#the matter and… oh hey! Quick & easy way to write that baby out without bothering future plot! BACK TO THE STATUS QUO!

[bad-boy-halo-simp]

soft sex with dream (female reader|she/they pronouns too please:) just lots of praising and fluff you can ignore this but I'm just craving some love🤧

Yes yes yes absolutely❣️ :D

Anything for you @egirlmelody my beloved❣️

I was halfway asleep while writing this so I’m sorry if it’s not great😅

Dream x afab!reader

18+

Warnings: smut, vaginal penetration, smut

It was about 6 o’clock in the evening and you hadn’t seen your boyfriend very much since you two had woken up. Just the occasional bathroom break and the couple of times you checked on him throughout the day to see if he needed anything to eat or drink but other than that you really didn’t want to bother him in case he was filming or editing. At one point you had enough, getting desperate to feel Dream’s arms tight around you, so you decided to order a pizza for dinner because you knew it was his favorite before tiptoeing up the stairs to your shared bedroom.

Pressing your ear to the door, you heard a long sigh and a pop of some kind before knocking ever so softly, just loud enough to get his attention. “You can come in,” Dream said while mid-yawn. The door creaked on its hinges as you pushed it open just enough to peek in and see him stretching. “Hey, how are you feeling?” You asked as you approached your lover from behind before draping your arms over his shoulders. “I’ve missed you,” you pouted while giving him a quick squeeze.

“Oh, ha- I’m sorry about that. I guess I sorta lost track of time, ya know? I got a lot done today though,” you could hear the pride in his voice from the days accomplishments. Something you had noticed while dating him was how if he started a project he wouldn’t stop it until it was complete even if it wore him down more than it should. You could feel him reach up to touch your arms as he tossed his head back to rest on your shoulder, a long satisfied sigh escaping his lips as his eyes fluttered shut.

“Well, I’m very proud of you. You did great today Dream. I love you,” you whispered, holding your boyfriend securely to your chest. His eyes quickly shot open and he sat straight up before spinning around in his gamer chair to face you. “You mean it?” He asked, his eyes wide and bright with excitement. All it took was a nod and a quiet giggle from you to have him pull you onto his lap by your hips, straddling his waist and facing him.

“How did I get lucky enough to have a woman like you in my life?” He asked as he began to press kissed all over your neck and collarbone as his hands remained steadily on your hips. “I should be asking you the same thing,” your voice came out a bit more shaky and breathy than you meant for it to. His lips felt warm against your skin, something just so loving and comforting about the way he held you. His rough hands began making their way up and down your sides as he continued to attach your neck and jawline with kissed, each one getting sloppier and more intimate as he progressed.

At one point, your foggy mind beginning to clear, you had noticed how he started giving you feint hickeys all over your neck which you didn’t mind in the slightest. “Are you okay with this?” He panted out as his hands stilled while holding the end of your shirt, waiting for your consent before removing it. A quick nod was all it took from you before your shirt was removed from your body and bunched up on the floor in the blink of an eye. You could feel the arousal between your legs growing more intense with every one of his actions.

Unclipping your bra had become an easy task for him considering how many times he had done it in the past, seeing himself a borderline expert on bra removing. “God, you’re so beautiful,” he mumbled as he cupped your breasts in his hands, feeling and groping at the jiggly, warm flesh. “Thank you,” your response felt awkward and embarrassing to say out loud but he didn’t mind one bit, offering a sweet smile in return.

You stood up just for a second as you slipped your shorts and panties down your legs and onto the floor near where your shirt and discarded bra were sitting. While you were up and off his lap, Dream was quick with pulling his sweatpants and boxers halfway down his thighs, exposing his erect cock as a bead of pre-cum began to form on the slit of the tip. His hands returned to their place on your hips as you mounted him once again, your cunt aching to be stuffed by him.

He rocked his hips back and forth while smearing the pre-cum all over your opening, lubing you up and preparing you to take him inside. “I’m gonna put it in now. Is that alright?” He asked as his tip caught on your entrance causing him to let out a shaky gasp. “Yes, please yes,” the mild desperation in your voice was quickly picked up by him as he slowly and tentatively pushed the head into you, watching for any reaction from you. After a few seconds of letting you adjust, he began to push deeper inch by inch until you couldn’t take anymore.

“Mmm good girl, taking my dick so well. Fuck, you’re so god damn sexy,” his words echoed in your head as he bit his lip firmly to keep himself from thrusting up into you before you were ready. His arms wrapped around your waist before pulling you into a tight embrace, letting your face bury itself in his neck as he whispered how uh he loved you into your ear.

“You feel so good around me, baby. So tight and warm, shit-,” his words cut off as you felt his hips jerk, testing a small thrust and gauging your reaction to see if you could handle it yet. A gasp escaped your lips, followed directly by a harsh moan as the pleasure from the sudden thrust upwards crashed over you. “I’m gonna start moving now, alright baby?”

“Mhmm, yes. Fuck me Dream. I need you,” your voice was somewhat muffled into his neck but he understood you just fine. His thrusts started off slowly and much more sensual, thrusting up into your tight wetness at a gentle and steady pace while holding your body close to his own. “You always make me feel so fucking good y/n. Always squeezing my dick so tight in your pretty little cunt. God, you’re so perfect,” the sound of wet skin against itself started off as being barely audible quickly became louder in volume as he bounced you on his cock.

“Good girl angel, such a good girl for me. So beautiful,” his words faded into grunts and breathy moans as his hips sped up their pistoning motions. He didn’t want to admit it but he was already starting to get close to his own climax, but so were you. “I’m- oh god. I’m gonna- getting close,” your voice was wavering and your grasp on him got tighter as the coil in your lower stomach began to tighten at an alarmingly fast pace. “Yeah? Are you gonna c- ahh... cum for me like a good girl?” A nod was all you could manage as your eyes stayed screwed shut. Within a matter of seconds the coil snapped and the rapidly approaching orgasm ripped through your body violently, causing your body to arch and tremble in his tight grasp. A white hot sensation of ecstasy shook you to your core without you being able to prepare yourself. “Oh fuck baby, can- shit. Can I cum inside?” His hips didn’t stop thrusting upwards even for a second as he awaited your response. Tears had formed in your eyes and you felt dizzy as you came back down from your high.

“Please yes!! Cum inside me, baby!! I want to feel it inside!!” You yelled out as the sensations all began to be too much, your body feeling exhausted and completely drained. With a harsh grunt and a few shaky moans your boyfriend had finished inside of you, his cock keeping the hot white liquid plugged inside of you. You felt weak as you caressed his cheek and looked into his eyes, your legs aching like hell but you didn’t want to say anything to ruin the moment.

“Fuck,” he panted. “I love you so fucking much,” he panted as he found a comfortable place for his face to rest between your breasts. The two of you rested in each other’s embrace for about 5 minutes to catch your breath. “I know right now isn’t the best time but there’s pizza downstairs,” you mumbled as he held you close. A husky chuckle escaped his lips as he looked up at you. “You keep proving my point about how perfect you are.”

[ibuki-loves-you]

Trigger Happy Havoc Girls with an S/O who is like Mikan

Warnings: Mikan's personality/actions

Mod Ibuki: Hey hey hey!! Sorry for the long wait on this :/ I hope it was worth it, though!

Kyoko:

Kyoko was immediately worried for your safety

She had a lot of questions

Why were you so shy? Had you been through something?

She kept those questions to herself though

If someone ever made fun of you, she’d glare

Literally just walk up to you, wrap on arm around your waist and the other on your arm

And glare

If you ever took a fall in front of her she’d carefully lean down and help you up, suggestive or not

Although she might blush a bit if it was a suggestive position

“There, you’re alright. It was just a small trip, thankfully.”

If you ever offered to take your clothes off for her, she would be appalled

“Love, I don’t want you to take your clothes off because I’m not in a particularly good mood. Bad moods are normal, that doesn’t mean you take your clothes off every time it happens. Don’t offer that to me unless you personally want to do it.”

Kyoko is not someone you can look at and feel as if she’s mad at you, because she makes it clear if she is

But if you did think she was, she’d be pretty upset

“No, love. I’m not mad. You did absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing at all. I honestly don’t think I can be mad at you. You just seem to make everything better.”

Kyoko’s heart skips a beat whenever you’re around <3

Hina:

Hina LOVED YOU

The minute you two met she did not let you out of her sight for long periods of time

She was just worried someone would hurt you or take advantage of you

If someone ever made fun of you, she’d be so mad

No one wants to deal with mad swimmy baby

“That is so rude, you know!? That was completely uncalled for! There was absolutely no reason to say that! Now apologize!”

If you ever took a fall in front of her, she would honestly fall too just to make you feel less embarrassed

She’d cover you if need be, though

Either with clothing or with herself when she “falls”

If you ever offered to take your clothes off for her, she’d be in shock

Mainly because you offered it to her because you thought she was upset

“What!? Please, S/O, no! Don’t say that! Taking your clothes off won’t make me feel better, cuddles will! Get over here! Because of that statement, I demand you let me cuddle you!”

If you ever thought Hina was mad, which is rare, she’d he so upset

“Baby! No! Not at all! I could never be mad at you! I swear! Your face is just too adorable to be mad at!”

Swimmer baby just wants your happiness above all

Celestia:

Celeste would never admit it if anyone asked

But she loved you the minute she laid eyes on you

Your personality only made her want to be with you more

Not many people dared to bother you, but if an unlucky soul did try to do such a thing…

Celeste would give them a run for their money

“Are you fucking kidding me!? How dare you!? Why don’t you crawl back into whatever ditch you crawled out of and leave my significant other alone! Do I make myself clear!?” She’d turn to you and give you a soft smile. “Come on, dear. Let’s go get some tea to cheer you up, yes?”

If you fell in front of her, she wouldn’t be able to catch you without falling herself, but she’d immediately take your hands and help you up

“Come now, darling. Don’t cry, it was an accident. Everything is alright.”

If you ever offered to take your clothes off for her, it would take a second to click

But once it did her reaction was similar to Kyoko’s

“Darling, I don’t wish for you to take off your clothes merely because Yamada put me in a foul mood. I would much rather you keep said clothes on and have a cup of tea with me, maybe some conversation as well. Please don’t offer yourself to me out of pity.”

If you ever thought she was made at you, she honestly thought she was gonna cry

“W-What? Dear, no. Not one bit. Not one ounce of me is angered by you. I love you far too much to be mad at you. Now, come here and let me hug you.”

Celeste truly does care about you, more than she has cared for anyone before <3

Sakura:

Protective

That’s it

Sakura wants your safety above all, because she knows how shy people can be taken advantage of easily

If anyone dared to make fun of you, oh boy

Sakura is fucking terrifying

“I suggest you run before I snap you in half.”

That’s all it takes to send them on their way

If you fell in front of her, she would definitely be able to catch you

And she would!

But if you did manage to miss her arms, she’d pick you right back up and hold you

“See? I got you. Everything is okay.”

If you offered to take your clothes off for her, she’d be calmer, but nonetheless upset

“Hey, don’t do that. I don’t want you because of your body. I want you because of your personality. That’s what I fell in love with. Don’t offer yourself to me, or anyone else. Ever. It’s your body, you can most certainly choose what to do with it.”

If you thought she was angry with you, she’d be so quick to tell you otherwise

“No, not at all. I am not mad in the slightest. Even if I was, I’d never take my anger out on you. That’s wrong, and I love you too much to even think about doing that.”

With Sakura as your girlfriend, you will always be protected. And that’s a promise

Mukuro:

Mukuro is shy, but definitely not as shy as you

Like Sakura, she wanted your safety above all

Let it be from others or her cruel sister

If someone ever made fun of you, she’d be pretty angry

Hell, she may put those skills of hers to good use

“Hey. Don’t let me hear you say something like that again. Ever. That’s just plain disgusting.”

If you ever took a fall in front of her, her reflexes are extremely fast, so she’d try her absolute best to catch you

More often she does, but on the off chance she’s unsuccessful, she’d apologize with a bright blush

“I-I’m sorry, love. I tried to catch you, uh, I’m sorry. Here, grab my hands.”

If you offered to take your clothes off for her, she’d immediately say no

“S-S/O! No! No, I-I don’t want you to do that! I-I’m not in a bad mood, and even if I was I wouldn’t want you to take your clothes off just to try to improve my mood! Please don’t offer that to me, that’s practically violating you! And I don’t want to do that!”

If you ever thought she was mad at you, poor girl might cry

“L-Love, I’m not mad at all. I-I promise. Even if I was mad, I don’t think it could be caused by you in all honesty. I love you, okay?”

Soldier baby’s heart go brrr

Sayaka:

Shy or not, Sayaka’s a cute blushy mess around you

She still teases you in a friendly manner, but always makes sure you know she’s only playing

If anyone over bothered you, she’d be incredibly salty

Like, pettiness and all

“Oh, so that’s how you’re gonna be? Well, I’ll have you know that my significant other is NOT gonna do that. You’re a rude person and I hope karma hits you hard.”

If you took a fall in front of her, she’d screech so sound and try to catch you, but would most likely fail

When she saw that you were embarrassed, like Hina she would trip to make you feel better

“See, S/O? It’s fine! Now we both tripped, hehe! Isn’t that funny!”

If you ever offered to take your clothes off for her, she’d hug you immediately and try to make you happy

“Nope! I don’t want that, okay? I want to kiss your cute face! Not rub up on you because you want to make me happy! Now c’mere, so I can kiss your cute face!”

If you ever thought she was mad at you, though, she’d be really sad

“What? No, I’m not mad at all! Let alone at you! I promise, S/O. Even if I was mad, I’d have a peaceful conversation. Not a screaming match about it! Now, give me a hug!”

Sayaka will hug you as much as you please, as long as it makes you happy <3

Toko:

Toko thought you were annoying at first

But then she realized how similar you two were

Not long after, she fell in love with you

Just like in those cheesy novels she writes

If someone ever bothered you, she’d get pretty mad

Lowkey considers letting Syo out

“H-Hey, asshole! T-That’s a r-real d-dick t-thing to say! S-So w-why d-don’t you just g-go back to w-whatever ditch y-you crawled o-out of a-and d-die!”

If Syo was around when someone bothered you, well I think we know how that'll go

They aren't around anymore, especially if they were a pretty boy

If you ever fell in front of her, she’d lowkey get second-hand embarrassment, but would help you up anyways

“Hey, l-look, you’re fine. N-Not a scrape or anything. Y-You’re okay.”

Syo would leap into action immediately and pull you to your feet

"See!? It's like you never even fell! You're okay! No tears, I hate seeing you cry!"

If you ever offered to take your clothes off for her, she’d freak the fuck out

“W-What!? N-No! D-Don’t do t-that! K-Keep your clothes o-on! I-I’m n-not mad! E-Even if I w-was, I w-wouldn’t w-want you to s-strip! Y-You’re t-too p-pretty for t-that!”

If Syo was around, she would as well

"What!? Oh no no no, this just won't do! You're body is far to marvelous to be shown so willingly, y'know that? Don't let others see it so easy! Even if it is just me! Doesn't matter!"

If you thought she was mad at you, she’d scoff at first, but then realize you were being serious

“What? I’m not m-mad at you. W-Why would I b-be mad at y-you? I-I have no reason to b-be. D-Don’t say that, I-I’d tell you if I-I was mad at you...S-Speaking as if I-I c-could g-get mad at y-you.”

Syo would latch onto you and hug you, giving you a little spin

"No, dollface! I'm not angry at all! See? I'm happy! So happy! Especially because my baby-cakes is here! Now, c'mon! Gimme a smooch!"

Even though she’d deny it at first, Toko really does love you

[thefanficmonster]

Hy, Vy! 📚🌻 Here!

I read that you're having a busy week so I just came here to give you some reminders: Get up for a bit, drink water. Relax for a bit: let your shoulders drop, unclench your jaw and hands, take a deep breath. Better? Hope you are taking care of yourself.

Your three words of today are: Scratch, Silk, snarl.

Take all the time you need and hope you have a good week!

Love, 📚🌻

Hi 📚🌻!

So nice to be hearing from you again! My busy week has finally been put to a pause worries-wise so I can relax and write A TON of fics for you guys so I can make up for being absent for so long 😌 I missed writing honestly and, not gonna lie, your three word challenges bring me so much joy, I'm not even kidding. So thank you for sending me another, in return I send you a short fluffy fic with the pairing I keep using because I'm obsessed 😅 along with all my love, hugs, kisses and support. They're all addressed to you 💌💌💌

Worthy

Pairing: Chris Redfield x OC - Gwen Winters (y’all already know her by now 😅)

No warnings, just pure fluff, Enjoy! 🥰

“Wow, don’t you look presentable.“ 

Now, while the comment is not at all false and is completely fair and true, he shouldn’t have said anything at all. Not when the younger girl was glaring at him before he even opened his mouth.

She can’t be having it easy: baby food in her hair, a questionable stain on her shirt, some dark spots along her arms and what looks to be paint on her forehead and cheeks. Oh and hands too.

“And you look unwanted.” She snarls, “The Devil sent you to prevent me from catching a break today, didn’t he?“ She made her glare even deadlier which he didn’t think was possible. He should know better than to underestimate her like that, Gwen Winters always has a way of surprising him after all. “Well, go back and tell him I wasn’t planning on catching a break either way so you aren’t needed“

Chris rolls his eyes, “For the last time, please stop making me sound like your worst nightmare took a human form.” He scoffs, reaching out to remove a crumb from her shirt, “In fact, I’m here to help.”

“Ethan and Mia sent you then. They don’t believe I have it handled, do they?“ She sighs, walking inside the surprisingly quiet Winters home.

Her Captain, taking that action of hers as a good sign, follows her inside, closing the front door behind him. “No, they don’t know I’m here actually. I called to check up on them and they said they were on a date so I immediately knew who got stuck with the babysitting duty and thought you’d need help.” He gives her a quick once-over, grimacing slightly at the sight she is, “And it seems like you really could use and extra pair of hands.”

“Well....when you put it like that I wish you showed up an hour ago. That’s when this happened.“ She motions to herself. “Christ, I need a change of clothes...and a shower.“ A sigh leaves her lips as her arms drop by her sides.

“And a bandage.“ He murmurs when his gaze suddenly lands on a particularly bad looking scratch on Gwen’s arm. “What happened to you?“

Her eyes follow his to where a red line has marked her skin. She lets out a laugh, “Believe it or not, Rose’s got one hell of a grip. God knows I’d be covered in bite marks if she had teeth.” The look of shock and concern that flashes across the older man’s face makes her laugh, “Hey, don’t worry, the shower will be quick and she’s a pretty heavy sleeper so you won’t have to deal with her on your own.”

He nods hesitantly, muttering a quick ‘Right’ before the girl disappears down the hallway in the direction of the staircase with the intention of grabbing herself some clean clothes she knows won’t remain clean for very long after her sister wakes up. Maybe they’re not blood related, but Gwen still refers to Rose as her sister. Not rare are the times she’s accidentally referred to Ethan as dad or to Mia as mom when talking about them with some of her friends at the BSAA, hell even when talking with Chris. She doesn’t even appear to notice when she says it, but he does, and a smile always briefly graces his features when she does.

As he’s surfing through the TV channels, less than ten minutes after he heard the shower turn on, the baby monitor comes to life with the displeased whines of a child that’s awoken from its slumber.  Chris Redfield, previously a BSAA soldier and now a captain, one who has faced thousands of horrors in his life, each more threatening than the last, is now frozen in place.

One thing this man hasn’t had much experience with is dealing with individuals below their teenage years. Sure, he held Rose when she was still a newborn but even that lasted less than five minutes cause he was so terrified of dropping her or her starting to cry. And now he has to go tend whatever need she has without knowing what they are or how to tend to them.

Wonderful.

Seeing as how the whines are rather quiet and haven’t turned into wails just yet he feels a bit bolder about the whole ordeal, getting up from the couch and making his way towards the stairs, passing by the bathroom where he hears Gwen singing ‘Lovefool’ like she’s the only person in the house.

“Don’t worry, Rose, I’d be crying too if I were awoken by that.“ He murmurs, stomping up the steps.

Entering the nursery, he’s pleasantly surprised to see Rose has stopped complaining and is just looking up at him, intrigued by the presence of this man she doesn’t recognize. Chris scoffs, deciding to drop the subject but right as he steps one foot out the door, the crying begins.

‘No way‘, he thinks to himself, slowly inching back into the room just for the cries to be put to a halt again. ‘You gotta be kidding me.’

“Listen kid, I’m not in any way, shape or for fit for this. Just hold on, your sister will be out in a minute, ok?“ His mouth is saying one thing but his mind is on a completely different level of following instincts - the fatherly instincts he never even thought he had. And while getting his soul stared into by this baby, he can’t help but give into those instincts, “Alright, but you better give me a good review if your sister asks. She can be really high strung sometimes, though I bet you already knew that, having to live with her and all.“ He murmurs as he lifts the now giggling Rose out of her crib, gently cradling her to his chest. To his relief, she stays quiet, relaxing in his embrace. “You’re much less of a handful than Gwen.” He chuckles softly, not wanting to disrupt the quiet too much in hopes it would lead to Rose falling back asleep soon. “I mean, I complain a lot about her and her attitude, but I’d do anything for her, if I’m being honest. She doesn’t know, of course, I haven’t told her. Not that she’d believe me if I did. She’s gotta be the most stubborn yet selfless, most sarcastic yet loving person I’ve ever met. She saves her good qualities for people who deserve to see em, I’m not surprised I’m not one of them. I’ve done nothing but give her a hard time since we met, but can you really blame? She was death-glaring me before we even exchanged names, for goodness’ sake. I probably shouldn’t bother a less than a year old baby with my problems but I have no other listener...” Looking down, he realizes Rose has fallen asleep. He huffs lightheartedly, a smile on his face, “Guess I didn’t have you either, huh?”

“You had me.“ He stiffens his muscles, startled by the foreign whisper that fills the room.

Slowly turning around, he finds Gwen leaning against the doorframe her small figure wrapped in a towel, arms crossed over her chest, her smirking face framed by a curtain of wet hair. She looks smug, too smug, insinuating she’s heard a good portion of his speech if not its entirety. 

“Don’t I at least get an applause?“ He rolls his eyes, hoping the blush isn’t as visible as he feels it to be. 

“You really think you deserve one with the amount of cheesiness you just spewed, not to mention gossiping about me to my own sister.“ She shakes her head with faux disappointment, her voice smooth like silk.

“Ok do I at least get a response then?“ He needs to know, there’s no way he can leave this house or even this room without getting an answer, no matter how disappointed he might be by it. Better a brutal answer than blind ignorance.

She purses her lips, her eyes leaving his and landing on the sleeping baby he almost forgot he was holding. She takes a few steps towards him, reaching out and taking gentle hold of Rose, her movements so light and careful the baby doesn’t even detect she’s being moved. Gwen lays her sister down in her crib even more carefully straightening up and placing her hands on the railing, smiling down at the sleeping toddler.

Chris stands there restless, his gaze analyzing and overanalyzing each and every shift of her facial expression, the tiniest changes in her body stance and body language. He’s never seen her so at peace and so relaxed, out of her usual surroundings and gear. The rough lines of her face softened by the sisterly love she’s displaying, watching over the sleeping Rose. There’s so much grace and beauty within her and it never fails to shine through. Not in the battlefield, not when faced with literal death, not even when she’s holding a weapon twice her size, making her look terrifying for the enemy.

He said he wasn’t surprised to be excluded from the tight circle of people she has - those who see her at her best - and he really isn’t. He doesn’t deserve her kindness, her softness, her smiles and laughter. He doesn’t deserve her. He’s not worth of a membership

Or that’s what he thinks, at least.

Gwen suddenly turns to him, the smile still present on her face as she gazes up at him, her head tilted back so she can look him in the eyes which is proving pretty difficult considering their proximity and height difference. Leaning back on the crib railing she sighs, “You’re right, a response would be adequate. But what kind would you like?”

He scoffs, his muscles tensing even more despite the smile on his face, “The most honest one you can offer me.”

She hums approvingly, nodding as though she’s contemplating her next move. He’s on the verge of telling her to forget it, let it all fall in the water and hope she forgets about it soon. He can deal with a few sleepless nights but that ultimate rejection, he knows it’ll sting a lot and for a long time.

However, just as he’s about to cross over the verge and open his big mouth he’s physically prevented from doing so by the pair of lips that have collided with his. Her lips. She’s kissing him.

‘Holy crap, what is happening?‘ It’s safe to say his mind’s racing which is mainly why it takes him a second or two to respond but when he comes to, he’s kissing her back with passion and longing, as though they’ve shared this kiss before. His arms automatically wrap around her waist, pulling her closer, while hers find themselves wrapped around his neck, her fingers gently tangling in his hair.

To say he’s disappointed when she pulls away would be an understatement but seeing as how she’s not in a rush to free herself from his grasp, he doesn’t complain. Instead, he allows her to rest her forehead against hers. He closes his eyes, their proximity intoxicating his mind, the scent of her freshly washed hair and skin making his thoughts hazy.

“Next time you wanna tell me something...“ Gwen whispers breathlessly, “...my sister is not the one you should turn to first.“

Chris chuckles, reattaching their lips in relief and ecstasy. He can’t remember the last time he’s felt quite like this: so high yet so grounded, so intoxicated yet sober. She gives him polar opposite experiences at once and it’s simply magical.

He may not be worthy of a membership in her inner circle, but he’s damn lucky she likes him as much as she does.

[lyranova]

After the Mixer

Hi guys! Here’s the collab I mentioned that I wrote with @thoughtfullyrainynightmare 😁, i had so much fun writing this and its super chaotic but in the best way hehe. It has canon characters as well as Yamichar in it, it also has OC’s such as Alistar, Leon, Hikari, Ulla, and Solara so its got a bit of everything 🥰! This is another side story for COTF and if you’d like to read the first part of this fic you can read it HERE. I also apologize if it looks weird, i ran out of block texts 😅.

Taglist: @eme-eleff @crazyclownthanos @bowandcurtsey @flow3rbudz @elysianluv @ckjwnnbc

Warnings: None

———

It was a bright and sunny day in the Clover Kingdom, birds were chirping, the sun was shining, the citizens were happy and cheering. It was a good and normal day for everyone, well almost everyone.

Alistar groaned as he walked towards the meeting room, his head was pounding, he was nauseous, he was tired, and very dizzy. Alistar was hungover. He accidentally drank something a little too strong for him, so now he was suffering the consequences. He groaned as the memory of confessing his feelings for Hikari to her father surfaced. That was awful.

“ A-Alistar, are you ok?” Ulla asked softly as she followed behind him, her heels clicking against the stone floor. Even that sound was making his head worse. He couldn’t help but give the young red haired girl a stern look over his dark sunglasses.

“ No Ulla, I am not ok.” He grumbled, his usual happy and warm demeanor gone and was replaced by a very grumpy and tired one. He walked up to a wall and leaned against it as the world suddenly turned sideways.

He leaned his head against the cool stone wall as Ulla stared at him nervously, it had been a while since she had seen him like this. She heard someone approach and waved her hand.

“ Oh hello Leon!”

"Hey," Leon simply greeted, giving her a small wave as he made his way to Alistair.

"What are you doing here?" Alistair asked, not wanting any more questions about how well he was, or clearly wasn't, doing.

"I'm attending the meeting to, y'know, get a better grasp of these meetings." Leon shrugged, waving off Alistair's grumpy attitude since he knew perfectly well where it was coming from.

"To get a better grasp?" Alistair quirked an eyebrow. Leon knew perfectly well how these meeting always were, and he'd get a briefing instead of having to sit through one of these tedious necessities that came with being a captain, or a vice-captain.

"Yeah..." Leon replied with a lazy tone. "That's what I told my father, and he quirked an eyebrow at it too, but he wasn't going to exactly stop me from attending."

"So what are you really doing here?" Alistair asked while massaging his temples.

"Moral support?" Leon answered with a questioning tone, since he wasn't quite sure about it himself. But, what he did know was that he felt bad about leaving Alistair to deal with the aftermath on his own. Though it wasn't exactly his job to baby sit Alistair either, and watch his drinking habits.

Alistar rolled his eyes at his friend, “moral support”, yeah right. The last time he was his “moral support” he watched as he confessed to Yami Sukehiro and then passed out in front of him. Yeah some moral support Leon was. Alistar let out a soft sigh before pushing himself off the wall and he started walking with Leon and Ulla towards the meeting room.

“ You just want to see what Captain Sukehiro’s reaction to me being there is going to be.” Alistar half joked, his friend chuckled slightly.

“ Maybe a little.” Leon agreed as he pinched his fingers together slightly, Alistar shook his head.

“ Terrible.” He muttered jokingly, the three stood outside the tall oak doors and Alistar leaned against the frame a bit. “ Give me just a moment.” He asked as he held up a finger.

He was not only sick from the hangover, but just the thought of seeing Captain Sukehiro again made his stomach do all sorts of flips. That’s all he would need is to puke in front of Hikari’s father, or worse puke on her father. He paled at the thought.

“ Captain, are you ok?” Ulla asked again in concern before she turned to look at Leon who only watched Alistar, the white haired mage smiled weakly before patting the girl on the head.

“ You worry too much.” He told her before standing up straight again and he looked at Leon. “ If I say ‘Pun and Sun’ that’s the signal to kill me and end my suffering.”

"Your death shall be quick," Leon assured with a smirk.

"Nothing about this has been 'quick and easy'," Alistair muttered again before supporting himself against the doorframe and taking a deep breath.

Ulla and Leon watched Alistair push the door open, and hastily make his way to his seat without as much as a greeting form the other captains. Yami wasn't there yet, so he sighed to himself out of relief. Though Captain Roselei was, which made him frown for a bit. But then again, she had always been more punctual out of the two.

Leon and Ulla followed, exchanging their greetings. But the pleasantries were cut short by a low voice, coming from the corner of the room, from the same wall on which the door stood.

"Don't have the common courtesy to wish good morning?"

Alistair froze in place. Because... it was Captain Sukehiro's voice. He should have noticed his mana. He should've! But... it seemed that he had been too caught up with trying to compose himself.

Alistar swallowed the sudden lump in his throat as he turned slowly to face Yami, the taller man had a cool yet stern look in his eye as he looked Alistar up and down. Alistar quickly cleared his throat before speaking.

“ G-Good morning Captain Sukehiro.” Alistar said calmly, it took everything he had to keep his voice from shaking. Yami just stared at him before scoffing, pushing himself off the wall and walking past him.

“ You look like hell.” He grumbled, Alistar let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He watched as Captain Sukehiro sat down next to his wife, Alistar looked at Leon who only smiled, gave him a thumbs up and mouthed ‘Moral Support’. Alistar glared over his sunglasses at him and he shook his head before walking over to the meeting table.

“ Good morning.” He greeted everyone politely, he tried to give them his most charming and warm smile, but instead it came out more lopsided. He noticed Hikari wasn’t around and frowned, she must be in the bathroom? Or was she feeling unwell? If she didn’t show up during the meeting he would try and go see her, even if he felt awful he would always check on her and make sure she was ok.

“ Good morning Alistar,” Fuegoleon responded politely as did the other Captains, he frowned a bit at the young man's slightly disheveled appearance. He leaned towards his son and whispered. “ Is Alistar alright? I know you, him, and one of the Black Bulls went out last night.”

Leon leaned closer to his father, pondering for a moment whether or not he should reply in Thean, just to make sure that the events of last night wouldn't be overheard by those around them. But then again, speaking in a foreign language in a setting where most present didn't speak that particular language, would be rather rude.

"He..." Leon began in whispers. "He had one too many last night," he simply remarked, intending to tell a bit more once back home if it was necessary.

Fuegoleon only gave a slow nod as a reply. He couldn't really relate to being badly hungover, but to him it was nothing more than youthful self-discovery. And since Alistair was present at the meeting, he wanted to still complete his responsibilities, and would surely learn from this experience.

"No you had one too many, this one had a bucketful on top of that," Yami remarked as his eyes shifted between Leon and Alistair. His previous irritation seemed to be growing the longer he looked at white haired younger male who hadn't 'bothered to greet good morning'.

Fuegoleon quirked an eyebrow at Yami, as if to ask where his comment was coming from.

Alistair opened his mouth to reply, but then William walked in, and upon seeing the frowns around the table, he stopped in his tracks.

“ Good morning everyone.” William said hesitantly, he frowned as he looked around the room, it was as though he interrupted some conversation. He walked around to his seat and sat down before turning to his right to see his son looking worse for wear. He looked over at Yami, Fuegoleon, and Leon before looking back at Alistar.

“ Alistar,” he suddenly pulled his son’s dark glasses down and looked at his eyes. “ are you hungover?” Before Alistar could respond Yami snorted, causing William to look at him.

“ Yeah he is, your son drank a bucket full of alcohol last night and as you can see it didn’t agree with him.” Yami said as he crossed his arms, Alistar looked at Yami.

“ It wasn’t a ‘bucket full’ it was 2 glasses of really strong alcohol.” He mumbled, holding up two fingers. When he saw the glare Yami was giving him, Alistar paled further. “ s-sir.” He added softly. William sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“ Do I even want to know why the three of you went out and decided to get drunk?” William asked as he leaned back in his seat, he was clearly disappointed in his son's behavior and coming to the meeting hungover. Sure it showed that he was willing to do his job and attend meetings no matter how he was feeling, but he also knew Alistar was better than this.

“ Depends, do you really want to know?” Yami asked William with a slightly raised brow.

"We didn't 'decide' to get drunk," Alistair tried, looking at his father, which made William glance at him.

"Yes," Leon butted in to the conversation. "Ezio left to escort a lady home, and we stayed to chat. And it really was only 2 glasses. I didn't think them to be that strong." He explained, trying to salvage what there was to be salvaged. "And besides, you didn't seem that bad off when we left." He added while looking at Alistair.

"So the decisions you made, you made with 'good judgement'?" Yami asked while turning his attention to Leon.

Leon paused for a moment, realizing that he had just given an opening for Captain Sukehiro to question his judgement. "Well... Things emerged during the conversation. And if you look at the decisions made, it's not so much about the decision itself, but more of a timing issue."

Yami quirked an eyebrow again, while Alistair glared at Leon over the table with a hint of pleading, and with a hint of anger.

" Why do you hate me? " He asked without thinking more about it.

"What happened? Exactly," William interrupted the conversation and turned his attention back to Yami.

“ Well idiot one and idiot two here came by the Black Bulls base last night,” Yami started as he leaned forward. “ Your son, idiot one, decided it would be a good idea to confess his feelings for my daughter Hikari *while* he was drunk. But instead of confessing to her he confessed to me.”

“ And idiot two,” Yami continued looking at Leon. “ just stood there supporting idiot one with a goofy smile on his face.” Yami finished.

It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in the room. Everyone seemed surprised by this, except for Captain Roselei as she was the only other person who knew about Alistar’s feelings for Hikari.

Alistar was as white as his hair, his glasses having fallen further down the bridge of his nose as he listened to Captain Sukehiro rat him and Leon out, he glanced over to his friend and saw he was staring down at the table.

“ Does the ‘Pun and Sun’ kill command work for me as well if I say it?” Leon asked Alistar softly.

“ I’m sure it can be arranged.” Alistar muttered back softly before William leaned forward, as did Fuegoleon.

“ I’m sorry, you both did what?” William asked before looking towards his son, then Leon, and back again.

"I-" Alistair began, wondering about what he could say, if anything. "It... wasn't a good decision, but I... I needed a bit of encouragement..." Alistair mumbled. Which was true. It wasn't convincing or a good thing to say, but it was true. "It's no excuse but it's..."

William looked at his son, blinking, and then letting out a sigh. "It is not. But at least your judgement was clouded when you made the decision." He stated while glancing over at Leon.

"Just what are you implying?" Fuegoleon asked with a low tone, now looking at William instead.

William's eyes shifted to the vermillion haired captain with a courteous smile. "Well since Leon was still very much aware of his actions, and still enabled this to happen, surely he's accountable as well."

"You intend to pin the blame onto my son?" Fuegoleon asked again, now standing up.

"Both of your idiot sons are to blame," Yami scoffed while Charlotte glanced at Solara.

“ Unless you have something actually constructive to say Yami, I would suggest you stay out of this.” William said holding up a hand towards Yami before turning his attention to Fuegoleon, everyone could feel the amount of intense mana radiating off both men as they tried to defend their son’s.

“ Well Yami,” Fuegoleon suddenly turned to face the dark haired man. “ since your daughter spends so much time with them, then is it right to assume she enjoys the company of idiots?” He asked with a raised brow, Yami stood up and glared at the vermillion haired mage.

“Are you calling my daughter an idiot-lover, Oldgoleon?” He asked in a threatening tone, William then chuckled.

“ I mean, we don’t know what Hikari’s feelings are. But if we were to assume that she liked Alistar and Leon, then by extension that would make her an idiot as well.” William pointed out, Yami turned to look at him. The room exploded with mana, it wasn’t only coming from Fuegoleon and William but now Yami as well.

“ You’ve gone too far, Goldie Guts.” Yami said in a raised tone, causing Alistar to clutch the side of his head in pain. If his head wasn’t pounding before it surely was now, Fuegoleon scoffed.

“ You’re the one that started it by calling our sons idiots Yami.” Fuegoleon pointed out and William nodded in agreement.

"No it was your sons that started this overall," Yami replied while finally standing up as the very walls seemed to bend away from the overwhelming mana inside the room.

Charlotte leaned over the table, whispering to Solara while keeping her eyes firmly on the three men. "You think we should intervene?"

"Hmm..." She hummed while glancing over. "I'm tempted to see just how far this escalates... If it seems like they'll do something irreversible, then we'll intervene." She pondered before lifting her tea cup to her lips. "Unless, of course, you want to stop them now."

Charlotte though about it for a moment, listening onto the bickering for a moment. "They're grown men," she finally concluded, taking a sip of her tea as well, while all the other captains and vice captains looked at the two of them, and the trio, and then Charlotte and Solara again.

Leon's gaze shifted between his father, Alistair, and his mother, unsure of what to do.

And Alistair, Alistair wondered if there was a hole where he could just crawl into and die.

Suddenly, the oak doors opened and in walked Hikari Sukehiro. She looked around as she saw chaos erupting, she could feel the mana on the other side of the door when she approached but hadn’t realized it had been all three Captain’s. She noticed all of their ki was aggressive and yet somewhat...childish? She frowned and slyly made her way over to Alistar, apparently the ‘adults’ were too busy bickering to notice.

“ What the heck happened?” She whispered in Alistar’s ear causing him to jump slightly and turn to look at her, she frowned a bit as she looked him up and down. “ Geez what happened to you?”

Alistar held a finger up to his lips before signaling to Leon to follow him, both men stood up from their seats and, without thinking, Alistar took Hikari’s hand and led them to a corner of the room. Alistar sat down in the chair and leaned back as his head continued to pound.

“ So what happened?” Hikari asked, looking from Leon to Alistar, the white haired man still hadn’t let go of her hand Leon noticed with an amused smile.

“ Well long story short; Alistar got drunk last night so he’s currently hungover, your dad called him and I idiots, our dads jumped to our defense and pointed out that you liking and hanging out with us also made you an idiot and this is the end result.” Leon explained as the yelling got louder and it seemed the walls were continuing to bend because of it.

Hikari blinked, and her eyes shifted between the two. Alistair looked bad off. Really bad off. In the way someone with a hungover would look.

"That's... pretty much it..." Alistair replied, confirming Leon's explanation.

But still. The explanation didn't really explain anything to her. Or perhaps it did. She thought Alistar to be better than to get wasted before an important meeting. That in itself was weird. But why was dad calling him and Leon idiots? Surely it had something to do with getting drunk. And perhaps Leon allowing Alistair to get drunk. But why was dad so... emotional about it? Calling them idiots? It wasn't like him. Usually he'd just shrug it off, or maybe snicker about it. Maybe. But this.. it was-

There was a crash, which woke her from her thoughts. And the next thing she knew was the sight of her mom dragging her father by the ear. "I can't believe you dropped down to this level," she frowned with her brow twitching.

"But honey- ow, ow, ow," Yami tried, while still being dragged by Charlotte towards the hallway.

Fuegoleon and William chuckled as they watched Charlotte dragging Yami away, until Fuegoleon felt a similar pull on his ear and he turned to see Solara glaring at him as well.

“ I think that’s quite enough Fuegoleon, I swear I thought you were better than this.” Solara said in a disapproving tone as she dragged her husband out of the room as well, William continued to chuckle as he watched them.

“ My how the mighty have fallen. Both the Lion and the Bull have been tamed and are now as harmless as a house cat and a calf.” He chuckled before it died in his throat when Solara and Charlotte glared at him.

“ You know William, we both still have one free hand each,” Charlotte pointed out and Solara nodded in agreement.

“ And you have two free ears that no one’s pinching, so unless you’d like us both to grab one of your ears. I suggest you keep quiet.” Solara said and William paled a bit but nodded.

“ Geez, when did the adults start acting like children?” Hikari muttered with a sigh and shake of her head.

"You know that it was his son that-" Yami tried to explain to Charlotte, only to have his ear pinched even stronger.

"Don't you dare try continue this," Charlotte glared at him.

"Yeah dad!" Hikari exclaimed marching towards her father. "So what he got drunk?! As a grown man you should be able to be more mature about it!" She scolded him.

Solara sighed, looking at Fuegoleon again with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yes dear..." he only spoke before being let go, and started heading out towards the hallway.

Leon let out a faint snicker, unable to contain the absurdity of the moment, but instead earned a similar glare from his mother. Which made any signs of amusement fade from him. "Nothing mom..."

Meanwhile Charlotte and Hikari, who had proceeded to grab Yami's other ear between her fingers, were dragging Yami out.

And as it all was taking place, everyone else in the room, those who were simply observing, did just that. They looked at it all, unfolding before them without really wanting to intervene.

“ I’ll talk to you guys later, try to sleep off that hangover Alistar.” Hikari said, turning slightly to face the room before walking out with her mother and father, Alistar gave the dark haired girl and his vermillion haired friend a small wave goodbye as they exited the room. William sighed softly and looked at the other Captains and Vice Captains.

“ I apologize for the chaos and for our behavior, I promise this will never happen again. This meeting will continue at a later date, you may leave.” William said, the other captains and vice captains nodded and left the room, Ulla looked at Alistar and he nodded so she also exited the room.

Once the oak doors clicked shut William sighed and walked over towards Alistar and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“ Come on, let’s get you back home.” William said softly, Alistar nodded and stood up, as the room began to spin and tilt slightly he leaned against his father.

“ I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I...I should have been more responsible.” Alistar mumbled softly, if he hadn’t gone out last night and hadn’t gone to the Black Bulls to confess to Hikari, maybe today and the meeting wouldn’t have been such a disaster.

William looked at his son in silence for a moment. It was only the two of them now, so he could speak freely. But he didn't really know what to tell Alistair.

He might have had his white hair, the hair he was now gently stroking as Alistair leaned against him. But his eyes always reminded him of his wife. And, he found himself thinking how she would probably have had something constructive to say.

William looked up to the ceiling, though his gaze extended far further than that. I didn't think this would be so hard... He thought, hoping that she might hear him. Though if you were here, you would probably have dragged me out just like those two were. He smiled to himself.

"Confessing your feelings is hard," William began, trying to think of something comforting, but ending up thinking about how nervous he was around his wife in the beginning. "And... things could certainly have... gone smoother. But... I wasn't exactly on my best behaviour either...." He admitted while turning his gaze back to Alistair.

“ Heh. None of us were on our best behavior.” Alistar admitted with a humorless laugh, things should have gone differently but sadly they hadn’t, he heard his father sigh softly as he continued stroking his son’s head. Even though Alistar was an adult now, he still wanted to try and comfort him the best way he could. Alistar did seem to take comfort in the small gesture as he leaned slightly more into his fathers touch.

“ Did I ever tell you how your mother confessed to me?” William asked suddenly, it was a bit of an embarrassing story, well not embarrassing but it was very...sudden? His son turned his head a bit to look at his father.

“ I don’t think so, was it as bad as what I did?” Alistar asked, William chuckled and shook his head.

“ No it wasn’t as bad as what you did,” Alistar groaned at his fathers words but let him continue. “ Your mother was a very direct person, sure she seemed sweet in public but she was actually quite different when it was just us. Long story short, I went to see her one day and she just came out and said she was in love with me, that she couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her life with anyone else, and asked if I felt the same way.”

“ Sounds like her. I wish I could be that direct.” Alistar mumbled with a soft laugh and his father laughed as well.

“ Your mother was one of a kind.” He admitted with a fond smile as all the memories of him and his wife floated to the surface of his mind.

Alistair looked away with sorrowful eyes, feeling longing that didn't really make sense to him. How could he miss someone who he had never met? But. No matter how absurd it seemed, he did feel sad about not meeting his mother.

"And I'm sure that she would have something helpful to say," William continued while looking at his son. "Either that or then I would be getting dragged away just like Fuegoleon and Yami," he chuckled.

Alistar scoffed a little, thinking about the sight. If the situation would have been anything else than what it was, he might have laughed out loud while witnessing it, depending on who was there to see.

"But.. um...." William tried to think of what he was trying to say a moment before. "It's not easy to confess your feelings. I didn't have to, or I didn't get to, I suppose, be the one to confess. Your mother did that for me. So... you're trying to do something very brave, and... I should scold you for trying to confess with fool's courage," he spoke with a slightly more stern tone of voice. "I can understand why you did so."

Alistair gazed up to his father again, feeling an array of emotions. He wasn't pleased about everything going the way it did. And he wasn't exactly happy about deciding to confess his feelings while drunk. But... His dad was on his side with this.

“ I shouldn’t have been so stupid, but what’s done is done and I can’t change it.” Alistar admitted softly. “ But I can make my next confession better and they way Hikari deserves to be confessed too.” Alistar added with a bit more strength and determination, William smiled with slight pride before he gently ruffled his son's head.

“ I know you will, and if there’s anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to let me know. I’m sure Leon and the others wouldn’t mind helping either.” William said. “ but think it’s time we got you home,” William added as he walked with his son towards the exit, Alistar nodded in agreement as he stood up a little more straight before regretting his decision and leaning against his father again.

“ I hate being hungover.” Alistar grumbled as his father chuckled, he opened the doors as quietly as he could before shutting them softly behind them.

“ Next time you go out with your friends, how about not going to a tavern?” William suggested as his son rolled his eyes at the suggestion.

"It was Ezio's idea," Alistair scoffed.

"Well in that case, perhaps it would be your turn to pick," William chuckled while supporting his son.

"Yeah, I suppose it would," Alistair agreed with a small smile before taking a deep breath and trying to stand a bit more upright. But this time he straightened his posture little by little, unlike before, which made it much more tolerable.

William smiled. And, despite of everything, he was proud. He'd always be proud of Alistair, no matter what. Though, he had to admit, he was sure that they'd both do a little bit better if... it wasn't just the two of them.

So, William gazed up again, asking if his wife was proud of them too. And of course there was no answer. Or... perhaps there was, in the way wind outside made a few petals dance in front of a window.

——-

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good day 🥰!

[katsukis-sad-angel]

Based on a True Story

Summary: there's this boy who makes you super uncomfy and doesnt take a hit, but you're to sweet to tell him to back off. Katsuki Bakugou, the more blunt end of the friendship, is happy to tell him off and free you from that sorry bastard.

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Warnings: possible tw, a lot of swearing and some pretty colorful insults, there are guys that are really fucking creepy, based on the actual events of February 7th, 2021 at around 10:30 pm

A/N: this was very very rushed, I just wanted to write myself some comfort real quick and go to bed last night and I didn't have time to properly edit! I'm really proud of some of the banter lmao, please enjoy and never be afraid to punt a ballsack! I'll add tags later🙄🙄🙄

A message popped up on your screen and your once neutral expression went sour. Slamming the face of your phone onto your pillow, you groaned angrily into your bedspread, catching the attention of a certain ash blonde sitting in your comfy desk chair a few feet away. Katsuki Bakugou, one of your best friends, gave a questioning glance but refused to meet his ember gaze

“What’s your deal?” He asked, not letting his genuine curiosity as to why there was such a pained look on your face, show.

You opened your mouth but paused.

Katsuki already knew about this boy and scolded you every time he saw his name pop up in your notifications, telling you to ‘fucking block him already’ for the umpteenth time. It wasn’t like you had feelings for the guy anymore, you were just too nice and polite to cut him off completely and tell him to go fuck himself.

The ash-blonde had already volunteered to do it for you, but you always said no because you knew he’d just find another way to contact you.

“It’s that piss baby again isn’t it?” 

“Yeah…”

“Wow, did you just agree with one of my insults?”

“Suki, I’m about to take you up on your offer to tell him to go fuck himself.”

He snickered, “Now you’re talking sense. What the hell is that pansy bitching about now?”

You sigh and roll over on your back and Katsuki moves to sit on the edge of your bed.

“I cut him off for a while, I really did! It felt so good to be free of him, but then he got my number again and started bothering me a few days ago. I saw him at school yesterday and told him I wasn’t interested in dating at all and he was like whatever so I honestly thought he could keep it in his pants and we could just be friends but nooo! He calls me a simp for anime guys, I tell him to stop being a hypocrite because he used to simp for me and he was like “I still do. You’re the only one” yeah like I’m stupid enough to actually believe that!”

You paused to catch your breath, but before you could start speaking again Katsuki interjected, “Well, you are stupid…”

You socked him in the bicep and he hunched over laughing. You looked so fucking adorable when you got royally pissed at him.

“Oh go to hell.” You snapped, crossing your arms and continuing, “Anyway, this guy used to simp for my goddamn sister! Not only do I reject being a replacement for her, but if she rejected his sorry ass, that means he’s a huge piece of shit because she’s super picky.”

“I might’ve mentioned that once or twice-”

You punched him again to shut him up. “Plus he’s super creepy and gross and it always feels like he’s undressing me with his eyes and whenever he’s around I want to dive into a pool full of only chlorine and drink it. I’m just trying to coexist and just be nice to him but apparently, a female looking in his general direction means that they want dicked down by his micropenis. He’s so fucking dense too. Why can’t he see that I’m not interested, especially after I EXPLICITLY told him that?!”

By that point, you were on the verge of frustrated tears, bottom lip trembling just slightly with bottled up emotion.

Katsuki could see it.

You felt trapped in something you never signed up for and you’d do anything to get out. All of this frustration had been stored inside of you for so long and it just kept mounting and multiplying until you burst into tears.

“Goddammit, come here dumbass,” He growled, gathering you into a warm embrace, “You can’t keep all this bs inside okay?”

He let you sob into his shoulder, one calloused hand supporting the base of your neck and the other crossed firmly over your back so you’d feel safe and secure; away from the world full of horrible people and into a small one of just your best friend’s warmth and the sweet sweet scent of caramel.

“Why don’t you listen to me? You’re just too fucking nice to every shitty dickhead that sees you as an easy, fuckable target. Something really fucking bad is gonna happen to you if you don’t shape up and learn how to punt a dude’s excuse for a ballsack and tell him what you really think.”

You raised your head from the solace of his shoulder to look at him with big, reproachful doe eyes and whimpered, “I tried that!”

“Have you tried punting their fucking balls first?”

“No… that would hurt.”

“That’s the point.”

“But if I did it without reason I could get suspended or charged with aggravated assault!”

It was Katsuki’s turn to sigh.

“That’s not the point dumbass, the point is that you need to tell these bastards off when they start getting creepy. You know what? Why don’t you just fucking ignore their sorry asses in the first place!”

You sniffle and drag a hand over your cheek to dry your tears, then resume your position with your face in the crook of your best friend’s neck.

“I feel bad for them.”

“Well stop. I’m gonna call him now alright? After that, we’ll block his stupid ass on every fucking app, you hear me?”

You nod and hug him tighter as he leans forward to grab your phone and opens it with your passcode, swiftly finding his name in your contact list and pressing the call icon, then he tapped the speaker button and waited.

The call was picked up almost immediately and a voice on the other line said, “Hey cutie! I was just about to call and ask to see if you wanted to come over on-”

“She’s not here.” Katsuki cut him off with a dry snarl, “And last time I checked she wasn’t interested enough in your sorry ass for you to be calling her ‘cutie.’” 

You could almost hear his lip curl in utter disgust.

“Who the fuck are you?” The voice asked, dropping its sickeningly sweet tone to something more appropriate in light of the previous insult.

“I’m her fucking boyfriend you dickwad-” You popped up from your haven in surprise, mouth open to sputter in protest but he put a finger to your lips and smirked, “who the fuck are you?”

“No fucking way that whore has a boyfriend-”

“Ex-fucking-scuse me? Shut your mouth, you mother fucking pussy, insult her one more time and I’ll fuck you up so bad you won’t be recognizable by the time you get to the hospital.” He snapped back, “She’s crying right now because you’re too dense to realize she doesn’t want any business with some horse-faced piss baby like you. Take the hint right fucking now you useless bastard so you don’t make the mistake of coming near her again because I. Will. Kill. You. Delete this number because she’s too sweet to block you herself, but I will.”

“Fuck man, I was just tryna get laid. She’s the one who started rubbing herself all over me-”

“I said delete this number. Damn, you are a dense piece of shit aren’t you?”

“Hey, I-”

Katsuki pressed ‘end call’ and blocked his contact, moving from Instagram to Snapchat, to any social app you had, and blocked him left and right until he was satisfied.

“Feel better?” He asked softly, tossing your phone aside and peeling you off.

You carded a shaky hand through your hair and wiped your eyes, giving him a watery smile and a nod.

“Why did you tell him that we were in a relationship?” You asked, voice on the edge of a taunt.

“To make him mad.”

“I mean, it worked, but is that the only reason?” You giggled.

“The hell are you insinuating?”

“Do you… possibly by chance… have feelings for me?”

You batted your eyes at him and he retched, but the smirk was still present on his handsome features.

“What’s it to you?”

You squirm a bit, but something pops into your head so you can stall a bit longer.

“I mean, you’re not THAT ugly-”

He responded with a simple, harsh flick to the forehead to make you whine and try to whack him, but he easily intercepted your fist and pushed you on your back, caging you in nothing short of a horizontal kabedon.

It was your turn to smirk, “Yenno ‘Suki, I could very easily… oh what was your phrasing? ‘Punt your fucking balls’ in this position…”

“Just shut up and tell me what the hell you want.” Katsuki snapped.

“You’re cute when you’re flustered.” You prod.

“You look like a pissed hamster when you’re mad.” He shot back.

“You smell like a fucking candy store after training.”

“You’re the dictionary definition of a dumbass.”

“You have a better hourglass figure than Yaomomo.”

“You're quickly becoming an extra.”

“Date me.”

“Fine.”

“Wait really?”

“It’s the only way I can kiss you, protect you, and keep you all to myself.” He shrugged, leaning in dangerously close, “You don’t fucking understand how hard it is to watch you prancing around with one failed abortion after another and watching you cry because they leave since you don’t want the one thing they’re after.”

“You’ve always been there for me ‘Suki… I guess I just took you for granted, and I’m really sorry.” You met his soft vermillion gaze with a meaningful and apologetic one and reached out to squeeze his hand.

“‘S okay. You’re mine now, right?”

You nod, smiling. 

“So it doesn’t matter how dense you are anymore.” He smirked, laying down on your bed and dragging you down with him so you were tucked comfortably under his chin.

You grabbed the remote and flicked on the tv, preparing to turn on an anime you had in mind.

“What romance garbage are you inflicting on me this time?” Your new boyfriend groaned, burying his face in your hair.

“One that’s super sappy and romantic and sad just to piss you off.” You pouted, clicking on each letter to form the desired word in the search bar.

“Have fun with that.” Katsuki snarked, beginning to move away, but you stopped him by deftly pressing your lips to his.

You slowly pulled away, blushing furiously, but happy to feel strong forearms snaking around your front and crossing over your stomach.

“I certainly will.” You respond.

[cotncandyboifics]

1989 [High School AU]: Chapter 1

AO3 Link

Masterpost

Chapter 2 ~ Chapter 3 ~ Chapter 4 ~ Chapter 5 ~ Chapter 6 ~ Chapter 7 ~ Chapter 8 ~ Chapter 9 ~

Pairings: slight Logince, eventual Prinxiety & Logicality

Word count: 1,780

Story summary: Roman Prince is your stereotypical Jock, with everyone swooning after him. Every day a crowd of people follow him around, only to disperse at his personal whim. In reality, he's lucky to have such good acting skills that help him cover up the disdain he has for his life. He only wishes he could use his skills properly.

Patton Whitelock's always there to lend a helping hand, no matter who you are. If you need a favor or just need someone to talk to, go to him. In reality, he's been taught from a young age that kindness should be held above all else. No one suspects that he took it the wrong way.

Logan Montgomery is the smartest boy in the Senior class. He's stern, and most people are too intimidated to speak to him. In reality, he despises most all of his fellow students. He sticks to his studies and doesn't stray, for fear of being stuck in his father's shadow his whole life.

Virgil Black is the most emo kid in school, let alone 12th grade; everyone knows to leave him be. In reality, he's very fortunate. He has two parents who love him dearly. But everything beyond his life, everything within his mind, is utter chaos and turmoil.

what will happen when they're assigned a biology project together?

General CW: food, swearing, implied s-lf h-rm, non-graphic descriptions of s-lf h-rm scars, graphic and non-graphic descriptions of anxiety attacks and panic attacks, drug abuse, minor character intoxicated on heroin, non-graphic drug overdose description, sickness/description of sickness, blood, non-graphic descriptions of needles, (will be added to as I write more)

Chapter CW: <none> (let me know if i missed anything please!)

Author notes: hook chapter go brr

...

Nice to meet you, where you been?

I can show you incredible things

Magic, madness, heaven, sin

Saw you there, and I thought

"Oh my god, look at that face

You look like my next mistake"

Love's a game, wanna play?

Roman checked his watch discreetly as he walked down the hall toward his first class. 7:58. He was almost late, but not quite. As he walked in, earning a glare from Mr. Berry and a few students, he glanced at the whiteboard. It read: "Tuesday, September 3 / Classwork: OT essay workday / Homework: OT Analysis and Essay due FRIDAY". The word "Friday" was written sloppily large and underlined. Roman just kept his sleepy poker face and walked to his desk, in the second-to-last row in the middle. He'd not noticed the shrunken figure at the desk next to him, whom everyone knew but no one liked. Virgil Black.

New money, suit and tie

I can read you like a magazine

Ain't it funny, rumors fly

And I know you've heard about me

So hey, let's be friends

I'm dying to see, how this one ends

Grab your passport, and my hand

I can make the bad guys good for a weekend.

Virgil shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets as he glared in Roman's general direction from behind bright purple bangs. His scowl deepened as Roman pulled out his notebook but didn't take his single earbud out, proceeding to doodle on the margins of his notebook.

Roman propped his head up on his right palm, tilting his head carelessly as he drew stars around a stick man's head. By this time, the plump red-faced man known as Mr. Berry, teacher of English 12, had taken his respected place at the front of the class for a quick lecture before they began classwork.

So it's gonna be forever,

Or it's gonna go down in flames

You can tell me when it's over,

If the high was worth the pain

Got a long list of ex-lovers,

They'll tell you I'm insane

'Cus you know I love the players,

And you love the game

"Good morning students," He said in a blubbering gritty voice, the sagging skin below his chin bouncing comically as he did so. "I trust you completed reading the rest of the book. Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, the Analysis and quotes along with your essay's final draft are due - both printed - on Friday. If you turn it in on Monday, it'll drop two letter grades, and any time after that is a zero. I should hope this first assignment will get you in the punctual mindset for my class." The large man was walking about the room, between desks checking for cheating or kids working ahead. He was strict, and didn't tolerate out-of-line behavior. As he completed his sentence, his eyes fell on Roman, who was still slouched apathetically, doodling, earbud in. The students watching Mr. Berry saw his face somehow achieve a deeper hue of red and his eyes bulge, as a bull does when it spots it's target. Roman however, didn't notice; a pale-faced Virgil tried to get his attention without the teacher noticing.

'Cus we're young and we're reckless,

We'll take this way too far

It'll leave you breathless,

Or with a nasty scar

Got a long list of ex-lovers,

They'll tell you I'm insane

But I've got a blank space baby...

And I'll write your name.

"Psst. Roman." he hissed in vain. Roman's earbud was in his right ear, the same side Virgil was sitting on, so quiet noises from that direction were inaudible to him. Despite the class's uneasiness as Mr. Berry made his way to Roman's seat, and though Roman was fully aware of the fat fuming man advancing on him, he made no change in expression or focus; merely, filled in the dark half of the yin yang he had sketched next to his name as he lightly mouthed the words of the song.

Mr. Berry stopped right in front of Roman's desk, looking down at him furiously. When Roman ignored him, he took further action. Just as Roman had completed the yin yang, a fat red hand came down loudly on his desk and a sudden "MR. PRINCE!!" Erupted from the old man's gullet.

Cherry lips, crystal skies

I can show you incredible things

Stolen kisses, pretty lies

You're the king baby I'm your queen

Find out what you want,

Be that girl for a month

Wait, the worst is yet to come... oh no.

Roman looked up at him slowly, but no trace of fear could be found on his face. Even, a slight smirk hinting at the corners of his mouth. But, not enough for the old man to notice.

"What sort of media is emitting from those... earphones?" Mr. Berry said, bug-eyed.

Roman held up the earbud that wasn't in his ear, looking at it. "You mean these?" He said.

Mr. Berry simply sighed and rolled his eyes frustratedly. "Yes, 'in those', Mr. Prince. You'd better have an adequate response."

Screaming, crying, perfect storms

I can make all the tables turn

Rose garden filled with thorns

Keep you second guessing, like

"Oh my god, who is she?"

I get drunk on jealousy

But you'll come back each time you leave

'Cus darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

Roman held the old man's gaze, as if searching for something within his grey-brown orbs. After a moment, he sighed quietly and said, "Taylor Swift."

His response earned a few snickers from other students, to which Mr. Berry scanned the room to see if he could bust two students in one go.

Most of the students thought he looked like Napoleon from the 1954 animated movie based on Animal Farm, a fair comparison. His balding head and fat body gave him an appearance that was quite comparable to a pig.

After a moment of glaring at a few of the known renegades of the class, he returned his focus to Roman. But, this time, he didn't appear as angry; rather, he was smiling gently, but his eyes still held an angry glow. "Since you see no point in listening to my lecture, I'm sure you wouldn't mind showing the class a sufficient outline for your first draft essay? Along with the requirements, of course," the senile man's smirk curled up into a grin as he spoke, tilting his head a bit. Roman merely smirked himself, and stood.

So it's gonna be forever,

Or it's gonna go down in flames

You can tell me when it's over,

If the high was worth the pain

Got a long list of ex-lovers,

They'll tell you I'm insane

'Cus you know I love the players,

And you love the game

Mr. Berry watched in moderate surprise as Roman walked swiftly past the rows of desks to the whiteboard, uncapped an expo marker, and began writing in neatly printed lettering. "Ok, so the final draft is due on Friday," He began, "So you should have your first draft completed by tonight. The essay must have at least five body paragraphs, a minimum of two quotes each-" Virgil watched, shocked, gripping his pencil so that his knuckles paled. "So I hope you've picked out your quotes already. The thesis needs to answer the prompt, obviously. Conclusion should be at least five sentences. So overall, about two or three pages. I'd recommend using this class time to create an outline in your notebook, and typing up a first draft. Have your second draft done tomorrow, and final details on Thursday. And because Mr. Berry is too... behind the times to use Google Classroom, you'll need to print it out and hand it in physically. I'm sure Mr. Berry isn't partial to the trees we're killing, so if you're in Environmental club, I'd not bother complaining." And with this final sentence, Roman touched up his writing on the board and walked back to his seat, never taking out his earbud.

'Cus we're young and we're reckless,

We'll take this way too far

It'll leave you breathless,

Or with a nasty scar

Got a long list of ex-lovers,

They'll tell you I'm insane

But I got a blank space baby...

And I'll write your name.

Mr. Berry was still standing over Roman's desk, now staring down at him with large eyes. He opened his mouth slightly to say something, but was interrupted by another student asking a question. From then on, Mr. Berry ignored Roman, which was an easy feat, as Roman did the same.

After a little over half an hour, the bell rang, and Roman slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out. Mr. Berry considered asking him why he'd only doodled for the entirety of the class period and not worked on his essay, but his pride got the best of him, and he watched as the young man walked out of the room confidently.

Virgil had slipped out before Roman, and was now pretending to exchange things in his locker, which was unfortunately right next to Roman's. The tall jock walked up to his own locker, earning a scowl from the darker boy.

"What? Enjoy the show I put on in Mr. Diabetes' class?" Roman said, leaning against the lockers as Virgil shut his own. The dark boy just grunted and walked off, feeling Roman's eyes watching as he turned a corner. Roman smirked for the hundredth time that morning when he was gone and turned to open his own locker. When a few girls from the cheer team started to linger, flipping their hair and puffing out their chests, and Roman actively ignored them until he walked past close enough that a few of them let out squeals. He heard the usual murmurs from behind him, "he's so hot," and "I'd kill to be his date to Homecoming." He smirked to himself again, making his way to his Physics class.

...

Virgil spotted is best friend Patton in his usual seat as he walked into his second period Economics class. The boy smiled at Virgil up on seeing him, and waved happily.

"Hello Virgil!! how are you feeling this morning?" He said cheerily as Virgil took the seat next to him, sliding his backpack under the desk.

"Alright I guess." He thought about telling Patton about Roman, but thought better of it; Patton had enough on his plate to worry about as it was.

As for Patton, he had already taken to pulling out his notebook, preparing for a long class of note-taking. Economics was one of the most note-heavy classes either of the boys had, and usually required all their focus. As the teacher stood from his desk and turned on his projector, Virgil could've sworn he saw Patton staring at someone, but as soon as he looked, Patton focused on the teacher, readying his pencil. But, Virgil being the parano- vigilant person he was, followed what he thought was Patton's line of sight to... Logan Montgomery? What? Upon realizing who he had thought Patton was looking at, he brushed it off. There's no way Patton would be looking at him. is there?

[onyourzeus]

• with you | kwp

ykcyj ➝ arskyh

title: with you  pairing: kim wonpil (of day6) & you genre: flufffffff words: 2.9k

author’s note: requested by this anon asking for a lazy day with wonpil + some possibility of a food fight due to baking (i tweaked it a little bit, i hope you don’t mind)

any requests? check my pinned post if i’m accepting any at the moment, thanks!

lazy days with wonpil are the best. it doesn’t happen often, though, because he rarely gets to spend this much time with you

you’ve been relying on voice messages, long texts and the occasional video calls before and during their subunit comeback promotions

granted you were super excited and absolutely stunned by their performances

not to mention the songs in the album are amazing, you have always been supportive of wonpil’s career

ever since you’ve known him, music has always been his top priority. he’s taught you so much of what he’s learned throughout the years being a trainee and a musician in his own right

albeit you doubt you’d ever reach his level of proficiency when it came to understanding music

you’re content just watching him sing, admiring the way he plays the piano so effortlessly, and being so damn lucky to be part of this important journey with him

but of course, it pains you to be so far away, long distance never gets better no matter what they say

as much as you follow along his schedules as a day6 member, you’d be lying to yourself if you said the end of promotions is your actual favorite part of it all

it means that wonpil has some free time to spare, and usually he likes to spend it with you 

this weekend, you knew he didn’t have a lot on his agenda. you’ve specifically cleared the whole two days, logged off on all social media just so your attention can be focused solely on your significant other 

you’ve been giddy all morning, waiting for wonpil to arrive at your place in mere minutes 

when the two of you haven’t seen each other in a while, wonpil personally likes to have you all to himself in a space where no one can bother the two of you. this is why he doesn’t like you going over to their apartment

dowoon doesn’t have a sense of personal space or can he take a hint that wonpil doesn’t want anyone coming into the room when he’s just snuggling with you

so it’s a win win situation overall to have him in your place instead. the clothes he had left in the bottom drawer hasn’t been worn in a while by him. 

(you’re afraid his scent would come off soon if you keep wearing his sweaters and pjs)

you hear the knock on the door and excitedly dash for it, seeing wonpil in the flesh with…

flowers!! 

“hi,” he greets you shyly, the smile on his face neverending, only growing wider as you try your best to embrace him without squishing the gift he has in hand

“i missed you sooooooooo much,” you squeal, immersing yourself in the warmth of his body and his hand pressing against your back 

it feels like forever since you last saw him, so you want to hug him just as long 

“babe, babe— okay, baby, i can’t breathe!!” he laughs, jokingly coughing as he wiggles his way out of your death grasp. you’re not apologetic, only pouting while sliding your fingers in between his free hands 

“do you want to invite me in?” he asks, the sass in his voice unavoidable and you’d like to slap it out of him

but this is what you missed, so you tugged at his hands and welcomed him in your apartment

“are these for me??” he hands you over the bouquet, recognizing instantly the camellia flowers delicately arranged. he doesn’t answer, only letting his pressed lips resisting its way to a smile tell you how it is

“thank you,” you say to him anyway, reluctant but giving in to what you’ve always wanted to do for so long. 

you kiss his cheek, and it feels all so familiar but new at the same time

he gasps for a moment, brows raised up as if in mock offense but steals a quick kiss on your lips before you can question his silly antics 

“thought you could get away with that huh”

and this is what you truly missed being with wonpil, side by side. the way he sheds off that introverted persona online and really ease into his comfortable ways with you. he’s full of love, of course, but there are times when he is subtly teasing with you as a form of affection

you place the camellias in an empty vase you find inside a cabinet. the two of you didn’t necessarily plan out what to do for the day, and that’s usually the case when he spends his free time here

“i just want to be in bed and… cuddle,” wonpil would confess, winning you over with his doe eyes. nine times out of ten, it works

but today you want to talk with him, catch up on what you’ve missed while he was busy with performing and going on variety shows. and wonpil complies because even though he loves just being lazy with you, having his arms enclosing your figure and dozing off that way

one thing he loves to do is also talk. and there’s so much to talk about! 

you share the couch with him, and wonpil instinctively opens up his arms so he can wrap them around your waist

he puts up his legs on the coffee table, and waits for you to say something

“oh? this is allowed now?” he perks up and you turn your head to look at him, tongue darting out in response

“just because i need your scent to be in every corner of this place as much as possible”

“that’s…. a little gross, babe” 

sue you for missing him that much!!! 

but that didn’t really bother you, in fact you lift your own legs up to rest on his. as you guys find a comfortable lying position, finally you ask wonpil how he has been doing

you’ve probably already heard most of his stories through his messages and voice calls beforehand

but nothing beats listening to wonpil talk in person, and to watch him do it with your own very eyes

it’s something special that you want to keep for yourself, you understand that wonpil has to connect to his fans too. he goes on vlives, writes instagram posts directly addressing mydays, and just overall be relatable to them

and… it gets to you a little bit, not gonna lie. there’s so much of him that he gives to others, yet he doesn’t see it that way 

you’re sometimes afraid that he’ll be seen as too fragile and be an easy target to break 

but over the years you’ve known wonpil, you have only seen him get stronger. be more thick skinned, and it’s an admiring feat 

“were you even listening to what i said?” 

“about dowoon overreaching his leader status even after promos? yep, sounds like him” 

wonpil looks utterly surprised, and you return his expression with a more menacing version 

he bursts into laughter right at your face, and if you didn’t enjoy him tightening his grasp around you, you’d shove him off on the floor

“wonpil why do u keep laughing at me!!”

“you just have that face” 

wow what a way to compliment your s/o thanks buddy” 

“hey now,” he lets out the last few chuckles bubbling in his system, releases one arm around you to poke your nose with his finger. “thats the kind of face i love for a partner” 

“well then consider yourself lucky,” you pout, and wonpil’s eyes shine even brighter

“i am.” 

there isn’t a lot more that happens that day, you guys really took “lazying around” in its most literal form

since the couch is a pull out, wonpil helped you with setting it up and placing bedsheets on it while you grab the blanket from your room 

he suggests if he can take a nap for an hour or two which resulted to a cuddling session before you both dozed off

the curtains on the windows to the side of the living room were drawn out, so the late afternoon sun found its way to the inside of your place

it was warm, it hit your cheek when you turned over so you decided to just lay in bed facing wonpil

when you’d be in and out of sleep, you see your boyfriend’s peaceful face just a kiss away from you

and so you do just that… kiss his lips softly as to not disturb him… you take it upon yourself to take in his features slowly while you can and

it’s such a sight to behold

nevermind the dark shadows forming underneath his eyes or the subtle stress lines on his forehead 

you make it a point to do a self care skincare routine with him tonight. he’d enjoy the new volcanic mask you bought to try out

but setting that aside, wonpil is still so beautiful to you. you understand, out of all people, how so many have fallen for him too

hips lips that produce one of the most hauntingly elegant voices you’ve heard, his cheeks that paints a blushing rose when he’s being effortlessly cute, his eyes that glimmer whenever he’s having fun

however right now he has them closed, relaxed, as his chest breaths in and breathes out

you snuggle even closer to him, putting your cheek up against where his heart should lay, and listen to the beat of his heart

you feel your own pounding in the still of the apartment, only a faint bustling hum of reality outside your window

and as the sun shines on wonpil’s face this time, he slowly wakes up and you will yourself not too look

as you feel him shuffle while repositioning his arms that have encircled you all this time

“you awake?” he asks groggily, his sleepy hoarse voice sending you shivers down your spine

you can’t help but smile silly against his clothes

“mmm” is your response

“psst” he whispers in your ear, caressing the sides of your hair in a lulling manner

before you get too comfortable with his affection, you slowly pull yourself away and look at him

and you can never get used to it, to him

“i really, really missed you,” he mouths, almost inaudible, but you know it in your heart 

suffice to say the two of you didn’t get up right away

now that it’s nearing sunset, you ask if he wants to get dinner or cook at home

“what if we bake”

“oh,” that wasn’t really in your mind, but why not? this means you get to spend more time with him, and it’s a great bonding experience. the two of you rarely do this sort of thing. sometimes he’s ask to cook for you, only to phone his mom during the whole process to help out

in the end of that conversation, though, wonpil would approach you if you were in the room or hanging out on the couch, attack you with those puppy dog eyes of him 

“eomma hung up on me. says i should already know how to make stew without her help”

“do you need my help then, wonpil?”

“yes pls “ :c 

so with baking, it’s perfect, because you guys can tag team

you settle on making brownies, craving some chocolate for tonight. you pull up a recipe on your ipad for reference 

“babe where’s the butter,” wonpil asks behind you, rummaging his way through your fridge

“on the side, next to the cheese,” you tell him as you focus on reading through the ingredients

“... where’s the cheese”

“top shelf, wonpil,” you laugh, turning to see him struggling with messing around the many jars and miscellaneous stuff you have in your fridge

“ah, this needs to be more organized baby,” wonpil chastises you, finally finding what he was looking for

“sorry,” you sheepishly grin, but help him with the remaining ingredients

now that you have everything laid out, baking with him is.. a wild ride

you thought the cooperation between you would fall into a field of familiarity, but wonpil’s eagerness to do everything and have you just be sort of his “assistant” is bugging you a bit 

“i can mix this in—”

“no no no, i got it. you’ll see, i got this” 

“but wonpil—”

“no no no,” he repeats, holding onto an egg as he shakes his head at you

“see this? it’ll get cracked with one hand, just you wait” the smug expression on him just looks to adorable not to react to, but you know if you say something he’ll take it in a different manner. you keep your mouth shut and let him do his thing

he takes a second, three, five seconds before finally cracking the egg on the edge of the bowl

and spilling it all over the counter before he got the chance to put it all in

that’s your cue to laugh as wonpil stands there to take in the shame

and walk it off by washing his hands and wiping the mess

you didn’t mean to be so loud about his mistake, but you see wonpil blushing hard with his arms crossed

and you just know you crossed the line

“wonpiriiiii” you whine, trying to take his hands in yours. he won’t budge, not even looking your way 

“it was an accident, you can just crack it with a fork or something” he relents as you sway your arms side to side, an attempt to calm him down and reassure him it’s nothing serious

and you actually love him more 

“yeah but i wanted to impress you”

if only you knew wonpil

“you impress me every day just knowing you’re with me,” you tell him, and the cheesiness sends him gagging mockingly 

the two of you would continue clowning each other while preparing the brownie mixture 

taking turns with cracking the eggs, even at one point having a seriously uncalled for juggling competition with two eggs 

that you immediately stop once you realize you don’t have back up eggs if this fails badly

at one point the brownie mixture has finally been combined, and you’re about to ask wonpil for the tray when you see him dip his finger in the bowl and pop it in his mouth

“mmm,” he reacts, before slowly reaching in to take another dip

“DUDE DON’T DOUBLE DIP” too late, he had already contaminated the bowl and was on his way to smear chocolate on your cheek 

you didn’t even have time to speak his death sentence

the deed has been done, the cheek has been smeared as your nose sniff at the chocolatey smell on your face

“oh it’s on, wonpil”

“no it’s not,” he counters, and he’s already laughing with his pointer finger still up in the air, remnants of chocolate still coating around the skin 

you want to approach it the same way he did, but you needed to go big

bringing the whisk filled with a gooey chocolate mess, you lift it up and take a slow, careful step towards wonpil

his laughter died down and is followed by a gulp down his throat

“you won’t dare, baby. i love you, i love you so much—”

“your words mean nothing right now, pil,” you say as sweetly as you can, comically licking some of the mixture that has traveled down the side of your lips. wonpil stared at your tongue, confused at his emotions right now

should he be turned on? threatened? 

he doesn’t get another second to think as you basically paint the whole side of his cheek with chocolate

“i feel better now” you say in between your own fits of laughter, pointing the whisk at wonpil’s sorry face as he just stands there

taking in what just happened

so yeah, y’all don’t get to bake what’s left of the brownie mixture until… after so much of it has ruined your clothes, and the kitchen counter

fortunately, as the poorly spread out brownie mixture bakes in the oven, you and wonpil get to

share a bath together :) 

maybe it was his plan all along because the smirk on his face doesn’t leave at all while you wash each other up

bath foam on his hair, on your nose

soapy kisses, the works

you’d indulge being skin to skin with wonpil this way, soaked in warm water with the smell of mint in the air from your body wash

you couldn’t take too long in the bath though as the brownies baked for a short period of time

“do you really choose brownies over me right now, babe? really?”

“wonpil the apartment will burn down if we don’t take them out of the oven”

…”

“okay point taken”

you finish up in the shower, put on your bathrobe and dry off your hands to hurry and take the tray out the oven

the brownies don’t look half-bad and evidence of the food fight you and wonpil didn’t even seem like it happened (courtesy to him voluntarily wiping everything down as you ran the bath quickly) 

“so is this dinner?” wonpil asks, walking towards you with his matching robe around him

“how about some take out for now?” you suggest sheepishly, hunger calling out to you already

he agrees, and calls your favorite restaurant for some food

the two of you then spend the rest of the night eating rice from take out boxes and dumplings on the pull out sofa bed, never ending conversations of everything in life accompanying the hum of background tv noise 

y’all even forget to eat the brownies as the dumplings and noodles had filled you up more than you thought

and that’s how you basically spent the first day he’s back with you, and the second is just the same

with more cuddling, sharing the shower, and enjoying every moment with him :) (less food fights though, he’s found out your sheer determination about such things… terrifying)

[maybecoolwords]

Not Enough ..

Pairing: Erik Stevens x plus size!reader

Word count: 2 192

Summary: Owning a company and working for it is not easy, but with a special someone by your side, it can become bearable. But what if that special someone ends up making it harder than it already is ?

Warnings: A little bit of Angst and then more fluff.

A/N: Hey guys, ever since I started reading fanfic, I’d rarely find any fanfic where the reader is the ceo, and those are actually some of my favourites to read. I’ve always wanted to write a fic where the reader is a strong independent woman, not that those don’t exist I actually read plenty of them, and I got recently inspired by @jalapenobarnes​ ‘ amazing series Sweet Life, except that I wrote this one-shot for Erik Killmonger instead of Bucky Barnes. I hope you guys like this one, and I recommend you read Sweet Life because it’s honestly one of my favourites.

The light of your laptop in front of you just blended with the sunlight breaking through your curtains. It’s a normal office day, except, it wasn’t so normal..

You’re sitting on your office chair. A black large chair, matching perfectly with your black large desk. You sat there for the past 92 minutes, since eight A.M to be exact, just thinking. The sound of the clock on the left wall was the only noise in the room. Or rather.. office. Your eyes are lost and a little puffy from all the crying you did during the previous night. Your right hand over your mouth, picking at your lips, a bad habit you just can’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard you tried. After all, it only happens when you’re deep in thought or concerned about something. You sat there just staring aimlessly at your windows, thinking…

The sound of your phone machine sounded through the room, now adding much more noise to the previously slightly calm environment you isolated yourself in for the past 94 minutes.

You were calm at first, you knew exactly who it was. He always calls on the same exact time every day he wasn’t visiting you at the office, that’s why you asked your assistant months ago to always forward his calls to your machine, no exceptions. Simply because you miss him, even if you’ve seen him that same morning when he begged you over and over to just stay in bed and take the day off..

But today, he has been calling your own phone nonstop, but since you kept ignoring his calls, he decided to call your office. His actions of the night before were the exact reason you found yourself so unproductive and just tired this morning.. Tired of thinking of him, of trying to find a way to justify his choice of words. And especially tired of repeating that same exact scene over and over again …

You’re standing at the bar, with a fresh drink in your hand, just enjoying the classy tunes the string ensemble are playing, but also watching everyone at the event. You’ve always liked to see how everyone showed their fakest smiles just to hide their deep insecurities.

Your eyes suddenly land on the one man you really wanted to be standing next to. Except, he wasn’t alone. Erik was talking with a woman and a man, and it seems to be a casual conversation, possibly about work, since that’s what GALAs are secretly meant for.

You were starting to get really bored standing there alone. To be honest, you brought that on yourself after having dismissed any man who came looking for a hot date. Well who can blame you; you only have eyes on one man… The one who didn’t bother to come looking for you after having ditched you when you first stepped into the room.

After you finished your drink, you decided to go to him. The bright red strap dress you’re wearing hugs your curves perfectly, which ultimately attracts everyone you walk by, and the high slit on your left leg that reached your thigh was just the perfect amount of revealing you’re looking for (mind the cleavage, because your body is an artwork). The men who publicly act like they’re repulsed by having a woman battle in their field are secretly lusting over you, and that just added more to your confidence. And the women in that same field are constantly cheering for you to go on, reminding you that woman power is stronger.

Unfortunately, your lovely dress was also making it kind of hard for you to breath because of how tight it is, hence why you chose to stand during the remaining of this super important charity GALA your best friend decided to throw.

Once you reached your boyfriend.. Or was he really your boyfriend? You don’t know. Each time you try to bring that subject up, Erik just decides to play a little dirty (which you don’t mind) you just end up forgetting about the whole ordeal. Does he do it intentionally or not, you didn’t figure that out yet.

But once you reach Erik, he turns quietly around with a charming – only for work – smile on his lips. He turns fully around, but once his eyes land on you, his beautiful smile vanishes, and his hand quickly tugs yours off of his shoulder.

«Sweetheart, I was waiting for you for the past thirty minutes, where have you been?» You asked in a tone just loud enough for the old (well, not really old) couple and Erik to hear.

«Oh, do you two know each other?» Asked the older man before taking a sip of his drink.

«Well-

«No, not really-» Erik was quick to cut you off, which immediately set your eyes on him, just waiting to hear what he has to say. «-Our companies had a project together a year ago and that was it, strict professionally based acquaintance.» Added Erik whose attention is now solely focused on the older couple in front of you.

«Oh, well, that’s what these GALAs are made for isn’t it? » Started the older man again. «Just to know your work colleagues on a more personal level, right? » He said with a chuckle at the end.

Your eyes never left Erik, you’re so shocked by his words and his calm demeanour that you just couldn’t feel anything else, other than betrayal and… hurt. And he just stood there, sipping on his scotch and a smug grin tugging at his lips. His proud stance makes you sick; you just want to leave that room.

«Excuse-me. » You said after it suddenly got harder to breathe, and walked away. Once you reached the exit doors, you felt the first tear of the night go down your cheek. You took a left turn on the long corridors and you started running. You didn’t want to give any of those unworthy people the satisfaction of seeing you cry over whatever reason. So you kept running, ignoring the calls of your name coming from the same guy behind your sadness.

That was until you reached the limo you came in, and quickly got in with the help of your driver, sparing Erik a simple glance his way before the driver speeds away, just to show him how hurtful his words were – are.

«Darling? »

His smooth voice broke you out of the trance you were is for the past few minutes. During that time, Erik managed to come into your office without you noticing him. He stood at the corner of your desk. His phone in hand, still calling your office phone number for what could be the thousandth time. He then reaches for the annoying machine and shuts it up, making the room go back to it’s previous silence.

«Were you just not gonna answer the phone ?» Erik’s smooth voice could almost make you jump over to him and give him a heartfelt hug, but that was the key word - almost. « What if it someone important was calling ?»

«I’m not in the mood to answer any calls.» Your hoarse voice was proof enough of how tired you are this not-so-fine morning. Your thumb and middle finger were massaging the sides of your forehead for a while until you took them away to get a good look at Erik, but never once looking him in the eyes. You just watch him sigh and look down at his shoes in shame and disappointment, not in you, but in himself. You’ve always been good at reading him, even if he isn’t such an open book. As for him, he knows exactly why you’re so calm.

«Baby look-»

«Don’t call me that.» You cut him off before he could manage to get another word out. You said it so calmly and quietly that he almost couldn’t hear it. He’d say he’s surprised of your calm demeanour if he didn’t know he was the reason behind it, but he’s guilty, and he knows he is.

«Y/N, I said what I said last night for a good reason, just please hear me out.» He sighed, «I didn’t say anything about us being a thing because we’ve never had a proper discussion about it, and I just ...» Once he heard your giggle, realizing you’re not paying attention to what he was saying, he stopped himself. «Baby, come on.» He added.

«I think I finally figured out why you always love for us to sneak around.» You chuckled. Your eyes looking at his for the first time. You finally decided to get up and get closer to him. «Never sitting next to each other during press conferences, ditching me at every party we go to together, never once going on ANY date, unless of course consider sex in my house or yours a date; God knows I don’t.» You screamed at him.

Once you’re only inches away from him (and seconds away from punching him), you took a few breaths and headed towards your floor to ceiling glass windows. That beautiful view really does help calm you down.

You’ve never once raised your voice at him. Because you just aren’t that kind of a woman. You always liked to solve any problem you two faced in your relationship without resolving to screaming matches. But seeing you lose your cool behaviour for the first time proved how truly hurt you are, and it’s another stab in the heart for him.

«Look -», You said again still looking away, «- I know I’m not the kind of girl any guy would wanna show off to the world, and I get it, trust me. But knowing that you’re so ashamed of me that you wouldn’t admit just to knowing me.. That hurts.» Your voice broke at the end, and that’s when you felt your not so first tear of that morning, falling down your cheek. «No matter how successful I can get, my body still stands in my way to find love.» You added, and just when you reach your hand to wipe it away, Erik’s already beat you to it.

«Don’t you EVER say that again.» He said in a broken voice, showcasing a little of his own broken heart. He held your hand, and cupped your cheek using his other hand. «Baby please look at me.» He’s literally begging you at this point but he doesn’t care, his main and only concern right now is not to lose you over such a petty subject. He’s already beating himself up for making you cry, and worse, for making you feel so insecure about yourself. He just can’t tolerate the concept of you having these ridiculous thoughts about him being embarrassed of you or your relationship.

«Baby I’m so sorry for what I did last night, but I promise you that I didn’t mean to make you feel this way.» He started when you looked at him in the eyes for the first time today (and hopefully not last). With those watery doe eyes you have, and that cute little pout on your lips, he just couldn’t help falling in love with you even more. «Baby I know I’m a real asshole for what I said yesterday, and honestly, I don’t even deserve you allowing me to touch you right now... Sweetheart you’re the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me, and I don’t plan on losing you anytime soon. I did what I did last night because I didn’t want those entitled people to think that you’re so successful today because of me, I wanted them to know that you’re independent and capable on your own self darling. I don’t want them to mock you or even think of disrespecting you in anyway. I thought I was in some way protecting you from those monsters.»

Hearing those pet words come from him again gave you such a warm feeling. And honestly, his explanation did make sense to you. In his own way, he was protecting you and you’re happy and unbelievably grateful to have such a sweet person by your side. You finally let a little grin break on your face, and seeing you smile again made him smile too. In a genuine moment you just grabbed his face a landed a quick peck on his lips before you said : «I love you, so much.»

«I love you too, so much more.» He answered before grabbing your face back, in a desperate attempt to feel your lips on his again. His lips brushed yours, in the softest way possible, not at all rushed, going as fast or as slow as you allow him. You just wanted to feel the warmth of his skin on yours, before your assistant comes stumbling in. It was after a little while that you both had to pull away, out of breath.

“So, are you ready to go public, miss Y/L/N?” Asked Erik, still holding you tight in his arms.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, Mr. Stevens.”

[niall-the-churchboy]

Our Baby ~ Liam Payne

In which she’s pregnant and he’s her best friend but he will never leave her side.

Word count: 5600

Warnings: Cursing and mentions of abandonment

A/n: This is the longest writing I’ve ever wrote, and I'm pretty happy with it. Hope you all enjoy it. In this one shot Liam has never been with Cheryl so he has never had tiny Bear. 

-------------------

Y/n and Liam are inseparable and the world is well aware of this. Anywhere you see Liam in public it’s almost impossible his best friend won’t be there too--walking behind him or running a little late-- and if she’s not then something is definitely wrong. Both Liam and Y/n being celebrities, Liam a singer and Y/n a well known blogger, they always go together as each other’s plus-ones. 

They were friends long before the fame, both of them living in the same block and eating together every Sunday due that their mothers still are close friends. They grew up sharing full days of laughters and goofing around--happy that they were each other’s weirdos, as their classmates liked to call them--, and after Y/n’s father abandoned her forever never saying why, Liam’s and Y/n’s relationship grew even stronger. 

When Liam succeeded in the ‘x factor’ Y/n was scared he would forget about her, leave her all alone against the bullies and without a friend. She was almost sure he would, her father did so, why wouldn’t Liam? Except he didn’t. He called her every night to narrate his busy day; let her know some new things he had discussed with the boys; all the fans that would scream their names; and tell her how Louis would bugged him non-stop. And she loved it. She knew then that Liam, unlike her father, would always be there for his best friend.

And people know this, Liam has always demonstrate himself very protective over Y/n, insulting anyone who messes with her over the media and standing up for her. 

After she finished high school, she took a whole fallow year before studying at college--which she drop out soon after-- and enjoyed her young adult life traveling with her best friend and his bandmates. The boys loved her being on tour, mostly because she has always been carefree and sweet --and because she loves to bake and that is a must for Niall--. 

It was after tour that Liam suggested she should move in with him given that the college Y/n was applying to was close to his flat and he had a lot of extra space. Sure, as explained before, she dropped out six months later to fulfil her dreams, but they have always been comfortable with each other’s companies so Y/n never moved out. And it's been like that ever since.

Now, as she unlocks their front door, knowing exactly that Liam is waiting for her because they always stream several shows of ‘h&h’ on Friday nights, she can barely breathe. Her heart hurts and she tries to clean her face from any tear stain. Liam can't know. She’s pretty sure he’ll lose his mind and go look for Darren. Darren as in Y/n’s boyfriend -- ex now.

“Hey, love!”, Liam calls from the couch, his head perking up to have a clearer view of Y/n, “come quick! ‘say yes to the dress’ is about to start!” She just nods, taking her time to hung her coat so she can control her emotions, however Liam noticies this --Y/n loves ‘Say yes to the dress’ and normally wouldn’t let herself miss a second of the episode. 

“You okay?”, he asks hesitant as she sits next to him on the couch, her posture rigid and her moves almost robotic. “Yeah”, she says trying to give out a reassuring smile, unfortunately for her it comes out more as a grimace than anything else. 

The only reason for why Y/n doesn’t want Liam to know is because she is certain he’ll go look for Darren and get into a huge drama. Liam hates him --he actually told her-- something that Y/n never really understood but decided to leave it behind because it really didn't bother her as much. I mean, Darren has always been some kind of distraction --she’s not proud of this-- but in a way she believes the lack of feelings was mutual. Not now though, now she’s pregnant and Darren wants nothing to do with it. 

The thought of her baby growing without a father is enough to send her back in tears as a single whimper escapes her lips, how could she let this happen? Not having a father is by far one of the worst feelings, no matter how much you go to therapy you’ll always have abandonment issues. And she doesn't want that for her baby. She has always promised this to herself, and now... she failed.

“Y/n, oh my god”, Liam reacts almost instantly cupping both sides of her face as he tries for her to look at him, “What’s wrong?” His eyes are full of concern--of sadness and confusion--and that makes Y/n cry harder, burying her face on his chest. He wraps his arms around her small back, rubbing soft circles but not pushing her because he understands quickly. She just needs to cry, she’ll explain later. 

This is probably one of the things Y/n loves most about Liam, they are so in sync with each other that they instantly know what the other needs, sometimes kind reassuring words; a joke of how miserable they look; tickles even; but now, now Y/n wants just to be hold without question.

They stay like that for some good ten minutes, the lights of London’s tall buildings shining against the moon of the night, its shimmer lightening the opened flat through its wide windows, a dim light coming from a lamp shadowing Y/n figure.

“Want to tell me what’s wrong?”, Liam asks softly, brushing her hair out of her face as she parts from his chest to look up at him, her breathing finally even. 

“I’m pregnant”, she says once and for all, her voice nasally. Liam freezes. Y/n bites her lip. 

“Does Darren know?”, is the first thing he asks, his eyes shifting from hers to her tummy gulping as he thinks of a baby growing inside her. 

Y/n nods before explaining, “I told him less than an hour ago. He broke up with me. Said I probably cheated.” Liam’s jaw tenses and his nostrils flare, Y/n noticies this and is quick to grab his hand, intertwining their fingers to prevent him from running out. 

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch”, Liam mutters under his breath as he begins to stand up.

“Don’t. Just...--please. Please stay with me”, she says with a single tear rolling down her cheek as she pulls him down again. And as much as Liam wants to physically hurt Darren, to have him plead for mercy, Y/n has always been far more important--will always be more important-- and he can tell she's scared. Of course she’s scared!, how could he think otherwise? Isn’t this Y/n’s biggest fear?

So he nods, kisses her temple and assures her everything will be okay. He mentally promises himself that he will never ever leave her side or her baby’s. 

---------

3 months

The first three months are as easy as they can be-- sure, apart from the morning sickness which starts to become a constant alarm for both Y/n and Liam, who wakes up at the sound of her from the other room to hold her hair and stroke her back--, Liam cooks new food each day at an attempt to figure out what the baby likes and what it makes Y/n puke out her whole breakfast back to the kitchen sink. Soon he has a long list of things that have stayed just fine. 

Darren is nowhere to be seen, fans and press notice this quickly and assume they’ve broke up. Nobody knows why but Y/n expects that as soon as her bump starts to become more visible, everyone will add two and two together and figure it out.

Is when Liam wakes up at dawn to find a sleepy Y/n roaming in the kitchen that the idea of a baby nearing really hits him. An unexpected warmth rushes through him as he watches her; the shirt slightly caresses the small roundness of her lower stomach, her hair is messily brushed to the side and her thumb is pressed against her lips. He doesn't even realise he has wrapped his arms around her until she leans against his chest, and it’s performed with such casualty that none of them grow uncomfortable with this new proximity. 

And it’s not until morning that Liam finds himself missing that type of intimacy between them, an intimacy that had never happened before. Liam is no stranger to the heart-swelling feeling Y/n always triggers in him, but he has always stayed quiet, he is sure the feeling is one-sided.

After all, why would friendly Y/n, who has better humour than Louis Tomlinson himself and is loved by almost everyone would even take a glance at him? He knows it’s a miracle itself that she even is his best friend, and he thanks whatever force above him decided to grow them so close. 

“Good morning”, she says with a sleepy voice as she exits his room --after some cookies and a warm glass of milk Liam had pursue her to sleep again, however she claimed that she would only do so if he slept next to her--, she plops on the couch next to him and rests her head on Liam’s lap. 

“Good morning”, he answers brushing her hair with his fingertips, she hums content at his warm touch, “slept okay?”

“Slept tight and cozy”, she wraps her arms around his waist and squishes her head closer to him, “I love you, Liam.” His heart begins to beat faster and he feels his hand begin to sweat but he orders himself to calm down and just before she can drift to sleep again, he answers, “I love you too.” 

If she only knew to what extent he meant it.

-----------

5 months

After that night a new sort of routine was suddenly created. Weather Y/n goes to Liam’s room or viceversa, one of them always ends up curled in the other’s arms. Y/n finds it comforting, she always appreciates having Liam close to her, and now with the pregnancy hormones and all, she’s emotionally wrecked. And Liam..., well, Liam has to sing to himself the bible three times before eventually drifting to a soundless sleep. 

“Liam!”, Y/n puts on one of the coats that hung in the wall next to the front door. December is slowly approaching and with it the steaming cups of hot chocolate and the fuzzy blankets. Y/n loves winter. 

“What?! What is it?! Is everything o--”, Liam practically runs to her side from the other corner of the apartment, his eyes flushed with concern and fear. “What’s wrong.” He begins lifting her arms and touching her five month swollen belly, not waiting for Y/n to answer as he begins examining her to find where she’s hurt. 

“Jeez, relax. I’m fine”, she looks at him with a funny smile on her face, “I need to go for the monthly check up, I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“What? No, no way you’re going alone”, even with the her coffee brown coat on, a sweater underneath and loose jeans tucked inside heel-boots, her belly is swollen enough that once she’s outside the word is gonna spread. And once the word spreads..., “Paparazzi are gonna follow you everywhere the second a picture is uploaded into the internet, it’s dangerous”, Liam tries to reason with her.

“But I’ll go in a car--.”

“So? They can still follow you! I’m going with you”, he decides putting his coat on and kicking in some shoes that were laying on the floor, he grabs a beanie by the counter next to Y/n and places it in her head, “There, now you’ll stay warm.”

Y/n is about to complain --she has coats of clothes on!-- but she knows arguing won’t be worth it and she’s already running late for the appointment. Deciding to let it be she grabs the keys and opens the door. 

As soon as they reach the hospital a picture of both Y/n and Liam has been leaked. In the ten-minute drive towards the hospital Y/n barely had time to see all the twitter notifications she was tagged in.

‘Y/n L/n is pregnant?’

‘Woah, when did this happen?’

‘You guys, I think this is why @Y/T/N isn’t with Darren anymore...’

The picture was clear, taken from a sideways angle where both you and Liam got in his car. He was opening the door for you, as you slightly touched your belly.

‘If my guy best friend doesn’t do this for me then I don’t want him’ this particular comment made Y/n smile, intertwine her fingers with his giving them a gentle squeeze. She knows that even if Liam can be super annoying sometimes, he’s just trying to protect her.

They sit at the waiting room, Y/n’s legs shaking up and down as she bites her nails. Liam places a reassuring hand on her thigh and smiles sweetly at her even though he is nervous himself too. Y/n is jumpy, today her doctor is supposed to announce her the sex of her baby, --and sure, the paparazzi trying to push inside isn’t making things easier--. While Liam is a bit edgy, he’s not sure what he should do, Should he go inside the room with her? Wait outside? Flip-off the paparazzi? 

The nerves tense his hand and he’s not aware of the light squeeze he’s giving Y/n’s thigh until she places her hand above his. He looks up to see her glossy eyes, she’s scared--he can tell--, so he leans his forehead to hers and brushes her hair with his fingertips. Her scent is almost blinding, perfect roses and lavender; her eyelashes that hung from her closed eyelids curled up in perfect synchrony; her cheeks suddenly rosier, a single tear falling down; the tips of their noses barely touching. Liam is sure that if he tilts his head a tiny bit he might me able to...

“Y/n L/n?”, their faces are pushed apart, the peace of the moment long gone as they watch the woman wearing a white coat take notes on her notepad. “There you are, come in!”, the doctor says cheerful. 

Y/n stands up, her hand tugging Liam’s, urging him to go with her. Oh well, that was easy, Liam thinks, some of the tension suddenly gone. 

The room is white and light blue, the floor tiles spotless and shiny; a blue stretcher pushed to the wall next to an ultrasound machine; a neat wooden desk and bird drawings hung on the wall. Liam realises the baby doesn’t have a nursery back at their apartment. 

“Please, take a sit”, The doctor motions towards the two chair in front of her desk as she sits on her own comfortable-looking chair. “How are you Y/n? I’m assuming this is the soon-to-be father?”, Y/n’s cheeks grow incredibly hot at her doctor’s comment, unsure on how to hide the awkwardness she laughs.

“Heh, no. This is my best friend, Liam.”, he smiles at the doctor and sticks out his hand for her to shake. “And I'm fine, morning sickness ceased completely so that’s great.” The woman nods and starts typing swiftly on her computer, for a full minute and a half she stays there, eyes concentrated and a frown on her face, everything else blocked away. 

“Okay, perfect. Let’s do our monthly check up, shall we?”, Y/n stands up and moves to the stretcher, lifting herself up and laying on it. She takes out her hand looking for Liam’s and in a matter of second their finger and intertwined and she sighs in relief. “Today we find the gender, are you excited?”, The doctor asks pulling a bit up Y/n’s sweater and shirt so she can apply the gel on her swollen belly. 

A sudden urge to caress Y/n’s belly invades Liam but he fight is off, he’s not about to make a moron of himself in-front of a doctor! And then his eyes catch the blurry outline of the baby on the screen, followed by a ‘tum tum... tum’ sound. All he can think about is that the baby is real, he is there, right there, with legs and arms and tiny tiny finger, and a strong beating heart. 

He doesn’t realise he’s crying until Y/n laughs wetly at him, tears on her eyes too as she brushes a tear off his cheek.  

The doctor smiles sweetly at them before focusing the ultrasound, “are you ready to know the gender?” Y/n just nods vigorously. “She’s a girl.”

A girl. Y/n swears she has never listened such a beautiful word before, a tiny baby girl to love and protect forever. Suddenly she can't wait anymore, she want to have her baby in her arms right now, brush her hair, give her kisses and hugs, and never ever leave her all alone. She brings her hand to her stomach and caresses it, Liam finally placing a firm hand there too, because he’s filled with so much happiness right now and everything seems perfect. He kisses Y/n’s temple, catching a wink from the doctor as he inhales her sweet scent. 

In that moment he swears he’ll protect his two girls until his last breath, because that’s what people should do towards the ones they love and he has never been so sure of something in his life. He loves them. 

---------------------

6 Months

Liam stirs in his bed, the dim light of dawn barely passing through the window’s curtains, his head widely awake remembering scene by scene of his nightmare.

 The nightmare consisted on Y/n bleeding to death, locked in a bathroom as he’s unable to break in and save her, only after she died the door opened slowly to show a lifeless Y/n --her usually rosy cheeks bloodless, her eyes cold and lacking the glow she always has, her hands laying on the floor as if they still were trying to reach the door-- the image made Liam jolt awake. 

And now he’s here, unable to check if she's okay given that she’s mad at him and has closed her door --sign that she doesn’t want him near--.

Liam knows he fucked up big time, but is it really his fault? You can’t blame him for defending Y/n against the biggest asshole the world has seen --aka: Darren. It all started as they were about to have dinner when suddenly both their twitters began blowing up, Darren had the audacity to have an interview and when he was approached with the question if the baby was in fact his, he completely denied it claiming Y/n was a hoe and had cheated on him, resulting her pregnancy. 

Liam wasn't the only one who completely lashed out. How dare Darren call Y/n names and point accusing fingers at her? Fans were quick to defend Y/n, but the real mess began when Liam took matters into his own hands and tweeted a very clear explanation of what had happened. 

@DarrenOfficial how dare you accuse Y/n of cheating? Don’t you remember who was the one that actually cheated or do I need to remind you? And call her a ho*?! Why don't you man up and start taking some responsibility, you know damn well that baby is yours!

The tweet was deleted minutes later when Y/n began shouting at him. He understands why Y/n would be uncomfortable with the tweet, she doesn’t want Darren near her baby girl, but he just wants her to understand that he’s only trying to protect her. It wasn't the right move, he’s well aware of that, but as soon as he read hoe he began seeing red. 

Removing the sheets and standing up, he decides that he can’t take it any longer. The image of Y/n’s lifeless body completely covered in blood is haunting him until a point where he is not even sure if it was a dream, so with sweaty hands and awake eyes he makes his way to Y/n’s room, opening the door slowly. 

The light from the corridor brighten Y/n’s otherwise dark room, Liam sighs when he sees her sleeping soundly, it almost calms completely down his hard-beating heart. Y/n’s figure on the bed, blankets pushed to the side due to the warm temperature in the room--he was sure to turn on the heater of the house as soon as winter started--, one of her arms cupping her swollen pregnant belly while the other is neatly packed below her cheek.

Liam decides this isn’t enough, he needs to be right next to her to reassure himself she’s alright and that her baby is healthy too. He climbs to the bed, making Y/n shift at the sudden movement, he slips his feet under the thick blankets and brings her closer to his chest.

“Li?”, Y/n asks with a sleepy voice turning to face him better, “what are you doing?” “Sorry, had a nightmare. Is it okay if I sleep here?”, he waits for her to nod before scooting closer to Y/n, eventually wrapping his arm around her belly and placing his hand right where he thinks the baby is. It takes a few minutes for Y/n to finally nuzzle against his neck--probably because she’s still a bit irritated--, and that is finally enough to calm him down.

Now he knows his nightmare was only just a nightmare, that Y/n will forgive him and most importantly, that she’s safe in his arms. Both of them are safe in his arms. 

----------

7 months

The sun is beginning to set when Y/n wakes up from a long nap. After a long day of movie marathons and homemade cupcakes --Liam learned to bake them  after Y/n woke him up several nights because she had sugar cravings-- she yanked the blanket on the sofa and drifted to sleep. Now, rough and loud sound came from down the hallway, the sound of metal; furniture being moved around; and hell, even hammers. 

She sits up, trying to stretch my lifting her shoulders and tilting her head down, Liam’s t-shirt barely fitting anymore.

“Liam?”, she walks towards the sound, realising it comes from the spare room in the back, “Liam, what are you doin--?” Her words are stroked with amazement, what used to be an empty white room with one of Liam’s old pianos, is now covered in baby-pink walls, two white dressers pushed to one of the sides, a nice grey loveseat, and wooden sticks coated in white laying on the middle of the room. 

Liam is so focused in assembling the crib that he’s completely oblivious to Y/n’s presence. His muscled tense every time he lifts a stick, his lips pressed tightly together when he nails the pieces together, and his eyes are concentrated and serious. As soon as they catch Y/n’s the change completely. 

“Y/n!”, he looks to the sides, the hammer he had at hand falling to the floor, “no! You weren’t supposed to see! I thought you were sleeping!”

She laughs at him shaking her head, “well..., you weren't exactly the definition of quiet”, she starts to walk around the room, Liam’s eyes following her every move, “but I love it!”

At this a shy smile draws on his face, placing the wood on the floor he stands up and walks towards her, “I was hoping you would. I’m still far from finishing, though, I need to buy a changer; and a bookshelf; and many, many stuffed animals.”

“Liam...”, she looks at him disapprovingly, the one look that makes him know for sure she’s about to lecture him.

“What?” Better play innocent.

“You know how I feel about you buying all this things...”, she looks around bringing her hands to her face, “I need to repay you all this.”

He wraps his arms around her and pulls her into his chest, “Y/n, please stop worrying. Let me do this one thing that makes me happy”, she looks up at him, taking in his beautiful features lighted by the golden hour. 

His soft lips curved into a shy smile; the prominent, clean cut of his jaw, slightly unshaven; his furry straight brows urging Y/n to brush a finger through them; the gleaming light against his rich brown eyes; and his hair brushed to the sides, short and thick. 

“Okay”, she whispers, suddenly amazed by his stunning features. 

“For your baby”, he kisses the top of her head, and Y/n can only wish he had said ‘our baby’.

--------------

8 months

Suddenly, everything is about Liam. Y/n tries to shake him off but it’s impossible, her mind always fixes on him and she can't seem to remember the days when he was just her best friend. Now, all she can think about is what if, she knows it’s not worth it--why the hell would Liam fucking Payne want to date Y/n? But every time he brushes her hair, massage her feet, she dares to think that maybe, just maybe, Liam likes her back.

A crush. Hell, Y/n doesn't remember the last time she had feelings for someone--if she ever had-- and the weird feeling that spreads from her stomach all to her heart seems to never stop. And her baby kicks, she kicks so hard every time Liam approaches or talks, almost as if she wanted to let Y/n know she likes Liam too. After all, who wouldn't like him?

“Hello, love”, he falls onto the couch next to her, Y/n’s feet resting on the coffee table in front, “how are you feeling?” He reaches a hand to her stomach, placing it where he knows the baby always kicks, and soon enough he’s rubbing it making Y/n heart clench and her cheeks flush. 

“Fat. But overall, okay”, she brushes down his hair when he rest his head on her stomach, a smile drawing on his lips when the baby kicks, “I was thinking of baby names. I have a few in mind.”

When he hears this his eyes shine, sitting straight again and cupping her hands on his, “Can I help? I want to help! I believe I made a list a few years ago, it must be  somewhere.”

Y/n laughs shaking her head, only Liam would make a list full of baby names prior to actually having a baby. “A list? I suppose it could come in handy.” That's enough to have him rushing to his bedroom, the sound of drawers being opened and close as he tosses thing on the floor. 

“HERE!”, he chants running back, a proud look on his face. 

“Mhm...”, she takes the list from his hand, a crumpled paper with messy handwriting on it, “let’s see.”

“Claire-- no; Bella--too generic; Ryley...-- Liam, where do you get this names from?”, Y/n stops reading, giving the list back to him.

“What? You don’t like them?”

“No... They are not bad, but they are too simple”, she rubs her forehead. Y/n always hated choosing names for things, from a good username, to naming a pet, and now choosing a special name for her baby. 

“So what? You want to give your baby a strange, exotic name? She’s gonna be bullied!”, Liam is a bit offended, he personally thinks those names are perfect. 

Y/n brings a hand to her belly, suddenly believing that randomising a name wouldn't be that bad, she might get a horrible one but it would get the job done. “It depends! It's not like I’m thinking on naming her ‘Bear’ or something.”

He rolls his eyes at her, “And what were you thinking?”

“Maybe Reagan, or Quinn...”

“Definitely not Reagan”, Liam objects, “If you choose Reagan she will a hundred percent turn into an antisocial person that dyes her hair burgundy and wear black.”

Y/n slaps playfully at Liam, “Names don't define personalities, and besides, I’m not sure.” She stands up and walks to the window, her eyes catching the tall buildings; rain pouring down on people; umbrellas of every colour; cars and vehicles moving down the long streets of London. 

“London”, she says out loud. 

“I’m sorry? Couldn't hear you?”, Liam walks towards her. 

“London?”, she turns towards him, a look of realisation striking him as he thinks about it, “It’s not exotic neither too generic. Besides, I think it has a nice ring to it, London L/n.”

“London..., could call her Londy for short”, Liam nods, “I like it.”

“You are not calling my child Londy.”

---------------------

Nine Months

Y/n eyes are fixed on the upcoming sunset that shines through the window, her head resting in Liam’s lap as she rubs her huge belly and tucks her swollen feet in the cushions of the sofa. There is faint music coming from the tiny speaker laying next to the television, but apart from that everything else is quiet. It has been the first hot day in a while, and the feeling of spring and runny noses can be seen everywhere, at least with Liam who can only rub his nose every minute or so. 

 “Do you believe in true love?”, Y/n’s question takes Liam by surprise. 

“Wh-”, he clears his throat, “What do you mean?” Liam watches her sit straight,  and turn to look at him, her eyes shining and her lips neatly packed in a thin line. 

“If you believe in true love”, she says again, “like in actual love.”

Liam shifts uncomfortable, unsure on what he should say, “do you?”, he responds hesitant. 

Y/n licks her lips, a frown forming on her face as she thinks, finally sighing before answering, “I don’t know... How do I know if I’m ever actually in love?”

Liam won't deny that Y/n’s question makes his heart clench, only wishing she loves him just like he’s in love with her. How does it feel to be in love? He only needs to look at Y/n once to know the answer. “Because when you are in love, all you can think about is that one person. You memorise everything about her, the way her eyes shine against the soft light of dawn while you talk about senseless things; or how her laugh sounds when you joke around; even how her soft skin feels against your hands. When you're in love, that person suddenly becomes your everything, you would do anything to make her feel happy and appreciated and most of all loved. Because when you look at her dead in the eye, she makes your heart skip a beat, and your stomach turn and this sudden feeling of giddiness run through your body while everything else simply disappears.”

Liam looks at Y/n and for the first time he can't seem to know what she's thinking, “that’s how you know you are in love.”

When a moment you have been waiting for a long time finally strikes, you have to make sure you are not dreaming. Liam isn’t sure he’s not dreaming, but decides to enjoy the moment when the prominent scent of Y/n reaches his nostrils, her lips soft against his, their cheeks hot. Y/n tangles her hands on Liam’s hair, and even though she has done this countless of times, right now it feels different. He feels different. A crazy feeling explodes in Y/n’s tummy, and she feels she might fly away, her legs feel wet and a sharp feeling in her back tenses her completely. 

“Y/n?”, Liam parts his lips from hers, turning his head to the dark spot in the couch, “Y/n did you just-?” Y/n winces and that’s enough to confirm his question, her water just broke. Even though his head still spins from the recent kiss, he orders himself to keep calm, and run to Y/n’s room where the bag they prepared a few weeks ago is laying. 

Y/n begins to pant, not because she’s in horrible pain, but because she’s completely nervous. What if something bad happens? She can’t help herself but think that she might not be strong enough. She finally lets herself calm down when she feels Liam’s lips against her forehead, a warm hand on her back as he guides her out the apartment. 

The next few hours are a game where all you can do is wait, but not a second does Liam’s hand leave Y/n’s. Their grip tight, the feeling of sureness and the promise to never leave their side.

All her life Y/n has been scared of abandonment, but with Liam next to her, she knows that won't ever be possible for her. So when little baby London --wailing as she tightens her tiny fist--is pressed against Y/n’s chest, her eyes catching both Liam and Y/n who tilt their head as they smile at her, Y/n dares to say, “Look Liam. Look at our baby girl.” And all Liam can do is cry, happiness and joy erupting everywhere, because yes, its their baby girl. 

------------------

I hope you enjoyed it! I’ve been working on this drafts for months and it finally feels complete.

Masterlist is here

[hunflowers]

an angsty blurb, if you will. this was a tough one to write but i’m sad so imma make y’all sad with me :) also, it was not at all supposed to be this long but i suppose i got carried away lolz. and happy thanksgiving for all of you that celebrate *nose boops*

she wanted to cry. that’s all she wanted to do lately, was lay in bed, staring at the ceiling or the wall or the window while she just cried.

nothing was how it used to be. she used to be a very happy person, but life got in the way. it sucked, because she usually laughed in life’s face and made her own path. but not anymore. now, she wanted to apologize for never listening and for thinking she knew what she was doing.

as a college student, life is already pretty tough. that was a given because, obviously, it was the college life. life was gonna throw curveballs left and right and you’d have to be able to catch them.

and she usually did.

but, with graduation approaching, she felt this unbearable weight on her shoulders she couldn’t seem to shake. maybe it was because she was seeing less and less of her boyfriend, or because her mother stopped talking to her, or because her father was never actually in the picture, or because the people she thought were here friends turned out to be backstabbing assholes, or because she was failing two classes that she needed to complete her psychology studies to avoid going another semester.

of course, those could be the problems, or maybe she was just getting her period early.

the only thing she really cared about right now was cuddling up to her boyfriend, and hoping he would take away her worries. but, how could she do that when he was never around?

it was the weekend and he promised to come to hers as a nice little vacation, just them two and no one else all weekend.

he lied.

it was half past nine on a saturday night and he hadn’t even so much as called her all day. clearly he forgot and y/n was just about fed up.

she had no one right now, and she figured she at least had him to keep her company while the world was crashing down on her. but she didn’t have anyone and this was where y/n decided to draw the line.

it wasn’t like he had anywhere important to be this night. in all fairness he had a few friends like her, and was just as busy with the pending graduation in their future. he had no reason to not be with her right now, but alas he felt otherwise. and y/n didn’t need this stress anymore. it wasn’t uncommon for him to forget coming over or texting or calling her nowadays. school was always his excuse, but she just thinks it’s because he’s tired of her and he doesn’t know how to break the news to her.

two years of a relationship was simply thrown down the drain because he couldn’t be bothered anymore. maybe he was actually with a new girl right this second, but y/n didn’t have the energy to try and investigate. she didn’t have the energy to even care at this point. so, she had it set in her mind to not care and to just end things with him before he could with her. because at least she’d feel a little bit stronger in the end.

so, when another hour went by without a text or a call, and she had finished all of the chinese food she ordered for two and half of the movies she set out to watch for the night, she figured it was time to ring him up.

it took a while for him to answer, and just when she was going to hang up, y/n heard the familiar voice that used to give her butterflies. “hello?”

“harry?” she could hardly hear him with the loud music blaring in the background. y/n had to scoff because of course the reason he dipped on her was to party it up wherever.

“uh– hold on one second!” and then a few moments later the loud music ceased in the background, and it was just the two of them, like she had hoped.

“hey, what’s up?” he questioned like he was completely surprised to hear from her.

“i assume you forgot about this weekend then,” y/n murmured as she tried to hold back the tears that began to edge her waterline.

there was a moment of silence as harry pondered over what his girlfriend could mean. “this week– oh, shit. baby, listen–”

“a party? really?”

“the guys were hounding me to go! i’m so sorry i forgot, i’ll be over first thing in the morning,” he tried to reconcile, but there was no point. this was beyond a fix.

“you didn’t have to go,” y/n hissed, slowly getting more and more pissed off at the sound of his voice.

“it was a tough week this week, i figured i could let loose, if that’s okay with you.” normally y/n was pretty easy going with things, not necessarily letting people walk over her, but she never thought too deeply into things, especially like this. she knows he’s allowed to have a life outside of her, but it annoys her that she’s hardly even been in his life lately. so no, it really wasn’t okay with her.

“and i figured you could let loose with me. that was the whole point of promising to spend time together, so we could be together and deal with our shitty weeks together.”

“y’know, i apologized, i don’t know what else you really want from me,” he spat.

i just want you here with me, she thought.

“i don’t really know what i want from you either.”

“i’m not talking about this anymore. i’m sorry, i’ll make it up to you tomorrow but i can’t talk about it right now.”

“then i can’t be with you anymore.”

then there was a deafening silence that y/n hated so much. but she had to, because life sucked lately and he was very much part of that. if she could gain back her happiness, this was a start.

being with harry felt more like a job than a relationship, and proved to be more stressful than her actual job and school combined.

what kind of relationship feels like that? a shitty one.

she doesn’t know how long there was no words spoken between one another. it was probably around thirty seconds but it felt more like a lifetime. and if he didn’t say something quick, she was going to hang up.

and as much y/n prayed harry would just concede and make this process a lot less difficult, she also prayed deep down that he would fight for her. because if he fought, then that would mean he still cared for her, maybe a tenth as much as she cared for him.

when he finally spoke up, the tears in her eyes finally broke past the dam. “y/n. . . what’re you saying right now?”

“i think you heard me,” she responded as coldly as she could without giving away that she was a sobbing mess.

“baby–”

“harry, you forgot we had plans this weekend. you’re always forgetting and i just– i’m so tired,” she whispered the end, covering her mouth as a pretty loud cry escaped past her lips.

“you could at least have the fucking decency to do this in person,” he snarled back at her.

“how could i?! you’re never around anymore!” she shouted over the phone.

and then he hung up the phone on her.

and instead of feeling a weight lifted off her shoulders, y/n felt as though gravity had grown stronger, wanting to swallow her down through the ground and put her out of her misery.

she sobbed into her hands, gasping for breath every so often because she was so busy crying she forgot to intake air. she sat on her couch for an hour, letting out all of her pent up sadness from the past few months, wishing she could go back to how things used to be, when she was living her best life.

then a pounding on her front door sounded throughout her small apartment, shocking her from her fetal position instantly. she knew it was harry, but she hardly had the energy to move from her spot in her despair.

she ignored him but he just continued to knock and knock and knock until she would answer. she didn’t want to face him, especially looking like this because she knew seeing his face would just make things worse.

“y/n open this goddamn door before i break it down!” he screamed through the wood. realizing her neighbors were bound to venture out in the hall soon to wonder what was happening or to shut him up, y/n practically ran to her door to get him to stop his shouting.

quickly wiping at her eyes, as if that would help her at all, she opened the door and saw his pretty face and she nearly broke down again right there. but she had to stay strong because this was her idea. she was brave enough to spew those words to him, she had to stay brave to go through with it.

harry had a hard look on his face, as expected, but the second he saw his girl, puffy eyed, red nose, red cheeks, and shaky hands, his heart broke. he should remain mad because who was she to break up with him like that, but he knew she was right.

he was hardly around anymore, and it wasn’t on purpose, it was just the way his schedule worked. but he figured she was okay with it and that she would understand so he never took the time to explain himself. but if he wanted to keep her, he would have to do just that.

he couldn’t imagine his life without her, because she was everything he ever wanted out of a girlfriend. yeah, they were young and he shouldn’t be thinking of her as his wife just yet, but she was the perfect girlfriend, and he hated that he took advantage of that.

not even bothering to shut the door after him, y/n turned and walked back over to her couch, figuring he would just close it anyway after he stepped inside.

“we need to talk,” he started, making his way over to her and sitting on the opposite end of the couch.

“you think?” she scoffed, pulling her pillow closer to her chest.

he had the urge to roll his eyes at her harshness, but refrained himself from doing so. “look. . . i know, trust me i know i’ve been a horrible boyfriend lately. i never meant for things to turn out this way and i do take responsibility for it because i know you put in a lot of effort lately and i don’t know how to explain it but–”

“well you better figure that out then.”

he bit his lip, getting angrier at her coldness. “but the best way i can explain it is that i knew you would always be there no matter what. i took your patience and your kindness for granted, and i’m sorry.”

y/n looked at him with a blank stare, waiting for a better apology than that. she still couldn’t just cave then and there because not only was it a weak attempt at her forgiveness, but because it seemed so insincere. “is that all you have to say to me?”

“no. i love you so much, more than i can even fathom. you mean so much to me, and i’ll do whatever it takes for you to stay by my side, honestly. i’ll give you your space if you need it, i’ll tell you i love you as many times as you need it, the same for i’m sorry. please, baby, i love you,” he reached forward and took her hands in his, and her cool ones were a major contrast to his warm ones.

she let out a quiet cry as she leaned her head down on his shoulder, taking in the soft scent of his cologne.

she was going to cave. she knew she’d never be able to go through with breaking up with him the second he’d spew out some bullshit apology. but she just loved him so much and he was the only person in her life who seemed to give a shit about her lately.

so she caved. “space from you is the last thing i want,” she murmured as she crawled into his lap, really embracing him as she continued to cry in his chest. he gently caressed her back, giving her all the time she needed to let it all out.

“all i needed was you and i would be okay. you’re all i wanted and you weren’t here. i’ve had the worst few months and you weren’t here to help me through it,” she ranted while she sobbed, gripping at his shirt tightly.

he murmured ‘i’m sorry’ over and over into her hair, his own eyes swelling with tears as she continued to just cry.

“i’m here now, you can talk to me now. i’m all yours for however long you want me, love.”

then she hugged him closer and looked up into his eyes before planting the softest, yet most meaningful kiss upon his lips.

maybe things would be okay again.

[buckthegrump]

The First of Many

Summary: Sometimes people surprise you.

Word Count: 3375

Warnings: People being assholes, swearing, but other than that absolute fluff

A/n: I wrote this a million years ago as entry for @themaskedwriter and i felt as if y’all should get some fluff because the angst train is coming on literally all my other writings so here ya go

It was happening again. You could hear them. They thought they were being quiet but alcohol made people stupid. Especially former frat boys, somehow you always managed to run into the ones that never fully left college when you were out and about.

You were sitting at the bar waiting for your roommate, who wasn’t usually late but seemed to be today.

The bar was a dingy old place but it was fully stocked and drinks were cheap.

It was Friday and you’d just gotten off of work and desperately needed not only a drink or two but to interact with other adults. However, you could’ve dealt without the group of men behind you because you had a feeling you knew what was going to happen. You only hoped that Okoye would get here before one of them decided to come over.

No such luck.

One of them came up and stood next to you. He played dumb by staring at the wall of alcohol as if he was deciding what he wanted.

“What do you suggest?” He leaned over and asked.

You gave him a blank stare, he was cute. Or at least he could’ve been.

“I’ll have whatever she’s having,” he told the bartender, Wanda, who gave you a look.

“A sex on the beach,” you told Wanda, who knew you were lying.

“Wait, what?” The overgrown frat boy asked.

“One sex on the beach comin’ up.” Wanda pulled out what she needed before he could change his order.

Shaking his head he looked to you, “So, what’s your name?”

“Y/n,” you answered unenthusiastically.

“Y/n,” he repeated, “that’s a beautiful name. I’m Grant.”

His overconfidence was already annoying you. But you had to continue to remind yourself to play nice because he and his friends outnumbered you and you didn’t want to start anything

“Nice to meet you,” you gave him a half-smile.

“So, what’s a pretty girl like you doing here at a bar alone?”

“Waiting for true love to come in and sweep me off my feet.” You took a sip of the rum and coke Wanda had just set in front of you.

“Oh, well here I am,” he said making you choke.

“That’s presumptuous of you.”

“Thank you,” he smirked, “so can I take you out?”

You wanted to laugh or throw your drink in his face but you just smiled at him and shrugged.

“Maybe,” you said as flirty as you could manage.

Grant wrote down his number on a napkin next to you. He slid it over to you and winked, you smiled but you wanted to gag. 

Once his back was turned you took the napkin and ripped it up and watched as the pieces floated onto the bar.

Wanda placed the drink she’d just made in front of you and winked, “On the house.”

“Thank you, Wanda,” you said as you played with the disregarded napkin pieces on the bar.

“That seems a little dramatic, don’t cha think?” A voice next to you asked.

You turned to a blue-eyed man who was sitting next to you with a quizzical look on his face.

“No, I don’t think it was,” you answered.

“Ok,” he nodded, “Then why did you rip up his number?”

You looked back to the group Grant had just rejoined then back at the stranger. 

“It was a dare. He did that because they have dubbed me the least attractive person here and thought I would be an easy target. Jokes on them, though I’ve been the butt of that joke before,” you threw up a peace sign and looked to your almost finished rum and coke.

Why were you telling this guy this? He is probably no different than the rest of them. And there you were telling this random guy about the one thing that kept you from dating the most.

“So if I was to give you my number or ask you on a date, would you assume that I was doing the same thing?” He asked.

“Well considering that I don’t know your name -”

“James,” he answered, “But people call me Bucky.”

“Who calls you James?” You asked surprising yourself with how interested you were in him.

He smiled while writing something down, “I guess if you really wanna know,” he slid the paper over to you, “you’ll find out.”

He gave you a wink and walked away.

“Who was that?” Okoye asked from behind you.

You turned and looked at your roommate.

“I don’t know,” you answered.

“She was just hit on,” Wanda said.

“By that guy,” Okoye pointed to Bucky who was joining his group of friends.

“Yeah but I think he felt sorry for me because that guy,” you pointed at Grant, “was dared to hit on me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Okoye said.

“It’s whatever. Here,” you said sliding the sex on the beach to Okoye who grimaced and looked at you, “It’s free and I’m not gonna finish it.”

 “Wanda, I would like to buy my lovely friend a bunch of drinks,” Okoye took the drink you handed her anyway.

“The usual coming up,” Wanda said pulling out multiple shot glasses.

“So how was work?” Okoye asked and you launched into a story about what happened during the day. Neither Wanda or Okoye missed how you slipped Bucky’s phone number into your purse.

/

Being a nanny was interesting, to say the least. Especially when one of the kids you were a nanny for was only six-months-old and every person on the planet thought that the baby was yours despite the fact that the baby looked nothing like you. But that didn’t seem to matter to anyone, it’d be one thing if they thought you adopted him, but most of them made a comment about how ‘your son looked so much like you’ which made you want to scream.

But that wasn’t going to stop you from taking baby Mike out, because sitting around all day with a baby could get boring.

So you took Mike to Target because you wanted to buy some new clothes. 

You were holding up two different black shirts.

“What do you think, Mikey? Black or black?” You asked the baby, who just stared at you, “No, I know. They’re both black, but one is more black than the other and they are different style shirts.”

Mike coos.

“You’re right, I should just get both, it’s not like I’m trying not to spend money,” you said sarcastically tossing the shirts in the cart. You look up and your eye land on someone across the way. “Oh, shit. Ok, Mike let’s make a quick getaway.”

“Hey,” Bucky made eye contact with you before you could dash off.

“Hi.”

“You never called,” he said getting right to the point.

“Is there an expiration date on phone numbers?” 

Bucky laughed, you’d never heard anything like it, and you instantly wanted to make him do it again.

“No, I guess there’s not. I never caught your name.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, “are you sure? Because if I remember correctly, you were there when I told it to the Gus guy. So is this your way of trying not to seem creepy for already knowing despite my never telling you?”

“Yeah,” he blushed.

“Y/n.”

“Who’s this?” He nodded towards Mike.

“Ah, this is Mike or Mikey. He’s one of the kids I nanny.”

Bucky leaned over so Mike could see him, “It is very nice to meet you, Mike. I’m Bucky.”

Mike stared at him for a moment, this baby had a serious case of resting bitch face, before he smiled at him and Bucky’s face lit up.

“Well, ya know what they say, babies are a great judge of character,” Bucky told Mike.

Mike grunted and Bucky gasped.

“Tell me more,” he said.

Watching him interact with a baby was almost too much for you and you needed to get him away from this before you completely broke down and asked him out right then and there.

“Well,” Bucky turned back to you, “I will leave you two to it. And I sincerely hope you do decide to call me, but no pressure.”

That night, after Okoye stared you down, you ended up calling him and asking him on a date.

/

“Stop pacing, you’re starting to make me nervous,” Okoye said from the couch not bothering to look up from her phone.

“Ok, but consider this,” you said continuing to pace, “What if he’s also doing this as a dare? What do I do then? Oh my god.”

“What?” Okoye looked up at you.

“What if he didn’t do this as a dare but hates me anyway? Or what if we start out liking each other and then -”

“Y/n!” Okoye cut you off. She shot up from her place on the couch and placed her hands on your shoulders. “If you don’t stop I will kill you. And I’d rather not kill you because that’s a lot of clean up for me and I don’t want to find a new roommate. So just chill out ok?”

“But -”

“No, if anything happens, I’ll kick his ass. So sit down and breathe.”

You sat in the armchair next to the sofa and took three deep breaths. Your text alert went off, you wasted no time in checking it.

Bucky: I’m downstairs.

“Ok, he’s here,” you got up and grabbed your things.

“Have fun and be safe,” Okoye called just before you shut the door.

Despite all your doubts and worries, you were excited, you couldn’t remember the last time you went on a date. Once you walked out the door your eyes landed on Bucky who was wearing black pants with a navy floral button-up shirt and a leather jacket. God, he was breathtaking.

When he saw you he started grinning.

“You look beautiful,” he said earnestly once you were within a foot of him. 

You looked at the ground bashfully, “Thank you. You look beautiful too.”

“It’s the shirt isn’t it?” He teased.

“I like the shirt,” you told him and his smile widened, which you didn’t think was possible.

“Alright well,” he held out his arm and you took it, “let’s get the night started shall we?”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he smiled.

He led you to his car and opened up the door for you.  Once you were in, he shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side.

You looked out the window not wanting Bucky too see the embarrassed look on your face. 

This was the first time anyone has ever treated you like this on a date and it hadn’t even really started yet. And just like that, you finally understood what everyone meant when they said they had the best first date ever.

“You ok?” Bucky asked.

You turned to him, hoping that your facial expression had pulled itself together.

“Yeah,” you said.

It wasn’t technically a lie it just also wasn’t the complete truth.

He smiled and kept driving.

“Ya know what sucks the most about first dates?” He asked out of the blue.

“Uhh,” you stalled not sure how to answer.

“The 20 questions game, like I ask you where you grow up and then you answer and then you ask me some stupid question that I answer.”

“What would you suggest we do about this dreadful game then?” You held back a laugh.

“I think we should just tell each other our best stories for the night.”

“So you want to burn through all of my date material in one go? What would we talk about next time?” You asked as he came to a red light.

He looked over at you and smirked, “We aren’t even at the date site yet and you’re already talking about date number 2?”

“I- I uhhh -”

“Well, I better not fuck the rest of tonight up if I’m almost guaranteed a second date.”

Once again you had to look out the window to hide your face.

After a minute or two of driving Bucky stopped the car at the pier.

“Really?” You asked.

“What?” He looked at you, “Dates should be an experience, not just a fucking dinner.”

He got out of the car first and raced to your side to open the door for you but you opened it before he got there.

“Ya know, it’s hard to show off my gentleman-like qualities if you ruin my opportunities,” he said.

You laughed at him as you got out of the car. He offered you his hand and without even thinking about it, you took it.

He led you to the first stop, an elephant ear stand.

“Dessert first?” You asked.

“Are you not a dessert person?” He asked looking worried.

“What about me says I’m not a dessert person?” You laughed.

“Ok, well my current plan was to split one but if you want your own -” 

“We can split one,” you told him, “but I expect cotton candy on the way back.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

You hadn’t realized that neither one of you let go of each other's hand until he pulled away to reach for his wallet.

“If I’d known we were going to be near the water I would’ve brought a jacket,” you muttered, not meaning for him to hear.

But of course, he did. So, he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on your shoulders. You slid your arms into the sleeves. Involuntarily you inhaled his scent, it smelled like old spice.

“Ok, so normally I’d save this story for the end of the date or date number two. So this is either going to make or break tonight,” Bucky said in between bites.

“Lay it on me,” you licked your thumb and forefinger.

“Ok, well,” he then launched into a story about the one time his friend Steve and Sam were trying to show off for some girl at the bar and they happened to be playing darts at the time. One thing led to another and Sam ended up hitting Bucky in the shoulder with a dart. Then apparently Bucky dramatically threw his arms into the air and hit not one but two women in the face.

You couldn’t stop laughing if you tried.

“It’s not that funny,” he clearly thought it was funny by the smile on his face.

“Did it hurt?”

“Not really I was drunk,” he admitted.

“Were they ok?” You gasped.

“I didn’t ask I was too focused on the fact that my friend hit me with a dart!”

You continued to laugh until you made it to the Ferris wheel line. Your laughter died down a little and you caught Bucky looking at you with a fond smile.

“What?” You asked.

“Nothing, it’s your turn to tell a story,” he said.

“Ok, well there was this one time Okoye, my roommate, thought that it would be a good idea to try and set me up with someone she knew from her home. So he came to visit and then confessed his love for her right there in front of me while I was all ready to go on a date with him.”

He looked at you in disbelief, “That’s not funny.”

“First of all, it’s hilarious. Second of all, I don’t have a lot of friends. It’s not like I have co-workers I can go out with. The majority of my time is spent with a baby and I don’t have many opportunities to talk to other adults.”

“Alright well,” Bucky said as you moved up a few spots in line, “I think that you will get along great with my friends.”

“Oh, so we’re skipping right over the second date to meeting your friends? That’s almost more important than meeting your family,” you teased.

“How so?” He asked.

The ride attendant let you on to one of the seats. Once you were seated you looked at him.

“Well, you pick your friends right? You can’t pick your family and in my eyes, your friends' opinion is more important than your family’s because you picked them. And you can be embarrassed by your family.”

“So what should I think about your lack of friends situation?” He teased.

“That I’m very selective with who I hang out with and that my time is precious and I don’t waste it on just anybody.”

You looked at him and his eyes drifted down to your lips for a fraction of a second then he looked back up to your eyes. The Ferris wheel stopped when your cart got to the top.

“What?” You asked.

“Your laugh is the most sound I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh -”

“And you are smart and beautiful, and it boggles me that you are single.”

“People use me as a dare -” you reminded him.

“They’re stupid and don’t know what they’re missing,” he whispered as his eyes drifted to your lips again.

“Bucky -”

“Y/n, I really,” he paused, “I’m having a really good time tonight.”

“Me too,” you answered.

“Would it be too forward if I said I wanted to kiss you?”

“No, but we don’t always get what we want.”

“But if you try sometimes you just might find -”

“Don’t,” you told him.

He leaned in really close to your face and you scrunched your face as he sang, “You get what  you need.”

“I hate you!” You laughed.

“Do you?”

“No.”

“So,” he put his arm on the back of the seat, “On a scale from one to ten how is this date going?”

“I’ll let you know at the end of the night.”

And the night went on and it went amazing. And you would never admit it in a million years, well you might but not for a while, but you could feel yourself falling in love with him.

The drive home was odd, only because you didn’t want the night to end and that had never happened before. Typically you were ready for the night to end and you couldn’t wait to share with Okoye while you share a bottle of wine and laugh about how stupid the date was. But not this time, you tried to think of excuses to elongate the date.

At the end of the night, he walked you to the door.

“So I had fun tonight,” he said, “so, what’s the verdict on your side?”

“Well if ten is the best,” you clicked your tongue, “I’d have to go with a ten.”

“Just a ten?”

“Well, it’s a scale from one to ten,” you argued.

He stepped closer to you and cupped your face with his hand, “Do you want me to stop?”

You smirked, “No.”

He mirrored your expression and leaned in and kissed you.

His lips were soft as they glided over yours. He tasted like the cotton candy you had forced him to buy on your way back to the car. You leaned into him and pulled him to you like you couldn’t get close enough to him. And you couldn’t. You pulled away after what seemed like years to catch your breath. Your heartbeat went haywire and you could only hope that he was feeling what you were. You were about to invite him up to your place but he spoke.

“If I asked you on a second date -?”

“You’d get it,” you answered.

“Ok,” he gave you a quick peck on the lips before kissing your cheek, “until next time, then.”

He waited until you were inside the doors to walk back to his car. After you made sure that he was safe in his car and driving away, you rushed up to your place to tell Okoye to tell her about the date you’d just had. You’d forgotten that you were wearing Bucky’s leather jacket but you didn’t mind so much, it just gave you an excuse to see him again. You didn’t have to tell her that you were falling in love, she could just sense it.

You didn’t know this at the time but he also felt like he was falling in love with you too, and he had no intention of letting you go. And neither did you.

[roguesandsaviors]

Do Your Thing

Fandom: Baby Driver

Characters: Trace (OFC), Buddy, Griff, Bats, Baby, Doc. 

Pairing: None

Summary: Trace knows she is good at what she does even if she doesn’t always morally agree with the choices made by the others in the crew. A job leaves her a little shaken.

Word Count:2,315

Rating: SFW

Warnings: Foul language

Author’s note: So, I know that this is a rather small fandom. I watched Baby Driver and couldn’t help but absolutely adore Jon Hamm’s character, Buddy. Of course it spawned a fic. I know that he works so well with Darling and I loved the pairing in the film but I have an issue with OC’s and writing First person POV. And here it is. Hope everyone enjoys. There is more coming soon. If you haven’t seen the movie, it is definitely worth checking out. It’s a blast of a movie.

*************************************************************************************************

I sat in the back quietly, tapping away on keyboard in front of me to ensure that I had everything ready for the job. Baby was sitting next to me, headphones in as they always were. The rest of the room was quiet, no one else besides Doc at showed up yet. It wasn't unusual for the two of us to be some of the first in the room. Or the last two. It depended on the day and how much we wanted to be at the job. I didn't mind it as much as Baby did. Though I also wasn't in the sort of debt to Doc that he was. He wanted out of this life. I understood that desire. There were days that the same sort of crazy ideas bubbled to the forefront of my mind. Then I remembered that I wasn't really good at anything besides hacking. I wouldn't do good sitting behind a desk. I didn't get along others particularly well. Something about the criminal element that kept me at ease over normal people. There was nothing to hide here. These people were open about all their flaws and what they wanted. They didn't try to be someone that they weren't. Most of the time, they just accepted who everyone was for the most part. We were the youngest of the crews but we were good at our jobs. That made our place on the team acceptable. 

Rhythmically, my fingers worked over the keys in a comforting motion. Code scrolled before my eyes as I worked to gain ghost access to the systems. Doc had cops in his pocket. That should have made things easier. Not that it was difficult to begin with. If the public knew how unprotected the police department of Atlanta was, they wouldn't feel as safe. It was a pathetically easy system to hack into and with the code I was running, the counter program to keep their systems from alerting them of my presence working perfectly. 

The doors of the elevator opened with a ding. The others were here. Well at least some of them were. I didn't bother to look back. They would come into view soon enough. I kicked my legs out a bit on the stool I was perched on. There were three people that came into view. I recognized all of them from previous jobs. It was never the same crew but Doc did use the same people over. Buddy, Bats, and Griff. Two of the three I liked. Bats was a wild card and someone that set me on edge. He couldn't be trusted at all.  Not that Griff couldn’t be a dick but he wasn’t a complete asshole. I cracked my knuckles, it was a nervous habit. The other two looked towards Baby and I. They wore small matching smiles and gave acknowledging nods in our direction. I returned the nod for the both of us. Those two at least had heads on their shoulders. For criminals. It wasn't saying much but they were probably two of the most stable individuals that Doc brought in. 

Doc waited for the three men to settle in before he launched into the plan. Baby and I barely paid attention. He had his music to focus on, playing with the car that was a miniature model of what they would be driving. I continued to monitor the program. Besides Doc's voice, the sound of the key presses filled the room. I bit the tip of my tongue to keep focused instead of letting my eyes wander over the crew. I could see a million different scenarios of how this job could go. Two made calculated choices while one made knee jerk reactions. Each different scenario, I felt like I knew how Buddy and Griff would react. Their actions could be predicted to some degree of certainty. Bats on the other hand? I couldn't begin to guess beyond violently and without a care for consequences. He would put all of our lives in danger without a second thought. The math didn't work out when it came to him. That made me uncomfortable. Life could be broken down to equations and numbers even in the criminal life. Logic could come from chaos with a few tweaks. 

"Hey there sweet thing." I could have slammed my head into the desk. It would grant me the sweet unconscious release and escape from Bats. Baby couldn't do anything to help me. He had already gotten up and moved off to talk to Doc. I couldn't stop the way that my leg began to bounce with some nerves. Everyone else was involved in their own business. 

"I uh, I gotta focus on this code. I need to make sure I stay in the system for tomorrow." I lied through my teeth but it was easy to press a few buttons to pull up another program that allowed me to write programs. I dropped my eyes, hoping that the lack of interest would send him off. It didn't unfortunately and my skin crawled as he reached out. 

"Come on now. There are plenty of more...interesting things for you to focus on." He leaned into my space.

"Bats." It was Buddy who had approached and a quick glance up confirmed that Griff was watching the situation closely. There could have been real trouble if there hadn't been at least one of them there to help me out. "You're in charge of masks." Any distraction was welcomed. I wanted his focus off of me. When Bats looked away, I gave the man a thankful nod. Tap, tap, tap of the keys filled my ears and began to drown out the sound of what was happening in the room around me. The men would handle their business and let Baby and I handle ours. Well, Baby would tomorrow. He didn't have to do much until then and he didn't have to do a damn thing to prepare. He knew every escape route and road in this city like the back of his hand. 

Sitting in the car, I was in the backseat as usual. They needed a point man in the front. Unfortunately for Baby, that meant that it was Hard. Thankfully for me, I was sandwiched between Griff and Buddy. There were worse places to be. A thought I kept to myself and locked away deeply to deal with later. My program was running smoothly so far. The two men beside me were quiet and didn't dare reach over and touch my little laptop. Buddy had always been respectful enough of it and Griff had touched it once. It hadn't worked out well for that job and he learned his lesson quickly. There wasn’t a lot of talk in the car. There really wasn’t a need in the lead up to the job. They were all focus on the task at hand and what their roles were. 

The car pulling to a stop was the alert that I needed. We were at the site. I looked up finally, tearing my eyes away from the scrolling series of numbers and letters. All three men got out of the car. Their movements were in sync. I glanced towards Baby, knowing that he was focused on his music and the timing of when the others would be out of the bank. His head was bobbing along with whatever music he was listening to. It brought a smile to my face before my eyes dropped back to my screen. In a separate window, I punched in a few things and had access to the banks computer system. I grinned as a few extra windows popped up. The guys were doing their things and moving perfectly. The silence alarms were disabled before any of the tellers could hit their buttons. Another few keystrokes and the vault opened. The guys had a clear shot at grabbing what they could. The bank had just gotten a delivery of new bills this morning. There wasn’t a chance to have placed any trackers or ink packets onto them. They were ripe for the picking. Bats was screaming and waving his gun around while Griff and Buddy moved to load bags. I turned back to the department and made sure that they hadn’t picked up on anything yet. There were no calls coming through yet and my shut down of the alarm system was working perfectly. It was only a matter of time before something was told to them though. I couldn’t hack every cell phone in the area. Someone inside was bound to be doing something stupid like trying to use their phone to call 911. Or someone else to call 911. 

Buddy and Griff were done just as the call come through. 

“Time to go guys….” I mumbled as Bats seemed intent on making someone an example. Whoever the guy was in front of him was giving him a hard time. A hero type. He didn’t want to go down. That was never good since Bats couldn’t let things like that go. He was going to get us caught. I could see Griff talking to him and trying to get him moving. Before anyone could stop it though, a bullet had ended up going through the skulls of whoever was standing up to him. “Fuck.” I closed my eyes and clenched my fingers for a moment so I didn’t end up accidentally slamming my hands into the laptop. I didn’t need to be setting anything off or causing some sort of issue. I let out a slow breath before being jolted by the two men getting into the car. It was still Griff and Buddy thankfully. I remained quiet, though I did want to congratulate them on a job well done. It was Bats that had fucked everything up. Baby slammed the car into reverse before spinning us and rocketing us off. I knew that he knew these streets better than I did. I could hack into the traffic control center but he was able to get us out of this mess without me interfeing. I closed the laptop and glanced back. There were still no cops on our tail yet. I knew that was going to change. There was no way that they didn’t have units rushing to find us. 

“What the fuck was that?” Oh, Griff sounded pissed. I risked glancing to the man to the left of me. Buddy shook his head subtly and I knew that opening my mouth wasn’t a good idea. Not that I was really going to but there was no point in trying to calm Griff down. Once he got going, he wasn’t going to stop. Buddy was a little more level headed and probably should have been the one to challenge Bats. 

“Shut your mouth. Bitch was back talking and causing trouble. He was just a casualty to the situation. No one is gonna miss him and it isn’t going to cause an issue.” How the man could be that confident in that statement was beyond me. Dead bodies were always an issue. It brought more police presence and media coverage to the job. It meant someone looking into it harder than they would before. It could be the sort of thing that connected to other jobs and gave them a trail to chase. Every job that was pulled, the weapons were destroyed right after. The car met the same fate. Everything, minus the crew, that could be traced back to Doc was taken care of. Well, sometimes the crew met that fate too. It depended on the performance. Bats never seemed to be one of those that met that fate. In my mind, he was more trouble than he was worth. Doc got more of a headache out of the man than he did any sort of help. 

“You added a body to the job. That is causing more trouble than what the back talk was doing.” Griff hit the back of the seat and suddenly the gun was pointing back at him. I pressed myself a little further into the seat, shifting closer to Buddy. I didn’t want to be close to being on the receiving end of a blast by the shotgun. He had buck shot in that thing. The spray would still hit me even though we were in close range. I tucked my hands behind my back. They along with my eyes were most important to me. At least I could protect my hands without burying my face into the man next to me.

“Bats put the fucking gun down.” Buddy finally spoke up. I was practically pressed into his side and could feel the vibrations in his chest as he spoke against my back. I would have time to be embarrassed about it later. “You aren’t going to fucking shoot him while we are in the middle of our getaway.” On cue, there were some sirens behind us. Bats was contemplating it. He was genuinely thinking about shooting Griff while Baby was getting us the hell out of dodge. He finally laughed before lowering the gun. I relaxed and pulled away from Buddy, mumbling a sorry. He didn’t say anything about it. Not that I really expected him. There was a little too much tension in the car. Even as they were riding the post heist high, there was an unease there. No one wanted to break it. That fell right on Bats. Part of me wished that Griff had pulled the gun. It would have made my life easier even if it was messy and unnecessary at the moment. The man bothered me and made me feel uncomfortable. He invaded my personal space too often. If the others weren’t around, I didn’t put it past him to try something even if I said no.

[themaskedwriter]

The First of Many

Clues:

1) I specialize in angst typically

2) I love using song lyrics as titles

3) I have a bad habit of having more than one WIP going at a time

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Fluff?, alcohol?

Word Count: 3300+

Summary: While at a bar you get hit on by a guy as a dare and it looks like it’s just going to be one of those nights, until it doesn’t.

It was happening again. You could hear them. They thought they were being quiet but alcohol made people stupid. Especially former frat boys, somehow you always managed to run into the ones that never fully left college when you were out and about.

You were sitting at the bar waiting for your roommate, who wasn’t usually late but seemed to be today.

The bar was a dingy old place but it was fully stocked and drinks were cheap.

It was Friday and you’d just gotten off of work and desperately needed not only a drink or two but to interact with other adults. However, you could’ve dealt without the group of men behind you because you had a feeling you knew what was going to happen. You only hoped that Okoye would get here before one of them decided to come over.

No such luck.

One of them came up and stood next to you. He played dumb by staring at the wall of alcohol as if he was deciding what he wanted.

“What do you suggest?” He leaned over and asked.

You gave him a blank stare, he was cute. Or at least he could’ve been.

“I’ll have whatever she’s having,” he told the bartender, Wanda, who gave you a look.

“A sex on the beach,” you told Wanda, who knew you were lying.

“Wait, what?” The overgrown frat boy asked.

“One sex on the beach comin’ up.” Wanda pulled out what she needed before he could change his order.

Shaking his head he looked to you, “So, what’s your name?”

“Y/n,” you answered unenthusiastically.

“Y/n,” he repeated, “that’s a beautiful name. I’m Grant.”

His overconfidence was already annoying you. But you had to continue to remind yourself to play nice because he and his friends outnumbered you and you didn’t want to start anything

“Nice to meet you,” you gave him a half smile.

“So, what’s a pretty girl like you doing here at a bar alone?”

“Waiting for true love to come in and sweep me off my feet.” You took a sip of your rum and coke.

“Oh, well here I am,” he said making you choke.

“That’s presumptuous of you.”

“Thank you,” he smirked, “so can I take you out?”

You wanted to laugh or throw your drink in his face but you just smiled at him and shrugged.

“Maybe,” you said as flirty as you could manage.

Grant wrote down his number on a napkin next to you. He slid it over to you and winked, you smiled but you wanted to gag.

Once his back was turned you took the napkin and ripped it up and watched as the pieces floated onto the bar.

Wanda placed the drink she’d just made in front of you and winked, “On the house.”

“Thank you, Wanda,” you said as you played with the disregarded napkin pieces on the bar.

“That seems a little dramatic, don’t cha think?” A voice next to you asked.

You turned to a blue-eyed man who was sitting next to you with a quizzical look on his face.

“No, I don’t think it was,” you answered.

“Ok,” he nodded, “Then why did you rip up his number?”

You looked back to the group Grant had just rejoined then back at the stranger.

“It was a dare. He did that because they have dubbed me the least attractive person here and thought I would be an easy target. Jokes on them though I’ve been the butt of that joke before,” you threw up a peace sign and looked to your almost finished rum and coke.

Why were you telling this guy this? He is probably no different than the rest of them. And there you were telling this random guy about the one thing that kept you from dating the most.

“So if I was to give you my number or ask you on a date, would you assume that I was doing the same thing?” He asked.

“Well considering that I don’t know your name -”

“James,” he answered, “But people call me Bucky.”

“Who calls you James?” You asked surprising yourself with how interested you were in him.

He smiled while writing something down, “I guess if you really wanna know,” he slid the paper over to you, “you’ll find out.”

He gave you a wink and walked away.

“Who was that?” Okoye asked from behind you.

You turned and looked at your roommate.

“I don’t know,” you answered.

“She was just hit on,” Wanda said.

“By that guy,” Okoye pointed to Bucky who was joining his group of friends.

“Yeah but I think he felt sorry for me because that guy,” you pointed at Grant, “was dared to hit on me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Okoye said.

“It’s whatever. Here,” you said sliding the sex on the beach to Okoye who grimaced and looked at you, “It’s free and I’m not gonna finish it.”

“Wanda, I would like to buy my lovely friend a bunch of drinks,” Okoye took the drink you handed her anyway.

“The usual coming up,” Wanda said pulling out multiple shot glasses.

“So how was work?” Okoye asked and you launched into a story about what happened during the day.

/

Being a nanny was interesting, to say the least. Especially when one of the kids you were a nanny for was only six-months-old and every person on the planet thought that the baby was yours despite the fact that the baby looked nothing like you. But that didn’t seem to matter to anyone, it’d be one thing if they thought you adopted him, but most of them made a comment about how ‘your body bounced back so fast after having him’ which made you want to scream.

But that wasn’t going to stop you from taking baby Mike out, because sitting around all day with a baby could get boring.

So you took Mike to Target because you wanted to buy some new clothes.

You were holding up two different black shirts.

“What do you think, Mikey? Black or black?” You asked the baby, who just stared at you, “No, I know. They’re both black, but one is more black than the other and they are different style shirts.”

Mike coos.

“You’re right, I should just get both, it’s not like I’m trying not to spend money,” you said sarcastically tossing the shirts in the cart. You look up and your eye land on someone across the way. “Oh, shit. Ok, Mike let’s make a quick getaway.”

“Hey,” Bucky made eye contact with you before you could dash off.

“Hi.”

“You never called,” he said getting right to the point.

“Is there an expiration date on phone numbers?”

Bucky laughed, you’d never head anything like it, and you instantly wanted to make him do it again.

“No, I guess there’s not. I never caught your name.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, “are you sure? Because if I remember correctly, you were there when I told it to the Gus guy. So is this your way of trying not to seem creepy for already knowing despite my never telling you?”

“Yeah,” he blushed.

“Y/n.”

“Who’s this?” He nodded towards Mike.

“Ah, this is Mike or Mikey. He’s one of the kids I nanny.”

Bucky leaned over so Mike could see him, “It is very nice to meet you, Mike. I’m Bucky.”

Mike stared at him for a moment, this baby had a serious case of resting bitch face, before he smiled at him and Bucky’s face lit up.

“Well, ya know what they say, babies are a great judge of character,” Bucky told Mike.

Mike grunted and Bucky gasped.

“Tell me more,” he said.

Watching him interact with a baby was almost too much for you and you needed to get him away from this before you completely broke down and asked him out right then and there.

“Well,” Bucky turned back to you, “I will leave you two to it. And I sincerely hope you do decide to call me, but no pressure.”

That night, after Okoye stared you down, you ended up calling him and asking him on a date.

/

“Stop pacing, you’re starting to make me nervous,” Okoye said from the couch not bothering to look up from her phone.

“Ok, but consider this,” you said continuing to pace, “What if he’s also doing this as a dare? What do I do then? Oh my god.”

“What?” Okoye looked up at you.

“What if he didn’t do this as a dare but hates me anyway? Or what if we start out liking each other and then -”

“Y/n!” Okoye cut you off. She shot up from her place on the couch and placed her hands on your shoulders. “If you don’t stop I will kill you. And I’d rather not kill you because that’s a lot of clean up for me and I don’t want to find a new roommate. So just chill out ok?”

“But -”

“No, if anything happens, I’ll kick his ass. So sit down and breathe.”

You sat in the armchair next to the sofa and took three deep breaths. Your text alert went off, you wasted no time in checking it.

Bucky: I’m downstairs.

“Ok, he’s here,” you got up and grabbed your things.

“Have fun and be safe,” Okoye called just before you shut the door.

Despite all your doubts and worries, you were excited, you couldn’t remember the last you went on a date. Once you walked out the door your eyes landed on Bucky who was wearing black pants with a navy floral button-up shirt and leather jacket. God, he was breathtaking.

When he saw you he started grinning.

“You look beautiful,” he said earnestly once you were within a foot of him.

You looked at the ground bashfully, “Thank you. You look beautiful too.”

“It’s the shirt isn’t it?” He teased.

“I like the shirt,” you told him and his smile widened, which you didn’t think was possible.

“Alright well,” He held out his arm and you took it, “let’s get the night started shall we?”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he smiled.

He led you to his car and opened up the door for you.  Once you were in he shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side.

You looked out the window not wanting Bucky too see the embarrassed look on your face.

This was the first time anyone has ever treated you like this on a date and it hadn’t even really started yet. And just like that, you finally understood what everyone meant when they said they had the best first date ever.

“You ok?” Bucky asked.

You turned to him hoping that your facial expression had pulled itself together.

“Yeah,” you said.

It wasn’t technically a lie it just also wasn’t the complete truth.

He smiled and kept driving.

“Ya know what sucks the most about first dates?” He asked out of the blue.

“Uhh,” you stalled not sure how to answer.

“The 20 questions game, like I ask you where you grow up and then you answer and then you ask me some stupid question that I answer.”

“What would you suggest we do about this dreadful game then?” You held back a laugh.

“I think we should just tell each other our best stories for the night.”

“So you want to burn through all of my date material in one go? What would we talk about next time?” You asked as he came to a red light.

He looked over at you and smirked, “We aren’t even to the date site yet and you’re already talking about date number 2?”

“I- I uhhh -”

“Well, I better not fuck the rest of tonight up if I’m almost guaranteed a second date.”

Once again you had to look out the window to hide your face.

After a minute or two of driving Bucky stopped the car at the pier.

“Really?” You asked.

“What?” He looked at you, “Dates should be an experience, not just a fucking dinner.”

He got out of the car first and raced to your side to open the door for you but you opened it before he got there.

“Ya know, it’s hard to show off my gentleman like qualities if you ruin my opportunities,” he said.

You laughed at him as you got out of the car. He offered you his hand and without even thinking about it, you took it.

He led you to the first stop, an elephant ear stand.

“Dessert first?” You asked.

“Are you not a dessert person?” He asked looking worried.

“What about me says I’m not a dessert person?” You laughed.

“Ok, well my current plan was to split one but if you want your own -”

“We can split one,” you told him, “but I expect cotton candy on the way back.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

You hadn’t realized that neither one of you let go of each others hand until he pulled away to reach for his wallet.

“If I’d known we were going to be near the water I would’ve brought a jacket,” you muttered, not meaning for him to hear.

But of course, he did. So, he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on your shoulders. You slid your arms into the sleeves. Involuntarily you inhaled his scent, it smelled like old spice.

“Ok, so normally I’d save this story for the end of the date or date number two. So this is either going to make or break tonight,” Bucky said in between bites.

“Lay it on me,” you licked your thumb and forefinger.

“Ok, well,” he then launched into a story about the one time his friend Steve and Sam were trying to show off for some girl at the bar and they happened to be playing darts at the time. One thing led to another and Sam ended up hitting Bucky in the shoulder with a dart. Then apparently Bucky dramatically threw his arms into the air and hit not one but two women in the face.

You couldn’t stop laughing if you tried.

“It’s not that funny,” he clearly thought it was funny by the smile on his face.

“Did it hurt?”

“Not really I was drunk,” he admitted.

“Were they ok?” You gasped.

“I didn’t ask I was too focused on the fact that my friend hit me with a dart!”

You continued to laugh until you made it to the Ferris wheel line. Your laughter died down a little and you caught Bucky looking at you with a fond smile.

“What?” You asked.

“Nothing, it’s your turn to tell a story,” he said.

“Ok, well there was this one time Okoye, my roommate, thought that it would be a good idea to try and set me up with someone she knew from her home. So he came to visit and then confessed his love for her right there in front of me while I was all ready to go on a date with him.”

He looked at you in disbelief, “That’s not funny.”

“First of all, it’s hilarious. Second of all, I don’t have a lot of friends. It’s not like I have co-workers I can go out with. The majority of my time is spent with a baby and I don’t have many opportunities to talk to other adults.”

“Alright well,” Bucky said as you moved up a few spots in line, “I think that you will get along great with my friends.”

“Oh, so we’re skipping right over the second date to meeting your friends? That’s almost more important than meeting your family,” you teased.

“How so?” He asked.

The ride attendant let you on to one of the seats. Once you were seated you looked at him.

“Well, you pick your friends right? You can’t pick your family and in my eyes, your friends’ opinion is more important than your family’s because you picked them. And you can be embarrassed by your family.”

“So what should I think about your lack of friends situation?” He teased.

“That I’m very selective with who I can out with and that my time is precious and I don’t waste it on just anybody.”

You looked at him and his eyes drifted down to your lips for a fraction of a second then he looked back up to your eyes. The Ferris wheel stopped when your cart got to the top.

“What?” You asked.

“Your laugh is the most sound I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh -”

“And you are smart and beautiful, and it boggles me that you are single.”

“People use me as a dare -” you reminded him.

“They’re stupid and don’t know what they’re missing,” he whispered as his eyes drifted to your lips again.

“Bucky -”

“Y/n, I really,” he paused, “I’m having a really good time tonight.”

“Me too,” you answered.

“Would it be too forward if I said I wanted to kiss you?”

“No, but we don’t always get what we want.”

“But if you try sometimes you just might find -”

“Don’t,” you told him.

He leaned in really close to your face and you scrunched your face as he sung, “You get what  you need.”

“I hate you!” You laughed.

“Do you?”

“No.”

“So,” he put his arm on the back of the seat, “On a scale from one to ten how is this date going?”

“I’ll let you know a the end of the night.”

And the night went on and it went amazing. And you would never admit it in a million years, well you might but not for a while, but you could feel yourself falling in love with him.

The drive home was odd, only because you didn’t want the night to end and that had never happened before. Typically you were ready for the night to end and you couldn’t wait to share with Okoye while you share a bottle of wine and laugh about how stupid the date was. But not this time, you tried to think of excuses to elongate the date.

At the end of the night, he walked you to the door.

“So I had fun tonight,” he said, “so, what’s the verdict on your side?”

“Well if ten is the best,” you clicked your tongue, “I’d have to go with a ten.”

“Just a ten?”

“Well, it’s a scale from one to ten,” you argued.

He stepped closer to you and cupped your face with his hand, “Do you want me to stop?”

You smirked, “No.”

He mirrored your expression and leaned in and kissed you.

His lips were soft as they glided over yours. He tasted like the cotton candy you had forced him to buy on your way back to the car. You leaned into him and pulled him to you like you couldn’t get close enough to him. And you couldn’t. You pulled away after what seemed like years to catch your breath. Your heartbeat was haywire and you could only hope that he was feeling what you were. You were about to invite him up to your place but he spoke.

“If I asked you on a second date -?”

“You’d get it,” you answered.

“Ok,” he gave you a quick peck on the lips before kissing your cheek, “until next time then.”

He waited until you were inside the doors to walk back to his car. After you made sure that he was safe in his car and driving away, you rushed up to your place to tell Okoye to tell her about the date you’d just had. You’d forgotten that you were wearing Bucky’s leather jacket but you didn’t mind so much, it just gave you an excuse to see him again. You didn’t have to tell her that you were falling in love, she could just sense it.

You didn’t know this at the time but he also felt like he was falling in love with you too, and he had no intention of letting you go. And neither did you.

[nightingaleandtheredredrose]

Search for a Cookbook

Word Count: 5,628

Fandom: Ozmafia!!

Characters: Lynette, Silas, Manboy, Alfani, Hansel, Gretel, Scarlet, Caramia, Kyrie, Axel, Soh, and OTHERS???? 

Trigger Warnings: None

A/N: (PLEASE READ THIS A/N BEFORE READING THE STORY) This is just a fun, lighthearted fic that I wrote of my two babies so I could better imagine how they would interact with people around town! Also, just a heads up, this is a draft that I’ve kept for a couple of months now, so;;; um;;; The OCs/OC blogs I mention might not be as active as they were before;;; Or they’re just straight out dead;; And to those of you who know what it is, I mentioned the Carroll Famiglia like once for a small joke, but I’m not sure if that project was discarded, so please forgive any mistakes I make. Oh! This also goes for the OCs I included in this story! I tried to write in a good amount of other people’s Ozmafia OCs who would be, more or less, related to the plot. Unfortunately I couldn’t include everyone (b/c I also wanted to make sure each OC had more than one speaking line), so I’m really, really sorry to anyone I left out (T-T) And for those people whose OCs I did include, please forgive me if I accidentally made them OOC;; Since this author’s note has gone on for so long, I’ll give credit to these characters at the end! (^-^) NOW ON WITH THE SHOW!

Upon hearing the tinkle of a small bell and the creak of the door swinging open, Lynette looked up from the register to see who had just walked in. She beamed, delighted to see a familiar face. “Manboy! Nice to see you!” she exclaimed.

Before Manboy could reply, Lynette heard a giggle and the mess of blonde locks that had followed Manboy through the door finally popped up from behind him. “Hello, Lynette~” sang Alfani, cheerily waving at the now less enthused store owner.

“And… you brought Alfani… Wonderful…” The girl couldn’t help but let some of her uneasiness show. It wasn’t as if she hated Alfani, but rather she worried over how he spoke while he was outside of the salon. He had little to no filter, so the possibility of him accidentally letting an innuendo slip through his lips was too high. It didn’t help that the children’s storytime was starting in a few minutes either. Lynette especially didn’t want Alfani to recount any bondage experiences he’d had during The Lion and the Mouse, especially with that many innocent eyes and ears gathered into one room.

Silas wasn’t very fond of Alfani either. Alfani was too grabby, and Silas hated being touched. Thankfully, he was still in the back storeroom searching for the puppet dolls that were going to be used for storytime, but it would only be a matter of time until he came out.

While Lynette weighed the pros against the cons of locking her employee in the storeroom until this storm had passed, Manboy cleared his throat to get her attention. “Good morning, Lynette. I’m sorry to bother you, but I am in need of your services today,” he explained with a slight bow of his head.

Lynette tensed up at this. Her services? This early in the day? But she normally carried out her murders late at night to avoid suspicion.

Seeing her smile falter, Manboy was quick to correct himself. “Ah! Please forgive me, Lynette! I didn’t mean those kind of services. I just came to purchase a book from your store for a… client of mine.”

The smile that had almost slipped off of Lynette’s face reappeared again, topped off with a playfully raised eyebrow. After handing a purchased book to a waiting customer, she leaned across the counter and said, “Oh? A client you say? That was, ah, quite a pause there, Manboy. Sure you’re not hiding something?”

Manboy’s face flushed at the suggestion. Before he could respond, Alfani laughed and threw his arms around him. “My dear Manboy is gonna get a present for his secret sweetheart! Isn’t that cute? Hey, do you wanna know who they are, Lynette? It’s-”

“Al!” Manboy exclaimed before clapping a hand over Alfani’s mouth. “I’m sure Lynette already has her hands full running her bookstore, so we mustn’t take up any more time than necessary.”

Lynette pouted. Darn. She was always down for some juicy love gossip. But no matter. She’ll let it slide this one time for the sake of Manboy’s dignity. “So what’s the book called? I can go check if we have it in stock once you tell me,” she told Manboy, handling another customer’s purchase as she did so. 

“I believe it was called Cooking 101. It had a hundred and one recipes, so it piqued my client’s interest, but they just couldn’t get their hands on it due to their busy schedule. They intended to try some of the recipes out for an event that was coming up as well as just around the household.”

Lynette hummed in thought as she handed the customer their stack of books along with their change. “Now that I think about it, we did have a cookbook on display a couple of weeks ago. I’m guessing your lov- I mean- your client must have seen it while passing by one of our windows?”

Manboy managed a small smile. “They did admit that they saw it on the way to the salon, yes.”

“If you two are talking about Cooking 101, then sorry, but we ran out.”

Everyone looked up to see where the voice had come from. Alfani let out a small gasp and ran over to the newcomer. “Silas! So you were here! Give me a hu- Ow~!”

Silas kept Alfani at a distance by pressing his hand against his face, keeping that one arm extended to fight against the flailing limbs that desperately stretched out to reach him. “No way in hell,” seethed Silas.

Alfani let out a disappointed groan. “Geez, Silas. There’s no need to hold back, y’know. Just throw me to the ground like you usually do!” “There are children around, so I’ll have to refuse.”

“What, seriously? I thought we still had some at the back,” Lynette inquired.

“Miss Lynette, I can’t even tell what we have at the back anymore. It’s such a mess in the storeroom that I only managed to procure the beheaded lion and the dusty mouse.” Silas fished the headless lion puppet out of his apron pocket and tossed it to Lynette.

She in turn forlornly gazed at the poor doll, caressing the bit of stuffing that was sticking out of its now stump of a head. “Poor Mr Caramia. What’s the Oz famiglia gonna do without you now?” murmured Lynette. 

“Are you sure? Can you… check again?” Manboy asked, a hint of desperation in his voice as he did so. 

Silas looked at Manboy for a few moments before sighing, using his unoccupied hand to rub the back of his neck. He began to feel bad for him. “I’m sorry, Mr Manboy, but that was a bestseller of ours. It was especially popular among those in the mafia. Considering all of that, we more than likely have none left in sto-”

Struck by an idea, Lynette suddenly smacked her fist against an open palm. “That’s it! We’ll just ask those people to give us their copy! Easy peasy! We’ll reimburse them and everything! It’s just a book after all!” she declared.

Already tired from the very thought of exercise, Silas grimaced. “Wait, Miss Lynette-”

It was too late; she was on a roll. She hastily stuffed her apron under the counter and grabbed her dark blue hood, slipping it on as she ran towards the door. She gestured for Silas to follow her as she ran in place at the doorway. “C’mon, Silas. You’re coming with me. Give Manboy the keys to the store too; he’s gonna be in charge today.”

Silas hesitated for a moment but then decided it would be best not to say anything. An argument with Lynette would never end, after all.

Instead, he nodded and tossed his keys to Manboy before following after Lynette. 

Manboy just barely caught the keys and shot a panicked look at the escaping shop workers. “Wait! Lynette! I can’t possibly-!”

“Sure you can! I believe in you, Manboy!” encouraged Lynette as she gave him an overly enthusiastic thumbs up.

“No, it’s not an issue with my self esteem that I’m referring to!”

“Oh! Then don’t worry about the fact that it’s a Sunday. Sales tend to dwindle towards the end of the day, so feel free to lock up early. You could just read the book on the counter to the kids since the puppets just kind of, y’know, died. I’m super sorry for having you do this on your day off, but I promise to have that book you want before today ends, okay? Byyeeee~”

“But still-!”

And before he knew it, the pair had run off to who knows where. Manboy sighed and rubbed at his temples. That Lynette… As flighty as ever. If he didn’t know any better he would’ve thought she was just doing this as an excuse to skip work.

Well… No, that was probably one of the reasons she took up his request. He shouldn’t get ahead of himself. But Lynette was also just too selfless for her own good. The fact that she set a solid deadline for the book retrieval was proof enough. Although there was still one more thing that was bothering him.

“How did she figure out that today was my day off?” Manboy wondered aloud.

“Hey, Manboy! Look at this!” Alfani was holding up the book Silas had left on the counter. He had opened it up to the page where the lion lay entangled in the hunter’s net, Alfani’s eyes shining just a tad too brightly for such a scene. “I could be the lion instead! All we need is a net!”

“... Thank you, Al, but for the children’s sake I think we should stick to just reading them the story from the book.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Stop: Grimm famiglia

Peering out from behind her older brother, Gretel narrowed her eyes at the people who were browsing the bookshelves in the study. “How the hell did they get in here? Hey, Hansel, don’t tell me you let them in again,” she darkly murmured.

Hansel turned his head to look back at her and sheepishly smiled. “Aahh… No, not this time, Gretel. I actually don’t know how they got in unless…” He let out a startled exclamation and snapped his fingers as if he had just realized something. “I got it! There’s an age old tunnel beneath the estate, and they crawled in through that!”

“Actually, I just let them in. They asked me if they could buy back one of Scarlet’s books,” explained Florentia, leaning against a wall near the door. 

Gretel’s glower became worse. “And you let them in for such a flimsy reason?”

“Well… But they asked politely? They won’t do us any harm as far as I’m concerned.”

Overhearing their conversation, Lynette paused mid search to do a little fist pump. “Yeah, we asked politely! Ain’t that right, Silas?”

“Kindness rules,” Silas chimed in with a deadpan voice. 

“Shut up you annoying little bird and you overgrown broccoli head, and find your damn book before I egg your pathetic excuse of a store with my grenades.”

“...Sorry, Miss Gretel.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” And they resumed their search in a more frenzied manner.

Once this pair was dealt with, Gretel again confronted Florentia. “‘They won’t do us any harm’? How can you be so sure? That annoying bird just reeks of disaster (Lynette flinched when she heard this but continued to look through the books). Spending all that time around that cat lady’s place really dulled your senses.”

Instead of getting mad, Florentia’s expression brightened as she came to remember something. “Oh! That’s right! I need to go visit her estate before the day ends. Hmmm, maybe I’ll pick up the others on the way back-”

“Tch. She already stopped listening to me,” Gretel muttered before retreating behind Hansel’s back once more.

Her brother waved farewell to Florentia as she rushed to leave. “See ya, Florentia! I’ll tell Scarlet that you and the others will be late for dinner tonight!”

Florentia smiled and waved back. “That would be great! Thank you, Hansel!”

“Don’t get yourself killed due to your airheadedness.” “Pffft! I doubt I will, but I’ll keep that in mind, Gretel!”

“Hey, Miss Florentia!” Before she could turn the doorknob, Lynette had called out to her which caused her to look back.

“Yes, what is it, Lynette?” she asked.

Lynette gave her a playful wink and said, “Don’t have too much fun over there with Miss Pashet, okay?”

Florentia responded with a small laugh and a wink in return. “Don’t  worry. I have this all under control~” And with that last remark, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Silas and Lynette attempted to continue scouring the shelves but stopped when they heard the door opening. The person who had just walked in pushed back his red hood, sighed, and began with, “Hansel. Gretel. I just saw Florentia run by me and-” Scarlet stopped when he noticed that they had visitors. “Ah…”

Silas and Lynette awkwardly waved at the stunned caporegime. “Hey, Mr Scarlet,” Lynette greeted. Silas gave him a small nod.

“Thanks for letting us into your home, Mr Scarlet.”

Scarlet pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t get paid enough to deal with this. “Hansel, did you let them in again?” he asked.

“Eeehhh? First Gretel and now you? Geez~ It’s like none of you trust me,” Hansel said with a huff. He then folded his arms across his chest and turned away pouting.

Although Scarlet felt the need to bring up the other time Hansel allowed these two into the estate (which ended… badly…), he decided to let this go. “I’m sorry, Hansel. You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just…” Seeing that Hansel wasn’t going to turn around anytime soon, Scarlet gave up and spoke to Lynette. “Then if it wasn’t Hansel, was it Florentia?”

Lynette nodded and fidgeted with the ribbons on her arms. “Ah, yes! It was Florentia. She let us in so we can… Umm…” The longer she gazed at Scarlet, the more she remembered how he unknowingly rejected her confession months ago. She blushed in embarrassment and quickly turned her head to clear her throat. “SILAS. WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR AGAIN?”

Silas looked up from his place on the floor to answer. “Do you happen to have the Cooking 101 book, Mr Scarlet? We want to buy it back from you, so we could spice up Mr Manboy’s love life.”

‘Don’t be that honest!’ Lynette mentally reprimanded but forced herself not to say aloud. Instead she let the smile that was already on her face grow uncomfortably wider. Through gritted teeth, Lynette said, “That’s… right!”

“Cooking 101? Hey, Hansel, wasn’t that the book we blew up in our little experiment last week?” Gretel asked, causing Hansel to snap his fingers a second time.

“Ah! That’s right! The one with the weird cover! We used it as fuel for the fire...eheheheh, sorry, Scarlet.”

Upon hearing this news, Silas and Lynette made their way to the door. Time to search somewhere else. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Stop: Oz famiglia

They were at a standoff. Granted, it was four against one (so it was a pretty pathetic scene) , but it was a standoff nevertheless.

Caramia stood on one side of the dining table while everyone else stood on the other. He protectively held his cookbook to his chest and gave his opposition a shaky smile. “Ca-Can we calm down just for a minute here?”

Despite his words, Silas and Lynette already had their hands up in the form of an odd battle stance, ready to grab the hardcover from his arms. There was a dangerous glint in Lynette’s eyes as she replied, “Not an option, Mr Caramia. I just spent two hours searching for a book that had already been blown up, so I don’t want to waste anymore time than I have to! Give it up already! … Please.”

Kyrie stood a couple ways off from this scene with his arms folded against his chest. He scoffed. “Just stop being the shitty idiot lion that you are and hand over that book of yours. It’s not as if your meals have become any less inedible because of it. Honestly-” His gaze darkened as he raised his head, a fist poised under his chin. “You’re acting like a pitiful orphan going to get their precious toy snatched by a gang of older children who are just waiting to beat you senseless. For amusement of course.”

“You could have just said I was acting childish! Ah, geez, why did you have to make it that dark, Kyrie?”

Kyrie huffed and turned to leave the room. “I’m terribly sorry; did I hear something? The cries of the pitiful orphan simply do not reach my ears~” And then he was gone.

Caramia sighed. “Well, I didn’t expect Kyrie to help me in the first place. But Axel! At least you’re on my side, right?”

The caporegime hesitated for a moment. He was debating between pointing out that fact that he was obviously standing on the side opposite to his don or staying quiet and obediently joining Caramia. His sweets were at stake here; Axel couldn’t afford another ban on his life source. Eventually, he decided to just let him down easy, also not finding it in his heart to lie to him. “Boss. As much as I hate to say it… Kyrie is ri-rig-righ-” Axel coughed. “You’re acting like a child. I’m sorry, but it’s true.”

Everybody could see Caramia’s heart breaking before their eyes. He stumbled a few steps back, clutching at his chest with an unoccupied hand. This… Is this what betrayal felt like? His own men turning against him? With a hollow voice, Caramia asked, “Axel… How could you?” Then he gritted his teeth. “Why don’t any of you understand? This has become more than a book to me. It’s opened my eyes to new cuisines, it’s helped me perfect my old recipes-”

“What’s… going on here?” a voice called out from the kitchen entrance. Running a hand through her long blue hair in an effort to smooth it down, Nana stood in the open doorway with a flustered expression. Kyrie had told her that there was something she had to take care of in the kitchen; he implied that it was urgent so she ran all the way there, but she was honestly unsure on what to make of the scene before her. 

Lynette grinned. “Perfect timing, Miss Nana! Help us wrangle the book from your fiancé’s hands!” she said.

“‘Wrangle the book’? But why-?”

Caramia smiled as well. “Good afternoon, Amore mio. Will you please call them off? You know how much this book means to me, right?”

“Huh?! Ah, yes, but-”

This then prompted Lynette to turn an accusatory finger on Caramia. Deep down she knew that this was the time to stop, but she unknowingly got swept up in the rush of this senseless argument. “But does that book mean more to you than the very love of your life?!” Lynette placed a hand to the side of her mouth and spoke in a loud whisper. “Miss Nana! This is your chance! Try to convince him to let go of the book by using your charms!”

Nana was at a bypass. On one hand, she wanted to take her lover’s side. She loved Caramia after all, and all this fuss over a simple book just wasn’t worth it. On the other hand, though, Nana had become curious. How exactly did she measure up to that book?

Her curiosity won out in the end, and she stepped forward. Nana fiddled with her earrings as she asked, “Caramia… Please forgive me if it’s rude to ask, but how much does that book mean to you? I’m sure you may have had many wonderful memories with it, but…” She meant to continue, but her voice faltered, and her gaze slowly lowered to the ground in shame. Nana couldn’t do it; she couldn’t bring herself to guilt trip Caramia. 

She let out a small gasp when she felt someone’s fingers interlace with her own. Caramia had set the book onto the table and walked over to Nana in order to grasp her hands in his. He gave her a gentle smile. “Nana, you know you mean more to me than Cooking 101. It’s just a… silly… little… book.” He coughed before continuing, almost as if it had physically hurt him to admit that. “You mean the world to me, Nana. Please don’t ever forget that.”

With tears brimming in her eyes, Nana responded with a choked up, “Caramia-!”

“Now’s the time, Silas! Let’s grab the book while he’s distracted!”

“NO, WAIT! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THAT BOOK!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3rd Stop: Falada 

Silas and Lynette sat at a table in the Falada café. Lynette had her head in her hands while Silas angrily munched on his fifth salad. 

“I’m… really sorry that I made you go after Mr Caramia alone,” Lynette began.

Silas shoved another forkful of lettuce into his mouth. “Don’t bother mentioning it.”

Lynette winced at his cold tone of voice. Yikes. She had really messed up this time. She had initially meant to snatch the book as well, but Silas had been the first to reach it. Unfortunately, this prompted Caramia to pounce on him like, well, a lion on meat, which ended in a few bruises and a dejected Silas and Lynette being shown the door. She sighed. “I’m sorry for being such an awful person, Silas. I know I should’ve stopped before things got out of hand.”

All she was met with in response was some miffed chewing noises. “Gah… How do I make it up to you, Silas? Do you want me to throw you an apology party or something?”

“Do we even have enough money for that?”

“I-I’ll take out a loan? That’s a thing, right?”

Their table shook when Liesl suddenly dropped a heavy book onto it, causing the pair to jump in their seats. Liesl brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and sighed. “Here you go! Cooking 1001! You would not believe the stack of cookbooks and recipe sheets I had to go through in order to-”

“Wait. Cooking 1001? I’m sorry, Liesl, but we were looking for Cooking 101,” corrected Lynette.

Silas poked at the side of the thicc hardcover with the other end of his fork, marveling at how many pages there were. “There are 1001 recipes in here?” he muttered. “Who could possibly have that much free time?”

Liesl gave Silas a weary smile as she took back her book. “Apparently I do since I wasted a good thirty minutes trying to find the wrong book.”

“Been there,” Lynette remarked.

Liesl let out a little grunt as she readjusted the book in her arms. “Well, if it’s Cooking 101 you’re looking for, I would suggest the Stivali estate. I think I lent it to… Bercy? The cat boy with the earmuffs?”

Silas and Lynette nodded. Of course they remembered who Bercy was; they had placed bets on him when they first met him. They debated on what Bercy could possibly be hiding under his seemingly useless earmuffs. They still hadn’t figured it out yet, but Silas guessed that he was hiding a skin condition. Lynette, on the other hand, theorized that Bercy had a secret set of human ears in addition to his cat ones and that he wore earmuffs to save himself from embarrassment. 

“Yes, I lent it to him for the day. You could go pick it up from him, and pay me back when you two return with my book.”

Lynette quickly rose from her seat, throwing her chair back with a clatter. “Well what are we waiting for?! We need to get over there before the sun starts setting! C’mon, Silas!”

Silas shot Lynette a worried look as he also stood up. “Miss Lynette? Aren’t you also going to eat? We’ve been running around since morning, remember?”

“There’s no time to eat! Let’s go! Bye, Liesl! Thanks for everything!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4th Stop: Stivali/Boots famiglia

As the pair approached the castle-like estate, they heard a violent rustling  sound coming from above which startled some birds out of a tree. Both of them tensed, bracing themselves for an attack.

Seeing a flash of brown and green hurtle towards the ground, Silas warned Lynette to watch out. Lynette did so and quickly backed away from the tree, her fingers already wrapped around the handles of her daggers within her sheaths. She was aware of the Sunday Compromise, but she had no idea what she was dealing with. It was best to err on the side of caution just for now.

The cat lady who had just dropped in (ha) stood up from her landing position. The large bell in her hair jingled as she moved to draw her sword with narrowed eyes. “You there! Both of you! State your names, famiglia affiliations, and business before I cut you down!” she declared.

Lynette grinned and Silas relaxed. Oh, it was just Hazel. 

“Oh, c’mon, Hazel! You remember us! It’s Lynette and Silas from the bookstore!” Lynette chirped.

Silas gazed at the sword tip that was pointed at them with a bored look in his eyes. “You really shouldn’t be waving that thing around, Miss Hazel. The Sunday Compromise is in effect today.” ‘Plus it’s not as if you can actually kill us.’ was what he wanted to add, but it sounded too much like a challenge that Hazel would be more than willing to take.

This seemed to break her composure a bit. Hazel became red in the face and growled in frustration, resheathing her sword. “Fi-Fine. It doesn’t matter anyway. I could still beat you two in unarm- Wait, hey! You still haven’t given me your business, you spies!” she shouted, peeved that they had almost led her off topic.

Lynette raised her open palms in self defense. “We just came to pick up the cookbook Liesl lent to Bercy.”

Hazel shook her head. “No can do. Only the don can allow non-famiglia members into the estate. We put up pretty strict security measures to protect against intruders like you two.”

Despite how harsh Hazel’s tone had become, Lynette couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the implication that Pashet was out. “Oh? And where exactly is Miss Pashet right now? Out of the estate, I presume?” she teasingly asked, already having a good idea where the don could possibly be. 

The blush on Hazel’s face deepened as she became even more flustered. “Tha-That’s none of your business! The don’s whereabouts are highly classified informa-”

“Perhaps Miss Pashet is having an enjoyable time in town. Pulled along by a certain Grimm famiglia member, I presume?” suggested Silas.

“Mrow!! You two really are spies! Both of you better leave Stivali territory before I run you off myself!”

Watching Hazel getting ready to charge, Lynette urgently tugged at Silas’ sleeve. “Hey, did we buy any bread from Falada while we were there? That would be real handy right now,” she whispered.

Silas stared at her straight in the eyes. “You saw me eat five servings of salad, did you not?”

The two exchanged panicked glances before reaching a silent agreement, nodding, and making a break for it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5th Stop: Soh’s Food Stall

“And then we tried going over to the Adelheids, but Miss Heidi told us to go away too! Then Silas recommended we try the- the- What’s the name of that other famiglia? Y’know, the song famiglia?” asked Lynette.

“Are you referring to the Carroll famiglia, Miss Lynette?”

“Yeah, fa la la la la. Deck the halls. The Carol famiglia.”

“It’s a different type of carroll, Miss Lynette. With two r’s and two l’s,” corrected Silas.

“What, seriously? Well anyway, we decided against going there in the end. I didn’t think any of them would’ve bought that book in the first place. Some of them give me a bad vibe for some reason too,” explained Lynette with a shudder.

Silas and Lynette now sat at a table next to Soh’s food stall. The sun was already beginning to set, so Soh was in the process of packing up shop as he listened to their story. Lillian was also there, sitting across from them as she gave them a sour look over her cup of coffee. “Why did you even try to ask Miss Heidi to give you anything? All she gives us is work and cheap silverware to defend ourselves,” she bitterly remarked.

Well that explained why Lynette had often seen Lillian tote around things like forks while walking around town. Lynette had just assumed it was a cleanliness issue, like the forks at restaurants being too filthy to eat with.

Soh walked over to their table with his hands clasped behind his back. “Uwah, that sounds tough, Lyn-Lyn. So you were both running all over town just to find the book for Boy-Boy, huh?”

“Mmmm… But in the end we couldn’t find a single copy.” Lynette sighed. “Maybe I could ask some of the townspeople if they have the book? But where would I even start?”

Lillian furrowed her brow in concern as she watched Lynette’s face fall. “Why did you even take up the offer in the first place? Aren’t you already plenty busy with your bookstore?” she asked.

“Y’know how bad I am at turning down favors. It was also Manboy who had asked me for something. He doesn’t deserve any more disappointment. And the bookstore’s doing fine without us. Manboy’s watching over everything.”

Silas took a sip of his tea. “With Mr Alfani,” he added.

“Oh… yeah… him too…”

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed that was spent worrying about the bookstore’s reputation. Hopefully it would still be family friendly when they got back.

Soh broke the silence by cheerily announcing, “Well, anyway, I have a little surprise for you, Lyn-Lyn!”

“What is it?” 

“Eheheh, you’ll have to guess-!” 

Throwing her chair back with a clatter, Lynette growled, “DAMMIT, SOH, I HAVE BEEN TO HELL AND BACK-”

“Ah!! I get it, I get it! I’ll just show it you then, so calm down!”

With a grin, Soh brought out Cooking 101 from behind his back. “Ta-dah! Here, you can give my copy of the book to Boy-Bo- Whoa!” Lynette tackled Soh with a hug mid sentence.

Having underwent a sudden change of heart, she sobbed, “Thank you, Soh! Thank you so much!”

As Soh laughed and tried to politely wriggle out of Lynette’s iron grip, Silas nonchalantly leaned across the table to whisper to Lillian. “Kind of wish you were in Miss Lynette’s position over there, right, Miss Lillian?” he murmured, fully aware of Lillian’s crush on Soh.

Although she felt the urge to punch Silas for even suggesting such things, Lillian too had information she could use to her advantage. She raised her cup to her lips and cooly replied, “O-Oh? From your point of view, I would have thought being in Soh’s position would seem more favorable. Being that close to Lynette, I mean.”

Silas maintained his usual neutral expression but couldn’t help the sudden burning at the tips of his ears. “Touché.”

They drank their beverages in mutual embarrassment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final Stop: The Bird’s Bookshelf

By the time Silas and Lynette returned to their bookstore it was already nighttime. Thankfully they had enough time to stop by a gift-wrapper on the way there and handed the prettily decorated bag to Manboy.

He took it from them, his mouth slightly agape as he pulled Cooking 101 out of the tissue paper. “You actually found a copy…” he said in disbelief, causing Lynette to grin.

“Was there any doubt?” she replied.

“Yea. A bit :/”

“Ah, no, of course not, Lynette. Thank you both for getting this for me.”

While Manboy bowed to show his appreciation, Silas glanced over the man’s shoulder, trying to peer through the windows of the seemingly empty bookstore. “Where did Mr Alfani go? Gone with the wind?” he queried. 

“He got bored soon after you two left. Don’t worry; he didn’t cause too much trouble in your store.”

Lynette sighed in relief. “Thank goodne-” She tried taking a few steps forward but ended up stumbling instead. Huh? Why was she suddenly dizzy? She heard Manboy call out her name in worry, and she responded with a shaky nod as she tried to regain her balance. “Yeah- yeah- I’m fine. I ju-” Lynette lost consciousness mid-sentence. Silas barely managed to catch her before her face met the pavement below. He didn’t have the quickest of reflexes, but the way Lynette ran around all day while also skipping meals made him guess that this was going to happen eventually.

After he had hoisted Lynette onto his back, Silas bowed to Manboy. “Thank you for watching over our store, Mr Manboy. Good luck with your gift giving.”

Manboy hummed in thought as a response, smiling at the scene before him.

“What is it? Did you need something else?”

“Ah, no!” Manboy then smiled. “It appears you’ve become kinder, Silas. Back when you used to work at the sal-” Silas’ eyes widened. Images of looming shadows and bruising hands came to mind, causing him to cut Manboy off. 

“Please don’t ever bring that up. Not around here. Not ever.”

Although he was taken aback by Silas’ outburst, Manboy noted the pain that entered his eyes the moment he began to talk about the salon. He felt ashamed for even mentioning it. Of course that was a sensitive topic for him.  “I’m sorry, Silas. Please have a good rest of your evening.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silas felt Lynette stir as he walked across the bookstore.

Her eyes opened halfway, and her voice was small as she called Silas’ name. “Yes?” he responded, stopping in place.

“Did I… do something good today? I felt like I was more of a nuisance than anything else,” she asked.

Silas moved to pat her head but decided against it. If he let her go, she’ll fall too. Instead, he settled for a light bump of the side of his head against the one that laid upon his shoulder. “You always are a nuisance. But you made Mr Manboy happy, so there’s that,” he replied.

Lynette hummed contently and more tightly wrapped her arms around Silas, startling him. “That’s good… that’s good… Thanks for everything, Silas. Especially when it comes to putting up with me.”

He tried to ignore the sudden racing of his heart as he answered back, “I’ve gotten used to it, Miss Lynette. Don’t worry too much about me.”

A/N: All canon characters belong to Poni-Pachet! I’m not going to @ the creators of the OCs I used b/c I don’t want to bother all of them, but I will of course still mention their usernames! Florentia belongs to yukinonshi (OC blog is grimm-casablanca), Nana belongs to lavendel080 (OC blog is marchenland), Liesl belongs to meilc, Hazel belongs to minoux (OC blog is house-of-fables), and Lillian belongs to quirkless-wonders (OC blog is bearwiththe-goldenheart)! Lynette and Silas belong to me! Thank you all for making such wonderful OCs; it was really fun trying to write for them! Thanks to anyone who read this whole mess as well! Y’all are the real MVPs today! (*≧∀≦*)

[captainkippen]

@tyrusismyreligion Is this okay?

*

TJ actually hears the commotion before he sees it. It's a Friday night, and the team is celebrating sweet victory after a tough game. The bar they've chosen to invade is a dingy little place with watered down drinks, populated with local students enticed by the dirt-cheap prices. It's not his favourite kind of place, but it will do for a place to pregame before they find a nice club to go dancing in.

He turns towards the noise only to see exactly what you'd expect in a place like this. A boy, tall and awkward looking, leaning away in discomfort as a beer bellied creep in a grease-stained singlet leers at him. The man is making crass remarks with no  attempt to keep his voice lowered, clearly pissed out of his mind. Revulsion roll in TJ's gut as he takes in the scene, and before he can even process what he's doing he puts his beer down on the table. He throws a quick “Be right back!” over his shoulder to Marty and the rest of his friends and makes his way over to the bar.

Careful not to startle the awkward boy, he makes his presence clear before tapping him lightly on the shoulder and slots himself in between the boy and the his 'admirer’.

“You okay, baby?” He asks, in the most sickeningly sweet tone he can muster. From here he can smell the stench of sweat and alcohol that the creep emits. Disgust fills him. “Who's your friend?”

The boy looks confused, but cottons on to what's happening quickly and shoots TJ a grateful smile before responding.

“I'm okay,” He replies. His voice is like honey, mellow and soothing. “I'm just trying to get the bartender's attention.”

“This your boyfriend?” The creep drawls at them.

“Yes,” Says the boy, quickly. He puts a careful arm around TJ's waist as if to prove he's telling the truth.

The man leans further into their space, a slimy grin plastered across his drink-red face. When he looks at TJ, TJ can see his eyes are slightly unfocused. “Turn around, sweetheart,” He slurs. “Let's see if that ass is as nice as your boy here's is. I'd like to tear you both up good.”

TJ fixes him with a withering stare and must to his satisfaction the man recoils slightly. “Not interested,” He says coolly. “And if you speak to either of us like that again I'll knock out your teeth.”

“You think you can threaten me?” The man growls, pushing himself off his stool and right up into TJ's face. TJ doesn't back down, he just glares.

“Everything okay here?” Comes a voice from behind them. It's Marty, and he's with a couple other members of the basketball team. They all look suitably unimpressed.

The guy must at least be sober enough to realise it would be really stupid to try and fight four college athletes, so he finally grumbles something unintelligible and shambles away.

“You good, Teej?” Marty asks, concerned expression on his face  He's not looking at TJ when he says it, but the awkward boy.

“Yeah, I'm good. You can go back to the table, I'll come back in a minute.” It's his way of saying he's got this, he'll make sure the kid is okay, and Marty seems to understand because he just nods.

“Cool, grab us some more drinks while you're at it, yeah?” Then he disappears back into the crowd.

TJ turns to the boy. “Hey, uh… sorry for just appearing like that, it looked like the guy was bothering you, so…"

“Oh he was,” Says the boy, brightly. “And now he's not, thanks to you. I appreciate it. I'm Cyrus.”

“TJ,” He can't help but smile in return. Cyrus is adorable. He's gangly and brunette, with big brown eyes like a puppy's and a slightly goofy grin.

“Nice to meet you. So, um… sorry to ask, but would you mind waiting around with me until I get my drink? My friends aren't here yet and if that guy comes back…”

“Sure, no problem. Actually, if you wanted to you could sit with us?” He jabs his thumb in the direction of the table his friends were sat at. “There's definitely room and I don't think anyone would mind.”

Cyrus looks relieved. “That would be great. Here, let me buy your drinks. It's the least I could do.”

After a brief friendly bicker over paying for the drinks (Cyrus wins because TJ isn't sure how to say no to the wide eyed innocent look he gives him), they head back to join TJ's friends.

“So you guys are all on the basketball team, right?” Cyrus asks them when they've settled in.

TJ's clearly not the only one surprised by this, as a momentary pause of astonishment washes over the group. It's not that Cyrus doesn't look like a basketball fan but… Cyrus doesn't look like a basketball fan.

“Yeah, you seen us play?” He asks.

Cyrus nods. “Once or twice. I'm on the school paper, I've covered your games when our sports writer's been out before.”

“Oh,” TJ says. “Makes sense. What do you usually write?”

“This and that,” Cyrus picks at the label on his drink. “Arts and lifestyle kind of stuff. I focus mostly on the school's official societies and stuff.”

“Yeah? You a part of any of them, except for the paper obviously?”

“Uh…” Cyrus pauses for a moment, then squares his shoulders as if he's made an important internal decision. “I'm part of the LGBTQIA+ Society, actually.”

Marty's reminds him too much of a shark for TJ's liking. “We're always telling Teej here to join that,” He says. “Make the school proud by captaining the team and supporting his community. You know he's helped make our team champions twice? And he's single.”

He tries not to groan out loud. Marty's attempts at being a wingman were both increasing in regularity and in obviousness. It isn't that TJ's ungrateful, but he could do without his friends telling him he needs a boyfriend for one night at least. He can get his own guys - he does get his own guys. He just prefers not to brag about it like everyone else.

“Please ignore him,” TJ says to Cyrus, whose answering laughing is tinkling and soft like a bell.

“Oh wow, I feel so loved,” Says Marty, teasingly. He starts to stand up, grasping at his coat. “And on that note, boys, I think it's our cue to go. Leave Captain to celebrate with his new friend. Cyrus, it was nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Cyrus salutes Marty with his beer. The boys leave, and a moment of quiet passes before TJ can think of anything to say.

“Wanna get out of here?” Is what he comes out with, because apparently his tongue isn't connected to his brain anymore.

“Sure, let me just text my friends.”

“They won't mind you ditching?”

“They're forty-five minutes late, it's their own fault.”

The two of them head outside, pulling their coats close to their bodies in the chilly air. It's one of those damp winter nights that seems to touch you everywhere no matter how many layers you have on. TJ regrets wearing jeans with rips down the thighs.

They stroll along side by side, wandering aimlessly and occasionally bumping shoulders as they go. The conversation is slow but easy, it feels comfortable in a way that TJ isn't used to with strangers. He's not sure if that's a result of the beer or just good company, but he strongly suggests the latter. It's not until they're outside the building that he realises he's automatically led them via the route to his apartment. He looks up at the windows, anxiety flooding him suddenly.

“Uh, this is me,” He says, semi-awkwardly.

“Oh, right,” Cyrus says, and he too looks up at the windows. “Well… thanks for saving me, TJ. It was great talking to you.”

“Wait!” TJ says, before he can walk away. “If you wanted to you could come up? You don't have to! But… if you felt like it. We could just talk? I've got coffee and stuff. It's the good kind from Wholefoods.”

“Well if it's the good kind from Wholefoods,” Cyrus grins. “That sounds great.”

His acceptance feels like the start of something. It's a damp October night, and TJ has chills in his bones, but he's not sure whether they're from the cold or from anticipation, but he can't wait to find out which. Cyrus’ smile brings the promise of an exciting tomorrow.

[dreadhaus-literature]

{Valentine’s Collection} #11

“I am so in love with you that I want you to sign a contract that will make it harder for you to dump me.”

Monica paused in the act of untying her boyfriend’s bow-tie, blinking up at a handsome, but goofy smile that was spreading across his face. She shook her head, returning to her task with a breathy laugh that tickled along his nerves like the tips of her fingers.

“What’s funny? I’m completely serious.”

“You’re never completely serious, Michael.” Monica countered, undoing the fasten that she’d had to tie for him--because he didn’t know how. Either that, or he said he didn’t, so she’d do up his ties for him. Monica didn’t know, honestly, and asking wouldn’t get her a straight answer. “They still have marriage in the future, huh?”

“Of course they still have marriage in the future--oh wait, is this that sad panda stuff Dot talks about?” Michael caught Monica’s little hands when she went to drop them, but he couldn’t stop her dead-panned expression even as he moved her hands to his mouth.

“Stop talking to Dot about me.”

“No? She’s got tons of information that I need. Like what’s the big deal about March 31st--”

“S-So what’s the deal with this love contract?” Monica changed the subject adeptly, something easy to do because her boyfriend, famed superhero Michael Carter, aka Booster Gold, was effortless to distract. Michael made a noise as he released her hands, allowing her to return to pulling off his tie.

“Love contract? Wow I really love the way that sounds, it’s so much better than a marriage license.” Michael turned a little to the left. “Skeets? Hey, do you think you could change that file name from ‘You Can’t Dump Me’ to ‘Love Contract’?”

Michael’s personal security AI, Skeets, answered immediately from his hovering position nearby. « Yes, considering that’s a much better name. Unsurprising since Monica came up with it. »

“Thank you, Skeets,” Monica laughed, but Michael just pouted.

“Stop sucking up to my wife.”

Skeets was quick on the comeback--as always. « She isn’t your wife yet. »

“Well she didn’t say no!”

« You didn’t ask her yet. »

“Yet yet yet, nag nag nag!”

Monica finished untying Michael’s tie and she slipped it from around his shirt collar before tossing the fabric onto his nearby dresser. The two were back home from a party at the Justice League, an annual Valentine’s Day celebration that was probably a little silly, but a lot of superheroes suffer in the love department. It’s hard, maintaining a relationship when you’re constantly splitting your attention between a significant other and the entire rest of the world, so a lot of superheroes spend the holiday alone. A way to remedy this was to host a party so that being alone was an option, not a mandatory sentence, and the party boasted more and more participating supers every year. Michael was one of the lucky few to have a partner, but he’d actually met Monica at the Valentine’s Party a few years ago--she was the organizer of the first event, the smashing success that started the yearly tradition and Michael had been so enamored with her handling of such a sentimental holiday he’d asked her out right on the spot...and then repeatedly the entire rest of the night, when she continued to duck his question with claims of needing to work the room. Sure, if it had been, say, The Joker, that attention would have been creepy and probably a little stalk-y but Michael wasn’t The Joker and he was pretty sure The Joker wasn’t even on the guest list, so what he was doing was winning Monica over.

It had worked, especially since Michael had stayed after to help Monica and her Staff clean the reception hall. When the night was over, Michael walked Monica to her car and tried again to ask her out--and this time, she’d said yes. The ensuing dates ended with a laughing, blossoming love between two kindred souls who enjoyed a good laugh and spending time together doing anything, didn’t matter what. Monica didn’t mind that Michael was a little...eccentric, that he wasn’t some brooding Bat or the all-too-perfect Superman. Michael was who he was and he did his best, tried his hardest every day--that was what Monica respected, appreciated, and loved, and with her help and influence Michael’s standing in the superhero world only grew to match his name of Gold. He became a shining example of what a hero should be, a model boyfriend to his loyal and loving girlfriend and every Valentine’s Day celebration that followed showed them as the couple other superheroes wanted to mold their relationships after--though that had a lot to do with them wishing it was them Monica was with. Michael didn’t think too hard about that, because beneath his light-hearted, playful banter was a jealous man all too aware of the prize he’d been lucky enough to win. Monica was one in a million and that was exactly why he didn’t want to leave to chance that they’d be together forever. He wanted it in writing and he wanted a ring on her finger--he wanted a ring on his finger, too. He wanted the big ceremony with all his friends in attendance, he wanted to watch Monica walk down the aisle to him, he was going to write his own vows...he wanted everything the movies promised and more, because he was a man in love. Wholly, unapologetically, shout it from the rooftops in love.

“You will sign it, right, baby?” Michael’s curious, nervous blue eyes searched Monica’s face without even waiting for her answer. “You love me enough to marry me, right?”

“M-Michael,” Monica laughed, a little flustered at how eager he seemed. He was like a little boy sometimes, but that was what endeared her to him. He was earnest and she always knew where she stood with him; he never made her question anything, most especially where he stood in their relationship and what he wanted. “Have you thought this through? I mean, really thought about it.”

“Are you kidding? That’s all I’ve been thinking about since the first moment I saw you,” Michael gestured with both arms out, his suit jacket unable to hide that superhero physique. “I knew you were the marrying type the second I saw you at that first party.”

“I’m pretty sure I was yelling at someone when you first saw me,” Monica muttered, pushing Michael’s suit jacket off--under the guise of helping him out of his party clothes but there were definite perks to the tight button-up shirt underneath.

“Oh, you totally were. Some idiot had knocked over one of the potted plants you’d picked out for the party and you were letting them have it,” Michael’s smile was dreamy as he thought back to the memory. “I’d showed up early to the party because I forgot what time it started--”

« Because you lost the invitation. »

“It was fate,” Michael shot at Skeets, who very likely would have rolled his eyes if he had any to roll. “I showed up early so I could watch Monica work and fall in love.”

“Fall in love with the party planner shouting at her employees.”

“The guy was an idiot who knocked over a plant, I’d have yelled at him too. Especially if you wanted me to,” Michael added with that handsome grin of his. Monica stepped toward their closet to hang his jacket up with a good-natured roll of her eyes, but she was smiling. Michael moved to sit on the end of the bed, watching Monica even as he continued to talk. “You sent him to clean up the mess and I could hear you muttering to yourself about ‘idiot men’ as you checked over your clipboard to make sure everything was still on schedule, and I realize you had your life so together you could afford to plan other people’s lives. Do you know how much I respected that?”

Monica emerged from their shared closet with a half-smirk twisting pretty, painted lips. “Do you want me to take that or do you want Skeets to?”

“Skeets can get out,” Michael stressed, but the AI didn’t seem to be budging from his nearby hovering. “I’m trying to have a moment with my wife.”

« She’s not-- »

“If you say she’s not my wife again I’m going to throw you out the window.” Michael turned back to face Monica, who was taking off her diamond chain bracelets but before she could reach up to take off her matching necklace, Michael was back on his feet, moving behind her. “Here, let me.”

“Thanks, baby.” Monica murmured, catching Michael’s gaze effortlessly in the vanity mirror--after all, he was over a foot taller than she was.

“You’re welcome, angel. And hey, like I was saying before Skeets interrupted--”

« I did not interrupt. »

“I was saying, I really respected the hell out of you. It’s not easy to please a room full of superheroes--trust me, anytime it’s my turn to order coffee and donuts for the League I always manage to screw something up,” Michael slowly released the clasp to Monica’s necklace, allowing her to catch the pendant in the front and lay it to rest beside her bracelets. He moved his large hands to her hips, spinning Monica to face him and immediately, just like she always did, she stole his breath away. His mind switched topics and his smile was full enough to show teeth. “You look so beautiful, Monica.”

Monica tried to duck out of Michael’s seeking gaze, shaking her head, but he was having none of it. One arm slipped around the small of her back, his other hand moving to catch her chin so she couldn’t look away or deny what he was saying.

“I mean it. You’re like, this sort of timeless, classic beauty and there’s no one like you, in the future or now. I can’t believe I get to call you mine. I can’t believe you let me take you out that first night, that you accepted my mild stalking behavior just so I could take you to dinner--but I’m so glad you did.” Michael’s thumb caressed against Monica’s lower lip, his fingers possessive against her chin. “I’m glad you knew I wouldn’t stop bothering you and that surrendering was your best option.”

Monica couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re such a nerd.”

“I’m a nerd in love,” Michael complimented effortlessly. “I would have chased you to the ends of the earth, the ends of time and space, because I knew from the first moment I met you I wanted to marry you. You can ask Skeets, the creation date on that Love Contract--still love that name by the way--is the same day I met you.”

Monica didn’t ask because she couldn’t handle the confirmation--she knew Michael was telling the truth because she’d felt the same connection, the same pull toward him that he always claimed he felt toward her. The two fell in love the way movies play out, the way books are written; effortlessly, all at once, until one day they were living together and it seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. Monica loved Michael and she knew Michael loved her; not just because he told her every single day, but because he showed it, too. Michael text her nearly constantly, whether he was on duty with the League or she was at work, and anytime he could spend with her, that was what he wanted to do. He shared her interests and that wasn’t just because they were similar--anything he wasn’t interested in before her, he took the time to learn about it because she was into it and that was why he wanted to be, too. Michael seemed, to the outside world, absent-minded and a little flighty perhaps, but that wasn’t the Michael Monica knew. He was eager to please, eager to be accepted, and each day she spent with him she could tell she was appreciated. He shone like the Gold he claimed to be under her love and praise, and in return, so did she.

Michael closed the distance between himself and Monica for a quick but claiming kiss because he couldn’t help himself; the way she was blushing so prettily in his arms was going to break his heart. Her lips were soft and pliant against his and his arm tightened like an iron band around her back, keeping her petite frame fitted to his in a way he’d never forget.

“I love you so much,” Michael muttered against her lips, unwilling or unable (really, he couldn’t tell the difference) to relinquish them. “Be my bride, Monica? Say yes to me? Please?”

“Y-Yes,” Monica nodded gently, because how could she tell him no? There wasn’t a part of her that wanted to, and as he closed the scant distance between them with an excited noise, claiming her mouth again, she knew she’d made the right choice.

“Oh, shit, wait, before I forget.” Michael drew back just a little, a look of worry passing over his handsome features. “We uh, we can’t invite Batman to the wedding.”

“W-What?” Monica blinked in surprise, a little breathless from Michael’s kiss and his questions. “Why?”

“It’s...a long story, but the short version is I don’t want to know what the hell he’d get us for a wedding present.”