#the game give me inspiration and I can't explain it???

[fenydreamz]

Would you believe me if I say that a game about literally singing monsters motivates me to do traditional art??

The first one is the first page of my sketchbook that have full colored characters I'm not kidding;;; and the last three are the most recents (Screenshots taken from my Insta)

[airenyah]

when you know a thing or two about acting so you go completely feral over scenes that the fandom wouldn't even think twice about

[thinemoonshine]

⋆𐙚₊ 𝓼𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝓫𝐨𝐲 ˚⊹♡

good boy!sunghoon x bad girl!reader content(s): angst, sunghoon ice skates, reader and hoon both fall but sunghoon falls harder, one profanity, aggression (hoon punches), (y/n) is involved with bad people, sunghoon is so very down bad and possessive, he’s desperate type: oneshot word count: 2.8k

inspired by enhypen’s track, ‘blind’

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ synopsis: in which sunghoon will do whatever it takes to win her heart—even if it means ruining himself ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

sunghoon winces when (y/n) slaps the bandaid onto his fresh cut on the cheek that he got from ice skating.

"that's what you deserve. i told you you were spinning too fast," the girl coldly chides and yet sunghoon finds his chest swelling with adoration. he knows—and he's the only one—that she's much warmer than how she seems.

sure, their first meeting wasn't ideal with her shoving a penguin shaped skating aid with too much force that it sent him crashing onto his butt. but the way she took care of him after, despite her snappy attitude and words, ooze with more sincere care than he ever expected.

she didn't do it because it was her responsibility but truly because she wanted to help him, to mend her mistakes and to see him heal. and it was then that sunghoon's interest was piqued which lead him to becoming a regular to the ice rink where she works at.

"can you stop looking at me with those sparkly eyes of yours? gosh," she breathes out exasperatedly but he knows, she's just flustered. still, he obliges and turns his face away to instead stare at the vacant iced floor.

it's normal for him to stay after working hours now, thanks to (y/n) always having the closing shift and he even helps around.

"wanna go for a drink?" he suggests and starts to take off his skates. he hears her scoff.

"no," she curtly rejects.

a small pout appears on his face which disappears just as quick. "why not? you don't have work in the morning."

"i don't. that's why i made plans," she once again, answers briefly.

the other's ears perk as he snaps his head up at her just as he pulls off his skates. "plans?"

"mhm. going out with this hunk of a junk for some drinks. that's why i'm not having any tonight," she explains with a sly grin, unaware of her friend's anxiety and discontent.

'she's going on a date? with a hunk?' his thoughts are loud and he manages to catch up to her who's already walking back to the counter, ready to get the keys and close up the place. "we don't have to drink alcohol. just nice warm or cold beverages are fine too."

(y/n) hums, giving it a thought before tossing the key to the skates equipment to him. "nah. you can go alone, can't you?"

sunghoon drags himself to the mentioned room, deflated from hearing her second rejection, and locks it while she watches with arms crossed. "it's boring to go alone."

"then, call someone," she suggests casually. "a friend or something. ooh, or maybe a girl that you're interested in~"

he can only frown at her little tease. why's she acting like he's got game? well, he does, but it's not like he's interested in anyone else but her. isn't it obvious that she's the one and only girl in his eyes?

"i don't have any," he grumbles and passes her the keys as he walks by.

"dang. i thought you'd have at least one at that humongous campus of yours," she comments and joins him shortly to leave the building.

once again, sunghoon drives her back to her house and she leaves before he can even say anything. almost like she's running away from him and as always, he's only able to watch her disappear before his very eyes. not a single opportunity to try and reach out for she'll just slip away.

time and time again.

—

(y/n)’s stopped working.

he hasn’t been able to see her since the day she told him she was going on a date. she replies to his texts (albeit lackluster) and posts on her socials frequently, showing the lively, happy outings she’s been having with her friends.

from packed, rowdy night clubs to relaxing picnics at the beach. she’s having the time of her life. sunghoon’s happy if she is but that does nothing to dispel his gnawing anxiety of his standing in her life.

has he…been abandoned?

can’t be. she wouldn’t.

.

…

……

would she?

his incessant worries eventually bring him standing in front of her door, his nerves all jittery and heart thumping violently in its cage that he too, jumps every once in a while from its force.

he gulps thickly and finally, knocks.

knock, knock.

no response.

his eyes flicker to the doorbell.

ding dong!

“who is it?” a tired voice groans through the door but sunghoon’s stammering lags him from answering quick enough—the entrance swinging open before he can and he instantly turns his head away.

eyes are wide with surprise, his cheeks are blazing red along with his ears while his apple bobs up and down in his throat in a stutter.

he didn’t expect to be greeted by (y/n) who’s dressed only in her pink satin, white lace trim nightdress—barely covering her cleavage or her legs with it stopping just below her butt. neither does it conceal anything else because he can tell she’s not wearing a bra and is desperately pleading that she’s wearing panties underneath.

he doesn’t think he can handle it if he were to find out she isn’t.

“sunghoon? what are you doing here so late?” she asks, either ignoring or actually unaware of his internal panic and fluster as his skin reddens by the second.

he swallows. “it’s um, uh—” a clear of his throat. “it’s 12pm. afternoon.”

only then does the girl notice the bright day outside in contrast to her expectations and she hums.

“come on in,” she invites and turns to venture deeper into her house. sunghoon fidgets on his spot, fingers curling tightly into the bottom of his shirt as he too, enters. “so, what’s with the visit?”

sunghoon watches her take a tub of ice-cream from her fridge and feed herself a whole spoonful before diverting his gaze away, afraid they’ll wander on places they shouldn’t. “nothing. i just…haven’t seen you in a long while. so…”

she tilts her head at his reticence and at the sight of his wandering eyes that are on everything but her, his tightly pursed lips and wringing fingers, a sly intent fills her. her own lips curling as she approaches.

sunghoon's eyes finally shift to her again when she sashays around her kitchen island and for the umpteenth time, his throat dries and yet he has the urge to gulp. he stumbles backwards and is pinned against the wall by her arms and figure.

despite being smaller than him, her cage is effective—too effective, even—seeing as how he’s completely frigid. head tilted to the back, spine flat against the wall and hands tightly clenched to his sides. from the way his breaths hitch and shake, one would think he’s being put through agonizing torture—which in his perspective, isn’t a far stretch.

being in such proximity with (y/n) to the point he can feel her breath against his skin and her warmth emanating like a fireplace; smell the flowery fragrant of her detergent and sweetness of the icy delicacy she had—it’s both hell and heaven.

“sunghoonie~ look at meee,” she sings with that siren-like voice of hers and his ears ring with every syllable echoing. he smacks his lips quietly before shaking his head, still keeping his face to the sky when he suddenly feels a plushy softness press against his bod. “come on, skater boy. don’t tell me you’ve grown ice cold?”

sunghoon’s breaths slow and deepen, confused at her sudden forwardness. she’s typically the cold one, the one who gives him half-assed answers and barely any attention. if it wasn’t for his constant visits to her job, they might not be friends at all.

so why is she here, sandwiching him against the wall, arms flanking him as she gazes foxily and provokes him with raspy whispers like a vixen?

it’s too… much. it’s all too much!

his knees tremble and he shuts his eyes, lips between his teeth so tightly it might bleed.

“what’s wrong, hoonie?” she asks with a teasing lilt, her nail tracing the outline of his bobbing apple down to his chest and abdomen—feeling it tense under her touch—before dragging it back up to gently pinch his chin and pull its down. her brow arches at his flushed features and glossed eyes, clearly a face of restraint and yet…bliss.

“please,” he murmurs, barely loud enough but the deafening silence of the house makes it discernible—from every tremor, to every gasp and crack.

(y/n) titters, a sickly sweet and villainous giggle that raises his hair. her hand slides higher up his jaw and she softly taps his bitten lower lip with her thumb which instantly makes him free the abused nub.

with his mouth parted, (y/n) suggestively pushes her finger in—making contact with the tip of his warm tongue and at his small gulp, she’s satiated enough to pull away.

that is, until sunghoon bites down softly, keeping it still as he grabs her wrist and licks the soft pad of her thumb. chu! he places a small peck. her eyes widen when his feathery kisses move further down to her every knuckle, the back of her hand, palm and her inner wrist.

all this while his strong gaze is transfixed on her.

“what’s going on? why are you acting like this?” he asks in a low whisper, his tone heavy with solicitous intent but also a growing hunger.

she giggles, a foxy grin on her face but it slowly starts to falter just as her gaze drifts from his. “well…turns out that ‘hunk of a junk’ is more junk than he is hunk. makes me realize what good of a man you are.”

sunghoon studies her expression, not overlooking a single detail, even to the tiniest shift—seeing her previous chirpiness fading to a gloom. “what did he do?”

“nothing. he’s just, not what i expected,” (y/n) confesses, her hand on his chest and hoon’s conscious of it, hoping she can’t feel the violent beats of his heart. he takes a deep breath through the nose, now brave enough to make a move and readies his arms to hug her.

but she pulls away before he can.

“you should leave,” she suddenly says as she steps backwards—a sudden coldness and emptiness befalling sunghoon—and roughly rakes her hair back. “in fact, don’t…come over anymore.”

“what?” sunghoon sounds, confused and honestly, terrified. what does she mean? is she…cutting him off? “(y/n), why—what do you mean?”

she turns away from him and returns to her tub of dessert waiting on the counter. but she only stabs her spoon in it, having no appetite. “i meant exactly what i said. leave and never come back.”

dread. it drowns the other. his already pale face blanched as his heartbeat accelerates—but not for reasons like before and instead, fright. fear of losing her now, which will lead to forevermore.

“(y/n), let’s talk about this,” hoon suggests, trying to remain composed but the shake in his voice belies him. the girl frowns, ready to argue when the door of the house is abruptly kicked open.

“(Y/N)! COME OUT! i know you’re here, you b!tch! STOP HIDING!” a gruff, masculine voice booms throughout the house and soon the source stomps his way into the kitchen. he’s…beefy. built beefy arms, wide shoulders and thick calves. he looks like he lives at the gym.

‘is this that hunky junk?’ sunghoon whips his head to (y/n), panicked and hoping for an explanation but is instead greeted by a pale-faced girl who’s frantically putting on a long cardigan over herself. her eyes shaking and arms wrapping around herself as she looks at him.

it’s different. a complete juxtaposition from how she was when he came. she was so carefree and casual, a ray of sunshine—but the moment this guy was mentioned, she turns gray and stormy, the moment he came, she’s like a leaf shaking in the wind.

and sunghoon isn’t sure what transpired, but the next second his knuckles are bloodied and landing punch after punch onto the muscly guy who’s straddled by him.

he isn’t as built as the piece of trash is, but he sure is agile. and all his frustrations, his anger fuel his blows—adrenaline surging through and numbing him from any pain as his fist digs into the unconscious man’s skin.

“sunghoon, that’s enough!” (y/n) stops him with a hold of his arm just as he’s about to dislocate the guy’s jaw further. “you can get into big trouble for this!”

her voice cuts through his raging thoughts and they quieten…slowly and surely…a tranquility blooms.

he turns, now noticing her whose gaze is wandering his face and figure and mien scrunched up with concern. his composure returns as he climbs off the inert, debilitated man and sits criss-crossed on the floor. suddenly obedient and gentle as (y/n) runs her hands onto his face, neck, everywhere to check for any wounds and gasps loudly at seeing his abused hands.

palms are cut by his vicious clench while knuckles are torn and bloody from his ruthless offense. yet, he’s mindless of them as his full attention is transfixed on the girl, a small affectionate smile on his face as he gazes lovingly.

“hey… i’m fine,” sunghoon softly assures when he sees her sniffling before sobbing. “hush, shush… don’t cry. please, don’t cry, (y/n).”

his arms finally, finally are able to wrap around her and he holds her close. fully satisfied and regretting nothing as he soothingly runs his hand up and down her back. head against hers, he breathes in and out, calm and peaceful as he feels her warmth, her heartbeat, her every breath against him.

“i told you to leave. you should’ve listened,” she muffles into his chest and feels it vibrate as he chuckles.

“what? and leave you here with this sicko? nah,” he says facetiously and kisses her crown before running his fingers through her hair. “never.”

“sunghoon, i’m serious!” she exclaims and detaches herself just to look at him with a somber look, contrasting him who’s smiling sweetly with eyes upturned to her. “that man won’t be the last! i-i’ve been involved in a lot of trouble with a lot of bad people! they know i’m here and they can come by anytime!”

“all the more reason to stay with you. in fact, you should come stay with me,” he suddenly proposes, eyes holding that familiar sparkle in them that both pains and warms (y/n) to see. “keep you safe, no?”

she sighs as she drops her face into her hands. “sunghoon… you—“ another sigh. “you’re not like them. these guys are bad news, they fight a lot and sure, you managed to handle this one but outside? things are a lot different. a lot worse. and calling the police is useless because apparently, they ‘haven’t done anything.’”

sunghoon frowns at this, but not of her underestimation of him, that should be expected, but of her comment about the police. a uniformed group of people tasked to protect and yet, they must’ve brushed her away just because she looks fine. by the time something’s happened, it might be too late.

disgraceful.

he holds her gently by the shoulders, causing her to look up and he instantly swoops down to kiss her teary eyes. “can you give me a list?”

“list?” she echoes and he confirms with a nod.

fixing her hair with his slender fingers, he then cups her face and caresses her cheeks with love. “a list of name, sweetheart. i’ll handle them for you. i promise you.”

and he binds himself to that vow. he’s not going to let (y/n) live day by day in fear. no. he’s going to make her feel safe and free. to be unworried and radiant through the days. to have no concern for anyone or anything except for him. to finally be able to love him just as he loves her—although, he’s more than certain her feelings can never vie with his.

besides, he’s gonna have fun with it. his hands have now tasted blood, fists have punched the face of his lover’s tormentor and the fact that he’s the one that’s saved her from him, to be her hero fills with a satisfaction and adrenaline no other activity can.

even skating doesn’t compare now.

“we should call the police so they can drag him away,” sunghoon says as he coldly glances at the collapsed man. “we’ll set our stories straight. say it’s self-defense. do you have cameras around?”

(y/n) nods. “i’ve got one at the entrance because someone kept stealing my packages before.”

hoon smiles, contented and wipes the remnants of her distress away from her warm cheeks. “that’s good. now we have breaking and entering to add. let’s keep him behind bars for as long as we can.”

and he’s only the first.

sunghoon can’t wait to meet the next one and get their bones crushed and battered by his hands.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ bambi (heeseung ver.), you, a lucid dream (jongseong ver.), puppy boy (jaeyun ver.)

𝜗𝜚 disclaimer: i do not condone any reckless behaviour portrayed in this work. this is entirely fiction and does not depict the member's real personality. if you enjoyed it, don’t forget to leave a heart and reblog—they give me some motivation, ya know? but please do not spam like!! X♡X♡, romi ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

copyright © 2024 thinemoonshine

all rights reserved

[sebscore]

I saw you mentioned Pierre and Charles babysitting a young leclerc sister? Can I request an imagine of that? Them being about 17 and 18, reader being a toddler? Thank you! Love your work.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT WORD | CHARLES LECLERC & PIERRE GASLY

pairings: charles leclerc x sister!reader / pierre gasly x leclerc!reader

warnings: swearing. piarles are horrible babysitters. charles and pierre are teenagers in this for plot purposes.

author's note: this is heavily inspired by modern family, btw. thank you so much for the request! I hope you enjoy this fic and let me know what you think of it!

• • • • • • •

''Sorry, I know this isn't what we had planned for tonight.'' Charles apologized as he and Pierre settled into his living room. The Frenchman chuckled, not very amused. ''No, this is not what I had imagined.''

''It's the only way my parents would let me keep the house to ourselves.'' The teenager explained, looking down at the toddler sitting on her playmat.

It had been more difficult than expected for Charles to persuade his parents to let him and his friend be by themselves for the day. The truth was that Charles' parents didn't fully trust the teenagers to be left alone without any kind of supervision. However, Charles had been very adamant that he could be responsible and keep the house intact. So, his parents let him have his friend over on one condition: that they babysit the youngest Leclerc sibling.

Pierre patted Charles' back. ''It's okay, Charlito! It can be fun, right?''

''Yeah,'' he sighed out of relief, happy his best friend didn't want to leave, ''we'll play with her for a bit and tire her out, then she'll sleep easier.'' Charles loved his little sister more than anything, but he still wanted some guy time.

''Hey, Little Leclerc! You still know me, right? What's my name?'' Pierre sat himself down next to the toddler who was playing with her Barbie dolls.

She looked up at him, a bright smile covering her face once she noticed who it was. ''Gasly!'' Y/N screamed, making the two young men laugh. ''No, no, no! It's Pierre, Y/N! Pierre.'' He clearly articulated his name in hope she repeated it back to him.

''Gasly!''

''Pierre.''

''Gasly!''

''Pie- Oh, whatever,'' he sighed loudly, giving up on trying, ''should we play some Xbox? We haven't played in a while.'' Pierre suggested, his attention back to Charles.

The younger one nodded his head, moving to grab his two controllers. ''Mario Kart?'' The Monégasque smirked, already knowing the answer. ''What else would we play?'' Pierre got up from the ground and took a seat on the couch.

Charles sat down next to him, getting the game started. ''I beat you last time, remember?'' He grinned, recalling the previous time they played and Charles had won, much to Pierre's dismay.

''I'm ready for revenge, Leclerc.'' The older one stated, raising his eyebrow.

Before they could play against each other, they had to choose a character that would represent them in the race. ''Who are you choosing?'' Charles asked Pierre as they frequently switched up their avatars.

''Peachy Peachy!'' Y/N exclaimed, pointing with her small hands to Princess Peach who appeared on the tv screen.

Both boys chuckled at the girl's excitement. ''You want me to be Princess Peach, Y/N?'' Pierre asked her, lingering on the female character. The toddler babbled some inaudible words, but it was obvious what her answer was.

''Charlie, Daisy! Daisy!'' She focused her attention on her brother, who was about to choose Mario as his character. Y/N walked up to him, slapping her hands on his knees. ''You Daisy, Charlie!''

Charles glanced at an amused Pierre, who shrugged his shoulders. ''We can always change characters, Leclerc.''

''Okay, I'll be Daisy then.'' He gave in, a bright smile covering his face as his little sister started clapping her hands and stomping her feet, because of the overwhelming excitement she was feeling.

The babysitting gig was going well so far. Y/N plopped herself down on her mat and patiently watched the screen as the two guys raced against each other. She would clap for either of them whenever someone won or she would enthusiastically jump with them.

Charles was running in P1 until Pierre passed him in the last second and pushed him into the walls, making him come in last as everyone overtook him. ''Putain, Gasly!'' As soon as the words left the Monégasque's mouth, their eyes widened and immediately went to the little girl sitting in front of them.

''Maybe she didn't hear,'' Pierre whispered, making sure the little one wouldn't be able to hear them, ''just move on like nothing happened.''

''Hey, Y/N,'' Charles called her over to him, ''you want to play with me against Pierre?'' A wave of relief went through him as his sister jumped up at his words, pleased that she didn't start repeating the curse word.

He picked her up by her underarms and planted her on his lap. Charles trapped his sister between his arms, so she could grab the controller and play along with them, although he was practically doing all of the work.

Pierre let the Leclerc siblings have the win in the first round, knowing it would make the girl happy. ''You're so good, Y/N! You're better than both of us!'' He complimented her, booping her nose.

All was well, until Pierre used one of the red and green shells, and threw it at their character, making their Princess Daisy avatar spin around and lose their first place position. ''Putain, Gasly!'' Y/N repeated her brother's words, having it heard loud and clear before.

All the tension that had left came right back to smack the two boys in the face. They slowly glanced from the girl to each other, seeing a flush of panic in each other's eyes.

''Uh, Y/N? Go grab your crayons and coloring book, we'll draw together, okay?'' Charles spoke up, coloring being the first distraction that came into mind.

She adamantly nodded her head, excited at the thought of the three of them doing something together again. ''Okay.''

As soon as she was out of sight, Charles looked with wide eyes at his friend. ''I'm in so much trouble.'' His hand flew through his hair, frustration visible on his face.

''As long as she doesn't say it in front of your parents it's okay, Charles.'' Pierre tried to calm him down.

''That's the thing, she's learned something new and every time she learns something new, she wants to show it off to mum and dad.'' He explained, pretty confident that his sister would say the word when his parents got back home. ''They're not going to be thrilled that their 4 year-old daughter is saying curse words.''

Pierre thought for a moment. ''We can just explain to her that she can't say that word? She's very smart, she'll understand.''

As if on cue, the toddler hopped back into the living room while holding her box of crayons and several coloring books. Y/N put everything on the dining table, standing on her tippy toes and took a seat on her chair. She started coloring right away, not waiting for the two older guys that were still seated on the couch.

''Alright, we'll explain it to her.'' Charles agreed to Pierre's idea. They got up from their seats, put the controllers away and joined the girl at the table. ''Y/N, we have to talk to you about that word you said earlier.'' Her brother started off.

''What word?'' She looked up from her butterfly drawing.

Pierre shot Charles a warning look as if to say ''don't be dumb and repeat it''. The Monégasque got the hint and nodded. ''The one while we were gaming, the one that starts with p.''

''Peachy?''

''No.''

''Pierre?''

''You do know my name!'' He exclaimed, it was the first time she properly pronounced his name. ''But no, not that one.''

Maybe she doesn't remember, Charles thought to himself. He glanced at Pierre who simply shrugged his shoulders, he seemed to be thinking the same thing.

''Oh, you mean 'putain'?'' Y/N said the word again, the innocent and pure tone in her voice almost not making it sound like a curse word. Pierre had a hard time not bursting out in laughter, it just sounded super adorable coming from the little girl.

Charles was shooting daggers at his friend with his eyes, they had to look serious. ''That's a bad word, okay? You can't say that anymore.'' He told her, getting on her eye-level.

''But you said it?'' Her confused expression was difficult not to swoon over, but they both had to be strong.

''I shouldn't have said that, that was really bad of me,'' Charles clarified for her, ''we're not allowed to say it, okay?'' He had an hopeful glance in his eyes.

Y/N glimpsed over at Pierre, his hands covering his face to try to hide his laughter. ''But it's making him laugh, Charlie! Why is he laughing if it's a bad word?'' She asked her older brother, not understanding it.

''Pierre shouldn't be laughing.'' Charles semi-scolded his friend.

The man in question scratched his throat. ''Your brother is right, it's not funny and I shouldn't be laughing, Y/N.'' He tried to sound stern.

The small girl simply laughed in their faces and got away from the table, running back upstairs to her room. ''We're not joking, Y/N Pascale Leclerc!'' Charles yelled.

''She thinks we're not being serious.'' He sighed to Pierre, letting his head drop onto the table.

Pierre chuckled. ''Well, are we being serious?'' Charles rolled his eyes at the Frenchman's words. ''Hey, come on,'' Pierre patted Charles' head, making the younger one look up, ''we're just gonna drop it, alright? By the time our parents get back, she'll have forgotten all about it, you know small kids.''

''Yeah, you're right.'' Pierre's assurance brought him some comfort about the situation, kids get distracted easily. They don't have anything to worry about.

The rest of the day went by quite smoothly. Y/N took a long nap after they played some football in the garden, so the two boys could play some more non-toddler-friendly games on the Xbox. Once Y/N had woken up, they ordered pizza and despite his mother drilling into him that she couldn't have any fast food, Charles let the girl have a few bites.

The three of them were laying on the couch watching 'Cars', when their parents returned home. ''We're back, mes chéries!'' Pascale, Charles and Y/N's mother, greeted them.

Y/N jumped up from Charles' lap, running into her mother's arms. ''Maman! I won against Pierre in Mario Kart!'' She bragged to her, a beaming smile on her face.

''Really? You had fun with the boys?'' She asked, subtly looking around the living room looking for anything that indicated they had caused trouble, but she found nothing.

''Yes!'' Y/N adamantly nodded, making everyone around her laugh.

Hervé had taken notice of the empty pizza boxes in the kitchen. ''Did you enjoy the pizzas? I hope you didn't give anything to your sister, Charles.''

Charles shook his head. ''She didn't have pizza, Papa.'' He lied.

''Chérie, what did you eat tonight?'' Her mother asked her, not entirely convinced by her son's answer.

The young girl glanced at the two teenagers before replying. ''I had pasta and Charlie gave me a lollypop after we played in the garden.'' She made sure to use her bambi eyes, knowing it worked on her parents and brothers every time she made that cute face.

''That's good, mon amour!'' Her mum hugged her, winking at Charles behind her daughter's back.

''We're gonna take off then, we have quite the trip back home.'' Pierre's mother, Pascale, signaled for her son to get up from the couch and to bid goodbye to everyone.

Pierre sighed, but stood up. ''Thank you so much for having me over, it was really fun.'' He thanked Charles' parents. Hervé hugged the boy, while Pascale ruffled his hair as she was still holding the toddler in her arms.

''Bye, Little Leclerc! I'll get revenge on you next time we play Mario Kart, alright?'' He crouched down a bit to be eye-to-eye with the girl. She nodded and the two high-fived.

Everyone moved to the hallway, waiting for Pierre to put on his shoes, so the Gasly Family could start their journey back to France.

''Maman?'' Y/N whispered in her mother's ear, covering her mouth with her hand.

''Yes?''

''Why does Pierre look sad?'' The young boy was disappointed that the day with his best friend was already over, even though they would be seeing each other in a few days.

Her mum chuckled, endeared by her daughter's observations. ''He had a nice time here, so he's a little sad that he has to go home.'' Pascale explained, whispering back.

Pierre and his parents were almost out the door when Y/N came up with her masterplan to make the older boy laugh and cheer him up. ''Pierre! Pierre!'' She yelled, grabbing everyone's attention.

''Putain!''

The silence in the hallway didn't last long as all the parents burst out laughing at the unexpected words that left the girl's mouth. Charles and Pierre, who looked like they had seen a ghost, slowly let the situation sink in and laughed along with them. They were mostly smiling out of relief that their parents could see the humor in it.

''Alright, goodbye, everyone!'' The Gasly's bid them goodbye one last time before disappearing from their sight.

Charles continued smiling until his father closed their front door and turned around, a serious look on his face contrasting the laughing one from before. ''I gotta go.'' He swiftly moved away from the hallway to the living room.

''Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc!''

[veilantares]

Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Sink into an Anglers grasp in a dream, like the undersea the Night cradles screams

Been inspired by anglerfish recently, so I'm going to try to do at few of these dark background ones back to back and see if I stumble into something new. I noticed I tend to draw characters / mechs / robots in these oneshot illustrations extremely lanky, but I wonder if I made a comic, whether I'd keep these exaggerated proportions - I'm often indecisive about how much mech vs character is in these biomechs, so I usually just don't think about it and draw what feels interesting in the moment.

This gives me a chance to lay down a meandering anecdote - many years ago as a dumb teenager, I'd stay awake every Friday evening / saturday morning till 4 am, hoping to catch my favourite developer, Digital Extremes' weekly devstream. I vividly remember during closed beta in 2012 people would introduce the game as being about futuristic space pirates zipping through corridors - the games fidelity back then was really quite different, one of the early warframes, Ember, even had her whole model redone at one point. Around 2013-2014 ish when I was most excited for these streams, I noticed the games tagline was "ninja's play free", nothing at all to do with pirates - but it was catchy, and you'd see all over in the advertising because of the parkour moves you could pull off in the game were genuinely sick.

Incidentally, both the Defiance MMO (rip) and Destiny 1 (rip) were what warframe tended to be compared to at the time, both released a little after warframes closed beta, neither of which were piratey or ninja-ey , I think probably 80% of the reason for that was that they all had both guns and abilites ... I guess they were also all live services, I don't know if they were called that back then.

Compared to Defiance and Destiny, I was puzzled at what it was about warframes identity that made the aesthetic feel "itself" - and I got my answer on one of those devstreams - the art lead at the time brought out what they called a "faction pitch bible" a one pager showing all the factions they had in the game at the time, each of them with a few lines of flavour text.

What struck me from that faction pitch was that the Tenno / warframes "cyber knight" description was nothing at all to do with pirates or ninjas, it was a third, wholly other thing, and yet by virtue of being first, it might as well have been the "true" description.

But there was another original, even more original than the "true", Warframes predecessor game, Dark Sector, was a spy thriller with biomechanical aesthetics, or perhaps a powered suit superhero series. Would this original, more original than even the initial, not be what it truly was?

I think what my takeaway was from all of these, is that first an foremost, the aesthetic is "itself" rather than any arbitrary descriptors - I enjoy this about my own pieces, that they mostly still feel like they were made by me even if I can't quite categorise them or explain myself. Perhaps I'm happy if the takeaway is "cool mech", "weird robot" or "wacky character" because maybe it's all of those things and even more!

[radiance1]

I for the life of me cannot find my og post but I shall take the concept and what I remember from it and make this one. So, snippets from that one au inspired by the Kwami from Miraculous Ladybug.

For context, Danny and Vlad are trapped in a necklace and bracelet (iirc) and are both just miniature versions of themselves, an eastern dragon and phoenix respectively.

===

Vlad, standing on Lex Luthor's desk with his head raised and a haughty look in his eyes: If you, a mere human, wishes to use my power, you will have to prove yourself worthy of the barest dregs of its embers-

Lex Luthor: No.

Lex Luthor taps his bracelet and Vlad gets sucked back in, finally leaving Lex's office blissfully silent.

Meanwhile, in another city:

Danny, currently flying near Tim's head as he takes up a camera: Hey, hey kid. Wanna use my power?

Tim, currently checking over his camera: Would it help me keep up with Batman and Robin more easily?

Danny, blinking as he questions what the hell is a Batman and Robin in this context: Yes...?

Tim: Deal.

Danny, blinking once again as he thought 'Huh, well that was easy'.

===

Lex Luthor, currently in an elevator minding his own business on his way to a shareholder meeting:

Vlad: Luthor.

Lex Luthor: What is it now.

Vlad: We need to go somewhere.

Lex Luthor, raises eyebrow: And that somewhere is?

Vlad: No time to explain but we need to go.

Lex Luthor, questioning how he ended up in this situation: You are aware I have an important shareholder meeting, yes?

Vlad: I know, and I don't care, you can always reschedule those things, but this is more important than that.

Lex Luthor: What could possibly be more important in your eyes?

Vlad, voice barely above a whisper: The Packers.

Lex Luthor:

Lex Luthor: No.

Vlad: You will not deny me this, I have been deprived of them for hundreds of years and I will not be denied the chance to watch them once again.

Lex Luthor: You say hundreds as they haven't been around for a century.

Vlad: Interdimensional time hijinks, not something someone like you would understand but that is besides the point. You will take me to the Packers game currently happening right this instant.

Lex Luthor, fixing his tie: I certainly have no incentive to do so.

Vlad: I will give you a portion of my power if you take me.

Lex Luthor:

Vlad:

Elevator:

Lex Luthor: Truly, a tempting offer-

Elevator: Opens

Lex Luthor, walking through the doors while tapping on his bracelet: -But no.

Meanwhile, in another city:

Danny: Kid, boy, child.

Tim: My name is Tim.

Danny: Right, yea, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim.

Tim, currently standing on the counter as he looked through the cupboard: Yea?

Danny: I saw an observatory while you were out looking for those Batman and Robin dudes.

Tim, taking out some ingredients and checking to see if they're still good: Go on.

Danny: Take me.

Tim: Sure.

Danny, flying loops in the air: Yes!

Tim: But after I finish cooking.

Danny:

Danny: Can't you just buy something on the way?

Tim: Yea but if I do these will go bad.

Danny: Fair.

===

[starlightxsvt]

Beautiful Liar | part of the Treacherous Tales Series

pairing ➳ dk x fem!reader

genre ➳ mafia au, dark romance? angst, smut.

wc ➳ 16.8k

synopsis ➳ you have old scores to settle and he's a pretty pawn in your game. but one must remember obsession leads to destruction.

warnings ➳ violence, mentions of mafia, murder, kidnapping & suicide, stalking, breaking and entering, manipulation, gambling, mention of rape, protected sex, teasing, male oral.

playlist ➳ beautiful liar- monsta x, vigilante shit- taylor swift, part goddess part gangster- madalen duke, horns-bryce fox, don't blame me- taylor swift, no body no crime- taylor swift, the hills- the weekend.

"I need him."

Your words dissipate into the cool air inside the car as your gaze remains focused out your window, trained on one certain man.

"What do you need me to do?" Changkyun immediately asks with violence underlying in his tone. You click your tongue in disapproval, not letting your eyes stray from your pretty prey. "You won't be doing anything this time. He is mine."

The man sitting in the driver's seat next to you only grunts in reply.

Through the passenger side window, you keep observing him, as the man smiles and talks to some students before taking his leave, walking inside another building as he disappears from your sight, making you sigh.

"Okay. You actually do need to do something."

"What?"

"Get me his schedule."

-

Theatre and drama were never your thing. Yet, here you sit, in Professor Lee's class as he talks about the history of theatre.

While the lecture itself is boring and definitely not worth the trouble you went through to sneak into his class as you are not a student, the man himself is pleasing to listen to and look at.

There is something boyish and innocent about him and as you watch him give the lecture, his voice so sweet and soothing that it is almost impossible to believe that he is related to the Lee family.

The two-hour lecture is surprisingly quick to pass by as you sit at the very back of the classroom, watching him carefully. With the clock striking 2 pm, the lecture finishes and students clear out of the classroom, leaving you behind who sits immobile in her place.

That manages to capture Professor Lee's attention. He takes off his reading glasses and tilts his head to look at you, blinking as if he's trying to remember you from somewhere.

With an amused smile playing on your lips, you stand up from your seat and strut to the podium slowly.

"Good afternoon, Professor." You greet, holding out a hand. He takes a look at your face and then your hand before softly shaking it. "Good afternoon. I don't think you are a student of mine."

Up close, the man looks dashing. Perfect sharp features; prominent cheekbones and a sharp nose, soft plump lips on his slightly tanned skin. Covered up to the neck with a white turtleneck underneath a black cashmere suit, he looks far from what he truly is.

So innocent, so deceitful.

You grin. "You are absolutely correct, Professor Lee. I am not."

He looks amused as well, raising a brow with the expectation that you are going to explain yourself.

"I am just a fan, you could say."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. I came across your presentation at the Royal Opera House this July. I have been a fan ever since."

"Well...I am pleased to hear that. I hope I have managed to inspire you in some way."

"Oh, you have. Plenty." You can't refrain from a grin.

"I am glad then." He pauses for a beat as he takes a look at his watch. "You'll have to excuse me now. I have a meeting soon."

"Of course. I just wanted to say hi. Have a nice day." You take a step back.

The man nods, giving you a small smile as he starts walking out of the classroom, his shoes clicking on the floor. He looks gorgeous even from behind, the afternoon sun streaming from the windows in the hallway casting around him in an angelic glow.

Just as he is about to fully exit the classroom, he stops and turns his head. "I didn't get your name, though. Where are you from?"

You can't help but smile diabolically. "From the wrong side of the tracks, professor."

-

Professor Lee has a pretty house, made up of a rustic brick structure and well furnished black tiles for the roof, a perfect blend of modern and old. The wooden fence around the perimeter of the house is not hard for you to cross as you make your way through his yard, careful not to step anywhere that would leave a trace.

The perfect time to break into his place is now, midday, as he is currently busy teaching a class. Changkyun is keeping an eye on him, camped outside the university, ready to inform you if his position changes as you take your time combing through his house.

The front of his house has a CCTV camera, which is precisely why you broke in through the back. Carefully crossing the yard, you tiptoe along the side of the house and turn right where there is a window. Making sure that you are in a blind spot, you pry the window open after a small struggle and gingerly make your way in like a sneaky cat.

His house is beautiful, exactly fitting his image. The floors are made of dark wood as well as most of the furniture; a dark yet soothing vibe emanating from his abode. The window you used to get in leaves you in a small hallway and after looking around a little, you get a general sense of direction.

Straight from the hallway, there is his bedroom which is where you head first. You are somewhat disappointed when you find it so sterile. The room, composed of a queen sized bed, a dresser and a closet is pristine. Everything is neat, not a hair out of place as if no one lives here. There is no decoration, no trace of personalization like a picture or a painting which you find odd because you expected something that would indicate his ties to his dear family.

Not letting the disappointment get to you, you walk out of the bedroom, heading for the closed door on the left; twisting the knob, you open the door to find his study and a smile spreads on your lips.

It's a fairly large room, the walls on both sides surrounded by large mahogany shelves containing books about art, literature and others. You carefully step in, heading straight for the large desk in the middle.

To your utter disappointment, it doesn't contain any schedule or indication about the life of crime that he comes from. There is not a single sign that would tell anyone that he is the younger brother of the notorious ruler of District 1.

Instead, aside from his computer on the desk, there are only a few books related to theatre on one side and a few lecture sheets on the other. It is so unexpected that you are stunned to silence, standing in the middle of the room, almost starting to think that you came to the wrong house.

Changkyun's sudden voice from the bluetooth disrupts your thoughts. "___, he is leaving early. He just got in his car. I'm following him. You have about 15 minutes to get out of there."

"Fine," you mutter.

There is still enough time. But by the looks of this, you could have all the time in the world and still not find anything that would tell you he's one of the heirs to District 1.

Grunting you lean down and start checking the drawers only to find nothing; no secret meeting location, nothing that you can use to blackmail him or anything that will lead you to the main culprit, his brother.

Sighing, you stand up straight and look around the room. Maybe he is being extra cautious and doesn't keep any evidence here. Maybe he has a secret hideout for his life of crime.

The idea, however, doesn't make sense because you have been stalking him and the only place he frequents is the university.

It's odd.

It almost feels like he doesn't have any connection with District 1.

No, no. That doesn't make any sense.

"___, you have 10 minutes!"

"I know, I know!" You snap, annoyed.

Walking over to the bookshelves you gently drag your fingers over the spine of each book, hoping maybe one of them would be the key to opening a secret room behind the shelves.

Nothing like that happens.

Accepting your defeat, you come out of the house but not before placing a bug underneath the table in his study with the hopes of getting some information by spying on him. Crossing the fence, you take special care to make sure you didn't leave behind any trace of entry before finally exiting the perimeter of the house.

Once safely out of the range of his house, you stand on the opposite side of the road and watch Professor Lee pull up a few minutes later. Changkyun's car follows him half a minute later as he drives straight to where you are standing, before coming to a stop in front of you.

You tug open the door and get in on the passenger side.

"Why the long face? Find nothing?"

"Shut up."

-

A change of plans is the only way.

Your second plan is to court him which isn't really a problem given the man is as pretty as a doll and toying with him would be absolute fun. With the decision set, you begin phase two of your operation, stalking him.

Well, you were stalking him before too but now, you start to follow every single footsteps of him, quite literally.

You follow him everywhere, discreetly, of course, getting to know his schedule as precisely as possible before striking.

His routine is rather bland, he wakes up, goes to work, then goes to the gym and then comes back home. It is something you find odd, once again. No matter from which angle you consider, the equation does not add up. Still, you try to make the best of whatever little ammunition you have at hand and pretend to bump into him randomly.

Like, one sunny afternoon you pretend to wait for someone in the parking lot of his university right when he is to leave for the day. Surprisingly, he's the first one to approach you, as he gently grabs your attention. "Hey. We uh, met the other day."

"Oh, hello, Professor Lee. Glad you remembered. One of your biggest fans."

"Have you enrolled here?"

"Ah, I wish. I'm here to...meet a friend's daughter."

"I see. What's her department?"

You blink, not expecting that question but recover quickly. "You ask too many questions professor. Let me ask you one instead. Can I have your number?"

You see the tips of his ears go red.

So adorable.

He blinks, taken aback as he searches for the right words. "Well, uh, why?"

"Why? You're hot and intelligent. I want to go out with you."

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why?"

"Just because." He replies, almost unsure, looking at you as if you are a bizarre creature.

You take a step towards him, an amused smile on your face from his reaction. Leaning close to him, you slowly fix the lapels of his jacket. Perplexed, he looks at the motion of your hands before moving his gaze to your face.

"Please, professor? One date is all I ask." You give him puppy eyes.

There is a sharp inhale as his pupils widen just a little bit while you gaze into his eyes, unblinking. The proximity is intense, you can smell his perfume, feel his breath on your skin and from the way he keeps looking at you, there is an urge to kiss him building within you.

Just when you are sure you can sneak in a kiss, he breaks the moment by taking a step back, out of your reach. Clearing his throat, he says. "I can't. I have a girlfriend."

Liar.

Not waiting for your reply, he opens the door to his car and gets in. As his engine fires up with a hum, you walk near the vehicle and lean in to look at him through the half open window. "Don't lie professor. You don't have a girlfriend."

He looks at you silently for a moment, his hands resting on the steering wheel. "This is why I won't go out with you."

You are confused.

"You seem to know too much about me and I don't like that."

With that, he pulls out of the parking lot, leaving behind a trail of smoke and your baffled self.

It's fine.

You know you are on the right track. He is definitely attracted to you so it is not over yet. In fact, it is only the beginning.

This is going to be so much fun.

-

For the next week, you make it your mission to pop up in front of Seokmin while he is out and about. You first pretend to run into him at his favourite coffee shop, acting delighted when he notices you. He seems wary upon seeing you and since it was only the first day of your mission, you let him off easy, saying that this is fate telling that you two are meant to be.

The next time you pretend to run into him again at the car park of the university, once again announcing that you are waiting for your friend's daughter. He keeps the conversation short, simply by nodding and getting into his car rather hurriedly. You, however, don't forget to throw him a compliment, looking as innocent and genuine as possible; like an innocent young girl who has been rejected by her desired man and now longs for him from afar.

That seems to work a bit.

The lesser you speak and the more innocent your attitude becomes, the longer your encounters last. Seokmin would start initiating the conversation and then ask formal questions as if to keep the conversation going or maybe, to test you and see what your true intentions are.

Either way, you don't fall for that.

Instead, you act detached, like a damsel who failed to capture the eye of the man she loves.

Finally, one morning, when you are walking out of the coffee shop, he stops you on your way by extending his hand to touch your elbow softly. You have to hide your smile before turning around.

"You know, I never got to see the girl." He says.

"Which girl?"

"Your friend's daughter. The one you come to the university for."

Ah.

"Oh, you didn't?" You blink innocently. He looks at you for a beat, before giving you a knowing smile. "You know, I think we both know that that's a lie."

You avert your gaze, acting like you did not hear him.

"As much as you seem to be enjoying this, I need you to stop following me around." He says, voice soft but firm and you know it's a command.

It's a shame you don't take commands well.

Tilting your neck to a side, you pop a muscle before giving out a loud exhale, composing yourself. "Have a nice day, Mr Professor."

You walk away.

-

You were getting tired of playing around. The man may be attracted to you but you are coming to a realization that it will not be enough for him to give him. He is cautious and given who he really is, he will never let a woman like you get close to him, no matter how much he may like you.

"I told you, we should have just kidnapped him. His brother would show up immediately." Changkyun complains out loud. The two of you have been sitting in your study for the past hour, trying to come up with a plan.

"You know I don't work like that. It's too easy. And too risky."

You have a bad habit. You always end up getting emotionally involved in every case you encounter. This one should not be an exception. In fact, this is the best place to get emotional because his brother hurt you by hurting your family. It is only fair you do the same to him now. And along the way, you get to tease a pretty man like Professor Lee. It is a win-win situation for you, almost.

In your world, betrayal is the sweetest revenge. If you can betray Professor Lee after earning his trust, that will be the sweetest revenge.

"I don't give up so easily, you know," you whisper, planning your next move.

-

"No teacher needs that much muscles, professor!" Your voice echoes through the empty gym at night.

Dokyeom whips his head around, dropping the dumbbell that was in his hand, eyes wide at your sudden voice. "You! How did you get in here!" You don't appreciate his accusatory tone.

"I come to this gym as well." You shrug, strolling towards him with your hands behind your back before plopping down next to him on a bench. He gives you an exasperated look. "Really?"

"Mhmm." You smile.

"Liar. What do you want? I told you to stay away from me."

You shrug. " Mhmm, can't do that professor. I miss you."

His lips thin, a sign that he is clearly not amused by your antics but it's a shame. You find all of this way too amusing.

You find him amusing.

"I know you are after something else. I am not stupid, ___." He turns to face you properly, his eyes carefully watching you.

A soft smirk plays on your lips. Of course, he is not stupid. Heir to the Lee family, he is the farthest thing from stupid.

"Did you have someone look into me, professor?" You ask nonchalantly.

"Look into you? What is that supposed to mean?" He asks, leaning closer to you.

You're treading in dangerous territory. You cannot give yourself in so quickly.

"I mean a smart, famous man like you has a lovesick stalker. I'm sure you had a detective or someone take a look into me, no?"

More like an intelligence member of the mafia. Maybe even his dear brother.

"So you are admitting that you are a stalker?"

"Oh, not just any, though. A lovesick stalker." You blink innocently at him.

He remains silent making you wonder if he is buying your words.

"Since you are asking me what I want, I assume you asked around and couldn't find anything, then?" You tilt your head, tone playful as you continue the conversation. You are not going to leave today until you are successful.

After a moment, he admits. "Yes. You run on the wrong side of the tracks, that is all I could find."

You chuckle. "There is nothing else to find, professor. I'm just a bad girl infatuated with you and your words and your passion for art."

"You? I am not buying that."

"Me? What is that supposed to mean?" You feel a little offended. "Can a girl not be a gangster and love theatre? Not every one of us gets to chase our dreams, you know."

You see his eyes soften as he remains silent, pondering your words. You watch him, carefully leaning closer to him before dragging a manicured finger over his bicep flirtily.

"What do you want?" His voice comes out breathy this time, those deep pools of chocolate in his eyes boring into you and oh god, do you love your name on his lips.

It would be even better to hear him say that in bed.

"A date with you, professor." You whisper, inching your face closer to him, your lips a mere few inches away from his and you don't miss the way his gaze drops to them before coming back up to your eyes.

"And if I say no?" He swallows. You pout, snaking a hand over his chest, feeling the strong muscles beneath your palm, pleased that he lets you touch him. "Why would you say no, professor? I am really good in bed, you know."

He watches you quietly once again and you hate how you cannot tell what is going on inside his head. Is he falling for your words or is he simply piecing things together and trying to uncover you? There is a slight flush on his cheeks but you don't know if it's because of you or his workout.

His hand comes to grab your wrist, breaking your train of thought as he takes your hand off his chest and places it on your lap.

"Tell me something you have never told anyone before."

"What?" You are perplexed.

"Tell me something, anything, a secret, a wish, that you have never told anyone before. Then, I will go on a date with you." He replies.

Wait, what?

You blink, absolutely baffled at his words as he sits in silence, looking at you expectantly. His gaze is sombre and sincere, like he really wants to know you and for the first time in forever, your heart skips a beat, making you feel out of place and vulnerable. Quickly, you break eye contact with him and stare at your boots as you think of a reply.

"Don't think of making up a lie. I can tell, you know." He adds.

A soft sigh escapes your lips as you internally roll your eyes at him. "I...I have this urge to leave everything behind and just go to an island. Or a place near the sea and spend the rest of my life there, where nobody knows me, where my past doesn't haunt me."

A long silence follows after your words and you cannot make yourself look at him, afraid of what you will find in his eyes, afraid of how they would make you feel and at the same time hating that these thoughts are bothering you.

"I am free this weekend." He murmurs standing up. You look up, surprised, excited. He puts on his hoodie, acting like he did not just agree to a date with you. As he starts walking out of the gym, completely ignoring your presence, you yell. "I'll text you!"

He turns around to look at you as if to ask how you have his number but simply gives you an exasperated look which you reply with a cheeky smile.

"I'm only free after noon." He declares, continuing on his path.

"No problem, professor." You grin.

-

You agree on an evening library date which is not really an ideal date for you but because of the facade you are holding up, you agree. The library is situated near his campus, an old architectural piece, with dimmed yellow lights and gold details and large windows, radiating a little bit of a gothic energy. He chose the library because of your (fake)interest in theatre, saying that the library would be the best place to discuss these things and you agreed because other than that, it is also not crowded and you can have his full attention.

Dokyeom hand picks a few books on the topic with pure enthusiasm as you follow him around, nodding to whatever he is saying. For the most part, you observe him, watching him with rapt attention, the details of his face, the change of his expressions as he talks, the movement of his hands—

And you have to admit, he has very pretty hands; long and bony, perfect to suck on.

Shaking your head at the ridiculous thought, you follow him to a private study room.

He pulls a chair and helps you sit down, making you smile at his manners. Once he is sat, he turns to you and asks. "Okay, then. What would you like to talk about today? Let's start with plays. What is your favourite play?"

"I don't know, what is yours?" You ask, blinking innocently at him as you rest your chin on your palm. He frowns. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"My favourite play is whatever your favourite play is." You reply sweetly, making him throw an exasperated look at you.

"Is this how you are going to be?"

"Deeply infatuated with you? Yes, professor."

Shaking his head, he opens a book, murmuring something under his breath but you see the soft hint of a smile playing on his lips, making you smile as well.

This should be easy.

Your date goes smoothly, with him discussing his favourite plays, playwrights and whatnot and you nodding along and watching him, throwing in some pointless questions here and there to appear interested. All the while in the back of your mind, you keep planning your next move. Seokmin isn't a stupid man and you know deep down, he sees through your pretence but seeing how he is still entertaining you means that you have captured his interest. And you have to use this to your benefit.

Fate seems to be on your side as on the way back home, Dokyeom suddenly asks if you are free for dinner.

You have to work very hard to mask the huge grin of satisfaction on your face when you say yes. Your response pleases him, visible from his reaction as he excitedly turns the car around and selects a restaurant.

Dokyeom goes all out for dinner, as you are guided to a private dining room upon entering the restaurant. You have to say that his effort impresses you. And of course, it solidifies your belief that he is falling for you. Smiling, you strut behind him.

He pulls out your chair for you, helping you sit down before ordering some appetizers and wine for you to get started.

"I'm a bit surprised you agreed to come." He speaks after a small pause.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I- I just had a thought that you were not serious about me. It almost felt like you lost a bet. I had the impression that you were just playing with me and wasting my time the last few weeks but I'm surprised you pulled through."

You only give him a smile in reply.

"You know, I believe you are one of two things. A weirdo who wants to bed a professor just for fun or, someone with a hidden intention, playing the long game."

"Aren't you smart, professor?" You grin condescendingly, resting your cheek on your palm.

"I know you are bad news, yet..." He pauses for a beat, sighing at himself. "Yet for the past week, I could not stop thinking about you. I'm in deep trouble, no?"

"You are," You smile. "In the sweetest trouble, I promise you."

He scoffs, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "Let's order the main course, shall we?"

The dinner begins with casual small talk as he tells you about his work and you listen, asking casual questions here and there. When you are taking your second serving of the alfredo pasta, he asks. "Tell me about yourself. Why do you do what you do?"

"Come again?" Your movements halt as you look at him.

"Your... profession." He seems to not find his words. "Killing people, threatening them, weapon business, fraud... whatever you do."

"Hm, I do a little bit of all of that but," you set your utensils down, looking up. "Interesting question, professor."

"Is it like a family business?"

Your eyes fly to his, looking for a sign in them of whether he knows your background or not. For a moment you tense up and hold your breath but his face remains the same, looking at you curiously as he sips his wine.

"No, not really." You reply before finishing your glass of wine. "Parents died early. They knew a few people who were in this business and I got involved."

"What business is it exactly?"

"Aren't you curious, professor?"

He shrugs, looking at you in silence, waiting for you to continue. You sigh, dropping your cutlery down and leaning back into the chair.

"My father was in the weapons business. After he passed away things were messy for a bit and I realized dealing with weapons was not my strong forte. Now I'm in the loaning business and I also do contract killing."

Dokyeom's eyes widen significantly and you can't help but laugh at his reaction. He is acting like he hasn't heard something like this before, living in the world that he lives in.

He looks around before lowering his voice and asking. "So you are like a thug that lends people money with high interest?"

"Yep."

"And you beat them up if they fail to return the money on time?''

"Precisely," you grin.

"And what was that about contract killing? What are you? A hitman?"

"You can say that. But I have clients of various ranges. I kill for politicians, for local gangs and even for civilians."

"For civilians?" He hisses.

"Yes, professor." You take a sip of your wine, swirling the bitter liquid around in your mouth. "Three months ago, the news of a young girl getting raped by a senator's son broke out. I'm sure you have heard of that. The girl was only seventeen and the guy came to her birthday party without any invitation, caused a ruckus and raped her that night because she refused to drink with him. The mother of that girl ran around tirelessly for help while she recovered at the hospital. Everyone she went to, told her to drop the charges for her own good. For one, it would take months, even years to complete the investigation and during that time they'd only get harassed, and two, they could never win the case."

"One day, the mother came to see me. I don't know how she found me and I didn't ask. She offered me her entire life savings and begged me for justice for her daughter. I didn't accept her money but I promised her I would avenge her daughter."

"Then...the death of that senator's son, you were behind it?" Seokmin whispers.

"Yes. I castrated him and then slit that bastard's throat."

"And the incident of the senator that came on the news, were you behind that as well?"

"Yes. He was equally at fault. He let his son go astray and then covered up his crimes. He did not deserve to speak another word so I cut his tongue. Fun, no?'

He doesn't reply to you but falls into a deep state of thought as you continue your dinner.

"Did I scare you, professor?" You ask, seeing him so silent.

He blinks a few times, coming out of his reverie. "No."

"Hm, doesn't sound like that."

Once more, you are met with silence as he watches you from the opposite side of the table, the look in his eyes serious, almost as if he is scrutinizing you. You start to grow uncomfortable under his stare, slightly worried that he might piece two and two together and see through you.

Surprising you, he says, "Looks like I misjudged you, ___. I shouldn't have. I apologize."

"What?"

"Not all actions can be boxed into black and white. What you did may be illegal but it was necessary and right. It won't undo everything that the girl went through, but it still makes the whole thing a bit fair."

For probably the first time in your life, you find yourself speechless. You open your mouth to reply but you realize that you are incapable of forming a reply to what he said. So, you just sit in silence, mirroring him.

"I don't know your past and I don't know what your struggles are but you are a good person, ___.''

Your throat has dried up by now as a weird sensation starts settling in your heart. It is uncomfortable and your appetite is ruined.

The man can probably sense your discomfort because he lets out a soft chuckle and leans back into his seat. "I just thought you should know that. I was not trying to woo you or anything."

You swallow a lump in your throat and force a smile. "Let's order dessert, shall we?''

Soon after that, you finish dinner and Dokyeom offers to give you a ride home and you accept it but only after a little internal debate.

Your own attitude baffles you. Why are you hesitating to let him drop you home? Is it because you have started feeling weird things under his company and now you want to avoid them?

No, that's outrageous. You are just tired from a long day of playing pretend.

The drive to your house is silent as you actively avoid having any conversation with him by facing the window and closing your eyes, your arms crossed as you pretend to go to sleep.

A good amount of driving later, you reach your house and tap in the code number for the main gate to open.

"She's a beauty, isn't she?'' You ask upon noticing his reaction; wide eye and mouth slightly open as he drives into your compound, coming to a stop in front of the steps that lead to your main entrance.

The house resembles a haunted mansion in many ways. It is at least a hundred years old, huge but empty, creepers growing around the black tiles, surrounded by dead trees and an abandoned garden. This is where you used to live with your family a long time ago and after your father's death, you left, letting that house collect dust. It is only recently that you started living here after you formed your plan to take the Lee family down.

"She is." He agrees with a nod before undoing his seatbelt. Before you can do that and open your door, he rounds the car and holds the door open for you.

The chilly night air hits your skin as you step out of the car. Dokyeom's gaze travels past you, marvelling at your home.

"Would you like to come in?" You surprise yourself by asking. He immediately nods with a sheepish grin. "I would love to see the interior."

"Well, it is a mess and full of dust but come along," You lead the way as he follows you closely. Holding the door open, you let him step in.

The door opens to a large space in front of a staircase leading upstairs. This area used to be for sitting, and now it is barren of anything. There is a large floor to ceiling window by the staircase, pouring the moonlight inside the space which is dimly lit by an antique chandelier.

"I see you didn't renovate." Dokyeon comments as he walks around, eyes scanning the space in wonder.

"Moved in recently."

"Hm, I like the style. If you end up renovating, I'd say don't change it too much." He advises. Humming, you start climbing the stairs. "My bedroom and the dining are upstairs. Wanna take a look?''

"Sure," he enthusiastically trails behind you as you come upstairs and show him the dining first and then the second bedroom before leading him to your bedroom.

"And here is my room," you hold open the door for him as he walks past you, the same look of wonder constant on his face.

"Wow," he walks straight to the open balcony, the night breeze flowing in strong, making the curtains dance. You slowly follow him, "I know right."

"I almost want to live here. Do you want to trade places with me?'' There's a boyish charm in his eyes and a genuine hint of glee in his voice as he looks at you with a smile.

"No thanks." You cannot help a small smile yourself.

A silence settles, a comfortable one in fact as you watch the view by his side in the cool night air.

"I had a good time today," he confesses, voice soft. You try hard not to acknowledge the funny feeling that spreads inside you upon hearing his words. Softly, you say. "Me too."

Your gaze moves to him and you find him looking at you, the look in his eyes is something you are unfamiliar with. Something that threatens to make your heart skip a beat, and make you forget what you are set out to do.

While you are lost in your thoughts, Dokyeom seems to have moved closer to you. His gaze has deepened and his face is suddenly mere inches away from you, taking you by surprise.

"Can I kiss you?" He whispers.

Fuck it. Part of your mission is to get him to bed, no? You will have to do it sooner or later.

You press your lips to his and fireworks go inside your head. It feels right, his lips moving against yours as you grab his jacket to pull him closer. By the time you two separate, you are breathless, your mind hazy. Dokyeom keeps looking at you like you are the most magnificent thing on this planet, his hand softly caressing your cheeks as your fingertips dance on his neck.

"Should I stay the night?"

There is a cheer of satisfaction within you. You let out a soft hum of acknowledgement which immediately brings his hands to your shoulders.

His lips are the epitome of temptation, your hooded gaze trained on it, stuck in a trance of pure desire. His fingers brush over your back in tantalising touches as he drops your coat from your shoulders, his eyes never straying from yours. Your hands move in a rhythm as you unbutton his blazer and reach for the hem of his turtleneck, helping him to get rid of it with a tug while simultaneously moving back inside your room and towards your bed, discarding the clothes messily on the floor.

His body is like an ancient Greek sculpture, lean and toned and you don't hide the hunger in your gaze. In silence, you push him towards the bed as he drops down to the mattress while you peel off your top along with your bra and then reach for the pants. Once you are left only in your panties, you strut towards him, a small smile on your lips because of the way he keeps looking at you, full of desire and burning passion.

Your hands move seductively as you take off his pants along with his boxers, making sure your nails scrape his thigh. With the fabrics gone, you see his cock for the first time, and my god is he blessed.

"What do you think? Will it please you?" He asks, making you smirk.

"Lie back professor," you order, standing up as he moves back into the bed, half lying against the headboard. You climb on the bed on all fours, positioning yourself on top of him. Leaning down, your lips tease him as your noses brush together softly. You whisper. "Let me give you a time you will never forget."

Something flashes in his eyes for a brief moment which you don't get to observe because his lips crash into yours, ensuing a fierce kiss. You moan into the kiss as his hands come to cup your neck and jaw, his lips pressed against yours relentlessly.

When you realise he is about to press you down into the bed, you break the kiss and inhale deeply. "Mhmm, no, professor. Let me take care of you first." You throw a wink at him and move down, your lips softly dragging against his skin, down his abdomen before reaching his half hard cock.

You take him in your hands, rubbing the base of his dick at a slow pace and watch his face raptly for reactions. As he grows hard against your hand, you lean down and take him into your mouth with one big swallow that makes Dokyem grunt out loud.

"Fuck!"

You smile as you continue your ministrations, moving your mouth up and down against his length while his body grows tense beneath you. Your tongue laps around his entire length, tasting him, teasing him as his breaths become shorter and shorter.

"Fuck, I'm gonna come soon."

His words work as a motivation for you as you increase your pace, swiping your tongue over his leaking tip before he finally explodes inside your mouth with a throaty groan.

You swallow every drop of him, a few trailing down the corner of your lips and you make a show of licking it with unwavering eye contact. Dokyeom lies flat on his back, panting harshly, hooded eyes watching you in an intense stare.

"Good, professor?" You grin, licking your index finger.

Exhaling loudly, he tugs you by your arm. "Come here!" Pinning you underneath his body, he kisses you, his tongue prodding into your mouth, tasting himself. You don't hold yourself back either, kissing him with equal passion until you forget where you end and he begins.

His lips meet your neck, kissing and sucking softly before trailing down to play with your sensitive nipples. As your whines grow in pitch and you grow restless, trying to break free from his grip and take over, he sits over your thighs, spreading his legs on both sides and resting on his knees.

"Do you have a condom?" He asks.

"Multiple," you reply, reaching for the bedside drawer.

As he puts the rubber on, you take the moment to appreciate his figure, his beautiful face, his bed-messy hair, his toned chest and abdomen and of course, his monster of a cock.

"You are one fine man, professor." You find yourself saying. You hate how you genuinely mean it.

"You are not too bad yourself." He flashes a grin before aligning himself with your pussy. As you take a deep inhale, he pushes in, making your body rise as you grip the sheets tightly in reply to the intrusion.

"Fuck, you're so tight."

Your response is to squeeze him tighter as you wrap your legs around his ass, pushing his body closer to yours. Delirious with pleasure, you start chasing his hips right away in a desperate rhythm of your own.

"Harder," you tempt, slinging your arms around his neck to pull him close. His breath fans your face, the slight perspiration on his temples clearly visible in this distance. In the yellowish hue of the room, his skin glows, giving him the appearance of a god, his messy hair tying everything together.

Dokyeom takes you up for the challenge as he increases his pace, making your head fall back as you let out a deep moan from the pits of your belly. He hits the perfect spot every time, driving you wild, bringing you deliciously close to the edge.

"Fuck, I need to come," you pant, hands reaching between your legs to touch your clit. Dokyeom, however, stops you by grabbing your both wrists and pinning them on top of your head, a cocky smirk on your face as he leans into your ear and whispers. "Say please first."

"Never," you immediately reply.

"Then you don't get to come."

"You asshole!" You hiss, trying to writhe free from his grasp but every time you move, his dick goes deeper inside you, amplifying the pleasure that makes you shudder.

"Come on sweetheart. You know you want to come."

"Ugh, no," you grunt, squeezing your eyes shut in a futile attempt to tone done your need for release."

"It's just one tiny word," the devil keeps whispering in your ear, continuing his ruthless thrusts as you teeter on the verge of begging.

"Fuck! Okay, okay!" You yell. "Please!"

"Hm, that didn't sound nice." The bastard complains, making you furious.

"I swear to god—" He interrupts you with a fierce kiss, pushing his tongue so deep inside your mouth that you forget to breathe. Letting go of your hands, his fingers move down, trailing along your skin before reaching between your legs and flicking your clit. That action is enough as you come, fireworks going off inside your body as you twist to a side, your toes curling in pleasure. Dokyeom's body shudders on top of yours as he comes, continuing to kiss your mouth, your chin and your jaw.

Soon, a silence settles in the air as his body rests on top of yours. You don't find it in you to push him off so you let him be, comfortable in his warmth and embrace as you close your eyes, soon to be overtaken by sleep.

-

Days bleed into weeks that turn into a month as you start dating Seokmin. He grows fonder of you each passing day, the look in his eyes and his actions mirroring what he holds for you in his heart. He starts accepting your obsessive tendencies along with your profession, which pleases you immensely. You have your enemy where you want and things seem to be going your way.

Except one thing.

After you started dating Dokyeom, you have stayed over at his place only a few times. Of course, you made use of those times, snooping through his house in hopes of finding something that would lead you to his brother or at the very least, tell you of his ties to the mafia family of District 1. You never found a single thing. When you asked him about his family, he replied that he is an only child whose parents passed away because of a car crash.

A lie, of course.

Your plan is in motion but at the same time, you feel stuck. You have Dokyeom in the palm of your hand, you just need to get to his brother for everything to come together. You had dramatic plans for a reunion but at this stage, that looks quite impossible.

Maybe you should have just kidnapped him.

-

One weekend he invites you to his house for dinner as a celebration of him securing a contract with one of the biggest publishers in the country for his next book.

You put on your nicest dress and your fanciest heels for the occasion, your lips painted red as you strut to his front door with a bouquet of flowers.

Dokyeom opens the door looking a little more gorgeous than other days; his black hair brushed back sleekly, and wearing a cream coloured Ralph Lauren sweater with black pants. Tying the look together is his steel framed glasses which he looks fantastic with and which you adore seeing him wearing.

Whenever he wears those glasses you two end up having the most mind blowing sex.

Dokyeom remains rooted in his spot as he watches you, his eyes moving over your full frame with a look of appreciation and desire. You flash a grin, "Good evening, professor."

He blinks before smiling, "Good evening, ___. You look absolutely stunning."

"Thought I should dress up to celebrate you." You shrug. "May I come in?" You smile teasingly and he lets you in with a flustered laugh.

"Dinner is cooking in the oven. I will set the table up," he supplies as he helps you to take off your coat once you are inside. "Would you like some wine?''

"Sure," You follow him to the kitchen which has a soft aroma of the chicken roast, making your stomach rumble slightly. One of the many delights of dating Dokyeom has been his exceptional culinary skills. You watch as he pours wine into two glasses before offering you one, "The chicken will be done in ten minutes. Make yourself at home."

"Thanks," you receive the glass from him and stroll around the house, looking at his decoration, in the back of your mind thinking if any one of these plain items hides the key to his other identity. A phone call echos in the kitchen and you realize Dokyeom is getting a call. He accepts it with an apology directed at you before going to the porch to speak.

In the meantime, you sneak into his study. It is not even sneaking in, to be honest, because he has given you full access to every inch of his house and in fact, encouraged you to visit his study and take a look at his little library. You found it odd at first because his transparency shows that he has nothing to hide and as days pass by and you come up with no leads, a sinking feeling has started appearing in your belly. Not to mention that the bug you put underneath his desk has picked up nothing of importance, no conversation or phone call about District 1 or his mafia family.

Maybe you have made a huge mistake. Maybe he is some random innocent guy who just looks like the youngest son of Lee family and has fallen to your prey.

Still, you step inside his study with the hope of finding something new. Like every other time, your fingers comb through the shelves of his library before moving towards his desk, shuffling through the papers carefully to not disturb the arrangement. You also peek beneath the desk to make sure the recorder is still there and active before going through his drawers. It has become a routine check at this point, your fingers moving through his stuff in experienced movements as you hold your breath in anticipation of finding a lead.

It goes futile, of course.

With a defeated sigh you stand up to find Dokyeom standing at the entrance of his study with a completely foreign look on his face.

Shit.

A gasp of surprise and terror leaves your mouth as your eyes meet his and for several moments, a gut-wrenching feeling wreaks havoc within you. You hate how you feel, guilty like a criminal or even worse, a person breaking the trust they were given and getting caught red handed by the person who trusted them the most.

"What are you doing?'' His tone is flat and cold, something you are hearing for the first time. It takes a second for your brain to start functioning properly. "Just looking around, professor. You know I get snoopy sometimes." You tilt your head to the side, giving him a coy smile.

Dokyeom gives no reaction. He takes a few, slow steps towards you, his footsteps matching the beat of your heart as he comes to a stand in front of the table.

Then, his hand reaches below, searching for something beneath the table before coming back up with the bug in his hand.

Ah, fuck.

"What is this?" He asks.

"A bug? Who would do that to you, professor?" You ask innocently.

He keeps staring at you, the look of disappointment growing permanent on his face as you realize you are caught for good.

Fuck it, you had to reveal yourself one way or the other anyway.

With a loud exhale, you ask, "When did you find out?"

"Last week," he replies, tone clipped. "I was baffled when I found it. Nobody visited my place in the last few weeks except you. Stupidly, I told myself it cannot be you so someone must have broken in. I looked through the CCTV footage but I found nothing there was well." He blows out a long breath, shaking his head dejectedly, "I still prayed it wouldn't be you but the reality says otherwise, ___."

Hmm, it does.

"It was me," you announce, plopping down on his chair behind the desk while he watches you unamusedly. "And you are right. Someone did break in. That was me as well." You flash him an evil grin.

Whatever colour that was left on his face drains out as he keeps staring at you, unblinking, for a long period. You return his stare with one of your own, except you are curious to see his next reaction. There is also a feeling of dread somewhere within you but you decide to ignore it.

Dokyeom's palms come to rest on the table as he hangs his head low, remaining motionless. Finally, when he looks up, the look in his eyes has completely changed and his jaw is tight, giving you the first glimpse into the mafia heir that he really is.

You watch as he reaches for the scissors in the stationary holder sitting on his desk, and rounds the table before coming to stand right next to you, holding the tip of the scissors right against your neck as he leans down and hisses. "Should I slit your throat right here or should I hear you out?"

You must admit that you find this look on him very attractive.

You cannot help the grin, "Finally, you are acting like the youngest heir of District 1, professor. I like it."

His eyes widen slightly as the scissors move just a bit away from your skin. "What do you want?"

"To tell you that, I have to tell you a long story." Your smile drips with venom as you stand up and walk over to the sitting area. "Sit down. It's a long story." You say, motioning towards the sofa in front of you. He isn't enthusiastic but he follows your direction, sitting down in front of you, the scissors still in his hand.

You lean back into the cushions throwing one leg over the other as you look him in the eye.

"Once upon a time, six years ago actually, there was a man who used to deal weapons. His general clients were not high profile but one day he got orders from the mafia family of District 1. They had some issues with their regular supplier so they chose that man for a quick supply."

"The man had two daughters. One who was 18 at that time and another who was 16. Their mother passed away a couple of years ago and their father was always busy with either work or gambling so the sisters only had each other. The older sister took very good care of the younger one, making sure she was happy and protected all the time."

"Then one night, the mafia barged through the door, surrounding their house with armed men. The eldest and the youngest son of the Lee family also came. They dragged the father and the older daughter outside on the porch where they killed him with a clean shot in the head. Then they grabbed the older daughter and dragged her into their car, making her disappear forever."

"Meanwhile, the younger daughter watched all this from far away as the father's right hand man told her to remain hidden to save herself. After some digging around, it was found out that District 1 went to war with the Russians and they lost that war while also losing the head of the family, the father of the two brothers, Lee Jihoon and..." you pause before looking him dead in the eye and whispering, "Lee Seokmin."

Thick silence stretches in the air.

Dokyeom keeps looking at you, his fingers intertwined under his chin. "So, all this was a grand plan of yours to what, fool me? Betray me after making a joke out of me?" He asks. making you chuckle.

"You were only the beginning of my plan. I wanted to mess with you, of course, but I thought I would find out about your brother's whereabouts through dating you. I initially had a fun plan that I would show up uninvited in one of his business deals and ruin it, damage his reputation for good. However, that plan failed because I found no information about him or your family from you. You really hide that part of you well, no Professor?"

He remains silent.

"Now that my initial plan has failed, I think I will have to kidnap you, hm? Ask your brother for ransom. He would have no choice but to show up then."

Your words make Dokyeom scoff as he shakes his head, the corners of his lips turned up as if you have said the funniest thing ever. You don't like his reaction.

"You want to see my brother? I will arrange that."

"What?" You must have heard wrong. "What game are you playing now?"

"I'm not playing any game."

"Then why?" You narrow your eyes on him, your hand reaching to your back pocket to pull out the switchblade if necessary.

He looks at you for a long moment before letting out a breath. "I am impressed, that's all. I have to acknowledge your talent, no? Also, you deserve to know the truth." He looks you in the eye. "The real truth. Not some bullshit your father's right hand man made up."

"Don't you fucking tell me what is the truth and what is the lie, you murderer!" You seethe, clenching your fists.

You should just gut him right here.

Once again, he just smiles. "I will text you when he is available for the meeting. However, it will be one on one. If you bring someone else, he will not show up."

"I could still kidnap you."

"You are welcome to try but I guarantee you, that plan is going to fail. You are a smart woman. I'm giving you a good option. Just take it." He stands up.

"Well if you think that I alone am not a threat to your brother then you are mistaken. I can make his blood spill if I want to," You stand up and take a menacing step towards him. "If you find your dear brother dead after the meeting, don't blame me, hm?''

You don't wait for a reply as you turn on your heel and march out of the room. On your way out you find the dinner served on the table, the chicken cut nicely into pieces along with vegetables. Picking up a fork, you stab a few pieces of chicken, shove them into your mouth and then take a sip of the wine.

As always, his food tastes great.

With your coat slung over your shoulder, you pull open the door and yell behind you, "Thanks for the dinner, professor!"

You slam the door loudly behind you.

-

Lee Jihoon agrees to have a meeting with you one day later. Initially, you wanted Changkyun to drive you there but Dokyeom sent a text saying that he would pick you up because outside vehicles are not allowed entry into Jihoon's compound. Reluctantly, you agreed and after an absolute silent drive later, you reach the mansion of the mafia family of District 1.

The compound is stunning and heavily guarded, with checkposts and watch towers set at certain distances as well as multiple security screenings that you have to pass through. Once Dokyeom passes the final gate, the gorgeous mansion comes into view. Just upon entry, there is a large compound surrounding a giant water fountain in the middle of neatly trimmed rows of trees. Dokyeom stops the car at a small parking space near the front yard where the meeting will take place.

As the car comes to a stop you notice a small table and garden chairs set up underneath a large umbrella that is surrounded by multiple guards— the place of your meeting. With a deep breath, you step out of the car, along with Dokyeom who comes out of the driver's side door. Surprising you, he leans against the car with his arms crossed and starts looking around.

"You are not coming?''

"No."

You are perplexed but don't ask any further questions, busy with the task ahead of you. Tilting your head side to side, you pop your neck before marching towards the garden. Spotting you, one of the guards speaks into his comm. Throwing a mock smile at him, you drag a chair out and sit down, waiting for him to arrive. Out of curiosity, you turn your head behind to see Dokyeom in the same spot, staring off into the distance.

Weird.

A maid comes to serve two cups of tea before hurrying away and soon after, the man arrives.

Dressed in full black, Lee Jihoon steps out of the mansion and walks towards you, closely followed by two bodyguards, his body language is relaxed as he pulls out the chair in front of you and sits down. Taking off his shades, he looks at you, his eye contact calm yet unwavering along with something very powerful and dark brimming underneath as you come face to face with the man behind all your misery.

"Good morning, ___. My brother informed me about our interesting past." He speaks, his tone light, his facial expression laced with amusement as if he is catching up with an old friend.

"Then you know why I am here." You cut to the chase, trying to keep your tone as even as possible. Just hearing his voice irks you to your core.

"Remind me again." He hums, wiping his shades with a piece of cloth.

This motherfucking bastard.

"You killed my father! You kidnapped my sister! What—" You inhale deeply. "What did you do to her!" You hiss, unable to keep your voice from raising as your hands form fists, violent rage bubbling within you. There is a knife hidden underneath your bra and you consider pulling it out and stabbing him.

You can be quick but it wouldn't cause enough damage.

Besides, you need to know if your sister is alive.

"I see you are furious and I understand that feeling." Jihoon begins, throwing one leg on top of another as he links his hands together, leaning back to sit comfortably.

You hate how nonchalant he is about all this.

"Since I'm in a good mood today and my younger brother has asked for a favour after a very long time, I'll answer your questions. Let's begin with your father's death, shall we? My family had a deal with your father. He was to provide us with weapons and artilleries for a year because our usual supplier got murdered earlier that year and we chose him as a temporary replacement. In November of that year, a war broke out between us and the Russians. We went to war with those weapons. Guess what happened?"

You remain silent, staring at him in rage.

"The weapons stopped working. The guns would either jam or misfire. Hundreds of my men died and we lost that war. Your father sold us weapons that were crap. They were a batch of second grade weapons that he had lying around." Jihoon pauses for a second before resting his arms on the table and leaning closer to you. "You know why he did that?''

"Because he had gambled away the initial deposit we gave him. That led to an argument with his manufacturer who said the deal would be on hold. He could neither get the weapons nor cancel the deal with us so like a fucking coward, he sold us those shitty weapons."

"You are lying." You hiss.

"I was hoping you would say that. You see, I don't care whether you believe me or not, ___. You asked for the truth and here it is."

Bullshit.

Lee Jihoon is the master of manipulation, there is no way he is being honest right now.

"Then where is my sister? What did you do with her?"

His eyes darken at your words.

"She is alive. That is all you need to know." His tone is clipped.

You are immediately on your feet, the chair scraping backwards by your sudden motion. "Where is she, you fucking son of a bitch!" You bang your fists on the table, ready to jump on him. His bodyguard starts to come to you but Jihoon raises his hand as a signal for him to stand back.

"Sit down, ___." He remains unbothered. "Wherever she is, she is safe and well."

"Like I believe a word that comes out of your mouth! If she is really alive why won't you tell me!" You scream.

"Because your sister told me not to."

The ground slips away from your feet as your heart starts galloping. "What— what you talking about, you fucking liar!"

Jihoon gets up and walks towards you, fixes the chair back in its place and forces you to sit down by grabbing your shoulders.

"Look, ___. I am doing you the favour of explaining everything which I never do for anyone else. You can either act civil and stop calling me names or I have you escorted out right now." He threatens in your ear, his body leaning against the garden table. Your hands form tight fists in your lap as it takes everything within you to hold yourself back from punching him.

He says, "A word of advice for you, don't believe everything you see. Your sister has her demons that she had been hiding for a long time. She had them when we took her and she still has them. When she overcomes all of them, she will come find you."

You are stunned to silence.

"I- I don't believe you. You are making all this up." Your brain is scrambling, trying to fit the pieces together that you seem to have missed.

"Alright then. I'll contact your sister and tell her to write you a letter, maybe even attach some pictures. How about that?"

You remain silent.

Jihoon sighs and sits back down on the chair, before reaching for his phone inside his jacket. Swiping through the device, he finds what he is looking for before turning the screen towards you.

A gasp escapes you as your hands come to cover your mouth. It is a picture of your sister. You recognize her immediately despite the change in her features throughout the years. She sits by a window, a very subtle smile on her lips as she looks at the camera.

You could look at that picture forever but Jihoon takes the phone away, putting it inside his pocket as you blink away the tears from your eyes.

"You are all murderers. You ruined our lives." You whisper, your head hanging low as you stare at the green grass below your feet suddenly overcome with a feeling of helplessness.

Has she really been alive all this time? Has she been well?

"We never said we weren't. Our world abides by some rules and your father was well aware of those rules. His greed got the best of him and in a perfect world, his family wouldn't have suffered for his crime but in our world, that is the rule."

Tears brim in your eyes as you are overwhelmed with distraught.

"Thousands of people in district one had to die for your father's greed. It is only fair that he died. We didn't even make it painful and that is something our men were not blessed with." His tone becomes dark by the end.

"If you still don't believe me, I will mail you some of the investigation reports on that case. But this is as far as I'll entertain you, ___ and this is the last time I wish to see you in my premises unless I call you." Jihoon stands up, putting his hands in his pockets as you keep glaring holes into the ground.

"One final piece of advice, if you aren't serious about my brother, leave him." His words make you look up at him. "Me and Seokmin don't talk to each other anymore but for you, he contacted me after years, leaving behind his pride. He seems to have serious feelings about you. If you don't feel that way about him, leave. You got what you wanted."

Did you? Did you really get what you wanted?

"Goodbye." He puts on his shades and strides out of the garden, his bodyguards trailing after him as you are left alone with your thoughts and the tea which has now gone cold.

You get back into Dokyeom's car in silence. The man does not ask any questions or acknowledge you, mutely starting the car almost as if you are not even here.

You sit still, stuck in a trance as Jihoon's words replay in your mind over and over again. Now, you truly do not know what is the truth and what is the lie as you spiral into a dark pit of hopelessness. Could it truly be that Changkyun and his father lied to you? But why would they do that? Why would Jihoon lie to you either? He has no reason to. He is not afraid of anyone and he has no benefit from lying to you.

Your mind starts to numb from the continuous onslaught of thoughts. When you finally take a break from them and focus on your surroundings, you realize the car has come to a stop. It is parked on a small cliff that overlooks a mountain range far away. Seokmin looks at you expectantly, almost as if he is waiting for you to step out of the car. Without much thought, you do that and he follows you as you both silently tread towards a small bridge nearby. Resting against it, you take in the view for a few minutes, the man next to you doing the same.

"I heard you don't speak to your brother anymore." You decide to speak. It caught you off guard when Jihoon first mentioned it but you have been too preoccupied with other worries to address it. It is making sense to you now as to why you could not find anything at his house.

After a moment, his soft voice floats through the silence. "I used to be really close with my brother. I looked up to him ever since I was a child. In a world as grim as ours, he was a source of hope and a shelter for me." He breathes, his eyes focused ahead, clouded with memories. "It was a given that he was going to be the next don since he was the oldest but he always told me that I'd be a better leader, that I should be prepared to take over if anything were to happen to him. Sometimes, it felt as if he trusted me more than he trusted himself and I didn't want to let him down."

Seokmin comes to a pause as his gaze shifts from staring straight ahead to coming lower and lower, finally stopping at his shoes. With his head hanging low and a dejected posture, he whispers. "Everything changed after that war. Our father died along with so many of our men. The bloodshed was too much for me. I tried to suck it in by telling myself that I will overcome this. I will get used to it but the thing was, I didn't want to. I didn't want to get used to the violence, to the bloodshed, to that life and finally, after killing your father and taking away your sister, I gave up."

There is a heavy pause in the air. Your breath is trapped in your lungs as you watch him, waiting eagerly for his next words, urging him to continue while failing to find your voice.

"That night, I told hyung I was going to leave. I was going to denounce everything. My title, my inheritance, everything. My final gesture of loyalty and love for him was to aid him in killing the man that caused all the mess but my brother...He was...livid. He punched me, yelled at me and finally begged me not to leave. When I still said no he looked at me for a long moment." His breath shudders as he pauses shortly.

"I remember it so vividly. His face went completely blank as he ordered his men to escort me out, not even saying goodbye or looking back. That night I left and I never saw him again until...today. To the members of District 1, it was like the Lee family expanding their territory by having me step into the world of art under a new name. You also thought the same but now, you know the truth."

His eyes finally move as he shifts his position, leaning against the edge of the rail to look at you.

"Our world isn't fair, ___ and you cannot judge our actions based on the laws of the normal world. I do not like bloodshed or violence but I've realised that sometimes it is necessary to keep the balance. Killing your father was such a moment and—" he pauses, his brows furrowing as he looks at you desperately, almost like he's in pain as he searches for the right words.

"I do not regret it. I regret a lot of things but do not regret his death. I'm sorry that you lost your father and I'm sorry that you had a tough life. More than anything else, I'm sorry that you harboured all these negative feelings inside you only to realise that the truth was something else entirely. I'm sorry it had to be like this, ___."

You swallow, blinking to hold back tears. His eyes shine, mirroring yours as you both stare at each other in silence. You want to scream, yell at the top of your lungs that he is lying but you know that if you open your mouth, only sobs will come out. So you opt for watching Seokmin in silence as a gust of cool breeze flows by, messing your hair while you pray that it takes away your despair along with it.

"I'm going to leave you alone now. I'm sure you need some time to process everything. I just wanted to say my part." He whispers, slowly taking steps away. He pauses for a beat on his way to see if you say anything but you keep staring at the sky as if hypnotised. As his footsteps get farther away and the car's engine roars to life, your tears fall, cascading down your cheeks in endless streams.

-

Sleep doesn't come easily to you that night. With the rise of the sun, you get some shut eye before waking up and lying in your bed for hours, sinking deep into the hollow in your chest that feels like it's devouring you whole. Beside you, your phone rings multiple times with Changkyun's calls but you ignore them, not prepared to face him, not prepared to confront your best friend that he has been lying to you. When the growls of your stomach finally grow too loud for you to tolerate, you get up to eat something.

Inside your large house, you float around like a ghost, the emptiness and coldness of the structure mirroring how you feel on the inside. Your brain is too broken to think yet thoughts overflow, numbing you.

As you eat some cereal you finally decide to check your phone and you see Changkyun's message.

I dropped by your house this morning. You didn't open and you are not picking up.

Come to the seaport when you see this. We need to talk.

Your first reaction is to put your phone face down, ignoring the text. But as time ticks by and you see the afternoon sun going lower and lower in the sky, you change your mind. You need to talk to him. You deserve to know the truth from his mouth. Besides, the sooner you get this over with the better.

Maybe it's finally time to retire to a city by the beach, you think to yourself as you drive to the seaport.

-

The wind is high and the sun is about to disappear beneath the horizon when you reach the port. Parking your car, you walk along the edge of the platform, letting the cold her blow into your face as you watch the ships nearby get loaded with containers. As you stop to watch the sunset, you soon hear footsteps behind you and years of familiarity let you know it's Changkyun.

Sure enough, a few seconds later he comes to stand next to you.

"I have been trying to reach you all morning."

"Hm."

Your response probably comes unexpected to him as he shifts his position, turning to look at you, eyes intensely boring into you.

A gust of a particularly strong wind flows, disrupting your hair, covering your face with a few strands, almost as if shielding you from his scrutiny.

"Well?" He prods. You remain silent, staring ahead, racking your brain for the right words to start this conversation.

"___, what did that murderer say?" He asks again, his pitch rising.

"Not what I expected to hear." You give in with a sigh, turning your head to look at him in the eye. Changkyun's eyes widen just a fraction, a look of alarm settling on his face.

"I think we were not completely innocent, either." There's a coldness in your voice but he misses it, hissing. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

You tell him how the meeting with Jihoon went before posing the million dollar question. "Is that really the truth, Changkyun?"

With every word leaving your lips, you see his expression change, going from disbelief to betrayal to anger and then, to guilt.

A silence falls as you wait and watch him, holding your breath as his head hangs low, his hair covering his face as he stares at the ground. The remnants of your hope fade away with every passing second.

"Tell me the truth, Kyun! Did my father really gamble away the money?" Your voice is a desperate plea.

"So what if he did!" He scowls at you.

Your whole body freezes as your fears get confirmed. It takes a good moment for you to speak. "Why did you and your father lie to me? You said he was completely innocent, that he did nothing wrong yet got murdered by Ji—"

"For revenge! I lied so that we could take revenge!"

"Revenge for what!" You cry, frustrated. "You and I know very well what the rules are in this world. You would not spare me either if I did to you what my father did!"

"They took your sister, ___. God knows what they did—"

"She's alive." You whisper.

Changkyun's eyes widen, his mouth opening to say something yet failing to do so. He brushes a frustrated hand through his hair, exhaling loudly as he processes the information.

"What is the plan now?" He asks, his voice muted, looking at the ground.

"What do you mean what's the plan!" You cry. "Did you not hear me? There is no plan, Kyun. This is as far as I can go!"

"You do not mean that, ___!" His voice booms, eyes wide with rage. "They killed your father, ruined his empire, ruined every one of our fucking lives! They have your sister locked away for fucks sake!"

You say the words you never thought you would. "My father did not have an empire. What he had was a gambling addiction and a business built on a house of cards." Your voice grows meek, eyes shining with tears of pain and exhaustion. "As for my sister," you take in a deep breath. "Jihoon said he would make her write me a letter. He said she has reasons for hiding but she is safe. I have decided to trust his words for now."

"You—" Changkyun looks at you, baffled. "You are a fucking coward, ___! What about the work we put on all these years? What about us? What about my father? Who's going to avenge him!"

You sigh, rubbing your forehead. Blinking back tears, you try to compose yourself by taking in a deep breath. "I had a harsh wake up call that made me realize that all these years you were lying to me and using me to quench your bloodthirst. Who's going to avenge your father? Maybe you, if you are crazy but not me. His addiction led him astray and he committed suicide. What is there to avenge?"

"___! He ended up like that because the Lees killed your father and ruined our business!" He's like a madman as he steps closer to you, yelling. You yell back, "Just stop it, Changkyun! What do you want me to do, huh? March into Jihoon's house and start firing? Do you know the levels of security that place has? Whatever men we have, he has ten times more and I do not want my team to walk into a suicide mission without any cause. And most importantly, I will not jeopardise the safety of my sister! Jihoon knows her whereabouts and I need him if I want to see my sister again!"

"You... you—" Changkyun has turned red with fury as his words fail him.

You do not like how this conversation is going and your exhaustion makes you take a step back.

"We were carrying their sins with us but I have realised, we don't need to. Our parents...they made their decisions and paid the price for it. Let it end with them, please. I don't want to drag this any more. I am tired, Kyun." You whisper, praying the words to reach him.

Years of hunting and planning the destruction of one man has left you tired to your bones along with a general disdain for the world you have been living in. You were alone all along, chasing a ghost.

It is time to stop.

"No. You are not tired. You are a coward. A brainwashed coward." Changkyun sneers, venom dripping from his eyes.

"If that's what you would like to believe, then so be it." You conclude, not finding the energy to argue with him anymore. Your indifference irks him as he scowls at you, his hands clenched into fists.

You announce. "I am going to retire. You can take over from here on but I suggest you look into doing something new. Our business—"

"Don't you fucking dare give me advice!" His voice booms as he charges towards you. In the blink of an eye, he grabs you by the collars, livid. "Don't utter a single fucking word, you traitor! You fucking liar! You got some dick and decided to switch sides huh!" He seethes, gripping your collars tight and violently shaking you. The headache you already had intensifies but that isn't the thing that's hurting you.

His words hurt. Despite his lies, you considered him your best friend for the past six years. And maybe it's the attachment or the nostalgia of all these years that prevents you from fighting back.

You are done.

You have done enough fighting for a lifetime.

Mean words roll off Changkyun's tongue as he pushes you to the ground in a fit of rage, throwing his legs over your torso as he wraps his arms around your neck.

The next moment there is a click of a gun and you manage to peek over Changkyun's shoulder to find Seokmin standing behind him, pointing a revolver at the back of his head.

Your breath catches in your throat.

What the hell is he doing here?

Changkyun's grip on your throat loosens when he feels the presence behind him as he attempts to turn around. However, Seokmin presses the nozzle of the gun harder into his head, hissing. "Let her go. Now."

"Changkyun, please. Stop." You whisper, finally finding your voice. You do not like the look in Seokmin's eyes, something you've never seen before, something lethal and untamed and paired with the gun in his hand, you do not trust what he might do.

"Speak of the devil." Changkyun scoffs, looking at you, still holding a steady grip on your neck. "The boyfriend is here to save the day."

"Let. Her. Go." Seokmin repeats.

Changkyun looks torn, fury blazing in his eyes while also being aware of the gun being pointed at his head. With a frustrated grunt, he loosens his grip on your throat and you use that fraction of a second to tackle him by grabbing his arms and pinning him to the ground as you come on top. "Stop it, Kyun." Your plea is a whisper that is met with eyes full of wrath.

The next second Seokmin abruptly tugs you behind by your arm as he takes a step forward, becoming a barrier between you and Changkyun. The gun is still in his hand, pointing towards your friend.

"Seokmin put the gun down. It's fine." You try to step forward and pry the weapon out of his hand but he doesn't let you, holding you behind protectively with an arm outstretched.

"You may trust him, but I don't," Seokmin replies, eyes fiercely trained on Changkyun who has sat up. His eyes are equally furious with an underlying hint of challenge, as if he's daring Seokmin to shoot.

And he just might.

"For fucks sake, both of you! Enough!" You holler, clutching onto Seokmin to drag him further away from Changkyun who slowly stands up and brushes the dust off of him before looking at you with a deathly stare. Seokmin's grip on your arm tightens, the gun still in his hand but not pointed at him now.

You can almost physically feel the air thicken with tension.

"Don't try to contact me, ___. If I see your face ever again, there will be a bullet hole between your eyes." Changkyun grits out, sparing one last look of scorn at you before marching away.

With the kaleidoscope of colours of the dusk sky, you watch your best friend of years walk away, experiencing heartbreak and a weird relief at the same time.

Silence settles with the sun dipping below the horizon. Seokmin let's go of you, putting some distance between your bodies. Your eyes meet his as you exchange a silent look full of turbulent emotions.

Emotions you can't quite name yet feel overwhelmed with.

"How did you find me?" Your soft inquiry breaks the silence. He removes his gaze from you and looks at the ground. "Went to your place this afternoon. As I was pulling up I saw your car leave and I just...followed you."

"Why?"

"I... don't know. My gut told me I should." He replies calmly.

You sigh as another beat of silence fills the air. The sky is now fully dark, spread wide with different shades of purple. The wind has gotten significantly colder and you feel like if you stay out too long, it will settle into your bones.

Like the echoing coldness in your heart.

"You should not have interrupted. I was dealing with him."

Seokmin frowns. "Dealing with him? By lying still and letting him choke you?"

"Like I said—"

"Forget that,'' Seokmin interrupts you with a huff. "I went to your place because I had to tell you something." You look at him inquisitively as he fishes out something from the breast pocket of his trench coat.

Extending his hand towards yours, he pushes something into your palm.

A ticket.

"What is this?" You find yourself asking.

"Remember how you said you wanted to go to a place by the sea." He begins, his voice soft like his gaze. "Well, this is it. Now that everything is over, you can go and live by the beach. This cruise leaves tomorrow afternoon. It'll take a few days to reach Barcelona."

You look at the little piece of paper in your hand, letting his words wash over you.

"Think of this as an apology for everything. For what me and my family put you through." He adds when you don't reply.

"I see." Your voice is almost inaudible.

Seokmin says nothing for a few moments, as if waiting for you to speak but when you don't, he continues. "I am going as well. To Barcelona, I mean."

You move his gaze to him and blink inquisitively.

"I felt like taking a break after everything. I haven't been on a vacation for a very long time. I, too, wanted to see the ocean. When I got tickets, I thought I'd get one for you. We don't have to go together or see each other if you decide to go, that is..." He trails off.

You gaze at him for a while, memorising his features. Swallowing a sudden lump in your throat, you force a smile and give him a shaky nod.

"Well, then. I'll get going." He takes a few steps back, rubbing his palms together.

"Bye."

"If you don't come tomorrow, this is goodbye, no?" He asks as he continues to take small steps away from you, still facing you.

"I guess so." You reply. He stops and takes a long look at you before saying. "It was really nice knowing you, ___. Despite our history, despite the short time, I don't regret meeting you and... loving you." The last two words fade into a whisper, making you doubt if he even said them.

You don't get a chance to reply. You don't even get a chance to wholly process his words before he gives a wave, a small smile on his face before jogging away.

You stay rooted to your spot.

I don't regret meeting you and loving you.

-

The sun is shining stronger than any other afternoon when you step out of the taxi with nothing but a small bag pack on your shoulders. Receiving the boarding pass, you walk into the deck which is now empty because the ship is set to leave in just five minutes.

It is not fully empty, however, because one person stands, looking anxious, his eyes skirting around wildly.

When his eyes land on you, a smile of relief seems to appear on his face, triggering the corners of your lips to rise slightly as well. In silence, you walk to him.

"You came." His voice sounds glad but also as if he is trying to school his excitement.

"Did not want to waste a free ticket." You shrug, looking away.

Seokmin nods. "Right. Well, you are just on time."

"I know." There's a pause for a second as he looks like he wants to say something. A staff gives out the final boarding call which makes you continue your way into the cruise, followed by Seokmin.

Once you are boarded, you walk towards the front of the vessel, glad that it is not too crowded. The whistle of the cruise booming in the air signals the start of its journey as the sunlight and the warm breeze kiss your face.

"I'm glad you decided to come," Seokmin says, making you turn around to look at him. In the soft glow of the sun and the wind playing with his hair, he looks breathtaking.

After a moment, you whisper. "Me too."

Giving you a nod and a friendly smile, he walks away with his suitcase into the upper deck and out of sight while you stand and watch him go, the sun warming your skin.

-

1 month later

The evening air has a slight chill, not uncomfortable but just pleasant. You walk barefoot on the sand, hands crossed over your chest as your feet carry you down the edge of the ocean with practised ease. Around you, people enjoy the beach after a hectic day, children playing around laughing, parents taking videos, friends flying kites, couples walking hand in hand. The sound of the waves crashing to the shore along with the remnants of orange hues in the sky sets up a wonderful atmosphere, which, after almost a month, you have become used to but certainly not bored of.

You have never felt so much at peace.

This getaway was truly what you needed as you learned to spend time by yourself, alone with your thoughts, isolated from the world yet watching it pass by. It has been a palliative experience so far. You came to terms with your life, your past, your actions and your feelings for a certain individual.

Just one day into your getaway, a letter was brought to your room by a hotel staff and upon opening it, you realised Jihoon kept his promise.

It was a handwritten letter from your sister, along with a picture of her, sitting next to a large painting that she created. She looks different, not how you remember her, a different glow on her face that you did not remember because she was almost always melancholic.

You now feel a little guilty because you never asked her why.

Dear ____.

It has been a long while, no? I am sorry for being out of touch. It is unforgivable, I know but I finally found the courage to write to you after you came to visit Jihoon. When we were first separated something was chasing me that made me want to run away from everything. I put off connecting to you for your own good when I heard you were living with Changkyun and his father and just like that, years had passed. I occasionally looked into your whereabouts and I knew you were doing fine but I never found it in me to get rid of the guilt and just write to you.

I tried hard not to show it but life was not so kind to me before the last six years and getting taken away from our dad was probably the best thing for me.

It is a story for another day and there are still demons that I need to defeat. After that I will come to see you and ask for forgiveness. Until then, live well and rest easy knowing that I have been doing better for the past few years.

Your sister.

Reading the letter was bittersweet, the first emotion invoked within you was hurt and longing as you shed a few tears seeing your sister's picture, mused about the old days and wondered what she went through all by herself.

Initially, you had thought of writing back a reply but you decided against it because the words you wish to utter can not be confined within a paper. Instead, you sent out a prayer to the universe, hoping you would get to meet her sometime soon.

From a distance, someone calls out your name, calling your attention back to the present and you turn instinctively to find Seokmin jogging towards you through the sand, two cones of ice creams in his hands. A smile appears on your lips as you take a few steps towards him, reaching your arms out. Wrapping him in a soft hug, you plant a sweet kiss on his lips before taking an ice cream from his hand and reaching for the other as well.

"Both of these are for me right?"

The poor man looks conflicted. "Well, uhm, no but if you want you can have them."

You snort a burst of laughter. "You can have it, Min. Maybe save a bite for me."

Hand in hand, you two walk a little closer to the shore and sit down, letting the flow of the waves occasionally touch your feet.

Your relationship with Seokmin developed surprisingly but quickly after coming to Barcelona. Initially, you did not expect anything, too overridden with the guilt of your tricks and the history of your families to make any attempt to talk to him. Two weeks went by as you did not see each other, except for occasionally bumping into each other at the beach or the hotel lobby because as fate would have it, you two shared the same hotel. It was hard and uncomfortable, pretending not to see him when you ran into him and it would make you wonder if he felt the same.

It all changed one night when you were returning to the hotel after dinner and some drinks. Tipsy and wobbly, you focused extra hard to not bump into anyone as you made your way into the lobby of the hotel.

And there you bumped into him, quite literally.

"Hey there, easy," The man's hands hold your shoulders to stop you from falling on your ass. You look up and find Seokmin. Thinking that you are seeing things, you blink two more times before coming to terms with the fact that it was indeed Seokmin in front of you.

"Someone had a lot to drink," He says as you try to regain your balance. "Can you go to your room by yourself? Should I come with you?"

With a huff, you push him away, trying to appear independent as you take wobbly steps. Seokmin decides to escort you, as he follows closely behind all the way, one hand outstretched, ready to catch you in case you fall.

When you reach your room, Seokmin assists you in unlocking the door. Once the job is done successfully, you pause in the entryway to look back at him. He stands there, somewhat awkward and you consider whether to shut the door on his face or ask him to come in. Neither of them sounds like a good idea but still, you kick the door to open it a little wider and murmur as you walk in, "Come in, if you want."

You don't look behind as you head for the small fridge to retrieve a water bottle and chug it down. Seokmin steps in, a bit hesitant, closing the door behind him. You take a seat on the edge of your bed as Seokmin gingerly sits down on the couch placed in front.

A small moment of silence passes by as you two observe each other. He is dressed in running gear and judging from the pristine condition of his hair, you assume that he was on his way for a late night jog.

"We keep bumping into each other," Seokmin tries to break the silence. You nod, "Must be fate." You are not quite sure if you said those words genuinely or sarcastically. Seokmin does not reply, probably thinking that you are being sarcastic.

You find yourself asking, "How have you been?"

"Good."

"How long do you plan to stay here?"

"A couple more weeks maybe."

"Are you having fun?''

"Yes."

"Am I making you uncomfortable?"

He takes a moment before replying, "Not really. I'm more worried if I am making you uncomfortable."

"Hm," you hum and with that, the conversation dies down. You have a lot to say on your mind but your mind is not in its top condition right now as you have had a few drinks, which makes it a bit harder to arrange your thoughts and address them accordingly.

"I should get going, I suppose," Seokmin says, rubbing his palms on his thighs.

"Wait," the words slip out of your mouth in urgency and you are not even sure why you are telling him so.

The man blinks at you.

"I—" You don't know what you wish to say. "I guess I just wanted to say...I'm sorry."

Seokmin appears a little surprised hearing you say that as he sits up straighter. You huff out a long breath, looking down at the empty water bottle in your hand. "What I'm trying to say is that...I am sorry that I played with your feelings. I- I am sorry for using you. You are a nice person, professor."

You calling him by his old title makes him smile as he says. "I just realized I missed you calling me by that name."

"Professor?"

"Yes, ___?"

A small smile appears on your face as well as you bite your lip to stifle it.

"___?" Seokmin's soft voice makes you look at him. He looks unsure but also hopeful. "Hypothetically, if I told you that I still miss you and that I still long for you, what would you say?"

"Your breath stalls as you watch him, wide eyed. There is a sudden lump in your throat that makes it impossible for you to speak. You are scared you might start crying if you do so. Still, you breathe, "Hypothetically, I would say that I feel the same too.''

"And would it be a lie this time, my beautiful liar?"

You swallow as you watch him take slow steps towards you. When he stands right in front of you, his hands gently cup your cheeks, carefully tilting your head upwards so that you can meet his eyes. They shine with emotions unsaid, just like yours and the look on his face makes your heart soar, makes you forget everything, makes you want to be selfish.

"No," you whisper.

You get to see the slightest tilt of his lips to a smile as he leans down and presses his lips to yours, softly at first before you eagerly chase his lips and he reciprocates, moving the hair away from your face and holding your neck with one hand and stroking your cheek with the other.

The kiss is full of passion but also slow and sweet, an addictive combination that tells you that you are done for. With another kiss on your forehead, Seokmin lets go, stepping away from you.

"Will I see you tomorrow morning or will you declare this as a drunk mistake and start hiding from me?" He asks cheekily.

You can't help a smile. "I will expect you to pick me up at 9 am sharp. We will have breakfast together."

You will take it slow this time.

"Whatever you wish," He flashes his beautiful smile, heading for the door. As he is about to close it behind him, he turns his head around. "Goodnight, ___. Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight, Seokmin."

-

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, you two moved out of the hotel and instead rented a small villa near the coast for an indefinite amount of time. You have no plans of going back home but you know that Seokmin's nature of work will require him to leave sometimes which you are fine with.

"So, I got an invitation to a seminar in London." Seokmins words jolt you out of the thoughts running in your head. "I don't think they are going to accept a no." He adds sadly.

"You don't have to say no." You reply. "Just go and attend it. Share your expertise with the world."

"Mhmm," he hums, looking at you in a contemplating gaze. "Would you consider coming with me?"

You blink. "Well..."

"It's a one-day seminar. We can stay a couple of days more and look around the city. It would be fun, I think."

You consider his words. It would be fun, actually.

You have no reason to hold yourself back from having new experiences now. You have punished yourself enough.

"It's a good idea." You reply with a soft smile that makes your boyfriend grin as he puts his arm around your shoulder, gently pulling your body closer to him. You let your head fall on his shoulder as you watch the sky grow dark.

No more lies now, it's just peace.

Your story that began with lies painted in red will end in red too, but this time the red will paint love.

A/N: Thanks for reading it till the end! I would like to apologize for the delay as this was supposed to be posted two weeks earlier but yk, life happened. The other two stories of this series are in the making but the next story will not be out before May. Also, I am planning on making a standalone for Jihoon's story which will not exactly be a part of this series but it's in the same timeline. It will be posted after all the stories of this series are completed. Anyways, stay safe and toodles!

Also, please leave a comment and reblog! It really motivates me to create more!

© startlightxsvt 2024 | All Rights Reserved. Do not copy, repost, translate, adapt, or repurpose any of my works.

[btsgotjams27]

naked | jjk

You're selfish when it comes to him. He wants more, but you won't let him.

✨ title: naked | ✨ pairing: jungkook x noona f!reader

✨ word count: 3.3k | ✨ rating: R / minors dni

✨ genre/au: smut, light fluff (if you squint) | age gap, fwb

✨ warnings: reader is seven years older, language, mentions of alcohol, softdom!reader(?), sub!jk(?), slightly needy jk, kissing, touching, masturbation (m), oral (m receiving), orgasm delay, unprotected sex, jk is a sweetheart, mentions of a pet dying, reader is complete denial over her feelings

✨ a/n: inspired by this song 🥲🥲🥲 and i have no idea if i wrote sub!jk well(?) i normally write him dom, so forgive me if the smut sucks lmfao. also, tagging @jikooknoona @pamzn enjoy bbys.

[ SERIES MASTERLIST ] ✨ check out jealous.

Feelings are messy and too much to handle, especially when it comes to Jeon Jungkook. So it was always easier when you were naked—baring your bodies instead of your souls.

Jungkook always wanted more, but you could never give it to him. Maybe you'd been hurt too many times before, and you'll be damned if you got caught up in feelings with a man seven years younger.

It all started with a drunken night out. You'd been drowning in your sorrows when you ran into Jungkook, barely recognizing him due to the alcohol coursing through your veins. He was sweet and nice, even offering to drive you home and tuck you into bed, and that's when things started to get hazy. You weren't sure who made the first move, but it didn't matter then. You only knew one thing: you wanted him.

It was exciting to be with Jungkook. He was always eager to please and would try anything to prove that he was good enough. You found his enthusiasm endearing, but it wasn't because his skills in bed were lacking; you just disliked that he wanted to linger and talk about your feelings.

"What?" When Jungkook noticed you staring, he raised his brow. You'd already showered and gotten ready for bed, but Jungkook was still naked beneath your covers. "I'm going to leave. I swear."

You hummed, knowing he'd take his sweet time because he hated being kicked out. Even when he was halfway out the door, he'd whine and pout.

Jungkook perked up, the duvet covering his lower half. "Are you going to give me back my shirt or what?"

You slipped into his t-shirt and knew you had to return it so he could leave, but it was just so warm, comfy, and low-key smelled like him. "Mm. I think I look better in it, don't you agree?" You approached him with a cheeky grin on your face.

He chuckled and hung his head, shifting to the bed's edge as you slotted between his legs. He couldn't help but reconnect his hands with your body, pulling you closer to him, his hands wandering fairly close to the underside of your cheeks, causing your core to clench around nothing. "I kinda need this if you want me to leave," he explained, twirling the shirt's hem around his finger.

You're not going to lie. You had moments of weakness when you fantasized about waking up to him, having your limbs entangled with his, and having him whenever you wanted. But it was out of the question—toying with that idea was too dangerous. You were not going to become attached.

You drape your arms around his neck before straddling yourself on his lap. "If you want it, you have to take it," you said, leaning down, ghosting his lips.

He knew you enjoyed playing games, but he didn't like it when you played with his heart.

"Yeah?" he asked, one of his hands gently traveling up to your waist and the other slowly tinkering with the bottom of the shirt, but he didn't dare to take it off yet. "I guess I'll have to spend the night. I can't possibly leave here naked," he teased, laying back on your bed, his naked body on full display, with his elbows propped up. He was waiting to see what you would do next.

You had to give it to him. He was becoming bolder in his attempts to have all of you, and he already had most of you, except for the one thing he desired, your heart. You leaned forward, kissing his cheek. Thoughts were racing through your mind, telling you to stop it before it went any further and before he'd become so tired that he would spend the night.

But your mind was at odds with your pussy, and she was resuming control. You kissed the beauty mark beneath his bottom lip—you loved marking every freckle on his body. Then you kissed along his jawline, your lips enclosing the mark on his neck, drawing your body closer to his, your bare pussy rolling against his soft cock. He'd only been in your mouth not thirty minutes ago, so he wasn't fully erect, but you figured you could warm his cock in your mouth or pussy for as long as he needed before round two.

You laced your fingers through his hair, flashing a smirk as you pushed him down on the bed and removed the shirt over your head.

He raised his brows in confusion. "I thought you wanted me to leave?"

"Do you not want to stay?" You shot back. Your words were coming out faster than you could think. At the end of this, you'd kick him out, but you couldn't help teasing him.

Jungkook looked at you, trying to figure out what game you were playing. He'd stay forever if he could, but you clarified your intentions when you started this friends-with-benefits arrangement. You were drained from work and needed a way to unwind, and Jungkook was sick of the dating scene. This was supposed to be simple—just mind-blowing sex with no feelings involved. That is until Jungkook began texting you throughout the day to see how you were doing.

So he wasn't sure whether to leave or stay because it was a lose-lose situation. He'd be heartbroken, regardless.

You started rolling your hips against his length, urging an answer from him. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath before letting out an exasperated sigh. He couldn't resist you even if he wanted to. "You know I want to stay."

You grinned when you looked down at your pussy sitting prettily on his cock, which began to come erect again. "Can you lay against the headboard for me?" He did as you asked, like the good boy he is. You watched him sit and wait for your instructions. God—you just wanted to ruin him completely. "Now, touch yourself for me," you commanded, sitting on your knees, feet tucked under you.

Jungkook's tongue darted out, licking his lips and then flipping his lip ring back and forth. Okay, he thought, he'll play your game. His tattooed hand was now wrapped around his cock, his eyes never leaving yours.

"Mm—does my baby like it when I watch him?" You purred, dark eyes raving at his tattooed hand.

With heavy eyes, Jungkook nodded yes before he lolled his head back, continuing to stroke himself, his thumb spreading a bead of pre-cum around his head, his other hand playing with his balls.

You bit down on your bottom lip, eager to see how far he'd go for you. The moans leaving his mouth were like music to your ears. A shudder went down your spine and into your pussy, just watching him touch himself. You didn't think this would turn you on so much.

Leaning forward, your chest flushed against the bed, you propped yourself up, hand underneath your chin, kicking your feet as you watched Jungkook. His brows furrowed, mouth slack, chest heaving, and faint whispers of curses leaving that pretty little mouth of his.

"Keep going, baby," you cooed, peering up at him. "Can you tell me when you're gonna cum?" It didn't look like it would take long until he was going to reach his climax.

He acknowledged what you wanted through hooded eyes and a shaky breath. This position was too familiar to him. He'd stay up late nights just thinking about you, jerking himself off, wondering how your hands and mouth would feel around him, and now that his fantasies were coming true, he didn't want them to stop.

His cock twitched in his hand, the reddened tip ready to explode. Jungkook panted, squeezing his eyes shut, trying not to cum so quickly.

"Is my pretty boy going to cum?" you asked, licking your lips before biting, sporting a sinful grin.

"'M gonna cum soon," he said, out of breath.

"Already?" You chuckled. "Stop."

Jungkook grinned, and his eyes fluttered open. His hand halted all movement on his cock. "Huh?"

"Go." You stared down at his angry, reddened cock, and he began stroking again. He hissed and moaned, biting down on his bottom lip. You would be the death of him, he thought.

You pushed yourself up into a kneeling position, crawling towards him. Jungkook looked absolutely breathtaking–his chest all toned and chiseled, tattooed arm flexing while gripping his fat cock.

With legs on either side of him, you wanted nothing more than to ride him like he was a bull and you were the wrangler. But not just yet. You wanted to torture him a bit more. Your finger lightly grazed over his happy trail, causing him to shiver underneath your touch. The ache between your thighs was apparent, but you couldn't let him know how weak you were for him too.

"I just want you to fuck me already—please, baby, please," he pleaded as he opened his eyes.

You wrapped your arms around him, bringing your pussy closer. "Mm, not yet, baby." You could see beads of sweat forming along his hairline, and you just knew how much he was itching to come. When you rolled your hips against the base of his cock, he groaned, leaning forward into the crook of your neck. You could feel his wet mouth against you, teeth faintly grazing against your skin, wanting to bite down. His knuckles rubbed against your stomach as he stroked his throbbing cock desperately leaking pre-cum.

"Do you think you deserve my pussy again?" you whispered against the shell of his ear before kissing it. You were a menace—you knew it, he knew it, but you wanted to see how badly he wanted you.

He gulped. He would be inside of you 24/7 if he could. He pulled back, lips ghosting yours, but you wouldn't let him have a kiss. You could tell he was desperate, trying to relieve any tension with a kiss or touch from you, and you sitting on top of him wasn't helping.

You smiled, letting your soaked cunt slide along the base of his shaft. "You didn't answer my question." You nipped your nose against his, then lightly traced his lips with your warm tongue. His hands automatically gripped your waist, giving it a good squeeze. "You're drooling, baby," you teased, pretending to wipe the corner of his mouth. "You really don't deserve it, do you?"

"Yes—" he managed to squeak out. "Yes, please, Noona."

Your fingers made their way to your pussy, spreading your lips, pushing against his cock, eliciting a whine from the both of you. The torture was becoming too much for you, and you just wanted to ride him all night. "I'm sorry, baby. I couldn't hear how much you want me," you teased him.

He stopped stroking himself and peered up at you. "I want all of you. Every. Single. Part. Of. You," he emphasized. His hands tugged you closer, pressing you flush against his cock. He kissed your chest, causing you to arch forward into him. Abruptly, you pulled away from him, back into a kneeling position. His eyes widened at the sudden change.

You sat in front of him, both hands rubbing and stroking his cock. He squeezed his eyes shut again for fear of coming any second now that it was you touching him. You lowered yourself, facing the angry, reddened cock, muttering 'pretty' before taking him in your mouth, your tongue swirling around the tip, then trailing the vein along the underside of his length to the base and back up.

"Fuck—Noona," Jungkook panted, peering down at you. "I won't last long if you keep going like this. Wanna be inside you."

He was right. Your pussy craved him, filling you to the brim, pushing you over the edge into bliss. Jungkook was the only one who could always do the job right, and no one else was like him.

Your mouth lingered on his tip, moving back and forth on the ridge before popping off, causing him to groan in anguish at the loss of your mouth. He opened his eyes briefly, still hooded from the ecstasy of your tongue and warm mouth. His fingers ran through your hair, drawing you closer to him, your lips slick and swollen. You faced him and scanned his eyes, nose, and mouth. His tongue darted back and forth to play with his lip ring.

"God—you're so fucking sexy and hot and everything I could ever want," he said with a slight chuckle, flashing a grin.

"You know how to make a girl blush in the middle of sex."

"You? Blushing? I must be doing something right." He leaned for a kiss, but you denied him again, making him pout.

You waved your finger. "You know my rules, Kook."

He hummed, waiting for your next move, and honestly, he never knew what you'd do to him. Either way, he was excited to be with you for a little longer.

You turned around, your ass facing him. He bit down harshly on his bottom lip, trying not to make a sound because he loved you in this position. His tattooed hand traveled from the small of your back and across every dip where your spine sunk in, reaching the nape of your neck. He knew how much you loved being in control, so he never questioned it, but one day, he'd love to see how much you'd crumble under his touch.

You looked over your shoulder, catching Jungkook's gaze as he raved over your backside, eyes now fixated on his erect cock slotted between your cheeks. You reached behind, your manicured hand wrapped around his shaft, gently stroking and slapping it against your ass.

Light moans could be heard from his lips as you continued. "Use your words, Kook," you demanded.

"Please–" His voice became strangled, and the visuals and stimulation became too much for him. "Noona, I want to be inside of you."

"Want?"

"Need–need you, please."

You turned away from him. "Since you asked so nicely." You hovered over his cock, guiding his tip to your entrance, letting it dip in and out, coating it with your arousal, making the both of you hiss at the slight touch. It took everything in Jungkook not to thrust up in one swift motion. But fuck—you would do everything in your power to ruin him.

Then you slowly sank down, letting his girth stretch every inch of you. The sight of seeing his cock disappearing into your pussy was enough to make him blow his load, but he wanted to savor every minute that he could. "Nngh–you're always so tight." Even he had to take a moment to breathe.

You started rolling your hips back and forth languidly, sensually, for a few moments, eliciting whimpers and moans from the two of you. Your arms between his legs, propping you up, your walls clenching around his length, your juices causing lewd sounds when you’d hit the base of him.

Jungkook’s face grew warm, blood rushing to his cock, sweat beading down his temple, his abs tightening–the tension inside had been building for too long. He tried taking deep breaths and even thinking about mud to keep himself from coming so quickly. But when you started changing the pace to a more frantic, desperate rhythm, and your ass bounced like there was no tomorrow–he knew it’d be over for him soon.

“Baby—please, please let me cum,” Jungkook pleaded, hoping he could convince you since you loved to torture him.

You thought about saying no, you did, but maybe you should stop before he doesn’t wanna come back to you. “How ‘bout I let you cum on my tits?” you asked, looking over your shoulder, and he nodded eagerly.

You hopped off of him to lay on the bed. Jungkook stroked himself as he crawled to you. Your hands tugged him closer before you squeezed your breasts together, encouraging him to slot his cock in between. He gazed down at you, looking all fucked out, hair a mess, thought this was the prettiest he’d ever seen you, wished he could wake up to this every day. He began to buck forward, his cock sliding between your breasts.

“You’re so beautiful–I think I could love you.”

You bit down on your lip, shying away from his words. You were sure he was only saying that because the two of you were naked.

"You're only saying that because your dick is in front of my face."

He beamed a huge grin and shook his head, leaning down, arms propped next to you. He was still slotted between your tits. "It's true. If only you'll let me."

"Just hurry up and come already," you urged before smacking his pert ass and wrapping your hand around his shaft to help him out.

He hissed at your touch. He much preferred your hand over his own. Jungkook's hips jerked frantically, chasing the second climax of tonight. He sucked in a sharp breath, the coiling tension ready to explode when your other hand began playing with his tight balls. “Ah–fuck, fuck fuck, fuck,” he muttered over and over, as his seed painted white across your chest, neck, and chin. He groaned noisily, collapsing on top of you. "Noona, you drive me so fucking insane."

You snickered, patting his shoulder. "Who? Me?"

Jungkook kissed your cheek before crawling off you in search of his shirt. He wiped himself before walking off to the bathroom to get a towel for you, helping you clean off the mess he made. He sat next to you on the edge of the bed. "What about you? I can still make you feel good."

You rolled your eyes and stood, slotting yourself between his legs. Your hand gently removed a piece of hair that had gotten stuck to his temple. "Don't worry about me, Kook."

He was never one to leave you hanging, but he figured he had overstayed his welcome. "Guess I'm still going home half-naked," he chuckled, holding up his shirt, covered in his cum.

"Guess so."

"I know you don't care for it, but uh, Happy Valentine’s Day," he said as he handed you something.

"Jungkook, what is this?" You lifted the small box wrapped in a purple bow.

He shrugged. "I don't know."

You narrowed your eyes. You could see the smirk he was trying to hide while slipping his boots on. You gently shook it, trying to figure out what it could possibly be. You lifted the top cover off, and in it sat a circular pendant.

"You bought me a gift."

"Congratulations, Sherlock. You solved the mystery."

You clicked your tongue. "Shut up, you little shit."

"There’s another surprise inside the necklace."

You knitted your eyebrows in confusion, and it was obvious to Jungkook that you didn’t understand what he meant. He walked back to you, taking the necklace out from the box. He told you to turn toward the light to look inside the circle pendant. At first, you couldn’t see anything. You even tried shifting the pendant around until you saw white and black fur and realized it was a photo of your fluffy best friend, Pepper, who passed away not long ago. You clenched your jaw, trying to hold back tears. Now you feel bad for treating Jungkook in the way that you have been. This was really a sweet gesture, and he didn’t have to do this. "Thanks, Jungkook. This means a lot."

"It’s nothing, really. I thought you’d enjoy having Pepper with you wherever you go."

You flashed a thin smile, trying to remember when you had told him about Pepper. Maybe it was one of those drunken nights the two of you had spent together.

"Do you wanna stay?"

Jungkook’s eyes perked up. "Really?"

You chuckled. "No–" He pursed his lips in annoyance. "But keep doing this like this, and I might let you."

want more of the naked!couple? check out jealous.

[kirbybecomesastarwarrior]

Once again I thank you all so much for supporting me during the Kirby OC Tournament. Especially all my followers & mutual who humored me with all the poll reblog stuff.

As promised the lore. (And I've been cooking this turkey for a while and it's ready to come out of the oven.)

Fair Warning contains spoilers... I will not be explaining all the details of what happening. This is incredibly vague & via musical... so I won't spoil that much (since this does take place during the final arc... Void Termina Saga). The events that are being shown do not happen exactly how they are portrayed, however the essence of what's happening is the same.

Morgan shall be singing "Last Midnight from Into the Woods,"

Spoiler warning, (More drawn content is contained below)

(OH NO WHAT'S HAPPENING TO KIRBY...Sorry, I can't explain it just yet... Nor why Meta Knight's mask is broken in half... maybe he got into a fight or something, hold the phone I thought Galacta was trapped in insanity... what happened... Sorry if I tell anything of that it'll spoil the good stuff)

Dame Morgan: It's the Last Midnight

So in summary: After they refuse to hand Kirby over, Morgan reveals there's a traitor in their midst... Fumu is the reason why Kirby is in the state he is in (Fumu is currently regretting her life choices). Leaving Meta & Gala shocked, and scared to death at Kirby's current state, while Kirby is sad, and betrayed again...~

And Morgan just having herself a time, living her best life~

In the KBASW series, she tricks three major characters:

Namely: Queen Ripple, Hyness, and Fumu/Tiff. (the most devastating one she tricks)

Dame Morgan is basically a mixture of: "The Witch" from Into the Woods, Morgan from (Merlin's 2008 TV series), Eris from Sinbad (she has the voice of Eris), and the Joker from Batman.

Morgan represents the opposite of Celestine... (via Morgan vs. Merlyn wizard rivalry) The Anti-Celestine so to speak~

The one person she hates more than Arthur is Merlyn/Celestine.

Celestine sees magic as a tool, not a solution or the answer to your problem... promoting true self-improvement comes from within. For there will always be...: another bridge to cross, another monster to slay, another woods to go into. The only way to ever truly be prepared in this world is to learn from each other... and to be kind to one another & share the experience. If you cheat your way throw life will just get harder and move with you... Being better and leading a good example will inspire others to be better along with you.

The change starts within, with us...

While Dame Morgan:

Life is unfair, you play by their rules, you follow the system, sacrifice everything to fit the mold, and yet you can still be cheated out of what you deserve...

And you're telling me I should just "hang in there," "hold on", "it's gonna be okay eventually keep smiling".... nah? Let's stop "pretending to be good", everybody is just in it for themselves so... if you do that you're just a fool waiting to be tricked.

Why not live just for yourself... why not cheat back... why not be the bad guy? That's why her theme is "Stella Jang(스텔라장) _ Villain(빌런)

Morgan represents the easy way out, a quick fix... to blame someone else...an escape. How did she obtain this dark magic... The Jamba Heart...Granting everyone's selfish desires... the reason why everyone falls for it is because she has the charisma to make the offer far too tempting and to pass it up, no.

And guess who was her first customer... Hyness~

The biggest change I probably did the to mix anime & game lore. (Kirby Star Allies) In KBASW AU... Morgan the one who convinced Hyness the Jamba Heart was what he needed to restore his clan. It's the reason she's able to stay hidden for a long while...Allowing the negative to naturally corrupt him and use him as a figurehead...

Despite giving him the Jamaba Heart... she did not tell him exactly how to break the seal on Termina... (Whoops she must have forgotten, how clumsy of her...) Purposely having him fail~

However, the secret to this lies with... FUMU!? Due to the reincarnation of the first ruler of Dreamland... she holds the key to unsealing & controlling Void Termina... She throws them to the wrong person. She's very much tricked into thinking she's helping "Kirby," but... yeah this happens instead.

And of course, there's always a price... though once you do realize you've been bamboozled, she'll remind you that she gave you a choice... Ultimately making you realize it's your own fault at the end of the day. Very much rubbing your head in the mess you've made for yourself. (which is exactly what she's doing to Tiff/Fumu right now.)

In summary, she pretty much invites you to be your worst self; she's the villain but deliciously so! :3

[mudkirby]

Pebbles In order of appearance.

@druidshollow lore lore lore Dune lore lore

@flickering-nightfall whole reason I draw Pebbles the way I do since first exposure

@toxictoxicities b u f f

@dennis7231 still waiting on them dropwigs >:)

@weepinglilvessel ant snooooot

@mudkirby me :> 🔫

@shkika love your Suns

@northflowerowo Sorry I shoved him so far down lol

Honourable mentions/ shout outs: @trashiiplant Howwow Knight and Wainwowld :D

@kelnexia is lurking.

@daszombes Thank you for explaining lore, giving us peak story telling and characters to simp for in the form of the Iterator Logs. What? No Pebbles? Don't care. You're on here now.

Druid's Hollow, the first time I ever saw your YouTube channel was with the Distant Frontier video after just having gotten into Iterator Logs. One of the most pivotal pieces of media you've made in my life was God- Jake Daniels. That single video alone gave me the push I needed to make my first Rainworld oc Parting Clouds. The stories surrounding your characters (and Dune) are creative beyond my ability to write stories. Keep up your top tier memery.

Flickering Nightfall, I'ma put this in a nutshell. Duckdance. After that I found your blog via Google before I made a Tumblr and became enthralled by your content. From something as obscure to me as Infinity Train to Pebbles ragdolling, you were essentially my gateway into liking Iterators. I love the purple. I need moar.

Vic, b u f f I haven't known your blog long and was introduced to you through the My Goodbye animation. Since I was sort of entirely new to Rainworld at that point, I had no idea what was happening. I just saw a well drawn thing and went "oooooo". I'm all for Suns' antenna twitches and NSH box head. Also, body pillow 💀

Dennis, one of the first blogs I found when I first started Tumblr. I found you through the @iterator-ask-blog and found bullying Pebbles hilarious. I love the way you draw the yellow things on his head and I just appreciate that you do digital in general. I do not, will not and proceeds to die if I must. I've seen quick progress with your art style as well. Keep going.

Vessel, I barely know you. Who da heck are ye? I saw your art style once and knew I needed to follow. The way you draw Pebbles and Moon are so satisfying to stare at for minutes and I had way too much fun replicating that s n o o t. I don't know what you're up to with them aside from chaos. Murky Seas' story and design are fantastic. RIP

Shkika, I only found you through the @ask-looks-to-the-moon blog and love the way you draw the Iterators. It's very stylistic without straying too far. The three fingered hands to the goofy faces Moon expresses makes me smile. B a l l s. My Suns design was more so inspired by the way you make him as you were somehow the first Suns exposure. You're the only reason I can't see him without fluff. How did you make Pebbles cute kavvkatkcfadal

Northflowo, way back in 2022 in my first exposure to Hollow Knight, I found your channel through the Baby Mantis skin video with Nosk along with the lore in a nutshell video. Any other content I saw I forgor. In any case, your channel was there in my search for knowledge on that game. Fast-forward to the near conclusion of 2023 when I was first introduced to Rainworld. In my hunt for memes and more knowledge, I found the other lore in a nutshell video and realized you were the perfect channel for me as you had plenty of other content on that subject. Your art still manages to astound me, especially with the shot you did in the map Pliocene and the Warrior Cats redraws like with the waterfall. I'm trash at drawing backgrounds and might learn something from you.

And of great importance to me, @bornt-urnge/@zigmatism

@kitterjitters /@offended-dragon

Thank you for every moment of drawing from Pokemon to Kirby to Mire (oc) and anything else. You have made some of the largest impacts on my life, drawing, game choices and I've enjoyed every moment. I want to have more ridiculous sessions like that in the future and look forward to it.

Some of you have been around in my life for some time and others I've just found. All the same, every single art piece you've made has inspired me no matter how polished, memed or "trash". All of you have made an impact on me, no matter how miniscule. I look forward to the future with anticipation for all of your art. Have a terrific year, and with my deepest gratitude, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading this.

[nerdieforpedro]

I love how you write and it makes me so glad you are here.

can I ask what inspired you to start?

signed - a maybe inspired future fic writer

This is such a wonderful ask! 🥰

I'm glad you enjoy my writing. I have ideas and I write them is my short answer and explains nothing I realize.

The long answer:

I've written fanfic before, off and on for maybe the last 10-15 years. Very different fandoms. Started out with anime, dabbled a bit in Yaoi then transitioned to Marvel and now I'm firmly planted in the Pedro Pascal, Oscar Issac, Benny Miller triangle of hotness.

Fanfic for me is an expression of a story, show, movie, video game or pice of media that I enjoyed so much, I just had to make something. I can't draw, no mixing of hot tracks or beats, I've just started dabbling in photo editing this year and am a beginner at that. It's all purely fun for me. I enjoy it and it's fun to share with other people who create and are like, "Hey! You like that? I like it too. Let me see yours and I'll show you mine. Where'd you get the idea for that?" And then hilarious conversations leap from there.

What inspired me to start specifically in the Pedro Pascal fanfic world was The Mandalorian. It was the first time I realized, "that's the man I've seen before!" And then realized I've seen Pedro Pascal in many of my favorite shows, (The Mentalist was watched for the sake of completion. After season 6 and the first episode of season 7, there wasn't a real reason to continue other than spending time with my mom. She's fine, when I tell people that they think she's passed on but the woman is still lifting 50 lbs mulch bags in her mid seventies. She more than fine.) I then became fixated on this man, reset the password on my AO3 account and found Pedro Pascal character fanfics. I was then led back to Tumblr which before I was on years ago for anime and read fics by @secretelephanttattoo ( I shall always sing about Headshots. It inspired the first fic I posted on Tumblr and is just so damn cute. El is also just a sweetheart.) and @morallyinept whose Tendrils fic only deepened my brain rot for that tall beskar bucket, she's also a dear friend who's made me laugh, cry in a good way, inspired me and very time I turn around she's crafting something new. Fics, banners, self-care, doodles, smut, databases, and all sorts of Pedro interviews and dialogue. Because I'm a fangirl of them both and many others actually, I keep 👀 on them.

What keeps me going is the fandom overall and that despite, recent tribulations let's say politely, we're all still here. Geeking out over a goofy, handsome, I know he gives the best hugs, actor who loves what he does and has been working at it for years and it's finally paying off.

I've met wonderful friends and moots who reach out, give me encouragement, tell me I do well (I'm starting to listen to them I swear. I'm not good at taking compliments in person so it's even worse online FYI.

So I hope this answers your ask and I do encourage you to write that weird, funny, smutty, cute, sweet, dark, twisty, angsty fic that you want to write. I do hope whoever you are, you tag me in it so I can read it. 🤭

Special love to the following and if I left anyone off, I'm sorry. It's after work, I rubbed my eyes, wipes my glasses because I got them wet while writing this and it was a lot:

@maggiemayhemnj @megamindsecretlair @soft-persephone @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @magpiepills

@mysterious-moonstruck-musings @for-a-longlongtime @i-own-loki @undercoverpena @connectioneverywhere

@soft-girl-musings @perotovar @julesonrecord @lotusbxtch @604to647

@yorksgirl @pedroshotwifey @fhatbhabiee @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin @bitchwitch1981

@jessthebaker @avastrasposts @inept-the-magnificent @lady-bess @grogusmum

@schnarfer @boliv-jenta @iamskyereads @iamasaddie @chaithetics

@tinytinymenace @yourcoolauntie @alltheglitterandtheroar @musings-of-a-rose @rhoorl

@trulybetty @laurfilijames @wannab-urs @legendary-pink-dot @din-cognito

@sin-djarin @beefrobeefcal @spacecowboyhotch

[maxzinn]

off topic but also on topic its so clear that the genshin/star rail (saying both cause theres a large overlap) have no capability of thinking.

there are so many fics where *reader* somehow becomes a (sex)slave or is forced to do horrible shit and just general dead dove behavior. the fact that the author used INGAME LORE, CANON BACKSTORY FOR THE CHARACTER proves how braindead so many people are.

like people try to free slaves/captors in media isnt a new thing. theres a lot of art of that angelhusk ship where one gambles for the others freedom (never watched it but its an example)

like having slaves/captors in media isnt new and never has been but the only reason people truely care is because its a hoyoverse game and cant handle anything darker or complex then a PG rating

(sorry anon, I got carried away with this one tee-hee)

YOU'RE SO REAL FOR THIS!!! y'know I was sooo confused when people started screaming for blood when the authors are using his IN-GAME LORE in their fics and then claims that the people who enjoyed writing those have "white-knight syndrome" like cmon sjsadhjg you're giving me a fucking stroke.

I'll say it again, wanting to give slave aventurine or someone a better life DOESN'T mean they have "white-knight syndrome" when they have good intentions!!! We were all were crying for him and his tragic past, we all wanted to comfort him, and we at some point also wished for his salvation and the betterment of his life. These people need to stop throwing these "white-knight syndrome" accusations cuz it's definitely not about that. And like you said, it was his IN-GAME LORE. I already expected some authors to write about reader saving him from his slavery and there's nothing wrong with that! Cuz please, don't tell me you won't help the guy out of his abusive owner, let's be fr here.

Like you also said, many have been writing yandere/heavy dark themes about reader being literally SA'd and R'd by said character (do not tell me you guys haven't read all those fics where Aven was our debt collector and in paying our debt, he noncon or manipulated us into sleeping with him 💀) and now they wanna talk about morals?

And please, don't even try bringing up Romania or irl people in here. IT'S A FICTIONAL RACE IN A FICTIONAL STORY. it may be "inspired" like they said, but it's not directly addressing Romania!!

I get their point alright, I truly do. Like I said in my other post, I do not condone the sex slave! aus about aventurine and the master/slave bdsm cuz his story truly hurt me and I'm uncomfortable sexualizing his slavery when I know about his story and what happened to him as a slave. But I won't go as far as to actually send death threats to those authors and act like a hypocrite💀 people can write what they want to write and I don't have to read those writings if I don't wanna.

Just to say, I'm a yandere/dark-content enjoyer as well, it's just that I draw the line when it comes to aventurine cuz I just wanna cuddle and dote on that man and give him all the love and affection in the world. but like I said, am no hypocrite as well. (sorry if I can't explain it very well but I hope you get the gist of it)

It's just funny and baffling how people are like "eww this person wrote a fic about reader buying slave aventurine so they can be a good owner to him".... this is leaving me speechless how they turned an act with good intentions into something malicious... that poor author doesn't even have bad intentions when writing that fic.

When you apply their logic, it's like saying "this person adopted an abused child so that they can be a good parent to that child, disgusting" do they even realize how stupid they sound??? 😭

[loupy-mongoose]

*Ahem*

Happy Halloween!! ^w^

Bug Fables.

It's my current favorite video game, and actually, you can thank it for Linden Roots existing~

I'll explain, but in order to do so I have to dive into spoilers for one of my absolute favorite plots for one of my absolute favorite characters, so I need to slap on a;

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!

In my opinion, this game is best experienced SPOILER FREE, so if you haven't played it and want to some day, I recommend skipping my info dump below. (This info can be acquired before beating the main game though. :>)

You're okay with spoilers? Yes? Okay, carry on.

So.

Those who are familiar with Leif's story will probably see how Bug Fables influenced the creation of Linden Roots.

A long while ago, I mentioned Randy being inspired by my favorite fictional character.

That's Leif.

Leif is a moth who is ancient.

And dead.

Loooooong before the game takes place (I can't find an exact timeframe; it's like a generation or two), Leif went with a team of bugs to explore a cave, but ended up dying in there. In that same cave, a group of scientists later experimented on cordyceps. Now, as soon as they became relevant to the story I was HOOKED.

I learned about cordyceps as a kid, and they scared the crap out of me. But it also was one of those morbidly fascinating things I'd look into once in a while. (Before anyone tells me, yes, I know that's what's in The Last of Us.)

If you don't know, IRL cordyceps basically turn bugs into zombies.

Anyway, the scientists were trying to find a way to create eternal life (what else is new lol), and did this through cordyceps. Which, as one could guess when dealing with zombie fungus, ended up going badly for the scientists.

One of the "failed" experimental fungi was thrown out, and found its way to the deceased Leif, and brought him back to life. It took on his memories, and Leif woke up without knowing what happened, until you dig into his story during the game. So the "Leif" we know in the game isn't truly Leif, but is the fungus living as him.

Now... I'm sure that sounds a bit familiar...

This idea of a character being dead-but-not struck a chord with me. It fascinated me to no end.

But there's more to it.

As one might expect, Leif has some tragedy surrounding him.

While playing the game, you can stumble upon his decedents.

This here is Muze. With a 'z'

This is Leif's great great however-many-greats grand-daughter, who you meet in the game's present day.

When he was alive, he had a wife.

His wife was Muse. With an 's'.

We never get to see what Muse looked like, but he says in-game that Muze is a spitting image of her. Hence why Akoya is dressed as she is in my pic. She's dressed as Muse.

Now, according to the developers, Muse was pregnant when Leif went into the cave where he died.

And he didn't know.

There are several moments in the game that show Leif's potential as a father, but one in particular stood out to me.

(Note for the images; Leif refers to himself as "We/Us".)

Oops, I forgot one. Vi finishes by shouting "I said it's not happening!"

The text in the last shot bounces/wiggles in-game, indicating playfulness or joking.

If you're familiar with Goombario and Goombella in the Paper Mario games, this dialogue is this game's version of that. You can have the main characters give flavor text on any area and most characters in the game. (And I recommend doing it often, as it adds SOOO much to the game! ^v^)

This bit takes place in the first room after Kabbu and Vi meet Leif. And at the end of the room, an event happens to change what's said for the rest of the game. Meaning, the only time you see it is RIGHT after they meet; He was getting playful with these two bugs he'd met only moments ago.

I'm sure it can just be seen as sarcasm, but having found this dialogue after learning about Leif missing out on raising a child, I saw it as a clue that he would've been a great dad. And it shattered me. ;w;

Randy and Akoya are wish-fulfillment. They're my version of Leif and Muse. They're my way of giving Leif and Muse what I'm sad they missed out on, while also keeping some of the angst, lol. Thankfully, they've evolved into their own separate characters that I feel I can be proud of, but Leif's story and tragedy still has a deep, well-protected place in my heart.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my ramble. I accept no blame for any potential spoiler you might've seen against your will. XD

[asherashedwings]

FNF CONNECTED UNIVERSE LINE UP Part 1: The Boyfriends

Chat. I spent 34 hours in this canvas. I am so tired.

Anyways, when I began working on Connected Universe AU, I already knew I'd be making line ups. Cuz I love making line ups and I also love suffering.

Close-ups and lots of yapping under the cut

THIS IS ABOUT TO BE A LOT OF READING IM SO SORRY-

Alternate Universe Boyfriends

So all these guys, unlike the other BFs present on this line up, are actually BF but from different universes. They're the same dude.

I thought it'd be neat to display the fact that they're from different universes by drawing them all in different art styles. It was also a fun exercise to test my art style range.

So starting from the left, we got Base Game BF. The main universe one. He's drawn in my usual art style. Not much special about him. Boyfriend.XML my beloved. I will note here though that I did take some of the elements form my own BF design and threw them onto the AU BFs. So that's why they all have some sort of jacket/hoodie etc.

Then we got Yourself. I reverted to old tactics and used my sketch for his line art, which results in him having thicker line art in general. I also further distinguished him by giving him harsh black shading. He always has that. He already had it on his face, so I just gave it to the rest of his body too. Cuz silly. You. You could even say. Silly Billy- 💥💥💥

Then we have Funkadelix. Him and a few other BFs make use of the Blackburn brush for their line art, cuz idk I like that brush. I referenced the Mutant Mayhem style when making him, since in the Connected Universe, he's in the same universe as those turtles. His colors are mostly yoinked from the actual Funkadelix sprite. I think. I may have tweaked them a bit/eyeballed them idk. I prolly eyeballed them.

Then we got Monday Dusk Monolith (MDM). I really went with the mentality of "NO ROUND SHAPES" with this fucker. Just wanted him to look super sharp and scratchy, since that AU is literally dealing with an apocalypse. So sharp shapes just made sense in my brain.

I had a lot of issues settling on a style for Mix, so I just chose to take inspiration from the FNF loading screens, cuz it just fit in my brain, idk. His design also features present in my Pico design, like the stupid cleat shoes and stray hair lines. Yknow, since he's literally a mix of BF and Pico. He also uses Blackburn

Finally, HD. I decided to try and go for a semi realistic style for him, proportion wise at least. Cuz. Yknow. HD. He also uses the blackburn brush, but I also pulled an old tactic for him and made his sketch visible over his coloring. Cuz idk, I think it lends towards the vibe.

"Side" BFs

Okay, now we're REALLY getting into AU territory.

So from here on out, all the BFs are separate people from THE BF, and have their own names and shit.

So staring off, we got Blake. I was reading through his wiki trivia and saw them say his style was more "radical and funky" than base BF's. I saw the word funky and ran with it dawg. So that explains this clothes. I also tried my darndest to get rid of a lot of the BFs caps, cuz dude, I can't have that many fuckers having cubic backwards caps. So I gave Blake a pair of star shaped sunglasses cuz funky, chat, FUNKY. We decided that his stage name is Love Bird, and he chose that cuz that's a pet name his GF has for him, and if he had a band it'd be called The Birds of Paradise.

Then we got .XML. I immediately knew I wanted to give him a mullet. Look at this man and tell me he wouldn't have a mullet. Besides that, not much changed. Since he kept the name of .XML, I imagine he is actually related to BF in some way, and he just goes by his last name. They might be cousins or brothers or something idk. There's also more dumbass info on him here:

Then there's River, or G-Sides BF. I took a lot of inspiration from his teaser designs, cuz they were silly. Literally named his river after the dumbass river design on his sweater. I don't got much info on him besides that. I can't talk about River without including this image so here:

The New Yorkers

This group is literally named after the fact that they all live in NY in my AU. Technically, the Minus BFs should also be here, but they're their own group.

Starting with Bartholomew, or B3, I just took the shape of his glasses and ran with it. Chat I needed to get that shape language from somewhere. I actually drew him twice, since the first time around I really was not digging how I drew him. He's fine now tho. His ass only got brim, cuz he had to be different somehow. Other than that. not much changed for him.

Now Evan.. Evan gave me so many issues. Like, dawg I drew him three times. I kept on trying to make the orange in his upcoming design WORK but I just COULDNT chat i COULDNT

So, per @braveboiart 's request, I ended up getting rid of it entirely and replacing it with his blues and grays. They also gave me the advice of brightening the colors a bit, which was very easy for me to do, I love bright ass colors. I also touched up his design shape wise, since that was also lacking the first time around. So boom, zippers on the pants and baggy ass sleeves. I'm content with how he came out. Chat I did all his design touch ups while I was exhausted out of my mind. Sometimes you gotta be delirious with sleep deprivation in order to cook, kids, trust me (please do not be like me-)

Benjamin was pretty simple. Kept him soft, kept him round, kept him pastel. Got rid of the caution sign on his hoodie since .XML already had that, and just replaced it with paint splatters. Not much more to say.

With X's design, I got a lot of help from my good good friend @minxtheeenby , mainly when figuring out his hair style. Those braids are not actually his hair, and are fuckass cords that connect to his headphones and can move independently. Don't ask about the logic, I will not be thinking about it. He was born in Philly cuz of his fuckass white eyes. White eyes means Philly, I don't make the rules here.

Minus BFs

The colorful critters, these guys are.

So. Beta. I had actually drawn him before this point, and he didn't change much from then

He has arrow shaped top surgery scars cuz I love giving constantly shirtless characters top scars and I just. HAD TO once I had the idea to make them arrow shaped. Main things to change since that drawing are some details on his pants and some of his colors; notedly the fact that his hat is a darker color compared to his skin to further distinguish it. Also Brave kept trying to get me to make parts of his design the same color as his nipples. So that happened /lh

Chat. I let my furry show with Blue. BUT CHAT HEAR ME OUT. On the wiki it's stated that he's a "Dog??". You think I could look at that and not go all the way? So yeah. Dog. He's silly and he got his weird ear ring things from his sister (Minus Miku).

Not much to say on Mean, he barely changed. I just drew him in my style and added a few details. He might also be an alien, idk.

Now, I posted about Golden a bit, but for those who didn't see that insanity: I made him an Alien Hominid. Cuz small yellow alien=Alien Hominid in my brain. Flawless logic. (Don't worry chat, I sat down and extensively researched the AH series to the best of my ability to check if it made sense. And I didn't see anything that would make it not make sense?) But yeah, silly. Him and Otis might be buddies, cuz goofy.

Who Fuckin Knows

These guys are just all the guys I had nowhere else to put. Miscellaneous group.

So first we have Bonnie, or Saturday Night Swappin' BF. He's another one that I had to go back and touch up. I actually touched him up the same night/morning as Evan. He ended up turning purple. The name we assigned him was an omen /j Chat I swear he was originally blue, I don't know what happened

HC that he just got really into FNaF when he was younger and has just been cosplaying a humanized Bonnie the Bunny ever since /hj

BIDU GAVE ME SO MANY ISSUES AND IDK WHY. It's prolly cuz by the time I got to him I was getting SUPER burnt. But I prospered and was able to finish him. And I don't hate how he came out, so bonus points there. Main change was replacing the prohibition sign on his shirt with a lightning bolt, cuz no one but BF is allowed to have that symbol, and Bidu already had lightning bolt imagery, so eh why not. His eyebrows being green, at least in my style, implies his hair is naturally green, and he just added the blue and pink, and I find that slightly humorous, idk.

Keith (StarCatcher) was another one I had to go back and touch up, but that's due to the fact that I was informed that him and his GF got a redesign before the creator deleted their FNF stuff. So I had to go back and fix my design according to that. I also leaned into the scape suit direction cuz SHAPE.

Now, you might be wondering, why is Flippin BF here and not with the other alternates? He was grouped with him in a previous post? Well, that's because after more assessment, I decided that Friday Night Flippin' is in fact, in the same universe as Base FNF and not an alternate universe like I had previously decided. So I changed his design a bit (mainly just getting rid of his hat and changing the color of his shoes) and boom. Different guy. He is staying pixel art tho. I do still need to come up with a different name for him tho.

Now this next one, Heath, is not from a currently existing mod, but from an FNF AU my friend Minx is making.

I decided to include him cuz he's silly and I love him. Their AU is canon to the Connected Universe.

Okay, so Cam (Hellbeats BF) changed A LOT. I let my furry slip out again. BUT I HAVE ANOTHER REASON FOR IT. See, in this connected universe, it's not just Newgrounds stuff that is canon. I also made other fandoms I'm in canon. So that means the Hellaverse is canon (specifically my rewritten version of it), and Hellbeats has to fit in with that. So I had to assign the characters species from that universe as well. So I made Cam a cherub, cuz I wanted him to stay short as fuck. He's also a raccoon cuz he's a lil shit and I thought it'd fit If ur curious, this is what everyone else is:

Okay I'm done yapping now. Gonna be doing the GFs next.

[periprose]

Ps5 Peter Parker x reader inspired by this?

It's one of my favorite MerDer moments on Grey's anatomy 🙈😭

Peter explains something about physics or an idea for a gagdet...

🤣 this image really cracked me up lol thanks for the ask!! I've set the fic to take place in the first game, Peter and Reader are Otto's assistants at Octavius Industries. Please ignore the science mumbo jumbo in this fic.

/

Otto's lab was really cold this time of year. He barely had the funds to make rent in Manhattan, let alone provide optimal heating and other luxuries.

Still, you shiver, searching through your locker for your comfy, oversized jumper. You're just pulling it on when Peter pops up from behind you.

"Hey."

"Jesus!" You flinch and then rub your eyes. "Hey, Peter. How do you get behind me so fast? That's the third time this month I didn't even see you come in."

"Uh... I just have good reflexes, I think." Peter's mouth twists a little, as he tries not to laugh at your jumper. "Are you sure that's up to lab standards? Where's your lab coat?"

"Ah, Otto doesn't mind. He knows I'm cold." You explain, and Peter sighs.

"Well, he never gives me special treatment."

"Probably because you're not as cute as I am." You joke, but Peter nods and you feel a callous level of attraction towards him for being so nonchalant in terms of flirting.

You never really know where you stand with the guy. He's a naturally witty person and you refuse to read into anything any deeper, just for self preservation.

"Hey, I can't disagree with that." Peter laughs that quiet, soft laugh that makes you smile on your own. "Here, I got you a cup of coffee. That should help warm you up."

You look down and see, sure enough, Peter's holding a coffee cup tray, loaded with three cups, surely your usual orders- for you, extra black espresso to stay awake, for Peter, usually some kind of healthy tea hybrid, and for Otto, a large, creamy Italian coffee blend that's particularly expensive (Peter always jokes that Otto wastes funding on things like this).

"Oh, I'll pay you back." You reach back into your locker for your wallet, but Peter stops you with a raise of his hand.

"It's free of charge. No worries." He hands you the cup gently, and your hand skirts across his. You think for a moment.

"Nothing is ever really 'free of charge', Peter." You give him a side glance. In the last couple of months you've known this guy, you've figured out when he has an ulterior motive.

"... Alright, alright. You got me." Peter starts pulling you along by the hand, towards one of Otto's offices filled with white-boards and desks and equipment. You take a sip of your coffee and notice that it's still quite hot- Peter must've been really fast to make it so.

Not that you're complaining, and now that you're warmer you do feel more inclined to listen to him.

"Okay. You know how Otto's neural interface for the experimental arms have been glitching out?" Peter's got a firm look on his face, as you sit and listen.

"Yeah. It's a poor prototype, I think he asked us to leave it alone? He said he'd deal with it." You shrug. "I've moved on to his requests for a tighter, stronger arm. You know I deal with hardware."

"Yes, but even so, the neural interface problem still persists. Otto's lying." Peter looks at the whiteboard, and sees that half of it is covered all over with erratically drawn diagrams and equations. It's fine, he knows he can write what he needs in that space.

"Okay, look." Peter begins drawing a diagram of the neural interface's circuitry. "See how the voltage is really high?"

"Yeah- but isn't that what Doc wanted?" You grimace. "Last time I brought up the voltage issue, he told me to mind my business and continue with soldering. He wants so much power for some reason."

"Right, that's what I'm talking about. Notice how Otto keeps having those outbursts?" Peter sighs, a deeply upsetting look overtaking him. "He's getting a bit aggressive as of late, and I think it's because he can't figure this out."

"You're telling me. Just yesterday he chewed me out for clocking in a bit late." You sniff. "Okay, I was fifteen minutes late, but still."

"I've been there, you don't even have to justify it." Peter laughs, and begins drawing squiggly lines. You can't help but notice how his strangely muscular arms are tense and visible through his lab coat as he scrawls, and you take a sip of your coffee, savoring the view. Looking isn't illegal, you try to rationalize, but you quickly banish these thoughts as Peter looks back with a sly glance, to make sure you're paying attention.

"This is the electricity flow... and it should be heading this way, but the neural interface is made incorrectly and the flow of energy is heading back this way... towards the-"

"The battery of the arms, not the interface." You suddenly realize, and take a scrap piece of paper off the desk, scribbling down notes. "Hmm... maybe the wiring used for the arms is absorbing too much energy? Or the batteries are too big?"

"Maybe, but neural interfaces are tricky business." Peter winces as Otto yells at something in the background of the lab. "I told Otto not to get too involved with it- it's far too easy to accidentally mess with your brain, and then suddenly you've got anger issues or worse-"

"Dementia." You finish his sentence with an equally grim expression. "Okay. I hear you, but how are we supposed to fix it, exactly? I can only think of using different, smaller wires, or a less cost heavy battery- but then it won't move at the speed Otto wants it to."

"Yeah." Peter's shoulders slump a little, and you feel bad. He's always just one dude trying to take on the entire world's problems.

"Peter, it's not your problem, really. You can only do so much- the man has made up his mind, he's going to have to take the brunt of the problem." You try to console him, but Peter has that determined Parker Pride you've seen far too often, and you know he's not going to let it go.

"Wait, wait. Okay..." Peter starts frantically drawing on the board, and seeing that he's running out of space, without missing a beat, begins to draw on the wall.

"Peter! You're drawing on the wall!" You admonish him, and to your shock and utter horror, but not to your surprise, he keeps going. "Now you've completely lost it- it'll take two seconds to erase the board-"

But Peter isn't listening, in that overly stubborn, inventor way that you know you've done before. He's too lost in his own thoughts, and you know that spark will disappear if he takes a moment to stop drawing.

"I'll clean it. It's fine. We got to get a move on." Peter points to the new diagram on the wall. "Look at this."

Peter's drawn a rudimentary depiction of the robotic arm prototypes you've built for Otto, but the battery pack has been split up into several, smaller batteries that extend over the course of the arms. Something about the way the arms move in Peter's drawings look a lot more... smooth, silky, like a cephalopod.

An octopus.

But you are amazed at Peter's capabilities, either way. "Using multiple different batteries, so the energy isn't drawn away from the neural interface in a great capacity?" You blink, a bit amused at Peter's eager expression. "It would work, I think, but only if Otto is willing for a slight decrease in power."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. We don't need to sacrifice power at all." Peter draws a set of gears, interlocking through the squiddy looking arm, and you clap your hands, clambering up out of your seat, finally enthused by his idea.

"Peter Parker, you genius!" You shake his arm excitedly, and he turns a bit pinker as he watches you, grinning. "Otto wanted the arm to be almost entirely synthetic material- but if it has rotating gears, the less it will jerk around. It'll be faster, smoother-"

"Thus requiring less power anyways, and less power will be redirected into his neural interface. And, hypothetically, no more angry Otto." Peter grins, and you smile up at him. "I mean, it'll still take some tinkering to figure out, but incremental improvements are still improvements, right?"

"Definitely. Plus we can always try to convince him about solar power again." You joke as Peter snickers.

Peter opens his mouth, about to say something to you, but he stares for a moment too long and hesitates, especially because in the nerdy excitement, he had gotten so close to you, and he was a liar if he said he had never checked out his cute co-worker. Any second now, you should be teasing as you usually do- but your eyes are wide and Peter gets the sense you've been swept up in this too.

He's never been so... close. He can make out individual eyelashes, tiny scars, imperceptible to normal people, but not to him.

And his phone buzzes with some kind of alert. He looks it over with bright, concerned eyes, while you take a moment to step back, much to Peter's mild irritation.

"Ah... must be MJ?" You ask, trying so very hard not to sound like a jealous girlfriend, just a curious colleague. You have nothing against MJ- you just feel that she and Peter are so meant for each other, and this is exactly why you've been trying to protect yourself.

Who are you kidding? You and Peter are both so busy- you'd never have time to be his doting, adoring girlfriend. You just have to remember him as a friend.

Already you feel the walls coming into place, your expression turning neutral, your heart becoming steely, when Peter looks at you again, surprised.

He can tell you're holding yourself back- and he doesn't like that. He wants you to come back to him, to be close with him again, and it drives him nuts that it has to be your choice, but he respects that.

"Not MJ. We broke up a while ago." Peter swallows, hoping he's saying the right things. "Uh... I don't think we're going to get back together. She's dating someone else now."

"Oh." You squeeze Peter's shoulder as comfortingly as you can. "Peter, I'm sorry. I would've been less of an ass if I'd known."

"No, don't be." Peter fixes a firm, kindhearted glance at you, taking your hands, the warmth of his own making you feel especially treasured. "You're great."

There's a teeny bit of hope working it's way into you, into your silly, girly heart despite all the steel around it, and Peter has a soft smile reserved just for you- you know that smile, you've seen it before when he comforts you when an experiment goes poorly, or when you've had a Eureka moment.

He rubs your hands. "Jeez, you're cold! I know women are usually freezing in the workplace- different body temperatures on average and all that- but I'm going to have to talk to Otto about making it warmer in here."

"Lest I die of hypothermia, right." You snort, and Peter snickers, but he still stays close, as if he's using this as an excuse. "Well, at least I have your hands."

Peter's phone buzzes again, another alert, which he apologetically takes a moment to read after letting go of you. Something about Fisk's thugs making their way through Grand Central Station- he shouldn't leave right now, but he can see your curiosity is piqued.

"Just a news alert. Nothing big." Peter lies, and you don't quite buy it, but you don't want to pry at this moment after he's complimented you and been so nice to warm up your hands.

Otto bursts through the entrance of the room, sighing.

"Will you two lovebirds stop canoodling with each other and test out the circuitry? You know, like I'm paying you to do so with very limited funds?" He barks, and then inhales. "Sorry. Just... try to stay on task. And I know you're young and all... but stop drawing on the walls!"

He leaves, grumbling about youth being too romantic and wishing they would understand sensibility.

You're about to refute whatever Otto said, so Peter doesn't feel uncomfortable, when he speaks first.

"I take it he isn't a romantic." Peter jokes as he grabs some paper towels, and you laugh, feeling that Peter's flirting was more genuine than you thought.

[milaisreading]

Ahhh~ Thank you so much! I'm glad you like and enjoy writing and that requests don't bother you! 

I've read the part too and I like it very much! Thank you for making my day better again and again! ^*^

Can I ask you please for part 3 (maybe 4 too?) for any U-20 and Neo egoists league characters like Oliver, Sae, Kaiser, Ness etc and coaches like Ego (I really want to read about his relationships with manager-chan. I feel that he warms up for her too x)), Chris, Snuffy, Noa etc. 

Thank you for your answer, I was happy to get it!~ Have a great day and I wish you a lot of inspiration!~

With love, 

Garden

Author:Thank u for the request! Oohhh I have so many ideas when it comes to the coaches! So I will be doing them individually! For the other players I have smth in mind and will be doing it later on! For now I wrote abt Ego, so I hope u like it🩷 also if u are looking for some cute platonic HC with the coaches @/maochira has great ones! They always leave me so happy ^^

Warnings ⚠️: none in particular. Reader uses she/her. Requests are open

⚽️Blue lock belongs to:Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura⚽️

Interview day...

"This place is really huge... they didn't lie when they wrote it's a huge, nationwide project." (Y/n) thought as she stood in front of the Blue Lock headquarters. A week ago she received an invitation for an internship at Blue Lock, and as she was excited joining it, she was terrified. Will she be good enough for it? Will the players like her as their manager? Will the people interviewing see her as fit for the position?

Taking a deep breath, (Y/n) walked inside already seeing a woman with reddish-brown hair waving at her.

"You must be (L/n) (Y/n). I am Teieri Anri, I will be interviewing you along with the head of this project." The woman smile as she approached (Y/n) and the girl bowed.

"Thank you for inviting me, it's an honor." The girl said with a red face.

'Teieri-san is so beautiful! I saw her on TV a few times, having her as a possible mentor would be so cool!' (Y/n) thought as the woman lead her down the hallway, explaining that it's just some formalities they will go over.

"By the way, don't let yourself get scared off by Ego-san... he seems scary at first glance, but he means well." Anri warned the girl, who simply nodded her head.

Black eyes bore into (Y/n) as the girl kept fidgeting in her spot. Ego Jinpachi, as she came to know him, was scarier than (Y/n) had expected, but she shouldn't be surprised.

'You would expect him to be like that if he has to deal with a bunch of high schoolers.' The girl thought as Ego sighed, finally speaking up again.

"Alright, this one might do. Cancel the other interviews we had planned." Ego told Anri.

'Did... did I get the spot?!' (Y/n) thought alarmed as Anri nodded her head.

"And you think you will be able to stand the pressure?"

"I... well I have some experience from working with my school's football team, as I stated in the beginning. I also have some basic knowledge in the sport."

"Alright, Anri-chan will give you a little tour. You are expected to move here in 2 days. Now go."

'Harsh and straight to the point.' (Y/n) thought as she followed the woman out of the room.

"It went better than I expected! Some of the candidates folded 10 minutes after speaking to him, I think you will fit in here just right."

"R-really?! He was worse than this?!" (Y/n) asked, shivering at the idea.

"Not really, he is the same to everyone. You just argued with him on some points and maybe you didn't notice."

"I-I did... Sorry, I get lost when u talk sometimes." (Y/n) said, ashamed a little, but Anri kept reassuring her that it was fine.

"Don't you think this is brutal? To eliminate them just because they lost a tag game? And Kira is one of the best high school players too." Anri argued after the entrance exam was finished and both her and (Y/n) witnessed Ego argue with the white haired boy.

"It's final, if he can't think fast, he is not made for a striker." Ego said simply as he ate his yakisoba.

"Well, I am trusting you with them." Anri gave up.

"What is the next step? Will you start the matches soon?" (Y/n) questioned as the man shook his head.

"First we have a stamina training, then the real challenges will start. This is a game of elimination and survival of the fittest. Only the strongest egoist will survive this." (Y/n) nodded her head, looking at the monitors that showed the various teams.

'Ego-san sure is brutal, but in order to build up football from nothing we need the strongest... and so far it's these guys.' (Y/n) thought as she wrote down the names of all the players who are going further.

'Hmmm.' Ego raised an eyebrow, deciding to say nothing for now.

"Did you-"

"The goal was put just in the height you requested and every training area is equipped with water."

"And the-"

"The alarms are set just as you requested with that blaring sound."

"Also-"

"Ordered the Yakisoba."

Anri held back a giggled as Ego kept on being interrupted by the girl as she answered everything. It had been 2 weeks by then and (Y/n) finally got into a routine. It was funny for Anri to watch Ego pout in defeat as he told her to go assist Team V.

"I see you found someone who can't be easily intimated or angered." The woman teased as Ego shrugged his shoulders.

"Or you are growing soft."

"Shut up. You talk too much."

The next few days went somewhat peaceful and it was the night before the final match. Ego decided to do some more research on the players and prepare for the next step, when he heard noises from his office.

"I didn't leave anything on..." He muttered and opened the door, only to find (Y/n) inside, looking intensely at the game Team Z and Team Y had.

"What are you doing up so late? Watching a game at that?"

"Ego-san? I am taking notes of some of the players, you said you wanted to do some analysis but didn't have time."

The man was surprised as her words, but didn't show it as he took the notebook from her. He read it through, surprised how well detailed she was on the players.

"Why are you doing this? And how are you sure this is right?"

"I just like analyzing, I did the same in school too. And I am not a 100% sure, but 9 times out of 10 I was right, so I am pretty confident in this." (Y/n) answered calmly as Ego handed her the notebook and sat down next to her.

"Continue, u want to read these later."

Nodding, (Y/n) did as she was told while Ego just kept watching the screen.

"What did I say about feeding her garbage?!" Anri yelled as she saw (Y/n) and Ego eat the Yakisoba from the fridge.

"It's good food. In order to be a good at analyzing, she needs to eat." Ego argued as Anri handed (Y/n) some vegetables and fish.

"Here, eat this instead. We don't want you to get sick." Anri said, sending a side glare at Ego.

"What arebyou two even doing now?" The woman asked, looking down at the papers on Ego's table.

"I am teaching (Y/n) the essentials of reading the enemy. Now, as I said..."

Anri sighed as she watched Ego talking and (Y/n) nodding her head from time to time, with questions coming from her.

'This looks oddly cute... to see Ego-san have a soft spot for anyone is a once in a lifetime thing.'

Anri smiled softly and went on with the paperwork she had left for the day.

"Code red." Anri whispered to Ego who turned to look in the direction (Y/n) was.

"Not him now..." Ego sighed as he got up to pull the girl away from Oliver and Sae, but Bachira and Rin beat him to it. The boys pulled the girl away, saying some nonsense.

"Or maybe not." Anri laughed.

"Now I know for sure you have a soft spot."

"I don't. I just don't want more issues than I already have." Ego protested, keeping an eye on the U-20 team.

"Sure, sure~" Anri mucked.