kitchen and laying the blanket on the floor. The two girls sit on the floor of the kitchen for hours chattering about boys and life; how easy life used to be before they grew up. Lem listened carefully from the living room, the TV low for background noise.

“You like him, yeah?” Tigre asks, tapping the end of her rosy nose a couple times gently with a sweet smile. Fi nods, glancing at the door. “He’s a good guy, chica. Not for me, but you? Yeah. He really is a good one. He tried to fight Hector for me.” She smiles, nodding to the doorway.

“I mean, I get it. But he, ya know, he’s so bossy sometimes. And you banged him. Who knows if he has diseases now. Hector has them.” She laughs, handing her another chocolate chip cookie.

“No, he does not. And anyway, he’s a cop. He’s a goody two shoes. Your type to a tee.” She assures, patting the other woman’s shoulder.

“You wouldn’t be mad though? I mean, he was yours once.” Fi whispers loudly, the wine kicking in.

“No he wasn’t. He was there, I was there, it happened. I’d take it back if I could.” She whispers, patting Fiorella’s hand. Fi grabs the woman’s petite perfectly manicured hand in hers as they lay side by side on the kitchen floor on a blanket staring at the ceiling.

“You wouldn’t be mad though?” She repeats.

“No, chica. I’d be happy for you.” She laughs, staring at the ceiling.

“We should paint stars on the ceiling.” She stands and heads to the supply closet for paint and brushes.

“Una galaxia.” She encourages as her friend finds a basket of paint and lots of brushes. Pulling out an old plate and some chairs, the two mix colors and get to work. They get quiet as they get lost in the painting. Lem gets concerned and heads into the kitchen. Without a word, Fi swings her brush down just as he steps up to her and she smears blue and purple paint across his face. Tigre lets out a laugh, clapping. Fio laughs harder with Tigre’s encouragement and Lem’s unimpressed face.

“What the hell is going on in here?” He asks, finding paper towel to wipe the paint off his face.

“A lot, chico. You wanna join?” She asks, offering a brush. He was tempted to walk away.

“Nah, I’m good. Just making sure you two loca yahoos weren’t sneaking out the kitchen window or something.” He grins as he heads back out the kitchen, but not before being painted once more. A glob of bright pink paint landing on his cheek and hair.

“She shoots, she scores!” She cheers, doing a little victory dance on her chair.

“I don’t think so.” He growls, scooping her off her chair and slapping his hand into the paint, smearing a huge handprint on her face and arm. She sucks in a shaky breath, the warmth of hand sending chills down her spine. With a smug grin, he wanders out of the kitchen.

“Girl, you two might as well get married.” Tigre gushes, grabbing Fi’s shoulders and grinning at her.

“No, he put it in you, Ti, I can’t get right with that.” Fi groans, standing back onto the chair and finishing the background. Now the fun part, splattering the white paint. She and Tigre splattered white paint strategically, all over each other and the ceiling. They were cackling, making Lem laugh on the couch as he listened on. Tigre wasn’t badmouthing him so bad, but she couldn’t get passed the fact that he’d slept with her best friend. How could that be the deal breaker? Why did he even think this would be a good idea? He had seen the look in her eyes when he touched her face, the lust that clouded her eyes, the little gasp. It egged him on, he wanted to take her on the counter right where she stood, covered in paint. He went to the bathroom to rub it out, when a horrendous crash makes him jump into action. Gun drawn, heads to the kitchen. Heaving a huge sigh when he sees the girls lying in the plates of paint, chairs lying on their sides as if a gust of wind blew them over.

“You two, seriously.” He shakes his head, heading back to the couch.

“You see that? He likes you.” Tigre whispers, smudging a thumbprint of white paint on her face.

“No, he’s doing his job.” She assures, patting the older woman’s knee.

“Yeah, but he was in the bathroom. His jeans weren’t buttoned.” She giggles. Lem looks down and sure enough, they weren’t buttoned.

“You two aren’t exactly quiet. Next time don’t spook a man trying to pee.” Fi busts out laughing, holding her sides as she doubles over. Tigre laughs at her best friend, patting her back.

“It wasn’t that funny.” Fi finally stops laughing and heads into hallway to change. They cleaned up the kitchen, had changed clothes, and were lying back on the blanket looking at their handywork as the sun started to come up. “I’m gonna head home. Glad I got to see you babes. I miss you a lot. Let’s do this again.” She whispers, hugging Fi’s neck.

“I agree. But next time, I’m not inviting Lem.” She chuckles.

“You won’t have to, he’ll be a live-in husband by then.” Tigre laughs, gripping her friend’s hand as she steps out the door.

“He will not.” Lem sat on the couch grinning as he watched her strut back towards the kitchen.

“Hey,” he whispers, grabbing her leg and drawing her back to him. With a sweet smile, she perches on his knees. “You doin’ okay after yesterday?” He asks, a serious look on his face.

“Yeah, thanks for letting Tigre come fiesta. It helped a lot.” She smiles, without a second thought her hands sift through his soft spikes of golden hair.

“No problem. It’s just you and me today. What the hell are we gonna do?” He asks, chuckling as she snuggles closer into his lap. The lack of sleep was becoming prominent, a yawn on her lips as he hugs her against his warm chest.

“I think we should start here.” She murmurs against his neck, nose pressed gently under his jaw. Her breath sent tingles down his spine and excited him. He starts to grow hard under her, shifting to get comfortable. “Quit moving.” She breathes in his ear. Rolling his eyes and shutting them, he let out a sharp breath, biting hard on his bottom lip. Peeking through one eye, she smirks as she licks her lips. Wiggling her butt in attempt to get comfortable, Lem’s hands grip down on her hips and he growls low in her ear.

“One more, and I’m toast.” He loosens his grip and she wiggles again, this time a giggle escaping her pretty pink lips. In one slick move, he’s got her pinned against the couch lips inches from hers, eyes dark with lust. With the tiniest gasp, her eyes are blown wide as he grinds his hips against hers, exciting her. Nimble fingers pluck apart the buttons and he shimmies out of his button-up. Drawing the white tank top over his head to expose the gorgeous abdomen. One she’d only seen sneak peeks of that taunted her dreams. A knock on the door causes them to jump apart, Lem quickly putting on his button up, forgetting the tank top jammed into the couch cushions.

“Just a minute!” She calls, grabbing Lem and pressing a tantalizing kiss to his lips as she scampered off to the kitchen, Lem answering the door.

“Morning.” David greets Lem as he continues through the house without a second glance at him. “Coffee?” He asks, searching in a cupboard. Lem pipes up, pointing to the cupboard a little above his head. Aceveda looked at him a little funny, half-concerned.

“She’s changing I think.” He pitched a thumb over his shoulder down the hall where she’d scampered to when she heard her brother’s voice.

She needed a moment to calm down. Her fingers brushed up the valley between her breasts. She closed her eyes willing it to be his hands.

“What’s up?” Lem asks, trying to hurry Aceveda out the door. Not exactly taking the hint, Aceveda starts back towards the door with a confused look.

“I was just dropping in to see if she’s changed her mind about you.” He states, waving a hand to the blonde standing in front of him. Lem gives a pretty chuckle.

“Yeah, she’s alright with me I think. I’m gonna level with you, man. I let her have her friend Tigre over last night just to calm her nerves. No one was hurt and I followed protocol, but after her scare, I told her to invite one friend that she trusted with her life. She needed to relax, and trust me, I wasn’t the best person for that.” He chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. Aceveda gives a gentle smile.

“Thank you, Lemansky. I appreciate all your doing for her. I have Shane coming to cover while you sleep here. You can sleep in her room or the spare room if you’d like to. It’ll be over soon. Tell her I said hi.” With that, Aceveda shook Lem’s hand and disappeared. Haphazardly flicking the locks, he heads down the hall, giving a soft knock on her door before pushing it open. A sight stood before him. Her hands exploring her naked body, one hand rising over her breast, the other slowly and tantalizingly slipping down the little dip in her abdomen towards her warmth.

“Christ, baby.” He groans, clearing the room in two steps and grabbing her calves with his hands and dragging her to the end of the bed. With fumbling, excited fingers she pulls at the buttons of his shirt and then his jeans, dropping them to the floor the moment she could.

“Lem.” She murmurs against his peck, licking the muscle there before trailing her tongue down his abdomen, landing on his throbbing cock. With a deep breath, she grabs his shoulders and pulls him down to her, planting a hot, fervent kiss on his lips. Greedy hands find purchase on her ass, pulling her against him as he laid her down.

“Baby, you have five seconds to end this.” He growls in her ear, earning a sweet little gasp. With a giggle as a response, he aligned himself with her sweet hot entrance and slid in. His head went back in ecstasy, her jaw clenching. He starts with gentle thrusts, slow and rhythmic but she needs more. She stands, him getting a little confused until she turns him and shoves him back onto the bed. Climbing on him, she positions him at her entrance, slowly sinking down. His mouth gapes as her hips roll into his smooth and warm.

“I need you.” She whispers.

“Tell me what you want.” He ruffs.

“Que pasa si te quiero.” She murmurs, earning a deep growl as he thrusts up to meet her.

“What does that mean?” He asks, looping an arm around her neck and flipping her over, grinding his hips hard into hers, sending chills through her body as he started to pound into her.

“What if I want you?” She whispers, her wide green eyes meeting his, full of wonder and lust.

“You’ve got me, baby.” He assures, feeling the churn in his stomach. He starts an unsteady slamming rhythm into her, her legs quaking as she tightens her ankles around his back. Clawing at his back, her nails bite down as he thrusts finally.

“I’m on the pill.” She hushes, letting him slam once more into her, her walls pulsing around him as she hit her high, letting him lose himself in her for a moment. Heavy breathing fills the room as he crawls up next to her. Her stomach turned as her eyes drifted over his sweat slicked body lying next to her; he probably looked the same next to Tigre. She stands, yanking on her clothes aggressively and leaving the room, slamming the door. She had exactly what she’d tried not to. He was so attractive, though, she couldn’t help herself. Shrieking in anger, she hits the fridge door.

“I’m sorry, did I do something?” He asks, chewing on the inside of his cheek and brow low in concern.

“Yeah! You banged Tigre! And no matter how hard I try that’s alway s gonna hurt!” She shouts, grabbing the door knob. “And I can’t even get away from you!” She gives a frustrated groan as she heads to her bedroom. The only thing she could think of was him having the time of their lives. She slams the door, stalking back to the living room.

“I can’t help who I’ve slept with! Christ let it go! I said I’d take it back, so did she!”

“It doesn’t matter! It happened!” She cries, grabbing a jacket as she grabbed the door, slipping out.

“You can’t keep running when you want!” He shouts, grabbing his pistol from the table and following her, locking the door behind them. When he turns, she’s gone. Swallowing hard, he listens closely. Passing cars, all he heard were passing cars. A pop echoes behind him and he spins to find her sitting in her car, bare feet hanging out the door a little above the pavement. “Jesus Christ.” He heaves a sigh, listening to the sniffles coming from the car.

“Please leave.” She whispers, getting out of the car with tear-slicked cheeks and puffy eyes.

“I can’t do that.” He whispers, his nostrils flaring at the sadness in her voice.

“Just go! I don’t need you to be here! I’ll be fine. Please, just go.” She whimpers, collapsing on the pavement with a crackle of thunder.

“What’s the problem?” He asks, crouching to eye level.

“I like you! I love you, limon! I love you so much, I don’t know why, but I hate that you banged my best friend. It’s a special thing, between two people, and it happened between us and I just feel so stupid and used. When this is over, you’ll be on to the next puta willing to put out.” She cries as the rain starts to fall.

“What? Listen, I know this seems like my thing, but trust me, pretty girl. This isn’t my thing. I love you, you’re beautiful and sweet and quirky. I think you’re chill and funny. But I don’t regret what we did. I don’t ever want you to feel used. You should feel loved, you should feel beautiful. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I have no control when it comes to you.” A man sprints up behind Lem, clobbering him and knocking him out. They grab her and stuff her in a trunk as they take off, leaving the big hulking blonde on the pavement in the rain. She shrieks for him, but he lays there, unconscious.

As he comes to in the clubhouse, taking in his surroundings. He’s still dazed when he hears Shane talking about losing a girl. Lem was more confused for a second, but when it all came rushing back his heart broke all over again.

“No.” He whimpers, gathering himself to stand up. “Fio. Pretty girl!” He cries, grabbing his pistol off the table and heading out the door when Shane, Vic, and Ronnie step in the way of the doors. “Let me through.” He growls darkly.

“Lem, we’re tracking her. Do you have a license plate number? Car description?”

“No! They hit before I saw them! They’ve got her Vic!” He cries trying to shove passed when Aceveda comes in. Lem’s eyes hit the floor and he steps against the wall.

“Lemansky, are you alright?” He asks, but Lem only nods. “We got a call about a woman across the street from Fi’s house who saw the car and the men.” Lem’s eyes shift up in hope, and Aceveda smiles and nods.

“Why was she randomly looking out the window?” Shane frowns.

“She wasn’t. She was listening to the commotion in her driveway. A tall blonde man and a small Mexican woman were yelling about her loving him when a green two-tone sedan rolls up, two guys -who match the photos- jump out, clock the big guy and take the girl. She put up a hell of a fight. They’ll have a few bruises. And she bit one of them in the arm.” He informs, Lem’s heart slamming against his ribs as he reaches for the paper in Aceveda’s hand. He’d seen the car parked down the street every day this week. He kicked himself. He should’ve reported the vehicle as interest.

“Okay! Let me go get her!” He fires, trying to shove through.

“Lem, these guys know what you look like. You could spook them and they could—“

“You’re saying I can’t go?” He hushes, feeling like someone just hit him with a bus. Shane frowns and pats his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Lem. It’s too risky.” Lem drops to the seat and his head falls into his hands.

“Tell her I’m sorry.” Lem whispers, grabbing his stuff and heading towards the door.

“Lem! Where you going?” Vic shouts.

“I’m going back to her house. I wanna be there when she gets there.” He retorts heading out the door without another word.

Twelve hours pass, Lem pacing her house without stopping. His eyes would land on the bedroom door to the room where they’d had mind-blowing sex. The couch, her sitting in his lap, cuddled gently against him; safe. She found safety in his arms. He felt the best when she was there, wrapped in his arms protected from the world.

“Lem! It’s Vic!” Vic shouts, hitting the door. Carefully, he opens the door, gun drawn, the tears on his face totally forgotten.

“Did you—“ she flies passed him and barrels into Lem. He hugs her tightly, pressing kisses to her forehead. “Christ. You okay? Did they hurt you? Did they hurt you, pretty girl?” He barks, hands quaking as they close around her jaw.

“I’m okay.” She mutters, grabbing his face and pressing a much needed kiss to his lips. Hugging tightly to his neck, she pile drives him into the couch, wrapping herself around him as much as she could.

“Hey, hey.” He tries to peel her off, embarrassed that everyone was watching her.

“What’s wrong?” She whispers, following his eyes to the people standing in th foyer looking on in shock. Feeling the heat in her cheeks, she looks to him for confidence aand found none.

“Of course. You were worried about her because you’re sleeping with her.” Shane snorts, shaking his head.

“It was once! Jesus Shane!”

“Yeah? Just like that sting op with the hookers?” Shane asks, brows raised. Lem pales, eyes avoiding hers.

“You’ve slept with other women?” She asks.

“It was for work.” He raises his hands in defense.

“Work? Just like Tigre? Just like me? I should have known!” She shrieks, shoving him through the door towards his bike.

“Pretty girl, you just have to understand-“

“You like to sleep with women. I’m not missing anything. Go home, puto.” She sniffles, shoving everyone out the door and shutting and locking it.

“Maybe I should stay here in case-“

“Go home, Lem. It’s over. They’re in custody.” He drones, handing Lem the helmet.

“I fucked it all up, Vic.”

“I told you. This west side story bull wasn’t gonna-“ He pops Shane in the mouth, hopping on his bike and heading to the bridge. He spent the rest of the ngiht there, listening to the water rush through the dam.

“I’m sorry, okay? I know I fucked up! I know that! I just need a friend. I found my best friend. I found the woman I wanna spend my life with. She hates me though, thinks I’m some kind of puto. I just need a little help getting her to see that isn’t who I am.” He calls to no one.

She awoke with an awful headache, feeling the tears well in her eyes for a second. Flopping onto the couch with a blanket and a precooked egg sandwich, she turns on something to distract herself. Her phone slips through the cushions as it vibrates. Cursing, she digs through the cushions to find her phone, but her fingers tangle in a fabric that felt almost foreign. Pulling on it, as it came into her view, all she could do was cry more. It was Lem’s tank top. Pulling it to her nose, she inhales deeply, grinning to herself. He smelled so inviting, so warm and comfortable. Maybe she’d been too harsh on him. It wasn’t like she’d gone and accused him of cheating, because he hadn’t. He had a life before he met her, and she needed to understand that. With a huff, she sucks in one more deep breath before a knock made her jump. Wrapping her blanket tighter around herself, she swings open the door to find the owner of the tank top.

“Lem.” She whispers, taking a moment to soak him in. He hadn’t changed a bit, tall and super handsome.

“I’m really sorry. I was so goddamn worried about you that night that I came back here when they sent me home, if I had known how mad you’d be—“ she grabs him and pulls him into a kiss, deep and pure. Leading him through the door, she shuts, it, dropping the blanket to reveal a black lacy bra and a pair of pink lace panties.

“Lem, I’ve been having daydreams of this exact moment. Please, for fuck’s sake, make love to me and forget all that shit happened.” She growls, hopping into his arms as his lips devour her neck, leaving hickeys in their wake.

“Christ, pretty girl. I love you. I wanna protect you forever, if you’ll let me. I’m so sorr—“ her lips devour his, shutting him up. “Got it.” He murmurs against her lips as his teeth nip a hold of her panties, dragging them down her body. Flipping over, she sticks her ass way in the air for him with her head down.

“Baby, please.” She whimpers, grinding back against him.

“Goddamn,” he groans, unclipping the bra and shedding it as she turns quickly, licking a stripe from base to tip, taking his cock in her mouth, giving a couple wet licks before assuming the other position once more. As he slid into her, he took a handful of hair at the base of her neck, gripping and pulling back, a loud moan leaving her lips. Hard, heavy thrusts hitting her insides as a hand slips from her hip up over breasts and grips her throat, pulling her up to hold her body against him as he slammed into her relentlessly. Eliciting a couple deep groans, they hit their high, riding it out before flopping onto the couch together, completely sated.

“So Limon.”

“Yeah,” he breathes.

“What were you saying?”

“Te quiero siempre, Chiquita Bonita.” He murmurs against her lips, pressing a warm, sweet kiss there. With tears in her eyes, she hugs him tightly.

“Te quiero.” She responds, kissing his lips in return.

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